The Lord, I really believe, blessed
both messages, the message at the wedding and the message at
Lincoln Wood Baptist Church where I preached on Sunday. I think
the Lord blessed both messages. It was really very interesting
at the wedding. Note how many people understand
weddings like we do. They don't. They suppose that
somebody's going to stand up and tell them how wonderful the
couple is, and how great they're going to be happy, and everything's
going to be wonderful. And then they say their vows,
and they think that's how a wedding goes. But you know me, that I
don't go to hitch people. That's not my job. I want to
preach the gospel, and a marriage is a very good opportunity to
preach the gospel. Because marriage is a picture.
of the union between Christ and his church. That's the whole
reason for marriage. God instituted marriage for that
one reason, and so to preach that is a very good thing. It's a rare opportunity to preach
at a wedding, and I've had people come up after the service, and
one young man said, I have never heard that before. Not that he hadn't been around
religion, But he had never heard the gospel before. That is astounding. In a very religious country like
this, isn't it? That the gospel is not heard. My message was very simple. All
is ready. Isn't that what he said about the marriage feast?
All is ready. I never heard that. And I believe
the Lord blessed it. And I preached at Lincolnwood.
And I believe the Lord blessed that. And they send their love
to you and appreciation for allowing me to go and preach
there. And again, I'm often encouraged
by how many people actually listen online. There's just so many
people. Every time I look to see if the
message is up, sometimes you'll see how many views or whatever. And I think that is way off,
man, because there's so many people. that have this last week. I just don't know. I've never
met them before. So it's very interesting. I do ask your prayers for me
tonight. I'm out of sorts. When I travel, I never seem to
be able to get back in a rhythm. And boy, when I get out of sorts,
I'm very uncomfortable. trying to get back in, and I
came in this morning and thought I had a message, and I didn't.
So I've been here all day. I've been here struggling for
the message today, and I think the Lord gave me a message, but
pray for me. Ask God's mercy for me for you,
that the message would come through clearly, and God give me a mind
and a heart for it. I'm so thankful to Glenn for
filling in for me. I know how difficult this is.
This is not an easy task, and I ask you to do it. I'm very
thankful that the Lord gave you the grace and the ability to
do it. I'm so thankful that I can lean on him when I have to. I continue to pray for those that
are sick. Anybody that's out that I don't know about their
sickness, Sherry. OK. We'll pray for her. Pray for Rick and Angela. She was here Sunday, so that
was good. Very good. Pray for her. She continues to struggle. Pray for God's churches. Pray
for God's churches. A lot of difficulties and trials
and tribulations, and I know we have ours, but so thankful
for the unity that we have. And I saw that at Lincolnwood
when I went and preached there. I saw the unity. And that was
a blessing to see as well, that they have such a love for the
Gospel. They all have one heart and one
mind. And that is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. That's the purpose. You preach
the Gospel to them and they are just like you. They love this
Gospel. And it's good to see, and I think
there was well over a hundred or more people there, and they
send their love and appreciation. So pray for them, but pray for
those churches who don't have pastors still. Ask the Lord to
be gracious to give them pastors, and open their heart to receive
the pastor that God sends. Let's go to him in prayer again.
Our gracious Father, we thank you again for this time that
you've given. You brought us here. You've given us the ability
to be here. I pray that you'd give us strength
while we are here, that you would lift us up and hold us up. Father,
I confess I need you. I need you. I need your strength,
your wisdom, the power of your Spirit. I need you to uphold
me. And I pray that you'd put into
my mind and my heart the words that your people need to hear
so that they might be encouraged and strengthened in the faith,
that Christ might be honored through the preaching of the
gospel tonight. Pray for those that are sick. I beg you, Lord,
for healing. We are weak and feeble creatures. Remember our frame. I pray, Father,
that you would lift up those that are weak, those who are
suffering, those who are sick, those who are troubled in their
minds and hearts, those who are going through great pains and
difficulties. Lord, please be merciful, be
gracious to us, and give us what we need. Father, I pray you forgive
us our sins, and we plead these things in the name of our Savior
and for his sake. Amen. Alright, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Romans chapter 10, and then I want you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to another place. We're going
to start here in Romans 10, but then I want to move to a different
passage to shore up this same principle
that is taking place here in Romans 10 that Paul says here,
go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and hold your place here. We're going
to read Romans 10 and then we're going to go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. The title of this message, The Necessity of Preaching.
