and and I invite your attention back
to First Corinthians chapter two. This is a glorious statement that Paul
makes, a statement that shows forth his determination to do
a particular thing. This declaration from Paul to
the church at Corinth must be considered first in the light
of the things that were going on in this assembly, because
there was a whole lot of stuff going on in Corinth. There was
strife aplenty about almost everything imaginable that was going on
in this church. Believers were fighting about
who was the best preacher, about who baptized who, about gifts
of the Spirit, and about who was holier than someone else.
There was incest being publicly reported in this church, and
members of this body were taking issues to public court, which
ought to have been settled quietly in the church. There was very
much that Paul could talk about. There was ample things going on for him to write
a whole mess of sermons on. He had numerous subjects that
he could have addressed and probably spent the entirety of his ministry
condemning and trying to straighten out this outfit altogether. Now
I'm sure because Paul was a man of like passions as we are, That
there was a part of him that considered taking this on. And taking on this or that sin,
that error or that malady, and fix the problem. Because that's
what preachers are prone to do if they're not careful. Many years ago a preacher, at
least he said he was a preacher, called me on the phone to apologize
to me for something I didn't know he had said about me. In
the course of the short conversation, he told me that his ministry
was to stop the folks around here from drinking. He said that
on the phone. And I told him that my ministry
was to preach Christ and Him crucified. To which he quickly
responded, Oh, I preach salvation messages too. I preach salvation
messages too. And after I told him there was
nothing to preach but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the conversation
came to a halt as there was a long period of silence on the other
end of the line and a quick goodbye. Now Paul, the apostle, in the
midst of and among a veritable plethora of ills, an open display
of things that were prohibited by God, Said, I have made a choice. I have made a choice. He said,
I determined. I determined. He did not say,
I am determined. Though I'm sure he was determined. But he said, I determined. not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He said, I determined, which
denotes a one-time, unchangeable thing that He did and would continue
to do, and that was a simple statement of fact. Simple statement
of fact. He employed the same language
throughout his epistles. You'll find Paul pointing ultimately
to Christ alone. Whether it be Ephesians or Galatians,
Philippians or Colossians, wherever he was, whatever he wrote, he
never veered from Jesus Christ. Whatever he talked about, he
brought it back to Jesus Christ. Whatever he said was required
of the child of God, it had to do with our relationship to Christ.
Forgive others as He has forgiven you. Love others as He has loved
you. In Acts chapter 20, Paul, leaving
Ephesus and leaving the elders of Ephesus to go to Jerusalem
and be bound. And ultimately be put in jail.
He said these words in Acts 20 verses 20 and 21, he says, And
how I kept nothing back that was profitable unto you, but
have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house
to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's all he talked about. Repentance toward God, and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Then down in verse 26 and 27,
he says, Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am
pure from the blood of all men, and he's talking about all men
to whom he's preached, for I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel or the purpose of God. I've told you everything. Well, how did He do that? I've
told it all. How did He do that? If you read theological books,
I've got theological books in my library. Now this Bible is
that big. I've got volumes in there that
are written about one verse. A whole book written about one
verse. I've got 14 volumes of John Gill
in there about this book. His book is a lot bigger than
this book is. Men talk about all the counsel
of God and they talk in theological terms. What is all the counsel
of God? All the counsel of God is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. All of it. From Genesis to Revelation,
all the teaching of God is about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why Paul said, in the midst of all this mess, I made a choice
here. I determined something here.
Though I could go on record for all the goofy and awful things
you people are doing, I'm going on record, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now He determined not to know
anything among them but Christ and Him crucified. And the word
know here, I determined to know. to not know anything. The word
know is the same word that our Lord used when He spoke to Nicodemus
that except a man be born again, he cannot see, or perceive, or
understand. Paul says, for I determined not
to know, not to perceive, not to see. Not to understand anything
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now religion today is a glaring
indictment of the fact, the fact that preachers and congregants
want to know everything but the Lord Jesus Christ. They want
to know everything but. Why was Paul so narrow? Have you ever been called narrow-minded? If you believe the gospel, you've
been called narrow-minded plenty of times. Why are you so hard? Why are you so difficult? Why
have you got to thread this needle this way? Why can't we all get
along? I call that the gospel Rodney
King defense. Why can't we all get along? We
can't all get along. Why? I can't get along with some people.
