this morning I want to just give
you a kind of an overview on what I call God's power to save
and I'm really going to restrict myself to the to the first five
verses of this chapter that brother Richmond read and I'm going to
go over some of that Lord willing the other the rest of it next
week but listen to what The apostle says here, as he's writing, as
he's inspired by the Spirit of God, he's writing to the professing
believers who were in a town, a city called Corinth. This is
the Corinthian church, a very large church, a very rich church,
a very mixed church as far as cultures and languages, and a
church that we know that was founded upon the gospel. the
truth, and a church we find, as you read through 1st and 2nd
Corinthians, a church that had a lot of problems. Of course,
you know as well as I do, where there are people, there are problems. Because what are we? If we're
blessed by God, we're sinners in Christ's grace. That's what
we are. Paul's arrival in Corinth is
described in the book of Acts, chapter 18. And he came there,
he was sent there by the Spirit of God, led there, and he met
a believing couple, a husband and a wife named Aquila and Priscilla. You remember those names in the
book of Acts? They were very helpful to Paul
and his ministry. They were tent makers. You know,
Paul, by trade, was a tent maker. And so he ministered in Corinth
there for more than a year and a half. And that's how he supported
himself, worked for food and lodging. He made tents. But his main goal there was not
to be a tent maker. His main goal there was to be
a preacher of the word of God, a preacher of the gospel, the
gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he'd already spoken
of that in the first chapter here. He said, we preach Christ
crucified. We preach the preaching of the
cross, the person and work of Christ. Here he opens up in verse
one, and I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
Now let me say it this way, there is no more excellent speech than
the Word of God. There is no more wisdom, nothing
wiser than the word of God. So what's Paul saying here? I
didn't come with excellency of speech and wisdom. He's talking about human abilities. In other words, he didn't come
as a flashy, flowery tongue preacher who brought up words of human
origin that would cloud or hide or confuse and especially not
deny the gospel of God's grace in Christ. That's what he's saying.
I'll tell you what, there are preachers who, boy, they used
to call one the golden tongue, you know, but he never preached
Christ. You see what I'm saying? And the wisdom that he's talking
about, here's the wisdom of men. I didn't come to you talking
about philosophy and religion and opinions and man's ideas
and what do you think? He didn't open up the book of
Genesis and say, now brother so and so, what do you think
about that? That's the kind of thing I came from, out of false
religion. What do you think about that?
Well, what's your view on that? No, he said, I came to you with
one message He said in verse two, for I determined not to
know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what I preach. Paul was
not superhuman. He understood his own limitations. He was a sinner saved by grace. Now he was an apostle. He was
a gifted man. He was persecuted by many. He
said in 2 Corinthians 4 when he was talking about the treasure
which we have, which is the gospel, which is the glory of God revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. He said this in verse 7. He says,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels. You're seeing an earthen
vessel right now preaching to you. A weak man. That's right. Weak in a lot of ways. But he
says the reason that we have this treasure in earthen vessels
is that the excellency of the power, whatever power it takes
to save a sinner, may be of God and not in us. If God is pleased to save you
by his grace under my preaching, I'm still not your savior. You
understand that? It wasn't by my power. It wasn't
by my powers of logic or eloquence. It wasn't by my powers of persuasion. But it's the power of God. And
that's what it's all about. And look, he says in verse three,
I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. This
is Paul now. Weakness, fear, much trembling. You know, Paul was persecuted
greatly. And then he says in verse four,
and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom. Now he explains that, see. Human
wisdom that would entice people. You know, preachers today, what
do they do? They devise ways and methods and they get people
down an aisle and into the baptistry, but they're no different than
the Pharisees. Which Christ said in Matthew 23 in verse 15, woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites, you encompass sea
and land to make a proselyte, get a convert. How many people
did you get that made a decision today? And he said, all you do
is you make them twofold more the child of hell than you are.
