That is my hope. That was beautiful. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians 1. And while you're turning there,
I would like to just say how honored I am to have been asked
to come. I truly thank you, Brother John,
for having me. I know that you're very selective
of who you invite to your pulpit, and it's just a true honor. Johnny
and Rhonda, thank you for putting us up. Thank you for being so
kind and such gracious hosts, and thank you all for everything,
the food and everything. I want to bring your attention
to three words in verse 23. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. We preach Christ. Aren't you
glad? Aren't you so thankful for that?
You know how many preachers don't preach Christ? You know, we can make that statement
in a very arrogant way. We preach Christ. I think we
ought to make that statement in a very humble and thankful
way. Thank God. Thank God. We preach Christ. There are only two things that
can be preached. Only two things. There are only
two different messages that exist. Every church in Spring Lake,
North Carolina this morning, and every church in this nation,
and every church all over this world is preaching one of two
things. It's either Christ or man. It doesn't matter what the denomination
is. You know, people ask me all the
time, what denomination are you? It really doesn't matter. You
know, we'll say one, and then religion ruins it, and then we'll
call it another one, and religion ruins that. There are so many
sovereign grace churches on Sermon Audio that don't preach sovereign
grace. It doesn't matter what doctrine
a preacher, a church, a group of people claim, It doesn't matter what God men
and women identify with. It's either Christ or man. It's
one of two things. Christ or man. And more specifically, if it's not Christ alone, it's
man. If it is not Christ all by Himself, It's man. If it is Christ and
man, it's man. If it's Christ and anything,
it's man. In order to preach Christ, it
must be Christ alone. It must be. And the truth of
the matter is, the only message that saves is the message of
Christ alone. Christ alone. The only message
that is true, the only message that is the gospel, is the message of Christ alone.
The message of man damns. Not only is it not the truth,
and not only is it not the gospel, and not only is it not salvation,
it's actually damnation. It's actually damnation. Look with me just a couple of
pages over at Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1 verse 6. Paul said,
I marvel that you're so soon removed from Him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is
not another. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said
before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you, then that you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ." So it's of critical eternal importance
that we preach and we hear and we believe the message of Christ. Christ. Now, I'm going to expound
on what that is, but if we want to get right to the heart of
it, if we want to get right to the heart of it, if we want to
know whether we are hearing the message of Christ or man, all we have to do is listen to
the message. Now, I know it takes the Spirit
of God to open deaf ears. I know it does. It takes the
power of God to do this. But it comes through the declaration
of truth. And here it is. If we want to know whether it's
the message of Christ or man, all we have to do is listen to
the message. That's all you have to do. Is
it about Christ or man? Just listen to what the man is
saying. Is the preacher talking about
Christ or is he talking about man? Is the emphasis of the message
put on Christ or is it put on man? Somebody will say, well,
it's kind of both. Then it's man. Does the message have you thinking
on and looking to? And I'm talking about for salvation. For salvation. Does the message
have you thinking on and does it have you looking to Christ
or man? What really is the focal point?
What's the focal point? Men and women listen to whole
messages week after week. They go listen to whole messages
week after week on what man needs to do and how man needs to be. And they'll, you know, churches,
places, whatever you want to call them, will have a whole
series of messages on how men can be better men and women can
be better women. And they'll talk about how this
is all in your hands, you know, and you need to look to you. And they'll talk about how if
we come together, there's no telling what we can accomplish
and all that kind of stuff. That's man. That's man. Friday
I was driving down here and I was scrolling through the radio and
a man was preaching, so I stopped. And he was preaching on the lust
of the eyes. And he was saying, boy, we better
get ourselves in check. We better stop being covetous
and we need to, you know, that's man. That's man. That's the message of man. Men
and women listen to that, and it's so sad to me. This is why
I preach, because it's so sad to me. Lord, have mercy on souls. Don't you wish the gospel could
ring through all these dead buildings in town? And men could have their
eyes open, and women could have their hearts broken? and souls
could fall to their knees begging God for mercy. Don't you wish
men and women could hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? It breaks my heart for men and
women. They listen to message after
message having no idea they're listening to the message of man
and missing the message of Christ. They have no idea. The story is told of A couple, many, many years ago,
the late 1800s, this was during the late 1800s, a man and a woman
traveled to England. And while they were there, they
wanted to hear Charles Spurgeon preach. It was at the time that
he was alive and they had heard about him and they'd read his
writings. And they wanted to go hear him preach
in person. They knew he pastored that great metropolitan tabernacle,
thousands of people. And so they wanted to go hear
him preach while they were there, and the Sunday morning they were
there, they went to the metropolitan tabernacle, and it was so packed
they couldn't get in. Can you imagine? We have our
little building there in Kingsport at the moment, and our building,
uncomfortably hold 60 people. At our conference, we cram like
sardines about 120 people in that place. Everywhere there's
a spot, we cram somebody. I can imagine they were doing
that. How amazing would it be if the Lord would send a revival
and men and women were trying as hard as they could to get
into a building to hear the gospel preached. But anyway, They went
to the Metropolitan Tabernacle and they couldn't get in. It
