So that verse again was 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 2, for I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And it seemed appropriate to
me, since I was coming to preach for the first time here at this
weekend conference, that I should adopt the sentiments of the Apostle
Paul as far as his visit to Corinth was concerned, and take that
as the same theme that I had when I came to Osset. I mean that as he determined
not to know anything amongst the Corinthians, save Jesus Christ
and him crucified, that that would be what I would also endeavour
to do, not that I am eager to compare myself to the Apostle
Paul. He was well qualified to engage
the Corinthians with excellency of speech and wisdom, being a
man himself of wide learning. But he chose instead in declaring
the testimony of God to restrict himself. to the clear and straightforward
presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Writing to the
Corinthians sometime after his visit, he draws attention to
this fact and he explains why he did so. He tells them, I determined. That is, the apostle came to
the Corinthians with a considered message. He prepared his message. This was not just spontaneous. He didn't just get up and say
a few things from the wide learning that he had or his experiences. He wasn't like an after-dinner
speaker. He came with a message that he
had prepared, that he had thought about, that he had considered,
that he was determined that he was going to convey to these
people. And he thought about that message
carefully. And settling on his subject,
he would not be diverted from it. Paul was a man with a mission,
literally. And such was the power of what
he had personally discovered in his encounter with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And such was the burden of his
calling to be a messenger of God's grace that he was determined
to preach only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in Corinth. came with this message. He came
with a purpose as well. He had an objective in preaching
Christ as he did. He was searching for the Lord's
elect. He was coming into Corinth, he
was coming into Greece, he was coming into Europe, and he was
searching for God's elect amongst the people of that city. He knew that that was what the
elect needed to hear. The message of forgiveness of
sin to bless them and to comfort their souls in this life's experience. He was ministering Christ to
God's people because he knew Christ alone can nourish and
satisfy the spiritual appetite of those who hunger and thirst
after righteousness. So Paul had one message, he had
one subject, and he had one purpose. And that purpose was to gather
and build up the faith of God's elect in the city. He tells them
in verse five, I determined to preach Jesus Christ crucified,
listen, so that your faith should stand in the power of God. And
I would like to notice this because Paul told the church at Rome
that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation. And of course it is. And Paul
tells us here in this chapter, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. converts are made when
they hear and receive the gospel as it is faithfully preached. However, let us remember this,
that introducing sinners to Christ for salvation is only one part
of the work of a faithful gospel ministry. The greater purpose
And the broader usefulness for the Church of God is to feed
the minds of the Lord's people with spiritual truth and to nourish
their souls with views of Christ. There is a sentiment around in
our society today that the gospel is just for unbelievers. That
couldn't be further from the truth. The gospel is for believers. The gospel is what we should
be eagerly looking for every time we come to the scriptures.
We want to know the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the apostle could tell His disciples that, whether they're
looking at Moses, or whether they're looking at the Psalms,
or whether they're looking at the prophets, or wherever they're
looking in the Scriptures, they all spoke of Him. This was all
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul
was determined to preach. Remember, he didn't come with
a New Testament to Corinth when he came to preach. He came with
the Old Testament Scriptures, and he preached the Gospel to
them from those Scriptures. The gospel of God's grace in
Jesus Christ crucified builds up the church. And we should
never, ever imagine that we've bottomed out our understanding
of the work of Christ. We will be discovering more and
more about Christ as the eons of eternity pass by. It is God's grace that is revealed
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is that grace
which strengthens our faith and enables us to stand in the power
of God, learning Christ and discovering the dimensions of God's love
by grace in viewing the Lord Jesus Christ crucified brings
meaning to our lives in a way unparalleled to anything
else in life. The Apostle Paul knew that. He
knew that it was Christ crucified that gave understanding to a
believer as to why and how and what to expect personally in
our own lives as we go through our experiences. The cross deepens
our understanding of God's purpose in redemption. The cross equips
the Lord's people to face the challenges that they encounter
in life. And knowing what the Lord Jesus
Christ suffered at the cross, what he endured,
how he died. These things help us to properly
interpret the world in which we live and properly understand
the trials that we have to face and the troubles that come into
our lives. So I've got five little lessons
that I'm going to bring to you today about what the Apostle
Paul was teaching in this ministry of Christ Crucified. And the
first thing is this. The Apostle Paul in preaching
Christ Crucified shows the true state of a man's heart. Man's heart contains within it
an inherent natural antipathy towards God. And that antipathy
dwells in the heart of every creature, every man and woman
born into this world. It's an opposition, it's a hatred
that exists because of sin. It's the legacy of the fall that
