I told you this message is entitled,
The Preaching of the Cross. And I want you to open your Bible
first to the book of Titus. I'm going to read three verses
here that prepare us for what Paul says over there in 1 Corinthians
1. Titus 1, Paul, a servant of God
and an apostle of Jesus Christ. according to the faith of God's
elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after
godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot
lie, promised before this world began. But, now listen, half
in due time, that is in his appointed time, you remember in due time
Christ died for the ungodliness? In due time, God sent forth His
Son. In due time, in God's appointed
time. He hath in His appointed times
manifested His Word, how? Through preaching. He manifests
His Word, reveals His Word. Christ, in John 17, said, I've
manifested Thy Word unto the men which You gave me through
preaching. preaching, which is committed
unto me." God had chosen the means, preaching, to manifest
his Word, to manifest the mysteries of the Gospel, to save his people. God had appointed the preaching
of the Word, and he had chosen those men to preach it. In other words,
he says here, He, in God's time, he manifested his word through
preaching, which is committed to me. The preaching is committed
to me, Paul said. God had chosen to commit this
task to certain men, make this their life, make this their vocation,
make this their commitment to preach the gospel. He commands
them to go on into all the world and preach the gospel. Paul said,
God put me in the ministry. God put me, he committed this
responsibility, this task to me according to the commandment
of God my Savior. Paul was one of those that God
put in the ministry and gave them this task of manifesting
his word through preaching. Now over here in 1 Corinthians
1, I want to go back to verse 11
for a moment. Some of the Corinthians were
putting too much importance on the preacher and not on the Word
and the message. They were becoming divided over
their preachers. Some were saying, we prefer Paul's
preaching. Others, we prefer Apollos' preaching. Others, we prefer Cephas, Simon
Peter's preaching. Others said, we don't need any
preachers, we've got Christ. So listen to this, in verse 11,
this is the problem. It hath been declared unto me
of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you, some of you say I am of Paul, and another group, I
am of Apollos. And another group, I am of Cephas.
And another group says we don't need Paul and Apollos and Cephas,
we're of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you or Apollos or Cephas? Were you baptized in the name
of Paul? The preacher's not the issue,
the vessel's not the issue. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the power might be of God and not of us. It's
not the man who brings the message, it's the message. And this is
why Paul chose not to baptize anybody. Because the fact that
he baptized them, being who he is, Paul was his chosen vessel
to bear the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul had great and unusual revelations. He was taken to the third heaven
on one occasion. He's a man who raised the dead,
and spoke in more languages than all of them, and was more mightily
used of God than anybody. And he said, I didn't baptize
anybody lest they should say I baptized in my name, and I
want them to feel that they have a special, more valid baptism
because I did it. That's what he says in verse
14. I thank God I baptized none of you, Christus and Gaius. I did baptize them, but I didn't
baptize anybody else. And that's why he chose not to
baptize, lest the fact that he did it might cause a person to
feel that his baptism is a little more valid or a little more special
than somebody else's. So he said, that's what he said
in verse 15, lest any should say I baptized in my own name
to call attention to my powers and my presence. prestigious
position. Well, he said, I baptize also
the house of Stephanus. Besides that, I know not whether
I baptize any other. And he says in verse 17, baptism
is not the issue. You see, baptism is the means
to confess Christ. That's what baptism is all about.
It's a means to confess Christ publicly. It's an opportunity and a means
to declare to our families and our friends and our neighbors
before heaven, that we believe that Christ Jesus died for our
sins, was buried, rose again, and we are identified with Him. Our hope's in Him, our confidence
is in Him. He's our salvation. And when
He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried.
When He arose, we arose. And we're seated in Christ at
the right hand of God. We're dedicated to this work.
and life to God. That's what we're saying about
baptism. Baptized for the dead. That doesn't mean by proxy, you're
baptized for somebody that's dead, no. You're baptized as
dead. You don't bury living people.
