Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. Our subject tonight is what Christ
sends preachers to do. What Christ sends preachers to
do. Now Paul was dealing with this
first problem at Corinth, it was a problem of contention amongst
believers. It was a contention over preachers.
And Paul makes this statement in verse 13. He asks these questions. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? And having asked that last question,
he begins to expound on that a little bit about preachers
baptizing and what we're sent to do. And he makes this statement
in verse 14. Imagine this now. You probably
would never hear a preacher in our day make this statement.
You could hear a faithful preacher make it, but not most preachers.
Listen to what he says, verse 14. I thank God that I baptized
none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that
I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other." Paul thanked God for this. He attributed this
to the providence of God that he had not baptized very many
in Corinth. Through his preaching, the Lord
didn't regenerate a lot of people. He didn't call a lot of people
at Corinth. It was just a few. And Paul was thankful for that.
He said, and I'm thankful lest any should say that I baptized
in my own name. Verse 17. 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. What did Christ send preachers
to do? What did Christ send preachers
to do? Christ sent His preachers with
this charge, that they go forth and preach the gospel of Christ. That's the preeminent charge,
that they go forth and preach the gospel of Christ. Now, I
want us to see what we're sent not to do and what we are sent
to do. And then I want you to see how
we're sent to preach. And then thirdly, why some preach
the gospel and some don't preach the gospel. Why is that? Alright,
here's the first thing. There are things that Christ
sends His preachers not to do and things He sends His preacher
to do. He says here, verse 17, Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Christ sent
me not to baptize. Now, men always take things to
the extreme. And so you have to look at this
and see, now what's Paul saying here? What's he not saying here?
Well, men will look at this and they'll say, well that means
baptism is not important. That's not what Paul's saying.
Paul's not saying, he's not making light of believers' baptism.
In baptism, the believer is publicly professing, he's publicly confessing
to the world that the only name by which I'm saved is Christ
Jesus the Lord. And he's professing that now,
that's the one name by whom he's governed. He's the servant of
the Lord Jesus Christ, His only Savior. That's what we're confessing
in Believer's Baptism. And not only that, Paul's not
saying that he personally was not sent to baptize. We know
that because he just said, I baptize some. And now Christ didn't say
when He was calling Paul, He just said nothing about baptism.
But that doesn't mean He wasn't called to baptize. Paul baptized
some. He did. He just said that. Nor
is Paul saying that he doesn't care if sinners are brought to
a saving faith in Christ. He's not saying that either.
This is the same man who in Romans 9 said, I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren. Now that's a man
who desires to see God's people brought to faith in Christ. That's
what he said. So what's Paul saying here? Well,
he's saying the primary chief goal, the charge, the number
one charge for which Christ sent him was not to seek conversions,
not to baptize. It wasn't that. That's not the
number one reason he was sent forth. That comes as a shock,
I'm sure, in this day and time to many. But he didn't send him
to fill pews. He didn't send him to gain a
following. He didn't send him to build up a church. That's
not what he sent him for. He did not send me to baptize,
Paul said. The chief priority, the chief
goal, the chief mission, the chief charge for which Christ
sent his preacher is the second part here. He says, but he sent
me to preach the gospel. He sent me to preach the gospel.
That's the chief mission that Christ sends his preacher to
do, to preach the gospel, to declare the good news of the
gospel. That's our to proclaim it, to
declare it, to set it forth. This declaration and this proclamation
of the gospel is the means by which God has chosen to save
His people, to call us, to save us from the very first hour of
our conversion all the way to the end. This is how He calls
us, this is how He keeps us, and this is how He keeps on keeping
us and saving us until the end. Look there at verse 21. For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God. We want to do what pleases God.
This is what pleased God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And he means there by
what we're doing right here, by the public declaration of
the gospel of Christ. That's what he's talking about.
