Good morning, everyone. Open your Bibles, if you would,
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter
1. As we learned in Sunday school this
morning, God's preachers are messengers that are sent by God,
and we proclaim Christ. We proclaim Christ. We proclaim
Christ and Him crucified. We call on men and women to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Knowing
that God is the one who makes us willing to come to Him, but
we still cry out that message. Believe on Him. Believe on Christ. He's the only Savior. He's the
only way. Now Corinth was a Very important
city in Greek culture. And during Paul's day, it was
a very busy area for commerce and culture and philosophy. It was a hotbed for Greek philosophy. It was also a hotbed, unfortunately,
for pagan religion. Pagan religion. And the church
was founded there. Paul addressed this church twice
in the scriptures. He probably did more, but two
have been kept in the scriptures for us. And 1 Corinthians here
reveals the problems and sometimes the pressures and struggles of
a church called out of a pagan society. And Paul addresses a
variety of problems in the lifestyle of the Corinthian church. There
was factions within the church. There was some preacher worship
going on from different preachers and stuff. And then there were
lawsuits being brought, immorality and questionable practices, abuses
of the Lord's Supper. And spiritual gifts, they were
real hung up and messed up on different things with spiritual
gifts. And so Paul addresses these things. This first chapter,
I've mentioned this before, and if you read the chapter on your
own, be very aware of how much, right off the bat, and I remember
when I first came here a long time ago, I preached a message
on this, that Paul, almost like taking a musical tuning fork,
just hits Christ all through this first chapter. All through
this first chapter, to get their minds focused upon Christ. in Christ alone, to get their
minds centered around Him. This book is full of very good
teaching, very good teaching. And if you read this book, take
note, too, that Paul doesn't say that they're not Christians
because they're doing these things. He simply tells them and straightens
them to point and look to Christ and Christ alone. Look to the
one who is the giver of the gifts. Don't look to the gifts that
you've received. Because all we've done, any spiritual
gifts that we do have, we've simply received them. God's given
them to us. And every single person in the
church has received gifts, and every single person in the church
is important to the local body. And Brother Matt bought something
out in Sunday school, too, and we are gonna beeline it right
to Christ, too. I like that when Matt bought that out. You know,
we are to make a beeline to Christ as gospel preachers. Spurgeon
used to say, get to Christ as fast as you can in your message.
Because it's really all about him. That's why we meet here.
That's why we gather together, is to learn about Christ. Turn, again, look at verses,
we're gonna read verses 18 here to 30 to start off, or to 31,
actually, we're gonna read from verses 18 to 31. I was thinking
of reading the whole chapter, but for the context of what we're
gonna look at, I'd like us just to read 18 to 31. And there's
a reason I had Matt read a little bit of the second chapter, too,
because that's gonna tie right in with the message as well.
Look at verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. So to the unsaved, the preaching
of Christ is foolishness. And if you want proof of this,
you who are God's blood-blood people, just remember what preaching
was to us before the Lord saved us. Because to me, it was foolishness. I admit that. But now, my gosh. I can see what Paul's writing
here. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it's the power of
God. Oh my. We have a whole new perspective
on the preaching of the gospel of Christ, we who are his blood-bought
people. We have a whole new outlook on
the gospel and on who Christ is, on who God is, and who his
people are. Look at this, for it is written I will destroy.
Now remember, he's writing to the Corinthians there. It's a
hotbed for Greek philosophy. It's in pagan worship. Look at this, for it is written
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing,
to nothing, the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? So again, now think of this.
Where are all these philosophers that wrote all these books that
people just Loved and adored and followed and where are they?
They're in hell. If the Lord didn't save them,
they're in hell. They've all perished. But the
word of God's still here, isn't it? It's still here. It's still
here. Where's the wisdom of the wise?
It's perished. We have a few books here and
there and we look at these books and we read them and you can
tell right away it's man's wisdom. It's man's wisdom. So where is
the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Where are all those people who shook
their fist at God for years and years? They're all gone, aren't
they? They've all perished in their sins. They're gone. 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. And by worldly wisdom,
no man can come to know God because it's the wisdom of man. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. For a man to stand up and proclaim
who God is and who Christ is, but that man must know who Christ
is in order to be able to proclaim him. That's the problem nowadays. Got a lot of people up in pulpits
that aren't proclaiming Christ because they don't know him.
