The reason and effect of preaching. 1 Cor. 1:21-24

Q: What does the Bible say about the purpose of preaching?

The Bible indicates that the primary purpose of preaching is to proclaim the gospel of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1:17, Paul states that Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel, emphasizing that preaching is the means God has appointed for the salvation of sinners. Preaching the gospel is designed to both encourage believers and call the lost to repentance, making it central to the life of the church and the work of the pastor. By preaching Christ and Him crucified, we are reminded that our salvation rests entirely on the finished work of Jesus, not on our own merits or rituals.

Q: How do we know the gospel is the power of God?

We know the gospel is the power of God because it transforms lives and brings salvation to those who believe. According to 1 Corinthians 1:18, the preaching of the cross is the power of God for those who are being saved. This transformation is a testimony of God's working in the hearts of individuals, turning them from death to life through faith in Christ. The gospel does not rely on human wisdom or strength but on God's sovereign power to call His elect. When individuals experience a genuine conversion, they recognize the gospel's efficacy in redeeming them from sin and granting them eternal life, confirming its divine power.

Q: Why is it important to preach Christ alone?

Preaching Christ alone is essential because He is the only source of salvation and the object of our faith. In the sermon, it is highlighted that preaching Christ alone is crucial because all hope for salvation is found in His atoning work. Paul emphasizes that he was sent to preach Christ and Him crucified, which serves as the foundation of the believer's faith. Any addition of human wisdom or works compromises the message of grace and undermines the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice. By focusing only on Christ, believers are encouraged to place their faith in Him rather than their own deeds, ensuring the message remains pure and powerful.

Q: How does the gospel create division among people?

The gospel creates division as it distinguishes between those who believe and those who reject its message. As stated in 1 Corinthians 1:18, the preaching of the cross can be perceived as foolishness to those who are perishing, while it is viewed as the power of God by those being saved. This distinction creates a natural division among people based on their response to the gospel. Believers find comfort and strength in its message, while non-believers see it as a stumbling block or a source of offense. This division is not only seen in individual responses but also has implications for the church's unity and the way it interacts with the world around it.

Q: Why do some people seek signs instead of accepting the gospel?

Some people seek signs because they rely on visible proof of their acceptance before God rather than faith in Christ. In the sermon, it is pointed out that the Jews require a sign, indicative of a legalistic mindset that seeks validation through external acts. This reflects a broader human tendency to want tangible evidence of God's favor, causing individuals to rely on their works or experiences to establish their standing with God. Yet, the gospel calls for faith in Christ alone, encouraging believers to trust in the sufficiency of His sacrifice rather than seeking assurance through signs or outward validation. The danger lies in misplacing faith in personal efforts rather than the completed work of Christ.

Good to be with you this morning to worship God together with you. I ask for your prayers that God will give me the liberty I need to preach the message to you with clarity and simplicity. That's my desire. How God does that is a miraculous thing. I can't tell you how often I've gotten down and figured, man, that has got to be the most confusing thing. that anybody's ever heard, and when I hear that, I feel that, but again, my feelings don't have anything to do with it. God takes his word, he makes it effectual, he applies it to your heart, and you're blessed. And it's a miracle. It's a miracle. From the preacher's standpoint, anyway, we can see that it is. If it has any effect on you, there's no glory for the preacher.

So pray that God would, by his grace, give me what you need. And pray that God would open that to your hearts as well. I want to announce, we will have service Wednesday. I'll preach here Wednesday, but Sunday, I'm going to be in Crossville, preaching for Brother Donnie Bell. And Brother Aaron Greenleaf is gonna be coming to preach here. So I ask you to be faithful and come and enjoy the gospel as this dear brother preaches the gospel to you.

He's a very faithful man to do it and very capable of what God's given him. So pray for him as he comes. Pray that God will give him that message. And it's harder. I believe it is hard. A man who's not called a pastor to come and fill in, it's not an easy thing for these men to do. It's not easy for us who's called to it. And I'm so thankful for these men who are capable and that can fill in when we are not with you.