We know that because he's going to talk about how we are not
to preach here in a minute. That's exactly what he's talking
about, the preaching of this gospel. Now, if you ask most
preachers today and if you ask most churches, church members
today, what's your mission, what's your chief number one The number one priority for you
and for your church, what is it? And most people would say,
to see sinners brought to saving knowledge of Christ. I want to
see sinners brought to faith in Christ. That's what most people
would say. We want to make disciples for
Christ. Now be sure to understand, and don't misunderstand, Christ's preacher and Christ's
people want to see sinners saved by God's grace. We want to see
sinners brought to faith in Christ. We certainly do. Paul said, brethren,
my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. That's what we desire. But that's
not the chief charge that Christ gives to his preachers. That's
not the chief. Christ sent us not to baptize,
not to make converts, not to Not number one to see sinners
saved. He sent us number one to preach
the gospel. Number one to preach the gospel. Now why is it so important to
understand this? Why is that? You don't want to
get that backwards. We want to see our number one
charge is preaching the gospel of Christ. Why is that so important? Well, Christ is the only one
who has the ability to make a disciple for himself. He's the only one
that has the ability to do that. Christ is the only one who can
give a new heart through the Spirit of God. He's the only
one, He and God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, who teach us
the Gospel in our heart. I can't teach you the Gospel
in your heart. I can be used of God to preach the Gospel,
but He's got to teach you in your heart. I can't draw a man
to Christ. I can't grant faith or repentance. Only God our Savior can do that. He's the only one. And it's important
to understand this because the means by which He's chosen to
do this is through the preaching of the Gospel. And you can go
off and try another method and another means if you want to.
But if He's not pleased to use it, He's not going to use it.
Doesn't that just make all the sense in the world? This is the
means he's chosen. And he's the only one that can
give life. So we best follow his charge. Preach the gospel of Christ.
But the preacher and the people who think that their number one
goal is to convert sinners and see sinners brought to faith
in Christ. The preacher who thinks that and the church who thinks
that, you know what they're going to do? They're going to alter
this gospel. They're going to water down the
gospel to accomplish that goal. That's right. That's exactly
what they'll do. And most end up turning to other
means altogether. You see that everywhere you look
in our day. If you were to take this world's
standards of what a faithful preacher is and what he is to
do, You would look at me and say, you are a pathetic preacher. Pathetic. And you'd look at all
Christ's faithful preachers and say, that's a pathetic preacher.
Because we're not following that mold. We're not supposed to follow
that mold. We're sent, number one, to preach
the gospel of Christ. Number one. Number one. Now,
secondly, Paul adds this. Christ has sent us and taught
us there is a way not to preach this gospel. There's a way not
to preach the gospel, verse 17. He says, he sent me to preach
the gospel not with wisdom of words. Not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. There's a way of preaching, and
he calls here the wisdom of words. that makes the word preached
to be of no effect. It makes it to cease being the
gospel altogether. And like I said, therefore, God's
not in it, Christ is not going to use it, and He's the only
one that can make it effectual, so therefore, it's not effectual. It's not effectual. It'll put
a lot of people in the seats. And it'll build up what looks
like a church, It's not the work of God. It's not the effectual
work of God. Now, what is this wisdom of words?
Let's just look at a few things here. First of all, it involves
veiling or simply not declaring the doctrine. Leaving out doctrine
is what it involves. You know, when you hear preachers
preach, A lot of times you'll hear preachers preach and you
think, well, nothing they're saying is false. Everything they're
saying is true according to the Scriptures. And yet, you ain't
heard the gospel. Yet, it hasn't comforted your
heart. You haven't heard Christ exalted. You haven't heard man
abased. Why? It's what they left out that
makes it a false gospel. They veiled it. They covered
up. They left out some doctrine. Preachers won't stand up and
declare what this book declares, that God is absolutely sovereign
over all. He's sovereign in heaven and
He's sovereign in earth. That means from the beginning,
God the Father was sovereign to freely choose whom He will
and pass by whom He will. That's God's sovereign right.
