May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to Paul's
first epistle to the Corinthians, and chapter two, and we'll read
verse two. The first epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians, chapter two, and reading verse two. For I
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. I'm sure this should be the considered
opinion of everyone who is called to preach the gospel. because it is so, so essential
that everyone has a personal saving knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ and indeed Him crucified. And as we read such an account
as this, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and
We know, of course, the Corinthians were a large, wealthy people,
but also a very sinful people. And yet the apostles' determination
was to preach the gospel. And as we've been thinking recently
in the Acts of the Apostles, and how the apostle went to Corinth
and preached the gospel there. And he was so concerned about
the blessing of the Lord to penetrate into the hearts of the people.
And yet you see, he makes a great confession. It's very relevant,
the confession he makes. He says, brethren, when I came
to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. He doesn't claim any great knowledge,
although he was, of course, a very knowledgeable man. As we know,
he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew the law
inside out. He had great wisdom, but he wasn't
looking to that. He wasn't looking to his excellency
of speech at all when he came declaring the testimony of God
and explains what he was like. And it's good to read what he
was like. He said, I was with you in weakness and in fear and
in much trembling. Now that really sets before us
what a preacher should be like. What it means, he doesn't come
into the pulpit and stand in a proud way and in his own strength. He comes like this. in his own
weakness, knowing his ignorance perhaps, knowing his weakness,
and perhaps fearing, fearing perhaps that he might be left
to himself, to just use his own wisdom. And my friends, that
won't be of any benefit to the Church of God. They might say,
well that was a good sermon, but it didn't touch the heart.
The great thing is that the Word of God, through those who preach,
the Word comes and touches their heart and he tells us he was
in much trembling, trembling as he stands up to preach the
gospel. We might be surprised to think
of that. Here was this great man of God, so strong in the
truth of God, so blessed with a wonderful conversion on that
Damascus road. But here he describes himself
and he tells us then and his speech and his preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom. Because if it's just
man's wisdom, it won't have any blessing. Why? Because man will
then claim the glory. My friends, God will claim the
glory. Always remember that. God's a
jealous God. He'll claim the glory. Don't
think that that's a wonderful, eloquent sermon. My friends,
does it? Was it with the power of God?
Did it touch hearts? Again, not just touch minds. Remember in the years ago, in
the days of J.C. Philpott, when he preached the
gospel and he was a great blessing in that time. He was raised up
to preach the gospel to those people at that time. There was
a specific need at that time to absorb the preaching that
he preached. But we know that in those days many people came
just to listen to Joseph Philpott preach because of the eloquent
way that he was gifted in and the wonderful knowledge he had.
And he was concerned about that. He was concerned they didn't
come just to hear him preach like that. He was concerned they
would come and be touched in their heart. Well, I'm sure that's
the true concern of every God sent servant of God that they
might come and hear the gospel and so he says My speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but And
this is the great difference in Demonstration of the spirit
and of power the power of God and my friends the power of God
is is demonstrated not in a great shouting match. Some people they
shout and holler thinking that will have some effect. Word of
God is not like that. You know, when Elijah's day,
he was moved by the Spirit of God when it spoke to him in a
still small voice. And that small voice speaking
to Elijah had power from on high. And that's what we need to receive
today. The blessing of God with power
from on high. What it is, is this demonstration
of the spirit and of power. So as we come to the end of this
day, to realize that God has spoken to our hearts in power
from on high. Power from on high. And he tells
us, The reason for all this is that our faith, and that faith
which God gives us, remember faith is the gift of God, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. Well we have here then a small
description, very wonderfully explained to us, so that the
word of God may come into our hearts by His Spirit and must
do us real lasting good. And what is that? It's set forth
very clearly here, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We may have a wonderful knowledge
of the Word of God. Good if that is so. I wouldn't
decry it at all. It's a great blessing and we
should seek to have a wonderful knowledge of the Word of God
spoken to our hearts. But the essence is that we need
to know the saving power of Jesus Christ. Now the Apostle, when
he was speaking here through this epistle, he asked this question,
this might be the case. He said, For Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel." That was his commission. That was what God had ordained
him to do. And you may remember, and it's
most amazing, that when the apostle was converted on that Damascus
road, he commenced to preach Christ. He'd been an enemy of
Christ. Anybody who confessed Christ,
he hailed to prison. But the Spirit of God, wonderful
news, isn't it? To know that immediately preach
Christ. And so he tells us here, but
to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross
of Christ should be made of none effect. He didn't want himself
to be at the forefront He didn't want himself to deflect from
the great truth of the Gospel. He didn't want it to be of none
effect. He didn't want his wisdom to be there at all. So he was
able to declare, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the
power of God. We conclude that this preaching
falls into two categories to every one of us here this morning.
