Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: This week I heard the story of a little girl who absolutely LOVED her dolls.

She would brush her dolls hair.

She had a beautiful doll house where all of her dolls would come and have sleepovers.

She would have “teas” with her dolls . . .

but one day she was very sad.

When her mom asked her what what wrong she said, “I spend all day loving on my dolls, but they never love me back.”

You know God spends all day, every day loving on us and I wonder how many love Him back?

After all that is the greatest commandment!

I want to tell you up front today what I hope this message accomplishes.

My desire is this:

For those of you who know Jesus Christ as your own personal Lord and Savior—my desire is that you come to love and appreciate Him more as you survey the wondrous cross with me.

When you love Him more, you will obey Him more and you will find true satisfaction in your life as a result.

For those of you who do not know Him—by desire is that you will comprehend His love for YOU and His desire to have a personal relationship with YOU and today will be the day that you repent of your sin and turn to the only ONE who loves YOU more than YOU can even begin to comprehend or imagine.

Introduction:

We began this message last week and I would like to quickly review before we begin today.

Someone wrote this poem about the wondrous cross:

Today we will continue our journey of surveying the wondrous cross on which the “Prince of Glory” died.

I shared with you last week three things that I see when I survey the wondrous cross:

You cannot look at the cross of Christ without seeing the wonderful promise of FORGIVENESS!

Jesus prayed, “Father, FORGIVE them for they know not what they do.”

Th

As man for man was made a curse;

The cross also provides HOPE!

Even while a man, who had lived a criminal lifestyle, was dying on the cross, Jesus offered him the promise of paradise and gave a dying man HOPE!

The claims of laws which He had made

Unto the uttermost He paid.

The final thing we talked about last week was Jesus’ CONCERN for others.

Even while He was dying an agonizing death, He demonstrated concern for His mother Mary and instructed John to care for her until her dying day.

His holy fingers made the bough

Today I want to continue this message and share with you three more things that I see when “I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

Where grew the thorns that crowned His brow;

The nails that pierced His hands were mined

In secret places He designed.

He made the forests when there sprung

The tree on which His body hung;

He died upon a cross of wood,

Yet made the hill on which it stood!

The sky which darkened o’er His head

By Him above the earth was spread;

The sun which hid from Him its face

By His decree was poised in space!

The spear which spilt His precious blood

Was tempered in the fires of God;

The grave in which His form was laid

Was hewed in rocks His hands had made!

The throne on which He now appears

Was His from everlasting years!

But a new glory crowns His brow

And every knee to Him shall bow!

I See the Seriousness of Sin

Explanation (v.

44, see also )

Do not miss the significance of what happens here.

Luke reveals that when high noon comes, an eerie dark blackness veils the sun for THREE HOURS.

It is during this time, when the world is as black as midnight that a cry pierces the thick darkness that says: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

This was not a whisper, but a better translation would be “a scream up.”

According to Swindoll, “In the Scriptures this combination of words is occasionally used for a guttural scream, perhaps more like a deep roar, or a passionate groan.”

Dear friend this is the darkest three hours our universe has ever known.

Because the Lord Jesus Christ was taking on the sin of all humanity and literally becoming sin for us, so that we could have His righteousness, the righteous God of creation had to “turn His back” on His Son.

He had to turn His back on His Son so He could embrace us.

As Swindoll said, “The fellowship between God the Father and God the Son was broken, leaving Jesus alienated, abandoned, forsaken, dying alone on the cross.”

This demonstrates for us the seriousness of sin.

Sin is not a game.

As someone said, “Sin is the antithesis for what is best for us.”

Sin is idolatry.

Sin is us telling God He doesn’t know what is best for us.

Sin is spiritual adultery.

Sin cost the Lord Jesus Christ His life and in doing so, part of the Hell of the cross was knowing what it was like for the first time in all of eternity what it was like to somehow be separated from God the Father.

Illustration

Note

Throughout Scripture we are confronted with the seriousness of sin over and over and over again.

Notice the following verses:

Sin separates and brings death:

Sin enslaves:

Application

Can we honestly look at the bloody cross, and hear the words of the Lord Jesus scream from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” and see the black, eerie darkness that enveloped the earth for those three hours and come to the conclusion that sin is no big deal?

Surely not.

The horrors of Calvary are in direct correlation with the horrors of sin!

The problem is in my life, far too often, I hate the sin of others more than I hate the sin of myself.

However, I have to realize that it wasn’t just the sin of the world that propelled my Savior to the cross, it was MY sin!

My sin sent Him there and your sin sent Him there.

However, the awesome thing is that God was PLEASED to have Jesus die in my place and in yours so we could be reconciled to Him and live forever with Him!

Listen to the words of the prophet Micah:

So the question may be asked, what shall we do with sin?

We must stop EXCUSING sin in our life

We must recognize OUR sin and confess OUR sin to God

We must REPENT of our sin

We must receive God’s forgiveness BY faith

I See the Awfulness of Hell

Explanation

​When I survey the wondrous cross, the darkness not only reminds me of the seriousness of sin, but it also reminds me of the awfulness of Hell.

Scripture tells us that hell will be a place of unbelievable darkness, suffering and thirst.

Not only was Christ enveloped in this darkness for three hours, but right before He died, right before He uttered His last statements He also proclaimed in these words:

Charles Swindoll says in his book, “The Darkness and the Dawn”:

Thirst was a major part of the terrible, torturing death by crucifixion.

The mouths and throats of all victims hanging on crosses cried for water.

The lips cracked and bled as the eyes glazed.

The tongues swelled in the mouths and saliva hung like drying glue in their throats.

The darkness, the pain and the suffering remind me of the hell that awaits those who reject Christ as their substitute and because they do, they make the choice to suffer the wrath of God, that Christ has already suffered on their behalf.

While none of us like to think about or talk about Hell, it is just as real as Heaven and we do a disservice by not telling the truth about it and not warning people to escape the wrath that is to come: