Good morning. Boy, it's good
to see you guys. I am so glad you're here. And every day that rolls by,
I'm glad I'm still here. Well, good. You're my daughter. You ought to. Gosh! Hey, for our reading this morning, let's try 1 Corinthians chapter
1. And I'll not attempt to read
the whole chapter, though I've been known to do that. Our subject this morning is still
the cross of Christ. the cross of Christ. Now if it's already on a sermon
audio, they won't let you use this title again, so we may have
to doctor it up a little bit and make it acceptable to them. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we begin
to read at verse 18, and before we do, may we pray, Lord, what wonderful hymns we have been assigned to sing. Oh, may it be our privilege,
as well as our greatest desire, to praise the triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not only our duty. By
your grace, it has become our delight. In my old religion, I had to be motivated by telling
me things that aren't true and are not found in the Scriptures.
But since I was ignorant of that, I bought into it. And so did
many of us in this place, if not all. Help us this morning to find
out by the power of your grace and spirit and the presence of our blessed
Savior, He sits in heaven. asking and giving all of His
children what they need. And it is ours freely by grace. Lord bless our reading today
of not only these verses, but of others that shall come before
us. Do that for us which you alone can know we need. We're at a loss as to what we
are to pray for. We flee to that refuge by the
grace of God. I am what I am. And Lord, give us that which
you require and demand of us, and we shall never have it unless
you give it. And we beg for that mercy above
all else. We pray in our Lord's name, Amen. Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness." You tell the average person that
the Son of God came into this world and over 2,000 years ago
He died on a cross and He is Himself our salvation. All of
it. Not part of it. Every last bit
of it. And if He gives me that salvation
by His grace, He never takes it back. It's good for all time
and eternity. The preaching of the cross. This
is Christ's death on the cross. To them that perish, to those
who are lost, and to every one of us at one
time or another until God saved us. To them that perish foolishness,
now see if you can find your name in this last phrase of that
verse, but unto us who are saved, It, the cross of Christ, 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, the debater
of this world? Has 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." It pleased God. by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks or the Gentiles seek after wisdom, but
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block." You only have to look at one
person in the New Testament to understand that statement. For
how many years was Saul of Tarsus? Christ was made to him a stumbling
block. And it was only when Christ met
him on the road to Damascus, headed down there to arrest some
people that were bold enough to confess faith in Christ. Take
them back to Jerusalem and get the high priest to okay it, and
they'd either beat them half to death or kill them. And he handled many a case of
that, and was a man to be feared. A stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. Now verses 24 and 25, and still
got a ways to go. But unto them which are called
a divine, irresistible call of grace, Now there are two kinds
of call, one is outward and the other one is inward. One is directed toward all men
and one turns out to be just for some people, but a great
number nevertheless. Unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and Christ, the
wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is what? Wiser than men. Wiser than men. Middle of verse 25, And the weakness
of God is stronger than men. Oh, preacher, that man's too
stubborn to be saved. Oh, he is for you and me to save
him. But nothing stops God. And if your God can't do that,
you've got the wrong God. Even old Nebuchadnezzar, who
was a pagan king, knew better than that. He said he does according to
his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody can
stay His hand. We have no ability to tell God
what He can or cannot do. He does everything He pleases,
every second of every hour, of every day, of every week, of
every month. God does as He pleases. Well preacher, why is this world
getting more and more wicked? Because God allows it. Can there be evil in the city
and God did not do it? What's the answer to that question?
Nope. Nope. If it happens, it's His
will. You can go home this morning
and pick out your newspaper, because you probably slept in
too late to read it, and look at what happened just in that
one source yesterday. And everything you read, everything
that occurred, whatever took place, wherever it took place
does not matter. God sent it for His own purposes. Now, my pills are getting tougher
to swallow. What about yours? There's no peace in anything
else. What if God controlled half of the earth and not the
other half? Half of the world's population and not the other
half? It'd be absolute misery. You'd be constantly wondering
which group you're in. But this way we can understand.
We may not like it, But that's what it says. This book teaches
that the God of the Bible is God. And His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is God. And the Holy Spirit is God. He cannot change. If you change, you're either
going to become God or quit becoming God. You cannot change. Changeless. He is what He is
forever and ever and ever and ever, which shall never end.
