our Bibles back to 1 Corinthians,
but I want to go to chapter 1 this morning. We'll be looking here
in chapter 1, two verses, and I'm going to go back to chapter
1 again this evening, but let me read a couple of verses to
you here in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And I'll read 23 and
24. And this is my message. I want
to talk to you about the Apostle Paul and his message. Let's talk about this man we
know is the greatest man of the apostolic times. This is the
Apostle Paul and his message. And I direct your attention to
verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. What is true preaching? I certainly
believe that this man, the Apostle Paul, was the greatest of the
preachers. Other than our Lord Jesus, he's
the man that God used to established so many churches. He went out
on three missionary journeys. He wrote roughly half of the
New Testament. He was just an outstanding preacher
of the gospel. And as we look for a man who
is an example of one who knew the truth and who could set forth
the truth, we go to this man, the Apostle Paul. And he was
a real preacher of the gospel. What is true preaching? Well,
it is, and I jotted down just a few things here, it's God speaking
to men. He speaks to men through a man. He speaks not only through the
man's voice, But he also speaks to men through
a man's character and his life. That's the reason the word of
God is very specific, such as in 1 Timothy chapter two. There
are different qualifications for the ministry. Just because
a man has an ability to speak the truth, that doesn't mean
he is himself qualified to be a preacher of the gospel. Because
this matter of setting forth Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
certainly it involves the voice. It involves a man preaching,
literally, like I'm doing now, because faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. How shall they hear without a
preacher? But there are other things involved
in being a preacher. There's a man's life, his character,
and these things matter very much. because there are some
things that disqualify a man from being a pastor if he can't
rule his own household, for instance. That leaves him out as being
a preacher of the gospel. He's gotta be, he can't be divorced. He's gotta be the husband of
one wife. There are other qualifications
that the scripture sets before us, but also when he speaks,
he's got to speak from his heart. And I'll always remember what
I heard Brother Scott Richardson say about true preaching. He
said, it is God from His heart conveying to a man's heart a
message, and then that man speaking from his heart to the hearts
of people, and they receive it. That's what true preaching is.
It isn't just vocalizing a few words. There are many people
who are orators, and they're quite good at speaking. But that
doesn't mean they'd be a good preacher. I've heard this said
when kids are growing up, a young fellow's growing up, and he's
in a high school, and he does good in the debate club, and
he's a good public speaker, and they say, hey, you'd make a good
preacher. Well, that's not a qualification
for being a preacher, just being a good public speaker. You've
got to have the right message and you've got to receive a message
from the heart of God to your heart and then convey it from
your heart to the people. You see, we're not professors
who, in some kind of classroom environment, just give out information. Anybody can give out information. But those who speak for God,
Those who set forth Jesus Christ and Him crucified, it is evident
to those people who love the gospel that they speak from their
hearts. And then as we speak from my
heart, as I speak from my heart, I'm speaking to your hearts. I remember the illustration,
the story of Benjamin Franklin, who didn't, he didn't love the
gospel. Those early founding fathers
of our country, I can't find where any of them knew how God
could be just and justify the ungodly, although they did speak
of the name of God every once in a while, and they spoke of
the providence of God, but Benjamin Franklin, he wasn't one who believed
the gospel, but he often listened to a preacher by the name of
George George Whitefield. And Whitefield was a, he was
an evangelist. He was a man who believed sovereign
grace. He had a man who had a great
passion for the conversion of people. And he would preach,
and it was obvious when Whitefield was preaching, and if you read
any of his messages, even in reading them, you can see that
he's speaking to people from his innermost being. He's laying
bare his heart. That's what he's doing. And Benjamin
Franklin would often go and listen to George Whitefield preach.
And one of his fellow buddies said to Benjamin Franklin one
day, I don't know how you can go listen to George Whitefield.
You don't believe what he preaches. He said, no, I don't believe
what he preaches, but he does. And I love to hear a man talk
who believes in his subject. And Whitefield did believe in
his subject. And I believe in my subject too.
And it's obvious as you read through the epistles of the apostle
Paul, he believed his subject and his subject was we preach
Christ crucified. This was his passion. This came
forth from his heart. This is a man who meant business.
He's not just merely giving forth words that are accurate. Now
we do want to be accurate. I've got to speak to you from
the Word of God. This is the sole basis of all
that we believe and all that we do. but I'm not just merely here
to give you a few facts concerning God and a few facts concerning
us and a few facts concerning Jesus Christ. I want to indicate
to you through my preaching, I really believe Him and love
Him and adore Him and I want you to. I want you to do the
same thing. That's what it means to preach
from your heart. It's to mean business. It's to be serious. It's to speak knowing that I'm
dealing with eternal issues here. And I'm speaking to you who are,
you're a soul. And you're gonna abide, you're
gonna abide either in heaven or hell forever. You're going
out into eternity to meet God. And I'm very concerned that you
know Christ Jesus. Because without a saving knowledge
of the Son of God, you have no hope. You have no help. You'll have no life. You'll have
no welcome by God. There is a way of salvation.
There is life for those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
But this life and this salvation is embodied in a person, Christ
Jesus. And my desire is that you know
him, this one whom to know is life everlasting. I love the doctrine of the word
of God, the doctrine of grace. I love what we call TULIP. But
I'm not here to convince you to believe those things. I don't
think the thief on the cross knew anything about Tulip. But
he did know this. He was a vile, vile sinner. And the one dying on the middle
cross, that's the Lord of glory. And he believed he'd have a kingdom.
And he believed he could save him. And he said, Lord, remember
me when you come in your kingdom. And the Lord Jesus said, verily
I say unto you, today you will be with me in paradise. Our Lord Jesus, when he spoke
to people, when he preached to people, it was obvious he spoke
from his innermost being. He wasn't just giving out a few
accurate words without any conviction. concern for those who heard them
without desiring and asking God to bless the word as it went
forth. And we ask God to bless the word as it goes forth. God's
gotta do something for you. He's gotta do something for me.
This is what true preaching is. It's God speaking to men through
the heart, through the voice, through the life, through the
character of a preacher. That's why preachers have got
to be careful about their conduct. Got to be careful how we conduct
ourselves because there is a sense in which I preach every day.
And I try to be aware of that. I try to be aware of how I dress.
How I conduct myself. Because right or wrong, people
judge the gospel and people judge our church by the preacher. Now
I'm not gonna walk in order to conform to the standards that
the world sets, I'm not gonna do that, but I am going to endeavor
to walk in this world before God in a way that honors my Lord,
and it reflects hopefully upon the well-being of the people
to whom I minister. And that's obvious with the apostle
Paul. And I'll tell you something else
about truth preaching. It is the declaration of the
gospel. That is the good news of the
work of redemption that has been finished. Of reconciliation that
has been accomplished. We preach a Savior who lived,
who died, who was buried, who rose again the third day, who
went back to glory, and whoever lives to make intercession for
us, He's a victorious Savior. This is not a Savior to be felt
sorry for. This is not a Savior that we
wish He could do His will. No, this is the King of glory.
He's the sovereign. That's who Jesus of Nazareth
is. He's been elevated to be sovereign
over all by virtue of His successful work of redemption. We preach
somebody and His work. That's what we do. And I don't
know who you listen to if you happen to be visiting here this
morning or if you're watching on the internet. I don't know
who you listen to on a regular basis, but if they don't preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the life that He lived was perfect,
the death that He died was a substitutionary Death. It was a successful death. It was a sacrificial death. It
was a sovereign death. He rose again. He ever lives. He has dominion. He has authority
over all. If your preacher doesn't preach
that, you need to trade him in and get a new one. You need to
get somebody to tell you about the Son of God. He's the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. He's the sovereign. You'll live
according to his will. He does what he wills with the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
he doesn't need your permission. Job even says he doesn't give
an account to anybody of his matters. He doesn't answer to
anybody. You have to answer to him, but
he doesn't answer to you. True preaching is the declaration
of the gospel. that the work that was absolutely
necessary to bring ungodly folks like us unto God, it's been finished. That's good news. It wouldn't
be good news if I laid down for you certain rules and regulations
and laws that you had to keep in order for God to be satisfied
with you. That wouldn't be good news. You'd
be right now, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta do that,
I gotta keep the 10 commandments, I gotta love others, I love myself,
all of these things. That's not the way of salvation.
