Open your Bibles with me to 1
Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. So glad to see Peggy. So glad
to see Peggy. Praying for her every service.
1 Corinthians 1. We'll start in verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Not to preach about the gospel, but the gospel. Not to preach about those who
don't preach the gospel, but to preach the gospel. And not
with wisdom of words, not using great swelling words and show
our eloquence and ability to know the dictionary, 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. Everybody who thinks
they're wise and got all the answers and know how to get along
in this world, God said, I'm going to bring it to nothing.
I'm going to just destroy it. I will destroy it. And I'll bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent, those who think
that they govern things well and wisely. God said, I'll just,
I'll bring that to zero. Folks going to learn what they
really, really are when it's all said and done. Where is that
wise? Where is a wise man? Whose wise
is God? Where is the wise man going to
tell God anything, teach God anything, teach the Scriptures. Where is the scribe that's going
to interpret things rightly? Where is the disputer of this
world when it comes to the gospel? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? He's absolutely made it foolish.
What's the wisdom of this world done for anybody? Go to the best
schools in the world. Go to Yale. Go to Harvard. Go
to Oxford. Go to Cambridge. You know what
they'll teach you? Become an educated fool if God
don't give you something to understand. Get your PhD. Write all the books
you want to write. Nobody can understand them but
two or three people. God said that's just absolutely
foolish. Foolish. 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. He
takes ignorant, unlearned men, men that one day thought they
was wise, and he destroys that wisdom and says, now, you're
going to use words, you're going to use the gospel, and God's
going to save people with words. For the Jews require a sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom, But we preach Christ crucified. No matter what anybody's seeking
after, we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block.
Under the Greeks, foolishness. But under them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the mighty. And base things,
the very lowest things of the world, things which are despised,
yea, God hath chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are. Why did he do it this way? That no flesh should glory in
his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. If you're going to get in Christ,
God's the one who puts you there. And God made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And the reason
is that according as it is written, he that glorieth, or boasteth,
or rejoiceth in anything, let him rejoice, boast, and glory
in the Lord. Our Father, in the blessed glorious
name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ crucified, the
Gospel, Christ the power and wisdom of God. Christ crucified
in weakness. The world thought they destroyed
you. Thought they'd put you away. Thought they was done with you.
And yet, Lord, you left footprints coming out of that tomb. Tear it on this earth 40 days
and send it back to glory. to make all that great power
of men and all their wisdom in destroying you. You brought it
to nothing. Oh Lord, your great mighty power
brought you out of that tomb. You ascended back to glory and
sits down even now at the right hand of the throne of the majesty
on high. And Lord, we come to honor your
blessed and glorious name by your grace to preach the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel of the free
grace of God. Lord, I ask that you'd do with
men's and women's hearts that only things you can do. Lord,
only you can give hearing ears and seeing eyes and believing
hearts. Only you can quicken a sinner from the dead, give
them life from above. And Lord, we'll shut up to the
gospel we preach, the salvations of the Lord. And oh, Father,
we praise that you'd bring glory to yourself in this service today.
Thank you for answering our prayers. Thank you for seeing Peggy back
with us again. And Lord, we have many saints
on the road today traveling. God be with them. See them safely
there and see them safely back to your glory. Bring glory to
yourself and please have mercy, mercy, mercy. upon our children,
our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren. For Lord Jesus, if you don't,
there'll be no hope for them. So we look unto you. In Christ
our Lord's name, I bless you. Amen. Amen. Turn with me back
now here in 1 Corinthians. Pray the Lord enable me to say
a few things this morning about Christ crucified. Christ crucified. It's said here in verse 23 and
24 that we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block.
They had the law, they had the ceremonies, they had the rituals,
they had the prophets. They didn't need the gospel. And the Greeks seek after wisdom.
The Mars Hill, they came up there every day just to hear and see
and learn something new thing, some new kind of philosophy.
