All right, if you take your Bibles
this morning and turn with me to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, you're
looking at this chapter this morning, and I've entitled this
message, Preachers, Preachers and the Message, Preachers and
the Message. Now, the Apostle Paul, before
we begin this chapter, the Apostle Paul in the preceding chapters
had clearly stated there was a trouble in the church of Corinth.
They were setting men against one another, God's preachers.
They were exalting God's preachers. above one another. One would
say, I'm of this man, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of
Cephas, and others would say, I'm of Christ. In other words,
they didn't even go to hear these men. They just said they're of
Jesus, they're more spiritual, and they don't even need to attend
to God's men. But Paul sets forth this gospel
truth concerning the necessity of preaching. THE NECESSITY OF
PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, HIM CRUCIFIED. IN CHAPTER
1, PAUL SAYS IN VERSE 17, FOR CHRIST SENT ME NOT TO BAPTIZE,
BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. And this is how is to preach,
not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made
of none effect. For this is the reason, preaching,
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us, unto us who have been effected by the power of
God and saved by the grace of God, preaching to us, we know
it to be not foolishness, but the power of God unto salvation. the power of God unto salvation.
That's what we read earlier when Paul said that in Romans. He
said, "...is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth." And we know that this is the necessity, this is
God's chosen means according to His wisdom. Look at verse
21, "...for after that the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom,
is not God." You're not going to know God by earthly wisdom.
You're not going to know God by earthly academic understanding. But God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And so then
the sole means of the Holy Spirit in revealing Christ is preaching
the gospel. This is a basic rudimentary thing
that every believer understands. And so in chapter 2, He walks
them through their own experience. He said this, When I came unto
you, I came not with excellency of speech, verse 1, or wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, in Him crucified.
And so Paul begins to tell them, Look, it's not by my abilities
either. Recount your own experience of
this, how I came to you, and what I preached to you, and how
you received Christ. You received Christ not by the
wisdom or the ability of my speaking. You received Christ by the power
and demonstration of the Spirit of God, and not of earthly wisdom. You came to understand how God
can be just and justify the ungodly. You came to see the accomplished
work of Christ. And this was by revelation, not
by education. It's not by reformation, but
revelation. That's how you, in your personal
experience in this, recount our experience of grace, and you
will find it to be true of every one of us. We know this, I had
not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered the heart of man the
things which God should give His people. None of this occurred
to us naturally, but spiritually. And this by what? Grace. Paul
said to know those things that God were freely given to us. You experience the grace of God
through the preaching of the gospel. You understand that it's
freely given to you. Titus, Paul said this to Titus
in Titus 3, 5, Not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us. How? By the washing
of regeneration. and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through, what, your merits? No, through Jesus Christ, through
the merits of Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope, the anticipation
of eternal life. So now, Paul in chapter 3, begins
to rebuke this church. He rebukes them in verses 1 and
3 concerning their carnality. Look at this in verse 1. He said,
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you
with milk and not with meat, For hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you able. Why? For you are yet
carnal. For whereas there is among you
envying and strife and division, are you not carnal and walk as
men? Paul is speaking, and I want
you to notice the correlation there between carnal and babes.
These people that he's speaking to are not unregenerate. People
have this idea of carnal Christianity. In other words, that you were
saved once and you just going out there and live in the world
and just live in flesh. You say, oh, he's just a carnal
Christian. It's not what he means. No, these people are regenerated
by the Spirit of God, but they are carnal in this. They are
babes and they're not. Their growth is stunted is what
he's talking about. Their maturity and understanding
is not right. Now, can a believer have misunderstand? You bet! Can a believer be in
error? Yes! Can a believer live like
the world and never return or repent? No, that's not a believer!
