I want to read verse 17. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 17, For Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach thee gospel, not with
wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect, powerless, void of ability. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name, that the gospel would be preached
this morning. We ask that you would deliver
us from the wisdom of words and that you would enable us to worship
thy son in the preaching of the gospel. Lord, we confess our
sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray for your favor toward us for Christ's
sake. We pray for this nation. We pray
that you would use this disease that's spreading for your glory.
We pray that it would be used to make people seek thee. We pray for our leaders, your
hand upon them. Lord, we ask that you would revive
these hearts and cause us to seek your glory above all things.
We ask that you would order our steps in your word and let no
iniquity have dominion over us. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now the Lord willing, I'd like
to spend the next two weeks upon this one verse of scripture because
it's so incredibly important. May the Lord be our teacher as
we consider this. Paul says, for Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now that is something
this religious world is ignorant of. We're here to win the loss
for Christ. We're here to see people saved. Well, I want to see people saved,
and you do too. I don't want to discount that.
I would love for the Lord to cause hundreds of people, thousands
of people in Lexington, Kentucky to be saved. Hundreds of thousands.
This is not talking about indifference about that kind of thing, but
the only way they will be saved is if the gospel is preached. Now, when he says, Christ sent
me not to baptize. He's saying Christ didn't send
me to see results. That's so important. Christ didn't
send me to see results, see people be baptized. Now that's not taking
away from the importance of baptism. Baptism is the believer's public
confession of Christ. When I'm baptized, and I love
the simplicity and the beauty of that ordinance the Lord has
given the church, when I go under the water, I don't put myself
under the water, somebody else puts me under the water and brings
me up. And it signifies my hope is union
with Jesus Christ. This is all my hope, that when
Christ lived, I lived. That when he died, I died. My sin was paid for. When he
was raised from the dead justified, I was too. Union with Christ. Now, I'm baptized confessing
my only hope is union with Christ. That's the only hope I have.
He was baptized too. And in his baptism, he was confessing
his union with me. Now in this thing of union, this
is so important, in this thing of union, He became what I was. Sin. That's so mysterious. That's just so mysterious, isn't
it? Amazing. He became what I was. That's
what scripture says. He was made sin. He bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. And I become who he is. perfectly righteous before God,
perfectly holy, united to him. Now that's how important baptism
is. Look in Matthew chapter 28. Verse 18, and Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, all power, Matthew 28, 18, all power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Look at Mark chapter 16. Verse
15. And he said unto them, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall
be damned. Now there are many who have used
this verse of scripture to teach that you have to be baptized
to be saved. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Was the thief on the cross baptized? No. That's easy to answer. He was nailed to a cross. He
couldn't be baptized, and he was saved. The Lord said, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Baptism doesn't save. What the
Lord is teaching is who is to be baptized? Every believer. Whoso believeth and is baptized.
What is the one requirement for baptism? Faith in Christ. That's the only requirement.
Faith in Christ. You believe the gospel. Now, if you were baptized before
you believe the gospel, or before you heard the gospel, it wasn't
baptism. It was some kind of religious
ceremony. Baptism is for those who believe the gospel. So when Paul says Christ didn't
send me to baptize, he's not in any way taking away from the
importance of baptism. But he is saying this, Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now I wanna talk about two things
in this lesson. First of all, this thing of preaching.
He sent me not to baptize, to get results, but to preach the
gospel. Look in Luke chapter four, you're
close to there from Mark 16, Luke chapter four. When the Lord
began his public ministry, He said, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me, first thing he says, to preach
the gospel to the poor. And when the Lord identifies
his public ministry, the first thing he speaks of is the preaching
of the gospel. Now, there has been a great attempt
to de-emphasize the importance of preaching. Notice I said the
importance of preaching, not the importance of the preacher,
but the importance of preaching. Now, one of the things that lets
you know something about this, this example is enough to show
us how religion tries to twist this. Who is the worship leader in
the average church? Who is called the worship leader?
The psalm leader. The song leader, that's when
the real worship's going on. The song leader. And they even
advertise, you know, we need a worship leader, you know, and
they send in your resumes for a worship leader, which I think,
that's one of the weirdest things I've ever thought about is somebody
sending in a resume to get a job at a church, and you're a worship
leader, you know, but that lets you know how wrong that is. You know, the singing is the
worship, that means the stuff we're doing, rather than hearing
the Word preached, God's Word preached. The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. He has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. We have plays, skits, films,
music. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1, back close to our text. A few scriptures I want you to
see. Verse 21, for after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom, by its own wisdom, by fleshly
wisdom, knew not God. You take all the philosophers,
Aristotle and Plato and Socrates and Demosthenes and all these
great Greek philosophers who were so intelligent, the world
by its own wisdom, Knew not God. Can't go any further than that.
