First Corinthians chapter 1. Looking at verse 17 and 18 this
morning. First Corinthians chapter 1.
Verse 17 and 18, the title of this message is, The Gospel Division. The Gospel Division. Paul says, For Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it."
The gospel, the preaching of this gospel is the power of God. Now the apostle here in verse
17 declares to the church this truth, that he was not sent to
baptize, but to preach the gospel. Even so it is with everyone who
is sent of Christ. If I am sent of Christ this morning,
I have one purpose, one aim, and one goal every time I stand
before you. To preach the gospel. Preach
the gospel. I am not sent here to entertain
men. We are not to engage in politics
or government We're not to be pleasers of men. I'm not here to tickle your ears. And I am not sent to make converts
or have people follow me. Now listen, I long for many sinners
to come to Christ. I do. I long for men to come
and follow Christ, to believe on Christ, to hear our gospel,
and believe. But the preacher has no power
to save any one of you. I have no power to deliver you
or make this Word effectual to you. I cannot do that. I have
no power to do it, and I simply will never attempt to do it.
I have nothing to do with this. I simply declare the Gospel to
you. I take this message that is given
to me from the heart of God, and I preach it to you from my
heart to your heart, but I cannot make it effectual. We could have millions join the
church, but I can't save any of them. So our purpose is clear. Our
mandate from Christ is clear. I am not sent to gather numbers
of people, to make converts. I am not gathered to baptize
people. Now, baptism is important. If
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you should be baptized
in obedience to your Master. It is a picture, it is a sign
of public confession of Him. But baptism does not save you.
Baptism can do nothing for your soul. It is a physical thing
that is only a picture of a spiritual thing that has happened to you.
And you are confessing that to be true. I will baptize. I do
baptize, but that's not my purpose. It's been a long time since I've
baptized anyone. It has. It's been a long time.
But that's not what I'm sent to do. I don't measure success
of the ministry based on baptisms. We have one purpose and one goal,
and that is clear, not to fill our pews, but to preach the gospel. We must preach the gospel faithfully,
constantly, boldly, always and forever preach the gospel. This
is why God sent preachers, to edify the church. to build up
the church in the most holy faith by preaching the Word of God. I told you earlier this morning,
building on that most holy faith means line upon line, precept
upon precept, here a little, there a little, declaring the
Word of God to you. That's what we do. Why? Because this is the only way
God saves sinners. I don't care what the world says.
I don't care what men say. Well, I was saved without the
preaching. Well, you find a way to justify your salvation. I'm
not. God says this is the only means. Look at that in verse
21. It says, For after the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. If there's
any man going to be saved, God says it's this way. God says He'll use someone to
send you someone to preach the gospel. You'll hear it. God will
make it effectual to you and you'll believe it. And that's
the means. That's why we preach. Faith cometh
by hearing. And hearing by what? The Word of God. The Word of
God comes to the ears of the sinner by the preacher. But it's
the Holy Spirit that makes it effectual. It's the Holy Spirit
that gives it its power. I know some people say, well,
man, I like when a man preaches boldly, you know, he means loud.
That's what they mean. I like somebody to preach loud.
Someone preaches with authority, with their voice. That doesn't
have any power. You know that? My voice, my voice is just my
voice. This is just who I am. I'm not
doing this to make this effectual to you. Power comes from the Spirit of
God. He puts that Word into the heart of a man and he believes
on Christ. You have believed. Is this not
so with you? Is this not how it was with you? We were lost
and undone without God or His Son, but He reached way down
for me. He took His own hand and touched
my heart and gave me life. He took that Word Himself and
put it inside of me. He took that Word Himself and
put it inside of your heart. And we who preach have one purpose,
is to preach the gospel. Paul said, I am sent to preach
the gospel. Not a gospel, but the gospel.
