Preaching With Power

I want to bring you a message
today on the subject, Preaching with Power. The Apostle Paul
wrote in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4 and 5, Knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not
to you in word only, but it came to you in power, in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance. I want you to give attention
to four important facts, which I believe contain the very heart
of the gospel message. To miss these four important
facts is to miss the gospel. With all of our religious zeal
and enthusiasm and ritualism, to miss these four truths is
to miss God's message for this generation. And that's how important
these four facts are. And I wish you'd take a pencil
and a piece of paper and jot them down along with the scripture
that I shall be giving you and study them later. Now the first
fact is this, there can be no saving benefit derived from Christ,
no God-given grace, no spiritual life apart from a living union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm not talking about union
with a church. I'm not talking about union with
a religious organization or doctrinal position, but I'm talking about
an intimate, personal, vital, living union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. There can be no benefits, there
can be no blessings, there can be no saving grace, there can
be none of God's mercy except through a vital, living union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Lord said in John 15,
verse 5 and 6, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not
in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather
them and cast them into the fire. This is a vine-branch relationship. Christ is the vine, we are the
branches. We derive all of our life, all
of our nourishment, all of our spiritual strength from him.
Again, he said, I am the head and you are the body. And then
Paul wrote in Colossians 1.27, the riches of the glory of the
gospel is Christ in you. That's the hope of glory, Christ
in you. And again Paul wrote in Galatians
4.19, my little children, I prevail in birth again until Christ be
formed in you. And then in 2 Corinthians 5.17,
the apostles said, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are passed away and
all things become new. This is the important thing.
Not to be in the church, but to be in Christ. Not to be in
a religious organization, but to be in Christ. Christ in you,
and you in Christ. Our Lord prayed in John 17, it's
called the priestly prayer of the Master talking to the Father. And he said in verse 20 through
23, Father, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word, or through their
preaching. that they may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be perfect in one. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. In John 14.23, Jesus answered
and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and
my Father will love him. Now watch this next line. And
we will come unto him, and make our abode with him, and in him. Paul writing about the believer's
life in Galatians 2.20 said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. This is what's missing
in present day religion. This is what's missing in present-day
decisionism, professions of religion, form and ceremony, zeal and denominationalism. What's missing is the living
relationship with Christ. Men and women are in the church.
They're in religion, but they're not in Christ. Now, if Christ
and I are one, I live because He lives. If Christ and I are
one, I am accepted in the Beloved. If Christ and I are one, I am
holy because he is holy. If Christ and I are one, my life
will bear the fruits of Christ. Love, joy, peace, kindness, patience. If I and Christ are one, I am
a joint heir with Christ. If Christ and I are one, I am
seated with Christ at the right hand of God. Who he is and what
he has and where he is I am too, because I am one with Christ.
I am inseparably united. I am eternally joined. I am in
a living union by God's grace with His Son. How shall He not
with Him freely give us all things? This is the very heart of the
gospel message. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I prevail till Christ be formed
in you. It's not just to believe some
facts about Him. It's to know Him. It's to walk
with Him. It's not to give mental asset
and agreement to some doctrinal positions regarding Christ. It's
to be brought by the new birth, by regeneration, into a living
personal union with the Son of God. All right, the second fact. The second important truth. There
can be no living union with Christ without faith. There can be no
saving benefit for me or you or anyone else unless we are
united to Christ. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things unto the Son. And the Father loves us
in Christ, and redeems us in Christ, and accepts us in Christ,
and forgives us in Christ. Now we cannot be in Christ except
by faith. Listen to the scripture. Our
Lord sent his disciples forth to preach. And he said to them,
You go into all the world. You preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He
that believeth not shall be damned. He that believeth shall be saved. And then John wrote in John chapter
1 verse 12, But as many as received him, to them gave he the power,
the right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. He came to his own, and his own
received him not. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, but the world knew him not. But, as many
as received him by faith, as many as believed on him by faith,
as many as trusted him by faith, to them, and only to them, gave
he the right, the privilege, to become sons of God. Listen
to Paul in Hebrews 11, 6. But without faith, it is impossible
It is impossible to please God. He didn't say it's difficult.
