Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Our subject tonight is the wisdom
and pleasure of God. The wisdom and pleasure of God. Let's read verse 21. For after
that, in the wisdom of God, in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. We believe, according to the
Scriptures, that Christ is the head over His body, which is
the church. And believing our resurrected
Redeemers the head over His church, we believe, according to the
Scriptures, that it's Christ who gathers together His people
and meets together with His people and that as the gospel is being
preached, declaring His marvelous works, His person and His works,
as the gospel is being preached, we believe Christ is truly preaching
to His people and teaching His people in spirit, making it effectual
in our hearts so that we can hear and giving us faith to believe
and to trust Him. That's why we don't lean to our
own wisdom. That's why we trust the gospel
to be the wisdom of God. Because we know Christ is the
wisdom and the power by which He instructs His people and makes
His people obedient. He makes us obedient to believe
Him and rest entirely in Him, not trusting our works, not trusting
anything that we've done by law, And He makes us obedient to love
one another, and care for one another, and provide for one
another. Not constrained by legal constraints, but by the love
of Christ, His love for us. And this has taught us, and we're
brought to this obedience by Christ preaching to us through
the preaching of the Gospel. This is what we believe. The
first problem in Corinth is the problem that most people have
in our day. They were looking to, and trusting
in, and leaning upon the wisdom of man. The wisdom of man. They were impressed with preachers
who had been taught by men in man-made schools, rather than
being impressed with those Christ called, and Christ taught, and
Christ sent, who preached the gospel according to the scripture.
They were impressed with those who used eloquence of speech,
who were able to word the Gospel in such a way that it took the
offense out of the Gospel, rather than Christ's preachers who simply
declared the Word of God, preached Christ according to the Scriptures
without using the wisdom of man's word. And here's what was really
bad. There were some among them who
were even saying, we're of Christ. We were taught the gospel by
Christ. We were searching the Word and
He revealed Himself to us. We didn't even have a preacher,
so we don't even need a preacher. That's what they were saying.
We're of Christ. We don't need a preacher. Brethren, be very, very fearful
of a so-called conversion. that's not according to the Word
of God. God saves exactly the way God
says He saves in His Word. However He says He saves in this
book is how God saves. Now understand that and know
that. There's no shadow of turning
with God. Let God be true. His Word is
the truth. And let every man be a liar.
And that means our feelings, That means our so-called experiences. That means the experiences that
men talk about. We bring it all to this Word
of God. And if it don't line up with
the Word of God, it's got to go. Because God's true and every
man's a liar. Now, if we're gods, this doctrine,
just like all doctrine, it won't be an offense to us. If He's
truly saved us by His Word, it won't be an offense to us. We'll
bow to God and we'll believe Him. It's only offensive to those
who rest in a false refuge. All doctrine, no matter what
it is, is offensive only if it touches on a man's false refuge. That's when it becomes offensive
to a man. But if we're God's, He'll destroy
every false refuge and He'll do it through this means of public
preaching. I pray He does that tonight.
Now the Holy Spirit used Paul to declare that God does not
use man's wisdom to save His people. He uses the gospel, the
preaching of the gospel of Christ. Paul said back up there in verse
17, Christ sent me not to baptize, not to make converts, 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," this literal preaching of the Word
of God, its subject being Christ Himself, it's to them that are perishing
foolishness. But to us who are saved is the
power of God. the power of God. And then the
Holy Spirit gives reasons why God chose the means of public
preaching, the preaching of Christ, to save His people. We saw verse
19 last time. Now this time we come to verse
21. 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. Here's what we're going to see
tonight. in eternal wisdom, the eternal wisdom of God. After
God proved that man's wisdom is utter foolishness, utterly
worthless, it pleased God after that to give Christ the glory
of sending His preachers and through them Christ preaches
His gospel And it's through this means that Christ saves them
that believe. That's what we're going to see.