So pray for him as he comes and ask the Lord's blessing on that, on our trip. Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we again bow ourselves before you, expressing again our great need. We have come to worship, we have desired to worship, but Father, truly, without your Spirit, we cannot do these things in ourselves. We long for it, we pray for it, we ask for it, and only by the sovereign power of the Spirit can we see and adore and honor Jesus Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. Father, I know this is the means that you have chosen, and I know that we are vessels. set aside for this purpose, but Father, we have no power in ourselves. Pray, Father, this day that you would send your spirit to every preacher, to everyone you have sent, that you would give them the word for your people to comfort the saved and to call the lost.

And Father, we give you glory and honor and praise for all. our salvation, all that you have done. If we believe, we know this, it is a work of your divine hand. It is the result of your eternal and sovereign will. It is the result of Jesus' perfect atonement. It is the result of the power of the Holy Spirit to give us life and faith. And if we continue, we recognize it is only by your grace and power that we continue in faith.

Father, I do pray that you would bless us, keep us, forgive us our sins, bless those who are not able to be with us. And Father, I do pray that you'd restore them. We miss them. We long to see them. But only you, Father, can give this and safety to those that are traveling. For whatever reason others are not coming, Father, I beg you to touch their hearts. and show them their need of being among God's people.

And I pray that you would do this for the good of your people and the good of your church. And I ask you to do this in the name of Jesus and for His sake. Amen. Alright, if you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I've entitled this message, The Reason and the Effect of Preaching. The reason and the effect of preaching.

Now this church at Corinth had many, many difficulties, many troubles. And the first one we encountered was that they were exalting preachers. They were exalting men instead of putting these men in their proper place. God had sent these men, yes, but they had sent these men not to be honored of men, but rather to simply preach the gospel. I've been asked several times in my ministry, why is it that you only preach Christ? Why don't you talk about something else? Because every man called of God is not sent to talk about something else. We are sent to do one thing, preach Christ and Him crucified.

This is exactly what Paul says that he gives the remedy for everything that ills the church. All of the ills of the church, false teaching, false doctrine, division, Sin in the church. You know what the remedy for all of that is? It is the gospel. It is the gospel that is the remedy for every ill in the church. And so Paul here is going to give us the reason for preaching. He's going to tell us why preaching? What is the purpose of preaching? You can see that in the beginning when he tells them in verse 17.

For Christ sent me not to baptize." Now, I got a question. Is baptism important? Well, of course it is. Our Lord said, go you into all the world, preaching the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism has its place.

It is the only public confession of faith. There's this idea of coming to the front. You realize that's not scriptural at all. That's an adaptation of Baptists from a Catholic perspective. The Catholic tells you come to the altar. That's what Baptists were telling you for years. Come to the altar. There's no altar here. Christ is our altar. Christ is our offering. Christ is our sacrifice. We don't come to an altar. We come to Christ.

And you don't have to move to do that. You don't have to come down here or go over there. You can do it right there. You don't need to get in this water to do it. This water is only testifying of what you've already done in the seat. You've believed, and now you're going to confess it.

So baptism has its place, but Paul says, that's not why I'm here. He says he only baptized two that he knew about, and he said, I thank God I only baptized two of you. Otherwise you thought baptism was salvation. Baptism's not salvation. And listen, it's not the means that God chose to save sinners.

He said, God sent me not to baptize, but notice this, to preach the gospel. To preach the gospel. The church and the preachers that are called are sent for one reason, to preach the gospel. I'd be glad if anyone believes if they want to be baptized, that would be a glory, a wonderful thing to see someone confess the Lord in baptism. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm here to testify that salvation is only by the blood and only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ and not by your works.

That's the gospel. Notice he says this, not with wisdom of words. I do not take the wisdom of man and blend it with the gospel. We do not take the wisdom of the world and blend it with the gospel. Why? He says, then the cross of Christ is made of none effect. You see that? If I take the wisdom of the world and I blend it with the gospel, what effect does it have? Spiritually, none. Now it may get a big group of people. We may have a large church. We may have thousands of people come in. We may have big buildings and things like that.

But really, what effect does that have? None. None. You mix your works with Christ, it is of none effect. You mix your good deeds, your obedience to the law with Christ, it is of none effect to your soul. So we preach. Why preaching? We're sent to it. That's what we send to do. Nothing else. We're sent not to mix the wisdom of the world with the gospel, but to preach the simplicity of gospel, which is not a creed.

It's a person. I'm here to tell you about a person. I want to tell you about a person. He's God manifest in the flesh who came and offered himself for the sins of God's elect and he was successful. I'm here to tell you about his victory. I want to tell you about how successful he was. He was so successful. He saved everyone he intended to save. Not one of them is going to be lost. And every one of them is going to be called.

