Now, this morning's message is
entitled, The Glory of the Cross. Now, by the phrase, the cross,
Paul does not mean the actual physical cross on which the Lord
Jesus Christ was nailed. Nor does he mean some symbolic
representation of the cross, like a piece of jewelry. Rather,
he means the message of God's salvation paid for by the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Now that's what he means
by the cross. It's the gospel. It's the message
of Christ and Him crucified. Now every believer must find
it shocking that someone would find the message of Christ and
Him crucified to be an offense. It's such a glorious message.
Men do take great offense at the preaching of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ as it's found in the scriptures. And
here's an interesting thing to note. Those who take most offense
at the cross are often those who talk about it, that is, talk
about the cross the most. Quite often we find that those
who profess an interest in Christ are nothing other than Judas's
in the heart, and they betray Christ by their offense at His
cross. Now that's just the truth of
the matter. Our Lord has taught us that the biggest troublers
of the church will come from within the church itself. And
it's because even though they're in the church, they are offended
at the cross and take exception to it. However, for the genuine
child of God, there is a great glory in the cross. Paul says,
God forbid that I should glory in anything other than the cross
of my Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the subject of our
message this morning, the glory of the cross. Now, what is the
glory of the cross? Well, now the offense of the
cross is that there is nothing of man in it. And the glory of
the cross is that there is nothing but Christ in it. Now, listen
to that again. The offense of the cross is that
there is nothing of man in it. None of the works of man, none
of the decisions of man, none of the efforts of man have any
place in the message of Christ and Him crucified. And that's
offensive to man. So the offense of the cross is
that there is nothing of man in it. The glory of the cross
is that there is nothing but Christ in it. Nothing of man,
nothing but Christ. And what a glory that is. Oh,
how glorious. is the cross because it is full
of Jesus Christ, the glorious Son of God. Now in the cross,
in the message of the cross, Christ is all in the suitability
of the sacrifice made at the cross. Remember this, our Lord
Jesus Christ's death is not a saving work simply because he died.
It's a saving work because he died as a sacrifice for those
he represented by his death. Jesus Christ did not die by accident. He did not die of an illness.
He died being offered as a sacrifice to God. So Christ is everything. He is all the glory of the cross
in the suitability of the sacrifice offered at the cross. You see,
God has standards. And you and I both know that.
God will not accept just anything that's offered to Him. He has
standards of righteousness, doesn't He? I mean, you can't just do
anything you want and expect God to approve of it or to accept
it. He has standards and laws by
which those standards are revealed. And He also has standards of
sacrifice. There is a standard of what we
must do to obtain life by righteousness, and there are standards of what
must be done if a sinner is to find acceptance with God through
a sacrifice. God will not accept just any
sacrifice offered to Him. Here's the standard as it's set
forth in Leviticus chapter 22, verse 21. It must be without
defect or blemish to be accepted. Before God will accept a sacrifice
in behalf of a sinner, that sacrifice must have absolutely nothing
wrong with it. In the animals that were sacrificed
in the Old Covenant, it was required they be without spot or blemish.
They must have all their parts, and they must have nothing of
a defect in it. Now Christ met all of God's standards
for a sacrificial victim. He was without sin. The scriptures
teach that sin comes through the man, and so we inherit our
sinfulness from our fathers. But Christ had no earthly father. He had no sinful father and therefore
inherited no sinful nature. God was his father and he inherited
the nature of his true father and he was perfect without sin
in his inner person. He had no desire, no thought,
no inclination for sin. Also he did no sin because there
was no sin in him There was nothing to express sin outwardly. Christ
never once transgressed God's law. He never once displeased
His Father in any of His actions, any of His thoughts, or any of
His deeds. From the moment of His conception
until the moment of His ascension at the right hand of God, Christ
always did those things which pleased His Father. Now the Scriptures
teach us that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, a fact
shall be established. Well, listen to these three witnesses
that testify of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pilate,
a man, says this, I find no fault in him. Now, Rome was pretty
good at finding out who was guilty, finding out criminals. And Jesus
Christ was brought before the representative of Rome, and this
representative named Pilate says, I find nothing wrong in him. And then Satan can be called
in to testify of the innocence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though
I doubt Satan wants to testify of it, yet he has. Because our
Lord says concerning Satan, the prince of this world has come
and he has found nothing in me. Satan did all he could to tempt
our Lord Jesus Christ into sin. But before he could tempt someone
into sin, he has to have something to work with. He has to have
a weakness that he can prey upon. He has to have some inclination
towards sinfulness and selfishness, which he may make use of. But
Satan came to our Lord Jesus Christ, and he poked and prodded,
so to speak, and he never did find any niche, any chink in
the armor of Christ's righteousness. Found nothing in Christ. And
then God says, not once, but twice, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Now God's of purer eyes than
to behold iniquity, and he's of clearer eyes than to miss
iniquity if it passes before him. Now Jesus Christ was always
in the presence of God. That is, he was as everything
is. I mean, Jesus Christ lived and
God saw everything he did. God never once detected any sin
in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore He could say, with Him I am well
pleased. So there we have three witnesses
as to the suitability of Christ to be a sacrifice, because He
Himself was without sin. But Christ is all the glory of
the cross in the suitability of the offering of that sacrifice.
