I trust that this may be a lovely
Easter Sunday, and I want to speak tonight
on the spectators of the cross, and I
do trust that this might be a blessing
to you all.
Another thing that pleases me, it's lovely to
see young and old.
Now we're going to read from Matthew 27.
And we'll start reading from verse 31.
And they crucified him and parted his garments.
And in Bethesda did they cast lots.
And sitting down they watched him there.
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Then were there two thieves crucified with him,
one on the right hand, and the other
on the left hand.
And they that passed by resisted him three
days.
Save thyself, if thou be the Son of
God, come down from the cross.
Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, and
the scribes and elders said, He saved others,
himself he cannot save.
If he be the King of Israel, let
him now come down from the cross, and
we will believe him.
He trusted in God, let him deliver him
now, if he will have him.
For he said, I am the Son of
God.
With him cast the same in his teeth.
Darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour.
Now Jesus cried with a loud voice saying,
Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani.
That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
This man calleth for Elijah.
And straightway one of them ran and took
a sponge and filled it with vinegar.
Let be, Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, was read in twain
from the earth.
And the earth did quake, and the rocks
ran, and came out of the graves after
his resurrection.
And when the centurion and they that were
with him, watching Jesus saw the earthquake and
those things that were done, they feared greatly,
saying, This was the Son of God.
Were there beholding afar?
Someone said the other day, very abruptly, and
it was a question, I believe, that needs
to be answered.
Why do they make so much fuss?
The Son gave his life for the country.
A little said about him.
Why so much about the cross?
How can the cross that's two thousand years
old have any relevance in the twentieth century?
My dear friends, I do want to say
this.
If Jesus Christ was an ordinary man, then
the cross has no significance.
If Jesus Christ be dead, the cross has
no relevance.
As Christians, we would have to be honest
and fold up the book, put it back
in the library, and we would have to
say to our own deceived souls, we must
find another philosopher.
But you see, dear friends, the Bible makes
it quite clear that he did die.
He was buried, but he was raised again
from the dead.
And there is real evidence in the history
of the resurrection.
And so you can see that the one
who died is now risen.
In fact, we believe that very soon he
is going to break his silence and come.
And that's how relevant the cross is.
But there is one thing that I must
say that is absolutely final.
When Jesus Christ was hanging on that accursed
tree, from the sixth to the ninth hour,
the greatest event in history took place.
For the first time in the whole world,
God brought sin together, and we can't measure
that.
Then in a very meticulous way, he measured
its judgment.
And instead of bringing that judgment upon the
sinning world, he brought that judgment upon his
son.
And that is why he cried, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He was taking the place of the sinful
man and the sinful woman.
And when he said finished, that work was
complete in such a wonderful way that God
now can come to us and give us
a righteous and just forgiveness.
So that when we are forgiven, we can
have complete peace.
Now that's the most important thing that I
want you to remember.
But then someone will say, and rightly so,
How is that cross going to come to
me tonight?
You're standing on the platform, that is correct.
I'm sitting in the pew, that too is
correct.
How is the cross going to come to
me tonight?
In fact, God's medium of communication is not
vision, it's not dream, but it's through the
preaching of the cross.
And that's how God speaks to the world,
through the preaching of the cross.
If you had heard Peter preaching, the center
of his message would be the cross.
If you went back to the time of
the Reformation and you heard dear old Martin
Luther preaching, right at the pith of his
message, the cross.
If you were alive in the 18th century
and you heard Wesley and Whitefield right at
the center of their preaching, the cross.
And here tonight in Sydney, in this simple
gospel hall, the cross is going to be
preached.
As far as we know, when the Lord
Jesus was on the cross, in order to
accomplish the great work of the atonement, only
two people were saved.
One was a penitent malefactor, and the other
was a centurion.
But when Peter preached the cross on the
day of Pentecost, three thousand were saved.
And through the preaching of the cross, millions
have been swept into the kingdom of God.
And I feel sure tonight, as I uplift
the cross, some here will be drawn to
him for the first time.
Now this is a very interesting thing, but
the same people that surrounded the actual cross
are the same people that sit and hear
the cross preached.
And therefore I'm going to speak on those
spectators, and I'm quite sure of this, that
there will be the same spectators sitting in
the seat, listening to the gospel tonight.
There were those, dear friends, that sat down
and watched him indifferently.
Couldn't care less.
There were those that passed by revilingly.
They were filled with anger.
There were those who watched the far-off
nervously.
They wanted to come near, but they were
afraid.
And then there was the mother that stood
by the cross, adoringly, looking at her son.
And they will be my simple remarks tonight.
The Lord Jesus was scourged.
I wish we could have seen that scourging.
If I had a scourge tonight, a Roman
scourge, and I brought the scourge across this
platform, you would see it splintering in all
directions.
The Lord Jesus was tied to a doorpost.
By one side of him there would be
a bowl of salt, on the other side
a bowl of vinegar.
Before him there would be a thick set
of centurions.
