1 Corinthians chapter 2, which
we read from. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Let's reread a few verses here. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, beginning
with verse 1. The Apostle Paul writes and says
to the Church of Corinth, and I, brethren, when I came to you,
I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you. save Jesus Christ and him crucify. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling." Now, borrowing from the words
of the Apostle Paul, I came to this church in the
same way, a very green, very raw, inexperienced plain-speaking,
Kentucky-speaking bass fellow. And now, nine months later, I'm
still a very raw, inexperienced, plain bass fellow. I listen to tapes of mine on
occasion. I don't know when I'm going to
stop. But I am so embarrassed, I'm
so ashamed, and I listen to other men, and am even more ashamed
of my own preaching. I listen to young fellows that
I believe are gifted and intelligent, brilliant young men, such as
Brother Joe Terrell or Danny Blair, and it makes me want to
quit. And I want to become the best
preacher possible. I want to talk right. I want
to walk right. I want to act right. I want to
look right. I want to look like a preacher and talk the way I
ought to. I want you people to benefit
from my preaching, to love me, to benefit through hearing the
gospel from me. I want you to enjoy hearing me
preach. I don't want it to put you to
sleep. which sometimes it does, and I take part of the blame. I want you to be proud to introduce
me as your pastor, but I'm not seeking after these
things for the sake of these things. And none of this, I don't
want any of this at the expense of the message. By God's grace,
I want the message If I'm here thirty years, and I plan on it,
I want the message to be the same thirty years from now as
it is right now. Christ. Christ. Christ crucified. I want it to
be the very same thing that the Reformers, that the Reformation
came as a result of, the preaching of the scriptures alone, the
foundation of our faith. Grace alone, salvation by grace
100%, without works, and Christ alone. That's what I want my
preaching to be from now on. I want my delivery to be better,
yes. I want to preach more clearly and more effectively. But I only want my message to
get stronger and plainer. I don't want to give an offense
in anything. Apostle Paul said that, I believe
it was in 2 Corinthians 6, giving no offense in anything that the
ministry be not blamed. I don't want to give offense
in anything, but in all things, I want to approve myself as being
the minister of God. And you as a believer should
want the same thing, not to give offense in anything. Everybody
should feel the same way, that whatever we do, whether we eat,
whether we drink, Whether we walk, the way we talk, the way
we act, the way we look, even, should be down to the glory of
God. That's what I want for me, for my ministry, and you're in
the ministry also. That's what you should want for
yourself. And I don't want to be offensive to anybody. Scripture
says you are called unto liberty, yes, but not as a cloak of lasciviousness. And let not your liberty be evil
spoken of. I don't want that. I don't want
to do anything that the gospel Don't want to do that. If you have liberty, have it
to yourself. The scripture says. If my brother's going to be offended
by anything, I don't want to do it. I don't want to offend
anybody with the way, what I do, the way I preach, the way I talk,
walk, the way I look. Somebody comes in here, I don't
want them to be offended. And me, I don't want to be an offense.
And I don't want the gospel to be offensive. I want people to
believe it. I do. I want people to believe
the gospel, but I'm not. By His grace, I'm not going to
trim the message so they will like it. By God's grace, I don't
want to trim the message and make it acceptable to men's hearing
or inoffensive. Christ said the offense will
come, the offense of the cross. You preach the cross clear enough,
the offense will come. Speaking of preachers, he said
that if any man seek to please men, he's not the servant of
Christ. It's not the messenger of God. He's come just to make people
feel good about themselves. The messenger of God is coming
to declare God, to declare Christ. If anything, I want to become bolder. Rick,
I want to become stronger in this message. I want to be more
compassionate, yes. I want to use more prudence and
wisdom in declaring the gospel, yes. I want to speak it in such
a way as not to be personally offensive. But I want to speak
this message in all boldness and strength and confidence,
as boldly as I know how, that Christ is the only way to God. I want to be clearer and more
basic, too, in my preaching, preaching the gospel, the testimony
of God. Jonathan Edwards was perhaps one of the most gifted
men to come out of this country, a gifted preacher. Maybe in the
world he was just a scholarly man, but he said this. He said, I'd rather be understood
by ten people than admired by ten thousand. Well, I would do well to feel
the same way. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1 with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The
Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul. I'm not sure
we realize what a man this was, the Apostle Paul. But I want
you to listen to his language. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning
with verse 12. The Apostle says, Now this I
say, that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul, I like Paul, and