Now the second reason we preach the gospel is this, because it makes a division. People don't like to talk about the gospel making division. Now the gospel unifies the believers. It brings unity and love to the saints. But when it is preached, it makes a clear, distinct division. Look at verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. There's one group of people. When the gospel is preached, There's always those who find this the most useless thing in the world to sit here and listen to. And so a division is made. And notice this, but to us. There's a division in there.

To us, which are saved, what is the gospel preaching? It is the power of God. Now, how can we say that? Because we have experienced it. We were on the side one time that it was foolish, weren't we? We were on that side. But now, by the power of God, preaching is not foolish.

It's how I feed. It's how I live. It's how I am encouraged and strengthened. It's how I'm given assurance and hope that my salvation is real. Because it's not based on me. It's totally based on Christ. Now, this makes a division, always does. It always has. So Paul said, when we preach, the reason we preach is because it's going to make a distinct division. You know, when Jesus said that, he said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. Now, what's a sword do? It cuts. It divides, doesn't it?

When this gospel is preached, there are people going to love it. And there are people going to hate it. There's no middle ground here. If it's middle ground, it's because you didn't hear anything. If you heard it, you would be on one side or the other. You're not going to be in the middle. And so this gospel, we preach it because it makes a distinction. And thirdly, we preach the gospel because it destroys the wisdom of man. This gospel totally destroys the wisdom. It totally wrecks false religion.

I mean, you It's easily, to us who are saved, it is easily seen. You take the wisdom of the Catholic Church, they believe there are many mediators. The scripture easily destroys that, doesn't it? There's one mediator between God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. Destroyed. Done. Useless. Anybody believes in that religion is useless.

That religion is the doctrine of devils. They are constantly re-crucifying Christ. Every time they present the mass, they are re-crucifying Christ. You know what Paul says about those that re-crucify the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame? Those are apostates. Hebrews chapter 10, he tells us those are apostates who re-crucify the son of God afresh.

You see how easy that's destroyed. Free will works religion. It is not of him that willeth, nor him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. See, all of a sudden, that's destroyed. And yet, I'm telling you, that to them is offensive. To me, it's wonderful. I used to follow that stuff. But now, I believe the gospel. Why? Because it's the power of God. It opened our eyes to see this, that it destroys our false religion. The gospel destroyed. That's why we preach it, because it destroys.

And I want to take the time. I don't have this, but I'm telling you, we don't focus so much on the false, do we? I don't need to focus on the counterfeit. I need to preach the truth. And the true naturally destroys the counterfeit. That's what his purpose to do.

He says, In verse 19, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. God asks, where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the disputer of the world? God's challenging him. You know, I don't challenge him. God himself challenges him. Where is your wisdom? Bring it to me. Show me.

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For after that in the wisdom of the God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You're not going to know God by wisdom of man. You're not going to naturally get it. It's not going to just one day come to you based on your will or your works. It's not made that way. God tells us in his gospel that salvation never comes by your wisdom, by your learning. You could study all the books of theology you want to. If God doesn't give you understanding, you'll never believe. The world by wisdom knew not God, so why preaching?

Now notice this, it pleased God. What else do you need? It pleased God. What? By the foolishness of preaching. What men call foolishness, God chose that. He said by the preaching of the gospel, God says, I purpose that is the means. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So why the gospel? Because God purposed that's the means. Why not entertainment? Why not movies and films and all this emotional things? Why not lights and sounds and get everybody in the right mood and frame of mind? Why not that?

Because God didn't choose that. God chose preaching. What the world counts foolishness, God's what God chose. He chose preaching. Now consider that statement, it pleased God. Think about the things that pleased God. It pleased God to choose a people. Did it? According to the sovereign will of God, He chose a people before the foundation of the world. Why? It pleased Him. He gave them to Jesus Christ and Christ actually came into the world to save them. Why? It pleased God. That's why.

The only answer you can give, there's nothing in us. God called us who were dead in trespasses and sin, who had no understanding, no righteousness, nothing about ourselves. God chose us. God redeemed us. And God called us. That's the purpose of God. And it is also the purpose of God as to how you were called. You were called through the preaching of the gospel. That's it. The preaching of the gospel. We preach because this is God's means. This is God's means. As those other things will not fail, this neither will fail. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that will leave. Therefore, what do we do? We preach. We preach. What do we preach? We preach Christ and him crucified. We preach Christ and him crucified. because it pleased God by this gospel to save sinners.

