In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1,
Paul begins, 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, right off at the beginning
of the verse, there's such a clear indication of how the town of
Corinth and certainly the believers in Corinth were blessed of God,
because Paul says, I came to you. Well, why did he come to
them? Because he was sent. How should
they preach except they be sent? And God sent his preacher to
this town to preach, to preach the gospel. And he tells them
how it is, how he preached the gospel. His purpose was to declare
unto them the testimony of God. The testimony of God is the whole
gospel. He came to preach God's grace. God's mercy, God's sovereignty. He came to preach God's holiness
and His love to sinners in Christ. He came to preach the testimony
of Christ, who He is. He's the God-Man. He came to
preach the Sonship of Christ, the Deity of Christ. He came
to preach the righteousness of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ. He preached the success of the
sacrifice of Christ. He preached the second coming
of Christ. He deals with the second coming
of Christ here in this letter. He came to preach what the gospel
has to say about man, about you and me. That we're totally depraved. Totally. That sin is mixed in
and sin pollutes everything we do. He came to declare that the
only hope we have of salvation is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So you come to Him. That's the command of the gospel
He came to preach. You come to Christ. Come to Him.
Find in Him all you need. And for them to believe that
message, that testimony of God that Paul preached, that message
is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And Paul's purpose was
to preach the gospel in simplicity. Clear, simple language. He didn't
use big words to try to impress people. He didn't use great human
logic that the smart people of that town would have been impressed
with. Paul could have done that. He had the mind and the education.
He could have impressed the minds of the educated people there,
but that's not what he did. He didn't impress people with
his knowledge of science and mathematics and history and the
languages and so forth. He could have done that. Look
over in Acts 17. He had the background and the
education to do that, but that's not what he did. In Acts 17, here's Paul preaching
at Athens to the philosophers. He says in verse 27, that they
should seek the Lord. If haply they might feel after
him and find him, though he be not very far from every one of
us. For in him we live and move and have our being. A certain
also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring."
Paul could quote their poets. He was educated in these matters,
and he felt it was good to kind of use that in that situation.
But when he came to Corinth, that's not what he did. And I'll
tell you why. He didn't preach that way with
the abilities that he could have had to impress the human mind. Because divine wisdom, the testimony
of God is divine wisdom. And divine wisdom can't be decorated
and dressed up with men's words and men's logic. It's just declared. We don't need to put a human
spin on divine wisdom and divine power, the power and wisdom of
God, so that it will be effectual to men and cause them to believe
it. Just declare the power of God. The power of God will reach
the hearts of His people. Guaranteed, and that's why Paul
did that. He just in plain and simple terms declared the gospel.
And he says in verse two, for I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, like I said,
Paul was well educated and he could have had conversations
on a wide variety of subjects. And I'm quite confident all of
them would have been interesting because he had a great mind.
In over the 18 months he spent there, I don't know what all
of his personal conversations were like. I don't know that
he never, ever discussed other matters going on. But I do know
what his preaching was. I know what his preaching was
beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was Christ and Him crucified. That's all Paul ever preached. And no matter what city he was
in or where he was, his message was Christ and Him crucified.
Paul had one message. You know, growing up, I've heard
you heard this, too. He had just one string and he
harped. He plucked on that one string
constantly. But when we say that, Paul had
one message, just one string he harped on. That's more than
just saying over and over and over and over again, Christ died
on the cross, Christ died on the cross, Christ died on the
cross. That's not one string. The one string of the gospel
has many different tones. Many different sounds. And they
all fit together to make a beautiful, glorious message of Christ and
Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. I said
this a couple weeks ago. It's a whole lot more than just
repeating over and over and over again that Christ died on the
cross. Everybody knows Christ died on the cross. That's not
preaching Christ and Him crucified. Preaching Christ and Him crucified
is declaring what went on there at Calvary's tree. Who is that?
that's dying on Calvary Street. That's God's Son. That's who
it is. That's God's Son, His only begotten
Son. Well, why is God's Son dying
here? Why is He there? Because He's the only sinless
man to ever live. That's God's Son, yet He's a
man, a real man who lived a perfect, sinless life. And He's dying
there as the fulfillment of the picture of the Passover lamb,
the lamb who died, the lamb without spot and without blemish, whose
blood was shed, whose body was roasted with fire. And thank
God his blood was applied. You talk about Wednesday night,
John, the blood applied. It's got to be applied. That
sinless sacrifice, his blood atones for the sin of his people
and puts their sin away. His sacrifice as he's dying there
is enabling God to be just and justifier of all who believe
in Jesus. That's why He was there. Well,
what did He accomplish? He accomplished the eternal salvation
of His people, of all the people that the Father gave Him. He
made an end of sin and brought in righteousness for those people. That's what He accomplished.
Well, who is He dying for? He's dying for God's elect. All
those that the Father gave Him, all those who were given faith
to believe on Him, That's who he's dying for. Well, where is
he now? What happened as a result of
his death? Well, he didn't stay dead. He
died. They took a lifeless body down
from that tree and laid it in a tomb. But he didn't stay dead.
He rose again for our justification, and he ascended back to the Father.
And right now, this very second, is seated at the Father's right
hand, making intercession for us, waiting for the moment that
he'll come back. and gather all those that He
died for to Himself. That's Christ and Him crucified.
In a very short, condensed version, that's Christ and Him crucified.
That's a whole lot more of Christ died on a cross, isn't it? Christ
and Him crucified. That's Paul's message. And by
God's grace, that's our message. Now he goes on, verse 3, he says,
while he was there with them, preaching this gospel, he says,
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
Look over at 2 Corinthians 10. We get an idea here of what this
weakness he's talking about is. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 10. For his letters, say they, are
weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his
speech contemptible. Apparently, Paul was a small,
weak-looking man. His bodily presence is weak.
His speech is contemptible. He didn't have a strong voice,
probably a squeaky, high-pitched voice. And he looked weak. They say that he's weak. He says,
I was with you, weakness, physical weakness. But also, I tell you,
this means that Paul wasn't with them exerting his apostolic authority,
the power of his apostolic authority. He didn't even take financial
support from these people. Now, he's there as the apostle
of God. God sent him there as his preacher. He wouldn't even
take support from them. Look over into Acts chapter 8.
Well, Paul is there with these people in Corinth. He wouldn't
take support from them. He worked to supply his own needs
and the necessities of those with him. Now, the church ought
not let him do that, but that's what he did. In Acts 18. I turned to Acts 8. Acts 18. After these things, Paul departed
from Athens and came to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named
Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife
Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart
from Rome, and he came unto them. And because he was of the same
craft, he abode with them, and he wrought, he worked, for by
occasion they were tentmakers, and all week he worked. Then
verse 4, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded
the Jews and the Greeks. But until the Sabbath day came,
Paul was working. He wasn't taking support from
the people at Corinth. He worked to earn money to supply
his own needs. So he's with them in weakness
and fear and trembling. Now I try to imagine what it
would be like to be the Apostle Paul. And I'll tell you quite honestly,
if I was the Apostle Paul, I'd be going around in fear and trembling
all the time, just, you know, with my personality. There's
a real fear and concern about what his enemies are going to
do to him, the bodily pain that they can cause, the things that
they can do to him. And that was commonplace for
Paul. Everywhere he went, this is the
situation that he was in. When he left the Ephesian elders,
he was going to Rome, he said, I'm going there knowing bonds
and affliction await me. But I don't think that's what
he's talking about here, the fear and trembling, fear of his
enemies, because look back in Acts 18 again. He had a promise
from God that he wasn't going to be harmed here. In Acts 18,
verse 9. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by a vision, be not afraid. But speak, and hold not
thy peace, for I am with thee. And no man shall set on thee
to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city." Now God
promised him no one is going to set on thee to hurt thee.
So what was Paul afraid of? Why was he with them in fear
and trembling? I don't know. This would be a
fact, but I'll tell you what I think. He was preaching. He came there
to preach. to preach the testimony of God,
handling God's Word. And there is a very real fear
that goes with handling God's Word because of the greatness
of what it is we're doing. Men's souls hang in the balance
on this gospel. What we're preaching right now,
men and women's souls hang in the balance. And if that doesn't
cause fear, in the heart of a man, you haven't seen the Lord. I
mean, there's fear. You're terrified of your own
weakness and your own inability. You're terrified of what would
happen if the Lord would leave you alone. Paul was with them
in weakness, in trembling, in fear. He's a real man. He wasn't They saw him as a real
man. He wasn't some extraordinary
superhuman and is with them in fear and trembling because of
the message he was preaching, of the Savior he was preaching.
In verse 4, back in our text in 1 Corinthians 2, he goes on,
he says, My speech, here's how he was preaching. He said, My
speech, my preaching, was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Now
Paul wasn't trying to impress anyone with his ability to preach.
