I invite you to turn your Bibles
this morning to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I'd like to read the
first five verses. And I, Paul speaking, brethren,
when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I want to speak this morning
on the subject, a man with one subject. A man with one subject. and my text is verse 2 here in
1st Corinthians chapter 2 where the Apostle says, for I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now I believe that the subject
was indeed one, but I think it can be divided into two parts. It was the person and it was
the work of our Lord Jesus Christ that Paul was interested in setting
forth before these Corinthians and all other congregations to
whom he was privileged to preach. The person and work of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you believe Jesus Christ is
God? We know there was great debate
about 300 years after our Lord ascended back to glory as to
whether or not He was truly, fully the Son of the Living God. Well, we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is God. that he dwelt, as Mitch quoted
the verses out of John chapter 1 this morning, that the work
was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, he that is full
of grace and truth. Surely we believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of the Living God. Well, the Apostle Paul held
him up as a real man also. Not only he preached him no less
God, but he held him up as a real man. He was no phantom, but one
who was crucified, one who died and was buried and rose again
from the dead. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a marvelous, wonderful work. that our Savior did when He was
in this world. John 17 tells us that He said,
I glorify Thee. Speaking to the Father, I glorify
Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do." Well, that work was a great and marvelous
work. We read in Daniel chapter 9 where
that the Lord Jesus would make an end of sin, that He would
put away iniquity, and that He would bring in everlasting righteousness. Isn't that a marvelous and wonderful
work? for our master to take care of he made an end of sin.
He put an end of sin. I mean the Lord Jesus Christ
by dying the death of the sinner made an end of sin on the behalf
of that sinner. Now isn't it wonderful that your
sin no longer haunts you if you're a believer today. Your sin has
been put away. It is no longer on the books
of God against you. God, through Jesus Christ, has
put away, He's made an end of your sin, and put away our transgressions,
He put them away, and our iniquities, and He's established or brought
in an everlasting righteousness. a righteousness which even God
Himself, the Father, can find no fault with. He cannot pick
it apart. It's a perfect, absolute righteousness
according to the holy law of God. Paul preached Jesus as the
Son of the Highest, as the Wisdom. He preached Him as the Wisdom
and the Power of God, as one in whom dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. The Lord Jesus Christ was a manifestation
of God. When you looked upon Him, yes,
it was God that you were looking upon. If a man who is near the
kingdom, you know in speaking of Paul's determination here,
he said, for I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now somebody might immediately
say, well this was a very narrow-minded man. This man was very, very
narrow-minded. You know, the Jews, they wanted
a sign, and the Greeks, they were seeking after wisdom. They
wanted somebody to, those who spoke to them, to philosophize. They wanted somebody to talk
to them about life here in this world. They weren't interested
too much in finding out anything about life beyond the grave.
life in eternity but they wanted to know something about life
here and so they were interested in philosophy and the Jews wanted
to hear the law. Every time somebody got up to
speak they had to pay reference to the law. They had to speak
of the law and talk about it and its demands. But here's a
man that has come among them and oh, there are those among
the Greeks and the Gentiles who felt he was an ignoramus felt
he did not know anything other. Here's this man, all he knows,
all he knows is one Jesus who was hanging on a cross. That's
all he knows. A man named Jesus who was hanging
on a cross, he died, and every time you hear him preach, that's
all he's got to talk about is this man hanging on a cross Jesus
Christ. Well, I'm sure that if a man
was near the kingdom, and if he were driven away from the
gospel by hearing Paul preach the unvarnished truth, then Paul
would say, I have nothing to do with that. My duty is to preach
the gospel, and I'm determined not to know anything among you
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He knew, and we know. that the gospel must be a saver
of death unto death to some, as well as life unto life unto
others. And therefore, whichever may
occur when the gospel is preached, or when the message of the Savior
goes out, the consequences are not for him or us, but for the
Lord. The consequences is in the hands
of the Lord. So my friend, those of you that
try to give a witness, those of you that try to testify of
the grace of God, don't be too much concerned about what people
would want you to say to them. You tell them what you know in
your own heart they ought to hear. You talk to them about
the gospel and leave the consequences of your message with the Lord. It is ours to speak the truth
boldly, as Paul did, and in every case, we shall be a sweet saver
unto God, regardless of how it sounds to people around us or
in our congregation, we'll be a sweet saver unto God, but to
temporize or compromise in hope of making converts is to do evil
that good may come. This never, my friend, is to
be considered by anyone that's trying to preach the gospel.
