these disciples of Christ, these apostles were men whose
whole lives were dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. These men believed Christ, they
loved Christ, they walked with Christ, they lived with Christ,
It says here in Acts 5.42, and they cease not to teach and to
preach Jesus Christ. It didn't say they preached about
him, it says they preached him. They preached Jesus Christ. Let
me just read you several other verses that say the same thing. In the book of Acts chapter 8,
then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached
Christ to them. He preached Christ to them. In
Acts 8.35 it says, Philip opened his mouth and began at the same
scriptures and preached unto him Jesus Christ. In Acts 11.20
it says, And when they were come to Antioch, they spake unto the
Grecians, the Greek people, and preached the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Acts 28, these are the last hours of Paul's life. In Acts
28 it says, and Paul dwelt two whole years, these last days,
last two years of his life, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ and did so
with all confidence. And my friends, the tendency
of man Natural men, if left alone, the
tendency of natural men, if left alone, is to go farther and farther
away from God, just farther and farther. And preachers are no
exception. If left alone, preachers in churches,
I say if they're left alone, if God by his grace and sovereignty
doesn't restrain them, If preachers and churches are left alone,
they depart from the gospel of Jesus Christ and begin to preach
and teach and major on other things. That's what's happened
in our day. If left alone. But if you don't
believe that, let me give you an illustration. The first few
years after our Lord was crucified, buried, and rose again, the first
few years in the days under the ministry of Paul and Peter, James,
and John, Christ was preached. I just read in the book of Acts,
these men preached Jesus Christ. They preached Jesus Christ. They
preached Jesus Christ. But gradually, gradually, Preachers
and churches became taken up with other things and if you
don't believe that read the book of first Corinthians First Corinthians
read the book of Galatians and you'll see how that these people
all became They started out preaching Christ Christ Christ But they
turned to other things. That's the reason Paul said to
the Corinthians, when he wrote that first epistle, he said,
I'm determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. And it's no different today.
I ask you this, you people who travel a lot, you who go to other
cities and go visit your relatives or go on vacations, let me ask
you this. Where today in organized religion,
now there's a lot of religion, I just came back from Cherokee,
North Carolina, on the Indian Reservation. As small a place
as that is, there's 16 Baptist churches, not counting the others,
16 Baptist churches. And in Lexington, Kentucky, there
are hundreds of churches. In Cincinnati, Ohio, there are
hundreds of churches. In Florida, in these cities where
you go on vacation. Over in York, people go on Myrtle
Beach. How many churches are there over
there? Everywhere. Let me ask you this. Where in
organized religion can one go today and hear Christ preached? And I'm talking about Christ.
I don't mean here the law or religion. I mean where can you
go or where have you gone or where have you been invited to
go and to hear a message exalting, magnifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you tell me. But to come even closer home.
Now you know, you see where I am and where I'm coming from. Natural
means. Their tendency, if they're left
alone, is to go farther away from God. Farther away from God,
just like Barnard used to say, to hell with God. That's the attitude of this generation. But even churches and religion,
churches and preachers, if they're not restrained and constrained,
they get away from the gospel, away from preaching Christ. And
today they've got programs and schools and organizations and
feed the hungry and all these things, which in their place
is all right. What's wrong with feeding the
hungry? But our ministry is Christ, is to preach Christ, preach the
gospel. And where are the men who are
preaching Christ? I hear them talk about send us
money so we can preach the gospel. I don't hear them preaching the
gospel. I hear them singing. Hook-de-doo, all this sort of
thing, but I don't hear him preaching Christ, who he is, what he did,
why he did it, where he is now. Do you hear him preaching Christ?
His righteousness, his justification, his eternality, his sovereignty,
his deity, his righteousness? But to come closer home now,
come closer home. I have many examples of men who
are reasonably sound in theology. I've got shelves of books in
there, and this applies to some of those dear old Puritans. There's sound in theology, there's
sound in the doctrines of grace, but that's just the whole problem.
They've gone from preaching Christ to preaching doctrines about
Christ. And I hear sermons today from
the lips of men whom I hold dear. And doctrinally, they're as sound
as a dollar. But the beloved is somehow not
there. Christ. That's what I'm talking
about. John didn't call it doctrines
about Christ. He called his gospel the doctrine
of Christ. And there's a difference. You
can preach about the gospel and not preach it. Did you know that?