And it is by this gospel that God will call his elect. God will call them to faith and repentance by this gospel. And all who are called, you and I know, what he reveals in chapter, in verse 24, he said, to them that are called. Called by what? The gospel. Both Jews and Greeks. What do you find? You find this, that Christ is both the power and the wisdom of God. That's what you find. You find Christ is all. Christ is not part of my salvation. He's all of it. I don't contribute to this. It's something purposed and done for me and in me. And yes, he works through us, but even him working through us has nothing to do with us.

When you believe, is that a product of you or is it a fruit of the Spirit? You believing right now is a fruit of the Spirit. It's not a fruit of the flesh. It's not by your staunch determination to believe. You believe because God gave you faith. You love because God gives you love. Your temperate, your kind, your grace, any of these things are fruits of the Spirit. So we know this, Christ is all. Christ is all.

And how do we know that? Through the preaching of the gospel. Now how are you comforted? Why? Preach. Now, you know this. You believe this gospel? You believed it for a long time. Why is it that you continually need to hear the preaching of the gospel? Because this is how we are fed spiritually. This is how we are strengthened and encouraged and nurtured. It's through the preaching of the gospel.

And no other means is going to do it. I understand the temptation of looking for other means. But I know this, every time I've tried something else, it's come to nothing. And I always come back to this. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the only thing that comforts me. It's the only thing that strengthens me. So we understand now why the reason we're sent to it. What are we sent to do?

Preach only Christ, always Christ, whatever men say. If they say it's foolishness, we know it makes a division. We know it's going to make a division. Today it makes a division. You either believe on Christ or you don't. You either love this or you don't. It makes a division.

And we preach because it destroys man's wisdom, destroys false religion, and it upholds Christ. And we know this, that it's the means God chose. Now, as we preach, this is my next point, regarding those who hear the preaching, those who hear the preaching, Look at verse 22. And you're going to see a group of people.

22. It describes this. For the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. You have here three distinct hearers of the Gospel. The Jews, the Greeks, and we. We. We who are called of God. I wanted you to see this.

Now, when he says the Jews, there is no group of people more religious than the Jews, more zealous for seeking salvation by the law. There is no greater zeal than the Jews. The Jews were the most moral and zealous people upon the face of God's earth. They were zealous in their attempts to please God by their own obedience. This surely is true of everyone who seeks to please God by their words. The Jews are representative of everyone who hears the gospel and tries to please God by their obedience to the law. And so like these Jews, like the Jews, like all religions, of this legalistic religions of our day. Notice their separation there. They require a sign. Every legalist requires a visible representation of their acceptance with God. Every one of them.

Why? Because how do you know enough is enough? When when a man is trying to please God by his works, how is he going to know God is accepted, except he have some sign from God that he's except. So what do they do? They look for a sign. You see a person, he's trying to obey the Ten Commandments, trying to do good. And and what is his sign? If everything's going good. That's a sign that I'm doing good. He's looking for a sign. So when something goes bad, he obviously thinks, well, man, I'm not doing good enough. I need to try harder. He's looking for a sign.

That's what the Jews would always do. That's what religious men do today. They need something. Some unusual experience or emotional outburst. They need miracles. They need ceremonies in order to verify their acceptance. This is why all works religion preach men. They don't spend their time preaching Christ. They preach about you. Why? Because they're trying to give you a sign that you're accepted. If you do this and you stop doing this, then that's the sign. You're accepted.

Now, a lot of these so-called Christian churches, their Jews hated Christ. I'm not saying that these Christian churches, they profess to love Christ. They say, well, you've got to believe on Jesus Christ. They don't deny that. But then, you have to be baptized. What is that but a sign? They're saying, okay, your faith is good, but it's not good enough. You need an outward sign of baptism to seal the deal. Lord's Supper. You need to believe and partake of the Lord's Supper. If you don't, then there's no sign that you're His. If you don't believe in Christ and then obey the law, there's no sign that you're His.