Somebody said, isn't it rather a rash experiment for a man to
get up with only one subject? For a man never to have anything
else to talk about except a man hanging on a cross, dying in
the room instead of others? Is it not a very rash thing for
a man? Does he have no consideration
for the intelligent among his congregation that he would subject
them all the time to hear it about Jesus on a cross? Well, my friend, it's the experiment
of faith. And faith is justified of all
of our children and certainly is in this instance. If we rely
upon the power of mere words, you know Paul said over in the
first chapter of 1 Corinthians and in verse 17, he said, Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Lest the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ should be emptied out
of its power to save. And so the Apostle Paul, he relied
upon just the plain, unvarnished truth of the Gospel. And if we
rely upon the power of mere words, we rely upon that which is born
of the flesh. If we rely upon men's reasoning,
and carnal means, then my friend, we're not going to accomplish
what God would accomplish through the gospel. But if we rest upon
the naked omnipotence of a crucified Savior, upon the innate power
of the wondrous deed of love, which was consummated upon Calvary's
cross, then I believe that the Spirit of God will use this for
the conversion of the elect, and it cannot end in failure,
brother, sister. It will not end in failure. God will save his people through
the preaching of this one subject, the Lord Jesus Christ, hand hanging
on a cross. Paul had in Christ crucified
a subject that was equal to his object, a subject that would
meet the case of every man, whether it be Jew, whether it be Greek. He had a subject for today, did
he not? He had a subject for tomorrow,
and a subject for next year, if you please, for Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday and today and forever. He had in the crucified
Jesus a subject for the prince's palace as well as for the peasant's
hut, for the marketplace, for the heathen temple, as well as
for the synagogue, wherever it was. that he might go. Christ would be both to the Jew
and Gentile, the bond and the free, the wisdom and the power
of God. And not to anyone alone, but
unto all of those whom God sent the message home to, and whom
God purposed to save. The result would be full salvation
to everyone that was unable to believe it. Now, beloved, to
be sure, there are those today in the religious world who I
call, would call religious traditionalists who soon tire of hearing a man
that preaches the message of Christ and Him crucified. They want to hear what they call
practical messages which serve to increase their self-righteousness,
or prophetic messages which have no heart-piercing power, or church
messages which it would exalt their denomination. I fear for
men who tire of hearing Christ crucified, for I believe that
God will be tired of them in the day of judgment." My friend,
this is very important that we understand why the Apostle Paul
would say, not to know anything among you save Christ and Him
crucified. Christ crucified is the message
which was preached by Paul and the other apostles. This was
the message that pricked the hearts of men in apostolic days
and destroyed the vanity of self-righteous traditions and ritualistic Judaism
and superstitious paganism. And this is the message which
must be preached today. This is the standard by which
a preacher must be judged. Does he preach Christ and Him
crucified? Well, let us look at what the
Word of God here has to say. I want to mention just a couple
of more things about this 17th verse in 1 Corinthians chapter
1. You take note here that Paul
said, for Christ sent me not to baptize. First of all, he
tells us that he was sent of God. That he was sent of God. He said, now Christ sent me not
to baptize, but he said he sent me to preach the gospel. Now
Paul was not belittling baptism, he was not insinuating that baptism
was unimportant and insignificant, but he's here setting forth the
main issue, the critical issue, that he was sent by Christ to
perform, and that was to preach the gospel. Now Paul had come
to this great city of Corinth. This great city was a city of
learning. It was a city of philosophy.
