Now the death of the cross has always been, above every
other, the death of shame. Now the law has used as an executioner
the sword. But many times the sword and
death by the sword has been associated with honor. and with fame. And the law has used as executioner
the axe. Men have been beheaded, but many
have been beheaded in glory and shame and honor, or fame and
honor. And the law has used as an executioner
the firing squad. But men have stood boldly and
courageously and in honor in front of firing squads and have
died not in shame, but in much glory. But not so the cross. The victim crucified on a cross
was always stripped naked and nailed to that rough wood and
suspended, torn, suffering, bleeding, to the gaze of the multitude,
a specimen of disgrace. Rather to be mocked than pitied,
rather to be scorned than honored. With Jew and Gentile, the cross
is a mark of shame. Evil, not good, never good. Curse,
not blessing. We do not find good and blessings
connected with the cross, but shame. It's synonymous with weakness
and crime and depravity. In Galatians 3, verse 13, the
Word of God says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, in Deuteronomy
21, 23, It is written in the word of God. It is written in
the law of God. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. And this was the death our Lord
died. The death of not honor, but shame. The death of not glory, but humiliation. The death not of the victor,
but the death of the victim. He took our shame, He took our
guilt, He took our sins, He took our filth, and He died on a tree. The hymn writer wrote these words,
I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood, and He fixed
His languid eyes on me as near that cross I stood. Sure never
to my latest breath can I forget that look It seemed to charge
me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience
felt and owned my guilt, plunged me in despair. I saw my sins
his blood had spilt, my sins had nailed him there. Oh, can
it be upon that tree that Jesus died for me? My soul is thrilled,
my heart is filled to think that He died for me. The death of
the cross is the death of shame. It's the death of humiliation.
It's always associated with weakness and crime and depravity. And
this was the death that our Savior died. And the cross is our message. The cross is both wisdom and
foolishness. It's wisdom of God to the believer. It's foolishness to the unbeliever.
The cross of Christ is both life and death. It's life for a look. It's death for the rejecter.
The cross is both pardon and condemnation. It's pardon for
the believer. It's condemnation for the unbeliever. The death of the cross of our
Lord is both honor and shame. It's honor to those who receive
it. It's shame to those who reject
it. The death of the cross of our Lord is both humiliation
and exaltation. It's Christ's humiliation. At
the same time, it's His victory. and his exultation. It's Satan's
victory, but it's Satan's defeat. The cross is strength and weakness,
it is joy and sorrow, it is love and hatred, it is joy and despair. The cross is the gate of heaven,
but it's also the gate of hell. For he that believeth on the
Son hath life, he that believeth not the Son shall never see life. This is our message. for we preach
Christ and Him crucified. We must be determined not to
know anything among men but Christ and Him crucified. We are to
glory in nothing but the cross of our Lord. I want to present
five things to you this morning that the cross says to me. First
of all, the cross is the interpreter of man. And secondly, the cross is the
interpreter of God. And thirdly, the cross is the
interpreter of the law. Fourthly, the cross is the interpreter
of the gospel. And then in the fifth place,
the cross. This hated, despised death on the cross is the interpreter
of service, Christian service. Now, first of all, the cross
is the interpreter of man. By means of the cross, God has
brought to view what is really in this human race. By means
of the cross, God has drawn away that mask of pretended religion
from the face of men, and by the cross, God has revealed man's
true hatred for holiness and his hatred for God. And under
God, what a revelation! What think ye of Christ? God
asked this human race, and man's answer? The cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, and yet they cried, They said themselves, no man
can do these miracles except God be with him. But what was
their cry? Crucify Him. He said, I and my
Father are one. Crucify Him. He said, I am come
that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.
