Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Let's read beginning at verse
18. 1 Corinthians 1 and reading through
verse 31. Our text this morning will come
from verse 18. The preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness, but unto us who
are saved it is the power of God. I'm told that in the revised
version, the first phrase of that verse reads, for the Word
of the cross, the Word of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which or who are saved, it is the power
of God. This morning we want to talk
about the cross and why it is considered to be foolishness
by every son and daughter of Adam until God intervenes by
the power of His grace and Spirit and changes things within us. For it is written, verse 19,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, in God's divine purpose, particularly pertaining to His
wisdom, God purposed that the world by wisdom could not know
God. God cannot be known by human
wisdom. Then it says in verse 21, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching."
Up in verse 18 it said, the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness. Here it said it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It seems that God chose the very
method and means by which He would save His people Because
in the eyes of every man by nature, this is utterly ridiculous. To say that a man died 2,000
years ago, and in that death is God's acceptance of me, the
removal of my sin, the penalty of my sin is paid, this is utter
foolishness to the natural mind. And if we are not yet born again,
We cannot have the mind of Christ. This is the result of the new
birth. Not any way to be understood
as having anything to do with the cause. Now let me read 21
again. 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. It's almost
like the Lord deliberately chose the method of grace in the gospel
of Christ because He Himself, before He ever made man, knew
that in the fall of Adam in the garden, all of Adam's descendants,
the entire human race, would have problems with God's method
of grace. That method of grace in its essence
is Christ crucified. Christ crucified. All right,
verse 22. Now, when we read this, let's don't
be thinking about people that lived a long time ago. Let's
think about ourselves. This verse is going to talk about
Jews and Gentiles. King James uses the word Greeks,
but it's virtually the same word for Gentiles. For the Jews require
a sign. So there are certain persons
in the human race that demand, in order for them to believe
anything that God says, they demand that they be given a sign. Do you remember in the gospel
accounts They came to the Lord Jesus and they said, if you expect
us to believe you, you'll have to give us a sign. And what did
He say? There will be no sign given to
you except the sign of the prophet Jonah, who was three days and
three nights in the belly of that great fish. And our Lord
Jesus was telling them that he would be in the grave exactly
like that. That's the only sign they would
get. But the Jews require a sign.
And the Gentiles, or the Greeks, seek after wisdom. But no matter what they demand,
or require, or say that they will not believe unless God does
this for them, Paul said, verse 23, But we preach Christ crucified. That's the only way you can preach
Him is crucified. We have no life unless our Savior
died in our stead. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. That word foolishness just keeps
cropping up in this passage. Verse 24, but unto them which
are called, or you might say who are called, unto them who
are called, both Jews and Greeks. So it doesn't matter what our
nationality is, what our race is, what country we live in,
what century, what time, what community or anything else. Unto
them which are called, verse 24, That's a divine, irresistible
call of God's grace that cannot be resisted. Both Jews and Greeks,
Christ is made unto them the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Now Paul takes us, by divine
inspiration, to a particular conclusion in this chapter. For
you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." Let that
sink in. There was an old queen of England,
several, I don't know what century she lived in, I don't remember
her name, but I remember this was her favorite verse of Scripture
and she said, somebody asked her what she was thankful for,
she said, I'm thankful for the letter M. Because if you read
this sentence in verse 26 and take the M off of not many, it
would say not any. And that old girl must have known
a little something about who God is and who Christ is and
who she is. You see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the things, to confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And
base things of the world and things which are despised has
God chosen. Yes, and things which are not
to bring to nothing, things that are. Here's the purpose of God's
method of grace, that no flesh No human flesh should glory in
His presence. Now look at verse 30. But of
Him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus. If you and I are in Christ
by faith through the grace of God, if we are in Christ and
Christ is in me, this tells us exactly how that came to be.
Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. God puts us in Christ. My soul, He gave us to Christ
in old eternity, and He puts us in Christ in divine regeneration
and the new birth. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is Christ, of God is made unto us, wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. A whole ball of wax belongs to
you at one split moment. You don't work for this. You
don't wait for this. When God saves your soul, this
is how you are. There's no exception to this.
He doesn't do it one way with some people and another way with
others. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Why does God
insist on this one narrow way, and Christ is that way? Why? That according as it is written,
he that glories, he that boasts, let him glory or boast in the
Lord. The Word of the Cross. The preaching
of the Cross. Let's pause and beg the Lord
to come meet with us today. Lord, thank You for letting us
gather in this house this morning. Thank You for Your goodness and
mercy. We confess before You and before each other every blessing,
every mercy, every grace, Everything that You give us, everything
that You allow us to do, we have because of our Savior who suffered
and bled and died, was buried and rose again the third day
and ascended into heaven where He sits this morning at Your
right hand. Lord, teach us what that glorious
statement means. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness to every man and woman by nature. Lord, as we come to this book
this day, if you do not help us, if you do not open our minds
and our hearts to receive your truth, If you do not attach your
power and your spirit to your word as it is read and feebly
preached, nothing takes place. Lord, we are entirely dependent
upon you. We hastily add that there is
nothing about us or in us that earns or merits your favor. Lord, we beg for these mercies
in the precious name of Your Son. Pleading for Christ's sake,
You'd have mercy upon us. Open our hearts and our minds
to the glory of Your gospel of grace in Christ. Help us, we
pray, for Christ's sake. The first thing I would try to
mentioned this morning before we get to pursuing the particular
outline I've got scribbled out here somewhere, is to make this
statement. When the Bible talks about the
cross, it speaks of that cross as being the glory of God's grace
in His gospel. This is the centerpiece It's
the essence of the entire gospel. Everything centers around Christ
and Him crucified. But you know what I'm about to
tell you just as well as I know it. You know that in this day
in which we live, the cross is nothing of what it says in this
book that it is. The cross is now a trinket It's
a piece of jewelry. It's plastered on everything
under the sun. And I tell you that that is nothing
short of absolute idolatry. That's all it is. You can excuse
it. You can cover it up. You can
do anything you want to. It's still the same thing. It's
pure idolatry. We do not worship a certain figure,
a T, or a cross. or a color or anything else. These things intrude and steal
or attempt to steal the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what people do personally,
you know, when they're on their own time, whatever, you know,
not in a church meeting necessarily, that's one thing. But what grieves
me today about the cross is how it's used in the churches of
this land. That is idolatry in all capital
letters. I mean, you've got to have color
schemes, you've got to have candles, you've got to have this, you've
got to have that. Show me that in the New Testament.
It is not there. I know men love it, but the reason
they love it is because they don't know God. That's the trouble with the churches
of our land. I spoke about these three statements
Wednesday night, so I beg the forgiveness of those that were
there. But I think it will help us understand
why it keeps talking about the cross being foolishness to the
natural man. It just doesn't make any sense
to us by nature. Here are three simple reasons.
Why is the cross of Christ foolishness to those that perish. Number
one. Number one. This is enough because
it deals with a subject in which we have no interest. No interest. What might that
be? The punishment of sin. What is Christ doing on the cross?
God is punishing His Son for the sins of all of His elect
that He gave to Christ in what is called the election of grace
in old eternity. And the Lord Jesus is putting
their sins away. He's paying the penalty. He is
purchasing through His own blood their pardon. But most folks,
all men by nature until we're born again, Go right back to
where we were earlier, until we've been born again, we don't
know this. We won't have this. We say, when
did I ever sin so badly that it required the death of the
Son of God? Well, you just ask people, are
they sinners? Most of them will say yes, but then they'll qualify
it. Doug, you remember some of you other fellows, Bo, we were
standing out here and we were talking to this guy about putting
metal on the back building. And I said something about him
being a sinner. And I think I don't remember
what I said to make it appear worse than what he wanted to
own up to. And he said, well, I'm a sinner,
but I ain't that bad. And that's just what we do. We don't know how bad a sinner
we are. That's our problem. I tell you,
when the gospel comes to town and God puts His power with that
gospel and starts saving sinners, some people wake up and find
out that we're the worst kind of sinner there is. I mean, tell
me what's worse than hating God? What's worse than killing God?
That's what we're guilty of. The very things they did to our
Savior, we would have done with both hands and with relish had
we been there. Oh, but preacher, you ain't talking
about me. Well, I am, but you ain't going
to hear it until God makes you hear it. And then you'll confess
it. I know that much. The reason
people think the cross of Christ is utter foolishness is because
it has to do with putting away sin. And we're not interested
in that. Thank you very much. The cross
takes no notice of, does not recognize what's called human
merit and human works. It excludes them. They are excluded. They have nothing to do with
the work of salvation. If believers have works and they
do, it's because the Lord in His grace and mercy has given
them to us. When we are born again, we don't
have any good works. All we have is bad works. You
remember in the gospel accounts when our Lord met this fellow
that we've come to know as the rich young ruler? I think you'll
find him in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three. In every one
of those accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the rich man, one gospel
tells us he came running and fell on his knees. The other
two, if I remember right, leave that out. But all of them have
this statement. Here's what he said. Good master,
what must I do to be saved? And instead of the Lord Jesus
answering him, he has to straighten out his use of words. He has
used a word that pertains to humanity, the word master. But
he's taken an adjective that belongs only to God and put it
to a human noun. He said, good master. And what our Lord means there,
as plain as anything can be, either call me good God or bad
master. Because this book says everywhere
there is none good, no, not even one. And everybody knows it's
there, but we don't believe it. And we certainly don't believe
it when it pertains to ourselves. until God conquers us by His
grace. Third reason the cross is foolishness
is because it has to do. You can only explain the cross
by the fact that it declares the character of God. Why is Christ on the tree? Because God is holy and sin must
be punished. And when all the sins of Christ's
people are imputed to Him, divine vengeance must fall upon Him. God is not only holy, but God
is just. He is justice. God is just. Everything He does, He has to
do in a just manner, a holy and righteous manner. God is not
only holy and just, but He is righteous. And those three things
explain to us why it is necessary that God put to death His only
begotten Son. We might also add that the cross
magnifies, honors, and exalts every characteristic of God Almighty. It exalts His love. Why is God
putting His Son to death? Because He loves His people with
an everlasting love. So His love is radiated from
the cross as well as His mercy and His grace. Now let's get
back to this statement and see if we can make any progress this
morning. I need you to turn to a couple
of places just to see if we're on the same page. The first one
is Galatians. So you go through 1st and 2nd
Corinthians, you'll bump right into Galatians. Galatians 1. The point is this. The cross has one uniform teaching
or doctrine or word, whatever you want to use there. The cross
has but one declaration to make. It's called the gospel. And if
you'll look in Galatians, did I tell you chapter 1? Galatians
chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. Now remember the Galatian churches
have had what are called Judaizers from Jerusalem. These are Jews
who pretend to be Christians. And so they have slipped in among
these Galatian churches and are urging these people who are Gentiles
to be circumcised and consequently the apostle is warning them that
what they are hearing is another gospel and there's only one real
gospel and we read here in verses 8 and 9 how vocal Paul is to
get this point across. He said, though we, though he
himself, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. You don't tolerate another gospel.
It's deadly and it's damning. Look at verse 9, Galatians 1.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that that you have received, let him
be accursed." Let him be damned. Now that's a somber statement.
But I'm telling you, there's a whole lot of gospels floating
around here in these United States, well, all over the world for
that There ain't but one real one. It's the same everywhere
you go. Now, if you'll look back to 1
Corinthians at the very end of 1 Corinthians, I didn't want
to read this statement first, though it would have been chronologically
in order. Let's see, 1 Corinthians 16. Here's what I'm trying to impress
on your mind. There is but one true gospel.
It's God's gospel. It's the gospel of Christ. It's
the gospel of grace. This is a serious, serious matter. How serious? Here it is. The
last chapter of 1 Corinthians, that's chapter 16, verse 22. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. That's pretty close kin to let
him be damned, Maranatha, when Christ comes. This is a serious
matter. This is not fun and games. Deadly
serious. Second thing I want to say about
the cross is that the teaching or the doctrine of the cross
is in one single word. Christ, Christ. In that one word
is contained the essence of the gospel. Alright, did you go back
to the text? Did you save your place? 1 Corinthians
1. Look at 1 Corinthians 2 and verse
2. Here's the teaching of the cross. For I determine, this is Paul
to the Corinthian church, I determined not to know anything among you."
The King James word save means accept. Accept Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That is the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus. Now that, my friend, is the teaching
of the cross. Now you sometimes hear folks
telling people that if they don't behave themselves, they don't
give enough money to the church, and if they don't do enough for
the church, and if they don't do this, that, or the other,
it varies from one place to another, that all of this wonderful salvation
will just take wings and fly away. It will be gone. That depends on who saves us.
If we save ourselves, hallelujah, the quicker it's gone, the better.
But I tell you, if God saves you, He doesn't do anything except
it lasts forever. Ecclesiastes 3.14, whatsoever
God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be taken from it,
nothing put to it that men may learn to fear before Him. You
won't hear that in the average Baptist church this morning,
I guarantee you that. All right, did you turn back
to 1 Corinthians 2? We were in 1, but in chapter 2, verse 2,
here it is. For I determined not to know
anything among you. Yes, I know I just read it. I
want to read it again. Save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But preacher, that ain't enough
to attract people. Well, what good does it do if
we attract people and God doesn't save them? I'd be glad. I'd be smiling from ear to ear
if this place didn't have a vacant seat anywhere. But let me tell
you one thing. The number of people ain't got
nothing to do with whether God is present. And if He doesn't
accompany His gospel and His word as it's read and taught
and preached We sure can't do anything with it. Now the third thing about the
cross. First one is, there's only one gospel. There's only
one God. There's one atonement. There's
one Savior. Secondly, the teaching of the
cross is simply Christ crucified. Now thirdly, We've got to look
at a couple of things. Let's go to John's Gospel. Hang
on to 1 Corinthians. We'll start off in chapter 19.
