Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross
of Christ should be made non-effective.
For the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness.
But unto us, which have seen you, it
is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing
the understanding of the foolish.
Where is the wise?
Where is the straggler?
Where is the disputer of this world?
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world?
For after that, in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolish disappointing, to
save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the
Greeks seek as to wisdom.
But we preach Christ, having been crucified, unto
the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and
the wisdom of God.
Upon the truth of the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the great truth of salvation
by grace, depends.
And while in the scriptures the death of
Christ and the cross of Christ are never
separated, in religion they always are.
And I'm not speaking on the death of
Christ tonight, I'm speaking on the cross of
Christ.
It is said that Mr. Sturgeon lived in
tremendously favorable environment, and began to seek as
to a vital union with God and Christ.
When he was converted at the age of
sixteen, he'd already mastered more theology than perhaps
any seminary today's seminary gives a student.
Mr. Sturgeon later years said that the problem
this sixteen-year-old boy wrestled with was
how can a holy God deal with me?
How can a holy God deal with me?
It reminds us of the query of the
disciple after the Lord's encounter with the rich
young ruler.
And when the young man had a great
procession and was very sorrowful and he went
away, and the Lord watched him go away,
and the Lord Jesus said, it's easier for
a camel to enter into the eye of
an eagle than for a rich man entering
the kingdom of God.
And the next question, now these men were,
they weren't fools.
If you study this, let your hair stand
on your head.
Especially in this day of easy familiarity, where
we are so familiar with God.
In the old days of the bewhispered patriarchs
of our days, it would take an old
-time Baptist about thirty minutes to properly address
the deity when he approached him in prayer.
Now we rush rapidly into his presence, and
the vice of familiarity is the greatest advertising
that this generation talks so much about God
in Christ, know nothing of Him.
For familiarity with God is entirely foreign to
a soul who has once seen Him marred
on a cross, dying for Him.
And they didn't just ask questions about the
difference between being a poor man and being
a rich man, but having heard the Lord
and watched Him deal with the rich young
boy.
Now you dispensationalists, I think you've got that
all fixed up, so it takes all the
steam out of it.
You know, every time you come to a
hard place in the scripture, there's two ways
you can get around it.
Either it is for the Jews, or it's
a full penny toss.
But these men solemnly, solemnized by watching the
Lord Jesus Christ let an awful good prospect
go.
Says He left him, but He let him
go.
And they said, Lord, who then can be
saved by a soul?
I wish we could preach the cross of
Christ until a holy fall would come upon
us.
Better run around there trying to explain how
God's got to deal fairly with everybody and
give everybody a chance that come upon us
a holy hush.
Who then can be saved?
You know, the whole fabric of apostate Christianity
is based upon the fact of the death
of Jesus Christ.
Everybody believes in the death of Christ.
To save His death is owed by everybody.
Muslims, Buddhists, polite Japanese who wouldn't think of
rejecting the Jesus if you offered them to
put Him up on the shelf for the
rest of their gods.
To save His death is owed as a
part of this religious world's philosophy.
Everybody accepts the death of Jesus.
That which God never separates is death, and
the cross man always separates.
The death of Christ is a fact and
a doctrine that human wisdom has adopted and
rejoices in as the highest tribute to human
worth.
Wonderful men who've asked us to grow in
doctrines in our so-called Christian churches, and
they're growing in your fundamental churches, too, for
universal salvation.
And there is no hell.
Man is so wonderfully made that he's too
precious God.
Wouldn't waste him and send him to hell.
And God, strangely enough, God is sovereign.
See, all modernists believe in the sovereignty of
God.
They believe that's one of Nell's three, believes
in the sovereignty of God.
God's safety cannot last in being released at
the last day except in connection with the
Christ living birth of Jesus for His that
very day.
And I have no contention about saying that
you have to go back to yesterday for
some evidence that you're a believer.
You're a day late there.
You're a day late.
It must be today.
Now, Christ, you're the secure believer, but I
will not preach this final step.
If we come close to preaching that if
a man professes faith in Christ, he'll wander
far away from God, but just before he
dies, he'll come home.
Oh, no.
He'll take the death from the cross and
the resurrection.
Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish and
have everlasting life.
And then John 3.16 gives us the
reason for the cross and the resurrection.
Of course, it is true there isn't a
word of gospel truth in John 3.16.
Dear brother, Luther used up God more than
all of us put together.
He coined the phrase enough gospel in John
3.16, saved the world, and better gospel,
and he put it there.
There's no blood in John 3.16. There's
no resurrection in John 3.16. I'll tell
you what there is.
I read John 3.16. I'll tell you
why Christ hung on the cross.
I'll tell you why God raised Him from
the dead.
Jesus one time caught God in an ocean.
God was in an ocean.
And God so loved.
God so loved.
You tell us God is love, you know,
it's liable to run dry.
No, He got plenty.
God so loved the world that He gave.
What?
Love sent my Savior.
Love.
Love took iron cross.
Love did it.
What is the gospel?
The preaching of the one who was on
a cross eternally in the heart of God.
And in that sense will be forever there.
You're silly to build your doctrines of decrees
and so forth.
Try to handle the element of time and
eternity.
He was as a lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world.
Is that 2 million years ago or 1
,500 million?
Isn't that silly to talk that way?
What does it mean, Brother Barnard?
It means awful deep.
That's what I know.
You're silly to work out your doctrine of
the decree of election that way.
He had chosen us and Him from before
the foundation of the world.
When was that?
15 million years ago?
When was that?
You handle that.
You can't, can you?
We'll walk softly there.
But somebody said there'll be a cross in
the heart of God forever.
And it's because it was in His heart
forever that in due time His Son was
made flesh.
He was made flesh.
You see, I'm preaching never forget that certainty
does not make unnecessary necessity.
The elect will repent, but they must repent.
In the heart of God, Jesus Christ was
as a lamb slain forever, but He had
to be made into a tree.
Oh, oh, what wondrous love He
so loved that He gave.
And no man is even capable of quoting
the next word that's so rich and wonderful.
He so loved that He gave His all
begotten Son.
If God's not a bunch of clay, if
He has no fire, what wealth is in
that expression?
He gave His own begotten Son.
What's the gospel?
It's a cross and a resurrection that took
place because God's got a heart of love.
And the result of it, whosoever believeth in
Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now I ask you to bear with me
tonight as I say another thing.
I want to consider with you credentials of
gospel faith.
Bible credentials of gospel preaching.
There are three mentioned in our scripture tonight.
Any presentation of what you call the gospel
that doesn't do three things isn't the gospel.
Not the gospel of the cross.
Not simply the death of Jesus, but who
died there, and why He died there.
That's what makes up the difference between the
death of Jesus, lived by belief, and the
cross of Christ.
May I ask you this question?
You mean to sit down and tell me
that you actually believe that God made Himself,
made this man himself, by being born as
a baby in a castle, but that's just
not coming out of the rain.
He knows that's no way for God to
do.
And as long as you get your little
theories in your systems and try to make
the gospel so simple, where is the mystery
of God?
Let us not attempt to understand it let
us simply proclaim it.
God was manifest in the flesh.
God, Lord.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Great is the mystery.
Great.
And the gospel is Jesus God manifest in
the flesh.
Let us preach to them on that cross
and now on that throne.
Not theorize about it.
Not worry about two and two makes four.
Let's preach it until the righteous people curse.
It's not very snigger.
And them who are called find in Him
the wisdom and the power of God.
For the proclamation of the cross of Christ
will cause religious people to fight.
Being an evangelist we always covet what we
don't have.
I've always wished I had a pastor's heart
but I don't have it.