He's not talking about this, what the world says is a carnal
creature. He's talking about a matter of maturity. He said, look, when
I came first, you couldn't bear it, and here I am writing to
you again, and you still can't bear meat. You're not growing. And they did this because they
would not mortify the deeds of the body. They rather entertained
them. Can a believer entertain the
flesh? Yes. Can a believer accept the wisdom
of this world? At times, yes. And what does
that show? That shows a lack of maturity
in spiritual things. And so he takes them back to
the ABCs of faith. He said, I have to give you milk.
which is good for babies, but you should have known this already.
These things that I'm explaining to you, these things you should
know. And yet now I'm having to say
them as though you're hearing them for the first time. Believers,
let this be a warning to us not to attend to the wisdom of the
world, not to attend to the reason of our flesh allowing the carnal
man to intrude in our worship or intrude in our understanding
of the gospel. Isn't the flesh always fighting
against the understanding of the gospel? It is. The warfare
is constant. We should not be lax in our warfare
against the old man that would drag us back to our own wisdom. But rather we should grow. I
like what Paul says in Hebrews 2 and verse 1. He says, Therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed. You got that? More earnest
heed. Now you should give more earnest
heed to the gospel, the things which you have heard. What things
have you heard? You've heard the gospel. You've
heard the gospel. Now then, as we grow, do we let these things
go by and by like the world? The world believes that once
you know Christ, you move on. You go on to other things, morality,
legalism. You go on to dealing with government
and you go on to protest and you go on to do different things
as a church. No, no. You give more earnest heed to
what? The things you've already heard.
And we grow in those things, not in the wisdom of the world. We give more earnest, more earnest
heed to the gospel, not less. That's not growing to give less
earnest heed to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's showing
maturity in that we are staying with this message, constant and
steady. Believers, our minds and hearts,
are they not like broken cisterns? How much of this are you going
to remember today? When this is all said and done, how much
of the message will you remember? Well, you remember only that
which God allows. Only that which God teaches.
That's the only thing that's going to stick. Why? We're just
broken cisterns. We leak out more information
than we take in. Therefore, this is why preaching
is necessary after we are saved in that we are constantly being
reminded. You know, I ate this morning.
But I promise you this, in a little while I'm going to eat again
because I'm hungry again. And that's the way it is spiritually. We eat, we feed, but it's not
sufficient. We need more. We need to grow.
I need this so that we may keep up our strength. And so it is
with the gospel food. God ordained this means that
by which we are encouraged and continue to grow in faith and
knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so He declared to them as
the sincere milk of the Word concerning the necessity of preaching,
that this means God has chosen to save sinners and feed His
sheep only by this means. This is the means. This is the
means of God to feed you, to comfort you. that you should heed and not
neglect the worship of God. If this is necessary, should
then we neglect it? Do you need this? This morning
I'm asking believers, do you need this? Now the world and
the lost have no need for this. But God's people have need of
this message of Christ. They have need of it. They must
feed on it. This is how He feeds His sheep. Yet many Even of God's
people, many of God's people, and that's who I'm speaking to,
God's people. Why do they neglect this? Why do men neglect this? They
say, well, I pray, preacher, you've done said those things
so many times, I know them forward and backward. You know what you
are? If you are a believer at all, you're a babe, you're a
baby, you're speaking like a child. You're carnal and not spiritual.
You sound spiritual, but you're really not. You're carnal. It's
the opposite of spiritual. If you don't need this, then
that's because you're carnal and not spiritual. God's people
who are spiritual understand their spiritual need. What reason do men give for missing
the service of God? As a minister of the gospel,
I declare this message constantly. I want you to bear record. Scott,
we've got how many records of this? We've got some records
online if you want to listen. Bear me record. What have I preached
to you all these years I've been with you? I've preached this
same gospel to you, haven't I? And yet why do God's people neglect
it except they be carnal? Except they put their fleshly
desires above the worship of Christ. Have you not then said in your
heart that, well, you know, Christ is good, but I have other things
that need to be attended to. I mean, instead of worship, that's
what you're saying. I have other things. My family needs attended
to. My children need attended to.
No, one thing is needful. You remember Mary, she sat at
the feet and Martha was all busy. And Jesus rebuked Martha when
she was busy. He said, Martha, you're cumbered
about with much service. Mary hath chosen that one thing
that was needful, and she chose it, and it's not going to be
taken from her. So hear the gospel. And those who won't have put
earthly reasoning above the Spirit, above the Word of God. Is this not a necessity? Is this
not a basic principle of the gospel? That we should hear the
Word of God and not neglect it. I tell you this, there are some
people who neglect this Word, and if you keep neglecting it,
you understand that you're not carnal, you're lost. If you don't
have a need for this Word and you continue not having a need
for this Word, there's a word for that, reprobate. God's people are not reprobate.
They need this gospel, and God reveals their need to them, and
He supplies it, and they attend to it. But Paul, here in our
text, is revealing the other side of this, because there are
some people who do attend the worship of Christ, who are faithful
to attend the worship of Christ, and yet they are carnal. They
are carnal. These believers were attending
to worship, but they were not glorifying God, they were glorifying
the preachers. They were giving glory to men,
and rather to God and His message. Look at verse 4. For while one
saith, I am of Paul, another saith, I am an Apollos. Are you
not carnal? Are you not carnal? Now, my purpose this morning,
and I do desire that the Lord keep our hearts from such foolish
things as neglecting the worship, or when we're attending the worship,
that we should not be carnal in this, that we should have
a right understanding of, first of all, preachers. To attend
this worship, you want to give glory to God. You must have a
right understanding of what we're here to do, who we are, Who called
us? Who equips us? Who gives us our
talents and our directive and our authority? Who does that?
God does. And second, I want us to see
the message of the preacher, the message of the preachers,
because there's only one. I want us to look at the message
of the preachers and who gets the glory and what are the benefits
of their message. First of all, preachers. As we
have seen, God has chosen the preaching of the gospel to save
sinners. He has also chosen and appointed
men to declare it. If you go over to, I'll read
it for you, 2 Corinthians 4, 12, the apostle says about the
ministry, he said, but we have this treasure in earthen vessel. What treasure? Not only salvation,
because we do, we have this treasure of salvation in this earthen
vessel, but he's talking about ministry. He said, we have this
ministry, this treasure of ministry in an earthen vessel for this
reason, that the excellency and power may be of God and not of
us. That's why God chose men. He chose men to declare His gospel
for this purpose, that the excellency of it should not be of us, but
that it should be of Him. The glory of this, that God has
chosen the weak men, weak things, to convey the power of God, the
gospel, that it might be clear to all that the excellency of
it belongs to God. Yet because of our corrupt nature,
believers are tempted to exalt the man rather than God, to lift
up the preacher rather than lifting up God who sent him. So then
Paul here puts the minister in his proper place, verse 5. Who? Ministers. Who is apostle? Who
is? You said, you know, I'm with
this guy and I'm with that guy. Well, who are they? Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos?
But servants, ministers, by whom you believe, even as the Lord
gave every man. I planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one. And every man
shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Ministers,
preachers of God, I want you to see this. They are called
by God's grace. They're called by God's grace.
In the very beginning of this book, Paul says this, Paul, an
apostle, called to be an apostle, called to be an apostle. Paul
didn't take this thing upon himself. God called him to the office
of apostleship. And so it is with ministers of
God. Who are they? They're just men called by the
grace of God. They're men called to work. They
don't take it upon themselves. Matter of fact, preachers are
a gift. And what they have is a gift
of God as well. You remember, as Paul said in
Ephesians 4, he says that Christ, having led captivity captive,
he gave gifts unto men. What are these gifts? He gave
some apostles. Now listen, I cannot claim and
nobody can claim the apostleship. He gave some apostles. He gave
some prophets. I can't claim to be a prophet.
