It says over here in 1 Corinthians
124, and I preached on this a few weeks
ago, and it's an entirely different way of looking at it, but, "...unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power
and the wisdom of God." Now, you know, when I read over
here in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says, you know, in verse four,
that my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words or
persuadable words. Of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Saving faith cannot rest upon
human wisdom, cannot rest upon reason. It can't do it. But saving
faith finds its rest, even its birth, on the testimony of God,
on what God says. That's why Paul says that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in God's power,
in what God does for you. in an effectual work of the Holy
Ghost in your heart, in the power of the gospel coming to your
heart and your soul. You see, faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. And the foundation of true faith
is always, always by the power of God. And not only is it created
by the power of God, but it's sustained by the same power and
kept by the same power until we need it no more. And that's
why Paul says, you know, by demonstration of the Spirit, he said, all he
mean is, is that my preaching came by the Spirit of God. It
was obvious that the message that I preached to you was by
the Holy Ghost. And that's why he says over in
1 Thessalonians 1 5, he says, when I'm preaching, you know,
the gospel came to you, the preaching came to you, and the Holy Ghost,
and in power, and in much assurance. And that's what it means that
this power that God brings to you comes through the Holy Ghost
through the preaching of the gospel. And it brings the assurance
that what you're hearing is the gospel, brings assurance that
God saves sinners by Christ to Christ alone. And that's why
Paul said, and you know what manner of men we were among.
You have by the gospel that we preach and the power of God witnessing
to that gospel. Now, I do also know this. That
word true faith is, Christ is the object of that faith. The
first true faith, Christ is the object of it. It's not an experience
you had twenty years ago, or five years ago, or a year ago,
or yesterday. Faith always has Christ as its
object. It's not something that a decision
you made Not a change in going from being
an Arminian to a Calvinist, to believing in free will, and then
all of a sudden believing in salvation by grace. It's not
a change of doctrine. It's the power of God actually
changing a man's nature. And so that's why we preach Christ.
Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among you, save
Christ in Him crucified. That's why we're preaching that
way. And this is whereby the spirit's power, men see how God
can be just and justified. Now listen to me, of all the
questions that's ever asked in this universe, this is one question
that if you don't ever find the answer to it, you'll never know
God. How can God be just? How can He stay wholly just and
righteous, and yet take somebody like me
or you and justify us without ever impugning His own character? How can He clear us of all guilt?
How can God stay on His holy throne and take unholy sinners
and justify them? If you ever find the answer to
that, you'll know the gospel. You'll know Christ. And let me
tell you something, beloved, the human race is in trouble.
It's in trouble. And you know the trouble they're
in? They're in trouble with God. In trouble with God. and got
in trouble, they'd be in trouble with the law of God. Now whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that ever mouth may be stopped, and the whole world become guilty
before God, and by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's
what the law come for, to make us know what we really are by
nature. And then not only are we in trouble
with the law of God, but they're in trouble with the justice of
God. God said, the soul that sinneth, what's going to happen
to it? I'm going to sweep their sin under the rug? I love them
so much that I'm going to let them get by with it? That I love
them so much that, you know, I just gave help, but you know,
I just love them so much that they can continue in their sin?
No, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. You go on continuing in sin,
living in sin, disregard God, and God will pay you at the end
of your life with eternal death, separated from Him for all eternity,
where you'll never hear God's name again. You'll never hear
Christ's name again. You'll never be pleaded with
to come to Christ and to believe Christ and receive Christ and
have Christ in His righteousness. That would be a horrible thing
to do. That's why the Lord told the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
how can you escape? How are you going to escape the
damnation of hell? That's why He asked them. You
know, how in the world are we going to get out of this trouble?
How are we going to get out of it? With the law of God, with
the justice of God. How are we going to get out of it? What
are we going to do? We're going to do a good work
and say, God said, boy, they've done a good thing there. You
know, they've done a good deed. You know, they got over there
at Tangier, they had this some kind of organization, and every
year they have a book of good deeds. And every somebody wins
that book of good deeds every year. If they were to offer me a book
of good deeds, I'd say, well, listen, I don't know where you
can find one of them. But how are we going to get out? By works that we do. What work
could we do that would satisfy God? Are we going to do it by
giving? Giving our money, giving our
time, giving our energy? Are we going to do it by tears
and weeping and crying and by our sincerity? Are we going to
get out of our trouble that we're in by joining the church? and
having the preacher baptize us in water? Are we going to get
out of this trouble by being catechized, going through a catechism
class, and then being confirmed, and then consecrate ourselves?
So I ask this question, how can God save us and be true to His
holy character and inhabit eternity, the High and the Lofty One, whose
very name is holy? How can He honor His law and
magnify it, punish those who have broken it, and satisfy His
justice for those who did break it, and punish them for their
sins? How in the world can God save
us and be true to His character? I can tell you how. Want me to
tell you how? Want me to tell you how to get out of the trouble
you're in? Right there, verse 24 again. But unto them which are called,"
1 Corinthians 124, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
and the wisdom of God. By Christ being the wisdom of
God, that's how we get out of this trouble. That's how God
saved us from this trouble. You see, that's why he's called
the wisdom of God in salvation. This is where we can see, this
is where we can understand how God can be both just and justifier. Now look over here in 2 Corinthians
2 and verse 6 a minute. And we're talking about speaking
the wisdom of God, Christ being that wisdom of God. And Paul
talked about this wisdom of God. He compares the wisdom of men
with the wisdom of God all the way through these first three
chapters. But look what he says here in verse six, how then we
do speak wisdom among them that are perfect, among them that
are mature. We do speak this wisdom, this
Christ, this Christ crucified, of how God can be just and yet
justifies. And we speak this wisdom among
men, the way of salvation by Christ crucified is the wisdom
of God ordained before the world began. Look down here in verse
7. And we speak this wisdom of God in a mystery. That hidden
wisdom. Who's it hidden from? The natural
man. 2 Corinthians 2, 7. The natural man. The man who's
never seen God, the man who's never understood God, the man
who's never seen the mystery of God, the man who's never understood
how God can be just and justified. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God,
now watch this, He ordained this wisdom before the world ever
began. Huh? He ordained it before the world
ever began for our glory. for our salvation. And let me
tell you something, beloved, everybody who has been saved
by Christ and by the Lord Jesus Christ, they account, every single
one of us here today account salvation by Christ to be the
wisdom of God. We see how God can justify us
through Christ being the wisdom of God. Now you keep that and
look with me over in 2 Timothy 3.15 just a minute, 3.13 just
a minute. That's no wonder Paul said he
didn't want to know anything among anybody else but Christ
and Him crucified. Christ in His life, Christ in
His death, Christ in His burial, Christ in His resurrection, Christ
in His ascension. And that's why Lord Jesus Christ
says that they shall all be taught of God. And they're taught that
Christ is the wisdom of God in this business of salvation. Look
what Paul told Timothy here in 2 Timothy 3.13. He says, but
evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceived, deceiving
and being deceived. Now that's going on today. I
got a message, and I listened on the way over to Missouri last
week, and it was a fellow dealing with 2 Timothy 4 here. And he was true,
went right down the line, said everything they said, but I asked
the fellow, I said, you listen to that message. I want you to
listen to it and tell me what you think about it. He said,
correct grammatically, stayed through the scriptures and things,
but he said one thing he didn't do. He never preached Christ
from any of the things he said. I mean, he was good. Stayed right
down through the scriptures. But he never took those scriptures.
He used these scriptures that I'm talking about, evil men.
Lots of evil men. Anybody that's not setting forth
Christ as salvation in Him alone is an evil man. Anybody that
tells a man that you can be saved by your works is an evil man.
Anybody that says that it's up to you and you've got the toy
is an evil man. Anybody that sets you to work
and to get a blessing from God is an evil man. Anybody that
puts you under the law is an evil man. And look what it says
here, and they seduce you by these things. They make you think,
oh boy, listen, that guy's so sharp, that guy's so smart, he's
got to know what's going on. But they wax worse and worse,
and they're deceiving, and being deceived. But watch what Paul
said to Timothy. But you continue in the things
which you've learned, and you've been assured of, knowing of whom
you've learned them. When you've learned the gospel,
God's taught you the gospel, the gospel comes in the power
of God, you continue in that, and you will continue in that.
How come? Because God taught you. And that from a child that
has known the Holy Scriptures, now watch this, I love it. That
from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures, and he's talking
about only the Old Testament right here now, which are able
to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus. Now, what he said was that here's
these men who preach the gospel, and all Timothy had was the Old
Testament, and he said, in these scriptures, you've known them
from a child, and they made you wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ. And, O beloved, Christ is the
wisdom of God, and salvation is accounted by very angels to
be so glorious that they desire, they bow down to Scripture and
desire to look into it. But now look with me here in
1 Corinthians 2 and verse 7. Let me say just a few things
about this. He says that we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. I'll tell you what are some of
the mysteries of God's wisdom in the blessed gospel, the blessed
salvation that God gives us by Christ and Him crucified. What
are some of the mysteries? That wisdom, that mystery that
we speak, that wisdom that's hidden in this mystery, what
is that? What is that wisdom of God that's in this mystery
that we speak? Well, here's one of the wisdoms,
that Christ shows us that Christ is the wisdom of God in salvation.
