Alright, turn with me if you
would this morning over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We finished up last week on a
couple of messages on the privileges of the believer and we have seen
in that couple week study that What Christ has done for us in
his death has purchased some things for us and they are things
that are effectual. They will be applied to the one
for whom he died. That's one of the reasons why
we believe what we believe about the death of Christ is because
the Bible is very clear in teaching that everything for which Christ
purchased will be applied to all those who he believes. It's
not an offer. It's not a maybe-so. It's not
a condition that he'll give it to you if you'll do something,
or if you'll believe, or if you'll receive, or if you'll, you know,
it's not that. It is what it is. Christ accomplished
a finished salvation And the Father accounted that salvation,
that redemption that Christ purchased with His blood, God accounted
that for everyone for whom Christ died. There's none accepted. There's not anybody that does
not receive everything for which Christ had purchased in that
redemption. Reconciliation with God, forgiveness
of sins, eternal life, uh... justification you know all the
things we talk about having to do with salvation christ all
that was part of that eternal covenant between uh... the father
and the son of the holy spirit uh... that eternal covenant all
the terms was met by christ and all the provisions and all of
the uh... inheritance of that becomes ours
and we talked about that last week that one of the privileges
of being a child of God, a child of grace, is that we receive
all the inheritance, we're joint heirs with Jesus. And we were
joint heirs with Jesus actually before creation, because the
Bible says that we were given to the Son, that we were in Him,
that we were one with Him, that we had an eternal, vital union
with Christ even before we ever was created, before Adam was
created, before Adam fell, anything like that. we were already eternally
united to Jesus Christ, chosen in Him, given to Him, and blessed
in Him before anything ever took place. And as He stood as the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, all of Christ elect
was in Him, and He represented them. And so, We've seen last
couple weeks that we have these privileges, and these privileges
aren't things that we boast on. We don't boast that we have it
and nobody else has it. Our boast is in Christ. We boast
that it is because of him, because it is only sheerly of grace that
any of us have been chosen to be saved and been redeemed by
the blood of Christ. We are just as guilty, just as
vile, just as sinful, just as deserving and undeserving of
God's wrath and undeserving of God's favor than all the reprobate. But because Christ died for us,
we have been given these eternal privileges. And what an amazing
blessing that that truly is. And again, you know, it's hard
for us to grasp those things. The natural mind can't grasp
those things, the Bible says. They might be able to know facts
about it or even misunderstand these things in some way and
twist them, but only the spiritual mind can understand these things.
But even at that, it's still hard sometimes to understand
how God chose some and not others. But one thing we do learn in
scripture is that that choice, that decision, that sovereign
grace is solely the work of God alone. And he has that, the Bible
teaches that. He says that he is the potter
and he has made some vessels for honor and some vessels for
dishonor. And so we have to submit to that
and we must worship him for the God that he is, not the God that
we, want him to be or the God that other belief systems make
him out to be. He's the God that is revealed
in scripture and that's who we worship. And so this morning
I thought we might go back and look at what purchased those
privileges that we talked about the last couple of weeks. And
that is found, will begin at least here, in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. And I'm going to start reading
in verse 23, and I'm going to read down to verse 31. It says, But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. And I'll just kind of pause there.
What Paul is saying here is whenever you preach the true gospel, what
I just mentioned about Christ making a finished work, that
there are some that have been chosen for salvation, others
that have not been chosen for salvation, and that salvation
is effectually given. There's nothing that they can
do to not get it. I mean, it will be given to them.
Faith will be given to them. They'll be drawn to Christ. They'll
believe on Christ. Christ has forgiven them of all
their sins. They're not going to be held under the law anymore.
