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The Glory of the Cross

Now today I want you to turn with me for our last text to the sixth chapter of Galatians.

A number of years ago there was a man that was born in Italy in 1181, and he was the son of a
wealthy cloth merchant. He was handsome. He was popular. He became a merchant and then
became a knight. No one in all of that part of Italy was his peer when it came to courtliness or
fighting—he was a great swordsman. Or the enjoyment of great wealth—he enjoyed his money.
And in addition he was a scholar. His brilliance, his prowess in fighting, and his gaiety swept
almost all before him. He loved to make others happy, but he did not know happiness himself.
Like the American television star the other night who’s a great comedienne. She said, “I cry, cry,
cry, cry all the time inside.” She used the word cry five times in one sentence.

This man that I’m talking about—at the age of 24, he knelt at the foot of the cross and received
Christ into his heart. And he devoted the rest of his life to proclaiming the Gospel and living a life
of joy and poverty. He was never ordained. He even called the animals his brothers. He
ministered to the lepers. He walked the roads of Italy, Spain, and even Egypt. He preached the
Gospel before the sultan and the crusaders. No wonder Oscar Wilde declared that since Christ
went to the cross the world has produced only one genuine Christian, and his name is Francis of
Assisi. And as a British historian said, “His life falls like a stream of light across the darkness of
the Middle Ages.” Francis called men back to Christ and brought Christ back to men.

He constantly quoted one verse that I want to use as our text tonight. He quoted this verse over
and over and over again. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14, KJV).

You know, here in the city of London—my wife and I came here, along with Cliff Barrows and his
wife, in 1946. And when you looked out across the city, it was in rubbles. But there were many
church steeples that you could see, especially St. Paul’s. And there on top of these churches were
crosses.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 1
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
And I’ve often wondered if people really knew what the cross meant. I’ve seen churches built in
the form of a cross. I’ve seen crosses around people’s neck, both men and women, on gold
chains. Do they know what that cross stands for?

Why did Paul say that he gloried in the cross above everything else? He could have gloried in his
own education. He was one of the most educated men of his time. He could have gloried in his
religion. He was a great leader in his religion. He had an ability to speak. He spoke several
languages. He had Roman citizenship. He could have gloried in that. He could have gloried in
other things about Jesus, rather than the cross. He could have gloried in His birth, because He
was born of a virgin. He could have gloried in His teaching, because He was the greatest of all
teachers. He could have gloried in His resurrection, because He rose from the dead and He’s alive
tonight.

He could have gloried in His future glory, because the Bible says that He’s the future world leader.
He’s coming back again as King of kings and Lord of lords.

But we look back at the cross. It was the most terrible—the most terrible of all deaths. Soldiers
entered the guardhouse and brought Jesus with two other condemned men. They were beaten
with leather thongs, with steel pellets on the end. A crown of thorns was put on His head. A
cross was laid on His back. And the procession started, a big crowd following. Some of His friends
were there. And Jesus was weakened by the loss of blood. And Simon of Cyrene, an African,
helped Him. And the crowd milled around, jeering, laughing, and saying, “He saved others, but
He can’t save Himself” (see Luke 23:25–37).

There were three crosses there that day. There were two thieves, or robbers, that were crucified
with Him. One was a cross of rejection, the other was a cross of reception, the other was a cross
of redemption. There was one man on the cross that rejected Him totally. He didn’t want
anything to do with Jesus. He kept swearing and cursing and laughing at Christ. The other man
was doing the same thing for a while, and then he began to be serious. He began to believe in
Jesus. And he turned and rebuked this other thief. And he said to the Lord Jesus Christ, “Lord,
remember me when You come to Your kingdom.” And Jesus turned to him while He was dying
and said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (see Luke 23:39–43).

It’s one of the great examples of faith in all the Bible. “Today you shall be with Me in paradise.”
And all that man said was, “Remember me.” He didn’t have time to join a church. He didn’t have
time to be baptized. He didn’t have time to go and consult with the religious leaders. He just
received Christ in great simplicity and faith on that cross. And he was converted that quick and
entered paradise with Jesus that day.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 2
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
People ask me constantly: Is there any hope for me? Can Christ save me? We get letters from
prostitutes, alcoholics, thieves, prisoners, murderers, all kinds of people. And they say: Can we
be saved? Is there any hope for us? And we tell them yes, because Jesus Christ died on the cross
for you and rose again. And because He did that, He took your sins.

Because, you see, the real suffering of Christ was not the suffering that He suffered physically. It
was the spiritual suffering—when God laid on Him your sins and my sins, and He became sin for
us. Think of it. Jesus became sin. He became guilty of adultery, He became guilty of murder, He
became guilty of lying, He became guilty of all the sins that you’ve ever read about, in your place.
He took the judgment and the Hell that you and I deserve on that cross. And that was His real
suffering, because He’d never known sin. He had existed from all eternity and never known sin.
No dirty thought had ever crossed His mind. And all of a sudden, He’s guilty of all the sins of the
world. They’re laid on Him.

