And use that verse of scripture there
in verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. What is our message? What is
our message? Those of us that are believers.
If Lantana Grace Church had a message, what would it be? And what is a preacher to preach?
The apostle says here, Christ, Jesus, the Lord. We preach not
ourselves, but Christ, Jesus, the Lord. Don't talk about our
ministry. Don't talk about our success.
Don't talk about how many souls we won or how we built a church
from nothing. How much our salary is and what
our educational level is. We don't preach ourselves. We're
not talking about ourselves. Our message is Christ, Jesus,
the Lord. I read a lot of books about preaching. And I've talked to a lot of people
about preaching. And I've read a lot of articles
on preaching. And in all those books that I
read and all the articles that I read, there's very little about
preaching Christ. Very little about Christ or preaching
Christ. Most of them have to do with
expository preaching, how to do expository preaching. And
then there's got to be relevant preaching. Preach things that's
relevant to the time, to the issue, the things that you're
dealing with. I don't know what that means. Do you, Brad? Relevant. Relevant. And then there's preaching
with power. I'll tell you how to preach with
power. I'll teach you how to prepare to preach. I've got a
whole book in there on how to prepare sermons. How to prepare
sermons. But no matter what, whether we're
expository preaching, preaching with power, or preparing to preach,
The thing in our preaching, we've got to have the right content.
Without the right content, our preaching is absolutely vain
and useless. I believe that. And I know this,
that some people believe that Christ should not be the sole
focus of preaching. There was a preacher, he's gone
now, but he said one time in a meeting up in Appomattox, Virginia,
He said this, he said, I know there's more in the Bible than
just Jesus Christ and him crucified. I know there's more in the Bible
than that. And so they say that preaching
the Christ and that preaching the gospel, preaching our Lord
Jesus Christ shouldn't be the sole focus of our preaching,
that some other subjects demand our treatment, especially in
preaching to believers. The thing is now, Everybody,
you know, all the preachers now they want to disciple people.
They want to teach them what discipleship means. And disciple
them and teach them how to go out and win and how to talk to
people and all that. But I'll tell you what, they
say other subjects demand treatment, especially preaching to believers.
But it's so obvious that some people that they say there's
no need even saying about how it is to preach Christ. But how
little of preaching Christ is actually practice. Now he said
here, he says, you know, said for we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord. The word preaching, the word
preaching has three meanings. Three meanings. I mentioned one
of them Sunday morning. One of them means to tell good
news. Preaching means three meanings. Tell good news. That's what the
gospel means. Good news, the evangel. News
that makes you happy, joyful, blesses your heart, brings good
news to people. In fact, the scripture says it's
as cold waters to a thirsty soul. It says good news from a far
country. That's what it's about. Such
good news. And it means, secondly, it means
to herald or proclaim. Proclaim something. And the third
thing it means is to tell thoroughly. Tell thoroughly. Now you look
over here in Galatians chapter 1. We'll be right over to your
right. A couple of pages. And look here at what the Apostle
Paul says. We're talking about telling good
news to Harold to proclaim and tell thoroughly. And look what
it says here in verse 23 of Galatians chapter 1. But they heard about
Paul. And how that he came down and
they was afraid of him. It says in verse 23, but they
heard only that he which persecuted us in times past, listen to this,
now preaches the faith which he once destroyed, and they glorified
God in me. You see, he preached the faith.
He preached the gospel. He preached Christ. And the faith
is what is the body of the gospel, what we believe. When we say
the faith, he's talking about what we preach that men believe
and embrace and bow to and submit to. If you ask me what my faith
is, I'd say Jesus Christ is my faith. If you ask me what my
hope is, I say Jesus Christ is my hope. You ask me what my righteousness
is, Jesus Christ is my righteousness. You ask me how I approach God,
I say Jesus Christ is how I approach God. You ask me how God approaches
me, I say Jesus Christ is how God approaches me. How's my sin
put away? Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory
put it away. And so that's the faith that
we're talking about. When we preach what we call the
faith, we're preaching the gospel, the doctrine of Christ. And I
tell you, look over in Acts, back over here in Acts chapter
14, just a moment, and let me show you this about this thing
of preaching. Tell the good news, herald the
kind health early. And here in verse 22, look what
the apostle did here. He says they preach the gospel
in verse 21, the gospel of that city and taught many and they
returned again to Lystra, to Iconium and Antioch. What's this? Confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them, listen to this, to continue in the faith
in that gospel. And that we through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God. So he preaching the faith, the
word, the kingdom, all these words are synonymous. There are
67 references that speak of preaching either the gospel or preaching
Jesus Christ. And that's why it says there
in 2 Corinthians 4, you look there with me again, go back
to where we were. That's why it says there in verse 4, Talking
about preaching the gospel. He calls it the gospel of the
glorious, glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. And if that gospel's hid, and
that people don't see it, they don't understand it, they don't
get the thing. It says it's because their minds
are blinded. But in verse 4, in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
lest the light, the revelation, the understanding of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them. That's why we preach
not ourselves. And in preaching the faith, in
preaching the Word, in preaching the kingdom, all relate to our
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the object of our faith.
