Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. In this
first chapter to the Corinthians, Paul has been acknowledging the
divisions that are arising between the different churches there
in Corinth. And he says in verse 12 and 13,
now this I say that every one of you sayeth. You're all partakers
in these schisms and divisions. I am of Paul, and I of Apollos,
and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. And he asks then, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or
were ye baptized in the name of Paul? And so here's these
carnal divisions that were rising up between one another, and it's
thought that some perhaps favored Paul because he was the first
one to preach the gospel to them. Some perhaps favored Apollos
because he was an eloquent speaker, a very able speaker, a very inspiring
person, and spoke fair speeches with well-thought-out reasonings
and arguments. And then Cephas, or Peter as
it's supposed to be there, as it's believed to be, that some
would have favored him who had been persuaded perhaps by the
Judaizers coming out of Jerusalem there, wrongly thinking that
Paul and Peter would have been divided. And still others claimed
to follow Christ, which is the one whom we are to follow. It
is his church, but perhaps they were using it in a divisive manner. And so Paul cuts a path then
through the ordinance of baptism. He brings up baptism. Perhaps
there was a division over baptism. And he cuts through that to separating
believers from unbelievers, separating the wheat from the chaff, separating
the sheep from the goats. And what he's saying here is
that this division that God makes, right? You men make divisions.
We make divisions. We have schisms and arguments
and divide from one another. But the one division that matters
is the division that the Lord makes between men. And that division
is made, believe it or not, it is made by grace. Grace separates
men. It is the message of grace that
separates believers from unbelievers. It's a division that is wrought
by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of men through the gospel. That is through the preaching
of Christ crucified. It is grace that divides men. where the Lord's people are separated
from that body of men who believe not. And let's see, well, the
Lord says in, as he said to Moses in Romans 9, 15, and 16, he said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, it's not by the free will of man making a decision
for Christ, it's not of him that runneth, that means well and
strives and works for his salvation, but of God that showeth mercy. And so we see it's grace that
divides. It's grace that brings out those
that strive and labor and work for their salvation from those
that trust Christ and come to Christ by faith, through the
faith which he gives them and works in them. And so the division
is made by grace. Now, let's pick up in verse 17,
1 Corinthians 1 verse 17. For Christ, Paul says, sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. And of all the things that go
into establishing a church that would carve out a people unto
the Lord by whom the Lord calls, of all things, Paul tells us
that it is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is
essential. And he goes on to tell us what
that gospel is, what that word is that we are to preach. And
it's the gospel, it's the preaching of the gospel that our God uses
to accomplish, to bring home that salvation in the hearts
of those for whom Christ died. Those for whom Christ gave his
life and shed his blood on the cross, it's revealed who he did
that for in the preaching of the gospel. That's where the
Lord makes known. those for whom Christ died and
shed his blood. It's revealed as a new creation. A new creation. Paul calls it
in Hebrews, a new and living way. Not according to dead letter
form, but a new and living way. We are to preach the gospel because
that is how disciples are made. That is how sinners are called
to Christ, through the preaching of the gospel. That's how we
that are born dead in trespasses and sins, we that are in spiritual
darkness and shut up in a prison of sin and filthiness and filthy
works, are brought out of that prison and brought into the light. Through the preaching of the
gospel is how the filthy rags of self-righteousness are removed
from us. and turn us from having a confidence
in what we do for the Lord to what the Lord has done for us
in grace and in mercy, so that our confidence is in Him. And
we look to Him, knowing that without Him, we can do nothing. It's by the preaching of the
gospel that the idle form of dead-letter religion is smashed
and broken up in our hearts. through the preaching of the
gospel. Now, religious men love to get their grubby, dirty little
hands on the work of the Lord. And so they show up in religion
with what? With the hammer and chisel, because
they want to start chipping away at the living stones of Christ's
household. They want to fix it. They want
to do it. They want to make and form and
adjust and do things their way, their way. And rather than trust
the Savior by faith to do what he will do, in the hearts of
his people and among his people. Christ asked, why do you not
understand my speech? Why do you not trust me? Why
do you not believe me? Even because you cannot hear
my word. My word, that gospel. We need
the gospel of Christ to teach us. This fleshly religion of
man was witnessed in the day that our Lord walked the earth,
with the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes and lawyers opposing
him in everything. They opposed him, they fought
against him, and they would not hear him. It happened in the
apostolic church when the apostles were preaching the gospel. Who
was it? It was the Judaizers who came
into the churches behind Paul saying, except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. They were putting
something between Christ and the people, and it sounded reasonable
to the flesh. He said, this is a religious
work. This is a religious service.
