I had every intention of bringing
you a message this evening from Psalm 97. But after the message
this morning, I got thinking about it and I decided that I'm
just going to come right back to the passage that I began to
deal with this morning in 1 Corinthians 1. Now, in this gospel age, our
Lord has ordained that the salvation of his elect actually come to them through
the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, does
that mean, am I saying that a person has to audibly hear the message
of redeeming grace preached to them? And the answer is, of course
not. Those who are deaf aren't able
to hear the gospel of Christ, but yet all who are saved have
got to become acquainted with this message of salvation by
grace through the doing and the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. We read here in verse 21 of 1
Corinthians 1, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Your path had to be
crossed with the gospel. And God delivered that gospel
to you through the lips of, or through the printed page of,
a message from one of his servants. As you look through the New Testament,
you see so often illustrations of people who needed to hear
the truth because, as it turned out, they believed the words
of Christ and Him crucified for their salvation, they were marked
out from old eternity to believe the very gospel of God's grace,
but they had no one to communicate that message to them. Therefore,
time and time again, we see God sending a servant to preach the
message of redeeming love and grace to one who was appointed
unto salvation before the world began. In the book of Acts chapter
8, there's an Ethiopian eunuch who had been to Jerusalem, no
doubt anticipating that he would learn of Jehovah, that he would
learn the way of salvation, but he did not. And on his way back
to Ethiopia, he sat in his chariot reading Isaiah, the prophet. And as he read Isaiah, the prophet,
that portion that he especially focused on and the Spirit of
God had him focus on was Isaiah chapter 53. But he couldn't make out, he
couldn't understand, he couldn't have any discernment of the person
that the prophet of God wrote about. Well, meanwhile, over in the
city of Samaria, Philip was preaching, and many, many people were being
converted. It was a wonderful time of awakening
as the Spirit of God used the gospel of redeeming grace as
delivered through the lips of Philip, the evangelist who was
a deacon. And then the Spirit of God took
him away, right out of the midst of that great awakening, and
took him into an area where one man needed to hear the gospel. One man. And in our reasoning,
we would think, what is one man compared to all of these people
over in Samaria? Well, the work had been done
in Samaria. And there's another work that
had to be done because, you see, God doesn't always work in many
numbers, and sometimes He works with only one. but only one must
hear the gospel. Only one must hear of Christ
crucified, buried and risen again. And so Philip is taken by the
Spirit of God miraculously out into the desert where he begins
to jog a little bit and he catches up to the chariot that the man
was in. And the man stopped the chariot Philip said, what are you reading? He said, I'm reading here what
the prophet of God wrote. And he read some of the lines
to Philip. And he said, I don't know who
he's talking about. And Philip climbed up into the
chariot and preached unto him Jesus. Because that man needed
a clarification. of who the Savior is, and how
He would bring salvation about. Further in the book of Acts,
there's a woman named Lydia. She's meeting with some other
ladies out by the riverside, and they're having a prayer meeting. but she needed to hear the Gospel
because just like the Ethiopian eunuch, she was an elect vessel,
chosen unto salvation. And the Apostle Paul and Silas
stopped by that meeting. And as the Apostle Paul began
to speak to all of those ladies about the things of God, and
about the neediness of the human heart, about their sinfulness, and about
who Christ Jesus is, and all that He did of the necessity
of His sacrifice, and of His death, His burial, His resurrection,
His ascension. The Bible says, whose heart the
Lord opened. The Lord opened Lydia's heart.
How did He do that? Through the preaching of the
Word of God. And you keep going through the
book of Acts, and it's one of the reasons I read to you there
from chapter 16 about the jailer. The jailer has got to hear the
gospel. He's one of God's chosen vessels
unto salvation. But how is he going to hear the
gospel? He's keeping watch over the prisoners. He's not going
to go out to a prayer meeting by a riverside. Well, how's he
ever going to hear the truth? Well, the apostle Paul is going
to be walking down the road in a woman filled with the devil. She says to people, these men
are preaching Jesus Christ. and her owners realized she's
losing business for them, and they got a bunch of people riled
up against Paul and Silas and arrested them and threw them
in prison. You wonder how that jailer and
his household is ever going to come across the gospel of God's
redeeming grace? God put his preachers in jail. so that they could preach the
message of redeeming grace to the jailer and his household. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Ethan and I have been
talking about the book of Philemon. And Philemon's servant, he stole
some things from his master. And he ran into Rome to try to
get lost among the crowd. And he heard that there was a
familiar man he had met him before. Paul was in prison, but he was
preaching over there in prison. So he goes in and hears him.
