The sermon explores the necessity and significance of the cross of Christ for genuine Christians. It emphasizes the importance of the event that transpired on the cross, rather than the physical shape of the cross itself. The sermon highlights that every person is a lawbreaker, and God's law holds sway over all humanity. It explains that Jesus Christ's death on the cross is necessary for the salvation and forgiveness of sins. Repentance and trust in Christ are presented as the means to receive salvation.

Friends, these months we have been thinking about questions that people often ask, all sorts of questions that people ask. These are serious searching questions. And this morning I want us to think about this question. What is the point of the cross of Christ? What is the point of his cross?

Was the cross really necessary? That's often the question that people have put to me. Was it necessary? It was a question that I had at the beginning. Why is it that Christian makes so much so much of the cross?

And perhaps you find yourself pondering whether you truly identify as a Christian or not and this uncertainty might be one of the reasons you found your way here. An undeniable truth dear friends About every genuine Christian is that the cross of Jesus Christ holds a significant greater than any other aspect of their lives, the cross of Jesus. The apostle Paul says he glories in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you take a moment to reflect on the Bible's message we've just read, You think about that verse that the apostle says in verse 14, but God forbid, thy should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For a true Christian, nothing stirs emotions quite like the cross of Jesus Christ when they begin to think about it. What happened there and it holds an unparalleled value, a treasure beyond compare. If the cross of Jesus Christ doesn't hold such a central place in your heart, you must genuinely question, dear friends, whether you truly embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, embrace Christianity based on the standards set forth in the Bible. Now you might be wondering, well he's been talking about the importance of the cross, but he's not wearing a cross. Where is the cross in this chapel?

Where are the crosses on this building? Why don't we have it if it's so important? Dear friends, it's not the physical cross that we hold the high steam on. We are not to think that simply by wearing some sort of cross as a jewel, as something that we might put on or we might hang somewhere. That is the thing we are talking about.

No, not at all. If you think that's what we are talking about, then that's what we should do. That's not what the scripture is teaching here. The apostle Paul wasn't hanging a big cross around his neck or bowing before a cross. He wasn't doing that.

The focus isn't on the cross's shape, rather it is on the event that transpired there. The profound implications and the profound accomplishments that were achieved when nearly 2,000 years ago, dear friends, the Roman soldiers took the Savior, Jesus Christ, and crucified him. They nailed him to that cross. They hung him on that cross. That's what we are talking about.

This event where the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, he was raised up, is placed, that cross was placed in that hole. So, it's so profound, It is so amazing that the Bible spoke about it. We read in that Psalm, Psalm 22, speaking about his bones were dislocated, his hands and his feet. And David wasn't speaking about himself, writing hundreds and hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus. But he was prophesying about the Messiah to come, the Jesus that he was to come.

Yes, he spoke about the people passing by, wagging their heads, jeering. Yes, that's what exactly happened. Yes, that's what exactly happened. What matters to the Christians is what was achieved, what was accomplished by this historic event. The ordeal that unfolded on that cross, as painful and as humiliating as it was, holds more value and significance to true Christians than anything else in existence.

He glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question is, was the cross truly necessary? Was Jesus Christ being hanging on that cross necessary? If so, what was the essence of this necessity? Well, let's delve into the heart of the matter.

And friends, let me say this first. To truly comprehend Jesus Christ and his sacrificial act on the cross, to truly understand his death, we must first understand ourselves. So the first point is, first understand yourself. And I won't sugarcoat this message, I won't dress it up, I don't normally, I will communicate it with clarity and bluntness. I want you to understand from the outset that what I'm about to share isn't the product of my personal musings this week.

What I'm to give to you is the teaching that is derived directly from God as revealed in the Bible. So we are going to the scriptures. We're going to the Bible. And I want to convey these things to you. What matters is not what I think, what matters is what God thinks.

And so to begin to understand the cross and what Jesus did on that cross and his death on the cross and its profound significance, we must first turn our attention to ourselves. Here is a truth that you cannot get away from. You and I, we are lawbreakers. You and I, we are lawbreakers. Now I'm not talking about you speeding down the road coming to the chapel here this morning.

We are not talking about the general things that we do. We are talking about breaking the laws of God. Dear friends, we have looked at this. There is a God. There is the true and the living God, the God of the Bible.

And without a shadow of a doubt, His law holds sway over all humanity. There are natural laws that he's given. There's the law of gravity that he's given to us. It wasn't invented by John Newton. John Newton, Isaac Newton.