On a natural level, I can get along with anybody. But when
it comes to the gospel, that's a whole different ball game.
This ain't a religious play pretty. This is life and death. I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
One time many years ago, a man asked Sylvester, How come your
church don't join up with all the rest of us? All this association. Why don't you come out when all
these revivals come? Well, your church, y'all don't
seem to get along. Well, that's right. Why? First of all, it's personal. We know somebody. We know somebody. And we are
jealous for that somebody's glory. And we're not going to stand
and listen to somebody defame the one we love. I won't allow
that. I won't allow, I don't care who
it is, for anybody to say anything about any one of you. I'll cut
them off, just, that's it, stop. Don't ever say anything about
that woman over there, unless it's a good thing. I'm serious. I love her. I honor her. She's my wife. Better not say
nothing ugly about her, because I want her to be honored. And yet men think it's okay to
go to some assembly and sit down and listen to some man mock and
lie about God Almighty, and that's okay. Not if you love Him, it
ain't. So it's personal. Why don't we
get along? It's personal. Secondly, it's doctrinal. There's
that old word. Oh, don't tell me anything about
doctrine. Tell me about Jesus. I'd like to know how you can
do that. I challenge anyone here today
to tell me anything about Jesus Christ, and here's the other
part of the challenge, don't use doctrine. It's going to be
a quiet day in the house, aren't it? Christ is the doctrine of
God. Sixteen times in the books, in
the epistles to the pastors, young pastors, Timothy and Titus,
sixteen times in those three short books, Paul told Timothy
and Titus to make sure they preached sound doctrines and sound words
sixteen times. That was the message to the preacher.
I love doctrine. Why? The word is didactos. It's teach, teaching. That's what doctrine means. But
it's taken on a bad connotation. People say, well, if you believe
doctrine, you must be a theologian. I ain't no theologian. I love my doctrine. And if your
doctrine don't match up with mine, we're going to have a problem.
Because my doctrine is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I'm
hanging all my soul, my eternal never-dying soul, right there
on that one glorious declaration. I determine not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Men don't care much for that.
But Paul was narrow. And so is everyone who preaches
the gospel. Because when the dust clears,
when all else is said and done, the only message that answers
the important questions, the only message that convicts, the
only message that comforts, the only message that sets things
in their proper place, is Christ and Him crucified. It's the only
one that does. It does it all. It's all resting
right in those glorious truths. Christ and Him crucified. And
Paul determined to tell out this one thing because it's truly
the only thing to tell that will impact the soul. Now I can impact
your lives. I can. I can impact your behavior. If I can get up here and make
you feel guilty enough, I can get you to do anything. I can
get you to run down front and cry like a baby. I can get you
to stop drinking, chewing, and smoking if I'm good enough at
what I do. I can impact your life. But there's only one thing in
this world that will impact your soul. That's Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's it. Nothing else will
do it. Everything else may alter behavior.
And religion loves to alter behavior. But if you turn over a new leaf,
it's still a leaf on the other side. When the snake sheds its
skin, he ain't no less a snake than he was before, he's a bigger
snake than he was before. Behavior is not salvation. Behavior,
altering behavior is not salvation. Salvation is a new creation,
being a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ and Him
crucified is the only message that Paul and every true preacher
of the gospel is determined to know. Why? Because, first, it is the
only message that proclaims the chronology of the finished work
of Jesus Christ. The way this is worded is important.
Paul does not say I preach the crucified Christ. He doesn't
say that. There's a reason he said it the
way he said it. But this is how most religion
views Christ, as the crucified Christ. They have him still on
a cross. They put him on the end of staffs.
