Let me read the text again from
1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. But we preach Christ, but we
preach Christ crucified, under the Jews a stumbling block, and
under the Greeks foolishness but are to them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. There's one thing of which I'm
absolutely sure. The Apostle Paul who said, I'm
not one whit behind the chief apostle, but I'm nothing. The Apostle Paul who declared,
I obtained mercy, though I was a blasphemer. a persecutor and
injurious, this Apostle Paul preached Christ and Him crucified. Under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, he declared that his message was Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. He declared under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit that his ministry was laid on one foundation, Jesus
Christ, the chief cornerstone. He declared under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit that his travail and soul pain was that those
that hurt him have Christ formed in their hearts. That was his
concern. That was his message. That was
his ministry. That was his concern. That's
my concern. I wrestle with this. I'm troubled
about this. I'm in deep concern about this. I want to preach Christ and Him
crucified. I want men confronted with Christ,
not with a system of doctrine, but with Christ. One day some
folks came to the Lord, and they said, which is the greatest law?
He said, well, all the laws fulfilled in love. They said, well, suppose
a woman has four or five husbands, and then she dies. Who's going
to be her husband in glory? He said, you err, not knowing
the scriptures nor the power of God. In heaven, they neither
marry nor are given in marriage. are like the angels. Another
one said, well, should we pay taxes to this man Caesar, since
your kingdom's not of this world? He said, you render to Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, to God the things that are God's.
And before they walked off, he said, hold it. I've got something
to ask you. They tried to trap him, and they
tried to trick him, and they tried to find fault with his
answers, but he said, I've got a question. What think ye of
Christ? That's the question of all questions,
and that's the question to be settled and to be answered. I
know there are a lot of things we want to know. There are a
lot of things we're concerned about, but all of them can wait
till this question is answered realistically in your heart,
in my heart, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And I know that preaching law
and morality has its place. Brother Barnard used to say,
a man's not a good preacher of the gospel unless he's a preacher
of the law, and that's probably true. Law and morality have its
place, but it's not preaching Christ. We can preach the law
from now until the day Christ comes and not preach Christ.
One old Puritan said he labored preaching law, trying to make
men righteous, but there wasn't a righteous man in the community.
And then he started preaching Christ, and God was pleased to
save some folks. I believe in preaching love,
good works, labor of love and works of faith. These things
are necessary to our well-being. Faith without works is dead.
My friends, Christ and Him crucified is necessary to our very being. Love and good works is necessary
for our well-being, but Christ and Him crucified is absolutely
essential for my very being. And I don't start with love,
I start with Christ. I don't start with works, I start
with Christ. It's the person and then the
privilege. It's the Savior and then the blessings and the benefits.
Preaching prophecy, that's interesting. What is to come, that's interesting.
Looking into the unknown is interesting, but it's not Christ and Him crucified.
And then, my friends, drenching our congregations, as one man
said, with the terrors of hell and the joys of heaven may serve
a purpose. But it's certainly not preaching
Christ and Him crucified. Paul preached Christ and Him
crucified. He said that. He said, we preach
Christ crucified. Well, how did he preach Christ
and Him crucified? Let's settle that first before
we get into answering the question, what is it to preach Christ and
Him crucified? Look at chapter 2, 1 Corinthians
2. How did Paul preach Christ and
Him crucified? There's a way to preach Christ.
There's a way to preach Christ and Him crucified. Well, first
of all, in verse 1, he tells us that he preached the gospel
with simplicity. I wish we could return to the
day of simplicity. I wish we as preachers would
quit trying to impress and people would quit expecting to be impressed. If we would quit trying to impress,
and you would quit expecting to be impressed. And let's just
get down to the foundation. Let's get down to real issues. Let's get down to defining the
issues. Paul said, Brethren, when I came
to you, I didn't come with excellence, if speak. I didn't come with
flowery terms. I didn't come with beautiful
oratory. I didn't come with wisdom of
speech, declaring unto you the testimony of God. I preached
Christ in simplicity. I call things what they are.
Sometimes I pick up a religious article and read it. I have to
re-read it, and I have to re-read it again, and when I get to the
third time, I say, why didn't he just say that like it is? Why go to all these long words
and definitions and Greek terms and all of these things that
I don't understand and people don't understand? Why don't we
just say, men are lost, men need a Savior. Christ is that Savior. Come to Him. He loves you. He died for you. He intercedes
for you. Let's just say it like it is.
That's what Paul's saying here. I preach Christ with simplicity. With simplicity. And then in
the second verse, he said, I preach Christ with determination. I
determine, I determine not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now some of us, that wouldn't
be too difficult because we don't know much else. But now with
Paul, this wasn't true. Paul knew a whole lot of things.
I imagine Paul could identify the stars as well as anybody
else. Paul had been educated in the greatest university of
his day. Paul had been, had a theological
education. I'm sure he had a secular education.
In fact, one of the rulers One of the men who knew what was
going on said, Paul, much learning has driven you crazy. You've
studied too much and lost your mind. This man was a scholar.
This man exceeded many his age and equal. This man was a Pharisee
of Pharisee. And he could have known other
things. He could have matched wits with the Greeks. He could
have matched wits with the Jews. He could have matched eloquence
with the orators, but he said, I determine. I determine. And this is at Corinth. He's
talking to these people who majored in witty things and intelligent
things and higher criticism and wisdom. He said, I can match
wits with you, but I've determined, I'm determined in my heart to
know one thing, and that's Christ being crucified. And we need
to do the same thing. We need not to be intimidated
by anyone. Charles Spurgeon went one time
to Parliament to preach. He was invited. Spurgeon had
a huge congregation. He preached. When they were building
the tabernacle, he preached in a music hall to 20,000 people. That impressed everybody in England.
The churches were being emptied by the dry and and intelligent
and intellectual stuff they were calling preaching, and Spurgeon
got up there with his polka dot handkerchief. He had a blue and
white polka dot handkerchief that he held in his hand all
the time he was preaching, and he'd preach and he'd wave that
handkerchief, and he'd give illustrations, and a lot of people made fun
of him, but folks came to hear him. And he went to Parliament
to preach. And when he got through preaching,
he preached on man's sinfulness. He preached on there's none good,
no not one. There's none righteous. There's
none that understandeth. All is sin and comes short of
the glory of God. And when he got through preaching
and he stepped down from the lectern or wherever it was they
put him, one of the statesmen, one of the One of the intellectual
and wise leaders of England came up and said, well, Mr. Spurgeon,
that sermon would have been more suited for Newgate. Newgate was
the prison. That sermon was more suitable
for Newgate than for Parliament. Spurgeon, not to be outdone,
turned to him and said, if I'd been preaching at Newgate, I'd
have preached not on all its sin, but come shore the glory
of God. But I the priest don't behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world." They know their loss. They know their
loss. Brethren, we need not be intimidated
by men's education, by men's degrees, by men's power and fame
and all these things. Somebody said that there was
an old preacher who was preaching a long time ago when Andrew Jackson
was a general in the army before he was elected president, and
Jackson came to hear it. And he preached on, you must
be born again. And after the service, somebody
said to him, well, he said, that wasn't, that was too simple a
message for such a great man as General Jackson. And the old
preacher said, if General Jackson's not born again, he'd go to hell
too. And that's so. We need to preach, we need to
determine, determine in our hearts that we're going to preach Christ
and Him crucified. And then Paul preached it with
simplicity and determination and thirdly, he preached it with
humility. He wasn't cocky and confident
and he was a bold man, bold in Christ but weak in the flesh.
He said in verse 3, and I was with you in weakness, fear, and
in much trembling. He wasn't afraid of any man living.
He wasn't afraid of losing his job, or losing his church, or
losing his salary, or losing anything else, or losing his
life. He said, I'm ready to die for Christ. But he feared the
responsibility. He said, who's sufficient for
these things? He's like Habakkuk, who said, oh, the burden of the
word of God. He felt the burden of preaching
the gospel, and the burden of men's souls and the burden of
his errors, and he feared false converts, and he was a man of
great humility, a man of great personal weakness and fear and
much trembling. He preached the gospel with much
humility. Oh, I tell you, we need to return
to this type of preaching. Simplicity, determination, nothing
will turn us, nothing will sidetrack us, nothing. I don't care what
it is. preach Christ, Him crucified, and preach it with humility.
