Now, my text this morning is
going to begin in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, if you'd like to turn
there. And this message, as well as
the message that I'm going to preach in the 11 o'clock hour,
is sort of a progression. There'll be two gospel messages
within themselves, but they kind of go together. Because what
I'm going to deal with this morning is really sort of an introduction
to what I'm going to deal with in the 11 o'clock hour. But the
messages will stand on their own. And while you're turning,
just let me say I'm glad to be back with you this morning. It's
good to see everybody. And I've already shown off pictures
of my grandson. So I won't stand up here and
hold him up before you. I will say this, you all know
that I don't look like I'm old enough to be a grandfather. So
we'll settle that issue before we start. But anyway, what I
want to deal with this morning and in the 11 o'clock hour, actually
at 11 o'clock, I want to deal with what we call the Psalm of
the Cross, Psalm 22. And you all heard that preached
before several times, I'm sure. And that is a prophecy of the
Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah coming and obeying unto death
the death of the cross Philippians 2 says and what he accomplished
in his deep and troubled suffering for the salvation of his people
for our salvation. So this morning what I want to
talk about is the glory of the cross. The glory of the cross. Now when we speak of the cross,
obviously you know, it goes without saying, but I always make mention
of this because you never know who's going to hear these messages
on tape or on the internet. When we speak of the cross, we're
not speaking of the actual wood, the piece of wood that Our Lord
was hanged on and even though that was a reality that was a
physical suffering that he went through in time on Calvary and
that was necessary. But and we're not certainly not
talking about some reconstruction of it on in gold or silver to
wear around your neck or put on the wall or anything like
that. When we speak of the cross, we're speaking of the substitutionary,
sin-bearing death of Christ, which the Bible calls in the
New Testament a propitiation. Now, a propitiation is a sin
offering that satisfies, and that's the key word to understand
propitiation, it satisfies the justice of God. So, when we speak
of the cross, we're speaking not just of a death, per se,
we're speaking of the accomplishment of salvation, the accomplishment
of all that God the Father sent the Son to do. We're speaking,
someone asked me one time, said, well, it talks about preaching
of the cross, what about the resurrection? Well, you don't
preach the cross unless you preach the resurrection, because the
cross, you see, is an accomplishment. It's a work finished. Christ
was on that cross in John 19, 30, records where he said it's
finished, what was finished, what he put away all the sins
of all of his sheep, past, present, future. He established the only
righteousness based upon which God could be both a righteous
judge as well as a loving, merciful, and gracious father. So that
cross, the word cross in the scripture has so many glorious
far-reaching implications. And that's what Paul meant when
he in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, look at this, he said, for
Christ sent me not to baptize. Now the reason he said that is
not to put down the ordinance of baptism, but he said that
because the Corinthians were dividing over preachers. And
one of the things that they use when in their division over preachers
well they would talk about well I was baptized by this preacher
it might have been the Apostle Peter or might have been another
preacher and Paul says it doesn't matter who baptized you that's
nothing to divide over he told him this he said he said I thank
God that I didn't baptize any of you except a few and he mentioned
a few names that he did baptize. But who baptized you has nothing
to do that. No, there's no honor. There's
no glory. And there's certainly no salvation
in who baptized you. You see, baptism is an expression
of a union with Christ. And he's our Savior. He's the
Lord, our righteousness. He's our wisdom, our righteousness,
our redemption and our holiness. So he says, for Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of
words and what he's talking about is not with the cleverly designed
oratory of men that cover up the offense of the cross or hide
the truth of the cross or allow sinners to take it any way they
want to take it. But he said less the cross of
Christ should be made of none effect. So in other words if
I tried to if I tried to use the clever words of men's doctrine
and natural thinking in the preaching of the cross then it becomes
void, it's nothing. But one thing I want you to see
in verse 17 is this. What he shows here is that the
gospel is the preaching of the cross, verse 18. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Now those
who are perishing there, he's referring to unbelievers, but
he says, but unto us which are saved, yet that is the preaching
of the cross, the gospel is the power of God. Now that word power
there is the same word that Paul used in Romans chapter 1 and
verse 17, verse 16 and 17, when he says, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek also,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, or as it is written, the just or the justified shall live
by faith. Quoting from the book of Habakkuk,
Now, the preaching of the gospel is the preaching of the cross,
and the preaching of the cross is the preaching of righteousness
established by the Lord Jesus Christ. Just to give you a little
preview, go back to Psalm 22, and I'll be repeating this. I
know it's good food for the believer, and you know if it's good food,
you don't mind eating it twice or three or four times. That's
the way it is. line upon line, precepts upon
precepts. But you know, this is the psalm
of the cross, and I'll deal with the psalm in the next hour. But
you know, it starts out there, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Now that's a direct quote. You
remember when the Lord was hanging on the cross, he quoted this,
and he quoted it in the original Hebrew. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanai. They didn't understand it. You
see, in his day, you know, they didn't speak. That wasn't the
language of the day. They spoke Aramaic. But he quoted it from
this psalm in the original Hebrew, showing that his death on the
cross, his establishment of satisfaction to God's justice on that cross
at that time, and establishing righteousness, was the direct
fulfillment of something that had been long ago purposed and
prophesied throughout the Old Testament. And this shows us
now what this does, is this connects us today who glory in the cross
and who feed upon spiritually the preaching of the cross to
our salvation, to our peace and our comfort, for we find no relief
from our depravity and sin, but in Christ in Him crucified. His
glorious person, who He is, He's God and man in one person, and
in his finished work on the cross. This connects us with the psalmist. This connects us with all the
Old Testament saints who were justified on the same ground
and basis that we're justified on, the cross. That's the glory
of the cross. You see, it is a glorious event
in time. We're going to see that. But
it spans eternity. In fact, I would say it this
way. The glory of eternity and time is the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The preaching of the cross. Everything
in God's eternal purpose is suspended on the cross. And I can't explain
all that to you, how it works out in eternity, because you
see, my mind doesn't work that way. Yours doesn't either. And
nobody's does. But we know it's so because it's
revealed. by the Lord God. Now, but it
also takes us all the way back to the beginning of time. When
we talk about that, we only know back to Genesis. That's all we
know. You know, you can't. The only
thing we know about anything before that is what God tells
us here in his word. Well, we know Adam and Eve fell.
And when they fell, when Adam fell and brought the whole human
race into sin and death and deserving of condemnation. What happened? Well, God revealed to all of
them, he's speaking to the serpent in Genesis chapter 3, that he
was going to send the Messiah. He called him the woman seed.
We're going to see how important that is in Psalm 22. And he's
going to send the woman seed, and the woman seed is going to
take care of the problem. Daniel chapter 9 is one of the
most descriptive, verse 24 is the most descriptive verses of
that. He's going to make an end of
sin. Finish the transgression. He's going to bring in everlasting
righteousness. He's going to seal up the prophecy.
He's going to anoint the Most Holy. I mean, that's a body of
divinity right there. That's a theology right there. And it's all fulfilled in Christ
and Him crucified, buried, and risen again. So here's the crux
of time and eternity. Well, look at the very last part
of verse 31. of Chapter 22. And it's like
I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I want to I want you to see
how this all connects. Now, he says in verse 31, they
shall come and shall declare his righteousness. The righteousness
that he established on the cross when he said, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Well, we know why God forsook
him because of sin imputed to him. He was made sin. Accounted to him the sins of
all his sheep and every generation you say he died for those sins
and it says here it says declare his righteousness. That's the
righteousness of the cross and he says unto a people that shall
be born that he has done this. So the righteousness of the cross
is a righteousness not that you do or I do. It's not a righteousness
that God enables you to do or me to do. It's a righteousness
that he did, that he actually accomplished. Now go back to
1 Corinthians 1. Now he says, in verse 18 there,
he says, This preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing
foolishness, but unto us which are being saved it is the power
of God. You see, the Holy Spirit takes
this preaching of the cross and uses that great glorious word
which is called the word of truth, the word of life, to bring dead
sinners, spiritually dead sinners, to spiritual life in the new
birth. And so he says in verse 19, now let's look on, he says,
for it's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, that's
the wisdom of man, and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent, the fellows that think they've got it all figured
out according to their knowledge and their way. He said, almost
bring that to nothing. He said, in verse 20, in fact,
when you think about it, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? You know what a scribe was? A
scribe was like a commentator, an interpreter. He wasn't just
a secretary. The scribes and the Pharisees,
the scribes were the people, they were the men who wrote the
commentaries of the law. And he says, where is the disputer
of this world? That fellow who's going to argue
with God, or God's me to preach the word have not God made foolish
the wisdom of this work well that's putting things in perspective.
