<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

Faces About the Cross

Lift up the trumpet and loudly ring, Jesus is coming again.

Cheer up you pilgrims, be joyful and sing, Jesus is coming again.

At this time we present the program of the Voice of Prophecy, a voice crying in the wilderness of these latter days, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again.

This broadcast is brought to you by the Voice of Prophecy, Incorporated.

Now we invite you to listen to our King's Herald Quartet, as they bring to us Standing By.

Mid the fury of the gale, let not hope and courage fail, There is 1 with power to save, From life's stormy wind and wave, On his promise, God relies, Till the Master's standing by.

Standing by, his aid to lend, On his power we can defend, Though the winds may blow and the waves roll high, When the waves roll high, Give the master standing by.

Be then strong and unafraid, Let your trust on Him be said.

He whose word in Galilee Still the raging of the sea, With its help is ever nigh, Till the Master's standing by.

Standing by, it is late to lay, on this high we can depend, and the waves roll hard, is the Master standing by.

Almighty and eternal Heavenly Father, Thou dost remove rulers and set up rulers.

Thou canst turn their hearts as the rivers of water are turned.

We pray thee to so control the councils of nations that the priceless possessions of justice and personal freedom may be extended in the earth.

Blessed be thou, O Lord, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to thine abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Thou hast said, They looked unto him, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed.

Heal the sick, comfort the sorrowing, provide for the needy.

Receive all who come to thee in sincerity and make us fit to be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom.

For the sake of Jesus Christ, our divine mediator and advocate.

A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee, near to the heart of God.

1 of the greatest hymns of the Church we call the Old Rugged Cross.

During this program today let us sit down and watch as it were the touching scenes of our Lord's crucifixion on Calvary, that place made sacred by the sacrifice of Jesus.

Then let us be willing to bear our cross as Jesus bore his.

Now the King's Herald sing an old song, The Old Rugged Cross.

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best For the world of lost sinners was slain So I'll cherish thee, O rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down.

Single the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, Its shame and reproach gladly bear.

Then you Call me someday to my home far away, Where is glory forever I'll share.

So I'll cherish thee, O rugged cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down, I will cling to the old rugged cross to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.

And now, the voice of prophecy, his subject, Faces About the Cross.

For a few minutes let us look at the Faces About the Cross.

Our Saviour was crucified near the gate of the city, and therefore near a road, no doubt the main road leading north out of Jerusalem.

It was a place where many passing by beheld him.

And there were many who stood by to see this sight, as we read in Luke 23, 48.

There were also present the rulers and priests, the 4 soldiers, the 2 criminals, Simon of Cyrene who carried the cross, many women including the mother of our Lord, his aunt, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, the apostle John, and many of Christ's acquaintances.

Someone Speaking of these faces about the cross, call them cameos of Calvary.

And so they are, never to be forgotten pictures.

In them we see reflected every attitude of man toward Christ.

Just look at them, there they are, the ones who hated him, the ones who loved him, the ones who were ignorant and the ones who didn't care, and then the mob of curiosity seekers, and those who swing with the popular tide.

So we may call these faces about the cross, the hateful watchers, the loving watchers, the blind watchers, the careless watchers, and the mob watchers.

They were all looking at Jesus, lifted up between earth and sky.

That was the world then, and it is the world now, as it gathers about the cross.

Among the faces about the cross were those who hated him, especially the chief priests and scribes and elders, as we read in Matthew 27.41.

Notice they did not stand up close to the cross and talk to Jesus.

They despised these people, and they talked about Jesus, not to Him.

They were acquainted with the prophecies of Scripture, and should have welcomed Christ with joy.

Our Savior once said to these scholars of sacred things, Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.

It has been said that the worst is a corruption of the best.

What is more kind and merciful than true religion?

And what is more unkind and more merciless than hatred that calls itself religious?

These men came to witness the long-drawn-out agonies of the 1 they had condemned.

We hear these dignified movers of the ignorant crowd talking among themselves, and those within hearing.

If he be the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him.

He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.

He saved others, that's certain, and these bitter enemies do not deny it.

But he did not save himself, that's certain too.

In 1 sense this cannot was true, not from a lack of power, but from fullness of love.

Our Savior did not save himself from agony and death because he would not.

No man taketh my life from me, he says, but I lay it down of myself.

When blind Samson was called to make mirth for his enemies in the temple of Dagon, he groped with both arms for the pillars of the temple, and then bowing himself brought the Philistines, their temple, and idols down in death and ruin.

So our great Saviour, with his arms spread out upon the cross, grasping with 1 arm the pillar of sin, and with the other the pillar of death, The 2 mighty supports of the kingdom of Satan bowed himself in death, and brought that kingdom of rebellion down in hopeless ruin.

He saved others, but himself he could not, would not save.

The next words of these watchers show that they held the same idea as many who look at the cross today.

Let him come down from the cross and we will believe him.

You see, they wanted a crossless Christ, a bloodless gospel.

The words of Annas and Caiaphas and the others there were modern words.

Let us believe what we want to believe, and we will believe.

We will accept a leader, but we desire no Saviour.

But it was precisely because he did not come down from the cross, that sad and sorrowing and sinful hearts turned to him from the ends of the earth, and cry, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Galatians 6.14 When in 1825 Sir John Bowering, then governor of Hong Kong, visited the Portuguese colony of Macau, he saw the ruins of a great cathedral standing on the crest of a hill.

It was 1 of the first buildings erected by the colonists.

Under the assault of a typhoon it fell, all except the front wall.

It has never been rebuilt, And the heavy facade has stood there for 300 years.

On top is a great bronze cross which has defied rain, lightning, and typhoon, towering o'er the wreck of the past.

It has stood there over those ruins, silhouetted against the sky, for more than a hundred years before Bowering's time.

And when he saw it, he sat down and wrote, In the cross of Christ our glory towering o'er the wrecks of time, All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.

And friends, as long as the Church holds up to a dying world, Christ and Him crucified, the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.

Should we not, as ministers, make 1 Corinthians 2 our motto?

For I determine not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Suppose God the Father had taken his Son down from the cross.

Redemption unaccomplished, salvation undone, the work of Christ unfinished.

This would not have been deliverance, but defeat.

Our Saviour went on with his great purpose of atonement, and having accomplished it, slept a while in the tomb, and now has ascended to his throne in heaven.

He came forth a victor over sin and death forevermore.

Back to Menu

Faces About the Cross

Transcript

Sponsor

Related

He Descended Into Hell

29m

Seven Candle Sticks

30m

The Ten Commandments

29m

Who Should be Baptized

27m

Home Sweet Home

28m

God Points Out a Man

27m

The Future Unveiled

29m

This Man

27m

Our Divine Savior

29m

He Said He’d Come

29m

Victims of Divorce

26m

Sound Doctrine