It was a city of human wisdom. A city of professors, and books,
and learning, and debaters. They were debaters of all things
in the city of Corinth. Paul is stating here that he's
not going to be drawn Into their ways that he's not going to be
getting into a debate with them over the various issues that
they were concerned about Paul is stating here, but he's not
going to be drawn in any way shape or form away from that
which Christ is had sent him to do. He was not going to be
influenced by them. My friend, we must learn that
lesson if we're going to preach the gospel that we're not to
be influenced by them to whom we preach. We're to have one
message as long as the world stands and we'll proclaim that
one message. He's not going to be influenced
by them into their speculations or into their philosophy and
human reason and logic. For He had a message and He was
under bond to preach it. For He was determined to preach
nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, even
if He was made to be looked upon as an ignoramus by the Greeks
and a stumbling block by the Jews. This was a determination
of His soul brother or sister this was a deliberate decision
it was his decision he knew what it was that Christ had sent him
to do and beloved this is the greatest need of the world today
what has the church what does the church have to say today
to this world what does it have to say to this lost and dying
world this sin cursed world that is ripening daily for judgment. This is and must be the constant
theme of every gospel preacher. Well, it is not so, but it ought
to be. It ought to be. Rather than preach
Christ crucified, we feel that we must talk about things that
interest the people. The Greeks, as we mentioned,
they want philosophy. And the Jews, they want a lecture
on the law. But there are many whose sermons
have very little, if anything, to do with Christ. They call
themselves gospel preachers in our day, but their messages have
very little to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I heard a story
about a man who painted a picture of two battleships. and they
were firing at each other. And as they were firing, smoke. Oh, smoke was everywhere. And
the man that painted the picture, he just had so much smoke that
you could not see the ships. And somebody asked him and said,
well, where are the ships? Oh, he said, they're there. You
may not be able to see them, but they're there. And so that's
the problem with a lot of sermons. Well, if you ask the preacher
where Christ is in that message, he'll say, well, He's there. You may have trouble seeing Him,
but we do have trouble seeing Jesus in a lot of sermons that
are preached because all we see is smoke. That's all there is
there. Christ is not there. And it reminds
me also of the story about James I. James I, somebody painted
a picture of him and they painted the picture of him in the garden,
in his garden. And the background of beautiful
flowers. I mean the flowers were just
They were so beautiful. And when he got done with the
picture, nobody was interested in looking at James I because
all they wanted to look at was them beautiful flowers in the
background. Well, there's a lot of preachers
who use flowery language, a lot of preachers who use rhetoric
that, as it were, blots out of the Lord Jesus Christ and hides
Christ and hides the message of the old cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so you're not able to see
Christ clearly in their preaching. But they call themselves gospel
preachers. In today's culture, what these
people want to hear that are out here in the world listening
as it were today, that the preachers are trying to satisfy, what they
want the preacher to talk about are want him to talk about sports,
they want him to talk about social conditions, they want him to
talk about ethics, education, or technology, politics, and
etc. They want him to get all involved
in these things instead of preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They talk much about morality.
Preachers do and good works, but the gospel is the only message
ordained of God that can and will change the world or can
and will save sinners. They talk much about things that
do not, that will not be effectual as they are received by men because
the gospel is that which will change men and women's lives. It'll save boys and girls. They spend much time and effort
in cutting off the various branches of sin, but never, never lay
the axe to the root of the tree. They will not preach depravity.
They don't believe in depravity. They do not understand depravity. They do not understand the condition
that men and women are in. They do not understand that a
man or woman is lost, desperately lost, and the only thing that
will help them is to hear the gospel of power and the gospel
of wisdom, that gospel of Christ. of Jesus Christ bearing our sin
in his own body to the tree. The gospel of Christ being resurrected
from the grave and being seated at the right hand of God to give
repentance and remission of sin unto sinners. They will not preach. They'll pick sin off. They'll
pick a quarrel with you about what you're doing and what you're
not doing, but they will not go right down to the foundation
and tell you why. you're doing what you're doing.
Tell you why you're in the shape and the condition you're in.
Tell you why God must be a sovereign and why He must be a God of election
and a God of grace. They will not describe to you
your condition. They will not preach you into
the position that the Word of God states that you're in. They
preach up good works, but they don't know what a good work is.