I had a leader of one of our great denominations ask to see me several years ago. And he said,
“Is there any hope that I can be forgiven for my years of hypocrisy?” He said, “I’ve been to the
university. I’ve gotten my theological degrees. I’m a leader of my denomination. But,” he said, “I
am not certain that I am going to Heaven.” He said, “I’ve been a hypocrite all these years. Is there
any hope?” And I told him, “The only hope, sir, is what you already know—that Jesus Christ died
for you, took your sins.” And he knelt down. We prayed. And he prayed a simple little prayer, just
like a child, and started all over again. And God forgave him, and he became a great preacher of
the Gospel in the years that still came.

Now Paul gloried in the cross, because the cross shows the depth of our sins. We talk about sin,
but we don’t know how it offends God until we look at the cross. There are many words in the
New Testament translated sin. One is missing the target. Sin is a failure to live up to God’s
standards. First John 5:17 says, “All unrighteousness is sin.” Now you may not think of yourself
as a sinner. You may look in the mirror; and you say, “I’m not so bad.”

I remember one time in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Cliff Barrows and I, and my wife and his wife,
were walking down the famous boardwalk there. We’d been holding meetings in a town just
south of there. And I remember that there was a man that was auctioning off diamonds and gold
watches and clothes and all sorts of things. And we were told that if you wait till late at night and
you’re the last person in there, you can get a real bargain.

Well, when we got married, I couldn’t afford to give my wife a nice diamond. I always wanted to
give her a nice one. So this man was up [ahead]—and there was only one woman in [the store].
And I only had sixty dollars in my pocket. That’s all I had in the world. And we hadn’t been
married long.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 3
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
So we went in there. And the man asked—he held up a diamond. He said, “That is a full two
carats. Beautiful, beautiful diamond.” And I looked at it, and I thought it was the biggest, most
beautiful thing I’d ever seen. He said, “How much am I offered?” I said, “Five dollars.” He looked
at me. And then this other woman, the only person in there, said, “Ten dollars.” I said, “Fifteen
dollars.” She said, “Twenty dollars.” I said, “Twenty-five dollars.” We went on till we reached sixty
dollars, and I knew I had to quit. And just at that moment the man looked at me— I don’t know
how he knew that I only had sixty dollars—and he said, “Sold to the gentleman for sixty dollars.”

The next day, like you would do, I took it to a jeweler to get it appraised. And the jeweler put on
his glass, and he looked at it. He said, “Oh, I think it’d probably be worth twenty-five dollars.” I
said, “What do you mean?” I said, “That’s two carats. That’s worth at least three thousand
dollars.” He said, “No, look through my glass.” And I looked through his glass. And even I could
see it was filled with defects. But to the outward eye, an untrained eye like mine, it was perfect.

And when I look at you, I don’t think of you as a sinner. You look fine to me. But God looks on
the inside, and God sees the imperfections. He sees how short you and I have come of His
requirements to enter Heaven. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23).

Then there’s another word that’s translated sin, and that’s transgression of the law (see 1 John
3:4)—the law of conscience. Have you ever gone against your conscience, even one time? Then
you’re a sinner. Or the law of Moses that he brought down from Mount Sinai on those tablets of
stone, the Ten Commandments—have you ever broken one of the Ten Commandments? Have
you ever told a lie? Have you ever had lust in your heart? Have you ever cheated in school? Then
you’re a sinner. Or false witness—have you ever lied? Have you ever coveted something that
somebody else had? Then we’re sinners. We’ve broken God’s law, and that’s sin. And all sinners
are under condemnation. And the condemnation is judgment at the great Judgment Day, and
Hell to come.

We’re also sinners by choice and by practice. And sin affects the mind. “The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: ... neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). It affects your will. Jesus said, “Whosoever committeth
sin is [a] servant of sin” (John 8:34). You become a slave to sin and habits that you wish that you
didn’t have. You want to quit, but you’re a slave. You cry for freedom, but there’s no escape.
Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). He said, “I
am the ... truth” (John 14:6). Come to Christ, and He’ll make you free.

Sin affects the conscience. You become slow to detect the approach of sin. Sin comes like cancer.
You can have cancer sitting here tonight and not know it. You don’t have any pain. You have no

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 4
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
feeling. But it’s a disease that’ll kill you. High blood pressure is the same way. You don’t feel high
blood pressure, but the doctor can take the pressure on your arm and tell you that you have high
blood pressure. And high blood pressure is dangerous.

We’re all sinners. We’ve sinned against God. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”
(Isaiah 53:6). And so, the cross passes its judgment upon the vanities, pride, hate, greed, self-
indulgent pleasures, and lusts of men and women.

And then, secondly, Paul gloried in the cross not only because it shows us how bad our sins are,
but it also shows us the love of God. God says from the cross, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
And if there’s nothing else that you remember from these meetings and this great Mission ’89,
remember this: God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you.

And God is interested in you. He has the hairs of your head numbered (see Matthew 10:30); He
sees the sparrow fall (see v. 29). He knows every detail of your life. And He loves you. And He’s
willing to forgive you of every sin you’ve ever committed. “But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

And then, thirdly, Paul gloried in the cross because it’s the only way of salvation. The Bible says,
“[There’s] a way which seemeth right ... but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs
14:12).

