I wonder if you've ever noticed
the emphasis and the weight that is placed by the apostles upon
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if you've ever noticed
how much emphasis in their writing those books that have come from
their pens that have been delivered to us by God the Holy Spirit.
I wonder if you've ever noticed the frequency with which the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ comes to the fore in their reasoning
and in their conveying of the truths that they have to deliver
to their audience. Of course, make no mistake about
it, the words and the works of the Lord Jesus Christ that he
spoke and performed throughout his life are a delight and a
blessing to his church and people. There is no doubt about it. And
I am not drawing a comparison or endeavouring to say that in
any way the things that the Lord Jesus Christ said or did are
not important. We love to listen to the prayers
of the Lord Jesus Christ, do we not? We love to hear him praying
to his father as he often did, as he taught his disciples to
pray, as he prayed himself. perhaps that great high priestly
prayer in John 17, or as he was there in the garden, in the quietness
and the darkness of that place before the cross, and he prayed
and he opened his heart before his father. There is such power
in the prayers of the Lord that we would be far, far poorer if
we did not have them recorded in the word of God. What about attending at his preaching? What must it have been like to
sit on the hillside and hear the Lord Jesus Christ preach? His sermons, his Sermon on the
Mount, as he engaged with men and women, as he declared all
the things that his father had given him to say, it must have
been wonderful to hear his preaching. or to stand in awe, wonder and
amazement at the miracles that he performed. Oh, to be standing
there when the blind first saw, or the deaf first heard, or those
who had been lame from childhood, took their first steps and to
see their faces and to hear their cries and to watch their tears
as in joy they benefited and were blessed by the power of
the Lord Jesus Christ's miraculous works. And to raise the dead. Remember the day that that bier,
that coffin was being carried? and the mother with her son in
the coffin. Oh, what a restoration. What a joy there must have been
when the young man was returned to his mother, or Jairus's daughter. The ways in which the Lord Jesus
Christ showed his power acted out those great works of power
and glory and majesty, proving without doubt who he was, would
have been wonderful to behold. And we are blessed. We are blessed
in the rehearsing of these things amongst us to remember and to
reflect and to understand who it is that we speak of and with
whom we have to do when we think about the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his miracles. And it would have been good,
it would have been good to have been able to stand behind the
Lord and to revel in his repudiation of those Pharisees and Sadducees
and priests. Oh, when they would leave us
without anything to say, when they would leave us speechless,
when they would criticise us, when they would speak against
us, when they would undermine us, when they would rise up against
us, and the Lord would step forward, and he would just so easily twist
their words back upon themselves, expose their hypocrisy, show
them what must it have been like there in the temple in that morning
in John 8 when that woman was brought in and thrown at the
feet of the Lord Jesus. And all the crowd around about
sat quietly as these men made their case about this wicked
woman and how she should be dealt with. And the Lord Jesus Christ
very calmly just wrote on the ground. And then he turned the
wickedness of these men back upon themselves and exposed their
hypocrisy. And one by one, they left his
presence until only the woman herself was there alone. What
must it have been like to be there in the presence of the
Lord Jesus Christ on occasions such as this? Well might men
have said in his own day, Never man spoke like this man, To be
like Mary sitting at the master's feet. or the disciples sitting
at the dinner table and chatting across the table to one another
as we passed the bread and the meat and the drink amongst us
and shared together in the camaraderie of that little band that Jesus
had called to himself and to sit and listen to the pearls
falling from his lips. Wonderful things, glorious things. Sad to say, we wouldn't understand
much of the things that he was saying because so often they
would seem to be so beyond our comprehension. But we would remember
them afterwards. It must have been great. to walk
with him in Galilee, to bed down with him on a night as the darkness
started to creep in, to be out there in the countryside, walking
around, visiting village after village. His disciples said of
him, did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke with us
in the way? But here's the thing. Peter doesn't
dwell. on the miracles of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He just doesn't. He doesn't mention
them as such. He doesn't make an issue of those
that were raised from the dead or the changing of the water
into wine. Nor does John make reference
much to the sermons that the Lord Jesus Christ preached. No. What loomed large in the
ministry of the apostles wasn't the things that Jesus said and
did, but rather the death that he died, the sacrifice that he
made. Peter speaks of the precious
blood Jesus Christ. He speaks of the suffering of
Christ and says that he, Christ, his own self, bear our sins in
his own body on the tree of He indeed gives the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, not the life of Christ, not the teaching of
Christ, but the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the motivation for everything
that happens to us in our own lives. He says, as Christ has suffered
