At Calvary

Last week we sang William Newells hymn At Calvary, and you may recall I said there was a sermon in that hymn. Well guess what today you get to hear it. But first let’s look at the words once again. So if you have a hymn book in front of you grab it and turn to page 245. Now I know it’s not scripture, but it’s pretty close, so when you find it stand and read with me. We will only read the refrain the first time. Once again it’s on page 245. Here is what it says:

Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified,

Knowing not it was for me He died On Calvary.

Refrain:

Mercy there was great, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary.

By God’s Word at last my sin I learned; Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned, Till my guilty soul imploring turned To Calvary.

Now I’ve giv’n to Jesus everything, Now I gladly own Him as my King, Now my raptured soul can only sing Of Calvary! Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan! Oh, the grace that brought it down to man! Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span At Calvary!

We have all heard of Calvary but where is it? Well guess what? There are a few places that the exact spot is believed to have been. But they are all within about 1600 feet of each other, so it sounds like they are just being picky to me. Basically Calvary also known as Golgotha is located in the western part of Israel, not far from the border with Jordan.

So let’s dig into this wonderful hymn. How many of us have spent years in vanity and pride, thinking that we are the most important thing on the planet? Many of us have most likely at one time or another exhibited some type of vanity or pride.

Let me explain vanity for some of our younger people that may not understand just what vanity is.

The definition of vanity is having a lot of pride or conceit in your appearance or achievements. So when you head off to school and you’re worried about what your wearing and what will people think about how you look, well that’s vanity.

But it also means worthless, emptiness, or something without value just like life apart from God is nothing. Did you catch that life without God is nothing; it is to live in vain. I don’t know about you but I can’t make it a day without God. It is God that reminds me through His word and the Holy Spirit that this life is only temporary, that what I wear and what people think about me is nothing when it comes to the love of God.

Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 3:3-4: 3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

This may be where the old saying that what’s on the inside matters came from. Now notice it does not say it’s wrong to wear nice clothes and such, but what it is saying is that when our clothes and hair and the way we look become our focus, we loose sight of what really happened at Calvary and why it happened.

That is what the hymnist is speaking to when it says: Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He died On Calvary.

In the second verse it starts out with “By God’s Word at last my sin I learned” now I know and you know that we should be in God’s word. I mean after all I have been telling you that for seven years now. And usually I am telling you to be in it to find comfort, and that is most definitely true.

But the bible is also where we learn how not to grieve God. It is in Genesis 6:6 that we read this: The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Wow, God was sorry that he had created man. Now we all know of Adams and Eve’s sin, but we also know that was not the last sin committed. In fact every single one of us in this sanctuary are sinners. Some of though are sinners saved by grace. We will examine that later. It is in God’s word where we find how we can avoid to have God look past our sin. That is what I take from the part that states: “Till my guilty soul imploring turned To Calvary”