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 if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles with today's message, I'm going to be preaching from
1 Corinthians in the New Testament, Paul's letter to the church at
Corinth, 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 and chapter 2. I'm going to preach several messages
leading up. to a passage of scripture that
I refer to quite often on this program because it is such a
broad truth concerning the state of man by nature, the state of
all people by nature. And I've had people ask me about
this too. It's in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14. But let me say this, the title
of the message today is the power and the wisdom of God. The power
and the wisdom of God. And of course, we'll begin over
here in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 17, because it's teaching us
there that Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified, is the power
and wisdom of God. Now how does that work out? What
does that mean? What does that involve? That's
what we're gonna deal with. But I'm leading up to the truth
that is set forth in 1 Corinthians 2. If you're open to 1 Corinthians
1, just look across the page to 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14,
where it says, but the natural man, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. That is, they're foolishness,
the things of the Spirit of God. the truths that the Holy Spirit
reveals in God's Word, the written Word, and in the preaching of
the Word. Those truths are foolishness
unto the natural man. Neither can he know them, that
is, he cannot understand them savingly. I mean, he can know
what we say. The natural man, when I preach
the gospel, If you're an unbeliever, you can know exactly what I'm
saying, but do you understand it to the point that you see
this as truth? That you see this as something
that is vital concerning the issue of faith and repentance? Faith is knowledge. Repentance
is a change of mind. And he says in verse 14, because
they are spiritually discerned, they're spiritually evaluated.
They're spiritually understood. And who is the natural man? Well,
the natural man speaks of all mankind, all people, as we are
naturally born into this world as fallen, ruined, spiritually
dead, and depraved sinners. Now you may not think that describes
you, but what the Bible teaches. And this is what I'm concerned
with on this program. I'm not concerned with our opinions. And I'm not even concerned with
our natural view of things. What I'm concerned with is what
does God's Word teach us? Because that's the wisdom and
power of God, the power and the wisdom of God. That's what God
reveals. And if the Bible is not your rule of faith, and your
rule of practice, then how can you call yourselves a Christian?
Many do. There are people today who call
themselves Christian, yet they ignore what the Bible says, or
they're either ignorant of it, or they just ignore what it says. Well, the natural man is an unbeliever,
one who is ignorant of the things of God, the things of the power
and the wisdom of God. He's an unregenerate person. And I'm gonna lead, I'm gonna
go back to 1 Corinthians 1 17 and start there and work my way
up through this to this verse to show you the context of this
so that you can understand it. But before we go to 1 Corinthians
17, turn over to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter
two. Now here, the apostle Paul, as
he was guided by the Holy Spirit, gives us a real description of
the natural man or the natural woman. Mankind in a fallen state. The Bible teaches that we fell
in Adam into a state of sin and death and because of that we
are born naturally spiritually dead. Now what is spiritual death? Well, spiritual death is the
absence of spiritual life. And so, what he says, the natural
man receiveth not spiritual things, the truths that glorify God. And Paul writes in chapter 2,
verse 1 of Ephesians, he says, and you hath he quickened. Now,
you might see, if you have a King James version of the Bible, you
might see that the term hath he quickened is in parenthesis. And, or not in parenthesis, but
in italics. What that suggests to us is that
it was not in the original manuscript, but that the King James translators
added that. When you see things like that,
you've got to ask yourself, why did they do that? What he's talking
about here is those who have been quickened, that means given
spiritual life, they've been born again by the Spirit. That's
what Christ said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Why is
it? Because as we are naturally born,
we're spiritually dead. So even though the King James
translators added this, it does not deny or embellish the truth
that Paul is writing up here, it really enhances it. So he
says, "...and you hath he quickened, you have been born again, who
were previously dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein," verse 2,
here's the natural meaning, "...wherein in time past you walked according
to the course of this world." When you read passages like this, You have to understand that when
he talks about the course of the world, he's not limiting
that to the immoral, perverted faction of humanity. This would
include the most religious, dedicated, sincere people who are in false
religion, even false Christianity. You see, false religion, even
that which comes in the name of Christ, but denies the spiritual
things of the truth of Christ, is worldly. It's ungodly. Christ called it iniquity in
Matthew chapter 7. It's the broad road that leads
to destruction. So when you read these, don't
just think of people who are the drunks and the drug pushers
and the prostitutes and all of that. Don't just think of them.
You see, this refers to anyone who doesn't know, trust, and
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This refers to one who is going
about throughout his or her life seeking to establish a righteousness
by which to be recommended unto God. Working hard in it. And that's the course of the
world. He says, wherein in time past you walked according to
the course of the world. Think of Saul of Tarsus. The Apostle
Paul is the one whom the Holy Spirit used to write these words.
Think of him. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a
Pharisee of the Pharisees, as touching the law blameless. He
was walking according to the course of the world, the ungodly,
fallen, sinful, unregenerate world. And he says, you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, that's Satan, who inspires false religion
now. Satan just doesn't hang around
in the bars and the brothels and the drug bins, he's in the
pulpits. of churches where Christ is not
preached in the glory of his person and the power of his finished
work, his righteousness. You need to understand that.
