1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to notice the first
five words in verse 23. But we preach Christ crucified. Now before I go any further,
I would like to ask you a serious question. You might think my
question is quite strange, but I can assure you that it's a
spiritual life or death question. Why do you come to church? Why
are you here today? You might think that the answer
would be obvious, but honestly, it seems that if you ask ten
different people that question, you may get just as many different
answers. Just this past week, while visiting
a friend of mine in Kentucky, he began to, with excitement
and zeal, tell me about the church that he attended. And he made
it very clear to me that he and his wife went to this certain
church because they loved the music. We just loved the music
there, he said, with excitement. Anyone, friends, who attends
church because of the music has missed the one thing needful.
for attending church service. Now, I'll be the first to admit
that I love music. I do. I just love it. I love
congregational singing. I enjoy what Tyler just did,
what we call special music. I enjoy it immensely. But if
that is the reason that anyone attends church, then they've
missed the most important thing. I've had others tell me things
like, well, we love all the activities. My church has activities for
the children, the teenagers, the young adults. We have classes
for single folks, newly married folks, recently divorced folks.
We even have classes for those that are willed, they say. But
sadly, sadly, that is what most churches have become. They're
no more than social clubs. a way to meet people, to be involved
and have fun, and you might ask, is that a bad thing? It is, if
you never hear the true message of the gospel. I can assure you
that the early churches that Paul, Peter, and the other apostles
founded was not based on social activities. And what would the
Apostle Paul say if asked, so what do you do at your church?
What do you have at your church? I'm confident his answer would
be, we preach Christ crucified. You remember when Mary, the sister
of Martha and Lazarus, whom the Lord raised from the dead, Mary
sat at the feet of Christ, hearing Him declare the gospel of good
news for sinners. And Martha was about being a
good host, but she was full of anxiety. She was being social. Let me show you that, if you
would turn with me to Luke chapter 10. We'll turn to a few passages
today, probably more than normal, but look at Luke chapter 10,
and let's begin reading in verse 38. Luke 10, 38. Now it came to pass, as they
went, that being Jesus and His disciples, that He entered into
a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him
into her house. And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet, and noticed those next words,
and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing. is needful. One thing. And Mary
hath chosen that good part which shall never be taken away from
her. Now friends, listen to me. Man's religion, religion will
cumber, distract and draw you away with many things. It will. Martha's serving burdened her
with care and trouble, our Lord said, over many things. And they
were obviously important to her, but they were not needful. Talking about one thing being
needful. Our Lord told Martha, who was
distracted, and as I said, cumbered about with much serving, that
her sister had chosen that good part. She'd chosen the good part. There is one thing, needful friends,
that good thing that can never be taken away. That needful thing,
that one thing that God Almighty ordains, saves, blesses, and
comforts His people with is that very thing which Mary chose above
everything. That was sitting at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ and hearing His Word. One thing needful. I remind you again of Paul's
words in our text. He said, but we preach Christ
crucified. This is the one thing needful.
Now I don't make light of serving. A child of God out of love for
his Savior will serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not saying
that at all. I can assure you that Mary served her Lord with
great passion and love. Because she loved him. But we
love him because he first loved us. That's what the Scriptures
tell us. Her serving was due to finding
the one thing needful and she served Him out of love for Him.
And we see her serving in the Gospel of John. If you would
just turn over there with me to chapter 12. John chapter 12. I just want to look at three
verses here beginning in verse 1. John 12 verse 1. Then Jesus,
six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus
was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. And
there they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus
was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary
a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house
was filled with the odor of the ointment." And if you read on
in this particular account, you'll read that Judas asked, why was
not the ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?
And it wasn't that he cared for the poor, but because he was
a thief. That's what the scriptures say, I believe. And what was
our Lord's response? He said, let her alone. Against the day of my bearing,
notice that. Against the day of my bearing
has she kept this. You see friends, Mary had heard.
She had heard, really heard, those that have ears to hear,
let them hear. She had heard that one thing
that is needful for life eternal. She had heard her Lord tell about
His crucifixion. She knew something about this.
She'd heard Him tell the story, and this is her memorial to Him,
knowing what lay ahead for Him. She'd heard some things. Oh,
how I wish we could Truly understand that our Lord Jesus Christ lived
died and was buried and resurrected as the Savior the Redeemer and
the one mediator between Chosen sinners and a holy God. He's
the only one who can say salvation's in a person And that person is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
2. This will be the last passage
I turn you to. 1 Corinthians 2. Now in verse
2, the Apostle Paul says, Do you know Christ? And do you
know what He did? He was crucified. Though Paul
was well-versed in human literature, he had great knowledge of many
things, he would make known nothing else unto them or make anything
else the subject of his preaching. He deliberately kept it plain
and simple. First, Christ and who He is. and then Christ and what He's
done. That's the issue. That's the
issue. Our Lord asked one day, what
think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? Oh, that's the
two most important questions you could ever ask yourself.
What do you think of Christ? Whose son is He? This is the
gospel. Who is Jesus Christ? In order
to preach the gospel fully and correctly, there must be a very
clear description of the person of Christ. And God's messengers
preach Christ as God. He was not a man made into a
god, nor was he a god degraded to the level of a man. He's not
something between a man and a god, but very God of very God. one with His Father in every
attribute, being eternal, having neither beginning of days nor
end of years." Christ is omnipresent. Now that simply means, don't
let that word throw you, it simply means He's everywhere at all
times. He's everywhere at all times. He's not sitting back
somewhere in the universe watching us see what we're going to do.
He's involved. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. Our God is in the heavens. He's
done whatsoever He is pleased. Christ is omnipresent. He's everywhere
at all times. He's omnipotent. Don't let that
word throw you. It simply means He has all power. in heaven and on earth. Christ
is omniscient, which means He knows all things from eternity. In John chapter 1, you don't
have to turn there. Most of you know this passage
by heart. It says, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This
speaks of Christ. The same was in the beginning
with God, verse 2 says. And then if you read on down
to John 1, verse 14, it says, And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Paul
said you're saved by grace through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast. The Lord Jesus Christ
was in the beginning with God. If you look in Genesis, it says,
let us make man after our own image. Who's God talking to?
He's talking to God the Son, God the Spirit, the Trinity,
God in three persons. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Creator. He's the Preserver. He's the
Judge of all. And He's all things equal with
God being the express image of the invisible God. John 1.3,
that same chapter says, All things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Now listen, if we err concerning
the deity, that word deity is the divine being of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're going to err everywhere else. He's God. The scripture claims it. I should
call His name Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God. principles. Jesus Christ is God. This gospel
reveals a divine, sovereign Savior. And here's why that's important.
Only God could do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Only God. No one else. No shoulders but
the almighty ones of God can ever carry the enormous weight
of the sinner's guilt and shame and sin. His law, which requires
perfect keeping, can only be kept by a perfect man who is
a perfect God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.
The pertinent and relevant question is, do you believe that Christ
is who this book declares Him to be? Paul declared in simplicity
and with no reservation, we preach to you Christ crucified, the
Son of Mary, who once slept in His mother's arms. That's amazing. And at the same time was the
Infinite One, even when He was an infant. What a mystery. Christ,
the earthly Son of Joseph, we see Him laboring in our mind's
eye in the carpenter's shop. Yet all the while, He who fashioned
the wood to make a chair was He that created the trees from
which the wood came. The same Christ who had nowhere
to lay His head and was despised and rejected of men is God's
beloved Son in whom He is well pleased and whom He loved infinitely. Christ who was wrongfully nailed
to the accursed tree was nailed there in the place of those that
God gave Him before the foundation of the world. The Scripture clearly
states that He's the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Who was He slain for? All that the Father gave Him.
It's called election. It's in your Bible. People don't
like it. because it takes and strips away
from them their will and their decision. Friends, I find great
comfort in the salvations in the Lord. He's in control. And
if He wasn't in control of every square inch of this earth, I
would constantly be afraid I was standing on that little bit of
ground that He was not in control of. But to know that He's in
control of everything, what comfort that is! Doesn't that bring you
comfort? He bled, he died on the cross
as a man for chosen sinners, yet he lives forevermore as the
eternal sovereign substitute. And our great high priest, he
did not daily need as the high priest of old to offer sacrifices,
first for his own sins and then the sins of the people, for this
he did once when he offered up himself. What a God. What a Savior! The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
agonies in body and soul that are absolutely, absolutely indescribable. Man's words just will not cover
the depth of what He suffered. And yet, at the same time, the
Eternal God, whose hand rules and reigns according to His own
will and purpose and good pleasure, is the same One that hung upon
that tree. This is why we preach Christ crucified. Only God could
satisfy His own holy law and satisfy the strict justice that
it demanded from us. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law, Paul said, and yet offend in one point. He can keep
it all and offend in one point. He is guilty of the whole law. James 2.10. Oh, listen, if God
did not take our place, then none, and I repeat, none, could
have ever been saved. That's just a fact. Do you see
that salvation is not what we do for God, but what God has
done for us? Oh, there's so many people that
don't see that. I don't want a little mealy mouth to want
to do what she could, Jesus. Do you? And listen, I had that
Jesus preached to me my whole life. God wants to save you.
