Chapter 1, we're looking at verse
22 through verse 24 this morning. I've entitled this, A Threefold
Effect of Preaching. A Threefold Effect of Preaching. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
22. For the Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block.
To the Greeks, foolishness. but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God." Now, we have seen in our study of 1 Corinthians, in
chapter 1, we have seen several reasons why the apostle determined
to preach the gospel. to this congregation. You know,
they were divided. They were chosen preachers. They said, I'm of Paul, I'm of
Apollos, I'm of Christ. They had chosen men who preached
the gospel and exalted them above the gospel. They had set these
men up and they were divided among themselves. And so the
remedy for this As we're going to see throughout this whole
book, the remedy for every trouble in the church is this. Christ
and Him crucified. Preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ. In fact, the reason why Paul
says he will preach the gospel to them is because this is God's
means. This is God's means. He preaches
the gospel because he was sent. Look back at verse 17. For Christ sent me, not to baptize,
but to what? Preach the gospel. And so, everyone who is sent,
what do we do? What is our remedy? For all the
troubles and ailments of the church, it is to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ, and that is all. That is what we are sent
to do. The second reason that God has chosen preaching is that
it causes division. Jesus said, I came not to bring
peace, but what a sword. And what is the sword? The sword
is the gospel. The sword is a divisive gospel. And what does it divide? How
does it divide? Verse 18, "...for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God." This Gospel this
morning, to some, it's foolishness. Some men will just hear me and
say, well, I don't understand a word that man's saying. He's
a fool. He's a foolish man. Well, the
Gospel has already divided. There you are. It sets you over
there. You're on this side. You are perishing. That's what
God said. But to us, this gospel is not
foolish. It is a powerful gospel. It's
effectual, because it was made effectual by the Spirit in our
hearts, and we're over here. We are saved. That makes a division
every time it's preached. And the next reason we saw that
God has chosen preaching is because it destroys the wisdom of man.
God said, I will, as it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise and bring nothing to the understanding of the prudent.
This is what God does with the gospel. He destroys man's wisdom. When we preach the gospel, it
destroys man's religion. works and free will gospel. We
preach this gospel, God just squashes their religion. He said, what is the chaff to
the flame? He said, my gospel is a hammer. It breaks into pieces. That's my word. It crushes man's
religion. And in verse 21, we preach the
gospel that God chose preaching because it is His wisdom and
pleasure. Look at that in verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And we went over that last time.
If God was pleased, to choose preaching, would there be any other means?
No. No, there's no other means. Why?
Because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that belief. And now then, we preach, so we
preach the gospel because we are sent, we preach the gospel
of Christ in Him crucified because it pleases God, it destroys the
wisdom of man, and it calls His people what it does. Now then,
let's look at this next reason. Now we're coming down to our
text. And we see this, for the Jews
require sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified. Now then, I want you to see,
first of all, there are three people represented here. These
three people represent everyone in this room, and everyone in
the world. You and I will fall into one of these three groups. Jews, Greeks, or we who preach Christ. There's
the three groups. First of all, the Jews. This
group of people are the religious crowd. The Jews represent all
self-made, self-righteous, religious people. Now, the Jews were the most moral
and zealous people that ever lived, without a doubt. The Pharisees
that lived during Christ's time were the most moral outstandingly
moral, and I'm not talking in, I'm talking generality, but in
general, these, this group of people were the most zealous
for the obedience to the law of God as any group ever was. Paul said, I bear them record
they have a zeal for God. Now Paul said that. Any man who
had a true zeal for God, it was the Apostle Paul. But he said,
look, I confess that my brethren, they have a zeal for God, but
it's just not according to knowledge. For they going about to establish
their own righteousness, And so, surely it is true of
all people who seek to please God or be accepted by works,
religion. This is a group of people. And
I tell you, in our generation, it is a very large group of people. These people, like the Jews, What does Paul say about them?
