Furthermore, these same teachers and preachers completely avoid the cross. They do not talk about it or even present it. Recently, I researched a very prominent young preacher in our day. He travels around the world, preaches to crowds and to throngs. Multiplied thousands come to his meetings. The world proclaims him as one of the young, dynamic preachers of our era. He does not preach on the cross. He avoids it, except for infrequent references to it.

No salvation exists for sinners like you and me without the cross. A salvation presented to you as one that will provide for you a passageway into eternal life with God that does not include the cross will not save you. You will ultimately discover, sadly to your harm, that you still stand before God condemned.

Paul mentioned to his friends and reminded them, "The preaching of the cross calls to men and women to be-lieve and to faith in Christ."

Some will ask, "Why the cross? Why do we need to hear about the cross and all that blood? Besides, Jesus did not die there on the cross. He just swooned, and his followers took him down from the cross. Then, they hid him away and later said he came back to life. We don't believe any of that." They just flat out reject the cross

But why the cross? Why do I need to believe what Jesus did on the cross? We need to have to have a brief re-minder of what Jesus fulfilled on the cross. What did Christ accomplish on the cross? On the cross, He pre-sented Himself to God as a substitutionary sacrifice as payment in full of the penalty for sin on behalf of people like you and me. When He offered Himself on the cross, He gave His life there. Yes, He did die on the cross. He did not swoon on the cross. He died there. When He died on the cross, shedding His blood and having His body broken by the cruelty of His tormentors, God the Father looked down on His sacrifice and accepted it. Christ's death on the cross fulfilled a payment in satisfaction to God the Father on behalf of people like you and me.

That explains why God accepts only those who come to Him through Christ. (See John 14.6 and 1 Timothy 2.5.) When a sinner comes to God, (s)he must come through faith in the Substitute, Jesus Christ.

I remind you that I stated that a Christ-centered ministry preaches deliverance from sin through faith in Jesus Christ alone. I cannot contribute anything to my salvation, because of my inherited sinful nature and the substi-tutionary sacrifice of Christ for sinners. Therefore, sinners receive salvation through faith in Jesus Christ as their substitute, alone, with nothing else added to it. Christ-centered preaching presents Jesus Christ as the satisfac-tion for the sin of people like you and like me. Any other preaching by false teachers and leaders will not recon-cile you to God.

Thus, when we have faith in Christ, we enjoy benefits that accrue to us. We experience freedom from guilt. We enjoy freedom from the foolishness of endless self-analysis. We possess freedom from endless self-preoccupation. A profound prominent mark of false teaching today emphasizes upon "maims." This preaching stresses the maximizing of you and you reaching your full potential, having all of your emotions and your psy-chologies all blended correctly and having a full emotional you.