for us in the flesh, Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. Look at how Christ suffered. He doesn't say, look at how Christ
lived. He doesn't say, look at what
Christ taught. He doesn't say, look at what
Christ did. He said, look at how he suffered and that'll give
you a way to understand your own life. Look at what he has
done for you in his death. In 1 Peter 3, verse 18, he writes,
John says, walk in the light. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from sin. Herein is love. God sent his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins. John's emphasis, Peter's emphasis,
in their epistles, in their letters, is to take us to the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps most of all is the
Apostle Paul in his writings. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter
1 and verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. That was his purpose
wherever he went. As he went into towns and villages,
as he confronted the Jews and the Gentiles, his message was
the same. He stood before town officials,
he stood before soldiers, he stood before kings, he stood
in the marketplace with the common people, and he preached the Lord
Jesus Christ crucified. The Apostle Paul knew that this
was the most important message and if he only had the opportunity
to speak to men and women once, he wanted to make sure that he
got the message of the cross set out before them. Galatians
chapter 6 verse 14 he says, God forbid I should glory save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The emphasis of the Apostles
I contend was on Christ's voluntary sacrifice, on his substitutionary
atonement, the fact that he was mediating as the one and only
mediator between God and man in his death, and that he gave himself a ransom. In 2 Corinthians 5.21 we read,
for he hath made him sin, have made him to be sin who knew no
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Apostle Paul always brought
his audience to the foot of the cross. Yes, the miracles of the
Lord Jesus Christ are amazing. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ
are astounding. We hear these parables spoken
and they thrill our hearts and they illuminate our minds, but
it's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that changes hearts. And
the Apostle Paul knew that to be true. And so he turns again
to the Lord. He speaks of what the Lord has
accomplished. He speaks of the fact that here
is the King of glory come down to earth. Here is God himself
in the form of man and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Paul writes to the Philippians,
chapter 2, verse 8. And in Romans 5, verse 19, the
same theme comes across when he's talking about the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the obedience of Christ, that he
was obedient. unto death, by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. By one act of obedience that
can also be read, shall many be made righteous. It was that
obedience that took the Lord Jesus Christ to death. In Hebrews chapter nine, verse
15, we read, And for this cause, he is the mediator of the New
Testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Let's just tease that out a little
bit. What's he saying there? For this cause, he is the mediator
of the New Testament or the New Covenant, if you like. The new
agreement, the new arrangement, the new way that the Lord God
is dealing with men and women. That is not to say that this
had been so radically new that it had never been seen or understood
before. That's not true. The saints in
the Old Testament, they were saved by the same blood as the
saints in the New Testament and subsequently are saved by. This
is a fleshing out, if you like, a fuller revelation of those
things which had hitherto been hidden. But this new covenant
is ratified by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That by the
means of his death, through his death, there would be redemption
for the transgressions which were under the first covenant.
That is the breaches of the law, the transgressions of the law. That works covenant that had
been established long before with the Jews, whereby those
that sinned must die. Now here is one who steps forward,
who takes the place of the sinner, who stands in the place of the
sinner before the wrath of God. And under the new covenant terms,
under this new arrangement, that is fully revealed in the person
of Christ, He takes upon Himself the obligation to pay every debt,
to redeem His people from their sin, to ransom them out of that
place of condemnation, and to set them free and at liberty. That they Those who are under
this new covenant, this new terms, this new agreement should receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. This is our hope. This is what
we believe occurred because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Payment made. for the transgression
of the law, the sin and debt that rightly was ours that we
could never pay, paid on our behalf and cancelled. And so we come to Hebrews and
in 12 verse 2 we see this amazing verse that shows us who it is
that we are to look to for our help. looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Hear it? Who for the joy that
was set before him, that is, the gathering in of his people,
the possession of his bride, the establishment of his church,
the redemption of his dearly beloved, who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. You know, for all that is said
and done in so-called Christian churches, our towns and our cities
are full of churches, but for all that is said and done in
Christian churches. If the cross and if blood atonement
and if the sacrifice unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ is not
central, is not front, foremost and central, then nothing else
is worth saying. Because the cross gives meaning
to everything. It's the cross that's the key.