Some evangelists. That's not me. Some pastors and
teachers. That's me. He gave that to me. And He gives it to every man
who is called to preach the Word. Now, the work of the ministry
is a calling and a gift of God, not of man. Now listen, if any
man calls himself to the ministry, I've met several students at
the seminary, and I asked them, what are you going to the seminary
for? They said, well, I want to be a preacher. I said, why
don't you go to the seminary? What's the purpose? Did God call
you to the seminary? Did He call you to preach? If
He called you to preach, why aren't you going there? Go preach! If
that's what God calls you to do, then go preach. What do you
need the approval or a piece of paper saying you got a certificate
to preach? What good is that? That's man's
wisdom. That's man's wisdom. I know men
hate that. In their pride, they look down
at me and they say, well, man, you know, you don't have a degree
in seminary. Of course not. I wouldn't give you two cents
for one. It's not even worth that. You know what I have? I have a calling of God. You
have a piece of paper. Which is better? God gives men
to preach. And I've known some men who've
tried. And I'm talking about good men.
I'm talking about godly men. I've known some godly men that
desired to preach. Man, they had it. They had gifts.
They had talents for it. And yet every time God put them
down and did not allow them to preach. And I know some men harbor
resentment toward God because they're not called to it. They
look at me and they say, well, man, I'm better than that. I
don't doubt it. You're better than me. I don't doubt it. Probably
more knowledgeable than me. I don't doubt it. What's the
difference? Did God call you to it? That's
it. And you know what? I examine that often. I examine
if I should be here. I don't want to be in this position
if I'm not called to it. You should you. No man should
want to be here except God call him. What a horrible thing. I've known men to do that. I've
known men to take this position themselves. And it turned out
horrible for everybody. God must call a man to this position. But because God is called, because
we are appointed to this office, it gives us no glory. You know
that? There's no glory. I have no glory above you. I'm
a sinner saved by grace just like you. There's no glory in the preacher
I'm called of God, but what did Paul say? He said, we're not
anything. Isn't that what he said? He said,
who's Apollos? Who's Paul? They're not anything
but planters and waterers. I mean, look, you, I got a, Cheryl
and I got brown thumbs. We, I think every plant we touch
dies. So we don't do very well in gardening.
If I plant a seed, I'll tell you this, God has to give the
increase of it. You can plant a seed all day long if God doesn't
give it life, it ain't gonna do anything. Same way with preaching.
You can plant water all you want to. God gives the increase and
God gets the glory. Second of all, ministers must
be not only called, they're gifted. Look at verse 10. According to
the grace of God. I'm called according to the grace
of God, but notice this, I'm also gifted, Paul said, by the
grace of God, which is given me as a wise master builder. I have laid the foundation. Paul says he was a wise builder.
He didn't deny it. That's false humility, isn't
it? If you have a gift, to deny it is false humility, and sometimes
we do that. We say, somebody would recognize that you have
a gift, and then you say, oh, no, no, no, no. That's denying
it. Paul never denied his gift. But
he acknowledged that it was to the glory of God. It was by the
grace of God. He had any gift at all as this
wise master builder. No praise to himself. And so
then, among God's men, he has given a variety of abilities.
to preach. He gave Paul these deep truths,
deep mysteries of God's grace to the fullest. And Apollos,
he gave a different gift, didn't he? He gave the ability to speak. To some men, God gives great
talents. To other men, He gives little
talents. Isn't that right? According to
what? The grace of God. Whatever God
determines that man needs, He has. His gifts. Now while these gifts and talents
may differ, they are not to be glorified based on their gifts. We're not to be heard based on
our talents and our gifts, but simply our message. These gifts of the preacher have
no effect on the souls of men without the power of God. Isn't
that right? If a man has all the talents in the world, if
he has the ability to know great mysteries, and he has the ability,
combine this man with Paul and Apollos. You have this great
man that can speak and a great man that knows everything. Without
the Spirit of God, what can he do? What will his talents do? Nothing. His talents are intended
of God and God will use them as he pleases. For what purpose? To give life to his people and
encourage them. That's what he uses talents for
in applying this message. Thirdly, ministers are to be
faithful to preach the gospel. In chapter 4 and verse 2, look
there just quick, one page over. He says, Let a man so account
of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Moreover, it is required of a
steward that a man be found faithful. Now what are we stewards of?
