The Glory of the Cross – A Sermon on Galatians 6:14

the words to which I should like to call your attention this evening are to be found in Paul's epistle to the Galatians in chapter 6 and verse 14 the 14th verse in the 6th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Galatians but God forbid that I should Glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world we come back to a third consideration of this great and most wonderful statement the Apostle here is uh nailing his colors to the Mast if you like he's

making a great Declaration of his own personal position he's contrasting himself with certain false teachers who glory and make their boast In the Flesh interesting in themselves and in their own success and the use they can make of other people the Apostle says God forbid that I should be interested in or glory in anything like that I glory in nothing I boast in nothing saved in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ well now in other words as we've seen he is telling us here and reminding us that the preaching of the Cross is after

all the very essential message of the the Christian faith and of the Christian Gospel now I'm calling attention to this because of this present modern misunderstanding there's always been misunderstanding about this the Apostle as I pointed out and as you see again had to write this epistle to the Galatians in the first century because there was misunderstanding about the cross there's nothing new in this modern apostasy there's nothing new in this modern heresy that's what makes it so so pathetic that people think it's new that it's up to date for people to deny this message

of the Cross and to deny the Christian Gospel it's as old as Christianity itself our Lord had a battle against opposition and the apostles his first disciples and preachers they in the same way had to battle against misrepresentations of the truth and so we are compelled to do this at the present time and my proposition is this the Cross of Christ the death of Our Lord upon the cross is the very heart and center and nerve of the Christian message not only that as we've seen it is the one thing that tests us all and

we've got to face it you see the cross belongs to history it isn't a theory it isn't an idea it isn't just a message about self-sacrifice it's more than that here is this great historic event this person Jesus of Nazareth was literally taken and condemned and nailed to a cross between two thieves on a little Hill called Calvary and there we are confronted by this historical fact this historical event and what I'm trying to say is this that we all of us are in relationship to that and that it judges us every one of us

the whole message of the New Testament is to tell us that finally what decides what we are in this world and in the world to come is our reaction to this cross now this is what makes it of such tremendous importance our Eternal Destiny depends upon the view we take of the death of Jesus of Nazareth upon the cross on calvary's Hill that's what the apostles say that's what all the first preachers said that's what he said himself that has been the message of the Christian Church throughout the centuries when she has truly been functioning

as the Christian Church there has been this unbroken message in spite of Heretics and errors and all sorts of apostasies which have kept on recurring and reappearing throughout the running centuries there has been this continuous testimony to the Cross of Christ and that is why I'm calling your attention to it tonight now we've seen this there are only two ultimate positions with regard to the cross it is either an offense to us it is either something that we hate something that we ridicule something on which we P SC as being an insult to us or

else we glory in it now the Apostle didn't merely admire the cross he glories in it he bursts of it why well because he says it's everything to him it's changed his life it's done many things for him but apart from that the thing itself he says is the most wonderful the most glorious thing which he's ever seen and ever known there is to him nothing in the whole wide world that compares with the glory of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ well now then it is in order to help us all to see

what our position is relative to this cross that I am continuing once more to call your attention to it and I'm putting it in this way why does the Christian burst of it why must the Christian say that the Cross of Christ the death of this son of God upon the cross is to him the most momentous the most vital of all facts that there's nothing that compares with it and that it is to him tonight the most significant thing in the universe now I'm putting that quite deliberately the Christian is a man who says

I don't care what's happened I don't care what may happen nothing can happen I don't care what it is if the bombs are let off anything you like nothing can ever approach insignificance to me what happened there on the cross on calvary's Hill when Jesus of Nazareth died and was buried in a grave and rose again and went back to the glory Everlasting why does he say this why does the Christian make his burst in the cross and glory in it well now we're answering that question my first answer last Sunday night was this that

he glor is in it because of what he sees in it as a spectacle without going any further it is incomparable I quoted those lines of Isaac Watts we sang them at the end last Sunday night When I Survey the Wondrous Cross well why does he Glory well for this reason the prince of Glory died upon that cross now there is a spectacle by the side of which anything that you can think of in history or anything that you can imagine simply piles into insignificance God dying the author of Life expiring he who has all

power and can hold up the very universe and is doing so dying in weakness there's never been anything like it when I Survey the Wondrous crust in which the prince of Glory died my richest gain I can't but loss and poor conm on All My Pride now then that's it you see this spectacle the Son of God dying and all the love and mercy and compassion the blood and the love flow mingl down oh all that we saw when we looked at this fact that it is the Lord Of Glory the Son of God who