He didn't say it's a hard matter. He says it's impossible. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God
must, must believe that he is, and that he's the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Now we know that Israel left
Egypt, and they wandered in the wilderness all about for forty
And then they came to the promised land, and most of them did not
enter in. The great majority of the people
who left Egypt never enjoyed the blessings of the promised
land. Do you know why? Well, Paul tells us in Hebrews
3.19, he says, So you see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief. And then he issues a warning
to you and me. He says, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. Our Lord lays hold upon us by
his Spirit, by his power. The scripture says it's the Spirit
that quickens it. The flesh prophet is nothing.
The Lord lays hold upon his people by his Spirit. His Spirit quickens
and regenerates, and his Spirit reveals Christ, his Spirit convicts
of sin, but we lay hold of Christ by faith. He lays hold of us
by his power, by his spirit, but we lay hold upon him by faith. Now listen to this scripture,
Ephesians 3, 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. Now
that's what I was talking about in point number one. I said there
are four important points that make up the heart of God's message
for this generation, of God's gospel of grace. The first is
That there can be no saving benefit for you or me or anyone else
without a union with Christ. That's where it all is, it's
in Christ. And we cannot be in Christ except by faith. Now we're
in Christ, he dwells in us and we dwell in him. How? By faith. Listen to that verse, Ephesians
3, 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That's
how he dwells in your heart. He lays hold upon you by his
Spirit. He makes you willing. He draws
you to himself. He calls you. It's the Spirit
that calls us. But we lay hold of him by faith. It was by faith that Noah built
the ark. It was by faith that Moses left Egypt, refusing to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It was by faith that
Rahab let down the scarlet line from the window of Jericho. It's
all by faith. It's by faith that Isaac walked
with God and Enoch walked with God. By faith. And you lay hold
of Christ by faith. He dwells in your heart by faith.
Now if you have any difficulty with that, if you have any doubt
of the importance of faith, you listen to these scriptures from
the book of John. Now I'm just taking these from
the book of John alone. The writings of John, the apostle.
He says in John 3, 14 through 16, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth, believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life." And then
in verse 36 of that same chapter, he says, "...he that believeth
on the Son hath eternal life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not say life." but the wrath of God abided on him. And then in John 20, verse 31,
he says, These things are written, all that I have written, he said,
all that the Holy Spirit has led me to put down on paper,
all that I have written, I have written that you might believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that believing you
might have life through his name. And then in 1 John 5, verse 1,
he said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is
the Messiah, is the Redeemer of Israel, he is born of God.
And then in 1 John 5, verse 11, this is the record, that God
hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. And
he that hath the Son of God hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. And these things have I written
unto you that believe on the Son of God, that you may know
you have eternal life. When the Philippian jailer came
to Paul, he said, Sirs, trembling, sirs, anxious, trouble, what
must I do to be saved? And Paul said to him, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. A living,
vital union with Christ is brought to you and brought to me from
God as His gift by faith, and without faith it is impossible.
It's impossible to lay hold on Christ. Without faith, it's impossible
to have a living union with Christ. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God Almighty. It's impossible. All right? The third statement now. The
third point. Now, remember them. The first
one is, there can be no saving benefit. There can be no glory. There can be no eternal life.
There can be no union with God, apart from a living union with
Christ. Christ and I have to be one. And there's no way that I can
have any kind of living union with Christ without faith. I
must believe. I must believe His Word. All
right? Thirdly now, there can be no
faith without the preaching of the Word. That's exactly what
I'm saying. I'm saying there can be no faith
without the preaching of the truth. You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. God is a spirit, and they
that worship him, worship him in spirit and truth. Study to
show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Woe is unto
me, Paul said, if I preach not the gospel, for it is the gospel
that is the power of God unto salvation. And this is what I'm
saying, that a man cannot be brought into a living union with
Christ without faith, And he cannot be brought into true faith
without hearing the gospel, without hearing the true gospel, without
hearing the gospel of God's grace. Now listen to the scripture.
