Let's read verse 21 together. 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. There is a paradox in this thing
of preaching and preachers. What I'm about to do this morning
is a real paradox, and it's a mystery. It's part of the title of this
message. The title of this message is
The Method, the Message, and the Mystery of Preaching. And
what I'm about to do, and I've already done the first thing
this morning, is a real paradox, a mystery to this. And I myself,
or any man who does any preaching, is a paradox. To most people, what I am, that
is a preacher, and what I do, what I'm about to do, what I
do, is the most foolish and ridiculous and useless thing on earth to
most people. It is one of the greatest causes
for laughter, scorn, ridicule, and mockery, and is the butt
of many, if not most, jokes. Even among people who call themselves
Christians, they love to poke fun at preachers. true preachers. Now, I'm talking
about true preachers. There are a lot of fools out
there who claim to be, and they deserve to be poked the fun at
and ridiculed. But most true preachers, if not
all of them, have been maligned and abused and even killed down
through the years. They've been killed. Paul said it over in 2 Corinthians. He said, this paradox, he said,
They are in honor yet dishonor, evil report and good report.
They are known as deceivers yet the only true men, unknown yet
well-known, and so forth. Now, I'm talking about true preachers. False preachers are generally
well-received and well-paid, too, by the world. Look at chapter 4. He says in
verses 9 through 10, 9 and 10 of chapter 4, he says,
I think I can hear the frustration, or not the frustration, but I
think I hear his voice break when he says this, I think God
has set forth us apostles last as we were appointed to death
and made a spectacle. under the world, and the angels
and the men were fools, thought of as fools. For Christ's sake,
I'll just be perfectly honest with you. I'm embarrassed and
ashamed to be introduced as a preacher because of these fools today,
because of all the foolishness that goes on in the name of preaching.
I took a class not long ago, and we went around the room,
and we were supposed to introduce ourselves and tell what we did.
There was an insurance man in that class, and he told, and
from that time forward everybody If anything about insurance came
up, they asked him, you know. Well, I wasn't about to tell
them what I did. Let them find out. Hopefully
they'd find out. But, you know, men change their behavior.
They put on a show. They put on a front. They talk
about you behind your back. The most preacher of the gospel
is an absolute ridiculous fool. But to a few people, the preaching of the gospel and
the preacher himself are the most respected and loved of all,
to a point of near adoration and esteem more highly than anything
or anyone else, even the President of the United States of America. It is said in Isaiah 52, how
beautiful on the feet. A man came up to me the other
day and said this. I've said this to a few preachers
myself, true preachers. He quoted this verse, how beautiful
on the mountain are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes
salvation, that says, A real paradox. Well, let's look
at this thing of preaching a little bit, okay? Three points to this
message. The title of the message are
my three points. The method of preaching. Let's
look at it. Verse 21, he says, God had chosen to please God
by the foolishness of preaching. What I'm doing this morning to
save them, I believe. That makes this pretty important,
doesn't it? I didn't say that. God said it. God, pleased by
the foolishness of what? Of preaching. Now, there's much
going on today that could rightfully be called foolish preaching.
He's not talking about that here. He's not talking about the preaching
of foolishness or the foolishness that is carried on by foolish
preachers. He's not talking about that.
He's speaking in the language of the world, which calls preaching,
which I just described to you. The world calls what I'm about
to preach this morning foolishness, what I'm about to do. There's
a lot of foolish preaching going on today by effeminate, silly, sentimental men, and even
some women. Carrying on in every ridiculous
manner. If you turn on the TV or if you
walk in every so-called church house right this morning, you
wouldn't believe your eyes. Some of the things that are going
on in the name of God, in the name of religion. Carrying on in every and any
ridiculous manner. But he's not talking about that.
God won't bless foolishness on my part or anybody's part. He won't bless that at all. There's
also foolishness in this thing of preaching. There's also foolishness
in the manner of intellectualism, high-sounding oratory. There's a lot of that going on
today, which is utter foolishness. There are a lot of men who are
making long, dead, dry intellectual lectures to try to impress their
hearers, long dissertations, reading long papers this morning,
and no one is getting a thing out of it, not even him. He doesn't
know what he's saying, and people don't either. One old preacher
said we need to put the sheep food down where they can reach
it, and not giraffes or sheep. Look at verse 17 here in chapter
1. He says, Christ sent me not to
baptize. Now, what does that say about
all this counting heads and baptism? What does that say about that?
That's an abomination. Read the story of David numbering
Israel sometime and you'll see. God has great consequences, terrible
consequences about this thing of numbering, counting heads
and all that. Like one fellow said, how many
of you are running? I said, well, we don't have cattle
down there, we've got people. We're not running cattle. We
have some people sitting and listening to the gospel. How
many? I don't know. Don't count them. Well, how do you know if
you're doing any good or not, he said? Well, that's just it,
people. I can't do any good. And we can't
know whether or not the Holy Spirit is doing a work or not.
It's up to him. We don't count the number of
heads that are in here this morning. It doesn't mean a thing whether
or not we're doing any good or not. To the eye, Noah wasn't
doing any good, was he? He only had eight. The Lord himself
wasn't doing any good, was he? He only had twelve, and all of
them left him. That's not the judgment, that's
not the measurement of whether or not you're doing any good
or not. He didn't send me to baptize,
he said. He didn't send me to count heads. He didn't send me
to see how many people I can take in, but how much glory I
can give to God. He sent me to preach the gospel.
Do you see that? Not with wisdom of words. Do
you see that? Not with wisdom of words, that
is, high and lofty intellectual language, excellency of speech,
he said in chapter 1. Look down at verse 4 of chapter
2. Chapter 2, verse 4, he said, My speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom. Any fool can learn a
few heady terms and speak with great profundity. Any fool can
learn a few words here and there. Anyone can learn some lofty language
and couch their contempt for Christ in clever contemporary
collusion. Any fool, an uneducated one at
that. can do that and have the people
go away impressed with him, not knowing what he was saying, but
impressed. Real wisdom and intellect lies in the ability to make short,
profound statements. Witness the Proverbs. Read the
Proverbs. Short, profound statements. Witness the preaching of the
Lord God himself, who was a preacher. Simple, simple parables, yet
the wisest of men and women didn't understand. He spoke mostly in
one and two syllable words, didn't he? Not with enticing words of
man's wisdom. Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards. Probably the
greatest theologian this country has ever produced anyway. It
was said that he preached that message that the Lord used to
such a great extent to salvation of so many people, sinners in
the hands of an angry God. It was back during the day when
there was no electric lights and he would hold a candle and
he would have his notes and his Bible in one hand. And it was
said that he would purposely preach in a very monotone way.
He said he did not want in any way to arouse people's emotions
or try to arouse any feelings in them. He did not want to preach with
his own persuasiveness. What he longed for was the Word
of God to speak to him, to take himself totally out of the picture
and see if God and the Holy Spirit were going to speak. So it's not with the wisdom of
words, man's persuasible words of knowledge and so forth. Witness the gospel. The gospel
is preached and spoken in very simple terms. Take a phrase like
this, Christ is all and in all. What could be more simple, yet
more profound? What could be more brief, yet
more full? Christ is all. But he said we
do speak wisdom. In chapter 2, verse 6, he says,
we do speak wisdom among them that are mature, yet not the
wisdom of the world. It's not scientific wisdom. If
you're coming this morning, if you want me to logically explain
or scientifically prove various things from the scriptures, I'm
not going to do it. You're not going to hear it here. God's people
may look into some of these things on the side, but preaching, for
the most part, is a declaration of what God says, not an explanation. Besides, most of what is preached
cannot be logically or scientifically proven, and you're not supposed to try.