Paul says, that's not the way I preached. My speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and of power
And look at verse five, that your faith, your faith should
not stand or should not be in the wisdom of men or in the power,
the eloquence of men, but in the power of God. That's what it's all about. I
quote often Romans 1, 16 and 17, where it says, Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power
of God unto salvation. That word power, you know that
in the Greek, we transliterate these words and they come up
through the English language. And here's what the word would
be in our English language, the dynamite. It is the power of
God. The same word right here in 1
Corinthians 2, of power, the dynamite of God. This is the
explosive, life changing power of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of it. There are times I may be ashamed
of myself, how I act, what I say, but I'm never ashamed of the
gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believe it. And that believing there is attributed
not to the power or the persuasion or the free will of men, but
to the power of God. To everyone that believeth, to
the Jew, to the Greek, to the Gentile, all of them. And he says the reason that it's
the power of God in verse 17, he says, for therein, in that
gospel, that good news, is the righteousness of God revealed,
not the righteousness of men. Not the goodness of men, but
the righteousness of God from faith to faith. That means from
knowledge revealed by God. As Brother Richmond read there,
this thing's haven't even entered into the minds of men, but it's
revealed by God. From faith, knowledge revealed,
to faith, knowledge received by God-given faith. Or as it
is written, the just, the justified shall live by faith. Who has
the power to justify? God does. It is God's power alone
that saves. And let me give you four major
areas in which this shines forth just glaringly. The power of
God. The first way that we see the
power of God as revealed in the word. is revealed here, is in
God's power, God's authority, God's right to choose whom he
saves. That's right. That's electing
grace. What did Paul say there in 1
Thessalonians 1 that we read? I know your election of God. I know God chose you. That's
what he's saying. How do you know that, Paul? because
our gospel came unto you, not just in word. It wasn't just
some man speaking certain words that you say, well, I agree with
that. But it came to you in power, in dynamite. God's power to choose. It is well established in the
Bible now, not in church documents or church statements. But it's well documented, it's
well established in the Bible that man, that we all fell in
Adam into sin and death and depravity, and that if left to ourselves,
we will not choose God. Look down at verse 14 that Brother
Richmond read. He's talking about the freeness
of the gospel here, the freeness of salvation. He'd already said
that God reveals this to us by His Spirit that we might know
the things that are freely given to us of God. Well, what is freely
given to us of God? Everything that pertains to salvation
is freely given, unconditionally. And so he says in verse 14, look
at it, the natural man, Now what is the natural man? That's all
of us as we are naturally born, fallen in Adam, spiritually dead,
totally depraved. You know what total depravity
is all about? It's back up here in verse 18
of chapter one. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. How do you respond to the gospel?
You don't believe it, that's total depravity. That's what
it is, that's spiritual death. And so he says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness
unto him. And that foolishness now reveals
itself in unbelief. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. If you're spiritually dead, you
cannot spiritually judge or discern or value things. So it's well documented, well
established, that man of his own free will will not come to
Christ, will not believe the gospel. Look over at Romans chapter
three. Here's how it's put here as Paul
concludes his description of the natural man. And he starts
out in verse 10, which we'll talk about in just a minute.
As it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. That
means there's none who are righteous in themselves. You're not born
into this world righteous in yourself. And he says in verse
11, now listen to this, there is none that understandeth. Now
that's the same thing he said in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural
man, he can't know or discern the thing, he doesn't understand.
Now what is it he doesn't understand? Well, he doesn't understand the
ways of God. He doesn't understand who God
is in his glory, in his holiness, in his justice. Even in his mercy
and love and grace, he doesn't understand it. He doesn't understand
who he himself is. My friend, if you think you can
make the difference between saved and lost, you don't understand.
You don't understand the sinfulness of man. You don't understand
what spiritual death is. He doesn't understand God's way
of salvation, which glorifies God and puts man in the dust
where he belongs, and cannot, cannot do what is required. You
don't understand these things, he says. There's none that understand
it. He's not talking about there's
a few who do and a few who don't. No, none understand the ways
of God, and that's by nature. Now, if you do understand it
today, that's the power of God. We'll talk about that in just
a moment. But he says there's none, listen to this verse 11.
There's none that seeketh after God. Now you need to understand
something about that. That's not saying that there
are none who are religious. It doesn't say that there's none
who cannot be, in the eyes of men, moral, be sincere and dedicated. They seek a God, a God of their
imagination, but there's none who seeketh after the living
God, the true God. Verse 12, they are all gone out
of the way, the way that God saves sinners. See, man devises
his own way, but he won't come God's way. They are together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. You see that? Turn to Romans
chapter nine, just go over a few pages. See, this is documented
in the word of God. This is not just the opinion
of men. This is not just Calvinism versus Arminianism, as they say.
You may not know those terms, you may. But that's not what
this is about. Paul lived long before John Calvin. This is the word of God. That's
what we need to see. This is not just, well, your
denomination believes this and my denomination believes that.
What does this book say? And if you look at verse 13,
where God says about these two boys, Jacob and Esau, he says,
as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Now that tells you plainly, God chose Jacob and he didn't choose
Esau. And I hear preachers say, well,
now that's talking about nations. Well, that's a whole lot more
people than just two then, isn't it? Jacob have I loved, he said.