That's His glory, to choose whom He will and pass by whom He will.
and his sovereignty is to glorify Christ. He chose Christ to glorify
him and he chose a people in Christ. Why won't men preach
this? Why won't men declare that God's
sovereign over the devil? One of the others got to be more
powerful than the other one. Either God's more powerful than
the devil or the devil's more powerful than God. You've got
no other option. And God's sovereign. The devil
doesn't do anything but what God permits him to do. The sins
of the devil. Sins of man. But God is sovereign
over it to work His will through it. Now that's a God. And that's
who our God is. Men won't stand up and declare
Christ's particular redemption of His people. Men won't say
plainly, boldly, clearly, Christ laid down His life for the sheep. And only for the sheep. Only
for the sheep. Men will say things like, well
Christ died for the sheep and His blood was sufficient to save
all the sheep. But if you want to be saved,
His blood is sufficient to save you too. Well, that's not worded
in the Word of God and that's a crafty way of saying things. Because that takes the edge off
of it. And that puts things in your
hands and lets you know, if you want to, you can you can get
saved even though Christ didn't die for you. That's crafty. That's wisdom of words. Why not
just declare Christ died for the sheep and He saved all the
sheep. He redeemed them. He came as the servant of God
and fulfilled the law for His people. He's the substitute for
His people who bore the cross in place of His people and He
satisfied divine justice for His people. He saved His people.
Men won't declare the necessity and the certainty of the Holy
Spirit's work, that He's going to regenerate those that Christ
redeemed. And He must, because the flesh
profits nothing. We can't bring ourselves to life,
and we can't bring ourselves to faith, and we can't bring
ourselves to repentance, and we cannot do these things by
our will. So we declare. As Christ did, you must be born
again. The Spirit of God comes like
the wind comes. You can't tell when it's coming
or where it's going. And you can't resist it. And
that's the Spirit of God. And when He comes, He'll make
it so you won't want to resist Him. Men won't declare the preservation
of God, that God's going to preserve His people. We preach perseverance
of the saints. Those that are truly called by
God's grace and saved by God's grace are to persevere until
the end in faith. And they shall. And the reason
they shall is because God preserves us to the end. He that's begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
And He keeps His people in faith. He keeps His people in faith.
He keeps us coming to hear the gospel, rejoicing in Christ,
being fed by Christ, and He keeps us to the end. These men won't
declare the truth about good works. When you preach the works
of God in the Scriptures, you always ought to declare how.
Number one, we haven't done these works in such righteousness and
holiness that we can come to God in these works and be saved
by these works. There's no way. No way. Declare
how Christ did this work perfectly. He did it and He went and put
away the sins of His people for not doing it perfectly. and then
give the exhortation. Then the sinner is constrained
by the love of Christ for him, and he's not left thinking that
if I do this work, I'm going to be saved by this work. and
declaring every work that every good work a believer does is
foreordained by God. He foreordained every good work
and therefore He brings His people by the Holy Spirit in providence. He brings us to do the work He
foreordained for us to do. We're going to do every good
work God foreordained for each of us individually to do. We're
going to do it. And for each of us, for us collectively as
His church, we're going to do whatever good work He foreordained
we do. And He's going to be by His grace,
by His power, and He's going to get all the glory for it.
These are the things to declare about good works. Not just declare
what works we ought to do and leave it in the hand of the sinner
to think whatever thing he might think about it, but teach him
the truth. And number one is this, in all
of this we teach sinners Christ is all and in all. He's everything. He's everything. He's everything
this book has to say. He's everything God has to say
about Himself. He's the glory of God. He's where
you're going to see the glory of God. When God chose the people,
He chose them in Christ. When Christ redeemed the people,
He redeemed them to bring glory to His name. When the Holy Spirit
regenerates somebody, He brings them to bow to the feet of Christ.
When God preserves His people, He preserves them in Christ Jesus.
Whenever we're going to be one day quickened and brought into
glory with Him, it's going to be so that we can sing the praises
of God's Son, because that's what God purposed from the beginning.
Everything's about Christ. Christ is all. That's why we
preach Christ. That's why we preach Christ.
And yet, men that won't declare these things, you know what they
imagine? Think of the vanity of this.
In religion, it's the only area that men think like this. It's
the only place in anything we do that men think like this.
Men vainly imagine that they can make disciples for Christ
by not telling them who Christ is or what He's accomplished.
Is there any other area in your life where you think you can
teach somebody something without teaching it to them? Anything? Why would you ever imagine that?
Just because you twisted somebody's arm into making a profession
and joining the church and being baptized and those things, why
would you think? But you ain't told them about
Christ? Why would you think they're a disciple for Christ? Christ
didn't make them one. Christ didn't make them one.