Ah, verse 25, I mean, I don't know if that's where I was. Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren. Who does then God call? And by the way, if God calls
you, it is an irresistible call. If I called you, you can do whatever
you want to with it. Spit on it, step on it, throw
it away, do whatever you want to. But I'm telling you, if God
calls you, you're coming. Yes, indeed. Make no mistake
about it. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. It doesn't say not any, it says
not many. One of the old queens in England
of a century ago, she said, they were talking about what they
were thankful for, she said, I'm thankful for the word ilm, which means many. Not many, but some. And evidently she was a member
of that sum. Not many mighty, not many noble
are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God has 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? Has God chosen? Yes. And things which are not,
that is unseen, unknown by us, to bring to nothing things that
are." Why does He do that? How come He works this way? Why
does He do this? The answer is in verse 29, that
no flesh, no human being should glory in His presence. When can we glory in ourselves? Well, if you want to talk basketball
or football or something like that, help yourself. But if we're
talking about our souls, about our religion, about whether or
not we'll be in heaven, and such questions as that, that all flesh
should glory in His presence. Verse 30, But of Him, of God,
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, the whole ball
of wax. is in Jesus Christ, our precious
Lord and Savior. Here's another explanation of
what God is after in doing things in this manner. Verse 31, that
according as it's written, he that glories, let him glory in
the Lord. Let's take this subject in regard
to the cross of Christ. Now we've been on this theme
for several weeks and I may repeat something I've already said.
I'm not smart enough at this stage of the game to remember
exactly what I said. Let me introduce it this way.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the purpose of God. We've already said that previously,
I know, but I remind you of it again. And it even says in Isaiah
53, if I remember right, it pleased God to bruise him. Now this is
not a sadistic kind of pleasure. It is truly A God who loves sinners
so much so as to send His Son to come into this world and save
us. Not try to save us. Not doing
His part and now we're doing ours. That ain't working. Salvation
is not by works except the work of Christ and it's completed
and completed forever and doesn't need our help. We couldn't give
it if it did. The cross is the fulfillment
of Scripture. I quote, He died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. Thirdly, here's the way of peace. Having made peace, how? through the blood of His cross. God could not be at peace with
any of us were it not for the covering blood of Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
Hebrews says, there is no remission, that is, of sins. Fourthly, it is the only hope
of forgiveness. It says, in absolute terms in
our Bibles, without the shedding of blood, is no remission. No remission. Thank God it is
the preacher's theme. Now, as we read part of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, certainly we noted the emphasis that is placed upon
preaching. But it's not just preaching any
little thing willy-nilly, it's preaching who God is, who we
are, who Christ is, what it means for the Holy Spirit to save us
by the grace of God. So the preacher's theme is we
preach Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2, Paul told the
Corinthians, writing back to them by letter sometime after
he had been there in person, and he said, when I came to you,
I preach no other message except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Well, what about church order? What about it? Every church I've been kicked
out of had people that were supposed to be guarding the truth that
they had in that place. Problem is, they didn't even
have salvation. You can't have truth without
Christ who is salvation. These people were proud as peacocks
and they wanted you to know it. And I'm thankful for everyone
I got booted out of, including this one that they couldn't succeed
but tried several times, as a matter of fact. What is the cross in which Paul
gloried? Not the actual literal cross
itself. Not the symbol of the cross.
That symbol is worthless. If you use it in religion, it
is an idol. An idol. Moses, when he went up on Mount
Sinai to get the Ten Commandments, he took two tablets of stone,
and I'm assuming that God wrote these things on those two stones,
and when he got back, he stayed a good while, like 40 days, a
pretty long visit. We like to have company, but
not that long. But when Moses got back to the bottom
of the mountain, do you know what the children of Israel had
done? They taught Moses' brother Aaron into making them a gold
calf so they could worship a God they could see. And he made them
one. Made them one. I don't know who wrote these
words, but I like them. Let others who will praise the
cross of the Christ. The Christ of the cross is my
theme. While we cherish His work on
the cross, without it we have nothing. It's the Christ of the
cross who redeems. There's only one Redeemer, and
that is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what then did
Paul glory in? Now in order to try to finish
this on time, I may not, I might, but I might not, My dear wife
has printed me off a few scriptures so we don't have to spend too
much time referencing, but there are some references I do want
you to run as we go through this. First of all, Paul gloried in the great atonement The atonement. Let me read you a statement and
then perhaps I can... Oh, I was supposed to read you one
before that. Let me read it because it has to do with that idol. He removed the high places, broke
the images and cut down the groves. and broke in pieces the brass