Adam had in the garden. and it afflicts every natural
born man and woman. So that the apostle could say
further on in verse 14 in this chapter, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually
discerned. There's an impossibility because
of nature, because of the condition of a man's heart. There's an
impossibility of being able to comprehend spiritual things. So they can hear the words about
Christ's crucifixion. They can have presented to them
the message of the cross, but there is an inability to understand
because they cannot discern spiritual realities. No part of man is
free to honour God. No part of man is free from the
corruption of sin. Our soul is sinful. Our flesh
is sinful. Our mind is sinful. Our will
is sinful. Sin has corrupted and ruined
every part of our being so that there is nothing good within
us. And that makes us enemies of
God. It makes us opposed to his will
and his purpose so that we have no desire to serve God and no
ability to do so. And evil actions, though they
vary in every individual, and you see this is one of the subtleties
even of man's apprehension of their own sinfulness, is that
we always find somebody worse than ourselves. so that we always
look at the next guy, we always look at the next person and think,
well, I'm not as bad as him. But you see, every part of us
is fallen. And while evil actions do vary
in every individual, the depravity of the human nature nevertheless
is entire. and everything we say and everything
we do and everything we think is provoked by sinful desires
and is tainted through our sinful flesh. So that the human condition
is both hopeless and helpless and Paul knew and understood
that. but he had a gospel. He had a
message that he was determined to preach, a message that contained
hope, a light in a dark place for both the Jew bound under
the yoke of law and the Gentile who were trapped under the idolatrous
superstitions of their own lives. And Paul carried a message to
Corinth, a message of grace and mercy founded upon the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another thing that the Apostle
Paul knew when he brought this message of Christ to the Corinthians,
and this is my second point, is that it contained within it
a free gift. It contained the gift of God's
grace. He says in verse 7, but we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. So this hidden
wisdom is the gospel of salvation which he preached, the gospel
of salvation by a crucified Christ. And he goes on, verse 23 and
24, to enlarge upon that. He says, we preach Christ crucified. It's a hidden wisdom. Unto the
Jews, it's a stumbling block. Unto the Greeks, it's foolishness.
but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. So here again, he's back
to preaching Christ crucified because all of the gospel is
bound up in what happened at the cross. Paul was never slow
to lift up salvation as the work of God's power and the product
of God's choice and God's work. He knew it from personal experience.
He knew how opposed to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ he was. He knew that his whole being,
his whole energy was directed against the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he knew that if it hadn't been for God's grace and God's
power, then he would never have been transformed. He would never
have been turned around and converted. Such is the helplessness, indeed
the antipathy, the opposition, the rebelliousness, that the
grace of God is necessary to bring around that transformation
in a person's life. So this wisdom of God declares
that before the world was made, God fixed a plan of salvation. God ordained the means of its
accomplishment by the Lord Jesus Christ's death. And the Lord
God identified the beneficiaries. And this Paul calls election
or the mystery ordained for our glory. God determined to show
mercy to certain individuals despite their fallen state. And this choice was completely
at God's will and discretion. It had no reference to anything
possessed or foreseen in the person, in the creature, It's
God's free and unconditional choice of certain people to eternal
life, to salvation out of the mass of fallen humanity. The third thing that the Apostle
Paul brought through this preaching was the efficacy of blood redemption. So he showed by preaching Christ
crucified the nature of man's heart. He showed by preaching
Christ crucified the necessity of grace. And he showed by preaching
Christ crucified, the efficacy of blood redemption. This was
the way, this was the means by which the Lord God would reconcile
a fallen people to himself. Paul knew the law. My, he knew
the law. He had been there for so many
years. He had laboured. He had worked.
He had studied. He knew all the commentators.
He knew all the interpretations. He could argue in the streets.
He would fight for that law. And then God changed him. Then the Lord Jesus Christ transformed
him. And he never went back to preaching
law as a way of pleasing God. He knew it had to be blood atonement. He knew it had to be reconciliation
through the death of Christ. So he preached the cross of Jesus
Christ as the only means by which salvation can be obtained. He
determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified,
for he knew that this message was the power of God. It was
a double-edged sword as well. He knew that there was an effect
would come from the preaching of this word. He says in the
previous chapter in verse 18, for the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. He knew that by electing grace,
those who were placed in Christ in that covenant of peace would
find him to be their redemption. So he says in 1 Corinthians 1
verse 30, of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This blood atonement, this work
of Christ on the cross has a particular reference to particular individuals. We call that limited atonement. And it describes the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. We don't call it limited
atonement because we are suggesting in some way that there is not
a liberality, there is not a freeness in that work. Indeed, there is.
