Peter Brandon emphasizes the profound significance of the cross in his sermon, illustrating how it represents the power of God for salvation, despite being perceived as foolishness by the world. He explores the dignity of Christ's death, the pain He endured, and the prophetic nature of His sacrifice, highlighting that Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Brandon also addresses the personal revelation of the cross, urging listeners to recognize their own sinfulness and the love of God demonstrated through Christ's sacrifice. He concludes by encouraging a heartfelt response to the cross, emphasizing that true salvation comes through a personal revelation of Christ's love and sacrifice.

Now, tonight we are going to look at the subject, it's vast, the significance of the cross. We're going to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and we shall read from verse 18. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 reading from verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perished foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen. Yea and things which are not to bring to things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glorious let him glory in the Lord. And I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Now the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. If you were alive in the first century and you went to hear one of the apostles preaching like Peter or Paul right in the center of their message you would hear them preaching the cross and really preaching it from their heart. If you were alive during those great days in the reformation and you went to hear Martin Luther preaching there in Germany you would hear that great reformer preaching with great power and then right in the heart of his message there would be the cross. Should you be alive in that great period of the 18th century when Wesley and Whitfield were preaching if you went to hear one of these men in an open field where there would be approximately 20,000 people you would be amazed that you could hear every word that they preached and yet right at the center of their message there would be the cross. If you went through the churches tonight in this land at least those churches that believe in the Bible and you heard those men of God that had a real experience with God in salvation preaching irrespective what religion right in the center of their message there would be the cross. Now why am I saying that? Empires have gone. The Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, the French Empire and even the British Empire. They've all gone. But rising above the dust of antiquity there is the cross of Christ. More powerful, more relevant today than perhaps when the Lord himself hung upon the cross because when he died he died and became a once and for all offering for sin. But many people when they first approach Christianity have a problem. One person who was definitely seeking to find God said this, I find the cross very difficult to understand. When Jesus was on that cross why did he say my God my God why have you forsaken me? Would you forsake your son in his dying moments? Why did God forsake his perfect son in his dying moments? And I could see that lady had a problem. Now what I want to do just for a minute tonight is to show you how he died and speak on the significance of the cross. Then who died? The dignity of the cross. And then why he died? The profundity of the cross. And then for whom he died? A revelation of the cross. And I do trust that this might become precious to someone tonight. Now if you imagine that the Lord Jesus died upon the cross and became a martyr may I say very emphatically but lovingly you're wrong immediately. Because Peter tells us that he was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. That meant before God created anything on the blueprint of heaven there was the cross of Christ. And therefore the Lord Jesus died a death that was predictive. Immediately sin found its birth in the heart of our first parents. In the presence of Satan God told the story of the cross four thousand years before it happened. And this is how he put it. I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his hill. And that simply means through the woman a man child would be raised that would be perfect and at the same time the perfect son of God. When he died he would bruise the head of Satan and in dying he too would be bruised. And that was made roughly four thousand years before Jesus Christ came into the world. About 1800 years before the Lord Jesus died an old man was climbing Mount Moriah. He was going to the top in order to worship. He had in his hand a bowl of fire and of course a sacrificial night. The son had upon his back a bundle of wood and knowing that his father was old and forgetful he probably said I must stop him for where's the lamb. And turning to his father he said father I've got the wood you've got the bowl of fire and the knife but where's the lamb for a offering. And that old man stopped and made a prophecy and this is what he said. My son God will provide himself a lamb. Now we know that it wasn't a lamb for Isaac it was a ram and therefore he was looking on to Calvary. A king was writing in perhaps his own throne room and he was writing a psalm and I feel quite sure he was writing something to puzzle him. He knew what he was writing was completely beyond his understanding because he was being moved by inspiration and this is what he wrote. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me? Why go so far from helping me and from the words of my glory? Now we know from the scripture that King David was never never forsaken of God. What was he doing? One thousand years before it took place he was writing the very words that Jesus would utter upon the cross. Think of that amazing fact. About 650 years before the Lord Jesus died a man was writing on an old-fashioned piece of paper a crude form of paper and as he was writing he wrote such a vivid description of the cross and I want you to note this it is the greatest description of the cross that we have in the Bible and that was written 650 probably over 700 years before Jesus Christ suffered and right in the midst of that great vivid description of Calvary he wrote these words he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and then the last man to write about the cross in the Old Testament was a prophet called Zechariah and he wrote this about 512 years before Jesus Christ came. A wake o' sword against thy shepherd against the man that is thy associate smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and then the whole of inspiration went strangely silent until John the Baptist came into this world and when he introduced the Lord Jesus to the people of Israel he didn't say behold your king behold the Messiah what did he say note behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world and when Jesus commenced his ministry he didn't speak of his kingship didn't speak of his Messiahship he spoke of his death as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up and as he came nearer to the cross he could say this I if I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all unto me and just the week before he died on five occasions he said to his own disciples that he was going to die he was going to be buried and that he was going to be raised again from the dead now I want to ask a question do you know of any other person in history that was prophesied to come and prophesied to die like Jesus Christ I'm sure you don't that is why the cross of the Lord Jesus is absolutely significant but secondly I want you to note that his death was painful the Lord Jesus probably was the only person that was ever scourged and in crucifer the scourging was cruel intensely wicked I do wish tonight I could make a scourge as the Romans did and I do wish that I could bring it down just one stroke across this platform you would see the platform splintering in all kinds of faces it would be devastating to watch the Lord Jesus was tied to a doorpost and there would be a bowl of salt and a bowl of vinegar on each side of him standing at his chest there would be a centurion and then the Syrian Roman soldiers who were picked for this because of their heavyweight condition were told each to take a scourge and then with all their might they would bring it across the back until the flesh was pulled from the back and as the blow hit the back it was pushed into the centurion who even pushed him back into the other blow and after each stroke salt and vinegar would be rubbed in and therefore I say after 39 strokes it's amazing that the Lord Jesus was alive no wonder the prophet said that his back was like a plowed field and then after being scourged he was crucified however they did that I don't know and crucifixion was the worst form of torture that man has ever invented it defies description in fact dear friends if I gave you a physical description of crucifixion I believe that many would faint tonight and the Lord Jesus on that cross was scourged first and then crucified he suffered more physically than any other man but his death was not languid his death was powerful when he had been on the cross for six hours and please note this suffering three hours before men and three hours before God and they were the atoning sacrifices the atoning sufferings he was able to perform three outstanding miracles he cried with a loud voice now the loud voice in the original so I'm informed by scholars means literally very very loud probably it was the loudest voice that ever came from human lips and that voice rang round about the mountains of Jerusalem and the first cry was this my God my God why hast thou forsaken me that was not said in a whisper but in a loud voice so that all could hear and immediately following the forsaken cry his head went back and he said with a loud voice finished accomplished now that was a living miracle after such intense pain if the Lord Jesus could have whispered it would have been a miracle to cry with a loud voice was totally supernatural secondly he bowed his head and now I'm going to quote from Mr Vine it wasn't the dropping of the head it wasn't the idea of submitting to the will of God and just bowing his head that's not the meaning of the word now note this it's exactly the same word the foxes of foals and the birds of the air have their nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head now I mustn't have humor tonight because the subject is so sacred but if you fell asleep in the meeting right now you would drop your head when your work is all done and you go to bed at night you don't drop the head you put the head back on a pillow there was only one place where the Lord could rest really his head and that was when his work was all finished and complete and he put his head back supernaturally as though on a pillow and said with a mighty voice finished complete and the work of salvation was done and then thirdly he expired his spirit now human beings can die through natural causes that we call death or foolishly we can die by suicide now the Lord Jesus did not die because of natural causes he did not die by suicide note this when his work was all done he took his own life force and gave it back to God father into thy hands I commend my spirit because he said in John 10 I have power to lay it down I have power to take it again no wonder when we look at the cross we say together hallelujah what a savior but secondly we must get nearer to the cross than that who died the dignity of the cross now what I'm going to do just for a few moments is to give you the witness of two men that were at the cross the first man is the penitent malefactor and I want you to note his position all his extremities appear his feet appear according to his condition the whole of his body would be gangrenous therefore it would be swollen twice its normal size there would be literally thousands and thousands of flies feeding upon his wounds because of his position on the cross and because of his gangrenous condition he would by this time have double bronchopneumonia and he would be gasping for breath and again I want to say this carefully the man's body was wrapped with indescribable pain now we all know when the body is wrapped with pain the wits are out you can't think if you have a nagging headache you find it very hard to think and right in the midst of all this man's pain he receives a revelation from God now that's a miracle and the Holy Spirit must have said into the spirit of this man do you see that man on the center cross yes he's God God yes God you see that man on the center cross yes he's the only perfect man that ever lived you see that man on the center cross he's going to die there for the sins of the world and God's not going to leave him there God's going to raise him from the dead and he's going to become a king of a great kingdom and if you trust him you too can be with him and that man with all his pains said this to his neighboring friend who had been blaspheming Jesus does thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation we indeed justly we receive the due rewards of our deeds but this man has done nothing amiss and then he leaps over all doubts and he says this Lord when thou comest into thy great kingdom remember me and that was a malefic what a witness the next man was a centurion and this man had seen literally hundreds of people dying with untold agony on the cross and he had heard their blasphemy but when he looked and watched Jesus all he heard was love and when that malefactor saw the darkness he knew it was supernatural when