Because if that was the way of salvation, wouldn't anybody be
saved? and leave us all out. The message
that we have to declare from our hearts is salvation by grace. Salvation by mercy. Salvation through the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you this about
true preaching, of the spirit of God, it brings
about a marvelous effect in the hearts of those who hear the
message. The spirit of life has got to
do a work within us, doesn't he? That's just vital. Don't
leave out his work. You see, He teaches us, He reveals
to us, He makes known to us that which our Lord Jesus Christ has
done. And He shows us and He convinces
us that all that God demanded, which we could not produce, the
Lord Jesus, He's accomplished it. That's what the Spirit of
God does and He works within the heart. It isn't the preacher,
it isn't the power of the preacher, the ability of the preacher. Let me give you an illustration
how I would liken preachers to, this is how I liken myself, I
liken myself to this, that pole on which Moses put up the brazen
serpent. It only had one useful purpose,
hold up the brazen serpent, that's all he was good for. And that's
what a preacher does. He holds up, he holds up. He's
like a pole holding up Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. That's what we do. We're just
a pole. Don't get infatuated with the pole. My, what a wonderful
pole. No, it's the brazen serpent. Oh, I've been bitten. I've been
bitten with the serpent of sin. Oh, I'm dying. But that preacher
preached Christ, the savior of sinners. He preached that he's
the Lord. He preached he's the great physician.
And I looked to him, the pole can't save you. But the brazen
serpent, a look at that brazen serpent, that healed anybody
who looked of that awful poison of the fiery serpents. And I'm telling you, there's
salvation in a look. at the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Spirit of God, He works miraculously through the preaching of the
Word. And I look at this man, the Apostle
Paul, whatever he set out to do, he
did it with all of his heart. He was just, he was sold out
to whatever it was he believed in. Before conversion, he was
sold out to self-righteousness. He was sold out to being a Pharisee. He was sold out to believing
that salvation is by doing the best you can do and keeping the
law of Moses. And then after conversion, he
was sold out to the gospel. He never was halfway on anything. You know, the scripture says this,
It's a good verse for all of us to remember. You can jot it
down if you like. It's found in Ecclesiastes 9,
verse 10. It says, whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might. For there is no work,
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither
thou goest. Do it with unwearied diligence. And really that applies to everything. It really does, whether secular
or spiritual. If you find something to do,
do it with all your might. And I say, is there a gospel
to be believed? Believe it with all your heart. Is there a savior to be sought
for? Listen to what the Lord says.
You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all
your heart. That's what he said. Seek me, you'll find me when
you search for me with all your heart. Half-hearted effort, you
might as well forget it. Well, I'll be religious on today,
this morning, but rest of the week, I just don't have much
time for God. Well, just forget it then, because
your heart's not in it. He said, you'll seek me and find
me when you search for me with all your heart. Is there a God
to be worshipped? Is there a God to be worshipped?
The God who made heaven and earth? The God of whom the Bible says,
in Him we live and move and have our being? Is there a God to
be thanked? Is there a God to be adored?
Is there a God to be approached through Jesus Christ the Lord?
Then worship Him in spirit and in truth. And if you don't, you'll regret
it forever. And this gospel, if you don't
believe it, you'll regret it forever. The Savior who we're
to seek for with all of our hearts, if you don't do it, you'll regret
it forever. I'm telling you the truth. Is there the cause of God to
be served? Then serve it. That's why Paul says in Colossians
chapter 3, and whatsoever you do in word, whatsoever you do,
do it heartily as to the Lord. and not unto men. Is there a Bible to be read?
Read it. If you don't read it, that's
your fault. It's not God's fault if you don't read the Bible.
He gave you the word. What are you doing with it? Well,
it's a good place to keep, you know, you used to have family
Bibles. I'd visit people. It's not so much anymore. It's
kind of the older folks used to do this, have big family Bibles
and you got all the marriage records and obituaries and all
those kind of things in the family Bible. Well, let me show you
the family Bible. You open it up and it's just kind of a scrapbook
of all the events of your life and so forth. God gave you a Bible, you read
it. Like that fellow told Spurgeon, he said, you know, I hear you
preaching the way of salvation's found in this book somewhere,
I'm gonna read it. I'm gonna read it. Is there a job to do? And is
it whether secular or spiritual? Is there something to do? Do
it with all your heart. Don't do it halfway. Is there somebody you know who
needs encouragement? Or what are you waiting on? Get
on the telephone, go see them. Is there somebody you know needs
a hug, needs a visit? Let's get busy. Because there's
no activity for your body in the grave. That's what Solomon
is saying there in Ecclesiastes. Is there a wrong that you need
to make right? Let's get with it. Is there forgiveness
you need to grant? Let's grant it. Is there forgiveness
you need? Go to somebody and say, I'm sorry. You see, this is the way the
apostle Paul was. He just, there wasn't, he wasn't
half-hearted about anything. He just jumped in. If he felt compelled to do something,
he did it with all of his might. I think about, you know, the
seven churches at Asia Minor. One of them was called Laodicea. And the Lord had different things
to say about the different churches in Asia Minor. He got to the
last one, the church of Laodicea. He said, I wish you the hotter
cold. But he said, you're lukewarm.