They look to their morality, they look to their outward feelings and experiences. They look at a church and they come into a church and there's nobody jumping around. There's nobody laughing and crying and raising their hand. And what do they say? Well, that's a sign that God's not here. Or they see a church where everybody's happy and everybody's raising their hands and everybody's praising God. And they say, well, that's a sign that God is there. No. You know what? You want to know if God's in a place What is the man preaching? If he is preaching a gospel of salvation by the free will works of man, God is not in that place. I don't care how bold they are. I don't care what they say. God is not in that place. He is not preaching the gospel. I'll give you a scripture for that if you want, Galatians chapter one. Galatians church was believing that you had to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. They believed that, but you had to add one law, circumcision.

You know what Paul said to that? He said, that's another gospel, which is really not another. And he said, if any man, he said, if I come back and preach another gospel to you, or an angel comes down and preaches another gospel to you, let them go to hell. That's what he said. Galatians 1 verses, I think it's 6 and 7, but you can check that. But it's in that first chapter there.

So how do you know God's in a place? Not if everybody's jumping up and down, hooping and hollering and praising Jesus with their hands. That's not a sign. What is it? Jews seek after a sign. Legalists always seek after a sign. You know what Jesus said about those who seek after a sign? Matthew chapter 16 in verse 4, he said, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. But he said, This is the only sign you need, the sign of Jonah. As Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, even so must the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the hard earth.

What is he saying? What's the sign? The resurrection, isn't it? The gospel. The only sign you need is that Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead. You that are called, that's the only sign you need. I don't care how I feel or what I think or what the world feels or what the world, doesn't matter what happens in time or providence. The only thing I'm clinging to is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's all my hope.

But the legalists are always seeking after a sign. The Reformed Church is the worst at this because they are the closest to the truth. They would say that they believe that salvation is by grace, but as soon as they get a man who confesses to be saved, they point him right back to the law.

Why? To measure his growth. What is that but a sign? You're looking at outward things to measure spiritual things. But true believers can discern spiritual with spiritual. Our faith is not in ourselves or in our works. It's in Christ. The Jews seek after a sign. Are you seeking after a sign? Or are you looking to Christ alone? Second group of people here is the Greeks. Greeks. Now the Greeks were the most interested in wisdom, in philosophy, intellect, politics. Most of our political system and stuff comes from the Greek philosophers. They were wise thinkers in the things of the world.

That's what they spent all their time. As a matter of fact, when Paul, in Acts chapter 17, when he visits them, this is what he says, Acts 17 verse 21. Listen to what Paul says about the Greeks. He said they spent all their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear something new. Isn't it much like this generation always looking for something new? The Greeks are representative in this text of all those seeking something new or to add something of this world's wisdom and philosophy to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've had so many people that have never, I mean this, you think that we live in a time where everybody's heard the gospel. That's not true. Now, I say a mass majority of people have heard a false gospel. But when you speak of things like God's sovereign election and people never heard that before. What is that? Why is that? They've never really heard the gospel at all. They hear of Christ's finished work, and they're amazed. I've never heard that before.

And then they start to, it tickles their intellect, and they begin to look into these things, and they dig out, and they get these books, and they read, and they study, and they study, and they seem to enjoy it for a while. But after a while, when the new wears off, They just go away. Why? Because that tickled their intellect for a little bit, but then they started looking, that's not enough! That's not enough.

They start looking for something new. Some new doctrine. Some new theory. Some new philosophy. They start looking at archaeological finds. And they say, look, we found something new. There's a book that nobody's ever read before. And look, we found this scroll in the dirt. And it's new. And they start looking at that thing. Where does this go? Well, this just gets set on the shelf. This is old.

We don't need this anymore. We learned that. We don't need that. We need something new. This is the mind of the Greek. always looking for something else. This is what Paul says of them. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3. This is what Paul says of the Greek hearer. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Look at verse 5.

Now these who've profess to accept the gospel. Look, they have a form of godliness. They have a form of godliness. They become moral. They seek to do what is right. They don't do those things they did before. They have an outward appearance of godliness. But here's the problem. They deny the power of godliness by turning from the gospel to something new. They deny the power of righteousness, of salvation being only in Christ.

Notice what Paul says, from such turn away. Notice he doesn't say educate them. Don't educate them. Don't you try to educate somebody who's too educated to be educated. I had so much problem with that in my early Christian life trying to trying to teach people, trying to educate them. You know what that did? That did nothing. It did nothing.