It's either foolishness and it's either the power of God. So how do we react to the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning? And it's important that you and
I are honest before God in our hearts. You see, God looks into
our hearts, and it's in our heart that there is the work of the
Holy Spirit. I know it comes through our mind.
God's given us minds to absorb the truth of God, but it moves
down into our heart, as it were, into our innermost being, and
it's that which is affected, and it's that which produces
a real change in our lives, to have this great blessing of
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it foolishness? Do we pass it by? Do we pass
over it? Do we just listen to it and think,
well, that's an account in history? Or is it the power of God in
our hearts? And you know, if it is the power
of God, it would have produced a difference. It would have produced
a change in your life. It would have produced a change
in your life. And this morning, has there been
that change in your life, that change in my life through the
preaching of the cross of Christ. We have perhaps listened to the
gospel preached, maybe on many occasions, and we've really treated
it very lightly. We've treated it with disdain.
We may have acknowledged it in our minds as the truth of God,
but it hasn't had a lasting effect. We've gone home, we've forgotten
what was preached. Now the apostle was concerned,
wasn't he, about this great preaching of the gospel. And he explains
it. It's worth pondering what he
speaks here because it describes many people today. And the Lord
said, I would destroy the wisdom of the wise. You see, God gives
spiritual wisdom. It's not wisdom of those who
are naturally wise. There are many people today who rely on
their own wisdom, their own understanding. But they don't preach the cross
of Christ. And they don't preach the cross
of Christ and Him crucified. That's not paramount. That's
not the most important thing in their preaching. They want
to impress people. My friends, true servants of
God don't want to impress people. They want people to be impressed.
by the Spirit of God. And so the Lord comes and tells
us through the Apostle here, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
What a blessing if the Spirit of God moves us like that, destroys
our own knowledge and brings us down to the foot of the cross.
And there we bow down and worship the Lord God. He says, I will destroy. Where
is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? So many people today rely on
their wisdom. Rely on their own knowledge.
Well, the Spirit tells us, for after that in the wisdom of God,
The world by wisdom knew not God. We cannot learn spiritual
wisdom. We cannot learn it to our eternal
good. We can learn it naturally and
it's good to learn the truth of God. Let's not despise it. Let's covet it because it's a
good thing. But he says, 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. Now
let's not forget that. This is God's ordained way. People despise preaching today,
and it's so relevant to our understanding. We see today, in so many places,
the preaching of the Gospel is relegated, as it were, to an
add-on in the services of God, when they're not really services
of God. They're just services of entertainment. The great concern
is for music and for orchestral, whatever it might be to bring
people into a frame of mind, just to bring people's mind into
a frame to worship. My friends, we need the spirit
of God to work. We need prayer. to have prayed
for the Spirit of God to bow down and worship, and therefore
to realise that the most important thing is the preaching of the
Gospel. Don't forget then, it pleased
God. God's ordained by way, by what
may appear foolishness, of preaching to save them that believe. And then he illustrates two types
of people, Jews and Greeks. And the Jews require a sign.
They'd had a sign. They'd missed it. They hadn't
seen it. They hadn't appreciated it. My friends, that's so true
today. Oh, they want something wonderful.
They want some powerful word, some wonderful revelation, some
mystical thing, whereas we have the word of God. And my friends,
bless God if the word of God through his spirit is applied
to our hearts. And the Greeks seek after wisdom.