Now first of all, we're going to just take this one verse and
break it down into three separate sections. First of all, we're
shown here, it's the wisdom of God. It's the wisdom of God to
save through preaching. It's the wisdom of God. Verse
21 says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God." Now this means two things and both apply, both
are true, both apply. Now first of all, for thousands
of years, God manifested to men His wisdom by the things that
God made, by things that we clearly see. He revealed, He showed some
things that could be known about Himself in creation. Look over
at Romans 1. Romans chapter 1. I want you
to hold your place in Romans 1. I'm going to come back here
a couple of times. Romans chapter 1. I read this to you the other
day. It says in verse 19, that which
may be known of God, Not everything may be known this
way, but that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for
God hath showed it unto them. Speaking of men, the heathen
Gentile world. And it says here, for the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power in Godhead, so that all men are without excuse." All
men are without excuse. He showed us the things that
could be known of God by creation, and yet because of the fall,
because we fell in Adam. Now hear this carefully. Because
we fell in Adam, brethren, not a single sinner ever knew God
by the light of creation. Not one in the history of the
world. Not one. The wisest heathen never
came to a true understanding of God by his own searching. Never. Look down at verse 22. It says, professing themselves
to be wise. Anybody can do that. They professed
themselves to be wise, but he says they became fools. Why? Here's what they did. Look down
at verse 25. They changed the truth of God into a lie. And they worshipped and served
the creature. They worshipped man. And they
worshipped God's creation. More, or rather than, God. Rather than the Creator, who
is blessed forever. Amen. Alright? Then God created
Israel. He created the nation Israel
and God gave His oracles from Mount Sinai to the nation Israel. But left to themselves, they
did exactly what the Gentiles did. They changed the truth of
God into a lie and worshipped man rather than God. And that's
what Paul's talking about in Romans 2. Look there in verse
3. He's speaking here to the scribes
and Pharisees. And he says, Thinkest thou this,
O man, that judgest them which doest such things? You look at
the Gentiles here that I've been talking about who changed the
truth of God into the lie. And you judge them that do such
things. And he said, And you do the same
thing. You changed the truth of God
into a lie. You took the law of God and instead
of seeing Christ in the shadows and the types, and instead of
seeing your need of Christ, instead of seeing your sin by the law,
He says you took it and changed the truth into a lie and told
men they could be saved by their works and now you try to come
to God by your works. You're worshipping man rather
than God. Even then when Christ came Himself and walked this
earth, when wisdom Himself walked this earth and men saw Him face
to face, you know what the Scripture says? He came unto His own and
His own received Him not. Hold your place in Romans and
look back at 1 Corinthians and look at chapter 2 and verse 8.
None of the princes of this world knew. None of the rulers, none
of the leaders in religion or out knew Christ. None of them
did. For had they known, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. Nobody knew. Now here's
what he's telling us. In the history of the world,
not one sinner ever, using the light of nature or using the
Word of God, not one sinner ever taught himself who God is and
how God saves sinners. Not one. Not one. That's our
depravity. Not one did it. Now look back
at Romans 3, and I'll show you what Paul concludes. He pointed
this out, he showed this, he proved this, and then he brings
it to this conclusion in Romans 3 and verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No,
and no wise. We're not better than the Jew,
and we're not better than the Gentile. For we have before proved,
both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. That's
why we cannot, by our searching, know God. We're under sin. We fail in Adam. Our discernment
is gone by nature. Look at this. As it's written,
there is none righteous, no not one, there is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. There's a lot who appear
to be seeking after God. By the natural eye, they appear
to be seeking after God, but Christ said they're searching
the Scriptures that they might find life in the Scriptures. Life by their own hands. but
they're not seeking Christ, that they might be saved by Christ.
And that's the truth of this book. Christ did. Now look, none
seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. That's me, that's you, that's
your babies, that's your grandchildren, that's everybody in this world.
That's all of us. Back in our text, that's what
this phrase means at first. God gave thousands of years and
He proved man by his own wisdom couldn't know God. Now here's
what else it means. It means that this was on purpose
according to the wisdom of God. In God's eternal wisdom, God
foreordained from eternity that after He proved that man's wisdom
was utterly worthless, God, in His wisdom, purposed from the
very beginning, before the world was made, that Christ would come. He would send forth the God-man,
His Son, and Christ would establish His Kingdom by His work on the
cross. And Christ would equip His preachers,
teaching them the Gospel through the message, through preaching.
And Christ would send them forth, and Christ would preach through
the Word, to the hearts of His people, and that's how He'd save
His people. From then on, that's how He'd
save them, through the preaching of the gospel. That's what our
text is declaring, and that's what Christ does. The Lord Jesus
Christ said this. He said that John the Baptist
marked the end of the old legal dispensation and marked the new
beginning of this gospel age. He said it, he put it this way.