Money? Time? No. Mysteries of the grace of
God. Mysteries. The gospel. That's
what we're stewards of. Let us be counted faithful. Everyone
who is called and gifted to preach the gospel will preach only the
gospel. We'll preach only the gospel,
the word of God. We'll do it at every opportunity,
not by opinions or feelings or human wisdom. Every time we come
to worship, you should expect that from a preacher. If God
sent him, if God called him, if God equipped him, you better
know this, he'll preach Christ. You should expect that of me.
You should expect that of every preacher. Our focus is Christ. Our focus is Christ. Paul said, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The Apostle Paul said to Timothy, I charge you, preach the Word. Be instant, in season when it's
popular, out of season when it's hated. Reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all longsuffering. What for? Because there's going
to be a time where men's not going to enjoy this. They're
not going to heed this gospel. But be thou a faithful minister
of the gospel. Study. Preach. Declare the word. That's what
ministers do. And so then, no matter how simple
we make this, and how plainly we say this, I want you to listen. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Is that not plain? Is that not
the simple word a preacher should be preaching? Christ! Look to
Him! Look to Him! Look to Him! Believe
on Him! Trust Him! He is our sole message
to you. And all our gifts and talents
and calling is for that one purpose. That you should believe on Jesus
Christ. We make it plain. Look to the
Lamb of God. For in Him is forgiveness of
sins. Scripture says, be it known to
you that this man has preached unto you for the sins. Now listen,
we preach to people who need forgiveness of sins. That's our
calling. It's our purpose. We preach Christ. Yet we are not to receive praise
if one believes. You know why? Because there was
no power in me that moved you to believe. There's no power
in me. It is the power of God under
salvation. The power of God under salvation,
not the power of the preacher. And fourth, ministers are to
be esteemed. They are to be esteemed, not
praised, esteemed. Paul said, Let the elders that
rule be counted worthy of double honor, especially them that labor
in the Word and the doctrine. Preachers are to be honored.
The Scripture says, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
God wrote that. God wrote that. And so they should
be esteemed, but not praised. They should receive of the church
carnal things as they perceive to give the church spiritual
things. The church is to take care of their pastor. They are
to esteem their pastor. You know how best to esteem your
pastor? Hear the Word he preaches. Is there anything greater that
a pastor would desire of his people than to hear the Word
and believe on Christ? That's what we're here for. We must be esteemed, but we must
not be praised. This is carnal. I remember this
and I'll give you the illustration because I know my time is fleeting.
I would when I was a younger pastor, I would drive several
hours in Texas to go to a place up in West Texas. Probably about six hours or more
one way, and I remember every time I went up there, Without
fail, there would be some in that group who would have other
things to do. They would go fishing or they'd
go hunting or they'd have other things. It wasn't just one time,
it was every time I'd come up there and preach. But I noticed
this when our brother Don Fortner would go up there, everybody
would show up. But I noticed this about some of the people
is that they didn't so much care about the message as the one
who delivered it. My message wasn't any different.
It wasn't as great. I didn't have as great the talent
as my brother. I still don't, don't ever probably
even dream of having that ability. That's all right. I have the
same message. So instead they desired to put the man above
the message. I have this from Spurgeon. I
thought it was really good to read to you. He said, Sometimes
children of God get worldly. And they have no appetite for
God's Word. They say, We do not profit under Mr. So-and-so. The
truth is, they do not profit under the Bible itself. And should
not profit under the Apostle Paul or under the Lord Jesus
Christ. For we have spoiled our appetite. When our appetite is
healthy, when we come to the Scripture, we would not care
how much it is carved or how it was carved. We would rather
the preacher carve it well, but some people have it to be served
in a dainty style, that it must be with bits of poetry, like
parsley, to garnish the dish, and so on. And if a rough hand
should bring them the meat, they would say, we cannot feed on
this style. That's carnal, isn't it? That's carnal. Why? Because
a man is preaching as necessary. Preaching is necessary. The man
who preaches must be called of God. He's sent of God as a gift
to you. He's equipped. He's given the ability to preach
the gospel, not with all the talents the same, but he's called
for that one purpose, to preach the gospel to you. And you should
esteem him, but not exalt him. Exalt the message. Exalt Christ.
