The Cross Our Glory

The Cross Our Glory

(No. 1859)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1885,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"But God forbid that I should glory except in the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world." Galatians 6:14.

ALMOST all men have something in which to glory. Every bird has its own
note of song. It is a poor heart that never rejoices. It is a dull
packhorse that is altogether without bells. Men usually rejoice in
something or other and many men so rejoice in that which they choose
that they become boastful and full of vainglory. It is very sad that
men should be ruined by their glory and yet, many are. Many glory in
their shame and more glory in that which is mere emptiness. Some glory
in their physical strength, in which an ox excels them, or in their
gold, which is but thick clay, or in their gifts, which are but talents
with which they are entrusted. The pounds entrusted to their
stewardship are thought, by men, to belong to themselves and,
therefore, they rob God of the glory of them. O my Hearers, hear the
voice of Wisdom, which cries, "He that glories, let him glory only in
the Lord." To live for personal glory is to be dead while we live! Be
not so foolish as to perish for a bubble! Many a man has thrown his
soul away for a little honor, or for the transient satisfaction of
success in trifles. O men, your tendency is to glory in something–your
wisdom will be to find a glory worthy of an immortal mind!

The Apostle Paul had a rich choice of things in which he could have
gloried. If it had been his mind to have remained among his own people,
he might have been one of their most honored rabbis. He says, in his
Epistle to the Philippians, in the third chapter, "If any other man
thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee;
concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness
which is in the Law, blameless." He says that he profited in the Jews'
religion above many of his equals in his own nation and he stood high
in the esteem of his fellow professors. But when he was converted to
the faith of the Lord Jesus, he said, "What things were gain to me,
those I counted loss for Christ. Yes doubtless, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
As soon as he was converted, he forsook all boasting in his former
religion and zeal, and cried, "God forbid that I should glory in my
birth, my education, my proficiency in Scripture, or my regard to
orthodox ritual. God forbid that I should glory except in the Cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul might also, if he had chosen, have gloried in his sufferings for
the Cross of Christ, for he had been a living martyr, a perpetual
self-sacrifice to the cause of the Crucified. He says, "Are they
ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool). I am more; in labors more
abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths
often. Of the Jews five times received I 40 stripes save one. Thrice
was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils
of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in
perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in
weariness and painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in
fasting often, in cold and nakedness." He was once driven to give a
summary of these sufferings to establish his Apostleship, but before he
did so, he wrote, "Would to God you could bear with me a little in my
folly." In his heart he was saying, all the while, "God forbid that I
should glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The great Apostle had yet another reason for glorying, if he had chosen
to do so, for he could speak of visions and revelations of the Lord. He
says, "I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. . . caught up to the
third Heaven. And I knew such a man. . .how that he was caught up into
Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a

man to utter." He was in danger of being exalted above measure by
reason of the abundance of these revelations and, therefore, he was
humbled by a painful thorn in the flesh. Paul, when hard driven by the
necessity to maintain his position in the Corinthian Church, was forced
to mention these things–but he liked not such glorying–he was most at
ease when he said, "God forbid that I should glory except in the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Brothers and Sisters, notice that Paul does not here say that he
gloried in Christ, though he did so with all his heart–he declares
that he gloried most in "the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," which, in
the eyes of men, was the very lowest and most inglorious part of the
history of the Lord Jesus! He could have gloried in the
Incarnation–angels sang of it, wise men came from the far East to
behold it. Did not the new-born King awake the song from Heaven of,
"Glory to God in the highest"? He might have gloried in the life of
Christ–was there ever such another, so benevolent and blameless? He
might have gloried in the Resurrection of Christ–it is the world's
great hope concerning those that are asleep. He might have gloried in
our Lord's Ascension, for He "led captivity captive" and all His
followers glory in His victory. He might have gloried in His Second
Advent and, I doubt not, that he did, for the Lord shall soon descend
from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the
trumpet of God, to be admired in all them that believe.

Yet the Apostle selected beyond all these, that center of the Christian
system, that point which is most assailed by its foes, that focus of
the world's derision–the Cross–and, putting all else somewhat into
the shade, he exclaims, "God forbid that I should glory, except in the
Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Learn, then, that the highest glory of
our holy religion is the Cross! The history of Grace begins earlier and
goes on later, but in its middle point stands the Cross. Of two
eternities this is the hinge–of past decrees and future glories this
is the pivot. Let us come to the Cross, this morning, and think of it
till each one of us, in the power of the Spirit of God, shall say, "God
forbid that I should glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ."