What separates them? He said, look, for the Jews require
what? A sign. A sign. Even so, all religious people
today require a sign. A sign. That is, in order to
verify that God is with you, in order to verify that you are
really sin of God, they need to see something. a miracle, a work, a ceremony. They need to have something tangible
to prove that you're of God. They seek a sign. They need and
desire some unusual experience, some emotional outburst. They
need a miracle or a ceremony. And this is why all works religion
preach man's work, and not only Christ's work. God's Church says
we preach Christ and Him crucified. Only Christ. Always Christ. Always pointing men to Christ. But the Jews and everyone who
is religious, they point to man's works because they require a
sign. The Pharisees, they made a great
outshow in the flesh, didn't they? You talk about theatrics. These
guys were theatrical in their worship. When they fasted, they
put dirt on their faces, ashes on their head. They walked around
with a somber look. You knew they were fasting. See,
in order to fast, you need a sign that you're fasting. So you have
to cover yourself in dirt. You have to look like you're
fasting. If they wanted to be pious, they would don these robes,
they would write the Word of God on the sleeves and on the
skirts, and they would walk around and loudly they would pray in
the middle of the street. They'd pick a crowded street
and they'd walk out in the middle and they'd say, Oh God, I thank
you that I'm not like these sinners. They'd make a show. Why? They need a sign. And everybody
would look at them and say, ooh, man, that guy is really of God. You know what Jesus said about
them? He said they are nothing more than painted tombs, beautiful
on the outside but full of dead men's bones. These who were outwardly zealous
and looking for a sign, yet they hated Christ. Didn't they? The Jews, they hated Christ.
They confessed that they were looking for Him. They confessed
they were waiting for Him. And when He came, they despised
His message. They hated His gospel. What was
His message? Salvation by grace. That was
His message. Salvation by His work and not
by the deeds of the law. And they hated that gospel. Listen,
so does works religion in our day. And what I mean by works
religion, I'm not just talking about Armenians. There's a bunch
of Calvinists out there, call themselves Reformed. The Reformed
religion of our day surely fits this category of seeking a sign. I believe this is the most dangerous
of works religion, because they profess to believe salvation
by grace, and then immediately, once a man is converted, they
put him right under the law. Immediately after he's converted,
they start binding burdens on him that they themselves could
not bear. Immediately put him back under
the law and rituals and ceremonies and rites and passages and creeds
and ordinances of the church that are not scriptural. Illustration
is infant baptism. Infant baptism in the Reformed
Church is, they require it. Now, some of them don't even
call it what they, well, they say it's the dedication. Isn't
that right, Scott? You said that. Some women like this, the dedication. They like to see children dedicated.
to Jesus. What do you want? You want a
sign. You want some outward work to
show some kind of proof that God is with that child or with
this church. He said, look, the Jews seek
after a sign. They want an outward sign. You know why they want that?
Because there is no inward work of grace. If there was an inward
work of grace, they wouldn't need a sign. Remember, the Spirit of God testifies
with our heart that we are the sons of God. So I don't need
outward signs to prove that. I don't need outward ceremonies
to prove that. Why? He's already testified in
my heart. So I don't need the approval
of man, do I? You don't need the approval of
man. What do the Jews seek? They sought the approval of man
by some kind of outward sign, and so does all works religion. Go to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Verse 1, the Pharisees and also
the Sadducees came and tempted him, desired him that he would
show them, what, a sign from heaven. He answered and said
unto them, When the evening, in this evening, you say, it
will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning,
it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering.
You hypocrites. You can discern the face of the
sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked
and adulterous generation seeketh what? After a sign. And there shall be no sign given
it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them. What does God do with all works
of religion and seek a sign? He tells them the gospel and
he leaves them. This is the sign. As Jonah was
three days and three nights in the heart of the well's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth." There's your sign. What other sign do
you need? He said, look, you hypocrites, you
can discern, you can tell the weather. You forecast the weather.
But you claim to read the Scriptures and I'm standing in front of
you. And you can't discern that. They had no spiritual discernment. Neither does false works religion,
self-righteous, self-made religious folks, because they have no ability
to understand spiritual truths. They'll always be looking for
outward works of obedience to the law and performance of religious
ceremonies and church ordinances, instead of looking to Jesus Christ
alone. He is the only sign God has given. And when He saves, you don't
need any other sign. You need no other sign. So you're looking for outward
proofs. And listen to me, you believers, I know our flesh often
does that. And it must be put down. Constantly
must be mortified. It must be put away. Looking
for outward signs. The only sign we need is Christ
was crucified and Christ is risen from the dead. What other sign
do you need of our salvation? That's it. That's all we need.
