In the passage of scripture that
I just read, the Lord takes it as a given that his disciples
will be arrested for their preaching and brought before powers and
magistrates and be called on to give an account for what they
had to say. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Matthew chapter 10 and look at Matthew's more expanded
version of this passage of scripture? Beginning in verse 17. But beware
of men This is when he was sending out
his disciples. He says, beware of men for they
will deliver you to the councils and they will scourge you, beat
you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them
and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up,
take no thought how or what you shall speak. For it shall be
given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it's not
you that speak, but the spirit of your father which speaketh
in you. And the brother shall deliver
up the brother to death, and the father the child. And the
children shall rise up against their parents and cause them
to be put to death. And you shall be hated. of all men for my name's sake,
but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they
persecute you in this city, flee ye again to another, for verily
I say unto you, you shall not gone over the cities of Israel
till the Son of Man be come. The disciples not above his master,
nor the servant above his Lord. It's enough for the disciple
that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they've
called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall
they call them of his household? Fear them not, therefore, for
there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid
that shall not be known. Look down in verse 34 of this
same chapter. The Lord says, think not that
I'm come to send peace on earth. Have everybody get along, one
big happy family. I came not to send peace, but
a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of
his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. Turn to John chapter 15. I repeat, the Lord takes it as
a given. When his gospel is preached,
trouble will be with it. People will be offended. People
will be upset. even members of families will
grow against each other in this thing of the gospel. Look in
John chapter 15, beginning in verse 16, he says, you have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain,
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it to you. Now these things I command you
that you love one another if the world hate you. You know that it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they've
persecuted me, they'll also persecute you. If they've kept my saying,
they'll keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that
sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, then had they had no sin. But now have they both seen and
hated, both me and my father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they
hated me. without a cause. Now Paul said that wherever he
went to preach, he said bonds and afflictions abide me. Paul knew that when he went into
a town, after he was finished preaching, he was going to get
tied up to a post and they were either going to beat him or throw
him in jail. And he said none of these things
move me. Now, I repeat, the Lord takes
it as a given that we will be persecuted in the preaching of
the gospel. This is even included in the
Beatitudes when the Lord describes what a believer is. Turn with
me to Matthew chapter 5. This is the last Beatitude. Now this is what the Bible says.
This is not somebody with a martyr complex. This is not someone
trying to stir up trouble, stir up. No, this is what the Bible
says. This is what the word of God
says. Look what the Lord says in verse 10 of Matthew chapter five. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake. Now, before I go on, remember
whose righteousness he's talking about. He's not talking about
human righteousness. If you preach human righteousness,
everybody's going to be all for you. They'll put you in the paper.
They'll talk about all the good things you've done. He's not
talking about human righteousness. He's talking about the only righteousness
there is, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our personal righteousness
before God. And we maintain His righteousness
is the only righteousness there is. Do you believe that? Now,
blessed are you. that are persecuted for righteousness
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you. God's
blessing is upon you when men shall revile you and persecute
you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad
for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Now, if men are not offended,
and angered over our preaching, we are not preaching the gospel
of the scriptures. We're preaching a gospel man
can accept, but not a gospel that God will accept. You see,
God's gospel is offensive. to the natural man, and the Lord
takes it as a given in these passages of Scripture. You preach
the gospel, you will be persecuted. Men will have no love for your
message. Now, I have entitled this message,
Why Men Hate the Cross. Why men hate the cross. Now, I'm not talking about the
cross that's used for jewelry and tattoos and plappered all
over religious buildings. I'm not talking about that cross
at all. As a matter of fact, men like
that cross. But let me say this. If you look
the word cross up in the Greek dictionary, it wasn't this. It's
a pole. Christ was nailed to a tree.
He was stretched out with his hands over him. It's a pull.
They wouldn't have taken their time to put a cross together. That would have made it easier.
This is more painful if you're stretched out that way. Now,
this is not talking about the religious symbolism of the cross.
Men love that, but what the cross actually declares, men hate Christ. Men hate God, and men hate His
way of saving sinners. Now, men don't hate the false
notions they have of God and Christ and salvation. Men feel
quite comfortable with the God that they have some measure of
control over. Nobody's afraid of that God. Now, if I've got
a God that I can control, that if I decide I can let Him save
me, He'll save me, but if I hold him off, he'll be held off. Nobody's
afraid of that God because that God you have some kind of control
over, a measure of control. But the God who has absolute
control and you're in His hand and He can do with you whatever
He's pleased to do, that God men do not love. But that is
the God of the Bible. Now, men, I ask the question,
why do men hate the cross? It's not the cross material cross
they hate, but what the cross tells us of who God is. You see,
all that God is, is seen in Jesus Christ being nailed to that cross.
Every attribute, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His absolute
justice, His absolute sovereignty. If you were going to take one
word to describe God, well Christ, I suppose, would be the first
word you'd choose, but you know what the second word would be?
The cross. The cross is the whole counsel
of God. Now, my question is why? And you know, I could give a
lot of reasons why it would be fine and good, but you know what
I want to do? I want to go to the place in the Bible where
the first man was murdered because of his belief. And there we can
find out why men hate the cross. We're going to look at the story
of Cain and Abel. Now, remember, the Lord takes
it as a given. You're going to be persecuted.
You're going to be cast out. You're going to have all kinds
of accusations hurled against you. Now, why? That question is answered in
the story of Cain and Abel. Now, in this story, most of you
are familiar with it, we have the two representative men. Turn
with me to Genesis chapter 4. And let me say this, I'm going
to be describing me and you. I'm going to be giving a very
accurate description of me and you. Me and you are represented
by one of these two men, Cain and Abel. And these two men,
with their two different sacrifices, are representative of the two
religions, grace and works. Now, there are only two religions,
grace and works. man's sacrifice that he provides
or God's sacrifice that he provides. There are only two religions. Now in Genesis chapter 4, look
at verse 8. And Cain talked with Abel his
brother. Now that does not mean they were
having a dialogue and that they were having a discussion and
talking about different points. It's actually they were arguing.
They were arguing. That's what the word means. It
carries with it the idea of challenge and speaking against. Now, during
this discussion, and Cain and Abel, and Cain talked with Abel,
his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that
Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and he slew him. He
murdered him. He became so angry at what his
brother was saying, he felt a need to put him to death. What was
the issue? And if we can find the answer,
we'll know the answer to the question that this sermon is
entitled by. Why do men hate the cross? Now, in the previous
chapter, We have the story of the fall. And most men never
really hear about what took place in the Garden of Eden. They think
of Eve, this beautiful woman or a beautiful husband. They
see this lovely apple or orange or whatever, I guess whatever
kind of where you're from, the native fruit there. They think
that's the fruit. but she was hungry, and she sees this beautiful
apple, this beautiful red apple, and she was hungry, and she was
just tempted, and she was just overwhelmed by it, and she said,
I gotta have it, and she took it, and ate it, and there we
have the fall. Now, is that what took place?
No. No. There's a whole lot more
involved in the fall than that. Now look in Genesis chapter 2,
verse 15. And the Lord God took the man,
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it." I think it's very interesting that work was before the fall.
Work's a good thing. It was before the fall. And the
Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree, of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Now here's the command.
Don't eat it. And here's the fact. When you
do, this is what's going to take place. He didn't say if you eat
of the fruit. He said in the day you do. you
shall surely die. Now here's the point. Could God
have prevented Adam and Eve from falling? Of course He could. He's God. Is anything too hard
for the Lord? But He didn't. And He has wise,
glorious, and holy purposes in the fall. Now, remember, if Adam
would have never fallen, What would we ever know of the forgiveness
of sins? What would we ever know of the
freeness of God's grace? What would we ever know of the
love of God? You see, God does what he does
to manifest who he is. Chapter 3. Let's look at the last verse
of Chapter 2. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed. The reason being, they
had unfallen natures. They had innocent natures. If
they would see someone naked, they would not have one sinful
thought, wouldn't even enter in. They had innocent natures. And to me, I think it's important
that we bring out that they didn't have holy natures. You see, holiness
cannot sin. They sinned. They had innocent
natures. The wise men said, Lo, this I
know that God hath made man upright. That's how animals were made.
But man sought out many inventions. Now, they were both naked and
they were not ashamed. They had no sinful disposition. Now let's go and read it. Chapter
3, verse 1. Now, the serpent was more subtle, deceitful, brilliant,
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, yea, hath God said you shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? Now here's his first point of
attack. He changes what God said. God said you can eat of every
tree but one. And he said, did God say you
can't eat of any of these trees? And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch
it, lest ye die. Now, I don't remember reading
where God said not to touch it. I think any time you add something
to God's Word, you're in trouble. I think this is where that touch
not, taste not, handle not mentality came from. Eve said, the fall
had already begun, really. I mean, it had already begun
when she didn't believe precisely what God said, and she makes
this addition. Verse four, and the serpent said
unto the woman, you shall not surely die. Now, that's a bold-faced
lie. You shall not surely die. For
God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil."
Now, this tree is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And right now, all you are is a robot. You're just doing what
you've been created to do. You're upright. There's no moral
virtue in your innocence because you're not making any choices.
You're just being good because it's your nature. But this is
what will make you like God, when you know both good and evil. and you choose the good over
the evil. That is what will make you like
God. You'll have a free will. Right
now, you don't have a free will. You're just obeying your nature.
But if you make this choice, you're going to have a free will,
and that's going to make you just like God. And there's going
to be moral virtue to your goodness then, because you're choosing
to be. That's what's going to make you like God. You know,
that sounds good, doesn't it? It sounds good. And Eve said,
yeah, that sounds good. Verse six. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, the lust of the flesh,
and that it was pleasant to the eyes, the lust of the eyes, and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, the pride of life. She took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also, and her husband with her, and he
did eat, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew
they were naked. Now they were naked before this
took place, but it wasn't an issue. Now it is an issue. They now have these fallen natures. Now you remember, God said in
the day you eat thereof, you'll surely die. Well, they didn't
die physically. We know that. They're still acting,
but they died spiritually. And that was seen in their understanding
of their nakedness. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. The first thing they did, was
make a covering for their nakedness. Salvation by works, providing
your own covering. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. There was a time when they relished
his presence, but no more. No more. Wherever God is, they
don't want to be. They hid themselves from the
presence of God. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, Now,
we don't read where he asked for forgiveness. Oh, I'm messed
up. I shouldn't have done this. Would you please forgive me?
I'm sorry. No, he ran from God's presence. And when God confronts him with
what he's done, he actually blames God. He couldn't take personal
responsibility for what he did. Men have been doing that ever
since then. And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to
be with me, she gave me of the tree. And I did eat. And if you would have never given
me this woman, it would have never taken place. It's really your
fault. And he said the same. And the
Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me. It's his fault.
He deceived me. And I did eat. We have the promise of the gospel
right after that, though, verses 14 and 15. And the Lord God said
unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, above every beast of the field. Upon thy
belly thou shalt go, and the dust shalt thou eat all the days
of the life. And I put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head,
the seed of woman, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who that is, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not the seed of Adam. He's
the seed of woman. He'll bruise, crush your head
and you'll bruise his heel. That's a reference to the cross.
Now look what happened in verse 21 of this chapter. Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. Now this is the first death.
Have you ever watched even an animal die? It's alive, and all
of a sudden, it's dead. Now, Adam and Eve had never seen
anything like this, and they saw the Lord take that, have
no doubt it was a lamb, and slay it, and cover them with its skins,
prefiguring the gospel. Salvation through the lamb. Now I have no doubt that Adam
taught both of these boys. Now look, let's start in chapter
four. And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bear
came and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. And I don't have
any doubt that she meant I've gotten the man. The woman Seath
is going to come and bruise the serpent's head. She was very
excited about this. I've gotten this man from the Lord. And she
again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time,
it came to pass. Now, let me remind you both of
the Adam and Eve were born innocent. These boys weren't. They were
born evil. They were born dead in trespasses
and sins. That's the way they were born. In the process of time, it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord." Now, I don't have any doubt that God taught
these boys that the only way God could be approached is through
the sacrifice of the coming Lamb of God. This wasn't just a religious
ritual and meaningless to do. He taught these boys, God is
holy. We're sinful. God's justice must
be satisfied. We can't approach God on our
own. We can only approach God through the sacrifice of the
coming Lamb of God. And Cain knew this, but he thought
Does it make any difference what kind of sacrifice you bring?
I mean, as long as I'm sincere, as long as I do my best, and
I'm bringing this fruit to the ground, I've done my best, I
mean, it's just as good. I mean, God looks at the heart,
my heart's right, I'm not gonna be legalistic about this thing.
I mean, it doesn't make that much difference what you bring.
I'm gonna bring the fruit of the ground, and I believe God
will accept that. Verse four, and Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof. Cain brought a bloodless sacrifice. As Scott Richardson said, he
was a turnip farmer. You can't squeeze blood out of
a turnip. He didn't bring a blood sacrifice, but a bloodless sacrifice.
And he demonstrated by that what he really thought about God and
what he really thought about himself. I mean, it just revealed
how he had no regard to God's character and his justice being
vindicated. He thought, I can just come.
He thought he was good enough to do it. Here's my best. I'd
accept it. Surely God would too. He thought
God was just like he was. And here he comes. but not Abel. Abel brings what he knew he had
to bring, a bloody sacrifice that typified the coming Son
of God. He knew what he was doing because
the scripture says in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 11
verse 4, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying
of his gifts, and he being dead, yet speaketh. And he's speaking
us tonight. By faith he offered unto God
this more excellent sacrifice. He was looking to the coming
Lamb of God. And you know what it says? Look
in the last sentence of verse 4. And the Lord had respect. unto Abel and to his offering."
Now, I can't think of anything more glorious than the God of
glory having respect to something. He had respect to Abel. Not just Abel's offering, but
Abel and his offering. You see, Abel could not be separated
from his offering. Would you ever want to be separated
from Christ crucified? Would you ever want to be viewed
in any way other than in the Lamb? Now, if you're in Christ,
God respects you. He doesn't just tolerate you.
He respects you and esteems you very highly. Now that is the
power of the blood of Christ. God had respect to Abel and to
his offering. Verse 5, And you know why he
had respect. Yeah, I do need to say that.
He had respect because of Christ and His offering. Because of
Christ and His blood. It didn't have anything to do
with this physical Lamb and Abel. It was all because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He's always been the Lamb slain
in the Father's eye. But He had to come in time and
this was prefiguring Him coming in time. God had respect. to
Abel and to his offering. Verse 5, But unto Cain and to
his offering he had not respect. Now, I guess one of the most painful
things there is, is to not be respected. We want people to respect us,
don't we? God had no respect to Cain and
to his offering. He disregarded it. It did not
meet his approval in any way. He had no respect. You see, there's
a reason he had no respect. He was showing his disrespect
for God. For one thing, he was offering something God never
commanded. He never told him to bring the fruit of the ground.
And number two, he was showing great presumption in doing this.
He was saying, I'm holy enough to come into God's presence.
This is what Cain was saying, and he could accept what I could.
Abel said, there's no way God can accept me apart from the
coming Lamb of God. That's exactly what he was saying.
And God had no respect to Cain and his offering, and Cain was
offended by this. Scripture says he was very wroth,
and his countenance fell. You could see it in his face.
He didn't like what was going on. He thought, this is not fair. That's exactly what he thought.
This is not fair. I've worked hard, I've presented
my best, and God gave no respect to what I did. None, not a drop.
He respects Abel and his offering. This is not fair. God is making
a difference. And once again, he was demonstrating
complete ignorance of the holiness of God and his own sinfulness. And all of a sudden, he becomes
God's judge. He's setting judgment on God. This is not right what
you're doing. He was mad. His countenance was
false. It's not right for you to accept Abel and to have respect
for him and just disregard me. It's not right. You're making
a difference. You're showing favoritism. God's being a respecter
of persons. He's showing favoritism to Abel
and not me. He became God's judge. Verse
six. Now look at the Lord's reply to him. And the Lord said unto Cain,
Why art thou wrath? And why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou do'st well, and bring the sacrifice, in obedience to
what I said. Shall that not be accepted? If
Cain would have brought the right sacrifice, he would have been
accepted, but he didn't. And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou
shalt rule over him." Here's the bottom line. You bring the
right sacrifice. You come pleading Christ. Now,
I'm saying this to everybody here. Listen real carefully.