You see, for a sacrifice to be accepted, it must not only be
an acceptable sacrifice, but it must be acceptably offered.
That is, it must be offered by a suitable priest. Christ is
our sacrificial lamb, but he is also the priest that offers
the lamb. You see, we don't offer Christ
to God. Christ offered Christ to God. A sinner cannot present himself
or his own offering to God apart from a priest. A go-between. And Christ is that go-between
for God's people. He is the one who can represent
us in the presence of God. Now Jesus Christ qualifies as
a priest. In Psalm 24 we read this, Who
shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Now this question is not
saying who shall go to heaven. This was a question about who
shall be a priest. The hill of the Lord is where
the temple sat. And therefore the writer of Psalms is saying
who's going to be the priest? Who can go into the presence
of God and represent the people? And the answer was this, and
under the Old Covenant, this was required of a priest. He
must have clean hands, a pure heart, and not be an idol worshiper. Of course, for those priests
of the Old Covenant, it was only required that they meet these
standards outwardly. However, when referring to the
priest who must represent God's elect, not in a temple made with
hands, not in a temple over there in Israel, but in the true temple
of God, who can represent God's people there? Well, someone who
is truly of clean hands and our Lord Jesus Christ was as we pointed
out earlier he never did any sin he's of a pure heart never
had a sinful thought and certainly he's not an idol worshipper he
has never turned his heart away from the true God but has always
worshipped him in his divinity of course he doesn't worship
at all because he is the one who is worshipped but we're now
seeing Christ as the man We're examining Christ as the man who
represents other men. The scriptures say there's one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
and that man worshiped God with all his heart and never, never
once sought to worship anyone else, any idol. And it says of
such a one in Psalm 24, he shall receive blessing and vindication
from the Lord. And our Lord Jesus Christ did
when he offered that sacrifice. God blessed him and vindicated
his work before all the world by raising him from the dead
and setting him at his right hand. So he offered the sacrifice. He offered it properly, that
is, without spot. This refers not only to the spotlessness
of the sacrifice offered, but to the spotlessness of the way
it was offered. It says in Hebrews 9.14 that
Christ offered Himself without spot to God. That speaks of the
way in which He offered it. He offered it without deceit.
He offered it without self-interest. He offered it without sin. No
selfishness in Him. No pride in what He did. No seeking
after self-glory. He offered it out of love for
His people and in the desire of honoring and glorifying God.
Everything we do is ruined with pride, isn't it? I preach like
this on the radio, and I'll just tell you this about myself, I'll
be honest. Every time I preach on the radio, every time I preach
anywhere, pride is there to make me think that I'm something for
the way I preach or for what I preach. And pride mars everything
I do. Isn't it so with you? Therefore,
I've never offered anything without spot to God, because I always
spot my offering, so to speak. with my own pride. But Christ
offered without spot to God. Offered Himself. And He offered
Himself to the right person, God. Christ is not offered to
us. He's offered to God. So Christ offered the right sacrifice.
He offered it in the right place, in the very presence of God.
And He offered it to the right person, to God Himself. Now Christ
is all in the message of the cross. And that's why we glory
in nothing but the cross. That's why we call the cross
our glory. In preaching, it's the job of
the preacher to declare Christ, who is, that is, who Christ is,
and what He has done. The ministry of the Spirit of
God is described like this, He shall take from what is mine,
says the Lord Jesus Christ, and show it unto you. Christ is all
the focus of faith. He is all the glory that faith
looks to or claims. The Scriptures never direct our
attention to anything or anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
What He's done there on the cross. You know, when we believe God,
when we believe God to the saving of our souls, what we are actually
doing is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to His
work in righteousness and looking to His work in sacrifice and
being satisfied with what He has done. You see, we are looking
to Christ the same way the Father does. The Father looks on Christ
and is satisfied with Him in behalf of God's people. And we
look at Christ and we're satisfied with Him in behalf of ourselves.
So Paul says, may it never be that we glory in anything other
than the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the cross
satisfies God. The cross justifies our souls. And it is the cross that separates
us from the world. For Paul says that it is by the
cross that He has been crucified to the world and the world has
been crucified to Him. The world counts him a cursed
thing, and he counts the world a cursed thing, and only the
cross can work that in the heart of a man. The glory of the cross
is that it's altogether the work of Christ. May we glory in the
cross and not be offended in it.