he got close to the cross and saw the head reclining the mighty victorious shout when he saw him expiring his own spirit he threw his own job to the wind and smote his breast and said truly this man son of God but there's a greater witness you see if i stop there there would be doubt but there's a greater witness man put Jesus on the cross and then said to the Lord Jesus if you are the son of God come down from the cross and we will believe you and my dear friends if he had come from the cross it would have been a tragedy do you know what God was saying my son stop there finish the work that I sent you to do and I'll do something much better than bringing you down from the cross do you know what God did God the Father God the Holy Spirit went down into that dark sepulcher went right into that rich man's tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea they exerted their power and raised him from the dead and he was the only one God ever raised from the dead that would never die again and the next to be raised will be all the Christians when the Lord comes but when God raised him from the dead he exerted his mighty power and he was saying something like this when he raised him from the dead I am confirming I am ratifying every word that he speak I am confirming I am ratifying all the work that he did on the cross and I'm confirming it and ratifying in such a way that it's indisputable and he raised him from the dead and that is why we Christians can say we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ you see beloved friends we're not worshipping a dead saviour we're worshipping a living saviour that has all power and all authority and therefore I want you now to go back to the cross and I want to quote the words of Bishop Lightfoot again it was not God who died but he who died was God on that cross was the creator on that cross was the sustainer of the universe on that cross was the heir of all creation it's going to be given to him as a great love gift in the millennium and the one that hung there was our saviour doesn't that put a new complex on Calvary but then we come right to the heart of the problem and we're almost closed why did he die why was there darkness we would imagine in one way that God would call for lights brilliant lights thunder and lightning to show that the one on the cross was the son of God that there was darkness and why did he say in that darkness with a loud voice my God my God why hast thou forsaken me we shall never understand that until we understand our faith can I go over the ground all over again would you bear with me please for it's important every single baby that's born into this world is born with a sinful nature and that baby will sin and there's no person in the world that will ever stop that baby from sinning why Paul writes to the Romans and he says we are for us by one man's sin entered into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned and all of us have this sinful nature and that's the world's number one problem you know if only our philosophers would really believe it would save them from hours and hours of research God tells the world that our problem is this is the problem of our birth that we were born in sin and shapen in iniquity every single one of us have broken the ten commandments over and over again and therefore we've all committed hundreds of sins and therefore the whole world is guilty before God now my dear friends God never used this kidol again now quite frankly I've heard mothers saying to their children if you do that again I'll punish you but they don't punish you now we human beings seem to feel that God is like that he says look the wages of sin is death but he doesn't mean it ah if he doesn't it's not God you see there's one side of God's nature that's holy and just and therefore he must punish sin and that simply means that every single person in this world is guilty before God but this is the problem only a few people know it if those people tonight watching their televisions realized that they were guilty before God they would be here if those people perhaps calling off tonight outside their house not that there's anything wrong with that if they knew they were guilty before God they would be here but the devil blinds the minds of them that believe not but God brings you in and shows you you're guilty now it means two things either we bear the guilt like we should do or someone else that's perfect and great enough bears the guilt and it's as simple as that and God in his great love came into this world with a body and that's why he went to the cross to bear our sins in his own body on the tree he was made sin for us he who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Professor Rendell Short went to Africa for two years and he came back to Westminster Chapel and he related a story that shook everyone that night in that chapel he told us of an African prince that he had met who related this story about his own father and all his wealth was not in money in those days it was in gold and diamonds and ivory and skin and he was fabulously wealthy and one day a friend came to see him who was a primitive accountant really very primitive and said that one of his best diamonds had been stolen he called his old compound criners and told them to go over the various compounds saying the culprit when caught would be beaten with 30 rods but they couldn't catch him they had certain people who were witch doctors and they tried to divine but they couldn't find the culprit then his primitive accountant came and told him that three of his diamonds had been stolen and he was infuriated and the old town criers went all over these compounds telling the people that they would be beaten with 30 rods but they couldn't catch him then one day one of his men who was a servant hid in the throne room and the door opened and who should come in but the chief's mother she went to this primitive cupboard and she took out a diamond and she was apprehended and the news leaked out it was the prince's mother and then the argument started would he be just will he now punish his mother but then others said how can he be just and punish his own mother he must release her well if he's loving he can't be just and if he's just how can he be loving and there was a battle between love and justice now i know i watched some of your faces and when i said tonight the wages of sin is death the soul that sin if it shall die i could see some frowning you were saying just but where is the love of god but the love's there so the court was set and thousands assembled and there was the chief in all his regalia and unfortunately for him the mother stepped forward and she said immediately that she was the entire culprit that she had stolen every diamond and it took him five minutes to make his decision and then