Calvary — John Ridley

From the most precious place on earth, Luke 23, 33, the place which is called Calvary. The place which is called Calvary. Now there's only a rightful text on Good Friday Night. All our thoughts today have been focused more or less upon the crucifixion of our Lord.

And the closing hours of the day we come to the place called Calvary. Then early one cold winter's morning in 1919, I arose from a motionless bed in the main hall of the YMCA Brussels, and began to work my limbs to get the blood circulating after a freezing night.

I'd just about been frozen in those two beds with my great coat over me, and I worked my muscles to get the activity going once more, and then picked up my habit back, put on the great coat, and launched out into the dark streets of the Belgian capital.

I walked for some time through those streets in the gloom of the morning, early morning, and came at last to a waiting tram car the light was on, the day hadn't broken. And I boarded that tram car and settled down and waited for some time, and just as the day broke, we started off.

And we paddled the best part of half an hour. And then the star filled up. And I arrived at a place called Waterloo. My visibly faded dress that I wore, the cobblestones of that old Swedish village, feeling in the words of Lord Byron, my friend, what upon an empire's dust, quivers and shivers of excitement went running up and down my spine as I thought of Waterloo, Waterloo at last.

Why was I excited? Well, you see, when I was studying to be a regular soldier, I studied that battle five times thoroughly. I lectured on advance to a goodly country of people, on the centenary of the battle, and now I reached the place, and I was just filled with excitement, just an earthly battlefield where the destinies of nations had been decided.

Calvary as the Supreme Battlefield

But what of this battlefield, where the destinies of poles are decided? Tell me. The place which is called Calvary. Why, the very word has a sob in it, a throb in it, a poke in it, that quickens the heart and brings the tear to the eye if you've got a soul to think at all.

Calvary. Calvary. And that's the place where we've come to tonight. What kind of a place is it, this Calvary? Well, it's a place of pain and pain-box. That's the birthplace, a place of pain and pain-box.

Where? There they crucify. There they crucify. I know quite well there have been many places of pain apart from Calvary. Well, I could take you in spirit to the Roman Colosseum, where the martyrs were thrown to the lions and the lacerates and other wild beasts and torn to pieces in excruciating agony.

I could show you the place called Smithfield in old England, where the fires burned around the Christian martyrs and some of them sizzled slowly to death. Place of pain. I could take you where I went once, down the Red River in Mississippi and to treasure the cotton fields where some of those slaves before the American Civil War gathered in the cotton.

Beneath the lap of the past master and under the burning sun and with poor food. A place of pain. I could take you beyond the battlefield. Oh, what a place of pain. Before a fellow said to me on the morning of Morland Corps in 1918 as he was carried in, sadly wounded, Oh John, I'm in pain, I'm in pain.

And I could only think to whisper to him, Oh joy that teaches me through pain. I cannot close my heart to thee. It's gone, it's left. In a few moments lately it's passed to eternity. I remember another place that seldom would, or the devils would by those that fought there, when I saw big, strong, hefty men sitting in the aid station crying like babies.

Tears rolling down their faces with the pain of treachery. Agonising pain. Poorer than other places of pain that they tell me. You go to the hospital once a night, you see that sufferer that has just been operated on or has just been knocked over in some accident and see the pain, hear the cry, oh, with an injection to relieve the pain.

The Agony of Crucifixion

You go to David, as he writes the fifty-first psalms. It's a place of pain alright. Oh, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. So it's Peter, as he goes out to the high priest's forum on the morning of Calvary, weeping as though his heart would break.

It's a place of pain, and a broken heart. I know, you're right, there are many places of pain besides Calvary, but when you come to Calvary, you come to the apex of pain. There, they crucify him, and crucifixion was the deadliest death known to the ancient world.

It not only killed the person slowly, but it evades them. It dragged every bone out of joint. It treats the body in an abominable way. It creates a purge that dries the whole person up like a potsherd, withers the person.

It brought an agony to the suffering loss of blood, and the increasing weakness of the system, and yet the poor victim staggers on often for near three days before death came, and one of the miracles of Calvary was that in six hours, the Lord had finished it all and dismissed his death, and Pilate couldn't believe that he was killed already after six hours.

Crucifixion was pain. Calvary, a wretched place, a place of disgust, a place of degradation. By one occasion, you know, in my travels I had a remarkable experience. I was taken down into the vaults of the church, right into those solemn vaults underneath the church, and the guy took us to a great big opening, got a very pleasant smell about the place, a musty smell,.