I. First, as the Lord shall help me, (for who shall describe the Cross
without the help of Him that hung upon it), WHAT DID PAUL MEAN BY THE
CROSS? Did he not include, under this term, first, the fact of the
Cross? Secondly, the Doctrine of the Cross? And thirdly, the Cross of
the Doctrine?

I think he meant, first of all, the fact of the Cross. Our Lord Jesus
Christ did really die, upon a gallows, the death of a felon. He was
literally put to death upon a tree, accursed in the esteem of men. I
beg you to notice how the Apostle puts it–"the Cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ." In his Epistles, he sometimes says, "Christ." At another time,
"Jesus," frequently, "Lord," oftentimes, "our Lord"–but here he says,
"our Lord Jesus Christ." There is a sort of pomp of words in this full
description, as if in contrast to the shame of the Cross. The terms are
intended, in some small measure, to express the dignity of Him who was
put to so ignominious a death. He is Christ, the Anointed, and Jesus,
the Savior. He is the Lord, the Lord of All, and He is, "our Lord Jesus
Christ." He is not a Lord without subjects, for He is, "our Lord." Nor
is He a Savior without saved ones, for He is, "our Lord Jesus." Nor has
He the anointing for Himself, only, for all of us have a share in Him
as, "our Christ." In all, He is ours, and was so upon the Cross.

When they bury a great nobleman, a herald stands at the head of the
grave and proclaims his titles. "Here lies the body of William, Duke of
this, and Earl of that, and Count of the other, knight of this order
and commander of the other." Even thus, in deep solemnity, with brevity
and fullness, Paul proclaims, beneath the bitter tree, the names and
titles of the Savior of men and styles Him, "our Lord Jesus Christ."
There are enough words here to give a four-square description of the
honor, dignity and majesty of Him who has both Godhead and Manhood and
"bore our sins in His own body on the tree." Be it forever had in
reverent remembrance that He who died upon the Cross between two
thieves counted it not robbery to be equal with God! By nature He is
such that the creed well describes Him as, "Begotten of His Father
before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God."
Yet He "made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a
servant. . .and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
Cross." I declare this fact to you in words, but I think them poor,
dumb things. I wish I could speak this matchless truth in fire-flakes!
The announcement that the Son of God died upon the Cross to save men
deserves the accompaniment of angelic trumpets and of the harps of the
redeemed!

But next, I said that Paul gloried in the Doctrine of the Cross, and it
was so. What is that Doctrine of the Cross, of which it is written that
it is "to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is
the power of God and the wisdom of God"? In one word, it is the
Doctrine of the Atonement, the Doctrine that the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin for us, that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many
and that God has set Him forth to be the Propitiation for our

sins. Paul says, "When we were yet without strength, in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly." And again, "Now once in the end of the
world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The
Doctrine of the Cross is that of sacrifice for sin–Jesus is "the Lamb
of God that takes away the sin of the world." "God so loved the world,
that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life." The Doctrine is that of a full
atonement made and the utmost ransom paid. "Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." In Christ upon the Cross, we
see the Just dying for the unjust that He might bring us to God–the
Innocent bearing the crimes of the guilty that they might be forgiven
and accepted. That is the Doctrine of the Cross, of which Paul was
never ashamed.

This, also, is a necessary part of the Doctrine–that whoever believes
in Him is justified from all sin. That whoever trusts in the Lord Jesus
Christ is, in that moment, forgiven, justified and accepted in the
Beloved. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life." Paul's Doctrine was, "It is not of
him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." And
it was his constant teaching that salvation is not of works, nor of
ceremonies, but simply and only by believing in Jesus! We are to
accept, by an act of trust, that righteousness which is already
finished and completed by the death of our blessed Lord upon the Cross.
He who does not preach Atonement by the blood of Jesus does not preach
the Cross! And he who does not declare justification by faith in Christ
Jesus has missed the mark, altogether! This is the very heart of the
Christian system. If our ministry shall be without blood, it is without
life, for, "the blood is the life thereof." He that preaches not
justification by faith knows not the Doctrine of Grace, for the
Scripture says, "Therefore it is of faith that it might be by Grace; to
the end the promise might be sure to all the seed." Paul gloried both
in the fact of the Cross and in the Doctrine of the Cross.

