Message of the Cross: Great Divider of all Mankind

Introduction: The Message of the Cross, The Great Divider of All Mankind

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 14th, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I encourage you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's first letter to the Corinthian Church, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And as you turn to it, for the sake of the people of God here at Trinity, let me give just a word of explanation. As you know, we've already brought 18 messages on the biblical doctrine of the return of Christ, and there are about another half a dozen messages in the works in that series.

0:43 But we've been out of that for a month with our concern to see the Word of God shed its light upon the events of September 11, and with my being away two weekends in ministry elsewhere, and in the light of the fact that Pastor Donnelly will be ministering next, Lord, I just felt it inexpedient to try to bring on board the pastors who are with us and give a rather lengthy review so that they might have a sense of where we've been, and then to have it broken up against next week. I judge that it would be much better to wait until things come back to our steady state configuration of our life together, and then resume and complete that series. And as I cast about for a long time, casting about, what would be an appropriate word for this Lord's Day, and particularly with our brethren present with us, I trust in answer to your prayers and mine, that God has directed us to consider together a text in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. That text is verse 18. For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God.

2:05 I want to preach to you this morning from this text under the subject title, The Message of the Cross, The Great Divider of All Mankind. The Message of the Cross, The Great Divider of All Mankind. Those of you familiar with this first letter to the Corinthian church, will know that the Apostle has begun to take up one of the many irregularities and problems present in that congregation there at Corinth. And the first problem that he addresses is the problem of divisions among God's people.

2:49 Verse 10, he says that he exhorts them to speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among them, but that they be perfected together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. And then he goes on to say that those of the household of Chloe have reported to him the existence of these divisions. And then he begins to address that subject in verse 12. Now this I mean, each one of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, or I of Christ.

3:23 He identifies this party spirit, and though equally devout and competent scholars, disagree as to precisely how they were divvying up this lining up behind their favorite apostle or preacher, this much is clear that there was a spirit of disunity, and it was associated with a wrong kind of attachment to these various servants of Christ. And as he begins to address this, he asks some rhetorical questions in verse 13. Is Christ divided? The answer is obvious.

4:00 Of course. Of course not. Was Paul crucified for you? The answer, obviously, of course not.

4:05 Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? Of course not. And having then asked that third rhetorical question, he then gives some historical tidbits. I thank God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius, lest any man should say you were baptized into my name.

4:23 And I baptized also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized, any other. So from his rhetorical questions, he moves on to these several historical snippets, saying that this is what I did do, this is what I did not do. And then in verse 17, he says, This that I have recounted is in keeping with my apostolic calling, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void, and then he's going to launch into this marvelous statement of the proclamation of Christ as the wisdom of God and as the power of God and how the message of the cross is perfectly suited to God's great end in restorative and redemptive grace, that is, to bring sinners who participate in that grace to the place where their glory is in the Lord and in the kingdom of God. And he says, And he says, And he says, And he says, And he says, And he says, And he says, And it's in that setting that we have verse 18, And in seeking to open up this text,

The Message of the Cross Defined: Its Essential Substance

5:49 I want you to note with me, first of all, the message of the cross defined as to its essential substance. The message of the cross, defined as to its essential substance. When the apostle writes for the word, the logos, the message of the cross is this and is that, what is the precise identity of this message or this word of the cross? What is its essential substance?

6:25 When the apostle sat and penned or dictated this letter, and these words came from his mouth or his pen, the word of the cross, what in Paul's mind constitutes the word or the message of the cross? Well, if you were putting the thoughts together, you would answer, well, it is what he calls in verse 17, the gospel, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. This word of the cross is nothing other than the gospel. And in the mind and heart of the apostle, what is this gospel? What is the essential substance of this gospel that is called by way of a synonym, the word or the message of the cross? In verse 23, it is designated as the proclamation, the proclamation of Christ crucified. The word of the cross, the gospel, the proclamation of Christ crucified.