Remember over Malachi 3, he says, I'm the Lord I changed not, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's a spiritual way of talking
about the people of God, the elect. And so he says in verse
14, he comes back with the argument that most people bring on that. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God unjust to choose Jacob
and not choose Esau? Well, here's your answer. You
ready for it? God forbid. And then he goes
back and quotes from Exodus 33. And he says, for he saith to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. God, this is God's
sovereign business. Why is it like this? Verse 16,
so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. Now, you know, When God spoke
these words to Moses over in Exodus 33, do you know what he
was doing? He was answering a question.
And this is the point I wanna make here. People say, well,
okay, but why even preach that? Because it turns so many people
off. Why even say that? Well, I'm gonna tell you why.
When God spoke those words to Moses, he was answering a question
that Moses had. You know what the question was?
Lord, show me your glory. Now what are we here to do this
morning? We're here to glorify God. You wanna see God's glory? Now there's a lot of ways we
can see God's glory. When we talk about Christ crucified
and risen from the dead, that's God's glory. But here's what
God told Moses. When Moses says, show me your
glory, he said, here it is, Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will
and I'll be gracious to whom I will. That's God's glory. That's why we preach it. You
say, well, people don't like that. Well, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. That's what Paul said. And why is that God's glory? Because it shows that salvation
is all of God. Even the choice is God's choice. You say, well, that doesn't seem
fair. Well, read the rest of Romans 9. And it'll tell you,
it'll answer those questions for you. But here's the point. What am I to do then? Well, I'll
tell you what Proverbs says. It says, trust in the Lord and
lean not to your own understanding. You just trust God. He knows
what he's doing. What this is, the power of God
in salvation is this, that God alone is the source and the cause
of a sinner's salvation. It's not your works. It's not
your free will, as they say. It's not your choice. Does God
enable us to make a choice? Yes, he does. And we choose him
if it's the power of God. But He's the source. He gives
us the knowledge from faith, knowledge revealed to faith,
knowledge believed and received by the gift of faith. For by
grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. God alone
is the source of it. I saw a commercial on television
for a local church here. And here's what they say. They
say, whosoever will. You may have seen that on TV.
Whosoever will. I don't have any problem with
whosoever will. Brother Mahan used to say, my problem is not
with the whosoever wills, my problem is with the whosoever
wants. Anybody who wants salvation,
God's way, has it. Isn't that right? All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh me I will
no wise cast out." That's right. Anybody who wants it God's way.
Here's the problem. The natural man doesn't want
it God's way. He wants to be the deciding factor. He wants to be the one who makes
the difference, but God won't share his glory. He said, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll be compassionate.
I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. God's gonna get
the glory out of this or you won't come at all. So when we
talk about the power of God, that's what Paul's talking about
back here in 1 Corinthians 2, that your faith, verse five,
should not stand in the wisdom or even the power of men, but
in the power of God. Here's the second thing, God's
power to work out and establish righteousness for his people.
That's redeeming grace. This involves the purging, the
cleansing of our sins. You see, when God chose his people,
he chose them in Christ. That is, with a view in Christ.
It said he engaged himself in Christ. God was in Christ. 2
Corinthians 5.19 tells us. God was in Christ. The Trinity,
Father, Son, and Spirit engaged His glory in Christ. reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Who'd
he impute them to? He imputed them to Christ. He
charged them to Christ. Christ is our surety. My sin
debt was charged to Christ. And he came as my substitute
and died in my place to pay that debt with the price of his precious
blood. And that's what it is to establish
righteousness. paying our sin debt in full to
establish a perfect righteousness whereby God justifies his people. And that's what is called the
righteousness of God in the gospel, Romans 1, 16 and 17. It's revealed
in the preaching of Christ and him crucified. What did the angel
tell Joseph? His name shall be called Jesus,
Matthew 1, 21, for he shall save his people from their sin. His
people. the ones whom the father gave
to him before the foundation of the world. In Matthew 1.23,
his name shall be called Emmanuel for which being interpreted as
God with us. You see in the gospel, we don't
preach the righteousness of men, for men have no righteousness.
Romans 3.10, as I read before, there's none righteous, no not
one. That's what depravity is all about. Man has no righteousness
within himself. Man cannot work righteousness
by his best efforts to keep the law and obey God. And man doesn't
want righteousness God's way. That's depravity. My friend, what did he do? He
sent his son into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He sent his son into the world
to be a propitiation. What is that? A sin bearing sacrifice,
having our sins charged to him who would die in our place and
satisfy justice and bring forth the very righteousness which
God has imputed to all whom he chose. That's the power of God. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed righteousness without work. That's the ground of salvation.