And all the great philosophers come out of Greek. But we preach
Christ, but unto them which are called, whether you're a Jew
or whether you're Greek, The Christ, instead of being foolishness
or a stumbling block, becomes the power of God and the wisdom
of God to us. Now I'll tell you this morning
that there's just two attitudes that men can take towards the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When I say the cross, I mean
the death that Christ suffered on the cross and why he went
to that cross. But there's only two attitudes
that you can take. Either it's foolishness and it's
nonsense. or it's the power and wisdom
of God, one or the other, one or the other. And I know why,
I know why the preaching of the cross is of our Lord Jesus Christ. That cross where our Lord Jesus
was made a sacrifice, made a sacrifice for sins. He was the Lamb of
God, God's Lamb of providing. He was the Lamb that God prepared
from the foundation of the world for Him to go to that cross and
become a sacrifice. And as that sacrifice, he was
a substitute. He was a substitute for a people
that God gave him in Christ before the world began. They call them
sheep. They call them elect. They call
them vessels of mercy. My people. For my people was
he stricken. So he was a substitute. He took
some people's places. And then as that substitute and
sacrifice, He made an end to sin. God made His soul an offering
for sin. And when that soul was made an
offering for sin, sin was made an end of by that sacrifice. So when we talk about the death
of Christ and the cross, we're talking about a man, a broken,
bruised, bleeding, beaten, hated, despised, rejected man that was
crucified on a cross outside Jerusalem right at 2,000 years
ago. And I know why the preaching
of cross is foolishness to them that perish. It's foolishness
to most people, and I know why it is. Because it deals with
a subject that they have no interest in. And you know what that is?
Salvation from sin. People, they're not interested
in being saved from sin. They're like the Jews of old
that says, we may not sinners. Our Lord Jesus told a bunch of
Abraham's descendants, he said, in John chapter eight, he said,
if the son makes you free, you should be free indeed. And they
said, well, we never been in bondage to anybody. We're Abraham's
seed. And our Lord Jesus said, if you
were Abraham's seed, you'd do what Abraham did. Why is that?
You'd believe me. And he says, but you're not Abraham's
seed. And they said, we'd never be
born of fornication. Oh no, we're not. We're Abraham's
children. We're all right. We're joined
to Abraham. I mean, listen, Abraham's our
daddy. And our Lord Jesus says, if Abraham
was your father, you'd do what he did, you'd believe me. But
I'll tell you who your father is. Your father's the devil.
And you do the deeds of your father. He was a liar and a murderer
from the beginning, and that's what you are. That's what he
told. Now I'll tell you this, men will be saved from bad habits,
but not from sin. Men will be saved from bad health
and ignore soul's health. Men will be saved from having
their marriages saved, but don't want to be married to Christ. Men want to seek wealth and ignore
the riches that God gives us in the Lord Jesus Christ and
His grace. Men will go to great lengths
to get a great education and to be counted wise in this world,
to reach high positions in this world, but nobody wants to come
down to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ and His death
on a cross and say, oh yes, that death was for me. I need saving
from sin. By His stripes, I'm healed from
everything that's against me. I may die of cancer or a heart
attack, but I'll never die from my sin, I'll tell you that, because
Christ put it away. And I tell you, the cross is
foolishness. I tell you, not only because
it deals with the subject to have no interest in salvation
from sin, but the cross is foolishness because it doesn't recognize
human merit. and will not recognize human
merit. Men may say, well, I'm good.
God says you're not. People say, well, I'm pretty
righteous. God says you're not. You're not righteous at all.
And I'll tell you this, Galatians 2.21 says this, if righteousness
come by the law, if righteousness come by anything you do, anything
you do, anything you act, anything you say, any work you've done,
then Christ is dead in vain. His death will become of none
effect to you. The cross is foolishness because
it does not recognize human merit. We're not going to have folks
stand up and say, well, we're glad to have Hedo, so-and-so
here today, and this fellow here today, and oh, we're so glad.
I think he's the finest fellow, and oh, well, we're so glad.