He was making a point, it had to do with something else, but
this is the truth of it nonetheless. He said the Law and the Prophets
were until John. And he said since that time,
the Kingdom of God is preached. The kingdom of God is preached,
and every man presseth into it." Not all men, but every elect
child of God, by His Spirit, by His grace, making it effectual,
they press into this kingdom. He said in Luke 10.21, remember
the scribes and Pharisees rejected Him. And Christ said this, in
that hour, Jesus rejoiced. They didn't believe on Him. Why
did He rejoice? In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hid these things, the gospel, from the
wise and the prudent, and Thou hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight." It was according to God's wisdom. And then Paul
says God ordained this before the world was. In 1 Corinthians
2.7, he says, we speak the wisdom of God. That's what we preach.
1 Corinthians 2.7. And it's a mystery though, even
the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto
our glory. This was God's eternal wisdom. to save through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, I'm making this point because
I want you to understand. Some people say that God tried
to save through the light of nature, and then He tried to
save through giving the law, and then none of that worked,
so He had to go to plan B, and He had to send Christ, and He
had to send the gospel. That's a lie. God don't have
a plan B. Whatever God does in time, it's
what God purposed from eternity past. Because He declares, as
Isaiah said, He declares the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. We're looking at what pleased
God. He said, I'm going to do My pleasure. So, the phrase means
it was according to the wisdom of God. that after God had proven
man's total inability to know God by man's own wisdom, after
that, God was pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save
them, they believed. Alright, now, that's the first
point. If you're going to be saved, brethren, I want everybody
to understand this. I know that men, they try to
get Bibles that, you know, have everything in today's language,
and they think, that's going to help me understand God. They
want to try to find a preacher who's got the best man-made education
at a man-made cemetery. That's not going to help you
believe God. They try to find, you know, they use their own
wisdom and logic to try to figure out God and think you're not
going to figure out God that way. If you could, He wouldn't
be God. If you and I could figure Him
out. God has to reveal Himself to us and He says He's pleased
to do it through the preaching of the Word. Now here's the second
thing. The Holy Spirit declares this
is not only the wisdom of God, but this is what pleased God.
Look at verse 21. It pleased God. After that, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them they
believed. Now, on several occasions, I've
preached messages to you and we've gone through the Scriptures
and we've looked at the things that pleased God. There's a lot
of places in Scripture where it tells us what pleased God.
Now, I'm about to give you these things again. And here's the
reason I'm giving them to you. I can't possibly have you look
all these up. We'll look up some of them, but
you can jot them down if you want to. But this is what pleased
God. And the reason I'm showing you
this is, is that all of these things must come to pass. And they have and they shall
because it pleased God. No sinner can be saved except
in the way that pleased God. And so when we Read here that
it pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching. You
can rest assured this is the way God's going to save His people.
Because it pleased God to do it. Just like these other things
pleased God. Now, I'm sure we won't deny these other things.
I hope we won't. And I hope you see after looking
at these things, neither ought we to deny this truth. Because
this pleased God just like these other things pleased God. Number
one, it pleased God to choose whom He would and make them His
elect people. 1 Samuel 12, 22 says this, The
Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake, because
it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. Now here's the
question. Can anybody be saved except God
choose them? No. Will God ever forsake one
that He's chosen? No! Why? Because it pleased God
to make you His people. Well, by the same token, not
one sinner will ever be saved apart from the preaching of the
Gospel, because it pleased God to save by the foolishness of
preaching. Alright? It pleased God to bruise Christ
at our substitute in the place of His people to satisfy God's
justice and to justify His people. I will have you turn to this,
Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. I want you to read
this. Verse 10 says, It pleased the
Lord to bruise him. It satisfied God. That's what
it means. It brought satisfaction to God's
divine justice, bruising Christ on the cross. It pleased the
Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief. When
thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed,
He shall prolong days. Now watch this. And the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. He shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be pleased. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
Now, can even one sinner be saved except that Christ go to the
cross, and be made sin for us, and bear the divine justice that
we owe to justice, bear the punishment we owe, the stripes we owe, and
satisfy justice. Can any sinner be saved any other
way? No way. God's law had to be satisfied,
God had to be declared just, and in the process, Christ justified
His people. God justified His people in His
Son, Christ Jesus the Lord. No sinner can be saved any other
way. It pleased God. It pleased God. Well, neither
can a sinner be saved any other way except through the preaching
of the Gospel of Christ, because it pleased God to do it that
way. It pleased God. Then we're told this, and I have
you turn here to Colossians 1. And I want you to turn here because
this has a great deal to do with what Christ is doing in this
gospel age. Galatians chapter 1, I'm sorry,
Colossians chapter 1, Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 says, He's
the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning. He's the
firstborn from the dead that in all things Christ might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Christ should all fullness dwell." It pleased God, He foreordained
this, that Christ would usher in a new beginning. He would
usher in the gospel age. Christ would be the one who would
fulfill the law, establish righteousness, and He would be the one to send
forth His preachers. Because it's Christ that must
fulfill all things. All fullness must come from Christ. It pleased the Father that in
Him all fullness dwell. Just the same as He's the fullness
of the righteousness of the law, He's the fullness that's going
to send His preacher and bless it to the hearts of His people.