The preacher is not supposed to try. God wrote a book. Can
somebody prove that God wrote this book? It's what we believe. It's what we preach. Try to prove
it. Nobody is going to believe it until the Holy Spirit proves
it to them. God became a man, God whose spirit became flesh.
Somebody try to prove that? He was born of a virgin. In other
words, a man never knew a woman, yet she had a child. That's not
possible to the science world. He died, this man died, yet he
rose from the grave. Three days later he just got
up out of the grave and walked out of there. That can't be proven,
can it? And just the mere declaration
of this message this morning, in the hands of God the Holy
Spirit, will bring out a radical transformation in some people.
Just what I'm doing this morning. in some cases brings about a
radical and lasting eternal change in some people. You see, that can't be proven,
but it happens. And this thing called preaching,
the declaration of a particular message, is to the world foolishness.
This is useless, this is absolutely useless. What I'm doing this
morning, what I am, is absolutely useless. To God it's absolutely
necessary. And to those who are called,
this is the most wondrous and glorious and needful thing. It's the highlight of their week.
See what a paradox this thing is? And a needful thing. So God tells me to preach. That's
what I'm doing this morning. I make no apologies for it. I'm
not ashamed of it. I'm ashamed of what goes on out
there in the world under the name of preaching. I'm ashamed
of those fellows who don't want to be associated with them. But I'm not ashamed to preach
this gospel. It's the power of God, it's the wisdom of God.
All right, there's the method of preaching. Number two, let's
look at the message that we're to preach. God tells us to preach. John, he says, preach. Go into
all the world and preach. Christ came, Jesus Christ was
first a preacher. Now, that lends dignity to this
office, does it not? That sure does sanctify who I
am and what I'm doing. God had one son, and he was a
preacher. I'm in good company. I think by his grace I'll stay
one. Look at verses 21 and 22. After
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, but it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. to save them that
believe. But the Jews require a sign.
The Greeks seek after wisdom. The Jews. The Jews were the religious
people of that day. They were religious people. And
we have our Jews today, not those who were born in Israel, but
those who are religious. And the religionists seek a sign,
he said. Religionists are looking for
phenomena. so-called churches filled to
the brim this morning with people who are looking for some kind
of feeling, some kind of emotional experience, some kind of miracle. Like going to a ball game, you
want to see a home run, you want to see a man talk in tongues,
you want to be made to feel good, you want to hear voices, you
want to see some healing, you want to see a show. That's the religious people.
That is, the intellectual community, the educated ones, they seek
wisdom. The Greeks seek wisdom. They
want to have it logically explained to them. They want to have it
proven to them. They want to discuss, refine,
argue, dispute, collectively gather information from which
to draw our own personal conclusions and take what we will and leave
the rest. That's the Greeks seeking wisdom. This is what our preaching
is, or rather, who. We preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. We preach a person and his work. It's also called in verse 17,
the gospel. Verse 18 is called the cross,
preaching We preach the gospel, verse 18, preaching of the cross. True preaching consists of the
declaration, and I'm purposely giving this thing in the exact
mode that I'm giving it. True preaching consists of the
declaration of the... I'm tired of trying too hard.
I'm going to quit trying. I'm just going to tell it. consist of the declaration of
the beauties, of the glories, of the excellencies of the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God Almighty impresses upon
the heart and the mind of a sinner who that one is. And they fall
for him. It's a declaration of the work,
the mission, the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
he came down to save a people, and he did just that. And only
those for whom he did this work will be saved. And all who need
this work done to them, appeal unto him." It's a bold, dogmatic,
authoritative declaration of who Christ is, and what he did
is what God Almighty uses to the eternal salvation of all
who hear it and believe it. And this is the message. In the
beginning, God, in a covenant agreement with his Son and Holy
Spirit, man was not in the picture. God Almighty purposed to create
a world full of creatures and things with man upon it. He purposed
the fall of man. Yes, he did. He purposed the
fall of man and the ruin of those creatures
in that earth. Then he purposed and devised
a way whereby he could get infinite glory out of the fall of those
men, infinite glory to himself and do eternal, unchanging, lasting
good to those men and women whom he chose. So he chose a certain
number of people. He elected a people before the
foundation of the world. He chose a people. Only those
people will be saved. But thank God he did choose a
people. He didn't have to choose any, but he did. A number which
no man can number, but God numbers them. A people which nobody rightly
knows, but he knows every one of them. He chose a certain number
of persons to be saved eternally, and there is no possible way
that they will not be saved. He sent his Son down to earth
to perform this work as a man born of a woman, made under the
law, to fulfill that law in every jot and jittle for every one
of those elect people. to magnify that law, to become
a man and glorify God as a man, as he demanded of all men and
women. And Jesus Christ did that. And then to go to a Roman gibbet
or an instrument of torture, bloody, cruel torture, and death
is called the cross. We don't glory in that instrument
of torture, but we glory in the one who was hanging there. And
he went to that Roman instrument of torture called the cross,
with the sins of every one of these elect people upon his divine
shoulders. The guilt, the punishment that
they were earning and that they had come into them. And he took
all of the sins of all of God's people from eternity past to
eternity future upon his shoulders, and he went to that cross, bearing
the divine wrath of God Almighty and suffered the equivalency
of eternal hell that those people deserve, in six hours upon the
cross, forever putting away the sins of all those people. And
now they are forever justified before this holy God. And then he finally died and
deposited the sins of all of those people forever out of the
sight of God Almighty. And out of his memory, he said,
I'll remember them no more. They're paid for. They're put
away. They're done for. And then rise from the grave
the third day, go back to the majesty on high, and sit down
at the right hand of God Almighty, reigning and ruling and watching
over all things as the covenant head, making absolutely certain
that every one of his people are saved eternally. Not one
of them will be lost. He will see the travail of his
soul and will be satisfied. Now that is the gospel. Nothing more, nothing less. And
it rejoices this old sinner's heart. That by two unbeatable
things it's impossible for God to lie. His covenant, and he
put his name on the line. And the blood seals the covenant. Now that's the message. Anybody
preaching anything less is not preaching the gospel. Anybody
adding anything to that, the work of man, or diminishing from
it, is not preaching the gospel. That is the message that God
Almighty uses to the saving of sinful men and women. And this thing is a mystery.
This thing is a mystery, what I'm doing this morning. God confirms, God applies what
I just endeavored to do. God applies all of this to the
hearts and the souls and the minds of people, men and women
like you and I, young people. By a man doing what I just now
did, an eternal, everlasting change comes upon some people. A total transformation comes
over the heart and the mind and the soul and the life of some
people as a result of what I just did. Isn't that a mystery? Explain that, Preacher. I can't. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. It's called the mysterious workings
of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God takes
this message that I just proclaimed He is called a wind that bloweth
where it listeth. The Holy Spirit is a puff of
wind. Let me give you an illustration. You can be standing somewhere
and look over here and there will be a swirling wind, and
over here it is still. The wind is not blowing at all,
right? Or over here it can be such a
forceful wind it will blow down a barn, and over here it won't
even ruffle a chicken's feathers. Why? The wind is sovereign. It blows where it lifts it. The
wind controls the weather. You can look over here and there
will be a pouring down rain. Have you ever been outside and
seen it raining in one spot and absolutely dry? I mean, there's
a line drawn, raining here and not over here. That's the wind,
controlled by the wind. Let me give you a spiritual example
now of how the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God, takes the gospel,
and sovereignly applies it. You can have two people, exactly
the same, exactly the same background, in exactly the same circumstances,
hearing exactly the same message, and one go away totally unimpressed,
totally unmoved, totally unchanged, and the other is eternally changed,
completely overcome, and will never be the same. Witness two
men hanging upon the cross right beside our Lord Jesus Christ.