I am of Apollos. No, I like to hear Brother Apollos
preach. And I am of Cephas. No, I like
Cephas' preaching. He says, every one of you say
that. And I of Christ. Well, verse thirteen, is Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were
you baptized in the name of Paul? He says, I thank God that I baptized
none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say, did you
know that the Apostle Paul baptized me in a Baptist church? Lest any of you should say that,
that I baptized in my own name. I baptized also the household
of Stephanus. Besides that, I know not whether
I baptized any other. I don't remember. Verse 17. But
Christ sent me not to baptize, to count heads, to see who can
baptize the most. And you know that's going on
today, don't you? We baptized more people last month than anybody
in our district. Paul said, Christ didn't come
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. But he said here, look
at verse 17. wisdom of words or persuasible
words with great intellect, lest the cross, the preaching of the
cross of Christ, should be made of none effect. And look over
a few pages, 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at verse 12 with me, the
same man is speaking here. He says in 2 Corinthians 1 verse
12, he says, My rejoicing is this, and the testimony of our
conscience, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 12, that in simplicity and godly
sincerity, with a tear in my eye, he says, not with fleshly
wisdom, But by the grace of God, we've had our conversation, but
our talk, our message in this world. 2 Corinthians chapter
11, with me. 2 Corinthians 11. Look at verse
1. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 1. The apostle says here again,
he says, Would to God you would bear with me. Now, this city
of Corinth was a town of great learning, a place of great people
prided themselves on their intellect. what they knew. He says, would
to God you would bear with me a little in my folly, in my foolishness,
or what you think is foolishness. And indeed, bear with me. You
do bear with me, some of you, he said, but I'm jealous over
you with godly jealousy. I've espoused you to one husband,
that is Christ, that I might present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. But I fear, I'm afraid, he says,
lest by any means As the serpent beguiled Eve, now Eve was a whole
lot smarter than anybody in here, but the serpent beguiled her
through his subtlety that your mind should be corrupted from
the simplicity that's in Christ. Look at verse 4. If any come
preaches another Jesus whom we've not preached, if you should receive
another spirit which you've not received or another gospel which
you've not accepted, You might well bear with him, or me. You'd do well to bear with me.
But I suppose I was not as whipped behind the very chief as possible,
but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge. Now, we've
been thoroughly, throughly manifest among you in all things. Have
I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted?
That I preach the gospel to you, the gospel of God, freely? I
don't say that, I don't abase myself. I am abased. The Apostle
Paul, though, being a wise and intelligent man, a brilliant
man, he abased himself so as to be understood. I'm not going
to say that at all. But it seems that some men do
the opposite. Some men, in trying to impress
their viewers, go out of their way in making something simple
sound very difficult. or profound. But let me say this,
I believe the true wisdom is in taking profound things and
making them very simple. Wasn't that what our Lord did?
He who spake in a heavenly language before came to this earth and
he could have spoken a language no man would understand in such
high and lofty terms that nobody would understand a thing. He
said, how did he preach? simple stories and parables to
be understood. Listen to this, let me give you
an illustration of that. I read, I was reading, studying
one time, this passage of Scripture, a preach from it, and I came
across this commentary on this verse of Scripture. Listen. The writer says this eloquently. Abraham had bestowed upon him
by God that supernatural mental quality whereby truth was apprehended
by him without evidence of actual experience or of argumentative
proof. And this quality which he possessed was partly of understanding
and partly of will. As far as it was of his understanding,
it was the knowledge of the proposition which was propounded unto him,
and due to a rational conviction as to the competency of the authority
by which the proposition he received was communicated. So far as it
was in his will, it was his assent to what is thus presented by
competent authority as being truth." Did anybody understand what he
said? I had to read it about four times.
to understand what he was saying. You know what he was commenting
on? Listen to this. He was commenting on this verse.
Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. Ralph Barnard
used to say, you know, the Bible sheds a lot of light on those
commentaries. My, so faith is indeed A profound
mystery. The Apostle Paul said it in 2
Corinthians 3, great is this mystery of godliness. A great
mystery. God was manifest in the flesh.
But faith, in a word, like God said it, in a word, is believing
God. Believing who He is, what He
did, believing what He said, agreeing with God. That's faith,
in a nutshell, isn't it? God said it clearly, didn't He?