Sometimes it bothers me how in these words
you fellows preach the gospel and keep that
gang of hell-raising religionites in your church
in a good humor.
Why, the preaching of the cross is to
a Jew a scandal.
And the Jew represents the religious man.
Questioning himself that he is righteous.
The very word sinner in the New Testament
connotation doesn't mean what we call a sinner.
He's just a fellow who wasn't in the
crowd of the Pharisees and Scribes.
He wasn't a member of their congregation.
Anybody outside was a sinner.
Amen?
And the richest Jew there and with his
successor who occupied the Amen Corner and our
church is planted there by Satan.
The preaching of the cross lays the axe
to the root of all our claims that
the difference to somebody else is offensive, it's
a scandal, it's tremendously vulgar.
And preached in the power of the Holy
Spirit it'll cause religious people to daze to
get their shotguns and try to murder the
messenger.
We heard a call at the fifth Sunday
meeting to come out in the open and
expose that horror, Roman Catholicism.
If you ain't fixing to do it cause
it'll fight back.
I'm telling you that God's truth we've watered
down the gospel of Jesus Christ so that
we can still preach on the radio.
Whoever got preaching the gospel on the radio
would all get put off.
You can't preach anything along on the radio
that's offensive to anybody.
And the gospel would make a religious man
so mad he'd kill you if he could.
The offense of the cross was that it
set aside every clean and vanity ground.
And he said to me, lad, you understand
we don't need anybody to set us free.
We'd be Abraham's children, Jesus said.
If you was Abraham's children you'd have Abraham's
faith and Abraham's words.
The perverted doctrine of election, conception of the
doctrine of election led to the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ.
They said, now bless God, we've got to
get rid of him or he's going to
get rid of us, won't he?
We have no need of anybody setting us
free and we'd be undone.
He said, no matter what my great-grandfather
was Abraham.
He said, I'm not dealing after flesh I'm
dealing after the spirit.
People I call Abraham's children people got his
words and his faith and they killed him.
God bless their heart, they'll kill us but
if we ever have a baptism the Holy
Ghost in my church and go preaching the
gospel of God I'll let preach one sermon
about the Holy Ghost and he'll tell them
what happened.
We can go pick up, get him arrested
out of the church and that's your brain
down.
Oh, how relieved.
You folks can cut out the liberalist martyrs
I'm not worried about them I'm worried about
us dead put them in a list of
TV and start a religious fire because we're
preaching the gospel that's what Pence said to
religious people.
The cross does not offer salvation to good
people one place I know they can go
to is to hell.
The cross offers salvation to sinners and Republicans
and Harlots will press in and leave the
other crowd out.
There's been a citywide meeting in the southern
city years ago and they conceived the idea
of having a preach to the Sunday morning
crowd that could round it up on Saturday
night off the streets and give them a
night to sleep off their dope and their
drink and so forth and I got the
counter tech and the chief of police and
the mayor of the city to go along
with me and I said you sit with
the other criminals and I'll preach the same
gospel to them all.
And I said in this matter of the
cross it cuts the root from everything.
Jew and Gentile rich or poor poor or
slave everybody kneels at the cross or goes
to hell.
The offense of the cross and then gospel
preaching will be foolish to the wise.
Ladies and gentlemen there is Satan's master God
it's the stroke that he's knocked them home
on with.
Listen to me the death of Christ is
accepted.
None but an infidel will question it but
inquire in what way and the wise states
say oh you're being treated badly there.
And at once the harmony is broken and
formed as every school has its creed and
every is of its theorist and the theme
is a signal for a scramble and a
struggle between all the rival groups of so
-called Christendom.
For that which God intended should be an
impossibility to the natural mind Satan has made
the common creed of man.
And though the very biggest sinners in your
community have heard you preach enough they'll look
you in the face and tell you they
grieve that Jesus died for them.
They will.
My friends he who shall not actually believe
that Jesus is the Son of God is
a man of a God-given supernatural faith
it's a faith that overcomes the world.