First of all, that God Himself, God Himself assumes human nature. God Himself will inhabit its
eternity. who is always from eternity,
came down here in time, and the scripture says, Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and shall bear a son. And what are you going
to call him? What are you going to call him?
Emmanuel. What does that mean? That God's
with us. That God's with us? Great! Paul said, great is the mystery
of Godliness. He said, this is great mystery.
And you can't plumb the depths of this. Great is the mystery.
We speak this mystery. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. How in the world can that be?
God becomes a man and comes through the womb of a virgin and grows
up from a little infant all the way to a man. And he lived to
be thirty-three and a half years old, and God becomes a man, yet
he continues to be God. Once he assumed human nature,
he never ceased to be God. And once he assumed human nature,
they never ceased to be God. And now that he has assumed human
nature, he'll always be a man and always be God in one person. The only God we'll see in glory
is in a body, and that body is Jesus Christ. Huh? And this is
a mystery? How are you going to explain
this mystery? You go through Greek mythology and look at all
the gods that there's always been, every single one of them
just had one or two attributes, and they always had a weakness.
But this man, God who became a man, was a sinless man, a perfect
man, and had no weaknesses, had no sin, had no inabilities, had
every attribute of a holy and infinitely eternal God. He became
flesh and blood like you and I, sin accepted. Now here's another mystery that
we speak. And this shows us that Christ,
the wisdom of God, is salvation. That man, God assumes human nature
and then man is made a partaker of the divine nature. God takes a sinful man and makes
him a partaker of the divine nature. Oh, takes us? and gives us the nature of God
and makes us a partaker of that very nature? The Scriptures tell
us that we're made new creatures in Christ? That is Christ in
you the hope of glory? What a mystery, beloved! We who
made ourselves indescribably, indescribably sinful should by
grace be a partaker of the divine nature. Huh? What wisdom? How can that be?
How could that be? By Christ? Huh? And listen, oh, here's another
mystery that we preach that shows that Christ is the wisdom of
God and salvation. Mercy and justice are both satisfied
in the salvation of a sinner. Now, what in the world do I mean
by that? God's justice. And this is going
to happen. It's going to happen to every
soul that's ever lived on the topside of God's earth. It happened
in the garden. God's justice fell on Adam and
Eve when they sinned, and they died, and He put them out of
the garden and put a flaming sword and said, You can't come
back in here. It happened in the flood when God said, I've
seen the wickedness of this generation, and I'm going to destroy all
flesh on the face of the earth. It happened in Solomon Gomorrah
when God said, I've had all of that city and that place and
Gomorrah that I can stand and I'm going to destroy. And I tell you, beloved watchers,
and I tell you, God's justice is going to be satisfied either
in the damnation of men or satisfied in the salvation of a man. And,
boy, beloved, mercy and justice are both satisfied. Justice has
satisfaction rendered to it when it punishes the sinner, and it
can demand no more. God said he shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. And why, beloved, was God's justice
satisfied? Because Christ bore the penalty
of our sin in His own body on the tree, and God can't demand
no more than what Christ paid. Listen to me, beloved. It takes
God to satisfy God. That's why we can't never, that's
why the conscience can't never rest until it understands that
Jesus Christ Himself satisfied God's justice in His own body
on that tree. If you're trying to satisfy God
by anything you think, say, feel, or do, you'll never find satisfaction
and peace in your conscience. But when you see that Christ
Himself is the satisfaction of God, that He took God's justice, and He endured it on that cross,
in His own body on that cross, and oh, God Himself will satisfy
an accusing conscience. Look with me over here quickly
in Psalm 85. I want to show you something
over here. Psalm 85. So justice was satisfied and
mercy satisfied too. Here's mercy. She stands and
she says, oh, oh, I want to extend mercy to them men. I want to
extend mercy to those sinners. Love stands there and says, oh,
I want to extend mercy to them. I want to express myself to them.
