Thank you very much musicians the song leaders and all you singers and acquire out there. Thank you very much. It's great to hear you sing It's good to be back. I've been away.
It's been three weeks since I've been at Northbrook and it feels like an eternity In fact, I feel a little bit like a guest speaker this morning Although I recognize some of you There are a few here that I don't recognize we welcome you if you're visiting And if you came you started coming within the last three weeks when I've been missing and please make yourself known to me My name is Clyde and I'm privileged today to be sharing the message of the gospel with you from the Word of God I better put my glasses on here. This special speaker it reminds me of a story. There was a visiting preacher that came into church one day and The leadership asked him if he would please go and just talk to the children in the in a grade four Sunday school class So he went down to the grade four Sunday school class while they were doing their thing downstairs and then the adults were singing upstairs And they thought what am I gonna do with these little guys? So he said I think I'll break the ice a little bit just by by doing a little quiz with him children like quizzes You know they like to give answers so so he says I'm you tell me what I'm thinking about and he says I'm thinking about a little tiny animal that likes to run around in the forest And he's looking at the kids and nobody's answer.
Okay, this little animal that runs around in the forest likes to climb up into the trees Nothing just like you guys So if you think of what it is you just keep it to yourself Alright, so so he's he's saying well wait a minute So this little animal that runs around the forest and likes to climb on trees has a big bushy tail Nothing he's not Nothing Vibe by little boy in the back row started to put his hand up like this. He said yes young man. What is it? He said I know the answer is Jesus, but it sounds like a squirrel So I want you to know off the top that the answer is Jesus The answer is Jesus even if it sounds like a squirrel when I'm done preaching the answer is Jesus I want you to turn your Bibles.
I hope you have your Bibles with you Link on ask me if I if I had a PowerPoint presentation I don't even know what that means so I don't have a PowerPoint presentation But I gave him liberty to put up there whatever he thinks fits while I'm preaching so who knows what'll happen first Corinthians chapter one First Corinthians chapter one. I hope you have your Bible is so important to have and know the word of God We're so privileged to have the word of God some of you have it attached to your phone So you can be looking at your phone texting and all kinds of things well I'm preaching and I won't know but God knows all right, so just keep that in mind All right, so I want to preach today. I want to speak to you today I want to share with you today from the scriptures now talk about the cross of Christ the cross of Christ and I take my text from 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 17 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17 for Christ Paul writes this and he says for 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 I read that again for 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 would you bow your heads with me and pray we need to pray father Thank you so much. Thank you for your word today Thank you for this gathering together of believers Thank you for those who may be among us who aren't believers But have come out to hear your word and frankly father if your word is not heard today This will just simply be a waste of time if all the people here is my voice This will be a colossal waste of time and so we ask Lord that your word would be heard We pray that your Holy Spirit will take your word and apply it to our hearts the speaker and those who are listening and made someone today Someone in this gathering come to an understanding of what the cross of Christ really means We asked this in Jesus name.
Amen. What does the cross mean to you? I asked that question What does the cross mean to you in my youth when I was young and I was young at one time when I was young I used to sing in a group I used to be able to sing and I and I was in this group there were four of us We were quartet none of us saying parts really but we called ourselves a quartet because there were four of us And we called ourselves the nobleman the nobleman quartet and we would travel around and at that time in the history of Christianity Way back in the dark ages We used to do stuff called coffee houses and that they were big at that time back in the 70s And we would go from place to place from coffee house to coffee I sometimes those coffee houses were in the basement of churches sometimes they were in halls community halls sometimes their universities I've sung at Mount St Vincent University and Katie University of U Hall and What's this got to do with the cross? Well, I used to wear one around my neck, right?
It was you know a little piece of raw hide around my neck and not the end of it was a wooden cross and And that was an identification of a source of who I belong to everybody in our little quartet had a cross of some kind Either one one or a metal one and it identified or we felt as though it did anyway us with the Lord Jesus Right and you've seen crosses all over the place sometimes you're driving along and you'll see across on the top of a steep Well, you say, oh, that's probably church over there used to be now It's a condominium or something, but it used to be a church we identify the cross with Christianity with the Lord Jesus Christ So you see crosses on people's earrings sometimes around necklaces sometimes you'll see them on tattoos on their arms Some of the people who have the worst language in the world have crosses tattooed to their arms, right? It's an emblem Sometimes the emblem has meaning to the individual wearing it and sometimes it's totally meaningless. I want to ask you this morning What does the cross mean to you? What does the cross of Christ specifically mean to you rather than a steeple or a necklace or something like that?
