Amen. In a moment, we'll turn to Mark's Gospel chapter fifteen. We will stand, however, for prayer to change our positions. Our eternal, loving, heavenly father, as we look into thy word tonight, we pray that souls will be counseled, directed, as they have already been warned, as we And may there be those this evening who will turn, seeking the Savior. May they find the greatest gift that could ever be obtained, Christ, eternal life. May this be the very night of their conversion. Bless thy word. Preach to that end and give all the help that is needed, both to the preacher and to the listener. And we ask that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide and direct in thought. We ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. And could you please now turn to Mark's Gospel, chapter 15? My text is found in verse 21, speaking here of an individual. He's mentioned in the first three Gospels Simon, he is a Cyrenian, and it says here, they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. As we have read through the passage I don't know if you have thought upon all the individuals that are mentioned. You have the crowd crying out against Christ, crucify him. You have Pilate, who in spite of his efforts to try and release Christ, nonetheless, passed the Savior over. And interestingly, in verse 15, it says, when he had scourged him, and then he delivered him to be crucified. The chief priests orchestrating the crowd so that instead of crying out for the release of Jesus, they cried out for the release of the murderer, Barabbas. You have then the crucifixion. leading up to it the soldiers mocking, scorning, ridiculing. Coming then to the scene of the crucifixion itself, you have those who are kneeled to the cross beside the Savior, the two thieves, mentioned as maid in verse 32, they that were crucified with him reviled him. mention is made also in the passage of those who simply were passing by on this occasion. They couldn't help either, as it were, wagging their heads, bringing a word of ridicule and a word of mockery against Christ. Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross. The whole scene is a scene of intense opposition, antagonism against the Lord Jesus Christ. I am reminded of the words of Lamentations. It's speaking of the city of Jerusalem, but nonetheless they seem somewhat prophetic words. when the prophet says, is it nothing to you all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And as we've read, the scene before us here in this chapter, you cannot be anything else but struck by the fact of how few there were, apart from those women, the disciples had even fled, but how few there were that gave any real consideration to what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing as he was led away to be crucified. However, strikingly, one man is led upon, compelled, the Bible says, to see and view the scene of the crucifixion of Christ very differently as we shall see from anyone else in this whole crowd. In looking at this man, Simon the Cyrenian, our purpose is very simple. I trust that tonight, by the Holy Spirit, you will be compelled to view the scene of Christ and His crucifixion, not as an occasion to ridicule or to oppose, but rather to see it as it should be seen. the scene of the greatest work ever done, when Christ on that cross gave himself to its suffering, gave himself under the Father to bear the Father's, God's wrath against sin, and here to purchase salvation. for souls. I hope, I trust tonight, that that's how you will see this scene, that you will be compelled to come and identify with the Lord Jesus Christ as we shall see this man, Simon the Cyrenian, was compelled, and I speak now in another sense from what the soldiers did to him, but compelled to identify with Christ as his Savior. In doing so, first of all, I want you to consider the path or the way of Simon, the direction in which he was going. It says here, they compel one Simon a Cyrenian who passed by coming out of the country, and he's entering into Jerusalem at the same occasion as the Lord Jesus Christ is being led out to be crucified. He is going in another direction. In some ways, that's a picture. It's a picture of mankind. It's a picture of souls without Christ and the direction in which they're going. They're not going the way of Christ. They're going in opposition to Christ. They're going in a different direction. I think it interesting to point out that the whole event here takes place around the time of the Passover. This man, Simon the Cyrenian, why is he in Jerusalem? He's there to identify with the Passover a religious feast. You can recall what that particular feast would have directed those who observed it to word, that is, the lamb that was slain, its blood sprinkled upon the doorposts, though so many years ago when the angel of death passed over because the blood of the lamb was sprinkled upon the doorposts of those homes in Egypt. Every year The Jews were commanded to remember this occasion and to observe the Passover, and yet that Passover spoke of something more. I go to another scene. It's a scene when the Lord Jesus Christ observed the Passover, and you recall how He transitioned from the Passover, and then He moves towards His feast. Simple emblems, bread and wine, And the Lord Jesus Christ, on that occasion, told us that we are to remember His death, to remember what He has done, the sufferings in His body, the shedding of His precious blood. And I say that so that you can understand that the Passover directly led to the person and to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's go back to Simon. He's going into Jerusalem. He is there, no doubt, to identify with the Passover. But as he's going into Jerusalem, here's the Lord Jesus Christ. He has no interest in identifying with Christ. It is the soldier's rough hands that take hold upon him and compel him to bear the cross of Christ. And my thought simply is this, here's a man identifying with a feast, identifying