Let us turn in our Bibles today
to the second chapter of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Have you ever been
asked to testify in a court or to give a deputation? I believe
that for most people, when asked to do so and we swear, we take
an oath to tell only the truth, that most people take this very
seriously. There's something solemn about
taking an oath, swearing to tell the truth. As Christians, we
always are truthful, attempt to be truthful when we speak.
But taking an oath seems to impress upon our conscience even more
so the need to be exact in our testimony, in our truth. In verse
one, we read of the testimony of God. You see that Paul declaring
unto you the testimony of God. Do the scriptures reveal that
God has ever taken an oath? Does the Word of God tell us
that, that God Almighty has ever taken an oath? You know that
they do. And I would just say not because
He ever needed to do so, because we know that He cannot lie. He is the truth. And he knows
all things, he can make no mistake about anything that he says. I told a lie yesterday. He said,
preacher, did you do it on purpose? No, I didn't. He said, well,
why did you lie? Because I have a mind that doesn't
retain everything. And I told someone something,
and about 30 minutes later, it occurred to me, you told that
person a lie. I didn't mean to, but it was
still a lie. It was an untruth. And I did
that because, like I said, my mind forgets things. And I don't
know everything. I said I told one lie yesterday,
maybe told more than one, most likely I did. Not on purpose. But why would God, why would
God who cannot but speak the truth, why would he ever take
an oath? Why would he swear? Well, the
scripture in Hebrews chapter six tells us, doesn't it? God
willingly, more abundantly to show the heirs of salvation the
immutability of his counsel, confirmed it with an oath. God to show the immutability,
and the next verse tells us of two things, his oath and his
counsel. And he does that, he says, to
show more willingly to the heirs of salvation the truthfulness
of his statement, of his word. You know, God's people, those
of us who know him today as our Lord and Savior, we are referred
to in the scriptures as sheep. And one of the reasons that we
are called sheep, why he's the good shepherd, the good shepherd
who gave his life for his sheep. He didn't die for goats, he died
for his sheep. One of the reasons that his people
are referred to as sheep is because we have the characteristics,
some of the characteristics of sheep. And one characteristic
of sheep is they are fearful. They have no natural means of
defense. They don't have a horn or anything
like that. They're not strong animals. In
fact, they're weak. And God willing to show us, it
seems to me he goes to great expense to comfort his people
in showing us the immutability of his counsel, of his oath,
that we might, those of us who have fled for refuge, to the
hope that is set before us. And what is that hope that is
set before us? It is Christ. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. We fled to
Christ. He's our hope. And God, as I
said, goes to great great expense or great extremes, I believe,
to show his people who are naturally given to fearfulness, fear not. Don't be afraid. Don't live your
life in fear. God has not given us the spirit
of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind. Fear not,
little flock, our Lord told his disciples. And they were just
a little flock, even if you include the 70. 70 out of the many there
that they walked among. Fear not, little flock. It's
your father's good pleasure. It's his good pleasure. He loves
to do it. He's going to do it. It's your
father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom of God. The gospel salvation is a gift,
isn't it? It's not earned. It's not merited. It's not deserved. That's the
reason it is by grace. Anything that you deserve is
not grace. You say, I deserve to be saved. Well, you're not saved. I'll
tell you that, you're not saved if you feel like you deserve
to be saved because salvation is by grace through faith and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works
lest any man should boast. I have three parts to my message
this morning as we think about the testimony of God. The testimony
of God. that Paul tells us in this text
that he declared to the folks in Corinth. Now, he's writing,
of course, to the church, to believers in our passage, but
he tells us, when I came to you, when he came to Corinth, he came
not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you
the testimony of God. What is the testimony of God?
Well, he tells us in the next verse, doesn't he? For I determined
not to know anything among you. Well, you just said that you
declared the testimony of God, and then he says, I declared,
or I determined not to know anything among you. Here it is, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. This is the testimony of God.
The testimony of God is the person, Jesus Christ, and his work him
crucified. Now, when we read here in this
scripture of the testimony of God, I would imagine that most
of us automatically just think, well, that's the testimony of
the father, the testimony of God, the testimony of the father.
But let us remember that God is a triune being. There's three
persons in the Godhead. He's the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and not one is more God than the other. The Holy Spirit
is God, the Son is God, and the Father is God, and the testimony
of God. What is the testimony of God?
The person and work of Jesus Christ. Save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Now let's think about this. First
to his person, to his person, that he is both God and man. He's one person, but he has two
natures, doesn't he? He is God, a very God, and yet
he is man, the God man. And the father testifies to his
person, at his baptism. Now you can't baptize a spirit.