Baptism is meaningless without death. You see, when you dig
a grave, you intend to put in there a dead person. When you
baptize someone, you baptize them as dead. And when you bring
them up, when someone is brought up out of the tomb, Lazarus come
forth, he's alive. When we're dead to this world,
we're buried out of sight. And we're risen to walk in newness
of life with Christ. But Paul says that serves no
purpose in your redemption. It's a powerful testimony. It's
a powerful confession. It ought to be done by those
who believe. But there are those who believe who haven't been
baptized. The thief on the cross wasn't baptized. Abraham wasn't
baptized. He was circumcised but wasn't
baptized. Moses wasn't baptized. Jacob wasn't baptized. You can
just go on talking about that. So baptism serves no purpose
in a man's redemption. It serves no purpose in a man's
righteousness. It serves no purpose in a man's
acceptance with God. That's in Christ. But the preaching of the Word
serves a purpose. That's right. He said, God didn't
send me, verse 17, to baptize, but He did send me to preach
the gospel. A man's not going to be saved
out here in the gospel. He can be saved without being
baptized, but he can't be saved out here in the gospel. Faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. The Word is
the very seed in regeneration. How can they believe in Him of
whom they've not heard? How can they trust an unrevealed
Christ? How can they hear without a preacher? So God didn't send me to baptize,
but he did send me to preach the Word. Because of his own
will begat he us with the Word of truth, and we're born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed by the
Word of God. That's what our Lord said to
Nicodemus, a man is born of the Spirit and the water, the Word. Spirit and the Word. But he said,
now listen to this, how do we preach? All right, God has chosen
by preaching to manifest His Word. Paul said he didn't send
me to baptize, he sent me to preach. But how do we preach? Now listen to this, our method
of preaching. Not with wisdom of words. Our method of preaching
is not with, to impress people with our knowledge, intellectualism,
not with human eloquence. Over here in verse 4 of chapter
2, my speech and preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, wasn't verse 1 with excellency of speech, showmanship, theatrics. What is our method of preaching?
Our method of preaching is playing in words easy to be understood, in modesty, in humility, preaching the Word, the Word,
preaching the Word. And why? Why is this? All right,
what she tells us. Christ didn't send me to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. And that not with showmanship
and theatrics and wisdom of words and impressive eloquence, but
with plain, simple, modesty, humble, and language easy to
understand, lest, for fear of that, lest, don't get near that
fire lest you fall in, see, for fear that you fall in. Don't
walk on that icy sidewalk lest you fall, for fear that you fall. So we're not going to Try to
impress people with our cleverness and intellectualism and eloquence
and let the cross of Christ be made of non-effect. Let men get
taken up with our manner of preaching and don't hear our message. And that's what they've done
over here. They got taken up with the preachers. I like the
policy style. I don't. I like the power style.
Well, I don't. Simon Peter style. I like the
way he preaches. I like his mannerisms. If we're not careful, folks will
get taken up with our manner of preaching and not hear our
message. People will see and hear the messenger and not see
Christ and hear Christ. Well, somebody says, well, preacher,
you've got to get people's attention. I'll tell you. And you've got
to hold their attention. A preacher may become so involved
in getting someone's attention and holding their attention,
he forgets that's not his business to create an interest in people. That's not his business to convict
people, to give them a desire for Christ. That's the Holy Spirit's
work. A preacher may use all type of
ways and methods to catch people to get eye contact. I won't catch
their eye contact, so I'll do something to hold that eye contact
or that ear contact. I don't want them going to sleep
on me, so I got to do it in such a way that I have eye contact
and ear contact and mental contact. You can have all that and not
have heart contact. That's the big problem. Heart
contact. And that's the Spirit of God's
work. And He uses the Word of God to
do that. His Word. The Gospel's the power
of God to convict of sin. The Gospel is the power of God
to enable men to see Christ. The Gospel's the power of God
that enables men to hear Him who wrote it. Him whose Word
it is. If we're not careful, what we
do to gain their attention becomes the object of their attention,
rather than Christ. How do we preach? Not with wisdom of words, not
with eloquence of speech, not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, not with theatrics and showmanship. How do we preach?
