On a hill far away stood an old Rugged Cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame.
But I love that old cross, where the dearest and best,
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it someday for a crown.
I was sitting in the hospital waiting room with my brother and sister, and they were discussing what kind of music they like. They asked me about my tastes and I really didn’t know what to say. Frankly, I don’t listen to that much music. I like oldies for reasons that may be obvious and I’ve been hunting EBay for 1970’s Christian rock – a trip down nostalgia lane. But it occurs to me that there is a specific kind of music that I like. I like the music of Easter, music that focuses on the Cross and the Resurrection. I like my music bloody.
I like music that takes me back 2000 years and deposits me at the foot of the cross, old hymns that make me survey the wondrous cross, contemporary music that make me feel the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet, choruses that lead me to worship our Lord; crucified, risen and coming again. That’s my kind of music.
I love ancient medieval poetry:
O Sacred head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down.
Now scornfully surrounded, with thorns Thine only crown.
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn.
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn.
I love the classic hymns of Isaac Watts:
Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?
Was it for crimes that I have done he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity, grace unknown and love beyond degree.
I love the spirituals that take you to Golgotha.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Sometimes, it causes me to tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
I love the new Getty hymns.
Oh, to see my name written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death, life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.
This, the power of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.
When I sing songs like that, my heart fills with both shame and joy; shame because I know it was my sins that took Jesus to that point and joy because I know that the Old Rugged Cross settled my eternal destiny. I love that music because I love the message. I love the Old Rugged Cross on which Jesus bled and died for the forgiveness of my sins.
I love the Old Rugged Cross because:
There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s vein,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain.
I love the Old Rugged Cross because:
The blood that Jesus shed for me, way back on Calvary,
O the blood that gives me strength for day to day,
It will never lose its power.
I love the Old Rugged Cross because:
Mercy there was great and grace was free.
Pardon there was multiplied to me.
There, my burdened soul found liberty.
At Calvary.
I love the Old Rugged Cross because:
My sin, O the joy of this glorious thought,
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I was shocked, during my first pastorate, at the number of people who told me something like this. “It has been so long since I have heard a sermon about the Blood of Christ.” These were people who attended Southern Baptist Churches every week. If that is true, it is deeply disturbing, for if the cross is absent from the pulpit, the power of God will be absent from the church. Practical sermons have their place, telling us how to raise children, how to handle money, how to find peace and fulfillment in life. But there is no life, no power, no transformation apart from the death and resurrection of our Lord.
I attended a revival service at a Baptist church, because of reports I had heard about the great things God was doing. The nationally known revival team led an enthusiastic song service, and the speaker preached a powerful message about Naaman. He called the people to repent and many did. But I realized something during the invitation. To my knowledge, during the singing, during the sermon and during the invitation, there was no mention of the cross of Christ, of his blood shed for our sins, or of his resurrection. Where did we get the idea that we could have a powerful revival service without mentioning the cross of Christ? Something was wrong!
My friends, much has changed in our world. But some things do not change. And this will never change. The preaching of the cross may be foolishness to this sinful world, but it is still the power of God for salvation of all who believe. So, we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, the wisdom of God and the power of God. My prayer is that Southern Hills Baptist Church will not follow the course of churches who have succumbed to the false positive message, who have ignored sin and shunned the blood of Christ, who have sacrificed the presence and power of God for the popular opinions of sinful people. May we always be fools for Christ, who preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
My friend, Francis Frangipane, was struggling one day to find a sermon topic. He struggled and prayed throughout the week, but sensed no direction from God. Saturday night came and went, and still no sense of God’s leading. Finally, he woke up Sunday morning and said, “Lord, I have to preach in a couple of hours. I need your direction.” He walked past the telephone, and saw a light blinking. Absently, he pushed the button and heard that familiar disembodied voice, “You have one message.”
And then it hit him. You have one message. Jesus Christ and him crucified. That day, Francis stood before his people and preached Jesus, he proclaimed the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. We have one message. Jesus. We have one hope. Jesus. We have one strategy. Jesus – crucified, risen and coming again. We have one program. Jesus Christ – King of kings and Lord of lords.
Today, I would like to remind you folks of this truth: We have one message. Our Lord Jesus Christ was God’s love gift to this world. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and offered to sacrifice that life for yours. He died on the cross, bearing our sins, and his blood was shed for the forgiveness of those sins. He rose up from the dead in power and victory, triumphing over sin, death, hell and Satan. He is exalted as Lord over all and offers eternal and abundant life to all who believe. We have one message.