You know why? There's only one. There are not
many ways to God. There's only one gospel that
men are to preach, and we're not to mix this gospel with the
wisdom of words. Paul said, I should not mix this
gospel with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made
of none effect. What does this mean? It means
this, that if I were to mix works and free will with the gospel
of God's grace, God won't use it. God won't use it. It won't have any effect on the
souls of men. It may have effect on men's conduct.
It may have effect on their outward ways. They may stop doing this
and start going to church. They may get outwardly baptized.
They may join the church. They may do a lot of things with
that other gospel, but it does nothing for the soul. This is
why we preach the gospel. Now what do I mean by the gospel?
Simply this, we preach the absolute utter depravity of man, that
you and I by nature are simply, completely and utterly depraved. We cannot save ourselves, we
cannot earn God's favor, we can't even believe on Christ on our
own. That's what I mean when I'm preaching
this gospel, I'm telling you who you are. You are completely
and absolutely unrighteous. That's who you are. How do you
know that? It's what God says about you.
He said the whole head is sick, the whole heart is fainting.
You're dead. We preach this, that salvation
doesn't begin with man, but it begins in eternity. Salvation
is something on purpose, something God did on purpose, and it happened
before the world began. God chose a people in Christ
before the world began. God chose, listen to this, a
certain number of people. I have people who don't like
to hear that. God chose a certain, I don't know who, I don't know
how many, do you? I don't have any clue. I know it's a lot,
because God said it is. I don't know who they are. God does. He chose them. He chose
them, and He has purpose to save them. He gave Him His love, and
He promised to save them, and He put them in union with Christ
before the world was. We preach the gospel of Christ's
perfect redemption. What does this mean? That Christ
actually accomplished salvation. We preach that He died for all
of the elect, and He redeemed all of the elect, and He provided
righteousness for all of the elect, and only the elect. We preach that He is the Son
of God, come in the flesh, don't we? Unto us, a child is born. What does that speak of? It's
just humanity. When Jesus Christ came into the world, what did
you see? You saw a child born. That's what they saw, a child
born. But what was He really? A Son given. You see, He didn't become the Son.
He was the Son. The eternal Son of God became
flesh and dwelt among us and represented all of the elect
of God. He was working a righteousness
for them, obeying the law for them in perfect righteousness. He would come into the world
so as to crush the head of the serpent by one means, the bruising
of His heel, that He should be crucified, that He should be
slain as the Passover Lamb. for all the sins of His people. He should redeem them from all
their iniquities. This is our gospel, that Jesus
Christ was victorious. We preach a victorious Savior. When I say I am sent to preach
the gospel to you, I am here sent to preach of a victorious
Savior, one who actually saved. That He did save and He did redeem
and He did obtain righteousness for all that the Father gave
Him. And we are to preach the effectual work of the Spirit.
What does that mean? It means when the Spirit of God
comes to the elect, He actually calls them to life and faith.
This is not a decision. There's no such thing as decisional
regeneration. That is a lie made up by men.
There's no such thing as baptismal regeneration. There's no such
thing as getting life and faith from joining the church, or doing
good, or obeying the law. There's no such faith, there's
no such righteousness as that. But here's how man is made righteous,
in that the Holy Spirit of God gives him life, gives him faith. We preach salvation is the work
of the Spirit. And everyone who is saved, this
is what we preach. You are kept. Kept. Guarded. By God Himself. You know, one time the Tree of
Life was kept. Remember that sword turned every
which way to keep man from the Tree of Life. But now then, you
listen, that sword turns every way around us to keep us from
falling, to keep us in Christ. We're preserved by Him in Christ
Jesus. Kept unto the day. He that hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. This is the gospel we preach.
We must preach. Now, this is our gospel we preach.
We must not preach it with the wisdom of words. Isn't that what
Paul said? He said, I come not to baptize. I didn't come to
get followers after myself. I didn't come to build churches. I came to preach the gospel.
I was sent for that one purpose. And I must not preach it with
the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none
effect. Listen, if I try to add my wisdom
to this, God won't use it. If I give you any glory in this,
any work to do, anything to add to Christ, God won't profit that
message. You see, I must contend for this.
