Open your Bibles with me to 1
Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Kathleen seems to be doing better. She goes to the doctor tomorrow,
has a scan, and the doctor is going to read it. And hopefully
she can get rid of one of the bags that she has on her. as long as she's been home in
a while. Come home, stayed two days, and had to go right back
to the hospital. It's tough. But she's encouraged. I'm encouraged. I know they are. I know they are. Let's start
reading in verse 17. Read down through verse 26. For
Christ sent me, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect, become ineffectual, have no power to it. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved or being saved, it is the power
of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent." Just look at all the wise men
of our Lord's day when they thought they understood that everything
they was doing was the right thing to do and God made their
wisdom to be absolute foolishness. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Who is that wise as God, wise as the gospel, wise? Where's
that scribe that can make the scriptures come alive with the
power and wisdom of God? Where's the disputer of this
world? Who's going to stand up against God? Has not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? 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. For the Jews
require sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness,
but under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called." Our Savior, our blessed Redeemer,
our great God, our Savior, the very lover of our souls, the
one who gave himself for us, loved us with an everlasting,
eternal love before we ever were. And as we stand here tonight,
Lord, you love us as much as you ever did. Your love is pure,
powerful, unchangeable, immutable, glorious, overwhelming, And Lord,
with the condition we're in, your love never wavers, never
varies. And we sing, oh, how we love
the Lord Jesus. And if we love you at all, it's
because you first loved us. And Lord, we thank you for the
great love wherewith you loved us, even when we were dead in
sins. And you quickened us, gave us
life together with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord,
we thank you for what you do for your people. Your dear saints
here, thank you for what you're doing for Kathleen, Floyd, and
the family. Lord Jesus, may she get real good news from the doctor
again tomorrow and things be well and good and she starts
to heal. And Father, we thank you for
the dear saints and pray for Peggy. Lord, with her weakness,
her infirmity, God strengthen her, encourage her. And Lord,
we continue to thank you for Jim, what you've done for him.
Pray for Danny. Lord, that you would have mercy
on him. That you would pity him and his condition. Have mercy,
strengthen his wife, encourage her. And Lord Jesus, we look
to you tonight for the gospel. Look to you for the preaching
of the gospel. For the power that needs to be
preached. For the power to hear, the power
to listen, and the faith to believe, we ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Old John Newton, he sure wrote
some good ones. Turn back here with me to 1 Corinthians. It's said here in verse 23, that
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block unto
the Greeks' foolishness, but unto them which are called, called
of God, called through the gospel, called from darkness to light,
called from death to life, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
and wisdom of God. Tonight I'm going to preach on
preaching Christ. I'm going to preach a series
on these. The last message last week was, what shall we preach?
And we preached not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. And
now I ask, not only what shall we preach, but what does it mean
to preach Christ? What does it mean to preach Christ?
I know that in preaching Christ, there's a sweet savor unto the
saints and unto God. It's like that altar of incense
that was in the holiest of holies. where they went in there right
before, not in the holiest of holes, but in the holy place
right before the veil. The high priest went in there
and that fragrance was lit and they had a certain mixture that
they had in there and they'd light that and that incense would
go up and fill that whole area. And that was the sacrifices,
prayers, and incense of our Lord Jesus Christ going up. And preaching
Christ and preaching the Lord Jesus was a common term to the
apostles and is a common term in the scriptures. Now you keep
1 Corinthians, look in Philippians 1.14 with me. Philippians chapter
1 and verse 14. You know, and I mentioned this
last week, that there's three main words for preaching Christ,
for preaching the gospel. It means to tell good news, It
means to herald or proclaim or tell thoroughly. But look what
the apostle said here in verse 14 of chapter one. And many of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. He was being held in prison
and they, boy, they said, boy, if Paul can suffer for preaching
the gospel, we gonna preach it boldly. Some indeed preach Christ
of envy and strife. That means they was trying to
outdo one another, striving to see who's going to be the best
preacher, who could say the most things. And some also of goodwill. They had a goodwill in it. They
had no intention. Their will was good and right
in preaching the gospel. The one preached Christ of contention
or out of contention, not sincerely supposing to add afflictions
to my bonds, but the other, preaching Christ of love, knowing that
I'm set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding
every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached,
and therein do rejoice, sheikh, and I will rejoice." And that's
what Paul said. You can be contentious about
it, be argumentative about it, Try to outdo the preacher and
preach contention of strife, but he said Christ is preached
and I'm going to rejoice in that. I'm going to report rejoicing
in that. So like I said, three main words, tell good news, herald
and proclaim, tell throughly. Back over here in 1 Corinthians. Let me tell you this, I'm going
to use that word good news in preaching Christ tonight. Paul