Now the next group is those who are Greeks. What do the Greeks
say? Go back to your text. What does
the Greek say? He said the Greeks seek after wisdom. Who are these?
These are those who seek after philosophy. academic education, astronomy,
politics, history, or even religion if it tickles their intellect.
You know, Paul ran into a group of those people on Mars Hill,
didn't he? He went up there and those men brought him up there
and this is what the Scripture says about them, they spent their
time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something
new. Now here's a picture of all those
who are like the Greeks, that seek after wisdom. They're always
looking for something, what? New. Now these people, I've met quite
a few of these people, they've come in and they hear of Calvinism,
they hear of election, something they've never heard before, something
new. Something new. Wow. Election. Boy, I would love
to hear something about that. Now, sure, we tell them. We think
that it seems like that God may be working, and we don't know
if He is or not. So we just preach the Gospel to them. We tell them
the truth. And they come and they start digging into it. They
start digging into it. And then, after a while, what
are they going to do? Well, that's not enough. They
need something new. They need something more. This last group is interested only as it tickles their ears. But Paul says this, we're to
preach Christ. He said, these people, they are
ever learning and never able to come to the truth. Therefore, they turn away their
ears to fables. Is this you? Are you looking
for something new? Listen, friends, I will never
preach anything new. I remember preaching a message
one time. I was in one of the Old Testament
books, Minor Prophets, and I saw a picture of Christ, at least
I thought it seemed as though it was a picture of Christ, and
I started looking at it, and I was really excited about preaching
it, but one thing I couldn't find. I couldn't find anybody
else that had preached that before. And I'll tell you what, I became
very fearful. I don't want to preach anything new. I'm not
trying to be original. Friends, as a matter of fact,
I want to say exactly what God has been saying forever. I don't
want anything new. If you want something new, you
ain't going to be here for very long. That's for sure. You won't sit here very long.
I don't got anything new. My gospel is as old as eternity,
and it is as fresh as the newborn dew on the grass. It's just fresh
to us as though we heard it for the first time. That's the Spirit
of God, isn't it? That is. Now then the third group
is this, those who are called. He said, but we preach Christ
crucified. Jews stumbling block, the Greeks
foolish, but to them that are called, this is the next group.
The next group is those who are called. Paul said, in opposition
to the self-righteous, in opposition to the worldly wise, what do
we do? We who are called preach Christ
and Him crucified. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
We not preach ourselves, our works, our goodness, or our ability
to satisfy God. We preach only the effectual
work of Jesus Christ. God's people are not seeking
after a sign. Not looking to our works for proof or favor
of God. But we cry this, God forbid I
should glory in anything except what? The cross of Jesus Christ. And notice, Christ crucified
is our only message. We preach Christ crucified. He is our message. He alone is the sum and object
of all we preach. And I know this. He is the sum
and object of all you who are called, desired to hear. He's all I want. He's all I need. Christ is all. Therefore, what
do we preach? I preach everything. When I preach
Christ crucified, I preach everything. Everything that is needful and
good and right, I preach. Christ and Him crucified. Friends,
I'm not trying to walk a tightrope here between as though Christ
is one thing and your practical life is something else. No, Christ
is the whole thing. People are out there telling
you, you know, they would say, preacher, I want to hear how to live. Now
listen to me very carefully. You know how to live. I'm telling you the only thing
that's important is Jesus Christ. If you have Christ, knowing how
to live is very simple. How do we live? For me to live
is Christ. Isn't that right? For me to live
is Christ. There it is. It's a very simple
thing. The thing is, you don't want
to live by Christ alone. Sometimes we get like those Israelites,
they say, my soul loatheth this light bread. No! No, Christ is my life, Christ
is my all. We live by Him. And so then,
now then, let's see the effect. You see the three people. You
see the groups of people. Now, what is this Gospel? What
is the effect of this Gospel on these people? Look at verse
23. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews, a stumbling block. There's a first effect. Unto
the Greeks, foolishness. There's a second effect. Unto
them that are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power
of God, the wisdom of God. There's a third effect. So the
first effect is this. It's a stumbling block. Stumbling
block to the self-righteous. Go to Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah chapter 8, and look at
verse 14. This is a prophecy of Christ, His
first portion, and He shall be for a sanctuary, a refuge, a
protection. But, He's also something else. to another group of people. But
for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the
houses of Israel for a gen and for a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem and many among them shall stumble and fall and be
broken and be snared and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the
law among my disciples And I will wait upon the Lord that hideth
his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord hath given me are for a sign and for wonders in Israel
from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion." Now,
God promised a sanctuary. Christ a sanctuary. He's a sanctuary,
a refuge for all spiritual Israel. But for national Israel, what
was He? God prophesied. This is something
God purposed. Now, the Israelites didn't reject
Him on accident. God purposed their rejection.