He's the subject of the Word. The Word was manifested in the
flesh and we beheld His glory. He's the king, he's the ruler
of this kingdom that's in this world, and we're in a spiritual
kingdom? You can't be in a kingdom without having a king. You can't
be in a kingdom without having somebody rule over you. And people
think, if you think for a minute that anybody you know can be
in the kingdom of God on this earth, and God's kingdom to be
in them, and them not be under subjection to Christ, they got
another thing coming. That don't happen like that.
You see, He's the object of our faith. So when we're preaching
the faith, He's the object of it. He's the subject of this
blessed word. And oh, He's the King over this
kingdom. And oh, I want Him, Lord, rule
over me. Rule over me. And wherever the
New Testament identifies the subject of preaching, that subject
is always the Lord Jesus Christ. Always. Always. Now let me give
you, let me tell you this about preaching. So all the subject
is Christ, faith, word, the kingdom. And you know what the consequences
of not preaching Christ is? If we don't preach Christ, you
know there's some consequences to it. Some awful consequences
to it. You see, only Christ-centered
preaching has any authority, and we get it from the Scriptures.
If we don't have Christ-centered preaching, and Christ is not
who we preach, then we have no authority whatsoever to preach.
John 5.39. John 5.39. And I tell you, it's
from the Old Testament. Look, John 5.39. Look what our
Lord said here. Oh, there's consequences of not
preaching Christ. You know, preaching Christ, its
authority comes from the Scriptures. It has all the authority from
the Scriptures. Look what he said here in verse
39, John 5. Search the Scriptures. Search
them. Look for them. What Scriptures
was he talking about? He was talking about the Old
Testament Scriptures. You look through the book of
Acts, every one of those men when they preached, they used
the Old Testament. Peter on the day of Pentecost,
I don't know how many verses of scripture he used out of the
Old Testament and preached Christ. He used David and he preached
Christ. He used men crucifying Christ
and preached Christ by doing that. He preached Christ and
his glory on the day of Pentecost from start to finish using nothing
but the Old Testament. And our Lord said, search them
scriptures. Look for them. He said, in them
you think you have eternal life. You've got to have more than
just think. He says, listen, if you think you have eternal
life, you better search the Scriptures and find out where eternal life's
at, where you get it, and who gives it, and how you get it.
He says, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, and they, the Scriptures, are they which testify of me. And look in Luke, Luke 24, verse
27. Oh, listen, the Old Testament
spoke of Him, and if they did, why not should we? Oh, we get our authority from
the Scriptures, and it's God that tells us about Christ being. The Scriptures spoke of Him,
testified of Him. And look what He said here in
Luke 24, 27. Well, look what our Lord said
in verse 25. He's walking with his two disciples
on their mass road. Then he said unto them, O fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
And you know, most people, when they talk about the prophets,
they think they're just going to historical records. But the
prophets, he says, the prophets that spoke of me, 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 things concerning himself. You know, we'll miss it if we
don't, you know, we won't have any authority for preaching.
And I tell you, if failing to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ,
we would rob God of His glory. Rob God of His glory if we fail
to preach Christ. God's glory is wrapped up in
His Son. God's love is wrapped up in His Son. God's honor is
wrapped up in His Son. God's purpose is wrapped up in
His Son. God's will wrapped up in His Son. And if we fail to
preach our Lord Jesus Christ, we rob God of His glory. God
don't give the glory. Our Lord Himself said, I came
here not to seek my glory, but the glory of Him that sent me.
I'm not here to seek my glory. I'm here to glorify Him. And oh, and I tell you what,
and I'll tell you another thing of the consequences of not preaching
Christ. The people we preach to are deprived
of spiritual food. I mean, they're deprived of spiritual
food. John 6. I want y'all to see these verses.