Oh, Isaac Newton knew some things of the theology of John Newton, but that's another thing but The Lord has given laws of laws of physics So You can jump up a cliff and say, I don't believe in the laws of nature. I don't believe in a god. I don't believe that god has given any laws in nature. And then you will very soon experience that what it means to break the law of physics that God has given to you. You try it on a step to begin with, and then you'll find out.

And then, but also that teaches us that the laws of, spiritual laws that God has put in every one of us, the conscience that he has given to us, then when we break them, we incur his punishment that is due to that. So, think on that. His laws hold sway over all humanity. It's not just for Christians, it's not just for believers, it's not limited to those who believe in him. It encompasses every individual.

The law of God, which binds you even if you don't adhere to a particular religious faith is made up of certain principles. It commands us not to place anything above God in our heart. So that's the first commandment that God gave to Moses and to the nation of Israel, to love him more than anything else, to find more thrill, excitement, and meaning in him than anything else. And when you begin to closely examine these things, you'll realize that God's law points a finger at every man and woman and boy and girl in this room and myself included. Every person who is alive and who has ever lived, not a single person throughout the course of their lives has truly placed God above all else.

The law proceeds to instruct us as well not to misuse God's name or hold any erroneous notions about his nature. We are to dedicate a full day out of every week to God, keeping it sacred, keeping it holy. Who has kept that? In our households, God has said that the directives to parents and children and how children are to obey their parents. Which one of you can say I've always obeyed my parents and honored my parents?

In broader society God commands also the things that governs our behavior. It prohibits murder. Thou shalt not kill, both physically and emotionally. He speaks about retaining lustful thoughts and actions. He speaks about theft, not just material things, but also people's reputations.

When you gossip, when you put down somebody before others and you steal away their reputation, What are you doing there? You are a thief of a man's reputation. When God says that you are to put your affections, your heart on God rather than coveting things that belong to other people. All of these things dear friends and much much more are part of the laws of God and a summary of it albeit condensed one in the Ten Commandments. And as you read the New Testament, you find these things being expanded, that the Lord Jesus Christ explains the spiritual nature of what was said in the Old Testament.

And God speaks to individuals through his law, through their consciences that He's put, placed His law upon our hearts, and He communicates to us how we should live. And to truly grasp the significance of Jesus' crucifixion, Jesus' death, and why in Christians' glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? We have to really understand this that every single one of us, we are all transgressors of God's laws. The law of God has been broken. And the law that has been broken is the law of God.

It's not my law. It is not your law. It's not that you have just offended me or offended somebody else or broken your standards. But what makes it important is that it is God's law. Now, you might object and you might say, well, I'm doing well, thank you very much.

I'm no worse than my neighbors. I might not be better in many things, but I'm certainly not worse than my neighbors. So let me draw some parallels for you. There was a time many years ago I read an account, a true account, in 1924. 1924.

Do you remember how people set their watches, their clocks in their home? They were not all carrying watches, but they had a clock in their home. Do you remember some of you how they set things? Do you know what they did? Well, there was a man who would be near a factory.

Oftentimes, factories would blast out at eight o'clock a siren, that was a sign that was eight o'clock. Everyone should have been at work by that time. So there was a man who would have his clock on the mantelpiece, and every morning, he would set his clock to that, to that siren. That's eight o'clock, I'll set it up to that. And you see, because they had these winding clocks, and you had to wound it, or wind it, then it would go out of sync.

So every morning, this is what he did. You know, years later, The man was testing his clock or somebody had come and said this is this is hours out This is hours out. What have you been doing? So well, I've been every morning at 8 o'clock. I listen to the siren and set it so it must be the clock of the factory that is out.

And then they found out that the staff member who used to set the clock of the factory every morning would be passing by this man's house. And he would look at the time on this man's wall and then he would make sure that the clock of the factory fits that time. And so little by little, over the years, the time would change. And so the factory time was very flexible indeed. But that man, he learned a lesson.

And this is what we are talking about, dear friends. You can set your watch. You can set your soul's watch against other people. You can check yourself and say, well I'm not worse than this individual, I'm not better but I'm not worse and so on. But how easily we can drift away.

We were reading earlier on, didn't we, in our consecutive reading in 1 Corinthians 15 of that, that how evil communications corrupt good manners. You spend your time with people who do bad things little by little, not overnight, but little by little, your morals will also change. Your attitudes to things will also change. And it's for every one of us, dear friends. And so, every single one of us, we tend to measure our morality against the conduct of those around us.

And so we assume that doing fine, we are doing fine because we are not, we are not yes notably better or notably worse than others. But when compared to the perfect standard of God's law, We fall considerably short. We fall short. We do not even reach it. God's law, dear friends, is not relative.