What does the cross of Christ mean to you? I want to talk about and I'm gonna break this message down into three parts so that you'll know where I'm going And you'll know when I got there, okay? The first thing is I'm gonna talk about the preeminence of the cross Then I'm gonna talk about the power of the cross and I'm gonna talk about the person of the cross The preeminence the power and the person of the cross So first of all, let's talk about the preeminence of the cross in chapter one verse 17 the first Corinthians Paul said Christ did not send me to baptize and you might think well, that's an odd way for Paul to speak Why would he say that? Why would he say Christ has not sent me to baptize?
There's something wrong with baptism? He was not saying there was something wrong with baptism. He was just saying that baptism isn't the priority Some people make baptism the priority don't they when a little baby's born into the world They rush that little baby off to the priest or the bishop or someone and get water sprinkled on the baby because they think that by doing so They will have saved that little baby But Paul wanted people to know that his priority was not to baptize he did baptize some people But it was not his priority That's not the priority the priority is the cross right and Paul wanted to make sure that people didn't misunderstand about baptism You know baptism is good and right and it's place but it's place is not at the front It's places afterwards the front of all of this is his for us to come to a realization that we're sinners and that we need a Savior and After repentance of our sins and faith in the Savior then it's right and true to be baptized But baptism will not save you baptism will not bring you forget you forgiveness of sins It will not get you a right relationship with God It will not enhance your relationship with God even after you're saved all baptism will get you as wet Totally if you happen to believe in total immersion you get wet. I'm here to testify about that I can remember years ago like I grew up and this is I'm supposed to take my name take off because it can be distracting I grew up in a little community called Glenwood and there was one church in that little community It was a Baptist church and if you understand Baptist you understand they believe in baptism right and in the era that I grew up in When you turn 12 or 13 years old it was time it was time You're supposed to get baptized now, right?
Because that's what you did you got baptized and you joined the church and I remember The pastor of the church at that time a little church that I went to his name was Maitland Jones What mother names are child Maitland right Maitland Jones and he was a dear old soul and when I say old day the emphasis is on that word old He should have retired probably decades ago, right? Snow white hair a beautiful wonderful old fellow and I remember one day we were getting together for youth group Young people and I was I was there and a whole bunch of young people and we were waiting for pastor Jones to come Sort of leave this thing and we struck up the idea that we'd have a baseball game while we're waiting So there's a little field by the church. It's in the country So the little field by the church and we set up we got some rocks and we made a home plate and first base second base third base And we stationed ourselves around and we started to play the game Well while we're playing our game of baseball Maitland Jones came along and his little voxel car And he put it into the churchyard and he got out of the car and we thought well This is the end of our game, but mr. Jones came out and of course He had his black suit white shirt and tie because he was coming to youth group and he came he came out and And we thought well, this is what wasn't over because mr.
Jones pastor Jones wanted to play he never played baseball before So what do you do? Well, you try and hit the ball? So we gave him the bat and he had his hands crossed and all kinds of things But finally he got it right he stood up to the plate picture through the ball and crack Never played it before first swing way out yonder in the field. He stood there and looked at it We said run pastor run he didn't know what to do So so mr.
Jones started running out He had beautiful black polish shoes on the floor the bottoms of those shoes are just as flat as they could be in smooth And that hayfield had just been mowed there a little bit so hey around so he started his leg started pumping for all He was working but he wasn't making any headway He was just spinning then all it wants he just went face first into the turf in time stood still and all of us out there In the field wanted for all our lives to laugh. It was hilarious, but we thought he was dead So we didn't laugh we just we just stood there and looked and in that moment frozen in time We're standing you know, we're all like I'm on first base and I'm just looking you know He didn't know where to run he was just running right he just running and he fell and I thought he did and so we looked at him And as fast as that man fell down he sprung up again. Where do I run to he said run the Clyde run the Clyde? So we ran to first base and he got to me said now what do I do?