Let's do that. Let's add this. Maybe this will improve us and
help us and get control of our flesh. Maybe this will root out
the members of sin in our members. Though it sound reasonable to
religion and this flesh, it was not the gospel of God, which
he accomplished through the cross. It rendered what Christ had done
to be of no effect. It made Christ's work to be of
little to no value at all for the sinner. It was turning men
away from Christ, and it required the work of men's hands to accomplish
what Christ's blood was failing to do, as far as they were concerned.
Christ is on something, but it's not enough. You've got to do
more, they were saying. Except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, Acts 15.1, ye cannot be saved, is exactly
what they were saying. And so they're saying that the
sacrifice of Christ, that Christ is not able to do what Christ
says he does for his people. Something more was needed for
the self-righteous in Paul's day, and that something more
was circumcision. It was circumcision. Now let's
turn over to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. And we're
going to pick up in verse 12. Paul is revealing the motivation
in those that are seeking to add to what Christ alone does.
He says in Galatians 6, verse 12, as many as desire to make
a fair show in the flesh. They want things to look better.
They want to make a fair show in the flesh. They constrain
you to be circumcised. They're putting constraints on
God's people to control the flesh. To bind the flesh, to get the
flesh in order. Why do they do this? Lest they
should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. for trusting
Christ is able to save his people to the uttermost. We better do
something to make sure this happens, because for whatever reason,
they don't believe Christ is able to do it. And we're not
to limit this to circumcision only. Don't think it's just circumcision,
because men in religion use all kinds of things. to add to the
work of Christ, to improve upon what Christ has done, to make
a better church, to make it look better, to get your people in
order. They turn men from Christ to
the law. How often do they do that? They entice men in with the sheep
food. And as soon as you come in through
the gate, they take away the sheep food and give you the goat
food. They start feeding you the law. Do this, start that,
don't do this, don't do that, and it's all the goat food. They're
giving you the law, rather than preaching the gospel, what delivered
you from death and sin in the first place. Having begun in
the spirit, Paul asked in Galatians 3, are you now made perfect by
the flesh? In turning to the flesh, is that
really going to make you better and drive the Philistines out
of the land? Drive the sin out of the flesh?
Is that really going to work? No. If you began in the spirit,
you're going to continue in the spirit if you're Christ's. You're
not going to depart from Him. We don't turn back to the law
at Mount Sinai. We continue to look to Christ.
We continue to cry out to Him, Abba, Father, save me. Lord,
deliver me from this lust. Lord, deliver me from this sin.
Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, keep me. Lord, why do I
see this law present in my members, that when I would do good, evil
is present with me? Because sin is still in the flesh.
The flesh isn't improved. We hear Christ and follow Christ
in the new man, trusting him, begging him, pleading, Lord,
save me. Bring to pass your promises in
my heart. Don't turn me to the law. And they do this lest they should
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. When they come in and see people
rejoicing in grace, and rejoicing in the liberty which Christ gives
us in delivering us from that fear and doubt. When I look at
the law, in all my life I was always looking to myself to fix
my sin, to improve myself, and all the while I looked at my
sin and how to make it better. I was grieved. I was disappointed. I was fearful, afraid, scared
to die, because I never knew whether I was coming or going.
I didn't know what was going on, because I kept looking to
what I could do, rather than looking to Christ and what he
has done and accomplished. and lifting me out of that. And
he talks about it in Hebrews 2, where Christ delivers those
who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to
bondage, afraid to die. Have I done enough? Have I done
enough? No, you haven't. I haven't either. None of us
have done enough. It's by the grace of God that we're saved.