And he led us into this opening of one of the vaults,.

And he said, Now, these bodies at the hands of a man 800 years dead, have them. Oh, and I heard some of the people exclaiming certain words of disgust, but I stepped forward and took his hand. Didn't feel very wholesome, you know.

But I had it the only opportunity in my life that I was at the hands of a man dead 800 years. Something in the atmosphere of that old church preserved their body.

It was an eerie feeling, I tell you.

We were glad to get out into the bright sunshine. Oh, Calgary, the place of the dead. I want to tell you, when you come to Calgary, dear friends, you come to the very town and towns of sin. All its camouflage, all its clothes, all its top measures, are nude.

And you're facing this horrible.

Skeleton of the skeleton.

You come to the debauchery of what sin really is.

There you see him, whom you know sin, beginning to taste that great taste of sin that he made. He thirsted for our wonderful lives and him. He was pierced for our pollution against him and his father.

He was forsaken for our vileness. He entered darkness because of our dark iniquity. Calgary, where they crucified him. All that paints us on it, that he who knew no sin, he who did nothing worthy of death, could come to a death so debased and defiling as Calvin.

Calvary, Propitiation, and Pardon

What wondrous love. Have you come to that place, young man, that young woman? Have you yet come to that place of pain? Could you say in very truth, I may not know, I cannot tell what pains he had to bear.

But I believe it was for me he hung, he suffered there. Have you done that? Well then, you might be able to say, and after years, the son of God rose to earth and said, Adolf Monod, great French pastor, the one whose death bed went into deep and deadly pain, prolonged pain, until at last he cried out to those around his bedside, it's the desert in the morning, it's Gethsemane in the afternoon, it's Golgotha at night.

Ah, well, he said, it's the desert with Christ, it's Gethsemane with Christ, it's Golgotha with Christ, and that's better than the pleasures of sin for a thief. That's faithfulness. That's triumphant faith.

To go to Calvary with Christ, to suffer with Christ.

And for Christ's sake, is better than the pleasures of sin for a thief than Calvary.

That's how it feels with sin. I remember coming on one occasion to a certain place in Melbourne with my brother Mr. Bess, some of you know Walter Bess, a real hallelujah man, and we got to the end of all of this mass where I was to stay, and Brother Bess brought my bags in, and they'd been staying over in another place, and as he put them down at the door waiting, the minister said, oh come in, come in Mr. Bess, come in for a while, and he came in, and he came in singing Calvary covers it all, Calvary covers it all, that was his introduction to the place, and the minister, the hallelujah man, stood back and looked at me as he went singing down the center of the aisle, and he said, I don't know, I don't know what you call it, whether it is the second blessing or whether it is extreme holiness or perfect love, but whatever it is, he's got it all right, he's got it, Calvary covers it all, that was God's deadly, devilish, hellish thing, if you're prepared to come to Calvary, sincerely, wholeheartedly, it covers it all, it was painful, that's the place called Calvary, and then I come to a place and you come to a place of propitiation, and pardon, that's a big word, propitiation, but unless there is propitiation, there's no pardon, what does propitiation mean for us, you say, well it simply means appeased for, expiated, made favorable, you come to a place where Christ has been made a propitiation, an appeasement, for you, for me, where Christ is an explanation for your sins, where Christ is a mercy to you, where God alone will give you mercy, when you bow before Christ, you know it was in the midst of that Calvary drama, in all the crying, sadness, in all the storm of rage that surrounded those crosses, that Jesus heard the crying, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom, a manifacturer, a ruffian, a ruffian, he's crying out, let it back, the scepter of the sergeant of the age group, it's turned to that poor dying manifacturer, where will they say unto thee today, shout out to you with me in paradise, God will forgive them, God will cover them, Calvary covers it all, why?

Why you say, preacher, I'm not a robber? You're not a robber, you sure? No, you're a straggler, not a thief, you sure of that? Will a man rob God? That's what the prophet asked, will a man rob God? Think again, did you ever rob God, the beloved of reverence?

Did you ever come into a holy place, and it's a place of prayer, lightly, differently, rushing in and out of his presence, and robbing the presence? Did you ever rob God of devotion? Worship, that is, holy worship.

Did you ever rob God of service? Him only, shalt thou serve, is in the commandment, did you ever rob him of service, and do your own service before him? Did you ever rob God of love? Answer me. Thou shalt love the Lord, great God, with all thy heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.