I said and people still filming around the ball and feeling said keep going pastor keep going So we ran we had a great time with that great time Weeks later the voxel this is after the game in the youth group I'm at home and the voxel drives into our yard I'm 13 years old voxel drives into the yard out of the box all gets Brother Jones pastor Jones, and he's got a blue robe wrapped over his arm. I knew exactly what that meant It's time I knew that he was coming because he wanted me to get baptized and I did but any good 13 year old would do I ran and hid he came in and he gave a rope to mom and she tried to explain what happened to her son She didn't know where it was and and They intended that I should get baptized, but you know what I didn't and I'm so glad I didn't because I wasn't saved I wasn't saved you can't put baptism ahead of salvation Baptism is fine and right in its own place as an active obedience as a believer But not ahead of things and Paul said I did not come to baptize I Christ did not send me to baptize Christ sent me to preach the gospel It's not wonderful to know that God has sent you to preach the gospel lots of times I talked school for a while and I remember that the kids would come to me like high school so in high school You're thinking what am I supposed to do with my life? What am I supposed to do right? And I had lots of good kids that would come to me say I don't want God wants me to do with my life taught in Christian school I don't know what God wants me to do with my life.
I understand that You know what God wants you to do with your life? He wants you to preach the gospel You might not go and preach the gospel like John and Warren and some of the others do out on the open streets I might not be your thing right But he wants you to preach the gospel He wants you to take the good news of Jesus Christ to people who don't know and wherever those people might be That's where you go. Where's he sent you? Paul was sent to the Gentiles and to kings and to the Jewish people of Israel Yeah, he was sent to those people maybe you're not sent to those people but you're sent to somebody to preach the gospel You're not there to talk to one boat church You're not there to talk to them will get baptized or reforming their lives You're there to talk to them about the cross of Christ He sent me to preach the gospel look at it with me chapter 1 verse 17 He has sent me to preach the gospel now why Paul why do you say not to baptize?
Because if you read the context of that verse you read verses 10 to 16 You see that there were divisions in the church at Corinth people were lining up under different leaders and I'm saying I'm of Paul I'm of a Paulus. I'm of Cephas Peter I'm of Christ right and the church was being divided into groups of people who said I follow this one I follow this one I follow this one and Paul said no wait no wait No, did I did I baptize you baptize in the name of Paul did Paul die for you? No So Christ did not send me to baptize people he sent me to preach thank God He says in verse 14. I thank God that I didn't baptize any of you What a thing to say except for Christmas and games.
What a thing to say I was just a fast what a thing to say I didn't baptize any of you. Thank God. I didn't what I preach the gospel to you. That's the important thing I preach the gospel to you Christ did not send me to baptize.
That's the context. That's the context now If Paul did not baptize what did Christ send him do but to preach the gospel? This is a first importance That's our commission that's our calling to preach to the gospel not all are evangelists But all our witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want you to say you might be saying well brother Clyde you know what?
I just I don't know what to say I just simply don't know what to say when somebody comes along and I have an opportunity I just don't know what to say great. Look at this passage. It'll show you something something really wonderful How are we to preach? How did Paul preach?
Now? Here's some good news for you and for me He says not in cleverness of speech when I part of verse 17 not in cleverness of speech you don't have to be clever Isn't that great? I've never been accused of being clever never And you don't have to be clever in order to present the gospel of Christ Isn't that great? You don't have to have your head full of all kinds of information You don't you don't have to have a quick turn of phrase on the tip of your tongue The gospel of Christ is simple make it simple make it clear make it plain as I'll hope to do in a few minutes with you Not in cleverness of speech the Greek there is Sophia Logos wisdom words the King James says wisdom of words worldly wise words God doesn't want us to be worldly wise God doesn't want us to be sophisticated when we present the gospel why Paul why not?
So that the cross of Christ would not be made void or empty most of what is propounded today as being gospel is Long on worldly wisdom and short on the cross of Christ isn't it if you're listening to people who are proposing that they're preaching the gospel There's a lot of philosophy in there. There's a lot of psychology in there and that's the wisdom of the world We are warned in Colossians chapter 2 verse 8 see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception According to the tradition of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ There's a warning The philosophies and the psychologies of this world are contrary to the word of God They're contrary to the message of the gospel their whole premise the premise is wrong They're built on a foundation of no God and if you seek to live according to those philosophies Built on a foundation of no God you're gonna go astray the word of God in the word of God alone must guide us in these things Listen to what dr. John MacArthur jr. You're right about this.