Just give Him your heart. Make Jesus Lord. Too late for
that. God made Him Lord long before I came along. Once you
give Him your heart, once you give Him a chance, we used to
sing, Try Jesus, like some kind of a pickup truck or something
that we try and then decide whether or not we want it or not. You
don't try Jesus. No. You bow to Him. You worship
Him. And you say, Lord have mercy
upon me a sinner. Has God ever caused you to hear
anything so wonderful? If Christ had not been made a
man, He could not have sympathized with you and me, nor could He
have suffered in our stead. He had to become what we were
in order to redeem us. With the great exception of sin,
He was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Yet He was truly
God as He was man. 100% God, 100% man. I don't understand that, but
I believe it. And I bow to it. No wonder the
scriptures call it a great mystery, but thanks be to God that even
the mystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations
is now made manifest to his saints. Colossians 1.26. We must preach
Christ as God. Then next, we must Very clearly
preach him as the Messiah, the sent one of God. He was sent
of God to be the savior of sinners. He said, Lo, I come in the volume
of the book. It is written of me. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. And he became the substitute
for sinners. This didn't happen accidentally.
This wasn't a backup plan that God had to come up with when
Adam sinned. It was by divine decree. For we read, "...the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53, 6. Sinner, this
truth should bring you hope. and comfort the Christ whom we
preach as the Lord's anointed. And what He does, He does by
God's appointed purpose. Oh, come unto me all ye that
labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. I will. And He speaks for His Father
as well as for Himself, for He and His Father are one. If I
make peace with Christ, I've made peace with God, for He is
God. God the Son. The message of salvation
is Christ crucified. Look to Calvary. Can you see
Him hanging there on that cross? That should have been you. That
should have been me. But He hangs there in our place. And it's where Christ bowed His
head, gave up the ghost, and when He did, He prevailed against
the gates of hell, and He opened the kingdom of heaven to all
believers. Do you believe? None of us can
truly believe unless the Father who sent His precious and perfect
Son draw us. That's what John 6.44 says. You will not come to me that
you might have life. It's not of Him that willeth,
it's not of Him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. salvations of the Lord. There's one word that every true
servant of Christ must be able to speak and believe, and that
word is substitution. Christ standing in the place
of sinners, numbered with sinners because of their sin and not
His own. And in this blessed teaching of substitution, friends,
Christ paid His people's debts, and He discharged all our liabilities. Now I've got a poor illustration
for you at best. Many years ago, before Teresa
and I were married, I was single and stupid, spent money I didn't
have, and I fell into some financial difficulties. And I was able
to manage paying my rent and my utilities, but I got behind
on my car payment. It caused me considerable grief
because my parents were hardworking, honest people that always paid
their bills on time. They instilled that in me and
it caused me a lot of grief because I couldn't and had the ability. And one day I went to the mailbox
and there was an envelope from the bank. I just knew that I'd
run out of time and that letter contained some bad news. Just
knew it. How surprised I was when I opened
it and found the loan papers stamped in big red letters, paid
in full. It turned out that my father
had paid the debt that I couldn't pay. He'd heard me talk to my
mom. He knew I was struggling. And
he went down to the bank and he paid it off. He didn't just
make a payment. He paid it in full. He paid it
in full. And you know what? I was no longer
liable for the debt. It had been discharged by full
payment. It was fully paid. My father
paid it for me. Now listen to me. I'll wrap this
up. To those of you that are without
Christ, the letter of God's holy law has demand payment. And you
can't pay it. You're running out of time. With
each breath you draw closer to the payment required of God,
which is perfect righteousness. That's what God demands. Perfect
righteousness. But the Scriptures teach that
God's law was never intended to be the means of redemption.
Did you know that? It was given to show chosen sinners
their inability to keep it. Let me show you that in Galatians
3. Galatians chapter 3. It's worth looking at this. Look
at verse 21. Galatians 3. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law, now look at this, if there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have
been by the law. If there could have been, but
the scripture hath concluded all under sin, there's nothing
to do with good, no not one. We all come short of the glory
of God. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that doeth good. We're all in the same boat. All are under sin that the promise,
now watch, by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Verse 24, "...wherefore the law
was our schoolmaster, given to teach us some things." What was
it given to teach us? You better run to Christ. to
bring us to Christ. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. That we might be justified by
faith. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of
God by faith. Where? Only one place. In Christ Jesus. Will you look
to Christ alone for your redemption? He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son hath not life. I don't think
there's any scripture that puts it any more clearly than that.
If you have Him, you have life. If you don't have Him, you don't
have life. Do you see that without Him you'll
perish forever in your sin? If you do, then believe the Gospel. It's the good news for desperate
sinners. Are you desperate? Has God brought
you to the end of yourselves? Have you seen that you're shut
up to this thing, that you can't appease God by your own so-called
self-righteousness or works of righteousness? The Scriptures
say, not by works of righteousness that we've done. You can't be
saved that way. Have you seen your desperate
condition? May God make you to see it. I pray God makes you
see it. And that He causes you to see
that Christ, Christ alone, not Christ plus. Not Christ plus
my works. Not Christ plus my faith. Not
Christ plus the good things that I do. Christ alone is all you
need. We preach Christ crucified.