What's it go on to say? It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. I love that term, the foolishness
of preaching. To save them that believe. And that's what the Bible says.
Titus 1.3 says, God has manifest his word through preaching. I couldn't help but think of
the Ethiopian eunuch when Philip said, do you understand what
you're reading? Now the average person would
have said, well, here's what I think. Or somebody would have
said, well, here's what it means to me. You know I despise that. I don't care, that's what it
means to you. What does it mean? That's the issue. But he said,
how can I except some man should guide me? Turn to Romans 10. Verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Then he asks a series
of questions. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they've not heard? You can't believe something you've
never heard. And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? I can't preach the gospel unless
God has sent me to preach the gospel. How can they preach except
they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet. I love the way it says feet,
not the faces. The feet. One foot, I mean, what? a foot
is the emphasis, it's not on the preacher. It's on the message
he preaches. It's not on the feet. You know, Balaam's ass will do. Balaam's ass preached the gospel.
And God can use Balaam's ass just as easily as he can use
anybody else. So this is not to put the emphasis on the preacher. It's not. I mean, you know, somebody
says, what are you going to do if this preacher's If this preacher
dies, well, the Lord will raise up somebody else. It's not hard
for him. I mean, this is not talking about the importance
of the preacher, but it is talking about the importance of preaching. How shall they preach except
they be sent? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. The preaching of the gospel. I love what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 9 verse 16. Woe unto me if I preach not the
gospel. Now let's spend the remainder
of our time thinking about this thing of the gospel. Christ sent
me not to baptize but to preach the gospel. Now don't miss that
definite article. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel. For it, the gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation. It's called over and over in
the scriptures, the gospel of God. I love that title, the gospel
of God. It's not man's gospel. It's not
the Baptist gospel or the Presbyterian gospel or the Catholic gospel
or the Methodist gospel or any other kind of man-made denomination.
It's the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, it's all the same. Christ is the second
person of the Blessed Trinity, and it's the Gospel of God. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The one
God, and this is known only by revelation, the one God in three
distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. And we need God in all three
persons to save us. I need God to elect me. I need
God the Son to die for my sins and put them away and work out
a perfect righteousness for me. I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me life, to birth me into the kingdom. I need God as he
is, as he reveals himself in the gospel. I love the way it's
called in Revelation 14, 6, the everlasting gospel. The eternal
gospel. God is eternal. I love the fact
that God never had a beginning, don't you? He's always been. Whatever he is now, he always
has been. And what he will be is what he
is now. He's the eternal God and the
gospel is eternal. It never had a beginning. It's
as old as God is. That's why Christ is called the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now, the gospel
of Christ is the gospel of who he is. He's the son of God. He's the
eternal son of God. The gospel is what he did. He died. He lived and he died. Now, the emphasis on his death
being if he lived and then just went back to heaven, what good
would that do me and you? Absolutely nothing. He had to die as the
sin bearing substitute. The gospel is what did he accomplish
by that death? If I don't tell what he accomplished
by that death, I haven't preached the gospel. He accomplished the
complete salvation of his people. And in preaching the gospel,
I say who he did it for. If I don't tell who he did it
for, I'm not really saying anything. Because if I leave that open-ended,
well, he died for everybody and some of those people are lost.
I've taken away from the message of the gospel. It's no longer
the gospel. I tell what he, who he did it
for, where he is now, seated at the right hand of God, ruling
and reigning. Now my dear friends, that is
the gospel. Now it's called in Acts 20, 24,
the gospel of the grace of God, the good news. Now remember gospel
means good news. Oh, I always want to hear it
as good news. good news to me, good news that rejoices my heart
to hear it. It's called the good news of
the grace of God. Now, when we talk about the grace
of God, remember, God's grace is not an offer. God's grace
saves. Most preaching presents it as
God making his grace available to you if you'll just accept
it. That's not preaching the grace of God. God's grace saves. By grace, ye are saved. Electing grace, where he chose
you. Redeeming grace, where he paid
for your sins. Justifying grace, where he makes
you righteous before God. Life-giving grace, where he gives
you life, births you into the kingdom. Preserving grace, where
he keeps you from falling. The only reason I haven't fallen
away and left the gospel is because I've been preserved by the power
of God. Glorifying grace, the gospel,
the gospel is the gospel of the grace of God. And then you read
in Ephesians 6.19 of the mystery of the gospel. The mystery of
the gospel. I love this. The gospel's mysterious. It's not something that I can
intellectually grasp. It's something that I believe.