Well, I'll tell you, we preach as one who may never preach again. Secondly, we preach as a dying
man to dying men. Thirdly, we preach with fear
and trembling, knowing that nobody is sufficient for this task. Fourthly, we preach depending
on the Spirit of God, not our cleverness and not our illustrations
and not our social abilities. and not our friendship or friendliness
with people. We preach depending on the Spirit
of God to hold their eye contact on Christ and their ear contact
to God's Word and their heart contact to love the Savior. That's
how we preach. And every teacher of spiritual
things, John 6, 63, listen to it. The Lord Jesus says in verse
63 of John 6, it's the Spirit that quickeneth. It's the Holy
Spirit that quickeneth. Convicts give life. The flesh
profiteth nothing. And the words that I speak unto
you, they are Spirit. They are life. That's it. So, we preach. Paul said, not with wisdom of words. We preach not depending in any
way upon ourselves, but we preach totally dependent on the Spirit
of God because the Spirit of God makes the Word effectual. The Word of God. And now look
at verse 18. What do we preach? We talked
about preaching, who preaches, how he preaches. Now what does
he preach? Verse 18. Preaching of the cross. For the
preaching of the cross. Not the cross of wood. They're
making too much of that in this day. Not the cross of wood on which
Christ was crucified. You know, we had in the bulletin
a Sunday an article about the brazen serpent. Moses lifted up, when the people
were bitten by the serpents, and God said to Moses, make a
serpent of brass in the likeness of the serpents which have bitten
the people, and lift it up on a pole, and whosoever looks will
live. Well, that was fulfilled. The
people looked and they lived. What did they do with that serpent?
They took it down from the pole, and some clever craftsman made
a nice box for it. And some interior decorator put
some nice velvet on it, and they laid that serpent of brass in
that box and worshipped it. They made that thing an object
of worship, of attention, and carried it around wherever they
went. And people have done that with that cross. I tell you,
when Hezekiah became king in the days of Isaiah, he took that
serpent of brass and ground it to powder. He said it's a worthless piece
of brass. It's no husk. It's of no value
whatsoever. No value. If you could find the cross on
which Jesus Christ was crucified, it would be of no value. to you
in any way. In fact, actually, it'd be detrimental
to you and me. Because folks who worship Him,
they won't touch it. They'd come from miles. They'd
congregate by thousands just to touch it. And they'd trust
it. That's not what we preach. And
we don't preach the cross of affliction and sacrifice, which
we're called upon to bear. What is it to preach the cross?
Number one, it's the preaching, not of the cross, but of our
Lord Jesus Christ who was made flesh and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Preaching Christ who became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It's the
preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ who was delivered for our offenses.
Delivered where? Delivered to the cross. Delivered
into the hands of the enemy. Delivered into the hands of the
crucifiers. Who was delivered for our offenses to the cross
and delivered from it and raised for our justification. He's no
longer on the cross. What a shame that to have anything
called a crucifix with a man's body on it. Horrible. Horrible. To preach the cross is the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep who
laid down his life on the cross for his sheep. It's the preaching
of peace which he made by the blood of his cross. It's the
preaching of righteousness which he purchased by his obedience.
It's the preaching of our being reconciled to God by his death. Preaching the cross is lifting
up the great propitiator. who by his death enabled God
to be just and justified. That's what it is to preach the
cross. The covenant that led to the
cross, the resurrection that raised him who died on the cross,
the intercession at the right hand of God of him who has his
own blood to offer for the remission of our sins which he shed on
the cross. That's it. All right, let's see
what this preaching, how the results of it. The preaching
of the cross is to them who are perishing, foolishness. Foolishness. Barnard used to say, sheer nonsense. That's what the preaching, all
this what I've been talking about, preaching of Christ and Him crucified
is sheer nonsense. Why? Not that they deny that there
was a cross. That's established. The fact
of the cross is established. Forget trying to disprove the
cross, that Jesus Christ died on the cross. That's historical.
That's established. That's a fact established in
the scripture, established in history, established by the calendar,
B.C. before Christ and A.D. in the
year of our Lord, from the cross, from his death. Well, why is
the preaching of his eternality, that everlasting covenant which
led to his death, his righteous spotless life, his ignominious
sufferings and death, his resurrection, his great priestly work, his
intercession, his atonement, why is that foolishness to the
world? I'll give you four reasons. Number
one, because God's holiness is unknown to them. They don't need
a cross. They don't need a substitute,
because their God's not holy. Their God knows no wrath. There's
no wrath with God. God is love. God is not angry. There's no judgment. God can,
tongue in cheek, clear the guilty, because their God's not holy.
But Isaiah said, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord. And I saw him on the throne,
high and lifted up. And even the seraphims of heaven
covered their faces and covered their feet and flew around the
throne crying, Holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Our
God is holy. He will not clear the guilty.
But they know nothing of the holiness of God. The pulpit today
knows nothing of a God who cannot, who cannot pardon the guilty,
who cannot pass by man's sins, who must punish the wicked. The second reason why it's foolishness
to them is they're not sinners. They're not sinners. They don't
need a substitute. They don't need a mediator. They
don't need a shepherd. They're not in debt. They say
we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
And God says you don't know this, you're naked, miserable, poor
and blind. Without God, without hope, without
Christ in this world, Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, high and
lifted up, his train filled the temple. What did he see then?
himself. He said, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm cut off. I don't have a hope. I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I have no place in the presence
of God. I have no place. No place. That's unknown to them. So when you preach a redeemer
and a reconciler, they don't need because their God's not
holy and they're not sinners. And then thirdly, Christ is unknown
to them. Who is the man on the cross?
Just a man. Well, if he's just a man, his
death is foolish. Now, if he's just a man, that's
all. If he's just a man, he wasted
his time, because his death can accomplish nothing if he's just
a man. It is sheer nonsense for me to
preach up here, Christ and Him crucified. That's the reason
I wonder why this fellow that puts these crosses everywhere,
why does he put three of them up there? Why not just one? Because the other two were just
men. Their death was meaningless. They ought to die. They were
thieves. They should have died. But there was no cause of death
in him except my cause. There was no sin found in him
except my sin. He died. Those men should have
died. They don't deserve any pity.
They were murderers. Did you see in the paper the
Mexican justice the other day? Mexican justice is pretty rough.
San Cristobal. You were there. San Cristobal. A man raped a two-year-old girl,
and they put him in jail. Friends of the family came, got
him out of jail, soaked him in gasoline, and hung him up and
burned him. Justice deserved. That's right, those men deserved
it. He didn't. If he's just a man, Well, he
deserved to die, too, because he lied to the whole world. He
said, I'm God. He said, you destroy this temple,
and I'll raise it up. He said, you worship me. You
trust me. I'll save you. If he's not God,
he's the biggest imposter and liar that ever lived, and he
ought to have died on the cross. That's foolishness to talk about.
So that's the reason why we're preaching foolishness. Christ
is unknown. God's unknown. Sins unknown,
real sins, real wicked, deserve to die, ought to die, will die. And Christ, who he is, what he
did, why he did it, where he is now, they don't know who he
is. But the fourth reason is they can't have a part in
it. Pride. Pride. You see, when you preach
the cross, there's no room at the cross for you, and your works,
and your good deeds, and mine. Now, no room. There's room for
me as a helpless sinner, but there's no room for my cooperation
with Christ, my participation with Christ, my contribution
with Christ, and my assistance with Christ. When Abraham and
Isaac went up to Mount Moriah, For that sacrifice, Abraham turned
to those young men and said, you wait right here. You've got
no business up there. There's not even room up there
for you, father and son. And that transaction accomplished,
which redeemed us. When was I saved? When He died
on that cross. That's right. When was I saved? When He planned that cross. That's
right. Preacher, you're talking about
eternal justification. I sure am. I sure am. That's all kind there is. Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning. That's not without
repentance, not without faith. And I'm being saved now. The
work's not finished. The payment is, the plan is,
the offering is, his work is on my behalf. But I've got to
be raised from the grave and made like Christ. And when I
awake with his likeness, then salvation is finished. That's
right. Waiting for the revelation of
the sons of God. So there's no room. God of grace,
by himself, the world wants to put my profession, for my serving God,
Like a man told me one time after I preached along this line, there's
no, Christ is my reward. I preached a long time, but it
has added nothing to my acceptance with God which was in Christ
before the world began. Nothing. And God's people all
loved the same, and redeemed the same, and rewarded the same,
and the first shall be last, and last shall be first. And
I was riding home with the pastor that night. And I preached for
him several times and he said, uh, I've never disagreed with
anything you preached in my church until tonight. I got to thinking,
what did I say that he could possibly fall out with me over? I said, what did I say? He said,
you said that what we're doing counted for nothing for salvation
or acceptance with God or our I said, that's right. He said,
I don't agree with that. I said, well, tell me what do
you deserve? Oh, he said, I'm not talking
about me. I'm talking about other people. I said, no, you're talking
about you. That's who you're talking about.