They wear them on gold and silver crosses around their neck, or
dangling from their ears, or mount them on the walls of their
houses, or church buildings. Crucifixes, let me say this as
clearly as I can. I don't want to be misconstrued
here. And I want to be as honest and
as clear as I can be. Crucifixes are idols. They are pagan idols. If you like to wear them, shame
on you. It's that simple. They're pagan idols. Throw them out in the yard. And
do it in front of a Christian. Really make somebody mad. Paul doesn't say, I preach the
crucified Christ. Paul made it clear that the way,
by the way he determined to preach Him. He goes from present to
past. Present to past. He preaches
Christ now, as He is now, and where He is now, and why He is
where He is now. Where is Christ now? Is He hanging on a tree? Is it
the end of some staff of some papal dignity? I like to call
that Yesu Mahagonas Lalapapas. Christ on a stick. That's what
that is. That's all it is. Where is He? Right now. Where is He? He is seated. at the right hand of the majesty
on high, or at the right hand of the Father. And if you meet
Him today, you will not find Him suspended on some Roman wooden
gibbet. You will find Him on the throne
of Lordship power. He is there having earned the
right to be there, because in the past 2,000 years ago, he
was crucified and finished the work of salvation. Paul said
in Romans 14, For to this end Christ both died, rose, and revived,
that He might be the Lord of the living and the dead. He was
obedient even to the death of the cross. Wherefore God has
highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue
confess that He is Lord, to the glory of the Father. Does God
love you? I have no idea. He loves His
people. He loved somebody. He said He did. Did Christ die
for you? I don't have any idea. He died
for His elect. We know He did. He said He did. He died for His sheep. He died
for His church. We know He said that. Did He
die for you? I don't know. But I can tell you this, He's
your Lord. You say, well, I didn't make
Him Lord. You can't make Him nothing. Who
are you? I don't accept it. It doesn't
matter whether you accept it. Next time a cop pulls you over
and just says, I don't accept you giving me a ticket. You can't give me a ticket. I
don't accept that. I don't recognize your authority. Right on top
of the noggin. And you deserve it. He's the
Lord. What does that mean? Nothing
you do is outside the realm of His absolute sovereign will. Your thoughts, your words, your steps, your
movements, He's Lord. And as Lord, He commands
you to believe and commands you to repent. So believe and repent
are not options. their commands. Who said that? The Lord did. The Sovereign Lord. Presently, Paul said, I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, where He is
now. The same one who 2,000 years ago finished the work of salvation.
Christ and Him crucified. Secondly, it is the only message
that teaches us the truth about sin. The only message, Christ
and Him crucified. We cannot know the depravity
of sin, the awful insidiousness of sin by studying sin, or the
psychology of evil, or the occult, or the numerous manifestations
of Satan. We can't learn anything about
sin. We can only understand the greatness
of sin by seeing what it costs to put it away. That's the only way we can understand
the depth of sin, the greatness of sin, the great power of sin,
is to look at what it costs to put sin away. Nowhere but the
cross, where the spotless Lamb of God was made to be sin, was
punished under the fully vented wrath and vengeance of God, and
gave up His life to satisfy the law for sin. Can we begin to
grasp the depth and the breadth of sin? Think about it. How bad is sin? Oh, well, you
know, there's white lies and there's dark lies. There's this
sin, there's good sin, there's bad sin. You know, there's big
sins and there's little sins. How bad is sin? Every sin is
worthy of death. And on the cross, we see how
vile sin is. It is so vile. that when our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was made to be sin, God could
not stomach looking at Him. He turned His back on Him. In
the moment of His Son's greatest triumph, where all of us would
have taken our child and said, Way to go! Good job! I'm so proud of you! In the moment of Christ's greatest
glory, God turned His back on us when He was made to be sin
for us. How bad is sin? Sin is so bad
that nothing but the blood of God can redeem us from sin. How vile is it? Christ and Him crucified. That's how bad sin is. Thirdly,
it is the only message that prohibits and prevents the rise of the
ugly head of self-righteousness. Now Paul could have spent himself
trying to weed out all the adulterers, but that would have increased
the hat size of those who were not committing that particular
sin at that time. Preaching can be very easy, and it can make
most of the congregation feel bad by picking out one bad customer
in the bunch. Some child of God has fallen
into some sin. Well, let's preach on that. And
let's rake him over the coals, and let's clean his clock, and
let's call him out, and let's work him over. And that poor
soul is being beat down, and brow beaten, and hiding underneath
the pew, and everybody else in there saying, he's getting what
he deserves. I'm glad I'm not like that. You see, we can pick out a sin
here and there, and we can nail it, and it'd be truthful. We
can preach on adultery, because adultery is wrong. But it's going to let everybody
off that they commit adultery. Why do you think those in Corinth
were puffed up and not ashamed and broken-hearted? Because that
one man was committing adultery and was commonly reported among
them. Why were the rest of the church puffed up? Because they
weren't doing it. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
doing that kind of thing. lets people off the hook, you
see. To pick out a particular sin, no matter what it is, is
an underhanded way of making most people feel good about themselves.
