I want you to open your Bibles
with me this morning to the book of 1 Corinthians. I'm going to
speak on my favorite subject. My message today will be on the
subject, what does it mean to preach Christ crucified? What does it mean to preach Christ
crucified? Now, Paul writing in 1 Corinthians
1.22 says, for the Jews, that is the religious people, require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified. Unto the Jews, the religious
people, a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness
or sheer nonsense, but unto them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. What is it to preach Christ?
Is it just to state the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified
on a cross, that he did die on a cross between two thieves,
and that he was buried, and to exhort men to believe that fact,
then go on to other things? Is that what it means to preach
Christ crucified, to state the facts concerning his death only? Paul indicated that when he preached
Christ crucified, that everything a man needed to know was included
in that message. For to the church at Corinth
he wrote, I am determined, I am determined to know nothing among
you. And Corinth was a city of philosophers, orators, so-called
wise men who met on a regular basis to discuss what new thing
they had learned. And Paul said to these people,
I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, all that a man needs to know. The message of
God, the gospel of redemption, is in Christ and Him crucified.
And that's what Paul is saying. I'm determined. Paul could have
known other things. He was one of the wisest, most
educated men of his day, and one of the most experienced men.
But he said, I'm determined to know nothing but Christ and Him
crucified. And here's the reason for that.
A man can have the form of religion without having true faith. And
we know that so, because that's one of the accusations that the
Apostle brought against one of the early churches. He said you
have a form of godliness, but you deny the power thereof. So
a man can have a form of godliness, a form of religion, and not have
true faith. But if a man has true faith in
Jesus Christ, the right form of worship, the right form of
fellowship, The right form of religious ceremonies and so forth
will immediately follow. A man can have the form and not
have true faith, but if he has true faith, the correct form
or obedience will follow. The way he worships God, the
way he prays, the way he teaches and preaches. Another thing,
a man can have outward moral conduct before other men without
being converted, without having true conversion. Now that's so.
A man can have a right moral conduct before people. I'm not talking about before
God, because before God there's none that doeth good, no, not
one. There's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after
Christ. But a man can have outward moral conduct before men and
not be converted, not be regenerated. But if a man experiences true
conversion and true regeneration, that produces godly conduct,
not only before men, but before God, and not only outwardly,
but inwardly. Watch this. A man can have religious
orthodoxy. He can have zeal for God. He
can have some correct theology without having redemption. Saul
of Tarsus is a perfect example of this. He said he had great
zeal. He, before the law, was blameless.
He exceeded many his equals. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He had the orthodoxy. He had the ceremonies and the
traditions of religion. But he did not know Christ. So
a man can have this orthodoxy and theology and not know God.
But a man who knows God will be led by the Spirit of God into
correct theology. You don't arrive at Christ through
doctrine. You arrive at correct doctrine
through Christ. Our Lord said the Holy Spirit,
when he has come, will guide you into all truth. But you can't
be guided in the truth, all truth, the truth of Christ until you
know him. What's this? A man can have a
knowledge of Bible facts and accurately and correctly quote
scripture without a knowledge of Christ. Now this was true
of the Pharisees. Our Lord accused them of searching
the scriptures. He said, you search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me. So a man can have a working knowledge
of the Bible. He can know the books of the
Bible, the authors of those books, where they were written, when
they were written, for whom they were written, and he can correctly
quote certain scriptures, and he can know something about the
history recorded in the Bible, and not have a knowledge of God.
But a man who has a knowledge of God, a knowledge of Christ,
he has a knowledge of the scriptures and a true understanding of the
mysteries of God's work. So this is why Paul said, I'm
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him
crucified. Because if we come to know Christ,
the right form, the right theology, the right conduct, and an understanding
of the mysteries of the scripture will follow. What I'm saying
is this, and what the apostle records. is that the gospel of
God is concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And that gospel
of God is all revealed at Calvary in the great work of redemption
accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross. Christ crucified
is the fulfillment of all Scripture. Christ crucified is the goal
and end of the Levitical law. Christ crucified is the fulfillment
of every promise and every prophecy. Christ crucified is the message
of the prophets. To him, give all the prophets
witness. Christ crucified is the hope
of the sinner. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ crucified is the glory
of the Father. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. He said, I will be merciful.
I will be gracious. Christ crucified is the revelation
of the Spirit. He shall not speak of himself,
Christ said, but he will take the things of mine and show them
to you. That's where men learn of God. That's where men learn of forgiveness. That's where men learn of redemption
at the cross. The hymn writer has correctly
stated it, at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith. I received my sight and now I'm
happy all the day. When Paul said we preach Christ
crucified, Did he mean that he only talked about the death of
Christ? That he only talked about Jesus
Christ's sufferings on the cross and said nothing of his pre-existence,
nothing of his incarnate glory, nothing of his holy life, nothing
of his commandments, nothing of his teachings and miracles,
nothing of his resurrection? Nothing of his ascension, nothing
of his mediatorial reign, nothing of his second coming and his
eternal reign. Is that what Paul meant? Certainly
not. But when we say Christ crucified and we preach Christ crucified,
we're saying that we preach in the death of Christ all of his
attributes, all of his purpose, and all of his glory. And I want
to give you seven tremendous themes that I believe. are revealed
to us in the message, Christ Crucified. We preach Christ Crucified. Now, it's not just to say he
died. You haven't preached Christ Crucified just to state the fact
that he died and go on to other things. For in the death of Christ
is contained all that God has written from Genesis 3.15 to
the last chapter of Revelation. I want to show you that. To preach
Christ crucified is to preach Christ as our eternal surety
and representative. What do you mean by that, preacher?
I mean this. The cross was not an afterthought. The death of
Christ was not an afterthought. The death of Jesus Christ on
the cross was no solution which God came up with in time to correct
a bad situation that took place in the garden. That's not so.
There was a Savior before there was a sinner. Before Adam fell,
Christ was ordained and appointed and designated as the Redeemer
of sinners. Listen to the scripture. Peter,
speaking to the people who crucified Christ, when he preached at Pentecost,
said this, You with wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory,
but you did what God determined before to be done. He was delivered
into your hands by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. And Paul called Christ the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. I'm saying this, that
the relationship between Christ and his people goes back further
than Calvary. It goes back further than Mount
Moriah. It goes back further than the
Garden of Eden. It goes back into the council
halls of eternity. For Christ is the surety of an
everlasting covenant. His blood is the blood of an
everlasting covenant. His priesthood is an eternal
priesthood like that of Melchizedek, having no beginning or ending. So here's what we're saying.
When Christ died on that cross, if I put Christ in him crucified,
when he died on that cross, that crucifixion was no afterthought.
It didn't occur to God or fall into the plan and purpose of
God after Adam fell. But Christ was the Lamb slain
in the purpose of God, in the mind of God, in the ordained
counsel of God before Adam ever was created. He was the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. You see, my friends,
we were chosen in Christ. We were before the world began.
That's what Ephesians tells us. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13,
Paul said, I thank God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. God
chose us in Christ before the world began. He accepted us in
Christ. He looked on us and loved us in Christ. He redeemed us
in Christ. And when we preach Christ crucified,
We're saying that the one who's hanging on that cross is the
appointed Savior, who is dying the appointed death, at the appointed
time, for the appointed people. That's what the Scripture teaches.
The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, promised and prophesied
all the way through the Old Testament, and manifested and fulfilled
in time. That's what Christ is saying
in John 6, 37. He said, All that my Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out.
For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I'll lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. So to preach Christ
crucified, you've got to go back in the council halls of eternity.
And preach when that death was ordained, when that death was
appointed, by whom that death was appointed. Who is the planner
of it? Who is the one who decreed it?
Who is the one who purposed it? Almighty God. When did he purpose
it? Before the world began. Christ said, for this cause came
after this hour. He talked about going to the
cross and suffering and dying, and his disciples said, don't
do that, Lord. He said, well, for this cause came after this
hour. And when he prayed in Gethsemane's garden, he lifted his eyes to
heaven, and he said, Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may glorify thee. The hour is come. The hour is
come. So that's what it is to preach
Christ and him crucified. Now quickly, secondly, to preach
Christ and him crucified is to preach Christ the Messiah. The
Christ, the Old Testament Messiah. You see over here in 1 Corinthians
15, Paul said, I delivered unto you first of all that which also
I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures, that he was buried and rose again according to the
scriptures. What scriptures are we talking
about there? According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? No, sir.
According to Moses, according to Abraham, according to David,
according to Jeremiah, according to Isaiah. These are the scriptures
we're talking about, the Old Testament scriptures. from the
first promise in Genesis 3.15 when God said the seed of woman
will bruise the serpent's head, till the day that John the Baptist
stood on the banks of Jordan and said, Behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. Every promise,
every prophecy, every picture, every type announces the death
of Jesus Christ on the cross. How do you preach able sacrifice
without the cross? There's no point to able sacrifice.
There's no point to the teaching there at all. Here's a young
man who brought to an altar blood and shed the blood of an animal
on an altar thousands of years ago, and God had respect for
his offering. Animal blood cannot put away
man's sin. How in the world could an animal
blood be sufficient for the sins of a human being? What's that
sacrifice saying? How do you preach it? Well, it
means nothing except in the light of the cross. How do you preach
Isaac's experience on Mount Moriah? When Abraham took his son up
there and put him on an altar to sacrifice him and God said
don't touch the lad and he looked behind him there was a ram caught
in the thicket and Abraham released his son and put the ram in his
place and the ram died and shed its blood. There's no part to
that story except as it points to Calvary where Christ is a
substitute who hung on the cross in our place and in our state.
How do you preach the Passover in Egypt? How do you handle it?
How do you deal with it? It's foolishness without the
cross as its fulfillment. You see, when the people were
down in Egypt and God would deliver them, He told them to take a
lamb without spot or blemish, the first thing of the flock,
and put it up for three or four days and observe it, and then
to kill that lamb and eat the roasted flesh and put the blood
on the doorpost and on the lintel, and I'll pass over you when I
see the blood. What does that mean? Well, Paul tells us Christ,
our Passover, is sacrificed for us. You see, when I preach Christ
crucified, I'm preaching the whole Old Testament. Every type,
every illustration, every promise, every prophecy, every one of
these things. How do you preach the brazen
serpents? Here the people were having been bitten by the fiery
serpents and were dying, and God said to Moses, make a serpent
of brass in the image of the serpents that have bitten the
people and lift it up on the pole, and whosoever look it, live it.
That doesn't mean a thing in this world except as it points
to Calvary. You see those people took that
very serpent of brass and worshipped it till Hezekiah came along and
ground it to powder and said it wasn't anything but a worthless
piece of brass. That serpent had no power to
heal or to save. It was the Christ that that serpent
represented. That's Christ crucified. How
do you preach the smitten rock when Moses smote the rock and
the water came out and the thirsty people drank and lived? That
rock is Christ. That's what the scripture says.
How do you preach the lamb that was killed and the atonement
in the tabernacle when the high priest came into the presence
of God and put the blood on the mercy seat? What does that mean?
It means nothing except for Calvary. That's what I'm saying. To preach
Christ crucified is to preach Christ dying according to the
scriptures. Barrett rose again according
to the scriptures. And all of the scriptures. What
does Isaiah 53, 4 through 6 mean? He was wounded by a transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was laid on Him by His stripes we are healed. It means nothing
except you preach Christ crucified. And then to preach Christ crucified
is to preach the virgin birth and incarnation of Christ. Now
there are people all over the world who believe in the virgin
birth who don't know why. And they don't know why the virgin
birth is necessary. They don't know why Jesus Christ had to
be born of the virgin. Well, I'll tell you why. The
one who died on the cross to be our savior had to be the son
of God. He couldn't be the son of Joseph.
He couldn't be the son of a human being. He had to be the son of
God. The death of an ordinary man would do me no good. Plenty
of people died on crosses before and after Jesus Christ died on
the cross. But he was no ordinary man. As
the centurion says, this was the son of God. He was born not
of man, but of God. born of the Spirit of God. Isaiah
7.13 says, The Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bring forth a son. And in Matthew, interpreting
that, says, And thou shalt call his name Jesus, Emmanuel, God
with us, he shall save his people from their sin. If Christ is
not virgin born, he is Joseph's And consequently a son of Adam,
and consequently a sinner, and consequently his death is as
worthless as anybody else who ever died on a tree. In fact,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Galatians 4, 4 and
5 says, In the fullness of time God sent his son, his son, not
Joseph's son, his son into the world, made of a woman, not made
of a man and woman, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them who were born under the law. My friends, the virgin birth
of Jesus Christ indicates that he is the Son of God. He is without
sin. He is the perfect sacrifice and
the perfect substitute. He did not partake in Adam's
transgression. He knew no sin. He died on the
cross, the Son of God, the Son of Man. Now, in the next place,
to preach Christ crucified is to preach Christ the sinless
substitute. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
You see, righteousness, holiness, can never be provided by one
who does not uphold the perfect law of God, in Ibera, Jot and
Tittle. The suffering Savior must also be the sinless Savior.
It not only says He did no sin, it says He knew no sin. He was
tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. When we preach
Christ crucified, We're talking about him who died as a substitute
for sinners who had no sins of his own for which to die. He
took our transgressions, our iniquities, our sins by his stripes
we're healed. In the fifth place, to preach
Christ crucified is to preach Christ the risen one. He's not
going to rise unless he dies. You've got to have his death
before you have his resurrection. The angel said when they came
to the tomb on that Sunday morning, The angel said, why do you seek
the living among the dead? He's not here. He is risen. And
Paul, talking about his resurrection, says, who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who ever liveth to make intercession
for us. If Christ be not risen, our preaching
is in vain. If Christ be not risen, your
faith is in vain. If Christ be not risen, We are
false witnesses of God. If Christ be not risen, the dead
rise not. If Christ be not risen, you are
yet in your sin. If Christ be not risen, we are
of all men most miserable. But by the death of Christ, one
clear fact is indicated. Jesus Christ, the perfect substitute
who died on the cross and was buried, has been raised by the
power of God and seated at God's right hand having fulfilled all
that God required for us as our representative, and God has accepted
his effectual, sufficient, and perfect work, and nothing needs
to be added to it. As our Lord said before he died
on that cross, it is finished. The work is complete. The work
is totally fulfilled. All that God required, his perfect
law satisfied, his justice honored, his people redeemed. Now, in
the sixth place, to preach Christ crucified is to preach the Exalted
One. Our Lord is not on the cross.
Our Lord is not in the tomb. Where is Jesus Christ? The Scripture
says, He sat down at the right hand of God, expecting till his
enemies become his footstool. In Philippians 2, verse 7, the
Apostle Paul said, Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus. who thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
himself the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore, you see how Paul preached
Christ crucified and moved right into every subject related to
redemption, every subject related to faith, every subject related
to the redeemed people's position. He says, Christ thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every tongue,
every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, in heaven,
earth, and hell, that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
There had been no crown without a cross. There'd be no kingdom
without a cross. There'd be no ascension to glory
without a cross. Now that's right. And that's
what we mean by preaching Christ crucified. He's exalted to the
right hand of God. We are accepted and seated in
him. And Paul writes in the whole
ninth and tenth chapter of Hebrews that we as believers and priests
of God, he hath made us kings and priests unto God. that we
have the privilege and the right and the boldness and even the
commandment to come into God's very presence because we have
a high priest, Jesus Christ, who has opened for us through
the veil by his flesh, or by his death, or by the suffering
and sacrifice of his flesh, a new and living way into the presence
of God. You can't even preach his priesthood without his death.
You can't preach the renting of the veil without his death.
You cannot preach praise without his death. What are the sacrifices
that a believer brings to God? We don't bring animal sacrifices
or blood sacrifices or silver and gold sacrifices. We bring
the sacrifice of praise and worship and gratitude and adoration,
fear, awe, love. These are the sacrifices. But
we have the boldness to come into God's presence because Christ
died. The death of Christ crucified
cannot be exhausted. You can preach it from now until
the day he comes, every message, every sermon, and you never get
to the depth of it, never get to the bottom of it. You never
get to the fullness of it. You just touch the hem of the
garment. He is our great high priest. Last of all, to preach
Christ crucified is to preach his eternal suretyship and our
relationship with him. When he came to die on that cross,
the appointed Savior, the appointed death at the appointed time.
It's to preach his eternal representation. It's to preach his sinless life,
his virgin birth. It's to preach his effectual
sacrifice, his priesthood. It's to preach our relationship
with him. It's to preach Christ the virgin born, crucified, risen,
exalted one. And it's to preach Christ coming
again. He told his disciples, I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place,
I'll come again. How do you prepare that place?
He prepared that place by his death. He prepared the people
by his death. I will come again and receive
you unto myself. When he ascended to heaven, the
angel stood and said to the disciples, ye men of Galilee, why stand
ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go. He came down here and purchased
the people, and he purchased the kingdom, and he went back
to glory, and he is coming again to claim what he purchased. So when Paul said, I determined
to know nothing among you, but Jesus Christ and him crucified,
he said, I know the whole Bible, the whole counsel of God, the
whole purpose and program of God for sinners.