Thank you, brother. It's a real
privilege for me to be here with you, and I do thank the Lord for you, for this
fellowship. Am I speaking too loud? I'm not? I don't usually wear these, high
technology. But it's, I do count it a real privilege and
it's just a real joy to be here with you at this time and to
see everyone. And I do thank the Lord I thank
the Lord for you. Thank the Lord for this church,
what the Lord is doing here. What a marvelous work of grace. And thank the Lord for your pastor
and his friendship. And I do count each and every
one of you my dear friends. I want to ask you to open your
Bibles. why you're opening your Bibles
to 1 Corinthians. I do need to say this. I am so
thankful for your love, I guess, as I've said, your love and concern
for us, and we love you also, but your faithful support of
the work in Mexico over these 21 years, and we do look forward
to the times when you come to visit us, and it's a great privilege
and blessing to have you there. And to the church there sends
their greeting. The church in Merida, the church
in Yobaina, the church in Cancun. So they send their greetings.
I could tell you in Spanish. This morning I want to bring
a message from First Corinthians. And I pray the Lord will make
it a blessing to each one of us. The Apostle Paul, speaking
to the Corinthians, as he would speak to us, this church, we
are saved by the grace of God. Those who know the Lord Jesus
Christ are made partakers of the divine nature. We rejoice
And the Lord brought his love in our heart. And we would, if
we could, live without sin in this world. But we have this
battle. We have this constant battle
with the flesh. And the flesh raises up its ugly
head. in many different ways. And one
of these ways that it raises itself up is in envy and strife
division. And the church at Corinth, the
Apostle Paul writing to them, he said, I hear there's division
among you. I hear there's division. He said,
this is flesh. You're acting like carnal men.
or at the very least, like children, like babes in Christ. Because
when I came to preach to you, I did not preach myself. I hear
some people saying, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas, and
others saying, I'm of Christ. Paul said, what? Did I come preaching
in my name? Did you believe in Paul? Were
you saved by Paul? Did I baptize you in my name?
You know I'm paraphrasing, you know the text. I didn't baptize
you in my name. I'm not looking to seek followers
after myself, and no true preacher of the gospel is looking to seek
followers after himself. The Apostle Paul said, we preach
Christ ourselves, your servants, for Christ's sake. We don't preach
ourself. We preach the Word of God. The Apostle Paul says in verse
17 of that chapter 1, he says, for Christ sent me not to baptize.
I didn't baptize many of you. He mentions a few that he remembered. One he just about forgot and
said, oh, I think I did baptize family. But he said, I didn't
baptize. I wasn't sent to baptize. I wasn't
sent to make followers after myself. I was sent to preach
the gospel. the Word of God, the Word of
the Cross. And I didn't come preaching in wisdom of words. I came preaching the Word of
the Cross. The Word of the Cross is the
message God is saying to this world about who He is and about who
we are and about how man can be reconciled to God. There is no salvation apart from
the shedding of blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross,
the preaching of the cross. And this preaching of the cross,
men preach it in the ability and in the power that the Lord
gives them to preach, but they're always preaching the same message.
Some are like Apollos, who is an eloquent orator, did I say
that right? And others speak like me. But God uses His Word. God uses
His Word. And it says, For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. To those
who are not the people of God, the preaching of the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, they just do not hear it. They
just soon not hear. It's foolishness. But to those
who are the elect of God, to those that are saved, preaching
of the cross is the power of God. It's that message by which
God has given us life. And the evidence of that life
is the faith, the gift of God by which we lay hold on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. It's his
faith that saves us. We believe in him to be saved
by the faith or the faithfulness, the obedience of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Obedience unto death. But now
the apostle Paul is all the time is saying this, and I don't want
to forget saying it because I'm going through the text. You're
acting like children, he said to the Corinthians. You're acting
like children because you're divided over men. You're divided
over men about the way they say things. He said, for it is written. I didn't come preaching in the
wisdom of words because it is written. I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
God has determined that the wisdom of this world is He's going to
overturn it. He is going to overturn it. Man cannot understand, cannot
see the kingdom of God, cannot understand the word of God, can't
enter into it, with their natural abilities and natural understanding.
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. He's quoting from Isaiah 29,
verse 14. God has determined that if I
could, by reading the Scriptures, or any man, by reading the Scriptures,
simply reading them, as if that was a formula to put
you into the kingdom of heaven. I dare say we would have everybody
reading it, wouldn't we? We would have everybody reading
it. But people read it all the time and do not understand what
it says. People read it all the time and
what they get out of it is recipes on how to, how to behave, how
to dress, how to eat, how to be a better husband, how to be
a better wife, how to enter into the kingdom, how to please God
by what you do. God is determined to destroy
the wisdom of the wise and to bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
prudent? Where is the disputer? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of the world? Hath not God made foolishness
the wisdom of the world? Religion, and that's all that
man can produce, is religion. Religion without the revelation
of Jesus Christ. The religion is darkness. It's
darkness. Without Christ, it is darkness.
There's no light. And the Lord said this, if the
light that be in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? If
that light, men know by nature there is a God. But the most
honest thing they could say is, I know there's a God and I don't
know who he is. That's the most honest thing
a person could say. I know there's a God. There's a conscience in
me that cries out, there's a God. But I don't know who he is. That
person has candlelight. And if you would walk in that
light, really be honest and say, I don't know who God is. If you
would walk in that light, God would give you more light. I
do believe. I do believe. But man says, I know there's
a God and I think. That's it. He's gone after his
own way. He's gone. When he says, I think
he's like this, he's gone after his own way. And God'll leave
him in his own darkness. Unless God in mercy brings him
out of that darkness and says, you stop thinking. It's what
God says. Stop thinking. Let the wicked
forsake his ways. The unrighteous his thoughts.
Let him turn to God. That's repentance. But anyway,
religion without Christ is darkness, not light. Natural men who think
they are wise can neither see nor understand the kingdom of
God, can neither see nor understand the message of the cross. It's
a mystery. It's a mystery. It has to be
revealed. And that is the mystery of iniquity
that is spoken of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The mystery of iniquity
is this. Men are religious and all the
time they're thinking they're doing a favor to God. And all
the time, all the time that they think they're doing a thing for
God, they're wicked. That's the mystery of iniquity.
The Lord said, many will come into that day and say, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied it? Have we done all these wonderful
things in your name? Look at all the good works we've
done. And the Lord said, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
I never knew you. I never knew you. Well, verse
20 of 1 Corinthians says this, Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish? That's the wisdom of this world.
For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. That's the wisdom of God, that
man cannot know God by their own wisdom. But notice this,
it pleased God. Boy, aren't we thankful for that.
God wanted to. It pleased God by what men call
foolishness, what the natural reasoning calls foolishness.
People that know you come and worship God and hear this gospel,
especially this gospel, it's the only gospel, they wouldn't
think you were foolish if you were going to these places where
they have you jumping in the aisles and doing all kinds of
good works and stuff, that they're doing something that kind of
fits with their understanding. But to come here and sit and
listen, sing, and then turn around and go out and come back next
week and do the same thing, you're not doing anything. That's foolishness. That's what they say. This is
foolishness. Because they can't see it. They can't see the Lord
Jesus Christ. They can't worship Him. But to
you that know the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, this is not foolish. This is food. This is rejoicing. This is comfort. It pleased God
that in the wisdom of God, man did not know God. It pleased
God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That is the means by which God
is going to call his people through the preaching of the gospel.
By God's grace, because of he commanded us, we're going to
go throughout the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
As much as he gives us the means to do so, the word is going out
all over the world right now. and especially over the internet. People see it all over the place,
and they hear. It's God's means by which he's
going to save his people. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified
under the Jews' stumblbach and under the Greeks' foolishness. But we preach Christ crucified,
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the message of Christ, who he is, is the power of God and the
wisdom of God. It was not only the power of
God to give us life, to give us faith. We see how God can
save sinners. God cannot And I say this with
reverence, but there's things that God cannot do. He cannot
deny himself. God cannot be contrary to his
own holy nature. God cannot overlook sin without ceasing to be God. In other words, God cannot let
sin go by without punishment, without ceasing to be God. He would cease to be just. But
we see the power of God. The wisdom of God to... I'm jumping ahead. The wisdom of God to place all
his people in one representative. Aren't you glad about the representation
of Adam? When Adam sinned, all that you
are a sinner in Adam. People say, I don't like that.