Have you done it? No, like me, you've robbed him of love. You've robbed him of obedience. Walk before me and be thou perfect, he said. You have him walk before him uprightly in perfection. You've robbed him of obedience many a time.

You had an idea it was his will, you had an idea that would please him, but you didn't do it. You've had the power of Christ drawing you, but now you refuse to rob him of obedience. Oh, how many other things, time, and talents, we've robbed him of.

And as the prophet well said, you are cursed, you're a curse, be ever of me. All this whole nation, a curse. A curse isn't a nice thing to come upon one, but when it's a curse from God, and I tell you the human race, dear friends, is under the curse, until Calvary removes the curse.

And when Jesus went to Calvary, the novel of it was this, that he gave his reverence for our irreverence. He gave his devotion for our lack of devotion. He gave his obedience for our disobedience. He gave his divine service for our disservice.

He gave his loyalty for our disloyalty. He gave his infinite love for our lovelessness. He gave his love for our deadly sins. He gave his blood for our badness. So that the curse might be removed. And he, as a propitiation, could express for the curse the emerging thing.

For every prodigal penitent. Oh, how well has one great saint written the words, death and the curse were in our cup. All Christ was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. It is empty now for me, that stripper cup, love drank of us.

Now blessings drop for me. That's when you come to pardon. Have you been pardoned your sins? Has the curse been removed? Have you honestly come to Calvary as a prodigal? As one of knowledge? God's been merciful to me, a sinner.

We received a due reward of our deeds, but Jesus did nothing of it. This is the year 1756.

That's a good way back, 1756,.

Because this is 1956. So I doubt you like it right, that's 200 years back. And yet men were just as blind then as today, and old women were just as blind in heart. And here's a poor sensitive fellow. He lost his mother when he was seven years of age.

And he was sent to a harsh school. The bullies were holding him, and bullied him, and held over him, as sick as it were, and slapped him constantly. And the poor fellow, in fray of health, dreaded and feared every day at school, until at last the whole nervous system was broken to pieces.

And that poor fellow entered into melancholy, melancholy, and into deep depression. The garden was always in sin. Oh my sin, oh sin, my sin.

And then his mind collapsed.

William Cowper and Justification by Faith

And in the goodness of God, he went into Dr. Cotton's private mental asylum, and Dr. Cotton was a kind man, one of the few in those days. And Dr. Cotton treated him tenderly, flogged and helped him. Flogged him, more or less, up out of his depression, and still there was a shadow.

And then one day after breakfast, in 1766, he opened the Bible that he'd been flinging across the room, in his tantrums, and his anger. And he opened it just at random, and read these words in Romans 3, 24, 25, being justified, relieved, by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God, Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be of profound vitiation, emergency, expiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins of the past, through the forebearance of God.

And he held that, the clouds rose, and the sunlight shined through upon him. And I saw the sufficiency of the atonement. I said, let's make pardon in Christ's blood. Immediately, I believed, and I received the gospel,.

And William Calper was born again, in a mental asylum.

He used to say afterwards, sure, I was the only man ever saved in a madhouse. And the grand heart was saved so splendidly, that he wrote some hymns that we will never forget. There is a fountain filled with life, long from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that blood, lose all their goodness.

This is the propitiation, you see. 1756. And when I go back to that portion in Romans 3, verses 24 and 25, I find that Martin Luther said, the central truth of the Bible. Another great writer, Dr. Darwin said, that's the very foundation of the Christian faith.

And Calvin declared, it was one of the richest passages of God's Word. It was his act to come upon propitiation. Someone had appeased, propitiated, met the law, fulfilled it, and made himself a mercy suit for poor William Calper.

I wonder if you've come to that mercy suit. Some of you don't even think you want mercy. I want to tell you, dear friend, that you've got no merit whatsoever. You've been pitying yourself, you've been pouring out your tears over yourself, you've been coming to God saying, oh, have pity upon me, I'm just a poor helpless kind of thing, and I never really bothered about the gospel much, but I am depending on your pity, that won't save you, my dear friend.

You've got to come to a mercy suit for this age. You've got to seek God's mercy at Calvary, where his son was brought as a propitiator. A mercy suit. A propitiator, an exegete, has got the moral things to display up for the sin to the worse.

Have you done? Well then, I'll tell you something else that we'd like to oppose, you'll find Calvary is not only a place of propitiation and pardon, pain and paper, it's a place of peace and profession.

Peace Through the Blood of the Cross

Peace and profession. He has made peace, therefore, through the blood of his cross. He has made peace through the blood of his cross. Oh, peace is the precious thing, you know, peace of heart, I mean.