All these things, that's the true gospel. And whenever that
was preached, the Jews didn't want to hear of it because they
were so ingrained with Moses and the law. And they believed
that salvation came by something that you did. And then he says
to the Greeks, it's foolishness, because the Greeks thought by
their knowledge, by their intellect, by their other gods, you know,
that they had salvation, and which also was a form of works,
just like the Jews believe. And so either way, whether it
was of God, or excuse me, of the Jews or
of the Greeks, both was of works and neither one of them viewed
the true gospel that it is a free gift of grace by Christ. Morning, Mark. And so this is why Paul is saying,
you know, we preach Christ crucified and that is a stumbling block. Whenever we preach the doctrine
of grace, whenever we preach sovereign grace, it's a stumbling
block. We've all experienced that. We've
seen how the preaching of this has become a stumbling block
for our friends and family and people that we meet on the street
and may speak to and minister to. It's a stumbling block to
them because what has been learned in the mass majority of churches
is a false gospel that preaches that it's up to us to do something
before Christ will give us salvation. And salvation isn't conditioned
upon anything except God's will. And so it is a stumbling block. So Paul says, but we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them. So there's a contradiction. You've
got the Jews and you've got the Greeks, which basically covers
all mankind. That's how they were broken up.
There was the Jews and there was the Greeks or the Gentiles.
And that was everybody. of the known world there. Everybody
was of those two groups of people. But Paul now brings in a third
distinction of people here that preaching Christ crucified is
not a stumbling block. He says, but unto them which
are called, both Jews and Greeks. What's Paul saying there? He's
saying, preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block to all mankind,
but to them who are called of all mankind, Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God. So preaching Christ crucified
to the called, and we're going to touch on that word here in
a minute when we get over into Romans, but the called, To them,
the preaching of Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Now we learn that the Bible says,
or Paul says, that I'm not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power
of God unto salvation. But everyone wants to stop there.
Turn with me, if you would, over to Romans 1. Keep your finger
there in 1 Corinthians. We won't come back. This is kind
of a little pause or a little side note. Go back to Romans 1. And look with me, if you would,
at chapter 1, verse 16 in Romans. And I want you to pay close attention
because A lot of times we quote these
verses, but we stop short and we don't look at the whole context
and we don't apply the rest of the verse. It says, for I am
not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it, the Gospel of
Christ, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. See, the Gospel is the power
of God to everyone that believeth. the ones who are already believing.
Not the power of God so that you will believe. That's how
I used to preach it. I used to preach that this Word
of God, whenever it's preached or whenever it's read, it has
power to make people believe. and become Christians. But that's
not what that says. The reason that Paul wasn't ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ is because he knew that the intent or the
purpose for the Gospel of Christ was to give those who had already
been born again and given the faith of Christ to believe that
that was already given to them, and so the Gospel of Christ was
there, was the power of God to tell them, to show them, to cause
them to believe on their salvation, about their salvation. The power
of God unto salvation is to everyone that believe it. That's how they
look at the Word of God. They look at the Word of God
and the preaching of the Gospel as the power of God because why?
Whenever the quickened or the awakened or the born again soul
has spiritual life, has its spiritual faculties, That spirit that is
in us that teaches us all the things that Christ has said,
all the things that are in the scripture that leads us into
truth, whenever that begins to teach us, what does it do? It
teaches us the truth about Christ and what He did. And it tells
us the truth about who we are and what we need. and how we
receive that. And we receive that by free grace.
We receive that by the finished work of Christ alone, not by
anything that we have done, not by works of righteousness, which
we have done. But according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
that washing of regeneration that speaks of the work of Christ
on the cross. The washing of regeneration isn't
whenever we're born again. The washing of regeneration speaks
of Christ and His cleansing on the cross. What He did in the
baptism of fire that He experienced on the cross whenever He took
all of our guilt and the wrath of God on Himself and He purged
our sins once with His blood. That is the washing of regeneration.
Whenever he died and was resurrected, that is the, if you want to use
the word regeneration, that's the correct way to use it. The
Bible only talks of regeneration in one place, and that's there.
Well, I say one, two places. And both places is referring
to the finished work of Christ. And so the preaching of this,
the preaching of Christ crucified is foolishness to everyone who
has not been given belief, who has not been given faith, who
has not been born again. So that's why Paul is saying
here in verse 23, that we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling
block unto the Jews and a foolishness to the Greeks. But to the called, It is the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, the power of God, we
just spoke about, but the wisdom of God. How is the preaching
of Christ crucified the wisdom of God? Well, it's the wisdom
of God because, listen, man surely would not have thought this up.
Matter of fact, look at the religions of man. Even within the quote-unquote
evangelical Christian denominations, Look at the wisdom of man. The
wisdom of man can't perceive a free grace salvation that doesn't
include them doing anything, even though they say the words.
We all have the phraseology, okay? We look around and all
the modern churches of today, they have the phraseology. They
say, oh, we're saved by grace. We're saved by grace through
faith. They have that terminology, okay? But the meaning that's
poured into that is, yes, we're saved by grace through faith,
so unless we exercise faith, then we aren't saved. We can't
be saved. That's not true. The Bible says
that we are saved by grace through faith, but that faith that it's
talking about right there isn't our faith. It isn't even talking
about us exercising faith. It says, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that Grace, salvation, faith is not
of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. See, so even faith that we exhibit
whenever we've been born again and then we believe on Christ
unto salvation, that is not of ourselves. That was a gift of
the, matter of fact, is that one of the gifts of the Holy
Spirit? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, tenderness, goodness, meekness,
gentleness, faith. It's a gift of God. So faith
is something that comes after we've been born again, not to
get born again. And that is foolishness. Why?
Because to the one, we must work to get that. To the other, we
must apply what we know to get that, right? See, that's why
Paul is making the distinction with the Jews and the Greeks.
To the Jews, it was all works. We must work for our salvation.
We must keep the law. We must do the duty. Heed the
commands. Make the sacrifices. And if we
do that, then we'll be saved. But to the Greeks, it all comes
by their knowledge, what we know. And see, that's what the Armenian,
in essence, believes today. The Armenian believes that it's
something that we learn. We have to study God's word,
hear God's word, believe God's word, and then it becomes something
that we know and believe. And then whenever we do, that
belief then translates into being born again. We get born again
because we believed. But brethren, that's backwards
according to the Scripture. And so the wisdom of God is something
that the natural man can't perceive. How can God save me without me
even having anything to do with it? How can God save me? Surely at least I ought to make
a profession of faith. Surely I should at least believe
the Gospel. Well, brethren, if you think
about it, salvation took place before anything ever happened.
And so that didn't require your conditional work. Turn with me. Keep your finger there at 1 Corinthians
again. Turn with me again to one of
the verses that we frequent so often. In Timothy, the Bible says, who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works. Who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works. I'm sorry if you
haven't found one Timothy one, verse nine. Well, I've got my
numbers all backwards today. I'm a little confused. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, Who have saved
us and called us, so there's a saving and a calling, not according
to our works. but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given unto us or given us in Christ Jesus
whenever we walked down to the altar, whenever we were baptized,
whenever we joined the church, whenever we sung ten hymns of
Just As I Am. No, before the world began. Brethren, salvation And the calling
of God was before the world began. Now, if that's true, how did
you have any part of making yourself saved? Of either choosing to
be saved? See, that was before I could
even choose. God chose me. God chose you if you're a child
of grace. He chose you before the foundation of the world,
who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus. But look at what he says now
and how the gospel, remember we was just talking about the
gospel was the power of God unto them who believe, right? Look
at the distinction that he makes now in verse 10. But now, but is now made manifest. What is now made manifest? The
saving and the calling. The saving and the calling is
now made manifest. But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am a preacher and
an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles." The preaching of the
gospel is to give life and immortality light, to manifest it, to show
it. The reason that we have the gospel
is to tell us of what was done in Christ Jesus in our saving
and calling before the foundation of the world. We were saved and
called before the foundation of the world, before we were
ever born, before Adam ever sinned and brought sin and death into
the world. We were in Christ Jesus saved and called already. but now it's made manifest to
us. That's the purpose of the gospel,
is to make manifest to those who have been given the eyes
to see, the ears to hear, the capacity and spiritual ability
to receive these things, to make manifest what has been done for
us. so that we might know, does it the Bible say, so that we
might know those things that are freely given to us. That's
why he gives us the spirit, is so that we might know the things
that are freely given to us. When were they freely given to
us? They were freely given to us, Ephesians one, before the
foundation of the world, when we were blessed with all spiritual
blessings. Okay, so there's our context.