John 6. Our hearers, if we don't preach
the gospel and preach the Lord Jesus Christ, our hearers are
deprived of spiritual food. They get chaff, they get, they
won't get weed, they get chaff. I know there's a place up here,
you know, and I don't want to sound so negative here, but there's
a place up in town, I was sitting there, and I mentioned it the
other day, this last, one day last week, we went by it, and
now they put a big cross out in front of it, laid it on its
side, Out in front of it, a big wooden cross. Somebody made a
big wooden cross, and it's sitting over here in this corner. And
it tells them, you know, we have a discipleship class at this
time, and we're going to teach people how to walk according
to the practical Christianity, this way and that way. And they
got them a cross, and they got them a big old cross. It's about
that high. Big old high, I think. Big old low. And God is sitting
up in the corner over there. And anybody, I'm telling you,
you listen to me, anybody that puts up a cross don't know anything
about the cross of Christ. Anybody that puts up a cross
Don't know nothing about the cross of Christ. Don't know nothing
about what happened at the cross. Don't know why Christ suffered
on the cross. Don't know what was accomplished
at the cross. Don't know who put him on the
cross. Don't know anything about the
cross if you have to look to a symbol instead of looking to
the person who died on the cross. And if we could find the cross
today, if we could find any part of the cross today, make toothpicks
out of it, build a fire with it, do something with it, don't
let nobody know where it's at, because people would get a little
piece of it and worship that thing, and people would come
from all over the world to look at a little bitty piece of it. Ain't that right? That said, you know, so I'm telling
you, we're not worshiping symbols, we're worshiping a person. The
wooden cross had nothing to do with our Savior's death on the
cross. Talk about Him burying our sins in His body on the tree.
But it's who bury our bodies on the tree. It's who suffered
the just for the unjust. The innocent for the guilty. And oh, that's why we preach
Christ crucified. Not the cross Himself, but Christ. And oh, listen, look here in
John, so if we don't preach Christ, there's consequences to it. And
look here in John 6 and verse 30. And all our hearers, if we
don't preach Christ and preach the gospel and preach the faith
and preach our Lord Jesus Christ, then people will be deprived
of their food. They say, therefore unto him,
what sign showeth thus then that we may see and believe thee?
What work do you do? That's what they're asking. Show
us a sign, what work you're going to do that we may see and believe
you. We need some reason to believe
you. If we don't have a sign, if you don't do a miracle in
front of us, why should we believe you? And listen to what they
said, And they told him, Our fathers did eat manna in the
desert, and it is written, He gave them bread from heaven.
Now why don't you give us some bread from heaven? Why don't
you call us some manna now? Moses did for them, God sent
them bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses didn't give you that bread from
heaven. Moses couldn't call down bread from heaven, but my father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is he, he which came down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore give us this bread. And our Lord just said it plain
out. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. I ain't
looking for no other savior now. I'm satisfied. He satisfied me. And I tell, we can and will proclaim
our Lord Jesus Christ from the Old Testament just as well as
we will the new. When our Lord himself said, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. He told them, he said, Abraham,
rejoice to see my day. Well, you're not even 50 years
old yet. Well, he died when he was 33,
so evidently he looked pretty old. He said, you're not 50 years
old yet and you talk about Abraham, senior day. Oh, how in the world
can you do that? He said, Oh, Abraham saw me.
He saw my day. He saw me as his seed. He saw me as his Savior. He saw
me as his Redeemer. He saw me being put on the altar. He saw me getting up and coming
off the altar. He saw it all. He saw it in a
supernatural birth when Isaac was born. He said, oh, he saw my day and
he rejoiced. Oh, how Abraham rejoiced. And
oh, listen. He said, oh, they said, show
us a sign. He said, ain't no sign gonna
be given you, adulterous generation. Only the thing that you're ever
gonna know is, just like Jonah spent three days and three nights
in that whale's belly, said, I'm gonna spend three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. And the gospel was
in Jonah. Those people, beloved, you know
how they were, God sent them trouble? You know how those people
on that ship were saved? Had thrown John overboard. He had to go down in the depths
of hell itself. And you know how he come out
of that belly's fish? Fish's belly? Not belly's fish,
his belly. They said the scripture saw God
and God caused him to take up air and speed him up on dry land. The resurrection. He didn't do
like the Armenian says and like all these fellas said. He didn't
put him up there, you know, about water and he didn't let him walk
the rest of the way. His scripture said he put him
on dry land. Those men were saved by the death
and the burial and the resurrection of Jonah. And he said, do you all want
to sign to Jonah? Just go back there and read the
book of Jonah. And Jonah found this out. Salvation to the Lord. And oh, Isaiah. What did he say
in John 12? He said, Isaiah saw his glory. Isaiah, when he saw his glory,
spake of him. And, O beloved, we should only,
only preach Christ, they say, to the unconverted, and believers
don't need it. Believers don't need it. Huh? They say believers don't need
it. You know why they say you don't need it? They don't need Him preached
to them. You know, you just preach the gospel to the unconverted
and you preach other things to believers. They don't need Christ
preached to them. Lots of other things they need
to know, some people say. Need to move on to higher ground.