And perfectly. Just the way we need to hear
it. Abraham believed God, I mean completely believed God, in his
head, in his heart, in his life. He took God at his word. Now, pride is the root of this intellectualism. I admit, now I admit, I'm impressed
by some of this. I'm real impressed. My simple
minds are impressed by these things. But pride is the root
of intellectualism. I remember our pastor warning
us young preachers years ago in that preacher's class, school. I remember him warning us of
some dangers that we face ahead of us, and one of them was intellectualism. Intellectualism. And that's what
Paul was saying there. He didn't send me to preach the
gospel with wisdom of words. The cross of Christ should be
made of no effect, and you'd be impressed with my speaking. I don't have to worry about John
doing that, but faith, this pride is the root of intellectualism
and high oratory. Paul said this, he said, some
by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the citizens. Good words and fair speeches.
Paul the apostle, the greatest, the chief apostle, the greatest
man of his day who had nearly an impeccable background and
heritage, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee who studied under
the most notable, the noted scholar of his day. That great man, the
Apostle Paul, whom God used to write the majority of the New
Testament epistles, he said the only knowledge, here in our text,
he said the only knowledge that he was really taken up with and
really concerned with was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
what he said. Now, he didn't say, he said here,
look at verse two, he said, I'm determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. First Corinthians
two, two. He's not saying here, he's not
saying that he would be ignorant of or unknowledgeable of any
other subject. He's not saying that. He doesn't
mean that he has limited his ministry simply to the exposition
of the atonement, and he certainly didn't mean that he limited his
studies to the subject of our Lord's passion or sufferings
or death upon the cross. We cannot read the apostles'
epistles without noting, without seeing that he was knowledgeable
in all areas that are vital to the Christian life, right? All
subjects that deal with the areas of truth that are necessary for
edification and spiritual growth and salvation of God's church.
So when he says this, I've determined not to know anything among you,
he's not saying he's limiting himself to study in one subject. But it does mean that he limits
himself to one truth, one overall truth, that the one overall truth
in the matter of man's salvation is wrapped up in this and this
alone, Jesus Christ. and him crucified. He is saying
that that's the one thing I'm going to be taken up with, the
one that I want to be taken up with. But he will not entertain
for a moment any other subject when it comes to this thing of
this matter of God's salvation, how man is accepted with God.
Not for a minute. Paul spoke there in Galatians. Was it Galatians?
He said some people crept in unawares to privately He said,
we wouldn't give them place for a minute. They commanded that
you do this and you do that to be saved. He said, we wouldn't
give them place for a minute. Not for a minute. Salvation in
Christ by His grace. Now, Spurgeon recommended that
all of his preachers be acquainted and somewhat knowledgeable about
all issues of the day. But he said that none of these
things, such as science and politics or culture or society or whatever,
none of these things were to be the issue. None of these things
were to be the message from the pulpit. Whatever our studies
may pertain to, they should in some way or another move in the
direction of of culminating in the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It all needs to come. Whatever
we study, whatever we study here, somehow or another it better
get around to centering in on the gospel, on Christ. Right?
That's what the apostles said. I'm determined not to be taken
up with or know, really know anything but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. This is the reason I was sent,
the apostles said. Preach the gospel. Not to reform
people, not to convince people of this and that and the other,
but to preach the gospel. Because it's Christ that we must
know, and Christ that we must look to if we're to have any
understanding, any understanding at all. In Christ are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as Scripture says.
A man may know many things, but unless he knows Him whom to know
is to have eternal life, he knows nothing at all, right? Unless
he knows him and whom and by whom we live and move and have
our very being, he knows nothing at all. He knows nothing of right.
He knows nothing. Well, what is it to preach Christ
to crucify death? Look at it. Paul said, I am determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. What is it to preach Christ crucified? God helped me to preach him.
Well, it's to preach Christ. It's to preach a person. Not
necessarily doctrine, although his doctrine is inseparable from
his person. It's to preach his person. Terry,
to preach Christ is to preach who he is, right? Who he is. Not a helpless, frustrated Jesus. Not a helpless, frustrated reformer
who went about trying to save people if they would let him.
That's not the Christ of Scripture. It's to preach who he is, that
he's none other than the God of heaven who created us. You've
not preached the Christ of Scriptures unless you've preached him as
God, as God. He is God, who he is, where he
came from. The Scripture says throughout
the Old Testament, somebody's coming. Who's coming? Emmanuel. God is coming to earth. God. God. He's God. Christ is none other
than the Creator and the Ruler and the Sovereign Controller
of the universe. And you've got to preach Him as man. He's man. Pilate said, Behold a man. He
was a man, all right. Oh, He's flesh of our flesh and
bone of our bones. Christ was. And still a man. He still is. But what a man. There's never been a man like
this man. That's what Pilate said, Behold, the man. There's
a man. Adam was a brilliant man, yes.
Adam was a glorious man, yes. But this is the man. The man. The holy, sinless, spotless
man. The only one to ever live that
God said he was approved. He was approved. God was well
pleased with him. The only man who ever lived.
God doesn't say that about anybody now. Never has said that about
anybody. But Jesus Christ. There's a man. I approve of. What a man. God's
man. We've got to preach his character,
he's holy, he's just, he's good, he's gentle, he's kind, he's
compassionate, he's loving, he's obedient. We preach the person,
Christ, a real living Lord is who we preach. And we preach
his doctrine. We preach his person and we preach
what he did, what he said. Christ crucified. You haven't preached Christ unless
you've preached Christ crucified. That is His atonement, His work,
His work. You know, Christ didn't come.
He didn't come to this earth to deliver people from Roman
bondage, like many thought. The Jews thought that, that He
came to deliver them from the bondage of Roman rule. He said,
My kingdom is not of this earth. Our kingdom is a spiritual kingdom,
and it's the same today. Christ didn't come to deliver
us from poverty and sickness and so forth. What did he come
to deliver us from? Our sin. Our sin. The spiritual problem that we
have. And it's all summed up in this word. Substitution. Substitution. Christ came down
here and became a man and lived a perfect life as a man, which
we could not do. that God demanded perfection,
holiness, in thought, in word, in deed, we couldn't do it. Disapproved
of God. But Christ came down here as
a man and lived perfectly in thought, in word, and in deed,
and established as a man a perfect life. And God said, now, there's
a man I approve of. And then Christ took that approval,
that life that he lived, and put it upon his people. He said,
now here, I'm giving this to you all, and I'm taking your
sin, your rebellion, your judgment upon me. And he went to the cross,
and he became our substitute. God looked at him upon that cross
and said, there's so-and-so, there's so-and-so, they sinned
against me, I'm going to kill them, that's what they deserve.
And he killed Christ in my place. And now I live and am accepted
by God Almighty because of what Christ did. Christ crucified. We preach his person, we preach
his work. crucified, the imputation of righteousness and sin upon
himself. Nothing but Christ crucified.
Listen to this. Bear with me. Whatever subject,
whatever subject a man deals with, it's got to be founded
in. It's got to come to its conclusion
in Christ crucified. You preach love. You hear many
messages on love. Preachers get on 1 Corinthians
13, and some of them don't even mention the name of Christ. I've
heard it. When you go preach love, you cannot preach love
except you preach Christ's love. Greater love hath no man than
this, my soul. The love of God was in the form
of a person. God commended his love toward
us in how sending his Son down here. Love personified was in
our midst. Christ. But you can't talk about
love unless you preach Christ crucified. Greater love hath
no man than this. Then what? Christ came, yes,
but that he died and he lay down his life for his friend. Oh my,
that's the greatest example of love. For a good man, some would
die. For a righteous man, some would
die. For a good man, some would scarcely die. But God commended
his love for us, and that while we were sinners, Christ came
down here and died. What love to lay down his life
for the unlovely. Now, that's love. And you haven't
touched on the subject of love unless you've preached the love
of God in Christ dying for us. You go preach on the church,
people love to preach on the church. Well, you can't preach
on the church unless you preach the head. The church is the body.
You can't preach on the body without the head. That'd be a
terribly, an awful gross looking figure, wouldn't it? Me standing
up here without a head. Well, there's a lot of people
bragging on the church and talking about the church, this and that.
And not holding the head. Apostle Paul said that. I'd have
to search to find it, but he said not holding the head. Some
people don't hold the head. You want to preach the church,
you preach the head, the head of the church. But you can't
have a church unless he was crucified, can you? You've got to preach
Christ, you've got to preach him crucified, though, there
wouldn't be a church unless he purchased it with his own blood.
Huh? You want to preach sin? You want
to preach on sin? You can't preach sin unless you
preach Christ. Can't do it. You see sin when
you see Christ come down here, when He reveals Himself to you
like He did to those Pharisees and all of them. You remember
when the woman caught in the act of adultery and all those
Pharisees, those pious, self-righteous fellows, were standing around
pointing their finger at her? Christ stood down in the sand,
you know, and wrote in the sand. Somebody said He wrote numbers
and dates of things that they had probably been doing. Well, they all quickly got out
of there, didn't they? In the presence of perfection
and holiness and omniscience. When Christ came, boy, He revealed
to men what they were, didn't He? When God reveals Himself
to you in Christ, you'll know what you are. You'll realize.
And you'll not realize it until then, what you are by nature. But you can't preach sin unless
you preach Christ crucified. Lord, Rick, we see sin then,
don't we? When He was made sin. When He
was hanging on that cross and this holy God poured out His
wrath on His own Son. Why? He had sin on Him. And that's
what we deserved. But He saw it on His Son instead
of us. Some people saw it on His Son. And he killed his son,
even, because he had sin on him. There you see sin in its true
nature, don't you? Its true life. When you see it,
when you see God's wrath poured out on his son. You know, preach
practical godliness. People love to preach on duties
and regulations. Love to. Love to. Holy living. And, you know, I try to touch
on it. But you've got to preach Christ.
You've got to preach Him. He's our supreme example, isn't
he? He is our supreme. He's our substitute first, and
he's our example, yes. But you can't preach practical
godliness unless you preach Christ crucified, because our works
are filthy rags, unless Christ was crucified, right? Unless
Christ was crucified, God won't accept a thing we do, will He?
Unless we're in Christ, our works are an abomination to God. God
won't have them. Why? Because our motive's wrong,
our attitude's wrong, if you're out of habit, out of duty, or
whatever. But in Christ. I'm looking to Christ, I'm trying
to serve Christ because I love Him because of what He did for
me, and God accepts my works. Not for salvation now, no, no,
no, not for salvation. But He's pleased with me in Christ.
I ain't explain it, that's the way it is. You want to preach
faith? Preach on faith? I hear this
all the time, they preach on Abraham. Genesis 22, when Abraham
took Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him. And they brag
on Abraham. My soul. The clearest picture
in all the Bible, one of the clearest pictures in all the
Bible of substitution, of Christ crucified, is Abraham taking
Isaac up on that mountain to offer him. And to brag on Abraham? Oh, my soul. That's blasphemy,
isn't it? That's giving glory to a man.
If you want to preach on faith, you've got to preach the object
of faith, don't you? You don't point men to their
faith, you point men to the object, don't you? Oh look to me, look
to him. That's what Moses, Moses in the
wilderness when everybody was bitten by that serpent and they
were dying. And he put that serpent on a
pole and erected it up there and said, now y'all got to have
faith. Now just believe. What's wrong with you? Why don't
you believe? No, that's not what he said.
He said, look! Look! And a little child, a blind man
could look. Where? There! I don't see it.
Well, you're looking anyway. Look. And that's how we preach
faith. Look to Christ, not to yourself,
not to your feelings, not to your works. Look to Christ. You've got to preach Christ crucified.
You've got to preach Christ crucified. What are we going to have faith
in? Unless He saved us from our sin. Unless He took our sins
to the cross and put them away forever, what are we going to
have faith in? I don't see how people can have faith in this
Jesus who wants to save and lets me, and men won't let him. What
kind of faith are you going to have in that puny failure? He
doesn't do me any good. A God that loves me and can't
do anything for me. He wants to so bad and I won't
let him. What kind of faith am I going
to have in a God like that? Well, he's no more powerful than I am. What
kind of faith am I going to have in a Jesus who just poured out
his blood? Oh, please let me save you. What man would be a
fool to have faith in somebody like that? He can't. You can't
have all the consuming faith in somebody like that, because
he can't do anything for you. You do something for yourself,
they say. But a Christ that came down here
to do a holy work, God sent him, said, you go down there, I've
got Paul made here on my mind, you go down there and you save
him. You live for him and you die for him, and I'm going to
pour out my wrath to punish his sins, and you come on back up
here and you pray for him, sitting beside me. And he came, he did
that, and he went back. Now, I got faith in somebody
like that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, there's my Savior.
And I'm looking to Him, leaning on Him. You see, now, Paul said,
I'm determined not to know anything among you. I don't care what
it is. What it is, instruction? We need instruction, don't we?
Saved and unsaved alike. But the unsaved, What they need
to know is Him, don't they? And to save, we need to learn
more about Him, don't we? Instructions? Whatever. Just come up with any old topic.
And you better be preaching Christ crucified. So I beseech you, I beseech you
and myself, to be determined not to be taken up with anything
or anybody but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And don't be like,
listen to this, I wrote these things down, I'll make sure and
get them all. Don't be like the Jews. They
stumbled. The Jews stumbled because of
their tradition. And there's a lot of people stumbling
now, right? On this plain gospel preaching justification by faith
without works apart from work, no works, God won't accept your
works solely in Christ. Christ has to do it all. A lot
of people stumbling over there, but goats, but sheep don't, but
sheep say, yeah, that's the way it is. A lot of people stumbling
over this stumbling stone of Christ, the rock unmovable. He said, if this rock falls on
you, you'll be crushed. If you fall on it, you'll be
broken, broken hearted and laid on him. And if it falls on you,
you'll be crushed to pieces in the end. Don't be like the Jews
who stumble because of tradition. Like that article you read, man
said, I don't care. The man said he's talking about
sin and homosexuality. He said, we've got to look at
sin, not in the light of what the Bible says about it, but
in the light of what are in our society, didn't he say? You read. He was so much to say, and his
preacher, they call him at the first of the article, they said,
now this man is a preacher's preacher. And he said, we don't
look at sin in the light of what the way the Bible speaks of it,
we have to look at it in light of our society, you know, what's
acceptable, our culture and so forth. Who cares what the Bible says?
This is what I think. We can't stumble because of our
traditions, our thoughts, our customs and ceremonies. Don't
be like the Jews in that respect, self-righteously working your
way to heaven. Don't be like the Jews. Don't
be like the Greeks. The Greeks thought simple gospel preaching
to be beneath their high dignity and intellectual attainments. This is too simple. I'm above
this. I've heard this before on something
more, something more intellectual stimulating. It don't be like
the Greeks. Well, we need to be like Mary,
plain Mary. Now, Mary was a former prostitute. Oh, but Mary, the Lord bragged
on that woman, didn't He? Because she simply, at every,
on every hand, at every possible opportunity, you could find her
sitting at his feet. Tell me more. Tell me more, Master. Learning more about him. And
be not, the scripture says, be not wise in your own conceits.
Oh, we're so wise, aren't we? We think we know so much. Everybody,
me, we all think And Scripture says, if any man thinks he is
something when he's nothing, he sure is deceiving himself.
Violet, we're nothing. I mean, we come out of the womb
nothing, just a little mass of nothing. And when we die, we
become a mass of nothing. Worse, worse. We need to be more
ready, the Scripture says, to hear than to speak. He says,
be not deceived by fair words and good speeches, be not deceived
by great and dramatic pulpit presence or theatrics. Don't
be deceived by that. Don't be impressed by that. Be
not deceived by many gray hairs. Job said it, he said, gray hair,
Elihu, he's the one that said it, wasn't he, young man? He
said, well, y'all been talking. He was in the presence of some
age, you know, and they were talking, discussing these matters.
He said, y'all been talking, I've been listening. And well,
a young man should. He said the years and age should
speak wisdom, but you boys ain't spoken of wisdom yet. So I want
to show you some wisdom. And he spoke, be not deceived
by gray hairs or facial hairs. Don't be deceived by long. I
used to wear a beard and I thought it greatly improved my credibility. It may have to some simple thing,
but, you know, the Pharisees, they had long, flowing beards.
The hell's angels have long beards. You know, George Whitefield didn't
have a hair on his face. He couldn't grow a beard. Ed,
was there a more powerful preacher ever to live on the face of the
earth than George Whitefield? He didn't have a hair on his face. Don't
be deceived by many degrees, you know, D.D. at the end of
a name. Well, I'm going to get myself
in real trouble. When he came, who among the apostles
were wise and scholarly and men of great attainments? Name one.
Luke was a physician. That was it. The rest of them
were just base fellows, base fellows. And God, that's what
he said there in 1 Corinthians 1. You see, you're calling. Not
many, didn't say any, but not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty or noble are called. Don't ever leave your first love.
That's what he said to the church there in Revelation. You've lost
your first love. You've left your first love.
Don't ever leave your first love. What was that? What was it that
first thrilled your soul when you first got a hold of this,
when you first heard the gospel preach, the gospel of your salvation? It was probably from some old
coal miner like Scott Richardson. I mean, a simple, plain old fellow.
You probably heard it from him, somebody. It thrills your heart. He just rejoiced over this gospel,
no matter how plainly it may have been preached. Don't leave
that. Stay there. It's the thing that
first gave you, it's the thing that first thrilled you and gave
you peace and comfort and hope and encouragement and zeal and
enthusiasm. It's the thing that first caused
this in you. Let's don't leave it. Let's stay right there. What makes us think we're going
to go on to Greater, bigger, and better things, huh? Who is
bigger and better than Christ? Huh? Never leave your first love. Remember what it was that first
thrilled you. And remember where you first
found this peace. And ever keep before you your only hope that
Jesus Christ died. When He died, your only hope,
your only plea is that when Christ died, He died for me. Not how much you know. Never
become too wise to hear the old, old story, no matter who tells
it, an old railroader or whoever. Don't ever become too wise to
hear the old, old story. Christ crucified. And pray, like
the Apostle Paul said over there, that Satan and his subtlety doesn't
corrupt your minds from the simplicity that's in Christ. I'm just a
poor sinner and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in
all. Paul said, don't let anybody bother me. I buried my body. I'm trusting in, looking to,
depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. So you
just leave me alone. Let me tell you this story one
time. I may have told it to you before.
I think I have, but I'm going to repeat it anyway. I went to
a Bible conference. one time, and there were some
preachers there, and they had degrees and so forth. But anyway,
right before I went in, I met a young lady outside in the vestibule,
and we talked a little bit, and she told me a little bit of her
background. She said she was Catholic, and that she'd heard
she'd got a hold of a tape of the pastor's preaching, and that
she was very interested. And she wanted to come hear it
for herself in person. Well, anyway, we went in and
the first fellow got up. And he was very clever. He was
so, so, his oratory was brilliant. He
was such a speaker, you know, such a pulpiteer. Very clever. But he preached on, his message
was on creation as opposed to evolution. And I abided by him. I grit my teeth. I thought, there's
this girl over here. She needs to hear the gospel.
She, in her heart, is saying, men and brethren, what must we
do to be saved? She had never heard the gospel
in part. She needs to hear the gospel. Well, I grit my teeth
and bore through that a little while. And he convinced me. He
convinced me. Yeah, we're created all right.
God convinced me of that a long time ago. And he convinced me
that evolutionists were wrong. Yeah, they're wrong. But God
proved them foolish a long time ago. You have to keep proving
it. And then the next man got up,
and he was an English fellow, and he's been here. And he got
up and preached on the apostles' doctrine. They continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and prayer. And I thought, oh boy,
he's going to preach the apostles' doctrine. He's going to tell
this girl what the doctrine of salvation is. He never did it. He bragged on the apostles, bragged
on what they did, what they went through, their sacrificial lives,
and this and that and the other. Never once explained the gospel. Should have tarred and feathered
those boys and run them out of town. Here a woman came in there
to hear the gospel, and she went away having never heard it. I
don't know if she ever returned again or not. What do you think
those men are going to answer to in the judgment? If she heard
the gospel and she's one of God's, God say, I sent one of my sheep
down there to be fed. They hear the gospel. And you
didn't preach it to them. Bind them, hand and foot. I don't want to be guilty of
that. I want to preach Christ crucified. It's the only message. It's the
only message the Apostle Paul preached. The only message this
Paul is going to preach, by God's grace, by His mercy. Stand with me. Our Lord, we praise and glorify
Your Name for Your Word. the incarnate Word, the written
Word, this Word that is none other than Christ himself. We
praise your name for it, for the understanding of it, of him
whom to know is to have eternal life. And we ask that you would
deliver us from being wise in our own conceits, and that we
would be determined not to know anything or anyone but Jesus
Christ and him crucified, to win him, to know him, to know
Christ. Give us a childlike spirit, Lord,
that we might receive the word, not as the word of a man, but
as it is in truth, the word of the living God. Give us that
attitude and that spirit, that we might sit and quietly listen
and believe it, believe in our hearts and rejoice in the truth.
Be with us again tonight, for it be your will. In Christ's
name, amen.