I thought this was great God's word is the only true wisdom and Is all the wisdom that is reliable and needed all the truth the truth about where we came from why we're here and where we're going all the truth That God intends for us to have and that we need is there in the Bible It needs no addition of human wisdom which always falls short of his word most often contradicts or distorts it Scripture stands alone reliable sufficient and complete do you believe that scripture stands alone reliable sufficient and Complete all that we need is in this book brothers and sisters ladies and gentlemen It's right here in this book. We just have to go to it We just have to ask God to reveal to our minds in our hearts What it is he wants us to know Paul says I will not preach in cleverness of speech in worldly wise words So feel logos I will not use that kind of terminology that kind of language I will preach otherwise so that the cross of Christ would not be made void void Preaching filled with philosophies and psychologies of the day only make empty void the gospel of its simplicity and power To preach the word of philosophy would make the cross of Christ of no value It would empty it the new enivices it would empty it of its power it would deprive it of its purpose It would make it hollow it would make it pointless. There is no point to the cross in the wisdom of this world the Roman governor Festus was interviewing Paul the apostle one day and Paul was preaching to him and to King Agrippa and to his wife Bernice And he was explaining to them about Jesus Christ dying for their sins and being raised again the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ And Festus burst out and said Paul you are mad much learning has made you mad That's the wisdom of the world. That's how the world would see us when we proclaim the gospel of Christ I don't suppose anybody has ever called you mad Have they John Warren?
Crazy crazy. Yeah, we wouldn't say mad today. We'd say great. You're crazy But don't be surprised don't be surprised if they think you're mad because they have the wisdom of the world And the wisdom of God is totally contrary to this if you read on in the text you'll see that that's true The wisdom of God is totally contrary to the wisdom of the world Which wisdom is the right wisdom which wisdom is true which wisdom really is wisdom?
Wisdom of God God knows he established wisdom. I want you to see that in this passage of scripture Let's go to verse 18. It says for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing it is foolishness To those who are perishing I want you to notice the words to whom this gospel is foolish. It is to those who are what?
Perishing here you whisper it the perishing. That's the cruel word isn't it? You know what? Sometimes you know sometimes when people turn on you and call you crazy or fool Sometimes the flesh sort of wells up a little bit.
We don't like to be called that do we? Sometimes the flesh wells up a little bit and we feel a little angry maybe But if we remember this verse the word of the cross the message of the cross the word word there is the message What the cross is about if the word of the cross is foolishness is foolishness to those who are perishing isn't it? And it will turn our hearts from Indignancy to anguish if we look at those people as people who are perishing They're perishing what a tragedy God give us tears right for people who are perishing How unlike our master we are when our anger is high but our eyes are dry right? Keith Green wrote a song he said my eyes are dry my faith is old my heart is hard my prayers are cold and I know how I ought to be Alive to you and dead to me May we be dead to ourselves and alive to the Lord and be able to see past the taunting Past the words of abuse and see that these people are perishing Paul said For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but but but but but but What is it to those who are being saved?
It is the power of God what a contrast to those who are being saved? It is the power of God When I think of the power of God, I think of power I'll tell you another story when I was a kid I worked my dad had a farm and I worked on the farm and I remember being out in the hayfield and The word for power here in the Greek is the Greek word Dunamos Which means is the word from which we get the word dynamite and I remember being out in the hayfield and it come to the end of the day And I was I had worked all day long and I was I was beat. I was just a kid I would be and I remember two guys drove up on motorcycles Clayton and have a lot good and we called Clayton Kippy and we called have a quarter hitch everybody had a different name in our village and Dad said with one of you guys take my son home. He's dead beat He just needs to go home have something to go to bed and so Kippy said I'll take him home and My first ride on a motorcycle and Kippy cranked that thing up It was a Honda 50 so sounding more like a lawnmower being revved up You know a little and I climbed on the back and before I got on the back Kippy he turned his head around a great big Grand on his face and he said pure power Pure power Honda 50 now if we went Down the road from home.