7:41 Well, in short, I answer it is nothing more and nothing less than the doctrine of salvation from sin and its consequences through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as a sacrifice for sin. Amen. The word of the cross is that which Paul is describing in passages such as Galatians 3 and verse 13. Galatians 3 and verse 13.

8:14 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. The word, the message of the cross, is the proclamation that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, underwent vicarious curse bearing. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, that is the pronouncement of death upon every law breaker, to which every one of us is liable by nature and by practice. Liable in Adam, our first father.

8:58 Liable in our own person, by our own numberless sins. The curse of God is the judgment of God, the abandonment by God due to us because of our sin. And the word or the message of the cross is a declaration that Christ redeemed us from that curse by his own vicarious substitutionary curse bearing. For Paul, the word of the cross is nothing less than that in its own name, in its essential substance.

9:31 It is nothing more than that. Hence he can say in this epistle at the end of his whole argument of the sufficiency of Christ's work for the justification of sinners, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not as some kind of a dim and murky outline of God's way of somehow or another, letting us into his favor, but the cross in terms of this crass statement in verse 13, vicarious curse bearing. Or the language of the apostle in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. Him who knew no sin, he that is God, made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in the name of God. In him. For Paul, the word of the cross is this statement that God in Christ was reconciling a world unto himself and he was doing this by constituting his son the greatest sinner who ever existed in God's universe.

10:48 Not a sinner in his person and in his own performance of obedience to God, but he is made sin. In the courtroom of heaven he is charged, he is charged with the legal liability of the sins of all who will ever come to trust in him and he is punished, he is anathematized, he is accursed of God. Or in 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle again makes very clear what he means by the phrase, the word, or the message of the cross. I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received, wherein also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he has been raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared, and four times he appeared, he appeared as the resurrected Lord of his people. The message of the cross as to its essential substance is this declaration that in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,

12:17 the Son of God, is a fully adequate sacrifice to resolve the question of sin's penalty and sin's punishment. The word of the cross is taken, all the facts recorded in the gospel records about how he died, the circumstances leading to his death, his being impaled upon a Roman gibbet, taking the facts of his death as set before us in the gospel records, and then viewing those facts in the light of apostolic explanation. It is in the providence of God the great privilege of the apostles to whom he promised further illumination in the gift of the Spirit that they would take of the very, he would take the Spirit of God of the things of Christ and reveal them. And so the word of the cross is not simply a reiteration of the facts leading to and surrounding his death and the fact of his resurrection, but it is establishing from the scriptures the significance of those facts as the fact of his resurrection. As they are given to us in apostolic instruction. At the heart of this message of the cross there are three simple assertions.

13:41 The debt of human sin was assumed by Jesus Christ. Secondly, the debt of human sin was discharged by Jesus Christ in his death. And that all that is required of men is to turn from sin and to trust only in this Christ who died and rose for the full, complete, irreversible pardon of all of our sins. It is that message which proclaims that men without distinction and discrimination if they will but trust in Christ, it is in the accursedness of Christ upon the tree that forms the only basis for the blessedness of sins forgiven and a right, standing with God. If we would ever know the blessedness of sins forgiven, we will know it only in the word of the cross, in seeing that Jesus Christ in his accursedness is the only way to the possession of the blessedness of sins forgiven. Now granted, this message of the cross has what I would call its undergirding assumptions as well as its inevitable consequences. And anyone committed as Paul was to the proclamation of the word of the cross is not embarrassed

15:09 to identify and to emphasize those undergirding assumptions. Those assumptions are that there is but one true and living God who is the creator and the governor and the judge of all men. The undergirding assumption is that we as image bearers have fallen in our father Adam and that by God's law we stand liable to his punishment and to his judgment. The undergirding assumption of the word of the cross is there is a God who is the moral governor of the universe.

15:46 That there is a law that establishes right and wrong. And one can only get rid of that changeless standard of right and wrong if he rids the world of the cross. For the law of God is embedded, in the cross. And the cross permeates the revelation of God's will to men.

16:07 God takes his law so seriously that his only begotten son is made a curse under a violated law on our behalf. These undergirding assumptions are there and they ought to be preached. But they are not the focal point of our preaching. The focal point of our preaching is the message of the cross.

