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Jim Byrd

Paul and Message

1 Corinthians 1:23-24
Jim Byrd August, 21 2022 Video & Audio
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Jim Byrd
Jim Byrd August, 21 2022

The sermon delivered by Jim Byrd focuses on the Apostle Paul's message centered around the crucifixion of Christ, as articulated in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24. Byrd emphasizes that for the Jews, the message of a crucified Messiah was a stumbling block, while for the Greeks, it seemed foolishness. He outlines that Paul's background, particularly his zealous teachings under Gamaliel, shaped his prior misconceptions about salvation being through the law rather than grace. Byrd highlights how Paul's transformative encounter on the road to Damascus exemplifies the sovereignty of God's grace, leading him to preach the essential truth of salvation through faith in Christ alone. The implication for believers today is that reliance on law or works for salvation is futile; true freedom comes through embracing the grace offered in Christ’s sacrifice.

Key Quotes

“You must be divorced from God’s law, or you can’t be married to Christ.”

“Forget about works when it comes to salvation. Forget about earning God’s favor. You can’t earn it. You can’t merit it. This is a gift of God.”

“To finish the story, he remarried a woman who was willing to go back to India with him, 61 years of age. He began the journey back to India, caught a fever on the ship, died, and was buried at sea. But he said, this is the only message worth preaching: the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

“Would you honor God? Honor His Son. Would you help poor sinners? Honor His Son. Preach Christ and His work of redemption.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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If you haven't closed your Bibles,
let's look at that passage in 1 Corinthians 1. And let me reread
two verses that he read just a few moments ago. I appreciate
the clarity with which all the brethren read. When we read the Scriptures,
it's a very serious time. Seek God's face in prayer. And
I'm thankful for our faithful men who read and then seek the
Lord on the behalf of the congregation. Let me re-read 23 and 24, 1 Corinthians
1. Here's what Paul says, but we
preach Christ crucified under the Jews, a stumbling block,
and under the Greeks, foolishness, but under them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Here's my subject for this evening. I want to talk to you about Paul
and his message. Let's talk about the Apostle
Paul and his message. When I think of this man who
was inspired of the Spirit of God to write over half of the
New Testament, and that is with the assumption that he wrote
the book of Hebrews, which most men believe that he did, As I
think of him, there's several things that come to my mind. First of all, his upbringing. He was born not in Israel, not
in Jerusalem. He was born in a city called
Tarshish. And that was a city actually
very famous in its day, though there were other cities that
seemed to be more famous. But it was a great city. In fact,
they had engraved on their coins that it was the metropolis of
the East. He was born into a poor family. This man whose name before his
conversion, we know him as Saul of Tarsus. He wasn't born with
a silver spoon in his mouth. If you ever have read or you
heard about the book called the Talmud, that's the Jewish writings
of their law and their doctrine. That's the main source of their
law and their doctrine. Every Jewish father had a threefold
responsibility to their sons. Number one, make sure they were
circumcised on the eighth day. You read in Philippians chapter
3, and that's what Paul said, circumcised the eighth day. The
second thing the father had a responsibility to his sons was that he educate
them or make certain they were educated in the law of God, that
is the Old Testament. And then the fathers had another
responsibility. Here's the third thing the Talmud
said. In addition to a father making
sure that his sons were circumcised and instructed in the law of
God, they had to be taught a trade. So they sent them to a trade
school. And we know that benefited Saul
of Tarsus, later to become Paul, because he took the burden off
of some of the less, what we'd say, affluent churches. who couldn't
afford to take care of his financial needs, and he built tents. His father had fulfilled his
responsibility toward his young son, Saul. He made sure he was
circumcised, and then he made sure he was instructed in gospel,
and also that he learned to train. He studied at the feet of one
of the most prestigious religious leaders of the day. That was
a man by the name of Gamaliel. If you would, keep your place
here in 1 Corinthians. Go back to the book of Acts chapter
5. Acts chapter 5. I'll show you
a little something about this man Gamaliel. All of the Lord's apostles had
been put into prison. They had, as you remember at
the beginning of chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira had been killed
by God. And then great fear came upon
the people of the city. And then they heard that these
men, apostles of Christ. They had the ability to heal
people. So they brought all the sick
to them. And so these men were gaining great popularity, and
people were listening to them preach the gospel of God's grace
to sinners through the Lord Jesus. And this upset the Sanhedrin,
so they threw them all into prison. But that evening, one of the
Lord's angels came, sent commission by the Savior, and he led all
of the apostles out to freedom. And then shut the jail doors
behind them. Next morning, the soldiers, the
guards, went to check on the prisoners They were all gone,
all the apostles were gone, but the prison cells were still locked
up. They went and told the Sanhedrin. You know those men you put in
prison? Not there anymore. They have escaped, but all the
prison doors are locked. And then immediately, these men,
these apostles of the Lord Jesus, they went out into the temple
and began to preach the gospel of Christ. The Sanhedrin got
so upset, they brought them before them again, arrested them, and
then they intended to put them to death. Until a voice was heard A man
who is very, very highly respected. That's Gamaliel. Here we are
in Acts chapter 5. After they had been arrested
again, you notice in verse 33, when they heard that, they heard
the apostles say, we ought to obey God rather than men. and
then they preached to the Sanhedrin the exalted Christ Jesus. When they heard this, in verse
33, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to kill them.
