The Centrality of the Cross (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome to Truth for Life. Today we are concluding a message titled, The Centrality of the Cross. We are going to find out why it is imperative to preach the cross of Christ, not only to unbelievers but to long-established believers as well.

Aleister Begg is teaching from 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 22-24. Why would you ever proclaim that message? Because there is no other message. Because it is the very power of God unto salvation.

Now it is on account of this deep-seated conviction that Paul proceeds as he does. And in order that his readers might be reminded of truths with which they would be able to find an immediate point of identification, he illustrates for them in two regards. And I want just you to notice them at the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2. He says, let me illustrate it first of all by reminding you of the personnel. Now the second point of illustration is in this matter of preaching. When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. It's very striking that he was actually preaching at all. That's the first thing to notice.

Why is it striking? Well, there was essentially, amongst the consumers of his day, an interest in two things. One fairly significant group were interested in signs and wonders, and another fairly strong group were interested in superior wisdom and eloquence. And there wasn't actually a group that was interested in the preaching of the cross.

So he looks out in the environment and he says, now let me understand this. There's a group that is very interested in signs and wonders. There's another group that would like me to engage in oratory.

I'm not going to do either of those. People call me all the time on a monthly basis, sometimes on a weekly basis, and they say, we have such and such a church, it's such and such a place, it has this and it has that, and it has the next thing, and it's frankly, we believe, just going to be the most significant church that America has seen for some time. Can you recommend anybody for the place? And I give them names and they say, never heard of them. And I say, so what? And they say, well, that matters.

Not a big enough name. They might as well shut their church down. They haven't even understood it. The weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. The foolishness of God is greater than man's wisdom. I came to you, he says, in weakness and in fear and with much trembling and my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but there was actually a demonstration of the Spirit's power.

Is it right here to see a direct correlation between the posture of his dependence and the powerfulness of his delivery? Some of you are here as young men anticipating ministry. There's one thing that will finish all of us, and it is pride.

It's the greatest snare. This is the man to whom I will look, says the Lord, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. And every so often in the course of our days, the Lord recognizing the rising impetus for pride in each of our lives just knocks us down a couple of perches and it hurts, but it's very important. Incidentally, that's why every pastor needs a wife if for no other reason than to keep him humble.

Now in saying all of that, we notice this. If we're going to do what the Bible says to do, then we need to follow the apostolic example as is provided for us here, and we need to obey the apostolic precept, which is to preach the word of God. We began by suggesting that the preaching of the cross was vital both for the sake of the unbeliever and for the believer. Having said that, let me draw my remarks to a close by illustrating for us a number of ways in which it is vital both in preaching to the unbelieving mind and to the believing mind. Why is it so imperative that we preach the cross to the unbeliever?

Well, this is again selective, it's not exhaustive, but let us at least say this. Because it establishes the gravity of sin. It establishes the gravity of sin, and this we must do if we're going to be biblical. And nowhere is the truth about sin seen more clearly than at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That it took the death of God's Son to put it away shows how horrible and abhorrent sin must be. And one of the reasons that men and women in our congregations have a trivial perspective on sin is not because we do not talk about sin or sins, but because we do not preach the cross. Because it is in the cross that sin's gravity is made clear. Because men and women then say, oh, that is what happened on account of sin. That is why the sky turned black in the noon day hour. That is why he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is why the curtain was torn from top to bottom.

That's right. The soul that sins will die. Men and women are perishing.

Do you like that word? Perishing. Oh, we know that we are diminishing in our physical attributes and capabilities. We understand that. Men and women recognize that.

They see it in one another as they walk the streets. But what men and women do not understand is that we're dead in our trespasses and sins and that we are perishing before the awesomeness of Almighty God. Sin's gravity is displayed at the cross. And secondly, it declares the necessity of grace, the necessity of grace.

Because it says your predicament is so grave that you're unable to do a thing about it for yourself. And it is the cross which sets forth the riches of God's grace in pardoning sin. It is the cross which tells us that although we are by nature objects of his wrath and Ephesians 2, we have been made friends on account of his perfect propitiation. It is the cross which makes sense of the enigmatic encounter described by Jesus in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican.

The Pharisee is a big shot, wearing all the right gear, standing in the right places, doing all the right things, saying all the right prayers. And he understands that he's very thankful that he's not like other men and certainly not like the poor tax collector who's down beside him. Meanwhile, the tax collector would not even lift his eyes up into heaven, but he said, God be merciful to me, a sinner, and Jesus said, now, guys, let me give you a little test here. Which man went down to his house justified?

