The Centrality of the Cross

Transcript

GRM 1012
8/10/2008
The Centrality of the Cross
I Corinthians 1:17-25
Gil Rugh


When I get back from being gone in the summer I usually like to address either an issue of current interest that perhaps I was reading about while I was gone or draw our attention to something of central importance and a time of reminder for us as a congregation. What I want to do today combines the two, it is the matter of central importance for us as a church and it is an area where the church seems to be losing its grip and losing its focus. I want to talk about the cross of Jesus Christ and the central place the cross plays both in our lives as believers and in the life and ministry of the local church. And if a church loses its focus on the cross, its ministry will deteriorate, it becomes nothing but another social entity, a club, if you will, with a religious veneer.

Turn in your Bibles to Galatians 6. In the letter to the Galatians Paul is dealing with an issue of those who would add something to the message of the cross. When we talk about the message of the cross, we're talking about the message of the Son of God suffering and dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Now among the Galatian churches, after Paul's ministry, some Jews had come in and said, preaching the message of the cross is good and necessary, but that alone is not enough. You must also be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law if you are to have a complete salvation. This issue was addressed at the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15. It is important for us to keep in mind those represented there did not deny that Jesus was the Messiah of Israel, they did not deny that He was crucified on the cross and was raised from the dead. They simply said you must not only believe that, you must also be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law. Paul writes the letter to the Galatians correcting that heresy and says, anyone who believes that is cursed. He concludes the letter with a tremendous statement in Galatians 6:14, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Now this is in the context, as you note, before and after. In verse 14, those who are circumcised, they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. But verse 15, circumcision is not anything, nor is uncircumcision, but a new creation. And you become a new creation, a new creature by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. When people lose their focus on the cross, its absolute sufficiency, the completeness of what God has done in Christ to provide for our forgiveness, our cleansing, they begin to add other things. Here it is the Mosaic Law.

We see this in what is called the emerging church or emergent, today, where there is a move, let's go back to the ancient ways, the ancient practices, bring in those things old and traditional. That will make our worship better, that will complete in a more full way the ministry of our church. We lose sight of the fact, the ministry is the cross. Having candles, darkening the lights, creating a mood—that's not what the ministry of the church is. That does not enhance the ministry of the church. It's easy for us to begin to associate certain activities with true worship.

Some of you have come out of more liturgical backgrounds—Catholic, Lutheran, different Protestant groups. And your first reaction as you've shared with me, in being in a service like this, is I didn't feel like I worshipped at first. Why? Because we associate going through certain routines—standing up to say the Lord's prayer, lighting candles, doing whatever—with worship. But the ministry of the church is the cross of Jesus Christ. We begin to add these things, externals, that may be important to us from our past as these Jewish practices were to the Jews from their past. So we add them to the message of the cross of Christ. We sap the life and power and effectiveness from the cross.

And that's where Paul began in chapter 1 and said anyone who adds anything like the Law to the message of the Christ is condemned to hell. God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross. It's the message we have concerning the Son of God and His finished work that is what matters, what is important. Paul was a Jew, had been circumcised the 8th day, he kept the Law. Read Philippians 3, he shares the testimony of his past because that all had to go onto the rubbish heap. But he came to be as worse than nothing, garbage, dung, that I may know Christ and the power of His resurrection. God forbid that I should glory except in the cross. You cannot add these things to the cross of Christ—your religious tradition, your practice, your good works, your religious works. It's the message of the cross, it's not the style of building, it's not the order of service, it's not the music. I'm totally disturbed as we travel, ended up in one service on a Saturday night because I knew the speaker and wanted to hear him. But as I read the bulletin, we were in the contemporary service. We could come the next morning to one of the other services—a traditional service or a contemporary rock service. I mean, this is what the church has been reduced to? It's identified by its music. And that becomes the style of service and it becomes a way of taking the focus off what the church is. It's about Jesus Christ and the message of the cross. And that's all we have to glory in. Come to our church, you'll like the music. No, come to our church, you'll hear the message of the cross.