It's His glory to do one the same as it is to do the other.
We're not going to deny one, we're not going to deny Him the
glory of the other, because it's His glory. That's what He's saying
in that text. Now, can a single sinner be saved
without all fullness being from Christ? No. He's got to have
the preeminence. He filleth all in all. And so
no sinner can be saved except through the preaching of the
Word, because that pleased God too. That pleased God. Now the
works, I've got to understand, the works of Christ. We talk
about His works as our risen head. It includes His works of
sending this gospel, of preaching through it to His people, of
sending the Spirit, of blessing it to our hearts. Those works
are as much His works as what He did on the cross, brethren.
Don't undervalue the work of Christ as the risen head of His
people. Alright, now. It pleased God
to reveal His Son in the hearts of His people at God's predestinated
time. Paul said in Galatians 1.15,
when it pleased God. There he was, a religious man,
been to the seminary under Gamaliel, and he's going about with letters
to crucify, to kill God's church. But when it pleased God. He said,
who separated me from my mother's womb. He chose me before I even
knew me. And it says, He called me by
His grace and revealed His Son in me when it pleased God. And
it pleased God to save His people through God-given faith. But
without faith, Scripture says, it's impossible to please God.
For he that comes to God must come believing that He is everything
He says in this Word. Believing He saves exactly how
He saves in this Word. Believing God is who He says
He is in this Word. And believing He's the rewarder,
He's the salvation of them that come seeking Him. And then it
pleased God to make known to His people the mystery of His
will. This Gospel. And this mystery
of His will is His pleasure. It's His pleasure. Scripture
says, Ephesians 1, 9 says, He made known unto us the mystery
of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed
in Himself. And here's that good, here's
that will, here's that good pleasure of God. In the dispensation of
the fullness of times. That means when Christ is called
the last one out of His people. the last elect child he's called
out of this world into his church, into faith in Christ. When the
fullness of times has come, God's going to gather together in one,
that is Christ, all things in Christ, to all his people, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. That's
God's will. He's taught us that through this
word. And then in the end, If it pleased
God, He's going to give all His believing children the Kingdom
of God. Fear not, little flock, Christ said, for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Those are all things
that please God. Now, can one of those things
that please God fail to come to pass? Can any one of them
fail? Not one of them. If one of those
things that please God fails to come to pass, we can't be
saved. We cannot be saved. Well, neither
can this fail. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. It pleased God. Was
God sovereign enough to do all of these things that please Him?
Yeah, He sure was. So He's sovereign to send His
gospel to His child and make His child cross the paths with
that gospel, and sovereign enough to give His child the Word in
our heart, and make us live, and make us believe, and make
us bow to Him. He's sovereign to do it. That's
who God is. He's sovereign in salvation.
Sovereign in salvation. Alright, lastly. What's true
preaching? What does he mean here by preaching?
He says, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. Now hear me carefully because
I don't want to be misunderstood. True preaching, true preaching
includes the literal public act of preaching. What I'm doing
right here, right now. You can read the context and
it's impossible to make Paul be saying anything but that.
He says repeatedly the preaching of the cross, not with wisdom
of the words. We preach Christ. I came to you not with excellency
of speech, preaching the testimony of God. He's talking about preaching
Christ, literally preaching. And I make that point because
some people try to take this text and say it don't mean actual
preaching. Yes, it does. It means preaching.
And it also means the subject that's preached, Christ himself,
the person of Christ, and all that he accomplished. True preaching
declares Christ is the Son of God. He's God the Son. The second person in the Trinity.