The one who prayed, Lord, be propitious to me. That's exactly what he said. Now when this truth burns itself into a heart and a mind, it will change the manner and the content of our preaching.

And this you see, loved ones, and I don't have time to stop on this. This is why this notion of a methodology being in itself okay because of its stated objective breaks down. Let me quote to you in order to be succinct, and let me give you start who I think is very succinct on this. He says in his book The Cross, either we preach that human beings are rebels against God under his judgment and lost, and that Christ crucified who bore their sin and curse is the only available savior. He says, we either do that or we emphasize human potential and human ability with Christ brought in only to boost them and with no necessity for the cross except to exhibit God's love and to inspire us to greater endeavor.

And you see, it takes spiritual discernment to know exactly what it is we're listening to. That's why it is imperative that you know your Bibles and that you know theology and that you understand that doctrine is of essential importance so that when you listen to somebody talking about the cross, you don't simply say, oh, he must be a good man because he mentioned the cross. The question is, did he say that in the cross was the expression of God's grace, which was absolutely essential because man by his nature is dead and lost and unable to do anything about it, or was he simply saying that the cross gives us a little boost along the journey of our human potential? To say the latter is to be popular, to say the former is to be faithful, and faithfulness is the only way to go, and especially when Jesus said, woe to you when all men speak well of you.

It's a great tyranny to want to be well spoken of by everybody. Well, why preach the cross to the unbeliever? Because it declares the gravity of sin, it establishes the absolute necessity of grace, and thirdly, it declares the opportunity of faith, declares the opportunity of faith. Remember on the day of Pentecost when Peter preaches and he declares the fact of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, what is the response of men and women?

They say, men and brethren, what shall we do? That's what happens when you preach the cross. Why is it that people by and large in our congregations are not responding in that way at the end of sermons? Well, one of the reasons is because there's hardly any evangelistic preaching is done. You take seminaries, they put out books on expository preaching, 15 chapters long, and you look for a chapter on evangelistic preaching, there is no evangelistic preaching in it. Now that in itself says something.

So one, there's no evangelistic preaching, there's not a lot of it, and when there is evangelistic preaching, it tends to appeal to people's felt needs. So do you feel a little lonely? No. Do you feel a little joyless? No. Do you feel a little impoverished?

No. I'm really at a loose end then because all my points of application are directly related to you feeling joyless and impoverished, etc. So people walk out, they say, I don't know what that was all about, but I'm glad it's over. When will men and women, when will men and women say, hey, what are we supposed to do? What is the crossroads to which the Scriptures bring men and women? It is to the cross. And it is only then in the preaching of the cross that men and women understand these things and suddenly the drama is placarded before their gaze. And the great ability that God by His Spirit gives to us in preaching is to turn people's ears into eyes so that in hearing they might see. And then they say, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood and sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior.

You see, I understand it now. Some of us don't preach the cross because we're not sure that we're going to preach it right. We're frightened of what people will say about it.

It might sound Arminian when we do it, because we haven't got all our terminology right. Just do it the way the Bible does it, trusting in the fact that Jesus said, and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself, in the awareness of the truth that God in sovereign love saves through a bona fide offer of Christ to all mankind, those for whom specifically and effectively Christ substituted Himself upon the cross. For those of you who have years to hear, hear. Why is it important to preach the cross to the believer? Number one, because it is the cross that provides for us the compulsion that we need in evangelism to Corinthians 5. And verse 14, for Christ loved us what? It compels us.

Why? Because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. You see, it is when the cross is proclaimed to the believer that they understand what the compulsion is that drives them. If you read John Pollock's biography of Billy Graham, you'll know that sometime around 1952, the year I was born, Billy Graham was wrestling with what his future was going to be, whether he was going to go full scale into evangelism or not, what should he do? And there in the biography it tells of how he walked around the trails near his home, he took his Bible with him and he read everything that he could on the subject of evangelism. And this is what he said, quotes, I thought about Christ's death on the cross. Above all other motives as a spur to service, an incentive to evangelism is the cross of Christ and its irrepressible compassion.

That is true loved ones. Love everything else as a compulsion in evangelism and as a stir to us to reach men and women with the good news. Why are dear folks from my congregation, men and women of high learning, why are they buried today in obscurity all across our world?