The necessity of preaching. Paul says in Romans 10, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now that's
a wonderful message in itself, isn't it? I like that word, whosoever. I think it's a great word. It's
the word the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to put in there. Whosoever! I'm glad it didn't put a specific
name. But I know this, God does have an elect people. God is
going to save those elect people. I don't know who they are. It's this, whosoever. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then
Paul begins to ask a series of rhetorical
questions. These are questions not really
intended to be answered. They're very simply answered. And he says this, How shall he
call upon him in whom he hath not believed? Isn't that right?
You're not going to believe on somebody you've never... You're
not going to call on somebody you don't believe. Sinner's a
sinner. He needs mercy. He needs forgiveness. He needs grace. He is never going
to call on the Lord Jesus Christ for those things unless he first
does what? Believes on Him. Faith is necessary. He is linking these two things.
Calling on the name of the Lord and faith. You're not going to
call unless you what? Believe. It's impossible. And so then he says, how shall
they believe on Him in whom they have not heard? How can you believe
on somebody you've never heard of? Is that possible? You can't
do it. So he's telling you this, that
in order to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you must first
what? Hear of Him. You can't believe on somebody
you don't know. Then he says, how shall they
hear without a preacher? He says, now then he's getting
down to the means of hearing. The preacher. This is the means
of hearing. You must have a preacher. Now
who is a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? Preacher is a man sent. Sent to do what? Preach Christ. So that what? You might hear
of Him and then what? Believe on Him and then what? Call on Him. And he says, As it is written,
How beautiful the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. That's what we do. We
bring glad tidings of good things. Now is everybody going to believe?
No. Look what he says in verse 16, but they have not all obeyed.
Isn't that right? I preach this gospel to anybody,
everybody. But I know this, not everybody
is going to believe. Why? Because Isaiah said that.
Isaiah said, Who hath believed our report? So then, conclusion.
So then, faith cometh by what? Hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God. In other words, what Paul is
shoring up here is the necessity of preaching. You can't believe
on somebody you ain't heard. You can't hear somebody unless
somebody preaches to you. You can't preach unless you're
sent. And the conclusion is, preaching
is necessary. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Go to chapter 1 in Corinthians,
and I believe this lays out a very good blueprint as to what preaching
is. It lays out a very specific,
the very specific necessity of preaching. Now in this church
of Corinth, there was a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties. In this church they were disputing
among themselves about their favorite preacher. In verse 11
it says, For it hath been declared unto me, my brethren, them of
the house of Chloe, that there have been contentions among you.
Now I say, now this I say, that every one of you that saith,
I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Peter, And I am of Christ
in other words these people were disputing as to who was their
favorite preacher Is it man I like Paul he is a
theologian man. I love Paul. He's my favorite
Well, I like a policy speaks to my heart He has these flowery
words, and he he's really good at speaking to our feelings and
emotions He's really good at that I like Peter. He's a man's man. He preaches
to the common man. I like Peter. And you got somebody
over here who says, I'm of Christ. In other words, he says, I don't
listen to any man. He says, I don't need any preacher. And so Paul begins to, and I
want you to know, this is not, this is still going on. This
is still going on today. We have people who love certain
preachers, and if that preacher isn't preaching, they don't care
to hear it. Why? Because they're so focused on
the man. Paul's going to get to this later,
and we're not going to get to it tonight, but I think I may
preach on it. Paul says this about himself.
You know what? I'm nothing. Who's Paul? Who's Apollos? But ministers, servants, we're
nothing. What's vital is not the man,
but the message. It's not how the man delivers
the message, but the message. We've got so many people that
are so focused on the presentation of the message rather than the
message. And Paul's going to rebuke them
about this, and listen, if any church is dealing with that,
they should be ashamed, as the Corinth church should have been.
It's not about the man, it's about the message. And Paul begins
to rebuke them, and he says, look, is the church divided?