Oh, wait a minute. I love that. I love that. Because through one, Jesus Christ,
we're made righteous. I see the power of God, how that
God can be just and justify the ungodly in Jesus Christ. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews, a stumbling block unto the Greeks, foolishest, but unto
them that are called, both the Jews and Greeks, Christ, the
power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishest of
God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than
man. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise, not many after the flesh, not many Mighty,
not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
God hath chosen gay, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence."
Now here's the, I've gotten to the message now. Here's what
God has chosen. It is determined that no flesh
should glory in His presence. The Apostle Paul is saying, I
hear there's division among you, because one says, I'm of Paul,
one says, I'm of Apollos, and one says, I'm of Peter. God has
determined that no flesh should glory in His presence. And you're
glorying in men. You're fleshly. That's what he's
saying. Glorion in man is fleshly. It's pride. You know, people
like to be puffed up. I like what you said at the beginning.
I don't like to brag on people. That's good. If there's anything
in me or anything in this man or anything in that man worth
saying, God did it. Is that not so? It's God that
did it. no flesh and glory in His presence. But notice the word, but of Him. It's but of Him. In other words,
you didn't believe the gospel because you heard the Apostle
Paul declare it. You didn't grow in grace in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ because you heard the eloquence
of Apollos. You're not founded and rooted
because you're hearing Peter preach. You're born of God because
God chose you. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. Of God, He gets the glory. I
was going to save this illustration for later, but I'm going to say
it right now. This is a beautiful pulpit here. But we could have
any furniture, this desk, down front, any of the pews. And you
say, that's beautiful. And I say, I agree, it's beautiful.
But here we have the desk or table. And over here we have
a hammer and some saws, and some wood, or just the instruments. And
if the table could talk, or if this pulpit could talk and say,
I'm of the hammer. I know this is going to sound
funny and stupid, but that's exactly what, can I use that
word? This part of the wood says, I'm
of the saw. And this one says, well, I'm not of the hammer,
I'm not of the saw, I'm of the sandpaper. You'd think, well,
that sounds silly. That sounds foolish. What are
these? If it could talk. That's exactly... The hammer didn't do it. The
hammer's an instrument. The sandpaper didn't do it. It's
an instrument. You see? Even the boards themselves. I'm of oak. I'm of pine. Even the boards themselves didn't
make themselves. But of the carpenter are you
in this pulpit. In other words, who is it that
puts you in Christ? Who is it that establishes you
in Christ? We're just instruments. You didn't
even put yourself in Christ. So you can't glory in yourself
as if you had some superior nobility or thoughts and capacity to understand. You didn't do it. God put you
in Christ Jesus. Before the foundation of the
world, God chose his people, not because he saw there was
some value in them. You think, well, this is really
pretty. It wasn't pretty at one time. It was gnarly. And God's people are sinners.
We all sinned and fell short of the glory of God. There's
none good, no not one, none that doeth good, none that understandeth. We all went astray in our Father
Adam, in rebellion against God and would not have God. But the
reason now you're in Christ Jesus, the reason now you love God,
the reason now you have You have the power to become the sons
of God. God puts you in Christ. That's why. In election, God
puts you in Christ by faith. God puts you in Christ, gave
you to Him, and gave Him to you. Of Him are you in Christ. That's the place of salvation.
It's not knowing about Christ. It's not knowing about Christ,
although we do know. Faith is not ignorant. We do
know. I know whom I have believed.
We know who Christ is. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
is God. We know this. But how do we know
this? We were placed in Christ. And
Christ is made unto us. When we were placed in Christ,
we were given to Christ into his hands. Christ is made to
his people. You see, they were talking about,
I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulist, making distinctions among men. I like
the way a Paulist talks and I understand him better. Well, if you understand
anything, it's because the Holy Spirit gives you understanding.
if you understand anything, is because you were placed in Christ,
and Christ is your wisdom. Christ is the wisdom of God,
and Christ has made unto us wisdom. Not that we heard it from a man
that spoke it in a certain way, or the Apostle Peter, Paul was
a studied man. He went at the feet of Gamaliel. But Peter was just a fisherman.