Today, I would like to lead you back to the foot of the cross, nearly 2000 years ago. Would you permit me to be your tour guide one last time as we consider the meaning of the cross, our one message? Would you, with me, survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died? I ask you to consider four truths today, each revealed on the Old Rugged Cross.
#1 – The Old Rugged Cross Shows the Depths of Our Sins.
Am I the only one who has ever been confused by the words and actions of Jesus? He did some strange things and said some confusing words. I think Jesus’ reaction to his arrest, trial and crucifixion were very strange. Before the Sanhedrin, before Herod, before Pilate, while he was convicted in an illegal trial by lying witnesses on trumped up charges. Through it all, Jesus never spoke a word in his own defense.
When he was arrested, Peter drew a sword to fight the injustice. That is a reaction I understand. Stand up for yourself. Fight the injustice! But Jesus stepped forward and announced, “I am he.” When the religious leaders broke their own laws to hold a secret trial at night, he never complained. When they paid people to lie about him, he never railed at the injustice. Human beings just don’t act like that. We defend ourselves when we know we are wrong and proclaim our innocence no matter how guilty we are. Nothing infuriates me like being falsely accused or treated unjustly. I get angry and want to shout my innocence from the highest mountain. How strange that Jesus did not.
How strange that when he stood before Pilate, he refused to answer the charges. Pilate seemed predisposed to believe Jesus, but he spoke not a word of defense. When Pilate claimed to hold the power of life and death over him, Jesus corrected him. But he never defended himself.
When soldiers lashed him with diabolical whips, he said nothing. When he was beaten and mocked and ridiculed, he stood silent. When men spit in his face, when they looked the Lord of Glory in the face and spat on him, still he refused to fight back. The creator of the world allowed the spit of wicked men to run down his face. Jesus, who created the Pharisees who tried him, who made the Romans who beat him, who created Pilate who washed his hands of him, who created the crowds who clamored for his blood; he took it without a word.
Not one word.
Why? Why did Jesus endure all this without answering back? First, we know that Jesus operated on God’s agenda, and it was his time to die. The plan, devised in the heart of God in eternity past was now being carried out. But there was another reason, a deeper reason. Jesus was there that day, in my place, in yours. He was there to bear the sins of the world on himself.
I should have been there that day. I should have been tried and arrested. My sins deserved it. The stripes on his back, I deserved them. The nails in his hands and feet should have been in my hands and feet. The hell he suffered that day was my hell.
This, my friends, is the offense of the gospel that Paul talked about. This is the ugly truth of the cross that no one likes to admit. This is the reason that people want to ignore the cross. Oh, just about everyone will admit their imperfection. We take great comfort in knowing that our failings are common to man. We all admit that we are sinners. What no one wants to face is the extent of our offense against God. This will never be popular truth, but it is truth nonetheless. The Bible says there is none righteous, not even one. It warns us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It reminds us that the wages of sin is death.
So, here it is, my friends; the cold, hard, unpalatable truth. My sins, and yours, nailed Jesus to the cross. My sin, and yours, is so serious in the eyes of God that to save me, Jesus had to suffer hell to pay for it. Because of my sins, and yours, Jesus allowed men to spit on him. It was because of me, my sins, and yours.
I’m the one to blame, I caused all the pain.
He gave himself, the day he wore my crown.
Why did Jesus not answer the Pharisees, or Pilate? Because he was there that day bearing my sins, and yours and we deserved everything he received! We were the reason he stayed silent. He was there that day bearing our sins, and for our sins there is no excuse, no defense.
May I be very direct? If you, or anyone else, refuses the grace of Christ and the salvation he offers, one day you will stand before a great, white throne; a throne of judgment. On that day, just as Jesus on the day of his death, you will offer no excuse for your sins. When you hear those fateful words, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” you will know that the sentence is just and fair. That is the extent of our sin in the eyes of God. It is so serious, that to save us, Jesus had to suffer hell for us.
On the Old Rugged Cross, we see the depths of man’s sin. Second,
#2 – The Old Rugged Cross shows the Glory of Jesus’ love.
A famous theologian was asked to share the most profound truth he had learned in his studies. He thought for a moment and replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
A man ran into a burning house to save his child. To the world, the father’s scars were grotesque and disfiguring. To the child saved by them, they were emblems of a father’s love.