Jesus said, this is the work of God that you believe on him
whom he has sent. This is God's work. You want
to do God's work? You want to do something? I remember
a woman coming one time and said to me, if you could just give
us something to do. Well, I said, this is the work
of God, my friend, that you believe. on him whom he hath sent. And that, my friend, if you do
that, God will have mercy on you. God will put away your sin. There will be nothing between
you and God. You'll have right standing with
God if you believe on him whom he hath sent. And the only way
to promote that good work, I believe, is to preach Christ and Him crucified. It is not our business to merely
reform the lives and manners and morals of men and convert
them to conservative politics. That is not our business. That
is not what we're about. It is our business to appoint
men and women, boys and girls, to the Son of God. If ever a
sinner is made to see Christ crucified, I tell you, his life
will be affected. I tell you, his life will be
changed. I tell you, God has ordained
that this message, when it goes out, there will be power that
will be in this message and men and women, boys and girls will
be affected. 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 says,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are
passed away and all things have become new. So once you get into
this Christ who Paul says is crucified on the behalf of sinners,
my friend, your life will be changed. You'll be a different
person. I say to every man who stands in a pulpit and dares
to open his mouth to men in the name of God, either preach Christ
or do not preach at all. Do not talk about preaching the
gospel. Preach the gospel. Paul said necessity was laid
upon him not to preach alone, not just to preach, but to preach
the gospel. Yeah, he said, woe is me if I
preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Why? The call itself. Paul said,
for Christ sent me. I mentioned that to you a moment
ago. For Christ sent me. Does that carry any weight with
you? Does it carry any weight with you? That you have been
sent to be an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ? That you're
bearing His message? You're not in a position to fashion
a message? that you want to proclaim? No,
you're under bond, my friend. You're under bond. There's a
gospel to preach, and that gospel must be preached. Why this call? Oh, Paul considered himself to
be a slave of Jesus Christ. And my friend, he would not go
out and pick and choose something to say to men, to gain favor
with men. No. My friend, listen, you cannot
withhold yourself from preaching the gospel if He sent you to
do it. You must preach the gospel. Listen to me, we don't need preachers
that may or might or will But must preach. That's what we need. We need preachers that must preach
the gospel. And church members alike, not
that may or might or will, but must live the gospel in their
lives. Well, let's get back. Christ
crucified is the message which God owns. Are you ashamed of
Jesus? Are you ashamed to just preach
Him and make Him the subject of your conversation wherever
you find yourself? There's an old poem that says,
Jesus, and shall it ever be a mortal man ashamed of thee? Ashamed
of thee whom angels praise, whose glory shine through endless days. Ashamed of Jesus sooner far,
let evening blush to own a star. He sheds the beams of light divine
for this benighted soul of mine. So my friend, we're not to be
ashamed. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me say some things here
that I believe very important. You listen carefully. Christ
crucified, I want to say, is the power of God unto salvation.
It's the power of God unto salvation. You look at 1 Corinthians 1 here
in verse 24, chapter 1 verse 24, but unto them which are called.
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Christ is God's power. Christ
is God's wisdom. Paul said in Romans 1, in verse
16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. for it is the power of God unto
salvation, unto every one that believeth, unto the Jew first,
and also unto the Greek. The gospel, Christ crucified,
is the power of God. Oh, my friend, I believe that
if there ever is a revival, if there ever is anyone ever saved
again in this place, it'll be because the message of Christ
crucified goes out. Christ crucified is the object
of faith. Look at 1st Corinthians 2 and
verse 5. That's your faith. Paul says,
I determined not to know anything. Made a deliberate decision. Preach Christ and Him crucified
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men. but in
the power of God. Christ is the power of God. He told us that in verse 24 of
chapter 1. And so my friend, Christ crucified
is the object of faith. And so believe on a Christ lifted
up. Believe on a Christ on the cross. Believe on a Christ dying. Christ
suffering, suffering the agony of the Father's
wrath on Calvary's cross. Christ crucified also, I think,
is the source of the child of God's comfort. Oh, is it not
comforting to your heart to know that somebody died the death
of the cross for you? That somebody had to suffer in
order that you would be spared eternal judgment and eternal
wrath. Isn't it comforting to know that
when you lay your head down on the pillow at night, oh, isn't
it comforting to know that your sin is that God is satisfied
with you, that He's not angry with you, that the war is over,
that the sin has been put away that stood between you and a
holy God, that all that you did in your lifetime to aggravate
God that it's all been settled, it's all been put away. I'm telling
you, Christ crucified is the source of the believer's comfort. If you find no comfort in Him,
you simply do not know Him. You don't know Him. You don't
understand anything about what this is all about. If you're
not comforted by believing on Christ crucified. Christ crucified
is the motive for all true Christian service. If you need any other
a motive that I don't think you're a Christian. Christ crucified
is the motive. Why would a man sail out and
go across the waters to a foreign country to be a missionary? Why
would he do it? Well, he does it because God
was in Christ reconciling him unto himself. not imputing his
trespasses unto him. He was reconciled to God by the
death of Christ. And he owes God. He feels he
owes God. He don't owe the justice of God
one red cent. But he feels he owes God his
life. He must lay down his life. He
must serve the Lord. He must do what God would have
him to do. He cannot do otherwise. He owes
a debt of love. Mike read it this morning. that
if He died for all, and He died for His people, He died for His
people. He did not die for every son
of Adam. He died for His people, His sheep. He laid down His life
for His sheep. And if He did that, we henceforth
should not live any longer to ourselves, but unto Him who died
and rose again. We're to live unto Him. And this
is the motive for Christian service. It's not in order to keep you
out of hell. No, no, no. We don't serve God
to stay out of hell. We serve God because of what
He's done for us. Because He sent His Son. Because
His Son willingly came. And because we couldn't have
been saved any other way except God sending His Son to die for
us in our room instead of place. Now then, Christ crucified gives
life then to dead sinners. Christ is the life-giving Spirit. He has life in himself. You know
this man, Jesus Christ, it was necessary that he have something
to give. It was necessary that he have
something to give. God didn't send somebody down here, an old
bankrupt person like me and you, going out here trying to represent
his people. The Lord Jesus came down and
he came right out of heaven. Came right out of heaven. He
was God and he came out of heaven. And he was rich, but he laid
aside his riches. He became poor that we through
his poverty might be rich. But he had, he had life is what
he had. He had spiritual life. Scripture
says Christ who is our life, who is our life. We're dead apart
from Christ. We don't have any spiritual life
apart from Him. He gives life to dead sinners. You ever feel any life in you?
You ever feel any? Ah, it's wonderful isn't it?
To have some life. and to know that, oh, I'm not
talking about just the kind that we got in this flesh, but I'm
talking about spiritual life. I'm talking about the kind of
life that makes you sing and the kind of life that makes you
praise the Lord. The kind of life that makes you
want to shout sometimes the glory of Emmanuel and tell out the
beauties of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the kind of life that
Christ crucified gives to dead sinners. He had something. He
had life. and he came down here and he
died. Christ crucified is the food
for the believer's soul. Somebody was talking the other
day about people being cannibalistic. And he said, well, there's surely
nobody still eating folks nowadays. And the fellow said, well, he
whispered in the other fellow's ear and said there's some Christians
that supposedly have eaten the body of Christ and drank in his
blood every week. Every week. every weekend. And
I thought to myself, now that's right. But at the same time,
fella didn't know a thing on earth about what he's talking
about. That's a spiritual eating. Believers, Jesus said, my body
is bread indeed and my blood is drink indeed. And we do eat
the body and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. By faith. And we eat the body
and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ when we take the
elements of the Lord's Supper. But we do not believe what the
Roman Catholics believe when they say that this is by a priestly
act turned into the actual body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't believe any such thing.
It's a type of it. It's a symbol. It's a type of
it. It represents the blood and flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. But my friend, It's food for
the soul. Christ crucified, food for the
soul. You can just, ah, my friend,
it'll meet your need. It'll meet your spiritual need.
Somebody said, well, I just think I need to hear a sermon on something
else. Well, you just haven't got a hold of this yet. You wait
until you get a hold of Christ crucified. When you really get
a hold of it, you'll find that it'll satisfy every facet of
your soul. It will satisfy you to the foundation. Christ crucified revives, it
refreshes, and it rejoices the hearts of God's elect. Christ
crucified is the cure for a man's care and the sure remedy for
a man's ruin. Are you here this morning saying,
I just wish I could get another start on life? I just wish that
somewhere or another I could just start over again. My friend,
you're in a state of ruin. Every man is ruined by nature.