And preachers like that, this is the sad thing, brethren, they're
comforting sinners in their rebellion. They're teaching sinners it's
alright to rebel. They're teaching sinners it's
okay to reject the one and only propitiation for sin. And you
know what's going to happen? It's a scary thing because when
those preachers meet God, they're going to be held accountable
for the blood of every single sinner that they did not preach
the truth to. And then cast into hell with
them. Wisdom of words involves explaining
the gospel away. That's another thing about wisdom
of words, to explain the gospel away. dissect the rose of Sharon
until you can't even smell the fragrance of Christ anymore.
He preached the doctrine of Christ so specifically and so detailed
and so in such a way that the sweetness of that sweet smell
and savor is gone. Just cut the heart out of it.
And men apologize for Christ. They apologize for Christ until
there is no more gospel. It's gone. And this is another
thing, this wisdom of words. Adorning the gospel with man's
words, with man's eloquent language. How are you going to adorn gold
and silver? What are you going to put on
gold and silver to adorn it? What light are you going to shine
on the sun to make people see the brilliance of the sun? The
gospel doesn't need our adorning. It just needs to be declared.
We just need to preach Christ. That's all. It doesn't have to
be adorned by anything. Simply declare, when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. God will make a man
understand what that means. Preach, He hath made Him sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Declare, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Declare,
such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. He's gone into
the heaven and He's on the right hand of God, angels and authorities
and powers being made subject unto Him. I understand what all
that means. Do you? Christ teaches you. He teaches you. That's what...
I understand it. Wisdom of words is also to establish
the sinner's supremacy and authority. It's to establish the sinner's
supremacy and authority. 1 Corinthians 1 and chapter 2
and look at verse 1. Paul said, Our brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or excellency
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. That word
excellency means supremacy and authority. It makes man the supreme
authority. It's to either the preacher coming
in such a way and speaking in such a way that he makes himself
the supreme one to focus on, or he makes his authority to
be supreme so that he's able to make converts. Or it's to
point the sinner to the sinner so that he's made to be supreme
in this thing of salvation and it's by his authority that he
can be saved by what he's done. That's excellency of speech and
of wisdom. But look at the next word. Paul
says, I determined not to know anything among you. That word
means I determined not to turn your eyes, your attention, your
hearts to anything among you. Not to me and not to you. I determine
not to turn your focus anywhere. Look here. Save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And what does 99% of the preaching
you hear do? What does 99% of it do? 99% of it makes man supreme and
man the authority by turning all the focus to you and what
you must do. Rather than declaring Christ
and what Christ has done. and leaving it with Him, to do
what He will with it by His sovereign ability. That's using excellency
of speech. That's using excellency of wisdom.
And so the cross is made of none effect. Now brethren, especially
you who preach here, nobody ever made the gospel of none effect
by declaring the truth with great plainness of speech. You can't make the gospel of
none effect by just declaring what God has said in His Word. What God has said in His Word.
Do that. Just do that. Preach Christ. Don't use logic. Don't use rhetoric. Don't use your own reasoning.
Just preach what God says. Right here in His Word. Alright,
before we leave this point, I want you to turn to John 6. My next
point is going to be very short, so I just want you to look at
John 6. I want you to see Christ preach. I want you to hear Christ
Himself preach. I want you to hear the plainness
with which He preached. Great plainness. Scripture says of Him, Christ
is the rock of offense. That's what He's called in Romans
9.33. of offense. So He is. And everything Christ
preached, Christ Himself, everything He preached offended somebody. It offended somebody. He is the
rock of offense. And it offended them because
He didn't give them any glory. He got all the glory and His
Father got all the glory. You remember the first sermon
He preached? We'll get to John 6 in a minute. Remember the first
sermon He preached? Christ stood up and He read from Isaiah 61,
I believe, and He said, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. He told them, He preached Christ. He told them He's the Messiah.
That's what He said. I'm Messiah. This day is this
scripture fulfilled. And they didn't believe Him.
They didn't believe Him. And you know, He told them in
plain language why they didn't believe Him. And you know how
He told it to them? He preached the doctrine of election.
