If you would open your Bibles
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, I feel like this is a very good
way to begin a Softened Grace Bible conference. The title I've
given the message is Preaching Christ Crucified. Now we all
know that there were a whole great big bunch of very serious
errors going on at the church at Corinth. And now the apostle
Paul is gonna write to correct those errors. And in order to
correct these errors, the apostle just does one thing. He preaches
Christ to him. He deals with every one of the
errors that they had going on in that church in light of Christ
crucified. Paul tells them that when he
was there with them, he was determined not to know. And that means not
to see, not to inspect, not to turn his attention to anything
other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul said in every
situation, the only thing he did was preach Christ crucified. He was determined he would never
get off on a tangent. And I feel like that's pretty
good instruction to all of us preachers, isn't it? Just preach
Christ crucified. Well now let me ask you this
question. What does it mean to preach Christ crucified? I know I think pretty much everybody
here, so you've all heard this, we preach Christ crucified. But
now what does that mean? Well, let me give you four things
I see in our text about preaching Christ crucified. And the first
thing is this. Preaching Christ crucified is
not the testimony of men. It's the testimony of God. That's
why it's to be believed. Verse one, 1 Corinthians chapter
two. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God,
Now, as your pastor just so well said, God sends men, fallen,
sinful, weak men to preach the gospel of God's grace. If you're
going to hear the gospel, you're going to hear from a man, from
another sinful man. But the gospel, these things
that we preach, this is not man's testimony. It's not man's thoughts. It's not the ideas of man. It's not a doctrinal system that
men have come up with. The gospel is the testimony of
God himself. That's why it's to be believed.
You can believe it, because it's the testimony of God himself. Now, it's a testimony. A witness
gives testimony, doesn't he? Well, this is God's witness.
This is God's testimony. and a witness is to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's the testimony
of God. It's the truth. It's the truth
of who God is. It's the truth of who man is.
It's the truth of how sinners are saved. The testimony of God
tells us the truth, who God is. God is holy. God is sovereign. God is the creator of heaven
and earth. and God is the savior of sinners.
God is love. It's his character. God is love. God is merciful. But now don't
forget this. At the same time that God is
love, God is true. At the same time that God is
merciful, God is just. He must be just in everything
that he does. He will by no means clear the
guilty. That's who God is. Well, the
testimony of God tells the truth about us, too. The testimony
of God tells us how man became lost in Adam. God created Adam
and put him in a perfect garden. Adam couldn't blame his faults
on his surroundings, could he? It was a perfect garden. And
Adam sinned against God. an open, willing rebellion against
God. Adam sinned against God. And
when Adam sinned, Adam died. Adam died spiritually. Now when
Adam died, all of us died in him. He was our representative. We were doing what our representative
did. When Adam sinned, we sinned too.
Don't ever think, well, Adam sinned and God charged his sin
to me, even though I wasn't there. No, no, no, no, no. When Adam
sinned, we sinned in him. We were there. We did sin against
God. That's how we became sinners.
That's how we became dead. Now, since we're dead in sin,
since our nature can only produce sin, there is no hope in man. There's no hope in anything we
do. There's no hope in anything we say. There's no hope in anything
we think. We're dead. We're dead in sin. That's us. Well, then the testimony of God
tells us how God saves sinners. God the Father in love, love
that you and I cannot understand, He loves sinners who sinned against
Him, and He chose to save them. He chose them out of the lump
of Adam's fallen race, and He chose to save them. And He gave
those people to His Son to redeem. God in His wisdom provided a
salvation. He provided a salvation for those
people that He chose to save. He sent His Son to become a man. The Son of God actually became
a real man. Just as real of a man as you
and I are. He came to earth and as a man, he obeyed the law perfectly. He couldn't do anything else
but obey the law perfectly because he's God. He obeyed the law perfectly. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
second Adam. He made his people righteous
by obeying the law for them. It's not like Christ obeyed the
law for his people and then God charged that righteousness to
his people even though they're guilty. No, sir. All of God's
elect obeyed the law in Christ our representative. We did what
he did. God in his wisdom provided that
salvation, a way to make his people righteous in justice.
And then the father took the sin of his people and he made
it belong to his son. And he poured out his wrath on
that sin upon his son. so that justice is satisfied,
a sacrifice that pays for sin. That's how God saves sinners.