But it is limited in the sense that it is granted particularly
to certain individuals. And this is the efficacy of the
gospel. And it shows that the Lord Jesus
Christ did not die for everyone on the cross. He did not die
for every single person who ever lived, as we are frequently told. but for those chosen to salvation
by God. Jesus Christ bore the sins of
the elect upon the cross. He carried the sins of the chosen
ones upon the cross and he suffered and he died in their place and
as their substitute. His blood purchased their redemption. It effected it, it secured it,
it made it real, it made it actual. He obtained their forgiveness. He reconciled them to God. This is the gospel and it is
the single message which the Apostle Paul was determined to
preach. And he knew that it had a promised
success. He knew that it would bring about
that which God had declared. He had confidence in the preaching
of that message. He knew that if he preached Christ
crucified, it would be sufficient to accomplish God's purpose of
salvation. So he told the Corinthians in
chapter one, verse 21, It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Believing flows from faith, and
faith is God's gift by grace. As Jesus Christ crucified, was
preached, God the Holy Spirit gifted faith to believe to all
whom the Father had chosen in election and all for whom Christ
died upon the cross. There was a continuity here.
There was a pattern. There was a fulfillment of this
process. The Holy Spirit convicts and
converts sinners while they are enemies of God And God's grace
is powerful and effectual to save and is applied by the Spirit. The Apostle Paul knew that. He
knew there would be success as a result of this ministry amongst
the Corinthians. Grace in the soul of a sinner
is a new creation worked by God without the help of man. It is the gift of everlasting
life. It is the product of a new creation
in the soul of the sinner. And Paul carries this message
confidently, knowing that it was both God's purpose and power
to save a people amongst the Corinthians. Our Christian experience in this
world, this society in which we are a part, shows us how the Lord is pleased
to bring individuals to himself. I don't know what the future
for this little fellowship here is going to be. But I do certainly
believe that the Lord hasn't established you here with a purpose
of preaching this same gospel that the Apostle Paul preached
to Corinth without the intention and the desire to accomplish
the same success as the Apostle Paul encountered in Corinth. That's the reason why he raises
up a witness. That's the reason why he gives
a preacher. Without a preacher, no one can
hear. If someone has to hear, he supplies
the preacher. so that the existence of a little
gospel fellowship is an extremely positive and potent thing. In your community, you will be
that witness and it will be a double-edged sword, no doubt. It will be the
fact that people will never say, well, I never had the opportunity
to hear. because the witness was made. But that's not the
point. The point is to gather in the
elect and to feed the people of God the truth through the
gospel. That's what you're doing here
in Osset. And I don't know how and when,
but I feel sure that there is a gracious saving purpose for
the existence of Hope Fellowship here in the village. The fifth
thing that the Apostle Paul brings to the fore in preaching Christ
is the true glory that lies before the people of God. Paul's confidence
in the success of the gospel extended from election to eternal
glory. He knew that all those chosen
by God, redeemed by Christ, and called in the new birth by the
Holy Spirit will receive glory in heaven. They cannot fall from
grace. They will persevere through trials
in this life, and they will receive the promised glory in the life
to come. God the Father will not lose
one whom he has willed to save. God the Son will not lose one
whom he has died to save. God the Holy Spirit will not
lose one that he has converted to save unto glory. He says in verse 31 of chapter
one again, 1 Corinthians, that according as it is written, he
that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Later on, he would
tell the Galatians in chapter six, verse 14, but God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. You see, there's glory in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our glory lies. That's where our hope lies. That's where our whole positive
approach to life in this world lies. No flesh can glory in God's
presence because it is sinful and corrupt. But the new creation,
the gift of grace, and those redeemed by blood shall have
glory as a gift from God. This was Paul's message, and
he was determined to preach it in Corinth to Jew and Gentile
alike. And as the Lord gave opportunity
and enabling, he brought that message to the people amongst
whom he laboured. He brought his gospel with conviction. He brought it knowing that it
would accomplish the purpose for which it had been sent. Preachers
who preach Paul's gospel continue to preach it with a determination
and a conviction, and we know that there is no other message,
no other gospel, because he says in Acts chapter four, neither
is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved. May the Lord give us all a sense
of the importance of the cross of Jesus Christ at the heart
of our fellowship, at the heart of our ministry, at the heart
of our own lives, and as a focus for our thinking. If we have
it right, if we have our understanding of the cross right, then everything
else in the Christian life falls into place. May the Lord bless
you today. Thank you for your attention.