He said there was a whole bunch of widows. He said there were
many widows in Israel, but unto none of them was a lie sent,
save unto Sarepta, unto Zidon, unto a woman who was a widow.
He was telling them, he went to a Gentile and saved a Gentile
widow. He's telling them that was the
elect and all those initials weren't. And then he told them
again, he said, and there was many lepers in Israel. None of
them were saved. None of them were cleansed, save
one. And he was a Syrian. That's preaching the doctrine
of election. That's saying to them, it's not because you're
a children of Abraham naturally. It's not because you're a Pharisee,
or you were circumcised the eighth day, or you've been keeping the
law from your youth up. He's telling them, that's not
what's going to make you a child of God. And he's telling them,
that's why you don't believe me. It's the same as what he told
the Pharisees that day when he said, you do not believe because
you are not my sheep. That's what he was telling them.
And you know what the result was? You know what happened after
he told them that? They tried to take him up on a cliff and
throw him off a cliff. That's Christ, the rock of offense.
That's what he preached. That's what he preached. Now,
here in John 6, they asked him, Master, what must we do that
we might work the works of God? Look how plain and simple he
preached. John 6, 29. I think sometimes we forget when
we read the words of Christ, that was his sermon. That's what
he preached. There's many other things He
preached that He said we couldn't have room enough to hold everything,
but when you read this, this is what He preached right here.
Look at this. Verse 29, This is the work of
God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. You see, faith
is the opposite of a work, and so he juxtaposes a work with
faith. He said, this is the work of
God that you don't work. You believe on Christ who worked
all the work for you. And look here, and he was obedient
to the Father. When they didn't believe him,
he didn't water the word down. He didn't try to resort to some
other way of getting them to follow him. He didn't use wisdom
of words. Look at verse 36. He said, You also have seen me, and you
believe not." Now listen to what he declares. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now why did he tell them that?
We're going to see in just a minute. But he declared plainly, I'm
the bread of life. If you believe on me, you'll
never hunger or thirst again. Verse 43. He tells them then why they didn't
believe. He said, murmur not amongst yourselves, verse 44,
no man can come to Me except the Father which is sent Me.
Draw him, and I'll raise him up again in the last day. It's
written in the Prophets. They shall be all taught of God. And every man therefore that
has heard and has learned of the Father, he comes unto Me.
Now here you are sitting in that congregation, and you ain't coming
to Christ. You haven't believed on Christ.
And you hear Christ saying, but all that the Father gives to
Me is going to come to Me. All that the Father gave to me are
going to be taught of the Father. And when they're taught of the
Father, they're going to learn of the Father. And when they
learn of the Father, they're coming to me. You're starting
to think, this is why I don't believe. You mean I can't just
come when I get good and ready? You mean I can't just exercise
my free will and come to you when I get ready? We got to be
brought down from that high place to the dust. That's where we
got to be brought. He said, verse 53, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His blood, you have no life in you. He's saying to them,
it don't matter how religious you are. It doesn't matter how
far you followed me. It doesn't matter how many messages
you've heard me preach. It doesn't matter what you've
done for your church, what you've done for your denomination. It
don't matter how religious you are. To God the Father has drawn
you. To God the Father has given you
life. To God the Father has given you faith. And God the Father
has made you to believe and rest all in Christ. You don't have
life. That's just plain. Now look at
this. And the longer he preached, the
madder they got. And he said this, verse 61. When Jesus knew
in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto
them, Does this offend you? Think of that question. Think
of what that question is saying. Are you offended that God gets
all the glory? Are you offended that Christ
gets all the glory? That's what he's asking. Are
you offended that God the Father is going to get the glory for
drawing my people to me? Does it offend you that God the
Father is going to get all the glory for bringing my people
to rest in me, He's saying? And does it offend you that I'm
the righteousness and holiness and salvation of my people? Does
that offend you? That's what He's asking them.