He decreed their rejection. He hid this thing from them. And He purposed that Christ should
be made a stumbling stone for them. A rock of offense. That he would come into this
world and be a rock of offense. He was, wasn't he? He was very
offensive. Now listen to me. The gospel is always offensive
to the self-righteous. Always. It's always going to
be that way. Because the gospel declares that
men have no righteousness at all. That men have no goodness
at all. That's naturally offensive. Therefore, Christ, they stumble
at Him. You know, our gospel is this,
all is ready. Isn't that our gospel? Is that not the message you heard
when you came? Is that not the message you love
to hear all the time? All is ready. All is done. Salvation accomplished. You should come. And listen to
me, I'm telling every one of you right now you should come.
You should come to Christ stripped. You should come to Christ with
nothing. You should come to Christ as you are. You should not wait
for anything. You should come now. You should
come as a beggar. You should come in poverty of
sin and guilt. You should come to Him and lay
down your soul upon His perfect work. Come without merit. And all who come, listen, He
is a sanctuary, a refuge from the justice of God. But to you
who need a sign, listen, He said this, a wicked and adulterous
sinner's nation seeketh after a sign. And this is the sign he's given,
verse 18 in Isaiah 8. Here's the sign. Behold, I and
the children whom thou hast given me are for a sign and a wonder. Listen to me. When you walk through
this world, you are the sign and the wonder. Don't you get
it? You're a miracle. If you are
saved by the grace of God, people say when a child is born, what
a miracle. Nope. When God creates a new
nature in a man, that's a miracle. When God takes a man who hates
Christ and makes him to love Christ, that's a miracle. When
God gives a man spiritual life from spiritual death, that's
a miracle. That's a miracle. But to everyone else who seeks
to merit their righteousness, He is a rock of offense and a
stumbling stone, and one day that rock will crush them. It
will crush them, and they will die in eternal damnation. Who? Those who seek after a sign.
And this gospel has an effect. They just can't see it. They
can't let their religion go. I mean, is that not something
that you want to get rid of? You, believers, you want to get
rid of your religion. You want to get rid of your sin
and your lust and your passion. You want all that to be gone.
They want to keep some of it. But you can't keep it and have
Christ. That's the stumbling stone. Second effect is on the
Greeks. He said, to those Greeks, those
who are wise, We who preach the gospel is foolishness. Go back to your text, look at
that. To the Jews, the stumbling block. To the Greeks, foolishness. Now listen, we are living in
a day of truly a bunch of Greeks. This world is walking around
with their chest out like peacocks, thinking they are so wise. They say, you fools, to believe
that old myth. We've got scientific evidence. This world was created by itself. I think it's in Isaiah chapter
29. God speaks of that foolishness.
He said, you're going to believe that You didn't even have a Creator. He said, who is God? Who is He
that seeth us? There's no one made us. He's
saying that's like the pot saying there is no potter. And yet they call that wisdom.
I'm telling you, they're running around and putting them in such...
They give them honors and trophies and medals for their so-called
wisdom. and run around trying to find
the missing link. Fools. But yet they call us fools. They call what we do foolishness.
When I preach the gospel to them, they say, oh, that's just foolishness.
