In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on the message of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. He criticizes churches that prioritize external factors like the appearance of the building or the eloquence of the preacher over the message itself. The speaker also warns against watering down the message of the Word of God and urges listeners to present it as it is. He acknowledges the existence of liberalists who are more focused on social issues, but states that his purpose is to give out the positive message of the Bible without engaging in protests or marches.

Now, verse 25, "...and if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. For if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." Now, this seems strange to us today. In other words, there would be those that would say, well, let's make an altar of stone, and this man says, I'm an engraver, and I think it'd be nice if we could have it attractive-looking and make it appeal and very beautiful-looking. Now, here is something, it's a very delicate matter, but it's very important, and it's a great spiritual lesson, that it's here God says that you make my altar, you make it of plain stone, no engraving, and the minute that a tool is put upon that, why, it's polluted. Now, I don't want anything that has to do with it at all. Now, we've gone way past this, and we've come to the place where today a great many people feel that there should be in worship things that are beautiful, that everything should be made as beautiful as possible with music and soft lights, beautiful colors, and that the message should be given in very low tones, in a very dignified manner, and as flowery as it possibly can be. Well, we've come through that period, and we've had that type of thing. It's quite interesting that that made no appeal to the unsaved world. Liberalism emptied our churches. Liberalism years ago couldn't have an evening service. Somebody said to me, why do you think that the liberalists got so involved today in all of this social setup? Quite obviously, he wasn't doing anything for years, and he felt very much left out of it. A man said to me, well, why don't you start marching and protesting? My friend, that's not my business. I have too much to do. I keep busy without marching or protesting. Mine's not a protest. Mine is a positive message, and I'm not protesting anything. I'm just giving out the Word of God, and it steps on a lot of toes, I can tell you that. But it's the Word that'll do it. We're to give it out as it is, and there should not be any attempt today to water down the message. Now, don't misunderstand me as I say, this is a delicate subject. No one today has put more emphasis in having an attractive place of worship. I've had the privilege of remodeling the interior of the Church of the Open Door in my ministry. I had to go through a long period of just urging this upon the Church before they were willing to do it, and it was at some expense. I'm for soft lights. I love beautiful music, and I love flowery speaking. But my friend, when any of these things obscure the message of the cross and take attention away from the person or the one who died on that cross, then that becomes the offense of the cross, a real offense. And that's the thing today that God does not want to happen. And Paul, when he went to the city of Corinth, you will recall they were philosophical. There were quite a few of the priests there of the heathen religions trying to identify with all the sin of Corinth, and some of them did pretty well in identifying with it. They had many hippy types in the city of Corinth. But when Paul came there and saw the situation, saw that they were second-hand philosophers, they wanted to argue, they wanted to discuss, they wanted to appear intellectual, they wanted to appear to be helped, they wanted to belong to the now generation, my, how they were going in every direction. And Paul, who'd had a similar experience in Athens where they wanted to hear some new thing, Paul says, "...I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." And friends, if that's left out of the message, I don't care how high the steeple is, I don't care how loud the church bell is, I don't care how beautiful a sanctuary is, I don't care how lovely and soft the music is, and I do not care how educated the preacher is that's in the pulpit, that is not a church. But may I say to you, that's anything but a church. That is polluted as far as God is concerned. The thing that is important is the message of the Word of God. That's the thing that should go out today. There is an attempt to dress it up and to do something with it. This is very important to see here. This is instructions for the altar. We present just Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is our message. That should be our message.