There's the preaching of the gospel is to bring these things
and to manifest these things. Not to make them so, but to make
them manifest to us. Now look at verse 25 back in
1 Corinthians chapter 1. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. but God hath chosen the 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. And base things of the world
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught things that are." See, this world
has its system and the way that it thinks, the way that it operates,
and what it deems to be worthy. But yet God's wisdom supersedes
all that. But not only supersedes all that,
it lays it all to waste. Just look in the Scriptures whenever
you see how those religious leaders who were skilled in the law The
scribes who had written the law over and over and knew the law
in and out, in and out, and how yet they missed the law. They
didn't have spiritual understanding. They had carnal understanding.
And brethren, that's what a lot of people in a lot of these churches
today, they have a carnal understanding of facts of scripture, but they
don't have a spiritual application of that because the Holy Spirit
is not in them. They've not been born again.
And they don't have the spiritual capacity to understand the spiritual
nature and the spiritual application of these things. And so they
have the wisdom of men and they can preach the wisdom of men
about the scriptures all day long. They have the the carnal
nature of man and the wisdom of man that can formulate sermons
that are so to the T, but they don't have the Spirit of God
that teaches them what it means and the application of it. And
so we see that it becomes foolishness because it just doesn't correlate.
It doesn't connect. It doesn't make sense. This goes
against all probability of it happening. I mean, surely with
my intellect I can figure these things out. Surely with my seminary
I can figure these things out. Surely with my upbringing I can
figure these things out. Brethren, it doesn't work in
that facet at all. He says, for you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise, not many active flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. God hath chosen the foolish things.
God hath chosen. See, there's where the difference
is made. See, whenever God chooses to
do something, when God is in the work, then there's a difference. That's why those fishermen who
had no education, that didn't know nothing, confounded all
those men who were schooled and learned in the Scripture. That
those fishermen that know how, these guys are fishermen. They
go out there, dirty, stinky fishermen out throwing nets and dragging
in fish, working in the muck and mire. And how do they know
this stuff? How can they speak with authority? Because God has chosen the foolish
things of this world. Why? Look at verse 29. That no
flesh should glory in His presence. See, the reason God has designed
everything the way He has designed it, and specifically salvation
the way He's designed it, why He has taken salvation out of
time and made it in eternity, why He has placed the saving
and the calling in eternity and not at an altar or an invitation. Why He's placed salvation in
eternity and not in me performing good works is because if it's
taken out of time and put into eternity, there is absolutely,
positively, without any thought or deed or anything, there's
no way that flesh could glory in His presence. There is absolutely
no way that we are ever going to glory. We can't even glory
in the fact that it says we're elect. We're elect before God. We can't even say that, brethren.
We cannot glory in His presence. Nobody can. We can't glory in
His presence in the fact that we're chosen and the reprobate
is not going to glory in His presence in the fact that they
did all these great works. Matter of fact, on that day,
the only thing that's going to be said is either, away from
me, you doers of iniquity. And that was told to people who
were godly people. Quote, unquote, godly people.
Doing godly things. Believing godly things. Working godly things. He's going to say, depart from
me, you doers of iniquity. But to all the elect, He ain't
gonna say, good job, way to go, glad you chose me. If you wouldn't
have chosen me, you'd have been with all those over there. No,
the only thing that they're gonna be able to say is worthy is the
lamb who was slain. Matter of fact, we're gonna be
seeing that quite a bit in eternity. Worthy, worthy, worthy is the
lamb. Why? No flesh is gonna glory
in his presence. Why? Because he is preeminent.
Christ is gonna be preeminent in all of it. Christ is gonna
be the center of all things. Verse 30, but of him. but of
Him." And this is one of those verses whenever I began to start
seeing the Gospel and seeing these things, the doctrines of
grace several years ago, this was one of those verses that
I had read over hundreds of times. But all of a sudden, it just
stuck out. And it was amazing that I hadn't
picked up on what it said. But of Him, speaking of God,
but of God are ye in Christ Jesus. See, I thought that I was in
Christ Jesus because I made a decision that I went forth at an altar
and that I made a profession of faith and chose Him. That
I accepted Jesus into my heart. But that's not what put me in
Him. Now, even after I began to believe
the true gospel of sovereign grace, I began to read sovereign
grace people. And sovereign grace people said
that we are in Christ Jesus because we believed. See, that's what
they said. We were put into Christ whenever
we believed. And I thought, well, that's strange.