You see this thing is not about what you think or what I think
or what we you know I mean this is what does God say that's the
issue. And you know, people don't really
study the Bible now. I mean, I listen to preachers
on TV and you go to the bookstores, religious bookstores, and they're
full of psychology, the power of positive thinking. They take
a verse and then they'll take it. Now, let's see how this applies
to your life, you know, that kind of thing, what's relevant,
you know, that, you know, we meant that word in the 60s and
70s, you know, but it's still the same thing, you know, how
to get along, how to live the victorious life and all that.
Well, you see, that's what he's going to make foolish. That's
what he's going to bring to nothing, you know. He says in verse 21,
he says, For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God. So however you feel or whatever
you think, you know, you're not going to know God that way. The
only way you're going to know God is through the preaching
of the cross. Christ and Him crucified. If you want to know
God in saving intimacy, if you want to know the true and living
God and worship and serve him. It began at the preaching of
the cross at the foot of the cross and nowhere else. And again,
now, when I say the cross, I'm not just talking about this.
I'm talking about Christ, the Lord of glory, who died on that
cross, satisfied the justice of God, brought in everlasting
righteousness, was buried and rose again the third day, the
one who ascended into glory and is now seated At the in the heavenly
ever living to make intercession for us. 1 John chapter 2 says
he's our advocate. That means he stands in our place
for us as our substitute and pleads our cause. And upon what
basis does he do that? Upon the basis of his propitiation,
the fact that he satisfied justice on the cross. And who is he? He's Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the one who was made sin,
but he put away sin. He made an end of sin. You see,
if he hadn't made an end of sin, sin would make an end of us.
That's the problem, you see. That's what Christ told Cain
in the garden when he said, If thou doest not well, sin lieth
at the door. In other words, sin's going to
make an end of you. If you don't have a Savior, if
you don't have a substitute, who is a propitiation, who is
Jesus Christ the righteous, who died on that cross to do a work,
to finish, not to try to save you or me, not to give us a jump
start, and not to leave it up to us. If you don't have one
who accomplished salvation, as he revealed to his disciples
on the Mount of Transfiguration, remember he said his deceased
that he should what? Accomplish. And that word, his
deceased, is the same if it's the New Testament
equivalent word for the Old Testament word Exodus. What does that mean? It means he leads his people
out of captivity. He leads his people out of bondage,
you see. And so this is the issue of the
cross. And he says, look at verse 22.
He says, He says for the, well, verse
21, let me finish that. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, yet pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching. Now, he's already established
what the preaching is all about. And, I mean, he's already saddled
that now. You know, somebody says, well,
let's just preach. Well, what are you going to preach? It's not
just the, when he says the foolishness of preaching, he doesn't mean
the preaching of foolishness. The reason he says the foolishness
of preaching is because men just by nature cannot see how that's
good enough. You've got to have more. You've
got to add man's wisdom, man's words, man's ways. And you see this in these modern
day church services. You can see it. Because preaching
takes a background. Preaching is something that people,
they get in there and they want to get through. Just hurt. In fact, the most popular preachers
are the ones who have the shortest messages. I don't care what they
say. That's right. You know, I really like him.