Look around this room, today. There are probably some people you love deeply in this room. Perhaps, you even love someone here enough to give your own life for them. But would you give your child for them? Is there anyone here you love enough to sacrifice your own son for? Not me! You would choose your own child, and let your friend die. But not our Father in heaven. His love is so great that while we were still sinners, rebellious and vile in sin, God sacrificed his son for you. At the cross, God exchanged the life of his son for your eternal soul. Jesus ran into the fires of hell to rescue you.
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’r such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
No matter what you go through in this life, you can never say no one loves you. There is nothing more that God can do to demonstrate his love for you than he did at the cross. If the cross shows the depths of our sins, it shows more clearly the extent, the beauty, the glory of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.
Jesus did not have to die. “He could have called 10,000 angels and said, ‘Take me away, please take me away.’ He could have said, ‘I’m not guilty, I’m not gonna stay, I’m not gonnna pay.’” Nails could not hold Jesus to the cross. It was his love for us that held him there.
They scourged Jesus, shredding his back with a cruel whip and he endured every lash for your salvation. They beat him, pulled out his beard, drove a crown of thorns into his brow, but he loved you enough to endure that. Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus endured the scorn and shame of the cross for the joy set before him. What was that joy? Redeeming us. Saving us. Jesus endured every shiver of pain that shot through his body for the very great joy of saving you from your sins, redeeming you and making you fit for an eternal home in heaven.
When the crowds chanted “Crucify Him,” when soldiers cast lots for his clothes, when passers-by jeered, it was for us, to demonstrate infinite love. When they drove nails through his hands and feet and hoisted him in the air, love held him.
Jesus hung there for six long hours. Slowly, every joint in his body pulled out of socket. As they did, he would slump forward, and it became harder and harder to breathe. Slowly, he suffocated to death. The only way Jesus could speak was to push up on the nail through his feet, gather a breath and speak.
And he did that, seven times. Do you remember what the first thing was that Jesus said on the cross? He looked at the crowds that laughed, and the soldiers that divided his garments, even on the religious leaders who hated him. He struggled up, sending shudders of pain coursing through his body, and he gathered a breath. He looked down and he spoke.
I know what I would have said. “Father, blast these people to the hell they deserve.” Not Jesus. Not the Son of Love. He said, “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.”
Men scourged his back, they mocked his name.
Pulled out his beard, played their cruel game.
Who hit you, Jesus, can you tell?
They laughed at him while he suffered hell.
One word from him would be their death,
Could have called his angels with one breath
And left them to die in their sin,
Turned from his plan to redeem men.
But he said, “Father, forgive them.
Father, forgive them.
Father forgive them,
The don’t know what they do.”
Nails could not hold him. Only love could.
O how he loves you and me
O how he loves you and me.
He gave his life, what more could he give?
O how he loves you
O how he love me.
O how he loves you and me.
So, the Old Rugged Cross shows the Depths of man’s sin and the Glory of God’s love.
#3 – The Old Rugged Cross also shows the Perfection of God’s Plan.
Anyone ever asked you how a God of love could send someone to hell? How easily we forget that our God of love is also a God of wrath. We have forgotten the totality of his character.
Yes, God is love. He loves fully and completely. He loves wicked sinners like you and me, and he demonstrated that love on the cross. But he has another side. He is holy, perfect, pure, sinless. His holiness demands that he punish sin and because of who he is, he cannot just wink at sin or look the other way. God must give our sins the response they deserve – death; physical death, spiritual death, even eternal death.
There was an apparent conflict in the character of God. His love motivated him to save us. But his holiness demanded that he punish our sins with eternal death. That is the perfection of God’s eternal plan. He devised a plan that allowed him to satisfy his holiness on Christ so that he could display his love to us. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live to righteousness, by his wounds we are healed.” The Son of God became a man so men could become the sons of God. He became sin, so sinners could become like him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus had been on the cross for about three hours. He suffered throughout, but just before noon, the climax came. Darkness settled over the land. Why was it dark at noon? Because the wrath of God was being poured out on his only Son, the light was extinguished as Jesus bore the full weight of the darkness of our sins. The intimate fellowship of the Godhead from all eternity was broken by our sins. As our sins would have separated us eternally from God, they separated Christ from his Father on the cross.
It was history’s most horrible moment. Jesus had been rejected by his countrymen. His own disciples had abandoned him and fled. Judas had sold him cheap and Peter had denied him. That was all bad enough. But now, even the heavenly Father was turning away from him. Jesus hung there on the cross, the first man in history to be truly alone.
Jesus gathered himself again, pushed up, gasped for air, and cried out loud. “Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani.” “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Why has my God forsaken me?
Cried Jesus on Golgotha’s tree.
