Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Our subject is demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. Demonstration of the Spirit and
of power. Now if I'm blessed with a demonstration,
a proof, a manifestation, an outward inward evident working
of the Holy Spirit and of Christ the power of God, then in my
doctrine and in my manner of preaching, myself and every sinner
is going to be abased to the dust and Christ and only Christ
shall be glorified. Now that's a demonstration of
the Spirit and of power that makes a man abase all sinners,
preach all sinners in the dust, and preach Christ high and lifted
up in glory. And if you're blessed with a
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, then your faith is
not going to stand in my persuasion of you, but it's going to stand
in the power of God. Now, that's what we ought to
pray for. That we would have a true demonstration
of the Holy Spirit of God and Christ the power of God working
in our midst and in our hearts and in our preaching. That's
what we need. That's what we need. Now, our text is 1 Corinthians
2, verses 3 through 5, but let's read again verses 1 and 2. And
our brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And then Paul speaks of his presence
and his power and his purpose. Now, if God blesses us with a
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, there's going to be
a presence God uses, there's going to be a power God uses,
and there's going to be a purpose why God uses it. Now here's the
presence that God uses. Verse 3, And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. That's the presence
God's going to use in His preacher. And then the power God's going
to use. Verse 4, And my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power. There's the power. Alright, then here's the purpose
for which God uses these two things. Verse 5, that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now let's look at this presence
that God uses. Paul says, I was with you in
weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Now, one, God made
Paul in his bodily presence before his hearers to appear this way. God made Paul to appear weak
and fearful and trembling. The Apostle Paul tells us how
his enemies heard him and regarded him when he came there and preached
the gospel the first time. Look over at 2 Corinthians 10.10.
Now this is Paul speaking, but this is, he's saying this is
how those wise and arrogant and polished false preachers and
their followers at Corinth, all those philosophers and what have
you. This is how they regarded Paul.
2 Corinthians 10 and verse 10. Look there at the second part.
They said, his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. His bodily presence weak and
His speech contemptible. Now we know the Apostle Paul
had infirmities of the flesh. God gave them to him. Look over
at 2 Corinthians 12, look at verse 7. 2 Corinthians 12 and
verse 7. Paul said, lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, God had given
him many revelations. He had taken him up to the third
heaven. And he said, lest I be exalted because of the abundance
of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above
measure. And he says there in verse 9
that God said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. For my
strength, God said, is made perfect in weakness. I'm going to demonstrate
my strength, God said. I'm going to demonstrate the
spirit of God and the power of God using a weak, worthless,
powerless vessel. And so this is what Paul said,
and he said this in many places in Scripture. He says there in
verse 9, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities. that the power of Christ may
rest upon me." You know, today's one of those days I just don't
feel good. I'd much rather be doing about
anything but preaching. Isn't that appropriate for this
message? I've just felt horrible. But I'll glory in the fact because
If God blesses the message and God makes you hear the message,
it won't be by me. It will be God that does it. That's what Paul said. He said,
If I must need glory, I'll glory of the things which concern mine
infirmities. Paul said, You fellows say I
look tired. You fellows say that I don't
challenge you with wisdom in the things that I preach to you
when I preach Christ to you. He said, well then I'll glory
in that. I'll glory in that. That the power of Christ may rest
upon me and the power of Christ may be the one who's sending
forth the word and blessing the word and I don't have anything
to do with it. I'm just a vessel, he said. Now in the first chapter,
we know that Paul said there, God did this on purpose. He chooses
foolish, weak, base things. And he's talking about preachers
included. And he does it on purpose. He chooses them so that wise
men and so that mighty men and noble men will be confounded.
and they'll be brought to nothing and no flesh or glory in His
presence. And we've got a lot of examples of this in the Scripture.
Paul said, I'm weak. He said, I was with you in fear
and I was with you in trembling. Now first we're looking here,
truly God made him that way in his body. We have many examples. Christ Jesus, the God-man, the
prophet, priest, and king of His people. Isaiah 53 and verse
2 said, He hath no form, or no comeliness about Him, that when
we shall see Him, we shall desire Him." That was on purpose. It was on purpose that Christ
didn't have any form or comeliness that would make men desire Him.
Look over at Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4. Look in verse 10. When God called
Moses, You remember this? Exodus chapter 4 and verse 10.
Moses had a speech impediment. And God... That would make somebody,
in our estimation, that would be a good person to call to preach,
would it? But look at what God said. Exodus 4.10. Moses said
unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore
nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant. He said, I wasn't
eloquent before you called me and I'm not eloquent now that
you have called me. Look at this. But I'm slow of
speech and I'm slow of tongue. And the Lord said to him, who
made man's mouth? Who makes the dumb? Who makes
the deaf? Who makes the seeing? Who makes
the blind? Have not I the Lord? He said,
Moses, you're just like I made you, for the very purpose for
which I made you that way. He says, verse 12, Now therefore
go, and I'll be with thy mouth, and I'll teach thee what thou
shalt say. Look over at Jeremiah 1. Jeremiah
chapter 1. The Lord called Jeremiah to be his
prophet, to send him forth to preach the gospel. Listen to
this. Jeremiah 1 and verse 4. Then the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before God formed His child in
the belly, He knew all His children, all His elect, including all
those He's going to use to preach and those He's going to call
through the preaching. Before I formed thee in the belly, I
knew thee. Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified
thee. I set you apart, God said. And
I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Now look at what
Jeremiah said, Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak,
for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say
not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. And whatsoever I command thee,
that shalt thou speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto
me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth." That's how a preacher
is made. You don't make him at a man's
seminary. They teach you how to preach
current. You know, how to make it appealing
to men contemporarily. That's not how you make a preacher.
And if any man is preaching that way, that's excellency of speech
and of wisdom. That's enticing words of man's
wisdom. God does not use that. He said
here, I put my words in thy mouth, verse 10, see I have this day
sent thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out
and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down and to build
and to plant. How on earth is Jeremiah going
to do that? One way. preaching that word
that God put in his mouth. God's going to do it through
that word that God put in his mouth. David didn't look anything
like a king ought to look and like a warrior ought to look,
like a soldier ought to look. He looked like a boy. All these big strapping men that
was big giant fellows that looked like they'd make a good king,
God passed them all by. and chose David. And he said
this, he told Samuel, don't look on his countenance, don't look
on the height of his stature, because I've refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looks on the heart. the heart that he's made. According
to historians, this is what I've read about the Apostle Paul. You know, preachers will read
this verse, this chapter, and they'll say, you know, Paul was
schooled and he could have spoke with oratory and all this stuff,
you know. Well, Paul said, under the Spirit of God, that he appeared
to men to be weak in his body, and his speech appeared to be
contemptible. And this is what I read historically about Paul. Paul's body was short and he
was bent over, he was hook-nosed, he was partially blind, and he
had a high-pitched voice. That was quite annoying. And
yet, look what the power of God did with him. He wrote three-fourths
of the Bible and established most of the New Testament churches.
That gives hope to a deaf man with a voice that sounds like
an ice pick. That gives you hope because it ain't about us, it's
about God. And the gifts that we look on
and we say, well that man's gift to God, usually ain't the gifts
God's using. That's just fact. Alright, now
look, but most importantly now, God made this to be Paul's spiritual
inward presence in God's own eyes. This was just not how he
looked to men looking from the outside, looking at Paul. This
is how Paul saw himself, and this is how God made him see
himself. He said there, I was with you
in weakness. That's a demonstration of the
Holy Spirit of God and of Christ, the power of God, to make his
preacher see himself as totally weak. Unable to do a thing. Totally insufficient for something
so weighty as preaching the glory of God in the face of Christ
Jesus. Do you know how weighty that
is? To speak on behalf of God? To speak in the name of God? And to be speaking to sinners
who are going to spend eternity somewhere. Who are sinners in
need And they're going to spend eternity either in God's bliss
of heaven, or under the wrath of God forever in hell. One of
the two places. And to know that, and to know
you're preaching, and your preaching is either going to be used of
God to save them, or to condemn them further. Talk about waiting. And to know
you're totally weak for this, task? You've got no power for