We don't have a corner on the truth. Paul said himself, I'm
not perfect, I've not arrived, I press forward, I want to lay
hold upon that for which I've been laid hold of Christ Jesus.
I'm a man, he said, just like you are. And the next place,
in verse 4, he said he preached the gospel with dependence. Depending
upon what? Not man's wisdom, not enticing
word, but depending on the Holy Spirit. If my voice is the only
voice you hear, well, you're in trouble and I am too. We must
hear Him who speaks from heaven. We must hear Him who speaks through
His Word. We must hear Him who speaks by
His Spirit. That verse 5, that what? That
men's faith should stand not in our persuasion, not in our
will. He convinced me Well, that's
bad. But I went to hear that preaching.
Boy, I tell you, you ought to go hear him. He convinced me.
No preacher can convince anyone. It's the Holy Spirit that must
convict me of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. That's the way
Paul... Well, what was the result of
his preaching Christ and Him crucified? Look back at verse
23. What was the result? I know he preached Christ and
him crucified, and he preached Christ and him crucified with
simplicity and determination and with humility and with dependence
upon the Spirit. And what was the result? Like
Brother Roth said one time, well, if you preach the gospel, the
truth, people will get glad, sad, and mad. Well, that's what
Paul says right here. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jew. Who's he talking about there?
The religious. The religious. to the religious,
Christ crucified is a stumbling block. He cannot reconcile his
duties with Christ's grace. He cannot reconcile his ceremonies
with Christ's mercy. He cannot reconcile his rituals
and heritage with Christ's purpose. He cannot reconcile the gospel
of substitution is offensive to a religious name. And you
know why it's offensive? Somebody gave four reasons. He
said, you know, Paul called the gospel offensive. He said, if
I preach circumcision, the offense of the cross is safe. The cross
is offensive. And here's what makes it offensive
to a religious man. You'll find a man who's trusting
his works or trusting his faith or trusting his heritage or trusting
something else other than Christ for salvation. If you preach
the sovereign mercy and grace of God in Christ to him, it'll
offend him. And here are the four things
that offend him. Number one, charging men with sin. I'm talking
about all men with sin. The depravity of sin, the corruption
of sin, the deadness of sin offends his dignity. Now, that's what
offended the Pharisees. They said, we be not sinners.
They said, your master eats with publicans and sinners. We be
not sinners. Men will not admit to being sinners. Not too long ago, a pastor of
a Baptist church said to one of the young men of our church,
I don't like to be called a sinner. Well, what are you? I'm a saint. Sure enough. Sure enough. Well, the Apostle Paul said,
Christ came to save sinners of whom I'm the chief. God saved
sinners. He didn't come to call saints.
He came to call sinners to repentance. But the discharge of sin offends
man's dignity, and a doctrine of revelation offends man's wisdom. Don't tell me that I can't read
the Bible for myself and find out what it means. I'll tell
you this, if you take the Bible and read it and study it, depending
on your understanding and your natural wisdom to figure it out,
I guarantee you everything you come up with will be wrong. Everything
you... I promise you that. I promise
you that everything you come up with will be the opposite
of the truth. because the scripture is only
revealed by the Holy Spirit. Look right across the page at
1 Corinthians chapter 2. Now watch it. 1 Corinthians chapter
2 verse 9, right across the page. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things God prepared for them that love him. But God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Look down at verse 14. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness
to him, neither can he know them, their spirits legit, discerned,
or understood. Now if you take the Word of God
and say, Lord, I'm blind, open my eyes. I'm deaf, unstop my
ears. Dig out the wax of prejudice
and tradition and open my ears to hear thy spirit speak. Lord,
my heart is darkened like the old world after the original
creation when darkness was upon the face of the deep. May the
spirit of God move upon my heart and let there be light. Lord,
teach me thy truth. Thy word is truth. Well, now,
you might come close to learning something there. But revelation,
that offends man's wisdom. And then the doctrine of substitution,
boy, it offends man's pride. He doesn't mind Christ dying,
but he doesn't want Christ dying for somebody. He doesn't mind
Christ dying, but he doesn't want Christ dying in the stead
of somebody. He doesn't mind Christ Jesus
dying and offering something for him, but not Christ dying
and securing something for believers. That offends his pride. He wants
to have some part in his salvage. God's done all he can do. That's
up to you. He loves that. You take the first
step and God will meet you. He loves that. God has made the
payment. You keep up the installment.