Need to move into deeper things. Oh, there's more spiritual things
to deal with. That's baby food. I'll tell you
what, who is higher than the Lord Jesus Christ? Who did God
ever say, set it in my right hand, till I make the enemies
your foes too? Who did God ever exalt like He
exalted His Son? He said, set up here. Gave Him
a name that's above every name. And what message is deeper than
the Lord Jesus Christ? God manifest in the flesh? God who is eternal spirit? God who has no body? God who
has inhabited this eternity, come down here and come in through
the womb of a woman, a virgin, and assume a body and be the
very image of God himself? You ain't gonna get any deeper
than that. And all the depths, the depths,
the depths of his humiliation when he became so identified
with us that God turned his own back on him. God turning his
back on God? Who ever heard of such a thing?
And I tell you, can we be any more spiritual than being united
to the Lord Jesus Christ, than knowing Christ? What's more spiritual
than that? Being joined to Christ, being
united to Christ, knowing Christ, winning Christ, being found in
Christ. And some of the Puritans, I've
got a book in there called The Genius of the Puritans. Genius
of Puritanism. And you know what the first three
or four pages of it says? The genius of the Puritans was
that they knew how to preach the law and the gospel and bring
them together in such a way that men could be justified by the
gospel but also keep them under the law at the same time. It
couldn't work. Oh, and the law sends us to the
gospel so we can be justified. And then it turns right around
and sends us right back to Moses so we know how to live. is our
rule of life. So we'll preach the
gospel to the unsaved and then law to the believers. By that
logic, what does the scripture say? Christ has redeemed us from
what? The curse of the law. And Christ is the end of the
law. To everyone that believeth. The
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. Who don't walk after the
flesh. We don't walk after this flesh.
We don't walk after this flesh. We have nothing to do with this
flesh and the spiritual kingdom of God. But we walk after the
spirit. What the gospel says and the
word says. No. Well, look in Hebrews 12. Where does the Word tell us to
look? Where does the Word tell us to
look? It don't tell us to look to something higher or deeper
or more spiritual. Don't tell us to go to the The
gospel that to the to the cross to get justified then go back
to the law Hebrews chapter 12 verses 2 & 3 let me show you
What who does the word tell us to look to? Huh? Where does it
tell us to look to look what I said here in verse 2 Hebrews
12 to looking unto Jesus oh Who we supposed to look at Looking unto Jesus, He's the
author of our faith. You know we wouldn't have any
faith if He wasn't the author of it. That means He's the beginning
of it. He's the one that produced it. And then God only says to
say that, but He said He's the finisher of our faith. He's the
only one who can finish our faith and bring it to perfection and
bring it to completion. And so looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the fat joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despised fighting with shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And then
look what he says there in verse 3, for consider him, consider
him, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. He,
men, men were at that cross crucifying Christ and mistreating Christ
And then lots of people that he was mistreating there, that
was mistreating our Lord there, got converted later. He endured
that contradiction of men, sinners, dealing with him in such an awful
way, and turned right around, and by what he has endured, saved
those very sinners that mistreated him. God makes the wrath of man
to praise him. Now watch this, it says, consider
him, What does that word consider mean? Study Him. Ponder Him. Concentrate on Him. Give Him
our full attention. Our full, full attention. And
oh my. Well, let me wind this up here.
Back over in 2 Corinthians 2. Oh my. 2 Corinthians 2. What happens? Oh, there's consequences
to not preaching Christ. And then, oh my, our message
and authority is from the scriptures. We got the scriptures to tell
us that's our message. But look here what he says here
in 2 Corinthians 2, 2. 2, 12. 2 Corinthians 2, 12. 2 Corinthians 2, 12. What happens when the Lord Jesus
is preached? Furthermore, when I came to Troas,
a door was opened unto me of the Lord, Now I tell you, let
me tell you something. When he talks about a door open,
only God can open a door. I don't care what happens, only
God. God can only open a door for the preaching of the gospel.
He's the only one that can open the door of a man's heart. He's
the only one that can open that person's heart. Nobody else can
do it. And then look what he says, and
the door was opened unto me to do what? To preach Christ. And
I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother.
