1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The Apostle Paul declared in
verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 1, For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God." The literal of
verse 18 says this, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
are perishing. Foolishness. But unto us which
are being saved, it is the power of God. It is absolutely imperative
that we hear the preaching of the cross. When I say the preaching
of the cross, this is what I'm saying, the gospel. It's imperative that we hear
the gospel preached, the preaching of the cross, because faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the gospel, the Word of God. The gospel of God's grace. When I say the preaching of the
cross, I'm not talking about the literal crucifixion on the
day in which our Lord was crucified, though that was absolutely the
consummation of all that God had eternally purposed. The preaching
of the cross is the preaching of the entirety of God's counsel
His everlasting covenant of grace through the final and second
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the preaching of the cross.
It's not just that day of crucifixion. Now the scripture says concerning
the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the gospel, preaching
of God's will, God's purpose, God's covenant of grace, to an
everlastingly loved people. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish, those that are perishing. That is foolishness. As I was looking at this scripture,
I began to think, if the preaching of the cross is to those that
are perishing, foolishness, then what does those that are
perishing consider not to be foolish? What do they believe? What are
they really thinking? Based on God's Word, what are
they thinking? concerning the preaching of the
cross that to them makes it foolishness. What does an unbeliever believe?
Now, I'm going to tell you something. There's not a believer in this
room that didn't at one time believe this. If you're converted,
let me tell you what we really believed before. The Lord called
us out of darkness. Because if they believe that
the preaching of the truth is foolishness, then they've got
to believe something else. What do we really believe before
the Lord calls us out of darkness? Let me tell you what they believe
first. It's what I believed before the
Lord called me out of darkness, and I want to tell you this now.
You believed. This is what you believed. First of all, concerning the
preaching of the cross, the crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ, even on
the day of His crucifixion, let me tell you what we believed.
That He was at least in part a failure. We believed that He was a failure
and a believer shudders. I make that statement. I went
over my notes again and I kept reading that and I said, can
I say that with conviction? Can I truly say that with a settled
heart that I at least in part believe that he was a failure? Let me ask you this. When the
Lord Jesus Christ cried from the cross, It is finished. What did he mean? Here's what
he meant. All that God Almighty eternally
purposed in the salvation of His elect, now we do know that
God eternally purposed, that there was a covenant of grace.
This is what David said, 2 Samuel 23 verse 5. He said, this is
all my hope. This is all my salvation. This
is all my salvation. He made with me an everlasting
covenant. So we know that there's an everlasting
covenant that God Almighty purposed. And when the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was the servant of Jehovah, That's what Isaiah 42 says, behold
my servant. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to do what? To seek and to save that which
was lost. You say, well that was everybody.
No, because He said that I came down, laid down my life for the
sheep. But if the Lord Jesus Christ
has made a statement and said it's finished, then this is what
was finished. The work that the Father gave
Him to do. This is the will of Him that
sent me. That of all that He's given me, I should lose this
many of them. That many. That I should lose
nothing. Nothing. Now that's the truth.
because He's the truth. And if He said, this is the will
of Him that sent me, that of all that He's given me I should
lose nothing, then if I believe that He came and died on a cross
to make salvation possible, that He died for the sins of all men,
all women without distinction, If I believe that, and all men
are not saved, then He didn't finish it. Salvation was not
secured for everyone. You say, well, yeah, but He made
it possible, but man has got... Now, wait a minute. Be careful.
Be careful how far you go with that statement. Because you're
getting ready to say this, He did all He could do, He died,
He laid down His life, He shed His blood, but man has got to... We're going to get into works
now, be careful. And it's not by works of righteousness that
we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. So if the preaching of the cross
is foolishness, then I must believe that what
he did at Calvary wasn't enough, and that he was in part a failure
because there was people for whom he died, for whom atonement
was made, and they're in hell. Secondly, If the preaching of
the cross is foolishness, then I have to believe this, that
Almighty God does not have an elect that He's going to save. I want you to hold your place
right here and turn to Ezekiel 36. We've read this so many times. But I want to read it again.
I'm going to read a few extra scriptures here. Ezekiel 36. Now listen to what the Lord says
He is going to do. Ezekiel 36, 21. The Lord said,
but I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel
had profaned among the heathen, whether they went. Therefore
say unto the house of Israel, now again you do understand,
you do know, that spiritual Israel is who is actually being spoken
of. They're not all Israel that are
of Israel. He's not a Jew that is a Jew. Not all natural Jews are spiritual
Jews. But say unto the house of Israel,
thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house
of Israel. Now you listen to what he's saying
here. We are the recipients of the
mercy of God and how we thank our God for mercy shown. Lord, thank you. But let me tell
you why. He said, I had pity. He said,
I did it for my sake. He is a just God and He is a
Savior. He said, I will have mercy. I'm
doing this for my sake. Boy, I tell you what, you talk
about take all the air out of your self-righteous sails when
you think, well, Lord said I didn't do this for
your sake. I did it for my sake. Thus saith the Lord God, I do
not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy
name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whether ye
went. And I will sanctify my great
name. which was profaned among the
heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them. And the
heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes." Lord,
what are you going to do? What are you going to do? For
I will take you from among the heathen. Here's what he's saying. I'm
going to take my people out from the mass of humanity. I will
take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries
and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle
clean water, the blood, upon you. You shall be clean. From
all your filthiness, from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you. A new spirit will I put
within you. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my spirit within you. Cause you to walk in my statues.
You shall keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in
the land I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people. I will
be your God. Whenever Almighty God says, I
will and you shall, let me tell you what's going to happen. He
will and we shall. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, here was the reason. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. He said, I will have mercy. I
will have compassion. I will. God's graciousness, mercy,
and compassion upon undeserving sinners is not left to man's
impotent will. God saves His people. He saves
them. For their sakes, they're the
recipients of His mercy. He said, I'm doing this for My
sake. I made you sons for My sake.
I saved you for My sake. I said, concerning His Son, it's
not good that the man should be alone. What a miracle of God's
grace. The man Christ Jesus, it's not
good. He must have a bride. And this bride is not going to
be lost. I chose her for Him and gave her to Him. And He shall not fail. He shall
redeem her. They are the sheep of His pasture. He said, I'm going to give you
a new heart. I'm going to be your God. You're going to be
my people. The preaching of the cross, which is the absolute
assuredness that Almighty God is just in the putting away of
sin, and a Savior, is what's set forth in the preaching of
the cross. And I'm going to tell you something.
It's not foolishness. If the preaching of the cross
is foolishness, then man by nature must believe that man in the
garden did not really die spiritually. And therefore, this is what man
by nature says, I don't believe God. I don't believe Him. God told Adam, the day you eat,
you're going to die. And man by nature says, I believe
that I have a free will. God said, you died. Man says,
I believe that my work must be exercised and I must take what's
offered to me and my taking of it is what makes it official. God said, you're dead and I must
give you life, then you'll believe. Men are born of God, not of blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God."
Listen to me. To believe that you have a free
will, that God Almighty is waiting on for you to exercise. Now you
listen. I've got Scripture to back this
up. Men are born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but they're born of God, if you believe that
you have a free will. Now listen to me. You don't believe
God. You say, well Marvin, you're
just being a little bit... No, we don't believe God. I'm going to have to be truthful
here. The entire reason for the preaching of the cross to those
that consider it to be foolishness, the entire reason is to expose
Our unbelief. We're all born like this. We're
all born like this. God's got to give me a new heart,
got to change me. I cannot read God's Word and
say, I don't believe that, and it be okay. It's not okay. Somebody's
lying. Well then, if the preaching of
the cross is to those that perish foolishness, I want to know something. Tell me one more time. Now I know, I know. I know I've heard this. But tell
me one more time what the preaching of the cross is. Tell me again. You say, well I heard this last
Wednesday and I heard it last Sunday. That's okay. Paul said,
for me to tell you the same things, he said, it's safe. He said,
not grievous for me. I was going over my notes this
morning. And let me tell you, Neil, what I thought. I've preached
this before, and before, and before. This is the message. And it doesn't
matter if I'm in Ezekiel, 1 Corinthians, or Genesis. The message is the
same. It's the same. The preaching
of the cross declares... Now listen. Man is a spiritually
impotent sinner against God. The preaching of the cross. Why
do you think that he went to the cross? What was the reason
for Christ going to the cross? Here's the reason. Man is a lost
sinner under the curse of the law. To be delivered from the curse
of the law. What's the curse of the law?
Here it is, the soul that sinneth. It's going to die. That's the
judgment. We have so many plea bargainings
and stuff like that, you know. You take a stop sign. What does
stop mean? Have you ever had a rolling,
just kind of gone through a rolling stop, you know? And here's the
thing. You say, well, it's technically
I guess I disobeyed. No, technically we're right.
We do. We all do it. We all do it. The law. The law of God. There's no plea
bargaining with God's law. God is just. We know that man
died according to these scriptures, but for the Lord to give me a
heart to believe that, and to believe that I do not have the
ability to pay my debt, what can I do to repay my debt to
God's broken law and live. When the Scripture says the wages
of sin, okay, I'm a sinner. And here's the wages. Death. The soul that sinneth shall die. Man is fallen. He's helpless. And those that
are perishing, the Scripture says, consider that message foolishness. It is not foolishness when I
realize I cannot pay. I have nothing to pay. Secondly,
the preaching of the cross declares the wisdom of God. Now listen
to this wisdom. I'm going to ask a question.
How can God be just? I told you this before. I actually
had somebody that did not know that that was in the Scriptures.
I don't believe he knew it. I don't believe he knew that
that, you know, how can God be just and justify a sinner? He
did not know. He asked me, I was at a business
one day and we were talking. And he asked this question, if
men are sinners, how can God be just and still save someone? I thought, man, that is a good
question. How can God be just? Here is the only way that God
can be just. This is the only way that God
can punish sin. And God's people live. Here's
the only way. Now here's wisdom. That Almighty
God would take, according to His Word, out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue, He chose a people. Predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Now listen to this. Why did He
do that? According to the good pleasure of His will. I've told
you everything I know about why. Why would He choose one and pass
by another one? Because it pleased Him to do
so. Now you try to enter in any other question, it's going to
be wrong. I can tell you that. Here's wisdom. Before man fell,
God knew. There must be a Redeemer. The
Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world before men were
ever created. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. In the wisdom of God, God chose
a people and put them in the Ark, the Lord Jesus Himself,
of which the Ark was a picture. Put them in Christ and looked
to Him as the surety, the only one He looked to. Looked to the
stability, the strength of Christ Himself. Now, in the preaching
of the cross, we see how God Almighty, in absolute justice,
God is just, Christ, the scripture said, was made sin and being
in Him, God in justice and judgment and wrath that He never appointed
to the elect. That's what the Apostle says.
He has not appointed us unto wrath. God has never looked at
His children, His elect, In wrath. Why? Because Christ is their
surety. He put them in Him just like
Noah and his family was in the ark. And Almighty God, in absolute
wisdom that I could never explain, was made sin. I cannot explain that. But I
can tell you this, it's so. And all that were ever given
to Him were in Him. And judgment fell on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He died as our federal head. And we in Him. But in Him we
live. Now listen to this. Paul says,
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. Thirdly, lastly, the preaching
of the cross is the absolute greatest exhibition of God's
love for His people. Now, the world believes that God loves
all men without distinction. and cites this verse. I wrote
this verse down. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life. Now let me tell you something,
that verse is true. Now you know that's true. That's God's Word. God's Word is so. But what does
it mean in light of God's Sovereign electing grace. What does it mean in light of
John 17 verse 9? I pray not for the world. Go back and read this. I pray
not for the world, but for those that you've given me out of the
world. You've got to see election in that. You've got to see God's
sovereign, you know, What does John 3.16 mean in light of Romans
9.13? Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. How can I reconcile those two? I've said this before. Look it
up. Go look it up. Look this up and tell me if I'm
not telling you right. Get your Strong's Concordance.
Get your Concordance. Get you a good concordance, but
good. What does the word world mean? Here's what it means. Here's
what you're going to see. Orderly arrangement. God loved the orderly
arrangement. God so loved the orderly arrangement. And because God loved it, now
here's God's just. Am I not true on that? God's
just. What will happen if God Almighty
leaves man to himself? What's going to happen? What
would happen? He'd put everybody in hell. Try to get around that one and
here again. Man is a rebel against God. When Adam fell, we all fell.
And I'm going to tell you something, the moment that every one of us was
born, we were born sinners. And you have no way to get out
of it. You can't get out of it. Why? Because you're spiritually
dead. You're spiritually dead. If we
ever get a hold of that, that we're spiritually dead. Now,
but God Almighty loved the orderly arrangement. God so loved the
world. Scripture bears out that He's
not talking about everybody without distinction because He wouldn't
even pray for everybody without distinction. That's what John
17 and 9 say. So what he did was, because he
loved the orderly arrangement, again I'll go back to the bride
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Out of this orderly arrangement,
his bride is coming. His bride is being brought forth.
And it was not the pleasure of God that the bride should perish. God loved the orderly arrangement
of mankind. And because He loved the orderly
arrangement, if you're going to quote a Scripture, understand
what you're quoting. Understand the words that we're
using. God so loved the orderly arrangement. He liked the way in which He
made it. He made it good. Now I understand
that out of this orderly arrangement, man fell. But Christ redeemed,
redeemed and bought back and paid the debt of some out of
this orderly arrangement. This is the way God made man.
He made men and women just like we look right here. This is how
we looked in the garden. And God loved this arrangement.
And Christ's bride, the one He betrothed Himself to, The one
He eternally loved. The one that would eternally
spend with Him. God loved that arrangement. Isn't
that a miracle of grace? And because God so loved the
orderly arrangement of mankind, He sent His only begotten Son
into this world. And whosoever Believeth in Him. Who's going to believe in Him?
Well, John 6.37 says, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. And Him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Why? Because God loves the arrangement,
the orderly arrangement. Christ Himself. He is who was being pictured. when Judah said to his father
Jacob concerning the safe return of Benjamin. Remember that in
Genesis? Here's what Judah said. I love this passage. I will be
surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring not him unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. The Lord Jesus Christ will not
bear the blame forever of losing one of His sheep. This is the will of Him that
sent me. That of all that He's given me, I should lose nothing.
But raise Him up. In that last day, when He stands
and He says, Father, I and the children that You've given Me,
we're all here. The preaching of the cross is
To them that are perishing, it's foolishness. They don't believe
man's dead. They don't believe God has an
elect. They don't believe that the Lord Jesus Christ actually
finished salvation for His people. It's foolishness. But unto us,
which are being saved, this is the power of God. I pray God
give us a heart to believe this. for his name's sake.