was so packed they couldn't get in. So they went down the street
to another church. And the pastor there was a very
well-educated man. Very well-educated. Very well-spoken. He was very charismatic. And
when it was over, the man and the woman walked out of that
place saying, what a sermon. What a sermon! My, what a sermon! That night, they went back to
Metropolitan Tabernacle, and now they got in. Not as many
people came Sunday night as Sunday morning, and they got in. And
they sat down, and they heard Brother Spurgeon preach. And
when the service was over, they both walked out of that place
with tears running down their faces, saying, My, what a Savior! My soul, what a Savior. We hear the difference? By God's grace, by His goodness
to us, by His mercy to us, we preach Christ. We preach Christ. How do we preach Christ? to say
that we preach Christ. How do we preach Christ? I wanna
set forth five things that we preach in preaching the message
of Christ. If we're really gonna preach
Christ, these things will be set forth, all right? What do
we preach when we preach Christ? Number one, we preach the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not who the majority of people
think He is. Not who the majority of people
assume He is. We preach who He really is. We preach who He actually is. As He has declared Himself to
be in His own Word. And to get right to the point,
who is He? He's God. He is God Almighty. Men and women have it in their
mind that they're trying to get to God, and they take God and
set Him over here to the side. Jesus Christ, they think that's
God's helper. But when you do that, you're
missing God. You're worshiping an idol of your imagination. God Almighty, the Greatest, the
Highest, Sovereign over all things, the Judge of the quick and the
dead, the living and the dead. Let me show you that in Romans
14. Romans 14 verse 10 says, but
why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought
thy brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10 says
the same thing. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. Verse 11 says, for it is written,
as I live, saith the Lord. And that's capital L, lowercase
o-r-d, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God. When he said God, who's
he talking about? He said me. Me. At the announcement of His
birth, the angel said, call His name Emmanuel because God is
with us. John 1 says, the Word was God
and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. 1 Timothy 3.16
says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. Hebrews 1.8, God the Father said
to God the Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. John 5.22
says, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son. In Revelation 1.18, Christ said,
I hold the keys of hell and death. I'm God. It's all in My hands. Now, here is the contrast to
that. As we go through these, I want
to show the contrast between preaching Christ and preaching
man. The contrast is, preaching man is when a preacher stands
up and says, this is all in your hands. Christ said, this is all
in my hands. But when a man stands up and
says, you have the ability to determine how the judgment is
going to go, Now how do you want the judgment
to go? You have the ability to alter
the judgment. What are you going to do with
Jesus Christ? No, no. We preach Christ as the God that
He is. The question is, what is He going
to do with us? That's the question. What is
He going to do with us? So that's the first thing. We
preach the Person of Christ for who He truly is. The Almighty,
Sovereign God manifest in the flesh. Number two, we preach
the Word of Christ. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
we don't have a packet up here? that some guy came up with and
then revised it and then revised it because they realized it's
not that good really. Aren't you so glad we preach
the Word of Christ? Martin Luther said, feelings
come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is
the Word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned for lack of some sweet
token, there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be
broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging
Word till soul and body sever, for though all things shall pass
away, His Word shall stand forever." We stick to the Word alone. We preach the Word of Christ. And more specifically than that,
we preach the Word as Christ. We preach this Word as it is.
It's of Christ. He wrote it. These are His words.
But every word in this book is speaking of Him. This is the
Word of Christ. This is the revelation of Christ.
You know what the book of Revelation is all about? Jesus Christ. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Same thing all the other books
are about. Jesus Christ. He's the fulfillment of everything
this Word says need to be fulfilled. Do you know that in order to
worship God and to be accepted by Him, we have to have a high
priest? That has not changed. Brother
David was, I believe, yesterday saying, you know, have things
changed since the Bible was written? In order to worship God and be
accepted by Him, we still have to have a high priest. Christ
is our high priest. This Word says we have to have
an altar. Christ is our altar. We don't come to this table,
we come to Christ. This Word says we have to have
a Lamb. Christ is our Lamb. This Word says the law has to
be fulfilled. Christ is the fulfillment of
the law. Everything this Word has to say, every requirement,
every demand, it's all speaking of Christ. All of it. Look with
me if you would at Luke 24. Luke 24 verse 25. Then He, the Lord Jesus Christ,
said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself." What did Moses write? Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Verse 44, And He said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
Me. Then opened He their understanding. These are disciples that had
been with Him for three and a half years. Verse 45 says, then opened he
their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. What did they understand in that
moment? That was all about Christ. That was all about Christ. It
was all speaking of Christ. That brazen serpent on the pole. I used to wonder growing up as
a kid, why was it a snake? He said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Why was it a snake? Brother Cody Groover came and
preached that message. And he said it was a snake because
that's what was killing the people. And Christ was made to be the
very thing that was killing the people. That was the venom. That was
the cause of death. My cause of death is sin. And
Christ was made to be the very thing that was killing His people.
And He was lifted up in judgment before God. He said, you look
to that as the bearer of your poison. You'll live. Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark. That's not a good
story to decorate your nursery with. That's the story of God's
judgment on a sinful world that killed all souls. But the ones
that were put inside a mediator, something was between God's judgment
and them. God's judgment came down on Noah
just like everybody else. But Noah had a mediator between
him. And every soul in that mediator
lived as Christ. That smitten rock. The law. Moses represents the law. The
law struck the rock. And out of that rock flowed living
water. That rock is Christ. The Passover Lamb. I'm going
to pass through. And death is coming to every
house. It's not that Israel didn't experience
death. Death came to that house just
like every other house. But they had a substitute Lamb
that died for the house. That's Christ. We preach the
Word of Christ. We don't preach it to be of man.
It's of Christ. I'm taking too long. I'm going
to speed up. We preach the person of Christ.
We preach the Word of Christ. We preach the work of Christ. We preach the cross of Christ. Alright, now, here's what that
means. Salvation is of the Lord. It is of the Lord. The contrast
to that would be preaching that salvation is of man, by the works
of man, by the good deeds, by the self-righteousness of man. Salvation is not by the works
of man. It's not by the works of man.
By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified before
God. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. By
grace are you saved through faith. That's just looking to Christ.
That not of yourselves is the gift of God. Not of works, lest
any man should boast. It is God which worketh in us,
both to will and do of His good pleasure. Who? Christ. God. In order to preach
the work of Christ, we have to deny the work of man. And we
do. We deny the works of man. And
here's the reason why. If we preached the works of man,
we would have to deny the work of Christ. And God forbid that
we deny the work of Christ. Go with me back to 1 Corinthians
1. Verse 23, But we preach Christ crucified. That's what we preach. Look at
verse 17, 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. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of the
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks is foolishness. But to those who are saved, it's
the only message there is. In chapter 2 verse 2, Paul said,
I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That means the work is His. That's
what it means. The work is Christ's alone. Salvation
has never been and salvation will never be in the will, the
work, or the decision of man. Decide, do you want to be saved
or not? It's not man's decision. Salvations of the Lord. It's
His will, it's His work, it's His doing. So we preach the true
person of Jesus Christ. We preach the Word of Christ. We preach the work of Christ. And number four, we preach the
accomplishment of Christ. Now here's the difference. Here's
the difference. We don't just preach that He
came to do a work. We preach His success in that
work. Isaiah 42, God the Father said,
He shall not fail. He didn't. John 19.30, Christ said, It is
finished. It is. To stand up and preach that man
needs to add his work to Christ's is to say it's not finished.
That's such a black... Man, you know, thinks he's helping
God. He's actually not only blaspheming,
but offending. He's saying, you didn't finish
it. God forbid. God forbid. Christ accomplished what he set
out to accomplish. To say that we need to help him
is to say he's unsuccessful. But he's not unsuccessful. Hebrews 10 says, after He had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down on the right
hand of God. The right hand means the seat
of His honor. It's not that there's two thrones.
He sat down in the seat of His honor. After He offered one sacrifice,
He sat down. Why? He was finished. By one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." And Hebrews 4 says, we can now
rest from all of our labors because God has rested from His. It's
over. It's over. Finished. Done. He was successful
in the work He set out to do. So, when we preach Christ, we
preach the person of Christ. We preach the Word of Christ.
We preach the work of Christ. We preach the success of Christ,
and therefore, number five, we preach the glory of Christ. Right here in 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 30 says, But of Him, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. He is all. He's our all. He's God's all. He earned all. He has all. Therefore, all the honor, all
the credit, all the glory goes to Him. All of it. And to just quickly point out
that the contrast to that is man sharing the glory with Him. God forbid. God forbid. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us. Unto Thy Name we give it all. Psalm 115 is the theme of the
weekend. We give it all. You have it all. We acknowledge it all. All the glory goes to our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. I'll leave you with this. This
is a little account that reads this way. A vessel was wrecked
one stormy night off the coast of England. And all were drowned
except an Irish boy. because the waves swept him onto
a great rock. In the morning he was rescued,
and they asked him, Lad, didn't you tremble out there on the
rock during the night? He said, Sure I trembled. But
the rock didn't tremble once. All night long. What He's saying
is, all the glory goes to the rock. That's what He's saying,
all the glory goes to the rock. And that's what preaching Christ
is. All the glory goes to Him. May that be our preaching from
here on out. May the Lord keep us on Christ
crucified from here on out. Lord, don't let us stray. That's
our cry. Don't let us leave the gospel
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Don't let us go looking for something
new. Keep us. Keep us, Lord. Keep us. Every soul who begs
that of God is being kept by the power of God. Thank you for
having me. Thank you. Appreciate it.