this task?" Paul said, "...and I was with you in fear." That's
a demonstration of the Spirit and the power of God. What made
him fearful? He wasn't fearful of men, he
was fearful of God. God put the fear of God in his
heart. Christ put the fear of God in
his heart. The Holy Spirit put the fear of God in his heart
so that he had a reverence for God. Most people that come in
the church house, they little Arrogant, chest poked out, with
no reverence for God, no fear of God before their eyes whatsoever. Saying there's no God. That's
what man says. There's no God. That's all he
said. No God. No God. And he says no to God. And God said, there's no fear of God before
their eyes. No fear of God before their eyes. God has to put fear
in your heart. When He does, then you're going
to have a reverence to make sure everything that's spoken is true. That's a fearful thing. I don't
want to speak a lie to you. I don't want to speak anything
that's not according to God's Word. And you have a reverence
for Christ whom you're trying to preach. You have a reverence
for His Gospel. You have a reverence for His
Word. You want to make sure everything is just according to His Word. That you're preaching His Word,
not your own word. Who cares about your word or
my word? Who cares? Who cares? Paul said, I was with you in
fear, in fear. He said, and I was with you in
much trembling. You think of the weightiness
of this, the weightiness of knowing you're totally weak, and yet
you have this weighty responsibility of preaching to hell-bound sinners
the glory and truth of God. If that don't make you tremble,
I'll tell you this, a man ought not to speak a word about God
to a sinner if he don't have this trembling in his heart. This ain't a game. This is not
something where a man just says, I believe today I'm going to
start preaching. I was at a place one time and
this fellow was talking to me and he said, yeah, these folks
here, they're looking for a preacher. He said, I reckon I'm going to
come down here and preach for them. I thought, that ain't how
a preacher is going to be sent. And that man that thinks like
that, he don't have no business preaching. No business for you. This is not a game. Not a game. Trembling. Trembling. Listen
to this. 2 Corinthians 2.15. Look over
there with me. 2 Corinthians 2.15. Here's why Paul had the heart
he had. Look here. 2 Corinthians 2.15. We are unto God, talking about
His preachers, we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. Now watch this, in them that
are saved and in them that perish. To the one, we're the savor of
death unto death. You mean that's a saver to God
for His Son and His Son being preached when a man is dead,
and he won't hear, and he rebels, and he rejects, and he looks
to his own wisdom, and his own way, and his own works, and he's
just dead, dead, dead, further into death and condemnation.
You mean that's a saver to God? It glorifies God's justice. That's right. It's a saver in
Christ unto God. Look at this. And to the other,
the savor of life unto life. Either way, Christ is being glorified.
Christ is being glorified. Look at Paul, he said, Who is
sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, he said,
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity. But as of
God, that's where we get it, of God. In the sight of God, We speak we in Christ. Look down at chapter 3 and verse
5. Not that we're sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament. That's who makes a minister.
It's God. Now, that's the first demonstration
of the Holy Spirit and of power to put this in Paul's heart to
know, I've got no power. I've got no ability. Now, that's
got to be done, number one. That's got to be done. God's
going to do that before He sends the preacher, His preacher, Because
until that happens, a man's got no business speaking in the name
of God whatsoever. All he'll do is exalt men and
exalt himself rather than exalt God. And God won't have that. Alright, now here's the power
of that preacher he sends. Now here's the second thing,
the power that God's going to use. Verse 4, Paul said in my
speech, this word means my doctrine. My doctrine. What I'm teaching
you right now is doctrine. He said, my doctrine and my preaching,
that's the actual act of preaching itself, going through the mechanics
of preaching. The doctrine and the actual act
of preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Paul said, my doctrine
nor my style of preaching was with enticing words of man's
wisdom. Let me try to illustrate enticing
words of man's wisdom. It's like fishing with a fake
lure. When you fish with a fake lure,
on purpose, that lure is made to look real. On purpose. It's made to look like it's real. Because you want to fool the
fish. And on purpose, it's made to cover the hook. You don't
want the hook shining. So that to the fish, it looks
edible. And on purpose, it's used and
it's worked just so, so that it entices that fish to take
the bait and to get hooked. Listen to me, that's what 99% of preaching in our day is. enticing words of man's wisdom
to make poor perishing sinners take the bait and get hooked.
That's right. Paul said, I didn't use that.