You can preach about Christ and not preach Christ. I don't hesitate
for one second to call myself a sovereign gracer. I have no
trouble with the five points or any single point of the five
points or six or seven or whatever. I have no problem with any of
those glorious, what we call truths, would die for. And I call myself a Baptist. I'm not ashamed of the name Baptist.
I'm a Baptist of the old school of Bunyan and Gill and Spurgeon. And I believe in his own baptism
by immersion is the only baptism taught in this book. There's
no other form or mode of baptism for anyone but believers. He
that believeth and is baptized. It's not he that's baptized and
believes later on. It's he that believeth and is
baptized. Ethiopian eunuch S. Phillips says, here's water.
What does hinder me from being baptized? He said, if you believe,
you can. If you don't believe, you can't. That lets everybody
out that's not a believer. And burial is burial. It's go
down beneath the water. I have no problem with that.
But God didn't send me to baptize. He sent me to preach Christ.
I'm a local church preacher. God has a perfect church, a glorified
church, a church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven,
a church which Christ loved and gave himself for. But he has
a local church on this earth too, local churches. Pillar and
ground of the truth, where his gospels preached, where his people
fellowship, and where missionaries are raised up and sent out, and
pastors are raised up and trained. And his people are taught and
edified, and any man that says he loves Christ and is not identified
with one of his local churches supporting the gospel, I question
his love for Christ. Seriously question it. Seriously
question it. If you're not identified, if
you're identified with Christ, you're identified with the things
of Christ. and you identify with the people of Christ. And these
folks out yonder that have no local congregation that they
love and support and identified with and walk with and tell me
they love Jesus Christ, I doubt that. Just like old Gamaliel
here, he wasn't with the disciples. He's letting them alone, but
he wasn't with them. He's letting them alone. But
my friends, if you ask me what is my creed, what is my creed,
I must reply my creed is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
my creed, not Calvinism or Baptism or local church truth. My creed
is Christ. If you ask me what is my body
of divinity, there's just one body of divinity. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we're complete in
Him. Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of my message and
of my gospel. I preach Christ. Jesus Christ
is the incarnation of all truth. Jesus Christ is my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. If I have one more message to
preach, if this is the last one, by God's grace, I'm going to
preach Jesus Christ. Not about him, I'm going to preach
him. And if I've got 1,000 more messages to preach, by God's
grace, the theme of each one will be Christ and Him crucified
by His grace. I tell you, I love that statement. I could repeat it over and over
again. Paul said, I am determined. I am determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, here's two
statements. The first one in the form of a question, well,
what is it to preach Jesus Christ? What is it to preach Jesus Christ?
You say most preachers are not preaching Jesus Christ? No, they're
not. You say you are? Yes. Well, what is it to preach
Jesus Christ? Listen, number one, it is to
declare in no uncertain terms, so that all who hear you can
understand. No uncertain terms. no uncertain
terms, so that there's no argument, so that men are divided like
sheep from goats, believers and unbelievers, God's people and
rebels. It is to declare in no uncertain
terms the deity, the deity and eternality of Jesus Christ. He is God. He is God. You understand what I'm saying?
He is God. When you refer to Jesus of Nazareth
only as a great man, a great teacher, a great prophet, or
a great healer, or a great man, you've only called him a great
imposter. That's right, Paul. He's a great imposter. Oh, you
say, I believe Jesus Christ is a great man. Is he God? Well,
no, not the very essence of God. I don't believe he's God himself,
I believe he's a son of God, then Jesus Christ is an imposter. He said, I and my Father are
one. The disciples said, well, show
us the Father. He said, you're looking straight
at him. He that has seen me has seen my Father. That's right. He that has seen... Jesus Christ
is one of two things. He's one of two things. Jesus
born of Mary, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Galilee, Jesus of Calvary,
Jesus of the open tomb is one of two things. He is very God
of very God. Or he's the greatest deceiver
of souls that's ever walked on this earth. You can take your
choice. And that's what I mean by they're
not preaching Christ. I want to hear somebody stand
up before this whole world congregation and assembly on television and
everywhere else and declare that on no uncertain terms loud and
clear. He's to be worshipped or he's
to be refused. He's to be bowed down to and
worshipped and adored as God Almighty or he's to be absolutely
refused to believe. Like the Jews of old who rejected
him. and called him a blasphemer and
a son of Beelzebub. He's either the son of God or
he is the son of Beelzebub. That's right. That's what I preach
Christ. But I'm saying that this scripture
is written of him. Unto us a son is born, a son
is given, a child is born, a son is given, and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. That's Jesus Christ. All right,
secondly, to preach Jesus Christ. And these things have got to
be declared so plainly that men will either stone you or love
you. Our Lord said, I and my Father are one. They took up
stones to stone him. He said, many good works have
I done among you. For which of these works do you
stone me? They said, we're not stoning you for good work. This
world has no objection to good works. This world has no objection
to religious works. This world has a natural compassion
for the underdog. The whole world was sitting waiting
yesterday till they got that baby out of that hole. We got no objections to good
works. Well, why are you stoning me? You're a man and you said
you're God. That's why we're stoning you.