Now that testimony is to be believed. And it's to be believed right
now. Right now. Right now where you
sit. without moving a muscle, without
walking an aisle, without doing anything. Right now where you
sit, you believe God. This is the testimony of God.
It's true. Now believe it. Believe it. Here's
the second thing. The preaching of Christ crucified
is to declare what Christ accomplished in his death. Verse two says,
for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified. Now Paul tells us his only message,
no matter where he's at, is Christ crucified. Now preaching Christ
crucified, that's not just saying Christ died on the cross. Saying
that Christ died on the cross, all that is, is repeating an
historical fact. It's what Jocelyn will have to
memorize in her history class she went to today. It's a historical
fact. Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross about 2,000 years
ago. That's not preaching Christ crucified. Preaching Christ crucified
is declaring who died. And why did he die? And what
did he accomplish when he died? Who died? Jesus of Nazareth,
the God-man. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, is
God. He's God in human flesh. He is
both the son of God and the son of man. And since he's God, Jesus
of Nazareth is the only perfect man ever lived. The only one.
He obeyed God's law perfectly. And he didn't do it for himself.
He's already perfect. He's already righteous. The Lord
Jesus Christ obeyed God's law as the representative of his
people. They're not able to obey God's law, so he did it for them.
He made them righteous, just like Adam made us sinners, because
we were in it, doing what he did. The Lord Jesus Christ made
his people righteous, because we were in him as our representative,
doing what he did. And since the Lord Jesus Christ
is perfect, all of his people are perfect. He made them perfect. All right, now wait a minute. Jesus of Nazareth is perfect.
Why did he die? Bob, the only reason for death
is sin. If he's perfect, how could he die? He can't die if
he has no sin, can he? Well, Christ died as the substitute
of his people. The Father made him sin. This ought not have to be said,
but I'm gonna say it. I want you to listen to me. You remember
this. Ain't nobody saying Christ is a sinner. Nobody's saying
that. I like to read John Gill simply
because I always assume Dr. Gill knows more than me. And
this is what he said. He must have faced the same accusation
that we face today saying, Oh, you're saying Christ has made
a sinner. Brother Gill said this, the father made his son to be
something worse than a sinner. He made him sin. He made him sin. He took the
sin of his people and made his son guilty of it. And then in
unmitigated wrath, the holy father slaughtered his son for that
sin. He slaughtered him. And since he did that, you know
what the father can do now? Let his people go free in justice.
He's not turning the other way and letting the guilty go free.
He lets his people go free in justice, because their sin was
paid for in the person of their substitute. Now that's why Christ
died. What did Christ accomplish by
his death? What did he accomplish? If we're going to preach Christ
crucified, we've got to say, what did Christ accomplish in
his death? Well, I'm gonna give you a few
things. Let me tell you. God wrote a whole book to tell us
about it. This is what Christ accomplished in his death. He
satisfied the Father. He satisfied his Father. The
cross is an act of God. Now I know it's the most unjust
thing that's ever happened on this earth in the respect of
what men did. What men did is the most, it's
just the worst thing man's ever done on earth. But the cross
is not an act of man. The cross is an act of God. The
cross declares that God is sovereign. Look back at Acts chapter four. Men did exactly what they wanted
to do at the cross, didn't they? They did exactly what they wanted
to do. Everything their wicked hearts could imagine to do, that's
what they did. But when they did what they wanted to do, you
know what they did? They didn't accomplish their will. They accomplished
God's will. In Acts chapter four, verse 27.
Verse 26. For the kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. When men did every wicked thing
that they could think of to do, they accomplished God's eternal
purpose, because God's sovereign. This is the way the father was
going to save his people by the sacrifice of his son, and they
accomplished God's purpose. The eternal purpose of God was
to give salvation to his people in justice. Not just mercy, but
mercy and justice, mercy and truth. This is something the
natural man cannot understand. Before God could do anything
for the sinner, he had to do something for himself. He had
to do something for himself. He had to satisfy his justice. He had to satisfy his holiness
and his righteousness. The death of Christ satisfied
God's demand. There must be death for sin.
Well, Christ died for sin. God's justice is satisfied. and
all that's left for God to do now is show mercy to his people. And Tommy does it in justice.