And taking leave from them, I went from Bath to Macedonia. Now listen
to what he says. He came to Troas to preach Christ's
gospel. And he says, Now thanks be unto
God. And here's what preaching Christ
will do. It will always cause us to triumph in Christ. I told
you the other day, but nothing bad happened to me since I've
been a believer. Not one bad thing has happened to me since
I've been a believer. I've lived every day in triumph. Every single
day in triumph. You say, well, you don't act
like it. You know, sometimes I know you
don't feel like it. I can't help what I act and what I feel, but
I know that's what the Bible says. That's what the scripture
said. There's not anything that I haven't triumphed over. Triumph
over sin? Where at? In Christ. Triumph
over heartache? Where at? In Christ. Sorrow?
In Christ. Loss? In Christ. Death? In Christ. Grief? In Christ. And he says,
Thank be unto God which always triumphs in Christ and makes
manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. The fragrance
of His knowledge by us in every place. And the preaching of Christ
causes a fragrance. You know, when Mary opened that
alabaster box of ointment and spread it all over our Lord's
body, Now, that fragrance was on Christ, but when she opened
that, everybody in smelling distance smelled it. So you know, we break
open Christ and everybody who's got any smell, any smell to them,
spiritual smell, and taste it, that the Lord has graced it.
They smell Christ. Smell that sweet fragrance. And
oh, listen, it says here, we are unto God a sweet saver of
Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. Oh,
and the knowledge of Christ making him known to the saved and the
unsaved. And he says in this we are unto
God a sweet saver in Christ. That sweet saver goes up to God. Sweet Saviour of God, unto God. That fragrance rises up to Christ,
rises up to God. It's like that incense on the
altar and they lit it, it went up to God. And preaching our
Lord Jesus Christ is an act of worship. Whether men receive
it, accept it or not. And oh, beloved, and that's why
we say we are to the one a saver of death unto death, to the other
a saver of life unto life. So who's sufficient for these
things? And I'll say in my last thanks, I say, why didn't that
happen when Christ preached? Sweet savers, man. Christ has
made known whether man is saved or unsaved. We preach Him. And
it's a sweet fragrance unto God. It's a sweet fragrance unto God.
You may not smell it, Believers do and God does. And I tell you,
God is pleased in the proclaiming of His Son. Our Lord said in
John 5.23, He that honors the Son, honors the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father. Oh my, God is
pleased in the proclaiming of His Son. To honor His Son. He that honors the Son, honors
the Father. And all to honor our Lord Jesus
Christ in our speech, in our service, in our worship,
in our lives. And oh my, don't you love to
hear the Lord Jesus Christ honored and smell that blessed fragrance
of the Lord Jesus? You know, He's our hiding place.
Look in Isaiah 32 and I'll quit. He's our hiding place. Oh, I'll
tell you what, we've got to have a place to hide. This whole world's
going on and things going on in it. Oh, don't you love to
hear Christ honored? Isn't it a sweet fragrance? And
he's our hiding place. He said in chapter 32 of Isaiah. Behold a king shall reign in
righteousness. Princes shall rule in judgment.
And a man shall be as a hiding place from
the wind. When the winds of doubt and unbelief
and trials and them winds beat down on us and come and terror
seem like gonna bend us over, He's a hiding place from the
wind. And when the rain just beating down, coming down so
hard and just stings you, He said, He's a covert from the
tempest. And when you feel like your soul's
so dry and you ain't getting anything from the preaching,
you're not getting nothing from the scriptures, that's rivers
of water in a dry place. And then when you get tired,
you want to sit down and rest, here's the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. Oh, what a Savior is Jesus my
Lord. What a Savior to me. Oh, our Lord Jesus, our God and
Father, thank you for allowing us this night to worship, allowing
us to enter into our Lord Jesus Christ and His blessed person. Lord, help us ever be true and
faithful to Him. in our thoughts, in our thinking,
in our preaching, in our praying, in our witnessing, whatever way
it may be, help us always be faithful to honor and glorify
our Master. Be true to Him, for He's certainly
been true to us. God bless these dear saints and
strengthen them and encourage them. Give them rest in their
bodies tonight when they go home. Lord, we pray for Kathleen that
you'd continue to bless her and strengthen her and help her and
Peggy and Danny. Lord, these people are in your
hands and you're the judge of all the earth and you'll always
do what's right. You love your people with a peculiar
love. And those you love, you're going
to take care of, and you're going to preserve them until you take
them to be with you. And those that are not your children,
I pray that, oh God, in sovereign mercy you go and open their hearts,
make them feel their great, great, great, great need of Christ our
Lord. In His name we pray. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In case any of you haven't heard,
there's going to be a wedding here Saturday. In case you slip by, there's
going to be a wedding here Saturday.