16:30 The announcement of the great indicatives of the gospel. What God has done in Christ to effect a salvation adequate for the neediest of sinners. Suitable to any and all sinners who acknowledging their status sinners grab hold in the death grip of saving faith. The Christ and the salvation set before us in the word of the cross.

16:59 It not only has to do with the gospel, but it has to do with the gospel. It not only has to do with the gospel, but it has to do with the gospel. It has its undergirding assumptions. It has its inevitable consequences.

17:04 All who embrace the Savior as the only adequate substitute for sin and for curse bearing will always embrace him not only as Savior, but as Lord and as Master. They will in laying hold of the message of the word of the cross by the work of the Holy Spirit imparting a new heart they will find themselves attached to the one who bore the curse of a broken law. They will be attached not only in faith, but in love. And that love will be an active principle moving them to obedience.

17:46 So Paul can use the terminology in Galatians 5, 6 faith that is working by love. Those are some of the inevitable consequences but flanked on the one hand with the undergirding assumptions and on the other with the inevitable consequences the message of the cross in its essential substance is the message of that which God has done in Jesus Christ to provide a just pardon and righteous forgiveness. It is that which he did in Jesus Christ when he made him a curse when he made him sin on our behalf or in the language of Peter he has, Jesus Christ has, the just for the unjust suffered on our behalf that he might bring us to God. So much then for that brief overview most of you could have given that brief overview yourselves, it's old hat but it's absolutely crucial stuff as we shall see now having spent a few moments on the message of the cross defined as to its essential substance consider with me now the message of the cross described in its dividing influence the message of the cross described as to its dividing influence

The Message of the Cross Described: Its Dividing Influence

19:15 for the word of the cross is to them that literally are perishing a present tense to them that are perishing foolishness but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God Paul was privileged to be a universal preacher he preached the message of the cross to Jew, to Greek, barbarian Scythian, bond free potentate, peasant cultured, uncultured and he never never did see more than two classes wherever that message was preached and they were not classes determined by bloodlines by social relationships by economics by economic factors but in terms of what he writes here to some the word or the message of the cross is foolishness to others it becomes the very instrument of God's divine and saving power the message of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God consider with me now those two categories it is foolishness to some now what is meant by foolishness well basically when they hear the announcement of the message of the cross that to a world of rebel hell

The Cross as Foolishness to the Perishing

20:44 deserving sinners servants of God come with a divine mandate as his ambassadors as his sent ones and they herald this message God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself almighty God against whom you have a controversy and who has a just controversy with you that God in free sovereign initiative has done something in Christ crucified that your sins might be pardoned that you might return unto God unto his favor unto fellowship and communion with him and when men hear the message there are some who regard it as foolishness they will say it doesn't compute it doesn't compute it doesn't compute it doesn't compute it doesn't make sense I can't buy that you mean you expect me to believe that something someone did two thousand years ago outside a city wall in Jerusalem has this eternal relevance to me I can't hack it I can't accept it I can't buy it it is regarded as foolishness everything connected with the cross the one who died the God man they crucified the Lord of glory that's regarded as foolishness it is regarded as something that goes beyond the power of rational beings to accept

22:13 that a God man takes the place of a condemned felon and experiences in the depths of his soul nothing less than the pangs of eternal hell by some this message is regarded as foolishness and why is it regarded as such? well for some people it's because of their indifference to the issues that God addresses in the word of the cross the issues addressed in the word of the cross are the problem of human sin God's character as a righteous judge who must punish every breach of his law and when some hear the word of the cross they regard it as foolishness something unworthy of their serious or further consideration because they are not because they are utterly indifferent to the issues which the cross addresses let me illustrate a friend of mine a number of years ago had picked up a hitchhiker and looking for an opportunity to witness to him he saw someone had painted on a rock along the highway Christ is the answer this hitchhiker said to my friend what's the question?