It's not about your feelings, what your attitude is, or what I think about it. It's absolute, and in its light, we are all found wanting. So the just God who is the God of the Bible presents for us a straightforward promise. How can I know him? Obey the Ten Commandments perfectly.

Obey the Ten Commandments perfectly and you'll be fine. You will arrive safely in heaven if you perfectly obey the Ten Commandments all of your life. And you will live eternally. You don't have to worry at all. Just make sure from the time you were born, you obey perfectly the law of God, the Ten Commandments.

And so this promise is not extended just to believers, just to Christians, but to everybody. And so the apostle says, the one who does them shall live by them. Yet deep down, dear friends, we know we haven't adhered to these commandments. Every single one of us, we would say, we are just like everybody else. We are not perfect.

And this promise, therefore, doesn't apply to any of us. It doesn't help us. If you're perfect, then you'll be right with God. And then there is a darker side to this equation. Alongside this promise of obeying the commandments and live forever, God has declared a stern warning.

Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law and to do them. Every single person who does not do perfectly the law of God, they are cursed under the curse of God. The God who bestows this law upon us expects us to abide by it and promising life to those who do and invoking a curse on those who break it even once. And so you think about this, consider this, whether you identify as a Christian or not a Christian, whether you are familiar with the teaching of the Bible or not familiar. Every human being who has broken any of the laws of God, the summary of it, the Ten Commandments, is now living under the curse of God.

And this curse is eternal, dear friends. Just as God is eternal, his curse is eternal. It's boundless, matching the boundlessness of God. It's as inescapable, for God is present everywhere. You cannot escape from God.

It's applicable in our lives for God is present, in the present. It's applicable even in death, for God is not bound by time. The curse is an everlasting reality as God is everlasting. The curse is fierce for our God is a consuming fire the New Testament tells us. So the predicament for all of us is dire and not because we are exceptionally wicked but because we are we've broken God's law throughout this world.

It doesn't matter if you're believers in God or not. The curse of God, due to our disobedience, has distanced us, has separated us from him. The God who often depicted is depicted as a friend by society. You go to a funeral, you hear about this loving God and that he's a friend of everyone. It's actually this God of the Bible is the enemy of those who are rebellions.

And so despite popular notions, God isn't a sentimental and passive figure. He is awe-inspiring, terrifying in his holiness. And the gravity of the situation is even more amplified because you cannot restore your relationship with God through your own efforts. You can't make yourself a better person. You cannot make this relationship better by doing something about it.

And so Maybe you object, maybe you say, no, that can't happen. Maybe you say, well, I want to do the right thing by God. But the truth is, you don't even have the desire to mend the relationship, real desire. Because for many, God is a convenient concept. He's a convenient concept.

He's acknowledged at significant life events, but not of a daily concern to people. You might find him an inconvenience, preferring to live as if he doesn't exist. So, people engage in some religious rituals when children are born, when they go through certain experiences in life, they say some prayers, they come to church and different things that they participate in. But the prospect of deep connection with God is not appealing. The prospect of being a God-fearing man or woman or boy or girl to shun this world, it is not an appealing thing.

You'll stand up like a sore thumb, as we say. If you try to follow God, and then God says to us that if we live a holy life, a follower of Jesus Christ, we will suffer persecution. Who wants that? And even if you were to suddenly decide to live by the Ten Commandments from this day forward, could you reverse your past actions? Could you reverse the bad things you have done in the past?

And think about this, do you genuinely desire to uphold these commandments? The reality is that your heart, my heart, hasn't experienced the transformation by itself, by myself, naturally. And your natural inclinations Don't align with a passionate desire to obey God's law. We get tired of it. We say, well, I'll do this.

And then after the first day, after the second day, we get tired of it. We can't keep it up. What about the past, as I've said? God demands accountability, not only for the present, but also for even past actions, past thoughts, past words. If God was to bring up all of those things of our past, what would we say?

We would blush. So, the reckoning, the accountability on the day of judgment before God is not just about your current state. It is to do with everything in your life, all of your existence. So how can you then possibly, how can I then possibly adhere and obey the Ten Commandments when my heart, your heart, isn't renewed by myself and your past remains unchanged? This is where the message of hope, the gospel, enters the scene, if we could say that.

So I've been talking about this matter of ourselves. We need to really, before we think about the cross of Jesus Christ and why it is necessary, you have to examine yourself or it makes no sense. So many might find it absurd, some might demand evidence, and most might ignore it, but this message holds true, this message of the gospel. And though it is embraced by a minority of people rather than the popular sort of figures of a sport, on entertainment and intellectual people and politicians, the gospel is a powerful truth that is cherished by ordinary people, ordinary sinners, who've come to grasp its significance. The Apostle Paul testified and said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth He says I'm not ashamed of this gospel this despised message This gospel this good news.

