Now our text this morning you will find is the 23rd chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 23 and verse 33. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. when they will come to the place which is called Calvary. The place which is called Calvary. I want to speak for a short time this morning on the place which is called Calvary. All the world knows or ought to know about this place. which is called Calvary. And we, professing Christians, because we are all possessing Christians as well as professing Christians, we too no doubt can give an answer to the question, what is the meaning of this place which is called Calvary. What does it speak to us about? Well, the word Calvary is the name of a place just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. It is called Calvary because Calvary means the place of a skull. But nobody can tell us for sure what that means in relation to the place where Christ was crucified. Some say it was on a mound that was shaped like somebody's skull. Might well be. Might well be. But nobody is seems to be sure as to why the place is called Calvary, the place of a skull. Maybe just as well. The name itself conveys its own true meaning, the place where our redemption began. place where our blessed Lord was crucified, a place called Calvary. And so though we are at a loss to explain why they had a place which was called Calvary outside the city walls where the criminals were executed Nevertheless, we each of us attach our own meaning to the word. We don't want anybody to tell us what we already know and feel about this wonderful name of Calvary. Whatever its particular meaning might be, given to it by those we do not know who can tell how places obtain their names when the witnesses by thousands of years are already gone. And I'm glad of this name, Calvary. And I may not know why it was given that name. It has a very, very special meaning to me and I hope to every one of us here present too. Calvary, it evokes from your heart and mind, heart and mind of all of us. It awakes feelings, innumerable. The most important place, the most important spot in the whole of the universe. We know Christ was born in Bethlehem, just a few miles north of Jerusalem. Bethlehem exists to this day, of course. That is where he was born. Because there was no room in the inn, he was born in the stable and laid in a manger. Not as so many ignorant people say, and I've heard it said this on the mass media, especially at Christmas time. that Joseph and Mary were too poor to get anywhere else but in a stable. It doesn't say that at all, you know. The reason why they went to the stable was because there was no room in the inn. They had plenty of money to pay their way. He was a successful workman, carpenter, skilled man. I have no doubt they weren't short of the necessary when it was required. How ignorant people are about these facts. You hear big men, supposed to be big, talking around Christmas time on these things. Bethlehem, where he was born. But he was born in order to die. The most important place in the whole of the universe, the centre of the whole universe is Calvary. Far more important than just having been born in a stable. That's interesting enough and has its meaning. But he died, that's the important thing. He was born in order that he might die. Who was it who was born? The Eternal God. There is only one God, but there are three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But each of the three Persons is God. And there are not three Gods, but one God manifest in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Oh, we could go on for hours and hours. from the deep mystery of the Godhead. But the deepest mystery of all is Calvary. When I was a young believer, I heard a convention man in Liverpool saying once, I believe, he said, that the world itself was made for Calvary. I was only a young fellow And that saying went deep down into my heart. I don't know whether anybody else ever remembered it, but it became the foundation of all my theology, which I didn't possess then, I was only at the beginning, down to this present day. And I never heard a statement by any man, living or who has lived in my lifetime, who has had more influence upon my mind and thought during this last 60 years since I heard him say, the world itself was made for Calvary. It's at Calvary that God solves all his problems. Did you know that God had problems? Oh, God has many problems. I'm one of them. And there's more of us here, aren't we? God has many problems, but the greatest problem of all is Himself. That's strange, isn't it? That when God became the great Creator, by creating the world of angels and the world of man, He did it for a purpose. And part of that great purpose was to prove that he was worthy to be my creator. That's strange, isn't it? But it's true. God vindicates himself at Calvary, where he died for me and for a world of sinners lost. And no one can ever, in time or eternity, point the finger at God Say, why did you ever have a creation in view of all the sorrow and sin and darkness which have been the consequence of it? But when we get to heaven, we'll talk in a different language from that. We will know then even as also we are known, and what we shall know about God will be all upon the place which is called Calvary. It is there that God explains himself. There he unveils himself. He will have no kingdom. He will have no throne but one that he has proved himself to be worthy to occupy. Have you ever been troubled with the thought that perhaps there might be some change in God someday and he might undo all the advantages that we have and all the advantages that we hope for because creation is a failure? No, no. That can never happen. It is through Calvary. that God has made himself known in all the deep mystery. Is this creation a world of suffering, sin and shame? Yes it is. Why did God make it, seeing that he knew what would happen? Because he knew what he would do about it. What he would do about it is of such a nature as to manifest himself as eternal love, in whom you and I, by faith believing, become one with him who became one with us, the babe of Bethlehem, the man of Calvary. When we see him in heaven we'll see him in human form and heaven will last forever and his human form will last forever. This is his glory to show himself throughout all eternity to be the man of Calvary where it was proved that God is love, and is worthy to be the creator of this vast universe, seeing he chose to be its victim. In order that a universe, a new universe, might arise out of it, a spiritual universe, which could never pass away, and was marked with a stamp of his own eternal love, and mercy. Is there any here who fears to meet God? No need for fear, my dear. No need for fear. You have but to come to Him. Ah, that's the point. We choose our sins and ourselves, whereas He gave Himself for our sins and gave Himself away denying all things in order that my soul might be delivered by the man of Calvary and yours too. The Bible tells us that when all is ended we are around the throne along with all the redeemed, ourselves one of the redeemed that we shall see him just as he is and that those who are around the throne cast their crowns down before him they cast, take the crown off their head and they cast it at his feet because it is a thing with them of unanimity their one thought, he alone is worthy He has given me a crown, I return it to him. It's his, it's his merits which count. Will you be there, beloved, to cast your crown down at his feet? Seeing he cast himself down from heaven to suffer at the place which is called Calvary, to bring this about. O Calvary tells us so many things, the key to unlock all mysteries. It tells us this important thing, that it is not the will of God that any should perish. If we've got a theology which doesn't say that, then there's something wrong with that theology. For Peter tells us in his second epistle, chapter 3 and verse 9, that it is not the will of God that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And if there be any amongst us this morning who in that day of days shall not be found crowned before the throne, no crown to cast down before him at his feet. It is not because you were not loved. It is because you did not yield yourself to the man who loved you, who is the eternal God. And you loved yourself. well and truly, whereas you ought to have repented and say, I am nothing, I love Christ, I look to Him and to Him alone. The most amazing event that ever took place was the event of Calvary. As that preacher said in the days of my youth, Calvary, the world was made for it. The world was made for Calvary. And this world has no meaning unless you use that key, the key of the cross, to open all doors and to inform us of all mysteries. It is not God's will that any should perish. I know some of us may have some difficulties with a text like that. Because you see, oh well, the choice of God you know. But the words of Peter come in right across all our theology. As he says, it is not the will, it is not God's will, that any should perish, but that all should come to know him. So if you have any doubts about yourself, the only thing you've got to do is to prove the truth of God's Word. He is not willing that I should perish. He does not will my destruction, but rather that I should turn from mine iniquities and live. Receive new life, joy and peace through the man of Calvary. because he loved me and gave himself for me. This is what this word Calvary speaks to us of. Oh, would that all the preachers were making that emphasis upon this name that unlocks all mysteries. I remember In my younger days there was a Scotch preacher. His name was Watt. W-A-T-T. Without an S at the end. Watt is English. Watt is Scotch. I remember him. He was an old man then. And I heard him preach. upon the cross, as I'd never heard a man preach upon the cross before. And I spoke to some of my Scottish friends some time later about it. I said, I'd never heard anything quite like that. No, he said, you won't from that minister, because, you see, he never preaches on anything else. All his sermons are different, but they're all about the cross. No one ever heard him preach a sermon unless the cross was at the centre of it. I always remember that as a young man. I tried without always succeeding in following in a good man's footsteps. I'm afraid it's very difficult to follow the footsteps of a good man like that. It's not always easy. But I caught the point, even then it helped to lay the foundations of whatever true theology I may be possessed of at this very moment. The cross, Calvary, the one unending theme of heaven itself. We're never weary of it in heaven. I don't understand exactly what duration is in the world to come. We are told that time shall be no more. So what arrangement God has to substitute for time, I don't know. We are so much creatures of time that we just cannot comprehend how there can be a region where time has ceased and yet things go on. There shall be time no longer. But this much I do know. Whatever may be the marvellous, wondrous conditions of that bright world which is to be, the theme of heaven shall be the man of Calvary. That's the theme. We may as well make up with it now, whether we be old or young. because it has a vital bearing upon what we shall be in that eternal world. You've got to reckon with this, most important of all places upon the face of the earth, a place which is called Calvary, where death took place. But in that death of the Saviour, Death itself was overthrown. Sin was dealt with finally and forever. And the way lay open from that time onwards to eternal joy and light and felicity. Are you treading that way? I am. I've been for over 60 years. Oh, how do you know? You think a lot of yourself, you preachers. Ah, yes, we do know. I could have told you at the age of 18, never mind, at the dizzy heights of age to which I have now attained, that the theme has been the same. If I know more now than I knew then, It is not the conviction that my sins were taken away at the cross on Calvary's hill. No, that was sure long, long ago. I've had a lot of ground to make up since then. I haven't always made good use of my time, whoever of us ever does. If I'd made better use of my time, I'd have spoken more of Calvary. It would have meant more to me. I'd have loved him the more. We love him because he first loved us. Gave himself. The Father gave him. The Holy Spirit was there to sanctify the offering. Gave himself a ransom for many. It is enough. It is not God's will, says Peter, that any should perish, but that all should come to know him. Now do I speak to someone here in this morning hour, and you haven't closed with Christ. You haven't seen Calvary's Hill in the sense in which we've been trying to speak and to But you now know enough that your whole future in this world and in the eternal world to come depends upon that one event of Calvary. And the powers of darkness will do all that they can to prevent you from seeing it, leaning upon it, coming to it, but you must come to the cross if you would meet him around the throne. And you must come now. If you would cast your crown at his feet in that glorious day, you must cast your heart, your life, all that you are, at his feet now. He held nothing back for you or for me. He gave himself freely for us all. There's only one response which is possible, and only one which will take you at the last to heaven, and that is, I give myself to thee. As Francis Ridley Haverdell so exquisitely said, thou gavest all for me, I give myself to thee. And religion is as simple as that. Salvation is as simple as that. This is what all theology is about. With massive libraries all over the world. Of books which have been written about it. It all comes down to this one simple fact. The man of Calvary. Do you know him? Have you come to him? We're going to make memory of it. the Lord's table. Let it be the moment of your full surrender to Him. Say, well, I've done that long ago, well, do it again. Or, I'm not worthy, I've never come that way, well, come now. Come now, come one, come all. It is not God's will that any should perish, but that all should come to know him.