Why have they done that? Because the cross has been stamped into the very core of their being and they are seeing the love of Christ compels me. Paul tells how Billy Graham went back to his house singing to himself the words of an old song that many of us haven't heard for a while, rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave, weep over the erring ones and lift up the fallen and tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. You see, when will our congregations weep over the lost when the pastor preaches the cross of Christ? Also, it is the preaching of the cross which provides a necessary correction for believers. The Galatian problem, if you like, Galatians chapter 3 and verse 3, are you so foolish after beginning with the spirit? Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Without the preaching of the cross, believers revert all too easily to faith plus works as the ground of salvation.

If you doubt that, just check it out. To trust in myself is part of my fallen humanity. When I take my eyes off the cross, I may give lip service to its efficacy while living all the time as if my salvation depended upon me. And when a man or a woman reverts to that Galatian stuff, then it will breed within their lives either despair or pride. It will breed despair because they know they cannot do what they feel they must, or it will breed pride because they, in some illusion, believe they're actually doing what they're not.

So they become crazy people, either on the high or low end of a kind of manic tyranny. What is it that fixes that? The cross. Look to the cross.

And ultimately, that means second last. The preaching of the cross to the believer is essential because it forms their characters. How does a man or a woman grow in grace and in holiness and in love and in endurance as a result of the cross? And finally, it is the preaching of the cross which provides for the believer the basis of their confidence before Almighty God. Verses 19 through 25 of Hebrews 10, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus.

Doesn't make us arrogant, doesn't make us complacent, doesn't make us superficial, doesn't make us glib, it just makes us confident. The hymn writer puts it perfectly, before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin, because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. That's why I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.

I love to tell the story for those who know it best, seem hungry and thirsty to hear it like the rest. If when the gospel is preached in your hearing, your heart is not stirred, you got a severe spiritual problem. Martin Luther said, I feel as though Jesus died only yesterday. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, every time I hear the gospel preached, I feel almost that I would love to become a Christian all over again. And I told you there were three illustrations and you think that I forgot my last one.

Well, I didn't, and here it is. From Tom Allen to Alexander White and finally to Martin Lloyd-Jones, he emphasized always from the beginning of his preaching the necessity of new birth. But on one Sunday evening, a minister who was present in his congregation and listening to Lloyd-Jones preached went to him afterwards and challenged him and said of Lloyd-Jones's preaching, the cross and the work of Christ had little place in his preaching. Lloyd-Jones the next day went out to his secondhand bookstore. He went in there and he bought two books, James Denny's The Death of Christ and R.W.

Dale's The Atonement. He took them home, he went in his study and he refused to come out. And then eventually very late in the evening, he emerged from his study and he claimed quotes to have found the real heart of the gospel and the key to the inner meaning of the Christian faith and the content of his preaching changed and the impact of his preaching deepened. And the basic question he said was not Anselm's question, why did God become man?

But the essential question was why did Christ die? And so it was for him a crossroads in the way I trust that these days will prove to be a crossroads for each of us. And that coming to the roads that meet and emerge from the cross, we may say with a hymn writer beneath the cross of Jesus, I feign would take my stand, the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land, a home within the wilderness and a rest upon the way from the burning of the noontide heat and the journey of the day.

I take across thy shadow for my abiding place. I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of your face, content to let the world go by to know no gain nor loss, my sinful self, my only shame, my glory, all the cross. Young men especially, resolve today whatever you do to preach regularly and please God with the unction of the spirit of God upon our endeavors, the glory of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any time we take our eyes off the cross, we are inclined to live as if salvation depends on our own efforts rather than on God's grace. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life with the conclusion of a series called The Pastor's Study. One of the important parts of our mission at Truth for Life is to help strengthen local churches. With that in mind, we try to encourage and equip pastors for the work of the gospel. So if you're involved in church leadership or pastoral training, we want to invite you to check out a free online study, it's titled The Basics of Pastoral Ministry. This is a collection of 30 sermons and lectures from Alistair that draw on his experience in leading a congregation for more than four decades now. You'll hear Alistair teach about church leadership, about expository preaching, even how to handle opposition to change. Each of the four modules contains between five and nine lessons, and it comes with a corresponding downloadable study guide. The complete online course and the corresponding study guides are accessible for free at truthforlife.org. Just search for the basics of pastoral ministry. On our website, you will also find information about a book called The Grumbler's Guide to Giving Thanks. This is a wonderful book.

It's a quick read. It will help you shift your thanksgiving from a once a year celebration to a persistent practice, regardless of your circumstances. You can request your copy of The Grumbler's Guide when you give a donation to Truth for Life. Go to truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. We hope you enjoy your weekend and are able to worship with your local church. And then join us Monday, when we'll find out why God doesn't forsake His people even when they turn away from Him. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.