He don't preach that long, you know. But you see, that's the
way people are by nature. That's human nature. That's what
that is. And don't get me wrong. I mean,
I'm not I'm not promoting that we stand up here for two hours
at a time or anything like that. But it's the content. What's
being preached? Well, they please God by the
foolishness of preaching, preaching the cross. We preach Christ and
Him crucified over in chapter 2 and verse 2. He says, For I
determined not to know anything among you, say, Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. He finished the work. He was
buried. He arose from the dead. He lives
now. We don't serve a dead, crucified
Savior. We serve a living, crucified
Savior. Now, there's a lot of subjects in the Bible. You go
through, I mean, if you get you a Knaves topical Bible, look
at that sometimes. How many different subjects are
dealt with from Genesis to Revelation? We can talk about salvation itself,
we can talk about Christian living, we can talk about prayer, obedience,
all sorts of stuff. We can talk about Christian unity,
church, what is the church, how the church is to conduct, a lot
of subjects. And we have to preach the whole
counsel of God. It's why I preach verse by verse. But you don't
preach any subject without without preaching and and establishing
whatever you're saying up on the ground of Christ and him
crucified. And so he says it's by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Well, look over with
me at the book of Galatians chapter six. Now, this is I know this
one's very familiar to you. I preached on it many times even
here up in Ashland. It's the preaching of the cross,
the preaching of the finished work of Christ, the preaching
of his shed blood, his righteousness in Puget, as our only ground
of salvation through time and eternity now. This is the same
thing we're going to see in Psalm 22. This is for all generations.
It's what David himself dependent on what Abraham depended on look
to as their right standing before God. This is what holds us together. I mean this is what this is our
reason for existing right here. The preaching of the cross. Without
it we have nothing. We're just religion. You can
call it what you will. Christian or whatever. It's nothing
without the cross. And without his the power and
glory of his blood. to put away all our sins and
his righteousness to give us a complete right standing before
a holy God is nothing. This is what binds us together.
Now, this is what separates us from the world. All that I've
separated unto the gospel. Now, I'll tell you what. Now,
you know, people talk about separation, you know. I remember hearing
years ago about a church out in Colorado or a religious group
out in Colorado. they had on their side I don't
want to be there on their side for the trip the most separated
church in America. Well I don't know what they meant
by that I didn't you know but you know what most people mean
by you know what a lot of people when they go to separation you
know we want to be separate the Bible says be separate. Romans chapter 12 don't be conformed
to the world. And people think about separation.
Most people think about this. You know what they go through?
Taste not, touch not, handle not. That's most of the religious
minds today. That's what it is. Taste. Don't
eat that. Don't touch that. Don't taste that. Don't handle
that. And so their righteousness is gauged by what they don't
do. And then some of them go further.
And so when they join the church, they get baptized, they go to
confession, they give a tithe, they pray, and that's what their
righteousness is. Well, what is your righteousness? What is mine? I'll tell you exactly
what it is. It's the cross. The cross of
Christ. Christ is my righteousness. It's not what I don't do, it's
not what I do. It has nothing to do with what
I don't do and what I do. Now, we hope that that true is
implanted in our hearts by the spirit to the point that it affects
our lives and that we live lives that that read down to the glory
of Christ and him crucified that's what that's what the scripture
teaches is an evidence of that one who has been justified in
the eyes of God through Christ but you see if this this is what
separates us now men want to separate Because separation is
appealing to the flesh. I'm going to separate from you
if you don't think like I do in every specific area, you say. It's got to be right here. Look
at verse 14 of Galatians 6. I'm in Ephesians, but I want
to get to Galatians. Okay. Galatians 6 verse 14. You've heard this. He says, but
God forbid that I should glory now you know that work glory
it means to both. What it is it's a boast of being
right with God. It's a boast of being saved it's
a confidence. The same word that is translated
glory here is translated rejoice in Philippians 3 and verse 3
remember what that says for we are the circumcision which worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. It's the same
word, glory, here, the exact same word. In other words, we
have confidence in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh. Well, he says, God forbid that I should glory or have confidence
in or boast in a right standing before God, save or accept in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is your boast of salvation,
your confidence, your ground, your peace with God? It's the
cross. Colossians chapter 1 talks about
Christ having made peace by his death, by his blood, that which
he shed on Calvary. And then he says, By whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Now that, the
crucifixion, to be crucified, was obviously, it was capital
punishment, and it was It was the Roman form of punishing a
criminal who had committed a capital crime. That's what that was. In the Old Testament, the Bible
speaks of that as being cut off. In Daniel chapter 9, right after
that, verse 24, it talks about the Messiah shall be cut off. You remember when Isaiah saw
the Lord high and lifted up, he said, I'm undone. That means
literally I'm cut off. What Isaiah was admitting there
is that I deserve death. That's what I deserve. And so
the cross was supposed to be a punishment for a capital crime
for one who deserved to die, you see. And so the crucifixion
here, and you remember the Pharisees, they crucified Christ as what
the New Testament calls a malefactor. You know what a malefactor is?