It is the instrument through which God effectively rescues humanity from its dire predicament. The world, dear friends, might deem it foolish. The world around us, they might laugh at us. But to those who are perishing, it's a foolish thing, born of our own hearts, people might think. Hell, this person is a weak person.

That's why he believes in Jesus Christ. That's why he is entertaining himself, he's lulling himself to sleep by these kinds of ideas. But for those who are being saved, for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ and he has saved them, it is the very power of God at work. It is the power of God unto salvation. Dear friends, the gospel is good news, finds favor, doesn't or doesn't find favor amongst renowned people, but it comes to sinners like us.

There is no other message like it. There is no other message like it. There is no other message like this good news that is in Jesus Christ. So let's think about this now. What is the gospel?

What is the gospel? We've been talking about the gospel that we should receive. And so then, dear Friends, what is this truth? What is this news that we call the gospel? What is this declaration that we call the gospel?

Because once we see that, what that is, we will also see that the cross is absolutely necessary and central. Friends, the gospel is a message which declares this truth it says this I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies I'm I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, God says. The gospel is a message preached in the world which declares this truth. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his evil ways, wicked ways, and live." The gospel is a message that is preached in the world which declares this truth that God, our Savior, will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. The gospel is a message that says that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, that he died upon the cross as the Scriptures had said, that he suffered that shameful death and he rose from the dead on that day as he had said.

And all who would trust in him, God would change their hearts, all who repent of their sins, God would forgive them of their sins. The gospel message which is declared in this world, it says the Lord is not willing that any should perish, But that all should come to repentance and the knowledge of God The gospel is a message that is preached in the world by which God declares to men and women and boys and girls That who are under his curse under his judgment It God speaks to them and he says that even though you're under my curse and judgment, nonetheless, I am not willing that men and women and boys and girls should perish. That's a marvelous statement. It's an amazing truth. You can't understand the ways of God, dear friends.

We sit here as mortals and we say, well, how can God be angry with me a sinner every day, because that's what the Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. How can God be angry with me a sinner every day? Because that's what the Bible says, God is angry with the wicked every day. How can God be angry with me a sinner who broken his law and still desire the sinner's salvation? And it is because he is just and inflexible in his justice.

It is because he is love and measureless in his love. So we can't take one of God's attributes and just focus on that. We have to take the whole person of God and who he is. Don't take one attribute, one characteristic of God, and make it the enemy of another attribute of God because they're both God's characteristic. There's a way that is past finding out.

And When we think about that, the fact that we have broken God's law and God is against us and yet the Bible says God does not desire your death. He doesn't take pleasure in the death of the wicked. How can you be saved in that situation? How can you be right with God in that situation? You can't do anything about your past.

No, you can't earn your way into God's favor. No. Therefore, I am not to be saved. I cannot be saved from below from myself but upwards upwards there is nothing anybody down here can do for a man or woman to be put right with a living God who is angry with us if I am to be saved the salvation must come from above. Downward then, God himself comes.

Down from heaven, God himself comes to save sinners, so he sends his son. So before the world was made, dear friends, the Bible says that it is in his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, he planned that Jesus Christ would come into this world, should come in time, in the fullness of time. At the right second, he came on God's clock. Jesus Christ was born of a woman, perfectly God and fully man. Not two persons but two natures in one person and that person who Who just over 2,000 years ago?

Wicked men took him by wicked hands slew him It was the Son of God who lived in the world, this world, without committing any sin because he was God and in him dwelleth the whole fullness of God bodily the Bible says. It was God in the flesh on whom they put the crown of thorns and whose arms and hands they nailed to the cross and whose feet was nailed to that cross, whose side was pierced, who bled and died. It is this son of God that they did such horrible things to him at a place called Calvary, a place of his skull. And that not happened. Did Jesus Christ have any sin of his own did he die for any sin of that he had committed no Was he under the curse of God which?

You and I are under He had no sin to die for but he died Cursed the Bible says is every man that hangeth upon a tree, hangs upon a cross. So if he died and he became a curse, he wasn't cursed for his own sins, was he? No. He was cursed for the sin of others If it was put to death, he wasn't put to death for his own sins Was he he is put to death for the sins of others? Dear friends.

I'm a finite person if God is angry with me, I must suffer infinitely. He is an infinite person. But the anger of God, that's infinite anger of God, was poured upon him, upon Jesus Christ. And that's why the Psalmist said in the words of prophecy, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And all of those words that we read in that psalm, these are the words of Christ, these are the experiences of Jesus Christ.

