Morning, it's Brother Chris Cunningham
from College Grove Grace Church in College Grove, Tennessee.
He just lives in the wrong spot for me to visit. I'm either going
north of him or south of him all the time. And then when I'm
going through there, he ain't home. So I guess what I'm going
to do, just get in the car and go visit with him. That way he'll
be right where he needs to be. Brother Chris, you come preach
to us this morning. Well, I can't tell you what a
privilege it is to be with you. And I'm thankful to your pastor for asking me. And I'm sorry
we missed the service Friday night. I didn't even know that
I didn't get a basket until until I got a basket. But Brother Darwin, you try to
do something nice for people and you know, you get nothing
but grief, do you? You might as well just be mean
to people. Boy, it's a blessing to be with
you. Turn with me if you would to Galatians 6.14. This is a
scripture that everybody in here could quote by heart. But I want
us to look at it and pray that God will will speak it to us, show it to us. May His Holy Spirit
take the things of Christ and show them to us. Galatians 6.14,
but God forbid that I should glory, that I should boast, that
I should delight in anything else, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. We preach the cross. In 1 Corinthians 1.18, Paul wrote,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved, It's the power of God. And I want to ask you right at
the outset this morning, do we need God's power to save us? Do we need the power of God?
Do we need God to exert his power to save our loved ones? Our children
and grandchildren. Family. Friends. The gospel of Christ crucified
is that power to save. That's how God exerts his power
to save sinners. It pleased him by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Do we need his power
as believers to comfort, to increase our faith, to give us that peace which passeth
all understanding? The two messages that I have
heard at this conference so far, either one of them could have
been entitled Christ Crucified, and it would have fit just right,
wouldn't it? That's the gospel. If Paul said
we preach Christ and Him crucified, if we're not preaching Him, then
what are we preaching? If I was going to preach, for
example, the total depravity of man, if my endeavor this morning,
by God's grace, from his word, was to impress upon you what
a wretch you are before God, and your utter need of the Lord
Jesus Christ, how would I do that? How would I do that? By preaching on sin? You can't
Tell a sinner what a sinner he is by preaching on sin. You think
you might. But it just doesn't. That's not
the way the Lord reveals what we are. We preach the cross. And you're not going to know
what you are until God reveals Christ crucified unto you. We
got plenty of examples in the word of God about sinfulness. Somebody said this yesterday.
God doesn't cover over our wretchedness in the scripture. He doesn't
candy coat it. He shows us the evil of those
who have gone before us and have trusted him before us. And we
could talk about King David. If I mentioned King David to
you, You might have a favorable idea. You might think, well,
yeah, David was a good king. He killed Goliath. And the Lord
said, he's a man after my own heart. And David was a monster. David was a monster. David committed adultery with Bathsheba
and murdered her husband so he could have her. You have any
friends that have ever done that? You wouldn't want much to do
with him if you knew him, would you? After the flesh, at least. But to look at what he did now,
the horror of what he did, premeditated murder of Uriah the Hittite,
and took his wife. You're not going to understand
sin by looking at that. You're not going to understand
how evil that is. God showed David his sin for
one thing, by showing it as if it was somebody
else's. Now we can see sin in other people
a lot better, can't we? David saw it better. He didn't
have much problem with what he had done. He didn't seem to be
bothering him that much, did he? Until he thought it was somebody
else. And if you remember, the story that Nathan told David
was not near as bad as what David actually did. Killing that little
ewe lamb, that was, you think about that, that's horrible.
That man loved that little lamb and says it was as one of his
own daughters to him. He held it and fed that thing.
I can relate to that because I have a dog that I love that
much. Oh, Clark, he's like one of my children. He lays his head
on my lap and I give him a piece of my steak, you know? And he's like one of my children.
And that man, in his arrogance and pride, killed his neighbor's
yule lamb. He had a whole field full of
lambs. And David said, you bring that man to me, I'm going to
kill him. And of course, Nathan said, David, it's you. It's you. We can see it in other people,
can't we? Sometimes better. But I'll tell you this, you're
not gonna know the evil of what David did until later in the
story. When David was forced by God
to confess his sin, and then we see from God's word what it
cost for Nathan to be able to say to David, the Lord also hath
put away thy sin. You think about that now, the
Lord put your sin away. How does God put sin away? But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he, Christ, appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. When God, if and when God shows
you what that is, the sacrifice of himself, then you won't be
thinking about David's sin. May God impress upon us and cause
us to see this. Is that what it took to save
me? Is that what it's gonna take to save me, the blood of God?
