Understanding the Cross: The Key to Salvation

Philip, an evangelist and the Deacon of the church, had been working in Samaria, had been working very successfully. Large numbers of people had believed the gospel and had been baptized, and we're told that there was great joy in their city. But suddenly, an angel of God addresses him, telling him to arise and to go toward the Sabbath unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert. [00:00:28]

Philip is told by the Spirit, "Go near and join thyself to this chariot." And Philip did so, and when he reached the chariot, he put his famous question to this great man, the Ethiopian eunuch: "Understandest thou what thou readest?" Let me say it again, that's the biggest question you'll ever face in this world. Here it is, the Word of God. Do you understand it? Do you know what it's saying everywhere? [00:01:52]

The world doesn't understand it tonight after the passage of all these centuries, with all the advance of knowledge and all the understanding that science has given us. And quoting the modern man, we are as far from understanding this as this Ethiopian eunuch was. Why? Well, because, as the Apostle Paul puts it to the Corinthians, these things are spiritually discerned. [00:05:48]

The cross is offensive, and that's the thing that comes out in that fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. We looked at it last Sunday night, the terrible suffering. His visage was marred. The cross is ugly. It is powerless, telling them the agony, the suffering. We notice the way in which it's all prophesied there and the way in which, when you read the latter chapters of the Gospels, you see it described in detail. [00:09:51]

The first explanation of why he had to endure and suffer all that is the state and the condition of men by nature. Here's the way we begin to understand it. He was innocent, yet he suffered. Why did he suffer? It is because of us. He was wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. [00:13:15]

The whole world lieth guilty before God. The whole world, both sides of the Iron Curtain, guilty before God. It doesn't matter what political party you belong to, doesn't matter what social class you belong to, doesn't matter the wealth you have. The whole world lieth guilty before God. This is the thing that matters, not the superficial divisions and distinctions. [00:24:11]

The world is not as it was meant to be. This is the first thing we've all got to sense within us. It's a person of the restlessness, which is a misunderstanding as to what it is meant to be. What the world thinks it's meant to be is this: the wars are banished so that we can all go on using our money to buy food and drink and sex. [00:30:53]

The world doesn't understand itself. It doesn't understand life. It has no purpose. It has no sense of direction. It has no goal. But you know, my friend, the world was not meant to be like this. The world has gone astray. It's missed the mark. It's lost. It is in the wilderness, and this is the whole tragedy. [00:31:56]

The world is between her, but each is trying to find a way out. Each is seeking for a way of relief, and it's exactly like sheep rushing along here, one forward, one backward, all in different directions. There's your mankind with all its learning and sophistication, but no direction, no answer, no solution. [00:34:48]

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment which we deserve, was put upon him, and so we have peace. My dear friend, it had happened because of our transgressions, because of our iniquities, because of our helplessness and hopelessness. We tell he has to come when these come, and he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. [00:52:52]

This is the glory and the wonder of this way of salvation, that it doesn't ask me to attempt into his say things that are impossible to me. It simply asks me to say this: not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone. [00:53:39]

He had to come. He had to die to bear the guilt and punishment of our sins, and he's done it. That's what Philip said to the Ethiopian eunuch. The man said, "I believe. Can I be baptized?" And he was baptized, and he went on his way rejoicing. He will remain miserable, filled with griefs and sorrows, iniquities and transgressions, until you likewise believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:54:50]