with a religious observance, but he didn't know Christ. Isn't that interesting? That you can be so identified with the things of God. Perhaps even tonight we could say this. There are those who identify with this church, a church that stands by the teaching of the gospel, the Word of God, and yet you're not saved. You don't know Christ. And I hope that you understand that, that it is not an identity with a church that saves. It is identity with Jesus Christ that saves, and knowing Him as Savior. And you may believe many things. You may believe that even as a church we are preaching the truth, that this is the Word of God. But if you don't know Jesus Christ, then you're going in the opposite direction, not to heaven, but your soul is going to be lost in hell. Don't miss this tonight, unconverted person. Don't miss Christ. With all your observance and with all your beliefs and all your identification, remember it is Christ that you must meet with and Christ that you must identify with. It is the Savior whom you must know if you are to be saved. And surely the path of Simon, as he is going in the opposite direction, does remind us of the nature of the soul. It's not with Christ. It's going in enmity to Christ, in opposition to Christ. We're born in sin. We're shaped in iniquity. And yet here is a striking incident as Simon is coming into Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ is going out, and he's going out to Golgotha, and he's going out to the cross there to die for sinners. And here's Simon. He's coming into Jerusalem, and he is determined to pass by this scene and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unconverted person. I ask you to remember that God commendeth His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the love of God for us. Don't miss Christ. Don't miss Christ. You will notice The compelling of Simon as he's on this path. It says here in verse 21, they compel one Simon. A rough hand, the rough hands of the soldiers take hold of him. He's plucked as it were out and he's forced by rough hands to take the cross of Christ and identify with Christ going to the cross. I want to speak about another hand taking a soul and guiding an individual to identify with Christ. That's a very different thing entirely. God comes to the soul. He comes with His Word. It's a word of counsel. It's a word of direction, a word of guidance, calling souls to the Savior. Therefore, this evening, God, in the preaching of the Word, is coming to your heart, to your soul, and He's calling you. I think of the words of 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20. Paul says, Now we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So the subject directly here is Christ. the one who bore our sins upon the cross of Calvary." But the thought that Paul is speaking about here is this. We are ambassadors. So is every gospel minister. I'm here tonight as a minister of Christ. I'm not here to preach my message. I identify with that message. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But toward you, I'm an ambassador. an ambassador of Christ, praying you, be ye reconciled unto God. In that way, God comes, reaches out, as it were, his hand toward you. I think of the circumstances here. Because it's quite striking to me that this all happens at the third hour. If you look there at verse 25, where this was just prior to it, it was the third hour and they crucified him. So this was very early in the morning. And at the very point at which Simon the Cyrenian was coming into Jerusalem, He lived a long way away. He was traveling. He was making his way here. But the very time, the very moment, as he was coming into Jerusalem, he meets with Jesus Christ, who's going the other way to the cross. Isn't that a very striking circumstance of providence, that here these two individuals, the person of Jesus Christ and Simon, are brought together? And I think we can make a word of application here. It's not by chance that you are here this evening. Not as many would call it luck that somehow or another you're found at a place where you're being spoken to about getting right with God, getting right with Jesus Christ. It's not chance. It's the providence of God. Tonight you're brought face to face, confronted, if you like, with the claims of the gospel, with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that sense, you're now being compelled to consider the Savior. What shall I say of the work of the Holy Spirit that God uses? as the Spirit of God takes hold of the heart and stirs the soul and reminds an individual of the teaching of the Word of God? I wonder tonight, is it the case that the gracious movings and hand of God's Holy Spirit is coming upon your soul even tonight, and tonight finds you in a place where your soul is being stirred about the things of God. Not with a rough hand, mind you, but the gracious working of the Holy Spirit in your heart. The other day I was in a home, and I was speaking with a lady. Her husband's not saved. And as many of us, we often think about our loved ones not saved, not converted. But I was telling her that oftentimes it's amazing how the Lord stares a heart that seems so hard. And I was telling her an incident down in the south of England, an individual, a man was an atheist. He didn't believe. His wife, however, was converted. One day, he picked up a little volume. It was teaching about various sins, one of which was pride. And it actually had a chapter dealing with the sin of pride. And I was saying to her, you know, you'd have thought that that man, being an atheist, well, he would need a book on creation or something like that to help him. I'm not against that, by the way. They're very good. But you'd have thought that that would be the way to get at that individual's mind, to challenge him. But actually, he lifted that book up, and he began to read it. And he read the chapter on pride and what the Bible described pride as a sin. And do you know what he did? He started