It's the cross that opens the door to everything. Now we can
preach from the example of the Lord Jesus Christ about the love
of God. And we can use the example of
the Lord Jesus Christ to show how that love was there to be
seen in his life. But don't expect sinful men and
women to be able to exemplify that love simply by hearing about
it if their lives aren't changed from the inside out. We can read and we can hear about
the teaching of forgiveness. or the way in which the Lord
Jesus Christ cared for the poor and fed the hungry and looked
after the sick. We can marvel at His power over
nature, but all these things will leave us empty if it isn't
based upon an understanding of the cross and what He accomplished
there. So the Apostle Paul says in 1
Corinthians 2, verse 2, Why this overriding emphasis? Why this weight of apostolic
attention? Why was it incumbent upon them
to drive their arguments, drive their logic, drive their message
to the foot of the cross and declare what Jesus Christ had
done? And why is it incumbent upon
us to follow their example? Because very simply, the cross
is crucial. I'm going to give you five reasons
for preaching the cross. Five reasons that we must preach
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. First is this. Salvation comes by the cross
of Christ. there's no other way to be saved
except by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says, neither
is there salvation in any other, only by the crucified Christ. Therefore, if anyone would know
what it is to be saved, if anyone would know what it is to experience
newness of life, to have a sense of liberty and freedom and an
ease of conscience, it must be obtained through the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be attained by an understanding.
You know, there are very many people and they will tell us
that they believe in Jesus. It's a phrase which falls from
the lips of men and women with so much ease and thoughtlessness. But you have to know what it
is you believe in. You have to know. There has to
be a knowledge. Now I am not saying that knowledge
is salvation, but I am saying there'll be no salvation without
knowledge. There has to be an understanding
of what happened at the cross and the miracles of Jesus and
the parables of Jesus and the words of Jesus that he spoke
in his conversations with the Pharisees, all important. But you can be informed, informed
with Bible stories and be a stranger to grace. You can be reformed
by the preaching of the law and by putting yourself into the
straitjacket of living a holy life, whatever a holy life is. Because everybody's got their
own ideas of holiness. We used to talk about regional
sanctification. Because it doesn't matter where
you go, somebody else has got something else that they do that's
different from the way that you do it. The law, mere knowledge, will
never give us grace and freedom and peace with God. That is gained
only at the cross. And it is as we go to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as the cross of Christ, and the
death of Christ, and the blood of Christ, and the significance
of the sacrifice that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ, that
substitutionary work, that stepping of the Lord Jesus Christ into
that place of condemnation, that taking upon himself the sin and
the guilt and the condemnation that rightly belonged to me,
a sinner, it is only after we're able to enter into the experience
of understanding what that means, and by the gift of faith to be
able to lay a hold on it, that we will truly understand what
it means to be at peace with God. The first thing then that is
important about the preaching of the Gospel is that by the
preaching of the Gospel, salvation is obtained. If men are to be
saved, then we have to preach Christ crucified to them. For it is at the cross that sin
is dealt with, that ransom is paid, that justice is satisfied,
that redemption is accomplished and pardon secured. If any sinner
is to find peace with God, if he is to find a settled conscience
from his sin, it is upon the ground of the shed blood of Christ. And any peace must be discovered
at the cross of the Saviour. I say we do the souls of men
and women a great disservice if we fail to lift up Jesus Christ
crucified. The second reason why we must
preach the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is this, that Christ
is glorified in the cross. That the Lord Jesus Christ is
glorified in the cross. It is a cross of curse and yet
he is gloried in it. Now our Saviour did many wonderful
things by which His holiness and His divinity are proved and
evidenced before all men. It takes a gainsayer of incredible
imagination to deny the power and the glory and the uniqueness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The testimony is there before
men. It's a waywardness, it's an obtuseness, it is a contrariness
that afflicts men in their disbelief. Our Saviour did many wonderful
things and His obedience to His Father is well attested. He told
men everything that His Father had given Him to say. He performed
miracles that were astonishing and astounding. But his death
on the cross was the most significant thing. It was the most profound,
it was the most amazing thing that was ever accomplished. The hymn writer writes, Charles
Wesley, I believe, "'Tis mystery, all the immortal dies. Who can explain his strange design?'