Turn to Romans 10, verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? There's the first three points
I've given you. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. That's a living union with Christ.
That's being brought into saving faith with Christ. But how are
they going to call on him if they've never believed on him?
And how are they going to believe on him if they don't hear him
preached from his word? 1 Corinthians 1.21, Paul makes
it very clear. He says it pleased God. by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And in Romans
1.16 Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. God Almighty is not
going to call you or reveal himself to you by dreams and visions.
God Almighty calls you by his word. God Almighty reveals himself
in his word. The rich man cried from hell,
Father Abraham, send Lazarus back to the earth that he may
preach to my five brothers. I've got five brothers on the
earth still living. I'm in this awful place and there's
no hope for me. You have said there's a great
dull fix between here and you and no one can come from us to
you and from you to us, but I've got five brothers. who are still
on the earth, send Lazarus back from the dead, and let him preach
to them. And Abraham said, they have Moses
and the prophets, in other words, they have the word of God, they
have the scriptures, they have the preachers on the earth. Nay,
he said, but father Abraham, if one rose from the dead, just
think, if a fellow went back to the earth who had been dead,
who had already been dead and buried for a long time, And he
suddenly appeared back on the earth in a resurrected body.
They'd hear him. You know what Abraham said? He
said, Son, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they believe, though one rose from the dead. In fact, one did
rise from the dead, and they didn't believe him. Christ our
Lord was crucified, buried, and rose from the tomb. and appeared
to all those people, and yet they did not believe Him. They
did not believe Him. No, it's the Word of God. God
doesn't call men by dreams and visions and feelings. He calls
through the Word. Now listen to this. Let me point
out some things here. It is by the Word of God that
men are begotten to life. You know, we're dead in trespasses
and sin. That's what Scripture says, we're
born in sin. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. When Adam fell, death passed
upon all men, spiritual death. Well, how are men born again?
How are men begotten to life? How are they regenerated? By
the Word of God. Let me show you that. 1 Peter
1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but by the
Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. How are men born again?
By the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the agent
in the new birth. The Word of God is the seed.
Our Lord said a sower went forth to sow. Now the sower is the
son of man and the seed is what? The Word of God. I don't know
why preachers don't preach the Word of God. They preach everything
but the Word of God. They preach their ideas and other
men's ideas and they preach about current events. Why don't they
preach the Word of God? It's the Word of God that the
Holy Spirit uses to give life to sinners. Men are born again
by the Word of God. But more than that, it is the
Word of God that convinces men of sin. Paul said in Romans 7,
verse 7, I have not known sin, but by the law, the law there
is the Word of God. I wouldn't even have known what
sin was, except the law said thou shalt not covet. And when
I saw the word of God, I died. He said the commandment came,
sin was revealed, and I died. That's how men learn what they
are by nature and what they are by practice, is by the word of
God. And then it's by the word of
God that Christ is revealed. Moses, he said, wrote of me.
