All right, folks, if you don't
mind, open your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. I have looked
so forward to coming up here and meeting you all and being
with you and being with Clay and Melinda. First time they
came to our house, Emma Grace was three weeks old or younger. Henry Mahan was down having a
meeting at our place and they came up. We had a wonderful,
wonderful day sitting out on the porch all day and we live
way out in the country in a long porch and sitting there visiting
and talking. But I have really looked forward
to this and I pray the Lord to make me a blessing to you. That's what this is about. This
meeting is about us realizing what we have together in Christ
and knowing Christ and enjoying Christ together and me getting
to meet you. Find out new brothers and sisters in Christ and establishing
a long and lasting fellowship and friendship together. And you know, he talked about how
long I've been there at Lantana, 28 and a half years. And I love it more than ever. I love the people more than ever.
I can't hardly wait to go to the services and preach and be
with the dear saints. I just can't tell you how much
I love the folks there and enjoy being with them and preaching
to them. And every time I get through
preaching and they'll say to me oftentimes, you can preach
that again tonight if you want to or you can preach that again
next Sunday. So they know the gospel and love it. And I want
to bring a message tonight. I call it We Preach Christ Crucified. We Preach Christ Crucified. Now
let me start reading here in verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize. Camelites have a hard time with
that one. Y'all know what a camelite is?
It's a church of Christ. Preach water for salvation. You
know, water washes away your sins. Camelites, it's a, call
them church of Christ out home. But anyway, it says, for Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
We don't flare it up, we don't use oratory. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish, our perishing foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, God
said, and this is the Old Testament, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where's the wise that can confront the cross and show where it's
foolish? Where's the scribe? Where's the
disputer of this world that can stand and argue with God and
say, I don't like the way you chose to save sinners. Has not
God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Has the wisdom of
this world ever converted a man's heart? Has the wisdom of this
world ever given a man a new nature? Has the philosophy of
this world ever done anything to change A man's character before
God and relationship with God. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching. Preaching. To save them, not
foolish preaching, but the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. One man talking to other men. One sinner preaching to
other sinners. God uses that to save His people. For the Jews require a sign.
The Jews always did. They always wanted a sign. You
know, they wouldn't believe without a sign. Faith doesn't have to
do with what you see. It has to do with what you don't
see. The Jews couldn't live by faith because they wanted to
see something. Give us a sign. He said, there shall no sign
be given you but the sign of Prophet Jonah. Three days and
three nights. the heart of the earth. And the
Greeks, they seek after wisdom. They gathered on Mars hill just
to hear, see, or tell some new thing. But watch it now. But
we preach Christ crucified, crucified. You preach Christ. Then him crucified
under the Jews, a stumbling block under the Greeks foolishness,
but under them, which are called both Jews and Greek Christ, the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, beloved, there's just
one of two attitudes that a man can take towards the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. One of two attitudes. And when
we talk about the cross, we're talking about what was accomplished
on the cross, not just a piece of wood. What was accomplished
on that cross, the salvation that was accomplished. Two attitudes
that a man can take. Either it's foolishness, it's
nonsense to a man, or it's the power and wisdom of God. It's
one or the other. But I know why. I know why the
preaching of the cross. The cross of sacrifice where
our Lord Jesus was sacrificed. The cross of substitution where
our Lord Jesus was put in the room instead of others. That
cross of sin offering where Christ was made an offering for sin
once and for all in the end of the world. I know why it's foolishness
to them that are perishing. I know why it's foolishness.
And I'll tell you why. First of all, it deals with a
subject in which men and women have no interest. And you know
what that subject is? It's salvation from sin. Men
and women don't want to be saved from sin. That's why they said,
we'd be not sinners. The Pharisee says, we'd be not
sinners. We don't know who this fella is, but I know one thing,
we're not sinners. And I'll tell you, beloved, it's the hardest
thing you ever done is found somebody that's a sinner. Men
will be saved from bad habits. They'll be saved from faults
and they'll be saved from mistakes that they make, but they won't
be saved from their sin. And that's what the cross deals
with. It faces men and women with sin. That's why they said,
you know, our Lord Jesus said, if you were Abraham's seed, you'd
believe me and you'd believe on me. And he said, we'd be not
born of fornication. And our Lord says, you are of
your father, the devil. If you were your father, Abraham,
you'd love me. And you know that I come from
God. So it deals with a subject. That's
why it's foolishness to him. It deals with a subject in which
they have no interest, which is salvation from sin. And secondly,
the cross is foolish is because it doesn't recognize human merit.
