Atonement, the Orange Grove and the Storehouse Keeper

I believe that it would be appropriate for me to begin by quoting a verse from a hymn that I don’t believe I’ve ever heard sung. I don’t know where the verse came to me, it must have been at least 40 years ago or more, but for some reason or other this verse has stayed in my mind. And I think in a way it expresses what I want to be able to communicate to you which is the completeness and the totality of the victory that was won by Jesus on the cross. This is the verse: “The winds of hell have blown, the world its spite has shown. The cross is not our throne. Hallelujah for the cross.”

I trust that by the time these studies end, every one of us will say with a new emphasis “hallelujah for the cross.” I probably should begin by explaining what I mean by the cross because particularly for people from a Catholic or a liturgical background there’s room for misunderstanding. I do not mean a piece of metal or wood that is suspended around a person’s neck or hung on the wall of a church. In no sense am I criticizing that but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about what was accomplished in the purposes of God by the death of Jesus on the cross. I just used a simple phrase, the cross, to cover that whole meaning.

One of the words that’s often used in this connection is the word atonement. It’s a familiar word to most people with a Christian background but I think many don’t really know what the meaning of the word is. I would just like to demonstrate it by writing it up in three parts. At-one-ment. So the atonement is what makes us at one with God. It’s what breaks down every barrier between God and man and makes it possible for a sinner to be brought into a place where he is at one with God. I think it’s perhaps as expressive as any word that’s used.

By way of a scriptural introduction I want to turn to Hebrews 10:14, one very simple verse that says a tremendous amount. This is speaking about what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf through his death on the cross. We need to bear in mind all the way through that the death of Jesus was a sacrifice. The word used here in the version I’m reading is offering but we need to bear in mind it always means a sacrifice. When Jesus died on the cross he was two things: he was the priest that offered the sacrifice and he was the sacrifice himself. And his death was a sacrifice in the proper Biblical sense of that word. And concerning that sacrifice, the writer of Hebrews says:

For by one offering [but let’s say by one sacrifice] he [that’s Jesus] has perfected for ever those who are being sanctified.

That’s about as emphatic as any words could be. By one final, all sufficient sacrifice he has perfected for ever. He has done all that ever would be necessary at any time to meet the needs of every believer. And I want to emphasize that right from the beginning. I believe that every need of every human being in time and eternity whether it’s spiritual or emotional or physical or material or in any other realm, every single need of every human being has been supplied through the sacrifice of the cross. There is no other basis ultimately upon which God will meet our needs and do what needs to be done for us other than the cross.

That is why it is so tremendously important that we learn to appropriate what was accomplished for us through the death of Jesus on the cross because we only have in our experience as much as we receive through the cross. The extent of what you are able to appropriate through the cross will be the extent of your spiritual experience and riches. I want to say this most emphatically. God has no other basis upon which he will supply our needs and do what needs to be done for us other than the cross.

Sometimes when I’m teaching in the Third World I try to use simple little examples or patterns to express these things. Actually, they work just as well in America or Britain but the British and the Americans tend to think of themselves as a little more sophisticated. So if I present it from the Third World you may be better able to receive it.

My mind goes back to a situation in Pakistan just about two years ago or a little less where I had gone with a team to preach. The first meeting was held in Karachi and I had never met the brother that invited us until we arrived. The whole scene was entirely unfamiliar to me and I really didn’t know what to expect. The atmosphere was by no means friendly. I said to him, “Where are we going to hold the meeting tonight?” He said, “In our church.” Well, having seen the abysmal poverty of Pakistani Christians I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. So I said, “How many people do you think your church will hold?” He said about 300. I said, “How many people are you expecting at the meeting.” He said about 600. So I didn’t understand that but I wasn’t going to try to reason it out.

So they put us in a van and drove us there and true to Pakistani time we arrived an hour late where the church was. We never saw the church because when we got near it the entire intersection was totally crammed with people. And by conservative estimate there were about 3,000 people there. They had come for this meeting. They had come for one reason: Because they had heard we were going to pray for the sick. That was what brought them. They got me up on a platform and I was surrounded by people so close that I could have touched them on every side, there was no room for anyone to move. I looked at them and I thought, “What am I going to say to them?” And then God gave me this little parable.

I had determined to speak to them about what Jesus had done on the cross, what they could receive. So I said to them, “Now if you people were all hungry and I were the owner of an orange grove, I could do two things. I could go to my orange grove, take an orange, bring it to you and say, “Here, eat that.” And it would temporarily satisfy your hunger. Or, the other thing I could do would be to invite you to the orange grove, show you the orange grove with all the fruit on the trees, invite you to walk around and help yourself. I said, “That’s what I’m going to do tonight. I’m not going to offer you an orange, I’m going to take you to the orange grove.”

That’s what I’m going to do during these studies. I’m going to take you to the orange grove. It’ll be up to you to help yourself.

I was in Africa a little while earlier in Zambia and I had a whole series of meetings each morning with African leaders. I wanted to follow basically the same theme that I’ll be following here and I thought, “How can I awaken their interest?” So I said, “I want you all to know that God has a wonderful storehouse. You have no idea how big the storehouse is and it contains everything you’ll ever need. There’s nothing you’ll ever need that isn’t in that storehouse. But, the storehouse has a keeper, a person who is in charge of the storehouse. You can’t get anything out of the storehouse unless you make friends with the storehouse keeper.”

Now they were all professing Christians, at least most of them. So I said, “What is the name of the keeper of the storehouse?” And of course some of them said Jesus. I said, “I appreciate the answer but it’s not what I want. The keeper of the storehouse is the Holy Spirit. He is in charge of all the treasures of the Godhead.”

Let me show you that in John 16:14–15. Jesus is speaking about what the Holy Spirit will do for his disciples and he says:

“He will glorify me; for he will take of what is mine, and declare it [or reveal it or unfold it] to you.”

And then he goes on:

“All things that the Father has are mine; there I said that he [the Holy Spirit] will take of mine, and declare it to you.”

Notice everything that the Father has he has imparted to the Son. And everything that the Father and the Son have is under the charge of the Holy Spirit. The only one who can impart it and reveal it is the Holy Spirit. He is the keeper of the storehouse.

Then I said to them, “When you come to know who the keeper is then you need to know that there’s a special key that he uses. And there’s only one key that will open that storehouse. And that key has a very special shape.” I would let them offer me a few guesses as to the shape of the key. I don’t recall that anybody gave the answer that I wanted. I said, “The shape of the key is a cross and the cross is the only key that will open the storehouse that contains all the treasures of God.” You can be a child of God, born again, believing the Bible, but you can live like a beggar unless you make friends with the keeper of the storehouse and unless you allow him to use the key which is the cross to open up all the treasures of God.” There is no other key ultimately to all the treasures of God but the key of the cross.

Now I say this on a background of personal experience. I have observed in my own life over many years that I hardly ever teach anything that is just an abstract theory. Actually, I am not interested in theories. I was, before I became a preacher, a professional philosopher, I dealt in theories. I had all I wanted of theories at that time, I want no more.

Almost everything that I consider of any significance that I’ve discovered in the Bible has in some way been related to experience. God seems to use experience to motivate me to find truth. When you’re in need you are motivated to look for an answer. I want to tell you briefly this morning how my experience opened up the truths that I’m going to try to share with you.