I must constantly be aware of what I'm preaching to you so
as to give you no glory for yourself. Matter of fact, at the end of
this chapter, you see the whole reason why Paul is talking about
preaching. Because what? It only gives glory
to God. At the very last of this chapter,
he says, according that as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. This is why preaching is the
means God has chosen. Because it gives all the glory
to God. None to us. Now, look at verse
18. You see what I'm sent to do?
Preach the Gospel. Preach the Gospel to you. This is the means God has chosen
to save sinners. But notice what the Gospel does. Paul is going to call our attention
to a division. Every time this Gospel is preached,
there is a division made. And I want this to be clear today.
I want you to know where you stand. And every time I preach
this gospel, you should know where you stand. This gospel
should cut and divide this whole place into two groups. Two people. Believers and unbelievers. Sheep and goats. Tares and wheat. Saved and lost. So as I preached to you this
morning, this gospel should make a division. Paul said it does. Look at verse 18. 4. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish, what? Foolishness. There's one division. when i get done preaching if
you consider this gospel to be food if you will not now i'm
talking about if you will not believe this cost you may give
all the lip service you want to discuss what if you do not
believe this gospel you call it foolish you don't need it you don't want
it you're in that group but there's another group onto us which are
say what do we think of this cost what do we know of this
gospel yet is the power of god that's what we know that's what
we've experienced it is the power of god as look at this group
here these divisions whenever we preach the gospel this division
is made Some will count the preaching of the cross foolishness, but
others will count it the power of God unto salvation. I know most people believe that
the gospel is intended to bring men together. The common thought
of the gospel is, let's just all get along. Let's just all have peace. Why
can't we all just come together? There was this radio station
when I was a Living in Houston, KSBJ. And they had this theme
going on for years. I don't know how many years.
Church without walls. That's what their theme was.
Church without walls. Now you know what that meant?
That meant church without doctrine. That's what it meant. So long
as you confess the name Jesus somewhere in your testimony,
you could be part of this church. We don't need to make any judgments.
We don't need to make any differences. You believe what you believe.
I believe what I believe. Let's just all get along. That's
what men think the gospel is to do. They think the gospel
is meant to just bring all kinds of people together. No. This gospel divides people. Now, how can you say that? I know there's a lot of people
going to say, how in the world could you stand there and tell
me that? I'll tell you that because Christ told you that. Go to Matthew
chapter 10. See if I'm making it up. See
if I'm just out of my gourd. I must be just totally off my rocker. Some people are
going to say that. Look at Matthew chapter 10. And
tell me if this is not what Christ said. Look at verse 34. Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
what? A sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's
enemies will be they of his own household." Does that sound like
all let's get along? Is that what Christ came to do?
He said, I didn't come to do that. I came to make a strong
division. A sword has one purpose, to cut. Is there any other reason you
need a sword? You need a sword to cut and kill. That's what
you need a sword to do. And Jesus said, I came to send
a sword. You know what the sword is? Here it is. Isn't that what Paul
said? He said, take the sword of the
Spirit, the Word of God. That's the sword of the Spirit.
This Word cuts. It divides. This Gospel causes a man to be
set at variance with his neighbor, with his family, with his friends.
Isn't that what happens? When I preach the gospel of God's
free grace in Christ, we are set at variance against free
will works religion. Now you pay attention. The God of free will works religion
is no God at all. Now tell me if that doesn't cut
to the quick. I'm not here to play around with people. I'm
not here to try to appease men and make them feel comfortable
in their false religion. Every freewill works religion
church is a synagogue of Satan, friends. Why? It is against the Word of
God. That's why. This thing makes
a division. It cuts. God is either sovereign
or He's not. Which is it? Gospel says He is. And everybody who doesn't, they're
on the outside. This gospel said that Christ,
by His one offering, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Any Christ that did not accomplish salvation is no Christ. Now is
that not cut? Does that not make a division?