The church is not divided. We're one body. And no matter
where we are or where we worship, the church is not divided. Paul
asked Him, am I crucified for you? Were you baptized in my
name? No. Why? Christ is Lord of the church,
isn't He? Isn't He Lord of this church? Isn't He the ruler of
this church? Isn't He your Savior? And so
what are we? We're nothing. We're nothing. Therefore he is our Lord, and
he has determined to do what he will with us. Now we all have
in our flesh a tendency to this sin of elevating some men above
others. I know this. Glenn's not been
called to preach the gospel. I leaned on him because I know
you need to be fed, and I know he's capable of doing it. I'll
tell you what I know his message the same as mine So we don't have to you don't
to worry about who's standing up here. You just have to worry
about what is being said And so you should be faithful not
to the man, but what to the message? The message is altogether important
not the man Not the man man is nothing We all know that men that preach
the gospel, and we have men that are skilled in speaking. I have
some pastors that are, I know pastors who are very skilled.
And God's given them great gifts. And then there are some men that
are simple like myself. That's okay. But what have we come here for?
That's important. Why are you here? Please don't
say it's to hear me. That should never be. That should
never be. Now, I remember when I came here,
when I was going through this message, I remember when I came
here. There were, I think that, you know, I guess y'all voted. I don't know, I wasn't there.
But there was obviously some kind of vote somewhere. Somebody
said, I got everybody. But when I got here, there were
several people that took off. Well, they obviously didn't want
to stay when I became pastor. I know of some men that would
not come here because they themselves thought They were more educated
than I was. And that was probably true. No
doubt about that. I imagine there were some men
that were more educated. Some men wanted to be pastor
of this church, and they got mad and left. That's all right. But what was the problem with
that? The problem was that they didn't care about the message.
It's not the man, it's the message. It's the message. And so what do we come here for,
if not the man? We came here to hear the message.
The message is what? What is the message? It's the
same message, isn't it? Every time I preach, it is the
same message. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the message that God's
men are sent to preach. The message. And this is the
message you should desire to hear every time. You should desire
to hear it every time. Now I've got six questions, six
questions I want to go through this evening concerning this
matter of preaching. Now I want to give you the questions
and the answers before I even get to them. So that way you
have them and you can look at them as you go. First question
is this, who sends preachers? Here's the answer, Christ. If
any man is sent, he must be sent of Christ. Secondly, what are
preachers sent to do? Listen to this, to declare the
gospel. To declare the gospel. That's what we're sent to do.
Now how is this gospel to be preached? Well, it is not to
be preached with the wisdom of the world. That's the answer. How is it to be preached? Not
with the wisdom of the world. That's not how it's to be preached. And fourthly, what is the result
of all who preach by man's wisdom? Listen to this. Anybody who does
not preach the gospel according to the word of God, listen, it's
of none effect. That's the answer. Fifthly, why
do we preach the gospel? Why preach? What's the point
of this? Listen to this. Here's the answer.
It's the only means by which sinners are saved. Pretty narrow, isn't it? I'm
going to show you that all these things are I'm going to give
you the proof for everybody's answer and sixly Why is the gospel
so loved by believers? Why is this gospel that is preached
so loved because of this because Christ is all our salvation.
That's why it's loved it's loved because this gospel we preach
is Christ and He is all our salvation the first who sends preachers
go back to your text look at this in chapter of 1st Corinthians
1 verse 17. Who sends preachers? What did
Paul say? For Christ sent me. Not to baptize, but what? To preach the gospel. On our day, a lot of people who
want to preach They go off to a college or university or a
seminary and they take these classes. They take many classes,
Greek, Hebrew, some Bible classes. Most of them
are how to grow churches nowadays. But they go off and then they
get a piece of paper after four years, a little piece of paper,
they put it on their wall, and then they say what? I'm a preacher.
They say, that's how preachers are made. They're made through
some kind of seminary. And they become a pastor, a missionary. That's how men think. What does
God say about it? How does God send preachers? How are preachers called according
to the scriptures? How is it that a man is trained
to be a pastor? Well, according to scripture,
They're trained by other pastors. They're called of God, but they're
trained by other pastors. Think of Timothy and Titus. They were trained by who? The
Apostle Paul. They grew up hearing the gospel
through a faithful pastor, and that's how they learned.
The Apostle truly was a man gifted of God, the Holy Spirit, to have
a heart to be a pastor, and he tells us how he was sent. He
said, for Christ sent me, not to baptize, but what? To preach
the gospel. See, it is Christ that sends
men to preach. It's not a matter of talent or
ability or education, but rather that God calls a man into the
ministry. It doesn't matter, education
or no education. Matter of fact, you know that
the Apostles, other than the Apostle Paul, had no formal schooling
whatsoever. And the Apostle Paul, what did
he say about his schooling? He said, I counted but done.