If a man's not asking a question, I'm not going to give him an answer. Be ready to give an answer to every man that asks. These people aren't asking. These people are too intellectual. They don't want to know anything. I had a man ask me a question one time, and he just sat there and kept on and on until he answered himself. He's too educated for me. You don't want to know anything. He knows everything. From such turn away. For of sort are they which creep into houses, lead silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lust. Listen to this.

Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. To the Greek, the simplicity of the gospel is just too simple. It's not enough. This is always the theme with the Greek. There's always got to be something more. Is the Gospel sufficient for you or do you need something else?

Therefore, Paul commands Timothy to preach the Word. Don't worry about them. Preach the word when it's popular, when it's not. And look at over at chapter 4, Timothy, verse 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust, heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables, myths, theories, conspiracies.

That's a big one with this generation. Everything's conspiracy. And so they're tickled by that stuff. But the gospel to them is not. The third here is the last group. Paul says, but we. Now, we who are called and saved by the gospel is who hear the gospel. We know this. We know the value of preaching Christ and only Christ and always Christ.

See, we're not looking for any other sign. I don't need any other evidence. My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. But I trust the ever-living One, for His blood intercedes. It's Christ's blood. That's the only sign I need my sins are forgiven. I don't need to feel like my sins are forgiven to be forgiven. I don't need. A lot of times I don't even think my sin.

How is that possible? I wrestle with that. And yet, what does that matter? My sins have already been paid. It's the only sign I need to know my sins are forgiven. The resurrection is the sign that Jesus Christ was successful. I don't need any other sign. And listen, I'm not looking for any other theory. I'm totally content.

You know, Paul said that to the church. He said, My desire is that you not be moved from the simplicity that's in Jesus Christ. You see, the Satan is always seeking to tempt to move us away from the singleness of Jesus Christ. The word simplicity doesn't mean simple. It means single. It means the only object we preach.

We preach Christ. And those who are called of God are content to hear of Christ. It is by faith in Christ crucified alone that saves sinners. And we who are called, we believe in the person and work of Christ. And it is this message that comforts us, that strengthens us and encourages us to do good. I mean, is there any other thing? We don't need the law to teach us to do good. What we need is the love of Christ to constrain us, don't we?

Now, I'll give you the effects. I'm going to move fast on these. The third thing is the effect. Now, we see the reason. He sent us, makes division. It's the means God chose to save sinners. And we are called to believe it is the power of God. We know this by experience.

Now, everybody that hears it, Some people are like the Jews. They're looking for a sign. They're legalistic. They're trying to earn their way, and they're looking for a sign they're accepted. The Greeks are always seeking after wisdom, always looking for something more, something else. But to us who are called, we preach Christ. We only want Christ to be found in Christ. And so then, what is the effect of this gospel upon these hearers? Well, look at your text, the back of your text. We preach, verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. What does this gospel do to the legalist?

It says to the Jews, it's a stumbling block. I don't know, kids, when they used to play with Legos, you know, you'd get up in the middle of the night, you ever step on one of those things in the middle of the night, you start cursing that Lego, It's an offense to you. It hurts. It's like somebody walking along and hitting a stone with their toe and they just, just, ah, so angry at the stone who put that rock there. It's an offense. That's how the legalists view the gospel. It's an offense.

You're offensive to me. It's a stumbling block. You know, the Lord, Lord in prophecy, if you look at this later, Isaiah chapter eight, verse 14 through 17. God tells the Jews when Christ has come, he's going to be an offense to you. Now, that's before they were ever born. God had already told them what Christ was going to be to them. This is what it says. He shall be for a refuge, a sanctuary. That's Christ. He's a refuge, isn't it? Who needs a refuge? Anybody, any sinner need a refuge? Is that offensive to a sinner? No, we need a refuge. But notice this, to the legalist, he said, but for a stone of stumbling and rock of offense. When I preach the gospel to you and tell you of the depravity of man, that man by nature can do nothing but sin. I didn't say it. God says it.

There is none righteous. How many? No, not one. There's none that understands. This offends the Greeks, doesn't it? There's none that understand it. There's none that seeketh after God. They are all together unprofitable. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. And to the one who is depending upon his righteousness, it's offensive to say that. It's like he stubbed his toe and he curses it. He hates it. How dare you say my righteousness is not enough?