And this is the message. Secondly, Every man is called and gifted
to preach of God have the same message. The same message. This morning your pastor is preaching
Christ and Him crucified. I have not heard the message
as of yet, but I guarantee Todd is preaching Christ and Him crucified. No doubt the same message pointing
to the same one. We don't want you to look at
us. We don't want you to hear us.
We want you to hear Him. Spurgeon's grandfather said,
My grandson may preach the gospel better, but he does not have
a better gospel. Well, it's the same message.
Believers, when we come to worship Christ, we want you to hear Him. The hour is coming, Jesus said,
and now is, when the dead shall hear, who? The voice of the Son
of God, and they that hear shall live. A woman, she came in desperate
need of hearing the voice of the Son of God. Sin was so burdensome. And she came to church and there
was a man from another place. A visiting preacher came and
he preached Christ to her. And she heard that message. She enjoyed that message. She
desired to hear the voice of the Son of God. And she heard
it and was blessed beyond recognition. She just loved it so much that
everything the pastor said just poured over her soul and she
embraced it with all of her soul by faith and rejoiced. And then
she heard that that pastor next week was going someplace else.
And she says, I've got to go hear him. I've got to go hear
this pastor again. And she heard his message and
his message was so dry, so dead. And she came to him after the
service and said, Pastor, I don't understand. I went to hear you
over here and everything was so beautiful and it just touched
my heart, but tonight I came And I heard you, and I have no... He said, there's your problem.
You came to hear me. And it's dry and dead. You want
to listen to me, it's dry and dead. If you hear the voice of
the Son of God, it will pour over your soul. Why? Because
His voice is what you need to hear. We point you to Him. We
want you to hear His voice. If you only hear the voice of
the man preaching, you're in trouble. If anyone will hear
the voice of the Son of God, but it must be by preaching,
isn't that right? If you're ever going to hear
His voice, it is through the preaching of the Gospel. Faith
cometh what? How? By hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. But how are you going to hear
without a preacher? And how are they going to preach except they
be sent? And so this is how you hear the voice of the Son of
God through the preaching of the gospel. And what is our message?
First of all, we have one foundation. Look at verse 11. For other foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid. Here's our message. Jesus Christ. one sure foundation. This is
the message of everyone called, talented, gifted of God, and
sent of God, is one foundation, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, He
is the foundation. Paul begins to use that analogy
of a building and he describes the church of God. In verse 9,
he says, You are the building of God. And as such, as messengers
of God, I have set forth the foundation. That's what I'm here
to do this morning, set forth the foundation. I'm not the foundation.
Don't look at me. You won't find any foundation
in me. I'm weak and feeble. Christ, Jesus, is the only sure
foundation for your soul. The only sure foundation. To
you who have believed under my ministry, Paul said, I declare
the foundation to you. And you believed on Him. You
rested by faith your soul upon Him. He alone is the foundation of
God's church. He alone was chosen of God to
be the rock upon which all His church and all the salvation
of the souls of His people should rest. Behold, God said, I lay,
I lay, this foundation was laid of God. It was laid in eternity. God chose and blessed Christ
to be the Savior, the foundation. I lay in Zion a stone, a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. Listen to this,
a sure foundation. For who? He that believeth shall
not make haste. No matter the talent of the preacher,
no matter the manner of the message, if any man is a true man of God,
he will preach only the sure foundation of Jesus Christ, Him
crucified. God from the beginning chose
him. You see, he first trusted in Christ, didn't he? Paul said
that in Ephesians, who first trusted in Christ. You know who
first trusted? God the Father first trusted in Christ and said,
I give unto him all the souls of my people, that upon his shoulders
the government shall rest, his church and their salvation shall
rest. He shall be the surety of all
his people. He shall be the high priest of
all his people. He shall be the king of all his
people. The responsibility of their salvation
rested totally on Christ. And he was a tridestone, wasn't
he? He was a tridestone. How do you know he was the Christ?
Because all of the scripture testified before of his coming.
He should be the seed of the woman. Was he the seed of the
woman? You bet he was. Was he the Passover lamb? You
bet he was. He was the One. He was the Shepherd.
He was the offering for sin. Go to Isaiah 53. Let's read of
Him. Let's read of Christ. Isaiah
chapter 53. And I wanted you to notice the
we and the ours in this. Verse 4, Surely after He had
come and He was despised and rejected, may we esteem Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. Who is this? All we like sheep
have gone astray. That's the ones, sinners. We
have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord had laid on
him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. He opened not his mouth. He was
brought as a lamb before the slaughters, a sheep before his
shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression
of who? Who are the we? Who are the our?
My people. That's what God said. God said
those we's and our's They rejected Him. They crucified Him. They
were all as sheep gone astray, yet He laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. Who? My people. This is the foundation. And what was the result of this
offering of Jesus Christ? This is told 700 years before
Christ actually was crucified. Look what God says in verse 10.
It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He put Him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and be," what? Satisfied. You see, this is a sure foundation
because God laid on him the iniquity of us all, and when God put him
to grief, made his soul an offering for sin, God said, I'm satisfied
with his offering. Jesus paid it all. None left to pay from his people. He paid it all. This is the sure
foundation for the soul. There is no sure foundation in
any other Christ but this one. There is no other rock, there
is no other foundation laid but that which was laid of God. Jesus
Christ. And what do we preach? We preach
Christ. We preach Christ. We preach Christ.
We always preach Christ. There's the sure foundation for
the church. We preach Christ. I preach Christ
as a solid hope for sinners. John and I were talking about
this yesterday. Hope is not a wish. Hope is not a wish. It's a rock-solid confidence.
I'm preaching a rock-solid, sure confidence that when you die,
if you are in Christ, you shall be saved. God will accept you
because all of your sins have already been paid. Already paid. This is the rock on which we
lean, and this is the rock from which we shall not be moved. In Psalm 121 it says, "...he
shall not suffer thy foot to be moved." You know why I'm not
going to be moved? "...he that believeth shall not
make haste." I don't want to go anywhere. Do you? You're on
Christ, do you want to go anywhere else? Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? We're not one to go anywhere
else. I only want to be on this rock. I only want to hear of
this rock. I don't want to hear of anything
else. There is no hope in anything else. There's only misery and
pain and death outside of Christ. I want Christ. You want Christ? I'm not going to leave. Why? The same power that put me in
Christ keeps me in Christ. What a joy that I can't be moved. I like when that says in the
Shepherd's Psalm, it says, He puts us in the midst of our enemies. It's as though Christ were daring
them. to try to remove us. To show
forth His power and His glory. He puts us in the middle of our
enemies and says, I dare you to touch Him. And when He's allowed, He does. But it's only measured. It's only measured. He may even be able to take our
life But they can't take us away from this foundation. See, that's
THE message that God's men preach. Christ. And how are we to build
on this foundation? Verse 12. Now if any man build
on this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and
stubble, every man's work shall be manifest, for the day shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. Six materials, three good, three
bad. Gold, silver, precious stones.
You know what these are? Doctrines that adorn Christ according
to the Word of God. That's what it is, solid, sound
doctrine according to the Word of God. not opinions, not thoughts,
not feelings, but what does God say? Now, there's a precious
stone, there's gold, there's silver, there's something of
value in what God says. When we build on this foundation,
what do we build on? We build with these precious
doctrines. These precious doctrines. Paul
said, hold fast that form of sound words. Plain, clear, teaching
according to the Word of God. Scott and I were talking about
how these modern theologians, they just overwhelm us with large
words and they have so much meaning compacted in one word that you
can't even express it. Wouldn't it be better to just
say, thus saith the Lord? What is that but pride? Holding forth sound words are
those words that are understood, those words that are written
in the Word of God for us to enjoy. Here's one, say you to
the righteous, it is well with him. Anybody misunderstand that? You are in Christ. You're righteous,
right? You're righteous because He's righteous. And God says
to you in Christ who are righteous, it is well with you. Now is there
anything wrong with that? Anything confusing about that?
Well, I don't feel good. I feel sick. It's well with you. Whatever it is, it's well with
you. You may not understand how it's
well with you, but it is. It's well with you because you
have no more sin. It's well with you because you're accepted of
God. It's well with you because you have eternal life. It's well
with you because you're an heir of heaven. It's well with you
in every way because you're in Christ. This is the word that
we preach. You preach sound doctrine, good
doctrine. And what are the wood, hay, and
stubble? Oh, that's opinion. That's somebody's thoughts. Well,
God says this, but you know what I think. Who cares what you think?
Who cares what I think? That's wood, hay, and stubble,
and it'll be burned up. Now he's not talking about false
preachers here either, friends. He's talking about God's men
who are called, equipped, and sent. When we build on this foundation,
we must be careful what we build on. We do not build on opinions,
thoughts, dreams, and feelings of men. We do not build on experience
either. We build on what God has said. This is precious. This is valuable. And everything else is going
to be burned up. I've known some good, godly men, and I want you
to pray for me in this, that I do not deviate from this message. I've known some good men, godly
men, better men than me, who have deviated and went into politics
in the pulpit. Who cares about politics? Let
the world burn. Preach Christ. Is God burning
it if it's burning? Preach Christ. Some people get hung up on future
events and trying to figure out when Christ is coming. You know
when He's coming? Whenever He comes. You'll know it. It's not
going to be secret. When He comes, it's over. It's
the end. All God's men should labor then
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's our message. So
Paul in verses 21 to 23, let's read these quickly. He says this, Therefore, let no man glory in
men. Preachers are gifted, sent, and
called as gifts to you to feed you, encourage you, and strengthen
you with that one message, Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ.
Look to Christ. That's our message. Don't look
to us. Don't praise us. Don't set us against one another
either. Doesn't matter who's doing the message. It's the message
that matters. Christ. The only the power of
God can save now this and what he says that no man glory and
men why for all things are yours Don't you get that all things
belong to you? And I want you to understand
to take that as far as you want to All things are yours this rioting
that's going on in our name in our in our country. That's for
you That's for you The judgment of this nation that's for you.
Don't worry about it. It's for you. It's all for your benefit
God is working all things together for your good. All things together
for your good. Only faith can see that. You
only see that by faith. You ain't looking anywhere else.
Look to Christ. All things are yours, whether
Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death. All
things present, all things to come, all are yours. And listen,
here's the sum. You are Christ's. That's it. If I belong to Him, what else
do I need? I belong to Him, I have everything.
And I'm sure to inherit everything because Christ is God's. This is a sure message, if you
believe on Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, today, if you believe
on Christ, today is a day of salvation. If you believe on
Christ today, you will be saved. That's a sure thing. Everything
else, no surety to it. What's your authority? God said
it. Not my opinion, is it? Not my
opinion. What does that matter? I'm sent
to tell you of one sure foundation, the message. Jesus Christ, Him
crucified, Him risen. You know what He's doing right
now with this message and every other message? He says He is
sitting in heaven, ruling over all things to give eternal life
to as many as the Father gave Him. You know what? He's going
to do that. He's going to do that. That's a sure thing. God,
give us grace to preach it. God, give you grace to attend
to it for your own good and benefit.