Paul said that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now,
you'll notice the praise, your faith. Everybody I'm talking
to, you have faith. You have some kind of faith,
some kind of belief, some kind of conviction. Everybody in this
room has some kind of faith. Even an atheist believes that
there is no God. He believes something, doesn't
he? He believes that there is no God. Now, where does your
faith? You have faith. You have some
kind of faith. And our question for this evening
is, where does your faith stand? Where does your faith find its
existence? What is the origin Of your faith. Now, there can only be one of
two answers. Your faith, the faith that you
possess either stands in the wisdom of men. Or in the mighty
power of God. Now, if it stands in the wisdom
of men. Man's ability to persuade you. To talk you into it. To educate
you. or even intimidate you, if your
faith stands in the wisdom of men, if that's where it came
from, it will not save you. But if your faith stands in the
mighty power of God, if that is the origin of your faith,
you will be saved. Now, the faith that finds its
existence in the wisdom of man is not saving faith. Now, I wonder if anybody wonders,
how can you have faith and not be saving? Well, if you wondered
that, that's a good question. Well, I can answer that. Because you may have the wrong
object to your faith. You see, I want to be careful
the way I say this, because the Lord does say, Thy faith has
saved thee, and that's a good way to say it. The Lord says
that. Go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole. There's no salvation
apart from faith. But understand this also, strictly
speaking, it's not your faith that saves you. It's Christ,
the object of your faith, that saves you. Faith believes that. Faith didn't die for my sins. Christ did. Faith didn't keep
the law for me. Christ did. Faith didn't give me a new heart. Christ did. Christ saves. Faith believes that, that if
Christ is not the object of my faith, I've got the wrong object,
and that kind of faith Will not save me. You see, it's the object
of faith that saves. Now, where does your faith? You have some kind of faith.
Where does your faith find its existence? Does it find its existence
and origin in man's wisdom? Were you persuaded by men? Convinced even by men or intimidated
by men? Reasoned into it by man's rhetoric,
emotional appeals, manipulation and philosophy? Were you talked
into it by a captivating and skilled speaker? Or does your faith, the faith
that you have, find its origin and existence in the mighty power
of God? In verse 1 of 1 Corinthians chapter
2, Paul says, And I, brethren, when I came to you. And he's
talking about his first entrance into Corinth when he first came
and preached the gospel to them. He said, I came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
Now, first, he reminds them how he did not come to them. He did
not come with excellency of speech. Now, what does he mean by that?
Wouldn't you rather hear someone who's an excellent speaker than
a poor speaker? Of course you would. Wouldn't
you rather hear someone who speaks well as hear someone who fumbles
in their speech? Well, of course you would. All
of us would prefer hearing an excellent speaker in that sense,
but that's really not what Paul is talking about. He's not talking
about speaking ability here. This word excellence, what he
means is, And here's what the word actually means. It means
a false sense of authority. Your authority is not in what
you say, but how you say it. And that's what he's talking
about when he talks about excellency of speech. I didn't come with
a false sense of authority trying to convince you that what I'm
saying is true by how I'm saying it, rather than what is said. I didn't come with excellency
of speech or of wisdom. He's talking about man's wisdom,
man's attempt to make the gospel appealing to the flesh, dressing
it up in the culture of the day. Now that's what all seminaries,
a guy goes to seminary. And he studies how to present
the gospel in such a way as the culture of that day will be more
likely to receive it. Different ways to package the
gospel, different ways to bring it to the people so they'll be
able to believe and receive. It's easier to believe that way.
Now, Paul said, I didn't come that way. Look what he says in
verse 17 of chapter one. We've already seen this in the
last few weeks. For Christ sent me not to baptize, But to preach
the gospel, not with wisdom of words. Lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. Now, Paul says, if I came dressing
it up with the wisdom of words, trying to package it to make
it appealing to the flesh. That's what he's talking about.
Trying to present it in such a way as, well, that's practicability. Paul says, if I do that, I make
the gospel of none effect. I deprive it of its power. There's
no truth to that. God doesn't use that. He only
uses his truth, not our ability to dress it up. Now, Paul said,
when I came to you, I didn't come with excellency of speech
or wisdom. Now, I kind of think that Paul
was probably a pretty good speaker, don't you? Maybe he wasn't. It doesn't really matter whether
he was a good speaker or he wasn't. What matters is what he said.