23:28 what's the question? Christ is the answer to what? what's the question? and we live in a generation of people that has been so dulled in its conscience by the absence of a clear declaration of God's unchangeable standard of right and wrong so that the condemnation of Isaiah is so relevant they call evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness and so when this word of the cross comes we have good news God has done something in Jesus Christ to righteously deal with the problem of your sin He has done something so decisively that if you will cast yourself upon the Savior you will be fully pardoned of all of your sins a sentence will go forth in the courtroom of heaven accepted in the beloved now and for eternity and you get excited and thrilled as you make that announcement of the word of the cross and people sit there and the whole disposition of the heart is ho-hum when you get there when do we get on to something important it's foolishness unworthy of serious contemplation and reflection why? because of an indifference to the issues that are addressed in the cross of Christ and I say to anyone sitting here this morning young or old if when you hear those words

24:56 Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us when you hear the words Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us is that good news that sets the bells ringing in the depths of your soul or is it ho-hum the preacher's on a tear again it's foolishness to you why? because you're not facing realistically the issues that are addressed in the word of the cross the reality of God's inflexible justice the God who has said the soul that sins it shall die the God who has said he that believes on my son hath everlasting life he that believes not the wrath of God is abiding upon him my friend don't pride yourself that you've made it through another service indifferent to the word of the cross that indifference is the harbinger of the hell that awaits you inwardly which there will be no indifference to your true condition a moment is coming when every rational being will wish he or she had taken seriously the issues addressed in the cross of Christ and in some recent preaching in Luke chapter 13

26:25 and reflecting upon Luke 16 there is more than a hint that part of the horror of hell will be the ability to see the people of God in the blessedness of heaven Jesus said there shall be the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom the issue of your sin will be all absorbing damn righteous answer there is a just answer to the problem of your sin that God takes seriously that one day you must take seriously but I plead with you here and now while the world of the cross goes forth attended with the proclamation today is the day of salvation today if you hear his voice harden not your hearts why is it regarded as foolishness for some it's because of indifference to the issues that are addressed in the word of the cross for others it's the inbred actings of conscience unenlightened by the gospel the inbred actings of conscience

27:52 unenlightened by the gospel conscience is that pesky stubborn little moral monitor placed within the breast of every one of us with his very limited vocabulary right wrong sin righteousness that moral monitor who will not be taught a third word neither can't teach it to him but conscience like the rest of what we are as image bears has been tragically twisted and warped by the fall and there is in every man by nature the realization Paul addresses it in Romans 1.32 regarding those who've never had special revelation never seen please turn this cassette over to continue the message by the fall and there is in every man by nature the realization Paul addresses it in Romans 1.32 regarding those who've never had special revelation never seen the pages of a bible never heard a gospel sermon who knowing the ordinance of God that they who practice such things are worthy of death not only do the same but consent with them that practice them they know by the thunderings of their own conscience that their sin will bring death sin brings punishment the wages of sin is death conscience accuses

29:20 and conscience says something must be done to get rid of the sin of the accusation but in unenlightened conscience hears the word of the cross and the problem is not that the person does not have a sense of sin but with that sense of sin is this pressure of their darkened minds I must make amends I must get my act together I must make myself fit for God I must do in order that I may have acceptance and when they hear a message it says no it is not your job it is not your doing that will give you a right standing with God it is not your acting not your doing not your efforts it is casting yourself in the entirety of what you are as a hell deserving sinner upon Jesus Christ as he is offered so freely and sincerely in the gospel and the person says but wait a minute you mean just by that disposition of the soul in resting upon Christ all of my sins are blotted out all the horrible things that I can remember and the ones that God knows perfectly all of that blotted out by one simple act of trust in Christ that ushers me into a lifetime of a disposition of trust no no too easy too easy got to do something more than simply trust

30:48 got to do something more than simply rely upon an order on some kind of image that we can have a repeating Rh вп r my my my my my my my my and the the the every every every every God is is sacred a with r a of sin shadows serves the and you allow an unenlightened conscience that brings together sin and punishment sin and reformation sin and doing things and doing better. And when you hear the message again and again, some of you in this place, around the family table, day after day, week after week, this message, the word of the cross, is foolishness to you because you are following the track laid out by the actings of an unenlightened conscience.

