I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We're
going to look at verse 2. I had two messages prepared for today. Saturday, I was on my way home. I was talking to Todd Nybert. And this scripture came up. This
is what we started talking about, this scripture. Then, a few hours
later, a brother was talking to him and this scripture came
up. And then last night I was talking
to Frank Tate and this scripture came up. And I thought, I best be sensitive, and go back
and look at this scripture. You know, the law is laid into
the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. And so
therefore, I've changed from what I originally had planned
to speak in this second service, and I want to look at this scripture.
This is what I feel the Lord has providentially laid upon
my heart. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
2, Paul says, for I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now Paul was a man chosen, called,
taught of Almighty God. He was an apostle. He was taught
the gospel from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
taught the gospel, the truth, and he was moved upon by the
Spirit of God to pen a major portion of the New Testament. I want to say 14 books in the
New Testament. And the scripture declares the
Spirit of God moved upon this man, Paul. He was once self-confessed
to be the least of all the saints. A sinner, the chief of sinners. That's what Paul said about himself.
But this is what the Spirit of God moved upon Paul to say about
his faithfulness as God kept him. 2 Timothy 4 says, he said,
I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept
the faith. We've been taught much by the
Spirit of God through this man that God was pleased to raise
up. Now, concerning all the messages,
the instructions, the letters, everything that the Spirit of
God moved upon Paul to record in the New Testament. The Spirit of God was pleased
to move upon the Apostle Paul to pen this truth, this subject. This is what Brother
Todd and I were talking about. When we were talking about this
scripture on Saturday, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 2, for I
am determined. I am resolved. I am fixed with
a deliberate purpose. Not to know, not to tell, not
to have it be known, anything. Among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified." And Brother Todd made this statement of which
I wholeheartedly agreed. He said, Marvin, I pray that
I am determined, that I am fixed not to preach anything else but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, one might ask, when you
make that statement, are you telling me that Christ
crucified was all that Paul preached? Yes. Yes. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That's all he preached. That's
what he preached. Well, if that's the only message
that Paul the Apostle was determined to preach, Does that mean that
he only related over and over again the actual day of the crucifixions,
the events? They brought him before Pilate
and they jerked out his beard and they put the crown of thorns
on his head and took him to the cross and nailed him to the cross
and he was crucified and died. Is that over and over? Well obviously
the day of our Lord's crucifixion was the glorious and the open
exhibition of God's will and purpose to save His people from
their sins by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
Lamb. But the actual event of the crucifixion
was not what Paul was speaking of. Well, what then did he mean? Well, when we preach Christ and
Him crucified, here's what we're saying, here's what the Spirit
of God was saying. The whole counsel of God in the
redemption of His people, the whole eternal counsel of God
was summed up In this one truth, Christ and Him crucified. Everything you know that God
has determined is eternal. And God Almighty eternally knew,
willed, purposed everything that he would ever known unto the
Lord are all from the beginning to the end. He knows the end
from the beginning. So nothing ever occurred to God,
nothing ever started before, nothing ever began before something
else. It was all eternal. But for us
to understand, we cannot We can't speak. I told you before, I don't
know how to speak eternal. I don't even know how to say
it. In the beginning, before the foundation of the world,
we still think in time. There's something we can't get
away from it because we don't perceive. But with God, there
is nothing that begins. But when we set it forth, we
say things in a chronological order. Nothing ever began with
God. That's the only way we know how
to perceive it. So when we say Christ and Him crucified, what
we're saying is that everything that we can perceive or we can
understand, we have to say it in such an order, this preceded
this, in our minds. This is Christ and Him crucified. Now let me tell you the first
thing concerning Christ and Him crucified. It is to preach that
there was a need for Christ to be crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't
crucified for no reason. Why? Man is a fallen creature. Man fell in the garden. What
happened first? Man's fall or the actual physical
crucifixion? Well, man's fall. He fell first. But God saw the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. There was a Redeemer that
Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world. God
knew that there was a need. God knew that man would fall.
Christ crucified had no beginning. It is eternal. God looked and
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. All of God's people were involved.
