Confronting the Cross

♪♪ Announcer 2, In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, Confronting the Cross. ♪♪ Dr. Charles Stanley, Why would anybody want to make such a statement as this? The only thing that I will ever boast of in life is in the cross of Jesus Christ. Well, it is a symbol, it is an emblem of what we as believers believe in. Why would anybody want to make that kind of statement? Well, the Apostle Paul made it because he understood something about the nature and the meaning of the cross. That when he looked at everything else in life, he says, the only thing I know worth boasting of is the cross of Jesus Christ. Now, we see them on church steeples, we see them in stained glass windows, people have them around their neck on gold chains, you see them on t-shirts, you see them everywhere. Now, the important thing is not that you shouldn't wear it around your neck or put it on a steeple, all those things are fine. What God's looking for, he's looking for people who have the cross on their mind, in their heart, and on their lips. That's where God is looking for the cross. And so, I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 18. Here's that classic passage of Scripture about the cross and

its meaning. And what Paul gives us in these verses here, he tells us why people respond to the cross the way they do. And so, I want us to begin reading in this 18th verse and read through verse 25. And, you know, one of the things about being a Christian that sometimes works that disadvantage is that some of us who've been a Christian so long, we are so familiar with some things, just like some hymns. You can stand here and sing a hymn, sing all the words correctly, never even think about what you're singing. And if we're not careful, that can happen to us when we think about the cross. We sing about it, we see it, we hang it around our neck, we wear it on our shirt, we hang it on the wall, it's everywhere. And yet somehow, the meaning and the message just slips right by us. Listen to what he said. He said, for the word or the message of the cross is to those who are perishing, foolishness. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I'll set aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. Now, look at that.

Let's read that again. 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. For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and the Gentiles foolishness. But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, the Apostle Paul understood fully the meaning and the message of the cross. That's always been a point of contention and conflict. And what Paul says here in this passage is one of the primary reasons people reject the cross. When we are confronted with the cross. In being confronted with the cross, one of the reasons they reject it is because it's foolishness to them. It doesn't make sense. And the word foolishness here is the word from which we get our word moron. And in the Greek, that's exactly the way it's spelled. M-O-R-O-N. Moron. That is something is a little missing, something lacking up here somewhere. And what he's saying is that one of the reasons it was rejected in his day was because it appeared foolish.

Now, it's hard for us to understand that because we have a whole Bible. We got it from Genesis to Revelation. We have the revelation of God. But you have to put yourself back in Paul's day and the day in which Jesus Christ lived and ask yourself the question, would you and I have been one of those who would have received Jesus Christ understanding what the cross meant in that day? Now, one of the primary reasons, of course, they did not believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and did not believe in the message of the cross is because they didn't understand it. They didn't understand who Jesus was. They didn't understand why he came. And so from their point of view, who was he? He was a itinerant preacher, but there'd been many of those who had come through. He was a carpenter from... Nazareth, there'd been lots of carpenters. He was a teacher and supposedly a very outstanding teacher, but there'd been many of those who'd come through. What they didn't understand is that this was God in the human flesh. What they didn't understand was he was more than a carpenter, he was God on a mission to redeem mankind. So they didn't understand who he was. And so what we come to find out today is people have the same kind of frustration. Sometimes they think, now, wait a minute, you're asking me to believe in this somebody who died 2,000 years ago,

and you're expecting me to believe that somehow someone who died 2,000 years ago, who's a historical figure, who's like all these other religious leaders, what effect can he have on my life today? You see, they don't understand who he is, and they don't understand why he came, and they don't understand the meaning of his death. Now, many of us oftentimes have the idea that because you live in this country, because you live in this nation of ours, that everybody here has heard the gospel. They all understand what the cross is all about. No, they don't. They don't have any earthly idea of what it's about. And there are people who have crosses on their walls, in their bedrooms, or in their living room, in their den, in their home somewhere. They don't have any earthly idea of what it means. It looks good. It's a religious sort of an icon to them. It symbolizes something religious. It may make them aware of the fact that God is present, or God is. Or they wear them around their neck, and they'll pull it out and kiss it, or cross it, or whatever it might be. But I want you to think about something. Oftentimes, these symbols are symbols and only symbols because we don't grasp the meaning of it.

Now, what's this message of the cross all about? The message of the cross, when you see one, this is what you're not to be reminded of, that sin is destroying mankind, and that sin is destructive to humanity, and that God must judge sin because He is holy God. And the cross says to this unbelieving, blinded world that sin is so bad it took Almighty God, sending His only begotten Son, Jesus, and placed Him on the cross. That sin was judged in that day, in that moment, by Almighty God. That the penalty of sin was paid for, the sin debt of the world was paid for in that moment at Calvary, outside the walls of Jerusalem. That man is separated from God by his sin. Man is judged because of his sin. Man is doomed because of his sin. And the most awesome expression of God's love was the cross. While it was a tragedy to mankind, it was an expression of God's divine love for mankind. And so while it's foolish on the one hand, it is an expression of the person of God. It is an expression of the goodness and the kindness of God that seeing the hopeless and helpless condition of man, God reached down to redeem mankind. It is man's only hope. It has always been his only hope. And so this symbol that you wear around your neck or put on a steeple on a church,