This is the most, I love to say this, I love to think about this,
the death of Christ made it right for the Father to show mercy
to sinners. That's what Christ accomplished in his death. When
Christ died, he accomplished the salvation of God's elect. God's elect. Look back with me,
John chapter 17. The Lord Jesus Christ, contrary
to the thoughts of men, did not die for all men. He did not die
to make it possible for you to be saved if you might decide
to accept Jesus as your personal savior. No, sir. Christ died
for God's elect and only God's elect. John 17, verse two. as
thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou has given him. Christ died to
accomplish the salvation of all those that the father gave him
in divine election. And just hours after the savior
makes this statement, he gave up the ghost and he died on a
middle cross hanging between two things. And you know why
he died? The debt was paid. The transaction
was done. It is finished. He accomplished all of the salvation
of all of God's elect. That salvation the Father purposed
before the foundation of the world was accomplished in time
when our Savior gave up the ghost. Now that's preaching Christ crucified.
And I told you earlier, God wrote a whole book to tell us what
Christ accomplished when he was crucified. I'm gonna give you
a few of them. Number one, look at Romans chapter
four. When Christ died, all of God's elect were justified. Romans four, verse 25. who was delivered for our offenses,
the offenses, the sins of his people and was raised again for
our justification. Christ was made sin for his people. He took the sin of his people
and he made it his and he died. He died under the wrath and justice
and demands of his father. Now, how do I know that when
Christ died, he put away the sin of his people? The father
raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is
proof positive. His death put away the sin of
His people. If there were any sin left on Him, He never would
have been raised from the dead. The Father raised Him from the
dead because sin is gone. The death of Christ justified
His people. You know what that means? It
made them all without sin. Made them all without sin. If
Christ died for you, you have no sin. Now that is such good
news. Why would we ever preach anything
else other than Christ crucified? By his death on the cross, he
made his people without sin. Number two, when Christ died,
he redeemed his people from the curse of the law. Galatians 3.13
says this, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
How? Being made a curse for us. Now
my friend, the curse of the law, it's eternal death. The curse
of the law is standing guilty before Christ in the judgment
and him telling us, depart from me, I never knew you. But if
Christ died for you, you don't have to fear the judgment at
all. At all. Because the curse of
the law is gone. Christ took it away when he was
crucified for his people. Now there's nothing to fear.
There's nothing to dread. If you trust Christ, there's
nothing to dread. Now I ask you again, why would
we ever preach anything else? That's such good news. Why would
we ever preach anything else? Number three, when Christ died,
the sin of God's elect was forgiven. Colossians 1 verse 14 says, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sin. If Christ died for you, your
sin's forgiven. God's not mad at you. Your sin
is forgiven. And you know, and this is what
may, you know, if, If I would do something offensive
to you, and if you know me long enough, I probably will. I probably
will. Jan and I are staying at six-star
accommodations this weekend. I told Chris, I said, I'm afraid
the Handlers are going to find out what I'm really like, and
they ain't going to treat me this good no more. You know, if they know
me long enough, Jason, you're just going to have to forgive
me. You're just going to have to forgive me. And Jason, he
will. He will. He'll say, Frank, I
forgive you. Don't worry about it. That'll probably be in the
back of his mind. God doesn't forgive you like
your sin is still in the back of his mind. You know why God
forgives you? You get a hold of this. God Almighty
forgives you of your sin because he slaughtered his son for your
sin. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, because you've forgiven. You're
forgiven because Christ died the death that you deserve. Why would we preach anything
else? Why would you ever want to hear anything else? Isn't
that good news? All right, now fourthly, look at Matthew chapter
26. When Christ died, there was remission of sin for his people.
Matthew chapter 26. This is when the Lord was instituting
the Lord's table. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples
and said, take ye, this is my body. And he took the cup and
gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it, for
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for the remission
of sins. Now that word remission means
freedom. If Christ was crucified for you,
you have freedom from sin. Now, it's not in the sense that
you're gonna start sinning less than you ever did. Matter of
fact, when God saved us, we think now, I think I'm sinning more
than I ever did before. Now, it's not freedom from that
you're gonna quit sinning, but you're free from the damning
power of sin. Yes, all we do is sin, but that sin can't damn
you, because Christ was condemned for you. You have freedom from
that. You have freedom from the ruling power of sin. Now again,
that doesn't mean that you're gonna start sinning less than,
you know, no, you're gonna not want to sin, you're going to
anyway. When Christ set his people free from the ruling power of
sin, here's what that means. You who believe, you know this
is true. There was a day you heard the gospel and you couldn't
believe Christ. There was a day, try as you might,
you couldn't make yourself believe Christ, could you? Maybe you
wanted to, and you couldn't make yourself believe him, could you?