And he says, I didn't come with this excellency of speech or
wisdom. Here's what he came doing. Declaring to you the testimony
of God. And that's how he came into Corinth. He came declaring. That word
declaring means literally to report down. He wasn't trying
to win them over. He wasn't trying to make what
he was saying understandable. That's one of the things I personally
dislike about all these different translations of the Scripture.
It's man's attempt to make truth understandable. Now, you and
I can't make truth understandable. Only God can make truth understandable.
I'm just to state what God says and trust God to make it understandable. He said, I came to you declaring
the testimony of God. Turn with me for a moment to
Second Timothy, Chapter one. This is one of the most important
passages of Scripture in the Bible. I know there are a lot
of important passages of Scripture, but this one stands out as the
testimony of God, and it would do us well to diligently study
what this passage of Scripture has to say. Now look what Paul
says in verse eight. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord. This is what Paul came preaching
in Corinth, the testimony of God. Now he says to Timothy,
don't you be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according
to the power of God who hath saved us. Now here's God's testimony.
He saved us and he called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death. That's what he did on the cross.
He put death to death. And he hath brought life and
immortality to life through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Now,
you hold fast to this form of sound words. Now, there's the
testimony of God. And this is what Paul came into
Corinth preaching. He came preaching the testimony
of God. And verse 2 of our text, he says, I came declaring, reporting down
the testimony of God, and I made this my resolve, I made this
my determination not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My determination, my resolve
was not to esteem anything as important, not to preach on anything,
not to talk about anything, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I made it my resolve to preach
this message exclusively. Not occasionally, not 99% of
the time, but Paul said this was all I'm going to preach.
I will not speak or discuss or deem as important any subject
but this one subject, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I never will
forget one time reading a message by Charles Spurgeon where he
made this statement, one of the best statements I've ever heard.
He said, if we narrowed our preaching to nothing but the cross of Christ
and never said anything else. He said it would be a broadening
rather than a narrowing of our ministry. I like that. Paul said, I've determined not
to know anything among you say Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, if I preach only this, I
preach all the counsel of God. And I'm talking about me right
now, too. If I preach only this, if all I preach is Jesus Christ
that He crucified, I preach all the counsel of God. And if I
preach anything along with this, I deprive the cross of its meaning. And in reality, I preach nothing.
That's what Paul says. You reckon anybody thought, well,
that's awful. I mean, of course, you ought to preach the cross,
but if that's all we hear, You don't just hit one note all the
time over and over again. That could get old. Now, understand
this. When Paul says, I determine not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
he's not saying all I'm going to talk about is the physical
sufferings of Christ. That's not what he's saying at
all. He deals with everything in the Bible. But he's saying
that they can only be understood in light of Christ and Him crucified. Every doctrine, no matter what
it is, it can only be understood in light of Christ and Him crucified.
You take any doctrine in the Scripture. Let's begin where
the Bible does election. Is there any understanding of
election apart from Christ and Him crucified? Christ is called
the Lamb slain. Crucified from the very foundation
of the world, God's elect were chosen in Him and for His sake.
If we talk about redemption, it's his blood that puts away
our sins. If we talk about justification, his blood justifies. If we talk
about sanctification, being made holy, Hebrews 10, 11 says by
that one offering, we are sanctified once for all. We're made holy,
declared by God to be holy once for all through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. If we talk about motive for obedience,
here's the only true motive for obedience. Love to him who died
for me. Gratefulness to Him who died
for me. Whatever subject we're talking about, if we don't understand
it in the light of Christ and Him crucified, we really don't
have any understanding of it. And Paul said, I made this determination.
I wasn't going to talk about, I wasn't going to esteem anything
that's even worth mentioning. So Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ, that's who He is.
Jesus, the Savior, Christ, God's anointing, the God-man, the Creator. the Lord and Master, the author
and finisher of our faith, the author of the Scripture, the
God-man, Jesus Christ. You know, I love his name. I
love to repeat it. Jesus Christ. I love that chorus,
Jesus, Jesus. There's something about that
name, and there he is. Christ, God's anointed prophet, God's
anointed priest. The one who can represent me
before the Father of God's anointed King. I've determined not to
know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Him crucified is what He did. Now, the person and work of Christ
is all I'm to preach. That doesn't mean just having
a set set of phrases I repeat over and over and over again.
And you know, I say this, I sometimes preach into something that some
of you all have heard me preach. thousands of times. And that
can get intimidating. I mean, you know, I think what,
what can I, it's hard. It's hard. And I'm sorry if I
get into a rut and start saying things over and over again. And
I do it. I do it. Sorry. If you listen
to anybody that does that, that's just going to happen. And I want
to always be fresh. I don't want to just be giving
the same thing over and over again, but when he's talking
about this continual preaching of the cross, Christ and Him
crucified, understand he's not talking about just repeating
the same phrases over and over or even grinding out the same
doctrines in a dead and dry fashion. But he's saying every time I
preach, the cross is the central thing of what I'm preaching.
Now, when we preach Christ and Him crucified, we're telling
why I came and what he actually accomplished. And let me give
you some things the scripture teaches regarding why Jesus Christ
came and what he accomplished in coming. That's what it is
to preach Christ crucified. First, he was crucified. He died
on the cross because God purposed this to take place. Acts 2.23
says, him being delivered by the determinate counsel. And
for knowledge of God, you have taken with wicked hands and crucified
and slain. Now, he died according to the
purpose of God. Secondly, he died as a substitute. And, you
know, this this idea of substitution is becoming, I've been preaching
for, I don't know, 20, that sounds pretty good now, 27 years. Once
you go 20 years, I guess it sounds better. I've been preaching for
27 years, and I'm more enthralled and amazed by this thing of substitution.
He became, Jesus Christ became what I am, that I might become
who He is and what He is. Now that's what substitution
means. Isn't that glorious? He became what I am. 2 Corinthians
5.21 says He was made sin for us. Substitution. He was made
sin for us. Who knew no sin? That we might
be made the righteousness of God. in him. That's thrilling. And, you know, I understand why
Paul said, I don't want to preach anything else. Do you see such
glory in this message of Christ that you're really not interested
in anything else? You know, if you believe you
do, you really are not interested in anything else save this one
message. He died on Calvary Street to be a propitiation. That's
a big word, propitiation. What does it mean? He's a propitiation for our sins
and not priors only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
What does it mean? Well, when God sent him forth
to be a propitiation, God removed the reason for his own anger.
That's what propitiation means. It means God appeased himself. He removed the reason for his
anger, and God has no reason to be angry or mad at me. Now, you can think of all kinds
of reasons, can't you? You think of all your sinful thoughts,
your sinful actions, your sinful attitudes, you can think of well,
but do you know that in Christ dying on Calvary's tree, all
that's been taken away. God's propitious, he's not mad. He's not angry. I don't know
how many times, probably during the average day, you think that
probably the Lord's mad at you about something. And seeing displeases
Him, no doubt about that, but do you know He's never angry
with His people? He's never angry. He's always propitiated. Christ
Jesus died on the cross as an act of obedience. The Scripture
says in Philippians 2, He became obedient unto death. even the death of the cross.
That's why he died on Calvary Street. He did so as an act of
obedience to his father. His father said, Son, go let
them nail you to that cross. And he said, I'll do it. It's
an act of obedience. And then he died on the cross
to put away sin. I love thinking about this. Hebrews 9, 26 says,
For now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put
away by the sacrifice of himself. That means, when he said it is
finished, all my sin was put away. That's why he died, to
put away sin. I Peter 3.18 says, he died the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And, you know, that's what he
did in Calvary's tree. He brought me when he died on
Calvary's tree, when he was raised from the dead, when he ascended
back up to the Father. You know what he did? He brought
every one of his people to God. Galatians 1.4 says he died to
deliver us from this present evil world. And you know what?
I was thinking about that, you know, he died to deliver us from
this present evil world. And I was asking myself the question,
am I delivered from this present evil world? Yes. Yes, I am. And do you know that
I can say honestly, I see this world for what it is. It's evil. And I'm not of it. This world
really is not my home. I'm passing through. Now, I enjoy
life, don't misunderstand me. I enjoy life and I'm thankful
for the blessings of life. But I'm also looking forward
to getting out of here and being in the immediate presence of
Christ Jesus. I'm looking forward to it. I've
been delivered from this present evil world. This world really
is not my home. I'm looking at a bunch of people
who really feel that way. This world is not my home. Being
in the presence of Christ is my home. Titus chapter 2 verse
14 says he died to purify himself of peculiar people, zealous of
good works. That was his purpose in dying,
to purify him of himself, a peculiar, a purchased people, a different
people, zealous of good works. Now, do I feel like I'm full
of good works? No, I don't feel like I'm full
of good works. Neither do you. But I tell you what I want to
be. I'm zealous of good works. And you are too. We want to honor
the Lord Jesus Christ in our life, in our conduct. Don't you
want to honor him in all aspects? And you hate yourself when you
don't, in the ways that you don't, but you're zealous. of good works. Romans, here's the last one I
want to give you. Romans 14, 9 says, For to this end Christ
both died and revived, that he might be Lord, both of the dead
and the living. That's why he died, that he might
be Lord. Now, he already was Lord, yet he had to go to the
cross to earn the right to be Lord. And he earned the right
to be Lord. Paul said, I made this my resolve,
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Do you personally see in Jesus Christ and Him crucified that
which makes you uninterested in all else? Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified to me. and I unto the world. Back to our first Corinthians
2 verse 3. Now Paul says, and I was with
you in weakness. Now, when I first came to you,
when I came preaching the gospel to you, I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. Now this is in contrast to the
excellency of speech and wisdom he spoke of when he said, I didn't
come with excellency of speech or wisdom. I came to you in weakness. Conscious. Terribly conscious. Of my own weakness. And my own
inability to make my preaching effectual to you. No, I am so
aware that my preaching will not do anybody any good unless
God is pleased to bless it. I really believe that with all
my heart. I'm conscious of my own weakness. Paul said, I came
with weakness and I came in fear. The fear of God, the fear of
misrepresenting God, the fear of what will happen to those
who reject the message, the fear of what will happen to me if
I don't declare the message. You know, Paul did say, woe unto
me if I preach not the gospel. You know, I'm still scared. And
that's it. I mean, I'm not I don't have
a cocksure, arrogant attitude about this. I'm afraid of misrepresenting
God. I don't want to do that. I come
in weakness, conscious of my own weakness. And I'm scared
of God. I'm scared of misrepresenting
the truth. I don't want to do that. And
I better keep that kind of fear. And any time I lose that kind
of fear, I'm in trouble. He said I came in weakness. I
came in fear. And I came in much trembling,
not some arrogant, self-confident attitude, but in weakness and
fear and much trembling. And that is the way a true preacher
preaches. Not with some kind of false sense
of authority. But in weakness. And in fear. And in much trembling. Wash your
cup at your prayers. I hope you hold me up before
the throne of grace. Ask the Lord to enable me to
be faithful to preach the gospel. Faithful to his word. Faithful
to the souls of men. And I tremble at the thought
of not being faithful. And that's the attitude I ought
to have. Weakness, fear, and much trembling. Now look at verse four. He said,
In my speech, and my preaching. Now, that word speech is the message. It's actually the
word that's generally translated, the word, my doctrine, my message
and my preaching. That's the act of delivering
the message. My message, my doctrine and my
preaching, the act of delivering the message was not with enticing
words of man's wisdom. When you put bait on a hook. You're covering up the hook so
the fish won't see it. And you're trying to entice that
fish to bite that hook. That's enticing words. And here's an illustration of
enticement. What does a prostitute do? A prostitute seeks to make themselves
very appealing to the flesh, don't they? They seek to dress
themselves up and paint themselves up in order to entice. Now, Paul uses this word enticement
to illustrate what a false prophet does. He said, I didn't come
to you with enticing words, trying to dress something up in order
to make it appealing. God forbid that I do that. that
I try to make the truth appealing to the flesh. If I do, I deprive
the message of its power. And Paul said, I didn't come
to you with enticing words of man's wisdom. All I did was tell
the truth and leave you alone. Notice what he says in verse
four. My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom. But in demonstration of the spirit
and of power, Paul is saying all I did was tell the truth
and leave you alone. Totally dependent upon the spirit
of God to bless his word. That's the way the gospel is
to be preached. And to preach the truth, declare the truth,
tell what God says, how he saves sinners, who Jesus Christ is.
I'm to present the truth and then leave you alone. Not an
indifference. I'm not talking about not caring
about your soul, not caring about whether anybody believes it or
not, but I am saying I'm to tell God's truth and leave you alone. Only God can apply his word to
you. I can't. demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, looking to the power of God to bless
His own Word. Not by might, nor by power, but
by my Spirit, saith the Lord. I'm not trying to talk you into
believing. I know only the Spirit of God
can enable you to believe. So he says in verse four, in
my speech, in my preaching, when I first came to you, it was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit. and power, that your faith should
not stand, should not find its existence, should not find its
origin in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now, Paul says, here is why I
preach this way. Here is why I came this way. So your faith wouldn't stand
in man's wisdom. but in God's power. Now, if I
do use enticing words of man's wisdom, if I've won you over
by manipulation, by emotionalism, by intellectualism, by powerful
rhetoric, do you know where your faith finds its existence? In
the wisdom of men. That wisdom that doesn't know
God. But in simply declaring the truth as a witness Now when I preach, I'm not trying to get you to
believe. I want you to believe. I desperately want you to believe.
I want you to believe what I'm saying, but I'm not trying to
get you to believe. I'm not trying to talk you into
anything. I'm declaring that which I know. I am a witness,
an eyewitness to what I'm saying. I'm not just trying to Talk anybody
into it. You know, when a witness is called
to the stand, is he trying to get somebody to believe? What
is that? No, he's simply declaring what he's seen, what he knows. The Lord said, we speak what
we know and we testify to what we've seen. I know the Bible
is the word of God. I know that God is God and is
in absolute control. I know men are dead in sins.
I know salvation is the work of His grace alone. I know the
blood of Christ is effectual, saved everybody He died for.
I know anybody who believes will be saved. I'm speaking what I
know as a witness. I'm not giving second-hand information.
Do you know you just can't preach what you haven't experienced
any more than you can come back from a place you've never been?
I'm not getting second-hand information. I can't prove that to you, but
I don't need to. I don't need to. I'm speaking as a witness.
I'm declaring the truth. And I call for a verdict. Now,
let me repeat, that doesn't mean we are indifferent about whether
anybody believes, not at all. But I do know this, the only
way you'll believe is if God causes you to. And I leave it
there. Psalm 1, 10, 3 says, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. And you know what
takes all the pressure off me? I can't make anybody believe.
I can't make myself believe. But God can. And God does. And that's exactly what he does.
And that's my confidence in preaching. I preach the gospel. I declare
what God says in his word. And I know that God will take
care of of the results. His people will be willing in
the day of His power. Now, Paul said, I preach this
way that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God. Now, here's the truth. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, that's the truth. That's
the truth of God. That's the truth of who He is.
That's the truth of how He saves sinners. I declared the truth,
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I see such glory in this
message that I'm not interested in preaching anything else. And
I know that in preaching that message, God will honor it and
cause his people to believe. Do you believe? With the faith that
you have, if you believe, you know where it came from. It came
from the power of God. You don't believe your faith
came as an act of your free will or because somebody talked you
into it. You know, if you believe that your faith is the gift of
God's grace, it came to you from the mighty power of God. Now, I repeat that. I. I'm giving a report. Believing
what I'm saying. Loving what I'm saying. I'm loving
you enough to leave you alone in God's hands, and I trust Him
to bless it. That's what Paul is saying. Now,
I want to close by looking at a couple of scriptures in 1 Thessalonians. Would you turn to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1? Look in verse 4. Paul says, knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election of God. That's a strong statement, isn't
it? He says to the Thessalonians, I know your elect. How do you know, Paul? For our
gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power and in
the Holy Ghost. And in much assurance. Now, let me remind you, he says
it came in much assurance. He's not saying assurance. It's not a reference to assurance
of salvation, although every believer ought to have assurance
of salvation. But that's all he's talking about. When he says
it came in much assurance, he means you were assured this is
the truth. This is God's message. This is
the truth of Scripture. And look over in First Thessalonians,
Chapter 2, verse 13. For this cause also, thank we
God, without ceasing, because when you received the word of
God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of
men, man's opinion, this man's view
or that man's view, this church's or this denomination's view,
you didn't receive it that way, but as it is in truth, the word
of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. And where does your faith find
its origin? Well, if you've got saving faith, you know where
it came from. The mighty power of God. Let's pray together.