There stood up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel. doctor of the law, had in reputation
among all the people, everybody in Israel respected this man,
and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. And he said to the Sanhedrin,
that's the very highest court in Israel, He said to them, you
men of Israel, take heed to yourselves. What you intend to do is touching
these men, and you better be careful. You better be careful
what you do to them. He says, for before these days
rose up Thutis, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number
of men, about 400, joined themselves who was slain. And all, as many as obeyed him,
were scattered and brought to naught. And this man rose up,
Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away
much people after him. He also perished, and all, even
as many as obeyed him, they were dispersed. Now I say unto you,
He says, leave these men alone. You need to refrain from these
men. Let them alone. For if this counsel
or this work be of men, nothing's going to come of it just like
nothing came of these other two fellows. It'll come to naught.
But, verse 39, if it be of God, this is a wise man. If it be
of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found even
to fight against God." And you know what all of them said? We
agree with you. That's wise counsel. They brought
the apostles in. They beat them. They said, don't
preach anymore in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they
went forth preaching the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Now, look
over in Acts chapter 22. Go to Acts chapter 22. Here is the apostle. He has been arrested. He's in
great danger in Jerusalem. And he has a hearing. before
the men. He says, men and brethren, chapter
22 verse 1, men, brethren, fathers, hear ye my defense which I make
now unto you. And when they heard that he speak
in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence. And
he said, I am verily a man which am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus,
a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel. And that name, oh, that resounded
among all of them. He said, Gamaliel, and I was
taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers
and was zealous toward God as ye all are this day. Well, here's the point. He had
the greatest teacher there was. This is Gamaliel. His father
sent him to be instructed in religion to the man who is the
foremost of poverty on the Old Testament of that day. And it's
good to study the Old Testament. And I think to a degree, Saul
of Tarsus could say the same thing that he said of Timothy,
that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. But the
only thing, the difference was, Gamaliel's teaching was the teaching
of salvation by obedience to the law. The salvation by living
in accordance with the rules of God. He didn't teach. He didn't believe salvation by
grace. This was the furthest thing from
his mind. He and all of the rest of the
Sanhedrin were very much against the doctrine of grace, the doctrine
of Christ crucified who saved sinners by His death. They were
very much opposed to that, and Gamaliel was, so though Saul
of Tarsus was instructed in religion, he got a wrong view of religion. But he studied, he listened,
and he learned. And he grew up to be a Pharisee. In fact, he says in Philippians
chapter 3, he said, concerning the law of God, that is according
to what he had been instructed by Gamaliel, he stood blameless
before God's law. He wasn't instructed that the
law of God was a dispensation of death and condemnation. He wasn't taught that. Here's
what he was taught. Live by the law. Obey the laws
of God. This is salvation. This is eternal
life. This was just ingrained into
him from a little boy. every day receiving this instruction
from the greatest religious teacher in the world, a religious teacher
who didn't know God. Don't tell me that a man can
study the Scriptures and then immediately come to believe the
Word of God, believe the Gospel of Christ Jesus, believe the
necessity of salvation by grace all in Christ through His substitutionary
atonement. Don't tell me that. This man,
this Saul of Tarsus, as instructed by Gamaliel, he studied the Scriptures
from beginning to end. The Old Testament. But he didn't
know God. He had no one to show him. He had no one to teach him the
very truth of the gospel of God's grace. In fact, he reviewed his years
in religion. And in Philippians chapter 3,
he said, it's all done. Everything I did. All my reading,
all my praying, all my preaching, all my teaching, all my studying. He said, I counted all but done
that I might win Christ and be found in His righteousness. And you know, him being a Pharisee,
he knew something about praying three times a day and fasting. all of the rigors of Jewish religion. He knew them all and followed
the rules as best he could. And in his own mind, he was blameless
in this. And he had no understanding that
the law of God examines all of us and finds us all guilty and
it's given to shut our mouths. He didn't shut his mouth. because the Spirit of God wasn't
using God's law to teach him. He knew the letter of the law. He knew the rules of the law,
but he didn't know the God of the law. He didn't know the Lord. He read all of the Old Testament.