The answer to his painful plea?
God turned his back to ransom me.
The sun was dark, the air grew cold,
As Jesus hung and men grew bold
To mock the Lamb, spit in his face,
As He asked God to show them Grace.
As the full fury of God’s wrath against our sin was poured out on Jesus, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
And Satan laughed. Throughout heaven, silent in sorrow, the laughter of Satan reverberated. 1 Corinthians 2:8 suggests to me that Satan and the forces of evil did not understand what was happening at the cross. I believe Satan thought that the Cross would be his greatest victory in his war of hatred and rebellion against God. He thought he had won. I can only imagine that he looked up to heaven and cackled with glee. “Look, God, I have won. Look what they have done to your precious son. They don’t want you, they want me. They killed your son. You have lost.”
His laughter echoed throughout heaven and hell, and in the domain of darkness, wild glee reigned as the Son of God hung dying on Golgotha. But, as Satan’s laughter rang, Jesus struggled one more time to raise himself and gather a breath. He spoke a word. It was the most important word ever uttered; the word that changed your eternal destiny. It was the word that choked Satan’s laughter in his throat and hushed the halls of hell. Tetelestai. In English, “It is finished.” It is a bookkeeping term. It means “paid in full.”
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
Sin left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
Oh, friend, he did not just pay for some of your sins, or most of your sins. It is finished. Tetelestai. Jesus paid it all. Your sins, “not in part, but the whole” are fully, completely and forever paid for, having been nailed to the cross. There is no more payment required, no merit demanded. The payment Jesus gave was full and complete. Everything that was necessary for you to be saved, for Satan to be defeated, for sin to be destroyed and for life to triumph over death; it was completed that day. It is finished.
The Old Rugged Cross shows us the depth of our sin, the glory of God’s love, the perfection of God’s plan, and finally
#4 – The Old Rugged Cross shows us the Totality of God’s Victory.
It may not seem like it can get any better than that, but it does. Jesus’ victory on the cross when he crushed Satan and paid in full for our sins was only the beginning of the glory of the cross. Early on Sunday morning, the grave burst open, and:
Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes.
He arose the victor from the dark domain,
And he lives forever with his saints to reign.
He arose, he arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.
Jesus broke the bonds of death and hell. He rose up victorious over sin, over Satan; exalted as King of kings and Lord of lords. Nothing could stop him.
So finally, upon the rugged cross, they killed the man who would not suffer loss.
And when at last they took, what willingly he gave,
he died, but could they keep him in the grave?
They could not. They could not.
Praise God, they could not.
And when at last they took what willingly he gave,
Could they keep him in the grave?
Could they keep him in the grave?
Could they keep him in the grave?
They could not!
God raised Jesus and exalted him to the highest place. He gave him the name above every name. He is Lord.
He is Lord, he is Lord,
He is Risen from the dead, and He is Lord.
Every knee will bow, every tongue confess,
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Yes, we must sing about the cross, and preach about the cross, but there is more. We must also carry the message of the cross to this world. We must walk in the way of the cross, denying ourselves and giving our bodies as living sacrifices. We must shine the glory of the cross to this world, demonstrating to the world how our God can save sinners, redeem them, transform them, and infuse their lives with his glory.
You live in a world of sin, of death, of dysfunction, and you carry with you the only real hope that world has – Jesus Christ, crucified, Risen and coming again. To people facing God’s eternal judgment because of their sin, you have ONE message. To a hurting, lonely, sin-broken life, you have one message. To a broken marriage, you have one message. To the scoffing intellectual and the intellectually challenged, you have one message. To a world engulfed in sin, you have one message.
The gospel we preach is still the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. It is the foolishness of God that confounds the wisdom of man. It is healing and hope and power. There is no worship but that done kneeling at the cross. There is no life, but that which flows from the cross. There is no preaching, but the preaching of the cross. There is no singing, but the song of the cross. There is no power but that which comes from our Crucified and Risen savior.
So, it all boils down to this: you have one message.
There’s a line that’s been drawn through the ages. On the line stands an old rugged cross.
On that cross a battle is raging for the gain of man’s soul or its loss.
On one side march the forces of evil, all the devils and demons of hell.
On the other, the angels of glory, and they meet on Golgotha’s hill.
The earth shakes with the force of the conflict. The sun refuses to shine.
For there hangs God’s son in the balance. And then, through the darkness he cries.
It is finished, the battle is over.
It is finished, there’ll be no more war.
It is finished, the end of the conflict.
It is finished, and Jesus is Lord.