Look. What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where
He was before? Wait till you see Me in My glory. It's the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, prophets, nothing. The words that I speak unto you
are spirit and are life. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray Him. And He said... Now watch
this. If they didn't get what He was saying when He said, All
that the Father giveth Me will come to Me. Now listen to how
plain He gets. And this is a lesson for anybody
that preaches. When you preach, don't take for
granted they got it the first time you said it. Narrow that
thing down. Narrow it down some more. Now
keep narrowing it down to where you can't mistake that you're
saying, God's got, He's going to get the glory for this. He's
going to work this. And you're going to be a servant
bowing and saying, Thank you Lord for your mercy. Get it down
as narrow as Christ. Now watch what He said. He said,
Therefore said I unto you that no man can come to Me except
it were given to him of My Father. He said, some of you sitting
here don't believe me. That's why I said to you, you can't
come to me unless my Father draws you. Gives it to you. I bet they
got it then. You reckon? Oh, they got it.
Look what happened. And from that time, many of His
disciples went back and walked no more with Him. And then He
turned to His disciples and said, will you go away also? Isn't
it a joy to know that you don't have to wring your hands, and
you don't have to resort to gimmicks and all these tactics, that you
just preach the gospel, and God's going to plant His people. And
He says, those that aren't planted, through the same gospel, He said,
He's going to separate the wheat from the chaff. It's not our
business. He said, you just preach the gospel. And it's a wonderful
thing to know you just preach Christ. Preach what great things
He's done and watch Him work. And he said this, they said,
Simon Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life, and we believe and are sure Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus said, Have not I chosen
you? He's saying to them, The reason
you believe is because I've chosen you. And yet among you there's
one that's a devil, he said. He's saying what he said to them
before when he says, Faber Barjona, flesh and blood didn't teach
you this, but my Father which is in heaven. But you see Christ,
He preached plainly, He preached the truth, and He waited on God
to work this work in His heart. But many got offended in the
process. And if they got offended at Christ
and wanted to cast Him off a hill, if they got offended at Christ
and picked up stones and wanted to stone Him, if they got so
mad at Christ that they nailed Him to a cross, how in the world
does a preacher think he's going to be friends with this world
and preach Christ? It ain't going to happen. It
ain't going to happen. But these men don't want that
persecution, so they shave the fence out of the cross and make
it palatable for men. And Paul said, only lest they
should suffer persecution for the cross. But Paul said, Christ
didn't even send me to baptize. He didn't send me to try to talk
those fellows that's going to walk away to come back and join.
He sent me to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ be made unaffected. So, why, here's my third point,
why do many not preach the gospel and some do preach the gospel?
Why is that? We don't have to guess. Look
here, 1 Corinthians 1.18. Every one of these fours means
because. That's what four means, because.
Now here's what he said. He said, now, He sent us not
to preach with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made none effect. Now here, He's talking about
why He preaches the gospel and why some don't preach it. He
says, verse 18, because the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. There's the difference. It's
the difference God's made. Now, many don't preach the gospel
because the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing
foolishness. That's what it means. You see
that word preaching? The preaching of the cross? That
word is logos. And you know what that word logos
means? Word. The word. The word of the cross. Not words. The word of the cross. There's just one. There's just
one. The word. of the cross. We preach one. We preach one
Word. We preach Christ Himself who
is that Word of the cross. Listen to John 1.1. In the beginning
was what? The Word. And the Word was with
God. And the Word was God. And John
14 says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. He's the Word. He's the Word
of the Cross. Our text says, some preach with
wisdom of words, plural, because the Word, singular, of the Cross
is to them that are perishing foolishness. Now listen carefully. To declare Christ the Word, and
only Christ the Word, to preach Christ crucified on a bloody
cross, to preach only using this means of preaching, is to them
that are perishing foolishness. And don't misunderstand what
it says here now. Look at it carefully. Not only
do they deem it foolishness to preach, not only do they deem
it foolishness to preach only Christ and Him crucified, they
deem Christ of the cross foolishness. The Word of the Cross is foolishness
to Him. That's what He said. A man can
make all the excuses he wants to make for why he don't preach
the Gospel. And I've heard some humdingers. But this is what
God says about it. Christ of the Cross is foolishness
to Him. So why do some preach Christ
and only Christ? Verse 2 says, unto us which are
being saved it is It, the Word, Christ of the cross, is the power
of God. Look down at verse 23. We preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews of the stumbling block and unto
the Greeks foolish, but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Christ's preachers and Christ's people who have been called and
saved by Christ have experienced this call of the Gospel, through
the preaching of the Gospel. We've experienced it through
the preaching of the Word of the Cross. And we know therefore
that the Word, we know the Word, we know Christ Himself. That's
who we know. And we know Christ is the power
of God and He's the wisdom of God. Christ has taught us what
He accomplished by His death on the cross. He's taught us
that He perfected us forever. He's taught us that He made us
the righteousness of God. He's taught us that we're complete
in Him. So we rest in Him. He's taught us that He declared
God just and the justifier of us. God's just and our justifier
by what Christ did. And therefore unto us which He
saved and is saving and shall save, the word of the cross is
the power of God. the power of God. Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Now we know that this means
of preaching is the means that Christ uses. And that He uses
it effectually. And He uses it in great power.