While they said we have Moses to our father, he said if you'd
believe Moses, you'd believe me. Moses wrote of me. Abraham
saw my day and was glad. You know, when the Ethiopian
eunuch was traveling from Jerusalem back to Ethiopia, he was reading
the Bible. He was reading Isaiah chapter
53. And God sent a servant, God sent
Philip, a preacher, down to preach to him. And Philip sat down in
the chariot beside him, and he said, Do you understand what
you're reading? And the man said, How can I, except some man show
me? And Philip began at the same
scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And that man had Christ,
the Savior, revealed in his heart from the word of God. Philip
preached Christ from the scriptures. And the Holy Spirit revealed
Christ to that man's heart. Acts 10.43 says to him, to Christ,
give all the prophets witness. And then more than that, it is
by the word of God that faith comes. Now I said there can be
no saving benefit with Christ or from Christ. apart from a
living union with Christ. And there can be no union with
Christ without faith. And there can be no faith without
the Bible. The Bible is our foundation of faith. Christ is our object
of faith. Faith looks to Him. Faith receives
Him. Faith trusts in Him. But the
foundation of faith is God's Word. Faith believes His Word
and therefore embraces Him. For the Scripture says in Romans
10, 17, listen, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. Sinner, hear the Savior call. He in his word right now is passing
by. He has seen your wretched fall
and he's heard your mournful cry. He has pardoned to impart
and grace to save from fears. See the love for sinners that
fills his heart and wipes away your tears. Have you heard the
gospel? I'll tell you this, if you're
not hearing the gospel, you ought to go where you can hear it.
If you're not being fed from the word of God, you ought to
go where you can be fed. God uses his word. There is no
faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. It's pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. Not the preaching of foolishness,
but the foolishness of preaching. to save them that believe. You're
not going to be saved. You're not going to have faith.
You're not going to come to know what sin is and who Christ is,
and you're not going to have faith in your heart unless you
hear the word of God. But here's the fourth thing now.
The fourth fact is this. All the preaching in the world
can never convince men of sin. All the preaching in the world
can never reveal Christ to the heart. All the preaching in the
world can never bring about true repentance and true faith unless
that preaching is accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, that's right. That's right. Paul wrote to that church in
Thessalonica, and I read it to you when it first came on there.
He said, I know, brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our
gospel came not to you in word only. You know that's how most
people hear the preaching, just words, that's all, just words.
But he said, our gospel came to you, how? In the power of
the Holy Spirit. It came to you in regenerating
power, in quickening power, in convicting power, in revealing
power. Our gospel came to you in the
power of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord was standing one day
preaching to some people in John chapter 6. And it would do you
good to turn to John 6 and look at these scriptures. And he talked
to them about being the bread of life. He said, I'm the bread
of life. You're hungry, I'm the bread of life. You're thirsty,
I'm the water of life. He talked about eating his flesh
and drinking his blood. He talked about coming to him
and receiving life eternal. And the people began to murmur.
And they said, well, we know who this is. This is Jesus, this
is Joseph's son, this is the carpenter. How is it that he
said he came down from heaven? Why, we know his mother, we know
his father, we know his brothers, we know his sisters, and that's
when Christ said, in John 6, verse 44, "'Verily I say unto
you, no man can come to me except my Father which sent me to draw
him.'" No matter the authority of the preacher, and he spake
like no man has ever spoken before. No matter the holiness of his
life, he was perfect. None could convince him of sin.
No matter the miracles which he performed with his hands by
healing the sick and giving sight to the blind and hearing to the
deaf and strength to the lame, no matter, no matter the urgency
of his plea, no man, no man, whatever his natural talents
or wisdom or education or intellect, no man can come to me, that is,
believe on Christ, receive Christ. except my Father, which sent
me, draw him. Preaching must be accompanied
with the power of the Holy Spirit. Let angels be preachers, but
until God himself by the power of his Spirit draws the sinner,
the sinner will not come. And I say this to you, there
can be no spiritual benefit from Christ unless we have a living,
vital union with him. And there can be no living, vital
union with Christ apart from personal faith. You must believe.
You must believe. And there can be no faith without
the preaching of the Word. But all the preaching in this
world will not bring a sinner to Christ unless the Holy Spirit
draws him, unless the Holy Spirit woos him and calls him. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. One great old hymn
writer wrote this. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening power, kindle a flame of sacred love
in these cold hearts of ours. That's what it takes, the Spirit
of God accompanying the preaching of the Word in power. Join us
next week for the telecast, and write for the tapes. These messages
are available on cassette tape, and they'll be sent to you for
a small charge. Until next week, I bid you a very pleasant, good
day.

Preaching With Power

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Preaching With Power

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