They were recognizing their own natural understanding. And he
tells us then, we preach Christ crucified. What is it? To the
Jews, a stumbling block. They didn't understand. They
didn't believe the word of God. The word of God clearly explained
to them in the old Testament, how Christ would come, where
he would come, what he would be like. They, their eyes are
blinded, they expected some wonderful natural king to appear and because
he hadn't, what was the scene here? The preaching was a stumbling
block to them. And under the Greeks' foolishness,
how could man possibly believe the gospel in such a simple way? They expected some wonderful
situation wherewith they could develop their wisdom, which would
therefore improve their understanding. No, says God, that's not my way. This is the way, but unto them
which are called." And my friends, bless God today, if we receive
the call from God, the word of God into our hearts, which has
produced an effect. Here says the apostle, for unto them which are called,
Both Jews and Greeks, and in essence, we were all like a Jew
or Greek in a spiritual sense. We all followed that way. But
if the Spirit of God has come, and now unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Oh, if God has come and spoken
to our hearts, called us in this way, so we know that it's been
power to our soul. It's produced a change, produced
a wonderful difference, produced a desire to know Christ and Him
crucified. So he says, because the first
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger
than men, for you see your calling brethren. However, not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has called some, as we know. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And I believe if the
Spirit of God speaks into our heart, we look at ourselves and
we realise we are foolish. We've been foolish. So foolish. And so we have this great word
God has chosen. The foolish things of the world
to confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. You
and I might think today, well, I seem to have so little faith.
My friends, a little faith is a gift of God. A little faith
will save your soul. The Word of God tells us, if
we have faith, it's a grain of mustard seed. And if any of you
have seen the grain of a mustard seed, it's very, very small.
Just a small grain of faith will save our soul. And it confounds
those that are wise. It confounds them. God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which
are despised. Again, you see, we might think,
well, I'm just too bad. I'm just too wicked. Here's the glorious truth of
the gospel, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's what
God has done. his great favour and his great
blessing to our never-dying souls. And God has chosen you and things
which are not to bring to naught things which are that no flesh
should glory in his presence. How fundamental this thing is
that God brings his people to look at themselves and to realise
that before a holy God they are foolish, they are base, they
are ignorant, they are as nothing. And when we are brought down
to that position, then we see the greatness of God. Then we
see the mercy of God. Then we see the favour of God
to such an unworthy person. Oh, it produces, what does it
produce? In our heart, praise to our God. That he should ever be merciful
to such a sinner, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus. This is a blessing you see of
the church of God. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom. Not our wisdom, God's wisdom. And what a wisdom that is, isn't
it? Do you rejoice today, my friends, in the wisdom of God? Because that wisdom of God has
founded the great plan of salvation. And what a glorious plan it is. It's so glorious and it only
brings glory to God. It doesn't bring glory to you
and me. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. According it is written, he that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Well, this morning, as
we consider these words, for I determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ, and him glorified, can we look
into our hearts, and can we analyze our hearts, and find therein
the desire to honour and to glorify the Lord God. That is a very
scene of discerning. To look into our spiritual life,
and I hope all of us have a spiritual life. And if we do, my friends,
the blessing is that there will be that real desire to acknowledge
that the Lord Jesus Christ deserves all honour and glory. And he deserves the honour and
glory from us, from you and me. How do we consider such a truth
this morning? And so here was the Apostle Paul. He tells us he was determined. He didn't really want people
to be taken up with anything else. My friends, today there
are many peripheral things in religion. Many things which may
be good and may be right, but let us home in, let us central
our thoughts, our desires on this very simple, but this very
great and glorious truth. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I suppose you may say, well,
tell us why is that important? If Christ had not died, if Christ
had not been crucified, there would have been no hope of eternal
life for any of us. Because the Old Testament described
the way of salvation was to keep the law of God. And if anybody
was able to keep the law of God perfectly, then he would be justified
and able to claim eternal life and glory with God because of
all that which he had done. Well, nobody has ever been able
to fulfil the requirement of the holy law of God and therefore
everybody fails and everybody therefore is condemned before
God's holy law. But we have the evidence, we
have the revelation, we have the truth that one man, one man,
the Lord Jesus Christ did keep the holy law of God. And remember, the Lord Jesus
Christ was God But he was man. He came into this world as man. He was still God, the only begotten
Son of God. And he came into this world,
my friends, to keep the law and to make it honorable and to therefore
stand in our place as we stand condemned before a holy God,
condemned because of our sin, because of our failure to keep
God's holy law, condemned to eternal damnation, the Lord came
and stood in our place. And that justice, that judgment,
That punishment that was due to us because of our sins, He
took upon Himself. The word of the hymn is so true.