And if you want to have a fresh start, Christ crucified. Believe
on Him. He's the sure cure for a man's
ruin. Paul said, I'm determined not
to be moved from this blessed employment. I'm going to preach
Christ and Him crucified as long as I live. And that's the way
I feel about it. However many more days I've got,
however many more months I've got, years I've got, whether
I have few or many, that's the message. Christ and Him crucified. Now then, to preach Christ crucified,
it is not merely to state that He was nailed to a tree, that
He died, that He was taken down, that He was laid in a barred
tomb, and that's the end of the message. Church dismissed. Go
home. That's not all it's about. If we preach Christ and Him crucified,
we will, number one, preach the attributes and the character
of the God who gave birth to the cross. And you brethren remember
this. You remember this. You must preach
the attributes and the character of the God who gave birth to
the cross. We do not leave the cross when
we go back before the foundation of the world, because you know
Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,
and you know that. And we take that cross up there
and the purpose and plan of God, and we see in that cross all
the attributes of God who determined to save sinners. We see His eternal
power. We see His wisdom. We see His
holiness. We see His mercy. We see His
love. We see His justice. We see His
righteousness at the cross. His sovereignty, will, and it
must be preached. His eternal covenant, that covenant
which He made with our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ, which
He made before the foundation of the world, back yonder in
the council halls of God, He made a covenant with the Father,
the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, His eternal purpose,
His eternal will. Think a little bit about that,
His eternal purpose. Oh, God purposed in Christ to
affect me. Years and years and years later,
He said, I'm going to affect that fellow. God known unto him
all of his works from the beginning of the world. Do you think he
knows the name of his sheep that are being called out today? He
calls them by name. He knows his sheep. He knows
them. Are you ashamed to tell somebody
God knows his sheep? He knows them by name. Are you
ashamed to tell them that? Well, he called me by name. There
was a time when he called me, and he called me by name. I'm
talking about his eternal purpose. I'm talking about His eternal
will. God has a will, my friend. He has a will. And the scripture
teaches plainly that this will is a sovereign will. It's a perfect
will. It's a will which God Himself
is entitled to see executed. It's His will. Are you against
God having His way? Only perfect being in all the
creation? Only perfect being in the universe?
Are you against God having His will? No, my friend. Oh, away
with this idea of man's will. Oh, we better not transgress
against man's will. We better not say too much about
man's will. Well, I'm telling you, man's
will is in bondage. And I'm telling you that man's
will will never resolve, it'll never choose salvation. His will
won't do it, but God's will, it'll choose salvation. God's
will is that he will save all those that were in the eternal
covenant, names written down in the book of life, given to
Christ as a love gift. God said, I'll save them everyone,
that's my will. My will is, I'll save them all. Well, when we preach Christ and
Him crucified, we preach God's Action in the cross turn to Acts
if you will chapter 4 and look at these verses with me Acts
chapter 4 I want to read verse 27 and verse 28 For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed Look
at this both Herod Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel they were gathered together against Jesus they were
gathered together. Herod, Pontius Pilate, Gentiles,
people of Israel, they were gathered together against Jesus. But what were they going to do?
What were they going to do? Verse 28, For to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel, get that straight, thy hand and thy
counsel determined before to be done. That's what they did.