to think about his actions. He started to think about himself as he denied God and believed in evolution. And he said to himself, you know, all I am is just a proud sinner. And the Lord broke his heart. And he came to the place where he realized all he was was a sinner and needed to confess his sin, and he came to Jesus Christ as Savior. What had happened to him? The Holy Spirit moved upon his soul, wrought upon him. I wonder tonight, is the gracious hand of the Holy Spirit moving upon your soul? Ah, do not resist him. And then I want you to think also of the compelling of Christ, the scene of Christ going to the cross. Is that not something that God uses? to remind us of what the Lord hath wrought and what the Lord hath done. You think of Paul the Apostle. Paul the Apostle, whenever he spoke of Christ and what the Lord had wrought and done for him, he did so in the greatest of terms. He spoke about the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. There's a compelling concerning the scene of the cross itself. I mentioned that text earlier. But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here, Simon is going to view that scene. But you can reflect upon what God has done in so loving the world. He gave his only Son. That should compel you. Oh, I trust tonight that you will sense and know in your heart the hand of God at work in your soul, compelling you to consider Christ, to get right with Christ. I want you to remember here that it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the person of Christ, that Simon here is now to be identified with. It says in verse 21, they compel one Simon. What to do? To bear his cross. So get the scene. Simon, having made his way into Jerusalem, now is thrust upon, as it were, and he's compelled to bear the cross of Jesus Christ and make his way toward Golgotha. But he's actually now identified with Christ. Those looking on would see the scene of Christ going toward Golgotha, but they'd also see Simon now bearing his cross. All of this seems to me to offer some teaching, symbolism, parallelism. If I can think of it In this sense, although the scene looks rough, harsh, brutal, nonetheless, Simon is identified with all this. You know, there are many people, and they find that so difficult, because whenever they hear of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and its necessity, and the need that Christ must bear in His own body our sins on the tree, the need that upon Him, as the Scripture says, upon Him is laid our iniquity. They recoil from that. They say, is there not another way? Could I not just simply identify with those who are called God's people. Could I not just simply come to the meeting, sit in the meeting, participate in the meeting, and by that surely I could be identified as a Christian? This seems so brutal, seems so unnecessary. the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and identifying with this. I have to say that those who think like that fly in the face of the whole teaching of the Word of God. Throughout Scripture we are reminded that we are redeemed, not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood Constantly we are told over and over again, it is only the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses from sin. And constantly we are forced, if you like, compelled to understand that in order for our sins to be dealt with, it can only be through this work of Jesus Christ. a work where He stands in our place, becomes our substitute. This is the teaching of the Word of God. This is what all the Old Testament sacrifices are pointing us toward. And therefore, I say to you this evening, if you are to be saved, if you're not yet in Jesus Christ, You must realize that the whole subject of how your soul is to be saved is wrapped and tied up with the work of Jesus Christ upon that cross. Your sins demanded wrath. And in order for your sins to be pardoned, that can only be done through what Christ upon that cross did. that takes you to Calvary, then, and takes you to the Savior. Faith, therefore, is required in Jesus Christ, His redeeming work. And remember, His person is important in all of this. Simon, as he walks along towards Golgotha, is walking with Christ. So it is not merely a theology box, as it were, that is to be ticked in order to be saved. It is actually knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So therefore, it is not the fixture, as it were, of the cross that saves. It is the person of Jesus Christ and the work which He did upon the cross. It's so important to grasp that, so important. The cross is nothing without Christ. The place Golgotha is at best an historical site if there be no Christ conducting His great work upon that cross. It is Christ that we preach, and it is Christ that you must come to know. I was thinking of this and thinking of how to illustrate the sense of it. I've been to Normandy and been on the beach where so many men lost their lives And it is an experience to stand there knowing that there where the waves were diluted with the blood of thousands, it's a most moving experience. But I'll tell you what is most more moving. Many of the veterans have gone on, but there was a time when You could have talked to hundreds of veterans who were there. There are interviews that can be watched. Talk with those men that were there. And as they begin to talk about the scene that they faced, the horrors that they went through, shaken by the bombs going off all around them, the horrific events of the battle, wrapped all around them and unfolding around them. And you watch tears coming down their eyes as they talk about comrades. I tell you, that's much more moving. Why? Because you know that they were there. You know what they went through, or at least you begin to appreciate a little of that. Let me tell you, we could talk tonight at great lengths about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you could have your head filled with all the information about what the Lord