God doesn't use enticing words of man's wisdom. You mean to
tell me I'm going to be able to stand up here and preach to
dead sinners and somehow make a dead sinner have life by what
I say to him? That's impossible. Faith and
repentance is the gift of God. There's no way you're going to
have that but by the gift of God. And a man cannot entice
you and preach in such a way to make you cease from your works
and believe on Christ alone. No man can entice another sinner
to do that. The only way that you're going
to be made the righteousness of God and the holiness of God
and be accepted of God is if God makes you righteous and holy
by giving you that righteousness and giving you that holiness
in Christ the Lord. There's no way a man can entice
another sinner to stop working, stop looking to his own wisdom,
and rest entirely in Christ. A man can't entice another man
to do that. There's never been a sinner entice
another sinner to do that in the history of the world. There
won't ever be one that entices another sinner to do that. You
can make the best, you can have a church baseball team that wins
the World Series and you can't entice a man to do that. The only thing that one sinner
can entice another sinner to do is follow a man, follow a
denomination, follow a creed. That's it. That's all. And when
the next fellow comes along that's a little more enticing, whether
it's in religion or it's in a whorehouse, he's going to entice him that
way. But entice him to rest in Christ?
Impossibility. possibility. Paul says, my doctrine
and my preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Here's
what that means, number one. Number one, this demonstration
was by Christ, the power of God, and by the Holy Spirit, in that
it made Paul preach only Christ and Him crucified. We saw first of all, he made
Paul see he had no power. He was weak. He couldn't do this.
Secondly, this power made Paul preach only Christ and Him crucified.
In Acts 18.9, I'll show you that it was Christ, the power of God,
that made him do it. Look at Acts 18.9. He went there to Koreth and he
gets there. And this is a seed of philosophy.
This is a seed of, you know, worldly wisdom and all these
doctors of philosophy and all this stuff. Look here, Acts 18,
9. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by vision. And he said, Be not afraid, but
speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this
city." And here was the result. He continued there a year and
six months teaching the Word of God among them. Teaching His
Word? No, teaching the Word of God.
He preached the Word of God. It says there that he was pressed
in the Spirit and he testified to the Jews that Jesus is the
Christ. He said, and that's all I was
determined to preach, Jesus Christ being crucified. He went there,
stood up in front of these men who like nothing better than
to be told some new thing, who like nothing but philosophy and
logic and reasons of men, and he stood there and he said, I'm
not trying to preach to you in some false power and authority
to top your vain wisdom and top your philosophy and top your
eloquence of your speech. All I'm determined to do is tell
you about somebody you don't have a clue about. That's the
Son of God, Jesus Christ, and what He accomplished on the cross.
Christ is God come down in the flesh. God came down here in human flesh
because He had a chosen people and His justice had to be satisfied. And He came here and He went
to the cross Himself and He magnified and honored and established His
holy law declaring Himself just. And at the same time, He justified
His people from our sins. That's the purpose for which
Christ came. It's not to be this baby in a manger so that you'll
have something to celebrate once a year at Christmas time and
then at Easter you go and you have a little, chase some eggs
around out the yard. It's not for that. It's to declare
the glory of God. It's to declare the righteousness
of God. It's to declare sinners have
no way whatsoever under this sun to make themselves righteous
and accepted of God. Christ said, if I had to come,
they wouldn't have sin. Now they don't have a cloak for
their sin. Why? Because Christ is holy and righteous,
and His presence reveals to you and me that we're just depraved
sinners. And you and I won't know it until He enters our hearts.
When He shines His light in the heart, that's when we're going
to find out that we're depraved sinners. When holiness and righteousness
come, and that way we take our little piddly righteousness,
and our little holiness, and our little wisdom, and now we
behold true wisdom, and true righteousness, and true holiness,
and true liberty, and we see everything we thought was, that
is nothing but a bunch of dung. We were holding on to vanity.
And we won't see that till the truth comes. We won't see that
till light comes. We won't see that till the Holy
Spirit enters the heart and Christ becomes the power and wisdom
of God in the heart. And that's what Paul preached
to them. Now you picture this. Here's this man in this seat
of wisdom and this seat of authority and this place where everybody
looked down on God's people on Christ and looked down on His
preachers. They thought that's just ignorance.