You don't need to worry. I promise you. You don't need
to worry and try to figure out whether or not you're one of
the elect or if Christ died for you. You don't need to worry
about that. You come pleading Christ only and you will be received. You will. You come pleading nothing
but the blood of Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You come pleading His sacrifice,
not what you do, not what you intend to do, Can you get any
comfort from the sacrifice? I think of what Isaac said to
Abraham, here's the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb for
a burnt offering? God said, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. You can't provide anything that
God would accept, but God provides what God accepts. He provided
for Himself. For Him to do something for me
or you, He first had to do something for Himself. And He provided
Himself as the Lamb for the burnt offering. Do you find comfort
in that? What about when God said, When
I see the blood, I will pass over you. He didn't say, when
I see your faith. He didn't say, when I see your
intentions. He didn't say, when I see your reformation. He didn't
say, when I see your good works. He didn't say, when I see your
efforts. He said, when I see what? The blood. What's the only thing the Lord
was looking for? The blood. When I see the blood,
I will pass over you." Well, they had a discussion after
this, verse 8. And Cain talked with Abel his
brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain
rose up against Abel his brother and he slew him. And what do
you reckon they were talking about? There was only one thing
they were talking about. sacrifices. That is the issue. The sacrifice. Cain was upset
because God accepted Abel's sacrifice and he didn't accept his. I'm sure Abel attempted to tell
his angry brother why God had respect to him and not to Cain.
It's not something personal in me. I'm not better than you.
It has wholly to do with the sacrifice. And Cain, all he could
see was unfairness and favoritism. But this offering of the fruit
of the ground was an insult to God. It was a denial of God's
holiness. And it was a bringing yourself
up on some kind of good level of works that God could deny
that God could accept. And all it was was an offense
to God. Now Abel's offering was a declaration
of the cross. The cross of Christ. Tells me. That God is holy. and that I'm
completely sinful, and the only way I can be brought into his
presence is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abel
said, the only way I am saved is not by my works, they're no
good, and neither are yours. I can only be saved by him who
is to come for me and shed his precious blood for me. That's
the only hope I had. And Abel said, blood, I'll show
you blood. And he rose up and he slew him. Now why do men hate
the cross? I can bring it down to this one
statement. Men hate the cross because it
takes away what they're hoping. That's the bottom line. Men hate
the cross because they find hope somewhere else, and the cross
of Christ says your hope is no good. And that's when men get
upset. Now, if you tell them as long
as you're, you might not believe this, but you might still be
saved. You know, I'm okay, you're okay. Yeah, but nobody's gonna
get too upset by that. But when you preach the cross,
what he actually accomplished. Turn over to Romans 8. Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? What could possibly
prevent God from giving his great grace to you if Christ died for
you? There's nothing that can prevent
him. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. That's the only answer I need.
That's the only answer I need. You can bring up all kinds of
accusations. The devil can bring up all kinds of accusations.
True. But there's only one answer I
need. It's Christ that died. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Now that's the issue of the cross.
The reason men hate the cross, now if you preach the cross in
such a way, you say, well Jesus Christ died for you, and He's
made salvation possible for you, and He's made His blood available
for you, and all you gotta do is accept it, and then it'll
come to you, but if you reject it, that's not the preaching
of the cross. That's the preaching of another
gospel. There's no gospel in that message. But the message
of the cross, Christ succeeded in what he did. When he said it is finished,
all my hope is right there. That when he said it is finished,
it was indeed finished. And I don't need anything else
to make me perfect before God. Now that is the message and the
preaching of the cross. Now somebody who finds hope somewhere
else, they're going to hate that message. But I'll tell you who
loves this message. Everybody who has no other hope
but this. Every single one of them will
love the message of the cross. Now may the Lord, I don't want
us I certainly don't want to be looking for a fight, looking
to be argumentative, and being worried that if people don't
get mad at me, I'm not preaching the gospel. I don't want to try
to look for something to make people mad. May the Lord deliver
us from ever making people mad because we're acting like jerks
and trying to shove stuff down your throat. I don't want to
do that. But I do want to do this. I want to preach the gospel
of God in such a way that if somebody doesn't believe it,
they'll hate me for what I've said because I preach the gospel
so clearly that they've seen what I've said. Now we want that,
don't we? We want to be faithful witnesses
of our Redeemer. Why men hate the cross? Well,
I'll tell you this. There's a lot of men who love
the cross of Christ. They love it. Now, we'd be wrong
saying men don't hate it, because they do. But there's a whole
lot of people who love the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul
put it this way, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the cross
of our Redeemer. We thank you for what he accomplished
for us. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us grace to preach in such a way as men
hear what we're saying. And Lord, if we are persecuted
for preaching thy gospel, blessed are we. The spirit of grace and
glory dwells and rests upon us. Lord, we don't want to be persecuted
just in order to make us feel good about ourselves, but Lord,
we certainly want to be faithful in the preaching of the cross
that's the power of God unto salvation. And Lord, bless this
message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen.