Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us and I pray that the Lord will bless
you as we study His word, the Bible, as I preach through the
pages of the Bible, the words of the Bible. Today we're going
to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It's Paul's first
letter to the church at Corinth. Chapter 2, if you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles. And I've been doing a study in
the past few weeks, and this is continuing that, of the first
chapter and now the second chapter of 1 Corinthians. concerning
the issue of the wisdom and the power of God. And today's message
is entitled, Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Jesus Christ and
Him Crucified. And obviously that comes from
the second verse of 1 Corinthians 2. But the Apostle Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit in these verses to set forth the glory, the wisdom,
the power of God that resides in the glorious person and the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're gonna deal
with that subject again in these first few verses of 1 Corinthians
chapter two. And I want you to understand
something that what happens here, in these verses is this pretty
much establishes what we can truly call from the Bible, the
Christian worldview, how a true Christian views the world. Now
that started back up in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 18. When Paul wrote
this, listen to this, 1 Corinthians 1.18, he says, for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish, or literally those who
are perishing in a state of perishing, the preaching of the cross is
to them that perish, foolishness. That's how they view the preaching
of the gospel. The preaching of the cross is
the preaching of the gospel. We'll look at that in just a
second. And he says in verse 18, but unto us which are saved,
or literally are being saved in a state of salvation continually,
unto us which are saved, it is the power of God." And that shows
the Christian view of the preaching of the gospel, the preaching
of the cross. That's the power of God. And
later on, as we've seen, he says it's the wisdom of God. Look
down at verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 1. He says, but we preach Christ
crucified. Just about every program I go
into that in detail, but today's no different because of what
we're going to look at in chapter two. But he says, we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks or
the Gentiles foolishness, but unto them which are called. That
called there refers to the powerful, irresistible, invincible calling
of the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel that
brings sinners to faith in Christ and repentance of their dead
works. It's part and parcel of the new birth, you must be born
again, where the Holy Spirit imparts life, spiritual life
and knowledge, faith and repentance. and gives them ears to hear and
eyes to see. And so he says, but we preach
Christ but unto them, verse 24, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. And God has set this forth that
it is by his revelation, it's not by human wisdom, it's not
by human power, it's not by human will. It is totally the work
of the power, the wisdom, and the will of God, sovereignly. And God has set it up that way,
as He says in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 29, that no flesh should
glory in His presence. I tell you what, if you're truly
saved by the grace of God, you have nothing in which to glory,
to boast, to have confidence in yourself. He says in verse
30, "...but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has
made unto us wisdom." Christ is the very wisdom of God. And
righteousness. Christ is my righteousness before
God. My righteousness before God is
not what I do or even my faith. It's Christ. And in sanctification,
he's my sanctification, my holiness, and he's my redemption. He paid
the full price. Verse 31, that according as it
is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. If
you're gonna boast, boast in Christ for all salvation. for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness and eternal life. Now, here we come to chapter
two. Now, of course, as you know, the Bible was not originally
written in chapters and verse divisions. I'm glad we have those,
because it makes it easier to find things. But it just flows
right on and he says, and I, verse one of chapter two, 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,
what he's talking about, when we declare the testimony of God,
we're not declaring foolishness, we're not declaring ignorance.
It may seem that way to unbelievers, The preaching of the cross is
to them that are perishing foolishness. But it's not foolishness, it's
the height of the wisdom of God. But what Paul's saying here,
he says this, when I came to you, I didn't come to you with
some eloquent form of human speech that would draw you to this message. You know, a lot of people, they
don't really care what's being preached as long as the preacher
says it well. He may be an entertaining preacher,
he may be an intellectual preacher, and he may use those kinds of
things to draw people to believe and agree with him. But that's
not the way God works. There are all kinds of preachers
who preach the gospel. It's tradition says that maybe
Paul was not the most eloquent of speakers. There was a man
named Apollos that Paul mentions over in 1 Corinthians 1, that
some of the Corinthian believers were following it. They say he
was an eloquent speaker. I don't know that that was the
case. But there are all kinds of different styles. But if it's
a gospel preacher, it's one and the same message, and it's not
the wisdom of men. It's not the eloquence of men.
It's not the charisma of men. It is totally, totally the wisdom
of God. And that's what you and I need
to be concerned with whenever we hear a preacher. It's not
how well does he say a thing. And you know, I mean, I like
to hear eloquent people, entertaining people, but if they're not preaching
the wisdom of God, the word of God, it's all for nothing. And
it's not the wisdom and the eloquence of men that draws people to Christ. Now it may draw them to the preacher,
to the church, to the denomination, but it won't draw them to Christ.
That's not the way God works. So he said, I didn't come to
you with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you
the testimony of God. Verse two, now here's the main
thing. For I determined not to know anything among you save
except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now there's the heart of the
gospel. The heart, the center, the foundation of faith, the
pillar of doctrine, The dogma, the canon of scripture, it is
all wrapped up in the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now what does that tell us? Well,
it tells us that everything that a true believer, a true Christian
believes and acts upon and lives by, finds its foundation, its
culmination, It's heart, it's soul, it's motivation in the
preaching of the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ. And what is the doctrine of Christ?
What's the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? It
has to do with these two things. It has to do with who Jesus Christ
is and what He accomplished when He died on the cross. Who died? Jesus Christ. What does that
mean? Well, that's talking about the
Messiah, the anointed one, who was set up before the world began,
before the world was ever created, and who was prophesied at the
very beginning in Genesis chapter three. He is the one who made
the worlds. He is the Messiah, He is the
Anointed One. The name Jesus, for example,
what does it mean? Well, back in the Old Testament,
you had the name Yeshua, Yeshua. In fact, if you hear any of the
Jewish rabbis today or any of the Jews who claim to be Christian,
a lot of times they won't refer to the name Jesus, they'll refer
to Yeshua. Yeshua. And that was the Old
Testament. Hebrew name Jesus. It was transliterated
as Joshua. Same thing. Old Joshua who fought
the battle of Jericho. He was a type, a picture of Christ
and Jesus. Now in the New Testament it comes
down to Jesus. But here's what the name means.
It means God our Savior. That's what it means. In Matthew
chapter one and verse 21, the angel told Joseph not to put
Mary away. She's going to have a son. She's
going to have a child, he said. And his name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. In the
Old Testament, that name Yeshua is sometimes translated salvation. In Exodus 14, for example, where
Moses standing at the brink of the Red Sea and the people were
murmuring and complaining and not believing God and ready to
go back to Egypt, he said, stand still and see the salvation,
the Yeshua of the Lord. That's what he was talking about.
And so Jesus means God, our Savior, or Jehovah, our Savior, as some
transliterate it. Christ is the Anointed One. That's Messiah. That's His title.
So who is Jesus Christ? The Bible tells us that the Messiah
is one who is both God and man without sin in one person. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6
talks about a child born. That speaks of Christ's humanity. His holy humanity created for
Him in the womb of the Virgin. And that's why He was back in
Genesis 3.15 called the seed of woman. So a child is born,
but a son is given. The son speaks of his eternal
deity as the second person of the Trinity. He is God in human
flesh without sin. He is God manifest in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Over in Matthew 1.23, it says,
his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God
with us. In John chapter one, he is called
the Word, which was in the beginning and from the beginning. He was
before everything that was created. He created it all. In John 1.14,
it says, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's Christ. So we preach the person of Christ,
who is God, in human flesh, God-man without sin. Now, he had to be
that way. He had to be God and man in order
to save us from our sins, to save his people. And so he says
in verse two, I determine not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now comes the question is this.
Two questions actually. We've already talked about who
Jesus Christ is. He's God, man, without sin. All right, it says he's crucified.
For whom was he crucified? And what did he accomplish for
them? Well, now we could go all over
the Bible for that, to see that. But I'll give you just one passage
here because time only allows us to go so far in one setting. But turn over to Hebrews chapter
two. Now I'm gonna go through some
verses here, and I want you to follow along. And it's talking
about the glory of Christ, Jesus Christ, as the one who was crucified,
who died, who was buried, who arose from the dead, who ascended
unto the Father and is seated there at the right hand of the
Father, ever living to make intercession for his people, and what he accomplished. as God in human flesh without
sin. And it says in verse nine, look
at Hebrews 2.9, now we'll go through several verses here.
It says, but we see Jesus, there's that name, God our salvation,
who was made a little lower than the angels, that's his humanity,
He says, for the suffering of death. Why did Jesus Christ have
to unite His deity with humanity? Because He had to die. Now why
did He have to die? For the sins of His people. God
cannot die. But this person who is God did
die. And that is to be attributed
to His holy humanity. Man, no matter how good or high
he attains, cannot create and give life. But this person who
is man does create and give life, and that's to be attributed to
his deity. But he's God-man. So he says,
for the suffering of death, and we see verse nine, crowned with
glory and honor. The preaching of the cross not
only speaks of his death, He did die for the sins of his people. He calls them his sheep. When
you talk about for whom did Jesus Christ die, he said in John chapter
10, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, John
10, 11. And he said, my sheep hear my
voice. But in here it says, for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. The preaching
of the cross includes not only just the fact that he died, but
that in his death, now listen to me, in his death, he conquered
death. In his death, he conquered sin. In his death, he conquered the
grave. And the proof of that is he's
crowned with glory and honor. That includes his resurrection
from the dead, and His ascension unto the glory of the Father,
seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ died, but He didn't
stay dead. Now that speaks of an accomplishment,
a finishing of a work. What did He finish? Well, the
Bible says He made an end of sin. He satisfied God's justice
for the sins of His people. He brought in everlasting righteousness. That righteousness which he brought
in is called the righteousness of God because it's the righteousness
that Christ as God, man, accomplished. And he finished the work. He
said in John 19, 30, it's finished. And the Bible tells us for in
Romans 10, 4, Christ is the end. That means the finishing, the
accomplishing, the perfection of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
14 tells us that, for by one offering, that is His cross,
His death, His blood, by one offering, He hath perfected,
completed, finished forever all them that were sanctified. Forever. All those whom God set
apart and gave to Him. So look back at verse nine of
Hebrews 2. He was crowned with glory and honor, that He, by
the grace of God, should taste death for every man." Now people
look at that and say, well see there, He did that for everybody.
Now let me tell you something. If you understand the cross,
if you understand the death of Christ, if you understand the
blood of Christ as written in the Bible, If you therefore conclude
that He died for every individual that has ever been born or ever
will be born, then you would have to say that every individual
that has ever been born or ever will be born is going to be saved. The Bible does not teach that.
The death of Christ for a sinner means the salvation of that sinner.
So what do you mean here, every man? Well, in the original, the
word man's not even there. He's talking about for every
one, and he describes in the next verses who he's talking
about. This is what Paul means when
he says we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach
that Christ secured and guaranteed the salvation of everyone for
whom He died. Who are they? Look at verse 10
of Hebrews 2. He begins to describe them. Listen
to it. He says, For it became Him, it was fitting unto God. for whom are all things and by
whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. The
many sons, there's many sons for whom he died, many children
is what he's talking about. And the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings means that Christ had to experience
the sufferings to complete the work. He wasn't made perfect
morally, he was always perfect in that sense. And he says in
verse 11, now listen to this, for both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are of one. Christ was set apart,
that sanctify means set apart. Christ was set apart to do this
work before the foundation of the world. He was made surety
of his people. of people whom God chose and
gave to him. That means their sin debt was
imputed, charged to him. And he became set apart to be
their savior, their redeemer, their substitute. And those who
are sanctified are those whom God set apart and gave to him.
And they're all of one. They're one. For which cause
he's not ashamed to call them brethren, verse 11. They're his
brethren. That's who he died for. In verse
12, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. They're his
brethren, they're his church. He declares his name to them.
What is that? That's Jesus Christ and him crucified,
the preaching of the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed.
How God saves sinners. When that is preached, they're
declaring the name of Christ to his people. and they call
on his name. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. And he says in verse 13, and
again, I will put my trust in him, and again, behold, I am
the children which God hath given me. You see that? The children,
that's who he died for. He said in John 6, 37, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. And then verse 14, now listen
to this. For as much then as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, he Christ also himself likewise took part of
the same, that through death he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil. Now what he's saying
here is that all the children that God gave to him, they were
flesh and blood. So in order to redeem them, Christ
had to partake of flesh and blood, yet without sin, to destroy the
work of the devil. When Satan brought condemnation
into the world and death, By enticing Eve, and then Adam took
sides with Eve and Satan against God, he says that's when death
came into the world, Christ conquered that. In verse 15, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. He died for those who are delivered
from the fear of death. Now that fear of death doesn't
mean the natural fear that we all have, aversion to die physically. What that means is the fear of
death there is the fear of condemnation. Because in Christ there is therefore
now no condemnation. And so he says in verse 16, For
barely he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took
on him the seed of Abraham. Now that's who the every man
is, the every one, the seed of Abraham. And who is the seed
of Abraham? Well, according to Galatians 3, it's all who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 17, wherefore,
or for this reason, in all things it behooved him. That word behooved
is the Greek word for dead. He was indebted because their
sins were charged to him. to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
Now, how did he make reconciliation for the sins of his people? He
died on the cross. He satisfied justice. He brought
in everlasting righteousness that ensures and demands their
salvation. As the sins of God's people,
his brethren, were imputed to Christ, his righteousness is
imputed to them, and they must be born again. They must be brought
to faith in Christ by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, through
the preaching of the gospel. And that's why we preach. We
preach Christ and him crucified. We preach it to anybody who'll
hear it, but we know that only those who God has given the gift
of faith will hear it. and believe it. And so he says
in verse 18, for in that he himself, Christ himself, has suffered
being tempted, that he is able to succor or to comfort them
that are tempted. So Christ, in his crucifixion
and in the infirmities of the flesh, he went through everything
that a human being can go through in the infirmities of the flesh,
yet he did it sinlessly but he died under the just punishment
of all the sins of God's people, imputed, charged, accounted to
him. And that's what it is to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now back in 1 Corinthians chapter
two, Paul goes on, he says in verse three, and I was with you
in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. You see, Paul
wasn't superhuman. Paul was a gifted man. He was
a sinner saved by grace. He was a gifted man. He had the
message of salvation. He had the ability to do miracles
that God gave him. But he said there was much weakness,
there was much fear, much trembling. People were after him because
he preached this message. The Jews were after him. The
Gentiles were after him. And so he says, verse four, and
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and power of God.
Verse five, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. That's what the whole thing is
about. Not wanting you to look to men, but to Christ, the Son
of God. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.