That's a criminal. So they thought, well, he deserves death. Well,
did he deserve death? And the answer is yes, for our
sins. You say, for our sins he deserved
death. And so when Paul identified with the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he says, by whom the world is crucified unto me, in
other words, I see that everyone without Christ, without his blood,
without having been washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness, is deserving of death. He wasn't the type of
person who looked at these other religions and said, well, I bet
they're good people. And they really don't deserve
to die. No, he said, the world's crucified unto me. But now, how
did the world look at him? He says, an eye unto the world. The Jewish nation looked at Paul
and said, Paul deserves death. You know the proof of that? Because
just about everywhere he went, they tried to kill him. Now were
they just raving lunatics or murderers? No. No. They were
like him before God converted him. Where was he going? From
the road to Damascus. To hold a prayer meeting? No.
To kill Christians. Because he thought they deserved
death. So he says, if you're going to glory in the cross,
then what do you say? Well, everyone without Christ
deserved death. That's what I deserve without
Christ. Now, right, don't you deserve the wrath salvation?
You haven't earned it and you don't deserve it. I haven't earned
it and I don't deserve it. And you know, that's always,
that's always going to be. My only deservedness of salvation
is Christ and him crucified. His blood and righteousness.
So look at verse 15. He says, for in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creation. Now, what he's saying here, it
doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. If you have Christ,
you have salvation. If you have glory in the cross,
you have righteousness, you have salvation, you have total cleansing
from all your sins, a right standing before God, and that doesn't
matter, but a new creation does. Now, we can argue about what
new creation means there. Some say it's talking about the
church as a whole, and that could be, and I agree with that, I
believe that truth. And some say it's the new birth,
you know. That could be too, because we are made new creatures
in a sense. You know, I don't believe that's
what 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is talking about, but in a sense.
But look at verse 16. Here's what I want to close with.
He says, and as many as walk according to this rule. Now that
word rule there, it would be translated today as cannon. C-A-N-N-O-N. And it's not a cannon you shoot
a cannonball out of. It's like the church and the
doctor. Anyone who walks by this doctor
is true now what is that true God forbid that I should glory
saving the cross you glory in anything but the cross. Do you glory in anything do you
have confidence of salvation I know fellows are trying to
separate over this and over that and all kinds of little nuances
that they think they come up with you. Let me tell you something.
Do you glory in anything but the cross? But His righteousness alone,
that's another way of saying it. That's just another way of
saying it. Do you have confidence of standing before God and being saved and blessed and
eternally received based on anything but the blood and righteousness
of Christ? This is what he said. He said,
peace be on me. Who's peace? God's peace. Christ
is my peace. And he said, and mercy. That
means God, if you don't glory in anything but the cross, that
means God's been merciful to you because you know that natural
man won't do that. And then, and upon the Israel
of God. Now who is he talking about,
the Israel? He's talking about spiritual Israel. We're the circumstances
that means spiritual is. We worship God in spirit. We
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now
is that your hope? Is Christ and him crucified,
the cross, his blood, his righteousness, is that your hope? Is that your
only hope? Unmixed, unmingled, unfair? If that's so, then there you
are. Now that's what holds us together
as a church, as brothers and sisters in Christ. And my friend,
that's what separates us from the world.