Our Savior is on the tree. There are seven statements scattered
throughout the four Gospel accounts of statements that our Lord Jesus
made while hanging on Calvary's tree. And toward the end of chapter
19, well, no, not toward the end, about middle way, chapter
19, we have two of those, one of which I want to call your
attention to. This preaching of the gospel
declares that when Christ died, salvation was finished. The work of redemption is completely
and entirely done. And if that is the case, and
it is, then we dare not tell men that Christ has done all
He can do, now the rest is up to you. The rest is not up to
you. If it's up to you, we'll all
be in hell. That's just how it is. Let me
show you in one single statement. Verse 30 of John 19, when Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. He bowed his head and released
his spirit, enabling himself to die. No one else has ever
died in such a manner. The Lord Jesus cannot die until
He Himself just brings it in. I want you to look at three words
in that statement. It is finished. It is finished. Let me show you one other statement. Chapter 17 of John. I simply
want to put these statements side by side. In John 17, the
Lord Jesus, as the one mediator between God and men, the God-man
Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus is praying to His Father. Now in that other prayer that
is called the Lord's Prayer, it is actually our Lord teaching
His disciples how to pray. But here is the actual praying
takes up the entire 17th chapter of the Gospel of John of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read you just a couple
of verses. Starting at verse 1, what I'm after is in verse
4. These words spoke Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that Your
Son also may glorify You. As You have given Him power over
all flesh, the Father has given Christ power over all flesh. Now watch this. that He should
give, that Christ should give eternal life to whom? To as many
as the Father has given Him. When did the Father give Him
anybody? In the election of grace in old eternity. Now verse 3,
this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true
God, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." That, my friend, is the
Bible definition of eternal life. Now verse 4, I have glorified
you on the earth. I have finished the work which
you gave me to do. I have finished the work which
you gave me to do. Let me quickly, it will have
to be quickly, Tell you what this means for the Lord Jesus
to say, I have finished the work you gave me to do. And then on
the cross to say, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. What does this finished mean?
How finished is it? How complete is it? Let me just
mention, I've got five things, but I'm sure I won't get to them.
When our Lord said it is finished, He declares that all the types
and pictures and shadows and prophecies of Himself from Genesis
to Malachi are now fulfilled. Fulfilled. Those things are now
past tense. They are meaningless to us except
as we learn to enjoy them as we read the Old Testament and
see Christ pictured in all those things. But those things are
No longer. Have you ever been to the Passover?
No. Where would you go if you were
going? I don't know where one is. The Passover is a person. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know one thing. If we're
in Him, God said, I'll pass over you. That's what the Passover
is all about, is Christ. So when our Lord said it is finished,
It just resolved every sacrifice, every feast, every offering,
every altar, every priest, the whole thing, tabernacle and temple,
everything included is fulfilled in our precious Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you one verse here.
2 Corinthians. I forgot about this one. 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. I can't get there. Here it is. Here's what it means. I haven't
given you the verse, right? Here's what it means for the
Lord Jesus to say, look at verse 20 of 2 Corinthians
1. For all the promises of God in
Him, in Christ, are yes, and in Him Amen unto the glory of
God. When our Lord said it is finished,
every promise in this book became the right and property of every
last one of his children. And they're the only ones who
have that right. I'm telling you, if we have the
Lord Jesus, If when He hung on that tree, He hung there for
us, we have everything there is. God has nothing better and
nothing beside what He gives us in His Son. It's all in Him,
all of it. All the sacrifices of the Old
Testament, every last single solitary one of them, are now
abolished and understood properly only in Christ in the gospel. They don't make any sense except
as we see them representing Himself. Not only that, when our Lord
said it is finished, it means that He has rendered absolute
satisfaction to the holy law of God and it is now finished. It is no more. The believer does
what he does. out of love for Christ, and if
that ain't enough motive, there's none any higher. Only the gospel
can cause God's children to walk in faith, worshiping, following
the Lord Jesus. If you were to find a place that
still offered Old Testament sacrifices, we ought to remove ourselves
as far as we can get from that place because it is anti-Christ
from beginning to end. According to Romans 10 and verse
4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone
that believes, the end of the law for righteousness. One more. I'll just summarize
it. When our Lord said it is finished,
it means that He has totally destroyed the power of Satan,
the power of sin, the power of death, and the power of the grave. If I read my Bible correctly,
you can find this in Revelation 1 about verse 18, it says that
hanging at our Savior's girdle are the keys of heaven, hell,
and death. It actually says Hades and death. But since Hades means the place
of departed spirits, it includes those who go to heaven and those
that go to hell. So I just simplify it and say
he has the keys to heaven, hell, and death. And when he opens,
no man can close it. And if he shuts it or closes
it, no man can open it. That, my friend, is what it means
to say it is finished. Now, I picked a hymn to close
with this morning that if you've not been with us on Sunday evening,