with a bowed head and with a quiet voice he said mother i sentence upon you the death of beating and they all said just just but where's his love and they watched the old lady being tied and they saw the first man stepping forward with his rod and he was going to whack the mother's back when suddenly they saw him stripping off his regalia until his own back was bare and then stepping down from the place where he found his mother guilty he went to the post of beating and he said to the man that was going to punish his mother tie my hands and he wasn't and this is what he said i made the law i'm going to fulfill it tie my hands and they were tied and as this man brought stroke upon stroke upon his back the mother was heard to say as each stroke fell upon him for me for me until the 29th stroke broke his back he collapsed and died and there the mother saw him sinking to his death god found us all guilty came down with a body took that body to the cross and on that cross bore our sins and actually cried our language as he bore the judgment of our sins my god my god why has thou forsaken me but he also said in triumph finished and the work was done and immediately that work was done god went to work quickly and split the curtain in the temple raised some of the testament saints from the dead to show that christ had accomplished the whole work of forgiveness so that god could still remain just and at the same time forgive the sinner so that we see at the cross love and justice harmonized together and what a day it is when we can say not to a dead christ but to a risen savior he was wounded for my transgression and bruised for mine iniquity now dear friends i would like to close there but i can't there is something in preaching that is mystical something in preaching that is completely beyond the preacher almost every gospel message i give i will say to the congregation christ died for our sins or he was wounded for our transgressions or he bare our sins in his own body on the tree or he suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god but nothing happens until there comes a moment in a service when god begins to give revelation i can't give it no saint can give it it's the work of god and my dear friends i am not a calvinist but i do want to say this you cannot possibly be saved mechanically you say what do you mean by that mr brandon supposing i came by your side tonight and said to you are you a sinner yes do you believe if you die in your sins you'll be lost yes do you believe that christ died for your sins yes do you prepare to believe whosoever shall call on the name of the lord shall be saved yes right kneel down say this prayer after me lord save me lord save oh you're saved that's not salvation that's mechanical and thousands of people are being deceived by that kind of evangelical habit when a person is going to be saved god gives real revelation let me give you the scripture god who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ now what happens when the revelation comes when the revelation comes of the cross the cross becomes personal you never say he loved the world you're beyond that you don't even say he loved my family you see christ dying on the cross and you see yourself there as a lonely sinner as though you were the only one for whom christ died you see the apostle paul was never at the cross when the lord jesus died and yet he could say years afterwards he loved me gave himself for me you see the cross became a revelation to him now what happens when the cross becomes a revelation to you should it happen tonight the first thing you get is the biggest shock in your life you can pick up the hymn book and you can sing with mixed feelings there is a green hill far but that's not it you can sing sometimes with tears flowing down your cheek when i survey the wondrous cross but that's not it when god gives a revelation of the cross there's a shock and you say this oh lord you died for my sins you suffered for my transgressions and then you say this lord hell's a reality it's not the figment of a medieval mind it's real it's rugged it's jagged it's their fluke he suffers the darkness for me and for my sins and my dear friends you begin to hate every single sin that you've committed why it costs the agonizing death of your creator and you'll say this lord if ever i've given the chance of forgiveness i'll turn to god from sin once and forever and i'll live a different life altogether secondly you get the biggest surprise of all you'll realize that god loves you i don't know where you're sitting but if god is giving that revelation tonight for the first time that loving finger of god is coming right to you and he's saying to you look i love you with an everlasting love i died for you on the cross i want to forgive you i want to come into your life and therefore you get a shock and a surprise now here's the flashpoint when that revelation comes as it's coming to some tonight you can reject it or you can receive it all this happened in one meeting in brisbane in the north of brisbane on one thursday night long and quite narrow and one night i was preaching on the scripture he was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities and i looked out over that congregation and i saw a young married couple with their heads down and i knew that god was speaking then i looked again and i noticed they were looking up and i could see revelation had been given an accent right there on my right was one man and his head went down but it kept going god was revealing the cross to him in power then i made a simple appeal i said the service is about all those that would like to trust christ would you just come and so that we can have a word of prayer the door has opened and the best that i know how to inform you of the conversation he said this we belong to the preacher to us i used to hear that we're both superintendents i'm the superintendent of the sunday school my wife is the superintendent of the infant children all this week we have been teaching the children that scripture behold the lamb of god that taketh away the sin of the world yes that's a lovely thing but it's come to us like a revelation what do you mean well our sins put him on the cross didn't that yes we never realized that watching as we were and he loved us unto death and wants to forgive us that's right and then they said we haven't come to really ask you to lead us to christ yes we've come to tell you that we trusted christ in the first and i said i saw it take place and they smiled i said over there on the left hand side halfway up that's right at 20 percent they're sitting in the seat they trusted christ the man there on my right left with his head down the revelation was given but he neglected it if god has shown you tonight that don't neglect don't reject receive christ