dies in that way for us but now we must proceed because you can't say a thing like that and stop at that and leave it at that you've got to ask a question why did he do that you're quite entitled to put it like that you say if that is true well why did that ever happen well I say quite right you're asking a good question and there's only one way of answering it let's look at again at the cross let's survey it once more you see when a man like the Apostle Paul glories in

the cross you can be quite sure my friend that it is the biggest and the deepest and the profoundest thing I say in the whole universe you know a casual glance at the Cross isn't enough the Saints of the centuries have been surveying it they've been looking upon it they've been gazing upon it they've been meditating upon it and the more they look at it the more they see in it the writers of the hymns have done the same thing there has been nothing in the whole of human history that has produced such magnificent poetry

as this Cross of Christ but they've looked at it they've surveyed it they haven't just said oh yes that I know Jesus died he was a pacifist and he died and gone on or they haven't said like some of us perhaps Christian people Evangelical people oh yes I believe in the cross I believe Christ died for me and on you girl oh my dear friend if that's it you've not seen it you got to stop and look survey put everything else on one side and look at it and don't stop looking at it until you've

seen some of these profundities what Thomas carile described in another connection Infinities and immensities in this glorious cross so I ask a question why why this why did this happen why did it ever happen if you say the Son of God Di the prince of Glory died why well now then let's look at the answer we've got it all here in the scriptures I'm not going to draw on my imagination I'm not inventing any answers you know my dear friends the more you know your Bible the easier preaching becomes I pity the poor men who's

in difficulties about what to preach Sunday after Sunday hope something striking will happen in the news so that he can preach a topical summon oh what a tragedy what a tragedy all I've got to do is to hold before you what the scriptures tell us about this because I know nothing apart from what I find here I'm as ignorant as everybody else about these matters if I hadn't got the scriptures I couldn't preach I'm simply here to hold before you what the scriptures them themselves say this is what they say why is he there well

the first thing they say is that isn't merely the action of men oh but you say it's men who AR hammering in those Nails I agree but you see if you say men did that you're a very superficial Observer why did men do it what made them do it is there nothing behind men you see the whole trouble in the world today is that we're all looking at everything superficially we're just looking at an action then we set up a royal commission to look into and we have a little superficial report it makes no difference

nothing's any different why well we're superficial in our diagnosis we're not able to see the depths of things and it's the same here why do I say that it wasn't merely the action of men why am I repeating that it wasn't merely an accident well my answer is of course that it was something that had been prophesied why did I read that 53rd chapter of Isaiah's prophecy at the beginning I had only one reason it is an exact prophecy of what happened there on the cross and calvary's Hill I might equally well have read the

the 22nd Psalm to you that's another perfect Prophecy of the the death of Our Lord upon the cross on calvary's Hill it is prophesied many times in the Old Testament indeed if you go back to books like Leviticus and books like that which people say they find utterly boring and they can't understand well if you only know how to read them you'll find they're all pointing to this or if you go back to Exodus and The Exodus of the children of Israel from the Captivity of Egypt why did they have to kill that lamb that

Pascal lamb as we call him that night and post the blood on the doorposts and the lentils it's just a prophecy of this everything there is prophesying this very well there's a great fact and then you see that 53rd of Isaiah put it so plainly as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep LED there it is it's it's there's nothing surprising he wasn't taken by surprise it was all prophesied long ago but then of course we're not dependent upon the Prophecies of the Old Testament Only Our Lord himself made certain very specific statements about

this you remember in talking to that great man Nicodemus you've got the history in the third chapter of John's gospel he put it like this to him he said um as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life now there's a prophecy of his death upon the cross quite early on in his ministry he said do you remember that old story in your history as a people the children of Israel snakes began to bite

people and they were killed as the result and the Cure was this a Brazen serpent was set up on a pole and lifted up and everybody who looked at the Brazen serpent was healed he says that was a prophecy of me as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up on a tree on a pole that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life he wasn't taken by surprise when they took him and crucified him he told them that it was coming he

goes on repeating this I mustn't keep you with this evidence but it is a vital part of this message there is you'll read about it in the 12th chapter of John's gospel suddenly he comes to the end as it were and he's ready the hour he says is come the hour what's he talking about he's talking about his death in a few moments he says and I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me you remember the context some Greeks had come along and they'd approached some of our Lord's

disciples and they said said we would see Jesus we'd like to have a word with him we'd like to talk with this new teacher we've been hearing about him and we want to know what he's got to say you know this kind of intellectual curiosity and indeed another more General kind of curiosity in a wonderful teacher that's just appeared and our Lord wouldn't see them he sent back a message saying that he couldn't see them and then he explains it by saying so far I am only for the Jews but when I'm lifted up and

