In 1869 Fannie J. Crosby wrote that hymn that has thrilled the hearts of millions of people over the many years. She wrote many hymns, but she titled this one, “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.” And that will also be the title of our study today.
Greetings to you, my friend. We are glad you have joined our search of the Scriptures for the Lord’s Way to become and to be a Christian. We are presented on this station by caring friends of yours, members of churches of Christ in the area. Say, they really would like you to attend their Bible classes and their worship, too. And I hope you will do that real soon-- yet today if possible. Remember, too: we are closed captioned.
We have given our program today the title, Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross. If you think you might want a copy of it-- either by audio cassette tape, or CD, or a printed copy, simply send your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, or by e-mail to searchtv@aol.com. Or if it would be more convenient to call us, you may use our toll free telephone number: 1-800-321-8633. Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing, and then I will be back.
We are reading today from Galatians chapter 6 and I am going to begin reading at verse 12 and close with verse 15. “As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they might not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” And now let us go to God in prayer. Our Father, we are so thankful to You for Your gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross. We are so thankful, Father, for that event and we thank You that You have reminded us in the Scripture that, and in many others, that Jesus is always near us in his visibility on the cross. In His name we prayer. Amen.
Fannie J. Crosby has inspired and encouraged millions of people over the years with her beautiful hymns. Wherever you attend church, just pick up your hymnal and flip through its pages and you are likely to find such favorites as “A Wonderful Savior,” “Blessed Assurance,” “ Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior,” “Jesus Is Calling,” “Rescue The Perishing,” “Jesus Calls Us” and oh, so many others that she wrote. A favorite with a lot of people is, “Jesus, keep me near the cross; There a precious fountain, Free to all, A healing stream, Flows from Calvary’s mountain. Near the cross! O Lamb of God, Bring its scenes before me; Help me walk from day to day; With its scenes before me. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find Rest beyond the river.”
Some objects and words and phrases, and well even verses of Scripture sometimes become so familiar with usage that they lose their value. John 3:16 is a good example of that. Many of us were taught it when we were young and we have recited it so many times that it has become almost a cliché with us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What is often called “The Lord’s Prayer” is another: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” Well, we have recited it so many times (or heard it so) that we can shift our minds over into neutral and say it with no difficulty-- and no meaning at all, I might add. We can say it while we read the morning newspaper or watch our favorite TV program and never miss a word.
The cross is another. We see it on the church steeple, hanging from the ears of the bank teller. We see it on an emblem on the license plate of the car before us at the traffic light. We see it on the window of the bookstore and on the grave markers in the cemetery. In so many places, it has become commonplace. In fact I know this: a sermon on the cross just doesn’t draw the attention of the congregation that a sermon on joy, or peace, or miracles, or, oh well, even angels. Consequently we don’t hear as much preaching and teaching about it as we should. I don’t believe that we sing about the cross as much as we once did either. That is too bad, too, because the cross of Jesus Christ is a powerful message even in this day of scientific and technological jargon to which we are subjected every day and to which we have grown so accustomed.
In the inspired scriptures we read awhile ago, the great preacher insofar as we know did more than anyone else to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the four corners of the earth. The apostle Paul said: “God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Paul had introduced the story of the cross to the people of Galatia and they had embraced it. Others followed him there and had perverted that beautiful message and by binding certain Old Testament Jewish rites and ceremonies on those new Christians, circumcision in particular as we just read from the Scriptures a moment ago. And they had succeeded in drawing away disciples after them. The Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to write this letter to them to tell them that in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor un-circumcision means anything, but faith that works by love (chapter 5, verse 6), and a new creature (chapter 6, verse 15). Well, if they were going to keep one part of the Old Testament law to the Jews, the Holy Spirit said they were obligated to keep all of it. And in that event Jesus Christ would mean nothing to them. The story of the cross would be an empty and vain message to them if they did that.
And he concludes with the thought “But God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”
Though circumcised himself, he didn’t glory in it; it meant nothing to him insofar as relationship with God was concerned. What was important to him was the cross of Christ.
The cross of Christ, the message of Christ’s crucifixion, is the heart and the soul of the Christian message. This great man of God wrote to the Corinthian Christians and he said, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come to you 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.” Well, he hadn’t appealed to the vanity of their great wisdom; nor had he exhibited great oratorical skill before them. It isn’t that he never mentioned the church or obedience or baptism or worship or judgment or heaven or even hell or a whole host of other subjects, but that whatever he taught them had meaning only in the light of the cross. “And,” he said, “I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Oh! For more preaching like that today! “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” The cross of Jesus Christ packs power, my friend, into the sermon when it gets there! The preacher who thinks he has something better on which to build your faith is blinded by his egotism and pride. “Jesus keep me near the cross.” “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ.”
The cross, the story of the crucifixion of Christ, His burial, His triumphant resurrection is the firm, immovable foundation of the church which He would build. How audacious, how outrageously vain, how conceited, how very prideful and deceitful of any man to start a church of his own and dare to compare it with the one built by the Son of God upon the firm foundation of His blood stained cross.
“Upon this rock,” He said to Peter, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). It wasn’t that He was building His church on a stone like the impetuous, sometimes wavering Peter. The church was to be built upon Jesus Christ, who by His death, fulfilled God’s plan for human redemption, and proved Himself to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead.” So says Romans chapter 1, verse 4. Jesus, keep Your church near the cross! The church is important to the world only as long as it relates to the cross. The church simply must not permit itself to lose sight of the cross. God forbid that the church should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Religious traditions are “vain” (Matthew chapter 15, verses 1 to 10) except as they relate to the cross of Christ (II Thessalonians 2:15). Religious rites and ceremonies are meaningless save as they relate to the cross of Christ. Likewise innovative changes in church teaching, and worship, agenda, all of that are but glitter except as they draw us near to the cross. God forbid that the church should glory in any of that, but in the cross of Jesus Christ.