In 1 John 5 in Mark whosoever believeth
that Jesus that's the name of this humiliation
whosoever believeth so that that Jesus that little
fellow was born over there in Cal State
and lived in Nazareth no good thing ever
came out of Nazareth and nobody was there
nobody ever had anything to do and the
nice people looked him over and said he'll
never do just a bunch of harlots and
public and tax collectors and a few poor
fish and they followed him around and he
got what was coming to him they took
him outside the holy city while they were
observing the Passover feast and nailed him on
a tree between two trees and he didn't
even have a grave had somebody else's grave
put him in didn't have any spices or
perfume but the perfume that bought him the
bar shunned him and he didn't even have
any clothing the rest of his body was
shrouded and they put him down in that
grave and set the Roman seal on it
and put some soldiers to watch and ladies
and gentlemen at the last this world ever
heard of Jesus nobody's ever seen him since
except men and women who've been born from
the dead the evidence of the new birth
is that you have to believe that Jesus
is the son of the living God that
is absolutely impossible to the natural mind that
Satan has pulled a trick and everybody swears
on a stack of Bibles now he believes
I say to you with this authority I
know him right here if you ever find
out who Jesus really is you'll never be
the same again you can't be there's just
one question really now seems to aim this
side of eternity who is Jesus?
who is he?
liberals say he's a teacher Jews say he's
a prophet the world says he's a good
man whose son am I?
what do you say about it?
who is Jesus?
like he has sought to see Jesus who
he is man's got to see him who
he is here to save him he was
manifest in the world in his wealth amongst
and we beheld his glory that's what the
saving power could save in the days of
his flesh he who believes that he's the
one in whom the current life could find
no beauty when he was here and so
in this gospel is it proclaimed the carnal
mind can see no wonders for the devil
has blinded their minds lest they see the
glory of God in the face of Christ
I say to you that gospel preaching has
to be preached in the power of the
Holy Ghost for the Holy Ghost must hold
the word to reveal thereby the mighty mysteries
and marvels of redemption not roaring with it,
humanizing it to bring it within the reach
of the natural man apart from the work
of the Holy Spirit if we really believe
the gospel we have received a revelation from
on high a revelation to which flesh and
blood can never reach no matter how hard
it tries but the gospel may be so
sifted and simplified that none shall fail to
understand it therefore none shall be saved by
it the preaching that is wanted this very
night is not preaching the persuasive words of
man's wisdom and reasoning out salvation such statements
whether it be paid for the sins of
all the elect they got to be saved
be careful, brethren you're not preaching salvation by
grace we don't need claiming that one and
two make three no, no, not reasoning out
a plan just teaching the gospel to suit
the condition of the hearers the gospel must
be preached in the demonstration and power of
the Spirit preaching that of the foolishness of
them that perish but unto them do of
the call preaching that'll have power and be
the power and wisdom of God may I
close by saying to you it's one thing
to master Christianity it's another thing to be
mastered by will you listen to me?
it's the cross that conquered him on that
cross it's not an easy, this cross of
Christ it's not an easy way of pardon
nor is it a plan of salvation but
it's a fact and a revelation to change
the heartless world in doing a boring worship
to see the unseen as real and to
those who believe in the cross Jesus Christ
has been openly set forth, crucified before their
eyes may we see that marred and agonized
face may we witness to the reproach that
broke his heart the scorn, the derision the
hate of that that ended strong and oh,
the man who's often cried when forsaken of
his God, my God, my God why's thou
forsaken him?
when in gazing on him that almost being
has sustained the mighty change and power to
divorce self from self and to separate in
heart from a world that killed him once
and would again if it could get their
hands on him for them, him hanging on
that cross is where they find their deepest
satisfaction and they feast on him in the
blood of their own justification and see not
only a holy Lord acting at vengeance but
the love of God sitting captive free and
they rejoice at the cross of Christ that
is so preached the cross that many despise
him that hung there they say it's impossible
that that could be the Son of God
or that men would be broken and hard
and we'll have some worshipers in our churches
not some reasoners they'll hear again the cry
from hearts that came from Mary and John
and them my God, was this for me?