He said, I'll just spew you out of my mouth. It's get in or get
out. That's what he's saying. Paul, he was an
unusual fellow. If you consider him as a sinner,
he was an exceedingly great sinner. He didn't do that halfway either.
In fact, he even said this, this is toward the end of his ministry.
He said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I'm chief. And he wrote there in Romans
chapter seven, he said, oh, wretched man that I am, not that I used
to be, but that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death. I thank God, Christ Jesus, the
Lord. And when it came to persecuting
the church, I'll tell you what, he was second to none. He was
at the top. He persecuted more than anybody.
Because that's just the way he was. If he was going to do something,
he'd do it with all his might. He's fully committed to destroying
the church of Jesus Christ. We read in the book of Acts as
for this man we know as Saul, Saul or the apostle Paul, he
made havoc, he tried to ruin, he tried to destroy, he tried
to devastate the church. He entered into every house in
Jerusalem. And he forcibly drug men and
women and committed them, delivered them to prison if they believed
that Jesus was the Christ of God. That's how committed he
was. In fact, he later said in the
book of Acts chapter 26, he said to Agrippa, I verily thought
with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And
many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received
and I punished them off in every synagogue and compelled them
to blaspheme, and I was being exceedingly mad against them. I persecuted them even to strange
cities." He said, I was like a madman. I just went after them
wherever they were. He went door to door. He went
house to house. Anybody in here who believes
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, you better tell me. He
had soldiers with him. He had temple policemen with
him. You go into jail. That's just the way he lived.
He was all in or all out. And if you consider his conversion,
It's the most notable of all those we read of in the Word
of God. Worked by the miraculous power and voice of the Son of
God. He's on his way to Damascus.
He had papers to arrest anybody that dared believe the gospel
of Christ. And all of a sudden as he traveled,
A bright light lit up the pathway. And he fell off his horse. And
the other men who were with him, they also saw the bright light,
but they didn't hear the voice. He did, but they didn't. And it may be this morning you
may in a sense see the bright light of the things of God, but
you've got to hear the voice of Him, the voice of Him who
wakes the dead. And you hear that in here. You
hear that in the heart. But he heard the voice of the
Son of God said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He said, who art thou Lord? He
called Jesus of Nazareth Lord and he meant it. What happened? Something has happened to this
man. He goes from being an enemy to
a friend. He goes from being fervently
opposed to Jesus of Nazareth to bowing before him and calling
him Lord and meaning it. What happened to him? Grace happened
to him. And grace has gotta happen to
you and me too. So I don't understand why people
don't believe this gospel. Well, they're certainly responsible
to, but they won't till mighty grace comes along. And grace,
it's very mysterious and miraculous. It accompanies the word of the
gospel. And then wonderful things happen.
And all of a sudden, you're different. And you love the message of Christ
and him crucified. Yeah. He was so unusual even
in his conversion. If you consider him as being
an apostle, he did more, wrote more, preached more, traveled
more than all the other apostles. In fact, he even said that. He
said, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. and his grace
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more
abundantly than they all. That's what he said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. He talked about the other apostles. He said, I labored more abundantly
than they all and was thankful to do it. If you consider him as one who
was very concerned about those who were lost, He was so anxious
for conversions. That's something I, I talked
to John Claude about this. I said, I wish, I wish God would
give us a greater burden for the lost. I wish God would give
preachers a greater burden for the lost. I wish God give this
preacher a greater burden for the lost. Listen to what Paul
said, brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. I want them to be saved. Oh,
he said, I bear them record. They've got a zeal of God, but
it's not according to knowledge. They're going about to establish
their own righteousness. They won't submit to be saved
by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They won't submit
to that righteousness that's already been established. but
he wanted them to be saved. He wanted them to be converted.
He even says this in Romans chapter 10, I say the truth in Christ,
I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continued
sorrow in my heart, for I could wish myself a curse from Christ
for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. He was
burdened over the lost. I pray, I've asked God, give
me a burden for the lost and give our church a greater burden
for the lost. There are people around here
who never heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we
care? Are we interested in them? Or
are we just satisfied to meet inside this nice, comfortable
building and we'll go ahead and believe this message and whatever
anybody else believes, that's too bad, we got it, sorry y'all
don't have it. Is that the way we're gonna be?