Jesus Christ did, but it's a far different thing to know Him. It is a far different thing to meet with Him. And to know that upon that cross He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own." Have you come to that place? Are you identified with Christ? Do you know Him? I want you to notice quickly that there was a providential result. And I'm going to infer some things from this, because if you look at verse 21, it says, this man, Simon, coming out of the country, he is described as the father of Alexander and Rufus, implying that his sons, Simon's sons, were known to the church Remember, the gospel of Mark is being written after the events of the cross. Things have moved on. And there are thousands of converts having been brought into the church. And Mark, under inspiration, as he writes, is recording this particular event. There was one Simon. It appears from what Mark now says, he was known to the church. because he was the father of Alexander and Rufus, and these men were known. And we infer from that that here are sons of Simon, who now identify with the cause of Jesus Christ. That is, they have come to the Savior. And that's why I infer that as we come to this portion, We're not coming merely to a man who, with rough hands by the soldiers, was compelled to bear the cross of Christ, and then after this scene, he went away and there was nothing more to it. This is a man now who was brought literally to Christ to understand Christ as a Savior. And the consequence of that was, if we infer correctly, as I believe we can, that Alexander and Rufus, because they're mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures in the New Testament, these, his sons, were known to the church and thus also identified with Jesus Christ. What an impact, what an influence this man Simon had, not only in the church, but especially in his own family. His family were brought to the Lord. The promise, as the apostles declared, is unto you and your children. And oftentimes, of course, we see this, how that the promise of the gospel is not only obtained by those who come to Jesus Christ, but also their families are blessed as well. And I'm quite sure if I went through this congregation, and among those who are converted, and I heard the story of your conversion, you would reflect upon your family and your home. And very often it's because of the influence of someone who, years ago, came to Jesus Christ, that you likewise have been brought to the Savior. I can say that in my own family circle. My grandfather grew up in a home where there was no gospel, down in Cavan. There was a brethren mission that took place when he was in his, I believe, late teens. That came into the Coho area, or Coote Hill area. He lived in Coho near Cavan. And it was through that gospel mission that he was brought to know Jesus Christ. He had to suffer trouble over the head of coming to the Savior, but he was helped out, and he therefore moved up to near Portadown. Again, brethren folk helped him out, but there he met a young girl. They set up their family home together. They had six children. Those six children, one of them was my father. All of them came to faith in Christ. I can't say that all our wider family circle is in Christ, but I can say the vast majority have come to Christ, all because of that one event. And I would say, therefore, to you this evening, unconverted, what an influence you could be. In many ways, your decision to identify with Christ, to come to the Christ, to yield to Christ. It doesn't just affect you. It affects others. But I want to be encouraging here. And I came across a little piece from a sermon of C. H. Spurgeon. And he was thinking of people in his congregation. They were seen to be identified with Spurgeon's Tabernacle, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, but they themselves weren't converted. And on this particular occasion, he actually used this particular text. And this is what he said to his congregation, to those individuals who had yet not professed faith in Christ. But he said, they say, that is, your enemies say, that is one of Spurgeon's people. You are not. I do not own you as yet. But the outsiders have pushed you into the responsibilities of religious profession, and you had better go in for its privileges. They've laid the cross upon you. Don't throw it off. Come on and bring that dear motherly wife with you. And Alexander and Rufus too, and he meant their children. What was he saying? He's saying, there are those that say out there, you're one of us, but you're not yet in Christ. But he was encouraging them. They've said this about you. They've thrown on the responsibilities as it were upon you, but you need to get right with Christ. Come and identify with Christ. Take up the cross and bring your wife and bring your family too. I urge therefore upon you this evening the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to sit with mere knowledge, but to come to Jesus Christ and to come to Him this evening. Today, while you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Get to Christ this evening. Repent of sin. and get to Him tonight. May God help you to do so. Let's bow together in prayer. Our eternal God, we thank you for your word. We pray, Lord, that this scene, written off of a scene so long ago, but yet an event that really happened, would yet take place again. But some soul this evening will identify with Christ, take up the cross, following the Savior, coming to know Him and to know the power of His forgiveness through His cleansing blood. This night we pray that you'll grant repentance and faith. May such as are unsaved flee to Jesus Christ this evening. Lord, put your hand upon souls. Lead them to Jesus Christ. Bless your word to each heart. Bring us on our way. Watch over us. We pray that that blessing of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will rest, remain, and abide. We ask all of this in the name of our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.