And those that were in the religious crowd, they recognized that.
And they said, these are fishermen. Where do they have this learning? Because they were confounding
them with the understanding of the Scriptures. Who gave them
that wisdom? How is it they could see Jesus
Christ? How is it that they could see
Jesus and say, this Jesus is the fulfillment of all that God
said in the Old Testament concerning the Son of God that would come?
And do it with such power that the Lord manifested His power
and people came. It wasn't because Peter was saying
it. It's because God put those people
in Christ, just like God put you in Christ. and gave you,
made Christ unto you wisdom. The Apostle John says this, we
have an unction from the Spirit, unction from on high. That is,
when God the Father gave His Son a people, we were given to
Christ. When we hear the gospel, when
God's people hear the gospel, when they believe, That's after. That's after the
fact that God already gave them life. That's after the fact that
God already gave them life. Ooh, I gotta hurry. We have an unction from the Spirit.
What that means, and we use this term, it resonates. You know, you have a tuning fork,
and whenever you, how does that work? I'm gonna talk about something
I don't know, but I've heard about it. You got a tuning fork,
and you bang it, and you put it up something, and when it
starts sounding, it corresponds, right? That frequency comes over.
I know a little bit, just enough to confuse everybody. But here's
the thing. The Holy Spirit, indwelling a
believer, gives testimony. This is the Word of God. This
is the truth. This is the truth. Christ in
you, the hope of glory, is that wisdom. Is that wisdom. God gave you wisdom. God gave
you Christ. Wisdom to know the true and living
God. That's why when you hear a lie,
you don't follow it. You don't follow a lie because
that's not it. That doesn't glorify my Father. That doesn't glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no resonance there. That's
not it. You hear works? Uh-uh. That's not it. Who gave you that? God gave you
that. The wisdom to know God. And we
know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding
that we may know who the true God is. There's a lot of false
gods being preached all over the world. A lot of false gods
being made up in man's mind. It's a factory of false gods.
Every thought and imagination of man that is not what God first
says of Himself is an idol. But of Him, don't rejoice in,
don't glory in men. Thank God he gave you the understanding. Thank God he gave you the wisdom
of Christ, the wisdom to be able to understand who God is, who
Christ is, how he saves sinners. Not only wisdom, righteousness. Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us righteousness. God has made us wisdom, in Christ
has made us wisdom to understand that the only justice that exists,
the only righteousness, that's what the word righteousness is,
is justice. God has made unto us Christ's
wisdom so that we know that the only righteousness that exists
before God is the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ did
when he was in this earth. He's the only one that has ever
pleased the Father. So that we're not trying to establish
our own righteousness before God. Our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. Who gave you that wisdom to know
that? To say, uh-uh, don't bring that. I'm not going to talk about
my righteousness. I'm going to talk only about
the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness. Who gave you that wisdom? Who
gave you that wisdom to Shun that. Boy, that's just up the
alley of a natural man. A natural man, you start talking,
you want to get on his good side? Start talking good about him.
Isn't that right? You want to start talking good
about him and his head just starts swelling. You know, before long
you have to put strings on him, pull him down. Head so big. Men
like that. But you start talking good about
a believer that it's not the Lord Jesus Christ working that
and he said, wait a minute, that's not it. That's not right. That's not right. That's not
me. The grace of God in me. Who gave you that wisdom? The
Lord Jesus Christ. God made you wisdom to understand
that the only righteousness, that the only way that God could
See us righteous is by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
see in the Lord Jesus Christ not only how He's the only one
that fulfilled righteousness, established right doing, obeying
God's holy law here on the earth, but also He's the one that's
put away the sins of His people. All my sins were laid on Him. All my sins were laid on Him.
And I understand. I understand because Christ has
revealed this, that he has put away sin. He has honored and
satisfied God's justice. God's justice. Not only wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, sanctification. There's a group of people that
talk about progressive sanctification. You know that's not true. Progressive
sanctification? Anytime a person talks about
progressive sanctification, You know what they're talking about?
They're talking about going to the law. That's the only way
you can measure that, is by going to the law and say, well, I stopped
doing that. Checkmark on that. That's the
only way you could... God's people grow in the grace
and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but our sanctification
is complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ,
he has with one sacrifice perfected forever them that are sanctified,
those chosen people. One offering. He put away their
sins and made us saints, made us holy, made us holy. Jesus Christ is our righteousness
and our sanctification. That is to say, this is not a
cooperation. That's another. People that talk
about progressive sanctification, people talk about cooperation
or collaboration with God. You know, we do some works to
help out. Christ is our wisdom to know
that in Christ Jesus we are complete. The Apostle Paul warns the Colossians
of this and says, don't be beguiled, don't be deceived. Men bringing
in these messages, the problem is they're not rooted and grounded
in Jesus Christ. I'm going to have to read it. It's Colossians chapter 2. He said, Beware lest any spoil
you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of
men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
For in Him, in Christ Jesus, dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in Him. There's nothing lacking. The
wisdom of God teaches us there's nothing lacking. We're complete
in righteousness. We're complete in sanctification. Oh, and here's the last one here.
We're complete in redemption. Oh, my, what a wonderful thing.
Christ Jesus has made into us redemption. We have the wisdom
of God know that this is not our world. This is not our home. When Christ redeemed his people,
paid for all their sins and set us free. But listen, are you
free from sin right now from the actual practice of sin? No. But one day you will be. How is that? Do you have the
wisdom to know that that's when Christ comes? It's not going
to be right here. In this flesh, there's no good thing. While
we're in this world, We're going to battle. Apostle Paul said,
I wrestle. Wrestle. Battle. I have this
continual conflict. The flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh. There's no end to this battle. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
redeemed his people, he redeemed us from the curse of the law.
He redeemed us from the power of sin. One of these days he's going
to redeem us from the very presence of sin. He redeemed us, not only
our soul and our spirit, but our body. We know this. Christ has made unto us wisdom.
We're waiting for that day when he comes back. When he comes
back and calls all his people. to be risen from the dead in
a glorified body like unto his body. Oh, what will that day
be? See who you're supposed to be
glorying in? See who you're supposed to be glorying in? It's crazy
for a desk to be thinking, well, I'm of the hammer. foolishness. It's like children. It sounds like a children's tale,
doesn't it? Well, that's what it sounds like when God's people
start glorying anybody that's not the Lord Jesus Christ. As it is written, let him that
glorieth glory in the Lord. May the Lord bless this word.
Thank you, brethren, for your friendship. I thank the Lord
for you, and I thank the Lord for your friendship, but I thank
you for putting up with me. When by the grace of God, we
are enabled to see that of God are we in Christ. How mysterious
that I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ, that I've always been in Christ.
There's never been a time when I wasn't in Christ. Who in the world can explain
something like that? Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. And this is what I want to hear
every time I hear the gospel preached. I need to be reminded
of this. Christ is my wisdom. Christ is my personal righteousness. Jesus Christ Himself is my holiness. Somebody says, are you holy?
Well, is he? Yeah, he is. Me too, then. He is my redemption. He is my complete sin payment. He is my final deliverance. And
whenever you are reminded of that, what I like about that
the most is it takes all the pressure off. All the pressure. All you got to do is rest. Isn't
that glorious? Somebody says, well, that kind
of thinking will lead to no activity. Good. Best thing for anybody
in here is to quit doing stuff and look to Christ alone. May God enable. I said that I said what I said
without apology. The best thing that could ever
happen to me or you is for us to quit doing stuff. and look
to Christ alone. Thank you for that message, brother.
Let's pray. Lord, we confess of you are we in thy
blessed Son And Lord, we confess that He
is our wisdom to where you and your infinite wisdom can have
fellowship with such who are wise in your Son. And Lord, we
confess He is our righteousness. We confess He is our holiness.
We confess He is our redemption. Lord, I ask in His name that
we, every one of us, might be enabled to glory in Him. In His blessed name we pray.
Amen.