or hanging in your room, or wear it on your socks, or wear it on your T-shirt, it doesn't make any difference where the issue is, what is its message? And the message is the most crucial, critical, urgent message ever spoken to humanity. It was then and is still that urgent message. The second reason, if you'll notice what he says in this passage, he says, if you'll notice in the 23rd verse, but we preach Christ crucified, the Jews a stumbling block and the Gentiles foolishness. Now, for example, the Jews of that day had the same horror of the cross that the Gentiles had. I mean, they knew it was an absolute horrible way to die, the worst form of punishment. And of course, Jesus had claimed to be God. And so when they said that he blasphemed almighty God, to them, that was the worst thing he could possibly do. And so they said, crucify him, away with him, crucify him. Well, there's a reason that they had a difficult time of believing that Jesus was the Messiah. This is, I'm not trying to give you all the reasons, but one of the reasons when it was all over and the gospel began to be preached and Paul was emphasizing the cross, they had a difficult time with this for this reason, that in the law of Moses to them, a cross and a tree was the same thing. And so here's what he had said in Deuteronomy chapter 21.

If a man is committed a sin worthy of death and he's put to death and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day. Why? For he who is hanged, whether it's on a tree or cross, he who is hanged is accursed of God. Now think about where they were coming from. Here, these Jews were thinking in terms of what the Christians, the followers of Jesus were saying, he's the Messiah. How can he be the Messiah? How can you claim this man is the Messiah when the law of Moses said that anybody hung on a tree, anybody hanged on a tree, was accursed of God? There's no way he could be the Messiah. There's no way he could possibly be God because God wouldn't hang himself on what he himself cursed. And so to them, it was a real problem. Here they were hearing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Here he's hanging on the cross. That's why they came by and said, well, if you be the son of God, if you be the Messiah, if you be all these things you claim, just come on down, get yourself down. The problem was they did not understand who he was. They didn't understand why he came. But when you and I look at it from their perspective

and see what they were thinking, then we can begin to understand why at least they thought some of the things that they thought. Their idea of the Messiah was that he would be some kind of a supernatural angelic being who would come upon the scene and rescue, deliver the nation of Israel from Roman bondage. Not only that, he would be a warrior type. He would be a political figure. He would be a military hero. He would be a person who would come and could mass the Jews together. And with the supernatural power of God under his leadership, they would absolutely defeat Rome and ultimately, listen, ultimately, the Jewish nation would absolutely conquer and rule the world. This would be the kingdom of God. And so therefore, this is what they were expecting. So here comes Jesus along. First of all, he doesn't come as an angelic supernatural being and as a ruler, a political figure, nor a warrior, never picked up a weapon. He comes along and he's teaching, love your neighbor. If he slaps you on one side, turn your cheek. If he asks you for a coat, give him your cloak also. He seemed to be weak. He talked about humility. He spoke of things that didn't fit warriors, rulers, kings, supernatural beings.

Somehow he didn't fit them all. And because he didn't fit them all, the whole idea was a stumbling block. He could not possibly have been the Messiah. And so what did they do? They crucified him because they claimed that he blasphemed God. All he was doing was telling the truth. If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. And I mean you talking about something that absolutely ripped them asunder because he didn't fit their mold. The whole idea is a stumbling block. Now the same thing is true today, for example. People reject the Lord Jesus Christ today for the same reasons. But let's put them in our terms for our day. What is it that strikes against? What is it that man rebels against most? When a person hears the message of the cross, which is the message of man's sinful condition, his hopeless, helpless condition, and that God in his love sent his only begotten son, nailed him to the tree, placed all of the sin dead of all mankind upon him, and crucified him, separated himself from him. Let him pay the debt and save everyone who's willing to believe. What is it about that message that causes people to rebel?

Here's what it is. You mean to tell me that you're expecting me to believe that God, whom I do believe in a God, that this God is going to accept me for the simple reason that I just believe that he sent his son to the cross, and if I believe in him, that I'll be safe? I mean, what about my part? Now watch this. Human nature is so corrupt. Human nature is so evil. Human nature is so devastated of the truth that everything within a man or woman rebels against the idea that they can be accepted by God and not have to do something. And so what is it? It's human pride. Man wants to do something. Why? Because if he can do something to get God to accept him, he feels better. And the reason he feels better is because what? He had a part in his own salvation. He feels better when he can do something about it. It is performance. Man wants to perform. Man wants to deserve. The carnal, the sinful, wicked, vile nature within man says, look, that doesn't make any sense. You mean to tell me all I have to do is believe?