You know, and just get up and recognize everybody and everybody,
oldest, youngest, prettiest, ugliest, you know. If you're going to say pretty,
you've got to pick ugly, too. But oh, the cross is foolishness
because men don't recognize, it doesn't recognize human merit. That's what's so wonderful about
the gospel. It puts all men exactly on the same level. I've had millionaires sit at
my table and eat, and take naps on my couch. And then I've had folks sit at
my table that could not read or write their own name. And you know what brought us
all in common? The gospel, the cross of Christ. But the gospel, the cross, brings
out this human merit. out into the light of God's broken
law, and it pronounced it guilty. Look with me in Romans 3.19.
I want you to see this, Romans 3.19. See, it brings this human
merit, this human goodness, this human worth, it brings it right
out into the light of God's broken law and pronounces it guilty.
Romans 3.19 says this, and there's some things we know. There's
some things we know. Now we know, we know that whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law.
Now we're talking about God's Word, we're talking about God's
commandments, we're talking about God, what He said about loving
me and loving your neighbors yourself. Now we know that whatsoever
things the law says, it says them that are under it. And this
is what it says to them that are under it, that every mouth
may be stopped and all the world become guilty before the law. Why? Because by the deeds of
the law. Get the 10 commandments, go ahead
and put them in your yard. And act like you know you're
standing up for God and you're standing up for righteousness.
If righteousness come by that Ten Commandments, then Christ
is dead in vain. But now the, he says, the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. You
know what the law is for? To get us to know what sin is. And all those who acknowledge
a need for the cross, they take sides with God against human
righteousness. They don't believe a man's got
a righteousness at all. His righteousness, Isaiah said,
all of our righteousness are as a filthy rag. God says there's none righteous,
no not one. And I'll tell you another reason,
not only because men don't want to be saved from sin and because
it drags human merit out into the light, but because the cross
is foolish, it's because it has to do with declaring God's righteousness. God is righteous. Everything
He does is right, whether we agree with it or not, whether
we believe it or not. God is righteous. He is eternally
righteous, infinitely righteous, immutably righteous. And I tell you, it has to do
with declaring the justice of God. God is a just God. And He will by no means clear
the guilty. Ain't that what He said? And
that's why men don't want to, you know, the cross is foolishness.
Let me, you know, you keep, you keep this. Look, look, look with
me over in Job. Job is the book right before,
right after, right before the book of Psalms. Look in Job chapter
25. Job is the book right before
the book of Psalms. People say, well, God settled
it, you know, and I believe God and that settles it. No, God
said it and that settles it whether you believe Him or not. I'll tell you something about
God. You know, they have all these atheists, you know, they
get on there and ridicule God, make fun of God, make fun of
Christians and say, you know, they're all a bunch of hypocrites
and they make, you know, and said we're a bunch of idiots,
a bunch of fools, a bunch of weak people. That's what God
said. He said, I chose the weak. You'll never find nobody weaker
than me before God. Ain't that right? He said he
chose the base things. You'll not find anybody lower than I am. Look back on my life
and all the things that I did and the way I was. God had to
reach way, way down. He had to go to the bottom. He
had to get down way down there. Reach way down to get me. And that's what we're talking
about here. God's righteous. Now look what he said here in
Job chapter 25 and verse 4. Here's a question. This is a
question of the ages. How then can man be justified
with God? How can you stand before God
justified? How are you going to justify
yourself before God? What's your justification for
God to accept you and let you into His presence? And then watch
what he said. How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? Behold, look at the moon, and
in God's sight it don't even shine compared to His holiness
and His glory and His righteousness. Yea, the stars are not pure in
His sight compared to how pure and holy and righteous He is.
How much less man that is a worm. You mean God calls me a worm?
Yep. And for man to brag on his own
righteousness and his own goodness is just one worm bragging on
another worm. Ain't that right? I'm a better
worm than you are. I had a deeper hole in the ground
than you did. I'll catch more fish than you will. You know
it, that's what it is. Man, one worm bragging on another
worm. And the Son of Man, and listen
to this, which is a worm. You say God talks about us like
that? How else can He talk about us? when we're unclean, when we don't
know Christ, when we don't have the righteousness of Christ.