I'm telling you in Christ crucified we've got to preach the character
of the God who gave birth to the cross that is a sovereign
and he delivered up the Lord Jesus Christ and he was delivered
by the determined counsel of God he was slain by the hands
of wicked men that verse is found over here just turn back here
just to a page here and we read I think it's the second chapter
of the book of Acts. The second chapter of the book
of Acts, verse 23, says, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. But you take note that he was
delivered into their hands by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of God. That's how he got there. If it
hadn't have been for God giving birth to the cross, then my friend,
he would have never been delivered up. He would have never got fell
and fallen into the hands of these wicked men. So you cannot
preach the cross of Christ without preaching the sovereignty of
God. Because his death was not an
accident. Now after reading these verses,
is there anyone of my audience this morning that believes that
the death of Christ was an accident? Surely there isn't anyone here
that believes that His death was an accident. His death was
what we would say ordained. It was ordained. Oh, if you don't
mind the word, it was predestinated and it was planned His death
was purposed. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. By the hands of wicked men
was taken and slain. But it was planned. It was predetermined. Predestinated. Well, thirdly,
we preach who He was. His death would have meant no
more than the death of any other man. I mentioned how Paul believed
that He was God. That He was God. But I'm going
to tell you that his death, and I must tell you this, that it
would not have been any more than the death of any other man
if he had not been the eternal Son of God. If he had not been
the eternal Son of God, his death would have meant nothing. It
would have meant nothing. I'm going to tell you the purpose
of Christ, the person of Jesus Christ gave worth to his work
of redemption. It was who he was. Who he was. The value of his life and the
merits of his death are dependent entirely upon what kind of a
person this is. What kind of a person he was. None but God could intervene
on our behalf and save us. None but God. Only one equal
with the Father could work out a righteousness acceptable to
the Father and lay down his life as a ransom for His people, only
one equal to God. If Christ is not God, He cannot
be the Savior, for His death would have been worthless. Jesus,
whom I know as my Redeemer, cannot be less than God. Is that right? Do you agree with that? My friend,
it's the truth. And so when you're preaching
Christ crucified, you've got to tell the folks who this man
was. who this man Jesus Christ was
and is and always shall be, perfectly God. He's the great I Am. He
said, I and my Father in John 10 30 are one. So when you're
preaching Christ crucified, tell them who this is, who's hanging
on a tree. Tell them who this is, that's
been delivered up. Tell them that he's God. And
that because he was God, he could save a sinner. If we preach Christ
and Him crucified, we preach the electing, unchangeable, eternal,
conquering love of Jehovah God to the sheep He determined to
save. That's right. John 10 talks about how Jesus
laid down His life for the sheep. He said, Other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. There should be
one fold and one shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep
for the sheep. You got to tell people that God
knew what He was doing when He started this thing and He knows
what He's doing today. And everybody that He saves,
He saves them on purpose. He meant to do it. He meant to
do it. He's a sovereign Savior. Christ
Jesus died not at random, not as an example. He died as a substitute
of sin offering. Matthew 1 and 21 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin.
If we preach Christ and Him crucified, we preach that one to be saved
must believe on Him. Must believe on Him. Paul talked
about faith. Faith. Not standing in the wisdom
of men's words, but in the power of God. Faith. Faith. Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of
Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved. He that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. I boldly assert that no man,
listen, you must believe on a Christ lifted up. A Christ crucified
on a pole. You must believe. Listen, I boldly
assert that no man can be saved by believing in the virgin birth.
Somebody says, well I believe in the virgin birth. Well, I tell you, it's a faith in a
Christ lifted up that saves. If any, listen, if we preach
him any other way but on a cross no one will be saved by our message
if we stop short of him hanging on a tree in agony and blood
we missed it we got to preach him suffering and dying satisfying
the justice of God we got to preach him on a tree hanging
on a tree got to do it and stopping short of that bring no salvation
you must believe somebody said well I don't have any trouble
believing Jesus is a good man I don't have any trouble but
this business of this atonement this blood business I don't want
anything to do with this blood business bloody religion my friend
you're going to hell you'll never be saved until you believe in
a Christ lifted up I make no apologies for saying it he was
lifted up on a tree He was nailed and the Jews said, why we're
not going to believe in him. Carson is everyone that winds
up on a tree. We'll not believe on him. But
he was a stumbling block to them. He was. He was. And Jews, or
them Gentiles said, we will not listen to that foolishness. This
is an ignorant man right here preaching to you. Telling you
that you got to believe in a man hanging on a tree. Why? He's an ignorant man. And he
went to hell too. I'm here to tell you today you
must believe in a Christ lifted up, lifted up between heaven
and earth. Christ nailed to that tree. If
we preach Christ and Him crucified, then my friend, then we give
men, women, boys and girls one in which they can believe. God's
gonna honor, He will honor faith because He's the author of it
and He will bring salvation. Let me go on. I'm going to take
my time here. I'm about done. If we preach
Christ and Him crucified, we preach the preservation and perseverance
of the saints. We do. Now I'm just trying to
help you, brother, and do some preaching. Just trying to give
you a little fodder here to put in your gun. A little bit of
something to say when you get up talking to these people around. We must preach the preservation
and perseverance of the saints of God. Brother, sister, how
can we ever comprehend all that took place on Calvary? Well,
we can't. Well, just think with me a little bit. Go back into
eternity. Go back there where God purposed,
where He planned to send His Son into the world. And He pointed
to Him, did He not? In prophecy, in picture, in type,
and in pattern throughout the Word of God. He went to the cross,
and there the forces of hell converged on Him. the wrath of men and of God was
poured out on our Savior, the altogether lovely one, the Lord
Jesus. He drank the very bitter dregs of the cup of divine wrath
and indignation, crying as he died, My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Now all this is over, and Christ
is there in glory, seated at the right hand of God, you know.