The sword of God's wrath was sheathed in Jesus Christ. It went into him. And so Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would give his life a ransom pay the price of sinners a ransom for many many sinners I hope you understand this the meaning of this and the practical terms of this God is angry with men and women who break his law. We have a great fine to pay. And There's a word in the Bible that Christians love.

And sadly, many modern Bible versions, they try to sort of scrub it out. It's the word propitiation from 1 John. Propitiation, it means to appease God's wrath. It means to quench God's fury. God is furious with men and women, but he has poured his fury, his wrath upon another, Jesus Christ.

And so the Christian looks to Jesus Christ, the believer in Jesus Christ, he looks to Jesus Christ and he says, he is my propitiation, he is the propitiation for my sins. He is the one upon whom God's fury was poured so that I would not bear the wrath of God. He is the love of God. Here is the love of God. Not that I loved God, the Christian says, but that he loved me and gave himself for me.

So the Christian comes with his eyes streaming, his heart breaking, and he realizes what Jesus Christ did for him on that cross. This is why the cross of Jesus Christ means so much. This is why the Christian glories in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, since Jesus was punished, God cannot punish those who trust in Jesus Christ. He puts on their account Jesus Christ's righteousness and goodness and perfection.

That's an amazing thing, dear friends. That's why the apostle Paul, he concentrates, he speaks so highly of the cross of Jesus. Not the wood, but what happened on the cross. Do you understand this? Do you really see why Jesus Christ's death was necessary?

Because you and I, we were lawbreakers. That fine that we must pay against the just demands of God, our maker, has to be born and you and I cannot pay it. And so what should we do? How can I receive this salvation? The scripture speaks about two things.

You must repent. You must repent of your sins. How can I have my sins forgiven? Look to Jesus Christ, look to his cross and repent of your sins. That's the first thing.

Which means that you you are finished with loving sin. You are finished and you've Determined with God's help to turn your back on every sin that he has shown you and what he shows you you turn your back and you you Repent by asking God for his mercy for forgiveness you sorrow over your sin and you turn away run to Jesus Christ that's what repentance is you point to yourself and say I am the guilty one I am the sinner I should pay this this price that I cannot pay I I am the one who is guilty This is what repentance is and then you must trust only in Christ you must trust in Christ fully That's the second thing You must not only repent But you must believe So if today you think the cross is very nice and a little bit of a cross and a little bit of religion will get you to heaven, you are not a Christian. If you think, well, I'll believe all that the minister is saying and I'll live the best I can and maybe both together doing my best and what he has said somehow wins me favor with God, then you're not a Christian.

A Christian, dear friends, is someone who comes with empty hands to the cross of Jesus Christ and he says, Lord, left to myself, I am certainly to be punished because there is nothing at all, nothing anywhere which can in any way commend me to thee. I rely only on the person on that living Lord Jesus who died on the cross for sinners like me. I rely only on him, that's all. On nothing else, not on my good works, not on my church activities, nothing else. I come to Christ only.

I truly trust in Christ only. I depend upon Jesus Christ only. Not on my praying, not on my activities and Bible reading, not on my time, but on him. I don't just turn from my sins, I turn even from my efforts to be in favor with you to Jesus Christ. Dear friends, if a sinner that God saves, do you know he transforms them, he changes them?

Repentance has to do with a change of life, change of direction, Change of mind, change of attitude. These are the fruits of repentance. You see, this is the thing that many people say they believe and they say some words of being sorry, but their life doesn't change. They remain the same. And then so what are we?

Are we any better than those those demons who believe in God? No, we are no better than them. So listen dear friends, I want to close with this. That it was on a cross that Jesus died on. A Christian comes to that cross of Jesus by faith to be saved.

A Christian goes on and he has a cross, God gives him a cross to bear each day. He goes on in this life, in this world, not going with the flow, but goes against the grain of everything in this world. Because he's going somewhere else. He's not going with that broad road that is leading to destruction, but he's going in that road that Jesus Christ has gone. The road to heaven.

He's depending on Jesus Christ every day. Yes, he may be called a fanatic, a religious person, a nut, but his glory is in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves the Lord Jesus. He loves the fact that he hears this wonderful good news. He loves to hear the fact that neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Oh my friends, go away with those thoughts on your mind. But remember what the Bible says. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. You may go away this morning but remember that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

You may go away but you must remember that whosoever shall call upon the Lord, he shall be saved. Remember that. And go away praying to God and putting yourself in a place of a repentant or penitent sinner and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Go to the cross of Jesus Christ by faith. Go and trust in the one who died for sinners like us.

And God has promised to save and to forgive, to give life to those who come to him, to his cross, with glory and the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.