These are other things that have a place and the music conveys and is given to convey the truth of God. And we appreciate that, and it ministers to our hearts. But style of music is not what our church is about. We don't build our church around a style of music, we build our church around the cross of Jesus Christ and the preaching of the cross, the focus on the cross. God forbid that we should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in the cross that we are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us. It's in the cross that we become a new creation, we become the sons of God.

Come back to I Corinthians 1. Paul talks about the power of the cross. He says in verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. It's not about baptism, it's about the cross; it's not about circumcision, it's about the cross; it's not about the Mosaic Law, it's about the cross; it's not about man's wisdom, it's about the cross. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. It's not about baptism. There's a place for baptism, but you understand salvation is complete in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and it's in Christ that we experience the fullness of salvation. And you add baptism to that, you destroy the work of the cross; you add the Mosaic Law to that, you destroy the work of the cross; you add your religious tradition to that, you destroy the work of the cross. Some groups have made baptism essential, they baptize babies to rid them of original sin. We baptize adults to cleanse them from sin. You understand, the cross is complete. Paul said, I didn't come to Corinth preaching baptism, I came to Corinth preaching Jesus Christ and His crucifixion.

Now we have to be careful. We try to make the message we have acceptable to people. For some if you want to appeal to Jews, add Jewishness to it—the Mosaic Law. You want to appeal to other religious people, you add baptism. Some of you have had the biggest differences in your family relationships over the issue of baptism. And now that you understand that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, you don't have your babies baptized. That has created some division in your family. ___________ from different tradition are concerned, you didn't baptize the baby. What about their salvation? What about it? The cross of Christ is complete, no add-ons, nothing else.

We also get lured into we have to appeal to our world, our society, our culture. And so we make adjustments. I mentioned emergent or emerging churches, and we have the seeker services. These things come together. We want to appeal, and you have to reach the world in which you are, we have to reach our generation. Yes. What do we reach them with? The cross.

So Paul says that he came to preach the gospel but not in cleverness of speech, not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. Anything you add to the cross of Christ renders it ineffective, powerless, it nullifies its saving power. This is so important. We get deluded because we think, they still preach the cross. That's wonderful. But do they preach anything else in addition to it? Do they preach circumcision, the Mosaic Law, baptism? Or do they try to make the message of the cross appealing by wedding it to man's wisdom?

I was reading again an article that I have in file from a business magazine from 2-3 years ago. The cover story was on evangelical churches and how they've learned to grow by adopting the things that the world has learned—management techniques and all these things. So they have become like successful businesses. In fact some of the pastors interviewed talked about sending their staff to places like Disneyland to learn how to really deal with people, draw people, and so on. Is that what the church has been reduced to? The trap comes, we say they don't deny the cross. They believe you have to believe in the crucified Savior. So did the Judaizers. Well they believe that we ought to be wise and use what works with our generation. Oh really? Well what does Paul mean then when he says he didn't preach it in word of wisdom so that the cross would not be made void. The verb there katargeo means to nullify something, render it powerless, ineffective. The greatest work of the devil today in the evangelical world is to have the cross preached but have the power removed. And people say, they preach the cross. Well wonderful, but do they preach anything in addition to the cross? Have they mixed the message of the cross with the wisdom of men so that it would be more appealing, under the guise of course that we're reaching our generation, we're being effective in our culture, as though the cross alone was not effective for God's purposes. That's Paul's whole point here.