You say, that's foolishness. That's what he said. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They're
foolishness to him. And he says, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience. In the Bible, the
children of disobedience are unbelievers. Those who do not
trust and follow Christ. Those who are not submitted to
His righteousness as the only ground of salvation. And verse
three, among whom also we all had our conversation, our conduct,
our walk in times past in the lust of our flesh. Now we have
to understand, that's not just talking about sinful, fleshly,
sexual lust. It's also talking about any unlawful
desire. I'll give you an example. Remember
Cain and Abel? When Cain approached God on the
basis of the works of his hands, He was fulfilling a lust, an
unlawful desire of the flesh. My friend, it's unlawful to desire
salvation anyway. It's unlawful to desire righteousness
anyway, but God's way. And so he says, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature, there's
that term again, as we are naturally born, the children of wrath even
as others. In other words, those who are
children of wrath. Now, who are those? Well, here's
a person born into this world, spiritually dead, who never hears
the gospel, never comes to faith in Christ, and dies in unbelief. That's a child of wrath. It's
an unbeliever. And what he's saying is that
if we're saved, if we're born again by the Spirit, if we've
been quickened, if we believe in Christ, We have to understand
that we were by nature no different than that person who goes through
life and dies in unbelief. No different. In other words,
what he's saying is my salvation, it's by grace. It did not come
from my goodness. It did not come from my so-called
free will. It came from God's sovereign
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ and based on his righteousness
alone. Now, go back to 1 Corinthians
chapter one. Now here, as I said, we're gonna
lead up through that, go through these scriptures, and then it
takes several messages. But he says in 1 Corinthians
2, 14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Well, what is foolish? Well, look at 1 Corinthians one
and verse 17. 1 Corinthians one, verse 17. And Paul writes here, he says,
for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now,
what does he mean by that? Well, he'd been talking about
the Corinthian church was a church that had a lot of problems and
there were divisions within the church over preachers. Some of them said, we follow
Peter. Some said, we follow Paul. Some
said, we follow Apollos, who was an evangelist, a Greek evangelist. And some said, we don't follow
anybody, we just follow Christ. And there were divisions over
preachers. And some of them were bragging, well, Paul baptized
me, or they'd say, Peter baptized me, or Reverend so-and-so baptized
me. And Paul said, I thank God I
didn't baptize any of you. He didn't want anyone to brag
about being baptized by him. He says, the preacher is not
what this is about. It's all about Christ. It's all
about Christ. And he said, besides, Christ
didn't send me to baptize. Now that doesn't mean that baptism
is not an important element in the Christian faith. Believer's
baptism which is baptism by immersion, not sprinkling, not pouring,
and not infants, but it's believer's baptism. That's what, when the
Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, do you believe? You say, that's what it's about.
Baptism is a Christian ordinance given by God in human flesh,
Christ to the church, as a public confession of Christ. It's a public identification
with Him. Baptism does not save you. It
does not wash away your sins. You see, Christ saves sinners
and His blood washes away their sins. It's His blood that's the
payment for sin. Baptism doesn't even apply the
blood of Christ. That's applied in the hearts
of people by the Holy Spirit. And see, God justifies His people
based upon Christ's righteousness, which is the merit of His blood,
His obedience unto death, imputed to His people. And see, that's
by nothing we do. But once God brings us to faith
in Christ, once He gives us spiritual life, quickens us under the gospel
and brings us to faith in Christ, we're to confess that in believer's
baptism. But that's not the goal. When
I was a young man in seminary, I didn't know the gospel then.
I wasn't hearing it in seminary. A lot of the talk was, how many
did you baptize? Well, it doesn't matter. Christ
didn't send me to baptize. I'll baptize anyone who believes
the gospel and wants to confess Christ before me. But that's
not the mainstay of the ministry. And that's what Paul's saying.
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now,
what is the gospel? Well, the gospel is the good
news of salvation by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ
based upon His blood, His righteousness. In Romans 1, 16 and 17, the Apostle
Paul wrote, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God. Now the title of this message
is The Power and the Wisdom of God. And that's what he's talking
about. Christ crucified the gospel is
the power and the wisdom of God. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek
also, or the Gentile. Verse 17, For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. from faith to faith, that is,
from the gospel doctrine of truth preached to faith, the gift of
faith that God gives us to believe, from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just or the justified shall live by faith. What is
it to be justified? It's to be forgiven of all my
sins. It's to be declared righteous
in God's sight, not guilty. How can that be? Behold the power
and the wisdom of God and that's in Christ. I'm forgiven based
upon His death, His blood, the cross. and I'm declared righteous
based upon the merit of His death, His blood, the cross. I have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice. I have a righteousness that saves me, justifies me.
I have a righteousness that will give me life from God. I have
a righteousness that will bring me into glory. And what is it? It's Christ's righteousness accounted,
charged to me. I didn't have anything to do
with it. He did it all. The Bible says, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Hebrews
10, 14. And so Paul says, that's the reason Christ sent me to
preach the gospel. He says in verse 17, not with
wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect." What he's saying there is that Christ, when he sends
his preachers out to preach the gospel, they don't have the liberty
to manipulate God's Word with human wisdom and human words
that will remove the offense of it, remove the truth of it,
or water it down, the wisdom of words. You see, man always
thinks he has a better way than what God does. Man actually,
by nature, thinks that he knows better than God. Think about
that. There are people today, their
worship services are not scriptural. It's all about emotion and feeling.