John comments in his account by saying this spy referring to the manner of death which he should die he says when I am lifted up then I will draw all men unto me which means not every single individual that's ever lived it means men of all Nations not only Jews but Greeks and anybody else all nations men from All Nations I will draw unto myself when I die I shall be a universal savior in that sense he knew it was coming and he repeats that on many other occasions you remember there was a specific occasion

when he turned to his disciples and he said they had been asking for certain privileges he said no I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened until it be accomplished he's referring to his death well there you are there's evidence and I could go on giving you evidence for a considerable length of time showing you that this is no accident this is no mere action on the part of men there's something more here there's a mystery there's something behind it what is it well now let's listen to the Apostle Peter

on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem after the Holy Ghost had come down upon the infant church people came together from all directions astonished and amazed because they heard these simple and lettered men talking in languages which they could understand every man heard them telling in their own languages the wonderful works of God and they said what is this some thought they were drunk what is this Peter begins to preach and he gives them the answer he says you know this is something that has been done to us by Jesus of Nazareth this is the

first sermon rarely preached under the opes of the Christian church and here therefore is the full explanation and Peter then goes on to say something like this to them you men of Israel he said hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by Miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know listen him being delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge of God you have taken and by Wicked hands which can be better translated like this by the hands

of wicked men because the Jews had used the Romans to do it have crucified and slain but you notice what Peter says him Jesus of Nazareth Jesus Christ him being delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge of God you have taken and by Wicked hands have crucified and slain yes says Peter it was your hands that did it but it was God who determined it and God determined it not now but before time the pre determinate counsel and for knowledge of God this is something he says that God determined in eternity which you have

actually done with your own hands now in time now this is so important that it was repeated on another occasion in the fourth chapter of the book of The Acts of the Apostles we find a wonderful prayer meeting being held by the early Christian Church two of their company Peter and John had been arrested they'd been put on trial and they had been prohibited to do any further preaching or teaching in the name of this Jesus the authorities had said to them look here we're letting you off this time but if you go on doing

this well then we'll not only arrest you but we will deal with you and they were threatening them with death they straightly charged them that they should do no more of this and then we find the apostles going back to their own company to the church and they all begin to pray and this is what they say in their prayer having quoted the second Psalm they say of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou Hast anointed both Herod and Pontius pilot with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to

do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done they're repeating what Peter had said in his sermon on the day of Pentecost and what he said on both occasions is this it was actually of course physically materially the hands of men who killed him but it was God who had purposed this they were simply carrying out in time what God had predetermined upon before the very foundation of the world now this is the most important thing that you and I can ever consider you see what it means you see what is being

said and you see what light this throws upon all those burnt offerings and sacrifices in the Old Testament I was reminding you just now that the Pascal lamb and all the burnt offerings and sacrifices were just Prophecies of the coming of the day when the Son of God was going to be crucified now you see how all that could happen God decided on this before man was ever created so he was easily able to prophesy it he knew he decided before time that this was going to be the way in which men should be saved

God you see is omniscient God knows everything God knows the end from the beginning there is nothing outside the knowledge of God and God knew that man was going to fall before he ever made him and God has decided upon a Plan of Salvation before men was ever even made now this is the whole of the preaching of the New Testament the Apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians puts it like this he says he's got a wisdom to preach to them how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the

wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to not but he says we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our Glory that's it that's the very thing that I'm trying to put before you what does it mean well it means this and this is the most glorious good news that's ever come into the world this is why the Apostle Paul glories in the Cross of Christ yeah we are miserable Sinners every one of us yes every one of

us there's not a person in this congregation who isn't a miserable sinner the whole of the human race is in this condition everybody who's ever been born since the fall of Adam has been born in sin shapen in iniquity ity life has been a misery for that reason life's been a trial Life's a matter of disappointment Life's a matter of a man doing things he doesn't want to do and failing to do what he wants to do life is a struggle it's a moral problem and a moral failure and a moral difficulty to every one