The cross of Christ, the story of His death for our sin, His burial and His glorious resurrection is the very focal point of Christian worship. Christians offer their prayers to God in His name. It wasn’t to be so until after He had proven His deity by the crucifixion and resurrection, according to John 14:13; 15:16. But, it is true now. I have sometimes had people call me or write me and ask me is it necessary to verbalize our public prayers in the name of Christ? My answer is, “Why should any Christian want to do otherwise?” I don’t understand that kind of thinking frankly. Are we trying to avoid identity with Jesus Christ who died for us? Those words shouldn’t be a “vain repetition” with us as we sometime hear them so, as they seem to be on some occasions at least. Neither is it necessarily to be at the close of the prayer; it can be at the beginning, in the middle, or anywhere. But Jesus Christ is the only mediator between man and God (I Timothy 2:5). He is the only one through whom or by whom we have access to the Father.
The music of Christian worship focuses on the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is sometimes thought that to draw the crowds, to appeal to the boomers and the busters and X-generation, the church simply must accommodate them with their music. Is it mere coincidence that the other day-- right when I was putting together the thoughts for this message, that a minister in a very large congregation that has adopted that kind of philosophy, called to say he wanted to support this ministry, because this very thing had gone too far in his denomination? He said Christ and Him crucified is no longer the theme of their music. Fannie J. Crosby’s old hymn, “Jesus keep me near the cross, There is a precious fountain, Free to all-- a healing stream Flows from Calvary’s mountain” is appropriate for all generations, my friend. God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ.
And the story of His death, His burial, and His resurrection is the very focus in all that we do for the Lord. And it comes to a greater focus even in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus instituted this memorial to prevent our getting too far away from the cross (Luke chapter 22, verses 18 to 20; I Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 to 34). He said, “For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes” (I Corinthians 11:26). And the first Christians remembered Him in their assemblies on the first day of the week. In fact that is why they assembled on the first day of the week. It was for the observance of that memorial feast. We have our memorials; we establish our memorials to everything and to everybody that comes along. We give them a day on the calendar, or we give them, especially if they have been important in the history of our nation or in the history of our community, we give them a monument in the public square. We honor them; we have a memorial built for them. We even publicize it. Well, the church-- or the Christian-- who is faithful in the observance of the Lord’s Supper in spirit and in truth upon the first day of the week, cannot drift too far from the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The cross of Jesus Christ, His sacrificial death, His burial and His triumphant resurrection are a motivating inspiration in the Christian’s giving of his money in the worship on Sunday. In His giving of Himself, He showed His love for us, and in our giving of our material prosperity we show the sincerity and the proof of our love for Him (II Corinthians 8 and 8 and verse 24). God forbid that any of us should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we humbly approach You in the name of Jesus Christ, our redeemer, our savior. And we are thankful that You gave us his mediation by which we can come to You in prayer. And we thank You Father for His death, His burial, and His triumphant resurrection. And we pray that we will never, never as individual Christians or as the church drift away from it. Jesus, keep us near the cross. In His name we pray, Amen.
The cross of Jesus Christ, the story of His agonizing death, His burial and His resurrection are the very focal point in the matter of salvation. It has been a wonder to me for many years why some people say they accept the Christ of the cross for their salvation, but they utterly reject the cross of Christ in coming to the salvation that Jesus offers. The Holy Spirit says that in becoming a Christian a person is baptized into His death; he is buried with the Lord in baptism, and in the likeness of His glorious resurrection by the power of the almighty God, they likewise are raised to live the Christian life with Him. Read that in your own Bible in Romans chapter 6; well you can begin at verse one down through verse four and read it, and goes on in the rest of the chapter. My friend, there is no possible way you can have the Christ of the cross apart from the cross of Christ. If you believe in Him as the Son of God, the Savior of the world-- if you believe He bought your salvation on the tree of Calvary-- as you are a believer, would you come then in a penitent spirit, to relive that event with Him today? Be buried with Him in baptism, raised in the likeness of His resurrection, and then to live the beautiful Christian life. God forbid that you or I should glory, except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The faith-- not just the story, but the faith of the cross of Christ, His death in our stead, His burial and His resurrection by the power of God is the strength of the Christian life. It constantly reminds the Christian who he is and who he was before his conversion. He was once a sinner lost in sin, but now by the cross he is a saint, cleansed by the blood of Jesus shed on that cross, and a child of God. Well, he once was a slave to sin, held in chains of bondage, but now he is free from sin and all of its evil consequences and is a servant of Jesus Christ. Well, I think that is the reason the great apostle said, “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ.” The important thing in the Christian’s life is being a “new creature,” and “faith, an active faith, faith that acts by love is a response to that.” Old things have passed away, and all things have become new in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17). If we stay near the cross we won’t get too far from Jesus. It is at the cross that we sinners were crucified to the world, made dead to the world and its allurements, and by which the world becomes dead or powerless over us.
Well, we are grateful for you having been with our study today. And I hope you have been drawn a bit closer to the cross to live there every day the rest of your life. If you would like to study the message in a little more detail, you may have a free printed copy or an audio cassette tape of the entire program simply by writing us, In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@aol.com. And our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. Or you might want to visit our website and that is at wwwsearchtv.org and you can do that for an additional study, viewing today’s program with a friend, or just however you can use it in saving other people, reaching out to other people with the Gospel message or for your self edification. We plan to be back next week. Hope you will do the same. God bless you. We love you.
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