He loves that. And then the doctrine of holiness.
Oh, how that offends his love of self and sin. To the Jews,
to the religious, Christ crucified is a stumbling block. Look at
the next line. Unto the Greeks, who are the Greeks? If the Jews
are the religious people, who are the Greeks? The intellectuals. I feel so sorry. I don't know
who I feel the most sorry for. A man who is tied up in religion
or a man who's tied up in human education and human wisdom. I
don't know who to feel the sorrows for, a man who has double-died
and tied up and steeped in his religious heritage. He's been
a member of a denomination or a church all these years. He's
studied his quarterly and studied his daily Bible readings and
gone to church and done all these things and he's wrapped up in
a certain system of theology. I don't know who's more pitiful,
him or the fellow over here that went to University of Kentucky
and got him a degree. And he became a doctor, or a
lawyer, or a businessman, or an accountant, or an executive,
or something like that, or a physician, or something else, you know,
a prominence. And he's supposed to know everything.
And he just can't listen to the simple gospel. He just can't
bring himself down. You know, he's on a pedestal
up here. He's on this educational wire. How many of what we call prominent?
Didn't they say this over here, not many mighty, not many noble,
not many wise, huh? They're in trouble. Because,
my friends, if a person comes to Christ, he's got to come empty. He's got to come stripped. He's
got to come broken. He's got to come as a child.
The little children came and the disciple says, get out of
here. And he said, now, oh, hang on
here a minute. It's up for the little children to come unto
me and forbid them not such as the kingdom of heaven. And I'm
telling you, he said, except you be converted and become as
a little child, you're not going to enter the kingdom of God.
That's right. Now, Mr. President, you're going
to have to come down. And Mr. Lawyer, you're going
to have to come down. And Mr. Proud, Arrogant Educator, you're
going to have to shut your mouth and come down. Just like the
old plow boy, you come in the same door. That's the reason
our Lord said, how hardly shall they, the rich, enter the kingdom
of God. They've got too much. They don't need prices. They're
too prominent. They're too high and mighty.
They've got too much influence over men, too much control. They've
got to be brought down, down, down, down. Like old nailmen,
take off your uniform, lay aside your medal, be stripped, get
in the muddy water, or go to hell. That's right. Oh, the Greeks,
when they heard this gospel, when they heard, when the religious
heard it, they couldn't reconcile it. It was a stumbling block.
But when the Greeks heard it, when the wise and educated heard
it, believe this book, believe stories like a man being swallowed
by a fish, or a man building an ark and floating on a flood,
or a man holding out a staff in a sea part, or a virgin bringing
forth the sun, or a carpenter hanging on a cross 2,000 years
ago and dying between two thieves and rising from the grave and
ascending to the right hand of God. Believe that. foolishness. Well, that's what he said, that
you'd say. But verse 24, he said, but unto
them which you call. Now God's not going to leave
everybody in religion. He's going to call some to Christ.