I come from one belief system that believes that we have to
receive or accept or believe on Jesus Christ to be put into
Christ. But now I'm over here where The
truth is, and now these people are saying, I have to believe
to get into Christ. See, that's why Reformed theology
is incorrect. They believe that salvation is
by faith alone. But brethren, salvation is not
by faith alone, salvation is by grace alone. Purely by grace alone. And just as much as on the other
side, there's been so much phraseology that's been drilled into our
heads. Salvation by grace through faith, that was drilled in my
head. I preached it over and over and over. I preached it.
And that is true. But it's not our faith again,
remember. But then on the other side, there's so much phraseology
and historical usage of these things that is drilled into people's
heads, that they look at that and they say, what you're saying
cannot be true because look, for the last 200, 300, 400 years,
everybody's been saying salvation by faith alone. What of Martin
Luther? What of John Calvin and Zwingli
and all these men? What of John Gill and what of
all these men that have talked about all this stuff, salvation,
by faith alone? And see what happens is that
is drilled so much into our head that the truth seems like it's
not true. What's false has been put off
as true for us for so long. That's why I say that one of the greatest
hindrances to us learning is the things that we already know.
Quote, unquote, know. See, we can't learn because we've
got so much learning that has been wrong. And so we see here
that it isn't because of our choosing or our decisions or
our works. It isn't because of our faith
that we're in Christ Jesus. It's because of God that we are
in Christ Jesus. But of Him, are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God, that's us, who of God, is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So Christ is
made for us, for us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That, according as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And so, brethren,
our glorying is in the Lord. That's why we preach. what we
preach. That's why we preach Christ crucified. As Paul said in verse 23, we
preach Christ crucified. Why? Because we don't want glory
in the flesh. We want to glory in the Lord.
We want the glory to be all His and not ours. But if salvation
has to do with a preacher, if salvation has to do with a church
or a denomination or a baptism or a seminar or a seminary, If
salvation has to do with something that is done through works or
through a decision or even through our faith, then it is not the
glory that is being given to Christ. It's the glory being
given to the Creator or the creation. So that is why grace and mercy
is free. It's not based upon anything
that we've done. That's why salvation cannot be
of works, because if it is of works, then it's a wage. You're
owed that. And the Bible says that salvation
is by grace, unmerited. You're unworthy and you have
not merited this salvation, but it's been freely given to you
based upon the purpose and the will of God that you have received
these things. That's why. And so it's taken
out of our hands so that we can't glory in it. So that we can't
say anything to anybody or to God Himself and say that we are
the reason that we're here and so that God will be preeminent
in all things. I want to look a little bit at
that. That was kind of the introduction. I want to look at a few things.
I've preached on this before and done this before, but I'd
like to show how Christ is the center point of every aspect,
every aspect of salvation. every part, whether it's the
part that is eternal in its positional or legal aspect, and in time,
in its experiential aspect, and how Christ is preeminent, how
Christ is the center point, why the Glorion is in Him and not
in us, because we're gonna find that in every aspect of that
salvation, this, as the Bible calls it, so great salvation,
that the reason that we're saved, as we read in Hebrews last week,
to the uttermost, is because we have a Savior who saved. And He didn't leave anything
untied. He didn't leave anything up to chance. He didn't leave
anything up to the will of man to maybe or maybe not. But He
made all things. possible for his people. And
when I say possible, not as in a chance, but he made that possible.
The only reason you can get it is because he did it and gives
it and you get it. It will be given. We use the
term effectual. So let's take a break. It's right
at 11 o'clock. We'll take a break and you guys
can freshen up your drinks and use the restroom if you have
to. And, uh, we'll, uh, We'll pick back up with this and we'll
start seeing how salvation is the work of God. Christ alone.