I know the former pastor of this church, Brother Moose, when he,
I'm probably one of the most intelligent men I know. I think
he got his Ph.D. in record time. You know what
he told me about his Ph.D.? He said it took me so many years
to get that thing and twice as long to lose it. No, it doesn't matter about that.
God calls him. That's how a preacher is made. God calls him. God trains him
up. And what is a preacher? Listen
to this. Paul says this in Romans chapter
1. He describes what a man called of God is. He is a servant of
Jesus Christ. Any man called of God must be
this. He must be a slave of Jesus Christ. That's what we are. I'm a servant
of Jesus Christ. I serve you by preaching the
gospel, but truly, I have one master. I have one master, the
Lord Jesus Christ. and all those who are called
to preach. We are not called to be lords or kings. We're not
called to be doctors or reverends or popes. We are called to be
servants. If any man is not willing to
serve Christ, he should not preach. He should not preach. Preachers
are called servants of the Most High. And what do we do? We spend our life for the preaching
of the gospel. That is our purpose in this world,
to preach the gospel. When I started to desire to preach, there was a church near me. It
was right down the road, I mean, not very far from where I lived,
and they needed a pastor. And I thought, oh boy, it's going
to be great. I'll just go here, and they'll
call me to be their pastor. I knew them. I was raised around
them. I knew their pastor when he retired. And I thought, well, I'd be a
shoe-in. I'd get to keep my nice, cushy
job that I had. I was a PE teacher. I had a nice
job. I thought, well, I'll just keep
that and preach there and pastor there. They didn't want me. They didn't
want me. They didn't call me. Now what
if I just folded my arms and said, you know what, since they
didn't call me there, I just ain't going to go nowhere. You
know, if that were the case, I should have never pastored.
A pastor is a servant and he must be willing to give up everything
to preach the gospel. I tell you, God gave me the heart.
to give up everything to preach the gospel. And I did. I gave up my home, my family,
my career, everything. And it was, you know what? It
was hard for my wife. She was not called to anything.
She had to give up a lot. But when I gave up everything,
it was nothing. Why? Because my master said to.
If a man's not willing to move to preach somewhere, he shouldn't
preach. You got that? He shouldn't preach.
Because a preacher is a servant. Not of men, but of Christ. We
are slaves. If any long to be a pastor, they
should be willing to give up everything to preach. So who
preaches? Who is being called to preach?
Anyone Christ sends. And when Christ sends one, He
makes him first of all a servant. A servant. Of who? Of Jesus Christ. Secondly, what does a pastor
do? Look at that, what Paul said, for Christ sent me not to baptize,
but what? To preach the gospel. Now Paul
is not de-emphasizing baptism. Baptism is necessary. It's good. We have people that
swing both ways on this. You have one group of people
that says baptism is so necessary that you have to be baptized
to be saved. They're wrong. Then you got another group who
swing all the way the other way and say, well, baptism is not
necessary at all. Well, that's wrong. That's wrong. Paul's not saying baptism is
not necessary because the scripture says it is. It says, go you into
all the world and preach the gospel, listen, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is what? A picture of our salvation. It
does not save you. You can be baptized and not be
saved. But if you are saved, you should
be baptized. Because it is a public confession
of a spiritual thing that's happened to you. You are confessing it.
So baptism, Paul's not de-emphasizing baptism, he's just saying this,
that's not the main reason I'm here. That's not my purpose. The main purpose of preachers
is this, to preach the gospel. the gospel. Look at what he says
in chapter 2 and verse 2. He said, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. When Paul was there in Corinth
for over a year and a half, he said this, I determined not to
know anything among you except this. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because that's what He's
sent to do. He's sent to preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Now if you will notice, and if
you haven't, you should. What is the center of our service?
I'll tell you, I love the songs. The songs have meaning. The songs
are very important. They themselves do preach a gospel
message. But what is the center of this
worship service? It is always what? Preaching. Why? It is the chosen means that God
has ordained. To be the center of worship.
Preach the gospel. It is our main purpose. And what
is the gospel that we are to preach? This is a wonderful thing.
The gospel is simple. Salvation is of the Lord. Not
salvation is a combination of your work and God's. That's not
the message. That's not the gospel. Salvation
is a message. Salvation is of the Lord. 100% of God. It's all of God. So when
I preach the gospel to you, I preach that salvation is of the triune
God. That each person of the Holy
Trinity has a work in this matter of our salvation. First of all,
what is the work of the Father? The work of the Father is election,
isn't it? That God the Father before the
world began chose a people for himself that he would save. Paul said, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. One, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according as He, the
Father, hath chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. That purpose, what was the purpose of our Father? That
we should be holy and without blame before Him. What was the
motivation of the Father? In love. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, listen to the means, by Jesus
Christ, that's what the Father had purposed, that our salvation
would be by Jesus Christ unto Himself. Now that's what God's
purpose is, to bring you to Himself. According to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He, the Father, hath made us accepted in Christ the Beloved. That's what we preach. We preach
that salvation is by the election of the Father. This is our purpose. We preach that salvation is accomplished
by the Son. This is the work of the Son.
In that covenant of grace between Him and the Father, Jesus Christ
agreed to be surety for the elect. What do I mean by surety? That
all the responsibility of our salvation rested on Him. Isaiah said, unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given. And listen to this, the government
shall be on his shoulders. What does that mean? A government
on his shoulders? That means that the responsibility
of the salvation of his kingdom was on his shoulders. And so when he came into the
world, that's exactly what he was doing. He was saving his
people from their sins. He was making a righteousness
that they themselves could not make. He was obtaining righteousness
by His own obedience. And then by His death, what did
He do? He satisfied the justice of God
against our sins. This is the message we preach.
We preach Christ. Because Christ, He is one that
actually accomplished salvation. We preach the message of the
Holy Spirit. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. Now listen, I preach Christ to you. But how does it
become effectual to a person? How does it become powerful to
a person? I remember decades of sitting
in churches and it was not effectual. The only thing I can think of
is when we're getting out. That's it. When we're getting
out. It wasn't effectual to me for many years. I didn't have
any interest in it. How is it that one day I really
became interested? How is it one day I knew I was
a sinner and needed a Savior? How is that? This is the work
of the Holy Spirit, to take the message that is preached and
then apply it to the heart of the sinner. It's exactly like our Lord said
it would be. He said, as the wind bloweth
where it listeth. You can hear the sound, but you
can't tell where it's coming. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. Now listen, I don't know where
this message goes. I have no clue. I think it might
be going this way and it might be going this way. Usually that's
the way it is. I don't know where it's going.
But I know this, wherever the Holy Spirit takes it, that's
where it's going. And He makes it effectual to
the sinner. He gives life. He gives faith. Now, you that believe, how are
you so confident that you're going to make it to death? Well, because that's the work
of the Spirit too. Keeping me in the faith. See, this is the good news. The
salvation's of the Lord. He chose me. He redeemed me. He called me. And guess what?
He keeps me. This is the gospel we preach.
This is the message God sends us to preach. And so then, not
knowing who the elect are, guess what? I preach to everyone. I preach to everyone. And I desire everyone to believe.
I want everyone to believe. It's my desire every time I preach
that everyone would believe. And I'll tell you what, these
are gracious terms. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Isn't that a gracious term? Isn't
that wonderful? Surrender your thoughts of salvation
and believe on Him and be saved. Those are wonderful terms because
our thoughts of salvation are horrible. Natural thoughts of
salvation have to do with merit. We preach Christ and we preach
salvation for sinners. I'll tell you this, we preach
only Christ. Now, why in the world do we only
preach Christ? Because this book is only about
Christ. Now, I don't care where you go.
I was looking at a passage in Psalm 34 today, and I wanted
to preach Christ from that passage. I looked at a passage in 1 Samuel. You know what I wanted to preach?
I wanted to preach Christ from that passage. I can go anywhere
in this book and I have one message, Christ. That's what preachers
preach. We preach Christ and Him crucified. That's what we preach. So who's
a preacher? He's one son of God. What does
he preach? He preaches Christ. That's what
he preaches. Thirdly, how is this gospel to
be preached. How is this gospel to be preached?
Now listen, there are many who even may agree with this message.