That's just as good as any other old religion. But there's another effect, and
I'm so thankful for this. but into them which are called." Friends, God, before the foundation
of the world, chose a people. He chose them personally. He loved them effectually. And in a sovereign act of divine
will, He gave them to Jesus Christ. gave them to his son, and in
a covenant he made with his son, God told his son, you shall be
their representative, you will be their mediator, you will be
their high priest, and you will make them holy. And God the Son came in the flesh,
on purpose. Lived the life that those elect
could never live for themselves. Unknown to them, he was doing
this. In love, he laid down his life to satisfy the justice of
God for all their sins. And according to the effectual,
the sovereign will of God at an appointed time, he met them
in their sin. He met us in our depraved condition
haters of God despising the gospel just as everyone else and in a moment of sovereign
power he quickened our souls by this he called us called us just like he did Lazarus
at the tomb. When Lazarus was in the tomb,
he was dead four days. He was already beginning to decompose.
And in one word from Christ, Lazarus! Come forth. And Lazarus, listen, came forth. Alive. This is the effect of the Gospel
on all God's elect. They're called. They're called. I send a general call this morning
to you. Listen, everyone who has ears
to hear, you can hear my voice. I tell you to believe on Christ.
I tell you always believe on Christ. I tell you repent of
your sins and turn to Christ. Forsake the world and yourself
and come to Christ. I tell everyone always to do
that. And yet I know within me there
is no power to make you. There's no power in you to make
you. The only power is in God. Therefore,
we who are called, we who are effectually called, we know something
about this Gospel. We know something about Christ.
To us who are called, Paul says, he said, Jew and Greek, he said,
you who are self-righteous and you who are self-wise, When you
are called, what is it? Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. In this, your experience, you
were saved by what? The power of God. The power of
God. It was the power of God the Holy
Spirit that raised you from the dead. And what did you see when
you were made alive? You saw Christ was the power
of God. The power of God to make us righteous
is Christ and His righteousness. The power of God to cleanse us
from our sins is the blood of Christ. The power of God to justify
us is the resurrection of Christ. How could God ever justify us? There's power in the blood. Isn't
there power in that blood? Yes. There's power in the blood
because it's the blood of Christ. He is the power of God. And what's
the power that keeps you and sustains you? It is Christ who
keeps you. It is by His power you are kept. I'm so thankful for the security
of this gospel that I cannot be lost. You got that? I may
fall on this rock and be broken, but I will never fall off of
this rock. He's a sanctuary to us. He said
in that passage in Isaiah, he said, bind up the testimony. Seal it up in my disciples. Isn't
that what it is? It's sealed. you are sealed with
the power of the holy spirit sealed by the spirit of god and
no one can open is like a king would see a letter if you open
that letter to its penalty of death there's no way anyone could
take us from christ that's what i felt when i was
called he's power and he's the wisdom of god here's the question
that all religious religion of the world can't answer. If God is just, God is holy, how could he ever justify the
ungodly? I'm not talking about pretending
that we didn't commit sin. Justify means that you actually
did not commit sin. How can God who is holy ever
say that Tia never committed sin? Without lying. How is that possible? See, the
wisdom of religion tries to answer it, well, Tia needs to start
doing something else. She needs to start working. She needs to
start trying to earn that. But see, all we are is sin. And
so all we do is compound our guilt. We never answer the question
as to how God can be just and justify the ungodly. You can't
answer it by works. Because all we do is sin. All
we are is sin. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Here it is. Only through a representative
man. That's the only way. A substitute.
And that substitute is only Jesus Christ. Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered in the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned. Representative man, Adam, as
by the offense of one many were made sinners, even so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Jesus Christ is the wisdom of
God in salvation. To who? everyone that's called everyone that is redeem to us who preach the gospel Jesus
Christ crucified Jews a stumbling block great foolish but us I don't want And I don't need
anything else but Christ. And I know that's true of you.
You who believe you are called Christ. Christ alone. The power of God to save me. The power of God to keep me.
And the wisdom of God to justify me. Which are you? Are you still seeking a sign?
Are you looking for something in you? Are you looking for the wisdom
of this world, the things of this world? And you count this
foolishness? Listen to me, God will destroy
your wisdom and your works. But to us who are called, Christ
is the power of God, the wisdom of God. This is the reason we
only preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the only
way sinners are saved. How do you know that? I'm one. Matter of fact, I'm the only
sign, and you are the only sign this world has, Christ and those
who He calls. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.