He knew all of the predictions and prophecies of Jesus, that
the Messiah would come, rather. And all of the Jews said they
were looking for him. And then when our Lord Jesus
came, and evidently Saul of Tarsus was probably two years younger
than our Lord. And I wouldn't be amazed to find
out that when our Lord Jesus was crucified, there was a young
man there named Saul of Tarsus. I bet you his teacher Gamaliel
said, I want you to come with me. I'm going to show you what
happens to people who say they're equal with God. And I would say
he'd been right there, Saul of Tarsus and Gamaliel had been
right there blaspheming the name of Jesus of Nazareth because
though he had religion, it was a graceless and Christless religion. And that'll get you. That'll
kill you. That would kill you. He had his natural beliefs. I've talked about his upbringing. He had his natural beliefs. He believed that salvation's
by doing. Salvation by being charitable.
Salvation by morality. There's nothing wrong with charity
and certainly nothing wrong with morality. But if we could clean
up all of society, let's close all the bars, put all the red
light districts out of business, let's just stop all of this,
all of these things that people do that are very immoral. If we did that, people still
don't know God. That's not the issue. There are some subjects I very
much opposed to abortion. But I'm not going to get up on
a stump and preach against abortion. That's not my message. If you
ever come to see who the Lord is and appreciate spiritual life,
then you'll appreciate physical life. See, the gospel clears
up all these things. Oh, Saul of Tarsus. His natural
religion was salvation by works. And that is the natural religion
of everybody. Everybody. Doesn't matter where. You see, all men are religious.
All people are religious naturally. You can go into areas who they've
never seen a Bible. Go into foreign countries. We've
been to Japan several times. They don't have a Bible. They
don't think anything of the Bible. Are they religious? You betcha. Because all men by nature are
religious. We're born religious. And people
everywhere knows that there's going to be some sort of judgment
in the end. Now they don't have any idea
that it's a judgment according to righteousness. They don't
know that. But they believe, I've got to
die and I'm going to meet my Maker, whoever they believe that
that Maker is. So this is a man who did not
believe that salvation was by grace. He held on to the law. Now listen to me. And those of
you who are watching, I want you to get this. You must be
divorced from God's law, or you can't be married to Christ. Now
you just think that over for a little bit. You must be divorced
from the law. The law is our schoolmaster to
drive us to Christ, and then the law has done its work. You must at that point divorce
the law. And the only one who can pronounce
that divorcement is God Himself. He's the only one who can show
you the law of God was given to shut your mouth. It wasn't
given as a rule of life. It's the rule of death. Why would
people say it's the rule of life when it's the rule of death?
The Apostle Paul says that. It's death and condemnation and
damnation. The law is good. It's good. I wouldn't say anything negative
about the law at all. But the law has done its job
in the hands of the Spirit of God. When we see the law pronounces
us guilty, it shuts our mouths once and for all. And you'll
stop talking about what a good person you are if the Spirit
of God ever takes the law of God to you. And then you'll be
looking for a substitute. You'll be looking for a Savior.
and you'll be thankful the Spirit of God reveals Him to you. Here's
this man, Saul of Tarsus. And he grows up. It goes from
young adulthood to a man about 30 years of age. And he goes to Jerusalem. Let
me tell you how much power he had. He goes right into the office
of the high priest. Hey, he was among the who's who
in religion. Saul of Tarsus was. He goes to
the high priest, zealous for the law. He says, would you give
me papers authorizing me to go from house to house and arresting
anybody who believes Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God? High priest said, Here's authorization. Take some of my temple police
with you." Okay. And he sets off. He decides to
go to Damascus. He leaves Jerusalem. As he leaves
Jerusalem, riding on his horse, followed by the temple police,
he goes right by Gethsemane's garden. And he goes right by Calvary. I expect he was thinking as he
rode by Calvary. I remember the day that they
crucified Jesus of Nazareth. Oh, blessed day. I'm so glad
we were rid of him. Awful thoughts about the Lord
Jesus. He goes riding toward Damascus. He's not a seeker. He's not in
pursuit of a knowledge of the grace of God in Christ. He's
zealous for the law. And he was going to arrest every
man and woman who believed in the way of grace. And he gets almost to Damascus,
and all of a sudden, light shines. Blinds him. He got knocked off
his horse. It was at that appointed time
when the Spirit of God was going to deal with his heart. Scripture says those temple policemen,
they heard voices, but they didn't know what was going on. The only one who knew something
was going on was the man to whom God was revealing the Gospel. And that shows you the sovereignty
of God's grace. All them temple policemen, they
didn't know what was going on. They didn't know what was happening. I'll tell you what's happening.
God's in the operating room. He's operating on Saul of Tarsus
in the inner man. The Lord said to Saul of Tarsus,
I want you to go on into the city of Damascus. And I want
you to go to a street called Straight. Then I want you to
go to a house, a house owned by a man by the name of Judas. So, there he is blind. He can't find his way. A temple
policeman with him said, what are we going to do? He says,
I want you to take me into the city, and I want you to find
a street called Straight. And when you get to that street,
as you guide me, because I'm blind, I can't see. You're going
to have to take me to that street. And he said, when you get on
that street, I want you to start asking people, do y'all know
where Judas lives? He lives on this street somewhere.
And somebody said, yeah, he lives in that white house on the corner
down there. And the temple police took Saul
of Tarsus, led him to that white house on the corner or wherever
he was, knocked on the door and said, is this where Judas lives?
Said, yes, sir. He said, this man, this man,
he's blind. He needs somebody to help him,
needs somewhere to stay. And Judas said, he's welcome
at my house. I think about that scripture
in Hebrews chapter 13 about those who entertain an angel unaware. Brother Judas, he had no idea
who this house guest was. Oh, a man that would be used
to write over half the New Testament. He said, you're welcome in my
house. And he entered into the house
of Judas. Scripture says three days and three nights he fasted
and prayed. He didn't eat. I don't want any
food. Thank you very much. I don't
want any food. Just leave me be. Leave me be. And the Lord
had a preacher for him, Ananias. The Lord said, Ananias, I've
got a job for you. I want you to go talk to this
man. I want you to go preach to this man. Who is your Lord?
Saul of Tarsus. Anybody but him. Lord, don't you know he's on
the war path against your Gospel? The Gospel I try my best to preach. He said, you go. You go preach
to him. He's over on Straight Street
over at the house of Judas. Judas, I believe, was a child
of God. And Anna and I said, I know exactly
where that house is. And he went over there. Judas opened the door. Anna and
I said, you've got a fellow here by the name of Saul. Come on
in, preacher. He's in here in his room. I've
been taking care of him. I can't even get him to eat anything.
He tore all to pieces. Anna and I went in there and
said, Brother Saul. That's what he said. Brother
Saul! The Lord sent me to you. And suddenly his eyes were opened. He had a clear view of the gospel
of grace. And Anna and I said, Brother
Saul, You need to confess your faith and believe it's baptism.
And he was baptized. And then for a long, he's preaching. He's preaching that Jesus of
Nazareth is the Son of God. You see, the Lord apprehended
him by sovereign grace. That's how sinners are saved. You're not looking for the Lord.
He's looking for you. And then He will put in your
heart to then seek Him who's seeking you. Behold, He prayeth. What's He praying? I believe
He's praying, Oh God, show me mercy. Oh God, I need grace. I'm a lawbreaker. I thought all
along I was a good man, a moral man, a perfect man according
to the law. Oh God, help me! I'm a hopeless
case. And God sent Him a man to tell
Him the truth. I'll tell you what, this side
of salvation, the greatest blessing God can give you is to send you
somebody to tell you the truth. To be honest with your soul.
Not somebody who will say a lot of good things and preach morality
and live by the golden rule and kind of entertain you from the
pulpit. That's religion today. Oh God, tell me through a preacher
exactly what I am. Expose my rottenness. Oh, show me how my condition
is so terrible. None can help me but God only. So, the Lord saved this man by His
grace. He was apprehended by sovereign
grace. And then he began to preach.