that he hung there and fathomed from that
transtick look at him on the cross to
live devoted lives for him who died and
rose again that Adam was a living soul
and Christ has been made a quickening spirit
as he sits on the throne, the power
transforms the human life comes from him as
Jonathan Edwards said that he'd always think a
kind providence that in the wisdom of God
God allowed David Brainerd to die in Jonathan
Edwards' home Mr. Edwards said I was in
his room by his bedside most of the
time the last 48 hours that saint of
God lived and he laughed at this he
said David Brainerd the saintest man perhaps America's
ever known spent the last 48 hours of
his life examining his own heart and mind
to see if he could lay hold on
any evidence any evidence that he had a
saving interest in the shed blood of Jesus
Christ I stop and wonder at what they
call the assurance of salvation today I remember
that Jesus Christ had 12 disciples and he
said to them one of you will betray
me and the only one who was not
shaken by that statement the only one who
had perfect assurance turned out to be the
one that betrayed the son of God the
11 disciples when he said one of you
will betray me knowing themselves they said Lord
is it I I told you we were
reading the passage of scripture do you think
it's nihilist this no soul salvation they've been
bragging about now what's it let me give
you some scripture and we desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the
end that you be not fearful of followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit
the promises for when God made promise to
Abraham because he could swear by no greater
he swore by and said so and so
a blessing I'll bless thee and multiply I'll
multiply thee and so after he had faith
simply endured he obtained the promise for men
verily swore by the greater in an oath
for confirmation as to them an end of
all strife wherein to accommodate himself to the
women who wherein God willing more boldly show
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel confirmed it by an oath that
by two immutable things in which it was
impossible for God to lie we are in
this we might have a strong consolation who
have prayed for rescues to lay hold upon
the Lord set before us where is that
hope which for we have as an anchor
of the soul both sure and steadfast and
where is it thank God which entereth into
that within the veil where is my hope
the little carnal assurance is I know I'm
true you've got your robin of bank tomorrow
you better pray for rescue pray pray for
mercy blessed God why the poor runner he's
within the veil Jesus we know my hope's
in him Satan can't get him that good
my hope's in him in him all
on earth now in this seeking time we
pray for refuge to lay hold on the
what the hope that's set before us it's
within the veil thank God it's in good
hands if it's not in yourself if it's
uttered in him in him do you have
a saving interest in the blood that
Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's heart get
Guthrie's book Donald and Cat in his pocket
and read his saving interest and it'll create
within you maybe a thirst more than you
have now so to preach the cross of
Christ if you could that this world it
takes for granted that death of Jesus would
fall prostrate before the fact that on that
cross the sovereign of this world lay down
his life and get up from that meeting
with eyes that have seen the Lord you
can sing this verse knock my home I'm
just driving through mine eyes have seen the
glory in the face of Jesus Christ let
us stand please what can wash
away my sin my sin for
I had to bow to protect it for
you to go from a conference like this
and your assurances in the decision you made
one time a profession you made and you
felt better turned over a new leaf and
not quite as mean as you used to
be or something oh my friend there's just
one safe place and that's to lay hold
on him taking Christian hope within the veil
my sin corrupts that I lay out to
get a hold of Jesus Christ instead of
a prayer for a benediction I'd love for
us to sing just a verse so precious
is Jesus my savior and king he's so
precious to me would you sing it together
brother young can you get the key to
it he is so
precious to
me my savior and king I'll leave
you with it if the time has never
come when you could stand up and say
what Paul told the truth that he loved
me that's not gospel that's testimony tell me
what happened he said he loved me and
he gave himself for it don't be satisfied
with anything until you can say that good
night God bless you