Isn't it miserable? You know what that is? The ruling
power of sin. You got a sin nature that ruled
and would not allow you to believe Christ. If Christ died for you,
he set you free from that. And now you believe Christ, and
you can't not believe him. You can't not, probably try every
day not to believe him, and he won't let you, will he? You're
set free from that ruling power of sin. So you believe Christ
and you keep believing him. And one day, and we're gonna
be shocked how soon that day is, we're gonna be free from
the very presence of sin, even in our body. It's because Christ
was crucified for us. There's remission of sin. Fifth, look at Ephesians chapter
five. When Christ was crucified, he
cleansed his people from all of their sin. Ephesians five, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word. Now, sin is not just breaking
the rules. Sin, it's a filth. It's a stain on our souls, and
you can't get it out. I mean, I don't care how many
aisles you walk. I don't care how many good works you try to
do, I don't care what, we can't wash it out. Nothing can get
that stain out except the blood of Christ. Christ was crucified
to shed his blood, to wash his people, to wash them white as
snow. You know what it's like to go
out working the summertime and get all hot and sweaty and you
get the job done And boy, nothing feels as good as coming in, taking
a shower, and getting clean. If Christ died for you, your
soul is clean. Isn't that good news? Sixth, look with me, Hebrews
chapter 10. When Christ died, his people
were sanctified. Hebrews 10, verse 10. By the witch will, we're sanctified. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now, if Christ died
for you, you're sanctified. You've been made holy. He's given
you a holy nature. Adam gave you a nature of sin.
Christ has given his people a sanctified nature, a holy nature. Scripture says without holiness,
no man shall see the Lord. So Christ gave his people what
his Father demands, holiness, so that you stand accepted with
the Father. And you know why? There's only
one reason. It's Christ crucified. Seventh, when Christ died, he
brought in everlasting righteousness. Daniel 9 verse 24 says that the
Messiah will make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in everlasting
righteousness. Everlasting righteousness. That
means it's righteousness I can't mess up. Ephesians 5.21 says we're made,
made the righteousness of God in him. Now brother, if Christ
died for you, you're righteous. It's not like you're righteous.
It's not that you will be righteous someday. You are righteous. You are righteous. You know why?
That's what God made you. He made you righteous. And it's because Christ was crucified
for you to take your sin away and make you righteous. Think carefully, I'm gonna say
this. Righteousness is not something for us to banter about and argue
about and get in great big fistfights on the internet about. Righteousness is what God made
His people so that He can accept us. I think that helps put things
in perspective, don't you reckon? Eighth, when Christ died, you
know what we saw? We saw God's love for sinners. 1 John 3, verse 16. Hereby perceive
we, here's how we perceive, here's how we know the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us. Oh, I know nearly the whole world
says God loves everyone. I understand they do. And it's
because they don't know no better. It's because they're blind. I wish I could tell those folks
with the right attitude, if God loves everybody, that love really
truly is meaningless. It's meaningless. If God loves
folks, send his son to die for them, and God sends him to hell
anyway, You know, I'm just not really interested in that kind
of love. I just not really interested. But to know that God loves sinners
and he loves them so much that he sent his son to be crucified
for them. Tell me more about that. Tell
me more about that. Now that gives hope to a guy
like me. If God loves you, I mean he showed it. He showed it. He showed it by taking your sin
away from you and charging it to his son and then slaughtering
his son so that you could live. Now, what love. We'll never get to the bottom
of it. We'll never fully understand it. What love that God loves
sinners so much he'd die for them. I'll say it again. Why would
you preach anything else? Why would you preach any other
kind of love? Ninth, when Christ died, he made peace with God.
He made peace with God through the blood of his cross. Now,
peace must be made. Man has declared war on God.
God didn't make the war. Man declared war on God. But
man can't make peace with God. So you know what God did? Now,
God's the offended party here now. God's the one who made peace. He made peace for his rebellious
people through the blood of his own son. The blood of Christ,
the blood he shed when he was crucified, took away the sin
that made God angry. God's peace. No reason for him to be mad.
The blood of Christ took the sin of his people away. Now,
that blood of Christ is applied to your heart. In the new birth,
you're gonna quit being mad too. Like Brother Henry said so many
times, stack your shotgun, stack your arm, lay down your shotgun.