31:55 You need to take to heart such simple gospel pointers as John 1 in verse 29. John said, Behold, look up and look upon this one who's come into your midst. Behold, the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. You need to look into the face of Him who said to a woman of a great deal of sinful past, Neither do I condemn you.

32:26 Go. Sin no more. This message, this word of the cross, is foolishness to some because of their indifference to the issues which that message addresses. Some because of the inbred actings of conscience, unenlightened conscience.

32:42 Some because of the vicious actings of human pride.

32:49 You've got enough sense to know, wait a minute, this message that says, Christ has died. I need not die. Christ has borne the wrath, the wrath of God. I need not bear that wrath.

33:03 If I attribute the whole of my salvation to the doing and the dying of another, even Jesus, flowing out of the free, infinite, undeserved, sovereign love of God, then any time I think of such a salvation, any time I speak of such a salvation, my whole disposition in the presence of God has to be one of saying to the Lord, to the last cell of my inner being, all glory goes to God. All praise goes to Jesus. It's a salvation wholly, totally procured by the doing and the dying of another, flowing out of God's free, sovereign love. And the human heart wants to cling to some little area of which it can say, yes, Christ has his place, God's love and grace has its place, but there's this little wiggle room. I may not want to be so brash as that Pharisee who struts into the temple. He doesn't pray. He's preening.

34:08 He's preening. I thank you, God. I'm not his other man. Extortionist, unjust, Republican.

34:16 And God, if what I am isn't quite acceptable, look at what I do. I fast. I tithe.

34:25 That spirit is in every one of us by nature. It may not be nurtured to the same degree, but there is an inbred aversion to salvation by grace in every one of us. We all want to at least have a wiggle of the pinky to do with our salvation. And in this very chapter, the apostle, in opening up a salvation, calculated to give all of the glory to God, says in this very chapter, let him that glories glory in the Lord.

34:56 The Lord our righteousness, the Lord our salvation, the Lord our substitute, the Lord our effective high priest who offers up himself once for all on behalf of sinners.

35:12 Why is the gospel foolishness to some? I suggest these three reasons. And what does God describe these people as? Who are the ones who regard it as foolishness?

35:23 The text tells us they are perishing. They are perishing.

35:29 They're already perishing. Just as surely as the wrath of God already abides upon them. This is the description of their true state. They are natural men who receive not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto them.

35:46 And the things of the Spirit of God in this context are the things of the wisdom of God in the gospel. God's infinite mind conceiving a plan of redemption in which the offended God rectifies the horrible tragedy of human suffering. By one member of the Godhead taking to himself a true human soul and body voluntarily placing himself under the very law that he gave from Sinai. Living that life in such perfect conformity to that law in thought, in motive, in reaction and in action that the Father speaks out of heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. There never was anything that was not well pleasing. Jesus was conscious of this. He said I do always the things that please my Father.

36:45 I do always the things that please my Father. And in this Christ and in him alone salvation is extended. The natural man receives not these marvelous things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him.

37:02 My friend, is the word of the cross foolishness to you? If so, you're perishing. And perishing does not mean heading into non-existence. It is the word used in more than one context to speak of the everlasting wrath of God that will rest upon your head and your person in a place described as outer darkness where there is the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

The Cross as the Power of God to the Saved

37:32 But now notice the other side of the divide. Another effect another effect is described. The preaching of the cross is to some foolishness. The ones who are perishing.

37:45 But unto us and Paul includes himself unto us who are being saved unto us who are in the process of being rescued from sin and its consequences it, it, that is the word or the message of the cross is the power of God. The message of the cross is the power of God. Immediately some of you are thinking of Romans 1. I'm not ashamed of the gospel or the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation.

38:17 Do we have two different conduits of divine power? No. The gospel that Paul speaks about in Romans 1.16 he puts the floodlight on this central issue of the gospel.