It was better than walking but not a lot So he got me home pure power listen the power of God is different than that when we think of God When we think of the creative power think of the creative power of God in the beginning God created Heavens in the earth think of that think of the earth just think of the earth and then think of the heavens think of the heavens You know what there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. That's our galaxy 100 billion stars We can see just a small portion of them with a naked eye probably if you go down on the night You start counting stars you get up to about 3000 that you can see All right, there are 100 billion out there We can't see him and you know what the Milky Way is only one of two trillion galaxies Two trillion that are observable to mankind and scientists believe there's probably more out there But we just don't have the technology to see it God made that and I love it in first in the first chapter of Genesis Where God says that he made the two lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night And then he says as a footnote. Oh, yeah, he made stars also You made the stars also, you know, no big deal when we think of the power of God and we think of his majestic power of creation We think man that is awesome But you know what God describes as powerful in his word right here to us who are being saved That's the power of God when God can take a guilty vile wretched center like me and like you and make him a child of God That's power. That's real power.
I can't do that. I can't make you a child of God I can't make you one way better, but God can make you his child Take you from a child of the devil to a child of God From a worm on the one hand to a prince on the other God can do that. That's powerful in that That's the power of God for the us who believe The message of the cross to those who are perishing his foolishness, but to those of us who believe it's the power of God the very power of God How do you describe it? How do you magnify it?
How do you well not magnify it? How do you delineate the power of God? And upon whom does God exert this life-changing power Verse 21 for since the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God God was well Please through the foolishness of the message preach the message of the cross to save those who believe the power of the cross Is to save those who believe the power the preeminence of the cross is that it has first place over everything else the power of the cross Is has ability to take us and to make us the children of God and then we come finally to the person of the cross the person of the cross verse 22 says for Jews asked for signs and Greeks search for wisdom But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block into the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called Well Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God the person of the cross You know what there would be no power in the cross if it weren't for the person of the cross, right? If there were no Lord Jesus Christ who had hung upon that cross there would be no power for salvation If there were no Lord Jesus Christ who hung on that cross there'd be no preeminence of the cross would be nothing It would be hollow it would be meaningless, but the person of the cross was none other than the very son of God God made flesh And when you hung on that cross he hung there not for his own sense he hung there for yours There were three people crucified on crosses that day that we know about there probably more the Romans crucified 100s of thousands on crosses cross is not an unusual thing in those days it was not but the cross of Christ well that's far different Because all those other people hung on crosses as sinners he hung on the cross is endless The hymn writer wrote three crosses standing side by side.
Oh what a sight sublime two for their own transgressions died the middle one for mine For yours you realize that the cross of Christ was the cross upon which you should have hung But he took your place and God's plan of salvation was that he should do that God's way of saving us from the penalty of our sins For the wages of sin is death You have to God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord who died in our place on the cross of Calvary the cross of Christ he paid your penalty And the whole point of this message is to get to that that Christ died on the cross for your sins And all God requires is that you realize that that you have no hope of salvation apart from that the only way God can accept you It's not through baptism. It's not through church membership is not through doing good deeds It's not through any of that stuff that will not help you in the least with the only thing that can avail Between you and God is the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for your sins. That's truth. That's the reality That's where the power is and that's why it's preeminent That's why it should be preached to every creature that they might know I want to ask you a question in the verses that we read It spoke about those who are perishing and it spoke about those of us who believe those who are perishing those of us who believe you're either One or two or the other of those two groups.
What is the cross meaning to you? You can tell which group you're in by what that cross means to you if it is the power of God and salvation Chances are your believer, but if it's foolishness, it's because you were perishing you don't want to perish You don't want that God doesn't want that Put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you Trust him as your Savior and you'll see the power of God to lift you out of the Quagmaristin and set your feet upon a rock Let's pray father. Thank you for the privilege of sharing your gospel today. Thank you for the cross of Christ It is the power it has the power the message the word of the cross has the power as it is applied by your Holy Spirit to hearts To save all who believe and we pray that there might be somebody in this auditorium today Who would be saved who would believe and we pray that those of us who know those of us who have believed?
That we would make the preaching the cross their priority that we would tell others about him who loved and died for them We asked us in Jesus name Are we gonna sing all right so the people who do