I'm a good person. I'm not like this person over here. I don't do that. And I don't do this. And I go to church. And I pay my tithes. And I do this. I was baptized. I made a profession of faith. I, I, me, me, you're offensive. It's always going to be offensive. You know what I'm not going to do? is I'm not going to carve it out to make it palatable to you. That's what men want. They want to feel like their feelings are heard. You know, I need to be heard. If your gospel is false, I ain't going to hear it.

And I ain't going to make apologies for it either. I'm going to tell you the truth, and the truth is offensive. It was offensive to me until God smashed my little pea-brained soul against the rock of Christ and it broke. Smashed my righteousness against the rock of Christ and I broke. I don't break anybody. That's not my job. I just tell you. And by telling you, it's an offense to everyone who seeks to be accepted by their works.

And the difference between the self-righteous and the children of God is that we love this offense. I'm glad God abased me. Aren't you glad that he put you in the dust? Because if he had not put me in the dust, I'd still have been like the Jews. I still would have been leaning on my own righteousness. Until he revealed to me I had none. And that was the greatest day of my life. Because then he showed me Christ as all my righteousness. All my offering for sin is in Christ.

And secondly, what is it to the Greeks? Moving on. Verse 24, verse 23, we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness. To the Greeks, to those that are wise in the things of the world, preaching Christ alone is foolishness.

This is because man by nature cannot discern spiritual things by outward intellect. You just can't do it. You can't learn Christ by philosophy. You can't learn Christ by academic study. You can't. Yet this is how most men view that you learn Christ. You must learn Christ by academic intelligence.

This is why they spend so much time thinking about these deep theological questions when they had answered the most simple ones. And so men by nature seek to occupy their minds with intellect, philosophy, history, and politics, and they mix it with the gospel. This is what churches are made of. It's kind of a quasi-mixture between the Bible and psychology. The Bible and philosophy. The Bible and politics. The Bible and history. Why? Because this tickles the mind of the intellectual Greek.

But when the gospel is preached in its simplicity, in its singleness, they say this, there's got to be more. This is not enough. We need more. Christ is not enough. We need more. We say, yeah, Christ is good enough to save your soul, but it's not good to help the drug addict. We need a program for the drug addict. You mean the power of God in the gospel is not sufficient. You need psychology and psychiatry. Self-help and motivation. Oh, the gospel is not sufficient to motivate people.

It's not. It sure motivated the apostles to give their lives for the gospel. It wasn't psychology or group. They didn't have groups, self-help groups. Find me a self-help group in here. Find me one. where a bunch of men sat around talking about their feelings and talking about their problems and their difficulties. You won't find it. I'm sorry, you won't find it.

But the Greeks say the Bible and the gospel is not enough. I need these other things to help me keep me from sin. The Jews seek the law to keep them from sin, and the Greeks seek wisdom of man to keep them from sin. But what does the gospel say? It is the love of Christ that constrains us. If the love of Christ won't constrain you, you won't be constrained. I'm telling you that when our Lord came to the temple, that's what he found. He found things in the temple that weren't supposed to be there.

Money changers. Sellers of religion. Sellers of this. Sellers of that. You know what he did? He whipped them out. I don't do that, he does that. I'm not here to do that. But I'll tell you that his church is intended to do one thing, preach the gospel.

And to us who believe, to them that are of the world, it's foolishness. They need all these other things. Do you need all these other things? You that believe, are you content with your faith? I always want to believe more. But I tell you this, I don't want to believe anything else. I want more faith and I want more love, but I'm not going to get it by the things of the world, by the wisdom of the world.

The only way this comes is by the preaching of the gospel. Now then the last one is, this is the one that should interest us, the called, look at this, but unto them that are called. What is the preaching of the gospel to them that are called? Notice this, he says both Jews and Greeks. The elect are made up of both Jews and Greeks. We either were legalists or wise in this world. Until when? Until we were called. And when we were called, we abandoned our legalism. That's what Paul said.

All those things gained to me, I count as loss, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Is that what you want? You want the righteousness by the faith of Jesus Christ? I do. I only want to be found in that. Why? That's because you're caught. You were dead in sin just like they were. You see?