To feel sin's forgiveness. To feel that you've got a paper clear to mansions in the sky. To feel that God is favourable to you. Oh, that's peace. That's why the ancient Emaphas said to Job, acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace.

Get to know God and be at peace. But how could I do that? said Job. I can't. If I plunge my hand in snow water and wash them they'll be never so clean yet. Yet he would abhor me. Oh, for some day's man between us that could lay his hands on both of us and bring us together.

Christ is the day and night. Christ is the peacemaker between God and man Christ brings us together. Oh, wondrous peace. And then we begin to sing, you know. Really sing from the heart. After supper, after the broken bread and the poured out wine, they sang a hymn.

After Calvary comes Resurrection and Pentecost. Psalms of victory, people who like singing. The Englishmen love singing a song about England. Thy land, my land, Westland, Westland, England. I remember going up the channel in 1949 on a ship and a number of English people were going back.

They couldn't stand Australia. They'd been out here and they were just laughing and looking and then they saw the coastline.

Dear old England, they said. And then they started to hum.

There'll always be an England and England will be free. Yeah, they love the songs of England. But the Scotsman wasn't so impressed about that at all. He liked to sing of the souls of dying long in remains though they be but simple, poor, enslaved folks.

But the Irishman had no time for that. He's not got some time to rally his age, folks. But he thinks that when the mountains and morn roll down to the sea that satisfies the Irishman with a mate for Killarney.

And then when you come to Australia, well, I don't know what satisfies them. It seems to me Waltzing Matilda's the only thing that satisfies them. They ought to get something better. But the Christian, oh, the Christian sings that of Calvary.

Professing Faith at the Cross

The Christian sings the highest songs of praise to Calvary. When I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Northern Ireland watched at him from the matrimony of the 10 in the morning of his death, that's a grand hymn, none better.

Rock of ages left for me that yet I myself can be in the cross of Christ, thank Lord, towering the rest of time. Beneath the cross of Jesus, I claim, would take my stand. The Christian sings that of Calvary.

It is but a song in the heart. The band in pain came right up to the place called Calvary with a great brand on his heart. But when he looked up and saw the cross and the three shining figures, the burden rolled away and tumbled down and down and disappeared into the sacrifice.

Barely did he carry my sins far away. War speaks with God when you come through with your family, but you've got to come.

And when you come, you've got to profess before the world that you are on the crucifix, that you're on the side of the crucified. Well, that's what happened to Calvary, dear friends.

But when they were against him, you know, the vast majority had howled into the cross. The vast majority sneered at him three times. They said, if thou be the Son of God, if thou be the King of Israel, if thou be the Christ.

They were against him. But there were a few folks that made their stand at Calvary. Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night at last, comes to Jesus by day with a hundred pound weight upon him. He's got a way from the dark to the light.

Calvary. Joseph, a man of fear, a secret disciple, a fear of the Jews, comes right out into the open and takes the body of Jesus, holds him high in a seat. The brave act.

And the bravest that you read of in the New Testament. The officer in charge of the execution squad forgetting all his allegiance to Rome, crying out,.

Certainly this was a righteous man, truly this was the Son of God. These are the vital moments of the story of Calvary before we close. I shall close with this story which is full, full of instructions if you're willing to take it, full of teaching if you'll accept it.

Priscilla Stewart’s Conversion

I was in Northern Ireland in the year 1950 and I went to a certain place with a friend and he said to me as we looked at the strange old meeting house where Quakers used to meet, he said, yes there was a school there years ago Mr. Ridley and it was attended at that time by Priscilla Stewart.

She used to go there. Now would that mean anything to you? Priscilla Stewart went to a certain place along the school in Northern Ireland. But thank God it meant something to me. Oh, I said, is that so?

That's interesting. She went there. That's what I said, that she went there to school. But she didn't embrace the Quaker picture. She grew up in her well-to-do happy home amongst girls and with plenty of cousins and friends, carefree and determined that she'd never bow to Jesus Christ.

She just decided inwardly that she would not surrender to Jesus Christ come what might. At 16 years of age certain godly men were in the home and one of them after speaking to her sisters finally said a little word to Priscilla about the Lord Jesus.

She said, why didn't you speak to me before? He said, I thought you were too wicked to speak to you before. She said, that was at 16. What I was at 18 can be imagined. I had developed to be a scoffer and a mocker.