He bore the punishment instead. He bore the punishment due to
you and me for our sins. Oh my friends, what punishment
it was. We read in the Hebrews what it
required. There is no forgiveness without
shedding of blood. There is no remission or no forgiveness. And you see, you and I could
not shed our blood and satisfy the law of God because we still
remain sinners. But the Lord Jesus Christ, oh
my friends, let us have high views of the Savior. Let us have
great views of the Savior. This man, this man, Jesus Christ,
he gave his life in dying in our place. He bore the punishment
instead." Isn't that a great truth? Isn't that a wonderful
thought? Is it any surprising that the
Apostle Paul designed here to know nothing among men save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified? He wanted to point out the great
and glorious way of salvation. that it was through the death
of the Saviour, dying for Him, that He had hope of eternal life.
My friends, it's the glory of the Gospel today, to have the
evidence of the work of God in our hearts, to know that Jesus
Christ died for us. Oh, how humbling, isn't it? To
think that the Almighty God, Almighty God, who created all
things, condescended to come and to die in our place. Oh yes, he died in our place. What love, wasn't it? What love
to our souls. Save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I think, of course, that
this was not just an easy death that Christ died. Don't forget, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he died the most painful death, the most painful death
in order to save his people. So no one could say, well, it
didn't cost Jesus Christ very much. My friends, the cost of your
salvation and my salvation was so immense. It was a tremendous cost. Try
and consider what Christ endured. Think of his life. Think of his
life from the beginning to the end. A holy life in a sinful
world. Perhaps you have some little
understanding the difficulty of living your life as a Christian
in this world. It's not easy, is it? Well, it
never has been, never will be. And we're sinful. The Lord Jesus
Christ was holy. He was not sinful. He lived in
that sinful world. So many things continually to
offend him, his holy nature. And yet you see he endured. And
my friends, you know, you and I today, how do we endure? Through seeing him who is invisible. My friends, you and I would not
endure if we look to ourselves we won't endure in that way.
So as we look to the Saviour, as we look to his finished work,
and we look to the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, that
by God's grace we endure. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ
then, enduring. And then of course coming to
those, what we might view as the most difficult and trying
times in his life, the last few weeks and few days and the last
day, what he had to endure. Now this is what the Apostle
desired to set before the Church of God, in obviously that hope
and that prayer that such a view might move the hearts of people
by the grace of God to look unto him, and to realise that outside
of Christ and Him crucified there is no salvation. Let us not come
short in our spiritual view. It is to view Christ Jesus in a
right way and Him crucified. Now I believe in some measure
we can analyze the reality of our spiritual life as whether
we can thank God and bless God and rejoice to hear about Jesus
Christ and him crucified. This morning is it offensive
to you? Is it offensive? Do you not want
to hear You say, well, I hope the preacher is going to stop
soon and get home. I don't want to hear about these things. Or
is it food and drink to your soul? That's the difference,
you know. The apostle wanted to preach
this so that Christ might be precious and Christ Jesus and
him crucified might be precious to our souls so that we might
go on our way thanking God for the gospel. this great salvation. Think of the cost, meditate on
the cost. The Apostle says when he wrote
to the Hebrews, and you know it's good to just sometimes remember
the words that were recorded, because the Apostle when he wrote
the 12th chapter, having given that wonderful list of all those
who have been blessed with living faith, he says, we're foreseeing
we also. It doesn't pass us by, my friends. And bless God if the gospel doesn't
pass you by. Remember this, we're foreseeing
we also. Our compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the
sin which does so easily beset us, And that's an important view,
isn't it? Always remember, my friends,
there are so many sins around us, so many temptations. What does the apostle say? Let
us lay them aside. Oh, pray for grace. Perhaps you
won't want to pray for these things. You may enjoy sin. You may want to continue in sin. You may have some secret sin
that you want to continue in. Well, you pray for grace to pray
against it. Pray against it, so that you
might be able to come then and pray that you might be able to
do this, lay aside every weight. And that means things that are
hindering you in the race, in the gospel, in the race of life,
the spiritual race. Have you got some weights which
are holding you back, so that you don't really enjoy and profit
from the preaching of the Gospel, from hearing what the Apostles
desire to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. There may be some weights, there
may be some things which are hindering you and are stopping
you, you're not being able to run the race. You're going very
slowly, you're crawling along. And pray that God may give you
evidence of what weights there are. I believe today, my friends,
there are many, many weights in the world in which we live.