Look at the moon. God said, I'm so glorious and
holy and power and righteousness, and I shine so bright in my glory
at the moon. It's just like it's dark when
it's in fullness when it compared to me. And oh, beloved, I'll
tell you this, how can God justify us? If a man cannot see the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, If a man cannot see the infinite holiness of
God, then he can't see the need for the cross of shame of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And the preaching of the cross
will be foolishness to that man because he does not need the
righteousness of God or the justice of God to be satisfied for him.
But it says, but to them that are called, Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. For whom He did foreknow, what
did He do for those He foreknowed? He called. Them He called, what
did He do for them? He justified them. Whom He justified,
what did He do for them? He glorified them. What shall
we say then to these things? If God be for us, who in the
world can be against us? Huh? And oh, when it pleased
God, Paul said, who separated the thief from my mother's womb,
and what did he do? Called me, called me by his grace. The old timers used to talk about
a general call and an effectual call. All I can do is give a
general call. Every time I preach the gospel,
God's calling me, calling me, calling me. Not call them to
an altar up here, Not calling them to make a decision,
not calling them to stand and lift their hands up for Jesus.
No, no, no. They talked about a general call
and an effectual call. Now the effectual call, the general
call goes to many, many people. The effectual call goes to God's
sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and what do they do? They follow me. Many are called,
but few are chosen. And the preaching of the cross
is to God's sheep, the power of God. It's the very power because
with the gospel, the preaching of the cross, there comes with
this call. When God calls us, he gives us
a knowledge of sin. He makes us to know what sin
is. I never knew what sin was until somebody preached the gospel
to me. I didn't know what sin was. I
know I'd committed some bad acts. I know I'd done some bad things.
But I never knew what sin was until I heard the gospel and
I found out sin wasn't something I do, it's something I am. And
because I'm a sinner, I commit acts of sin. Man does what he
does because he is what he is. He don't become a thief when
he steals something. He's a thief and that's why he
steals. A man don't become a liar when
he tells a lie. He was born a liar and he tells
a lie because that's what his nature is. And oh, listen, the preaching
that comes is knowledge of sin. Job said, I heard about you with
the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. What did he
say? I abhor myself. Where's anybody that abhors their
self? And I repent and I get down here
in the dust and ashes. I ain't nothing, oh God. If you
don't save me, if you don't cleanse me, if you don't raise me up,
I'll stay down here in the dust and ashes. And with that call
comes a knowledge not only of our sin, but of God's holiness.
God is holy, oh my. Everything about him's holy.
The Bible's called holy. It's the Holy Bible. The angels
are called holy. The Son of God is called holy.
God dwells in the beauty of holiness. The seraphims in the presence
of God cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. And all those that are called
of God, they know they're sinners and they know God is holy. Oh,
Abraham says this, that the judge of all the earth, when he stood
before Abraham and said, Abraham, I'm gonna go down there, I'm
gonna destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham said, in verse 50,
righteous, would you let it go? Yep. In verse 45, would you let it
go? Yes. In verse 30, let me say it again. In verse 20, oh
yeah, I'll spare it. I would not begin to destroy
the righteous with the wicked. Perhaps there's 10 down there,
would you spare them? He said, oh, I would. Five? Yes. One. You know what God had to
do to get him out of there? The judge of all the earth must,
must do right. Whether he goes against me or
goes against you. Whether he's for you or against
you, he's still right whatever he does. Ain't he? Ain't he? Listen to me now. Righteousness
says this. We're talking about God's righteousness.
It says this, with these scales of holiness and truth, I've weighed
man and found him wanting. I tried him and found him to
be lighter than vanity itself. And I found him not only destitute
of all that God requires, but I found him in full rebellion
and enmity against thee, O God. And righteousness says that man
cannot be justified, cleared of his guilt before God at the
expense of God's holy law and righteousness. God's righteousness
must be honored. It must be honored upheld. And oh, listen, those who are
called know this. They know this beyond a shadow
of a doubt. Law without penalty is just good advice. Ain't it? Law without penalty is just good
advice. And God don't give good advice.