You can't take a spirit and put it under the water and bring
it back up. You just can't do that. But you
can a man. You can a body. And the eternal
son of God we know took into union with his deity that body
and that body was baptized, put under the water and raised back
up by John the Baptist and God testified to his person, this
is my beloved son. Who's he talking about? This
is my beloved son. Well, he just baptized his son,
the God-man. The Father testifies to his person. The Son of God testifies to the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how did he do that?
Well, in many ways, but one way he said, destroy this temple. And we know he's referring to
his body, that body that was prepared to him by God the Holy
Spirit. Destroy this body, and in three days, I, I will raise
it up. Well, the body's dead. Yes, the
body's dead, but the Son of God, God cannot die. I will raise
it up. And the Holy Spirit testifies
to his person, because the Holy Spirit came upon Mary. The angel told her this. The
Holy Spirit would come upon her, overshadow her, so that that
holy thing, and that word thing is important, that holy thing
which is born of her shall be called the Son of God. What is that thing? It is that
body and that reasonable soul that a man has, that thing. shall be called the Son of God. The Holy Spirit overshadowed
her. There's much about that that God has not chosen to reveal,
but He has revealed this. Jesus Christ was born of the
Virgin, and He was born sinless. He is the seed of the woman. No other person has ever come
into this world as the seed of the woman, but Christ. And there's
much in that, but I better move on. His person. Get to talking about his person
and there's just so much there, isn't there? And it's all so
wonderful. It's just so wonderful. The more
you know, the more you want to know about his person. But his work. His work. The Father testifies to His work. His work, that is His life of
perfect obedience even unto death. His perfect obedience even unto
death in bringing in what was prophesied of Him, an everlasting
righteousness. An everlasting righteousness.
The Father testifies to Him accomplishing that work. Let me repeat that
again. It was prophesied of him in the
book of Daniel that he would bring in an everlasting righteousness. The Father testifies that he
did that. You say, how? Because the Father
has raised him to his right hand and given him a name which is
above every name that at his name every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God. Father testifies to his work. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son,
He testifies to His work. You say, how did He do that?
I'll tell you how He did that. In one way, as He was cruelly
crucified, as He was hanging there on the tree, and then He
said, it's finished. It's finished. He testified to
His work. I have finished the work which
my Father gave me to do. I've obeyed him, I've brought
in that everlasting righteousness. And the Holy Spirit testifies
to him accomplishing this work. When after he took in his body,
this is what the scriptures reveal. He bore in his body our sin. The sins of all of his people
were made to beat upon him. Can you imagine that? all the sins of all of his people,
millions, billions, trillions of sins. They were all laid upon
him and he died and his body was laid in the grave. But three
days later, the Holy Spirit raised him, justified him in the spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit
said, he did it. He did it. He paid the sin debt
for all his people. He discharged him from the grave. Why? Because he had accomplished
that which he came to do, and that was to redeem his covenant
people. Well, notice the second thing
here. I want to say, what does God's
testimony testify to us about That is, God's testimony is the
gospel, the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ. But what
does that testimony of God testify about God? What does it tell
us about God? Well, first, the testimony of
God testifies of his amazing love. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. There's only one son like
him. Though the Lord has many created
sons, many adopted sons, but he only has one only begotten
son. And what did he do? Out of his
great love, he gave his only begotten son. Now that's amazing
love, isn't it? What amazing love is this that
God gave His Son? The Apostle John tells us this.