Am I that much of a monster? Job said, now mine eye seeth
thee, and I abhor myself. No, if you're gonna understand
total depravity, you're not gonna understand it by somebody preaching
sin. Somebody's gonna have to preach
the cross. Now mine eye seeth thee, and
behold, I am vile. Or we could talk about Hosea
and Gomer. for Gomer to take Hosea's good
things and lead him on just to benefit from his kindness and
his love and then to break his heart with her unfaithfulness.
You think about that. God said to Hosea, I'm going
to teach you something about my love for my people. You go
love that harlot. And I don't think he just told
her to do it. I think he gave her love, gave him a love for
her. Don't you think so? Because he
did love her, didn't he? He'd have to. He'd have had to. I believe that was an effectual
commitment. You go love her. I believe that's the one that
said, let there be light. Said, you go love her. And he did. He loved her. And she tore his
heart out with her unfaithfulness. And
these pictures of our sin in the scripture, we know that's
us, but you're not gonna learn what sin is by seeing that, because
you'd do the same thing if God let you go for five seconds. These are given by God to reveal
something of the terrible blackness of our wretched hearts, but the
real understanding comes, and may, if God will impress upon
us when we read that part about how that even after Gomer had
showed her true colors, and had taken advantage of Hosea,
she played him and she tore his heart out. And then God said,
go yet and love that harlot. You go yet and love her. And
then it says this, and he bought her to himself. Listen to it now, Hosea 3.2.
So I bought her to me. You think about who he's buying
here. I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver, and an omer
of barley, and a half omer of barley, and I said unto her,
thou shalt abide for me many days, and thou shalt not play
the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, and so will
I also be for thee. How much is that? How much? It's 15 pieces of silver, an
omer of barley, and a half omer of barley. You know how much
that is? I can tell you exactly how much it is. It's what it took. It's what it took. And when we
know by God's grace, in spiritual terms, what it took, when we know how a depraved and
hopeless and helpless wretch can be redeemed, not with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. Then we'll understand by his
grace what total depravity is. Ye who think of sin but lightly,
nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly.
Hear its guilt, may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed.
See who bears the awful load. Tis the Christ, the Lord's anointed. Son of man and son of God. And if we preach the total depravity
of man, we've gotta show the impotence and evil of man's will
because religious man imagines that salvation is a function
of his free will. You just need to make a free
will decision, you know, for Jesus and God will save you.
God plainly declares in Romans 9 16, it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. But
when and how better is the utter depravity of the will of man
put on display than at the cross? You're not gonna know what man's
will is until somebody preaches the cross. Luke 23, 25, he, Pilate, released
unto them those who were crying, crucify him, crucify him. Him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, Barabbas,
he released Barabbas unto them whom they had desired, but he
delivered Jesus to their will. That's what happened at Calvary,
your will. It was God's will. They and we did whatsoever His
hand and counsel determined before to be done. That doesn't excuse
you, doesn't excuse me. There's the will of man given
its full expression. The will of man is most fully
expressed in taking the Son of God and with wicked hands, torturing
Him, beating Him, spitting on Him, mocking Him, nailing Him
to a cross in open shame, and laughing while He bled out. The will of man, not the answer.
The will of man's the problem. If I was gonna preach a message,
and my subject was the unconditional election of God. How are we gonna understand anything
about that? Would I go to Romans chapter nine and would I quote
scripture there and talk about how God said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy? I don't see how I could avoid
that, do you? That'd be a good place to go. But what is mercy? And is there any for me? If you're gonna know the answer
to that, somebody better preach the cross. There's no question at all from
the word of God, clear as a bell, undeniable and plain as a nose
on your face that God chose, he picked out, elected a people,
a specific people to salvation from the foundation of the world
before they were ever born or had ever done any good or evil.
God picked some and not others. That's plain as day. Second Thessalonians
2.13, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren,
my brothers in Christ. Beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. We give thanks
to God for you. We're not happy for you, you
made a decision. We're thanking God that he saved you. And he
saved you from the start. He saved you before there was
a you. Through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. But how did God choose sinners? On what basis did he choose one
and not another? Why me and not my brother? Why Jacob and not Esau? Why that
one thief and not the other one? Romans 9-11, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. We're talking about
God's free, sovereign, eternal, electing grace now. that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. But how did God choose? Was it
just eeny, meeny, miny, moe? No, he said to Jacob, I love
you. Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated. And we need to understand that
God's love is not just a wish for the best. God's love is not
him rooting for you. God's love is not him voting
for you, Satan voting against you, you cast a deciding vote.
That's not the love of God. God's love is not him doing his
best. It's not him doing all he can and then leaving the matter
up to you. Herein is love. If God chose sinners because
he loved them, if that's what election is, the love of God, Then what's love? Here it is
right here. Not that we love God. He didn't
have to put that in there, did he? But he did, why? Because we need to forget about
our love for him now. When we're talking about love,
we don't even know what it is until somebody preaches the cross
and God opens our heart to receive it. but that he loved us and. There's always that in there.
You read about the love of God in this book and there's action
with it. Every time. And sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. How are you gonna preach? You
can preach election without preaching the cross. But you can't preach the cross
without talking about God's electing love. And what does that love
look like? It looks like Christ shedding
his precious blood for me to redeem me. God's election is God's love.
We read it right there in Romans 9, 11, and 12. And God's love
is Christ crucified. We preach limited atonement.
And when we do, we preach the cross. We preach that when Christ
died on Calvary, he redeemed all those that God loved and
chose in eternity. In that everlasting council and
covenant of grace, he bore all of their sins in his own body
on that tree. And he bore the wrath of God
for those sins, for all their sins. And he put away their sin
by the sacrifice of himself. And he obtained eternal redemption
for those whom he sanctified with that precious blood, every
one of them. As he was going to the cross,
he said, all those that my father gave me, I'm not going to lose
any of them. And here's what we need to understand.
And by God's grace, we do. If you don't know that Christ's
atonement is effectual. If you, if you think that he
died kind of just to give everybody a chance, if you don't understand
that, if he died for you to redeem you, you're redeemed. If you
don't know that, then you don't need to read a bunch of books
on limited atonement. You just need to know who he
is. That's it. If you know him and
somebody says, everybody he died to redeem are redeemed, you'll
say, of course they are. Of course they are, he's the
Christ, the son of the living God. The direct and certain result
of Christ bearing and putting away our sin by dying for our
sins according to the scriptures is that we have no sin. We are free from God's wrath,
sinless in God's sight, redeemed from the curse of the law, Christ
being made a curse for us. And we stand holy and without
blame before God in love. Mm. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins, in his own precious blood, be glory. Both
now, unto him that's able to keep us from falling, to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
I like what he said. Unto him be glory and dominion
and power, both right now. Can we do that right now by God's
grace? Can we, right now, can we glorify
him? And from now on, both now and
forever. He redeemed us from our sins.
And let me say this about our sin. We have two kinds of sin
by nature. It's all sin, it's all the same
thing. But we have two kinds by nature in our perception. The ones that we're ashamed of
and the ones that we trust. The ones that we call sin and
the ones that we call righteousness. We try to hide the one kind,
we flaunt the other. We're proud of it. It's still
sin. It's still sin. And there's nothing
that God hates any more than that kind. All of it had to be
laid on Christ, and he had to put it away. He had to redeem
us from our sins with his own precious blood, and he either
did or he didn't. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his
own way. That's our part in salvation. Religion let's talk about it.
You know, there's God's part in salvation in your part. You
know what your part in salvation is you need it Here's his part and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all That is what Christ accomplished
by his sin-atoning death. He redeemed all that the Father
gave him in the eternal covenant of grace. And this is the only
hope for a totally depraved sinner. This is why they go together
now. If you truly believe the doctrine of total depravity,
then you believe in the unconditional election of God and the limited
atonement of Christ, the effectual atonement of Christ. The only
way a totally depraved sinner can be saved is by God loving
him and choosing him from eternity and Christ washing him from his
sins in his own precious blood. A totally depraved sinner doesn't
need salvation made available to him, he needs to be saved. When Simon Peter was sinking
beneath the waves, the Lord didn't offer him a helping hand. It
says immediately he stretched forth his hand and took hold
of him. Is that how he saved you? We don't need a chance. We need
a savior. So may God give us grace always
to preach the cross. Preaching the cross is preaching
him whose cross it is. The cross
is what it is because of who. It's who died there. People like
to argue about what sin did to Christ. Let's talk about what
Christ did to sin. That's the gospel. He put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. If you wanna see what sin is,
look to the cross. If you wanna see sin put away,
look to the cross. If you wanna experience the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, look to Calvary. If you wanna see how God can
be just and justify a vile wretch like you, look to Calvary. God forbid that we should glory
in anything or anybody else save the Christ of God who by the
triumph of his cross has saved to the uttermost a countless
multitude of the most wretched sinners that ever walked God's
earth. Do we preach the cross when we speak of the irresistible
grace of God? God's calling and drawing sinners
to himself by his Holy Spirit in regeneration and giving life
to their soul and faith in their heart? Of course we do. The irresistible
call of God is simply the imparting of life, spiritual life, to a
dead sinner. When the Lord cried to Lazarus,
Lazarus, come forth. What do you think the chances
are he's coming out of there? Dead, alive people don't stay
in graves, do they? And those who are made alive
by the grace of God, they come to Christ. That's an irresistible
call when you say, Lazarus, come forth. But how does that happen? With the command goes the power
to obey the command. How's a dead man gonna come forth?
Only if he says, come forth. Somebody said he had to say,
Lazarus, come forth, because everybody that was dead would
have come out of their grave if he hadn't been more specific.
I don't know about that, but I tell you what, whoever he wants
to live is gonna live. Where we read, with the command
goes the power, and what is that power? What power does God exert
to save sinners this morning? If somebody's gonna be made alive
from the dead this morning, what's the power of God that's gonna
make that happen? Well, we read a while ago in
1 Corinthians 1.18, the preaching of the cross is that power, it's
the power of God. Our Lord said in John 6 44 no
man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw
him And I'll raise him up at the last day you know what we
tend to overlook sometimes in that is that We talk about the
power of God drawing there no question about that word means
to take something from where it is and bring it to where it
ain't That's what he did But don't forget where he brought
us. How are we drawn? By the power
of God. Where are we drawn? To Christ. No man comes to me except the
Father draw him. What's the result? Eternal life.
But how is it that we're drawn to Christ? We preach the cross, don't we?
You know why? He said, I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
I'll draw all unto me. And this he said signifying what
death he should die. The cross. The cross, that's
how sinners are drawn. What are they drawn to? Where
are they drawn to? How are they drawn? You ever
see him and what he did for you? You're coming. It's Christ crucified
that sinners can't resist. You've got some capable preachers.
You've got a pastor that can preach. God's gifted him. But
he ain't persuasive enough to get you to come to Christ by
the power of his oratory skills. And he knows that. God's got
to bring you. And how's he going to do that?
He's going to show you his son. He's gonna reveal his son in you and
to you. It's Christ crucified that sinners
can't resist. Not his chosen sinner. The irresistible
command is look and live. Look where? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. God, by the power of his Holy Spirit, gives life and faith
in him. Isn't that how he said it? You
gotta be born from above, and that happens by the Holy Spirit
going where he wants to. What does the Holy Spirit do?
He takes the things of Christ. He takes the preaching of the
cross and shows it to you. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them to sinners, John 16, 13 through 15. If you ever,
by the almighty call and power of God and by the faith that
he gives, get a glimpse of the cross and see who died there
and why and what he accomplished when he did, see the glory of
God in his face, you saved. You saved by the grace. of God
through that faith that he gave you. How do we see that? How does
that happen? God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness. In the beginning, God said, let
there be light, and there was light. Paul said, that God shined
in my heart. That God commanded light right
here, too. And when he did, there was light.
Well, what'd you see, Paul? What in the world, what was your
experience? He gave me the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. How do you see God's glory? In
the face of Jesus Christ. When God said, let there be light,
what are the chances that there'd be light? When he called 12 apostles, how
many did he get? How many did he call, how many
did he get? How many did he have to call
to get 12? Paul said, that same God spoke
to my wretched, black, sin-cursed heart and said, let there be
light. And when he did, I saw God's
glory shining in the face of Christ crucified. The Lord said to Thomas, he spoke these words, and again,
this is the one that said, let there be light, and he said,
be not faithless, but believing. But what did he say before that? Reach hither thy finger, and take your hand and thrust
it into my side. He showed him himself. He showed him Christ crucified
and said, now be not faithless. Quit trusting yourself. Quit
trusting your own works. Quit glorying in anything or
anybody else. Be not faithless, but believing. And we know how that story ends,
my Lord and my God. May he command us, may he command
faith in us to see him and his precious blood, see him crucified. The perseverance of the saints,
what does that have to do with the cross? Everything. What is the perseverance of the
saints? Have you ever thought about that? What scripture would
you go to for that? Here's one I never had seen in
connection with that. But listen to this, this is perseverance
right here. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now what is faith? It's looking
unto Jesus. So what he's saying is they're
looking unto Jesus, who gave me eyes to look. And he's gotta finish our faith
too. The author and finisher of our faith, and what are we
looking at? Who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God. The perseverance of the saints
is looking unto Jesus and never stop looking unto him. Why? Because
he authored our faith and he finishes our faith. He that begun
a good work in you will finish it. That's the perseverance of
the saints. We persevere because we are preserved. He authored it, he finishes it,
and we just keep looking by his grace. We just keep looking to
him. I'm glad my perseverance does
not depend upon me, but upon his preserving power. 1 Peter
1.5, we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. We're kept by the power
of God through faith. And where does that faith look? My faith looks up to thee, thou
lamb of Calvary. Savior divine. Looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Alpha and Omega of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross. We, by God's grace, preach the
cross. And God forbid that we ever preach
or glory in anything we've done or ever will do, but may we ever
glory in Christ and what He did for us, rejoicing in Christ Jesus
alone and never ever having any confidence in this flesh. Amen.