Wherever his law is broken, he's not like us. He's not like these
politicians. He's not like these judges that
sit on their benches and let people go with some slick talking
lawyer. God, when he weighs you in the
balance, you destitute. But oh, when righteousness
said, with these skeletons of holiness of truth, I've weighed
man and found him wanting. But love and mercy speaks. After
righteousness and truth and holiness speaks. And love and mercy says,
oh Lord, you're plenteous in mercy. You are love, you are
love. Oh God, you're love. Is there
not a way, is there not a way? May not a ransom be found? May
not an atonement be found? Can one be found who will be
a mediator come between God and man? Can one be found who is
without sin? Who is such that he can bear
the wrath of God and satisfy your holiness? Is there not one
love and mercy asked who can be identified with man and God
at the same time? Is there someone who can put
away by the sacrifice of himself and yet live to plead his wounds
on behalf of sinners for whom he died? Oh, if such a one can be found! Surely, surely His name is wonderful. Surely it's wonderful. Oh, is
there anyone who can help us? Who can give the sinner peace
when his heart is burning down with pain and woe? Who can speak
a word of pardon that affords a sweet relief? and whose blood
can wash and make us white as snow. Yes, there's one, there's
one, only one. Who is he? Our blessed, blessed,
blessed, most blessed, most glorious Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is that one. When afflictions
press the soul and waves of trouble roll, and then he the friend
to help you. He's the one. God said to Job,
deliver him from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. I found a ransom. Oh, listen to us, the preaching
of the cross. The call is the very power and
wisdom of God. It's the power of God to remove
all sin the power of God to take away
all our sin. And he's the wisdom of God to
uphold and magnify God's law and satisfy God's justice against
sin. You see, we know who died on
that cross and why he died on that cross. And let me give you
just three or four things. Here's the first reason he died
on the cross that the scriptures the scriptures might be fulfilled,
huh? Might be fulfilled. Look over
here in 1 Corinthians 15, right over to your right, 1 Corinthians
15. And when we talk about the scriptures
that he fulfilled, we're talking about the Old Testament scriptures,
the New Testament scriptures weren't written at this time.
And that's why our Lord Jesus Christ, when he said in John
19, 28, while you turn, it says, Jesus, knowing that all things
written in the scriptures were now accomplished. After he's noted everything in
the scriptures had been accomplished, you know what he said? It is
finished. And here in 1 Corinthians 15,
look what it says in verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which you also received,
and wherein you stand, you stand in the gospel. And by which gospel
that we preach and declared unto you, you're also saved if you
hold fast, keep in memory, hold fast what I preached unto you.
Unless you believed in vain, don't leave that gospel, don't
leave that cross, don't leave the gospel I preached to you.
Now he says, for I first, the gospel I preached, I delivered
unto you first of all, that which also I received, how that Christ
died for our sins. How? According to the Scriptures. According to the Scriptures.
According to the Old Testament. And then look what else he says,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day. Why? According to the Scriptures. Let me just give you what I'm
talking about. You know the first blood sacrifice in the scriptures? The first lamb that was actually
offered on an altar was Abel's lamb. Abel took a lamb and he
went before God and he shed the blood of that lamb and God had
respect under his altar. God said, I smell the blood and
it's a sweet savor unto me. And that was outside that trail,
that trail of blood that led to Calvary started in the garden
of Eden and right outside the garden Abel offered that sacrifice,
that lamb, that blood, that sacrifice. I'm a sinner. What he was saying
about that? I'm a sinner. I need a sacrifice. I need an
offering. I need blood to atone for my
sin. Blood to satisfy God. Blood to
put away a sacrifice. I need blood to answer for my
sin. It's either the animal gonna
die in my place as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, or I'll
die for my own sin. And his brother Cain, he came
at the same time that Abel did. And he had him an altar. And
you know what he laid on his altar? He laid out some squash about
yea big. Cucumbers, oh my goodness. And
they wouldn't get pithy. They would, you know, these things,
he brought up green beans and all. We ain't never, you ain't
never raised a garden like that boy. And I'll tell you why, because
we just got out of Eden and the ground hadn't been brought forth
the very best it could. And he brought all the works
of his hands and the labor of his hands. He brought the fruit
of his hands. And you know what God said? I can't stand it. I'm not going
to look at it. I ain't going to receive it. I ain't going
to accept it. Cain got mad and he raised his fist to God and
said, that ain't fair. That's the best I've got, if
that ain't enough. And God curse came and drove him out from his presence.