But the Apostle also gloried in the Cross of the Doctrine, for the
death of the Son of God upon the Cross is the crux of Christianity.
Here is the difficulty, the stumbling block and rock of offense. The
Jew could not endure a crucified Messiah–he looked for pomp and power!
Multitudinous ceremonies and different washings and sacrifices–were
these all to be put away and nothing left but a bleeding Savior? At the
mention of the Cross, the philosophic Greek thought himself insulted
and vilified the preacher as a fool. In effect, he said, "You are not a
man of thought and intellect; you are not abreast of the times, but are
sticking in the mire of antiquated prophecies. Why not advance with the
discoveries of modern thought?" The Apostle, teaching a simple fact
which a child might comprehend, found in it the wisdom of God! Christ
upon the Cross, working out the salvation of men was more to him than
all the sayings of the sages. As for the Roman, he would give no heed
to any glorying in a dead Jew, a crucified Jew! Crushing the world
beneath his iron heel, he declared that such romancing would never win
him from the gods of his fathers.

Paul did not budge before the sharp and practical reply of the
conquerors of the world! He did not tremble before Nero in his palace.
Whether to Greek or Jew, Roman or barbarian, bond or free, he was not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, but gloried in the Cross. Though the
testimony that the one all-sufficient Atonement was provided on the
Cross stirs the enmity of man and provokes opposition, yet Paul was so
far from attempting to mitigate that opposition that he determined to
know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified! His motto was, "We
preach Christ crucified." He had the Cross for his philosophy, the
Cross for his tradition, the Cross for his Gospel, the Cross for his
glory and nothing else!

II. But, secondly, WHY DID PAUL GLORY IN THE CROSS? He did not do so
because he was in need of a theme, for, as I have shown you, he had a
wide field for boasting if he had chosen to occupy it. He gloried in
the Cross from solemn and deliberate choice. He had counted the cost,
he had surveyed the whole range of subjects with an eagle eye and he
knew what he did and why he did it. He was master of the art of
thinking. As a metaphysician, none could excel him. As a logical
thinker, none could have gone beyond him. He stands almost alone in the
early Christian Church as a master mind. Others may have been more
poetic, or more simple, but none were more thoughtful or argumentative
than he. With decision and firmness, Paul sets aside everything else
and definitely declares, throughout his whole life, "I glory in the
Cross." He does this exclusively, saying, "God forbid that I should
glory except in the Cross." There are many other precious things, but
he puts them all upon the shelf in comparison with the Cross.

He will not even make his chief point any of the great Scriptural
Doctrines, nor even an instructive and godly ordinance. No, the Cross
is to the front. This constellation is chief in Paul's sky. The choice
of the Cross he makes devoutly,

for although the expression used in our English version may not stand,
yet I do not doubt that Paul would have used it, and would have called
upon God to witness that he abjured all other ground of glorying save
the atoning Sacrifice–

"Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my
God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His
blood."

He would have called God to witness that he knew no ambition save that
of bringing glory to the Cross of Christ. As I think of this, I am
ready to say, "Amen," to Paul and bid you sing that stirring verse–

"It is the old Cross still, Hallelujah!Hallelujah! Its triumphs let us
tell, Hallelujah! hallelujah! The Grace of God here shone Through
Christ, the blessed Son, Who did for sin atone. Hallelujah for the
Cross!"

Why did Paul thus glory in the Cross? You may well desire to know, for
there are many, nowadays, who do not glory in it, but forsake it! Alas
that it should be so, but there are ministers who ignore the Atonement!
They conceal the Cross, or say but little about it. You may go through
service after service and scarcely hear a mention of the atoning
blood– but Paul was always bringing forward the expiation for
sin–Paul never tried to explain it away. Oh the number of books that
have been written to prove that the Cross means an example of
self-sacrifice, as if every martyrdom did not mean that! They cannot
endure a real substitutionary Sacrifice for human guilt and an
effectual purifying of sin by the death of the great Substitute. Yet
the Cross means that or nothing!