There's where the glory of God is engaged. If we preach salvation
conditioned on sinners, that doesn't glorify God, it glorifies
the sinner. But God won't share his glory. Here's the third thing. God's
power to give life to the dead. You know that's what happens
in the new birth. Man by nature is spiritually dead. But because
God chose a people and sent Christ to die for their sins and establish
that righteousness, the Bible says in Romans 8 and verse 10,
if Christ be in you, this body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit is life, life everlasting, spiritual life
from the dead because of righteousness, because of Christ. Look at John
chapter one with me. Remember Christ said over in
John chapter 3, you must be born again or you can't see the kingdom
of God, kingdom of heaven. That means you cannot see it
spiritually. You cannot understand it. The
natural man receiveth not. Unless you're born again. Well,
where did this new birth come from? Is it the power of men
and women? Is it the power of their goodness?
They have no goodness, the Bible said. Is it the power of their
will? They will not come to me, Christ
said. Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
No, it's the power of God. It's His power to give life. It's His power to raise from
the dead. Look at verse 11 of John 1. Talking
about Christ, it says, He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not. Now that's all of us by nature.
Some people, when they read that verse, they say he came into
his own nation, which is the Jews, and they received him not.
Well, that's true, but neither would we. He came into his own people,
given to him before the foundation of the world, but they wouldn't
receive him until, look at verse 12, but as many as received him,
to them gave he power. Now the word power there is a
different word. than what we have in 1 Corinthians
2, 5. The word power here is the right, the privilege. As many as received Him, received
Christ, believed on Him, trusted on Him, to them gave He the right,
the privilege to become or to be called the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. Now look at verse 13. Which were
born, not by blood, It wasn't the power of natural generation. In other words, you didn't get
this from your father and your mother, your ancestors. Nor of
the will of the flesh, that's the works of the flesh. This
new birth, this life from the dead that the Holy Spirit uses
to bring a sinner to believe in Christ and to repent of dead
works and idolatry, that didn't come by your works. And then
he says, nor of the will of man. That didn't come by your will.
That didn't come by your decision. Preachers who preach that, you
know what they're preaching? They're preaching what we call
decisional regeneration. You decide and then God blesses
you with the new birth. That's not what the Bible teaches.
It's not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man, but it's born of God. It's the power of God. You see
that? power of God. Again, when we
look at passages like Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, where it says, for
by grace, or you say through faith, by means of faith, that's
not of yourself, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. And then in verse 10, this statement
of Ephesians 2, 10, for we are his workmanship. That's what
a believer is, that's what a sinner saved by grace is, that's what
a Christian is. He's the workmanship, she's the
workmanship, she's the creation of God. Created in Christ Jesus,
because His righteousness is the power and source of life.
Unto good works, not because of, but unto which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. This is the foreordination
of God. That's the issue. It's God's
power to choose. It's God's power to work out
and establish righteousness. It's God's power to give life
from the dead. That's his regenerating grace.
And then lastly, this power of God, the power of God to save.
It's God's power to keep us and bring us to glory. That's his
preserving grace. You know Philippians 1.6 says
this, it says, he that begun the good work in you will finish
it, complete it, perfect it until the end. If I'm the workmanship
of God, what God started, God's going to keep and God's going
to complete. I know Philippians 2.12 says
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's perseverance. And that doesn't mean earn your
salvation by your works. You know what it literally means?
Work out of the fact that you have been saved. And then it
says in Philippians chapter two and verse 12, verse 13, it says,
for it is God which worketh in you both the will and to do of
his good pleasure. That's preservation. Salvation
is God's power to keep me. It's God's power to preserve
me. Why is it I cannot lose salvation? Because it's the glory and power
of God to keep His people and bring them to the end. He is
able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that
day, Paul wrote. He's able to save to what? The
uttermost, that means to the last time. The uttermost, them
that come unto the Father by Him. What did Paul say about
his struggle with the flesh? He said, I want to do good. I
don't know how and I can't do it. I'm in this body of the wretched
man. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? Who's going to keep
me and preserve me and bring me to glory and make me perfect
in his sight in myself? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. It's the power of God. It's not
the power of man. Now that's why We understand
that if God saved you, you are saved. You can never be lost. You can never be charged with
your sin. That's right. You're a sinner.
I'm a sinner. But in Christ, because of His
blood, who shall anything to the charge of God's elect? That's
what it says. It's God that justified. It's
God who put away my sins. It's God who made me righteous.
Who can condemn me? It's Christ that died and who
is risen again, raised from the dead. That gives me life. And
he's seated at the right hand of God, ever living to make intercession
for me, which means I can't ever be lost. That's his power. And he is the one who will be
glorified. in the salvation of his people.
Okay.