I've ran into people, and I'll preach this message to them,
and they'll nod their head in agreement, and yet they attend
some place that doesn't preach this message. I'm confused. They
say, well, you know, we don't do it that way where I go to
church, you know. We do it a different way. different way. Yeah, we have,
you know, committees and programs and, you know, we preach the
gospel, but we don't do it like you do. We have entertainment.
We have a lot of entertainment. We preach the gospel through
plays and musicals and all kinds of games and fun. We make it
fun. We have opinion groups where
we go around and we start talking. What do you think about this?
And somebody tells you. And somebody over here said,
what do you think about this? And he says the exact opposite
of what that other guy says. And they all just get along. But this, my friend, is nothing
more than worldly wisdom. Look what Paul says. For Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom
of words." Not with wisdom of words. In other words, I don't care
what men think. That's what Paul's saying. I'm
not here to mix the wisdom of this world with the preaching
of the gospel. I tell you this, I don't want
the world in the church. I tell you what, I would love
to have sinners come, and I'd love to preach to sinners. But
I don't want the world's thoughts and opinions to come in and try
to take over what we do. That ain't gonna happen. I want
to do that. It was conveyed to me through
a family member. Someone had said about my preaching,
he said, what you're doing is outdated. What you're doing is,
it's old-fashioned, it has some kind of nostalgic value, but
really, it's outdated, and we have better means of educating
people. Well, if I was trying to educate
you and salvation came by education, then sure, I'd do something different.
Salvation is not by education. It's not by education. I was
talking to someone about, I think the man that she was talking
about is a gospel preacher, but he's a very educated fellow.
And he likes to dig into the history of a situation. Like when he talks about the
Church of Corinth, he'll go into great detail. about the church
of Corinth's history and the ancient times in which they lived
and how this person would think and feel during that ancient
time. And so this person was very excited. He'd love to listen
to that educated thing. And he would tell me about all
of the wonderful things about the church of Corinth. And then
I'd say, well, what about Christ? He'd say, well, I don't know. If you want to educate people,
yeah, that's the way to go. But I'm not here to educate you.
Salvation is not by education. It's through the preaching of
the Gospel. If salvation weren't by knowledge,
then I would agree, but it's not. You know, if I was trying to
sell a product, maybe that would work. You know, get you in here,
entertain you, keep you energetic, excited. If I was selling a product,
that would work. I'm not trying to sell you anything.
I'm not trying to sell you anything. Listen, lost men have no idea
what I'm doing here. They with their words of wisdom
say this, what you're doing is foolish. Look at the effects. Look, it's foolish. If it wasn't
foolish, then you'd have a bunch of people here. Look what Paul
says about this. Look at verse 18. This is what
the world says about preaching. It says, For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish, what? Foolishness. What I'm doing
to the world is foolishness. To them, what we're doing is
a waste of time. But I'll tell you this, if that's
what you believe, now you listen to me very carefully, if you
think that this, what I'm doing is foolish, Paul says this, you're
perishing. If you want to argue with him,
go ahead. But he said, if you think what we're doing is foolish,
It's because you're perishing. See, as a preacher, sin of God,
I have one thing to do. Declare the gospel. Now, what
is it to declare the gospel? Now, I've stated the gospel to
you. I've stated it's God's sovereignty, the election of the Father, the
accomplishment of the Son, the work of the Holy Spirit. But
the act of preaching, what is it? You notice I don't go around
asking your opinions. Isn't that right? When have I
ever asked your opinion about something? I don't. There's a
reason. Preaching is this, it is a declaration
of something. I am declaring to you what is
true, what is right, not according to my opinion, but what God says. That's preaching. This is what we're sent to do.
One preacher said it like this, to preach is simply to declare
the gospel. I'm not trying to get anyone
to think that I have any intellect. That's not what I'm trying to
do. I don't want to get you to understand systematic theology. I'm not here to do that. My approach to preaching is very
simple. If I can preach to a 12-year-old,
I can get the most educated, right? I want to be as simple
as I possibly can, so that you don't misunderstand anything
that I'm saying. That's what it is to preach.
We declare the gospel as simply as we possibly can. Secondly,
to preach the gospel is this, it is to declare the Word of
God. I'm not here to make up anything.
Somebody told me at Lincoln when they said, wow, that was a good
message. It's kind of hard to take that. When people offer a compliment
to you, it's really hard to take because it's like cheating on
an exam. It's like having the answers
and just reading the answers to you. That's all it is. I'm just declaring to you what
God said. I can't make it effectual, I
can't make it powerful, I can't make you love it, I can't make
you believe it. But that's my purpose here, to
declare the Word of God. And again, what's the message
of this book? From cover to cover, what's the message? It is Jesus
Christ. He is God's message. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by what? The Word of God. So we declare the Gospel,
and the source of our Gospel is what? The Word of God. The
theme of our Gospel is what? Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Thirdly, to declare the Gospel
is this, it's to preach to everyone. Have you noticed I haven't divided
you into groups? This is modern. This is man's
thinking. We need to get the divorced people
over here. We need to get the married people over here. We
need the young people over here. We need the old people over here.
And we'll preach to these different groups. I want to preach to one group.
Sinners. Did I not incorporate the whole
of every one of those groups? There's sinners in divorce group,
there's sinners in married group, there's sinners in the young
group, there's sinners in the old group. The gospel is preached
to everyone, to sinners. And we call sinners to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't make divisions. So to
preach the gospel is to preach to everyone. I know God's got
an elect people. I know that. And man, I am sure
that only the elect are going to believe. I am positive of
that. I just don't know who they are. And God's not giving me
that information. So therefore, what am I going
to do? I'm going to preach to everyone knowing this. God will
save his people from their sins. So that's what it is to preach
the gospel. And fourthly, preach the gospel is to declare this. It's my gospel. Paul says this three times. I
believe in Romans 2, Romans 16, and 2 Timothy 2. He calls it
my gospel. Now why does he say that? Because
he himself personally believed it. No preacher should preach
a gospel he doesn't believe. Have you ever heard this? Somebody
would come up and I'd talk to him about the sovereignty of
God and God's electing grace and he says, man, I believe that.
And yet, he doesn't preach it. That's a travesty. No, I'm only going to preach
what I believe. I'm only going to tell you what
I know. I don't want to tell you what I don't know. I want
to tell you about Christ that I do know. Personal to us. Fifthly, those
who desire to preach the gospel, we desire everyone to hear and
believe it. That's our aim every single time
we preach. So we declare it. That's what
it is. What do we declare? We declare the Word of God. Jesus
Christ, Him crucified. Who do we declare it to? Everybody.
Everybody. We declare it's my gospel. And
we desire everyone to hear it. Now what are the results if I
don't preach the gospel as Paul said? If men preach the gospel,
Paul says, I am sent of Christ to preach the gospel. Listen,
not with wisdom of words. Not with man's wisdom. What happens
to those who preach the gospel using man's wisdom? Look what
Paul says. He said, not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect. What is the result of those preaching
the gospel by entertainment? It is of none effect. What are those people preaching
who preach their feelings, their emotions, their visions, their
dreams, but neglect to preach the word
of God. What is the effect of that? Paul says, it has none
effect. So it doesn't matter how many
people they have. It doesn't matter how big their
buildings are. It doesn't matter how wealthy they are. It doesn't
matter how many missionaries they send out. If they do not
preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the sum and substance of their
message, listen to me, they are of no effect on the kingdom of
God. Go to Jeremiah 23. Tell me if
this is not true. Jeremiah chapter 23. Listen to what God says about
men who do not preach Christ. Jeremiah 23, verse 32. This is one of those texts I was wanting
to preach from, and the Lord didn't give it to me. But I use
it as a verse to show you. Jeremiah 23, verse 32. What does God say about those
that do not preach Christ? He says, Behold, I am against
them that prophesy dreams saith the Lord, and do tell them, and
cause people to err by their lies and by their lightness.
Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. What's the result? Therefore they shall not profit
this people, listen, at all. Man, look at that building. Man,
look, they got 100,000 members. They send missionaries all over
the world. If they preach not the gospel,
they are of no use. None. God says they will not profit
this people at all. So it doesn't matter if they
all get together. and they condemn what I preach. It doesn't matter.
I don't care if the whole world gets together. Matter of fact,
they do. They will. I don't know if you've noticed
this, but it's hard to get churches to agree on anything. You probably
couldn't get a Pentecostal to agree with a Catholic, or a Catholic
to agree with a Baptist, except on this. They don't like what
I preach. They'll all agree on that. Why? They believe salvation is
by works. They believe salvation is by
the sovereign will of man. They all agree on that. And you
know what they profit? Nothing. Nothing. They're useless. So why do we preach the gospel? Well, we're sent of God. We are sent to do one thing,
preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, but why? Listen very carefully to what
Paul says and go back to your text. Look at verse 21 of what
Paul says. Look at verse 21. For after that,
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Listen. Here's the reason we preach the
gospel of Christ. It pleased God. By the foolishness
of preaching. What men call foolishness. It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Listen to me very carefully.
This is the only means by which God has chosen to save sinners. Not entertainment. Not music. Not study groups. Not opinion
sessions. only means God is pleased to
save sinners by is what the world hates, the preaching of the gospel. What the world calls foolishness,
God sees as wisdom. And I'm going to give you an
illustration of this, and I'll close. I've got much more, but
I think this is sufficient. Ethiopian unit. Remember him? Now, I googled it today. I didn't
know how long it took to get to Ethiopia to Jerusalem. You
know how long it takes? 47 days to walk it. This man
in Ethiopia, highly respected. He was the treasurer of Ethiopia
at the time, which was a wealthy nation. And he traveled all the
way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship at Passover. 47 days
it took him to get from Ethiopia. That's determination. How long
did it take y'all to get here? Not much time. He went 47 days. He knew there was something about
the God of the Israelites. He knew there was something there.
But he went there and what did he get? Nothing. All that ceremony,
all that ritualism, and he comes back and he's reading the book
of Isaiah, and he still don't have a clue. How did he learn
the gospel? God sent a man named Philip to
meet him. He said, go up to the chariot.
Go up to him. Went up to that coach, and he
saw that he was reading out of the book of Isaiah, and he said,
do you understand what you read? Listen to what he said. How can
I unless some man tell me? Isn't that exactly what Paul's
been saying in Romans? How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Listen friends, there is no other
means And we preach Christ. Now listen,
you can't believe on a Christ unless you've heard of Him. Now how do you know I'm preaching
THE Christ? That's a good question, isn't
it? We're to preach Christ. There's a bunch of people preaching
Christ. But how do you know I'm preaching the right one? You can check. I remember somebody told me this
one time. He said, if somebody told you
they know Jesus, the best thing to do is say this, describe Him
to me. Isn't that what I'm doing? When I describe Christ to you,
successful Savior, victorious Savior, omnipotent God manifest
in the flesh, I'm describing Him to you. And you that believe,
you know Him. And you say, yeah, that's Him.
Now let some man come up and describe to you a weak effeminate
Savior, somebody who's trying to save you but can't save you,
wants to save you, but you won't let him. And you go, who the
heck is that guy? You don't know who that guy is. We're here to describe Christ.
To preach Christ. Declare Christ. And then, this
is what God uses. Do you have anybody in your family
that's not saved? You know the best thing you can
do for them? Is by God's grace, if they would hear the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Listen. Why? This is the means by which
God saves sinners. He calls a man to preach. What
is it to preach? Declare the gospel. That's what
we do. I just declare it. I just tell you what God says.
And then what? The Spirit of God will take that
message and He will apply it. I don't use man's wisdom to do
it. If I do, it's of none effect. But I know this. This is the
means God chose. This is the necessity. Preaching
is necessary. It's necessary. I'm thankful that God has sent
a preacher to me. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel peace. Isn't it wonderful? It is. When I hear the gospel,
man, I think, man, how beautiful are the feet of them. And what
I mean by that is that God brought their feet to me. He brought
that message to me. I'm thankful for it. I pray God
would bless this and give you an understanding as to the necessity
of preaching and what it is. And I pray he'll bless it that
every time I preach, and that's what I ask for in your prayers,
that God would give me a message concerning his son for you every
time. Because that's the means God
uses, no other means. No other means. Let's stand and
be dismissed in prayer. Our Father, be merciful and dismiss
us with your own blessing and grace. I plead with you to be
gracious. Take the message and apply it
to the hearts of your people. I pray that you would instill
in us the necessity of hearing the gospel, to give us comfort,
peace, and joy. I pray for those who do not know
Christ, that you'd be gracious to them Through the messages,
reveal Christ to them according to your sovereign will. I pray
this in Jesus' name. Amen.