Christ was chosen by God the Father. He's pre-eminently the
elect of God. God chose Him. And God chose
a people and He entrusted His people to the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't back up from that. We
don't try to mince words about that. We don't try to cloak that
in wisdom of words. We just declare it. God chose
a people in Christ Jesus. And when He did it, He blessed
His people with all spiritual blessings in Him. That's what
the Scripture says. We delight in that. Don't you
delight in that? Because God's taught you the truth in your
heart. True preaching declares that Christ came and was made
of a woman. He's the Son of God and the Son
of Man. He's the God-Man. And He was
made of a woman and made under the law because He came and He
accomplished the redemption of His particular people, and only
His particular people. That's so because He satisfied
justice for those for whom He died. And if He satisfied justice
for everybody, then they all got to be saved. But He satisfied
justice for that particular people. We declare that because it declares
the glory of Christ, because it declares He successfully accomplished
the redemption of His people. Daniel 9, if you can find it,
I want you to see what Christ accomplished and is now accomplishing. Daniel 9. Verse 24. Daniel 9, 24. Seventy weeks are
determined. They're purposed by God. It's
God's pleasure. That means at the exactly appointed
time Christ went to the cross. And it says, upon thy people
and upon thy holy city. That's God's elect. Here's what
Christ did. To finish the transgression. Isn't that good news? Christ
finished the transgression. Our transgression. He finished
it. Look at this. He made an end of sins. God says, I don't remember your
sins anymore. Christ put them away. He's that
scapegoat that took our sins away into that land not inhabited.
Look at this, he made reconciliation for iniquity. God was in Christ
reconciling his people unto himself. He brought in everlasting righteousness. And He is that righteousness,
brethren, the righteousness of God. And look at this now. This
is so important. And Christ came to seal up the
vision and the prophecy. That means all law and all prophecy
must be fulfilled by Christ alone. That's what He came to do. Seal
it up. To put an end to it by accomplishing it. And to anoint
the Most Holy. To enter into that holy place.
to that holiest of holies and sit down having accomplished
a work for his people from which now he's ministering as that
anointed holy Lord and Christ who's ministering to his people
from glory through the gospel. And this is important. Don't
miss this now. As much as all that other is
true preaching, True preaching also declares that Christ, right
now, as the risen head of His people, is receiving all the
glory for this means right here, for this public preaching. He's
doing it. Because He gets the glory for
sending the preacher and He gets the glory for being the subject
preached. It's all glorifying Him. Every bit of it. The means
and the subject preached. And then when He gives life,
He's the life. He gives the glory for them.
Now, we just read in Daniel, just then, all prophecy must
be fulfilled by Christ. What Daniel spoke, He's a prophet,
that's prophecy. It all has to be fulfilled by
Christ. And we read there in Isaiah,
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. Whatever
pleased the Lord, it's going to prosper. It's going to prosper
in Christ's hand. He must fulfill, that's a prophet. Isaiah, that's his prophecy.
It's got to be fulfilled by Christ. Now, Christ accomplishes everything
that God said He would accomplish in the Law and the Prophets.
Now listen carefully. Not only for His people, which
He does. He accomplishes everything for
His people on the cross. He also accomplishes the whole
work in His people through the gospel. I was looking at what
pleased God and I never rewrote in on this till today. Listen
to this. It's God which worketh in you. That's God our Savior. Christ Jesus our Lord. Our God,
our Redeemer, our Head. It's God that works in you, both
to will and to do what? His good pleasure. His good pleasure. Whatever pleases God, that's
why He's working in the midst of His people. Now this is what
He said through the prophet Jeremiah. He's got to fulfill all prophecy.
And through the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 3.15, He said this,
I will. give you preachers according
to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." That prophecy, just like every
other prophecy, That prophecy, just like the prophecy that showed
that He's the Lion of the tribe of Judah. That prophecy, just
like the prophecy that showed in Isaiah that said, we all like
sheep have gone astray and He laid on Him the iniquity of us
all and with His stripes we're healed. Just like He fulfilled
that prophecy, He fulfills this prophecy. I will give you preachers
according to My heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Christ does that and He gets the glory for doing it. They're
only sent by Christ Himself. True preachers. I'm not talking
about all preachers. I'm talking about true preachers.
The preachers who preach a message that gives Christ all the glory.