And in Hebrews 12, 2, we were told, and we read it earlier,
that it was for the joy that was set before him that he endured
the cross, now being set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is glorified
today in the presence of God. He is, as a man, there in the
glory, lauded and praised and worshipped by angels and men
because of what he accomplished on the cross. Not because he
raised someone from the dead, not because he made someone see,
not because he rebuked the Pharisees in their pride and haughtiness,
but because he accomplished the will of his father and laid down
his life at the cross. Hebrews 2.9 we read, but we see
Jesus. who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honour, that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man. Crowned with glory and honour,
having tasted death, Christ's glory is the accomplishment of
the work of the Father, the work that his Father had given him
to do, a work that no one else could do, a work that he was
uniquely able to fulfil. And that accomplished work will
be the theme of the Church's praise throughout eternity. We will praise him because of
what he accomplished on the cross, the salvation of his people,
the eternal praise of the church through everlasting ages. The bride will sing of his redemptive
work. The song of the lamb Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are
thy ways, thou King of saints. We preach the cross because salvation
comes by the cross. We preach the cross because Christ
is glorified in the cross. And we preach the cross for the
conversion of sinners. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness. And we understand that because
we see it all around about us. You know, you can speak to a
man about the high principles of brotherhood and fellowship
and union that there is in the camaraderie of men together in
the great principles of union in this world. You can speak
of bravery and courage and boldness. You can speak of sacrifice, all
of these great principles. But when it comes to the cross,
They just mock it because they cannot understand. They cannot
appreciate the significance. They see it as a foolish thing. And Paul says that's how it's
always been and how it always must be. There is a foolishness
about the cross, be it Jew or Gentile. They regard it as being
either a stumbling block or mere foolishness. And yet he says, for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved, it is the power of God. Because faith cometh
by hearing, i.e. hearing the preaching of the
cross. which is the power of God unto
salvation. And so it's through the preaching
of the cross, it's through the preaching of the shed blood of
Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that he made that men and women are
convicted of their sins and brought to that place of seeing Christ
as the only saviour. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Romans chapter 10. I want to show you this, Romans
chapter 10. Look at verse eight. What saith it? The word is nigh
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of
faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. It is as we learn and understand
and have knowledge granted to us by God the Spirit of what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done upon the cross about that great
transaction that took place and about the fact that that transaction
was accepted by God as full and complete payment for the sins
of rebellious transgressors. for my sin, and as I confess
the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and understand that in His resurrection
is the proof and validity of the acceptance of the blood of
Christ on my behalf, that the peace and the grace and the mercy
of God becomes experientially mine. That's what the writer
Paul is saying. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Well, there you are. There's
the support for our third point. That's why we preach the gospel.