It don't recognize anything good that a person ever done. The
gospel of the cross tells us that men are sinners by nature
and that not only that, but they have nothing good to bring before
God almighty. Ain't that right? Paul said,
if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If a man can be saved by something
he does, then the Christ on the cross absolutely amounts to nothing.
If it's Christ plus our merit, Christ plus our works, Christ
plus anything we bring, then Christ and His righteousness
and the death of His on the cross absolutely amounts to nothing.
But the cross and the preaching of the cross, the preaching of
Christ on the cross, it drags right out into the light. Right
out into the light, the broken man before the broken law of
God and pronounces human merit guilty. Guilty. Every mouth may... What does
the law... There's three things the law does. First of all, it
pronounces a man guilty. We know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them that are under it, that every
mouth may be stopped. And the whole world become guilty
before God. Secondly, it pronounces death
on a man. Thirdly, it pronounces curse
on a man. And I tell you, beloved, those who acknowledge a need
for the cross, those who say they need the cross, they need
Christ, they take sides with God against human righteousness.
They say, we know that there's none good, no, not one. There's
none righteous, no, not one. God went looking for a good man.
You know what the conclusion he came to? And if God looks
for something, he can find it. He said he come back with the
conclusion there's none good, no, not one. Not one. All of our righteousness, the
best we've ever done, all of it is as a filthy rag. So that's
why the preaching of the cross is foolishness. And thirdly,
the preaching of the cross is foolish because it has to do
with declaring the righteousness of God and the justice of God. There, Christ on His cross, there
our Lord Jesus as our sin offering and our substitute and our sacrifice. There's God declaring His righteousness. His righteousness, He's righteous.
And it also declares His justice. that he is, if you're under the
law, and you're under the wrath of God, and where God finds sin,
justice demands death, and death was inflicted in Christ on the
cross. Look with me over in Job, if
you don't mind. Job chapter 25. Job 25. Let me ask you a question. How can God justify himself in
saving you or saving me. How can God justify Himself? Justify Himself. He's holy and
He's righteous. I'm not talking about my justification.
How can God be just and justify saving me? Justify Himself in
saving me. Because look what it says about
us here in Job chapter 25 and verse 4. How then can a man be justified
with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? Now that question right there
tells us, beloved, that nobody can be clean that's born of a
woman. It's an impossibility for a man born of a woman to
be clean. It can't happen. Look at the moon. And it don't
even shine in the presence of God. Yea, the stars are not pure
in His sight. And they haven't committed sin.
They haven't done anything against God. And beloved, how much less
then if they're not pure in His sight, He is so holy that He
has to humble Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven.
Because He's above everything and everything's below Him. How
much less man that is a worm and the Son of Man which is a
worm. God calling us worms? That's
what he, the worms? So how in the world can God take
a man that cannot be clean because his mother is unclean and his,
her mother was unclean and their daddy was unclean. How's he going
to take this man and this worm and justify himself in saving
that man? How's that gonna do? The cross
declares God's righteousness. He's not gonna let sin get by.
The soul that's in it, it must die. And His justice demands
that that soul die. So the cross, it's foolishness
to man because it has to do with declaring the righteousness and
justice of God. But, I love these buts. Look in Romans chapter 8 with
me, just a moment. I love these butts. I love these
butts. Oh You see beloved if a man can't
see the exceeding sinfulness of sin And you know in Paul's
going to describe sin. He said it's just exceeding sinful
this seating simple And oh, if a man can't see the infinite
holiness of God, then he'll never see the need for the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look here in Romans 8, 29. But
to them which are called, but to them which are called, for
whom he did foreknow, that word foreknow means he foreloved them,
intimate knowledge of. He also did predestinate. to
be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers. Now watch this, moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. Called. And you see, we have to call,
but to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
is the power and the wisdom of God. And that's why it says,
to them he called and whom he called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. Oh, you see, and everything there,
and this is what I love about this, everything there says he,
he, he, he, he did. He called, he predestined, he
foreknew, he justified, he glorified, he did. What are we going to
say then to these things? If God says he, and he done it,
who's going to argue with him? Where's the disputer? And oh,
beloved, that's why Paul says, when it please God. who separated
me from my mother's womb and what? Called me. Called me by
His grace. You see, the old timers used
to talk about a general call and an effectual call. The general
call is what I'm doing right now in preaching the gospel.
Every time the gospel is preached, that's the general call. Many
are called, but few are chosen. The general call goes to many.
The effectual call, the effectual call, that goes to God's sheep.
My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. And so Christ effectually calls
His people. He brings them to Himself in
the preaching of the gospel. And the preaching of the gospel,
the preaching of the cross, is to God's sheep, the very power
of God. You see, because with that gospel,
with the preaching of the cross, to God's sheep, with that call,
this effectual call, comes a knowledge of sin. The first thing a man
does when God calls him, he becomes aware of sin. When I was unconverted
and I was in legalism then, I never had a problem with sin until
I was converted. I never had a bit of problem with sin till
I was converted. But with that call, David said, it's against
you and you only that I've sinned. Job said, I heard about you with
the hearing of the ear. Now my eye sees you. What happened
to you, Job? I abhor myself. I have abhorred
myself. I repent in dust and ashes. Paul
said, I know that in me, in my flesh dwells no good thing. Oh,
wretched man that I am. Who's gonna deliver me, save
me from this body of death? What body of death? This old
fallen nature that we carry wrong with us. This dead and rotten
and corrupt. And oh, with that call not only
comes a knowledge of sin, but with that call comes a knowledge
of God's holiness. Oh, God is holy. The first two
years I pastored where I'm at now, really God is teaching me the
gospel and I preached for two solid years over this one thing. How can God save us? How can
God, holy God, have anything to do with us? How can He possibly
do that? He is holy and we're so sinful.
That's why over in 1 Samuel 2, 25, you look at it at your own
time when you get home. But it says there, if a man sinned against
another man, you can go to the law and a man will judge for
you, judge between you. But if a man sins against the
Lord, who's going to entreat for him? Who's going to entreat
for him? And oh, with that call, not only
do we become sinners, but we get a view of the holiness and
glory of God. The call of God, they know they
are sinners. They know God is holy. They know
that the judge of all the earth, He must do right. And oh, listen
to me now, if you will, just a moment. Righteousness, there's
God's righteousness. It says, it's got these scales. It says, with these scales of
holiness and truth, I've weighed man. And I found him wanting. Oh, righteousness says, I tried
him and found him to be lighter than vanity itself. I found him
not only destitute of all that God requires, but I found him
in full rebellion and enmity against you, O God. And oh, righteousness
says, I say that a man Cannot be justified at the expense of
God's holy law. Cannot be justified at the expense
of the righteousness of God. God's righteousness must be honored
and upheld. And oh beloved, those who are
called, they know this. Law without penalty, all it is
is just good advice. Just good advice. That's why
people disregard the law now. It has no bite, no penalties,
no punishment to it. They ignore it and sweep it aside. But God is not that way. It's
not good advice to trust Christ. It's an imperative. It's not
good advice that God says you must be as holy as I am holy.
It's not good advice that says you must have the righteousness
of God. It's what God says. And oh, beloved, but oh, their
righteousness, there we are outside. But love and mercy stands up
and speaks. Oh, bless God for love and mercy.