of us and here we are civilization has been trying to put it right men have concocted their schemes planned their Utopias passed their acts of Parliament and we are none the better we are as bad as we've ever been more educated but not more moral knowing much that our forefathers didn't know but still not knowing how not to sin and how to live a clean a wholesome a pure and a chaste life here we are in the same old human predicament and you know the message of this of this gospel do you know why Paul

gloried in it it's for this reason that he has come to see that God has got a plan for this miserable wretched failing sinful world and it's a plan that he had planned before the very foundation of the world itself I know of nothing so wonderful in the whole world tonight you see that's why I Don't Preach topical sermons to you I've got something to tell you that's worth listening to topical sermons what value are they my comments upon the news my comments on politics what's the value of them everything goes around in the same

old miserable failure I'm here to tell you something that only this gospel can tell you that the all Mighty and everlasting God is concerned about this it's his world and he's going to put it right and he's putting it right in his own way he's concerned about our deliverance and about our Redemption the plan and the purpose of God him being delivered by the predetermined counsel and for knowledge of God you have taken and by Wicked hands have crucified and have killed but you didn't know what you were doing you didn't realize that this was

a part of God's Great and eternal plan and purpose of Salvation and of redemption you see the cross is the center of God's plan it's the center of God's way of saving the world that's why the Apostle puts it again to the Corinthians in that first epistle in the first chapter which I read last Sunday night we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the reaks foolishness but unto us which are saved Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God here it is in its Essence this Cross of Christ

it's the very center and heart of God's Eternal plan and purpose so I want to put it to you like this this evening that the Apostle gloried in the cross and every true Christian glories in it because it is the greatest display and Exposition of the character of the Everlasting God that's what you see when you survey this cross you don't merely see that glorious person you look behind it it isn't only the son that's involved in the cross the father is involved he's there have you ever seen him there is there anything higher or

more wonderful than to see something of the glory of the Everlasting God yet on the cross on calvary's Hill you see its most wonderful and amazing display that the world has ever known my dear friends all our troubles ultimately emanate from the fact of our ignorance of God that's the real trouble in the world tonight men and women don't know God there are some who say they're not interested there are others who are equally bad who simply put up their own ideas of God these men who speculate philosophically about God these are the popular writers

of today God is depth not up there not out of depth and so on that's sheer speculation they've got no Authority whatsoever it is simply what they think that is sheer ignorance of God no no we cannot know God unless he reveals himself to us why well because God is oh and what he is what do we know do we know ourselves does your psychology really explain you to yourself does all your modern knowledge really help you to know yourself and your neighbor does it really give you an understanding of life and of death of

course it doesn't our ignorance is appalling and the more we learn the more we see our own ignorance how can a man know God Immortal invisible God only wise in light inaccessible head from our eyes what's the use of your judal bank when you're looking into infinity and Eternity no no send up your astronauts let them look with all the power that they can command they cannot possibly see him in light ineffable Immortal invisible God only wise in light inaccessible head from our eyes Most Blessed most glorious the Ancient of Days pavilioned in splendor and

guarded with praise do you think you can see of course you can't we are incapacitated at the very beginning before we make any attempt we see parts and portions in creation you can see something of him as the Apostle puts it in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans by examining nature and creation you can see something of his eternal power and goded his creator Hood as you as it were you see the kns of his fingers and you know that God as s James jeans put it is the great scientist The Mastermind

and mathematician you see it in the Symmetry and the balance and all the form and the Perfection you see it in the seasons we've been singing that Harvest himym and in the seasons you can see him spring summer Autumn winter and his gifts to men and all his kindness and goodness yes but you see you only see a part of it you only see God's power God's greatness God the Creator and then you can see something of this in history read the history of the Nations and especially the Jews you see something in the hand

of God as the Lord of history and then you see it also in Providence in his providential dealings with us but you see when you've seen it all oh you've seen so little about God you see that there's great power there's great ability there's great order but oh you don't know God that's father you don't know God in his heart you don't know God in all the glory of his fullness well John has put it I think perfectly to us in the prologue of his gospel when he says no man have seen God at any

time the only begotten who is in the bosom of the father he has declared him no man have seen God no man can see God and live God being what he is it's impossible and what do we know we can know nothing except to be revealed and this is the message of this gospel that God in his infinite grace and kindness has revealed himself not only in nature and creation not only in Providence not only in history but all Beyond it all in his son who came from the Eternal bosom to teach us about him

to tell us about him and supremely on the cross on calvary's Hill that is why it's so glorious everything is leading up to this there are hints and suggestions but here it bursts Upon Us in all the blaze of everlasting glory god really revealing his heart to us now our Lord again himself had said that this was the case he put it like this I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father which means no man come can come unto the father but by me yes God the Creator God

the almighty God the controller of history but God has father you'll never know him except by Jesus Christ and in particularly by his in particular by his death upon the cross on calvary's Hill if you want to know God if you want to know the Everlasting and eternal God this is the way this is the only way look there gaze meditate Survey the Wondrous Cross and then you'll see something of him what do you see well let me but summarize it for you the first thing you will see is the grace of God what's Grace

now it's a great word in the Bible isn't it the word Grace the grace of God what is Grace well Grace is most simply defined in these words it is favor shown to people who don't deserve any favor at all that's Grace and you know this message is that any one of us is saved and put right for eternity solely and entirely by the grace of God nothing in ourselves by grace are saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God my friend isn't it about time we all admitted it

do what you like you'll never save yourself you'll never save yourself from the World the Flesh the devil you'll never save yourself from your own misery you'll still less save yourself from the law of God and judgment and hell you can't do it try men have tried it throughout the centuries they've all admitted failure not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands could my Zeal no respit no could my tears forever flow all for sin could not atone and the best and the most honest Souls the world has ever known have been

the ones who have tried that route most assiduously and have been most ready at the end to confess their failure no no there is only one hope for us tonight it is the grace of God which means that in spite of our being what we are God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son he did it in spite of us we deserve nothing but hell none of us tonight deserves anything but hell if you think you deserve Heaven take it from me you're not a Christian now that's a very good definition

of a Christian any man who thinks that he deserves Heaven is not a Christian but any man who knows that he deserves hell is a Christian out goes all your righteousness it's all by grace and entirely the mercy and the compassion and the grace of God my friends if it is God who in spite of us and in spite of the world being what it is sent his own son into this world and then sent him to the Cross by the predetermined counsel and for knowledge of God he went to the Cross why now here's

the question why you say all right I like this idea of Grace I'm glad to hear you saying that God still loves us in spite of all our unworthiness and sinfulness that's wonderful but why the cross why doesn't God in his love just forgive us why H look again at the cross my friend take another survey examine it again with greater depth and profundity and having seen the grace and the mercy and the compassion and the kindness of God look again and this is what you'll see you will see the righteousness of God you will

see the justice of God you will see the Holiness of God and it's the place of all places in the universe where these attributes of God can be seen most plainly God has revealed something of his righteousness and his Justice and his Holiness in the law that he gave to the children of Israel The Ten Commandments proclaim the righteousness and the justice and the Holiness of God oh yes and and his punishments of the children of Israel they display the same thing but if you really want to know anything about righteousness and Justice and UT

absolute [Music] Holiness you'll have to Survey the Wondrous Cross and there you'll see it for what the cross tells us is this that God hates sin God hates it God is the Eternal antithesis to sin God abominates with the whole intensity of his Divine and perfect and holy nature God not only hates sin God can't tolerate sin God cannot compromise with sin that's what we want of course we want God to compromise with sin we want a God who says all right I know you've done this all that but it's all right slip into heaven

you know God can't do that God can't compromise there is no compromise between light and darkness good and evil they're Eternal opposites and God because he's God he revols against it he hates it he abominates it and God must punish sin that is what the Bible means when it tells us that the wrath of God is against all sin and unrighteousness the wrath of God says the Apostle Paul to the Romans is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men that hold down these things in ungodly Hess hold down the truth in

unrighteousness my friend God Is So holy who can imagine this we are so imperfect we're so impure our minds are so polluted you and I can't think of absolute Purity absolute righteousness absolute Holiness we may talk about these things but we can't imagine them but God is all that and because he's all that he can have no dealings with sin and he's told us that he has said that he will punish sin that he must punish sin while well because sin is what it is it is rebellion against God don't think of sin merely in

terms of actions that's what we're all telling to do at the present time the newspapers are placarding certain actions in their mock self-righteousness but that isn't what me is meant by sin sin is not merely a matter of action sin is a matter of attitude and what makes sin sin is this is that it is rebellion against God it is Disobedience of God it is trampling upon the sanctities of God it is unright n it is transgression of God's law indeed it's worse it is a hatred of God the natural mind is not merely a

mind that makes a man do things that he shouldn't do the natural mind is enity against God is Not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be that's it and it is because man in sin is such that he regards even the gospel as foolishness the natur of men receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned this is sin this is the trouble with men that he so steeped in sin and so perverted by it that when