They're sent of Christ. They're sent of Christ. When
He walked this earth, Christ personally called His apostles.
He personally called his apostles. He called Paul after. He's the
only man we see afterwards, when Christ arose, that was called
personally by Christ. And even him, he sent a preacher
to him, though it was Christ who taught him personally, because
he was an apostle. But he called his apostles, and
then he gave them a charge to go forth and preach the gospel.
And what did he say? I'm with you always. When you
go forth and preach, I'm preaching that word with you. I'm the one
that's going to make it effectual. And if you've ever preached the
gospel, you know you can't make it effectual. You can't make
people believe. You can't even keep people's
attention. A horsefly could come in here and everybody in here
would be looking at that horsefly. But if Christ grabs you in the
heart, you're going to pay attention. You're going to hear what He's
saying. He's the only one that can do it. And He said in Ephesians
4, He that descended up is the same one that came down. And
He ascended far above all heavens that He might fill all things. Need a pulpit filled? Christ's
going to fill it. Need a heart filled? Christ's
going to fill it. Need righteousness filled? Christ's
going to fulfill it. Need a law fulfilled? Christ's
going to fulfill it. Everything that needs to be fulfilled,
He's filling it. Christ is. And He does so, it
says, He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come. In what? In the unity of the
faith. In the knowledge of the Son of
God. That's right. Now, you know what
some in Corinth were saying? Some in Corinth were saying this,
I searched the Word without a preacher. Oh, but they were careful to
say, but it was God, it was Christ who revealed Himself in me. They said, we're of Christ. Here
we searched the Word, and Christ, we saw the truth, we believe
the truth, but it was Christ who revealed it to me. And the
Holy Spirit's declaring through Paul, you mean Christ could do
that, but He couldn't send you a preacher like He said He would? That really hits a blow to our
wisdom, don't it? That really hits a blow to man's
trusting in his own wisdom and his own searching and his own
finding God. As sovereignly and as successfully
as Christ accomplished eternal redemption for His people, as
sovereignly and successfully He sends His preacher, And He
sovereignly, successfully sends His Spirit and quickens and teaches
and converts His child. I'll give you a challenge. I'll
give you a challenge. Anybody that has a problem with
this, I'll give you a challenge. I don't want you to be found
in the Day of Judgment fighting against God. I want you to be
found on God's side, taking sides with God against yourself, resting
in Christ, trusting Christ. I'm not chanting me telling you
this. I want you to be on God's side. I want you to be saved
by God. So let me give you anybody that says, well, I think I saved
some other way. Let me give you this challenge.
Find me one sinner in the New Testament in this age in which
you and I live, because it don't much matter how they're saved
in the Old Testament. We don't live in that day. He said, after
that, in the wisdom of God, he proved man's wisdom was useless.
After that, it pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching.
That's how he saves in this age. Let me ask you to find one person
in the Scriptures, other than the Apostle Paul, who was saved
any other way than God sending a preacher to him and preaching
the gospel to him. You won't find one. You won't find one. He turned the world upside down
to do it sometimes. He prevented men from going,
preachers from going where they thought they should go and sent
them somewhere else. But he always sent the preacher
where he'd have that preacher to go and he preached the gospel
to his people. He threw Paul in prison to do
that so he could preach to the Philippian jailer. See, God's
sovereign. This is Christ, our risen head.
He's sovereign and he can bring the gospel to his people. He
really can. How shall they call on Him in
whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As
it's written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
You know what a slap in the face it is? Not only to God's sovereignty,
not only to God's truth, not only to Christ as our Head, but
as a slap to all the preachers who, by God's grace, bore shame
and spitting and rejection for preaching this gospel. To say,
I was saved without God sending me a preacher? That's a slap
in every one of them's face. Not only does He send the preacher,
He reveals it. Go back to Romans 1. See, he's
getting the glory all the way around in this thing. Christ
is. Look at this. Verse 16, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, Paul said. For it, public preaching which
gives Christ all the glory, it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. There's nobody left out of this.
It's so for the Jew and it's so for the Gentile. Verse 17,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. Christ is our righteousness.
And Christ, the faithful one, reveals He's our righteousness
from Christ the faithful to the heart of faith that He's created
and made to receive it. It's from Christ the faithful
to the faith He gives. He teaches it. And watch this.