Oh, love and mercy says, O Lord, You are plenteous in mercy. O
Lord, You are love itself. Is there not a way? Is there
not a way? May not a ransom be found? For
these sinners, these that are in full rebellion and enmity
against you, may not an atonement be found? Can one be found who
will mediate between God and these men? Can one be found who is without
sin? Who is such? that He can bear
the wrath of God in His own body and satisfy your holiness? Is
there not One who can be identified with men and with God? Is there
not One? Oh, love and mercy ask this glorious
question. Is there not One who can put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and yet live to plead
his wounds on behalf of sinners? Oh, if such a one can be found,
if there is one in this universe like that, you know what his
name would be called? Wonderful. Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty
God, the everlasting Father, and the blessed Prince of Peace.
Is there anyone who can help us? Who can give the sinner peace
when his heart is burdened down with pain and woe? Who can speak
a word of pardon that affords a sweet release and whose blood
can wash and make us white as snow? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
yes, yes. There's one, but only one. Who
is he? Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the blessed,
blessed eternal son of God. When afflictions press the soul
and waves of trouble roll and you need a friend to help you,
he's the one. Job said it like God said it
like this. I found a ransom. Deliver him from going down to
the pit. Oh, so you to us, us who believe
to us who has been fixedly called to us. Who have heard the gospel
to us. The preaching of the cross is
not foolishness. We're not looking for signs to
us. The preaching of the cross is
the very power and wisdom of God. The preaching of the cross
is the power of God to remove all sin. And the preaching of
the cross is the wisdom of God to honor law and satisfy justice. You see, we know, we know who
died on that cross and we know why he died on that cross. I
was talking to a dear sweet lady in our congregation last night,
Ruby Elmore, in her mid-70s, just had a hip replaced. I was
talking to her yesterday evening and she began to preach to me.
Tosh said, you know what this, you got to hear the gospel. She
said, yeah, you got to know who Christ is. You got to know what
he did. Got to know why he did it and
who he did it for and where he is now. She said, until somebody
knows that, they don't know the gospel. They don't know him.
But oh, what is this preaching of the cross? What is it? What
is it? What is it that makes it the power and wisdom of God
to us? Preaching the cross we preach the cross because He that
died on that cross. We know who he is and what he
did We know who died on that cross and why Christ died on
that cross and he died First of all that the scriptures might
be fulfilled now look with me over here in John John chapter
19 just a moment. Oh We know why died and who died
and why died and we know that he died on that cross and that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. John 19 and verse 28. It says there in verse 28, after
this, after this, and you'll find this so many times, especially
in John's gospel, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. He said, I thirst. You know why
he said, I thirst? That the scripture might be fulfilled. And no, beloved, and when Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. What
was finished? The scriptures were fulfilled. Salvation was
done. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. He died that the scriptures might
be fulfilled. And look over in Luke 24. I know
I could quote these verses to you, but we need to look at them.
We need to understand that the Old Testament Scriptures were
speaking of Christ and all that happened in His life. All that
happened to the minutest detail was that the Scripture, even
Him saying, I thirst, was that the Scripture. Knowing that all
things must be accomplished and that the Scriptures must be fulfilled,
He done everything to fulfill the Scripture. And here in Luke,
24 and 27 And he's talking to the two disciples on the Emmaus
Road and he's beginning at Moses Moses and Moses is Genesis to
Deuteronomy first five books beginning at Moses and all the
prophets That means all the way to Malachi He expounded under
them in all the scriptures and the things concerning himself. Oh beloved, he died. Our Lord did that cross and we
preach that he died and he died on that cross that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. We preach the gospel. Christ
came and was buried and crucified and died and buried. Every one
of us says according to the scriptures, according to the scriptures,
according to the scriptures. The trail of blood that led to
Calvary It began in the Garden of Eden when God slew the animals
and covered Adam and Eve's nakedness before He expelled them from
the Garden. There they were. You're talking about a man. Who
in the world would think for a moment you could hide from
God in a bush? But that's how depraved he became
just in a moment. That's how lost he became. And
he hid in that bush and God Himself covered their nakedness, shed
the blood. And the blood that led to Calvary began in the Garden
of Eden. And the first blood shed outside
the Garden of Eden. There you find Abel offering
the sacrifice. And God saying by it, he testified
that he was righteous. That was the first blood shed
outside of Eden. And then on the blood, the trail
of blood that led to Calvary started in the Garden of Eden.