It should. The gospel is divisive. The gospel
cuts to the quick of man's souls. The Word of God exposes the root
of man's nature to be absolutely corrupt. I told you, Isaiah said,
the whole head is sick. Well, I don't believe the whole
head is sick. God says it is. And you're a
liar. Has that not cut? It should. The whole heart is faint. Well,
I believe man has some goodness in his heart. Word of God says
he doesn't. Jesus said it's not that which
goes into a man that defiles him, but that which comes out.
Out of the heart proceed vain, false, murders, adultery, blaspheme,
fornication. Out of the heart. So sin is not... Well, I believe sin is what people
do. God says it's not what they do, it says who they are. They're
sinners by nature. Therefore they produce sin because
they are sin. Does this speak conviction to
your soul? Does it testify of your nature? When I talk about depravity,
you know who I'm talking about? Me. I know what I am by nature. I
know what I am in my own soul, by my own flesh. I know what
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But my hope is in this. It's
in the salvation of Christ alone. God declares man needs a new
heart. Man doesn't need a reformation,
does he? He needs a new heart. He needs
something he can't give himself. What could you do to create a
new heart? What? Name it. What could you do? Find
something. What is it? I didn't say what you could do
to reform your old outside flesh. Anybody could do that. You don't
need reformation. You need regeneration. You need
a new heart. That's what God said. And only
God can give you a new heart. A new heart is only a gift of
grace of the new birth. God says that we were born not
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. God declares to you, our gospel,
that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. There is none other name
given among men whereby we must be saved. Well, you know, preacher,
I think that there's something to these other religions. God
says there's not. God says, I'm God, and every
other God is a false god. There's none else. None beside
me. See how this cuts? It cuts to
the heart. It cuts to the root. It's immutable and it doesn't
change. And listen, you'll either bow to it or you'll be slaughtered
by it. So what do men say about our
gospel? Oh, he's just foolish. It's just foolishness for you
to say such things, preacher. Surely there are some good men. Nope. Not one. There are no good people. God says there is none good,
no, not one. Surely Man must have something
to do with his salvation. Surely man has a free will. You
know how men determine that? They go to a hamburger place
and they look at a menu and they freely pick a hamburger that
they want. And they say, see, I have a free
will. Well, listen, you don't have a will to order anything
off that menu, do you? No. So your will is bound to
the menu, isn't it? So even in your carnal thing,
it doesn't work out for you. You don't have a free will. There's
no such thing as a free will. They believe that by their physical
things, physical choices, they think they can make the same
spiritual choices. Well, if I can choose this and
choose that, surely I can choose or reject God. No. All you'll do is reject God.
What could a dead fish do but float downstream? Why? It's His nature. That's all He's
got. He's dead. He could never choose
to go upstream. He's dead. That's what you are
by nature. And unless God gives you life,
you'll never come to Christ. You'll never know righteousness
except God give you righteousness. You'll never be good unless God
create goodness in you. You'll never believe on Christ
except God give you faith. and those who reject the gospel.
I like this. One preacher put it this way.
I thought it was a good illustration. He said, false religion is like
a child who has a square peg trying to put it in a round hole.
The square peg is the gospel and the round hole is his thoughts
and his ideas and perception of salvation and religion. Now
when a child gets a square peg trying to put in a round hole,
he'll do one of three things. He'll discard it all together.
He'll try and try and try, and when he figures out it's not
going to work, he'll throw it away. He'll just give up and
leave. That's what some people do with the gospel when they
hear it. They say, well, you know, I've sat here long enough.
I've sat under this thing, and God's not done anything for me,
and if God hasn't elected, and you know what, if He hadn't chosen
me, I guess I'm never coming anyway, and they just leave.
They just leave. Some people, some people like
the child, they'll throw away the square peg and grab the round
one. Isn't that right? They'll look over here and they'll
say, this don't fit. So he throws away the square peg and he grabs
the round one and puts it in the hole. That's what they do.
