first Corinthians chapter one I want to read the verse verse eighteen of chapter one for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God I want you to notice those words the power of God verse twenty four but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God. There you have the power of God again. Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Then over in chapter two, verse one. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit. and of power. There's the third time that word power is mentioned. In verse five, and your faith, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Four times you have the word power used in those texts and in those also the word of wisdom. And that word wisdom is found seventeen times in those two chapters. There's another lovely verse over in Romans one, sixteen, and the Apostle Paul could say, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power or dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. That word power in the original language is the same as dynamite. And I've spent forty-six years now putting dynamite in people's heads and hearts. It sets off an explosion. Lots of people come, you know, and thinking they're good enough, as they are, to go to heaven. Well, you have to blast that out of their heads because they'll never get to heaven that way. Others think if they're a member of the church, if they've been baptized, they're going to heaven. Well, you've got to blast that, too, because that's not the way to heaven. You've got to blast these things, and the Bible is what does it. Not what I say. The Bible doesn't. A person thinks they can get to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. Well, the Bible blasts that too. No one can get to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes. And so you're putting dynamite in people's hearts. Those words, the words of the living God that you've got to face sometime or another. So here you have the apostle and he's contrasting the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God, the power of men with the power of God. And it seems as the days passed, we're getting away from the simplicity, the wisdom and the power of the old-fashioned gospel taken up more or less with man's intelligence, man's wisdom, and man's works, and man's way of salvation. Over in Europe there was a little church and they used to preach the gospel some hundred years ago, and for many years the gospel was preached soundly in that little church. Then they thought, well, we believe that we can drop one word, because modernism began creeping in, and so they dropped the word crucifer. Christ, we preach Christ crucifer. And so an old gentleman who knew the gospel, he slipped up under a dark one night, and he covered over the word, he got his paintbrush, and he covered over the word, crucified, unless we preach Christ. Well, now, they did preach Christ. They preached Christ as a pattern, Christ as an example, Christ as a martyr, they preached Christ. And then they drifted further off. And they left Christ out of the whole business. So the old man slipped up, and he painted out the third word. And all they had left was, we preached. And so you could put all what you wanted after that. We preached politics. We preached social goodness. Social reform. We preached. We preached the... all that man glories in. There you have the decline of a church. How sad it is today. Many are builders, or many are church building. Once they preach Christ and Him crucified. Today they preach. They preach just about what they want. And they're not preaching the old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God, and therefore the preaching has lost its power. You get a mental feast, but you don't get a stirred heart. God wants men and women to see the power of the cross, the power of the blood of Christ, to save precious souls. After one thousand years of spiritual birth and death, We were called the Dark Ages, along came Martin Luther. And this is the way he put it. He said, I preach, as though Christ died yesterday, rose today, it's coming back tomorrow. That's the way we all who preach the gospel so forth, preach it as something that's up to date in the mind of God that just about the way it is for a thousand years is but a day. as if Christ died yesterday, rose today, and will come back tomorrow. That's the way God would have us to put it. You know, Calvary, where Jesus died, was the place of a skull. The work of Christ was the end of man's wisdom, an empty skull. That's what the Bible says. And at the cross of Calvary you see an end of all man's philosophy. He's learning as intelligent as wisdom. And he's very crafty in getting around the work of Christ. And you have to sometimes be pretty smart to detect the way they can avoid the cross by their choice of words. So you have demonstrated the power of the gospel. The Apostle Paul makes it very plain that in his message there was power. There was power in the man too because he was filled with the Spirit of God and his message. That was the main thing. The power of the message he preached. We notice there the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and the power. Paul is reminding me of Corinthians. He said, I came into your city of learning and culture and education and all kinds of philosophies and idolatry and wickedness. And he said, I made up my mind before I came. I was going to be determined I was going to preach one thing. For the one thing I'm going to preach will be the answer to all that's in Corinth. All your philosophy. all your halls of learning, all your idolatry, all your wickedness, all your shame, he said, I've got one message, and it will answer it all. I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him Kusiva, the man with one message. Friend, that's what God wants today. God's not a modernist. He wants men to go back to the glorious gospel of Israel. And so the message, if applied by the Holy Spirit, it brings about in the heart of the hearers a demonstration of what the gospel can do. It brought forth a wonderful demonstration in Corinth when a lot of those educated men got saved, those doctors of the