We're delighted to be here tonight, to have this opportunity on your 40th anniversary, to have fellowship with you in the Gospel. Of course, we bring you greetings of our presbytery, our other officers and brethren in the presbytery on this occasion. It seems to be a very time for anniversaries. I've been doing a number, as has Dr. Johnson, during the past period of anniversaries. Mullet last during the week, and it was their 40th anniversary. And of course, The Lord has been blessing our church down through the years, and we thank the Lord for that, and we trust the Lord's blessing will be upon you here. I do remember the early days in Newtonards. I was a very young man, of course. I came to the Orange Hall to preach, and I remember always that platform with the casters on it. And, of course, I wanted the message to take off, but I didn't want to take off across the Orange Hall. And that was a great platform you had in those days. And of course I remember the young Simpson Gibson and the young Roy McMillan and all the other young men. And of course I preached in the wooden building at the Reverend Dunlop's installation there. I was just installed in the John Knops at that time and I was the next man and of course had to preach at his installation. We've had good fellowship with you over the years here in Newtonards. Last night I met two ladies out of Newtonards and one of them said to me, don't be preaching long. You'll be preaching long." And then the other one said, I said, I have to get home to get my beauty sleep. And she said, well, you need to be in bed a couple of hours ago. So I didn't know whether to come tonight or not, but I'm thick in the skin. So I've come tonight anyway to have fellowship with you in the gospel. We're going to read together from 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1 and reading from verse 1. If you have your Bible, will you turn to this portion of God's Word? 1 Corinthians 1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sothenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints with all that at every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace. from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always in your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him in all appearance and in all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, should ye come behind a no-gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. But have been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there be no contentions among you, For this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. I baptized also the household of Stephanus, besides I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of null effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Had not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to see of them the belief. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Amen. And we know that God will bless to us the reading of His inspired, inerrant and infallible truth. Let's bow together for a moment of prayer. Father, we come now to the preaching of Thy Word. I am trusting Thee for power. Thine shall never fail. Words that Thou Thyself hast given me must reveal. We ask in Jesus' name and for God's eternal glory. Amen. I want to speak tonight on the theme of 60 years preaching Christ and Him crucified. And that, of course, was the theme of this 60th anniversary of the pre-Presbyterian Church. But we can take it even tonight in the context of your 40th anniversary here in Newtonards. Forty years preaching Christ. and Him crucified. You will find the text in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. But we preach Christ crucified. These words I want to draw your attention to this evening. We preach Christ crucified. And of course, in the pre-Presbyterian church, we have a rich gospel heritage that has been passed down to us by the founding fathers of the Church. And the battle of the Gospel has been handed to us, that we might hand it on to others, that they might carry it forward and hand it on to their children and to their children's children. When we think of the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church on the 17th of March, 1951, We are reminded of the stand that was taken by godly men who were not prepared to submit to the liberals and the modernists who sought to prevent the preaching of Christ and Him crucified in a gospel mission. And they took their stand for the crown rights of King Jesus and for the crown jewels of His glorious gospel. And that gospel mission went ahead. not where it was planned to go ahead in the Sorrow Presbyterian Church Hall, which was closed by the Presbytery of Down against Dr. Paisley and against those who took their stand for Christ. But it took place in the Mission Hall on Kelly Day Street. The result of that mission was that ninety-four precious souls were saved by the grace of God. And we say tonight to God, be the glory. It meant taking their stand for Christ. It meant also separation from apostasy, from those who did not want Christ and Him crucified preached, and from a denomination that was riddled with those who denied the fundamentals of the faith. And they were prepared to put men into the highest positions of their denomination who denied the very verities of the field. Separation unto the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It meant also sacrifice. The founding fathers of the Free Presbyterian Church made great sacrifices. They were called upon to sacrifice friendship. to suffer hardships, to bear reproach for the cause of Christ, to be ridiculed and reviled by men, to be considered the offscouring of society in order to preserve and propagate the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. But, my dear friends, the Free Presbyterian Church was sent to the kingdom for such a time as this. In 1951 and here in 2011, as you celebrate your 40th anniversary, the main denominations in our land are still countenancing men and women in their pulpits who do not preach Christ and Him crucified. But this heritage, my friend, of the gospel has been passed down the generations to us to hold dear. You may not have been there in Crossgar sixty years ago or here forty years ago. Of course, as Mr. Johnson has said, some of you were. But your parents and your grandparents have taken a stand for Christ. They have deep convictions based upon the Word of God. centered upon the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. And may you have the same convictions, young person, as your godly parents and grandparents have. That you will not be in the free Presbyterian Church merely by convenience, but that you will be here by conviction, recognizing what we stand for. We stand for the things that God is for. and against the things that God has again. Let me challenge you to that. Are you willing to take up the baton of the gospel that has been held by others? And are you willing to run for God in your day and generation with fervency for the cause of Christ? Look at the life and ministry of Paul. Discover this man converted to Christ in Acts chapter 9 on the Damascus Road. See him then as a contender for the faith of the gospel. In any statements that he made, see where he stood and why he stood upon the great and grand principles of Christ and Him crucified. And may we be prepared to unashamedly unapologetically stand for the Word of God, for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Notice the words of our text. The words of Paul here to a church at Corinth. The words of Paul to us today. We preach Christ crucified. That's where we stand. That's where this church stands 40 years on. from its commencement. And that's where we must stand in the future. In every year, and in every situation, we must stand for the faith of the Gospel of Christ. I want you to see four things here tonight. And I assure the lady concerned, I will be brief. The message. Christ crucified. What a message it is. There is an emphasis here on the centrality of Christ. And if you read through the ministry of Paul and the other apostles, you cannot miss this emphasis. It is Christ. And that must ever be the emphasis of the free church here in Newton Hard and the free church across the world. There must be no digression. There must be no deviation from Christ. You will notice their ministry commenced, their ministry continued, their ministry consolidated, their ministry concluded with Christ. Christ was all and in all the centrality of Christ. Notice even in this first chapter of 1 Corinthians how Paul focuses upon Christ. For example, verse 2, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 4, The grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Verse 6, the testimony of Jesus Christ. Verse 7, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. The fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 9. And so we can continue down the chapter. And this must be our focus. Upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Him crucified. Look at chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians. In verse 2, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look at 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. This is the message that has sounded forth from the pulpit here in Newtonards for 40 years. and from the pulpits of the free Presbyterian churches for sixty years. We have not diluted this message, but we have declared it. And God helping us, when we declare it again tonight, we preach Christ crucified. I want you to see the description of this message. Christ crucified. We're drawn here to the person of Christ. And what a glorious person He is. Let me ask you tonight, do you know the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? If you don't, the Bible says, Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace. Thereby good shall come unto thee. And you know, we're not only drawn to the person of Christ, but we're drawn here unto the shadow of the cross. We're drawn here to the crosswork of Christ. We're drawn here to the redemptive work of Christ. We're drawn here to the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. The only remedy for sin's malady, the precious blood of Jesus. And it says in Ephesians 1 and 7, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. And you have come to this service tonight without Christ. Thank God you can meet Christ tonight. Thank God you can know the saving power of the precious blood of Christ. And you cannot come to any of the services in the free Presbyterian churches without having been brought to the cross. without having been brought to the finished work of Christ. And we must ever keep to this message, though the temptations are many, to digress from it, to make it more acceptable to the ears of the hearers, to make it more popular for the masses of people today, the description of this message. But I want you to see also here the directness of this message. Christ crucified. It's a direct message. There's no beating about the bush here. It brings the sinner to the cross. It confronts the sinner with a sin and with the Savior from a sin. And the message is always direct from the Free Presbyterian Church booklets. May we ever keep to that directness. Let us never get away from directing sinners to the cross. For it is only at the cross that the sin question can be dealt with. Have you been to the cross? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Have you had the sin question dealt with tonight? It is only at the cross that the sinner can be saved. How many services have we attended when preachers have been less indirect? In fact, many times I go to funeral services, as we all do, and you sit and listen to preachers and you wonder where they're coming from and where they're going to. In fact, there's a local minister and he's a quite friendly man and very courteous and all the rest of it. And I go to funeral services quite frequently in the local church there in Ballygaon. He gets up. He paints a great picture of the person and the people, but he never points people to Christ. And I said to him, Brian, why don't you get them to the cross? All he says is, you know, I don't want to offend anybody. Don't offend anybody. Sometimes I feel like shaking him, saying, Brian, you know what to do. He's a saved man. Why don't you preach it? Directness. We must ever get people to the cross, to the only substitute for sinners, to the only way whereby the sinner can be saved. Oh, there's a failure to preach Christ crucified. But in our preaching, we must preach Christ. We must preach Christ and Him crucified. Do you remember Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2? What a sermon it was on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 souls were saved. It was preaching Christ. Read it for yourself. Again, go to Acts 8. See the message of Philip that he spoke to the Ethiopian eunuch? It was the message of Christ crucified. Acts 8.35, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture. What was the scripture? It was Isaiah chapter 53. That was the scripture that the Ethiopian unit was reading. And he preached on to him, Jesus. Oh, my friend, that's what we've come here to preach to you tonight. Jesus. Think of the delivering of this message. Paul faithfully delivered it without fear or favour. He was unashamed of this message. He was ready to deliver it. Look at Romans 1, verses 15 and 16. I am ready to preach the gospel to them that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. Didn't he deliver it at the synagogue when he was just converted in Acts 9? Didn't he deliver it in the prison at Philippi to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16? Didn't he deliver it by the riverside where Livy and the other women were gathered at the prayer meeting? Didn't he deliver it throughout his three missionary journeys in the Acts of the Apostles? Far and near he delivered this message. And the Free Presbyterian Church, down through these years, has been delivering this message at home and has sent men and women to the mission fields of the world to deliver this message. Let us never shirk our responsibility of delivering the message of Christ crucified. That's what you're doing here in all the activities of this church here in Newton, Arles. And you've done it down through these 40 years. And you must continue to do it. in the pulpit ministry, in the Sabbath school and children's meeting, in the outreach work, in all the activities of the church, let us go forth weeping, bearing precious seed. And we shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us. Look quickly at the method, the method, preaching. We preach Christ crucified. And this method is a time-honored one. It's that of preaching. And you know, many today consider this method to be outdated. So they have invented new methods. In many places, preaching has been virtually done away with. But look at verse 21 of this portion. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This is the God-ordained method. Note the emphasis upon it in this very chapter of the Word of God. The priority Paul gave to it, verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Verse 18, for the preaching of the cross, he says. And then in our text, verse 21, we preach Christ's crucifixion. Verse 23, rather. Going back to the patriarch. Going back to the prophets, the apostles, John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ, they were all preachers. All preachers. And the Word of God exhorts us through Paul in 2 Timothy 4 and 2, Preach the Word. Preach the Word. This must be our priority. Preaching is essential. As far as the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church is concerned, And we have always had men who were preachers of the Word. Let us never get into the point where we have lecturers in the pulpit. Men who can lecture. I know denominations and they have men who are very knowledgeable. But they are lecturers. They are not preachers. They must keep to the preaching of the Word. I remember when in 1974 I went in as a student. I was very young then. 1974. In fact, I was the youngest student. I don't know if I hold that record up to now, but I was the youngest student then. And there were 21 of us in the class. The biggest intake of students I think we have had over the years of free Presbyterianship for the ministry. And Dr. S.B. Cook was the professor of homiletics and pastoral theology. And I was in there just, as they call it, I suppose, in my university a fresher. First year. Went behind the ears. And I remember he said to us something like this. This is the class where all the ingredients that you get in the other classes are put together. The cake is baked here and presented in preaching. And he put the finger like that. I can always remember it. And I find it to be so true. You can learn all these other truths in the other classes. But in the preaching class, in the homiletics class, it's all put together. Preaching is so important. And the Free Presbyterian Church has been known as a preaching church. And there is depth in that preaching. Of course, the Bible speaks about the gift of preaching. It's not given to every man. Some people think they have it and they don't have it. Some people even train in college and pass all the exams and get very good marks. But their never called to a church was the ultimate seed of their call to the ministry. You see, God has given different gifts to the church. In Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, the gift of preaching is in there. Some have been called. Some have that gift. Others have not. And we have some great preachers in the Free Presbyterian Church. And we thank God for that. And we give God all that loves. And all the honor. The gift of preaching. But then we want to think about also the glory in that preaching. Because as we have preached Christ and continue to preach Him, we give God all the glory. You know, sometimes we can get into backsliding. And commanding men. But we need to uplift Christ. Not to say that we don't give honor to men where honor is due. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how often we have prayed over the years, let none be seen, save Jesus only. And we must continue to give the glory to the Lord, that we might be hid behind the cross, that men and women and boys and girls, as they listen to the preaching of the Word, would only see Christ. Let our names perish. Let the honours of men perish. Let the name of Christ be exalted. I was reading about Morehouse, that great evangelist. Invited to take a great evangelist campaign in one of the cities of England. As he was driving into the city, he saw a poster with his name emblazoned on it. He met within hours the organizing committee. And he said, gentlemen, I have one request. Take my name off the poster. Take my name off the poster. You see, he wanted all the glory to be given to the Lord. Men and women, the glory in the preaching must be Christ. It must be Him. The gospel in the preaching. Christ crucified is the gospel. The good news of salvation. And someone has said to me, that's one thing about you boys, you preach the gospel. And it's a good reputation to have, to be preachers of