Well, I'm so pleased to be here again. I had to, at last minute, on a Sunday morning, I didn't, I wasn't well, and I had to phone and get through somewhere or other to tell you I couldn't come. And that was a great embarrassment, and you reacted very graciously to me. I had to just lie down for the day. And then I got COVID. I guess so many people have. Stuart Elliot and I were in the Aberystwyth Conference, and we got COVID there. But come to the Aberconference. So I've known the weakness after that, but that's vanishing. And God is good and helping me, and I always enjoy preaching for you. And so I want to speak today about the cross. I want to give you five explanations for the cross this morning, and another five explanations for the cross this evening. So you will have, God willing, at the end of the day, 10 headings, 10 words, and 10 exegesis of why Jesus Christ died the death of the cross. So, 1 Corinthians 1, 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it's the power of God. Now, you know that a third of the gospels describe one week in the life of our Lord. the last week of his life, one third of the Gospels describe it. There's no other biographer who has written a biography of the great men of history who has spent a third of the book just writing on the last week. There must be something very significant about that last week. Paul talks here about power and We often speak to one another and we say, no power in the pulpits, no power in the preaching, no power in our congregations, and all sorts of things are introduced, many of them alas are gimmicks to replace the absence of power. But the Apostle Paul says that the word of the cross The explanation, the logos, the logic, the preaching of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the power of God to everyone who believes there's power. Of course, one feels unfitting to speak about it because you don't know what a desperately wicked heart I have. And there is also the feeling that knowledge puffeth up. In other words, you know a lot about the cross. A little boy, and he's gone to a gospel church all his life, and you say to that little boy, why did Jesus die? And he'll say, for our sins. It's all so familiar. But J.C. Ryle speaks about a barren familiarity with sacred things. And that's the danger. But you see, the whole world is confronted with a historical fact, that the Son of God who came into the world and preached the Sermon on the Mount and told the great parables and the great discourse in the middle of John's Gospel, God the Son was nailed to a cross outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. And God did nothing. The New Testament is the explanation of why the Creator's Son did that. That it wasn't a failure. That God wasn't wringing his hands in helpless horror and all the angels just weeping that their master was dying this death. The answer is not. He was another brave young reformer who failed. He did his best to change things and summon the people back, but like many others, Savonarola and others, he was put to death. He was very brave. The modernist wants to give Jesus the Victoria Cross. Who is the one hanging on the cross? He gives an explanation. He is, all right, let's listen to his explanation of why he had to die. And here it is. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for men. or the man that God sent into the world to be the forerunner, the herald to announce, He's coming! John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Or Peter, standing before three thousand people on the day of Pentecost, and Peter says to the people there, He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't merely that they laid their wicked hands upon Him and slew Him with nails and a spear. It was that, but it was also God's determination. God delivered Him. God handed Him over. His counsel, his foreknowledge did it. And so when you come to the New Testament, you find the apostles who spent three years with him and knew him better than anyone else in the world at that time. They said he died for our sins. They made that link. Our misbehavior, our transgressions. our evil, our imaginations, our sense of omission, and his death. There's a link between the two. The preparation took 1,400 years, thousands of years, maybe, the preparation. I'm thinking particularly of the Passover. and how the angel of death went through Egypt after many, many entreaties and beseechings that they would just let the slaves go. And when finally they wouldn't let them go, then the firstborn was killed. But if a lamb without spot, if its throat was cut and its blood was sprinkled on the lintel and on the doorpost, then there would be a passing over of that house and the first born would live because another had died. And then there were the Levitical sacrifices. A whole book in the Bible described them. Some very slight, some enormous. Bullocks, pigeons, doves, lambs, goats, heifers. You say, why? Why is there this requirement of the shedding of blood? Because that's how God is. There is no remission without death, because the wages of sin is death. So who is he? who is he on yonder tree, dies in shame and agony, tis the Lord. Oh, wondrous story, tis the Lord, the