said here we preach Christ crucified, preaching Christ. Preaching Christ
is to tell the good news concerning Him. And it is very good news
to people that need a Savior. And that's the first thing about
the good news about Him is, is that He's the Savior. In Luke
chapter 2, you can look at that with me, just look at this with
me and see what it says about the first announcement of our
Lord Jesus Christ, when the angels came and told her, And oh, they went out there,
the angels gathered around here, and in the night, and the shepherds
were out, and the angels of the Lord came upon them, and here
in Luke 2 and verse 10 and 11, the angels came around, and oh
my, and the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David, in Bethlehem,
a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. You see, beloved, that's
good news that God has a Savior. When He told Joseph, He says,
Now thou shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. And so, you see, a Savior actually
saves. And let me ask you this, who
needs to be saved? It said here that thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
That means Jehovah's Savior, Joshua's our Savior. And who
needs to be saved? Who needs a Savior? Well, I tell
you, first God, you've got to find out what sins are and who
needs to be saved from them. That's what He said He'd come
to save His people from, was from sins. And in preaching Christ,
these are issues that must be faced. Sins. And you can't preach
the Gospel. You can't preach Christ without
dealing with the issue of sin. Who needs a Savior? People that
have sin. What is sin? Where did it come
from? What are the effects of sin in
time and eternity? And sin, most people don't have
a clue what it is. They think it's their sins that
if you quit certain things that you'll be alright. But sin, what
is it that's so terrible that God himself had to provide a
savior that God himself had to provide his own son to be a savior. And where did sin come from?
How did we become such sinners? How did we have this depraved
nature? Where did we get this nature,
this ability to sin so freely, so actively? Where did we get
this nature that drinks iniquity like water, that sins with both
hands earnestly? Where did we get that? Where
did this thing called sin come from? And the preaching of Christ
answers all these questions. And what are the effects of sin?
What are the effects of sin on me, on you, on our children in
our homes? What was the effect of sin on
God? What about the effects of sin
towards God? David said it's against you and
you only that I've sinned and done this evil in your sight.
We worry about sins and how we don't want to offend other people
and how we want people to think well of us, but what about God? What about the effects of sin
before God Himself? What does God look at when He
looks at us? What does God see when He sees
men outside of His Son? What was so bad? What is so awful
about sins? And what is it? What is this
thing called sin? Well, I know Paul said it this
way. He said, Sin is exceeding sinful. And God told Isaiah, He said,
You know what? This is what's wrong with my
people. He said they're full of wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. They've not been cleaned and
they've not been fault modified and there's been no ointment.
And he says where can the Ethiopian, can he change the color of his
skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
How then can you that do evil ever consider doing anything
good? And so sin is a thing, it's a
state of being before God. Now let me say this about depravity. Let me say this about sin. Man, a lot of people don't get
as bad as they could be. A lot of people don't act as
bad as they possibly could. But everybody is bad off in the
sight of God as they can be. Is that not right? And that's
the problem. And that's what preaching Christ
makes men face the issue of. It makes men face the issue of
sin. And what they are. Where did
it come from? What's the consequences? What's the consequences of sin
in time? I'll tell you what, it affects
our body. It affects our mind. It affects
our relationships. It affects our children. make
our children stand and lie to us. It affects everything that
we do. We don't have a relationship
on this earth that sin hasn't affected. I don't care how much
you love somebody, sin will affect that relationship. You'll get
angry at people. You'll get sad at people, you'll
get frustrated with people, you'll say things to people you love
and you'll treat them ways that you regret treating them, and
why it causes all that to happen. S-I-N. And oh, what about the effects
of it for eternity? If sin ain't taken care of in
this world, it ain't gonna be taken care of in the next. If
you don't have a Savior in this world, and that's why we call
preaching Christ. That's the utter necessity of
preaching Christ. And these issues, a Savior, He's
called a Savior. And He comes to save His people
from their sins. And that's the issues that we
must be facing today. What about eternity? You know
that people that you love, love, love dearly, People that you
have loved and people that you love now. If God himself does
not intervene, they're going to perish without God, without
Christ, without hope, and bear the burden of their own sin for
all eternity. That God says, listen, stay away
from me. You don't want my son? You don't
want a Savior? You don't have enough sin that
you think you need a Savior? You're not so desperately wicked
that you don't need a Savior? Your heart's not deceitful that
you don't need a Savior? Well, I'll tell you what, I'll
put you someplace where you'll never even have to hear His name
again. I'll put you someplace where you'll never have to face
me again or deal with me ever again. That's a horrible thought, ain't
it? And you know what's true also true about it? That everybody
will get just exactly what's coming to them. And I will not be mad at God
for taking anybody that I love without God, without Christ,
without hope. Will you? The Lord didn't come to save
His people from aimlessness, poverty, didn't come to civilize
us, but to save us from sin and its consequences. That's what
He came to do, to save His people from sin and its consequences.