law, when lives were changed, wicked and godly men, drunks and all kinds, they found Christ. What a change took place in the lives of those Corinthian people. So much so that in the cesspool of iniquity and amidst all that learning was established a little church. How did that little church come about? By the power of the gospel and the demonstration of the spirit, endorsing that message, by reaching hearts, developing those hearts, and changing their lives. You see, there's a power struggle. Power struggle in the military field. A power struggle also in the political field. There's a power struggle in the religious field. Christianity versus man's religion, and there are hundreds of them. Also there's a power struggle between God and the devil. Between Christ and the world. Between the spirit and the word or the will of man. These two are in common. Also there's the power of God versus man's power. The wisdom of God versus man's wisdom. The word of God versus man's word. Truth of God in contrast to the traditions of men. There is a power struggle going on today between heaven, the forces of heaven, and the forces of hell. Now last week we were speaking about that text. Through God we are in Christ Jesus. This is what Paul says. Through God, what God has done through his Son. And I want to say this, God did it. If you converted yourself, you better throw it aside and let God do the job. No man can convert himself. I don't care what kind of a new leap he turns over. I don't care what he does in the way of learning and education or what he does or what his achievements are. Then you cannot convert yourself. Salvation is of the law. If you could circumvert yourself, save yourself. When you got to heaven, all we'd have to do is listen to a bunch of people talking about their goodness and how they got there. Man could pray. Man could talk about all his works and how he got to heaven. I did this. I did that. I did the other thing. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. I didn't do the other thing. There's only going to be one person prayed and glorified in heaven and worship that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one. unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Anyone who tried to sing anything else, in fact, they won't be there to sing. But if they could admire the whole melody, it would be a sour note in the midst of absolute harmony. If any voice was a stick, I would say, now hold on. I lived a good life. I did the best I could. There will be no such discord there. All the glory is going to be given to the man Christ Jesus, who was crucified on dark, dark counsel. No other way, he said to heaven, though man cannot convert himself. You know, the Christian life is dignified because of its source. How dignified God's salvation is. Because of the source of this salvation, The source is God and Christ. This life is in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. And so, friend, if you want a dignified salvation, you get the Lord Jesus. You can't have anything more dignified. A saved person doesn't have to bow his head. No, a saved person can lift up his head. He's got the most dignified salvation in the universe. It's from God, it's in Christ. And Christ said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. You've got to be in fellowship with Christ. Christ has got to be in you. In order for you to be saved, this is of God. You take a branch severed from the vine, it has no life. Look at the battlefield after a heavy barrage, an artillery barrage, and you see members of body all over. They've been severed from the vital organs. There's death. Friend, unless you are in fellowship with the vital organ of Christianity, the person of Jesus Christ, you're dead. You're not in touch. with the vital organ of Christianity, which is Jesus Christ himself, the life that's in Christ the head is in every member of the body of Christ. And how wonderful to know all this. And he says, because I live, you shall live all. When you become a Christian, a born-again Christian, and have the life of Christ in you, you're going to live as long as as the source of that life lives in the same place. Jesus Christ can never die. And if you're in the body of Christ, and the Bible makes it plain, if you're born again, you are. You're members of his body, of his flesh, and of his womb. That means I'm going to live as long as Jesus Christ lives, and I'll live in the same place in heaven. how secure and safe is the child of God. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ did I give unto my good feet, eternal life, and day shall never, never perish. Did old man, if you were wise, God wants you to be wise, and seventeen times the word wisdom is used in these two chapters, you'd be wise to act. Now wisdom is the right use of knowledge. That's what wisdom is. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. God wants you to know something and act upon it. Show wisdom. Now, I noticed the other day, I presume some of you thought on the TV you may have been in line. The last day for getting your license plate. Some stood two hours. And the reporter asked different questions. Why did you leave this for the last day? Some shrugged their shoulders. Some said, well, I didn't have the money. But the others, most of them, said, well, I just threw it off. Now they knew what they should have done. They knew they had to get their license before that day. Why didn't they act wise and get the license before that day arrived? They knew what they had to do, what they needed to drive their car. Why didn't they show a little wisdom? I get mine in January. I'm not wasting two hours of my life standing in line. That's the point, friend. You exercise wisdom when you do something. A man can have all the wisdom in the world if he doesn't talk. No one's being benefited. You've got to put your wisdom into words for anyone else to get any benefit of what you know. God says if you'll be wise, if you act upon what you know. In other words, the unsaved person, he knows he's lost. He knows he cannot save himself. He knows that Christ died for his sin. He knows Christ is coming back again. He knows