And Abel's been in glory ever since. And all the blood on the
doorpost down in Egypt, when God said, when I see the blood,
God's fixed to bring Israel up out of Egypt. And he told them
to take a lamb. Everybody take a lamb. And you
put that lamb up, and you examine that lamb, and you watch that
lamb, and it's got to be without spot, and it's got to be without
blemish. And He says, and then on the fourteenth day you take
that lamb, And you take the blood of that lamb and put it in a
bowl and you get you some hyssop. And he says, you take that blood
because I'm fixing to come through here at midnight and I'm gonna
kill the firstborn of everything in Egypt. And he says, you take
that blood and you put it over the top of the door, put it over
the door post, make sure none hits on that threshold because
we're not gonna walk on the blood. And he says, now everybody stay
inside there. And when I pass through here,
wherever I see the blood, I'll go right on over, I'll go right
on over. Where there wasn't no blood,
they died. Oh, when I see the blood, that
blood that ended up at Calvary's Lamb started long, long ago. And you can follow an unbroken
line of atonement and blood and Passover until Christ our Passover
died on the cross for our sins. And there that trail of blood
ended. Sin was put away once and for all. Look over here in
Hebrews 10 with me, right over to your right. Keep going till
you get to Hebrews and look in Hebrews chapter 10. Oh my. Oh, that every lamb that was
ever offered, every sacrifice that was ever offered is a picture,
is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the sacrifice
of God, the blood of God that took away our sin once and for
all. Look what it said here in Hebrews
10 and verse 11. Here's the difference between
what the sacrifice in the Old Testament and the sacrifices
of Christ. Every priest, every priest under the law, every priest
at the tabernacle, every priest in the temple, he stood daily,
daily ministering. An offering, oftentimes, offering. He had a morning sacrifice and
an evening sacrifice. Men would bring their offerings
to the priest, and he'd offer their sacrifices, and those sacrifices
offered over and over and over again, but one thing they never
did, and they always had to stand, because they could never take
away sins. They just had to keep doing it over and over. But now
listen to this. But this man, what man? The God-man, the man Christ Jesus, that man that God prepared a
body for. And oh, but this man, listen to me,
after he had offered one, not many, one sacrifice for sins,
now listen to this, forever, they're standing up, he sat down. Didn't need to offer no more
sacrifices, why? For by this, verse 14, for by
this one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Oh, who in the world wouldn't
want that? Who wouldn't want to sacrifice and put away all
your sins once and for all? Huh? And all He died that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. The second reason, He died on
that cross and it's the cross that we glory in, that He might
redeem us from all our sin. Now I'm gonna tell you something.
And if you don't know this, you need to know it. The Scriptures
tells us in Titus 2.14 that our Lord Jesus redeemed us from all
iniquity and purified unto Himself a peculiar people. Isaiah 53
and five said he was wounded for our transgression, bruised
for our iniquities, and by the chastisement of his peace we're
healed. And his blood cleanses us from
all sin. But I want you to see Romans
chapter four. Look in Romans four with me just
a minute. Romans four, back to your left just a little. Romans
four. He died that He might redeem
us from all iniquity. And when I say all sin, you know
what I'm talking about? I'm talking about all the sins
I committed from the day I was born, shaping in iniquity and
conceived in sin. My daddy's a sinner, my mother's
a sinner, so I couldn't help but be a sinner. Ain't that right? So I was shaping in iniquity,
and I come out of the womb, And from the day I was born,
all my sins up to then, all my sins today, and all my sins to
the Lord Jesus Christ takes me to heaven, or comes and gets
me, when I say Christ put away all our sins, I mean he put away
the past ones, the present ones, and the future ones. Well, if I believe that, I'll
go out and sin all I wanted to. And I'll tell you something about
me, I sin a heapsight more than I want to. Don't you? And you know what you have to
do to sin? Wake up in the morning. Just wake up in the morning. That's all you gotta do. Just
wake up and just go about your day. You don't have to do anything. But bless His holy name. He put
away all sin. forever by the sacrifice of himself. Look here in Romans chapter 4
and verse 6, look what it says. Even as David also describes
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness,
listen to it, without works. And this is what David said.
