In this sermon, the preacher addresses the importance of the message of the cross. He emphasizes the need for evidence of being a child of God and the love for the gospel. The preacher highlights the sinfulness of man and the need for a big salvation and great forgiveness. He encourages seeking God through His word and emphasizes that God provided redemption through Christ's sacrifice on the cross for those who have faith in Him.

Now this morning I did not say hello or spend any of the morning time expressing my gratefulness for this opportunity. I do so now. And before I come to the text of the evening, I want to read one verse of Scripture. And the Scripture is found in the second chapter, 1 Thessalonians, and it's verse 13. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13. And I want to commend my humble minister to you, and I think that I want to make a plea to you that you hear me. I do not ask that you believe what I preach while I'm here. I do ask you to hear me. I believe that the essence of saving faith is hearing the word of God. And while it is true that nobody but you and God knows whether you are his child by faith or not, your mama don't know, your pastor don't know, but as far as I can tell who's a Christian, no you can't. The Bible forbids that. It's sort of a lonely proposition. I don't know whether you're a child of God or not. I have no way of finding out. God knows, and you do. Is that fair? I cannot unsave you if you are saved. But I cannot see how it would be possible, and this is not truth that you're asked to accept. This is a question of my own belief. I cannot see how it would be possible for many people who are members of our churches today to really know the Lord. You never took time to see him. You made a decision, but you never received the revelation. Therefore you're trusting something you've got instead of him and what he does. I don't know whether that's so or not. I think it is. And I'm willing to bear whatever it costs me, that opinion, but that will color my message. I don't believe this generation of Baptists have ever been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't believe it, do you? Have you been conquered? Have you ever died to self at the cross as Christ Jesus has been enthroned as the absolute dictator and Lord of your every waking moment, has he? Of course, I'm describing people who are saved now. And I don't see how people get saved in the last 30 or 40 years. God saves everybody. He does. I can't save anybody, and I rejoice that everybody gets saved, don't you? Of course, everybody listens to us. Everybody listens to us. And I wonder if this is good doctrine. You don't have faith in Christ, saving faith. You can't work it up. You can't decide to have it. You make all the decisions that you want to, but unless that decision follows Christ being made real inside, you're very hard in doing good, doesn't you? And yet God requires faith, and he will not save you apart from you as your own act, exercising faith utterly in him. Now, how does a man that hasn't got any saving faith, I didn't say he didn't have faith in Christ. Every last one of you believe a lot about Christ, but do you believe he's a good man? The modernists believe he's a fine teacher. The Mohammedans believe he's a nice prophet. But I'm talking about saving faith. You've got faith in Christ. Every person speaking to me tonight can swear on a stack of Bibles, I believe in Christ, and you do. But do you savingly believe in him? That's the question. Only you know that, and God knows it. I can't tell you. How does a man receive faith by which he's little enough to live in Christ? Well, the Bible says God has to give it to you. Is that right? And he says that faith cometh how? By doing what? How? By hearing. I wish somebody would listen to us. I wish somebody would listen to us. How are you ever going to receive? You don't become a hearer. Not a church attender, but a hearer of the word of God, listening. For only as you listen to him will he give you the faith to stretch out yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? So I want you to hear me. Wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody would hear like the people did at Thessalonica, as the 13th verse speaks, for this cause we thank God without ceasing. Because when you receive the word of God, receive whose word? The word of God. We bet everything on that. If this isn't the word of God, we shall go home. When you receive the word of God, which you heard of us, you heard it through lips of faith. You received it not as the word of man. You didn't say, well, that's just his opinion about it, as you'd like to think, but you heard the word of God and you heard it through the lips of a man by the name of Paul, and you didn't receive it as Paul's word wanted to do. But as it is in truth, who heard the word of God? For if a man ever does arrive at the point when he believes that he's heard from God, no town on earth can stand when God speaks. I could just hear from God. I didn't want the preacher to say, well, that's God talking to me. And I insist on perfect order while I preach. Sometimes people get mad at me. I throw a songbook at you if you wiggle an eyelash while I preach. So