Look at verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The word of the cross, it stands in contrast to the statement in verse 17, cleverness of speech, literally word of wisdom. He did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in word of wisdom. The contrast is for the word of the cross in contrast to the word of wisdom. And the word of wisdom is trying to mix the message of the cross with the wisdom of the world so that it will be more appealing, more attractive. Paul says the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. There's the problem. We try to look wise in the eyes of the world. We have a problem that has to be dealt with, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Foolishness. And as we've noted when we've studied this passage previously, it's the word moria, we get the English word moron from it. It's foolishness, it's stupidity, it lacks sense. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

Understand in Paul's day there was nothing more repulsive than the message of the cross. Cicero, the Roman orator, wrote (he died in 43 B.C. so he was a little before Paul in New Testament times) this regarding the cross and Roman citizens. The very word cross should be far removed, not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears. The cross is so repulsive, so vulgar, a Roman citizen shouldn't even bring it into mind, he shouldn't even have to look at one, he shouldn't even have to hear about it. That's how far below being a Roman and having anything to do with a cross would be. The only impact it had, Jesus said to people, pick up your cross and follow Me. And now Paul reminds these Greek Christians, the word of the cross is foolishness. You're bringing a message to people, they find it repulsive, unacceptable. Nothing has changed. Why are we trying today to come up with plans, we have to reach our culture. Of course every culture is different. You're trying to reach this generation, you have to do it differently than this generation. That is contrary to God's plan. The word of the cross is foolishness, but only to a certain group of people—those who are perishing. Present tense, there are people who are in the process of perishing. They are separated from God, they are His enemies, they are under the sentence of eternal death, they are on the road to hell. They are perishing.

For those people the message of the cross is foolishness, it lacks wisdom, doesn't make any sense. So you'll note, it doesn't say they are perishing because they regard the message of the cross as foolishness. It's the other way around. Because they are perishing, the message of the cross is a message of mental disgust. They are sinners, they are enslaved by their sin, they are held in bondage to their sins, they walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, as Ephesians 2 says. They are dead in their trespasses and sins, they are perishing. And the message of the cross, they find disgusting, beneath them intellectually. Maybe some old fashioned fundamentalists who still take the Bible literally haven't gotten up with the times, don't know anything about what science has discovered, they might believe such a message. But we are far wiser than that, we are much more educated people than that. So they find the message of the cross and the necessity of believing in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross and in that alone as a message that is beneath them, that is not worthy of their consideration.

The contrast is, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God. Another present participle here. We are being saved, we've experienced God's gracious provision of His salvation when we believed in Christ. We were justified, declared righteous. We were saved completely. But we have not entered into all that God has provided for us in our salvation, we are in the process of our sanctification and ultimately we'll experience glorification and the complete removal of sin. It's all a settled matter, but we haven't entered into all of it yet. So we are those being saved.

To those who are being saved it is the power of God. I want you to note here, the word of the cross the power of God. We recognize and understand that as those who have believed in Christ and experienced His salvation. This is what God uses to accomplish the work of salvation and redemption. You know God's Word is alive and powerful. Hebrews 4 says the word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it pierces into the innermost resources, innermost center of our being, even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The prophet Jeremiah said the word of God is like a hammer, it smashes. It's like a fire that burns within. The Word of God is alive and powerful and the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, is God's word for salvation. Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 1:16 and said, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. You'll note, no additions. The message of the cross is the power of God for salvation. I don't have to dress it up with human wisdom so that it will be more attractive, draw more people. I cannot add religious traditions and activity to it as though that would give a more complete package. You understand we have the power of God in the cross. The message of the cross, the word of the cross is the power of God for salvation. That's it. Nothing else. Anything added to it, what you do is take the power out of it. It's a masterful stroke of the devil. They still preach about the cross but they've added man's wisdom. So they've rendered it powerless, the end of verse 17. They've rendered it void, it doesn't work.

