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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/the-cross-2/
Let's speak to God in prayer. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to Thee in the name of Thy Son, and we do thank Thee for the cross of the Lord Jesus. We thank Thee that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, and the very means and mission that would accomplish that fact was the cross, the death of the cross.
I think of the sufferings of the cross. We thank Thee for the Savior of the cross. The cross itself has no power, but we think of the one who died upon it. We think of the one who gave himself. We think our Father of the available, actual Savior who is ready, able, and willing tonight to save.
And so we pray for those in attendance tonight, even at this meeting now this afternoon, and we ask, O God, that hearts might be touched, that ears might be opened, that there would be a quietness and an attention that would be paid, because this could be the very last meeting, the very last opportunity for someone.
And we ask, O God, that the Spirit of God would move mightily in our midst tonight, and that there would be an awakening, and that even souls younger or older that have been asleep and have been in their sins and have put this matter off might tonight be so stirred in this meeting that there would be an awareness that they could really perish in their sins if they are not saved.
And so we know as well that the coming of the Lord is drawing near. We see events in this world. We see them colliding and coming in such a way to show the absolute tremors, as it were, in this world.
We think our Father of pestilences. We think of wars. We think of this world that is literally rocking and reeling under the effects of sin, the mismanagement of this world under the hands of men. And we know that the only place for a human being to turn for peace and for safety is to the Lord Jesus Himself.
And so we do ask that today this meeting would be crowned with a soul more and more. And our Father, that this meeting would be paid attention to. We thank Thee for everyone that stayed. Pray that Thou would bless each one.
And those of us who are saved, our hearts might be encouraged as we think of the cost of what the Lord Jesus was willing to pay for us. And there might be an appreciation for Him once again that would well up in our hearts.
So we ask and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. John chapter 19, John's Gospel chapter 19. John 19 and verse 16,. Then delivered He Him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led Him away.
And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull. 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18,. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. What you are going to hear this afternoon, let me just pause for a moment, and let me ask you as you weigh out what you're going to hear, you are going to look at it in one of two ways.
You are going to look at it either with the seriousness that it deserves, a real Savior, real suffering, a real cross, or you're going to look at it as just dismissive, doesn't make sense, it's not for me.
Foolishness. The preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness. So that how you evaluate and think about the preaching of the cross will determine, it should be a very good indicator, where you stand in light of eternity.
You're either perishing or the second part of the verse says, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Let's go over to Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2 and verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, so that what God is saying here is that the law which was given, it was actually against you.
The law did not commend people, it condemned people, and yet those things which were against us, those things which exposed our sin, and then it says here, he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
I want to speak in this last meeting about the cross. The cross, there are well-known symbols of things in this world. One of them was mentioned in the Bible reading, the skull and crossbones. When you see that, you think of something that is poisonous, it's telling you of a danger.
There's a symbol and it's clear what that symbol represents. You can have a heart, someone shows you a heart and you might see that. Immediately what might come to your mind in the picture of that heart is not the organ inside your chest because it doesn't look anything like that, but love.
When you think about a peace sign or a swastika, you think of two totally opposite things. There are things that we see that automatically bring before our minds truth. It's sad that the world has lost the thud of the reality of this symbol, the cross.
People use it for jewelry, they put it in their ears, they put it on their chests. The Bible makes it clear what the cross actually represents, what it is symbolic of. So we have in the Bible the preeminent picture in the cross.
When people saw a person carrying a cross, when they knew what was going to happen, that there was a man that was going to die, he was going to suffer. It was a picture of death, a picture of something that would be so horrific, so weighty.
Not talking about someone that would die in their sleep, not talking about someone that would simply have an accident. This was intentional, this was specific, this was directed, and behind it was the hand of government.
Government that had pronounced a sentence upon an individual, a criminal, and it was a preeminent picture that that man was going to die. That is exactly what the Bible is telling us right from the beginning.
Maybe God didn't use a cross at the very beginning, but there was definite pictures of death, a savior that would have to come to die. Not to live a life, but to die. Because right from the beginning of our Bible, there is something called sin.
It is in every one of us, from the youngest little girl, to the oldest man. It doesn't matter, it's moved through, it's woven itself throughout every aspect of this world. It has permeated society, but the problem is it is your sin, your sin.
Now, this audience is divided, not into men and women, boys and girls, tall and short. No, that's not what it's divided today. It's divided into two glasses of people. One class of people has recognized, we have seen that we have sinned against God, and our sins have taken us away from God, and we needed a savior, we needed Christ, and we trusted Him.
There is another group of people, and you are still in your sins. Your sin is not only in you, it is on you. God sees it, God knows it, and you have yet to recognize the tremendous reality of what your sin, your sin is doing to you.
Preeminent picture in a cross is the death of an individual for crime, and he suffered it in such a terrible way. But I want you to think of, in the cross of Christ, there was a horrible death, there was suffering, but there was no criminal, because he had never sinned, he never could sin.
He was dying there in the place of me, and people who are saved in this meeting recognize, he died there for my sins. He took my place. That's the preeminent picture that God wants to show us, but I want you to think there's something else.
There was a public pronouncement in a cross, a public pronouncement, that there was something that was seen here that was so clearly given. The apostles in the book of Acts, you remember that they went everywhere, they turned the world upside down with their preaching.
It'd be something if we could do that. I have experienced difficulty in a gospel meeting trying to turn the world upside down to an audience, but those men and women, they went out and they, by their lives, by their change, their whole perspective, it was an entire paradigm shift of what they saw and who they had.
And in a world that was governed by Rome and manipulated by the devil, here was a group of people that had made a public proclamation by the very life that they lived, by the truth that they embraced, by the Savior that they bowed to and trusted.
They were saying, we have recognized this, that God made a public pronouncement of condemnation upon this world and what I was. And I have changed sides. They said this thing was not done in a corner.
That the death of Christ on that cross was an extremely public thing. God was literally exposing not only his heart from the vault of heaven, but he was exposing the emptiness, the shallowness, the sinfulness of this world as he condemned in its entirety.
And you know what he's doing too? He's telling you tonight, today, he has condemned you. It's a public pronouncement, a public statement. You know, the truth of the cross though, the truth of the death of Christ happened in one day, but its truth is timeless.
Creation, as great as it was, as great as creation was, was completed in six days. But the cross, the cross was in the heart of God from eternity past. And when it came to that day on Skull Hill, that God was making a public pronouncement that this was in my heart.
That this is the means of saving lost humanity, of dealing with individuals, of reaching out to them and telling them that I will stop at nothing to bring you to me. I will hold back nothing. And in the giving of my own son, in heaven itself, having to watch publicly, men take his beloved son, Christ, and spit on him and crucify him and put a crown of thorns upon him, lead him outside the city that he so loved.
And the hand of man, as Pilate washed his hands and then decreed that he should be taken out and crucified. Let me tell you something, it wasn't the hands of Pilate that dictated that that day. There was a hand that was moving that was far greater than a Roman procurator.
There were the hands of God. And it was moving in a public statement to say that I hate sin, but I love you deeply and I will do everything I can, everything that is necessary, so that your sins can be forgiven and paid for righteously.
And you can be brought to me. Now my question today is this, do you want to be brought to God? Because if you don't want to be brought to God, you won't be. If you want other things, if you would like to be brought to other people, other places, other things, if you have other plans, can I just tell you today, right now, you are making the absolute foolish decision of your life.
You are trading time for eternity. You are trading the worthless for the invaluable. You are trading the puny for the priceless. And you are missing out on the greatest gift ever and the greatest person ever, God's salvation.
You are literally doing what those people did that day as they passed by. And prophetically they said, God said about them, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? How many people today in this meeting will leave who are lost and you will pass by the cross?
You will literally pass by the Christ that has been crucified, the Savior that has suffered, and you will say, He is not enough for me. I want more. But let me tell you something, your more is less. Your more is absolutely less.
There were people that day that passed by. There were soldiers that actually had a hand. Talk about being close to the cross, being so close to the cross and yet so far from the Christ. There were men that gambled for His clothing that day at the cross.
There were men that wanted what He had but not Him. They wanted what He could give but not Him. So is there someone in this meeting and you would like to have certain things in life but you don't want Christ?
And God is making a public statement, public pronouncement. It is also a priceless payment. But it wasn't just a priceless payment, it was a permanent payment. This wasn't a down payment, this was a payment in full.
And when the Lord Jesus died, that is the great news about the cross, about the death of Christ. The payment has been made in full. There's no more suffering to do, not on His part. But we see suffering in the world all the time, suffering because of sin and there will be eternal suffering.
Jude speaks about cities that were set aside as examples of eternal suffering, of eternal vengeance. The charred remains of them and the wrath of God that came down upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving them as an indelible mark of the power of God and His condemnation upon sin.
And there will be people that will suffer eternally. I look out at, when I preach the gospel, I look out at people and I have to think, God forbid, that anybody in this audience, anybody, I don't care, one person, loses your soul and suffers forever in the depths of a real hell, a real place that God will forever condemn you to being lost because you would not trust His Son.
You wanted your sins, you wanted what they gave and now you have it forever. And all the while a permanent payment was made by the death of Christ Himself, the cross. He, bearing His cross, went forth.
You know, there were many crosses. Rome did not. I know we read about three men that died and we sing, three crosses standing side by side, a broken law sign. But I will tell you this, that was one day, one time.
Rome never dealt with retail crucifixions. They dealt with wholesale. There were many, many people that were crucified. Many, many people. But it specifically says, He bearing His cross. There was one singular person and one special cross that one day mattered forever to God.