And listen, the good news is that He's a Savior, and He saves
His people from their sin and all of its consequences. All
of His consequences, from the justice of God, the wrath of
God, the anger of God, Christ is a Savior. And look in Galatians
chapter 1 verse 4. Here's another thing about good
news about our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that He is a Deliverer. Look
what it said here in Galatians chapter 1 in verse 4. Paul says, grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to this, who gave himself for our sins. There it is, our sins
taken care of. And that's what we do, we preach
Christ. Savior of sinners, savior of
sin. That he gave himself for our
sins that he, listen to this, that he might deliver us from
this present evil world. according to the will of God
our Father. That word deliver means the same
thing as save. He saved us from this evil world. And this world is evil. There's
no if, ands, or buts about it. And I was right when we was a
thick of it, when we was in darkness, we didn't know we was in darkness.
When we abounded in sin as unconverted people, we didn't know that's
what we was doing. When we was dead, we didn't know
what it was. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
to deliver us from this present, present evil world. And I'll
tell you something else, we're not of this world. No, no. Our Lord Jesus Christ's kingdom
is not of this world. You see, beloved, our Lord, I
read it to you the other night over in Isaiah 63, where our
Lord Jesus stood and said, the Spirit of the Lord hath anointed
me. to preach the gospel to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted,
proclaim liberty to the captives. And here what it is, liberty
to the captives, held in bondage by this world, held in bondage
by darkness of this world and this evil world. And in preaching
Christ, we're telling men that they're in captivity to sin and
only him and he alone can free from its awful bondage. Romans 617, he said, You were
the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered unto you, whereof now you become
the servants of righteousness. How did you go from being the
servant of sin to a servant of righteousness? How does that
happen? He said he's he takes a doctrine. He takes the doctrine of Christ
and he says and you have obeyed from the heart That doctrine
that truth that blessed truth from the heart that was delivered
unto you and then you become servants of righteousness And when Christ is preached lives
are transformed, oh my goodness how they're transformed Miracles
happen I tell you, the gospel produces supernatural acts upon
men and women. Men and women, their lives have
transformed dramatically. They've become converted from
what they were to something else. Lives are changed. Slaves to
sin become slaves of righteousness. Look in Colossians 1.13 with
me. Colossians, right after Philippians,
Colossians 1.13. Oh, I tell you that when we preach
Christ, the good news of Christ the Savior, that He come to save
His people from their sins and the effects of sins, you know most people don't know
what sin is or how they became a sinner. Do you know that? Next time you're with somebody
that's unconverted and, you know, ask them if they're a sinner
and say, if they say yes, say, how did you become one? Where
did it come from? How did you get it? Most folks don't have a clue
how they become sinners. And if you don't know what sin
is, you certainly won't need a Savior. If you don't know anything about
your fallen condition, you won't need nobody to get you up. If
you don't know nothing about being in darkness, you don't
need somebody to pick you up and bring you into the light.
If you're not dead, you don't need somebody to quicken you. And look what he said in Colossians
1.13. This is what happens. God who
hath delivered us, delivered us, not only from this present
evil world, he hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, took
us out of this world of darkness and put us over here in this
kingdom of light. Christ did that. Christ did that. And oh, this is what I love about
preaching Christ and telling the good news about Christ. In
preaching Christ, we tell the disease. Yes, the disease is
awful, but we also tell the remedy. You know what the remedy is?