that the heavens are gained. He knows that the hell is a shunned. Then do something about it. All the time you don't do anything about it, you're foolish. Now, God says, if you do something about it, God says, you're wise. You're wise. And you're going to be wise this morning. The fool that said in his heart, there is no God. He's a fool. And it says in that verse, he says it in his heart. He's a fool. If he comes out with it, it's a fool. to come out and stay out of there. I was old God. God looked into the heart. Friend, God wants you to be wise. Wise unto salvation. Act upon what you know. Believe what God's telling you. That's the way to exercise wisdom and show that you're a wise man, a wise woman, doing what God tells you to do. That's exactly what the Bible's all about. The preaching of the cross today is not wanted in most places. Do you know there are some denominations who have the word blood deleted from their hymnal? They don't want that in there. They like to preach that man is his own savior. And he's an important individual on the face of this. A man can take a hold of his bootstraps and and pull himself up. No, you can't. They don't want the blood of Christ. That's why they don't want this kind of preaching, because this includes the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the cross, includes and displays the wisdom of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the power of God, the love of God, and the salvation of God, and the peace of God. That's what the cross mean. How wonderful. You'll notice it's the blood of his cross. That's what makes all the difference. I could write you a check after this meeting for a million dollars and give it to you. It wouldn't be a bitter good. Just a piece of failure paper you might as well tear it up. I can't back it up. But you get a Henry Ford or a Rockefeller now to write out a check. on a piece of paper for one million dollars. You can collect that. Because of who it is. There's a big difference between Rockefeller and me and Henry Ford and me. They've got it. Friend the person who died upon the cross. The reason his blood is efficacious and can save it because of who he is. The son of God. There were many other crosses on that hill. When they were putting people to death, the Romans were, they were crucifying criminals, they were too crucified with Jesus Christ. People on the one side, the people on the other side, their blood meant nothing. As far as salvation's concern, we read about the blood of his God. He's the only one, and only his blood can put away sin. No one else. The blood of his cross, and this precious blood, this cross of Christ has secured wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemptment. Yes, for nearness to God, cleansing, peace, forgiveness, liberty, heaven, this blood has purchased all that. Didn't you think of anything else? It says his blood is proficient. That's a big word in it. It's in your Bible. The word propitiation simply means this, that the claims of God's throne have been met. The throne of judgment has become a throne of faith all through the blood of his cross. How wonderful. The blood of Christ has satisfied God and turned his throne of judgment into a throne of grace. And you can be reconciled this morning. This is the power of the cross. You know the cross, the preaching of the cross stumbles a lot of men and women. Tell us right in that verse we read how it stumbles the Greeks, the philosophers, the educators. They can't see that the blood of a human being can take them to heaven. And it stumbles the Jews. They couldn't understand why their ritual and all their religion of the past, given to them by God on Mount Sinai, they couldn't understand that all the offerings of the temple and all the rituals of the temple and the priesthood, they couldn't understand why that didn't have some merit with God. And so the Jews were stumbled over this. And the Greeks were stumbled over this. And today you have... Men, women, and they do good. The do-gooders, they're stumbles. They can't understand why they don't have something to do with this and make their contribution towards salvation. They just don't understand the cross seems to stumble these people. Well, I'll tell you one thing. You'll either have to come God's way or never get into heaven. Yourself, righteousness will not save you. And these sign and wonder seekers, It stumbles, isn't it? Friend, let me tell you, there's only one way through heaven. They can't seem to see this truth, that here is life through death, one who dies, blessed through one who was cursed, justified through one who was condemned. Well, that's the only way you're going to be saved. You're going to be saved through one that was condemned. for you. Many stumble over the simplicity that there is in Christ Jesus. The cross is effective when it's preached in simplicity and plainly. I've been preaching now for forty-six years, full-time, two or four years before that, in my spare time. Friend, God and His sovereign grace given us to see hundreds upon hundreds of people saved on every walk of life. Some of the most religious people you'd ever find they get saved, and some of the most vicious. I was in Augusta, Georgia. Ms. Annison and her husband's spouse were up in Thomasin, Georgia, and they met Mrs. Hines, and Effie Hines. And she was the wife, still living, of George Hines, of the Superior Court Judge in the Augusta District. And his brother, John Hines, he was a professor, mathematics in the Richmond Academy, one of the most intelligent men and educated men in Augusta. And then there was another lady, Madame de Dumas. And she was in charge of her corps, military corps in the war under Marshal Patan. During the World War II. And she came to me, French. She was French. She could speak five languages. She'd been around the world seventeen times. She came there with her nurse, rolled in on a wheelchair. She came right after night. And one night the nurse came up to me. She said, if you might, we'd come and see the matter. I said, yes. I walked over to her. She took my hand. He said, well, then, and she could say that then. That was twenty-five years