Paul was very bold. Although he knew this would make him many enemies,
you never find him refining and spiritu-alizing–the Cross and the
Atonement for sin are plain matters of fact to him. Neither does he
attempt to decorate it by adding philosophical theories. No, to him it
is the bare, naked Cross all blood-stained and despised! In this he
glories and in none of the wisdom of words with which others vexed him.
He will have the Cross–the Cross and nothing but the Cross! He
pronounces an anathema on all who propose a rival theme–"But though
we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

I take it that this was so, first, because Paul saw in the Cross a
vindication of Divine Justice. Where else can the Justice of God be
seen so clearly as in the death of God, Himself, in the Person of His
dear Son? If the Lord Himself suffers on account of broken Law, then is
the majesty of the Law honored to the fullest! Some time ago, a judge
in America was called upon to try a prisoner who had been his companion
in his early youth. It was a crime for which the penalty was a fine,
more or less heavy. The judge did not diminish the fine. The case was
clearly a bad one and he fined the prisoner the maximum fine. Some who
knew his former relation to the offender thought him somewhat unkind to
thus carry out the law, while others admired his impartiality. All were
surprised when the judge quitted the bench and paid, himself, every
farthing of the penalty! He had shown both his respect for the law and
his goodwill to the man who had broken it. He exacted the penalty, but
he paid it himself.

So God has done in the Person of His dear Son. He has not remitted the
punishment, but He has, Himself, endured it. His own Son, who is none
other than God, Himself–for there is an essential union between
them–has paid the debt which was incurred by human sin. I love to
think of the vindication of Divine Justice upon the Cross. I am never
weary of it! Some cannot bear the thought, but to me it seems
inevitable that sin must be punished, or else the foundations of
society would be removed. If sin becomes a trifle, virtue will be a
toy! Society cannot stand if laws are left without penal sanction, or
if that sanction is to be a mere empty threat. Men in their own
governments, every now and then, cry out for greater severity. When a
certain offense abounds and ordinary means fail, they demand exemplary
punishment–and it is but natural that they should do so, for deep in
the conscience of every man there is the conviction that sin must be
punished to secure the general good. Justice must reign, even
benevolence demands it! If there could have been salvation without an
Atonement, it would have been a calamity–righteous men, and even
benevolent men, might deprecate the setting aside of law in order to
save the guilty from the natural result of their crimes.

For my own part, I value a just salvation. An unjust salvation would
never have satisfied the apprehensions and demands of my conscience.
No, let God be just even if the heavens fall! Let God carry out the
sentence of His Law, or the universe will suspect that it was not
righteous–and when such a suspicion rules the general mind, all
respect for God will be gone! The Lord carries out the decree of His
Justice even to the bitter end, abating not a jot of its requirements.
Brothers and Sisters, there was an infinite efficacy in the death of
such a One as our Lord Jesus Christ to vindicate the Law. Though He is
Man, yet is He also God and, in His passion and death, He offered to
the Justice of God a vindication not at all inferior to the punishment
of Hell! God is just, indeed, when Jesus dies upon the Cross rather
than that God's Law should be dishonored. When our august Lord,
Himself, bore the wrath that was due for human sin, it was made evident
to all that law is not to be trifled with. We glory in the Cross, for
there the debt was paid, our sins on Jesus laid.

But we glory because on the Cross we have an unexampled display of
God's love. "God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us." Oh to think of it, that He who was
offended takes the nature of the offender and then bears the penalty
due for wanton transgression! He who is Infinite, thrice holy, all
glorious, forever to be worshipped, yet stoops to be numbered with the
transgressors and to bear the sin of many! The mythology of the gods of
high Olympus contains nothing worthy to be mentioned in the same day
with this wondrous deed of supreme condescension and Infinite Love! The
ancient Shasters and Vedas have nothing of the kind! The death of Jesus
Christ upon the Cross cannot be an invention of men–none of the ages
have produced anything like it in the poetic dreams of any nation! If
we did not hear of it so often and think of it so little, we would be
charmed with it beyond expression! If we now heard of it for the first
time and seriously believed it, I know not what we would not do in our
glad surprise! Certainly we would fall down and worship the Lord Jesus
and continue to worship Him forever and ever!

I believe again, thirdly, that Paul delighted to preach the Cross of
Christ as the removal of all guilt. He believed that the Lord Jesus on
the Cross finished transgression, made an end of sin and brought in
everlasting righteousness. He that believes in Jesus is justified from
all things from which he could not be justified by the Law of Moses.
Since sin was laid on Jesus, God's justice cannot lay it upon the
believing sinner. The Lord will never punish the same offense twice. If
He accepts a Substitute for me, how can He call me to His bar and
punish me for that transgression for which my Substitute endured the
chastisement? Many a troubled conscience has caught at this and found
deliverance from despair. Wonder not that Paul gloried in Christ, since
it is written, "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified,
and shall glory." This is the method of salvation which completely and
eternally absolves the sinner and makes the blackest offender white as
snow! Transgression visited upon Christ has ceased to be, so far as the
Believer is concerned. Does not Faith cry, "You will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea"? O Sirs, there is something to glory
in in this and those who know the sin-removing power of the Cross will
not be hindered in this glorying by all the powers of earth or Hell!