You know it's like a device that has batteries. You take the batteries out, it still looks the same. That's great, we talk about that car, how it would run. But the fact is, it won't go, it's dead, there is no power in it anymore. What the devil does with the cross is have men add their wisdom. Look, our church is packed, we can't get the crowds in, we've learned to reach our generation. What have we done? We've rendered the cross powerless and we've attracted a crowd. But there are crowds at the football stadium, there are crowds for a variety of events. Is the goal to get a crowd? Is the goal to have God's power bring about salvation to hearts and lives. That only happens when the cross is presented in its simplicity and purity.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. God's plan has never been to have man add his wisdom to His work so that he can get something more effectively done in the world. This quote come, incidentally, from Isaiah 29. And in Isaiah 29 Hezekiah is king in Judah. And the Assyrians have a might army descending on Jerusalem. The wise counselors' advice is go to Egypt and get a more powerful army to join with you. God's counsel is I'll take care of it. Hezekiah listens to God as Isaiah brings him the message, and God comes out in the middle of the night and kills 186,000 Assyrian soldiers. So the Assyrian remnant turns around and goes home. Now think about it, here are the two choices for Hezekiah—listen to the wisest men of the day who have some understanding about military things, and for goodness sake get an army that will be able to do battle with the Assyrians, or listen to Isaiah who has the Word of God and says, I'll just kill 186,000 Assyrians while they're sleeping. When has that ever happened? Now if you're there listening, which sound to you like the smarter plan? Count on 186,000 Assyrians dying in their sleep, or getting an army from the Egyptians who will be able to do a legitimate battle? But God destroys the wisdom of men. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. It sounds so reasonable. If we can demonstrate the intellectual vitality of Christianity.

Several years ago a man wrote a book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Was very popular in the evangelical world. His thesis was fundamental Christians have destroyed the mind of thinking Christians. One of his remedies was we need a Christian Harvard, an intellectual center that will show that Christians are able to meet unregenerate people on their grounds and defeat them. What a hoax. Yet it was swallowed hook, line and sinker. What about I Corinthians 1? What about the cross? What about the fact that unregenerate men are dead in their trespasses and sins. They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1. They are hostile towards God. Well, if they see how intelligent we are and realize that Christians have a mind and can debate them on their level, then they'll be open to our message of the cross. It's a lie from hell, it's a lie from the devil. God says I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

How does He do it? Look at verse 20, where is the wise man, where is the scribe, where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? These three men—the wise man, the scribe, the debater of this age—have one thing in common. They are all experts in their field. They are wise men, they are intelligent, they are recognized as the professionals of their realm. But you know what? None of them can bring salvation. God has made foolish the wisdom of the world. You know the wisest men in our universities, they don't know how to get saved. I listened yesterday to a program on the public access channel, professor speaking on behalf of the secular humanist. As they introduced the program they said, we are those who believe that life should be lived apart from any religious activities, something to that effect. He is a renowned professor at the university I attended on the East coast for a while. He knows nothing about getting to heaven, knows nothing about coming into a right relationship with the living God. I'm not saying he isn't brilliant, but his brilliance is foolishness when it comes to the issue of salvation and dealing with sin. The wisdom of this world is nothing. That's foolishness, that's moronic. Men trying to use their wisdom to tell you what will make you acceptable before the living God or to tell you that you can live your life apart from God and the end will be okay. _________________ ways to heaven except the way that God has established, which is the cross of Jesus Christ.

Since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Here is God's plan. There are many intelligent people, brilliant scientific discoveries, none of them will lead you to the living God. How can you know God, how can you have forgiveness of sins, how can you become acceptable in the sight of a God who is holy, righteous? Only through His Son, recognizing that His Son died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, for you sin and my sin. There is forgiveness no place else, in no one else. They may say, you have your beliefs and I have my beliefs. That's right. But my beliefs may be wrong, your beliefs may be wrong. God is never wrong, what God says is true. His word is truth. So my beliefs are correct as long as they are in accord with the Word of God. And God says there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. That's as exclusive as you can get. It's one of the offenses of Christianity, is it not? You think your way is the only way. No I don't, I think God's way is the only way. There is a difference. It's not right because I say it, it's not the way because our church believes it. It is right because God says it, it is the way because God says it. It is exclusive. Jesus Christ is the only Savior. That doesn't go well in our world, it never has gone well. But it is the truth.