It's mystery that we would have never known had not God been
pleased to make it known. Do you think you could figure
it out that God is one God in three different persons? I think
God is one God in three persons. I've got that. No, you don't
figure that out. The only reason you know is because it's revealed.
The great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. The
great mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory. The great
mystery of eternal union with Christ, the two shall be one
flesh. Speaking of Christ and the church,
this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. What about the mystery of the
great harlot in Revelation 17, 5, where he calls religion, human
religion. And some of you see this mystery.
I hope all of us see this mystery. It's something we wouldn't have
known had not God made it known. But human religion is nothing
more than a harlot trying to keep people from seeing the glory
of Christ. What a mystery. It's called the
gospel of peace. I love this. Name of the gospel? The gospel of peace. Christ made
my peace with God. And the peace that I experience
in my own heart is a response to His complete finished work
without any help from me. That's the only thing that gives
me peace. The gospel of peace. He, having made peace by the
blood of our cross. Ephesians 2.14 says He is our
peace. We read of the hope of the gospel.
Now, I love the way Paul said in Ephesians chapter 4, there's
one hope. There's one hope. There's not
two. There's not one A and one B.
There's one hope. My hope of salvation has nothing
to do with the strength of my faith, with the depth of my repentance,
with holy living on my part. And I want to have faith. I want
to repent. I want to be holy. I'm not discounting
any of that. But here's my hope. That when
Christ said, it is finished, my salvation was completed. That is the one hope. And any
other hope is a false hope. the hope of the gospel. It's called twice, the glorious
gospel. 2 Corinthians 4.4 and 1 Timothy
1.11, and that would be more accurately translated, the gospel
of the glory of the blessed God. Moses said, I beseech you, show
me your glory. And God said, I'll make all my
goodness pass before you. And I'll proclaim my name before
you, my attributes, which were all revealed in the cross. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. God says that's my glory. And
this is a declaration of the gospel, the good news of the
glory of the blessed God. Many times it's called the gospel
of the kingdom. I love to think of the king of
the kingdom. When you think of the kingdom, the first thing
you have to think of is the king, the king of glory. He's like
no other king. He's an almighty king. He's an
absolutely sovereign king. He rules over everything. His
dominion is everywhere. And whatever he wills is always
done. And it's good to have this king.
Not only is he all powerful, he's always good. Whatever he
does is good. Whatever he does is just. And
I love to think of the subjects of this kingdom. Revelation 17,
14 says, he is king of kings and lord of lords and they that
are with him. And that's the only place I want to be is with
him. They that are with him are called, chosen, and faithful. The gospel of the kingdom. And
we read this phrase several times in the New Testament, the truth
of the gospel. If it's not the truth, it's not
gospel. That's real simple, isn't it? If it's not the truth, it's not
the gospel. The truth of the gospel. I think
the most powerful way this is used is when Peter dealt with
this recently. He was fellowshipping with the
Gentiles and a bunch of people from James, the Jewish believers
came. Paul says he feared them that
were of the circumcision. So he got up from the table and
left and sat down with the Jews because he thought, I'm a little
bit more pleasing to God this way. And he was rebuked publicly
by Paul saying what he was doing was denying the truth of the
gospel. What is the truth of the gospel?
That Christ is all. Christ is all. You have all in
Him. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. I want you to see this. I want you to see them all, but
I don't have time to turn to them all in this limited time.
But Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13, in whom You also trusted. After that,
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel, the good news of your
salvation. The gospel, the good news of
your salvation. When you're saved, you find out
you've been saved. That's what this means. Whenever
you hear someone say, I got saved or you need to get saved, that's
someone who doesn't really understand the gospel. That ought to be
just struck out of our language. The good news of your salvation,
you find out that the Lord has saved you. Now, the gospel, is
the gospel most especially when it becomes my gospel. The gospel won't do me any good
unless it's my gospel. Now the gospel is my gospel. Many times Paul said according
to my gospel, the gospel that has saved me is the gospel that
I've just declared into you, your gospel. The gospel of election
by the father, redemption by the son, regeneration by the
spirit, the gospel of peace, the gospel of hope. the gospel
of the truth of God. Is this gospel my gospel? Is this what's good news to me
personally? Yep, it is. The gospel is my
gospel. Now, Lord willing, next week
we're going to try to focus our attention on what did Paul mean
when he said, not with wisdom of words. Okay.