Paul glories in it, again, as a marvel of wisdom. It seemed to him the
sum of perfect wisdom and skill. He cried, "O the depths of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" The plan of salvation by
vicarious suffering is simple, but sublime. It would have been
impossible for human or angelic wisdom to have invented it! Men already
so hate it and fight against it that they never would have devised it!
God, alone, out of the treasury of His Infinite Wisdom brought forth
this matchless project of salvation for the guilty through the
Substitution of the Innocent. The more we study it, the more we shall
perceive that it is full of teaching. It is only the superficial
thinker who regards the Cross as a subject soon to be comprehended and
exhausted! The most lofty intellects will here find ample room and
space enough. The most profound minds might lose themselves in
considering the splendid diversities of light which compose the pure
white light of the Cross! Everything of sin and justice, of misery and
mercy, of folly and wisdom, of force and tenderness, of rage and pity
on the part of man and God may be seen here. In the Cross may be seen
the concentration of Eternal Thought, the focus of Infinite Purpose,
the outcome of Illimitable Wisdom. Of God and the Cross we may say–

"Here I behold His inmost heart, Where Grace and vengeance strangely
join; Piercing His Son with sharpest smart To make the purchased
pleasures mine."

I believe that Paul gloried in the Cross, again, because it is the door
of hope even to the vilest of the vile. The world was very filthy in
Paul's time. Roman civilization was of the most brutal and debased kind
and the masses of the people were sunken in vices that are altogether
unmentionable. Paul felt that he could go into the darkest places with
light in his hand when he spoke of the Cross. To tell of pardon bought
with the blood of the Son of God is to carry an Omnipo-

tent message! The Cross lifts up the fallen and delivers the
despairing. Today, my Brothers and Sisters, the world's one and only
remedy is the Cross. Go, you thinkers, and get up a mission to the
fallen in London, leaving out the Cross! Go, now, you wise men, reclaim
the harlots and win to virtue the degraded by your perfumed
philosophies! See what you can do in the slums and alleys without the
Cross of Christ! Go talk to your titled reprobates and win them from
their abominations by displays of art! You will fail, the most
cultivated of you, even to win the rich and educated to anything like
purity, unless your themes are drawn from Calvary and the Love which
there poured out its heart's blood!

This hammer breaks rocky hearts, but no other will do it. Pity, itself,
stands silent. Compassion bites her lip and inwardly groans she has
nothing to say till she has learned the story of the Cross. But, with
that on her tongue, she waxes eloquent! With tears she entreats,
persuades, prevails! She may but stammer in her speech–like Moses, she
may be slow of utterance–but the Cross is in her hand as the rod of
the Prophet. With this she conquers the Pharaoh of tyrannical sin! With
this she divides the Red Sea of guilt! With this she leads the host of
God out of the house of bondage into the land of promise which flows
with milk and honey! The Cross is the standard of victorious Grace! It
is the lighthouse whose cheering ray gleams across the dark waters of
despair and cheers the dense midnight of our fallen race, saving from
eternal shipwreck and piloting into everlasting peace.

Again, Paul, I believe, gloried in the Cross, as I often do, because it
was the source of rest to him and to his Brethren. I make this
confession and I make it very boldly, that I never knew what rest of
heart truly meant till I understood the Doctrine of the Substitution of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when I see my Lord bearing away my sins as
my Scapegoat, or dying for them as my Sin Offering, I feel a profound
peace of heart and satisfaction of spirit. The Cross is all I ever need
for security and joy. Truly, this bed is long enough for a man to
stretch himself on. The Cross is a chariot of salvation where we
traverse the high road of life without fear! The pillow of Atonement
heals the head that aches with anguish. Beneath the shadow of the
Cross, I sit down with great delight, and its fruit is sweet to my
taste. I have no impatience even to hasten to Heaven while resting
beneath the Cross, for our hymn truly says–

"Here it is I find my Heaven, While upon the Cross I gaze."