God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. How is that going to work? God is going to save Israel without an army, without a battle. That's foolishness. And yet 186,000 Assyrian soldiers die and Israel wins and there is no fight. You are a sinner, condemned and on your way to hell. God has His Son, Jesus Christ, die on the cross to be your substitute. You place your faith in Him, He cleanses you. That doesn't make sense. I could see if you had to do things. The religions of the world require something, they expect you to go through these routines, these rituals, and if you don't you won't be saved. You have to be part of the holy Roman church or you can't be saved because salvation is only in the holy Roman church. And then you need the sacraments of our church. Or this church, that church. What do we have? We have men's wisdom versus God's wisdom. God wins because no one gets saved but by God's way—faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

God is well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Simply giving forth the message of the cross. Think about it. Someone comes to you and says we have the most brilliant minds at the university, they want you to come down and talk about the Bible with them. I can't do that, I'm not on their level, I don't have a doctorate degree, I can't compete in their discussions of science. Or would you say, I can be there this afternoon. Don't you need time to prepare? No, I'm prepared. What do you mean you're prepared? I'm ready for what I have to do, sit down with them. Well, they say science has proved that evolution is true and the opening chapters of Genesis are just a fable, they are a myth. They are a creation account like the Babylonian Gilgemish Epic or something like that. We do have differences on creation. But you know what? That's not our major difference and that's not the major problem we have to deal with. You know what the major issue in the Bible is? The major issue in the Bible is your sin, my sin. God says we are sinners and under condemnation. The major disagreement we have is not over creation or evolution, the major difference we have is over how are you, a sinner, going to have your sins forgiven and be brought into a right relationship with God. You know the Bible says that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And the only hope for you for forgiveness, the only hope for me for forgiveness is faith in Jesus Christ. Isn't that what they have to hear? We could go down and spend endless time, even if we could, to debate the issues of science. Those who are perishing view the message of the cross as foolishness. But get to the issue, get to the heart of the matter. God says you are a sinner under His righteous, just condemnation and on your way to hell. But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth and died on a cross to take your place, to die for your sin. Unless you believe in Him you are doomed to an eternal hell.

That's the issue we have to talk about. Are you ready to do that? To us who are being saved, the message of the cross is the power of God, verse 18. Do I need any preparation for that? Could you not tell anyone the message of the cross today? Isn't it interesting how we get with this? We become intimidated, we become fearful. You know how it is. Sometimes you've taken a medication or something and it's like your tongue gets to be a big wad of cotton. Sometimes the opportunity for the gospel is there but .......... Talk about sports, talk about this, talk about that, our tongues won't quit. All of a sudden we're going to talk about the cross ................. I don't think I have the gift. Why?

Paul knew what happened. Look at verse 22. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom. Now we have seeker services and we have this kind of thinking. I was reading a man, I believe his church was in Georgia, had a large work there. In 2 years he had 2500 people in Sunday School. What they did was go out into the community and, as other churches have done, they followed that pattern. What do you like about church? What don't you like about church? What would be in a church you would want to go to? From that they constructed their church. Well Paul didn't come to Corinth that way, he didn't travel around that way. Let's see, this is going to be Jewish. Well the Jews want signs and I can perform miracles because I'm an apostle, we'll give them a sign service. The Greeks love wisdom. Paul had been well educated, well trained humanly speaking. We would agree, he had a great mind. The Greeks search for wisdom. The problem is we preach Christ—we don't give the Jews what they want, we don't give the Greeks what they want. We give them the cross, we preach Christ crucified.

That means to the Jews He'll be a stumblingblock. An all right translation. Scandalon, the Greek word. You recognize it in English—scandalous. To Jews scandalous. Stumblingblock is not a precise translation. Something scandalous was so offensive it aroused opposition, something people found so offensive that they were aroused to oppose it. Paul said you know what happens when you preach Christ crucified to the Jews? They are so scandalized that they are stirred to opposition, they are so offended they are ready to fight back. And the Greeks who like wisdom, it's just beneath them. So to the Gentiles, they think it's foolishness. All right, what are you going to do? Back woods hillbillies, old fundamentalists who never really got a decent education and learned how to think, haven't gotten caught up to our day on science and other areas of knowledge. So they are still believing the Bible is literally true. Foolishness. But that's all right if they want to believe it.