Abel sacrificed the blood on the doorpost in Egypt. God said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Rahab, when they was
fixing to tear down Jericho, and it was fixing to fall, they
said, you hang a scarlet thread outside your window. And when
we see that scarlet thread, and there's a scarlet line all the
way through the Old Testament, when we see that scarlet line,
will save you all with that blood as God got a Passover and that
trail of blood followed an unbroken line of atonement and Passovers
and sacrifices until Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us
and died on that cross bearing our sins in his own body on the
truth and there that trail of blood ended once and for all
and by that one offering By the sacrifice of Himself, He put
away sin once in the end of the world. And by that sacrifice,
He hath perfected Hebrews 10.14. Mark it down in your Bibles when
you get home. Hebrews 10.14 says, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified through His offering. Forever. Oh Beloved, He died that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. All that blood, when He died,
the blood trail ended right there. Sins were put away once and for
all. And that death right there, gone. Sins gone. And Beloved,
secondly, we know that He died on that cross and this is why
the preaching of the cross is, oh I'm preaching Christ and Him
crucified. That He might redeem us from
all sin. I never will forget when I understood
clearly, clearly that He died not only that when He died I
didn't even exist yet and the only sin that I had was what
I had from Adam. And when He died on the cross
all the sins that I had committed before I was even born was taken
care of. Not only my past, my present
and my future sins all were atoned for by Christ on the cross. You
say, well, people believe that, they're going to go out here
and sin all they want to. I'll tell you one thing, a believer
sins a heap sight more than he wants to. Don't he? But oh, beloved,
look over here in Colossians. I'll show you over here in Colossians.
He died that He might redeem us from all sin. And if there's
one sin, one sin that a man has to atone for for himself, that
he's going to be lost eternally. Colossians chapter 2. If there's one sin left undone,
people used to say all the time in religion, and I'm sure you
all have heard this, that if Christ and free will Armenians
down home, they say that if Christ comes and catches you with one
sin in your life, he's going to leave you behind. So they're trying their best
to do the best they can to live without sin. Now how do you,
I don't understand the concept in your mind that some way or
another you, you live without sin. You have to stop doing certain
things. And you know sins are geographical.
You go certain areas of the country and some that people are calling
a sin in that area and you go someplace else and they do it. That's just the way that you
know geographical sins. And in some churches, some preachers
make things to be sin that other preachers wouldn't make to be
sin. But it don't make no difference. You read it tonight. We dare
not measure ourselves among themselves and compare themselves. You know
the measuring stick that God has? It's Christ. He's God's
measuring stick. And beloved, sins are not geographical. Sins are the heart. Sin is an
attitude. Sin is a nature. Sin is something
you can do without ever opening your mouth. Sin is something
you can do without ever acting on it. Sin is something you can
do in your imagination and nobody knows about it but you and God. And all of these sins of thought,
And every time we get angry, every time we get impatient,
every time we get hard, every time we act foolish, everyone
cries out, sin, sin, sin. Where are we going to get rid
of this sin once and for all so that we can come with confidence
and boldness and liberty and freedom into the very presence
of God? Where can we get this at? Where
are we going to get rid of it? Well, look here in Colossians
2. In verse 13. Oh, I don't want to have to face
God for one of my sins, do you? Look here. And you, being dead
in your sins, and the uncircumcision or the filthiness of your flesh,
hath He quickened together with Him, given life together with
Him, having forgiven you, how many does it say there? All trespasses. Everybody knows what trespasses
is. If you go to somebody's property, you got no trespassing signs.