servant that Moses had made. For unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to that brass serpent, I guess you'd say. to make an atonement for your
souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. Now the second thing, and you can turn with me on this
one, if you're still at 1 Corinthians, Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. The second thing that Paul gloried
in is reconciliation to God. If Christ died for you, He has
reconciled you to God. And in 2 Corinthians 5, beginning
at verse 19-21, 2 Corinthians 5, verses 19-21, to wit, that
is to say, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. and has committed unto us the
word of reconciliation." That's the preaching of the gospel.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled
to God. And let me add one more verse
because it's Goodness, we can't come this close to 2 Corinthians
5.21 and not at least read it. I'm sure it occurs again in my
notes, but I might forget them. Verse 21, For God has made Christ,
He has made Him. God the Father has made God the
Son. If you have a King James translation,
not the new one, but the old one, Then you notice that the
words to be are italicized, and the translators are telling us
that they added these words for one reason or another. It had
nothing to do with the original manuscript. It was not there. And so therefore, I like to read
it without it being there. I just jump over it. It distorts
rather than helps. For God has made Christ sin for
us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." Goodness alive! We are now said
to be righteous in Christ. Righteous in Christ. Now the fourth thing, In that list we were working
on, Christ is also called the sin offering. Let me read it
to you out of Isaiah 53. Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, and we did esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
rests squarely on the shoulders of Christ. And with His stripes, we're healed. The back of our Lord Jesus Christ
was bleeding all over while He hung on that cross. All we like
sheep have gone astray. No exceptions. Every son and
daughter of Adam is born lost. and stays lost until the triune
God pays a visit. And oh my, how different it is. All we like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on His Son the iniquity of us all. Now we come to a couple
more of these in this list. We do not worship Mary who bore our Lord Jesus
Christ and brought Him into this world in His human nature. We do not worship at the cradle
in which He lay. We do not worship the land, people
taking trips to the holy land. Ain't nothing holy about it.
All they want you over there for is to get your money. But
religious people are too stupid to know that. They just love
to brag that they've been to the Holy Land. And they think
when they get there that, Lord, they just start having chills.
They're close to God. Yeah. That is ridiculous. That is utterly stupid. Some people call places like
that, like those, most of the places that they say this is
where Jesus died or this is where this took place, they don't know
that with any certainty. But they're all on the same page.
So everybody begins to believe it. And they can have it if that's
what they want. I don't want it. This is nothing. If we could
find the very cross on which he died, which we never have
and I hope we never shall. If we could find the tomb in
which he was buried, this is nothing but pure idolatry and
paganism. And let me ask you to turn to
another scripture in the book of Psalms. Psalm 119. We've been over this
statement a blue million times, but let's do it one more time. Now, Psalm 119 is the longest
psalm in our Bibles. I believe it has 176 verses if
I remember right. And only one of them does not
have a synonym for the Word of God. You can read it for yourself
and find out if that's what you see. The verse I'm interested
in, in order to put things in the simplest and plainest manner
that is possible to this poor sinner. I want you to understand
what this Word is saying. Now remember, if it ain't Christ,
you're not getting it. This book is about Christ. from Genesis to the Revelation.
Alright, here it is, verse 128. Did I give it to you? I don't
think I did. I meant to keep it from you until I was ready.
I'm now ready. Verse 128, Psalm 119. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all
things to be right, Oh, if he had just left off his
last little statement. And I hate every false way. One of our awfulest sins is giving honor
to somebody's God that ain't God. I know far more people who hate
what I preach than I do those who love it. And that's here
and elsewhere. The first verse I ever read from
this pulpit in November of 1981 was this verse. I said, this is my platform,
this is what you can expect. I esteem all your precepts concerning
all things to be right. There is not one mistake in this
book. Not a one. Hey, there's some
things I don't understand, but there are no errors. But you can tout that till the
cows come home and you ain't said it like it has to be said. I realize that we have children,
grandchildren, daughters-in-laws, sons-in-laws, daughters and sons
and wives and husbands and husbands and wives in which they stand
divided on this issue. But in order to make things better
at home, you dare not give up the precious gospel of Christ,
which is what you do when you tip your hat to their God. Hey,
we're having a cantata this weekend, don't you want to come? They
don't want you, they want your money. They could care less about
you. Oh, if you need to be more physically
fit, now they've got a gym for you. You can use that free. That's
a big drawing card. Shucks, when I first came here,
the drawing cards were men's and women's softball teams. And
when we finally woke up and quit having it, they left. So they're coming to church so
they'll be eligible to play ball. Boy, that's heartwarming, isn't
it? That stupidity is what it is.