They judge the Spirit's presence by emotion and feeling and not
by truth. And why do they do that? Because
they think they know better than God. And that's what it means
to preach it with the wisdom of human words. We use human
words, but we base our human words based upon God's Word.
In other words, that's why I tell you, don't believe it just because
I say it. Somebody said, well, that preacher's
such an eloquent preacher. Well, that's not the issue. Does
he preach God's Word? Or that preacher's such an entertaining
preacher. He can hold your attention. Well,
that's okay if he's preaching God's Word. But see, test the
spirits. Try the spirits, the Bible tells
us. And he says, lest the cross of
Christ should be made of none effect. Look at verse 18 now.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. And then
later on he says it's the wisdom of God too. Now, remember we
read over in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him.
Well, what's he talking about? He's talking about the preaching
of the cross. What is the preaching of the
cross? Well, it's the preaching of the gospel that reveals and
sets forth the glorious person and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ in his obedience unto death as the surety, the
substitute, and the redeemer of his people. That's what it
is. Now, what is he saying here?
You know, when I was a young man, I went to seminary I didn't
know the gospel then. I went there to try to see if
I could study the Bible to find out what the Bible really teaches.
When I got in seminary, one of the required courses that we
would take was Christian philosophy. The word philosophy means love
of wisdom. Christian philosophy ought to
be to study the wisdom of God. Well, here it is, it's in the
Bible. But we very rarely opened a Bible
in our Christian philosophy class. What we studied is the philosophy
of great thinkers, human thinkers of the past, some who claimed
to be Christian, some who didn't. But you see, and what Christian
philosophy is to do is to give the Christian worldview. What
is the Christian worldview? Listen to these scriptures again.
Don't let this pass by you. He says, verse 18, For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. In other
words, when I preach the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ as they are taught and revealed in the Bible, All
right? To the unbeliever, that's foolishness.
I'll show you in a minute, just a minute. But unto us which are
saved. The tense of the verb, all right?
Both verbs, verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that are perishing. They're in that state of perishing.
It's foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
or who are being saved, that is continually kept by the power
of God. It is the power of God. That's
what it is. And what he's shown us there
is the Christian worldview. Everything is to be judged, is
to be evaluated as it relates to the preaching of the cross.
Now, what is the preaching of the cross? Well, it's not a piece
of wood. It's not something you wear around
your neck or tack up on your wall. It's not a crucifix. Those things mean nothing. What
it is, the preaching of the cross is the preaching of the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is none other than God in human
flesh without sin. That's the glory of his person.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Matthew 121, when the angel Told
Joseph about Mary, she shall call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. He's not gonna just try to save
his people. He's going to save his people.
How do you know he can do it? Matthew 1.23, his name shall
be called Emmanuel, God with us. No one like Christ. Great is the mystery of God.
He is the embodiment of the wisdom of God. Read Proverbs chapter
eight sometimes when it talks about wisdom personified. That's
Christ set up from before the foundation of the world. And
so, he is God-man. And what did he, that's who he
is, and what did he accomplish? In his death on the cross, he
guaranteed and ensured the salvation of every person for whom he died. They're called his sheep. They're
called God's elect. They're called his church. They're
called his brethren. They're called his seed, his
offspring. You see what I'm saying? In other
words, not one person for whom Christ died will perish. How
do you know if Christ died for you? Somebody said, well, I thought
he died for everybody. He didn't. Or everybody would
be saved. That's the preaching of the cross,
you see. Whoever Christ hung on that cross
for, they shall be saved. Is that foolishness to you? Well,
it's foolish to them that don't believe. But it's the wisdom
and the power of God to them who are being saved. And what
he's talking about is in the death of Christ, in the book
of Daniel, Daniel prophesied, he said, he'll make an end of
sin, he will finish the transgression, he will make reconciliation for
iniquity, that is, for the iniquity of his people, and he will bring
in everlasting righteousness. The preaching of the cross is
the preaching of the establishment of the righteousness of God.
and righteousness demands salvation. The wisdom of God. Think about
it. Look at verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 1. He says, For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. This is talking about God's view
of human wisdom when it comes to salvation. The wise there,
those who are wise in the things of the world, but they don't
know the things of God. There are many people who are
very wise when it comes to finances. They're very wise when it comes
to physical health. They're very wise when it comes
to education. But they're totally foolish and
ignorant when it comes to how God saves sinners. who Christ
is, who God is, who we are, the natural man, sinful and depraved,
who Christ is and the way of salvation, they have not known. And the prudent there are the
intelligent. They're very intelligent people
in the things of the world. But when it comes to a right
relationship with God, God has made it nothing. It's all in
Christ. We'll pick up there next time,
and I hope you'll join us next time 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 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. 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.