And that elect servant heard Paul preach the gospel from Paul's
prison cell and he believed the truth. God uses the preaching of the
gospel to save his people. He saves his elect by means of
the word of the Lord through the preaching. And the preaching
of the word of God is all that God uses. And don't fall for
the lies that some people say. I've heard preachers even say,
well, you know, the Bible is wonderful, but all of it is not
the gospel. I beg your pardon. It's all the good news. of God's
great salvation to people who have fallen into sin and can't
get out. From Genesis 1-1 all the way
to Revelation chapter 22 and the last verse of that chapter,
the whole Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all
the gospel of the grace of God. I remarked to you this morning
about an article my wife had read, After she kind of got my
interest in it, I read all of it this afternoon. And actually,
they're going to have a meeting tomorrow, if you'd be interested
in going, to try to teach preachers how to preach the gospel out
of the Old Testament. If you can't preach the gospel
out of the Old Testament, you don't know the gospel. If you
don't know how the God of the Bible saves sinners based upon
the Old Testament scriptures, you have no understanding of
the gospel of God's redeeming grace. All of the scriptures
speak of Christ Jesus and him crucified. And no passage of
scripture, listen carefully, No passage of Scripture can be
properly understood apart from its connection to the Lord Jesus
Christ and His work of redemption. There is no correct understanding
of any passage of Scripture in the entirety of the Holy Word
of God. apart from keeping a view in
mind of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and the only Savior of
sinners. And it is our responsibility
as a church, and it's my responsibility specifically as a preacher of
the gospel, to stick to this message. I would put it this way, the
servant of God is duty-bound. Is duty-bound to preach Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. You're in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians. Look here at verse 17. In fact, I'll read 16 too. 1 Corinthians 1, 16, And I baptized
also the household of Stephanas, Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other." And he says this for or because Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now, baptism was in the original
commission that God gave to His apostles, correct? That was in
the original commission. Go ye into all the world and
teach all nations and those who learn, those who believe, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. But baptism, you see, occupies
a secondary position compared to the preaching of the gospel.
And what has happened in many denominations and with many so-called
Christian churches They have put baptism before the preaching
of the gospel. Such as the church of Christ. A dear friend of mine for many
years was brought up in that mess. And he said, I'll tell
you, our preachers preached, be dipped or be damned. And he said, we was all dipped.
Because we didn't want to be damned. And then we found out
that salvation is not being in dipped, it's being in washed. You gotta be washed. Washed in
the blood of the Lamb of God. And some churches, they give
great attention to, they call it baptism of baptizing all the
infants. And there's no conversion there. What has happened? What has happened? I'll tell you what has happened.
Churches and preachers have gotten away from preaching the gospel,
and now the ordinance of baptism has taken its place as the great
thing. Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm all for baptism. In two weeks, we're going to
have baptismal service. But there is to be no baptism
of anybody, nobody's to be baptized until they confess that Jesus
Christ is their Lord, their King, their Savior, their only hope
of glory, all of their salvation. Then we'll baptize them. but
nobody's sins are washed away in the waters of baptism. And
it's evident that the apostle Paul, he placed the emphasis
where it needs to be on preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He said, I baptized a few of
you. He said, but I can't even remember
if I baptized anybody else or not. Because that was not his
main thing. That's not what he was about.
And he's a man who wrote, if you believe he wrote the book
of Hebrews, along with all the other epistles, he wrote over
half the New Testament. And basically he said baptism's
not my thing. I'm preaching the gospel of the
grace of God to sinners through Christ. Our duty is to lift up the Lord
Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners and talked to everybody
and said, look to Jesus Christ only, crucified, buried, risen,
ascended and coming again. You see, every preacher is like
that pole that Moses perhaps even held up. And affixed to
the top of it was a brazen serpent, the people had been bitten with
fiery serpents, and maybe that pole was fixed in the ground,
or if you read carefully there in John chapter 3, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness. And I can just see Him walking
around through the camp of Israel, holding that serpent up, saying,
look and live, look and live. Some people couldn't even get
out of their tents. This is sick. Look and live. And our business
is to hold Christ up. You remember the Savior said
in John chapter 12, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
men unto me, that is all that God gave me in covenant grace,
I'll draw them all to me as I'm lifted up. Now, this he spake
concerning the death that he would die, lifted up to die. But we have a responsibility,
I have a responsibility when these men speak to you, they
have a responsibility to lift Christ up in our messages. And I'm fully persuaded that
when Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, he tried to
hide behind the pole. He did not make himself the object
upon which people should look. The preacher should, as best
he can, get out of the picture. It's not about me. It's not about
I. It's not about mine. It's about
Him. We need to lift Him up. He's
the only one worthy to be lifted up and seen. And I realize it's
impossible to totally take the speaker out of the message, but
I'll tell you it should be the desire of everybody who gets
up here. Every man who professes to preach
the gospel of Christ, get out of the way. Get out of the way. It's not about you. It's not
about me. It's about Him. If we're looking
for people to brag on us or compliment us, we've got a wrong motivation
anyhow. Paul says he went forth to preach
the gospel. Verse 17 again, for Christ sent
me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of
words. You don't need to know about
my intellect. It's not on display. I'm not
trying to impress anybody. I'm just a country preacher.