Now you tell them the same thing and they'll stone you. Exactly
right. We don't want our preachers to
be controversial. If he's God's preacher, he's
controversial. I want the people I work with
to like my pastor. They will if they love Christ.
But if they don't, they'll hate your pastor. Now just write it
down. All right, the second thing to
preach Christ is to preach his true humanity. True humanity. We must never make Jesus Christ
less man because he's God, and we must never make him less God
because he's man. He's perfect God of their God. And yet Jesus of Nazareth was
a real man of flesh and blood, Tom. Flesh and bones and blood. Fingernails and hair. He was bone of our bone. He was
flesh of our flesh. He was living, walking, talking,
breathing, feeling, thirsting, hungering, acting, doing, suffering,
tempted, just like you in every point. Master's finger had hurt and
the blood rose up under the nail and he had to take an awl and
drill through the nail and let the blood out. Just like you.
Just like you. tempted in all points as we are,
yet without sin. I tell you, if you do not have
God incarnate in human flesh, you have no gospel, Charlie.
And if you do not have a real human Savior with real flesh
and blood and real testing, you don't have a gospel either. That's
right. He's the Godman. Say it in the
same word, without a space if you can, the Godman. The God-man,
you cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of Him.
Doesn't matter what you believe about what, if you don't know
who He is. Very God of very God, and very
man of very man. That's right. My body was made
inside the womb of a woman, this body that I carry, these eyes
and ears, made inside the womb of a woman called my mother. Jesus Christ was born the same
way. The only difference is he had a different father, not a
human father. His father conceived of the Holy
Ghost, but he was developed just exactly like I was, and came
out of that womb just like me, except for one thing. He came
out without sin, without that nature of sin in him. That's
right. You see, the law is binding on men, and if a man doesn't
keep it, it's no righteousness at all. Alright, thirdly, to
preach Jesus Christ. Now watch, this is a big word
here, but it's very simple. To preach Christ, and I'm saying
men are not preaching Christ. To preach Christ, we must preach
Christ in the solitariness of His redemptive work. Solitariness
of His redemptive work. What is solitariness? Well, did
you ever play solitary? What is solitary? It's a game
you play by yourself. It's a card game. You sit down
by yourself. Nobody else involved. Solitary. Well, that's what I'm talking
about by his redemptive work. Solitary. Solitariness of his
redemptive work. He did it all. He did it all. Turn to Hebrews 1. Listen to
this. Hebrews 1. Hebrews chapter 1,
not even your faith, your repentance, your work, your decision, your
profession, anything enters into what he did to redeem his people.
He did it all, beginning to end, Alpha to Omega. Hebrews 1 verse
3, Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, upholdeth all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins by himself. By himself. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Is that clear what I'm saying?
I want the whole world to hear this. That salvation is of and
through and by the Lord Jesus Christ and there's nothing you
do to make it acceptable or effectual. Nothing you do makes it work.
It's a free gift from beginning to end. It's not Christ died,
now you believe to make his death effectual, that's a bunch of
baloney. His death is effectual. He purged our sins by himself. He put them away by himself.
Nothing you do now or later has anything to do with what he did
in redeeming the sinner. Nothing! That's right. By his obedience, we have a perfect
righteousness. It's already imputed. It's already mine. I'm accepted
in the beloved. By his death alone, we have the
atonement. He is from God. His sacrifice
and obedience is to God. And his perfect obedience in
death is for God. And you are the recipient of
all these benefits and blessings that he accomplished by himself.
That's what I'm saying. Almost every preacher I know
puts the work of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection,
puts it all on hold until you and I do something with it or
about it. It's not on hold, I beg your
pardon. He sat down. Our Lord's not on
hold. He's not up there wondering.
God's not up there writing the Lamb's Book of Life. It's written
and closed. The Lamb's Book of Life was written
for the foundation of the world. He said, All that my Father giveth
me, now if they'll believe, they can come to me. No, they shall
come to me. They shall come to me. It's signed,
sealed, and delivered. If you're one of his own, you
will hear the gospel, and you will believe it, and you will
come willingly, and you will stay with Christ. But he's the
one that gives you the grace. John, that's so. That's so. That's preaching Christ. It's
not Christ and me. It's not Christ and my works.
It's not Christ and my faith. It's not Christ and my devotion,
or Christ and my religion. It's just Christ. If you're saved, you'll be saved
just exactly like the thief on the cross. You can't walk, work,
wash, or wait. That's just all there is to it.
It's all of Christ. That's right, that's preaching
Christ. Most men aren't preaching Christ, they're preaching a half-Christ,
a frustrated Christ, a defeated Christ, a feminine Christ, who
wants to and can. I'm preaching a living, conquering,
victorious, sufficient Christ who saves his people. That's preaching Christ. And
I tell you, to a sinner, that's good news. Now you nice folks
out there, it doesn't mean much, but to these sinners, without
God, without hope, without Christ in this world, this is good news.
to people who really know what it takes to please God, to people
who really know from whence they came, the pit from which they
were dead, they're glad it's all of Christ. They don't want
anybody telling them what to do and when to do it and how
to do it. And I'll tell you this, fourthly, to preach Christ. Now
this is preaching Christ. It's not preaching doctrines
about Christ or the word about, this is preaching Christ. To
preach Christ is to preach Him as the only mediator between
God and man. I didn't say between God and
man. That's not what it says in the Bible. Don't quote it
that way. There is one God and one mediator
between God and what? Not and man, and men. And men. Not man as a whole,
not man as a species. It doesn't say there's one mediator
between God and man as a species or man as a race. It says one
mediator between God and certain men, believers. That's what that says, doesn't
it? Look at it. God and men. And I declare this. Now listen.
Listen. This is preaching Christ. I declare
this, that he's not only the only Mediator, not only the only
Mediator, but I refuse and I deny and I make fun of and set aside
any other Mediator, no matter how holy or hallowed may be their
name. Saint Jude or Saint Christopher
or Saint Mary. I despise and abhor any other
Mediator. And that's not blasphemy, that's
preaching Christ. That's preaching Christ. I have
no patience, I have no time, I have no toleration for any
man who takes this Bible and dresses like a clown and talks
about Mary and his being totally hers. I am totally Christ. Mary is nothing in this world
under heaven but a sinner saved by grace who found favor like
Noah with God and was a human instrument of God accomplishing
his will in bringing his son into the world. Nothing holy
about her. She's a woman. She's holy in Christ. And you
don't, I wouldn't go in, I wouldn't attend a worship service in one
of those synagogues of Satan. nor have time or kissed the hand
or shaken of such an imposter and devil as those priests in
women's clothes. That's right. That's preaching
Christ. See, you not only hold up Christ
as the only mediator, but if he's the only one, then you set
aside every other mediator. Is that right? And that's what
I'm saying to this congregation. I'm saying Christ is our intercessor,
Christ is our mediator, Christ is our righteousness. And it's
not live and let live, it's live in Christ and the rest of it's
death. That's right. And you may think I'm hard now,
but you won't when God calls every man to judgment. You won't
think I'm hard. No, you won't. There's some who
wish they'd have listened. because God will be glorified
now. All right, fifthly, to preach
Christ is to preach him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I
have no time for preachers or preaching which presents Jesus
Christ only as an example. He's the King. He's not just an effort He's
not just an offer. He's not a partial Savior. He's
the risen, sovereign, reigning, ruling King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. The Jesus Christ I preach has
authority over all flesh. And there's not a worm wiggling
on the earth over which he doesn't have absolute sovereignty and
authority. I believe that. He's Lord by decree, He's Lord
by design, He's Lord by death, He bought the universe, and it's
His! And every son of Adam and every
creature is His! And He'll quicken whom He will,
and He'll save whom He will, and He'll have mercy on whom
He will, and whom He will, He'll harden. Yes, sir, we're in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and earth. He prayed in John 17, as thou
hast given me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into his hands. The Son quickeneth
whom he will. So the gospel command, and I
say this to you. This may seem a little difficult,
but you think it through in light of the scriptures. The gospel I preach, repent toward
God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, is not an invitation. It's a command. Now this gospel I'm preaching,
Jim, is not a bare invitation. You see, my friends, now listen
to me. A king doesn't invite anybody to do anything. John,
a king, commands. That's right, he commands. He
says, the Lord commandeth all men everywhere to repent. You
either repent or you'll perish. Is that what my Lord said? I
can't say that to you, but he can. You repent or you'll perish. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, and he that believeth not shall be what? Damned. That don't sound like an invitation
to me. Ronnie, you either come to supper
tonight or I'll kill you. Now that's not too good an invitation. Now you think about it now. You'd
be there, wouldn't you? I stand here holding a magnum
.357, I said, you be at my house at 7 o'clock or I'll blow your
brains out. That's not an invitation. And my Lord didn't issue an invitation
to you either. He said, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not will be shot
to pieces, he'll be damned. And that's no invitation, that's
a command. You do with it what you want
to, but that's a command. You see, when there's no alternative,
it's a command. This world belongs to my Lord. He bought it. He died that he
might be Lord of the dead and the living. And these preachers
run around here, twiddling their thumbs and acting like sissies,
you know, and trying to please everybody, you know, with their
broken wrists and their If you'll accept Jesus, he'd be so glad,
and he loves you, and I love you, and everybody loves you.
We're just drowning in love. Well, I'll tell you this. My Lord's on the throne. He came
down here and bought this old sin-cursed, God-hating world. And out of it, he's got a people.
My Father gave him all eternity. an adoring, willing, loving bunch
of bond slaves. I'm going to talk about them
tonight. And they've kissed his feet and fallen at his feet and
worshipped and adored him. And they belong to him lock,
stock, and barrel. And the rest of them, he's going
to feed them to the fires of hell because they're rebels in
their heart. We will not have this man reign
over us. That's exactly the difference.
All right, you said preacher, and we'll close with this. I
contend that the man who preaches Jesus Christ is both doctrinal,
practical, and experimental, and he'll preach the whole counsel
of God, and I ask you these questions. And I'll close. They tell me we need to be practical
preachers, but I'm asking you a question. You listen. Do you
suppose for a moment that a congregation could become less holy by their
pastor preaching Christ, who is God's very righteousness?
Now you think about it. Do you think so? Do you really
believe that if a man stands and preaches Christ, the righteousness
of God, the very holiness of God, he who loved God with all
his heart, mind, soul, and strength, who loved men enough to die for
them, that people will become less holy by hearing him preached? Do you suppose a congregation
could become less orthodox? We need to take our people into
the deep things of the Word. We need to teach them the doctrines
of the Word. Well, just tell me, can a congregation become
less orthodox and less taught in the Scriptures by their pastor
preaching Christ, who is the very Word of God? Who is the
very fulfillment of all Scriptures? Who is the rock, the brazen serpent,
Melchizedek, Aaron and all? Quite the contrary. Or do you
suppose a congregation could be a people full of doubts and
fears by hearing the good news of Christ continually? He said,
because I live, you live. That doesn't fill me with doubt,
it fills me with hope. You suppose a congregation would
pray less by hearing of Christ who prayed all night? Will they
love less by hearing of Christ who loved us and gave himself
for us? Will they give less if they hear
of Christ who gave it all, who was rich and yet for your sakes
became poor, that you by his poverty might be rich? Do you
suppose that a congregation could become careless in their lives
and indifferent to the will of God, hearing about the Savior
who suffered and sweated drops of blood, praying, not my will,
but thy will be done? I don't believe it. Do you suppose that a congregation,
listen, could possibly lose the presence and blessings of the
Father by exalting and magnifying his Son? Now you think about it, where
is the presence of the Father going to be? Where Christ is
exalted. Because he hath given him a name
above every name, and decreed and declared that he shall have
the preeminence. I believe he that honoureth the
Son, the Father will honour. Or do you suppose that the Holy
Spirit, who came to glorify Christ, and to take the things of Christ
and show them to us, will desert a pastor and a people who are
doing that very thing, glorifying Christ and taking the things
of Christ and showing them to you. Oh, I call on the young
men in this congregation who preach, who teach, and others
who witness and call on myself. Let's consecrate our voices and
our hearts and our open doors and our opportunities to making
Christ known. Like the disciples of old, they
cease not to preach and teach Jesus Christ. All right, I want
you to turn for a closing hymn to number 127. Number 127. Man
of sorrows, what a name. For the Son of God who came ruins
sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior.