O worship the King of glorious
power, O gratefully sing his power and his law. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Age, A million in splendor and credit with praise. This being our first broadcast
over the radio, I hope that this first message will set the tone
for what you can expect to hear every Sunday on this program. The preaching and teaching you
can expect to hear on this program will, by God's grace, come from
God's Word. You will not hear my thoughts
and opinions. nor the beliefs of a denomination,
because only what God says in His Word matters, not what man
thinks or says. And I want to begin as the Apostle
Paul began when he came to the city of Corinth. If you have
a Bible, I hope you will open it to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I always preach from a King James
Bible, and I hope that you will follow along in your Bible so
that you can see that I am speaking from God's Word. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 is where I'll be speaking from this morning. Now, I do
not claim to be an apostle. I do not have the gifts or ability
of the apostle. no man does today. No man has those gifts or abilities. There are no more apostles. The apostles had special abilities
or gifts or credentials which declared them to be apostles
or messengers sent by Christ. Now here are those requirements
or credentials to be an apostle. First of all, they must be one
who had seen the Lord personally. Every apostle actually saw the
Lord in person. The apostle Paul saw him on the
road to Damascus. Secondly, every single apostle
received their commission directly from Christ in person. as the apostle Paul did in that
story. And then each apostle was given
special gifts or abilities, powers given by God which were bestowed
on no other man. And these gifts, these abilities,
these powers, such as healing and miracles, signs, wonders,
tongues or languages were given before the Word was completed,
before the Bible was completely written. See, these men went
out into various places or cities preaching and declaring that
they had come from God, that they were men sent from God,
and that what they were saying was God's Word. And so in order
to confirm their message or what they were saying, that it was
indeed God's Word, God granted them the powers of healing. People were miraculously healed,
even raised from the dead. You won't see that today. And
they were given special powers of languages. They knew many
languages. Paul said, I spoke in more tongues
or languages than you all. He spoke all over the then known
world in various languages. which he did not have time to
learn in a school. But God gifted these men immediately
with these languages. That's what tongues are in the
scripture. And these things are not needed
today. These miracles and signs and wonders. Oh, no. The only
thing a man needs today to prove that he's come from God is God's
word. That's what confirms a man to
be from God and confirms or validates his message. If they speak not
according to my word, God said, it's because they're not from
me. There's no light in them. So
the apostle Paul, Paul was an apostle, sent by God, equipped
by God. He was a brilliant man, a gifted
man, a scholarly man. He studied under the most noted
scholar or teacher of his day, Gamaliel. And when he came to
this great city of Corinth, which was a great metropolitan city,
much like perhaps Paris, France today, or New York City, or Washington,
D.C., a city full of doctors and lawyers and philosophers
and educators, artisans, politicians, and so forth. When the Apostle
Paul came to this city, he says here in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
1, he says, and I, brethren. Now, he's writing this epistle
as all of the other epistles are written to the church. He
calls believers brethren. He says, I, brethren, when I
came to you, when I came into your city, the city of Corinth,
I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom." He says,
I didn't come here to try to impress anyone with my large
vocabulary or my high-sounding speech, my oratorical abilities. Oh, no. Preaching. Preaching is to be understood,
not in order to be admired. We don't preach in order to be
admired, but rather we want people to hear what God says. All right? Paul says, I came
not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. I didn't come,
he says, using modern philosophy or wisdom. That's not my means
or my method. I don't use those things. There's no place. for intellectualism
or philosophy in preaching. Besides, the Apostle Paul said
in chapter one of this same book, he said, the wisdom of this world,
hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world, the opinions,
the thoughts, the ways, the philosophies of this world? Isn't it foolishness? Hath not God proved it? Does
not his word prove it to be absolute foolishness? In fact, it's contrary
to God's Word. It's the opposite of what God
is saying. And so Paul says, I don't come
using their philosophy. I do not come with excellency
of speech. I'm not trying to impress anyone.
I'm not coming to argue, debate. I'm not coming to philosophize,
organize, socialize. But read on. In verse 1 here,
he says, I have not come but to do one thing. declaring unto
you the testimony of God." Declaring, or preaching. That's what preaching
is. It's declaring the testimony,
or that is, the Word, what God has said. The Word of God. Now, over in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians,
the apostle says this, he says, woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. In another place, chapter 1,
he says, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. Now, it's not the preaching of
foolishness. There's entirely too much of
that going on today as it was in Paul's day. Ridiculous opinions
and words and ideas and philosophies of man. It's not the preaching
of foolishness or foolishness of preachers. It's not the foolishness
of preachers. And oh, there's so much nonsense
going on in our day under the name of preaching. disguised
as preaching, circus-style entertainment men call preaching. Not that.
It's not that. But he says in chapter 1, verse
18, he says, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. He says, this is what I came
declaring or come to declare, and this is what the world calls
foolishness. The perishing world calls the
preaching of the cross foolishness. But he said here in our text,
chapter 2, verse 1, he says, I came declaring unto you the
word of God, for I am determined not to know, not to be sidetracked
with, not to be taken up with, not to use anything in any other
means among you say the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The preaching of Christ and Him
crucified. I'm here to declare Christ crucified. This is the message and determination
of every true preacher of the gospel. Now what is it to preach
Christ crucified? What is it? Well, it's to declare
three things. Three things concerning Christ.
Number one, it's to declare who Christ is. Secondly, it's to
declare what he did. And thirdly, it's to declare
where he is now. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus
Christ? Now, when he walked this planet
years ago, many thought he was just a man. In fact, some wanted
to kill him, saying that, they said this, they said, you're
just a man and you make yourself to be God. Well, it hasn't changed. Men haven't changed their opinions
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Most still talk of Jesus as if
he were just a man. That's why they referred to him
as But no, the scripture says God was manifest in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3.16 says God is manifest
in the flesh. That one named Jesus is none
other than the God who created this planet. Peter at Pentecost,
when he was preaching at Pentecost, he wasn't asking people to accept
some Jesus as his personal Savior. No, he was declaring. that the
one whom they thought to be merely a man named Jesus, the one whom
they crucified, they thought. In fact, God was the one who
put him to death. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. But Peter declared the one whom they thought to be merely
a man named Jesus is now Lord and Sovereign, Ruler and King,
and everything and everyone is in his hands, not vice versa. He wasn't asking people, what
will you do with Jesus? Oh, no. He was declaring and
causing them to think that now everybody is in His hands and
the question to be asked now is, what's He going to do with
us? Because He's Lord. That's His name. Lord. Sovereign
Ruler. Jesus. He came to save His people. Christ. That means the only mediator. The only intercessor between
God and men. So when we preach Christ crucified,
we're declaring who he is. He's God manifest in the flesh.
He's Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the only
Savior. And secondly, to preach Christ
crucified is to declare why he came. He came to save. He came to save his people. He
came to live, not just as an example, but as a representative
of his people. Live a holy life and give that
holiness to them, or impute it, as the scripture says. And he
came to die. He came as a substitute for his
people, to die for their sins. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. And all of God's people, Christ
died for them, paid for their sins. everyone that Christ died
for, their sins are gone. And to preach Christ crucified
is to preach where he is now. He's seated on the throne, reigning,
ruling, controlling all things, the head of the covenant. This is the preaching of Christ
crucified. This is what the Apostle Paul
determined to preach and what this preacher, by his grace,
is determined to do also. O worship the King, O glorious
Papa, O gratefully sing his power and his law, Our shield and defender,
the Ancient of Ages, Pavilion in splendor and fervor. I'm going
to go ahead and do that. I'm going to go ahead and do
that.