But mercy says, I can't. I cannot do it because they're
sinners. I cannot show mercy at the expense
of my justice. You know, we get outraged. Our
sense of justice gets absolutely outraged when we see somebody
get by with some awful crime, and they get set free, and we
just get so angry over the fact that justice wasn't done. A woman
can kill her child and walk free out of court. A man can kill
his wife and walk free out of court. A man can steal ten million
dollars off somebody and walk free out of court. And justice, hard justice, sense
of justice, gives outrage. Will you imagine the outrage
of God's justice? And here stands mercy, extended
in her hands, extended in her arms. I want to show mercy, but
I can't until justice is satisfied. Well, how in the world, then,
is mercy going to give us freely pardon the sinner? Well, wisdom
says this. Give me someone equal to myself.
God did. He gave His own Son. And let
Him, let Him take the sin of those God's elect. Let Him take
the punishment due to God's elect and their sin. And God pulls
out his scabbard. He said, smite the sheep. The
man that is my fellow. And he took that sword of God's
justice and plunged it into the heart of Christ, and Christ felt
it plunging into him before he ever went to the cross, when
he prayed and said, Oh, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. And he said, Father, save me
from this hour, but why shall I say, for this hour came I into
the world. And then on that cross, and he
says, my God, my God, why stop forsaking me? Because that justice,
sword of justice, plunged all the way into his holy heart,
till the blood poured out to make an atonement of satisfaction
for sin. And he pulled it out, and he
wiped it clean and put it back in the scabbard. And he said,
I'll never pull it out again for those whom Christ suffered
and died for. And mercy jumped up and began
to rejoice. Says, now, now I can pardon the
sinner. Now, now I can come and say,
now I can come and extend my mercy to those sinners. Now I
can bring them to myself. Huh? Oh my. Look what it says here, Psalm
85 and verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. Where'd they meet at? In Christ
on the cross. What's this? Righteousness and
peace. Christ made peace through the
blood of his cross in righteousness. They went over and kissed each
other again. Where at? At the cross. Truth sprung up out of the air
as rad when that tree was put up. Christ was hung on it. There's
truth standing there. The truth that God will punish
sinners. The truth that God will save sinners. The truth of justice
satisfied. The truth of grace given. And
righteousness looked down from heaven and said, I'm satisfied.
I'll ask no more. I'll ask no more. Oh my. Let me show you another mystery.
Oh, most mercy and justice, most satisfying. Here's a mystery
that we speak, showing that Christ is the wisdom of God. Salvation
is a free gift, freely given to us. And yet, at the same time,
it's merited. It's worked out. It's owed. It's
given to somebody who merits salvation. It's a free gift to
us, being justified freely by His grace. God justified us greatly. It
didn't cost you and I nothing. Nothing. And we rest in that. But yet it was a purchased possession. This salvation was bought and
paid for by the blood and doing and dying and suffering of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We were redeemed by the blood
of Christ. He purchased the church with
His own blood. So the salvation that we and
I have was paid for and bought with the dearest price that God
could possibly charge for it. And that's the Son of His love
standing in our stand and bearing our judgment. And, O beloved,
we receive it freely. Can't do anything to get it.
But our blessed substitute, our Lord Jesus Christ, He bought
it. And what wisdom, what wisdom that our inheritance, and we
talk of wisdom, what a day to have a lead. We have an inheritance. What does God have? We have.
What does Christ have? We have. What did Christ inherit? We inherit. And what wisdom that
our inheritance, our salvation, should be fully bought and yet
given to us freely. The scripture says that if a
man works, His reward's not of grace, but it's of debt. But
to him that does not work, but believes on him that justifies
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Here's another mystery. Here's
another mystery. That the creditor, the person
who we owe the debt to, should pay the debt himself. That the Lord Jesus Christ, the
creditor, should pay our debt, and the Lord Jesus Christ should
become his own servant. What a mystery. You know, we
became debtors to God himself. We paid a debt
we could never, never possibly, we owed a debt we could never
possibly pay. And it just mounted, and mounted,
and mounted, and mounted, and mounted, and mounted. Men talk
about how much debt people are with money. But first of all,
you're born in sin, shaped in iniquity. And then from then
on, you start to add sin to sin to sin. The Scripture says they
add sin to sin. And the Scripture says that God
says they make so much sin that even the birds That the beast
can't bear the burdens of all their iniquity. But you take
the sins. How many sins do you reckon we've
committed in the last 24 hours? How many sins do you reckon we've
committed in the last 24 hours? And how are we going to pay them
off? You know, we get astonished that
people go so deep in debt that they know they can't never have
possible. But yet, I mean, they're not astonished that they can
know God. They just go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper
and deeper and deeper and deeper in debt with God. Sin to sin
to sin to sin to sin. Huh? Wait a minute. And he can't go
free until he pays off that debt. When that debt's free, you know,
whenever you get all your debts paid off, you know how free you
are? What you have is yours. Well, you know what? We was in
debt to God. Guess who paid off the debt?
The person we owed. He said, if you owe a debt, you'll
get it paid. God said, I'll give you something
I can pay for you. I'll give my own blessed son.
And not only will I get him and he'll pay all your debt. I mean,
he'll pay, he's going to pay your future debts. He's going to pay the debts you
ain't paid yet. Oh, bless his name. Oh, he pays
off the debt and the satisfaction of his sons and he says, look
here. No wonder we say in our hands, no price we bring, simply
to Christ our Lord we cling. Oh, bless His holy name. God
gets the whole debt from man, and yet He Himself is the one
who paid the debt. Man pays nothing, and yet God
gives all the debt owed to him. How God received the payment
in our surety's hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He both
the creditor and the debtor. You know, he asked that Pharisee,
when the Pharisee had him in his house, he said to Alistair,
Simon, he said, I'm going to ask you a question. He said,
okay. He said, if a man owed five hundred pence and the other
owed fifty pence, but neither one of them, neither one of them
had ought to pay, I mean, how much, how much do you have to
do to be in debt? Fifty pence or five hundred pence? Our sinners, great sinners, all
of them. And then some, you know, live
what most folks think is a pretty decent life. But they're still
in debt. And neither one of them has ought
to pay. He said, but frankly, the man he owed them to forgave
him, both of them, all their debt. And that's the way it was. Whether you owed fifty or five
hundred. Christ paid it off, all to Him
I owe. Here's another great mystery.
Here's another great mystery that we show that Christ is the
wisdom of God. Life is brought out of death. Life is brought out of death.
We go, we go. We've been so many times to funerals
and looked at people we loved dead. And you cannot get life
out of that death. You can't get them back. But
here's the way that God brought life out of death. Christ died. And except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it died, it'd bring
us forth much fruit. And, oh, beloved, through the
death of Christ, God brought life. out of his death. Then, it's like Joseph said,
you know, said, you intended evil for me when you sent me
to Egypt. But God intended it for good. You intended to destroy me, but
God sent me before you to preserve your life. And beloved men intended
evil when they crucified the Son of God." Isn't that what
he said? The princes of this world knew it. If they would
have knew who Jesus Christ was, if they would have knew He was
the Lord of Glory, they said, there ain't no way we're going
to crucify Him. But they just saw another Jew, a blasphemous
somebody that the crowd was going after, and they took Him and
nailed Him to a tree. And, beloved, but I'm telling
you this, that when His death come, that out of that death
He brought a multitude of life, a multitude that no man could
number. Huh? Oh, man. You know, He took part
of death, took part of the saint to destroy death. Be still. Life brought out of death. Heaven
is brought out of hell. And by one being made sin, sin
is destroyed once and for all. Destroyed. And oh, here's another
mystery. I love this mystery right here.
Listen. Man is made righteous by the righteousness of another. You can't do anything for me
to make me better. You really can't. You cannot
improve my standing before God. If you was a righteous man, your
righteousness wouldn't do me a bit of good. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is Jehovah, secured you by Him being made sin, and who knew no sin, that God
would make us the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, listen, old John Fungus said
this, here's one of the greatest mysteries known, that here be
a man on earth should be made righteous and have the righteousness
of another man who steps on the throne in heaven, and that I
should walk through this world as a man who is righteous as
God Himself. I can't. He's a man made righteous by
another man. Huh? All I pass on to my children
was sin and unrighteousness, but Christ passed on to His children
sinlessness and righteousness. Oh my, and I tell you, that's
why I know this much about a man, when God saves him by grace and
shows him the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this much. He denies himself. He denies everything about himself.
He denies any righteousness he ever had. He denies any hope
he ever had. He denies any good he's ever
done. I mean, he denies himself in every way as far as anything
he done before God Almighty. And a man don't do that and ain't
done that, he ain't never been saved by the grace of God yet.