if you want to go to hell, maybe that person is sitting right next to you. Don't. I don't want you to fix it so they don't hear. I tell you, if you ever hear from God, it'll get the job done. If you heard this as it is in truth, the word of God, which affects you or works you, it gets the job done. It'll make somebody new out of you. It'll make your new creation. That's God, the word of God gets the job done. Not what Baptists believe, but what God says, it'll get the work done, get the job done. It affects you or works Folks that believe, God spoke to me. God bless your heart, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just an old sinner, I hope saved by grace. Don't know much, but you are a plain fool if you call yourself a Christian on the testimony of anybody on earth except the Almighty God. You better seek Him until He says, My peace I give you. I'm so heartbroken. This generation of Baptists, here's how they got converted. Some person, worker, stuck a verse of Scripture in front of them. You believe that? Yeah. Well, what does that say? Well, that says so and so. Well, God wouldn't tell a story with all of them. Well, what does that say? That says what says. Well, you believe it? Yeah. Well, you're saved, aren't you? Well, I don't know. Well, God wouldn't lie about it, would He? Oh, no. Well, you're saved, aren't you? I guess so. I want some, I want more evidence than that. Don't you? I want God to talk to me. I'm not going to put faith in your testimony. I'm going to stretch out my soul on the testimony of Almighty God. Listen to God's word. Honey, don't go to hell. Living like hell. Doing as you please, depending on somebody else's word. Seek the Lord. How shall I seek Him, preacher? Listen to me. My theology was changed thirty-one years ago when I was a student in a seminary in Fort Worth. I talked to professors. As soon as the Lord saved me, I went to preaching the Sunday after. I knew a bit of theology. I knew I'd met the Lord. That's why I said I ought to go to school and I'd be a preacher. Couldn't ever earn it, but I went. And the professors, they were awful dumb. I knew so much more than they did. And I'd argue with them. They were awful hard-headed. I couldn't teach them much. But those old white-haired Baptist professors, I don't think they got any kinfolks left. But when I went to school, those old professors knew the Lord. They tried to teach us young preachers the truth of the grace of God. And I believe in salvation by grace. Everybody talks about grace now, but there was nothing about it. Because it took all my pride away, I talked to professors, and I couldn't believe they were teaching us the truth of God's word. I was browsing around the second-hand bookstore, and I picked up a book and paid a dime for it. It wouldn't take a million dollars for that book if there was no one left now. I went home and I read some sermons by Dr. B. H. Carroll, the founder of the seminary, where I had the honor of going to school. And he's preaching from the fifth chapter of John's Gospel, where it says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Thou art coming, and Thou art with us. When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear it shall live. And Mr. Carroll, that brave man of God, God was pleased to use him. I can quote verbatim a statement he made that changed me. It's been a tool ever since. And I'd like to preface my meetings with you, Jesuit theology. Mr. Carroll said, My friends, if tonight my poor voice is the only voice you hear, you'll go away from here nothing better. But if in the sovereign providence of God, through my voice, you hear his voice, you'll go away with life, having been raised from the dead. I'd lay down here in your vestibule, or whatever it is, and let you tromp on that, if I get you to listen. Have you ever heard from God? Has that voice that God has taught you, have you ever heard it? Some humble preacher or witness bringing God's word. Did you hear God? Just like he said, Lazarus, come forth, did he speak to you? That's salvation, folks. I wish that was the way that we used to. Shut men up to listening to God. No power anywhere on this earth to bring dead people out of their graves and give them life, except his voice. Listen to him. Many times somebody has heard from God, as this poor preacher has brought God's word. They said, that's not what Ralph Varnon said, that's God talking to me. Oh, that is God talking to me. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about that. You might hear from God. I invite your attention tonight to the first chapter of Corinthians and the 18th verse of the first chapter of the book of Corinthians. And I hope you'll not think I'm smart, but I want you to take your pencil and do a little erasing or a little writing on the Bible. I trust you write on your Bible a lot, for I want to bring you a little better rendering of this verse. It says, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which is saved is the power of God. I have nothing wrong with the term preaching of the cross, but the actual meaning is the message, the content, the word, what makes up the cross, all the truths of God that are crystallized in what we call the cross of Christ. The message, the word, the content, what took place and who was there on that tree outside the city of Jerusalem, that's unto them that perish foolishness. But thank God unto those who are being saved is the power of God. I want tonight, the best I know how, to tackle a subject that's so big I can't even start to understand it, the message of the cross. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish that we gave evidence with children of God, for the gospel is the children's bread, and they love it. If you had to follow me around the country and go from place to place and see how hard it is to get the attention of this generation of church people is to listen. I watch people's faces. Everything's determined by your attitude toward the gospel. If you love it, you're saved. I don't know whether you love it or not, but if you love the gospel, you'll never get tired of hearing it. It just thrills you every time you hear it. I thought about that a lot. We're under orders never to tell but one story. If the world goes on 20 billion years, we've just got one message. It's the message of the cross. Of course, it's foolishness, people on their road to hell, but for anybody who's ever heard God speaking, it's the power of God, and it's the children's bread. The message of the cross is to them that are perishing, foolishness, but to them who are being saved, it's the power of God. I wish we could believe what the Bible says about the cross. I hope I never get so smart and so seared that I'll ever be taken for granted on my part such statements as this. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Oh, if I wasn't so dumb as to make me shout all over Godhead, God was acting. You know, that seems so at ease. If that's so accurate, wonderful. I hope I never get so hard-boiled that I can read from Timothy Grave without controversy. Grave is the mystery of godliness. Don't understand that. People always say, Lord God, explain what you said to me. I don't understand it myself. How could I? Grave is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. My soul, if that ain't something. God was manifest. You could put your hands on him. People touched him. People held him. God as he manifested himself in the flesh. My soul, my God left you, if you've never heard that, without being thrilled from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. God's invaded his own creation. He's not sitting up in the blue resin of death. He invaded the territory we call the earth and tabernacled among us and he was flesh. Men took him with wicked hands and nailed him to a tree. And God raised him and put him on the throne and turned you over to him. And he's got you on his hands. And he's got to save you or he's got to damage you. He's got to deal with you. And we'll never change that message. We'll never try to improve on it. We mustn't ever take anything away from it. We mustn't try to curl it up. If the world goes on for millions and millions and millions of years and people are born and people are saved, there'll never be the message that you believe is powerful to bring men to salvation. Except this old, old story. The message of the cross. You know, maybe you're smarter than I am, but there's nothing in the Bible that I can understand. The silliest thing, according to what little brain power I got up there, that I could possibly think of is this. That a little baby that was born in a cow stable in a little old teeny-weeny-bitty insignificant country way off, stuck off over yonder in the Mediterranean called Palestine. And he lived only thirty-three years. And while he lived, he never was anybody. Looked him over and turned thumbs down on him. Nobody but tax collectors, prostitutes, fishermen, and people like that had anything to do with him. And they finally took him and hung him up between a couple of other seas. Took him outside the holy city where they was going to church, observing Passover week. Nailed him up there like a common criminal on a cross. Didn't have any money. They had to borrow some clothes to wrap his body in. Didn't have any bonding message to suppose in. Somebody had to go get some good friends to get some spices and ointments to keep his body from stinking so bad before he gets in the grave. Didn't even have to plough the ground. Somebody had to give up his burial pot to put in anything. Silliest thing I ever heard of is that almighty God insists that that one is his son. And that he's turned this world over to him. And that your destiny will be decided by him, not by you. And that he's the only person that's got crown rights to your life. That you do not have a right to do what you want to do. You just got a right to do his will. I'm telling you the truth. If you can understand that, you're smarter than I am. Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if like a little child you could get converted and just believe it and to say, Jesus Christ hanging on that cross, now sitting on the throne, the message of him is foolishness of perishing men, but it's the power of God on the folks who are being saved. I wish you'd believe that. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could believe it. Not argue about it. Not try to understand it. Just believe. Just believe. But you'll never believe it unless God almighty speaks to you The testimony of men will not do it. Nobody there who are a Christian ever believed that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh. No wonder it's foolishness. And because of that if I knew how, going against the grain, I've done it to save a sick kid. Made ten million mistakes, I'll make a lot more. But because I believe that a man cannot be saved apart from almighty God working on my heart, causing that man to come to hell, he's not going to believe God enough to act upon what God said. I've set men up to God, and they're a bit of confidence in the I've got a lot less confidence in you. Our only hope is, once more before we die, we'll seek God's word, and the slain of the Lord shall be made. All of his truth, by which he saves men and condemns men, is summed up in the word, the message of the cross. Faithful tonight, what is this message of the cross? I think it is essential to three things. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, I see first the sinfulness of men. Now ladies and gentlemen, this generation of sick church people, I wonder how many of you folks like that, got enough religion to make you miserable, not enough to take you to glory. This generation skipped the question of sin, and this generation skipped the question of the holiness of God. But the first message of the cross of Jesus Christ is simply this, that God's holy Lord nailed Jesus Christ to that cross. And unless, by saving faith, you become absolutely joyful and full of that love, you're vital in Jesus Christ. For hell can be full of Baptists who say they believe Jesus died for them, but that won't save you. And hell can be full of Baptists that are trusting in the death of Jesus, but trusting in the death of Jesus won't save you. There is no salvation for any human being apart from being absolutely united to the Lord Jesus who died. He must be divine, and you must be divine, showing all your strength in Him. You must start getting it at the feet who waited, absolutely joined in holy marriage, in vital living union with the living Christ. Hear me? Hear me? Jesus Christ was in the clutches of God's holy Lord when He hung on that cross, and the Lord, in all His civility, exacted the penalty, and thus eternal death. And unless you can, by faith, become so united to Christ that what He did is for you, and what He is is for you. Why, then you've got to deal with God's holy law by yourself. And there's no hope for any human being if he has to deal with God's law by himself. Some Christian interviewed Mr. Eichmann, the German butcher who was hung some time ago. For the burning of the Jews, he wrote about it. Some Christian got to see it and sought to talk to him about the law. And the papers published Mr. Eichmann's report. He said he believed in God. He believed in the God of nature, and he did not need a mediator. God bless you all that I do. Oh, there is nothing in God's eyes, except the face, where me and my wife, through the opportunity of the holy law of God. I don't want to have to go to hell. But tell you the truth of it, that the love of the Lord, I need so much. To be raised in love between God and man. And it's the love of God and man that I need so much. To be raised on the floor in the stand and taste the praise of God who is on my stand. I don't have that on the boner. On the boner. Cross message! The cross of Christ. Why would Christ hang on that cross? I tell you why. Because of the sins of men. The holy character of God. You know, you should try to get people to take Jesus now. They don't feel any need of it. As much generation as you can keep talking about, there's no conviction to sin. How could there be? Why, at least three things constitute the message of the cross that this generation refuses to face. I'm not facing with you. The cross first talks about the sinfulness of men. There's still such a thing as a sign of sin. And from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible says man's a sinner. And the best proof that man's a sinner is that men nailed the Son of God to a Roman cross. They're just pimples. They did exactly what Peter does in that step. We talked today about how nice people are. And heaven invaded this whole world. Wicked men with hatred in their hearts. Peter said, in being delivered by the determinant of counsel and full knowledge of God. What do you do with it? You have taken and with wicked hands, wicked hands, have crucified and slain. You don't ever face that. You're just bound to go to hell. You don't ever come to the morning and think, sir, there's no hope for you. Brother, you're a member of the human race that took the eternal Son of God and nailed Him to a cross. That's how sinful you are. That's how sinful I am. The sinfulness of man is seen better in the cross for Christ than anywhere else for three reasons. When our guilt was upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe it was, I had no hope, absolutely no hope, unless all of my guilt was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can call that a cheap, safety-first business if you want to. It's a whole lot deeper than that. I haven't got a chance on earth keeping out of hell, unless