So you have these kinds of reactions. To some they are ready to fight. You present the gospel to them and they are so antagonized they are ready to come after you. You present it to other people and they couldn't care less, they just view you as not very knowledgeable, you're the old fundamentalist. Isn't it interesting? You even see Christians who want to distance themselves from the fundamentalists. Now we're not fundamentalists. Because what? The world has beat that and so intimidated Christians. There are those who take the Bible literally, believe in a literal six-day creation, believe this, believe that .............. It's just what the Bible says. They think they are wise, God says they are fools. Why are we constantly trying to adjust our message so that the fools will like it? We're presenting the message to bring God's salvation, like it or not. The goal is not to be offensive, the goal is to be faithful with the truth.

The Jews ask for signs, the Greeks search for wisdom, we preach Christ crucified. I didn't do a survey to find out what people wanted and then build a church accordingly. I came to Corinth and preached Christ crucified. I know it wasn't what the Jews were looking for, I know it wasn't what the Greeks were looking for. I didn't come to please the Jews, I didn't come to please the Greeks. I came to please God so I preach Christ crucified. According to what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 2 it's that message of Christ crucified that ascends to God and He finds pleasing.

But for those who are the called, verse 24, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Do you believe that? Do you really believe the gospel is the power of God for salvation? Well understand that we walk around with the power of God. Think about if you were able to walk around and call fire from heaven, to do other kinds of dramatic miracles. I can't wait for opportunities to use this power. And yet He entrusts us with His power for salvation and we walk around and don't let it loose, don't tell anybody. Why? We're afraid, we're afraid of a hostile response from people who might be scandalized by being told this message. We're afraid of being thought to be stupid or foolish. But we have entrusted to us, as Paul refers in his later letter to the Corinthians, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, treasure of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is these frail, physical bodies. I can go out and turn loose the power of God that can bring about the eternal salvation of a lost person when I tell them the message of the cross. You are a sinner and Jesus Christ the Son of God in an overwhelming act of love stepped from the glories of heaven and came to this earth and died on a cross to pay the penalty for your sin. Think about it. The Son of God dying for you on a cross so that if you will turn from your sin and place your faith in Him you can be cleansed and forgiven, declared righteous by God and become His child. That's the message. I'm afraid, I'm embarrassed, I don't think I can talk about it. I can talk about a lot of things, but it comes to that, I just don't seem to be able to get it out. Maybe we don't talk about it enough. If you never think about a sporting event, never read about it, never think about it, never talk about it, you probably won't be much of a conversationalist about it. Maybe we just ought to talk about it more. What do we want to talk about? I'd like to talk to you about the power of God. You know the greatest demonstration of the power of God is present right here. I can tell you about something God says will impact your life in such a dramatic way, it will be continuing to impact your life in a hundred billion years. It's the message of the cross. We see people, jewelry hanging on them, wherever you go, jewelry with a cross on it, the most profane people. You look and they're wearing as part of their jewelry outfit a cross. You're wearing a cross, why would you be wearing a cross? Do you know the significance of that cross you're wearing? Do you know what it means? It means the Son of God died. Do you know why He died? Because you are a wretched hell-bound, hell-deserving sinner. Why are you wearing that cross? You know the cross was an instrument of execution. The Son of God died on that cross, why would you be wearing it?

____________ talk to people about, the cross. People come to our church, we think, I hope he doesn't say the Catholics are going to hell, or the Lutherans, or everybody but us. Everybody but the ones who believe this message. And you'll note, it's God's sovereign power, verse 24, to those who are called. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul said I endure all things for the sake for the sake of the elect that they might come to the knowledge of the salvation which is found in Christ Jesus, he wrote to Timothy.