Crucify Him. Face to face with Jesus Christ. face-to-face with absolute holiness,
face-to-face with God incarnate. The Heavenly Father put the human
race face-to-face in circumstances the least likely to call forth
anything but respect and reverence and love. What did He ever say
to generate such hatred? What did he ever do to bring
forth such hatred? But man, when he came face to
face with Christ, holiness, purity, honesty, love, deity, expressed
his hatred of that holiness and his hatred of that God and not
only confessed his hatred, but took the greatest pains to show
the intensity of that hatred. When God is loving the most,
man is hating the most. If anyone dares to deny the ungodliness
of the human race, if anyone dares to talk of the native goodness
of men, I ask them, then what's the meaning of that cross? Does that reveal good or evil? Does that reveal love or hate? People talk to me of the dignity
of man. What means that cross? People
talk to me that man really loves good, that he really loves honesty,
that he really loves integrity. Then what does that cross mean? Face to face with Jesus Christ,
God put this human race. Face to face with holiness, and
they said, crucify him. Face to face with deity, and
they said, we have no king but Caesar. face to face with His sovereignty
and His Lordship, and they said, We'll not have Him reign over
us. Face to face with a definite choice between Christ and evil,
and they said, Give us Barabbas. Man has spoken. Turn to Acts
chapter 4, and watch this. They all took counsel against
In the fourth chapter of Acts, listen to it, verse 26, not some
of them, all of them. The kings of the earth stood
up, Acts 4, 26, and the rulers were gathered together against
the Lord and against His Christ, His Son. For of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate. And these two men were enemies
until Christ came along With the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, these two races were enemies till Christ came along.
But they were gathered together against God and against His Christ,
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. The cross really interprets man. It draws away, it drags away
this phony mask of pretended religion, and pretended holiness,
and pretended love for the things of God, and reveals man's deep
down hatred. Secondly, the cross is the interpreter
of God. We see in the cross the love
of God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made, and were every stalk on
earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the
love of God above would drain that ocean dry. nor could the
scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. O
love of God, how rich, how pure, how measureless, how strong!
It shall forevermore endure, the saints and angels strong. Love stronger than sin, love
stronger than shame, love stronger than pain, Love stronger than
suffering, love stronger than death, love stronger than hell,
having loved his own, he loved them to the end. Herein is love, here is love,
here it is on Golgotha's hill, here it is at Calvary's cross,
here is love. Not that we love God. but that he loved us and gave
himself a propitiation for our sin. The cross reveals the love
of God. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That's God's love defined. I see God's love in creation. I see God's love in his care.
I see God's love in his providence, I see God's love in his promise,
but I see God's love nowhere like I see it at Calvary. And
in our treatment of the Son of God, we put that love to the
most extreme test, and we found that love to be stronger than
all of the hate of all of the people of all of the race. God's love. Not only do we see
in the cross the love of God, but we see in the cross the holiness
of God. Surely the holiness of God will
spare His Son, not when His Son is numbered with the transgressors.
For the Scripture says, God spared not his own son. God will in no wise clear the
guilty, and the holiness of God is so perfect. The holiness of
God is so pure. The holiness of God is so unchangeable. The holiness of God is so immaculate. that it could not spare even
his own son when his son was numbered with us in our rebellion. In the cross we see the justice
of God. Turn to Romans chapter 3. The
cross is the interpreter of God. It reveals the love of God. It
reveals that absolute, immaculate, immutable holiness of God. it reveals the justice of God. Romans 3 verse 25, Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, to
declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. When sin is found lying on the
most righteous, when sin is found lying on the most beloved, when
sin is found lying on the highest person in the universe, it must be dealt with as sin. The same as when it is found
on a common sinner. When sin is found on Christ,
and he took our sin in his body on the tree. The scripture says
God laid our sins on Christ. And when sin is found lying on
the most righteous, the most beloved, the highest person in
the universe, it must be dealt with as sin and it must be punished
as sin. The same as when it's found lying
on you and me. The holiness, the righteousness,
the justice of God could not pass by his son because his son
became sin. And God had to punish that sin
that he might be just, and the justifier of them whose place
the Lord Jesus took. Now thirdly, the cross interprets
man. I see at the cross just what
man really is. He hates God. He hates God. I see at the cross the wretched
filthy, guilty, depravity of the human heart, they spat upon
him. They delivered him to be crucified.