And he begins to look for his sheep, and there's a vacant chair
there, and there's another, and another, and where is his sheep? The question goes out. Well,
they fell away. They perished. They didn't make
it. You mean after all this? You
mean after all this, the suffering, and the agony, the sweat, and
the bloody, bloody cross, after all of this, they fell away? Well, I beg your pardon, my friend.
I beg your pardon. No, the sheep will be found there.
There will be no vacant chairs. There will be no vacant places.
Isaiah chapter 53 in verse 10 says, He shall see of his seed. He shall see of his seed. And
in verse 11 it says, He shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. By the knowledge of him shall
my righteous servant justify many. And in Isaiah 42 and 4
it says, He will not fail or be discouraged. When you preach
Christ and Him crucified, you must spell out what all this
means. Will there be one empty place
in heaven? The songwriter said, No, not one. No, not one. Will one be missing whom God
has chosen? No, not one. No, not one. There's not a sheep that shall
err amiss heaven. No, not one. No, not one. Not one to Christ the Good Shepherd
given. No, not one. No, not one. So my friend, we preach a redemption
that redeems. Is that alright? A redemption
that redeems. A ransom that ransoms. A salvation
that saves. We preach Christ crucified. Oh, what a message you brethren
have to preach. And some of you have got a long time, to preach
it. Be wonderful if you just use
your strength, if God gives you the strength and the grace and
give you a tongue loose on both ends so you can do it. God bless
you. I'll tell you this, that when
it comes to die, this is going to be a soft pillow for a weary
head when the journey is over. Christ crucified. In the end,
you know, it comes down to this. Jesus died for me. Jesus died
for me. That's what's going to come down
to when it's over, when you know it. If it happens suddenly during
the night, or if you lay on a languishing bed, that's what's going to come
down to. Jesus died in my place. He died
in my stead. That's going to be what you're
going to plan. Strap yourself to that plank and set sail on
the sea of eternity. Jesus died for me. The knowledge
of this world, all of it, wisdom, riches, influence, popularity,
they give you no peace then. Cannot get you past the graveyard
of the judgment. Cannot give you an entrance into
God's kingdom. But if your heart, mind, and
soul is filled, not with all the Bible knowledge you've accumulated
through the years, but if your heart, mind, and soul is filled
with Christ, who is the essence of all Bible knowledge, who is
the essence of all spirituality, If it's filled with the appreciation
for and the understanding of Christ and Him crucified, your
head will lie softly on the pillow, because that's the hope, the
confidence, the faith, the expectation of believing sinners, Christ
and Him crucified. I'm determined not to be sidetracked.
I know folks may not understand, but I'm going to know Christ
and Him crucified among you and among whomever. And especially,
I want to know it in here. I want to know it in my heart.
What will you have when the end comes if you don't have Christ
and Him crucified? What do you want to have? What
will you have? Well, let me make it very simply,
very plainly, you'll have nothing. Nothing. There's nothing that
a poor sinner that will give him any comfort in the hour of
his death. Nothing. Nothing. Without God,
without hope. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Add it up. Where do you stand? Nothing. Praise the Lord. Christ has been crucified. Praise
the Lord. Glory to His name. Praise Him. Praise Him. Father, in the name
of Jesus, own the message and use it, our Father. You said
that you would bless You have blessed the message of Christ
being crucified. Oh, only today may somebody be
saved here. May they have already been saved
here in this meeting. May you get the glory and the
honor. And may you, our Father, use
this message to instruct and to build up and encourage the
saints of God and these brethren who are attempting to preach
the gospel. Lord be with them. Bless them.
and encourage them, Lord, and give them a remembrance of your
word and your truth. Pray it in Jesus' name, for his
sake, amen.