I don't know much about Greek. I don't know much about Hebrew.
It's a mistake to throw a few Greek or Hebrew words around. Men don't impress me when they
do that. You use long words. Somebody
asked me to read something that was published by a man who professes
to believe grace. And I read it and I said, well,
I think I'm going to need a dictionary to read some of these words.
That's sad. That's sad. You see, preachers are like road
signs, giving directions. That's what
we do. We give direction. This way to
eternal life, Christ. This way to salvation, Christ. This way to forgiveness, Christ. This way to righteousness, Christ
and Him crucified. That's the message. And that's really the totality
of our message. I had Ron read the second chapter.
Look over here in verse two of chapter two. Here's what Paul
said to the Corinthians and he preached to them. He said, for
I determined not to know anything among you when He was with them. Save or accept Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He said, that's all I preach
to you. And as he said in Acts chapter
20 to the Ephesian elders, when a man has preached Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, he has preached all the counsel of God. That's
what a weighty subject this is. All the counsel of God. Look
at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
5. He says, for we preach not ourselves. We don't preach our church. We
don't preach our denomination. We don't preach individuals in
here. We're not promoting ourselves. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. And as for ourselves, he said,
we're your servants for Jesus' sake. I'm your servant in the sense
that every time we gather together, my goal is to present a spiritual
buffet from which you can eat all you want. Probably gonna preach next Sunday
morning from Bless the Lord changed my mind. I've had this on the
back burner for a while. From Isaiah chapter 25. The banquet
that God sets before us sinners. It's full of wonderful things.
We went out for lunch today at Greenbow. And they had their
buffet. Whew. Sure was good. All you can eat. I didn't eat
all I could eat because I couldn't eat the sweets. But I did eat
a lot of the other things that they had. I'll tell you what,
every time we come out here, it is my responsibility to set
before you a banquet, God's banquet. full of delicious things, things
that are good for your soul, things that will cause you to
grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the gospel meets many
needs. It meets our needs of salvation,
but it also teaches us, it teaches us to be a godly people. It teaches
us to be a humble people. Our Lord Jesus there in John
chapter 13, He said, I've done these things for you to set an
example. As I've done, you do. You want
to learn how to live? Don't go to Mount Sinai. Mount
Sinai wasn't given to teach you how to live. It's to teach you
you're a sinner. You want to learn how to live?
Look at the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look how meek and
lowly he was. Now you be that way. Look how
he helped the helpless. Now you be that way. Look how
he loved his brethren. Now you be that way. You see,
I maintain, and every preacher of the gospel maintains, everything
we need to do and we need to know is to be found in Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We're not debaters. I'm not defending anything. I'm
not defending a position. It's the business of gospel preachers
to preach the gospel exclusively, earnestly, sincerely, and ceaselessly. To preach the Word of God. You see, it's the gospel of Jesus
Christ crucified, That is the power of God unto salvation. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ that is the standard. The only standard for truth. And it teaches us what we're
to preach. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ that is the motivation for consecration, devotion, self-denial,
sacrifice, and service. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 to motivate
people to generosity in giving to support the gospel. He doesn't say, Paul didn't say
in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, now you give a 10% tithe,
but if you don't, God'll get it at the doctor's office. Or
he'll get it by some unexpected bill that you're gonna owe. Something
will break down in your house. That's not the motivation. He
said, here's the motivation. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. who though he was rich became
poor that you through his poverty might be rich. God sends his preachers to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. I give you three things back
in our text and I will send you home. In verses 23 and 24, here are
three things. And the first one is, a gospel
rejected. A gospel rejected. He says in
verse 23, well verse 22 even, for the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom. You see, the Jews and the Greeks
were equally opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ. though on very different grounds. The Jews. The Jews loved the law of Moses. And they sought a refuge for
their soul in Mount Sinai, that is, in the law. But as I just
said, the law wasn't given as a refuge. If you'll obey it,
then you'll be saved. The law was given to strip you
down and pronounce you to be guilty. That's what Paul said
in Romans 3, isn't it? To leave you guilty. But they went running to the
Ten Commandments, like a lot of people do today, and living
their lives in a strictness, they say, in accordance with
that law, the Jews thought they were righteous before God. And
I'll throw this out there, and I'm still deliberating about
this. One of the presidential candidates, I believe it's a
presidential candidate, maybe just a governor, said if he was
elected, he'd put the Ten Commandments Back in the schools, I believe
it's what it said. And I don't know about that. He said, were you opposed to
the Ten Commandments? Certainly not. But without somebody to tell
people those Ten Commandments are not for you to obey. That is, those Ten Commandments
are not to lay down for you a rule of life. Those 10 commandments
are to show your guilt before God. Now, let's say they put
it in front of every courthouse in the nation or state or whatever
it is, or they put it in every school room. Is there gonna be anybody there
who says, now those 10 commandments are, they're put in the Bible
to cut you down to size. and to show you your sinfulness.