They don't know him. They please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Here's our text. But in these four words here,
we preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block.
And under the Greeks, foolishness. But unto them which are called,
that's God's blood-bought people, born-again people, both Jews
and Greeks, one in Christ, one body, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God. Oh, we rejoice in our great God,
because the foolishness of God is wiser than man. His thoughts
are so far above ours, so far above ours, beloved. The foolishness of God is wiser
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than man. For
you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath called the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. I've mentioned this many times. I like what Brother Henry
says. It's common people, common people,
common people, that's me. Common people. Foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
We don't trust in ourselves, do we? We trust in the mighty
one. We see our weakness, we admit
our weakness, and we trust and rest in the one who is our strength,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the base things of the world
and the things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught the things that are. Why? That no flesh should glory in
his presence. In heaven, there's no one gonna be glorying in themselves. No one. In heaven, everyone glories
in the Lord. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is
the Lamb. He's the one who's worthy. No
flesh will ever glory in the presence of God. No flesh will
ever say when they get, look, God, look what I did for you.
No, actually, the ones who said, look what I did for you, God,
are the ones who hear, depart from me, ye cursed, ye workers
of iniquity, for I never knew you. God's born again, blah, blah,
people. We know what we are, sinners, by birth, nature, and
choice. We know and have been showing our need for Christ.
We've been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We desperately
need Christ. I need Christ more now than I've
ever needed him before. Is it so with you? Oh my. Look at this. But of him are
ye in Christ, there's a key phrase right there, in Christ, who of
God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And that's who we glory in, isn't
it? That's who God's people glory in. We glory in Christ, in Christ
alone. There was a time when we gloried
in ourselves and our own accomplishments and the things that we did, but
not anymore. Not anymore. We glory in Christ.
We're still prideful people, aren't we? We can't say we're
not, because we're sinners still. Pride still puts its ugly head
up in all of our lives. Brother Drew and I were talking
about that this week. It still happens. We're still
in this flesh, aren't we? but we glory in Christ. We glory
in what he's done for us. We glory in the Lord. So today
our text will be found in verse 23 where it says, we preach Christ
crucified. We preach Christ crucified. We preach the one who is the
power of God. We preach the one who is the
wisdom of God. We preach the one who is all
our righteousness. We preach the one who is all
our sanctification. And we preach the one who is
all our wisdom and all our redemption. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in short, like Paul wrote, Christ is what? My all in all. Is it so for you? Is Christ everything
to you? Everything. Everything to us,
isn't he? Here at Almonte First Baptist,
our purpose for meeting is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And to us, these words, we preach Christ crucified, it's not just
a slogan. It's not just a slogan to us
here. It's a sum and substance of all that we do. We preach
Christ crucified. Brother Joe Terrell puts something
in his bulletin, and I get his bulletin every week. And I love
it, because every week I'm reminded of this. And it ties right in
with our message today, this message today. He puts this on
the front of his bulletin, preaching Christ, nothing more, nothing
less, and nothing else. Preaching Christ, nothing more,
nothing less, and nothing else. That sums it right up, doesn't
it? That sums it right up, beloved. We're not gonna get up and talk
about Christian living, not gonna get up and talk about all these
things, because God's people know how to live. We're taught
in the scriptures how to live, aren't we? We are, we are. Now, when instruction comes from
the word of God, we heed that, don't we? We heed that. but the
mission of the church is to preach Christ and Him crucified. That's
why we're here, for the gospel to go out, for the gospel to
go forward. And we preach crucified, risen,
and reigning Christ. He was crucified for his people,
he's risen again, and he is reigning right now, beloved. Right now,
right this second, he's reigning in glory. And again, this is
the sum and substance of all that we do here. It's all about
Christ. The Apostle Paul brings forth
this wonderful truth when he proclaimed in the text that Brother
Matt read in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, he says this, for I'm
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. You see, Paul's getting their
focus before he even corrects them on any doctrinal issues.
He's getting their focus right on Christ, right on Christ. And when Paul preached, he preached
Christ. He didn't get off on all these other things. He didn't
tickle people's ears. No, he told them what they were.
You're sinners and you need to be saved. And Christ is the only
Savior. There's no other way. There's
no other way. So just as Paul, we who are believers
in Christ Jesus and Christ alone for our salvation are determined
to know nothing or esteem nothing as truly important as Christ
Jesus our Lord. who He is and what He's done. He was crucified for the sins
of His people. He died on Calvary's cross before
God's law and justice for His people. Let's read again, verses
18 to 22. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
oh, I love this, it is the power of God. It is the power of God. I'm saved by the power of God,
are you? Oh, rejoice, beloved, rejoice. For it is written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. 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. I've been saved, and
I believe. Do you? Those who are saved by Christ
believe on Christ. They believe on Him. For the
Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Notice
in verse 22, the Jews require a sign. They proclaim that Moses
worked miracles They said, let us see miracles worked, and we
will believe. And all the time they weren't
seeing any of the miracles that Christ did far eclipsed any miracle
that Moses did. And we know that Moses only did
those by the power of God. And here's God incarnate in the
flesh, and they can't even see the things that he's doing. God who performed the miracles
they spoke of Moses doing was incarnate in the flesh. and they could not see who he
was. They denied them to be miracles. And we know that certain false
teachers had arose in the church and they were Judaizers who were,
in order to win the Jews, preached circumcision and exalted the
Passover and endeavored to prove that Judaism might exist side
by side with Christianity. In other words, what did they
do? They mix grace and works. They mix grace and works. We know that's a false gospel.
Anyone who mixes even a pinprick of your works into salvation is preaching a
false gospel. Just a pinprick. Because salvation
is what? What does the scripture tell
us? Because we believe what the scriptures say, don't we? And
the scriptures say salvation is of the Lord. It's his doing.
From beginning to end. From beginning to end. So we
preach that, we preach that man has absolutely no merit before
God in our own self. In our natural state. Nothing. If we get what we deserve, we
go to hell. But God has mercy on some, doesn't he? He has mercy
on some. He has mercy on some. We praise
His name. We who are receivers of that
mercy and grace. Paul, who was saved, remember
he was saved from, as Brother Mott brought out, he was a Pharisee
of Pharisees. He was a follower of the law
to the letter. He was saved from all that. He
was saved from all that. And he tells us here, he preaches
Christ and Him crucified. The gospel preacher dare not,
cannot, and will not alter the great subject matter of our preaching. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's who we preach. And note it said the Greeks seek
after wisdom. The Greeks seek after wisdom. Again Corinth was seen in Greek
culture as a great city. And the Greeks were seen Especially
the Corinthian Greeks were seen as being wise and highly regarded
for their supposed wisdom. Again, that's the wisdom of the
world, not the wisdom of God. And Paul preached the wisdom
of God, Christ. In contrast to that which the
Greeks sought after, he preached Christ, who is the wisdom of
God. who is the wisdom of God. The Greeks also treasured eloquence
and famous orators, exalting these men to a high level. They
often did that. They exalted men to a high level. And they followed them and spoke
like them. And Paul, in contrast to this,
brings forth and proclaims to the church at Corinth, who were
Greeks, look at this in chapter two, Verses 1-5. In contrast to that, look what
Paul writes here. And I, brethren, when I came
to you... Remember who he's writing to? He's writing to the Greeks
of Corinth, who have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
come not with excellency of speech. Now he could have spoke that
way, couldn't he? Because we know who he sat under. He sat
under one of the greatest teachers of the day in what they called
the greatest teachers of the day. So he didn't come, though,
in excellency, speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the
testimony of God. Look what he says here. For I
am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in
fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand,
look at this. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of man. Not in the wisdom of man. Our faith doesn't stand
in the wisdom of man, does it? Not at all. No. But in the power of God. Remember,
who's the power of God? Christ is the power of God and
the salvation, isn't he? Now, remember what I said earlier,
that they were exalting men and often followed men? Well, there
was a problem in Corinth. Even with born-again, blood-washed
believers, they were following certain men. They were following
certain men. Look at this over in 1 Corinthians
1. And some people exalt one preacher
over another, and it's never to be so. Never to be so. Because
it's not the man, it's the message. Always remember that, beloved.
It's not the man, it's the message. It's the message. The message
is all about Christ. And let us note how Paul brings
this division which had come about due to preacher worship.
And he brings it to a close, though. Look at this. In 1 Corinthians
1, verses 10-17, look at this. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye speak the same
thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For
it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them
which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among
you. Now I say this, that every one of you say, I am a Paul,
and I have Apollos, and I have Cephas, and I have Christ. So
what they've done is they've divided over men. And do you
know what else they did, which is atrocious? But they did this,
they brought Christ down to the same level as those men. Because
at the end there of that verse, it says, and I have Christ. Well,
Christ is so far above. So far above. Look at this, is
Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? No. No, so Paul brings, Paul doesn't
want people worshiping him or favoring him. He doesn't want
that. He wants his hearers to hear about the one he's preaching
about. And every gospel preacher will tell you this. We want you
to follow Christ. Don't follow all the men, follow
Christ. Look to Christ, because that's
who we're proclaiming. We're telling you to look to
him. And look what he even says, he
says, were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that
I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius. And he should say
that I had baptized in mine own name. My goodness. So there's contentions here.
And I baptized also the house of Stephanus. Besides, I knew
not whether I baptized any other. Look at this, for Christ sent
me not to baptize, but what did Christ send him to do? To preach
the gospel. To preach the gospel. Not with
wisdom of words, and remember, Paul was a great orator. He could
have dangled words, million dollar words out there, but he didn't
do that. Not with wisdom of words, no. He spoke very plainly, very
plainly. Lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect. So Paul again brings the matter
back to that which is most important in verse 17, proclaiming that
Christ did not send him to baptize, but he was sent to preach the
gospel. That's what he said, that's what
I'm sent here for. That's what every gospel preacher, no matter
where they stand up and proclaim Christ and proclaim the gospel,
that's what we're sent to do. We're sent to preach and proclaim
Christ and him crucified. It's a great honor, and no one
takes it lightly. No one takes it lightly. Someone
called me up one time, was asking me about the Sunday school for
the children here. And he said, well, what's taught
in the Sunday school? And I said, well, the ladies
who teach Sunday school, they teach the same thing I do. They're
like, what? I said, they teach Christ and
him crucified. That's the same thing. And every
gospel preacher, we preach the same message, don't we? Christ
and Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. When
men come up here to preach, and Brother Matt teaching this morning,
what do they preach? Christ and Him crucified. That's what we want to hear.
So Christ didn't send Paul to baptize, but he sent him to preach
the gospel. And not with words of wisdom,
lest the cross of Christ should be should be made of none effect.
None effect. If you can't understand what
the preacher's saying, it ain't gonna help you, is it? Paul just spoke
in simple language. What did he tell the Philippian
jailer? I love that. What did he tell the Philippian jailer?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There it is. There it is, Paul. So Paul was sent to preach Christ
and proclaim the glorious message of how a sinner can be accepted
by a holy God on the grounds of the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is how any blood-bought
believer is accepted by God on the grounds and in the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What he's done. What he's done. So the first
point I'd like us to consider is whom we preach. Whom we preach. Look at the text, it says we
preach Christ crucified, doesn't it? In verse 23, we preach Christ. Paul's a model for all preachers
when he says we preach Christ and Him crucified. In order to
preach the gospel fully, there must be a very clear description
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we preach Christ
as God. We preach Christ as God, not
a man made into God, into a God, or a God degraded to the level
of a man, no, no. Very God of very God, and yet
a man. The God-man, mediator. He is
one with his Father in every attribute, beloved. He's eternal,
having neither beginning of days nor end of years. He's omnipresent,
filling all space. He's omnipotent, having all power
in heaven and earth. He's all-knowing, He's all-knowing,
and He knows all things from eternity. He knows all things
from eternity. He's the great creator, preserver,
and judge of all, and all things equal with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, the express image of God, of the invisible God. If one errs concerning the deity
of Christ, then we are in total error. If one errs concerning the deity
of Christ, then we are in total error because the scriptures
proclaim that the Lord Jesus Christ is the word of God and
that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. God incarnate
in the flesh. If one does not preach Christ
as God, then one does not preach the gospel. That's the bottom
line. That's the bottom line. The gospel that does not reveal
a divine savior is no gospel at all. There's no gospel at
all. It's like a ship without a rudder.
It's like a ship in the first contrary wind that blows, what's
it do? It just drives it right to destruction. That's exactly
what false gospels are like. They just lead men to destruction. and woe to the souls that are
trusting in a false gospel. Our gospel rests upon the shoulders
of the Almighty One. The Almighty One. The same One who bears the pillars
of the earth. That's our Savior. And only He can redeem sinners. Only He can pay for all our sins
and oh how we desperately need to be saved. And oh how God's people have
been redeemed by the mighty Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate
in the flesh. We preach Christ, the Son of
Mary who once slept in His mother's arms. Yet, at that time, He was
God incarnate. The Infinite One. Well, He was
just an infant. We preach the presumed Son of
Joseph, toiling in the carpenter's shop. The Son of God. Yet, all the time, He's toiling
in the carpenter's shop. He's the one who made the heavens
and the earth. We preach Christ who had nowhere
to lay his head. Well, he was upon this earth,
the one who is despised and rejected of men. And yet, he is the one
who is God over all. Forever. We preach Christ nailed
to the accursed tree, bleeding at every pore and dying on the
cross as a substitute of his people, yet now risen, yet now
risen, and living forevermore at the right hand of the Father,
interceding for us, for his people. He is the perfect, spotless Lamb
of God. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. The perfect, sinless, spotless
Lamb of God who suffered in the place of God's elect on Calvary's
cross before God's law and justice. The sinless one dying in the
place of sinners. Hebrews 9, verses 11 to 15. But Christ, being come in high,
priest of good things, to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place. Look at this. having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Let those words burn into your
soul, you who are the beloved of God, having obtained eternal
redemption for us, the sinless one, dying for sinners. But it's
an obtained redemption. It's eternal redemption, beloved.
Oh, for the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of
the flesh. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, look at this, and oh,
underline this, beloved, offered himself without spots. Offered himself. When did he
offer himself for our sins, beloved? At Calvary's cross. And the scripture
says, without spots. Sinless, perfect, the Lamb of
God. without spot. And who did he
offer himself up to, beloved? The one we sinned against, to
God. The sinless one offers himself
up to God as a sacrifice for sinners. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. People ask why we wholeheartedly
serve our Lord. Look what he's done for us. Look
what he's done for us. Dying on Calvary's cross, redeeming
us with his own precious blood, offering himself up spotless
for sinners like you and I. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
He was the sinless sacrifice, beloved. And he offered himself
up without spot. Perfect. Perfect. Brother Matt, when we were studying
this week, brought out the fact that if Christ had a blemish,
he could never be our sacrifice, could he? He's perfect. He's sinless. He's spotless. He offered himself up that way.
My. He died as our substitute and
what glorious news this is, what glorious news this is, it's proclaimed
in and through the preaching of the gospel, the good news
of the gospel, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and what thou
shall be saved. Thou shall be saved. Ask yourself
this. Every one of us in this room
and anyone who will listen to this. What think ye of Christ? I mentioned this on Wednesday
night, what think ye of Christ? That'll expose your heart real
quick. What think ye of Christ? The believer says, he's everything.
He's everything to me. Oh, he's my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, just like Paul wrote. He's my
all in all. Is it so for you? Oh my. Oh my, He was just as we are,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, yet He was sinless.
God incarnate in the flesh, the one of whom Isaiah wrote, was
inspired to prophesy, His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Emmanuel, God with us. Brother Drew sent me a good outline
of Emmanuel this week. God in us, the Holy Spirit. God
like us, Christ made flesh to die as a substitute of his people
and for their sins. God for us, here never leave
us, nor forsake us. And God over us, he's ruling
and reigning in righteousness right now. Right now. Oh, that's
wonderful. That's Emmanuel, God with us.
And here never leave us, nor forsake us. Never. Never. And
we preach Christ. Gospel preachers, we get up and
we preach Christ. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified. as the Messiah, the sent one,
the sent one, the great deliverer of God's people, the great deliverer
of the elect of God. And Christ is a light to lighten
the Gentiles, beloved. Oh, he's a light to lighten the
Gentiles. He's the promised deliverer of whom Moses in the law wrote
of, and whom the prophets wrote of. God sent Christ. God sent God. God the Father sent God the Son
to redeem his people from their sins. All right. He's the sent one. And he's the one who's sent by
divine decree, for we read that he came to do the will of the
Father, didn't he? He came to do the will of the
Father. He said, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Christ is
fully submissive to the Father, to the Father's will. And our
great high priest was divinely anointed and appointed, beloved.
He was sent of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
rightly ruling as the eternal Son of God. And what great hope
we have. What great hope this brings to
God's blood-washed people. What hope and comfort With hope
and comfort, the one we preach, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our
substitute by God's appointment, by God's appointment. We also
preach the work of Christ as the surety of the everlasting
covenant. Christ, who in the everlasting
covenant made in eternity stood as the surety and representative
of his people, and how in the fullness of time, when it pleased
God, he came forth into this world. He came forth from glory in the
garments of flesh to work out a perfect righteousness, to work
out a perfect righteousness by his perfect obedience. Never
forget that, that we could never, ever be perfectly obedient to
God, not even once. And yet Christ rots out a perfect
righteousness by his perfect obedience as our substitute.
It's wonderful. This is good news. Good news
for sinners. Good news. And by his death on the cross,
by his sufferance as our substitute, he's redeemed us, he's purchased
us by the shedding of his own precious blood for the remission
of our sins, for the payments of our sins. Because without
the shedding of blood, there's what? No remission. No remission. We preach Christ telling others
of his incarnation, that he's God manifest in the flesh and
going on to tell the great work of redemption, which he's accomplished,
having obtained eternal redemption. It's accomplished. Proclaiming
his death and proclaiming his burial and his resurrection,
his ascension and the fact that he is now interceding for his
people right now, right now in glory. We preach Him in all His
offices too, don't we? Prophet, priest, and king. We
lift Him up. We lift Christ up. Let's read
verses 22 and 24 again of chapter 1. 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. because the foolishness
of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger
than man. Note again, we preach Christ
crucified. This is who gospel preachers
are to proclaim. We proclaim that salvation is
found in no other. No other. Salvation is only found
in Christ. and through the shedding of His
precious blood to satisfy God's law and justice, which absolutely
must be satisfied either in the sinner or in the Savior. And this is who we preach. We
preach that Christ bore the sins of his people on Calvary's cross,
that they were imputed to him, the sinless one, dying in the
place of sinners, and that he gave up the ghost and cried,
it is finished. And the perfect salvation is
absolutely complete. Beloved. Finished means finished
means there's nothing to be added to it by you or by me. It's finished. And the heart and sum of all
true theology is substitution. Substitution. The substitutionary
work of Christ standing in the place of sinners and numbered
with the transgressors because of sins that were not
his own. Our sins. The sins of his people. Have
you ever considered what Spurgeon brings forth about substitution?
He says this, the truth of God involves, of course, our taking
Christ's place as He took ours. So that all believers are beloved,
accepted, made heirs of God. And in due time shall be glorified
with Christ forever. So we stand before God on the
merit of Christ. And what he's done in that wonderful,
it's absolutely wonderful. There's only one divine. All
sufficient substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
the only divine, all sufficient substitute for sinners, he's
the only one. And all who put their trust in
him. Shall be eternally saved. Again,
the scriptures proclaim, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Do you believe? May God make you willing to believe.
May he grant you faith and repentance to believe on Christ. Again,
the answer to the question of what think ye of Christ will
expose and reveal the state of our hearts. Again, I proclaim to you who
are listening or will listen what Paul told that Philippian
jailer again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. We preach a crucified Christ,
burying our sins in his body on the tree, forsaken of God
and rejected of man. In verse 23, we see the Jews,
this message is a scandal. It's an offense, a stumbling
block to them. We see in the same verse to the
Greeks, it's sheer nonsense. But oh, look at verse 24 and
25, though. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and
the weakness of God is stronger than man. To those who are called, born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, and enlightened of God, Christ
crucified is not only the power of God to save, but he's the
wisdom of God to us. And we see in Christ the law
honored, don't we? Satisfied. And we see every attribute
of God glorified in Christ, enabling him to be just and the justifier
of his people. What man call foolishness, if it is of God, they call it
foolishness, is wiser than man. Is wiser than man. What man call
weakness, if it is of God, they call it
weakness, it's stronger than man. We meet together, beloved, to
worship Christ, to study his word, to sing praises to him,
to encourage one another in his gospel. To speak of the One who's
redeemed our eternal souls. And here's our standing. We believe
the Scriptures alone. We believe that the Bible is
the Word of God. And that all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. For doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instructions in righteousness. But what does
the Scriptures tell us about? Who does the Scripture tell us
about? Christ. Christ. We believe that this
book contains no errors, don't we? We don't derive our doctrine
from man or denominations. We look to the scriptures for
what we believe. The Bible is our rule of faith
and practice. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. Isaiah chapter eight, verse 20. We believe in preaching and proclaiming
Christ alone because Christ is the gospel. It's all about him.
It's all about him. He is both the subject and the
object of the gospel. It is concerning his son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord. And it's all for His glory, isn't
it? It's all for God's glory. And we believe, we who believe
on Christ, believe that He receives all the preeminence, all of it.
We believe, as the Scriptures proclaim, that Christ is all.
He's all in the Scriptures. He's all in the Scriptures. And
He's all to God, isn't He? He's all to God. He's all in
salvation. And he's all to every believer,
to every believer. The sure and only hope of every
child of God is wrapped up in the person and work of Christ
and Christ alone. It is he who has accomplished
a full and effectual atonement for his people as their substitutes,
both in his life and in his death. And we who believe bow to His
sovereign Lordship, don't we? We bow to it. We bow to it. We bow to our sovereign Lord
and our Redeemer. And we preach that salvation
is by grace alone plus nothing, in Christ alone, for the glory
of God alone. That's what we preach in Brooklyn. It's all of God's grace from
the beginning election chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world to the end glorification. When we shall see our Lord face
to face, it's all of the Lord, the Alpha and the Omega and everything
in between. That's Christ. He's our all know. Therefore, the gospel preacher
proclaims that salvation is not what you do for God, but what
he's done for you. what He's done for you. Absolutely
no part of salvation can be ascribed to man. To ascribe any part of
salvation to religious efforts, good works or free will is to
deny that salvation is by grace alone and is therefore a refuge
of lies. The scriptures proclaim that
salvation is of the Lord. And it also proclaims this, by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is a gift of God, not of works, not of works, not of works. That's my emphasis
there, lest any man should Salvation is in and through the
pure, free, and sovereign grace of God. And we proclaim faith
alone, and that faith is a gift from God, and it has one object,
the Lord Jesus Christ, just one object. And Christ and his salvation
is not received by doing, but by believing. This is why we
proclaim, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall
be saved. It's not a work that you can
do. It's a work of God. Anyone who
looks to Christ alone for salvation will be saved, will be saved. May God grant your faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank thee
for thy word. We thank you for the scriptures
and how they just point us directly to Christ, O Lord. And as we read today, for the
unbeliever, the preaching of your gospel is foolishness, but
oh, to we who have been redeemed, for we who have been redeemed,
for we who have been born again by thy spirit, washed in thy
precious blood, it is the power of God unto salvation. O Lord,
may You use this message, if it's Your will, to draw Your
lost sheep to You. And we'll be quick to give You
all the glory and honor and praise. Again, we love You because You
first loved us. In Jesus' name, Amen.