Here is perfect cleansing and, therefore, a Divine security guarded by
the Justice of God. And, therefore, a "peace of God, which passes all
understanding." To try to entice me away from the God's Truth of
Substitution is labor in vain! Seduce me to preach the pretty nothings
of modern thought? This child knows much better than to leave the
substance for the shadow, the truth for the fancy! I see nothing that
can give to my heart a fair exchange for the rest, peace and
unutterable joy which the old-fashioned Doctrine of the Cross now
yields me. Will a man leave bread for husks and quit the home of his
love to dwell in a desolate wilderness? I dare not renounce the Truth
of God in order to be thought cultured! I am no more a fool than the
most of my contemporaries and if I could see anything better than the
Cross, I would willingly grasp it as they–for it is a flattering thing
to be thought a man of light and leading! But where shall I go if I
quit the Rock of the atoning Sacrifice? I cannot go beyond my simple
faith that Jesus stood in my place and bore my sin and took it away.
This I must preach! I know nothing else! God help me, I will never go
an inch beyond the Cross, for to me all else is vanity and vexation of
spirit! Return unto your rest, O my Soul! Where else is there a glimpse
of hope for you but in Him who loved you and gave Himself for you?

I am sure Paul gloried in the Cross yet, again, because he saw it to be
the creator of enthusiasm. Christianity finds its chief force in the
enthusiasm which the Holy Spirit produces–and this comes from the
Cross. The preaching of the Cross is the great weapon of the crusade
against evil. In the old times, vast crowds came together in desert
places, among the hills, or on the moors, at peril of their lives, to
hear preaching. Did they come together to hear philosophy? Did they
meet at the dead of night, when the hounds of persecution were hunting
them, to listen to pretty moral essays? I think not! They came to hear
of the Grace of God manifest in the Sacrifice of Jesus to believing
hearts! Would your modern Gospel create the spirit of the martyrs? Is
there anything in it for which a man might go to prison and to death?
The modern speculations are not worth a cat's dying for them, much less
a man!

A something lies within the Truth of the Cross which sets the soul
aglow! It touches the preacher's lips as with a live coal and fires the
hearer's hearts as with flame from the Altar of God. We can live on
this Gospel–and for this Gospel die. Atonement by blood, full
deliverance from sin, perfect safety in Christ given to the Believer
call a man to joy, to

gratitude, to consecration, to decision, to patience, to holy living,
to all-consuming zeal! Therefore, in the Doctrine of the Cross we
glory, neither will we be slow to speak it out with all our might!

III. My time has gone, or else I had intended to have enlarged upon the
third head, of which I must now give you the mere outline. One of
Paul's great reasons for glorying in the Cross was its action upon
himself. WHAT WAS ITS EFFECT UPON HIM?

The Cross is never without influence. Come where it may, it works for
life or for death. Wherever there is Christ's Cross, there are also two
other crosses. On either side there is one and Jesus is in the middle.
Two thieves are crucified with Christ and Paul tells us their names in
his case–"The world is crucified to me, and I unto the world." Self
and the world are both crucified when Christ's Cross appears and is
believed in! Beloved, what does Paul mean? Does he not mean just
this–that ever since he had seen Christ, he looked upon the world as a
crucified, hung up thing which had no more power over Paul than a
criminal hanged upon a cross? What power has a corpse on a gallows?
Such power had the world over Paul. The world despised him and he could
not go after the world if he would–and would not go after it if he
could! He was dead to it and it was dead to him and, therefore, there
was a double separation!

How does the Cross do this? To be under the dominion of this present
evil world is horrible–how does the Cross help us to escape? Why,
Brothers and Sisters, he that has ever seen the Cross looks upon the
world's pomp and glory as a vain show! The pride of heraldry and the
glitter of honor fade into meanness before the Crucified One. O you
great ones, what are your silks, your furs, your jewelry, your gold,
your stars and your garters to one who has learned to glory in Christ
Crucified! The old clothes which belong to the hangman are quite as
precious. The world's light is darkness when the Sun of Righteousness
shines from the Cross! What do we care for all the kingdoms of the
world and the glory thereof when once we see the thorn-crowned Lord?
There is more glory about one nail of the Cross than about all the
scepters of all kings! Let the knights of the Golden Fleece meet in
chapter and all the Knights of the Garter stand in their stalls, but
what is all their splendor? Their glories wither before the inevitable
hour of doom, while the glory of the Cross is eternal! Everything of
earth grows dull and dim when seen by the light of the Cross!