Because how shall they hear? and believe if they have no preacher
that brings to them the message of the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The fourth reason why we preach
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is because it comforts the hearts
of believers in their distress. So this is for you and this is
for me who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. For all the Word
of God says about the revelation of God and the ways of God and
the words of God to men and women in this world, our personal experiences
and the trials and the difficulties and the problems that we encounter
when we sin, when we fall, when we doubt, when we fear, when
we compromise. Our comfort comes from the cross
of Christ. Our comfort is derived from the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has died for me. I can face anything. because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for me. I can stand where other men will
fall because I stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. What have I to
lose if Christ has done this for me? If Christ has died for
me, if Christ has shed his blood for me, what can't I face? in the troubles and the difficulties
of this life. Now we may say, oh, I hope I
never have to face something like that, and I hope I never
have to face something like this. But whatever providence brings
upon the child of God, whatever the circumstances of our life,
and maybe they'll be different here than they are in Syria,
Or maybe they'll be different here than they are in some impoverished
country. Maybe we will have different
problems that we have to face, but you can be absolutely certain
that we will, as the body of Christ, as the church of Jesus
Christ, enter into glory through much tribulation. It's the stamp
of the church that she has troubles and she has problems. And the
church is made up of individuals and you are it. And it's the cross of Christ
that gives us the strength to face the problems that we have
to face. We lay hold upon the promises
of God because of what Christ did on the cross. There we see
the meaning of Christ's representative work, his priestly offering for
us. There we plead the efficacy of
the blood to bring a fresh sense of forgiveness to our souls and
peace to our troubled consciences. It's at the cross that we find
that divine energy, that holy strength. to face the trials
of our day. It's because of what he's done
for us and the love that he has shown to us in that great sacrifice
on our behalf that we draw our own comfort from. The cross reminds
us that salvation is all of grace because there's nothing that
we did or could do to secure that salvation, but it was all
accomplished by Christ there at Calvary. And therefore it
humbles us, and it causes us not to think better of ourselves
than we should. It exalts the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it shows us and reminds us time after time, as we return
to it, where our true strength lies, and where the ground of
our hope is to be found. And it gives us hope in our own
souls and in the lives of those that we love, that if Christ
could save a sinner like me, then he is able to save to the
uttermost. And it opens up a way of salvation
and blessing for time and for eternity. And it's all that we
need. It's all that we need. I could
take away your money, I could take away your health, I could
take away your house, I could take away your friends, I could
take away your family. And I know that if you are Christ's,
you could come through it all and you would still praise His
name. When a sinner sees his own poverty,
when he sees his own utter bankruptcy, The precious blood of Christ
is applied to their conscience and to their soul for peace and
for joy. The fifth reason why we preach
the gospel is this. It sustains our faith. The cross was a once and forever
sacrifice. In Hebrews 10, we read these
verses. Verse 14. For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them. After
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds will I write them. and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. We have Those of you
who are the Lord's people, those of you who have come to the cross,
those of you who have bowed before the cross and humbly recognised
the significance of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
unique work of the Lord Jesus Christ there, the peace that
flows from that into your heart, you understand that there's no
more needed, that it is all that is required. where the remission
is for the sins and iniquities that we have committed. And that
remission has been granted. We know that there is no more
offering for sin. The righteousness of God has
been bestowed. There is a perfection, there
is a purity, there is a holiness that has been established in
the hearts of those that are his own. He has put his laws
into our heart, he has set them in our minds, and he has given
us that set-apartedness, that sanctification, that place of
privilege and blessing. that we will possess to all eternity. Propitiation is made at the cross. The wrath of God there was all
soaked up in the soul of the Saviour. Our sins were imputed
to Christ, and the righteousness of God was laid to our account. And in the new man we have a
perfection, a holiness, a sanctification, God's law in our hearts and minds,
his holiness filling our souls. And we may remember our sins
and we may reflect upon them with shame and sadness and sorrow,
but he doesn't think about them at all. He remembers them no
more. They are gone and they are forgotten. and it sustains our hearts and
it gives us joy to remember the work of the cross. Whatever we
lose in this life, Christ has won far more for us at the cross. It gives us hope in this world. It sustains us in the face of
trial and temptation, accusation and tribulation. Whatever we
suffer, we suffer for Him, knowing that He suffered indescribably
more for us. Whatever we have done, we know
that the efficacy of the blood of Christ has cleansed us from
all unrighteousness. Why do we preach the cross? Well,
there are five good reasons. May the Lord encourage us and
bless us as we reflect upon them. Amen.