By His stripes we are healed. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. So it's not just, you know, telling
men about their sin, we tell about the remedy. Because in
Christ there is a remedy for this awful disease. We warned
of judgment to come. Judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. Just as sure as God told Noah
to build an ark, and when they got in that ark, judgment fell.
Just as sure as Lot was drug out, the angels had to get him
and take him by the hand and take him outside the city. Had to take him outside the city
and told him to get out. He wouldn't go. And they had
to take him out. And when he was out there, then
judgment fell. And beloved, just as sure as
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world to save
men from their sin, there's a judgment to come. But I'm telling you
something, beloved, in preaching the gospel, preaching Christ,
we tell of one who's already bore the judgment. It's already
been judged in our room instead. The Scripture said in Romans
3.23, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be an atoning
victim, a mercy seat, a sacrifice, that through faith in His blood
God would be just God may show mercy, but he has
to be just. God may be gracious, but he has
to be just. He must be just. And you know
if he's gonna be just, how can he take us and justify us? When we say it's God just, who's
gonna lay anything to the charge of God's love? It's God that
justifies. Well, how can God justify us?
First of all, because Christ is our Savior, saved us from
our sins. Secondly, because as our delivery
saved us from this present evil world, and beloved, and bearing
our sins in his own body on the tree, God said, Whosoever believes
on Jesus Christ, that God would justify that man, clear that
man of all guilt. Why? Because his guilt was born,
his shame was born, his sin was born, and the punishment born
due his sin was paid for by his sin. And when a man believes
on Christ, God justifies him, clears him, as if he had never,
even more than if he had never sinned because he don't have
no sin. They say as if I had never sinned. In fact, it's as
if there never was any sin to start with. That's how clear
Christ cleanses us and justifies us because of what Christ did. And there he is in preaching
our Lord Jesus Christ. a warning for professed believers
and comfort for believers. Warning for professed and professed
believers. Look over here in Hebrews 6.
Let's look at this a minute. When we preach Christ there is
a warning and a comfort for believers or professed believers. He shows two kinds of people
here and he uses earth, the earth, to illustrate these two kinds
of people. In Hebrews chapter 6 and verse
6, he said, excuse me, verse 4, started verse
4, not 6, Hebrews 6, 4. For it is impossible for those
who once were enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly God's
blessed gift, the gift of His grace, the gift of His Son, the
gift of His love, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and
have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world
to come. Now, if you've done that, look
what he says, if they shall fall away, it'd be impossible to renew
them again to repentance. You know why? Because Christ
would have to be crucified again to put away their sin. And that's
what he's saying. And they would put him to an
open shame if he had to be crucified again. So if, and what he's saying,
and he uses two illustrations here. You can't, if a fellow, there's
no such thing as getting lost again. If a man could possibly
fall away, Christ, if he has ever tasted that heavenly gift,
tasted of the good world to come, the word of God, the powers of
the world to come, if that actually took place, just forget them. If they walk away from Christ,
there's no hope for them. Don't say repent, don't say turn
back, don't say anything. If they actually walk off and
leave the gospel, they say Christ would have to be crucified again
in order to save them. But he goes on to say, and he
says, here's the difference. The earth which drinks in the
rain, that cometh often upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, that receives blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns
and briars is rejected, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is be
burned." He usually says, now this is the difference between
false professors and real professors. Here's the difference. If a man's
got a false profession, he's a briar and a thorn. And his
fruit is to be nined, accursed, and rejected, whose end is to
be burnt. But those who are tasted of that heavenly gift, those
who've been renewed by the power of God, tasted the good word
of God. It says here, the earth which
drinketh in the rain cometh often upon it, bringeth forth herbs,
meat for them by whom it is dressed. Now look what Paul said to them
people here. See, listen, preaching Christ,
we preach warnings for professed believers and comfort for believers.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. Huh? What are you talking about, Paul?
We're persuaded that you got everything that accompanies salvation.