Fall upon Him. Trust Him. Cry out to Him. What a religious man, a self-righteous
man would do is he's so afraid to trust the people to Christ
and to hear that gospel and to trust that Christ will do his
word, which is to turn our hearts, to give us a heart for Christ,
to give us a mourning for our sin that turns from the flesh
and looks to Christ for help and for mercy and grace. and
help in time of need. Trust Christ. By trusting the
people of Christ and hearing the gospel, Is Christ going to
let them sin? Is Christ the minister of sin?
No. He's going to instruct our hearts in righteousness. He's
going to give us love and hope and faith to serve Him and to
serve our brethren and to be turned from the pursuits of this
vain, passing, wicked world. to love Him and rejoice in Him
and who He is. And so, verse 13 of Galatians
6, Paul goes on to say, for neither they themselves who are circumcised
keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may
glory in your flesh. And that really is what it is.
The keeping of the law and adding the works of man in the flesh
do nothing to change the heart. They don't get to the root of
the matter. They don't turn us from doing wickedly, not in our
hearts and minds. They may constrain the flesh
on the outward, but it does nothing to change our hearts, our desires,
our will at all. It gives us no love for Christ
and no love for his people. It only gives another who's doing
the binding something to glory, because he's miserable about
his own sin too. And so it ain't helping him either. He looks to bind men with the
law. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And that's
where the difference is made in the heart of a sinner saved. by a new and living way, by the
giving of the Spirit of Christ, to turn us from trusting what
we're doing or not doing, and the form of religion, and trusting
Christ for all our salvation, believing Him, and resting in
Him. And so that's what makes the
difference in the heart of a sinner saved from being someone that
lives for this world and trusts their form of religion and trusts
that that's what puts them in the highest place and the highest
room instead of going to the lowest room where the needy sinner
goes to by grace before the Lord lifts them up and gives them
a hope in Him. It's a work of the spirit to
reveal Christ and his saving grace in our hearts. It's a work
of God that does it. It's not by what you do and don't
do. It's not even by singing the hymns that makes the difference
in the heart. It's his grace. It's his grace. And no amount of binding, no
amount of laws, no amount of structure and form that we put
in place is going to change the heart of man. It's going to be
Christ and Christ alone. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. And we'll pick up in verse 17
regarding the new creation of our Lord. Paul says, therefore, If any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. That old form of religion, with
the sacrifices and the altar and the temple, And the 613 laws
or whatever it was, all those laws, those old things are passed
away. That's not how we come to God.
Salvation has become our walls. We don't even need to go to Jerusalem.
We're in spiritual Jerusalem. Salvation has become our walls. That's what makes us one in Christ,
his blood. Where a new creature, old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And then everything that Paul
says after that is all a declaration of grace, the grace of what our
Lord does for us, saying, and all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. It's done. It's accomplished. You that believe Christ are reconciled. be glad and rejoice in him, not
imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto
us," what? The word of reconciliation. He's given his church, that inn
where the Good Samaritan, as it were, brings the beaten up,
the dead, right? They're half dead, meaning they're
dead spiritually, but alive physically still. And Christ brings his
sinners, his people, his chosen people, to the inn, to the church,
to be ministered to by the gospel. By the gospel. We've been given
the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made Christ to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." In him. And so he ministers what? Grace. to those that are alive in Christ,
to those that trust Christ. It's all grace that he speaks
of. He declares the gospel of what God has done for us in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ, how that we are kept by him. He's
trusting us to Christ wholly and completely. The preaching
of Christ crucified reveals and declares, it makes known, that
we by nature are dead in trespasses and sins and cannot save ourselves
because we can't change our nature of Adam. We're born by nature
of Adam's seed and cannot fix or change or alter that nature. You must be born again by the
seed of Christ. We were all born by the seed
of Adam. We must be born again by the
seed of Christ. which is done by the Holy Spirit
given unto you, which makes you to hear Christ, to know I'm the
needy sinner, Lord have mercy on me, and to hear that Christ
is the Savior whom the Father has sent to save us from our
sins. And so Christ came and delivered
us. In Romans 3, verses 21 through
24, Paul says that by Christ, the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. This is the one of whom all the
law and the prophets were testifying of. so that we would understand,
as it says in Galatians 3.22, that the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that you might hear the faith of God in Christ,
that you might receive the faith of Christ That's what he's showing
us, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's
no difference. Meaning, Jew and Gentile are
saved the same way. Whether you grew up under the
law or you grew up without the law, whether you grew up in church
or you grew up without church, all are saved by the faith, the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he reveals that faith
in the hearts of his people. They shall hear, they shall believe,
they shall follow after Christ, they shall continue being preserved
by His grace and spirit. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace,
apart from my works, apart from what I do, He justifies freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And
therefore, God is pleased to send his word out, his gospel
word, attended by his Holy Spirit, to take that word and make it
effectual in the hearts of his people, to deliver us from death
and vain things that cannot save, from having a hope in fleshly,
carnal, dead-letter religion, and have a hope fixed in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who saves his people to the uttermost. Praise God. Praise God. He does that, brethren. And when
that word comes by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit,
there's life brought in the people. There's life brought in you that
hears and receives that word of Christ and believes Christ
unto the saving of your soul. That is it being brought in you,
being made effectual in you by the grace and power of God. And so then, going back to our
text in 1 Corinthians 1, 17, that's the gospel which Paul
preached. That's what he declared. For
Christ sent me not to baptize, not to just stand up new forms.