And we see the wisdom in using it. Because it does not allow
you to glory in your flesh at all. There is no way you can
glory in your flesh. Now, you read the rest of the
chapter when you get home tonight. But what you are going to see
here in the rest of this chapter is that through this gospel,
through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, Christ has
made our wisdom foolishness. We had some wisdom, just like
the world, and He's made our wisdom foolishness. Who did that?
Christ, the wisdom of God. When we saw His wisdom, it made
our wisdom foolishness. And not only that, Christ made
our power. We thought we had power. He made
it to be utter weakness. We saw we had no power. Who did
that? Christ, the power of God. Now
we know God chose to save us by means that the world despises. That's what's so foolish about
this thing. God sent His Son to be made of a woman, lowly
servant. He sent His Son to a bloody cross. Men hate to hear about the blood
and that bloody, shameful cross. He sent this means of preaching
that the world calls foolishness. Yes. He used these despised means
so that, look at verse 29, so that no flesh should glory in
His presence, but of Him or in Christ Jesus. That's in divine
election and that's how we're brought into Christ through the
preaching of this gospel. Of Him, you are in Christ. Who
of God, as this gospel is being preached, of God is Christ made
unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory
in the Lord. You see that? Now He is the power
of God to us. So then what are you going to
do? Look over to 2 Corinthians 4. So what are you going to do
when this happens? Well, he said there, the last
verse he said is that he does this, that he that glories now,
he's going to glory in the Lord. You know why I preach Christ
crucified? Every time I stand here and preach to you, you know
what I'm doing? I'm glorying in the Lord. I'm trying to heap
up as much glory and praise and honor and applause that I can
on my God and my Savior. That's what I'm trying to do.
That's what the preaching of the cross is. And anything that
does anything else, it ain't preaching of the cross. We glory
in the Lord. And you know why we do it? We've
experienced His power. Now look here what Paul said.
2 Corinthians 4.1. This is how we receive this ministry. And therefore, sin we have this
ministry. This is how we receive mercy
from God. Therefore, as we have received
mercy. The same means God used to give us this ministry and
to save us is how we faint not. Through the preaching of Christ
crucified. And this is what it made us do.
Renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. And not walk in craftiness,
not handle the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. What is that? I dare you to prove tonight that
I've preached anything else but Christ and Him crucified. I challenge
you to find anything that I've said that's given man glory and
put the salvation of a sinner in the hands of man rather than
declaring it's all in God's hands. That's what committing yourself
to man's conscience. Now tell me, have I done that
or not? Yes. It's all you've showed us right
here in the Scripture. Alright, look. He says this. Why do we
preach that way? Look down the page there. He says, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. Here's why we do it. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But He gave it to us in these
earthen vessels. Why? Remember that excellency? Remember that supreme authority?
So that the excellency, not in the excellency of our words,
not in turning you to you and me to me and trying to glory,
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. And when you say it by the gospel,
you preach it because you know that's so. You know Christ is
the power of God. But until you've experienced
it, go on with that dilly-dally charade that men call preaching.
I pray God will send us some preachers. He's doing that. He's
sending preachers. Faithful preachers. Raising some.
I know some. And He's doing that. He always
has. And He will to the end. That's
right. Amen.