THE POWER OF THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS

(Message n° 1)

By Henri Viaud-Murat

English version of Tape C 115, from " Source de Vie " France

This message is the first of a set of 5 (C.115 to 119).

You know that a house needs to be built on firm foundations : Jesus says that it must actually be built on rock. A house built on sand won’t last very long : as soon as the rains start falling and the winds start blowing, it will disintegrate for lack of a firm foundation. The Bible tells us that our whole life has to be built on a single foundation, Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus and His Word are one ; so to build my life on Jesus Christ is to build it up according to His Word. To build my life according to His word, is to build it on Jesus.

So tonight I want to go back to the foundation, to Jesus, to remind us of some important truths, for I can see that we readily forget them — that’s what the devil does : he comes and changes our thinking to make us forget the Word of the Lord. As the apostle Peter said, we need to go back to those truths so as not to forget them. And if we have forgotten them, then we need to turn back, start again and rebuild our lives in the proper place, that is to say on Jesus. Tonight you will check and see whether your house is properly built. If any part of it is built on sand, watch out ! You need to remove the sand and build on rock. Jesus is that rock, He is the Rock of ages.

Let us read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 1 : "And I brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified". What accuracy and clarity in that statement : "When I came to you, I was determined not to know anything among you except…" Paul was an apostle, called to build up the Church of Jesus and to teach the Word. When he came and taught that Word to the Corinthians, he said to them : "In my heart there was one single thought concerning you…" That is to say concerning the Corinthians and concerning us, the Christians who are gathered here : "I was determined not to know anything…except Jesus Christ." Not Jesus Christ as described by all and sundry ! There are many, nowadays, who do away with the Cross of Christ and who preach another Jesus, not the Jesus of the Scriptures, but a Jesus who is a philosopher, a psychologist, or a Santa Claus : one who is not the real Jesus.

Paul says : "Him crucified". You know that Jesus came into the world for one purpose only : to die on the cross. His purpose was not to heal the sick, cast out demons, grant blessings and speak words of comfort. He did those things too, but his sole purpose was to die on a cross for us, and all those other things are given through the Cross.

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