Surrender, surrender. If God ever applies the blood
of Christ to your heart, you will, you will be mad no more. You'll
surrender. If Christ died for you, I like to preach to folks right
where they are. I'm talking to God's people now. If Christ died
for you, you have peace in the heart. You don't always have
peace in the flesh, do you? But you do in the heart. It may not be well with my body,
It may not be well with my mind. It may not be well with the circumstances
around me. I wish they were a lot different. But it's well with my soul. It's
well with my soul. You can't put a value on the
peace that God puts in the hearts of his people. And we have that
peace because Christ was crucified. Chris, I'm determined to preach
that. 10th, when Christ died, his people
were reconciled. Reconciled back to God. We're
cast away from God in Adam, thrust out of God's presence in Adam,
but brought back to God. Reconciled him, given fellowship
with God because Christ was crucified. 11th, when Christ died, He purchased
his delight. This thing not left up to chance,
he purchased them. The Apostle Paul, he was giving
his final instructions to those Ephesian elders in Acts chapter
20. He talked to them about the church of God. He said, now you
take the oversight of them. You feed them, you take care
of them, you shepherd them. It's the church which God purchased
with his own blood. Now God purchased it. Now brother,
Christ died for you. He owns you. He owns you lock,
stock, and barrel. You're not your own. You've been
bought with a price. Now let me ask you something.
Do you reckon that the God of heaven and earth is gonna allow
any harm to come to your soul if he went to the extreme to
slaughter his son in your place? Not a chance. He's going to take
care of what's his. He's going to take care of what's
his. Twelfth, Christ died to draw his people to him. Our Lord
told his disciples in John chapter 12, verse 32, if I be lifted
up from the earth, I'll draw all unto me. Now that all is
not all men. I know that so because we preach
Christ crucified and all men are not drawn to him. Well, who's
the all? It's the all that the father
gave the son's sake. That's the all. You don't have to worry about
God's elect missing Christ and going to hell. You don't have
to worry about it. You don't have to worry about it. Just preach
Christ crucified. You don't have to use psychological
tricks and twist people's arms and do things to get them to
make a profession. Just preach Christ crucified. Just lift him up. Here he is
crucified. Here he is suffering for the
sin of his people. Here he is satisfying his father's
justice. Here he is suffering everything
his people deserve. Just preach him. His people will
come running. You who believe, let me ask you
this now. What draws your heart to Christ more than hearing Christ
crucified? Not one thing, does it? It's
Christ crucified that draws His people to Him. Number 13. Look at Romans chapter
14. Here's why Christ died. To be
Lord of all. Many years ago, I preached somewhere and a man
was talking to Janet. He said, boy, he said, Frank
preaches a strong God. I took that as a compliment.
I think it was meant as a compliment. But here's why that's so. Christ
died to be Lord of all. Romans 14 verse 9. For to this
end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be
Lord both of the dead and living. Christ died that he'd be Lord
of all. That all flesh would be given into his hand so he
could give eternal life to as many as it would please him to
do. I want you to think about this.
The one who died to save you, if you believe Christ, the one
who died to save you is Lord of all. He's sovereign ruler
over everything. Everything. There's nothing that
can happen in this creation that's against His will. Nothing. Well,
then is there any way Almighty God is going to allow you to
perish if Christ died for you? The king will never allow it.
He will never allow it to happen. Now that's such good news. I
say it again. Why would we preach anything
else? Why would we bother listening to anything else? There is full,
free, complete salvation in Christ because Christ was crucified.
Now that's what it means to preach Christ crucified. Now I'm going
to give you two more things quickly. Look back in our text, 1 Corinthians
2. There is a manner in which we
are to preach Christ crucified. Paul says in verse four, my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. You know, the message
of Christ crucified is so glorious. Man doesn't need to do anything
to make it more appealing. Just preach Christ in his glory.
Just preach Christ crucified. We don't need to use fancy words.
The apostle Paul could have. I mean, the education level he
has so far above all of us, he could have used fancy words.
He could have used, I mean, the things that he could have said,
the words that he could have used, but he always used just
simple plain words, didn't he? You know where he learned that
from? The Lord himself. When he preached, he used simple,
easy to understand words, didn't he? Children understood him.