the gospel. And that's the great commission, men and women, to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature. Whether we are fulfilling our ministry at home or fulfilling it abroad. And for 60 years we've been doing that, and for 40 years you've been doing that here in this town of Newton Ours. And I never drive into this town, but I think of the immense potential there is. It's a vast town, Newton Ours. As you drive into it from Belfast, as you come in from Cumbres, you come in from Bangor, whatever, as you come up from the peninsula, it's a vast town. The potential is immense for preaching the Gospel. Go to it, men and women. Go to it. The Gospel. And then there is the gain in the preaching. And that is the salvation of precious souls. And hundreds of souls have been saved over 60 years through the witness of the Free Presbyterian Church. I mentioned at the commencement, 94 souls saved in Crossgar. A hundred souls in that mission prior to the commencement of the church in Dungannon and other places. I think in Oma it was something like 150 people were saved at the mission prior to the commencement of the church in Oma. And so we could go on. God used His servant, Dr. Paisley, mightily as an evangelist across this country. And other men were used as well. The salvation of souls. Preaching of the Word. The gain of the preaching. The method. I want you to think about the might we preach Christ's crucifixion. There's something here that has great power. Something that has great power. It is power to break the stony hearts of men and women. And over 60 years and over 40 years here in this church and in this witness, in this time, many a stony, stubborn heart has been broken by the might of this message. Let me tell you tonight, the might of this message is power to cleanse the vile sinners. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9-11, it mentions a whole list of vile sins. And then it says in verse 11, such were some of you, but ye are washed. You are sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. And thank God tonight your sins may be by, but you can be washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight and saved by a sovereign grace. And the might of this message is seen in the restoration of many backsliders to the Lord. A dear man in our church, he was a backslider for something like over 40 years. And just this year, he came back to the Lord. God restored him to his first love. And he told me the story of how he had backslidden from God and wandered away from God and brought back to the fold of God's salvation. That's the might of the message. The might of this message has been seen in God's people being revived. There's nothing that revives the people of God more than the cross. drawn unto the shadow of the cross, considering the sacrifice and the suffering and the sorrow and the shame that Christ endured, rekindles the smouldering embers of our hearts. May God do that in you and our hearts. The message of Christ crucified. It's a mighty message. It's a mighty message. May we feel afresh the impact of that message upon our hearts tonight. If you're here tonight not seeing, may that message impact upon you and bring you to the cross. It impacted upon me in 1969 as a boy of 11 when I came as a sinner to Christ. 15th of January, 1969. I came as a sinner to Christ. I want to finish with the music. We preach Christ's crucifixion. There's a music in this message. What music there is in it over sixty years. We've had the music of the Gospel. The music of the shed blood of the Lamb. And the grand hymns that we sing are the hymns about Christ and Him crucified. We sang them again and again. And we must continue to sing them. I know they're looking at our hymn book to maybe some revision and reprinting, but they're not taking out the hymns about the blood. They are keeping in the hymns about the flood. They may have some good hymns and maybe take out some, but they are not going to take out any that have the blood. Emphasize the blood of Christ. There is a fountain filled with blood. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? What can wash away my sin? Have you read the story of the cross? Many, many more. The music of the Gospel. Christ crucified. And the music of this message of the blood of this song is the song of the redeemed in heaven. Revelation 5 and 9, they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou hast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood. What a song that is! How many are singing it in glory. Many who were here at the commencement of the work in Utah Arts, and they're up there in glory. They're singing that song. Think of our sister Ruby's husband. He's up there singing that song. He's singing that song. Many others were here down through the years singing the song of the redeemed of the Lord. You know, someone was dreaming they were in heaven and they heard this song. And then they woke and they realized it was only by the blood that one could have this new song. It was only those washed in the blood that had this new song. It's only them that would be in heaven. How true this is. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb tonight? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? What music there's been in the services and special gospel missions over 60 years. We will continue this music of the gospel. of Christ and Him crucified. This message, sending it out to this world around about us. It has been the rejoicing of our hearts to see souls saved over the years. And the music of our hearts is that of Christ crucified. Praising God for all He has done for us. We sang tonight, to God be the glory. Great things He has done. So love to the world that He gave us His Son. Yielded His life in atonement for sin. Opened the life gate that all may commit. Thank God for 40 years here in Newton Arms. Thank God for 60 years in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster preaching Christ and Him crucified. May we resolve tonight to continue to preach this message. To convey it to all in sundry. To rededicate ourselves tonight to this task that God has given to us to do. Let to Him be all the praise and glory. If you are not saved tonight, this could be your night. The night of your salvation. A night of nights. Your experience. If you are backslidden, it could be the night when you come back to the Lord. We preach Christ's crucifixion.