So was it with the world's approval. Paul would not ask the world to be
pleased with him, since it knew not his Lord, or only knew Him to
crucify Him. Can a Christian be ambitious to be written down as one of
the world's foremost men when that world cast out His Lord? They
crucified our Master! Shall His servants court their love? Such
approval would be all stained with blood. They crucified my Master, the
Lord of Glory–do I want them to smile on me and say to me, "Reverend
Sir," or, "Learned Doctor"? No! The friendship of the world is enmity
with God and, therefore, to be dreaded! Mouths that spit on Jesus shall
give me no kisses! Those who hate the Doctrine of the Atonement hate my
life and soul–and I desire not their esteem.

Paul also saw that the world's wisdom was absurd. That age talked of
being wise and philosophical! Yes, and its philosophy brought it to
crucify the Lord of Glory! It did not know perfection, nor perceive the
beauty of pure unsefish-ness. To slay the Messiah was the outcome of
the culture of the Pharisee. To put to death the greatest Teacher of
all time was the ripe fruit of Sadducean thought. The serious thoughts
of the present age have performed no greater feat than to deny the
Doctrine of satisfaction for sin! They have crucified our Lord afresh
by their criticisms and their new theolo-gies–and this is all the
world's wisdom ever does. Its wisdom lies in scattering doubt,
quenching hope and denying cer-tainty–and, therefore, the wisdom of
the world to us is sheer folly! This century's philosophy will one day
be spoken of as an evidence that softening of the brain was very usual
among its scientific men! We count the thought of the present moment to
be methodical madness, Bedlam out of doors and those who are furthest
gone in it are credulous beyond imagination! God has poured contempt
upon the wise men of this world! Their foolish heart is blinded, they
grope at noonday.

So, too, the Apostle saw the world's religion to be nothing. It was the
world's religion that crucified Christ. The priests were at the bottom
of it, the Pharisees urged it on. The church of the nation, the church
of many ceremonies, the church which loved the traditions of the
elders, the church of phylacteries and broad-bordered garments–it was
this church, which, acting by its officers, crucified the Lord! Paul,
therefore, looked with pity upon priests and altars and upon all the
attempts of a Christless world to make up, by finery of worship, for
the absence of the Spirit of God. Once see Christ on the Cross and
architecture and fine display become gaudy, cheap things. The Cross
calls for worship in spirit and in truth–and the world knows nothing
of this.

And so it was with the world's pursuits. Some ran after honor, some
toiled after learning, others labored for riches. But to Paul, these
were all trifles since he had seen Christ on the Cross. He that has
seen Jesus die will never go into the toy business–he puts away
childish things. A child, a pipe, a little soap and many pretty
bubbles–such is the world. The Cross, alone, can wean us from such
play.

And so it was with the world's pleasures and with the world's power.
The world, and everything that belonged to the world, had become as a
corpse to Paul and he was as a corpse to it. See where the corpse
swings in chains on the gallows. What a foul, rotten thing! We cannot
endure it! Do not let it hang longer above ground to fill the air with
pestilence. Let the dead be buried out of sight. The Christ that died
upon the Cross now lives in our hearts. The Christ that took human
guilt has taken possession of our souls and, therefore, we live only in
Him, for Him, by Him. He has engrossed our affections. All our ardors
burn for Him. God make it to be so with us, that we may glorify God and
bless our age!

Paul concludes this Epistle by saying, "From henceforth let no man
trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." He was
a slave, branded with His Master's name. That stamp could never be
erased, for it was burned into his heart. Even thus, I trust the
Doctrine of the Atonement is our settled belief and faith in it is part
of our life. We are rooted and grounded in the unchanging Truths of
God! Do not try to convert me to your new views–I am past it. Forget
about me! You waste your breath. It is done–on this point the wax
takes no farther impress. I have taken up my standing and will never
quit it. A crucified Christ has taken such possession of my entire
nature, spirit, soul and body, that I am henceforth beyond the reach of
opposing arguments!

Brothers and Sisters, will you enlist under the conquering banner of
the Cross? Once rolled in the dust and stained in blood, it now leads
on the armies of the Lord to victory! Oh that all ministers would
preach the true Doctrine of the Cross! Oh that all Christian people
would live under the influence of it and we should then see brighter
days than these! Unto the Crucified be glory forever and ever! Amen.
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