But it won't work. It's Christ. It's grace. Grace. All of grace. That's exactly
right. What we do, we do because he
saved us. What we do, we do because He loved us. What we do, we do
because He died for us. What we do, we do because. Can't
do otherwise. That's why we do it. Can't do
otherwise. Just, just love Him so much,
we just, just rather be serving Him than doing anything about
anything. That's why, that's why. But it
doesn't have, doesn't contribute a thing to salvation. That's,
that's why it's foolishness. because there's just no room.
I like that song, there's room at the cross for you, but after
it's finished, there's room for you. Not while it's going on.
Well, let's look at this and I'll let you go. Preaching of
the cross is to them that perishing foolishness, unto us it's the
power of God. It's the power of God. Why is
the cross to believers the power of God? Let me just quickly give
it to you. Number one, because that which
took place at Calvary declares as nowhere else the holiness
and righteousness of God. He spared not his own son. You
want to see a display, a revelation of God's absolute holiness, immaculate,
infinite holiness and righteousness, the fact he will not clear the
guilty, go to Calvary. If he spared not his son, He won't spare anyone else. Secondly, that which took place
at Calvary reveals as nowhere else God's love and mercy. Will God save sinners? I'll take
you to Calvary. God so loved the world, he gave
his only begotten son. There's a revelation of the love
and mercy of God. Will God show mercy? Come to
Calvary. Will God blot out sin? Come to
Calvary. There it is. That was why he
died, to save sinners. He came into the world to save
sinners. That's why he came. Thirdly, that which took place
at Calvary, now listen, is the only way, only way that God can
be just and justify us. There's no other way. God didn't
just arbitrarily choose to crucify his son and make that the way
of salvation. That's the only way salvation can be accomplished.
You see, when a criminal's guilty, that man that Mexican justice
got a hold of, he doesn't have a plea. He's guilty. He's guilty. They killed him. And we're guilty. And justice
has got to kill us. The soul that sinneth shall die,
it shall surely die, surely die. Well, how can we live? Only if
somebody dies for us. And that somebody has to be somebody,
somebody that pleases God. He's got to be God, God's man. And that's the only way a just
judge can set me free is somebody takes my place. But here's the
thing. The innocent can't die for the
guilty. Justice can't be satisfied. If I commit a crime, justice
can't come get you and kill you and be satisfied. It's got to
kill me. Well, Christ is me. I wish I
could say this like it ought to be said. He became one with
the transgressors. He was numbered with the transgressors. He actually became the greatest
sinner that ever lived. just like Adam represented us
in the garden. We were all in him, with him,
of him. Christ came down here somehow,
somehow by God's divine wisdom, and actually became me and you. And every sinner that he saves,
he's elected. He actually became us and took
our sins in his body. He bore our sins in his body. He actually became us. Sin separated
him from the Father. He said, My God, why did you
forsake me? Why? Because of who you are now. He didn't say, Father, you forsake
me. My God. He actually is us. I can't explain
that. I just know that's the missing
ingredients in most people's religion. I died. I can't die again because I've
already died. Justice? What's that? Double jeopardy?
They can't punish me for something I've already been punished for.
That's the reason I can't be lost. I've already died. I've
already paid for every sin I've ever committed. I paid for it
in Christ. He was me. And he's guilty. I'm not guilty. He's guilty. He had to die. And that's the reason it's the
power of God. God can't do otherwise. He can't
punish us again because he's already punished Christ. He punished
me. He can't do it. Payment of God's
justice cannot twice demand it. And it's over. He said it's finished. You saying that's something.
The battle's over. And then the fourth thing is that which took
place at Calvary actually destroyed my enemies. He destroyed him
who has the power of death. And He actually put away my sins
to be remembered no more. That's marvelous. That's what
it is to preach the cross. Preach the cross of Christ.