ago. She's a young man. I've been around the world seventeen times. I've tried to learn five religions, Christian science and genetics. He said, I just found the night. I found Christ. She said, Could you come early tomorrow night? I'll tell you all about it." And she did. I would early the next night be there with another. She told how the Lord saved all was on the Book of Revelation. And she listened night after night to the gospel, and she got saved. And at that same campaign, a young woman got saved, had been married five times. So you see you go from one end of the spectrum to the other. The gospel can reach all classes. The most intelligent and educated and culture. Also the beggar in the gutter. This is the power of the Son. It's simple. And it's effective to all those who believe. But when that man preaches, and he doesn't preach the cross, He can preach in all the elegance that his command is excellent and eloquent. The cross is saved. It's just not made clear. People can't see it. The cross is saved. With their wisdom of words, they drew away with the subduitionary work of Christ, the atonement, the thorns, the spear, the blood. They say he died as a martyr. He died as a pattern. of self-sacrifice. That's modernist. And they do away with the old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God salvation through the blood and the blood alone. In other words, man today he would try to paint a rose. He could think of an artist taking up his pen, and there he has all his paint, and he starts to paint a rose. He would who can improve upon John and the earth? Or they would try to gilt the lily. Who could do that with the soil? Who could brighten the snow? No one come up with any white within the snow. Who could come up with the brighter light than the sun? Yet these men, with their intelligence and big words, They tried to put out the stars with their little tangle of elephants. You only spoiled the cross. That's all man's pride in his day, that evening. But there stands the cross, and in spite of all its agony, the cross had a given beauty. Every mark of dark dishonor on the Lord Jesus Christ enhanced them in the sight of God. those scars, those wounds, would enhance the beauty of God's Son, because he was there obedient unto death that men and women might be saved. Maybe some of you heard the story or went to see the movie, who put on the other day no play or face the hide. Is that the title? Hidey place, the hidey place. Let me tell you, as you looked at that lady, at the picture of the one, he came to all that persecution. Friend, it was a beautiful picture. A person who will suffer like those people suffered to me, it was lovely. Love. The Lord Jesus Christ, oh, how he suffered. It removes some sight. Nevertheless, it's a lovely sight. to think that a man would so love his God, and a man should so love me, that he would lay down his life a ransom for me. That's love. And the cross is lovely. Was lovely in the sight of God. When the Lord Jesus, God's son, laid down his life that he might live. You know, the word of the cross is simple. These are some of the simple expressions of the word of the cross. Christ also at once suffered for sin. He that is just for us be undone, that we might be brought to God. Isn't that simple? He, his own self, bear my sins in his own body on the tree. Isn't that simple? He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquity. He was chastised with a view to my having peace, and with his stripes I am healed. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, but whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Isn't that simple? So simple a child indeed. Friend, if you try to do anything, you'll spoil the rose. You'll mar the lily. Take it as it is. You can't add one spot of beauty to God's wonderful, lovely salvation in the man of Christ Jesus. How wonderful, then, is the cross? Those who reject this cross, the Bible says, they perish. The preaching of the cross is to them that perished, the foolishness. They don't want it. They're going to perish. But by the power of the cross, we can defeat sin, death, and hell. Yes, that's the only way you can get rid of your sin and be unafraid of death and never go to hell. It's through the blood of his cross. Maybe you know something in history when Robert Bruce was fleeing from King Edward of England, and his bloodhound, and Robert Bruce with his men, and all his bloodhounds were after King Edward to try and capture. And he was fleeing for his life. He was exhausted and all alone. But he came to a swiftly flowing river. He got the idea. He dived in and he swam downriver for quite a distance, as far as he could go. And then he swam over and got under kind of an overlap of the bank. The bloodhounds came up to the river. They lost the scent. They went up and down the bank they couldn't find. And this man, this Robert Brooks stopped his search. what had happened. The river had washed away the scent of King Edward. Isn't that just a picture? You come to the blood of Christ. There is a fountain filled with blood gone from a man you're saying, And sinners plunge beneath that blood with all their good mistakes. And just like the scent of this man, the king of that kingdom, they stopped at the river. blood pounds could goon over and tread the blood pounds of death and of hell are after you this morning. They're on your tracks. The devil's at you, but they can stop in their tracks this morning if you trust the precious blood of Christ. All your sins will be wiped away. Think of Isaac what's immortal hymn. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, My richest dain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. Is it strange that the Lord Jesus could die? A sinless holy man, the sum of God. Strange he could die. More strange that he should die. One man dying for all. Still more strange that he even would die. It is. Strange that he should do that. But he did. He died. He died at the cross. What was the place like where he died? The place of a skull. When we die, we hope we'll die among relatives. Our loved ones around our bedside. Nice way to die. Let them goodbye. also leave behind things you want done the Lord Jesus didn't die in that atmosphere no he died on that cross there he had criminals gangsters on either side he didn't die a lot of martyrs did as they sang as they were sealing their lives of the blood encouraging one another Jesus Christ didn't buy that way. He died on Calvary between two feet. He died on Calvary, that place of a skull, a gruesome place where many were crucified and the soil off time soaked with human blood. That's the place of a skull. Listening to the oaths and the curses and the blasphemies of those who stood around the cross, shrieking because of the hour they didn't want this man. And they blew away with this man. and not having to overdo it, there ain't a lot. That's where he died. And the sun refused to shine to show its sympathy for the Creator. And for three hours the sun refused to shine. It shut its glories in when Christ the incarnate maker died for man is preacher's sin. Yes, it's strange in that the Lord Jesus should die. That death We're hearing a lot today about unusual punishment. Those who are trying to do away with capital punishment, they say it's unusual. Unusual punishment when guilty men who take another line are punished for their crime, righteously so, the Bible says the murderer shall die, then I shall not pity him. They say it's unusual punishment. If you want to see unusual punishment, look at the cross. He is an innocent man. He never hurt anybody. He did them all good. He's died. He's being punished. That unusual punishment. But to think of the death that he died, the most languid, excruciating, shameful, exposed, humiliated, entailing, a cursed death. of all executions. This is the cross where Jesus died. Is there any power to this cross, this message, this man? Yes. Power to put away all your sins. Power to give you everlasting life and the assurance that you'll never perish. There's no other message. This is the one and only way to heaven. And if it's not, Throw your Bible away. It means absolutely nothing. This wondrous cross, another glory of it, is the way this man died. For he said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. They knew they were doing wrong, but they didn't know all the wrong they were doing. And here's a man. a sinless man suffering at the hands of his own preachers. He could have spoken the words and had all been vanished. But he suffered and he looked down upon the ones who nailed him there. And he said, Father, forgive us. Never man speak like this man. Oh, the power of that was. Father, forgive me. Forgive these guilty sins. Friend, you're just as guilty in the sight of God this morning. I don't care how religious and respectful and educated you are. You're just as guilty in the sight of God as those very men who nailed it to the cross. You're rejecting Jesus Christ. You say, I'll make it myself. My culture, my education, my goodness will take you to heaven. My church will take you. It will not. You're crucifying the Son of God of Christ. Furring to open shame. He must needs go home by the way of the cross, with none on the way but this. You'll go this way, or you'll be lost forever. Oh, the power in the cross. You see it far when one of those thieves repented. When he turned to the other, he could take it no longer to see this man innocent suffering. and what was being said about him. He turned to his fellow in crime, he said, We indeed just did. We're receiving the due rewards of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing of it. Did he hear those cries, Father, forgive him, that likely melted his heart? He turned to the Lord Jesus, said Lord. remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom he believed this man was a king did he get a look at that insignia over the cross this is jesus and jesus he says lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom does the lord shrug that off say well don't you see how much i'm suffering with all the abuse that i've received Every move meant pain, excruciating pain. Ah, no, the answer came back to that poor thing. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. That man wasn't saved through his good life because he had lived a wicked life. And those priests and Levites around the cross, those doctors of the law, Those tribes, those parishes, those religious people with their long-flowing lobes, they were demanding his death. And here's a thief, a gangster. He saved while religious folks looked on and laughed and deared and mocked. The power of the cross. Jesus saving this man while he's hanging on the cross. He saved others. I'm thankful that said in the Bible, that he saved me. He saved that poor thief, and he saved millions of sins. And that's the only place, and that's the only way you're ever going to get to heaven, is to bow your head before Christ. Why was he there as a bearer of sin? If on Jesus my guilt was not laid, Why from his side loath that sin cleansing blood if his death my his blood my sin hath not paid? There it is. With you this morning bow your head as if you stood in the presence of Christ himself and say I determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified I am lost I am guilty of I'm undone. Christ is my Savior. I'll take him now. There's no other way. Not only will he give you the assurance of all your sins forgiven, peace with God and everlasting life, you'll leave this little chapel as happy or happier than you've ever been before in your life. You'll have found the answer, the meaning of life, because you're met, the Creator, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That he doesn't bring a change, a new meaning to life. I'm a liar. Friend, I'm no liar. I know what he did to me and I've known what he's done to thousands and thousands of people. What has he done for you? He died for you because he loved you. The choice is yours. What will you do? Never mind the one sitting next to you What will you do with Jesus? What will your answer be? Christ, the merciful, the lead, the sinner. And we shall be saved. This is the power of the cross. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, we come into thy presence this morning. We thank thee for thy word.