And there are those in this meeting today and it matters for us. It was a permanent payment, a priceless provision by Christ Himself. I want you to think, just as I close, of the permanent prospects of this cross.
The permanent prospects of this cross. Because the cross is not just an event. The cross is a boundary line between two worlds. The cross is a dissection between time and eternity. The cross is a divider between men and families and husbands and wives and worlds.
Something that was so insignificant that day has eternal consequences, permanent prospects, saved or lost. And yet what the Lord Jesus did that day divides humanity. So if you died tonight or if the Lord came today, where would you be?
You know, I think there are people that get so used to hearing that question in a gospel meeting that it just kind of rolls off your back. If you died today, where would you be? I really believe that there are people that don't even think twice about that question.
You just think, I know it's coming. Wait for it. Wait for it. Yeah, okay. If I died, but really think about that. If the Lord came today, before you got to your house, can you imagine coming from a gospel meeting where you heard about the cross, you heard about the death of Christ, you heard about the payment that was made, and you didn't take it.
You didn't want it. You really didn't want it. It wasn't more than anything else. It wasn't more important to you. You think maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe when I'm a little older, I've tried a few things, then I'll get it.
And now, all of a sudden, it is all beyond your reach. It is all out of your reach forever. You really don't think it's going to happen. You think life will just go on. The permanent prospects to this.
Think about what happened that day. I want to leave this with you. When the Lord Jesus made that payment in full, when the nails, the spikes were in his hands, when the crown was upon his head, when the spit was upon his face, when the darkness came upon the day, and after men had dealings with him, God had dealings with him to make him the very object of punishment and suffering.
And God would actually vent, I say it reverently and carefully, exhaust his wrath upon Christ so that there would be nothing for me to experience if I trust him. So that I could be absolutely free from any punishment, any payment, be totally justified, released.
A child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom, one who God himself is my father because of what his son did on that cross. There are a lot of cheap substitutes. There are a lot of things that people will go in for, hoping to get some relief, some enjoyment.
They never deliver. You know, there are even cheap substitutes with the cross. In fact, every year in the Philippines, in Manila, there are those that actually crucify themselves. I was reading an account of one man named Reuben Anahe.
He's 58 years old and he is looking forward to this last year, Easter is coming up, and every Easter he re-enacts the crucifixion. He's done it, this will be his 33rd year, and he's giving up in his 33rd year because he says, well, the Lord was here 33 years, so I'm going to do it in my 33rd time.
33 times. He says, it is a tremendous way to express my faith in God. He's missed out on the absolute truth that there was one who expressed his love. It says he's looking now for a successor, a successor who will be worthy to carry on the tradition.
He says that when he does this, it takes about two weeks for the wounds to heal. But he says, it's a small price to pay if I can re-enact what was done 2 ,000 years ago. Let me tell you something. It might take him two weeks for those wounds to heal, but there is one who died and those wounds are still there.
Those marks are still there and they will never disappear. And it was said today, if you were listening, that everyone is going to see those marks. Everyone's going to see that man saved and lost. The difference is this.
Those of us that are saved will keep seeing them. Those who are lost, you'll see them once and you'll be gone. So ask yourself right now as you sit in that seat, will it be worth it? Will it be worth it for me to lose my soul?
For me to stay in my sins? For me to be lost forever? Or is that cross, the Christ who died, isn't that enough for my sins to be all forgiven? Isn't what God has done, what God has done in Christ enough to pay for every one of my sins?
To provide salvation? You see the difference now is this. The preaching of the cross, what I have just done and what I am about to end, is foolishness to them that perish. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
So ask yourself, why am I not saved? What do I want more as you stay in your sins? Let's pray. Father, we come into thy presence again at the close of this meeting and we thank thee for the Lord Jesus.
When we think of that death, the suffering that was that was experienced by our Savior, we think of how much he was willing to do, how much he did, what he experienced. We thank thee that in that cross that God did nail, take away and nail it out of the way, that which was against us, that which was contrary to us.
We give thanks, Father, that in that cross and in that death there is the full payment for sin. We do pray that there would be those that would trust the Lord Jesus, that they would turn and take him, that they wouldn't allow other things, cheap substitutes and distractions and derailments and desires of life, rob them and take them away from what really is most important and what will matter forever, the salvation of their soul.
And so we ask these things, thanking thee for the Savior. Our Father, now we do give thanks for the refreshment that awaits us too. Thank thee for providing for us and we thank thee for this conference and this weekend that we've been so blessed to be with our brothers and sisters.
We give thanks, our Father, for the assembly here and we pray that they might be blessed and encouraged as a result of their labors and the Word of God going forth and that Christ might be honored in what we do even more as we have learned that which will please God and what God delights in.
So we ask these things, praying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.