Noah too. But there was a lamb. Christ
was crucified. from before the foundation of
the world. The Lord looked, Psalm 14, 2, down from heaven upon
the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Adam truly rebelled against God
by eating that fruit which was forbidden. And he tried to hide
his rebellion with fig leaves, with his work. He tried to cover
what he had done before God by his own works. But Almighty God beheld eternally
the covering, the atonement. That's what it means. Christ
and Him crucified sums up the totality of that which Almighty
God everlastingly purposed. Christ and Him crucified. God
Almighty saw Adam's fall and beheld Christ and Him crucified. Man's fall did not surprise God. So whenever we behold man in
the fall, What is the only hope? God eternally saw Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. Secondly,
we preach Christ and Him crucified when we declare the graciousness
and mercy of God to save an undeserving people, a people of God's own
choosing in His own beloved Son, Moses. Exodus 33, I'll read this
to you, verse 18, 19. Moses asked the Lord, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. How? How? You are the just God. How? Christ and Him crucified. God
beheld Him. I will show mercy. I will have
compassion. Whenever Adam and Eve fell in
the garden, they were going to hide that nakedness. They got
them some fig leaves. Adam was going to cover himself
before God, and what did God do? The scripture says in Genesis
3.21, God did make coats of skins and clothed them. Why? Christ and Him crucified. God Almighty covers the sin of
His people, those who need a Savior by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the garden itself, there was
the first message preached to man concerning Christ and Him
crucified. There we see, when God said,
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, God who chose a people,
God said, I will not leave them, I will not forsake them. When
He covered Adam and Eve, there we behold the merit, the efficacy
of Christ and Him crucified. Why? How could God justly cover
their rebellion, setting forth the glory of Christ and Him crucified. There we behold the merit of
the One who shed His blood in the will and purpose of Almighty
God before the foundation of the world. God trusted Him first. I'm going to kill an animal.
It's going to have to die. Something's going to have to
die. There it was, setting forth, Christ and Him crucified. God
didn't take another leaf or another different... He didn't. He covered
them with that which had to shed its blood. He was proclaiming. There we see, in the garden,
the everlasting surety of the sheep. That's the one. that the Father looked upon.
There's the revelation of God's eternal wisdom to save His people
from destruction. Christ the Lamb, Christ crucified
is preached when we're taught that before there was an actual
sinner in time, there was a Savior. Listen to this. He who is referred
to as wisdom. Proverbs 8. 8.1, does not wisdom cry? Who is the wisdom of God? Christ
and Him crucified. There's the wisdom of God. How
God can be just and justify a sinner. Listen to what wisdom said. Wisdom
saying in Proverbs 8.22.23, the Lord, Jehovah, Possessed me. Now here's Jehovah,
the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Jehovah
possessed me. Who's, who, who, who here? The
mediator. The Messiah. Christ. Possessed me in the beginning
of his way. Before his works of old, I was
set up from everlasting or ever the earth was. Listen to what
wisdom says. Proverbs 8, 34 to 36. Blessed
is the man that heareth me. That's a blessed man. That's
a blessed woman that hears God. That's been given ears to hear
and eyes to see. That hears the gospel and hears
it by faith. Blessed is the man that heareth
me. Watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors.
For whoso findeth me, findeth life. How is any man, any woman
going to find Him? God finds Him first. Reveals
Himself to them first. How does He reveal Himself? Christ
and Him crucified. He that sinneth against me wrongeth
his own soul. All they that hate me love death. So what is it to preach Christ
and Him crucified? It is to preach Him who is the
everlasting Lamb of God. The wisdom of God to save His
people from their sins. Preaching of Christ and Him crucified
is the setting forth in a methodical way that which God has eternally
declared is so. And the only way we know how
to say it is to proclaim it. Man is a sinner. God is merciful. Spirit of God calls him out.
Why? Why? Why is there hope? Christ
and Him crucified. Thirdly, we preach Christ and
Him crucified when we declare the holiness and the righteousness
and the justice of God that demanded His death at Calvary. God in eternal wisdom, in Christ, Everlastingly purposed
to save his people. Now you know that. But not at
the expense of his justice. He had to satisfy himself. Brother Scott said it like this.
God had to do something for himself before he could do something
for us. What did God have to do? He had to honor his law. His justice, His justice. God gave His law through Moses
at Sinai. And we're all commanded to obey,
not optional. But because of sin, we couldn't. Because of our flesh, the weakness
of our flesh, we couldn't. We all came short of the glory
of God. But our inability to not obey,
our inability to obey or not to obey didn't excuse us from
the law's justice. It didn't excuse us. Here we
see the reason, the foundation. Why? How? How? How can God be
just? and punish sin. And we're all
sinners. All of sin comes short of the
glory of God. How can God be just and justify a sinner? You know the answer. Christ and
Him crucified. The scripture sets forth Ezekiel
18, verse 4, Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the
Father, so also the soul of the Son is mine, the soul that sinneth
What's going to happen? It shall die. Is that going to change? No. No. What hope do we have? Paul says, I was crucified with
Him. Chosen in Him. God eternally
put His people in Christ. And when He went to the cross,
Again, as Brother Scott said, where God puts a man, that's
where God keeps a man. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
that when we went to the cross, we were in Him and died in Him? When He died, we died under the
judgment of Almighty God. What hope do we have? outside
of suffering, the justice and judgment and wrath of God apart
from Christ. What hope do we have? None. God satisfied Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ, the great
high priest, the one that would intercede, the mediator, the
advocate, became us. made flesh, dwelt among us. He who is the only, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens,
the only man, was made flesh. He came as the servant of Jehovah
to live for and obey in every point of God's law. I couldn't obey God. I have no
ability. I don't even know what the law
means. The Lord is explaining it in
Matthew 5. I dare say any of us, especially
me, even understood. What does it mean to not take
the Lord's name in vain? How many of us understood that?
I didn't. I didn't know it. I thought it meant what I thought
it meant. Here the Lord Jesus Christ came and He who knows
the law, obeyed the law. Every jot and tittle. And what
did the Father say concerning Him? This is My beloved Son whom
I am well pleased. You hear Him. Well, here He is,
the One who knew no sin. The perfect, the innocent Lamb
of Almighty God. who knew the demand of God for
disobedience. He knew the demand of God for
disobedience. And what does the scripture says?
He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Here, the innocent was made to
be the guiltiness. That's what that word means,
the guiltiness. That the guilty might justly
be made righteous. I have to have my sin justly
dealt with. God, as I've said before, He's
not going to sweep it under the rug. He's not going to just say,
well, we'll just forget about it. What
hope do I have? Christ in Him crucified the one
that Almighty God eternally saw, eternally trusted, and sent in
time, walked, and gave Himself over, willing, I lay down my
life for the sheep. And something that is so indescribably
wonderful happened for this sinner and for many sinners. of God's
choosing. God took what you and I could
never do. I'd love to be able to make somebody
else guilty instead of me. I can't do that. I can't do it. I can't transfer it. I can't
do it. But God did it. That which is
impossible within, impossible with God. How did he do that? He gave What I am made Him to
be that. He was made sin. And when Almighty
God, His law, beheld sin upon that cross, here's what Scripture
says, He was stricken. smitten of God and afflicted,
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, for
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed." Christ, God in human flesh, God-man,
Christ, the Messiah. It was by the blood of God. I still, I can't get over that.
The blood of God, Acts 2 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers. Feed the church, you tell them
concerning Christ and Him crucified. You tell them of the bread from
heaven. You tell them, you teach, you
feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own
blood. And fourthly, We preach Christ
and Him crucified when we behold God's satisfaction and acceptance
of His people in His Son, who He has accepted. When the Lord
Jesus Christ cried from the cross Last words, it is finished. It is finished. All the totality
of what Almighty God eternally purposed, which is summed up
in four words, Christ and Him crucified. There's the totality
of all the eternal purpose, will, of God Almighty summed up in
that one truth, it is finished. And scriptures declared he bowed
his head and gave up the ghost. He died. How did he die? He said, nobody takes my life
from me. I lay down my life. He just willed Himself and He
died. Now what assurance do we have
that the Father, all that the Father everlastingly loved, what
assurance do we have that all those that He chose in Christ
and determined to eternally have with Him, how do we know? that all that he's purposed shall
surely come to pass. How do we know that? God raised
him from the dead. He did not fail. When we preach the resurrection,
we preach Christ and Him crucified. It is to preach Him who is alive. He is not in the grave. He's ruling in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ
told John on the Isle of Patmos, Revelation 118, I am He that
liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of hell
and death. We preach Him. We preach Christ
and Him crucified when we declare His accomplishments. When we declare His glory as
the Mediator. That is preaching Christ and
Him crucified. When we preach Him seated at
the right hand of the Father until all His enemies are made
His footstool, what are we preaching? Christ and Him crucified. And I'll tell you this thing
in closing. We'd never exhaust it all, but I'll tell you this.
We preach Christ and Him crucified, the merit of it, when we preach
the Lord's glorious return. Come back. to receive His own
unto Himself. All of His people died in Adam.
He came the first time to put away their guilt by the shedding
of His own blood, to redeem them so that they'd never perish.
He came to establish righteousness or holiness before God for His
people and robed them in righteousness. That is preaching Christ and
Him crucified. His final declaration of His accomplishment and finished
work at Calvary is going to be seen in that great day of His
return. The dead in Christ shall rise
first. Why? Christ and Him crucified. We which remain on the earth
shall meet them in the air. Why? Christ and Him crucified. And
then we shall Hear Him say these words according to His promise. Come, you blessed of the Lord,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. On what basis? Christ and Him crucified. Paul said, I am determined. not to know anything
among you, save, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart, for Christ's sake.