A scoffer and a mocker. Then she said, I went to stay with a certain woman who had much sorrow in her life but was a beautiful character who bore the fraught of her sorrow so splendidly and made no complaint lived so radiantly and she said on one occasion her husband or rather her father came and asked her to attend the Salvation Army mission and he said, I couldn't go but my friends would go.

Priscilla said, talk about a dog in heaven. Well I have and she said, I have to go to that Salvation Army and sit up there on the platform she said with that band and those masses all around me with their tambourines playing she said I felt that annoyed about it all but no one asked me what I was saying and I came back she said and went on in my reckless way and then I read what General Booth told about the vision he had of people sinking in the sea from a wreck and holding up their hands as a part of his raft and then suddenly the waves were slashing over them and he heard that the roars were coming and there was little times that snatched them up and some of them fell off and it made an impression upon me and she put it back out of her mind and then changed that experience when she went to her last ball and she was challenged by her cousins to smoke six cigarettes one after the other and she said I took on my wife and went home in the early hours of the morning and went to bed she said tired out and dropped into a deep sleep.

And then I'd read and I was playing tennis with some of these girls she said having great fun and suddenly I saw walking across the tennis court Jesus Christ I knew his face so well there was sadness and sorrow and he pointed his hand at me and he said don't ever depart from me.

I never knew you she said. I turned round with a laugh come on and I said we'll all go to hell together. And she said the court was vacant. Not a friend was there and there opened up to me a vision of hell so terrifying that even in my sleep I was trembling with it and awoke.

And she said wherever I went the next few days I heard a voice depart from me. I never knew you. When I opened the book to read I read immediately depart from me. I never knew you. And she said I resisted.

And then I went down to see my aunt and we were together there with a number of girls talking and somebody spoke about visions and I told them about the general truth of having this vision. And then somebody said yes.

And dreams come from God to old butlers. She said dreams come from God. I said you agree my hat before she couldn't stop herself. She was into this vivid dream that she couldn't get rid of and she saw her aunt looking at her severely and she said I know what's going to happen now.

I'll get a good extra command after this. And she said I'll stop that laughing. Don't look so frightened. I said that wasn't God. That was too much lobster and champagne for supper. That's all. And it was the roar of laughter.

That's what you laugh now. That's the roar of laughter. The auntie said Priscilla if ever anyone has had a bit of patience and warning from God. You have give yourself to Jesus. She rose she walked to the end of the room she fell on her knees and she lifted up her heart to get to Jesus.

And she was conscious of something by her side. She knew it she said so what's this game. You said three months ago you were never coming to this. Now. What's the game she said. I knew it was a game and I knew that I was a friend of his the best of them.

And I cried out oh save me from hell she said. Some people say they're never saved by fear. I was she said. I heard a voice so sweet and loving that I cried what is it you want. They all broke break them in a lung in the side combed up the tail and said it was all sin and deep chasms of sin.

And I couldn't get across them. Then she said I seemed to see out of that chasm of God. And as I just stretched upon that floor so near that I could touch his feet and I cried why were you there. And he said I was wounded for your transgression.

I was bruised for your iniquity. And I told everyone. I told everyone I went out with the Galwain army and marched with them in the spring. They were dreadful days. We got bombarded with old rags and boots and oranges which he had.

I rejoiced in as I marched with them. And men friends and young fellows that used to be so keen on me passed over the other side of the storm. It was grand she said to follow him. And I gave her Charlie's studs as a husband.

Charlie's studs. She became the mother of the worldwide event of those nations who came because she had seen Calvary. Christ was the Lord. The hope of God. Have you seen Calvary tonight. The place of pain that Jesus suffered for you.

The Call to Come to Calvary

The place of pain God with your sins and mine penance. The place of propitiation. He was waking up to curse by his expiatory work. The place of pardon for every sinner and for all sin. The place of peace if you come to Christ.

But it's got to be the place of propitiation. But if you pass Calvary there's no other sacrifice for sin. There's no other holy place between Calvary and hell. And you pass it. How can we escape if we have left so great salvation.

My brother my sister. Is he your Lord. Is he your God. Have you seen Calvary. Does Calvary break something down. Believe me. Are you prepared to be humble at Calvary. You've never humbled anywhere else.

You ought to be humble at Calvary. That's the one place where I can humble myself with the greatest ease that I can feel as pain. And after all the love and compassion and faith and faith in this and infinite mercy at Calvary.

I have been so poor in my gratitude to Jesus. Let us come to Calvary. Let us bow in God's Jefferson presence my friends. Amen.