We're thankful for the ordinances, but not just to have more form
of religion, but to preach the gospel. not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." What's
he talking about? Yeah, through the preaching of
Christ, the Spirit of God is pleased to bring life in the
hearts of his people. He's pleased to bless that word
to his people, to make that word effectual, to keep that word
planted in ground prepared by the Spirit of God, that the seed
not be stolen by the birds of the air, by the devil. that it
not be choked out by the persecution of man, that it not be withered
by persecution or choked out by the weeds, the thorns, and
the thistles of this life that come to consume us with worries
and doubts and fears, but to grow and bring forth fruit, fruit
unto God, true fruit, not born of the flesh, which is cursed,
born of the spirit, whereby we rejoice in God and give thanks
unto him. So this is the one of whom Paul
speaks when he says in verse 18 of the wisdom of God here,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. And that word power is dunamis,
which is where we get our word dynamite from. When you see that
word power, it's talking about dynamite, explosive power that
blows apart and destroys the works of man, and the flesh of
man, and the vain imaginations of man that are set up against
the knowledge of Christ. Man can get excited about religion.
He can get excited about new doctrines. He can get excited
about new things and new forms and new ways of doing things.
But it is the gospel of Christ Jesus alone that blows apart
those vain imaginations that would come between us and the
true and living God. Man will stay in dead-letter
religion until God blows that false refuge apart. He just chucks
a piece of dynamite, as it were, through the preaching of the
gospel into that refuge and kablooey. It just blows apart and becomes
nothing. It shatters. That we might hear
and see the light of Christ. And so does it please God through
the preaching of Christ? The simple preaching of Christ
to save His people? Yes, God is so well pleased with
His Son's atonement that it pleases Him. to teach, to instruct, to
keep, to correct, to guide, to chasten his people through the
preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, there are some that
will mock it, that see the preaching of Christ as insufficient, as
being folly, as being foolishness. that it can't save, that it can't
do what God says it can do, but Paul tells us who they are. He
says those are them that perish. Those are them that don't have
the Spirit of God. Those are them that are nothing but the
flesh. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. That's why men have no confidence
in the preaching of Christ. They require constraints. They
require strappings, and bindings, and whippings, and beatings,
and disciplines, and punishments because they don't believe that
the preaching of Christ constrains us, that the love of Christ constrains
us, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost to finish what
he started. They don't believe it. They don't
believe it. And it's there in our own hearts by nature. If
God doesn't turn us from it as well, We see and hear the whispers
of works religion all the time. It's still there in this flesh.
I need to hear this message. I'm thankful for this message,
and I hope you are too. I need it as well. But unto us
which are saved, it is the power of God. When God, by his grace,
brings me back to see, no, it's Christ. You keep preaching Christ,
because that's how I am pleased to save my people from beginning
to end. Trust him. Trust him. Believe
him. so that the love of Christ constraineth
us." Paul used similar language. Turn over to Romans 1. I want
you to see this. I want to show you two places
here in Romans 1. First in Romans 1, verses 16
and 17. The world will make you ashamed
of trusting Christ alone. And if it can, it'll get after
you and try to make you ashamed of believing Christ is sufficient.