I'm not asking, I'm not commending men who are Jews and Greeks to come up with me. I'm commending them to come down with me. Because I'm not any better than they are. God didn't choose me because I was better. I was just like them. I was a sinner. When God calls somebody as personal, religion's always talking about the other guy. When God calls a man, he makes that man to see that he is the sinner, not somebody else. I was the Jew. I was the Greek. I was no better. I was of the same dead race as they were. I was just as depraved as they were. I was just as lost as they were until He called me.

It's the only difference. Remember what Paul said, who maketh thee to differ from another? That's why he said this. The called, both Jews and Greeks. Paul's saying we were like them. Until when? Until God the Holy Spirit called us. And notice the effect of the gospel upon those that are called.

Look, Christ. What is the center and sum of the gospel you love to preach and love to hear? Christ. Christ. And we find out something about Christ. He is both the power and the wisdom of God. By what power shall God forgive me of my sins? What's that hymn we sing? Nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ.

We found out that Christ's blood had power. All those blood of lambs had no power, but his blood. But this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down on the right hand of God, expecting to his enemies be made his footstool. For by his one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's power.

You know where power comes from? It comes from Christ. I'll tell you this, we experienced the power of God when He came in His Spirit and quickened us to life in faith. You want to know what power is? One day you are unbelieving and the very next you believe. That's power. That's not power of man's will, that's the power of the Spirit of God. Faith is the evidence of that power.

You believe today? Do you believe on Christ? I'm not talking to anybody else. I'm talking to you individually. Do you believe on the Son of God alone? Do you trust in His blood and righteousness without your works, without your obedience, without your wisdom, without your intellect? Do you trust Him alone?

That's the power of God. That's not the power of the preacher or the power of the hearer. That's the power of God. We find this at Christ is the wisdom of God. The wisdom that no religion in this world can answer. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? There's no way. Everybody who answers by works or by will, they're wrong. How can God be just and justify the ungodly?

Only through a representative man. You that believe. How did you become a sinner? You became a sinner by a representative man. When Adam died, you died. When he sinned, you sinned. The same way the believer understands he is made righteous by a representative man, by Jesus Christ.

You know what? And we don't want to hear anything else. Why? Nothing else matters. We look only to the substitute of Jesus Christ. So then we see the necessity of preaching, don't we? Why? God sent us to do it. God called us. It makes a division between men, those that believe it, and those that hate it. We know this. It destroys false religion just by preaching the gospel. And we know this. He calls those and saves it because that's the means he's chosen.

And when we hear it, You're either going to be a Jew, you're going to try to earn your way and look for a sign. And what's this gospel effect on you? It's going to be offensive to you. Is this gospel of election offensive? Is this gospel of perfect salvation offensive? Is the effectual call of the Spirit offensive? You're a Jew. You're a legalist. Well, is the gospel when it's preached to you, is it not enough? You need something new. You need something else. You're Greek.

But to us, we preach Christ because it is the only hope for my soul. My hope, we just say, my hope is built on nothing less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame or feeling or thought or experience. I don't trust any of that. But wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

What kind of hearer are you? If God has called you I tell you this, you should praise Him. You should magnify His name and honor Him, believe on Christ, love one another. That's what the gospel motivates me to do, to love, not to be in disunity, but to be in unity. I don't have to fake that. When God does it, you don't have to fake it, do you? I pray that God will bless this to you. I pray that you magnify This means that he is chosen by Christ, preaching Christ, always Christ, only Christ.

Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, dismiss us with your kindness and mercy. As we go from this place, may the word of God distill upon our hearts as the dew and the gentle rain on the tender herb. Give us grace to receive it, to believe it, to hold fast to Christ, not trusting anything else. I know in that there's peace. In that there's joy and contentment.

And forgive us where we fail you. Forgive us where we lean on the flesh the things of this world. Father, we are so prone to it. I pray that you would deliver us from it, keep us from it by the view of our Savior and Him crucified. We pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.

The reason and effect of preaching. 1 Cor. 1:21-24

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the purpose of preaching?

How do we know the gospel is the power of God?

Why is it important to preach Christ alone?

How does the gospel create division among people?

Why do some people seek signs instead of accepting the gospel?

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The reason and effect of preaching. 1 Cor. 1:21-24

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the purpose of preaching?

How do we know the gospel is the power of God?

Why is it important to preach Christ alone?

How does the gospel create division among people?

Why do some people seek signs instead of accepting the gospel?

Sermon Transcript

About Fred Evans

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