Is that it? And it's a stumbling block. What is a stumbling block? What doesn't make any sense to the unbelieving world is that they don't have to do anything. They say, no, wait a minute. All the other religions have a system, a system of belief that requires regulations and rules. You live up to this, you go to church at a certain time or whatever it may be. All these rules and regulations. And that's how they get accepted by God. The only problem with when they have done all these rules and regulations and carried them out to the best of their ability, they cannot tell you that their God will accept them for sure. There's never any real assurance about their form of salvation because there's no such. thing, but one true God. And so it is a stumbling block to people today. They want to work for it. They want to do something and to tell them that there's no performance. Now think about the contradiction of this for a moment. There are people who belong to religious groups and who have crosses, for example, in their home or on their church steeples or in their rooms or on their keychains or wherever it may be. Now the message of the cross is this. The message of the cross is the sin debt of all mankind has been paid once and for all. No more payment. No more performance. The performance is over. I mean the act is finished. Now while they have those crosses around to remind them of the truth, what do they do? They are being taught that to be accepted by God you

have to perform. So they look at the cross. If they understood the message of the cross, they'd live in this contradiction. What's the contradiction? Well, here's the cross on my bedroom wall, for example. It speaks of sin debt paid in full, my helpless, hopeless condition. God has taken care of it. He paid my way. I don't have to perform. Then they go to church and the pastor or the preacher or somebody stands up and says, if you want to be made acceptable before God, you must do the following things. And so on the one hand, here's this conflict. The cross says the debt's been paid, but the rules and regulations say that I must do these things in order to be accepted before God. If there's one thing I could, I would shout to the world, this is it. When Jesus Christ died on the cross at Calvary, performance was over forever and ever. No performance, act finished, plays over. One moment in time, in the body of one person, Almighty God paid the sin debt of the world by judging sin in His only begotten Son. It's over. And I'm here to tell you, there are multitudes and multitudes of Christians living in bondage every day who don't know whether they're saved or not. They don't believe in eternal security. You know why? Because they missed the message of the cross. The message of the cross is, listen, what makes you and me eternally secure is what He did, not what we do. And somehow they can't get that message. That is the message. And so what happens? They reject it because they say, well, I don't understand that. Yes, they do. What happened is their pride, it's just like, it's like rubbing sandpaper against, against your hand. I mean, it doesn't take long for that to heat up fast. And when you say to somebody, there's nothing you can do. I've got to do something. No, you can't do anything. You may... And so what happens? It strikes against their pride. You know what the problem is? Because every single living human being has to deal with this. And that is humbling themselves before Almighty God to say, my sin has made me helpless. My sin has separated from me, me from you, Holy God. I need you. There's nothing I can do for myself. That's the last thing pride will ever admit. You see, first of all, man doesn't want to give up his pride. Second thing he doesn't want to give up is control. And when you and I

come to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive him as our personal Savior, what we are in essence saying is now that I believe, and if I really believe the Lord Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, what do I want to do? I want to give my life to him, just surrender my life to him. I want him to be the Lord and master of my life. We don't want to give up control, do we? No. We want to be saved and still have control. That's why he's called Lord. That means he's the boss. If he's the boss, I give up control. Does that mean I have to give up control of a whole bunch of things for him to save? No. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You know what happens? Then God, through the Holy Spirit, begins to identify areas of our life that we need to surrender to him. And so when a person says, well, I don't think I could ever be a Christian because the problem is that I can't get all this stuff together. And suppose I miss something. It isn't putting stuff together. It is trusting. The surrender is the result. The surrender is the result of trusting your life to him. Then you and I want to lay aside things that don't fit who we are. Listen, it is a wonderful choice we begin to make. But you see, the unbeliever says, wait a minute. I'd like to be a Christian, but if I'm gonna have to give up this and give up this, it's not a matter of giving up anything to become one. God may say, you need to lay this down because it's best for your life. And so we don't like to give up control. So people reject the gospel. They continually live separated from God. They continually live under the judgment of God. They continually live under the doom and the perishing, listen, the perishing light that is theirs as one who is rejected the cross. This is what Paul said. Listen, he said in verse 18, for the word of the cross to those who A perishing is foolish. To those of us who believe, it's the wisdom of God. We see the message of the cross as wisdom. We see the message of the cross as the power of God's transformed our life. So, here's what I want to ask you.

If you reject the message of the cross, tell me, my friend, what are you going to rely upon when you stand before God? You say, well, I'm going to do what anybody knows. God's going to weigh my good and my bad? No. Listen carefully. If the judgment of God was weighing good against the bad, the cross would have been a horrible mistake. Why would God send his only begotten son to the world and let him be crucified and die such a horrible death if all you and I had to do is just do just enough to make my good outweigh my bad? My friend, here's the sure, simple gospel truth. There is only one way to be made acceptable in the eyes of God. And in the wisdom of God, he gave us that method. It is the message of the cross that Jesus died for your sin. And if you will accept him as your personal savior by faith, your sins will be forgiven. You'll forever be a child of God. You can't improve on it. You can't improve on the wisdom of God. Listen carefully. Listen, every single thing you do beyond believing is performance. And what does that do? That gets you into a mechanism of trying to get saved, and it doesn't work that way. This is why my pride has to yield, my control has to yield, and I have to be willing to die to the past and let God change my life any way he sees fit.

There is no other way, if there were, I'd tell you. There is no other path, if there were, I would tell you. He said, come unto me, all you that labor and have it laid, and I'll give you rest. And Paul put it this way, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And Jesus said it this way. Speaking of his father, he said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. It is a gift without performing. It is a gift of God's love. It is a gift offered to you who are willing to believe. ♪♪