Or are we gonna be prayerful, prayerful to God? Oh God, take
the word. Oh God, use me with my neighbors,
with my friends, with my relatives to tell them about Christ Jesus.
Because see, you have a responsibility too. We're all to be evangelistic.
We're all to be telling people of Christ Jesus. Boy, Paul was an example. He
was so anxious for the salvation of others. And he even said this, go over to 1
Corinthians 9 I'll wind this up here. Here we see his total dedication
and commitment to Christ. And as you're making your way
there, he even said to Timothy, he said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Look at his commitment
to preaching the gospel. He set forth, and I won't take
the time to go through this, but he's talked about things
that preachers have the liberty to do. Be married, have a wife, that's
fine. But he wasn't married himself. Though he had the liberty to
do that, don't believe what these church, there's some church say
preachers can't be married, that's not right. That's contrary to
the word of God. Peter was married, we read that
his mother-in-law was sick, had a fever, and the Lord Jesus healed
her. And here in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul said, yeah, the liberty
to be married, but he chose not to. He talked about don't muzzle
the ox that treads the corn. That is preachers are to be financially
supported by those who hear the gospel from him. That's biblical.
But he said, as for myself, he said, but I've chosen not to
do that. He built and he sold tents. That's what he did. And the reason
he was willing to do without was because he was so burdened
over the loss, he didn't want anything to be an obstacle in
front of him. And he says this, drop down to
verse 19. He says, for though I be free
from all men, yet have I made myself a servant unto all that
I might gain the more. Look at verse 20. He says, unto
the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. to them
that are under the law as under the law, then I might gain them
that are under the law. He said, what in the world is
he talking about? Well, let me just illustrate this for you.
He went out preaching, he picked up Timothy. Acts chapter 16,
he picked up Timothy. You know what he had done to
Timothy? So he would be more in favor with the Jews, he had
Timothy to be circumcised. Well, that didn't mean anything.
Timothy, he's a Gentile preacher. Well, why did the Apostle Paul
do that? And there are some who say he was absolutely wrong in
doing that, but he had a good motive. He wanted the Jews to
listen to him. See, that was his goal. He just
wanted people to listen to what they had to say. He wanted to
gain them that were under the law. He knew the Sabbath had
been fulfilled, but he still met with the Jews on what day?
The Sabbath day. Even though he knew Christ is
our Sabbath, but he'd meet with them. And he met with them on
the Sabbath day. He didn't say, listen, you bunch
of fools, the law's been accomplished by Christ Jesus. No use for you
to meet on Saturday. Let's meet tomorrow on Sunday.
He didn't do that. Because he would have immediately
cut off all Jewish listeners. That's not what he wanted to
do. He didn't want to do that. He wanted them to listen to him.
And so he'd just meet with them on the Sabbath. Well, what about
the Gentiles? Look at verse 21, to them that
are without law, that's the Gentiles, as without law, being not without
law to God, but under the law of Christ, that I might gain
them that are outside the law or without the law. In other
words, he said for the Gentiles, he said, I became like a Gentile.
He said my whole focus, has been to gain them, to gain their interest,
to gain their friendship, and to gain their listening ears. That's what his goal was. I want
you to listen to me. I don't wanna cut you off by
some of these other things that you might not like. I wanna preach
the gospel. And he said this, and I'll give
this to you and quit. He says this in verse 16. Chapter nine, verse 16. For though
I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. He didn't have anything
to glory of because the Lord taught him the gospel and the
Lord called him to be a preacher of the gospel. He said, for necessity
is laid upon me. How do you know preacher when
you're called to preach the gospel? When it just, it's like a hot,
cold burning within you and you just gotta tell the story. And
he says, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I don't wanna woe over my head. I'm gonna tell people about Christ.
I'm gonna be free from their blood. And that's on you. You've heard
the truth. And I pray God will make it effectual
to you. but he has to do that work. See,
it's like we're backed up in a corner. Lord's gotta do it. And we ask him to, we pray for
him to. Lord, give us a burden. Help
us to preach the gospel by every means you make available to us.
And then, Lord, you take that word that people hear in their
ears or they read it with their eyes, and driving home to the
heart. Well, let's sing a song, shall
we? Let's sing 258, He