Both of them cast derogatory terms and terms of derision in
the face of our Lord. Both of them thieves, evil and wicked men, not deserving
of the mercy and grace of God Almighty. All of a sudden, one
of has a change of mind. One of them looks at a bloody, unrecognizable man hanging beside
him, looking for all purposes to be helpless, hopeless, without
a friend in the world. Everybody turned thumbs down
on him. Nobody believed in him. And this man all of a sudden
looks at him and says, Lord, Lord, you're my God. But you remember me when you
come into your kingdom? What brought about that change?
The wind was blowing, John. And it didn't blow on the other
one, it blew on this one. Right? Two men and women are sitting
in this service right now. One heard what was just said
with the utmost enthusiasm and joy and delight. Two people can
come into service at the same time together from the same family
and hear what I just said, that glorious message of the gospel
And one of them hears that message with such joy and such enthusiasm
and such delight and rapture, and actually with tears in their
eyes and a joy in their heart, when the other one heard nothing
at all. They are struggling to stay awake. What makes the difference? The
Spirit of God. It's a mystery. It's a sovereign, mysterious
moving of God's Holy Spirit. And he does this upon those who
are not looking for him. The man, the woman, cannot claim
anything in and of themselves. Their decision, their own intellectual
power, their own faith, they can't do it. It's all a gift.
The wind blows where it lifts it. The fact that you believe
this gospel, the fact that you've got anything out of what has
been said thus far, is owing entirely to the sovereign grace
of God Almighty. But the fact that you're not
interested right now, and what I said to you means nothing to
you, and you see no beauty in the person who works with Christ,
you're going to get all the blame for it. The fact that some are
sitting here right now looking at me and absolutely wishing
this was over. God Almighty will hold you accountable
for not esteeming what I said to be the most absolutely glorious
and beautiful and unbelievable and unworthy and blessed privilege
upon the face of the earth for a man or woman to hear. For a
man or woman not to hear what I just said about this terrible
and awful work yet glorious and beautiful work that Christ performed
on the behalf of unworthy, wretched, ungodly, hell-deserving sinners.
The fact that a man or woman doesn't believe that and poured his blood out for
such unworthy wretches, bind them hand and foot, and
catch them in the eternal lake of fire. There is no respect for persons
with God, no amount of attainments, no intellectual knowledge, not
our own faith, nothing. The wisest man can't figure it
out, the illiterate man understands it all. And it's all through the medium
of preaching, what I have done this morning. Brother Donnie Bell, in his Tennessee
dialect, says this is the happiest, most miserable time of a man's
life when he stands here. Same thing holds true for the
hearer. Come in sometimes and you think,
this is the happiest moment of my life. This is the most glorious
thing I've ever heard. And yet, at other times, go away
dead and dry and hurt him because you didn't hear it. It's the
wind that blows where it lifts us. It's a mystery, really. It's absolutely necessary. What
I'm doing this morning, you will not be saved apart from what
I'm doing this morning. You will not be saved unless
you hear the gospel that I have preached this morning. Yes, if
any man preach any other gospel, let him go to hell than the gospel
that I just preached. But if you do not hear and believe
this gospel that I'm preaching this morning, you will go to
hell. But all that are in this place
right now, I'm free from the blood of your blood. I know I've got you a captive
audience, but I tell you, if you're not a believer in Christ,
I tell you, someone else has got you more captive. Second Timothy two, he talked
about being led captive by Satan at his will, willingly. Let's read in closing, Second
Corinthians. Look at Second Corinthians, chapter
two. Second Corinthians, chapter two.
And people, let me say this. You may not like me. I understand. I don't like me.
Really. I just hope you don't like yourself
more than you like me. But you may not like me. You
may not like the way I look. I don't like that either. I have
no control over it. You may not like the way that
I preach. I really don't have any control of that either. I'm
trying my best. You may not like the way I present
this gospel. You may not like the spirit and
attitude which is given. God knows my heart. But I tell
you one thing you'd better like. You'd better like the gospel
I just preached. You'd better love it. You'd better
bow before it. You'd better believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'll try my best to get better. if you'll call upon God and make
you believe this gospel. I don't want to get any weaker.
I want to get more and more bold and more and more zealous for
the truth. I don't want to soft-petal, soft-soak
this thing at all. I don't want to be a pleaser
of men. I'm not a servant of Christ. Let's read here in 2
Corinthians 2, in closing. Look at verses 14 through 17. The mystery of preaching. Something
is accomplished, something happens every time. That's what it says
right here. Thanks be unto God, which always
causes us to triumph in Christ and makes manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place, every meeting, every service,
wherever and whenever the gospel is preached, something happens. We are unto God a sweet savior
of Christ. I'm telling you what, folks,
the ear of God Almighty and the ear of the angels was in tune
to the gospel a while ago. God Almighty says, That's glorious. God Almighty says, Say it louder.
Doesn't He? God Almighty says, Speak about
my Son a little more. Send him forth a little higher.
That's what God says. Here he is. Higher! What God says, sweet savor of
Christ. You delight to hear about your
children? Well, they're not worth hearing about. You know what? They're not worth hearing about.
God's Son is. And he delights to hear about
them. And he'll bless the man that does. He'll be his friend. Savor of Christ, sweet savor
of Christ unto God and in them that are saved. Do you like to
hear Christ exalted? Do you like to hear yourself
abased, John? Do you like to be told you're
such a wretch and a rotten worm and down in the dust and no good,
do you? Yeah. It's a paradox, isn't it? Do
you know why? I think I can explain it for
you, John. Because that makes him that much more glorious,
doesn't it? And that makes what he did for
you that much more better, doesn't it? Much more better. Excuse
my English. I told you I couldn't pray. That makes what he did for you
glorious, and you'll never get over it. You'll never get over
it. And them that are saved and them
that perish, something happens too. Verse 16, the one with the
savor of death unto death. Oh, that's enough, preacher. Come on, they haven't been here
long enough. They're dead, and so was the message dead. But to the other, life, new life. Can we stay a little longer?
Tell it again, go through that same thing one more time. Life,
it's our life. Who is sufficient for this? What the mighty, great and learned
Paul said, boy, I tell you, I echo that, who is sufficient for these
things? But I'll tell you this, and here's
how you can examine a preacher of the gospel in these terms
right here. Verse 17, and I'll close. We
are not as many which corrupt the word of God. People, everything
I said to you down to the last jot and tittle, every exact point
that I went over with you, it may have seemed extemporaneous.
It may have seemed like it was off the top of my head, but I
can take you to the scriptures and show you point by point by
point, by verse by verse by verse. comparing spiritual things, Scripture
after Scripture after Scripture, showing you how God saves sinners,
who He is, what we are, who Christ is. Now, we don't corrupt the
Word of God. I'm not desirous at all. There's
only one purpose. There's only one thing I want
to be doing when I stand up here. I want to be true to this book
and true to your soul. I mean that. I mean that. We better, better not corrupt
the word of God. Many are doing it for vain purposes.
But as of sincerity, I'm sincere. I know a lot of them say they
are. But as of God, as though God
didn't send me, beseech you, by us, ambassador of Christ,
in the sight of God, I'm more concerned. I'm not so much concerned
that we have visitors here. I'm not so much concerned that
the bank president might not like what I'm preaching, I'm
very concerned that God Almighty approve of what I'm saying this
morning, first and foremost. And it is my heart's desire that
you believe everything I say. But because you don't, I still
must say it loud and clear. And in the sight of God, this
is our message. Not man, Christ. And I hope it didn't appear this
morning that I was preaching myself, the preacher. Let my
name perish. Let the name of every other preacher
perish. But let the name of Jesus Christ
be exalted and extolled and honored and praised in a world without
end. Amen. Stand with me and I'll
dismiss it.