Just people being duped and all that was. We're so wise. We don't fall for that. And they
persecuted people who preached this. They persecuted men who
preached this. What made Paul stand there and preach Christ
and not be fearful of what men would do to him? What made him
do that? Listen to this. He told Timothy, Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. That's what Paul
said he was there preaching, the testimony of the Lord. And
he said, Don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor
of me, his prisoner. If thou may imprison, Paul told
Timothy, don't be ashamed of that, he said. But be thou partaker of the affliction
of the gospel. How in the world are you going
to do that? according to the power of God. That's the only
way. It was a demonstration of the
Holy Spirit and the power of God to make Paul stand there
in that vain hill of philosophy and dumb gods and stand up and
preach the true and living God. It was the power of God. And
it's the power of God that makes any preacher do it. Preachers
say, Oh, I wish I could preach what you preach. You could. You
could if the power of God made you do it. That's the only way. You can't do it of yourself because
you want that money. That's your God. You can't do
it of yourself. Till God makes God your God,
you can't do it. Just can't do it. Man can make
all excuses he want to, but now you picture this. Here he is,
totally weak, totally powerless, this sinner, and he's at Corinth
at that place with all these great orators, and there he is,
a man who regards himself just like the people that are hearing
him regard him. Weak and speech that's contemptible. Somebody
said the worst punishment there could ever be for a preacher
is sentence him to a lifetime of listening to his own preaching.
And Paul didn't want to hear himself free. He thought, ah,
my speech is contemptible. But there he stood in the midst
of them. He's made to know the power and wisdom of God, and
it's not in the eloquence of man. He knows it's in the gospel. And he stands up there and he
preaches the gospel. That's the power and the Holy
Spirit of God making him do that. And then look at this. Here's
the second thing this means. is the effect that was wrought
in the Corinthians by his preaching. You picture this, there he is
preaching this message, and here's all these wise men, cocky, arrogant,
just sure they know everything is true and wise in the world.
Men who yesterday swore, I'll never believe that message. You're
not going to persuade me to believe that message. Today, they're
on their face confessing their sin and crying out to God for
mercy. Yesterday they were walking around
and they were saying, I don't need a righteousness. Today they're
crying out, God please give me the righteousness of Christ.
That's all. That's my only hope is His righteousness. What made
the difference? It was a demonstration of the
Holy Spirit and the power of God. It wasn't a demonstration
of a preacher's persuasion. It was a demonstration of the
Holy Spirit and the power of God. Now here's the third thing.
What's God's purpose in all that? Why does God do it this way?
Why does He use this presence, and why does He use this power
only? Why does He use a weak, earthen, helpless vessel, and
why does He use this thing that's the foolishness of preaching
that men despise and hate, and the preaching of Christ in Him
crucified that men regard as total foolishness? Why does God
use these things? Verse 5, that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of God and wisdom
of men, but in the power of God. God's preacher, the true preacher,
he's not trying to persuade sinners to make a profession of faith.
I'm not trying to persuade anybody to make a profession of faith.
No, sir. God's preacher's not standing
up and he's not trying to use logic He's not trying to use
the power of persuasion. He's not trying to use slick
talk and dim lights and get the mood just right and get tug at
your heart strings so that all of a sudden you say, okay, I'm
gonna give in. I'll give my heart to Jesus.
That nasty, corrupt nature in you, God don't want it. The heart
God says give to me is the heart God first gives to you. God don't
take anything from a sinner but what he first gives to the sinner. Now, I'm not trying to persuade
you. No true preacher is trying to persuade a man of anything. I don't want you trusting in
me. I don't want you trusting in yourself. I want you trusting
lock, stock and barrel the Lord Jesus Christ only. And I can't
make you do that. What is your faith? Where does
your faith stand? You've got a faith of some kind.
Everybody here does. You believe something. Don't
you? Everybody believes something.
The atheist, that's a belief. He believes something. Where's
your belief stand? Is it standing in your own wisdom?
Well, this is just how I sort of figure it. You got a fool
for a teacher. You don't have anything to base
your faith on. You don't stand in anything.
