This message that I believe the
Lord has given me for you tonight was born of two things. First, as you may know, I'm scheduled
to go out to Oakland, California, San Leandro in January, I'm sorry,
November. I'm scheduled to go out there
the last part of next month to preach for the folks in the church
where Brother Jesse can stand as pastor. I've been going there
every year since they began 15 years ago, since God first raised
up that work. It's a large congregation in
the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm just guessing somewhere over
400 people regularly attend. But when we scheduled the meeting,
Brother Jesse didn't look at the schedule of the Oddfellows
Hall where they meet. They rent a place there. And
we can't meet on Saturday like we normally do, so he asked me
if I would have a meeting with men in the congregation at another
location on Saturday, and that's the one day we can't meet and
have our public worship service like we normally do. And he said,
there are going to be a lot of preachers there, and I wanted
you to talk to us about administering the gospel. look forward to that
opportunity. I ask you to pray God will give
me special wisdom and understanding and direction for that meeting.
And the other thing that gave birth to this message was two
weeks ago, you may recall that I put a very, very good article
in a bulletin by Pastor David Edmondson. The title of his article,
a very brief article on the back page of the bulletin, if I remember
correctly, was How Could I? And Brother David learned what
very few preachers ever learn. He's learned that he who preaches
Christ crucified and he alone faithfully expounds the scriptures. He who preaches Christ crucified
and he alone faithfully preaches the gospel. Not many preachers
ever learn that. He who preaches Christ crucified
and he alone faithfully declares all the counsel of God. Now if
you don't get anything else out of what I say tonight, Please
write this down and get it and ask God to seal it to your heart.
Christ crucified is the message of all Holy Scripture. That's not a slogan. You'll see
lots of places that'll have a slogan on the church billboard. We preach
Christ crucified. Go in and try to find him. It's
not a slogan. It's not a religious cliche.
Christ crucified is not the central message, not the primary message. Christ crucified is the message
of all Holy Scripture. And I'm going to show you that.
You'll turn with me to Acts chapter 20 and just hold your Bibles
open there. Shortly after that article appeared
in our bulletin, Brother Larry Brown called my attention to
a blog spot on the internet. I don't look to that nonsense
unless somebody called my attention to it. And I'm not belittling
folks who do. I am belittling preachers who
do. Preachers all spend their time studying, not yakking. Preachers
don't have business doing that nonsense. Folks ask me, why don't
you get involved in these blogs? To do so is to lower the standard
of the gospel. It's to lower the standard to
debate about politics or debate about science. The gospel is
to be declared authoritatively, gloriously as that which is not
up for debate. Shortly after I put that article
in the bulletin, there was a young, I shouldn't call him young. These
days, I guess 40, 45 years old is young. Forty-five-year-old
fellows these days probably still trying to find themselves. I
was taught early you find yourself a little earlier than that But
these days 40 45 year old fellow considered a boy. Well this young
self-appointed Self-deluded imaginary preacher and any preacher who
is self-appointed is self-deluded and imaginary you can mark it
down and God raises up his servants, gifting them, and their gifts
are recognized by others before they're ever recognized by the
man who has them. This man who doesn't have a clue
about what it is to preach the gospel, ripped into Brother David
like an angry little fly buzzing around an elephant's tail looking
for something to bite. And I said just what I intended
to say. and I hope it sets him on his ears. He deliberately
put words in a man's mouth that that man never thought or stated,
and then asserted that David Edmondson was not preaching the
gospel. Is that an accurate assessment,
Larry? It is what he said. Now, here's a man who, to my
knowledge, and I know him well, has never sacrificed anything
for the cause of Christ. Nothing. Nothing. Never bent his life in any way
to the cause of the gospel. And I've spoken to you young
men here, some of the older ones, about preaching. If you're going
to preach, nothing comes before this. I spoke to a fellow who
couldn't go preach because it was going to be his son's birthday.
I promise you that's the last time I'll ask it. I promise you. Ought not to attend your son's
birthday party? Not if it interferes with preaching
the gospel. No. No. I wouldn't allow that to
keep me from worshiping God, much less preaching the gospel.
No. Mm-mm. Let something come first. And for preachers, the gospel
comes first. He never sacrificed anything. And he attacks a man that I know
personally sold his business sold his home and moved his wife
away from their children hundreds of miles just because there's
a little band of about 30 people who needed a pastor and asked
if he'd come do it. And this snotty-nosed man who's
just a snotty-nosed kid has never even met him. But he rips into
him and says, he's not preaching the gospel. And the reason is
because this fella likes to control people's lives. He likes to rip
into them every now and then and tell them how to live in
this world. And you say, Brother Don, you ought not to say this
about a fella. I sent him a copy of everything
I just said to you today. Send it to him before you hear
it. Needless to say, I'm angered and I'm irked by it. And here
are my reasons. Such slander has no place anywhere,
especially among preachers. All gossip and slander ought
to cease. If you're guilty, stop. Just
stop. You be very, very careful about
accusing a man of not preaching the gospel. I would sooner you accuse me
about anything. That's a serious charge. And I've had lots of
folks to make that charge against me, and I never answered them.
I never, never respond to them. But I'm not going to have anyone
to slander Bob Duff to me and me not deal with it. It's not
going to happen. I'm not going to have anyone
slander the people of this congregation and me not deal with it and deal
with it forcefully so clearly nobody can misunderstand me.
And I'm not going to stand by silently while anyone slanders
a faithful man and me not deal with it. And I say these things
because I want you to understand just how very serious this is. Faithful men are to be honored
as faithful men. and there to be respected and
received as faithful servants of God. Don't make talking about
such men a light matter. Before accusing someone of something,
I think you would at least be reasonable that you know him.
Don't you think that would be a good idea? Before you start
to accuse him of something, you ought to at least have met him. Maybe had a little correspondence
with him anyway. Maybe at least know where he
lives. I want you to turn with me to
Acts Chapter 20. That's all I'll say about this
fellow. He can do with it what he wants
to. It'll be my last word to him,
probably about anything. But the one good thing come of
it, I believe I've got something for you. Without question, the
Apostle Paul is the preacher's pattern. God used this man, Paul,
to write 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament. 14 of them. God sent Paul, this tremendously
influential Jew, Carrying the gospel to the Gentile world as
only a man thus equipped by God Raised up into the feet of Gamaliel
and at the same time a Roman citizen A man trained both among
the Gentiles and among the Jews exquisitely. He raised up this
man, Paul. Not many such men are ever raised
up. Most of us are just clay pots. Well, Paul said he was one of
the clay pots too. But he had a little more shine
on him than I do. He was an exemplary man in many
regards. God raised him up to preach the
gospel to the Gentile world first. And his message, his ministry,
his methods certainly ought to be carefully studied and emulated
by any man who claims to preach the gospel of God's grace. There's
no way to briefly put into words a summary of Paul's ministry. But he did. Here in Acts chapter
20, he made two statements. He made two statements. The first
is in Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 26. He's bidding farewell
to the saints at Ephesus, particularly to the elders, that is, to the
preachers God had raised up in that part of the country. He
says in verse 26, wherefore I take you to record this day. I call you as my witnesses. I
call you as my witnesses that I'm pure from the blood of all
men. For I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. I had an 85 year old believer
write to me Yesterday, she'd been listening to some messages,
been studying the scriptures for a long time, and she said,
Brother Don, the way you talk, are we not supposed to study
prophecy? And people misunderstand so much. Understand that the
prophetic books, too, declare Christ crucified. That's what
they're all about. Paul said, I declare unto you
all the counsel of God. I declared unto you all the counsel
of God." If I understand that correctly, if I understand that
correctly, Paul was saying, now, fellas, when I was with you at
Ephesus, I explained to you the whole message of the book of
God. And what he was talking about
in his day was from Genesis to Malachi. He didn't even have
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts yet. He just, he was just,
he just had Genesis to Malachi. He said, now, while I was with
you at Ephesus, I declared to you all the counsel of God. Do you mean in that short, what
was he there, two years? He expounded verse by verse,
line by line, everything from Genesis to Malachi? I don't think
so. I don't think so. But he said
he declared the whole thing. He declared it every time he
preached. Every time he preached. I don't
know. I don't pretend to understand
everything written in this book. I don't pretend to, but I know
what the whole book's about. I do know the message of the
whole book. I know everything the book teaches. It teaches
Jesus Christ crucified. That's what the book teaches.
Now when you're witnessing to folks and ministering to folks,
when you're preaching, don't chase rabbits. Follow the lamb. preach Christ crucified. Don't
argue with folks about which version of the Bible they ought
to use. Don't argue with folks about whether they'll be Democrats
or Republicans. Don't argue with folks about
election and predestination. Declare Christ to them. And if
they ever find out who Christ is, what Christ accomplished,
and why he did it, they will have no problem with anything
else. I promise you. And if folks have
got a problem with election, they've got a problem with Christ
crucified. Folks got a problem with predestination. They got
a problem with what happened to Calvary. Folks have a problem
with Jesus Christ being our only Savior. They've got a problem
with irresistible grace. All the problem, however, is
they rebel against Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The message
of this book is Jesus Christ crucified. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Let me show you. Here's Paul's
second statement. He's giving a summary of his
ministry. He's writing now to the Corinthians. And it says to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 2. Now remember, he's just finished
declaring to us that God's method of grace is preaching of the
gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Here in 1 Corinthians
2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came
unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. What's he saying? I didn't I
didn't come to you with flowery speech. I didn't come to you
with words of great learning to impress you with my ability.
So when you went home, you had to get your dictionary and look
up what I said. No, not God's servants. Not God's servants. God's servants preach so you
can understand them. They talk to you in such language,
you can't misunderstand them. They speak plainly, forcibly,
truth. I don't know if you've ever noticed
it or not. Lawyers, forgive me, Susan. Lawyers generally write
things in such a way that nobody can understand it. Do you know
why? Because they don't want you to.
That's the intention. That's it. They don't want you
to understand it. And preachers generally preach
in such a way that nobody really, you couldn't, that's it, that's
what he said. Because he will always give himself
a little wiggle room. Well, no, no, no, I didn't really
mean that. Somebody comes along, oh yeah, but that's what I said,
that's it, that's it. Not God's servants. I didn't
come to you with excellence of speech, wisdom of words. No, you don't. For I determined,
I determined, I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, when he was at Ephesus,
Paul opened up the Old Testament, and boy, he taught those saints
prophecy books, and he taught them historic books, and he was
real good at that when he was at Ephesus. When he was at Corinth,
he preached something else. What kind of man do you reckon
that is? That's a deceiver. That's a deceiver. What I preach
to you, you follow me around, I preach wherever I go. I don't
preach something here and something else there. And if I get a hint
that somebody doesn't like it, I just preach it stronger, more
boldly, more forcefully. I won't tolerate rebelling to
God's truth. Not from you, not from anybody.
I won't tolerate it. Won't tolerate it. So you have
to tolerate it. Watch me and see. Watch and find
out. No, won't tolerate it. Not if
I'm faithful to God. Not if I'm faithful to God. Paul
is telling these Corinthians, I determined to know nothing
among you, but Christ crucified. That's all you're going to hear
from me. And that's exactly what he preached at Ephesus. All the
counsel of God. Look at verse three. Paul said,
we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ, the Lord, because
your faith must not stand in the wisdom of men. but in the
power of God. Look at verse three. And I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Not because
he was afraid of them. Not because he was afraid of
them. Weakness, fear. Much trembling. I'll tell you what I am afraid
of. Mark Henson, I'm scared to death of mishandling this book. I'm scared to death of misstating
something in this book. That's the reason you'll find
me come to a passage and just move right on to the next one.
Because if I don't understand it, I'm not going to pretend
I do. If I don't know what it means, I'm not going to pretend
I know what it means. And I'm not going to give you
any guesswork about it. I'll come back to it when God shows
me what it means. Weakness and fear and much trembling. And
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. I wasn't trying to get you to
like me, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power.
And here's the reason that your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I've come to you. and declare to you all the counsel
of God, Jesus Christ, him crucified in plainness of speech. Didn't
try to persuade you with logic, didn't try to persuade you with
history, didn't try to persuade you with creeds or confessions.
I came to you declaring to you the very word of God in plain
language so that your faith would stand not in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. Because if your faith stands
upon my argument and my ability and my talents, my ability to
convince you that these things are so, there's gonna be a smarter
fellow than me come along and he'll take you away and get you
following something else. Your faith and confidence must
not be in preachers, but in the Christ we preach. You must be
followers not merely of men, but of Christ whom we follow.
You must not believe the word of a man, but the word of God.
Now, This is what I want you to see. When we preach Christ
and Him crucified, we preach all the counsel of God. For all
that God Almighty has purposed, decreed, revealed, required,
and gives to the sons of men is in Jesus Christ. All that
God has purposed, all that God has decreed, All that God requires,
all that God reveals, all that God gives is Jesus Christ the
Lord. He's the sum total of all. He
is called the Word. The Word. Psalm 138 verse 2, the psalmist
says, Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. And I'm kind of like Dr. Gill. I don't know whether that's
talking about Christ, the Word who is God, or whether it's talking
about the Word of Scripture, the written Word. Maybe it's
talking about both. Christ is called the Word because
He is the Word from whom this Word came. He is the Word about
whom this Word speaks. He is the message of Holy Scripture. Let's see. Turn to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1. And we can look at many, many,
many passages of Scripture. But let's just look at this one.
1 Peter chapter 1. Everything in the book is about
Christ. You remember it's a hymn book.
It's all about him. Genesis through Malachi says
someone's coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
say he's here. Acts declares what he did all
the way through to the book of Jude. Revelation said he's coming
again. It's all about him. That's the
sum and substance of it. Our Lord began at Moses, and
in all the scriptures, he opened the understanding of his disciples
to the scriptures and said, they testified me. They testified
me. He's the key to understanding.
This is the key that unlocks the treasure chest. Our dear
friend, Marjo, who's out here a few, oh, a couple of years
ago now in Washington, She got to listen to the messages and
she wrote to me and she said, for the first time in my life,
been in church all my life, said I started hearing the messages
from the Old Testament and said the Old Testament just popped
alive. Just popped alive. She's with the Lord now. Oh,
thank God for understanding this book's about Him. It's all about
Him. Now that's not guesswork. The
intent of the book is to reveal him. Look here in 1 Peter chapter
1, verse 23. Paul says, we're born again.
You see, our Peter does. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. That's talking about this written
word here, this written word. Isaiah chapter 40 is where it's
quoted for all flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass the grass withereth and The flower thereof faded
falleth away But the word of the Lord endureth forever talking
about Wait a minute. Let's see and This is the word
This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
You mean, when a man preaches the gospel, he's declaring to
us everything God reveals in the word? Well, that's so simple,
isn't it though? Isn't it though? Well, are you a preterist? Huh? Are you a supralapsarian? Huh? Are you a post-millennialist
or an odd-millennialist or a pre-millennialist? Now most of you probably know
what those are. As if any of it made any difference. As if any of it made any difference. Do you know that Christ is the
Lamb of God? That He, by His obedience to
God Almighty in the room instead of His people, brought in everlasting
righteousness? That He fulfilled all the will
and law of God as a man? That He his own self bear our
sin in his body on the tree to the full satisfaction of divine
justice and by the sacrifice of himself put sin away. Do you
know that he rose again the third day and he has power in his hands
to give eternal life to as many as the father gave him? Do you
know that? Now when you get over the wonder
of that, why don't you dabble in something else? When you get beyond that, when
you've got, when you've explained all of that that needs explaining,
declared all that that needs declaring, then go investigate
something else. Christ crucified is preached. And when Christ crucified is
preached, all the purpose of God and sovereign predestination
from old eternity is plainly declared. He was delivered, what
did the book say, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Everything that God Almighty
purposed, predestined, ordained, decreed from all eternity, that
includes election and reprobation, that includes the everlasting
justification of God's elect, the everlasting purpose of God
in all things, everything is that Christ might be the firstborn. among many brethren. That's the
whole purpose of God. That's the whole of it. Folks
say, well, we want to preach practical godliness. I'm so sick
of hearing practical godliness. It's practical ungodliness. Practical
ungodliness. You tell people how to live.
Control your life. You find preachers who want to
control your life, kiss them goodbye forever. I'm not going
to come around and check up on you, find out how much Bible
you read, how much you pray, how much you give. I don't want
to know. It's none of my business or anybody
else's business. Nobody. Well, you've got to hold
the reins on people or they won't serve God. Christ holds the reins
on his people. And those who are led of Christ
are well led. Those who are taught of His Spirit
are well taught. The Son makes you free. You shall
be free indeed. Well, we want to teach people
to live right. Preach Christ to them. Preach
Christ to them. Ask, would you like to know how
to give? Boy, how much should I give? How much should I give
this week, last week, next month? How much should I give? You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. That's how he teaches us to give.
You can read it in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. Prove now the sincerity
of your love. You talk about loving God, loving
his people. This is how he proved it. You
go prove it. You want to know how to love your wife? All men
need to learn how to love their wives. I can stand up here. I
promise you, advertise it, promote it. And I know how to do it.
I could announce I'm going to be teaching a series on the whole.
I want to teach you how to raise your children. And I'm going
to teach you how to be a good husband. And I'm going to teach
you ladies how to be good wives. And boy, after a while, folks
start coming. And a few weeks, Mark says to
Regina, boy, I needed that. I needed that. And it keeps coming.
And it keeps coming. A few more weeks, he says, man,
I sure wish Lindsay was here. He needs to hear this. Am I telling you the truth? Have
you ever experienced otherwise? Have you personally ever experienced
that? Oh man, I learned so much from
this. I wish Joe was here. He needs that. He needs to hear
that. All it does is promotes self-righteousness,
turns your eyes to yourself and away from the Redeemer. You want
to know how to love your wife? Love your wives as Christ loved
the church. Adam took that fruit. and plunged
himself to damnation before God, sooner than lose his wife. And
Christ took our sin and plunged himself into the hell of God's
wrath, sooner than part with his bride. Oh, how should a woman love her
husband? Reverence your husband like Christ's church reverences
him. How should we govern our children? Like the Lord governs you. How
do you deal with each other? Let me show you how you take
care of one another. See those folks who came across
the country to worship with us? Take them home with you. Fix a comfortable place for them.
Make them comfortable in your house. Give them a key to the
house. Tell them to come and go as they want to. I believe that's called washing
the disciples' feet. Is that what it's called? Is
that what it's called? Oh, but so much trouble! Trouble? Reckon by me being a trouble
if Christ was coming to visit? Reckon it would? Well, you don't
understand. You know I do, don't you? You know I do, don't you? Christ
crucified is all the counsel of God. All the Word of God,
all the types, all the prophecies, all the pictures in the Old Testament.
Do you know, apart from Christ crucified, apart from the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, redemption and salvation in Christ
Jesus, there's no reason for the Old Testament to exist. No
reason for it. Watch the Jews practice religion.
Watch them in this day. Well, I guess I am sort of poking
fun at them, but I feel sorry for them. Feel sorry for them,
but do everything I can to carry the gospel to them. But they
go over yonder and wail at a wall with a beanie on their heads
and call it worshiping God. They don't have an altar. They
don't have a mercy seat. They don't have a sacrifice.
Got no way to get close to God. Got to have something between
them and God and don't know who he is. Men and women take the
scriptures and take Christ out. They've got nothing left. Nothing. A history book, a book about
morals, a book about laws, a book about religious ceremony. Nothing. Nothing. Just as good would be
the Book of Mormon. Just as good would be any of
the Apocrypha. Just as good would be the writings
of any moralistic man if all you've got is what's written
here without Christ crucified. That's right. Just processed wood with gilded edges
in a nice leather binding without Christ crucified. Christ crucified
is the message of this book in its entirety. In its entirety. This is the doctrine of Christ.
And if any man come to you and bring not the doctrine of Christ
Receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed, lest
you be partaker of his evil deeds. Christ crucified is the embodiment
of all the scriptures, all the fullness of the law. all the
fullness of the prophets, all the fullness of the Psalms, all
the fullness of the historic books, all the fullness of the
gospels, all the fullness of the epistles, all the fullness
of revelation. Christ has come. And behold,
he cometh. Live now in obedience to God,
serving the interest of his kingdom for the glory of his name. Amen.