God does the most glorious thing even God can do the natural man laughs at it as foolishness and dismisses it with derision that's why God hates sin it's because it hates him it is enmity against God is Not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be now then the cross tells us that because you see it's because of that the cross is necessary here is the problem how can such a god possibly forgive any man how can there be any hope of Heaven for any one of us for we've all sinned we are

all by Nature the children children of Wrath says Paul to the Ephesians even as others we are all naturally God haters and if you haven't realize that you haven't known these things very deeply my friend don't come and tell me you know I've always loved God you haven't you were born in sin shapen in iniquity and if you think you've always believed in God it's because you've had a god of your own creation not the god of the Bible this is a universal statement and so here's the problem how can this holy righteous God possibly

forgive anybody at all and remain what he is and what I see in the cross is this God's way of solving the problem so I see the wisdom of God if you want to know anything about the wisdom of God look at the cross here is God's solution to the problem that he saw before he created the world that man was going to sin and yet God wants to forgive him how can he God in his eternal wisdom thought out the way and the plan oh loving wisdom of our God when all was sin and

shame a second Adam to the fight and to the conflict came you know if you want to know anything about the Eternal wisdom of God look at the cross that's why Paul says it is the wisdom of God and the power of God there you see the mind of the Eternal solving the Eternal problem how can God be just and at the same time forgive anybody how can he bring these things together righteousness and mercy Holiness and love is it [Music] possible and the answer is on the cross and what you see there is eternal

wisdom this is why Paul glorious in the cross he seen things there that he had never seen anywhere else he was a wonderful Pharisee he was a very good man a moral religious man he studied the scriptures he thought he knew all about God but here he discovers he knows nothing all his knowledge has become nothing to him it's here he sees the wisdom of God providing making a way whereby God can remain God and yet forgive a sinner so I see there the wisdom of God as well as the grace of God and the

purpose of God and the mercy and the compassion of God but I see another thing I see the IM ability of God which means that God doesn't change and cannot change you see the god of these moderns is a God not worth worshiping he's a God who changes and accommodates and you never know what he's going to do next he changes every Century according to the scientific knowledge and philosophical speculation that's not God God said the Fathers as the Bible says is immutable he's unchangeable he doesn't change he cannot change he cannot deny himself self

he is what he says he is and if there is one place in all history and in the whole of the universe where you see the immutability and the unchangeableness of God more clearly than anywhere else it is on the cross on calvary's Hill there is his own son is he going to change is he going to modify no no he says what he is and he does it he says that he's going to punish sin and when even his own son makes himself our representative of Sinners he carries out his word he doesn't modify

it even though it's his own son the immutability of God and the absolute perfection of all his [Music] ways but that leads me to the last thing the most wonderful thing of all which is the love of God to us it's not surprising that this Apostle should say to the Romans God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us how do you see the love of God on the cross on calvary's hill Oh says the Modern Men I see it in this way that though men murdered the

Son of God rejected him and murdered him God in his love still says all right I still forgive you though you've done that to my son I still will forgive you all right my friends that's a part of it but you know it's the smallest part of it that's not the real love of God I have reminded you already that a god wasn't a passive spectator of the death of his son that's how the moderns put it that God looked on in heaven down upon it all he saw men killing his own son and he

says all right I'll still forgive you but God was passive God was inactive God was responding passively to what men did oh how important we think we are you know it isn't we who did that it's God the predetermined counsel and for knowledge of God if you really want to know what the love of God means listen to this what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh God condemned sin in the

flesh of his own son this is the love of God that's why I read to you that 53rd of Isaiah at the beginning that wonderful prophecy of what happened on calvary's Hill you notice how he goes on repeating it surely has borne our griefs and carried ourselves yet we esteem him stricken smitten of God and and Afflicted it pleased the Lord to bruise him he has put into grief these are the terms and they are nothing but a plain simple accurate factual description of what happened on that cross on calvary's Hill listen to Paul summing

it all up he God has made him the son to be sin for us do you realize what I'm saying men and women this is the whole trouble of the world it's damned in its blindness God ha made his own son to be sin for us though he knew no sin in order that he might be able to forgive us that we might be made the righteousness of God in [Music] him what's it mean well let me give you another quotation from this Apostle Paul who so glories in the cross and this is why he