They preferred a murderer and a thief to the Son of God. But
I see in that cross the love of our Lord. I see in that cross
the holiness of our Lord. I see in that cross the justice
of God. And then that cross is the interpreter
of the law. If you want to see the power
of the law, you go to the cross, just how strong the law is. I hear people say, well, I don't believe that a good God
will really send a man to hell. Well, my friend, I don't like
the thought of hell any more than you do. I don't like to
preach on hell. I don't like to even think about
it. But if you'll go to Calvary's cross, you'll see the power of
God's law. It was the law that condemned
the Son of God. It's God's holy law. Because he stood in our place,
and the law charged him with our sins. It was the law that
erected that awful cross. It was God's holy law. It was
the law that nailed our sin bearer to the tree. It was God's holy
law. It was the law that afflicted
him and put him to shame. It was the law of God that shed
his blood. Christ hath redeemed us, listen,
from the law being made a curse for us. That's right. has redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. The law nailed him to
that tree. God's holy law must be honored. God's holy law must be satisfied. God's holy law must condemn the
criminal. And when Christ stood in our
place as the criminal, it condemned him, and it nailed him to a tree,
and it punished him, and it shed his blood. I see in the cross the power
of that law, and I see the strictness of God's law. Now I know you, I know you and I sometimes make
a mockery of the law. We drive down the highway, speed
limit's 55, and we drive 65 or 70, and we get stopped, and we
get a ticket, The law finds us guilty and we're supposed to
pay a penalty and pay a fine. And we know a judge or we know
a lawyer and we call him up and he fixes it up and we don't have
to pay. But don't you be deceived. God's
law is not that way. And I know in this day a rich
man's son can, he can break the law and they can have a mock
trial The jury's fixed up and the lawyer and the judges are
fixed up and the money's passed under the table and he goes free.
While a poor man's son commits the same crime, he goes to jail,
but God's law is not that way. And I know that men in high office,
commissioners and mayors and Senators and congressmen and
governors and we found out even presidents can live outside the
law and get away with it. But you can bet your bottom dollar
God's law ain't that way. And you go to the cross and I'll
show you how strict that law is. I see on that cross the one who
most honored the law in his life. I see on the cross the one who
perfectly obeyed that law from the time of his birth to Gethsemane's
garden. I see the one who obeyed the
law, who honored the law, is the one whom the law refuses
to let go. All his life he spent in honor,
holiness, and obedience to that law, and now it means nothing. Absolutely nothing. Now that he's undertaken to answer
for my sins and your sins, what he did in the past means nothing. He was made sin for us, and therefore
there is no relaxation of the law on his behalf. Now I think it's good. I'm not
complaining about it. I think it's good. A young man
is arrested for doing something wrong. He's brought before the
judge, and the judge says, well, this is your first offense. I'm
going to give you a warning and let you go. Not God's law. Not
God's law. The soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. That's what God's law says. And
when Jesus Christ, our Lord, all his life lived an absolute,
immaculate, sinless, holy, perfect life, But when he came to take
our sins and to take our guilt and to take our place, the law
of God says, he shall surely die. But look who he is, he shall
surely die. But look what he did, he shall
surely die. But look what he gave, he shall
surely die. That's the strictness of God's
law. The power of it, the holiness of it, the strictness of it. Brethren, I hear people talking
about maybe it's the judgment of God that they'll get by. But I'm saying to you, the holy,
spotless law of God requires perfection not only in actions
but in attitude, not only in outward performance but in inward
imagination, not only in a daily walk but in a motive. God's law
requires absolute perfection, and to offend in one point of
the law is to be guilty of the whole law of God. And God's law
strictly will not clear the guilty. Now then, the fourth thing I
see in the cross. The cross interprets the law,
but it interprets, fourthly, the gospel. The angels stood on that Judean
hillside that day when Christ was born, and they said to the
shepherds, We bring you good tidings of great joy. Good tidings
of great joy. And those good tidings of great
joy, beginning at Bethlehem, were on their way to us from
the time that Mary brought forth her firstborn son and called
his name, because he shall save his people from their sins, Jesus. And step by step, those good
tidings of great joy, step by step, that good news, step by
step, that gospel unfolded. Until at the cross, when the
blood of Christ was shed, when the life of Christ was given,
At that cross, the gospel was fully revealed and fully understood. How God saves sinners. The cross is the meeting place
between the sinner and God. The cross is where the debt was
paid. The cross is where peace was
made. The cross is where the ransom
was provided. The cross is where the law was
honored. The cross is where justice was
satisfied. The cross is where the rebel
was reconciled to God. It was at the cross that I first
saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was
there, by faith, I received my sight. Now I'm happy all the
day. Christ the babe can't save. Christ the preacher can't save. Christ the spotless, sinless
one can't save. Christ the miracle worker can't
save. It is Christ crucified that saves. I'm sorry to say that in our
day the cross is the forgotten word. I'm sorry to say in our
day that the blood is despised of men. Our modern religion has
no place for the cross. But the cross is the interpreter
of the gospel. Without the cross, there's no
gospel. We can have the gospel of the
law, but that won't save. That just reveals guilt and shame
and sin when it's seen as it is. We have the gospel of man's
good works, but he knows himself they're not good. They're projected
and motivated too often by love for self. We looked at the gospel
of social reform, and we hadn't reformed very many socially or
any other way. It's the cross. That's the salvation. That's the refuge. That's the
message. That's the good news. Christ
died for my sins. And then last of all, the cross
is the interpreter of service. I don't mean to be critical,
but I believe that preachers in this day are trying to motivate
people with the wrong things. I think that we're trying to
motivate people We're going about it all wrong. I really do. The
cross not only interprets man. If you want to see what's in
man, don't go to the stews of Sodom. Don't go to the skid row
of Chicago, Detroit, and New York. You don't have to go there.
If you want to see man's rotten, evil, wicked nature, go to the
cross. That's where man was faced with
real holiness and real deity. And if you want to see the love
of God, go to the cross. If you want to see the law of
God, its strictness, its power, you go to the cross. The law
spares not God's own son. Do you think God will spare you?
Do you think if Christ, with all of his holiness and perfection,
could not get around the penalty of the law, do you think you
can get around it? Do you think by finagling, do you think by
charitable contributions and deeds that you can get around
that holy law that Christ couldn't get around. When He was numbered
with a transgressor, He died the transgressor's death. When
He took the sin of the guilty, He died the guilty's death. The
law would not spare Him. The cross is the interpreter
of the gospel. I know we make much of Christmas,
the birth of Christ, And I'm glad at least once a year people
recognize that one named Christ was born. It's worth that anyway. We make a great deal of the resurrection
because all of us want to come out of those graves someday,
and I'm not complaining. I'm glad at least once a year
that people say Christ arose. But rather than the one thing
that God commanded us to do, and that is preach the cross,
is what we're not doing. The one thing in which God told
us to glory in the cross, we're not glorying. And then when preachers get up
and they want people to love each other, and they try to some
way motivate that love, and they want people to forgive each other,
and they try to motivate that mercy and forgiveness, and they
want people to pray, they want people to give, so they pass
out pledge cards and they preach on tithing, They talk about the
poor heathen in Africa and China and Russia and India and other
places, and talk about how much food we got and how little they
got, and they just motivate, trying to motivate people to
give. I think they're going at it all wrong. I really do. If you go to the cross, you'll
learn what the law can't teach. If you go to the cross, you'll
learn what rules and regulations can't produce. You want to learn
how to love? You go sit, just go sit, and
look at that cross, and you'll learn how to love. You'll learn
how to love those that don't love you. You go to the cross. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end, even the death of the cross. But God committed
his love toward us in that while we were enemies Christ died for
us. He commands us to love one another
as I've loved you. You say that I have to love this
person. Christ loved you when you were
unlovely. And I say that a person who has
hatred in his heart for another hasn't really been to the cross. I don't believe it. I don't believe
it. Or the cross to him may be a
doctrine. It may be to him a fire escape
from hell. It may be to him a way around
the punishment of God's law. It may be to him a religion. It may be to him what he calls
a way of salvation. But if he doesn't love folks,
he hasn't been to the cross, not experimentally. I'm talking about even the Vietnamese. We're supposed to love them.
And we're not only supposed to, but we will if we go to the cross.
If you go to the cross. I'm talking about the black man.
You're not supposed to tolerate him, you're supposed to love
him. And you will if you ever get to the cross. I'm talking about the folks that
cheat you in business and the folks that hate you in religion.
That's right. I'm talking about in-laws and
outlaws and kinfolk and all the rest of them. You hate them,
you haven't been to the cross. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You just heard about it, you
haven't been there. It is impossible this side of
heaven for anybody to hate and know God. That's what the Word
of God says. Can't do it. Can't do it. You want to know how to forgive?
Hanging on that cross. Our Lord looked down into the
face of that man that drove that nail. He took that awful rusty
spike and he put it right there. Some say here, some say here.
I don't care, but it was somewhere. He took that awful spike and
he put it right there. And he took that hammer with
his teeth gritting and sweat flying, and he drove that nail
into my Lord's arm. And the Master looked down and
said, Father, forgive him. He doesn't know what he's done. That fellow stood at the foot
of that cross and looked up at Christ and laughed and jeered,
and he said, If you're the Son of God, come down from the cross
and I'll believe you! And he spit in his face. My master
looked down and said, Father, you forgive him. He doesn't know
what he's doing. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, forgave you.
You drove that nail. You spit in his face. You were
there. You were there in your family.
You were there. Every one of us were there. And
our Lord forgave us. And you mean tell me, come on
now, you mean tell me that you can harbor, actually harbor in
your heart, a grudge and an unforgiving spirit, and you tell me you've
been to the cross and you're one of those the Lord forgave?
Huh? You're a liar and the truth's not in you. You hadn't been to
the cross. You heard about it. You've got
your one-way ticket to heaven while you live like hell. You
haven't been to the cross. That's right. I'm telling you
the truth. If you ever go to the cross and you see that Christ
forgave you of all of your wretchedness and vileness, and you still carry
the kind of attitude you carry against other people, I don't
care who they are. Uh-uh. No, you've got your doctrine.
That's all you've got. You've got your religion that's
not worth any more than the Confucius, the Buddhists, or the Mohammedans.
Not worth any more. Because no religion is worth
a plug nickel that hasn't been experienced and is not being
lived. You want to know how to pray?
Go to the cross. Not my will, but thy will be
done. That's all there is to pray.
Finding the will of God and bowing to it. Now, you can read all
the books on prayer. They're on the shelf. How to
pray, when to pray, to whom to pray, and why to pray, and for
what to pray. But I'll tell you the very definition
of prayer is finding the will of God and bowing to it. You want to know how to give?
I wouldn't pass out a pledge card. No way. I wouldn't compel you to give
ten percent of your income. No way. I wouldn't get on that
television right now. I'm on there right now. I wouldn't
ask that television audience for one nickel. No, sir. I believe God motivates his people
to give. I believe God lays it on the
hearts of his people to give. And you know how I believe God
does it? I believe he takes them to the cross and lets them take
a look at him who was rich. who became poor, that I who was
poor might become rich. He takes me to the cross and
lets me see Christ didn't give ten percent, he gave himself. Christ didn't give a little percentage
of his income, he gave himself. That's where you learn how to
give. You don't start on the percentage basis. You don't start
and say, this is mine and this is his. It's all his. I'm his. My family's his. My life is his. My body's his. I'm his. He bought me, and I'm his. You want to know how to be humble?
You go to the cross. That's how you learn to be. That's
where God kills your pride. That's where God kills your pride.
We want folks to always be aware that we are a little better than
somebody, any time, at least somebody. that we got a little
more money than somebody, and a little more prestige than somebody,
and a little more education than somebody, and a little more fame
and honor than somebody, and a little better looks than somebody. But he who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of what? No reputation. At that cross, he wasn't better
than anybody. He was the lowest. At that cross, he wasn't richer
than anybody. He didn't have even a grave in
which to be buried. But we got us a mausoleum. We
want to be sure they put our name out there on that thing. Want to learn how to be humble?
Want to learn how to quit looking out for yourself, and your property,
and your fame, and your education, and your name? You go to the
cross, and you see He, you see Him, equal with God, humble Himself,
came down, and became obedient unto death, even the Scripture
says, even the death of the cross, nobody! Somebody said Jesus Christ
at Calvary was the outcast that the outcast cast out. They wouldn't even let him die
inside their city walls. They took him outside the city
and nailed him to a cross. And if you ever get to that cross,
you'll come away no longer defending yourself. What people say about
you, it really doesn't matter. What they think, it really doesn't
matter. Because most of the time they're
right, aren't they? Oh, Jehovah lifted up his rod. My Lord, it fell on thee. Thou
were sore stricken of God and left not one stroke for me. The
storm's awful voice was heard. Oh, Lord, it fell on thee. Thine
open bosom was my refuge. It braved the storm for me. For
me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died, and I have died in thee. And
now art thou at risen, and my bands are all untied. And Lord,
I live in thee." Brethren, I'm coming to see more and more the
vanity, the absolute vanity of vanity of everything connected
with us and the awful solemn importance of getting to Calvary.
Getting to Calvary. What if I gain the whole world
and lose my soul? And lose my soul? Our Father in Heaven, take us to the cross and keep
us there. Take us to Calvary. and keep
us there. There we find our redemption.
There we find our life. His death is our life. His suffering is our salvation. There we learn how to love. There
we learn how to pray, how to forgive. There we learn how to
be humble, how to be broken. smitten in the dust at the feet
of Christ. We pray that thou would make
this message effective in my heart, wean me from the world,
from self, from my own ambitions,