People who don't know God and don't want to know Him. So I give you the last statement
of Psalm 119 verse 128. And I hate every false way. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Pentecostals, Mormons, Catholics, it don't matter. God is not there. All you got to do is listen just
a little bit and open our eyes and make observations. Alright,
that's my first point. And we're going to have to move
on. Secondly, the preaching of the cross is the preaching of
the gospel of Christ. And when we call it the gospel
of Christ, it is that we preach that Christ is eternal. The Son of God is eternal. We often speak of election and
the election of grace. Well, the election of grace took
place before this world ever was. And God gave to His Son
an innumerable company of people to be His sheep. And He came
into this world to die for those sheep, and He did. And even before He came, God
saved people on the promise of His Son. Knowing that God the
Son cannot lie. If He made Himself their surety,
He's good for it. You ever signed a note with somebody
and they didn't make the payment? It's a wonderful thing to have
to make it for them. I've had that one time and I
don't want another one. And the guy used religion then
to get me hooked. And I was stupid enough to fall
for it. It cost me $2,500 and that was way back when. This gospel proclaims an eternal
Christ Hebrews says He's the same yesterday,
today, and how long? Forever. That's a long time. Forever. And ever and ever and
ever. Hallelujah. Secondly, this Christ is the
incarnate Christ. His deity was united with His
humanity, and we have just one person. He's the God-Man Christ
Jesus. And there's only one mediator
between God and men, and it is that God-Man Christ Jesus. Thirdly,
this gospel is the gospel of His holy life. He was sinlessly
perfect. and return to glory, wearing and carrying our sins
to the grave, to the grave. The Lord Jesus' death is called
a sacrificial death. It is a sacrifice. made for all
of His people, multitudes of whom are already dead, and multitudes
more will be born after Christ has ascended. But His death is
sacrificial. It is also His death of resurrection. It is His death of exaltation. this glorious number seven, he's
coming again. He's coming again. We don't have time to pursue
the places where that statement is found, but found it is. Here's my third point and I'll
be finished. I'll try to be, well I can't be too brief, but
I'll try to be Let's see, I've got some more scriptures here.
Here we go. In the death of Christ, everything
is brought to light and everyone speaks. We all have a voice. When Christ went before Pilate, man speaks. And here is what
he says, we will not have this man reign
over us. We just ain't gonna let him.
Well, if he's God, how do you think you're gonna stop him? Psalm 21 verse 8, please don't
turn, just write it down. Your hand, the hand of Christ,
your hand shall find out, discover all your enemies concerning all
things. No, I'm on the wrong one, I jumped
the cog. Your hand shall find out your
enemies, your right hand shall find out those that hate you. There's nothing between, when
it comes to Christ, there's nothing between love and hate. There
isn't any middle ground. Well, preacher, I'm not figured
out which side I'm on. Well, I have. You're on the wrong
side. If you ever find out who this
Lord Jesus Christ is, oh my soul. Changes a lot of things. A lot
of things. The death of Christ, draws away
the mask of pretended religion and pretended love for God and
holiness. And we're so set on ourselves
that when you mention that there might be a possibility that you
and I might hate God, oh my Lord, they become incensed. They said,
I don't hate God. Well, what does the cross say? Crucify Him. Crucify Him. Give us Barabbas. Now whether
you like it or not, or whether I like it or not, we were there. And we'd have done the very same
thing if God does not prevent. God's law and justice had a voice
in this death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know nothing of God's
holiness and justice until we know it at Calvary. God spared
not His own Son. Psalm 85 verse 10, mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Now when did this take place?
On Calvary's tree. When our Lord uttered with a
loud voice, I think next to the last words recorded to fall from
His lips, He said, It is finished! What I came to do is done. Done now and done forever. Praise
His name. Alright, I promised you, I got
two minutes left, or three maybe. I probably set my clock too far
ahead this morning. But I probably didn't either,
so. Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. I don't know if I can read this
many verses, but I'm going to try. Beginning at verse 11. For the children. Romans 9.11. For the children being not yet
born. That means there's twins, right?
Yes, twins. Hey, we've got a pair of those.
One of them is back there this morning. The children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand? God's electing grace is just
like God. He does as He pleases in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of men. Not of works. Is that the right
verse? Yeah, according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calls. It was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger. Whichever of these two
boys come out of this womb first is actually going to be submitted
to his younger brother. Of course, the mama had to you
know, make some, sort of help cover up things and got Abraham
to bless Jacob instead of Esau. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. So it was tough to wait on God's
time, so she did it, you know, herself. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now please understand, there
ain't many places you're going to hear it read like that. People don't believe that God
hates anybody. Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For He said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.
For the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have
I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that
My name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore has
He mercy. God has mercy on whom He will
have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens." How many more Bible statements
do we need to prove this? I think we have covered a lot
of ground. And I hope, by the grace of God,
you and I can take it to heart. If you've never heard it on this,
Wise, I can't change it. You're going
to hear the same thing when you come back if you ever come back. Thank you.