Paul said, Romans 1, 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. Paul was suffering persecution.
Paul was dealing with the Judaizers and the concision and the mutilators
of the flesh And they were going after him. And he said, well,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power,
the dunamis, the dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. That's true righteousness, not
what I'm doing and working for. The true righteousness of God
is revealed in the preaching of Christ from faith to faith. The faithfulness of Christ, revealing
and manifesting faith in his people, as it's written, what? The just shall live by faith.
not by works, not by the law, not by his doing, not by his
stopping, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is able to
lead us, and guide us, and keep us, and teach us, and bless us,
and help us in every need. And a man can only live and walk
by faith when he's been raised from spiritual death. Otherwise,
all he's doing is walking by the flesh. He's still trusting
the flesh, vain things that cannot save. And so that power is what? It's the resurrection power of
God. Look at Romans 1, 4. Romans 1,
verse 4. Well, let's start in 3, just
to get the context. Romans 1, 3. Concerning his son
Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh." Mary was of the seed of David. He
was born of the seed of woman by the overshadowing of the Holy
Ghost. He's not born of Adam's corrupt seed. He is righteous
and holy and perfect and declared to be the Son of God with power. There's that word, with power,
with dynamite, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. It's that resurrection power
that raises us, who are dead in trespasses and sins, unto
newness of life, unto faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the power that Paul desired to know when he said in Philippians
3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection."
The explosive dynamite power of his resurrection being brought
to me, which is pleased to do, through the preaching of the
gospel of Christ. And that's how I'm brought into
fellowship with the sufferings, for actually believing that Christ
is able to save to the uttermost, The natural man hates that. They
oppose grace. They hate grace. They despise
grace. And that's how I'm made conformable
unto his death, by that same newness of life, that same resurrection
power. That's how he turns this heart
and delivers me from vain dead things of this world and of dead
letter religion. He does it by his resurrection
power. So have I been raised from spiritual death Christ tells
us that all his sheep are. And the way he reveals it to
his sheep is he says, my sheep hear my voice. And his voice
is heard in his word, in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And you shall follow him, and
he will not let you go. He will teach you. He will keep
you. He will instruct you. He will
save you and deliver you. And so to Paul's point about
it being foolishness to them that perish, our good shepherd
said, of them ye believe not, because you're not of my sheep.
That's why you don't believe that Christ in his word is able
to save to the uttermost. And if you are his sheep, he'll
deliver you from trusting vain things. He will do it. He will
deliver you. And so the issue isn't the gospel.
The issue is that men don't believe Christ. They don't hear him.
They're not trusting his word. They've not submitted themselves
to the faith of Christ. They've not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God, which is Christ Jesus, as opposed
to what the Pharisees were trusting in their own righteousness, according
to the works of the law. Now, just back in our text, let
me just wrap it up. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 19
through 21, let me read that. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Man is thinking prudently. He's thinking according to wise
things. He's thinking this just makes sense. This is just good,
right? Let's do this thing. Let's add
this fleshly work. Let's put this strap on it and
bind with this thing, and we'll bring in this law, and we'll
use that one. We don't need that one over there,
but let's do this and like that, and we'll adjust things and make
it better, right? But our God says, I'm going to
destroy the wisdom of the wise. I'm going to make foolishness
the prudence of man. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath 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 save them that believe." If you would
know Christ, it's going to be through this word of faith. It's a walk of faith, for the
just shall live by faith. And we're going to learn that.
There's always temptations to buttress things with the flesh,
to bring in laws, to bring in different things, as we think
are going to help. But he's going to strip that
away, that we walk by faith and live by faith. Believe him. He is able to save you to the
uttermost to come to him by faith. And in preaching God's salvation
by grace, that's where the division is made. between them that believe
and them that believe not. It's over the issue of grace.
It really is. And by His grace and power, we
believe unto the saving of our souls that His grace, His faith,
His word is sufficient to save. It's Christ alone. He's able
to save to the uttermost. Amen.