Whatever accompanies salvation, that's what you got. Grace accompanies
salvation. The power of God accompanies
salvation. The blood of Christ accompanies salvation. Righteousness
accompanies salvation. Perseverance and preservation
accompanies salvation. The power of God accompanies
salvation. Everything that you need, everything
that accompanies salvation, we are persuaded that that's what
you've got. That's what you've got. So there's a great warning
there and also great comfort. And we preach the bad news of
sin and God's hatred of it, also the good news of Christ having
put away sin. The scripture says that He gave
Himself to redeem us from all our iniquities and to purify
unto Himself a peculiar people. And the message of our Lord Jesus
Christ is one of repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. You remember how he told the
Ephesian church? He said, I warned you day and
night preaching repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. And the message of Christ is
one of repentance and faith. Our Lord commanded us. He said,
you're going to be witnesses of me. And repentance and remission
of sin is going to be preached in my name among all nations.
And what is repentance? Well, it's a change of mind.
But it's a dramatic change of mind. It's not changing your
mind or going from being a Republican to a Democrat or a Democrat to
a Republican or changing your view about this person. A change
of mind we're talking about is a change of mind towards God
or yourself, the Word of God. I mean, it's a dramatic change
of mind. God gives you a new mind. And it's a change of purpose.
Your whole purpose in life changes. Oh, repentance, what a change
of mind it is. It's not just being sorry for
sin, but wanting to be done with it. But I know this too also, that
repentance apart from Christ can't be done. God has exalted
him to be a prince and a savior, that he might grant repentance.
And in preaching repentance through our Lord Jesus Christ, we preach
that he's enthroned in glory and he's the only one who can
give you repentance. When Peter went to preach to
Cornelius, they hemmed him up and said, whoa, we heard that
you went over and preached to a bunch of Gentiles. And he says,
who am I to withstand God? God gave him the like gifts unto
us. And he granted the Gentiles repentance unto life. Who am
I to withstand God? He granted them repentance unto
life. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only source of true repentance. If you ever feel sorry for anything,
sorry for who you are, sorry for what you've done, you know who procreates that
sorrow, that godly sorrow in your heart? The Lord Jesus Christ,
the only one who can do it. And He's the source, He's the
fountain of all we need for salvation. And He gives these gifts of repentance
and faith from His throne. You need faith? Christ's got
it. You need repentance? Christ grants
it. And that's why we preach Christ
as it's said over there in our text. Christ is the very power
of God. Who can give a man a new heart?
Christ. Who can change a man's will and
make him willing in the day of his power? Only Christ. Who can bring a man down in the
dust of repentance? Only Christ. Who can save a man
and keep him saved by his power? Only Christ. Who can make a new
creature out of a man? Only Christ. And I tell you, not only we preach
Him because He is the wisdom of God, because God in wisdom
made salvation sure, made it sure, and made it to His glory
and the glory of His Son. I mean salvation is sure. God
in His wisdom made salvation to be sure and positive. You know, I know this is The
last couple of days there's been lots and lots of talk about evolution
and how that's the only way and anybody believes anything other
than that's a fool. Young ladies, they said a young
girl today, a teacher, said that believing in God's an absolute
myth. School teacher told her that. But Christ is the wisdom of God.
He's the wisdom by which God can be wise and just and save
a sinner. And Christ is the wisdom of God
and He makes salvation sure in His blessed Son. And that's why
He said there's no other name, no other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved other than Jesus Christ. And I know this, we can't save
ourselves from sin, we can't save anybody else from their
sin, and nobody else can save themselves from their sin. But
the good news is, Christ shall save His people from their sin. Amen. Our Father, in the precious name
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for the privilege
of being able to speak your name, being able to say some things
about you, say some things about our great needs of you, how necessary
it is that we have you to be our savior, to be our deliverer,
to be our all in all. And Lord, we only use that name,
that name that you said that we must be saved by, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the name we use. That's
the name we plead. That's the name that comforts
us and drives away our fears. That's the name for which he
shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. That's the name
whereby he shall be called the one who shall save his people
from their sins. Thank you for letting me speak of him tonight.
And Lord, I know that if anything's brought home to bear in a man's
heart or mind, it'll be you that'll have to do it. It'll be you that
has to do it. The flesh is so frail and so
weak, but the word of God is not bound. It's not weak and
it's not frail. So blessed, Lord God, it seemeth
good in your sight. In Christ's name, I bless you. Amen. Well.