We live in a world where there are many temptations, many materialistic
things, which so come into our minds and take up our time. What is it? It's a weight. It's
a weight that hinders us in the race. And so says the Apostle.
He obviously knew it. He tells us, let us lay aside
every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. And don't settle down and say,
well, of course, that's my besetting sin, my friends. Flee from it.
Pray for God to give you strength to walk away from it. Turn your
back upon it. And what does the apostle, he
tells us two things here really, well more than that, but at least
two. He says, let us run with patience,
the race, here's a race we're in, which is set before us, run
it patiently. The other, looking unto Jesus. The author and the finisher of
our faith. Looking unto Jesus, my friends,
that's the great, great need that all of us have today. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for
the joy that was set before him, wonderful words these, you know,
just think of it. And my friends, it's good if you and I can enter
into this, isn't it? The joy that is set before him, the joy
that is set before us of glory at last. The joy that was set
before him, He endured the cross. He endured the cross. We have
a cross. We're to take up our cross daily
and to follow Him. You and I, my friends, are to
take up our cross daily and to follow Him. The Lord knows if
we're doing that, or if there's some weights which are stopping
us in that way, and endured the cross, despising
the shame. Yes, the shame, my friends. Despise
it. It's irrelevant to our eternal
home. Despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is what I
wanted to speak of, really. This is the words. And what is
it? For consider Him. Consider Him. that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds." So my friends today, if you and I are wearied,
perhaps we're fainting in our minds because the race is very
difficult. Let's be found considering him,
considering That's what the Apostle said here. Save Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Oh, bless God today. If you are
able to consider him in that great work of salvation, I think
my friends then what it did cost to save your souls, but it might
move our hearts. to be a true follower of this
great and glorious Saviour. My friends, we cannot lift Him
up high enough. Let us exhort His name together
and so to think of that suffering, His crucifixions. Well, my friends,
what it was, wasn't it? What a tremendous suffering He
endured. You know, He was put on that
cross when He was exceedingly weak. seen in his week having
passed through Gethsemane, passed through the judgment hall, in
great weakness, on the cross, and still you see in that great
weakness. It's a wonderful example of his love to sinners. When
there was that sinful thief, who the pair of them, the two
thieves, had been speaking against Christ, Until that time of that
change, when the work of God's Spirit touched that dying thief's
heart, and he came and said, what did he do? He confessed
his sin. He said, we indeed justly, because we deserve that which
is due to us. And that's where you and I come.
We won't say, well, I'm a good man. Oh, he'd say, I deserve, we deserve. But this man has done nothing
amiss. You see, the Saviour looked upon him. He prayed, didn't he? Lord, remember
me. When thou comest into thy kingdom,
what did the Saviour say? To this day, thou shalt be with
me in paradise. Yes, in his weakness and his
extremity, the Lord remembered that dying thief. My friends,
bless God today if he's remembered you and me. And if we have the
evidence, therefore, that we are amongst those who are saved,
and amongst those who rejoice in the finished work of the Saviour,
his great work of redemption, his death, his shedding of his
most precious blood, that through the shedding of blood there is
that forgiveness, there is that remission. And there, my friends,
may our hope be, is if your hope is in the finished work of Christ,
It's a good place. It's a good place because it'll
take you to glory. You're not relying on your works.
You're relying on what Christ has done. You'll understand,
therefore, in some measure, why the apostle wrote like this.
And you'll bless God it is so. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Amen.