He describes this man saying, blessed are those whose iniquities
are covered and whose sins are forgiven. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, if sin is not imputed
to us, then where are they? If they're not on us, where they
are? Where are they? Christ bore them all away in
his own body on that tree. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who would they be able to stand? Well, with us, He can't
mark iniquity, because He's done put them all away. Is that not
right? Oh, there is a fountain filled
with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. And Romans 14, let me show you
this. Here's my fourth point. Romans
14. He died that the scriptures might
be fulfilled. We know why Christ died. We know
who it was that died. In Romans 14 in verse 9, look
what it says. He died that he might be Lord.
For to this end, this was the goal. This was the purpose. This
was the end of it. To this end, Christ both died,
rose, and revived again, that He might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He's Lord
over the dead and the living. Now it's true, when our Lord
Jesus died, and when He came into this world, He bought the
whole world, the world's His, and everything that's in it.
God turned everything over to Christ, The father loveth the
son, hath given all things into his hand. As the father raiseth
the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom
he will. And the father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the son. And he bought the
right, when he bought this world, and everything that's in it,
he bought the right. Now listen to me. He's got all
power and authority in heaven and earth. And when he died,
he bought the right to do with this world as it pleases him.
Ain't that right? And not only that, beloved, but
he hath given him power over all flesh. Why did he give him
all this authority over all flesh? That he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. Now here's the situation. Everything in this world, every
soul, every person, my brothers, my mother, my father, my children,
my grandchildren, my great, everybody in this world, my wife, everybody
in this world is in the Lord Jesus Christ's hand to give them
life or leave them dead, to save them or leave them alone. Now, if I know the fellow that
had all the power, all the power to save me from my sin and make
me acceptable to God and make me as righteous as God himself
is, I believe I'd go to him and say, you've got all this power,
would you do that for me? Do you ever get aggravated? Let
me ask you this, do you ever get aggravated when you have
to deal with somebody that's got just a little bit of authority? You know, you have a boss, you
know, that's arrogant because he is the boss. They get just a little bit of
authority, you know, and they lord it over you, you know. I remember one, and of course
this has happened lots and lots of times. Everybody goes through
this. You get, you know, you have to wait in line to get something.
You be in a big hurry and you get right there and they say,
close the window, it's lunchtime. But wait, I'm right here. It's
lunchtime. It's quitting time. Just close
the door. But I'm right here. I've been
waiting for an hour and a half. I'll be back in an hour. They
couldn't just take care of one more. You know why? Because they
got the power. I remember a woman one time going
through the airport. Oh, we was just going to barely
make the flight. And she decided she wanted to
go through our bags, some little old bag. And she's looking through
there and all this, that. And I said, ma'am, I said, I
mean, we're going to miss our plane if we don't hurry. And
she said, just hold on, just hold on. She just kept waiting.
And I said, ma'am, we got to go. I said, we got to go. And she just kept pilfering through
them things. And I said, I started getting pretty angry, started
getting angrier and angrier. And you know what I finally told
her? I said, the only reason you're doing this is because
you can. And she took that bag and walked over to a garbage
can and dumped everything in it in a garbage can, handed the
bag back, said go. I said, you got a uniform and
you got the power, that's the only reason you do that. And
I almost said something the preacher ought not say. You ever heard
of a preacher cussing? That was enough to make a preacher
cuss, Bruce. You know, you get somebody, you
know, give them a uniform, and they only may be making minimum
wage, but boy, and you may be making $250,000 a year, but if
they got that uniform on, you know, they're gonna make you
grovel if they can. And you just got standing there. Oh my. But now I tell you what,
our Lord Jesus Christ, now we have to wait and be put up with
people have this little old puny power that they've got here.