And we know his message because we have it here in 1 Corinthians. In fact, he even says in the
second chapter of 1 Corinthians, look at verse 2, and he's talking
to the Corinthian believers now. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2,
he said, For I determined not to know anything among you except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, God demanded satisfaction
to His law and to His justice because His holiness demanded
it. And God provided satisfaction
to His law and His justice because His love for us required it. God found the way. so that he
would be both a just God and a Savior. Isn't that good news? And it didn't involve us doing
anything. Forget about works when it comes
to salvation. Forget about earning God's favor.
You can't earn it. You can't merit it. This is a
gift of God. The gift of God is salvation
in Christ alone, solely based upon His blood and His righteousness
only. Give up all efforts of saving
yourself. You can't do it. Bow to God's
way of salvation. Well, it says here, In my text,
and I'll give it to you quickly, I see three things in verse 23
of chapter 1. I see the gospel rejected. Verse
23, but we preach Christ crucified under the Jews, a stumbling block. He's the stone that the builders
rejected. He's the cornerstone. He's the
foundation stone. He's the only hope a poor sinner
has got. What did the Jews do? They stumbled
over Him. There He was right in front of
them. God in their midst. Emmanuel! God with us! They turned thumbs
down on everybody in religion, of the Jewish religion. Everybody
who was anybody, they all said, not this man. Not this. We won't have this man rule over
us. That's what they said. Not this
man. He's a despised Galilean. We
know his mama and his daddy and his brothers and his sisters.
He has no great pedigree. He didn't go to our rabbinical
schools. He's nobody. He's an imposter. They stumbled right over him. And I'll tell you what, he is
the stone. God give us grace to fall on
him. Otherwise, one of these days,
he's going to fall on us. It's one way or the other. Oh Lord Jesus, I fall on You. I need You to hold me. I need
the rock of Your salvation. I need the rock of Your work
of redemption. I need the Savior. But if you don't need Him, if
the Spirit of God doesn't show you your neediness, the Lamb
of God is going to come after you one day. It's not going to
be in grace. It's going to be in judgment. who rejected the gospel, the
Jews did, and then the Gentiles. It says of the Greeks, it was foolishness
to them. A bunch of philosophers there
in the city of Corinth. It was an educational city. People
walking around with their PhDs and all the philosophy and all
of those things. And then here comes Paul along
preaching the gospel. He says, that's too simple. That's
too simple. I want something deep. I'll tell you what, there's nothing
deeper than the sovereign grace of God to sinners in Christ and
His covenant of grace. That's deep. That's deep. But they wanted something that
would kind of tickle their wisdom. Kind of cause them to, I've got
to study this out. They rejected the gospel. Which
brings me to the second thing. The gospel triumphant. The Jews
stumbled over it. The Greeks, well, they said it's
foolishness, but look at verse 24. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God. Do you see the very power of
God in the gospel? Do you see the wisdom of God?
I do. The gospel is triumphant. It'll
always be triumphant. And it's a gospel admired. I
admire the power of God. What does it take to save a sinner? Almighty power. and infinite wisdom. How can
God who is holy, how can He embrace me as one of His children and
not become filthy through my filthiness? Through a mediator. One who stands
between me and God. One who is as pure as God. And yet one who is bone of my
bone and flesh of my flesh, who took my sins on him, and then he died under the wrath
of God. This is a gospel to be admired. And this is the message that
God's preachers are sent to set forth. I wouldn't give you a plucked
nickel for most of the preachers in this world, and certainly
in this country. See, preachers don't understand
this. Now, God's preachers do. But
preachers in general, they don't know about this. See, preachers
are just like... Let me give you an illustration.
They're just like that pole upon which the brazen serpent affixed
and lifted up. We're just poles. We're sign
holders telling people about the Savior. That's our use. What's the usefulness of a preacher?
He's holding up the gospel of God's grace. He's holding up
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, we don't merely preach
a Christ-centered gospel. We preach Christ crucified who
is the gospel. He is the gospel. Let me give you a story, a true
story. Have you ever heard of a missionary
by the name of Adoniram Judson? He was a congregational preacher
in Boston many, many years ago. I think he was born in the late
1700s or something. I forget the dates which he lived. But his father was a congregational
preacher, and he became a congregational preacher, and he had an understanding
of the gospel of God's grace. And there was a big church there
in Boston where his mother attended. And that church offered him the
pastorate. And his mama was thrilled. He's
going to be pastoring here in Boston. He said, I don't want
the pulpit. He said, Mom, God called me to
be a missionary. She said, where are you going?
He said, I have a burden for the people in India, specifically
to the people of Burma, India. And so he and his wife, her name
was Ann, but he called her Nancy. I thought that's kind of interesting.
Called her Nancy. He and Nancy packed up their
belongings, and another couple and they boarded his ship to
begin the journey to India. Well, he knew that when he got
to India, he's going to run into a man by the name of William
Carey, who was a Baptist preacher. And he knew that William Carey
would not be in favor of him sprinkling babies. And that's
what the Congregationalists did. So he and his buddy and their
wife, they decided on this long voyage, because it took them
a long time to get there, he told his buddy and his wife and
the buddy's wife, said, let's study this baptism thing so that
I can prove to William Carey that it isn't by immersion, It's
by Sprinkler. So they studied. And he became
convinced that baptism was immersion. That is baptism. And actually,
when they got to India, they'd been sent out by the Congregational
Church, by the Congregationalist Mission Board. That was their
financial backing. And he said, we've got to be
honest with them. And he sent word back that we're Baptists
now, and particular Baptists. That's a very important word,
particular redemption. He sent word to them. What do
you think they did? They cut off the funds. This couple that went with them, One of them suggested that that
couple go back and go to the particular Baptist churches in
America, that these missionaries, they need some help. So anyway,
they went in and Adoniram Judson and his wife Nancy, they studied
the language. He preached. for a year or two,
and the Baptist missionary board that sent him out said, you might
as well come home. There's nobody saved. Nobody
made a profession. And the letter got to him. That's what it said. You need
to come home. And he wrote back. He said, no, I'm going to keep
on preaching. Seven years. God saved somebody. Adonam Judson baptized him, and
he wrote in his journals how wonderful it was when he and
Nancy and this Burmese man observed the Lord's Supper together. He
said it was a joyful time. Not long after that, his wife
Nancy took ill and passed away. Shortly after she died, their
two-year-old girl also died. He buried them both over there. Years went by and he came back
to the States. He was invited to preach at this
same church in Boston. He didn't know what kind of reception
he would get. After all, he's a particular
Baptist. That's a congregational church.
But he was very much amazed when he got there. The church building
was absolutely filled to overflowing. They wanted to see and hear this
missionary that so faithfully he served there. And though his
wife and little girl died, he kept preaching. God saved many,
many more people. So they were excited to see him.
He was introduced by the young preacher of that Boston church. And when he stood up, he was
61 years of age. It is said that he looked 85
or 90. Weak looking man. Weak physically. And he began to preach. And he
preached on, this is my subject. Christ and Him crucified. He
just preached the gospel. He said people were weeping. He finished his message. There
was a song and prayer. Then the young preacher who had
invited him said, I'll walk you back to your hotel room. So they were walking along, and
the young preacher, the pastor of the church, was noticeably
silent. Finally, Brother Judson said
to him, You don't have much to say, do you? He said, what's on your mind,
young man? He said, well, to tell you the
truth, I'm very much disappointed. He said, what are you disappointed
in? He said, I thought you would tell of your travails in India,
how your wife got sick, had to bury your child. All the difficulties that you
encountered. And Adoniram Judson said, those
things don't matter. He said, the only message, young
man, that matters is the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He was exactly right. To finish the story, he remarried
a woman who was willing to go back to India with him, 61 years
of age. He began the journey back to
India, caught a fever on the ship, died, and was buried at
sea. But he said, this is the only
message worth preaching. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He's right. He's absolutely right. Nothing else worth preaching.
Nothing else worth believing. Nothing else worth listening
to. Those of you who are watching, I hope this is the message you
want to hear. because from this pulpit, just like Brother Allen
did this morning, and I haven't heard his message, but I know
what he preached. Every man who stands behind this
pulpit preaches the gospel of God's grace. Christ and Him crucified,
buried, risen, exalted, coming again. He's the one we love. He's the one we believe. He's
the one we want to hear about. Would you honor God? Honor His
Son. Would you help poor sinners?
Honor His Son. Preach Christ and His work of
redemption. Would you feed the sheep? Preach
the Gospel. I tell you, the sheep of God
will say, man, I'm lying in green pastures now. I'm feasting, feasting
on the riches of God's grace to me in Christ Jesus. Thankful
for faithful missionaries through the years. Men who believed and
taught the Gospel of God's grace. Well, let's sing a closing song.
I'll ask Kevin to come. I appreciate him doing a good
job today. 489 that sing glory to His name.
Jim Byrd
About Jim Byrd
Jim Byrd serves as a teacher and pastor of 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland Kentucky, USA.

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