They say, this gospel doesn't fit my thoughts. And they throw
away the gospel and they grab another gospel that fits them. You see, they grab a church that
makes them feel good. They grab a church that fits
their thoughts of God. Instead of throwing away their
thoughts of God and cleaving to the Word of God, they grab
another gospel that fits their needs. So that's why they go to churches.
You know, you ask them, why do they go to this church? Ask a
lost man why he goes to that freewill works-religion church.
They say, well, they got stuff for my kids. See, it fits their
life. It fits their thoughts of God. They like that. the third thing the child to
do is to take that square peg in your hammered in the hole what happens when that when that
takes place that the edges of the paid begin to shave off and
this is what men do with the gospel when they know that your
children most your children know this gospel they know it and
they can't go anywhere else And the only way they can go
somewhere else is if they start shaving off those rough edges.
It's the only way. They begin to twist the Word
of God. That's what Paul said when he said, you use the wisdom
of words. It is to shave off the rough
edges of the Gospel. When men say, well, pastor, there
is a sense in which God loves all men. No. God doesn't love all men. For Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. The one illustration in Scripture
ruins your whole thoughts. And the only way for you to have
this Gospel then is for you to shave that off, for you to get
rid of that. Some people say, well, Christ's
death was sufficient for everyone, But surely it was only effectual
for the elect. No, that's not true. Christ's
death was not sufficient for everyone because it wasn't given
for everyone. It was only sufficient and effectual
for the elect. And that's all. No one else. All Israel shall be saved. You got that? And no one else. Spiritual Israel. Some people shave it off by this.
They say, well, we're not under the law for salvation, but we're
under the law for the rule of our life. No. God's Word said Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
I remember one man wrote me, and he was upset. He's upset
with me. And he said, well, surely you
don't mean the word end means deleted. Of course not. I'm not deleting the law of God.
Who would teach such a thing? I never taught such a thing.
The law of God is just as real and just as powerful as it ever
was. It's just as eternal as it ever
was. But the law of God does end in this fashion that Christ
has fulfilled it for everyone that believes. I look at it this way. If every
car could only go 55 miles an hour, why would you need a 55
mile an hour speed sign? You wouldn't. Because that's
fast as it'll go. Why do I need the law when Christ
has fulfilled the law and made me righteous before God? A righteous
man don't need the law. The law is for the guilty. And
I'm righteous before God. So the law is ended for me. So
men shave off this gospel and that is to count the gospel of
Christ as foolishness. When men do that, they're counting
the cross of Christ as foolishness and mixing it with their wisdom
of words. And it makes the cross of Christ
the gospel of no effect. And what does God say about these
people? Simply this, they're perishing. Four, the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. I know this religious age in
this secular world, hear this gospel and count us fools. How
can you believe that? I say, how can you not? God's Word is plain. It's not
ambiguous. These things are very simplistically
laid out for you. You make them ambiguous so that
you could discredit it or shave it off. God's Word is very plain. To them that are fools, to them
we are fools, but our confidence is not in their wisdom or their
opinion, for God says to them they are perishing. Now listen,
today if you count this gospel as foolish, now listen, if you
don't need this gospel, some people just don't have a need
for it, they don't have a love for it, they don't want it, they
don't think about it. You're in the same situation
as those that shave it off. Those who discarded and counted
foolish. You, my friend, are perishing. Go over there. You've just been
divided. Not by me, by God. If this gospel's
foolish, and you don't need it, you're perishing. Thank God there's another division.
I'm thankful there's another division. Because I remember
one day I did count this gospel foolish. But by the grace of God, He saved
me. And now I see something that
lost men don't see. This is the power of God. This
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes it. To some who count this foolish,
they are perishing under the sentence of God, but we who are
saved..." What is it to be saved? To be saved is an act of God.