That's not the preacher's job. One fellow said, the preacher
don't get ulcers, he gives ulcers. How does he do it? Christ and
Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. You
see, Christ and Him crucified puts everyone on the same sinking
boat. Everyone. Scripture says He died
for our sins. Those sins are not categorized
or differentiating in degree of evilness. Some are not venial,
and the other mortal. Some are not white, and others
dark. They are sin, and all sin is worthy of death. And all men,
and all women, and all boys, and all girls, and all babies,
all humanity are sinners. And no sinner is
worse than any other sinner. or better than any other sinner.
If you think so, you're in trouble. Think of the worst thing. Think
of the thing that offends you most. You know what it is? Something. And when you see it,
it just makes your skin crawl. That's you. That's you. Or else, the Bible is not true. There ain't one thing that's
been done by anybody on the top side of this earth that the child
of God ain't capable of if God don't keep him from it. Not one. Not one. And the only message
that makes that true for everybody and puts everybody in that same
boat is Christ and Him crucified. That message declares that apart
from this magnificent work, all men would and should rightfully
and lawfully be put to death. The wages of sin is death, the
soul that sinneth it shall die. That's the message of Christ
and Him crucified. Fourthly, it is the only message
that will convict the saint of his sin. It s the only message. All sin is evil, but there does
seem to be an indication in Scripture that sin against light is far
worse. Our Lord said, If I had done these works in Nineveh,
They would have repented a long time ago, in fact, if I had done
these words in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented a long
time ago. There seems to be an indication that sin against light
is worse of all. And the saint knows that everything
he does is tainted with sin, but he does not offer it up as
an excuse. Let me tell you, it's hard for
me to say, but it's nonetheless the truth. There is no excuse
for sin. There is no excuse for it. We
know the reason for it, because of what we are. When we sin,
nobody has a gun to our head, nobody's forcing us, we're sinning
willfully. Just mark it down. And a saint
will never excuse himself. He will never say, well, if God's
grace had been... No, a saint ain't going to say that. Well, I'm just a sinner, you
know, I'm going to do this. A saint's not going to say that. He's not
going to excuse his sin by claiming what he is. The saint bows his head in shame
because his sin is done in the light of Christ and Him crucified.
Our sin is done in that light. The saints of God, those who
have been redeemed by grace, those who have been taught the
gospel, when they sin, they do it in the light of Christ in
Him crucified. They know what it costs to save
them. The saint knows his sin. And he knows it is a display
of his base and gross ingratitude for all that Christ has done
for him. The believer does not excuse
his sin. He repents of it and confesses to God with a contrite
and bruised heart, pleading the blood of Christ that he sinned
in light of Christ and Him crucified. We are not in a vacuum here.
There is one that sits in heaven who knows all, sees all, and
is all-powerful. And when we sin, we sin against
Him who is there because He was crucified for our sin 2,000 years ago. Fifthly,
Christ and Him crucified is the only message that will comfort
the saint. The only message that will convict him, the only message
that will comfort him. The saint takes no comfort in
his repentings or his faith or his prayers, or his religious
duties, or his good deeds, or his doctrinal piety, because
he knows that none of these things will stand on their own merit.
My belief of the gospel and my understanding of the gospel will
not stand on its own merit. Though I believe, I believe the
truth and preach the truth. It won't stand on its own merit
because somehow Tim James is involved and that messes the
whole thing up. The believer, the saint, finds
comfort in the merit of God's dear Son. There is the meritorious
one. There is the only human success
story in all of the years that humanity has existed on the face
of the earth. He finds merit in Christ and
Him crucified. Who can lay any charge to me?
Christ was crucified. Who can condemn me? Christ was
crucified. It is Christ that died, yea rather
He is risen again, and is seated at the right hand of the God
ever living to make intercession for us. Falling, faltering, frail
and feeble am I, but Christ my Lord has died, and in that death
He has made it so that no occasion, no accusation rather, can ever
be lodged against me. can search me from top to bottom,
and can find no grounds upon which to accuse me. Satan, if
he accused me, is a liar, and God proves him to be so. No charge
can be laid. Why? Christ and Him crucified.
That will comfort you. Christ and Him crucified declares
that I am forgiven, I am righteous and accepted before God, and
nothing about me calls that, and nothing about me can ever
change that or undo it. There's the merit in the work
of Jesus Christ. I know you want to be saved.
Everybody wants to be saved from something. But let me ask you
this. Are you willing to be saved wholly on somebody else's merit?
None of yours. Are you willing? God's people
are. Because they know that's their
only hope. Christ and Him crucified. Finally, Christ and Him crucified
is is understanding of the Scriptures
for the believer. Understanding of the Scriptures. People get a whole lot of stuff
out of this book. We get a whole bunch of people
who look at the early church and say, well that's the way
government should be run and we should share our wealth with
everybody. People do it all the time. But it's a church, not
a government. You know what our Lord did about
sharing wealth? He took away from those who had
it and wouldn't use it and gave it to those who had more and
did use it. That's what He did. Look at the
talents. That's what He did. He gave one
fellow one, one fellow five, one fellow ten, the fellow with
ten, he produced ten times more, the one with five produced five
times more, and the one who didn't, who had it said, well, I hid
it under a barrel because I knew you were sovereign, you'd take
care of everything. He said, well, you take care of it, give
me that. You didn't use it? You didn't make use of what I
had given? I'm going to give it to somebody to make use of
it. That's God's sharing plan. People look at this book and
they go off on all kinds of tangents of eschatology. They read the
newspaper articles, and they try to make it fit into the scriptures,
and they try to make the scriptures fit into the newspaper articles.
They try to tell you about those beasts with ten horns, and how
many hairs on a horse's tail, and why does this monster look
like this because of the number of horns he has, and what day
this is going to happen. One fellow came out, some Methodist
preacher came out last week and said, I think May 28, 2012, Christ
is coming again. Got a whole congregation jumping
up and shouting. I'm like old Kathy Robinson said
one time to one person who was talking about the rapture. She
says, well, when the raptures come, can I have your house? People talk about it. They say,
that's what the Bible's about. Had a man tell me one time that
the rapture was his hope. Better not be your hope. First
of all, it ain't going to happen like you think it is. Well, the Bible's about the Jewish
nation. This part's about the Jewish nation. This part's about
the law. No, it's all one thing. From Genesis chapter 1, in the
beginning God, John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word.
It's all about one thing. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Without Jesus Christ, the Scriptures
are an enigma shrouded in a mystery wrapped up in a riddle. Christ
and Him crucified is the key of knowledge. It is the theme
and song of the Word of God. Christ and Him crucified is the
Gospel and therefore the only thing to be preached. Paul said,
I declare unto you the Gospel. How that Christ died according
to the Scriptures. How Christ was buried according
to the Scriptures. How Christ rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. Do you want to know something
about this book? You're going to have to know the one who wrote
it. One who is the living Word of God. That's why Paul said,
I know there's a whole bunch of stuff going on. A whole bunch
of stuff that ought to be dealt with one way or another. He said,
I'm determined to deal with it in one way. I'm going to preach
Christ and Him crucified. Father, bless us for understanding
and praying in Christ's name. Amen.