And then there would be 39 Syrian Roman
soldiers that were picked out because of their
might and mean to heap the heaviest blow
on the victim that was possible.
And each man will step forward, and with
all his might he would bring it on
the victim's back.
And the blow would move the body, and
the centurion would move the body flat back
into the bow.
And after the wound that was deep and
rugged, he would pour salt and vinegar in.
The Lord Jesus received 39 scourge marks.
It was a living miracle he was alive
after the scourging.
After the scourging, the Roman soldiers would put
down their whips, and then they would go
through a session called the buffeting.
One by one would step forward, and it
hurts me to say this, and with a
clenched right he would smash it into the
face of the victim until his face was
marred.
More than any man's, beyond recognition.
Then they would plunge a cross of wood
on the saviour's back, and they would cause
him to march down the little valley called
Hinnom.
And then he would march up to the
green hill, and then you would see something
that was mingled with vulgarity.
Four of these soldiers would throw him to
the ground, and then with mighty hammers they
would smash spikes into his hands and feet.
And as they were crucifying him, he quietly
said in holy dignity, Father, forgive them, they
know not what they do.
And then they sat down with a few
others, and they stripped the garment of course
from his back, and they tore it to
pieces, and with a dice they were gambling
four parts of his garment.
And these men were blinded by indifference.
That lovely call of passion, the greatest love
prayer that ever fell from human lips, was
like water on a duck's back as far
as they were concerned.
All they were concerned with was a souvenir.
All they were concerned with was the gambler's
dice.
Their eyes were glued to the cement.
If those men had lifted their eyes from
the dice and from the garment, and given
their eyes five seconds of vision, there would
have been a transformation.
They would have seen the glory and the
dignity of the one that was dying.
They probably would have said with the old
penitent maleficent, Dost thou not see a God?
But you see they were so blinded by
indifference, so deceived by the beggarly elements of
this world, that they had no vision whatever.
The blindness of indifference.
He was breathing upon them the love of
God.
He was pouring upon them the waters of
compassion.
He was opening his heart and showing them
the very love of God.
But they were brutal.
They couldn't care less.
And can I use the language of a
brilliant poet that said something that was ungrammatical?
That was the unkindest cut of all.
You say how can you prove that?
There was a church in Laodicea that used
to gather around the Lord's supper.
And they used to taste the bread and
the wine with an indifferent heart.
Couldn't care less.
They were hooked, mesmerized, upon the material things
of this earth.
They were rich and increased with goods and
need of nothing.
And the Lord looked down and he said
this, that indifference makes me sick.
And the Almighty God uses vulgarity.
And this is what he says, I will
spew thee out of my mouth.
Beloved friends, we are now in the process
of lifting up the greatest love story in
the world.
God is breathing upon you his eternal love.
What's your reaction?
Are you sitting there indifferent?
Test your temperature, for that's the sin that
wounds the very heart of God.
Downright apathy and indifference.
There was another group that stirred on the
people to crucify the Lord Jesus.
They didn't know it of cost.
All they had was religion on their brow.
But dare I say it, hell in their
hearts.
They were the ones that said to the
people, cry out crucify him, crucify him.
His blood be upon us and our children.
They were wicked men, clothed in white and
draped in religion.
They had the form of religion, but their
hearts were far from God.
They had seen the scourging, they had seen
the buffeting, they had even seen the crucifying
from a distance.
And now they were moving toward the cross
itself.
Their hands were in their own cloaks.
Their hearts were filled with bitterness.
But they were getting nearer to the cross.
And when they came face to face with
the cross, they heard the Master saying, Father,
instead of breaking them and melting them, instead
of these men falling on their knees saying,
Oh God, we have committed an abomination.
They reviled, whacked their heads and challenged him
saying, If you are the Son of Man,
we will believe.
Friends, God is engineering the circumstances of the
whole world.
This night is infinitely holy.
I say something to you from my heart.
He was the one that put the desire
in your heart.
He put you in that seat that you
might pass through that preached
cross.
We do not make a decision, We make
the decision before Mount Sinai where he gave
the Ten Commandments.
We make the decision before the cross where
he breathes out this cry.
These men looked and their hearts were filled
with bitterness.
Little did they realize they had moved down
a road called the Broad Road.
Those men are in hell.
People say to me it's very easy to
go to hell.
Don't you believe it?
The hardest thing in the world to go
to hell.
You have to come heart to heart with
the Savior or
sit there in cold.
I think this is dramatic, but it's perfectly
true right now.
And his writing down this sermon that I
am now preaching and his writing down this
opportunity that he's given you so that you
might fall in repentance.
May God save you from doing it.
Then there was another company that
had seen the mighty miracles.
That moment when he touched the leper and
he was instantaneously healed.
Probably there were some there that had seen
the resurrection of Lazarus when he came out
of that sepulcher all bound with grey clothes
and they had seen the mighty miracle.
They loved him.
They loved him deeply.
But they were afraid.
There was the cross in the distance.
There was the suffering Savior.
Coming from his lips and heart he was
expressing the very love of God.
But between the cross and them were the
Jewish soldiers, the scribes and the Pharisees and
they were filled with fear.
They wanted to come near They felt the
mighty induction of the love of God.
They felt its drawing power.
But there was a barrier.
The soldiers, the scribes and the Pharisees and
they were afraid to come.
The cross is being lifted up as we
see the Savior there by faith dying for
our sins that we might be forgiven.
All of us feels the induction of that
love.
I can tell by your faces.
Why tonight there are tears.
And write this down.
But some of you are saying something like
this.
I would like to come and associate myself
with the Lord Jesus.
But I'm scared.
You see it's my husband.
If I come it could break up my
marriage.
Or it's my boss if I come and
tell him I've become a Christian.
He might render me unemployed.
Or it's the friends that I've worked with.
If I told them that I was saved
I would become the object of their laughter.
Perhaps there's a husband here.
And you're saying this tonight.
I would like to come.
What was my wife?
My mother would have come to Christ years
before the day she did.
But she was afraid of my dear father.
My dear friends I have no doubt in
saying this.
If those ladies themselves with the people around
the cross the Lord would have defended them.
But he would never defend himself.
He was going to be an offering.
And therefore they were defeated.
Are you there?
Something holding you back.
But then we pass from the passionate statements
in John's gospel is this.
They are stood by the cross.
Don't raise your hand.
Answer this in the shrine of your soul.
And you know how you feel.
As she saw the soldiers baffeting his face
they were doing it to her.
She was never a perfect woman.
When she saw the soldiers and as she
drew herself nearer to the cross one
moment there would be an anger.
And she would say something like this.
He healed them.
He ran errands of mercy and they pierced
his feet.
He gave them words of love and justice
and they bruised his neck.
That face shown once with the sun.
Now it's marred.
As he fought for breath she would fight.
Woman.
Madam.
It means a lady of a high degree.
Behold thy son.
Mother don't break your heart.
Look.
And look.
And look until you understand.
Can we do that tonight?
May I ask you to do something that's
quite unique?
Would you forget everyone else in the building?
Would you come alone at the cross and
pray that prayer that we have sung together?
Give me a sight O Saviour of thy
wondrous love.
And as she looked she would hear something.
Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he
shall save his people.
She would hear something like this.
His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor the
Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of
Peace.
And then she would hear His name shall
be called Emmanuel God without.
And she would see through the gloom and
she would see the holy dignity of her
son.
And may I say now with Bishop Lightfoot
it was not God who died but he
who died.
Oh the reverence as we gaze upon the
son.
And my dear friends we must now leave
the mallum and we must ask some questions.
Lord Jesus forgive our crudeness and rudeness but
on the cross there is darkness and around
the cross there is darkness.
Why this darkness?
Lord Jesus why this voice?
My God my God why has thou forsaken
me?
And it will come to us like a
revelation died for our sins.
Forgive the shock it will hit you like
this and you'll say My sins Lord Yes
My sins put you on the cross Yes
My lying my lust my bad temper my
irritation my gossiping tongue put thee on the
cross Yes My awful evil nature where it
all comes from does it mean that you're
being condemned for that?
Yes Oh my God I never knew that
And you're broken You see my dear friends
the cross levels us all You can't come
to the cross and say I'm religious You
can't come My sins And
then I look through those misty eyes and
I say Lord again forgive my crudeness But
are you saying to me that you love
me?
You know all about my sins and you're
bearing them but you infinitely love me You're
not loving me through an oration You're not
loving me by words but you're loving me
in the reality of the cross And when
that comes to you, you will say He
loved me and gave himself A young man
there in London was only 12 years of
age when he received his first class honour
from the London School For the second year
he won it again in that brilliant public
but he would never invite his mum Never
And for four years running in his particular
form he got that first class honour When
he was 16 his mother challenged him You
never invite me to that special prize giving
He said no mother Why?
She knew why Mother he said I didn't
want to say this But your body is
terribly mutilated And he said I'm ashamed to
introduce you And then she quietly said this
to him John when you were three you
were very rebellious And there was an old
fire for he had lost his mother And
I found you burning almost to death on
that fire And I covered you with my
dress And saved your life And then she
did a thing that she had never done
before She pulled down the neck of her
dress And she was all scarred She lifted
up her long dress And her arms were
all And with tears she went out of
the room And this is what he said
When I saw my mother's scarred body I
said My disobedience When I saw her scars
I said her love And you know what
he did He went up for the first
time and hugged her You're the most beautiful
person in the world
And there will be surrender Would you mind
there now If I gave you my testimony
My father took me to a meeting like
this And I heard old Philip Mills preaching
the cross And as I sat in that
meeting Where there were hundreds of people And
as that man preached the cross The wickedness
of my sins And as they were not
so deep His death And I saw the
reality of God's love And
in a little box room With just one
bed I knelt down In that
little room I surrendered to the Lord Would
you mind if I point Is there someone
there There Then tonight come
to the Lord Jesus As a poor sinner