He's not going to leave everybody, thank God. He's not going to
leave everybody in their wisdom of their own ways. He's not going
to leave everybody figuring out God for themselves, he's going
to call some out, to them that are called, to them that are
miraculously and effectually and irresistibly and invincibly
and supernaturally called of the Spirit of God, to them, both
Jews and Greeks, both religious and worldly, Christ crucified. is the power of God, the power
of God to save, the power of God to cleanse, the power of
God to justify, the power of God to redeem, the power of God
to make a new creature, the power of God to strip and humble and
break the proud and mighty, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. I don't care whether a man's
religious or worldly, whether he's educated or an illiterate,
when he sees the The justice of God in Christ and the wisdom
of God in Christ, it just falls out so beautifully. I see how
that God can be righteous and merciful. I see how that God
can be just and God can be love at the same time. I can see it
in Christ. I see substitution. I understand
it. I've entered into it. And it's
a joy to my heart. That's the result of preaching
Christ and Him crucified. The religious get confused. It's
a stumbling block. A man that stumbles over things
in the dark, he gets up in the dark, he hears a noise and he
starts walking, he stumbles over things, he stumbles and he has
no place for his feet, you know, he's just stumbling everywhere.
That's the religious and that's what Christ is to him, a stumbling
stone, not a cornerstone, not a rock foundation, not a teeth
cornerstone, but a stumbling stone. And the Greek looks at
it and he laughs, but the wise, who have been made wise by the
Spirit of God, they see God's power and wisdom all at six things
in our clothes. What is it to preach Christ and
Him crucified? Well, Paul preached number one.
Here they are briefly. Paul preached number one. He
preached the glory of his person. The glory of his person. I wish,
oh, what I'd give. I'd like to be an orator right
now. I'd like to have the words of the angel Gabriel. I'd like
to have the words of Whitefield, or Edwards, or Knox, or Bunyan,
or Newton, but I don't. Well, let's let the Scripture
speak, that I might declare the glory of His person. Who is Jesus
Christ? Listen to the Word of God, Psalm
45, 3. gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty Lord, with
the glory and majesty of thy throne, and in that majesty ride
prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness."
Oh, the glory of this person. Listen to Isaiah 9, 6, "...the
government shall be on his shoulders." His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace." Listen to Paul in Hebrews 1, "...who, being the
brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person,
and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high, expecting till His enemies become his footstool. Listen to him in Revelation 1A,
I'm Alpha and Omega. And the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come. That babe in Bethlehem's no ordinary
infant. The angel said concerning him,
that's Christ the Lord. We bring you good tidings of
great joy, unto you is born a Savior, Christ the Lord." That child
in the temple discussing things with the doctors and professors,
he's no ordinary child. When his mother said to him,
son, why have you grieved us like this? He said, risky enough
that I'd be about my father's business. That preacher of Galilee
is no ordinary preacher. when he speaks the blind see,
and the lame walk, and the dumb speak, and the deaf hear, and
he spake as never man spake with authority. That man on the cross,
that's no ordinary man. Surely this man was the Son of
God. That prisoner of death in the
tomb is no ordinary prisoner. In that scripture that the Lord
read in the study a moment ago, Even Peter on Pentecost declared,
David is in his sepulchre, and his sepulchre is with us to this
day. My Lord's not in the sepulchre.
They came that Sunday morning looking for him, looking for
him to anoint his body and so forth, and the angel met them
and said, don't look for the living among the dead. He's not
here. He's not here. He's not here.
He's risen. Where is he? Preach the glory of his person.
Who died on that cross? We preach Christ crucified. Christ crucified. Not a defeated
reformer. Not a frustrated Messiah. Christ. God was in Christ. Secondly,
we preach the excellency of his character. That one who died
on the cross is a lamb without spot or blemish. Every Old Testament
lamb typified this lamb. It says, tempted in all points
as we are, three words, yet without sin. Yet without sin. Abraham was a friend of God.
He was not without sin. Moses was the meekest man, but
he was not without sin. David was a man after God's own
heart. But he was not without sin. John
the Baptist was the greatest man born of woman, but he was
not without sin. Mary was the vessel God used
to bring forth into this world his son, but she was not without
sin. Paul was the chief apostle, but
he was not without sin. But my Savior, my substitute,
the one who was crucified, knew no sin. Even his enemies tried
him, examined him, questioned him, and came to this conclusion,
I find no fault in him. I sure wish I could, but I can't. I'm sure that's what's going
through Pilate's mind. He was torn between the people
and this man Jesus Christ. He said, I find no fault in him!
And the Heavenly Father found no fault in him. And when Satan
came, our Lord said, he found nothing in me. Huh? That's what he said. The prince
of this world found nothing in me. Or if they could have, they
would have. I tell you, I've been tried by
the best of them in Christ. I've been tried by the best.
I've been tried by the law. I've been tried by the devil.
I've been tried by men. I've been tried by religious
courts. and tried by God, and the conclusion is, yet without
sin. Now if you don't have that kind
of substitute, if you don't have that kind of Savior, you're in
trouble. Because if Satan can find one
fault, he's going to exploit it at the judgment. If God can
find one taint, he's going to bring it out at the judgment.
That's right. I'm telling you, God said, Christ
said, My Word will judge you. And if this Word anywhere from
Genesis to Revelation, in examining you at the judgment, can find
one spot, one jot or tittle, it's going to be brought out.
You better hide in Christ, because He's yet without sin. I'll tell you something else,
preaching Christ to him crucified is to preach the glory of his
person, the excellence of his character, and the love of his
heart. Turn to John 13, verse 1. The
love of his heart. That substitute, that savior,
that sin offering, that lamb is not a reluctant lamb. He's
a willing lamb. He said, no man takes my life
from me, I lay it down. I have the power to lay it down,
I have the power to take it up. They said, if you be the Christ,
come down from the cross. What held him to that cross?
You say the nails. I beg your pardon. He made the
ore out of which those nails were mined and made. What held
him to the cross? Human weakness. I beg your pardon. You know what held him to that
cross? Two or three things. Number one, his submission to
his Father's will. Number two, my sins. Number three,
his love for me. He stayed there because he loved
Him. He'd have come down, I wouldn't have had a Savior. I'd have gone
to hell. But since John 13, 1, now before the Feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew His hour was come, that He should depart out
of this world to the Father, having loved His own, which were
in the world, He loved them to the end. You see a four-fold, four-point
sermon in that? I do. having loved his own, having
loved. He loved them before. He loved
them before, having already loved them. Christ didn't come into
the world to make God love us. He came because God did love
us. For God so loved, He gave. Christ didn't come to get God
in the notion of saving us. He came because God was determined
to save us. He loved the having love, who? His own. His love discriminated. I don't know what you got to
say about this, but it's truth. Somebody said, well, I believe
God loves everybody. Well, he said he hated Esau,
and Esau was a person, wasn't he? He might love the whole world,
everybody, but Esau. But I do know he hated Esau.
It says that right here in the Bible. He says he didn't love
Esau. He loved Jacob, but he didn't love Esau. I know that.
It says that right there in the Bible. And then in Psalms it
says God's angry with the wicked. Now it says that. I don't know
who they are, but He's angry with them. And I know it says
in the book of Psalms, He hateth the workers of iniquity. I don't
know who they are, but I know He hates them. So I'm just telling
you some folks that God does not, that are not objects of
His love. Esau wasn't an object of His
love. And the workers of iniquity are not objects of his love.
And the wicked are not objects of his love. And it says, he
that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him,
and they are not objects of his love. But I know who the objects
of his love are, it says right here. His own. His own. Now whoever that is, that's who
he loved. And he's already loved them,
he always has loved them, having loved his own. Where were they
in the world? They were in the world. They
were sinners just like everybody else. They were born in sin and
conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity and brought forth speaking
lies. They were people who walked the dust and dirt, dusty and
dirty roads of this world. They were in this world having
loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. End of what? To the end of the
cross. To the end of his father's wrath.
to the end of judgment, to the end of mocking, to the end of
desertion, to the end of their guilt, to the end of the nails
and spears, to the end of eternity, which never shall be. He will
always love them. Hmm. That's preaching Christ
crucified. And in the fourth place, it's
preaching not only the love of His heart, but the power of His
blood. 1 John 1, 7 says, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanse it. Cleanse it. cleanseth, cleanseth
us from all sin. I can say to the blasphemer,
a blasphemer like Saul of Tarsus, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
us from all sin. Saul, your blasphemy is forgiven. I can say to the murderer, the
blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. I can say to the
liar, to the thief, to the harlot, to the drunkard, to the greedy.
I can say to the chief of sinners, I can say to the man who sinned
to the uttermost, to the guttermost, though your sins be a scarlet,
I'll make them as white as snow. Now the altar can't do that,
and the wine can't do that, and the bread can't do that, and
the water can't do that, but his blood can. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son. There's no sin so great. There's
no guilt so black. There's no heart so evil. There's
no past so wicked. There's no will so rebellious.
There's no mind so twisted and depraved that Christ's blood
can't cleanse it as white as snow. I know that. I had a man stand in my, sit
in my study 20 some-odd years ago. who had just been released from
prison. And he looked at me and he said, I've been listening
to you on the radio. I want to ask you a question. Can Christ save a man who murdered
his wife and his unborn child, shot him to death? And I chose
to read this scripture. I said, the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. I suspect the only reason some
of us hadn't been murderers is we didn't have a gun at the right
time. That's about the only reason. I suspect some of us the reason
we're not in jail now is the restraining hand of God. Because
we're all murderers by nature. We're liars by nature. What some
folks have done in the open, we've done in private. What some
folks have done in public, we've done in our hearts. And God looks
on the heart, not on the outward countenance. And I'm so glad
that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot only cleanse the harlot,
but cleanse me too. The blood of Jesus Christ cannot
only cleanse the murderer. And there's a friend of mine
in the prison right now who has, to his credit, two murders. But the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. Do you believe that? I do. I don't have any doubt about
it. If he couldn't save the greatest sinner, he couldn't save me,
because I'm the chief of sinners. All right, in the fifth place,
we preach not only the power of his blood, but the efficacy
And that's just a big word which means it gets the job done. That's
what it means. Efficacy means he does what he
starts out to do. He doesn't fail. The efficacy
of his intercession. He ever liveth to make intercession. In other words, he prays for
us. He pleads for us. He stands in our stead. And the
Father receives us because of who pleads for us. Put down what
you know. I know this. I know Christ is the only mediator,
Paul wrote that, one mediator between God and me. I know there's
one great high priest, only one, that's Christ the Lord. I know
he's offered one sacrifice for sin forever. It's done, it's
finished, the transaction's completed. I know that he has been accepted
by the Father, he's risen from the tomb and his resurrection
puts a stamp of approval on his work. I know that the scripture
says he's seated at the right hand of God, and he's praying
for somebody. He said in John 17, 9, I pray
not for the world, I pray for them which thou hast given me
out of the world, thine they are, and thou gavest to me. Now
here's what I want. And I say, Heavenly Father, let
me be one of those for whom Christ prays. Let Christ stand in my
step. Let Christ be my mediator. Look
on Christ, and then on me. Receive Christ and receive me
in Christ. That's all I'm praying. That's
all I can expect him That's all I'm hoping that when he died
he died for me And right now he intercedes at the right hand
of God for me and for you for you and for me in the sixth place
To preach Christ in him crucified is to preach the certainty of
his return He's coming back Our Lord's coming back to fulfill
what he purchased. He died that he might be Lord
of the dead and the living, and he is Lord. And someday, every
knee's gonna bow and every tongue's gonna confess that he's Lord,
and he's going to have the preeminence. God said, God has purposed it
to be so. He promised he'd return. He said,
if I go away, I'll come again. When he was ascending to heaven,
the angel said to the disciples, you men of Galilee, why stand
ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which you have
seen taken up into heaven shall so come in like manner as you
have seen him go. And my bodily resurrection awaits
his return. Now when I die and this tabernacle
falls to pieces, my soul is going back to God who gave it, my body
to the dust from which it came. But when Christ comes again,
this body is going to live again. I don't know what kind of dwelling
place that we have in heaven between now and then. I just
know that we have one. We're not unclothed. We're not
invisible spirits floating around out there somewhere. We've got
a building not made with hands eternal in the heaven, but this
body is going to rise again. It's going to rise at the return
of him who was crucified, because he's coming back to accomplish
what he did on Calvary, to accomplish the reward. Let's turn and sing
a closing hymn. I jotted one down here that I
wanted to sing. I think it's 147. I think it's
147.