You cross, go past that trespassing sign, you've disobeyed. You've went past the line. You've trespassed. Well, everything
in God's blessing, we've trespassed. We went across the line. We went
over the fence. And not only that, but when we
got past the fence and no trespass sign, we never did get back on
the other side. But I love it, it says, having
forgiven you all trespasses. And this is how He done it. Blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Oh, here
comes the law. And it writes down everything
that's against you. He writes down all your sins, all your
thoughts, all your attitudes, all your nature, all your imaginations,
all your feelings. And it writes them all down,
all these handwriting. And it writes it down. And there
it is. There's the law that's against
us. Well, Christ took that handwriting. And there it was. It's all against
us. He took it with Him to the cross. And He blotted out that
handwriting that was against us. And what did He do with all
of the crimes against God and all of our handwriting of the
law against us and all the sins that we committed? He took it
with Him to the cross. And we know how He bled out,
with His blessed blood and righteousness. And it was contrary and He took
it out of the way, kneeling it to His cross. And He stripped
them, stripped them of their power, stripped them of their
rights, stripped them of their condemnation, stripped them of
every power that they'd ever have over us. And oh beloved,
that's what he done. Let me show you another real
quick over in Romans. I thought of this this evening
when I was looking at my notes back in the motel. Look in Romans
chapter 4 with me just a moment. He died that he might redeem
us. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. And
this is one of those mysteries that one of the brothers tonight
was praying about. Yet we'll stand here and admit
that we're sinners. that we have no righteousness,
no merit, no goodness in and of ourselves. But yet we stand
here at the same time and say we have no sin. We can stand
in the presence of God with confidence and boldness and liberty and
freedom and look to God without any guilt or condemnation. And
I tell you something else, whenever a believer does sin and feels
guilt or any condemnation, you know what he immediately does?
Immediately he flies to Christ. He don't go off somewhere and
say, how am I going to get rid of this sin? I'm going to get,
he immediately turns to Christ and said, Oh Lord, forgive me.
Oh, forgive me of that thought. Forgive me of that feeling. Forgive
me of that emotion. Forgive me of that action. Oh,
look here in verse six, Romans four, six, even as David also
describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed
righteousness without works. saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now if sin is
not imputed to somebody in this world, where did their sins go? If God says, David said, Blessed
is the man, and he's talking Me and you. Blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord looks down, and considers, and looks at,
heart to heart, eyeball to eyeball, with His holy law, with His holiness
and righteousness, looks right into your heart, and says, no
sin imputed, no sin charged. If He does that, where did our
sins go then? Christ on that cross. He paid
that debt with His blood. Sin demanded death. Christ died. Sins must be washed away. Christ's
blood cleanses from all sin. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners, sinners, sinners,
sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all, all their guilty stains. I ain't got over that yet. I
ain't got over that yet. After all these years, it's as
live and as real and vital to me as it's ever been. And then
let me show you this quickly, and I'll hurry. I know you're
tired, you've worked all day, getting late for you folks. And
not only did He die that the Scriptures might fulfill, He
died that He might redeem us from all iniquity. He Himself
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He died that He
might be Lord. Lord, look over in Romans 14
with me, just a moment. He died that He might be Lord.
We know who died and we know why He died. Now, Lord Jesus
Christ, God hath ordained, God loveth
the Son. I don't feel like I got time
to get you to look at all these scriptures, but John 3, 35 says
that God loveth the Son and hath committed all things into his
hands. You see, he's Lord. You know,
you'll see these signs somewhere and they'll say, Jesus is Lord
over this town. Jesus Christ is Lord over the
universe. He always has been Lord, and
He'll never be nothing but Lord. Huh? It's true that our Lord Jesus
bought the world. And God has turned everything
over to Christ. And the minute Christ gets off
His throne, this world and everything in it's going to just... In the
blink of an eye, it's going to be changed like that. And you
see, our Lord Jesus is there of all things. He bought the
right to do with this world as He pleases. God hath committed
all judgment unto the Son. Peter went and preached and says,
God hath ordained that he, Christ, this is whom we preach unto you.
God hath ordained that he be the judge of the living and the
dead. And John 9 39 said it this way,
he says, you know, he said, I am come to judge whether a man see
or not see. You know what a judge does? He
decides what's going to happen to people. And Christ is the
judge. He decides what's going to happen
to people. And oh, here in Romans 14, it says this in verse seven. Well, first verse nine first,
for to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that
he might be Lord, both of the dead and living. Now, our Lord
Jesus Christ, he has power over all flesh. He's Lord of this
world. And here, beloved, it talks about
this, he died in order that he might be Lord. And what I'm talking
about is this, that our Lord bought this whole world. It's
like in the parables of Matthew 13. There's the field. The world was the field. But
there's a treasure in the field. The treasure in the field is
the church, his people. Well, how's he gonna get that
treasure out of that world? He buys the whole field. He don't
want, he don't need the whole field. He don't want the whole
field. All he wants is that treasure. So he bought it all just to get
his treasure. And that's why 2 Peter, you know, it says they
deny the Lord that bought them. Why do they deny? They deny that
he's God. They deny that he's Lord. They deny his blood. They
deny his righteousness. They deny his power. But because
they deny, does that make him any less Lord? Does that make
him any less powerful? No. No. And that's what it means here
that he died to be Lord over all. And look there in verse
7. Now he's talking to believers here. This scripture here is
about living in dead believers. It says, for none of us lives
to himself and no man dies to himself. We that are believers,
we're living. Whether we live, when we're living
on this earth, we live under the Lord. It's the Lord that
gives us life. It's the Lord that we live to.
We honor and live to His glory and His honors. By Him we live
and we live to His honor. And whether we die, we're gonna
die unto the Lord. Die in the Lord, die unto the
Lord. So whether we live in this world or whether we die, we're
His and we're grateful to be His. And that's the goal, that
was the purpose that Christ both died, rose, and revived. That
He might be Lord. Both of the dead, oh my, we're
going to be with Him, and the living on this earth. And He
died that we should not live under ourselves. And let me close
with this. This is Ephesians chapter 2.
Let me close with this. Ephesians 2, verse 7. He died that He might show the
riches of His grace. The riches of His grace. It says there in verse 7, that
in the ages to come, you know, when we were dead in sins, we
were quickened together with Christ. Raised up and made to
sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Everything's with
Christ, together with Christ. That in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. He died that He might show that
means exceeding wealth, exceeding wealth, exceeding riches, exceeding
abundance, excess. You see, this is the end of God
permitting man to fall. I never will forget years ago,
I was reading the scriptures and I seen there in Genesis where
God kept Abimelech, you know, when Abraham lied about Sarah
being his wife and said, oh, if we go down there and And that
king down there, I'll see you pretty, he'll kill me and take
you to be his wife. So he said, you tell him you're
my sister so I won't die. Well, they got down there and
God kept Abimelech. Kept him back from sinning against
him. Sinning against him. And I read that and I thought,
my soul, if God kept Abimelech back from sinning against him,
why couldn't he keep Adam back from sinning against him? And
I thought and thought and thought about that. And of course, God
could have. But, but, if we had not fallen,
and Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Adam's sin didn't slip up on God. God had a Savior before
He ever had a sinner. And this is the end of God permitting
man to fall. That He might demonstrate His
grace. If we had just stayed in the
garden, All we know that God is as a creator. But in Christ,
in the cross, we see God's wrath and God's love. We see God's
righteousness and God's grace. We see God's holiness and God's
mercy. We see God's justice and God's
grace. We see God's wisdom and we see
God's grace. We see God's love and His power. We see all that God is and all
that He Showed us His grace. Demonstrates
His grace. And this is the end of God permitting
the world to continue in rebellion. This world goes on in its rebellion,
but He's reaching down. Saving this one by His grace,
and that one by His grace, and another one by His grace. That
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace. And this is why
Christ came into the world. to show the exceeding riches
of His grace. And this is the end of the cross,
and this is the end of redemption, that He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace. And you know what's going to
happen? One of these days, He's going to come and get us. And
it says, in the ages to come, you know how long we'll be going
to enjoy God's grace and see the exceeding riches of God's
grace? It's going to take us all eternity. We just seem... Oh my, what a coronation it's
going to be, what a day it's going to be. Our girls down home
say, what a day, what a day, what a wonderful blessed day
that's going to be. What a wonderful day that's going
to be. What a blessed day that's going to be. When my Jesus I
shall see. When I look upon His face, the
one who saved me by His grace. Every one of you sitting here
saved by the grace of God. It was because of exceeding riches
of His grace that you're here. And always be the exceeding riches
of His grace. Amen. Thank you for your time.