38:31 I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes for therein is revealed. Righteousness from God. There is a righteousness revealed.

38:44 A righteousness that is embedded in what Paul calls here the word of the cross. He has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

39:02 And to some the word of the cross is the very conduit of divine power. Forgiving power. Liberating power. Conscience alleviating power.

39:13 Law conquering power. Sin and death conquering power. The word of the cross is the very instrument of God's saving power. And how does it become such to these?

39:27 Described as the ones to whom this word of the cross is divine power. Well, it's because God shows them their desperate need of the very thing held forth in the word of the cross. It's because God shows them their personal need for that which God holds forth in the word of the cross. And this is why in the ordinary pattern of God's dealings with people whom he's going to bring to himself in grace, he first wounds before he heals.

40:04 He brings to bear upon their consciences the recognition that I am a sinner. I stand condemned. And if God gave me what I deserved, I would be forever banished from his presence. The message of the cross alone, the word of the cross alone, comes with the divine answer to that problem of my own discovered and felt sinfulness.

40:32 And that word of the cross becomes the power of God when showing us our desperate need of that which it holds before us. God enables the sinner to embrace the offered Savior and all of the salvation stored up in him. He overcomes our pride. He subdues our rebellion.

40:56 And we find ourselves joyfully exclaiming, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, that is, my most spiritual, spiritual moment. I dare not trust my sweetest frame of mind and heart, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And how does God describe such, he describes them as those who are being saved.

41:28 Again, a present, passive participle. Those whom God has laid hold of in sovereign mercy and grace. They have been rescued from condemnation. Romans 8.1 There is therefore now, in the present, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. They have been delivered from sin's dominion and lordship. They are continually being delivered from remaining pollution, continually being saved in an ongoing conformity to Christ. And that work of salvation, as we've seen in recent weeks, will come to its glorious culmination when we are perfected into the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus, body and soul.

Personal Application: Where Do You Stand?

42:12 The message of the cross, the great divider of all mankind, has sought to identify what that message is in its essential substance. Then we've considered briefly the message of the cross described in its dividing influence. Now I want to close with one or two very pointed questions and then a word of exhortation and entreaty to my brethren laboring in the work of the ministry. Sitting here this morning, boys, girls, young men, old men, young women, old women, let me ask you a very simple question.

42:55 Has the word of the cross become the instrument of divine power to save you?

43:03 Our text says, the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God. Has the word of the cross become under the blessing of God the instrument of his power to your salvation? It's a very simple question. Mom and dad can't answer it for you.

43:24 Husband or wife can't answer it for you. You must answer in the light of this text of God's word. Where do you stand in this great divide? To some foolishness, to some the power of God.

43:38 What is the word of the cross to you? Has it come as the best news your ears could ever hear that God Almighty has done something in great need of you? In grace and mercy on behalf of sinners. The great indicatives of the gospel have come as blessed good news into the depths of your own being.

44:02 Has it brought you to the place where you joyfully confess you do not trust in yourself, that you do not rely upon anything you are or ever hope to be, that in your dying breath you would say, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress midst flaming worlds in these arrayed. With joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in thy great day for who ought to my charge shall lay. Fully absolved from these I am from sin and fear and death and shame.

44:43 Is the word of the cross foolishness to you? Ho hum. Why be concerned foolishness? If so, I plead with you.

44:51 Give yourself. No rest until the issues to which the cross addresses itself become the most burning issues in the field of your conscious concern until you've come to that place where that jailer came that night. We don't know how he began the night after he locked Saul, Paul, and his companion in stocks. But we know before the night was over one thing mattered.

45:16 Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be in the way of that saving grace that is so transformed you men that you praise your God when unjustly imprisoned and unjustly beaten you are praising and blessing your God?

45:36 What must I do to experience that deliverance that will make me what you men are? Paul responds, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And no doubt he explained later, as he went into the house and it says they spoke unto him and to his household the word of God. He opened up the significance of that directive but he never budged one iota from that central declaration.

46:06 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And I say to my fellow pastors as I have to ask myself again and again, do I really believe that the word of the cross is the power of God? That the word of God is the power of God. That in the due course of my ministry while seeking to proclaim the whole counsel of God I never weary not let a Lord's day pass when anyone sitting in the assembly would not know if they were listening that this is a preacher and this is a people whose whole hope of life and salvation flows from Jesus Christ crucified.

Exhortation to Pastors: Preach Christ Crucified

46:51 Christ of the manger, yes. Incarnate deity. Christ of the earth. open tomb yes but the focus is we'll see god willing tomorrow morning is that which god has accomplished in the death of his son i determined to know nothing among you save jesus christ and him as crucified not still hanging on a tree no he is now the exalted lord but the fixation of his proclamation was the word of the cross and there are dangerous tendencies in even reformed circles in our day to shift the emphasis to the crown and the kingship of christ and bringing every discipline and every facet of our thinking and life under the lordship of christ which we must do as god's people but my brethren let it never be said that we move from this central emphasis it's the word of the cross it's the message of the cross it is the proclamation of christ crucified you it is paul's passion as he declares it in galatians 220 i have been crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ lives in me in the life which i now live in the flesh i live in faith of the son of god who sits enthroned for me that's true but that isn't

48:17 what the apostle said the son of god who loved me and gave himself up for me god forbid that i should glory in the name of the father and the son of god who gave himself up for me glory save in the cross of our lord jesus christ my brethren do i believe i ask myself this many a lord's day do i really believe that if somewhere in whatever the exposition is whatever the subject is if i hold forth the christ of the cross that god can take that and make it the instrument of his power to take sons of adam and make them sons of god bring them to the death grip of saving faith where they cling to christ himself and christ alone the pressure will be more and more exerted upon us as life gets less and less simple in the things that we see as it were and have experienced on the horizon and what this poor confused sin sick reeling like a drunk man nation of ours needs is not some new wrinkle on the gospel it needs the naked bare passionate spirit empowered proclamation of the word of the cross

49:36 that god in christ has done something for sinners and god sincerely would know tongue-in-cheek through his servants comes to you in the stead of christ and beseeches and begs you to be reconciled to god that's what paul said we then are ambassadors of christ though god were beseeching by us we beseech you in christ said the reconciled to god why because god has done something in christ to make that possible he has in christ provided this perfect righteousness all of the demands of a violated law have been met in the bloodletting in the abandonment in the cry of dereliction uttered from the cross my brothers may god help us as a result of this and i hope that you have a great day and i will see you next week and even more in the order of my presence god bless you may god help you may god bless you may god bless you may god bless you that our ministry will be indeed apostolic that is sent not to baptize but to preach the gospel that gospel which again and again focuses upon the cross of christ and the word of the cross and that we may see with the blessing of god god doing that work that he describes in verse twenty seven and he says may god help us may god help us

50:59 of this chapter unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Well, my brothers, I lay that exhortation before you. I trust God will write it upon all of our hearts. You who are not in Christ, once again you've been pleaded with to go to Christ. May God grant that you will make that the business of this and other Lord's day, in which God graciously has brought you into a context where you can't help but think that you're something more than a hunk of flesh that needs to be fed and dressed and bedded.

51:41 You are an immortal being. God has stamped you with endlessness. Apart from Christ, it's a horrific future. In Christ, it's blessed. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you that there is a word of the cross. We thank you. That you have in your love and mercy provided a savior perfectly suited to the need of the vilest of sinners. And we earnestly pray that that word of the cross, even this day, shall be made the instrument of your power, bringing some to rest solely in Christ as he is offered to them in that gospel. We pray for your dear servants that you will help us. There are so many pressures,

52:34 Lord, brought to bear upon. We ask you to bless your truth, to be with us through the remainder of this day, that we may know the presence of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit in our hearts, about our tables, in our homes, in our further gathering together tonight. We commit to you the remainder of this day with the prayer that your blessing will rest upon us in ever-increasing measures of grace and power. Hear us as we plead for these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.