I don't know who will respond to this message. May share the gospel with 1000 people, maybe none of them will, maybe one of them will, maybe several. I don't know. But first importance I am told that God is pleased.

Turn over to II Corinthians 2, and we'll be done. Verse 14, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. You know what matters is God is pleased when we talk about His Son. God is pleased when we tell people about the cross and the message of the cross. And this is the great demonstration of love, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And it's true, God is a God of love. Do you believe God is a God of love? Yes, I believe that. Many think that means He would never send anyone to hell, He would never condemn anyone. But you understand, the great demonstration of God's love is that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. You realize God says you are a sinner, you can't understand His love unless you understand your sin. And you can't understand His love unless you understand He died. His Son suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. That's love. Greater love has no man than this, than one lays down his life for his friends, Jesus said. Do you really know about the love of God? Have you really entered into that love? Have you placed your faith in His work? I don't know whether they'll believe, I go away thinking I'm a failure. I talk to them and they are scandalized, they became hostile. I must not have the gift. I shared with them and they walked away and I think they thought I was an idiot. Better that I don't even open my mouth. We forget. Who are we trying to please? Those people we talk to or the living God who sent us? The God who entrusted us with the message of His Son, which every time we give it ascends to the throne of God as pleasing to Him.

Verse 15, we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. If God is pleased, that's what counts. Well what happens when you share the gospel. First of all, God is pleased. Did they get saved? No. Well at least did they say they'd think about it? No, they were so angry I had to get out of there to save my skin. Oh, it wasn't a good experience. No, it was a wonderful experience because God was pleased. Well if they thought you were an idiot, what did you accomplish? God was pleased. We're like little children who lose our focus quickly. The message of the cross is a message of God's power for salvation, it is a message that pleases Him. That's why Paul says in verse 17, we are not like the many, the hoi paloi, peddling the word of God, adulterating the message of the cross to make it more saleable, more acceptable. No, because that wouldn't be pleasing to God. It might cause our church to grow, it might make more people happy with us, they might speak better of us. But God is not pleased with people who adulterate the message of the cross, so they can peddle it. Note they're not giving up the message of the cross, they are just adulterating it to make it more saleable, they are peddling, they are acting like hucksters with the Word. And they think they are doing a good thing because they've made it more saleable. God has entrusted us with the message of the cross and it is His power for salvation to everyone who believes.

What a precious opportunity. You'd think we would be about looking to every person we talk to, I want to give them the power of God that they might have opportunity by the grace of God to experience His saving power.

The first question is have you experienced, not have you been around it, not can you talk about it, not can you give it back. Has it ever taken hold of your life. It is the power of God for salvation, it makes you a new creature, a new creation. Paul writes to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 5, old things pass away, new things come. Is that what the gospel has done to your life? Have you ever truly believed in Christ alone? Not have you been a member of this church, not have you been baptized in this church. Have you ever believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and experienced His life changing power, been cleansed from your sin and been made a new person. The gracious message of God is today is the day of salvation. God commands all everywhere to repent, for He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world and every single individual in it, in righteousness, through a man that He has appointed, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead. Jesus Christ is the Savior and will also be the judge.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for the awesome power of the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. So simple, so clear that a child can grasp it, but yet it escapes the wisdom of the wise of this world. Thank you, Lord, for your grace in providing your Son. Thank you, Lord, for your love and grace in calling us to salvation in Him. Lord, give us a boldness, a passion as we confront, as we walk with and talk with family and friends, strangers who know nothing of your awesome power for salvation. May we step forward, put aside our fears, our desire to be accepted, our desire to be honored, our desire to be thought well of. Lord, may we desire to please you. May we share with them with conviction, with love the message of the cross that could bring them to salvation, even as it works powerfully in our lives to save us. May we remain faithful to this message as a church until Christ comes. And we pray in His name, amen.