Most of my speaking engagements are to churches like this church. And it's not too difficult to
prepare for a congregation like this. But when I speak on television,
when I prepare the television messages, it's just a little more difficult
to know exactly what direction to take. I know where we're headed. I know where I want to wind up.
I know what basically I want to say. But just exactly what
direction or what scripture and so forth, it's a little difficult
because Television congregation is made up of all types of people
from all walks of life, most of whom are totally ignorant
of any spiritual understanding at all. I wrestled, I guess the
service over which I struggled the most in recent days was when
I spoke to the friends of mine in that class reunion a few weeks
ago, what to say, what scripture to read, what direction to take,
what subject, topic, and so forth. We want to find the will of God,
we want to glorify the Christ of God, we want to preach the
true gospel of God. It's not a question of trying
to make it acceptable, it's just knowing what direction to take.
And here in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul was sent of God to preach
to the Corinthians, the Corinthians. Now, do you know something about
the Corinthians? What do you preach to people
like the Corinthians? Well, who were they? Well, they
were pagan people, Gentile, heathen, pagan people. given totally to
the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of
life. Those were the Corinthians, the Corinthians with their goddesses
and gods and idols and heathenism and paganism and lust and passion
and greed and then, but yet they were religious people, most religious
people. Paul said, One time, I perceive,
he said, I walked down the streets of your cities, and I saw all
of your shrines and idols and altars. I perceive you are most,
the word in your King James is superstitious people, but that's
religious, most religious people. He said, well, I even found an
altar to an unknown God. And that's the God I preach,
he said, the one, the unknown God. unknown to natural men,
but they were religious. And then thirdly, Corinth was
the seat of learning. That's right, science, philosophy,
intellectualism. They were people who were clamoring
after learning the sciences and all this sort of thing. And I
thought, as I prepared this message and thought about the people
to whom Paul was going to preach, to whom God had sent him to preach
the gospel of Christ. And I thought, well, that's the
USA. That's the people I'm preaching
to in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia on television. They're pagan? Pagan. Listen to their music. That'll
tell you they're pagan. Look at the markings of their
movies. That'll tell you they're pagan. watch them dance with
that, those lights going off and on, that music 780 decimals
loud, that'll tell you they're pagan, the Africans don't beat
their drums that loud. They're pagan, they're heathen,
heathen. The lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh, the pride of life, heroes and they worship in the
flesh. All of our heroes are generals
who killed a thousand people. walk down through the rotunda
of the Capitol on the walls, every hero there has fell in
a uniform and sent a half a million men to their death, you know.
We're pagan. We worship the wrong people.
Movie stars, and yet we're religious people. There's a church for
every three or four hundred people in most towns. There's steeples
pointing to the sky. And yet we are clamoring after
learning. This is the seed of learning,
science and philosophy and intellectualism. We are the current of 1983. Well,
when God sent Paul to these people, he said, verse 1, and our brethren,
when I came, when I came. Now, he's writing to the church,
but when he came, they weren't the church. They were heathen,
pagan, religious people. philosophers and intellectuals
and so forth. So he said, when I came to you,
when I came your way, he said, verse 1, I didn't come with excellency
of speech, that's oratory. I didn't depend on Paul's gifts
to paint beautiful pictures and to impress you with my oratorical
ability. I didn't do that. I didn't come
with excellency of speech or wisdom. That is, debating with
men, matching wits with men. I didn't do that when I came
to preach the gospel of Christ. I didn't come trying to impress
you with my ability to speak, to raise you high and take you
low and to lift you up and to make you hear the music and the
waters flow and the wind to blow and paint pretty pictures and
all that. And I didn't come debating and arguing. I didn't come matching
wits with the philosophers when I preached the gospel of God.
And verse 3, and he said, let's skip verse 2 a minute. Verse
3, he said, I was with you in weakness, weakness, human weakness,
I believe spiritual weakness, emotional weakness, mental weakness,
all the weakness, and in fear and in much trembling, what an
awesome responsibility. Who wants it under God? Who's
sufficient for these things? To stand up here this morning
and speak for God, having before you pagan religious, intellectual
philosophers, people of the world, people who are going to heaven
or hell, people who are flowing with the great tide of life,
and you're supposed to stand there and say, oh, listen, God
sent me to tell you something. Oh, he said, what a responsibility.
I was with you in weakness, I don't have the answers, and in fear. Without Him we can do nothing,
and in much trembling and awe, not of men, but of God. I'm not
in awe of your learning, because that's all foolishness. The wisdom
of this world will pass away." I'm not in awe of your accomplishments
because you are going to be buried. Your final resting place is going
to be right next to mine, six feet under the dirt with worms
in your belly. You ain't going to be near as
pretty in a hundred years as you are now. I'm not in awe of your
beauty and strength. You've got muscles. You're seven
foot tall and weigh 280 pounds. You won't be someday. It will
put you in a nickel paper bag in about a hundred years. and
rattle like a peanut in a boxcar, Brother Mews said. Won't be nothing
left of you. No, sir, not a thing. I'm not
in awe and fear and trembling of any human being because they're
just a mass of rotten putrid flesh of God. Failing God. Failing to glorify God. Failing
to be true to God. Failing to be true to his gospel.
And he said, verse 4, and my speech and my preaching was not
geared to persuade men to follow me or God. That's what he's saying.
My speech and my preaching was not with enticing. Enticing means
seductive, persuasible, wooing type of thing to get you to follow
me or follow God. But my speech and preaching was
in a demonstration of the Holy Spirit. and the power of God. He said, we depended on the Holy
Spirit to convict men of sin and to convince them of sin and
to convince them of the gospel and bring them to follow God.
Now, that's right. You watch the preachers today
and they're doing exactly what Paul wouldn't do. They're coming
with oratorical ability, human intellectualism and wisdom. They're
not in weakness and fear. Well, they've got the world by
the tail on a downhill pull, you ask them. They're cocky fellows,
they've got all the answers, you ask them. It doesn't matter
whether you ask them a question about medicine, history, science,
religion, or whatever, they've got the answers. How to straighten
out your home and keep it straight, how to raise your children, all
these things, they've got all the answers. And they entice
me, and they persuade me, and they get the organ to play it,
and the choir to sing it softly, and they use these different
ways of getting you to come and make a decision, make a decision,
make a decision. And here's what happens, verse
5. Your faith stands in their wisdom. It stands in their books,
and their arguments, and their logic, and their debate. Paul
said, I don't want your faith to stand in the wisdom of me,
but in the power of God. That's where your faith's got
to stand. The preacher didn't do anything for me. God did something
for me. The preacher taught me the gospel.
He preached the gospel to me, but God saved me. That's what
Paul's saying. I didn't come with oratory and
intellectualism, matching wits with me, and I scared to death.
I was in fear and trembling and awe of God, weakness. I was nothing
without him. I can do nothing. I cast myself
on God. God just used my voice to speak
and my tongue to articulate and to present to the people the
gospel because, and I don't want to entice them and persuade them
to do anything. I want your spirit to take the
truth and pierce the hearts of men. And then if their hearts
are pierced and pricked and they're brought to confession of Christ
and faith in Christ, then it doesn't matter what happens to
me, they're built on the rock Christ and they're not going
to fall. It doesn't matter, you know, they're not following me
anyway, they're following Him. See what he's talking about in
verse 2, for he said, I determine, I determine not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now that's my
message. That's the conclusion that I came to, that's what I'm
going to preach, is Christ in Him crucified. Now, let me ask
this question, what is it to preach Christ in Him crucified?
And I say, well, I preach Christ crucified. Well, is it just,
listen to me, is it just to state the fact that He was crucified?
and then go on to other things. Now that's what most preachers
are doing today, they're saying, our hope's in Christ, he died
on the cross, you believe on him, you're saved, now let's
go fight abortion. Let's go fight pornography. Let's
go close the whiskey store. Let's go out and feed the hungry.
Let's go out and clothe the naked. Let's go out and fight communism. I know Christ. I preached the
blood. I preached Christ crucified. He died on the cross. He was
buried and rose again. And now let's go out and educate
the boys and girls. Is that preaching Christ crucified?
Not on your life. Not on your life. Here it is, to preach Christ
and him crucified is to take the congregation into Gethsemane's
garden and see the Master there on his face. And you can spend
15 minutes of your message describing how that the weight of our sins
and the cloud of God's coming judgment and Christ's whole nature
was rebelling against bearing those sins and even his blood. didn't flow through the veins,
but came through the pores and dropped on the ground, and how
that the sand about him was red with his blood. And he said,
my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death, and then take him
into the soldier's hall. and tell how they plaited that
crown of thorns. You can have the man go out and
get the thorns and plait it, and then Christ sitting there
and shoving it down. You can feel it as he shoves it down
on his head, and then go through all of that in a spittle hitting
his face and dripping down and falling on his on his chest,
and then in plucking a beard, you can feel the hair tearing
out. You can be very descriptive in those things. And then have
him there with his back bared while they beat him with that
cat-of-nine-tails and rake the They'd whip across his back,
and each strand was a piece of glass or steel, and they'd rip
the flesh out and throw it against the other wall, you know, and
blood on the floor, and have him go out, and you can spend
ten minutes of your message describing where they put the nail, either
here or some say here, and you can hear Hear the hammer as it
hits the nail and the nail piercing through the hand and into the
wood and then how they raised that cross up and dropped it
in the hole and the flesh ripped and you could see his bones.
That preaching Christ crucified? Well, to some degree, but not
what Paul's talking about. Because you see, some of those
people to whom he preached, in other places were there when
they drove those names. They could have described it
to Paul because Paul wasn't there. Well, is it preaching Christ
crucified to preach his death as a martyr, as an example, or
as an effort on the part of God to win the pity of men? Don't
think so. Whatever Paul meant here By preaching
Christ crucified, he indicates that everything that a man needs
to know, everything a man needs to have, everything a man needs
to be, is in this message right here, Bob, whatever that means,
preaching Christ crucified. All right, I'm going to give
you seven things that I believe that Paul meant when he said,
I preach Christ and Him crucified. And I can truly say I believe
that when we preach Christ crucified as Christ crucified ought to
be preached, we have in that message all of God's attributes,
God's designs, God's purpose, God's power, God's wisdom, and
God's eternal glory. I hear seven tremendous themes
proclaimed in Christ crucified. The first one is this, to preach
Christ and him crucified is to preach Christ our eternal surety
and covenant head." Now, brethren, do you think the cross was an
afterthought of God? Somebody says, was the cross
a sudden solution to a bad situation? Is that what you think? That
God created man and after man fell, God began to to move around
heaven a little faster. They search through heaven, that's
what the song says, to find a Savior. Oh my goodness, man's fallen,
let's see what we can do about it. No, sir, let me tell you
something. Christ was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. If you preach Christ crucified,
you're preaching the Christ of the covenant, which is everlasting. You're preaching a sacrifice
and a sin offering and a lamb in the purpose, design, and mind
of God, which was slain before man ever fell. Before there was
a sinner, listen to me, there was a Savior. Now, I don't care
who the preacher is, that implies that Almighty God, that Christ
was kind of a last resort. Now, this is false. I don't care
who the preacher is, it seems, or tries to imply, that God Almighty
created man, and man failed. And not being able to survive
in a state of innocence, God put him in a state of conscience,
where he wasn't able to survive doing what was right in his own
eyes, so God gave him a dispensation of judges. And that failed, and
then God gave a dispensation of law. And that failed, and
all having failed, God decided to try grace and sent his Son
into the world. Now, my friends, that's false
theology. That's not scriptural theology. That's error. When
Jesus Christ came into the world, he came into the world as the
Lamb of God, which was already slain in the purpose and mind
of God before the foundation of the world. Now, turn to Revelation
13. This is where that verse is found.
Revelation 13, I quote it frequently, but rarely ever read it because
I take for granted you know it's there. You see, his blood is
the blood of the everlasting covenant. And in Revelation 13,
it says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose
names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. If you will, turn to Acts 2.
Now, really, a while ago when I was talking about the sufferings
of Christ, I wouldn't dare minimize the sufferings of the Master.
The nails were real, the blood was real, the agony was real,
his visions were more than no other man. But now listen to
me. If that's all you see, you'll miss the cross. because our Lord
made his soul an offering for sin. It was the soul agony of
Christ that far superseded his physical agony. His physical
agony was nothing compared with his soul agony. He made his soul
an offering for sin. You see, our sins were laid on
him. It wasn't just bleeding and dying. It wasn't just suffering physically.
It was being made sin for us. And here in Acts 2, verse 23,
and it talks about they crucified Christ, but verse 23 says, "...him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
Now, Acts 4, verse 27-28. Acts 4, 27, Of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered
together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. The relationship between the
sinner and the crucified Savior is an eternal relationship. It
goes back before the foundation of the world. We were chosen
in Christ, we were loved in Christ, we were accepted in Christ. Almighty
God decreed from the foundation of the world to redeem a people
and gave them to Christ and made them, Him, their everlasting
surety and covenant head. So when Paul came preaching Christ
crucified, he didn't start at Jerusalem. He started in the
council halls of eternity. That's so. To preach Christ crucified,
secondly, is to open the Old Testament Scriptures. To open
the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul said Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the Scriptures. Let me tell you, let me give
you a secret. Most of the time in the New Testament when the
word Scriptures is used, it's talking about the Old Testament.
Most every time. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. You search the scriptures, in
them you think you have life and so forth. Now let me ask
you this. How do you preach Genesis 3,
21 without Christ crucified? Now let me tell you, I'll quote
that to you. And the Lord God made coats of skin to cover the
man and his wife, cover their nakedness. In other words, let
me tell you something. Adam and Eve had fallen. And
they realized to their shame and fear and reproach that they
were naked. And they ran and grabbed some
fig leaves off a fig tree and made them aprons to cover their
nakedness. They realized this, they weren't
ashamed before, but now they had sinful natures and so forth.
And God came and he said, that covering won't do. So he slew
an animal. In other words, the first death,
the first blood, The first time that an animal or a man or anyone
had died on this earth, the first death on this earth was to cover
a man's nakedness, to cover his sin. And God, the first blood
shed was to cover a man's nakedness. The innocent died to cover the
guilty. Now, how do you preach that unless
you point me into the cross? Take Abel, I could go, I'm not
going to keep you here all day going, but Abel bringing that
sacrifice, Cain bringing his works, fixing his altar up with
flowers and painting the rocks, and he had that fixed up and
his fruits and vegetables, and Abel brought over here the blood,
but how do you preach that without the cross? How do you preach? Abraham and Isaac, Abraham and
Isaac going up the mountain to sacrifice his son. His son said,
here's the fire, here's the wood, where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? Where's the lamb? Abraham said, God will provide
himself a lamb. And when they got up there, the
son lay on the altar and Abraham raised his knife to do what God
commanded. God said, touch not the lad.
Looked behind you and he saw a ram caught in a thicket and
he took that ram and killed it, lifted Isaac off the altar, put
the ram in his place and slew the ram and shed his blood. How
do you preach that without the cross? Christ is our substitute. He hangs on my cross. That ram
lays on Isaac's altar and dies Isaac's death and sheds the blood
which Isaac would have shed. That's Christ. How do you preach
the Passover? What does the Passover mean?
A preacher not long ago, he's a preacher, he's an assistant
pastor and song leader of a certain Baptist church, said to the person
that was teaching the young people, don't talk about blood and things
like that to the young people. It upsets them. The children
ought not hear things like that. Let me tell you something. If
you're squeamish about blood, you better not go in the tabernacle
of old. That tabernacle that stood, how do you preach the
tabernacle in the wilderness? From the altar at the eastern
gate, to the labor, to the inside here, to the Holy of Holies,
blood, Charlie, everywhere, blood was shed, morning, noon, and
night, blood. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.
I've given you the blood upon the altar to make an atonement
for your soul. What was the crisis point in
Abraham's life? Isaac's sacrifice. What was the
crisis point in Abel's life? The altar, right, when he was
killed. What's the crisis point in Egypt
after 400 years? Put the blood on the door. What
is the critical center of the whole Jewish nation? The tabernacle. The smitten rock, the brazen
serpent. How do you preach these things
without the cross? They are meaningless, totally,
and these are the critical, crisis, acme, paramount, topmost, this
is the very zenith of every one of these men's lives with something
to do with the cross. That's exactly right. And you
can't preach it without the cross. How can you preach Jonah? Ask Jonah. Now, Jonah, you lived
long down there. Tell us the most critical point
of your life." Well, he said, no problem there. The belly of
the whale. And our Lord Jesus said, so shall
the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. Thirdly, quickly,
to preach Christ crucified is to preach his virgin birth and
incarnation. Do you think Jesus of Nazareth
was the first man to die on the cross? No, sir. The only man
to die on the cross? No. We act like it. There were
two there when he died. The last man down the cross,
no. And what's so special about Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Because of who He was. Because
of who He was. He's the Son of God. God said
this from Genesis 3.15, the woman's seed will bruise the serpent's
head. You'll bruise his heel. Isaiah 7.14 says, a virgin's
going to bring forth a son, he'll be called Emmanuel, God with
us. And the angel added to that and
said he'll save his people from their sins. How? On the cross.
If he's not the virgin son, he's not God's son. If he's not the
virgin son, he's not without sin. If he's not the virgin son,
he's not the Christ, the Messiah we look for. If he's not the
virgin son, his death meant no more than any other thief who
died on the cross. So when you preach Christ crucified,
you preach the incarnation, the virgin birth, the coming of Christ. He said, for this cause came
after this hour. This is why I came in the world,
to seek and to save the lost. And then fourth day to preach
Christ crucified is to preach his sinless life. His sinless
life and substitution. Now, let me, I want you to turn
to Luke 23. I will burden you to do that
with me. I want to show you something.
Not make it a play on words, but I want to show you something
here. Luke 23, verse 14. Listen to what it says. Luke
23, 14. Pilate said unto them, Luke 23,
verse 40, "...you brought this man to me as one that perverted
the people, and behold, I, having examined him before you, have
found no fault in this man." I find no fault in this man.
That's the judge. All right, turn over to verse
41. Now here are the folks that died with him. One of them said,
we're getting what we deserve, Luke 23, verse 41, we received
the due reward of our deeds. This man had done nothing, nothing
amiss. This man had done nothing wrong.
Now here's one of the centurions who was in charge of the soldiers
there that crucified him. When the centurion saw what was
done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous
man. All right, I have this question. no fault in him, nothing amiss,
a righteous man. What's a man with no fault, nothing
amiss, and a righteous life doing on a cross? What's he doing on
a cross? Why did God permit this? God,
what's wrong with you? You're unjust. This man ought
never died and suffered like this. What in the world is a
righteous man doing on a cross? Well, I'll tell you, he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace, and God was just in crucifying
Christ because he was numbered with the transgressors. Now,
you preach substitution, and that's what I'm saying. God's
law must have a righteousness, and Jesus Christ chose to identify
himself with us and be brought under that law, so he had to
obey. And Jesus Christ chose to identify
himself with us, so by his death and his knowledge he justified
many. Jesus Christ was the greatest
single sinner that ever lived on this earth. Now understand
what I'm saying. Though he knew no sin, he did
no sin, God found no fault in him, and bearing all the sins
of all the elect of all generations on that body of Jesus Christ
was accumulated all of the guilt of all the people of God, of
all nations, races, tribes, kindred, and generations. And he was the
greatest single sinner that ever lived, judicially and legally. That's right. That's right, all
right. Fourthly, or fifthly, to preach
Christ crucified is to preach Christ risen. No message about
Christ crucified would dare leave him on a cross. You know why
I don't have a crucifix in my home? Because Christ is not on
a cross. You know why I abhor them and
despise them and speak against them? He's not on a cross. He's
risen. We don't worship a dead Christ,
we worship a living Lord. I don't have any pictures of
Christ crucified. The women came to the tomb and
the angels with amazement said, why are you here? Why are you
looking for the living among the dead? You're looking in the
wrong place. He lives. He lives. If Christ be not risen, our preaching's
vain. But he can't rise unless he dies.
You've got to preach Christ crucified to preach the resurrection, and
you've got to preach the resurrection if you preach the right Christ
who was crucified. The Catholics have another Jesus.
If he's in a tomb or if he's on a cross or if he's in a box,
he's not the Christ who sits at the right hand of God. If
he be not risen, our faith is vain, we're false witnesses,
the dead rise not, we're yet in our sins, and we're all men
most miserable. His resurrection declares he
died not in vain. He's declared to be the Son of
God by the resurrection of the dead. So when we sing that song,
one day they led him up Calvary's mountain, one day they laid him
in a tomb. Be sure you sing that last verse,
one day he arose. All right, in the sixth place,
to preach Christ crucified is to preach Christ exalted. You
see, the way to the crown is by way of the cross. No cross,
no crown. He died that He might be Lord.
If you're going to preach Christ crucified, you've got to preach
why He was crucified. He died to redeem a people, but
He died that He may be Lord of the dead and the living. Where
is he now? You see, preach Christ crucified.
You can preach your whole ministry. That's what Paul said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that takes him from his charityship,
his eternal covenant of mercy and grace, the blood of the everlasting
covenant, to our Lord Jesus' exaltation and his blessed return. He said, I'm coming and my reward
is with me. where you can't have a kingdom
without a king, and the king can't have his subjects without
redeeming them, and he can't redeem them without dying for
them. And then last of all, to preach Christ crucified is to
preach holiness of life and obedience. Let me tell you, down to where
the rubber meets the road, down to the nitty-gritty of this thing,
what is a true believer's true motive? Forgiving, for praying,
for holiness, for obedience, for righteousness. What is his
true motive for holiness, for happiness, for peace, for hope? Is it not Christ crucified? Is
that not? Didn't Paul say, the love of
Christ constraineth me? Is that not the true motive?
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. Let's look at this a moment.
What is the true motive? All frills aside, all fanciness
aside, just get down to the true rock-bottom motive for whatever
I do, religiously or spiritually, is it not Christ's love for me
and my love for Christ? In 2 Corinthians 5.14, Paul said,
"...the love of Christ constraineth me." Because we thus judge, if
one died for all, then we were all dead. And that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. Now the law will
produce an obedience, but the law preached will produce an
outward reluctant obedience. That's exactly right. It'll produce
an obedience, but it'll be an outward, reluctant obedience. It'll be an obedience that is
performed because that's what I'm supposed to do. That's my
responsibility. That's my duty. All right? Secondly, fear of punishment
will produce an obedience, but it'll produce a resentful obedience. I'll do it, but I resent it.
It's like that little boy's mother told him, I said, sit down. Sit
down! And he sat down. But he said,
I'm sitting down on the outside, but I'm standing up on the inside. And that's what fear of punishment...
He's scared she's going to whop him, so he sat down. Now, take
away that fear of punishment, he'd have never sat down. That's
exactly right. We do it. You see, the law produces
an outward reluctant obedience. And fear of punishment produces
a resentful obedience. I'll do it, but I'm not going
to like it. And the promises of reward, if you serve God and
win souls and tithe, he'll do this and he'll do that, and if
you do these things, that produces a hypocritical obedience. That's
merchandise. That's exactly right. There's
only one true motive for true, inward, willing, loving obedience,
and that's love. I use a mother. What motivates
women to go through the labor and pains and travail to bring
forth a child? Love. That's what you can't...
Any of you women, I tell you, one of you women won't have a
baby in here, I'll pay you $1,000. Not me, not for all the money in
the world, but for love you will. That's exact. What motivates
a father to go out and work? You know, some of you men, I
know you work hard now, but back yonder when men had to cut trees
and build log houses and raise pigs and cows and work from sunup
to sundown, plowing an old hard ground that's full of rocks and
full of stumps and wear holes in your shoes and rags to feed
a bunch of children. Why don't you catch the train
out of here? You love them. Love does that. Love does that. Love for Christ. is learned at Calvary, greater
love hath no man. Forgiveness is learned at Calvary,
forgive one another as God has forgiven you. Giving is learned
at Calvary, humility let this mind be in you which was in Christ.
Submission, I'm just saying this with all my heart, I don't want
anybody's forced obedience or forced companionship or forced
allegiance. I don't want any friend that's
my friend because he's afraid not to be. I don't want anybody's
friendship that I have to buy. And God doesn't either. God's
infinitely greater than I. But I'll tell you whose friendship
I love and cherish and want is that friendship that's born of
love for myself and love for you. I love you. If you're ragged,
I still love you. If you don't have a dime, I love
you. If you're the stinkeroo of town, I still love you. You
know, that's the thing. That's what you cherish, isn't
it? Well, that's what God cherishes, to love Him. You use any other
motive you want to, but I say preach Christ crucified, and
if some folks ever visit Calvary, they'll come away changed. I
believe that. We preach Christ crucified. Our
Father, honor Your Word this morning, not for our glory. Lord, enable us, whatever we
do in word or deed or in our planning and whatever, do it
for your glory. Lord, glorify Thyself. There's
nothing going to survive but that which glorifies Thee. Help
us to understand that. There's nothing in this world
that's going to survive, be tolerated, put up with, except that which
glorifies Thee and Thy dear Son, gives Him the preeminence. So,
Lord, take this message and beget in us Faith in Christ, love for
Christ, submission to Christ. And God help us love for one
another, a unity of spirit at the feet of Christ. Grant it.
Do for us what we can't do for ourselves. And bring men and
women, lost people, to look to Christ, to see this gospel and
to receive it and embrace it. For Christ's sake we pray, amen.