King of Glory. As Mary says, so artlessly they have crucified my Lord. So, what's the interpretation? Well, the first thing I want to say is the cross is a revelation. It's a revelation of the depravity of man. We hardly need that day after day. The murders, the violence, the ugliness. We are having it in our faces day by day. But here, they take the loveliest and the best. And they take a sledgehammer and they nail him to a cross and hang him up till he's dead. It's a revelation of the biblical doctrine that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. If you were in the circumstances of those people, it's possible that you in your sin could behave in such a way. But positively, it's a revelation of the holiness of God, what he thinks of sin, that he never condones it. you know, a father will, a mother will be confronted with the misbehavior of their child, serious misbehavior. And they will say, ah, he's not been well. And there are various reasons why he behaved like that. They will condone and they will try to cover and in their love, for Him. God loves us but He doesn't condone our sins. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. He gave His Son to this, to Golgotha. He gave His Son to the agony and the bloody sweat. He gave His Son because He loved us and He was finding Jesus, the Lamb of God. You say, well, what about the work of the Holy Spirit? Well, the Holy Spirit, He doesn't add to the work of Christ. He doesn't subtract from the Word of Christ. He doesn't modify the work of Christ. He doesn't contradict the work of Christ. He gives us illumination. The Bible is Spirit-breathed. As we think, the Spirit gives us understanding. Say, ah, this is why Jesus died. It's a revelation of holiness. It's a revelation of depravity. It's a revelation of His love. It's a revelation of His grace. You were redeemed not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. What grace? that he was prepared to redeem you at that price. It's a revelation of God's justice. God doesn't shrug. He's not like Buddha with an enigmatic smile looking at the foolish ways of the young people. God hates it. God is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 7, verse 11. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Romans 1. So, this one is bearing our sins and God then, God's justice demands what happens. the wages of sin is death. That's the first thing, it's a revelation. The second thing, it is humiliation. Now, church in Philippi, two women there, godly, godly women, they've lived for the church, they work for the church. Since they came to know the Lord, this one thing I do, they say, each says, I mean, They have different departments and different activities there in Philippi. We know their names, Euodia and Syntyche. They don't get on. And their followers don't get on with the others' followers. And there's division in the church. Each one knew his place. Each one knew her place. how much they'd given to the work of the gospel. They knew what they'd done. They knew their dedication, their sacrifice, they knew it. They knew they merited a certain regard and respect, both of them, but they couldn't stand one another. So Paul has this pastoral problem, and you know he has one way of dealing with all these pastoral problems. He takes the most gigantic truths of the nature of God and the coming of Jesus into the world, and he brings that to bear on this little problem. He does it often. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Slaves, obey your masters not only when they're there watching you, but obey them in the Lord as if you were serving the Lord. So he says, girls, ladies, my fellow workers, yodia, syndicate. Do you know what God did? Do you know that Jesus Christ is well aware of his eternal glory and power, his position, his rank? But he made himself of no reputation. He was found in fashion as a man and he humbled himself. He humbled himself. Girls, humble yourselves. He humbled himself to the death of a cross. That's the death of his humiliation. You're working in the garden, you overturn a clod of earth and there's a nice fat worm. Imagine you becoming a worm. but I'm saying to you the gulf between you and the world is a millimetre compared to the gulf between God becoming a man a millimetre and a vast unimaginable the infinite became finite the omnipotent became weak the eternal entered time and became subject to it The sustainer of all things lay in his mother's lap and fed at her breast. The omniscient grew in wisdom. The unchangeable developed. He spent three years in Nazareth. a one donkey village on a thorn bush hill with a path leading up to it and a group of huts where he who had made the heavens and the earth made fences and tables and window frames. What humility! But oh, that he humbled himself even to the death of the cross, to being laid out holding down his arm, picking up a seven-inch nail and nailing it home, hanging naked there, taunted and mocked by religious people. What humility. You, oh dear, syndicate poor contempt on your pride. Get on, fall into one another's arms and cry. and ask for forgiveness and work together in the body of Christ. Thirdly, what we see is retribution. In other words, Jesus was paying a penalty. Well, you all know about penalties. You watch much of the day, some of you men. You know about football. Somebody handles the ball in the penalty area. Somebody fouls in the penalty area. He's penalized. And Jesus takes that very simple, very basic understanding that we drive in the bus lane, we're penalized. We break the speed limit, we're penalized. We park in a no-parking zone, we're penalized. We all know about being penalized. That's how civilization is run. A child breaks the rules in school. He's penalized for doing so. The Lord Jesus was penalized. He was penalized by Pilate for making himself king. He was penalized by the Sanhedrin, Ananias and Caius and Annas, with the high priest and his son-in-law. They bribed people to say he blasphemed. They'd heard him blaspheme. He was penalized. It was the death penalty. He was penalized by God. Now you remember, at Nazareth, he preached a sermon and there was revolution there in the congregation, the elders. were outraged because he was making himself God. He was saying the prophecies of Isaiah being fulfilled. So they grabbed him and they took him to the top of a precipice. They were going to throw him off. And then they said, where is he? He's with you. No, he's not with us. We thought he was with you. Where is he? God had delivered him. It wasn't the time. God could have done that. in Jerusalem, but he did not. God didn't send a legion of angels swooping down like the red arrows taking him to heaven. God didn't do it. In one place, at one time, God bruised God. Paul says he did not spare his only son. Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to shame. Luther says, God was forsaken by God. So, why was he penalized? 100% because of men. With wicked hands, they bribed, Pilate was a weakling. Herod wanted to keep out of it. They condemned him to death. Men did it. Wicked men. Wicked Huns held him, nailed him. 100% men. 100% God. Jehovah lifted up his sword, O Christ, it fell on thee. How are we delivered from the debt, the wages of sin that all men must pay? Either you pay with the second death, or Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Jesus paid the penalty for me. Fourthly, substitution. We know all about the substitution. You men who watch football, you see a man, two numbers, he holds it up, he's calling off. number 9 and descending on number 12. The substitute for him. He is substituted. The buzzword, the technical word, vicarious. Okay, you come across it, it's a good word, important word, Latin word. The word vicar we get from it, it means instead of. The Pope says he's the vicar of Christ. He's instead of Christ in the world. Here is the innocence of Jesus. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. Alarm without blemish. without a spot. In the Old Testament, you sought that. You didn't give the limping, three-legged lamb with a sore, get the best lamb. You put your hand, you transferred your guilt and shame to the lamb who died in your place. They were learning. They were learning about God's lamb who one day would come. So, substitution is presented to us in the Bible by a very simple preposition. Three letters. F-O-R. For. Isaiah 53, he was bruised for our iniquities. He died for our sins. and then in the New Testament again and again. Now there's a fall of offer. The king angry that his royal friends and dukes and earls have turned down the invitation to come to his son's wedding, says, go out into the hedgerows, out into the streets, go to the beggars, go everyone, and compel them to come in and say, this feast is for you, for, the for of offer. But we say, who am I preaching to you, what, about this Christ? Who's he for? He's for you. God has loved you so much, he's brought you here this morning to understand why Jesus died. That he could die for a sinner like you, for you. For you and for me, he hung on the tree. The debt he has settled, the prisoner is free. We sang it together, for. So you have, he died for our sins. He died for He gave himself for me. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Again and again you find it, don't you? He took the cup and there was domination in the cup. Is there any possibility of another cup? No. No. It is necessary that the Son of God infinite, eternal, unchangeable in the effects of his royal death. But Haman, he must die. For, for me. He drank the cup to its dregs. He didn't drink half of it and give you half. He didn't tell you lick the cup dry. He drunk it all. He exhausted the wrath of God towards sin. Substitution. And lastly, fifthly, propitiation. So, five things. It was a revelation of man and God. It was humiliation. It was retribution. It was the penalty that he was paying. It was substitution, a penal substitutionary death. And finally this morning, propitiation. Now, propitiation isn't a theological word that theologians have made up. It's a Holy Spirit word. It's a Bible word. And so we need to know it. Here's a teenager and he is crazy about motorbikes. And he's interested and he reads magazines and he has his little bike and he mixes with bikers. He doesn't say, oh that thingy over there on the bike, that white thingy down there. They laugh at him, he knows that. He uses the right words for the different parts of a motorbike. And we use the words God has taken such care in choosing And so, 1 John 2, 2, he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins as Jews only, but for the sins of the world. Or Romans chapter 3 and verse 25, he was delivered up to be a propitiation for our sins. Now what does this word particularly mean? I will tell you. It particularly refers to the effect upon God of the death of Christ. The wrath of God revealed from heaven against our unrighteousness. When God sees a man with a gun or two men with two guns chasing another man and he breaks into a house to try and escape and they just shoot wildly and they kill a child. a little girl nine years of age? Who isn't hungry? Who doesn't feel the wretchedness and the wickedness of this? Who doesn't? God does. God does. God isn't brazen. God doesn't, well, you know, men behave like this. Not at all. A righteous God, the God who is light. He's angry. A holy anger. Like our anger is holy. Now this word then, propitiation, was actually a heathen word in vocabulary. That's the way it was used most of all. A man went to a temple, he'd done something wicked, and he wanted the God of this area of his life to be propitious, kind towards him. And so he took a fine bullock, a beautiful lamb, and it was slain and laid on the altar there, and the priestess came to him afterwards and said, God's happy with you now. Propitious. You've propitiated the anger of God for how you've behaved. They take this word and they apply it to what the Lord Jesus did. He's placated the wrath of a sin-hating God. We all know about Neville Chamberlain, 1938. Hitler building up a great army of armaments and men, threatening all the countries around about him. Twenty years after the First World War and a million people from the British Empire killed. Not another world war. Chamberlain goes out to appease, that's the word, to appease Hitler. Comes back with a piece of paper, peace in our time. So you see, my friends, what Jesus Christ has done. He's appeased by in our place, in our room, in our stead. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in our place condemned he stood, sealed our pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, water. Let's see. It's a familiar story. You've heard it before. It's a good story. The wagon train is going west. Hundreds of miles of prairie. They wake up one morning and they see Flames behind them, and the wind is blowing towards them. No rivers, not for miles and miles. They speed the horses on, but the flames are shooting, catching them up. The Waggaemaster says, let's stop. He walks forward 100 yards, gets his tinderbox, and he lights a line of fire. What's he doing? They're going to die. And the wind blows that. And the fire's coming up behind them and there's fire in front of them. And he waits and waits until it's very near. He says to them, stand on the burnt over ground. And they drive their horses and their carts and they all come and they're on the burnt over ground. And the great flames come. And they can go no further, there's no tinder. And they part, and they part, and they part. And the people are safe. There's one safe place in all the universe. Calvary. Golgotha. Stand there. If you want to be right with God. You have to go to the place of the skull. You have to go to the cross of Jesus Christ. You have to say, forgive me for Jesus' sake, for he was made sin for me who knew no sin. Please forgive me. And you make that all your plea. Calvary, it's a revelation among sin and God's justice and grace and love. It is humiliation of Jesus Christ. He was prepared to go that low. It was retribution. It was a penalty that was paid by Him for us. It was substitution. In our place, He died. It was a propitiating of the anger of God so He could smile and smile forever at us for Jesus' sake. Is that your belief? That's what God brought you here. He loved you so much, He brought you here this morning to tell you these five truths, that you should believe them, that you should appropriate them, and that you should go to God and ask God to make it real for you, that you should be a Calvary Christian, that you'll trust when God says, why should I let you into my heaven? And you say, for Jesus. because he lived and he died. Lord, bless your word to us today and give us encouragement from it and faith to appropriate its blessings. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. 210. Here is love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood. When the prince of life, our ransom, shed for us his precious blood. 210. When it's all crossed past the ocean, Falling kindness out of love. When the Prince of Light for us so, Shed for us his precious blood. For his love will not fail and love, ♪ Who can cease to sing His praise ♪ ♪ Amen, then, all ye God-brothers ♪ ♪ Through our days, we tell of Your grace ♪ ♪ On the mount of crucifixion ♪ ♪ At its opening at night ♪ ♪ Fruit of God, gifts of God's mercy ♪ ♪ Glory of God, and gracious pride ♪ ♪ Grace and love, like mighty rivers ♪ ♪ Falling steps from above ♪ ♪ And heaven's peace and perfect justice ♪ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. Okay.