If it's of you or me or of another man, Is your faith because somebody
just works something up in you? Where does it stand? Listen to
this. We have this treasure, the treasure
of this gospel in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Not of us. What does it mean? Look over at 1 Thessalonians. Look here. Paul said this in
1 Thessalonians 1. He said, verse 5, Our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were examples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia." Examples of what? Examples
of what only God can do. Examples of God calling a man
through the power of the Gospel. That's right. What is this power
of God in which faith stands? This is the last thing I'm going
to tell you. Now listen carefully. What is this power of God in
which God-given faith stands? If any point of your salvation,
if any point of your salvation is by you in any regard, in the
slightest regard, any part of your salvation is of you in any
regard, your faith stands in the wisdom of men, not in the
power of God. The power of God in which true
faith stands rests in this truth that all
my salvation is from A to Z of the Lord. God the Father chose
me. Christ the Son of God redeemed
me. The Holy Spirit regenerated me.
God gave me faith. God gave me repentance. God's
preserving me. All my acceptance with God is
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone, the Son of God. If He
doesn't save me, I won't be saved. The power of my salvation, the
power that I'm resting in is God only. The power of faith
is the object of faith, not faith. Faith doesn't look to faith.
Faith looks to Christ and rests in Him. He is the Alpha and Omega,
the author and the finisher of faith. He's the power of God,
the power and wisdom of God. Now, you remember why Paul was
preaching this? because there were some slick
preachers that had come into Corinth and they were preaching
with eloquence and enticing words of man's wisdom. And you know
what it had done? It had caused young, immature believers at
Corinth to look to men. And it divided the brethren.
It caused them to start looking to men rather than to Christ.
It started making them go, well, I like that preacher and not
that preacher. I prefer this one and not that one, rather
than looking to Christ only. And look at what Paul said, 1
Corinthians 4.18, and we'll end with this. He said, some of you
are puffed up as though I would not come to you. And he's talking
to those false preachers. arrogant, puffed up, haughty,
running down Paul and the other true preachers. He said, but
I'll come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and I will know
not the speech of them which are puffed up. I could care less
how enticing you can preach. Paul said, here's what I want
to know. The power. The power. That's what I want to know, the
power. For the kingdom of God's not in word, it's in power. What's that mean? Now let me
say a word to the preachers. It means this. It don't matter
how many names a preacher manages to get on the church roll. It
don't matter how big a building he manages to build. It don't
matter how the Southern Baptist Convention is pleased with him
and raises him up to be the beacon example of the whole convention.
It don't matter. That don't matter. Here's what
matters. Has God made you preach Christ
and Him only? Has God made you stand up and
deny yourself in total weakness, in total inability, and just
preach Christ and watch as that congregation dwindles down to
nothing because sinners won't hear it? Has it made you stand
there and preach Christ because you'd rather Him have the glory
than you have the glory? You'd rather Him, sinners, be
brought to Christ than to the Baptist church or the Presbyterian
church or the Methodist church or whatever church? Would you
rather them rest in Christ than in the 1400 creed and the 1500
creed and the year 1600 creed and all these other creeds? Would
you rather them rest in Christ than in man's creeds? You see,
there ain't but one thing that'll make a man do that. That's the
Spirit of God and the power of God. I pray God will give us preachers,
preachers, preachers, preachers to preach in the power and the
Spirit of God, and He'll call His people out. You know what
we need more than anything in our day? We need the Spirit of
God. Can you imagine if God poured
the Spirit out on us like He did in the early days in the
early church? We don't have that. We fool ourselves,
we think we do. We don't have that. Pray God
will give it to us, that we truly can have the Spirit of God that
will just break the sinner's hearts and make men stand and
bold again and preach Christ and Him crucified. That's what
we need. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God and our Father, we pray that
You would pour out Your Spirit as we sing here time and again.
We have the drops falling around us, the drops of Your mercy.
We want the showers, Lord. We want You to pour out showers
of blessing. We want You to pour out Your
Spirit in abundance on Your preachers and on Your people. exalt Christ,
make us to glorify Christ, make us to renounce ourselves and
any kind of show and flash and wisdom in us. We're nothing but
a bunch of worms, Lord, that you're using by your grace and
your mercy alone. You've called us to glorify Your
Son, not to glorify us. Make us know that. Lord, make
us to be honoring to You and to Your glorious grace. And Lord, call out. Call out
in power. Call out sinners. Bring them to Christ's feet.
Make them glory in Christ the Lord. Lord, that's our prayer. Everything else in this life,
We thank You for it. We bless You for giving it to
us. And everything else, Lord, is just secondary use, secondary
cause to be used for this one purpose. And we pray You make
us use it for that purpose. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.