younger. Forever in the heart of God was this Son, was this Lamb, swinged to the foundations of the world. At that same time, 1,900 years ago, on a hill called Oligarchy, you can go see it, they took a man by the name of Jesus Nazareth, nailed him to a tree and hung him up. Hell took place. God was pleased to bring him. And God, He, over here, I don't know whether you or me know this or not, they wanted to kill him. That's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. Their guilt. My guilt. Your guilt. The human will. You know what it cost them? It cost them their lives. That's how sinful sin is. And my guilt was on him. It occasioned his death. And he was my life when I was there. How guilty men must be. The sinfulness of men was best shown in the cross. Not only was it casted out, and our guilt was on him. It occasioned his awful death of agony. But in the plan and purpose of our mighty God, there could be no way that I, so great a sinner as I am, could be forgiven. God helped us. Except in the agonies of the shed blood of the Son of the living God. The only way. Just there nailed the Prince of Glory to a Roman tree. How wicked sinful men be. What's the message of the cross? It tells us first of the sinfulness of sin. I'd give my right arm if we could reach people. The day of when we had a chance to reach them, we chased tadpoles and jackrabbits. And left all upon the hill comparing its sins. I'll shoot at any jackrabbit that crosses the path of the gospel. But what on God's earth is the use of wasting your time shooting at a bunch of jackrabbits? You won't go to hell, though, for two reasons. First, when you were in the loins of your great daddy Adam, you reached step in the face of God. Tried to pull him off the throne. Be God yourself. And when you were present in your kinfolks, in your representatives, when in time, due time, God's Son came and was manifest in the flesh, it was your voice that cried away with him. It was your voice that cried crucify him. It wasn't somebody else. You know, what about you in the back and going to the picture show, honey? You were in trouble, deep trouble. You tried to be God. And when God tabernacled in the flesh, you nailed him to a tree. You're a big sinner. You need a big salvation. You need great forgiveness. The cross tells about the sinfulness of man. He said, well, Don, I'm thinking more hard to do this than just to do that. Well, don't bother me. I ain't got time. But, sir, I smother harm. Scripture don't say that you're going to die and go to hell because Adam sinned. It says you're going to die and go to hell because you sinned. That's right. God's not going to send you to hell because some people back yonder nailed Jesus to the cross. He's going to send you to hell because you did. Because in the heart of God, Jesus has always been on the cross. And men have always rejected him. What's the message of the cross of Christ? The message of the holiness of God. The holiness of God. At Sinai, when the Lord was given tablets of stone, we see the glory and majesty of the Lord. But the majesty of Sinai fades away before the glory of Calvary, like the flickering candle before the moon. They say, do you believe that the Lord God shall stand on this earth for majesty? Do you believe that every disobedience, every disobedience, and every transgression will be received in just the righteousness of the Lord? Do you believe that? Of course you don't. We'll do just the please now and say we'll say it. Do you believe that God has left us? Tell me what you're going to believe. It's established in the heavens forever. God will never send the last one of us to hell before he'll violate one drop or tickle of his holy love. Do you believe that in all the transgressions, big ones and little ones, the law takes them all in? And in all this disobedience, we'll receive what? A just recompense of the Lord. If you do not believe that God's a legitimate and a lawful God, then take a look at Calvary. What's the Lord doing there on that tree if God doesn't stop the eyes and cross the teeth of his holy love? And my Lord Jesus Christ is a man, hanged down on a cross. And out of the agony of the supper he cried, and I can't even repeat that. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The answer comes back, thou art holy. And when Christ took my place, the sentence hath to be executed. Because God is holy. I wish we'd read this. The man upstairs that all the television boys and radio boys talk about. That one person. The God of American Christians. Well, without being an old poogie, you'll hear me when I say that their neck, nose is stung at a holy God. About how to treat this holy day. Every Lord's Day, if he wasn't God of mercy, we wouldn't have to worry about the bombs. God would wipe us off the face of the earth. My God, we were just told, told God to mind his business. We don't do as we please. But the Lord says he's holy. But then he said, don't do this. For we want him to come down on his knees to treat this holy day with God. That's my answer to the holy God. That's the way of the cross. We don't want to change it. It is not our doing. We're not going to change it. But we're going to do the cross and die holy. He's holy. You must have a holy Savior. You must experience the holy salvation. You expect to spend eternity in a holy place. You know, in Genesis and Diaver, Peter, the fundamentals, they found out God's done away with it all. No doubt happens if we have it. And every human being is going to be judged by it. God knows I don't want to come to the judgment without an advocate. Feed my case. Lord Jesus Christ. The cross not only talks about the sinfulness of men and the holiness of God. Thank God it points to God's provision for a man to get out of it in the blood of his justification. The cross tells me there's provision for every penitent sinner who can come into a living oneness with him who died on that tree. It is imperative that we get the proper order. I want to go to this church. I want to go in a Christian den. People ask, do they love the Lord? I'll find out. It's Sunday morning, it's dark. Makes God vomit. I wonder if there's anybody there that knows the Lord. If it were you and nobody, you might be glad he's sitting on the throne. And you'd stand by the stove, crying to God. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I knew how I pulled it off when I came. But is there anybody there that longs that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, in God's mercy, will have one more opportunity to tell this generation the truth as it is in Christ. He's an officer. Now he can't get a corporal guard anywhere. Billy Graham gets a big crowd to say that he's in a city of six million people. Thirty thousand people a night. They've got more Sunday school teachers in Los Angeles than he can get out. I'm not discrediting him. You can do that. God didn't tell me to state. You know how the music goes. Nobody can get in by much to listen to now. When I started out, please, if I'd have come here if I had a building here thirty years ago, man. On Sunday night, this thing would be jammed. There'd be no summertime. We'd be looking out the window. You remember. We've lost this generation. It's gone. Things can go on the hill. And God knows I sure wish we could get at people one more time. And tell them the truth. They're there. They'll be interested in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And there are places he's on himself. He's less than God's holiness. And if you quit denying and quit trying to get your head in the sand, if you feel he knows sin and the truth of God's holiness, you'd be interested in where we are. God gave him this world. God in Christ did hang on the cross to provide redemption for penitent men and women who by faith had been drawn to his message. One of the most solemn things I've ever faced in our church, David Bender, who prayed himself to death, left his bloodstains in the snow of New York State. At the age of twenty-nine years, he died. He came to his death in the home of John Timothy, the only man, perhaps, that God's ever really used in America to bring him alive. John of the Mediates is in Kent singing that as long as he lived, he thanked God that in his merciful providence he allowed David Bender to die in peace. John of the Mediates home. Mr. Edwards said I was with him constantly, Nellie, the last thirty-eight hours of his life. I suppose David Bender is the most saintly person that ever lived in America. You read his diaries, General. He'll make you ashamed of yourself as me. Mr. Edwards said that the last thirty-eight hours of David Bender's life, that that saint of God spent them most of the time, the last thirty-eight hours of his life, he spent looking at himself, examining himself to see whether he could discover any evidence that there was a saving interest in the blood of Jesus Christ. It would be good to spend the week you didn't take out. If you didn't help anybody else, it wouldn't help you. You in a day of lots of perfection, no power. Living in a day when nobody can test Christ's power, when nobody knows about your relation to him but you. It would be good to find out whether you've got any interest in the saving death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been shocked to read in the Bible that Lord Jesus had twelve disciples when he was here. Assembled up in the afternoon, the Lord said to them, one of you is going to betray me. You can throw this out the window if you want to. The one person that had perfect assurance he was all right is the person that betrayed him. The eleven, knowing their own power, knowing what they were capable of, said, Lord, am I the one who's going to betray you? Oh, you shall hear the Baptist, he said, I'm saved. And he's the one that sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a little bit interested in you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm more interested in myself. That self is for the soul. While I'm preaching to you, I don't want to go to hell myself. I don't. I don't want to miss Christ himself. I don't. If there is a man that spends his dying hours trying to find out whether he had an interest in the ship of Christ, I commend it to you. For Yonah, outside the city of Jerusalem, he did something for somebody. He hung there and somebody stayed. Amen. Somebody's sin and guilt was laid before him. I'm rightfully interested in whether that includes me or not.