You know, if we try to impress men with our vocabulary, you
know what we're gonna do? We're gonna take the glory away
from Christ crucified. This is one of the best pieces
of advice I can give you about listening to preaching. If it's
not simple to understand, I wouldn't listen to it for very long. I
really wouldn't. Because the preaching of Christ
crucified is done in simplicity. So nobody can mistake what we're
saying. And the preaching, this is the way we're to preach Christ
crucified. We're to do it dogmatically.
Verse 2, Paul says, I determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If we're going to preach Christ
crucified, we're going to have to be determined to do it. Determined. Because this is the
only message that God uses to save sinners. The only message
that God uses to feed His sheep is the message of Christ crucified. And if a man doesn't have steel
in his spine to preach only Christ crucified, he's not God's servant. And he's not being hard and difficult
to get along with if he won't tolerate anything but Christ
crucified. And the preaching of Christ crucified
is to be done in humility and reverence. Verse three, Paul
said, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Now, from what we gather about
the apostle Paul physically, he was weak and he was frail,
but that's not what he was talking about. Paul was talking about
how all of God's preachers are weak. Weak in the flesh. Our flesh is weak. So we have
to have the power of the Spirit. God's preacher is preaching fear
and trembling because we're handling the Word of God. I mean, we're
sufficient for that. We're daring to bring the testimony
of God to men and women, to folks we love, We're daring to deal with your
eternal soul. We're not playing games here
now. I'm so happy to see all of y'all.
I really, I love you. I want the best for you. Oh,
how I want the best for you. And here's why I preach in fear
and trembling. how easily I could do or say something to lead you
wrong. Because that's my flesh. Brother Bob Coffey said one time,
here's why men are afraid to preach. The new man's afraid
of what the old man's going to do. But I want a man, don't you?
I want a man to preach to me in fear, in trembling. I want
to be serious about this. I want to know he cares for my
soul. Don't you want to know that? That's who I want to preach
to me. I want him determined that he's
only going to preach Christ crucified to me. That's what I want. And
here's why. Here's the fourth thing. It's
the goal of preaching Christ crucified. It's so that you believe
Christ. That your faith and hope be in
Christ. Verse five, that your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God. You know, if I tried
to impress you with what a great preacher I am, number one, I'd
fail. And number two, you'd get sidetracked. I'd get you sidetracked,
looking at me instead of looking at Christ. Now, don't get me
wrong. I'd like for you to like me.
It's a whole lot nicer being liked than being disliked, being
hated. But my goal, honestly and truly, honestly now, my goal
is not to get you to like me. I want more than anything for
you to know Christ. I'll tell you, by God's grace,
I'll tell you the truth, even if it hurts your feelings, if
it hurts the feelings of your flesh, And I'll do it praying
it'll cause you to look to Christ. I want to preach Christ crucified
to you so that you believe Christ. So I talked you into doing something
now, but so that you believe Christ. Years from now, I don't
want you wondering. Do I believe that because Frank
talked me into it? Do I believe that because Chris taught me?
I like Chris. I respect him. Do I believe that because Chris
told me that? Or do I believe Christ? I want you to believe Christ. I'll tell you a story in closing.
This is how I feel. Some years ago, at Hurricane
Road, I was introducing Brother Don Fortner. He'd come to preach
for us in a midweek service. Everybody knows Don. There's
no need to introduce Don, but I kind of like doing it. And I told the folks, I said,
I love to hear Don Fortner preach. And here's why. Because as he's
preaching, this is what I know. I know he cares whether or not
I believe the Savior he's preaching. I know that. I know that. I like
that. Don't you want to listen to somebody
that cares whether... I don't want to just give this
like a lecture and be like, you know, a college professor and,
you know, you can believe it if you want and get an A and
you can not believe it if you want and get an F. No skin off my nose. I want you to... Don't you want
to hear somebody preach that wants you to believe Christ?
As I was saying that, this big voice coming from behind me,
Don said, and I said, I know he cares that I come to Christ.
And this big booming voice, Don says, and I want you to come
right now. That's what I want. Oh, that
God be pleased, that God be pleased to make us come to Christ right
now. If there's somebody here, I don't
know. I prayed that it'd be so, but
I don't know. Somebody here that doesn't know Christ. My friend, come to us. If you've known him a long time,
you've believed him a long time, come to him again. Peter said,
to whom come ye? Come for rest for your soul.
Come to him. All right. Lord bless you.