And that's a prophecy that he has to fulfill as well. As it
is written, see it? As it is written, the just, those
Christ is justified, shall live, they shall be quickened to life
by Christ, so that from then on the just shall live by faith. By faith. By faith. Oh, do you see the wisdom of
God? God's designed it. He's ordered it so that when
He brings His sheep together in His body, they're going to
always flock together because He makes us know Christ is the
power and wisdom of God, and He's made us to know this through
the preaching of the Gospel. He does not save us the first
time, and then it's done, and people go out and do what they
want to do from then on, and say, well, I got my name on a
church roll. No, He saves the first hour, and He keeps saving
from every hour till then, and He does it through the constant
preaching of the Gospel of Christ. from faith to faith. He said,
As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father,
so he that eateth me, that is, believeth on me, even he shall
live by me, it is the Spirit that quickeneth, he said. The
flesh profits nothing. Now listen to this. The words
that I speak unto you, the words I speak unto you, their spirit
and their life. Now here's what the world doesn't
believe, and this is what I want you to get. As real as Christ
was standing there in person, speaking the words of eternal
life to Peter, making him believe, making him bow, making him alive,
making him rest in Christ, as real as he was there that day
doing it, Christ is doing it right now through the preaching
of the gospel. Some of you that are hearing him speak in your
heart, I'm not talking about audibly, I'm talking about him
teaching you this Word in your heart. You can vouch for that. You know it's Christ teaching
you. Otherwise, you couldn't believe Him. And He says, your
flesh profits nothing. My flesh is not profiting anything.
You see, I'm going to show you a little later, no flesh is going
to glory in His presence. This is the only means that's
so, because Christ takes the things He'd have you to hear
and know and believe, and He puts them in your heart so that
nothing else is going to matter, and you can't glory any other
way but in Him. No flesh can glory. So then,
listen to this. So He brings us to say, knowing
this, that this is how He's ministering these words of eternal life to
us, and we have to live upon Him by His words. We say with
Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life and we believe and are sure you are the Christ, the Son of
the Living God. We can't go anywhere. We've got to stay together and
hear the Gospel preached by Him. Now what would make somebody
in Corinth profess to believe on Christ in truth and yet deny
this truth? What would make a person deny
any of those other things that please God. What would make a person deny
that it pleased God to make you His people? He wants to do the
choosing. Why would a person deny it pleased
God to bruise Christ and justifies people? He wants to be the righteousness. You see, brethren, the heart's
deceitful. It's wicked. It will make a man hold on to
his own searching just to have something he did that he can
glory in. But I'll tell you this, when
Christ speaks through His gospel and teaches this in the heart,
He'll make us let it go. He'll make His child let it go.
And bow to Him and believe Him and say, Yes, Lord, You've done
it. You've saved me through the preaching of Your Word like You
said You would. That's what Christ will do. So
go home with this real quickly. One, be fearful of claiming you
were saved any other way contrary to the Word of God. God's going
to save just like He says He's going to save in His Word. Number
two, remember it's Christ working in you in the midst of His church. And He's going to do it through
the preaching of the Gospel that declares His glory and His works. Anytime a problem arises, the
solution to the problem is just preach Christ. That's right. Preach Christ. Christ will solve
the issue. Christ will make him more important
than whatever it is we thought was important. Just preach Christ. And here's the last thing. Never,
I want everybody to hear this whether you believe God or you
don't. If you only can get it in your head, lodge this in your
brain and get it. Don't ever take yourself out
from under the preaching of the gospel that gives Christ all
the glory. Don't do it. Because if God saves
you, He's going to save you through this Word. And you that believe,
don't ever do it because God's going to continue to save you
through this Word. He says, hold the profession of your faith
without wavering because He's faithful that promise. And He
said, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And we do it through
the preaching of this Word. I'm not preaching this Gospel
by myself. You're preaching this Gospel
with me. We all are necessary for the preaching of the Gospel.
And we exhort one another by our attendance and by the message
that's preached. And he says, do it the more that
you see the day approaching. Times get rough. Times get tough.
Times get hard. Persecution arises. Do it even
more. Come together and hear the Gospel
preached. And he says, because if we sin
willfully, if we turn and go away and say, we don't need to
preach into that gospel, we call it foolishness, we call it unnecessary,
and we're forsaking the only mercy there is, Christ the Lord.
And he says, then there remains no more sacrifice for sins. Don't leave the gospel. Amen.