The very minute that a believer's been saved and made Christ to
see the wisdom of God, the minute they think that they've thought
something good or done something good, immediately they feel the
gift of that. Immediately they say, Oh God,
forgive me of that. Immediately they say, Lord, how
did that thought get through my mind? Oh God, how could I
feel such a way and think such a way? And yet it happens that
we automatically, oh, we say, Oh God, forgive. And all you
know the scripture says, by his stripes we are healed. We were
diseased. Disease, leprosy, sin was in
our blood. And here's one of those mysteries
that we preach. The wounds of one, Christ being
wounded for our transgressions, and by his stripes we're healed.
By the wounds of another, we should be healed by somebody
else being wounded. After that, I woo somebody, and
the other person gets healed. Christ was wounded for our transgressions,
and by His strife we was healed. And how in the world can the
body be cured by the head being smitten? But that's what happened. And oh, what glory, what glory
in Christ, the wisdom of God and salvation by Him. Let's remember
this. Let's remember this because of
the glory of Christ being the wisdom of God and salvation.
That the gospel, the gospel itself is glorious. It's so glorious. Never, never take it lightly.
Never take the gospel lightly. I know that we have this flesh
to deal with, and I know we get tired, and I know we get weary,
and I know we have problems. The one thing I do know, that
this gospel, this gospel is the most glorious, life-giving, blessed
thing that God gives us on this earth to teach us of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Never, never take it lightly.
And oh, now remember this, that it's a mercy. It's a mercy that
we have this blessed gospel among us. Do you know how many people
that never heard the gospel, don't know the gospel, and don't
care to know the gospel? And when you tell them the gospel,
they get fighting mad. They get angry. That the infinite
wisdom of God should be preached to us and not to others? And
the infinite mercy of God? No wonder, Paul. Our Lord said,
I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou
hast heard these things. From the wise and prudent and
revealed among the babes, I'm a babe standing here. I can't
know nothing unless God teaches me. I can't do anything unless
God provides. I'm a babe. Everything has to
be done for me. And oh, a man is a fool. Remember this. A man is a fool
who rejects or despises this gospel that is the Lord Jesus
Christ. See the wisdom of God in him.
The Jews rejected it. They crucified the Lord of Glory.
They would rather have their law, they'd rather have their
ritual, they'd rather have their ceremony, and they hate Christ
to this very day. The Muslims preferred Mohammed
to Christ and Him crucified. The pagan religions of this day
destroy it, destroy the gospel by mingling words and marriage
and goodness along with Christ crucified. And they that don't have the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will never, ever be made wise
unto salvation. They can't know. You can't know
Christ. You can't know what salvation is without the gospel of Christ,
without Christ being the wisdom of God. And let me exhort you this in
closing. Study this wisdom of God that's
in Christ Jesus. Christ is the wisdom and power
of God. Paul said, you know, I want your gospel, your faith
to stand in the wisdom of God, not in the wisdom of men. He
said, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, not man's words
of wisdom. Constantly back and forth. So
how are we going to learn this wisdom of God? Study it. Study
it, consider it, ponder it, wonder about it. And be contented, be
contented with Christ crucified. Be contented with Christ crucified.
Don't look for nothing else. For it alone can make you wise
unto salvation. It alone can make you wise. Our
Lord Jesus Christ says, This is eternal life, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. And, beloved, repose your soul. Rest in Christ. Repose
your soul on Christ. So ever rely on Christ. Christ crucified, bearing your
sins in His own body on the tree, bearing them away in the grave
and rising again the third day and setting at God's right hand
right now. No matter what anybody else says,
where anybody else goes, what anybody else does, don't you
veer from this message right here, from Christ and Him crucified. Teach your children this. Teach
your children the wisdom of God in Christ, because it alone will
make them wise unto salvation. And stand up for this gospel,
regardless of what men say, do, think, or how they act. Defend
this gospel that shows that Christ is the wisdom of God in salvation
in Him alone. That in Christ, God can be just
and punish us for our sins. and justify us for looking to
His Son just so long. What did you do to get that?
Nothing. How did this faith come to you? By the power of God.
How is this faith kept in you? By the power of God. What keeps
you looking to Christ? The power of God. Same thing
that made me look to Him the first. Ain't that right? Oh, blessed Savior, gracious
Lord in heaven. Lord, I spoke words. I use words today. I spoke the truth today. But you can make it effectual.
You can make it the power of God in the heart. You can make
it the power of God in the mind, in the understanding. You can
make Christ a reality and the salvation that's in Him a reality.
You can take words and cause them to be salvation in Christ. And so Holy Ghost take the things
that's been said today and you use them as it seemeth good in
your sight. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Jesus paid it all.