glories in Romans 8:32 he puts it in these words he God that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all now that's a wonderful description of what happened on the cross God in his great love to us delivered up his only begotten dearly beloved Son who had never disobeyed him and had never done any harm to anybody he delivered him up for us to the death of the Cross but you notice what he adds he that spared not his own son what's he mean by that he means this God had made

it very plain and clear that he was going to punish sin by pouring out upon Sinners the vials of his wroth he was going to punish sin in this way that men should die the wages of sin is death and God pours out his wrath upon sin and it means death and destruction endlessly and what we are told there by the Apostle is this that after he had laid our sins upon his own son on that cross on his hell he didn't spare him any of the punishment he didn't say because he's my son I'll

modify the punishment I'll hold a little bit back I can't do that to my own son I can't regard him as a sinner I can't Smite him I can't strike him he didn't say that he did everything he said he do he didn't keep anything back he spared not his own son though is his own dearly beloved Son he keeps nothing back he pours out all his Divine WTH upon sin upon his own dearly Bel son so you see the son crying out in his Agony my God my God why hast Thou forsaken me and

he literally died of a broken heart so that when they struck in in the spear out came water and blood the heart had burst and the blood had clotted and there it was serum and blood clot because his heart was literally raptured by the agony of the wrath of God upon him and the separation from the face of his father that's the love of God that's the love of God to you my friend a sinner not that he looks on passively and says I forgive you though you've done this to my son no no he

does that to the son himself he does to the son what you and I could never do to the son he pours out his eternal wrath upon him and hides his face from him his own dearly beloved only begotten son and he did it in order that you should not receive that punishment and go to hell and spend an eternity in the misery the torment and the unhappiness of hell that's the love of God and that's the Wonder and the Marvel and the glory of the Cross God doing that to his own son in order

that he might not have to do it to you and to me and in order that the message of the Cross might be preached which is this believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved believe that he died your death bore your punishment suffered in your place that the chastisement of your peace was upon Him believe that and you are immediately forgiven that's the glory of the Cross God God's wisdom devising the way God's love carrying it out even though it means that and the sun willingly and readily submitting it himself to

it in order that you and I might be forgiven and might become the children of God oh When I Survey the Wondrous Cross on which the prince of Glory died was put to death by his own father my riches I count but loss and poor contempt and All My Pride all my self-righteousness all the nonsense there I see these things God the Eternal in all the glory of his father's heart giving his own son up to such a death for me and indeed I therefore see in that cross the harmony of all the Divine attributes

I see Holiness and love I see mercy and Truth met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other I see all the Eternal attributes of the Everlasting God all of them displaying themselves at the same time no contradiction between the righteousness the justice and the love and the mercy and the compassion they're all there and they're all there in the plenitude of the godhead there's only one thing to say when you've seen things like that and it is this God forbid that I should Glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ it is

there I know God as he is and as my father and I see his glorious character Vindicated to the last Iota and therefore I trust myself to him I rest upon his word the unchanging Everlasting God do you react like that to the cross my friend have you seen these things in the cross the Sun the father and the Holy Ghost sustaining the son he offered himself through the eternal spirit on our behalf to God oh yes this is what decides whether you're a Christian or don't tell me about your good works I'm not interested

don't tell me you're a church member I'm not a bit interested are you gloring in this is this everything to you is this life to you are you ready to die rather than deny this glorious message that's what a Christian is and unless we glory in the cross we haven't seen it and if we haven't seen it we don't really believe it and if we don't believe it we are yet in our sins and should we die like that we will go to judgment and we will go to hell my friends your are Eternal Everlasting

Destiny depends upon this one thing have you seen that God there has provided the only way whereby you can be forgiven and become a child of God and go on to inherit the glories of Eternal BR may God have mercy on all and by his Spirit open our eyes to see the glory of the Cross amen the closing him is him him number 69 the 69th hymn oh love of God how strong and true Eternal and yet ever new him number 69 [Music] [Music] you [Music] be [Music] God J [Music] [Music] oh and pra [Music]

[Music] we be again [Music] my heart [Music] we do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr Martin lyd Jones all of the sermons contained within the mlj trust audio library are now available for free download you may share the sermons or broadcast them however because of international copyright please be advised that we are asking first that these sermons never be offered for sale by a third party and second that these sermons will not be edited in any way for length or to use as audio clips you can find our contact information on

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