It is to be delivered. Delivered from the justice of
God. Delivered from the power of sin. Delivered from the grave. We are saved, not by our merits
or our works, but by the sufficient work of Jesus Christ alone. We are saved. And if we are saved,
this is the one, this is an evidence of this, is faith. That we believe
this gospel to be the power of God. Now why do we believe this? Because this is our experience. This is not some academic thing. We're not floating academic ideas
here. This is something we know. This
is concrete for us. This is absolute for us. Why? Because we ourselves have experienced
this power of God in our own selves. We were enslaved to sin,
born dead. under the condemnation of God
and content with our present state. We were unaware of our
condition. We were content in our religion,
confident in our knowledge of the Bible. We were sure of our
salvation because of some decision we made or some work of the flesh
we did. We were all confident of that
at one time. Until when? Until the power of
God came. Until the power of God was revealed
and we were exposed. Have you ever been exposed? Depravity is not some theological
thing. It's real to us. That's the power of God. I know
what I am, and I know what God has done for me by the power
of God. I know this. I was dead in my
sins, but one day God, who is rich in mercy, gave me life.
Gave me life. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. When God commanded your light,
was there any resistance? Would there be any resistance
to a man starving to death if you gave him some food? No. No resistance. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts for
this purpose, to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God. Now where does this light of
the knowledge of the glory of God come from? It comes from the
Word of God. I don't know God except God said, thus saith the
Lord. I don't know salvation except
God said, Christ is all my salvation. I would have not known that had
He not spoke that to me. I heard that gospel for years,
for decades, and it never had any effect on me until God came
in power and it became effectual. And when He shined in our hearts,
what did we see? We saw the face of Jesus Christ,
the glory of God, the fulfillment of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's what we saw. that only in the face of Jesus
Christ may sinners see the love and grace of God. Only in the
face of Jesus Christ may guilty sinners be fully pardoned. Only
in the face of Jesus Christ may sinners be perfectly righteous
and before God and live eternally with Him. So in the day of grace,
we heard this gospel not with our ears only, but with our hearts. Listen to what God says. He says,
Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O ye
earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, my speech shall distill as the dew in the small rain
upon the tender herb, and the showers upon the grass. Does
that sound harsh? Is that how the Word of God came
to you, harsh? Now listen, the law came harsh, didn't it? The
law came with its thunders and its lightnings, but this grace
of God came with such sweetness Where's the dew come from? You wake up in the morning, it
didn't rain. And all of a sudden the ground is sopping wet. Where'd
it come from? It distilled. It's an appearance
by God. He put the dew on the grass just
as He put that gospel on your heart. And like a tender plant,
it soaked in our hearts and it gave us such life and comfort. And at that moment, a division
was made. God made division among you. And He separated you to Himself. Listen to what God said to Jeremiah. He said, Therefore, thus saith
the Lord, if thou return, Then will I bring thee again, and
thou shalt stand before me. And if thou take forth the precious
from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. What does God do by this gospel?
He takes the precious from the vile. I was vile, but He made
me precious. That's what the gospel does.
He takes the worthless sinner And in Christ gives him worth. He separates that. And so as
I preach this gospel to you, what I'm doing is I separate
the precious from the vile. Have I not done that this morning?
Have I not showed you the vile doctrines of man? Have you not
heard them? And what did I do? I took the
precious doctrines and separated them from the vial. There's a
division every time the gospel is preached. So I ask you, which are you? Where are you? Is this gospel to you foolish? Or do you have to have it for
your very life? Is it all your life? All your
hope? All your joy? All your peace? Or is it foolishness? To us who are saved, The gospel
is the power of God. But to those that perish, they
have no need of it. Is that why your friends have
no interest in it? Because they don't have any need
of it. Children, they have any interest in it? No, they don't
have any need of it. Why? It's foolishness. Why do
you come and spend all your time and money here? What is that?
It's a waste of time. That's what the world says. That's
what the law says. Not to me. Not to me. Friends, I would not rather be
any other place in this world but here with you preaching this
gospel. Why? It's the power of God. If
anyone's going to be saved, it's going to be saved through this
gospel. make god use us for that i pray we'll stand be dismissed
in prayer