His ability in public speaking. He spoke in plain language that
everyone could understand. No matter what your education
level was, you could understand Paul's preaching. And it should
be the same today. I'll give you an excellent illustration
of this. Recently I was speaking with
a pastor. He told me this story. He said a couple of weeks ago
he saw us preaching. I got done, and afterwards, like we do here,
everybody's milling around, talking. An eight-year-old boy in that
congregation came up to him. He said, Pastor? He said, I heard
you say that if anyone believes this gospel that you preach,
they should be baptized. The pastor said, that's right.
That's exactly what I said. He said, then I should be baptized,
because I believe. I believe what you're saying.
I asked him, what did you tell him? And he said, well, he said,
he said, I told him, I said, you pray about this. You keep
reading the Bible and you listen and we'll talk about it again.
He said, when the Lord calls, you'll know it. You'll know it.
And he told me, he said, my confidence in the gospel we preach. He said,
Lord may have revealed himself to that boy. I don't know. He
said, But if he did or he didn't, he said, I can't mess it up.
If God has truly saved him, he said, I can't mess it up by telling
him to wait. If the Lord saved him, he'll be here a few years.
We'll do this. And here's the point of that
story I was telling you. We hope that's the beginning
of real faith, don't we? We all hope so. But either way,
whether it is or it isn't, here's what I know beyond a shadow of
a doubt. That pastor's preaching is simple enough an eight-year-old
boy can still be sane. I'm convinced that's the way
our preaching should be. I'm convinced of it. That our
preaching should be simple enough that a child understands exactly
what we're saying. Because men aren't going to be
drawn into the kingdom of God by our oratory skills. I mean,
hopefully we can speak in complete sentences and words and so forth.
But our oratory skills and our logic and these things are not
what draws men into the kingdom of God. The gospel is believed. Christ is received by divine
revelation. Look at Matthew 16. It's divine
revelation. Matthew 16, let's look at verse
13. When Jesus came to the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah or one of
the prophets. And he said unto them, Now here's
the question. It's not to who do men say that
I am, it's who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered
and said, He didn't say, Well, we think. He said, Thou art. the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood, some man's oratory skills, some
man's ability to reason with you, hath not revealed that unto
thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And if we believe
the gospel, we believe and we trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's for the exact same reason, because the Father which is in
heaven hath revealed it. See, we don't have to try and
entice men down the aisle to make a decision. Now, we do command
men to come to Christ because that's the command of Scripture.
You come to Christ. But when a sinner does that,
when a sinner comes to Christ, that's the demonstration of the
Spirit and of power. Look over at John chapter six.
When a sinner comes to Christ, that's a demonstration of the
power of the God, the Holy Spirit. Our Lord told the Pharisees,
and this applies to all of us by nature, you will not come
unto me that you might have life. Left to our own devices, our
own nature, we will not come unto Christ that you might have
life. But look at John 6, verse 37. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. Well, who is it that's going
to come to him if left to ourselves by nature we will not come unto
him? Who is it that will come to Christ? We'll look at verse
44. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. That's the power of the Spirit
right there. Our drawing, the Father drawing.
Those are the ones who come to Christ. We come to Christ because
of the drawing power of God, the Holy Spirit. We're drawn
to Christ. Because we cannot go anywhere else. We'll say with
Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. You have the atonement. You have
everything I need. I'll come to him. That's a demonstration
of the power of the Spirit. Now, verse five, back in our
text. Here's why Paul's preaching was this way in simplicity, not
with his own, not with trying to get people to be impressed
with him. That's your faith. should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God. So here's why we don't try to
talk people into making a decision. If I convince you to make a decision
and then I fail and I fall, your faith's going to stumble. If
a man will convince you to do something, to follow a certain
way, to make a certain profession, and then he dies, he goes away,
then where's your faith going to be? It's going to waver. But
if your faith is in Christ, He never changes, and your faith's
not going to fail. Saving faith. Faith that saves
the soul of a sinner. True faith can only stand in
the wisdom and the power of God. And the wisdom and the power
of God is the message of Christ crucifying. Any profession of
faith, I don't care where it's found, profession of faith without
a vital living union with the Lord Jesus Christ is just dead
religion. I don't care how it's dressed
up. I don't care how long it lasts. I don't care how good
it looks. Any profession of faith without a vital union with Christ,
a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ is dead religion. It's just something that's standing