But Christ's got all power, all authority. And if you ever go
to Him, He'll never close the window. He'll never say, I ain't got
time. You know what He'll do? He'll just reach out. and embrace
you and bring him to himself because he's got the power to
do that. And if he had all the power, that's where I'd go. Huh? That's where I'd go. Oh, beloved,
that's where I'd go. I'd go to him that's got all
the power. It's like that treasure in the field in Matthew 13. And
that treasure in the field. No man knew there was a treasure
in the field. He bought the whole field just so he could get that
treasure. And you know what the treasure
was? His people, His people, His people. And when it says
this scripture, the living and the dead, He's talking about
the living and dead believers. Christ is our prophet. Christ
is our priest. Christ is our King. And He died
that we should not live under ourselves. And then my last point
is this. Oh, this is in Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 7. Right over to your right from
1 Corinthians, Ephesians chapter 2. And oh, listen to this. Oh, this is so wonderful that
our Lord Jesus Christ did this. He died that the Scripture might
be fulfilled, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.
And look what else it says here. In Ephesians 2.7, that in the
ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
and His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. You know why He
died? He died that in the ages to come,
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace. Riches of His grace? You see, this is the end of God
permitting man to fall, for Adam to fall in the garden, to fall
into sin, that He might demonstrate His grace, the exceeding riches
of His grace. This is the end of God permitting
the world to continue in rebellion against Him, that He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace. And this is why our Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world, that though He was rich, He became
poor that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. People say
all the time, boy, I'm gonna get me a lottery ticket and I'm
gonna be rich. I don't care how much money you
got and how much you win, you'll never be as rich as I am. Ain't
no way you can be as rich as I am. I'll tell you what happened. I will quit in a minute. I remember
years ago when I first come down here, I stand in on the road
and look at these beautiful, glorious mountains and everything
in front of me. Then they're talking to a felon.
He didn't know God from ago. And I said, boy, I said, man,
I said, my father owns every bit of that right there. Owns
every bit of that. He backed up and said, no, no,
he don't. And I know who that belongs to.
He said, I know the felon. I said, oh, he may hold a deed
to it, but he says, my father owns it all. You know, we divide
it up. We put our names on our mailboxes
and put fences around and all that. But the world belongs to
God and everything. And if everything he's got, I've
got. And I've got Christ. And what
in the world can anybody have more than that? Huh? I've got Christ. And all that
he has is mine. All that he did is mine. It's mine. And all he was, he
became poor that so his through his poverty, I become rich. Oh, and I tell you what, he,
he, he fills my heart, my soul. He anointed my head with oil
and my cup runs over. And oh, this is the end of the
cross and the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in the
ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His kindness
and grace toward us through Jesus Christ. God has prepared grace
and He's prepared glory. And you know what He's gonna
do in the ages to come? That's all we're gonna see. the
riches of His kindness and His grace toward us that He gave
us in Christ Jesus. First song we'll sing when we
get there. You know what it'll be? The Lamb, unto the Lamb that washed
us from our sins, saved us from all iniquity. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done, great things He hath taught us through Jesus
His Son. Oh, our blessed, blessed Savior.
Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for our great, great
salvation. And Lord, You do the work. The effectual
work's up to you. You do the work. It's your power
and your power alone that can save a sinner, give a dead sinner
life, give a blind sinner sight, give a deaf sinner hearing, make
a heart feel its sin and see its righteousness only in Christ.
Father, we bless you for the gospel. In our Lord Jesus' name
we bless you. Amen. Let's sing that song to
God be the glory. 449. Let's stand together and sing this
song and at the end of the song you'll be at liberty to go. 449.