Jesus said there are two gates of life. One is the narrow gate, and one is the broad gate. One is a
narrow road, and one is a broad road. And it’s up to you to decide which road you’re going to be
on. The narrow road leads to eternal life, leads to the kingdom of God, leads to Heaven.

The broad road, filled with all of its fun, all of its pleasures, all of its lust, all of its greed, all the
things that infect your heart—the broad road leads to judgment and destruction and Hell (see
Matthew 7:13–14).

Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Oh, there are a lot
of people that are going to come and say, “I’ve been baptized; I’ve been confirmed; I belong to
a church; I live a decent, moral life.” But deep inside, you are a sinner in need of forgiveness.

And today, in this rain, you need to recommit your life to Christ. You need to reconfirm your
confirmation vows. And you need to leave this stadium saying, “I am certain that I’m going to
Heaven. I know my sins are forgiven—not because of me, but because of what Christ has done
for me on that cross.” That’s what the cross means.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 5
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
But there are other sins that we commit besides the ones I’ve listed. There’s the sin of ignoring
our fellow human being who’s suffering, people that are poor and homeless, in the city of
London—throughout this country. We Christians have a responsibility to them. We have a
responsibility to people in Bangladesh and India and Pakistan who are suffering because of
poverty. We have a responsibility to people of other races and other ethnic backgrounds who
are suffering from discrimination and injustice. We have a responsibility. And so, if we don’t
accept that responsibility, those are sins that we commit also.

The Bible says that Paul gloried in the cross because he also knew that it was a new dynamic of
living. Once you’ve been to the cross, you can never be the same. Many people are bored with
life. Many people are tired of the monotony of living. Many people are tired of the marriage that
they’re in. They’d like to get out from under it.

You’d like to straighten your life out. You’d like to start all over and start afresh. You can today, if
you put your trust in Him.

The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold,
all things ... become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Everything can become new in your life from this
moment on, if you let Christ into your heart.

And then Paul gloried in the cross, lastly, because he knew it guaranteed the future life. The cross
was followed by the resurrection. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2
Corinthians 5:19). The Bible says there’s coming a day when we’re going to stand before God and
we’re going to sing a new song, because God has made us a kingdom of priests, and we shall
reign on earth with Him (see Revelation 5:9–10).

I heard a story some time ago that was a true story, from the Middle East. There was a young
boy that was killed by an angry man. And this man tried to escape a crowd that was ready to kill
him and lynch him, and he ran. And he ran into the tent of a sheik. And this powerful sheik came
to the tent door and asked the crowd what they wanted. They said, “We want the man that just
ran into your tent.” He said, “No, you can’t have him. Because that man is under my tent, he’s
under my protection.” They said, “But you don’t understand. The boy that he murdered and
viciously killed was your son.” The sheik said, “That doesn’t make any difference. If he killed my
son, then I will adopt him as my son. And he shall inherit all that my other son would have had.
He will now be my son.”

That’s what God says to you. “I’ll forgive you. I take you in My arms. I love you.” And you will
become the adopted son of the living God, the adopted daughter of the living God. When you
come to Christ, you become a joint heir with Jesus Christ, adopted into the family of God. What

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 6
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
a glorious future we have. What a glorious, wonderful life we can have right here. Because He
sends the Holy Spirit to help you. None of us can really live the Christian life. I can’t, but I have
the Holy Spirit to help me. I make many mistakes; I make many failures. But I know that Christ is
in my heart, because of what He did on the cross.

I remember when Bob Geldof in this stadium held that great rally to help people, and they held
those rallies all over the world. And when it was all over and the excitement was over and
Wembley Stadium was empty and a few boys were still there playing around, one of them looked
up to Bob and said, “Is that all there is?” And when Bob left, he thought to himself, “Is this it? Is
this all? It’s all over?” He wrote a book called that—Is That It?

And I say to you, this is not all there is. This is just the beginning. This can be the beginning of a
whole new life for you and a whole new approach to eternity. And on your deathbed, you’ll say
a thousand times, “Thank you, Lord, for that day at Wembley in the rain when I made my
commitment to Jesus Christ.”

Did you know that 25 years ago we saw an average of two and three thousand people a night
come forward to say yes to Christ in rain? It was just this hard—not quite as hard as we’ve seen
it a little earlier, but like it is now. And they’ll never forget that.

I’ll tell a story that maybe I shouldn’t tell, but I’m going to tell it. My wife and I were invited once
on the Britannia. President and Mrs. Reagan were there, the honored guests, and we were
invited along with them. And when we walked up the gangplank, there was an officer standing
there and he saluted me just like this. And all he said was, “Wembley ’55.” I knew what he meant.
He was one of those that had come to Christ in the rain at Wembley, and [he was] an officer on
the Britannia.

I’m asking you tonight to do the same thing.

©1989 BGEA

Last modified: 2/19/2021 7:45 PM

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke
and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 7
2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)