Is that going to happen? That's not going to happen, is
it? I'm kind of twisted up as to
how I feel about that. Maybe the Lord will give me some
leadership on it. But the Jews rejected Christ
Jesus. You would have thought with them
having the Old Testament Scriptures that they would have listened
When word came to them that a baby's been born in Bethlehem,
and those Jews knew, Micah said that's where Messiah would be
born. And that he was born of a virgin,
Isaiah, you know I read in Isaiah, Rabbi so and so, I read in Isaiah
that a virgin would conceive and bear a son. and all those
other prophecies concerning Christ Jesus our Lord, but they stumbled
over the Scriptures. They kept requiring a sign. They wanted a man who'd do something. And they wanted Jesus of Nazareth
to lead them in opposition against the Romans and run them completely
out of Jerusalem and out of Israel and restore Israel to the glory
days of King David and Solomon. Then they'd receive him. But
that wasn't why he came. Not at all. So they rejected him. And then
the Greeks. The Greeks sought after wisdom.
Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews, and to the
Greeks it was foolishness. The Greeks, you see, were intellectuals. They're smart. Got a high IQ. And the Gospel's too simplistic. You mean to tell me that the
way of salvation is found in this God-man who lived and then
died for sinners? You mean it doesn't involve us
doing better, obeying some laws, some rules,
give us some things to do, climb some steps or something, or memorize
whatever? No, it's only in him. And the
Jews stumbled over him, and the Greeks said, too simplistic. I've had people leave churches
that I've pastored because they said my preaching was too simplistic. I just harped on one point. And I said, just put that on
my tombstone. That's all right with me. And
they left. They said, you preach too much
Christ and Him crucified. That's the truth, isn't it? She
knows. I said, well, this is my message. These are my marching orders. These people rejected the gospel. But here's the second thing,
the triumphant gospel. The Jews stumbled over the truth,
the Gentiles called it foolishness, but some believed the gospel.
Look at verse 24. But unto them which are, watch
this, called of both Jews and Gentiles, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God. to those who are called. John
Bunyan evidently owned some chickens. Because he said the old hen has
two calls to the chicks. There's the general call. She
just wanted to know where they're at. And she has a special cluck
for that. But if she sees a chicken flying
overhead. She has an effectual call. And the little chicks know she
means business. And they all come and gather
under her wings, and the chicken hawk can't get them. Our Lord
has a general call. I've issued a general call today. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
God the Savior, That's just general. That doesn't
go to the heart. Because I can't get to your heart.
But if God takes the word of the gospel and he calls you,
that's the cluck you're going to hear. You will hear that one. And you'll come and hide under
the wings of the everlasting Savior and find your refuge in
Him. You see, the gospel is triumphant. It always triumphs. In fact,
those who preach the gospel, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2,
we always triumph in those who believe and those who don't believe.
Because the message we preach, the message I preached this morning,
the message I'm preaching tonight, it will be successful to accomplish
God's purpose. I'm very confident of that. Those Jews in John 6, they didn't
believe that Christ came down from heaven, that He was the
true bread of life. Christ said, you won't believe
me, but all that my Father giveth me, now they'll come to me. And when they come to me, I'm
not going to cast them out. As David said in Psalm 110, verse
3, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And then the last thing is this.
Here's a gospel to be admired in verse 24. Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. The power of God. Who could bear
our sins on the cross but one, the almighty Son of God. who
could deal with divine justice and come out on the other side
in resurrection glory, the almighty Savior. And behold the wisdom of God
in the death of Christ. We see how God can be a just
God and a Savior. The gospel is a revelation of
Christ. It's a revelation of the wisdom
of God and the power of God. The gospel we preach is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. What is the gospel anyway? Is
it not good news? Well, it's not good news if it
requires anything of me. That's not good news. It's good
news though when I hear the work is done. When I hear the Savior
with a powerful voice from the cross of Calvary say, it is finished. What's finished? All the Old
Testament types and prophecies of Him. My sins are finished. He put an end to them. The justice
of God is fully satisfied. It's finished. And you know what
the Spirit of God does? He draws us, He woos us to the
Savior. And we just rest in Him who finished
the work. For He is our Sabbath. He rested after His work was
done, not because He was weary, but because the work was finished. And we rest in Him who finished
the work. Let's sing a closing song.