in man's wisdom, not in the power of God. But saving faith stands. in the power of God. It doesn't
fall. It doesn't crumble. It stands on Christ the solid
rock. Now, verse 6, he says, he's talking
about the simplicity of the way we preach the gospel. He says
in verse 6, though, how be it? We speak wisdom among them that
are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world nor the princes
of this world that come to naught. Now, we do preach the gospel
in plain in simple terms. But the Gospel that we preach
in plain, simple terms is higher than human wisdom can ever grasp. Ever. In plain, everyday language,
we preach a Gospel that is the most glorious Gospel, the most
glorious message imaginable. In plain, everyday language,
we preach a Gospel that the human mind cannot comprehend. It cannot
grasp it. Because the gospel can't be understood
with human logic. You know, there is a very clear
logic to the gospel, but the human logic can't grasp it. That's
why we leave human logic out of our preaching, because it
must be revealed. All the human logic in this world
will be impressive to the princes of the world, the smart, educated
people of the world, the powerful people of the world, but all
that is going to come to naught, nothing. But the Gospel is eternal. And the Gospel that's a mystery
to the human mind is the Gospel that we can talk about when God
gives life to a person. When God gives someone life,
we talk to them, we talk to one another about the hidden mysteries
of the Gospel. And they understand it. And they
believe it. We speak spiritual wisdom to
those who are mature, spiritually mature and well taught. Now,
we always preach the same message. We always talk about the same
things. But the perfect, the mature believer, they can enter
into those things more deeply. They can enjoy that blessing
even more. The baby in Christ enjoys and
loves to hear the grace of God, but the old believer in Christ,
the mature. They drink it deeper because
they've learned they depend on that grace even more than they
used to. They've grown and learned that they depend on it even more.
And we speak of things, doctrines, truths that are perfect. We speak
of redemption in Christ where not one He died for is lost.
It's perfect. We speak of the righteousness
of Christ. It's a righteousness without spot, without blemish,
that's freely imputed to his people. It's perfect. It makes
you perfect before God Almighty. It's a perfect righteousness.
We speak of the forgiveness of sins, and that's perfect. The forgiveness of every sin. Not just what we do, but who
we are. We speak of eternal life, life
that's perfect, that can never be lost. It's eternal. We speak
of mercy in plenteous terms. We speak of salvation that was
given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. It's eternal.
We speak the great mysteries of the gospel, the Trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, but one God. We speak of the
two natures of Christ, the God-man. A hundred percent God and a hundred
percent man. The God-man. The two natures
of a believer. The old man and the new man.
That's a mystery. The virgin birth. We speak of
God's love for sinners. Now that's a mystery. That's
a mystery. We speak of the election of God. God chose a people in Christ. That's a mystery. And the believer
is blessed by those things. joysome, understands them, believes
them. And the more we mature, the more
we grow in grace, the more we'll believe it. The more we'll be
blessed by it. And these truths are eternal
truths. Now, they're hidden from the
natural man. They must be revealed. They're
hidden in the Old Testament Scriptures. They're hidden in the types and
shadows and pictures of the Old Testament. But now, They're fully
revealed to us in Christ, fully open. And I was reading last
week about this phrase at the very end of this verse, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. Now, here's a
mystery. Before God ever created the world,
God ordained these blessings for our glory. Before God ever
created the world, God was thinking on His people. He was thinking
on you and ordained these things for your eternal good and happiness. That's a mystery. But I believe
it and I love it, don't you? Well, verse 8, he says, which
none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it,
they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. All the princes
of this world, Pilate and the Roman authorities, And mostly
who he's referring to here is the religious Jewish leaders
of our Lord's day. None of them knew the wisdom
and power of God. None of them. If they knew who
the Lord Jesus was, they never would have crucified him. And
the greatest testament to the fact that they did not know God
was they killed his only son. They tortured him and killed
him. In his outline on this Text, Fr. Henry said this, there's
no neutral state regarding the person and work of Christ. You
can't be Swiss in this matter. You cannot be neutral. You must
take a side. Either the gospel of Christ,
the gospel of Christ and him crucified is the power and wisdom
of God or it's utter foolishness. It's one or the other. There's
no in between. You must choose a side. Look
back across the page at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto
us which are saved, it's the power of God. It must be one
or the other, either foolishness or the power of God. One more
scripture, Matthew 12. Matthew 12, verse 30. He that is not with me is against
me. There's no neutral state. And
he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. You cannot
be neutral. You can't be Swiss in this matter. God help us. God help us to be
with Him in Christ. All right. Lord bless you.