Keep your places here, but turn with me to 1 John chapter 4,
just a moment. In this place, we see His person
and His work in 1 John chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. Testimony of God, the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It testifies to us of the amazing
love of God that he gave his only begotten son. And you know,
that, that's the, that little word, that little two letter
word in that verse, John three 16, God. So that's it. That's where the emphasis should
be. God's soul. He so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. Here in 1 John 4 verse 9 it says,
And this was manifested, the love of God toward us. Here it
is, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world. This is the way His love is manifested
to us. He sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him here in his
love. And all the writers tell us it
is as though John said, search the world over. Search the world
over at every place and under every condition where you think
you can see love. Here it is right here. Here it
is, real love. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. How is it, or how is he rather
the propitiation for our sins? It is in his crucifixion. in
His death upon the tree, that He is the propitiation for our
sins. You know, some people are under
the mistaken idea. They've heard about the cross,
they've heard about God, but their idea of God is He's this
demanding being, and in order for Him to be merciful unto us
his creatures, the Lord Jesus Christ had to die. He had to
die to make the Father willing to forgive us. That's a wrong
idea completely. No, the Son was in this world
and the Son was made the propitiation for our sins because of God's
love. Not in order for God to love
us, but because God loved us. Because of His great love. It was to reconcile those who,
because of our fallen, sinful nature, were enemies that Christ
was crucified. The natural, we read this in
Romans chapter eight a few minutes ago, the carnal mind is enmity
with God. What that plainly says is all
of us come into this world, we're not saved when we are born into
this world. born again until later, if we
are, we're born with a carnal mind, and that carnal mind is
enmity with God. In other words, we are all God-haters. Oh, preacher, surely you can't
be right about that. I'm telling you what the Bible
says. We come into this world with
a carnal mind, which means we are haters of God. Now, you say,
well, I never hated God. No, you probably never did. You
probably never did. Why? Because you manufactured
your own God. You made up a God. In the imagination
of your mind, this is the way I believe God should be, this
is the way I think God should be, this is the way God is, and
we have no problem with Him. But when we are confronted with
the God of the Bible, I don't care who you are, When you're
truly, by the Spirit of God, with the Word of God, confronted
with the God of the Bible, when He confronts you, if He does,
the first reaction is, I don't like Him. I don't care for Him. I will not have this man to reign
over me. That's just our condition by
nature. Sad, isn't it? That's the truth. But I'm thankful that God loved
His people, aren't you? And in Romans chapter 5 and verse
10, Paul said it like this, for if, now listen, for if, when
we were enemies, so we were enemies. We were. Well, my preacher doesn't
say that. Well, maybe you ought to start
preaching from the Bible. For if, When we were enemies,
and we all were, we were reconciled to God, that is, we were made
to be, have peace with God, we were reconciled to God. When
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, how? By the death of
his son. And that's the only way, there's
no other way under heaven by which any Son, any fallen, sinful
son of Adam may ever be reconciled unto God, have peace with God. There's only one way, and that's
through the person and work of Jesus Christ. I don't care what
your church comes up with, all the ceremonies, all the rites,
all the rituals. You can be baptized, as the preacher
used to say, until you have webbed feet. You're in the baptismal
so much. That's not going to save you. There's only one thing that will
reconcile a sinner to God, and that is the person and work of
Jesus Christ. The testimony of God testifies
to us of his great love. And you know that verse doesn't
end there. There's not a period there. For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, there's not a period there, there's a comma,
much more, comma, we shall be saved by His life. His life. He's living today. And what's He doing? He's interceding
for us. He ever liveth at the Father's
right hand. This is the reason he's able
to save all who come unto God by him. Why? Because he ever
lives. And he continues at the Father's
right hand making intercession for us. So that's the first thing. The testimony of God testifies
of his amazing love. Second, the testimony of God
testifies of his absolute righteousness. In Psalm 89 and verse 14, we
have these words, justice and judgment are the habitation of
thy throne. What does that mean? Justice
and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. It speaks of God's
righteousness. Abraham asked for, shall not
the God of all the earth do right? And he must do right because
he is righteous. He'd have to abandon his throne
if he were not righteous. He would no longer be God for
righteousness, holiness is essential or essential to him. So what
does he do when the justice of God, when his chosen people,
the sins of his chosen people are imputed to his darling son? His darling son. You love your
children. I know you do. We all do. How
much more does God the Father love his darling son? who was
holy and righteous, separate from sinners, who always did
those things that pleased the Father. And yet, when the sins
of his people were laid upon him, charged to his account,
what's the action of the Father? Well, it is, awake, O sword,
against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Know this, if you don't get anything
else out of this message today, I want you to get this. Every
person here, every sin, you mean every, I mean every sin is going
to be punished. Every sin of every person is
going to be punished. It's either going to be punished
in the person himself who has committed the sins in an eternity
in hell, or his sins were punished in the substitute. But God is
righteous, and every sin is going to be punished. What does the Bible tell us about
hell? It's a real place, it tells us
that, doesn't it? It tells us that hell is a place
of torment. That rich man our Lord spoke
about in Luke 16 said, I'm tormented in this flame. It tells us it's
a place of torment, that it's a place where the worm dies not. You say, what does that mean?
Well, I believe it means the conscience, the conscience. And know this, my friend, I say
this in love and much concern for myself and you as I possibly
can have, but if anyone in this building goes out into eternity
and not in Jesus Christ, not trusting in him, one with him
by faith and he one with us by his spirit, This message today,
this service today, will be gnawing on you throughout eternity in
hell. The preacher told me. The preacher
warned me. The preacher laid out before
me the truth, the gospel. I wasn't interested. I had my life planned out. I
had my religion. I wasn't concerned. All throughout
eternity, the worm died not. It tells us also that it is a
place of outer darkness. I don't like to be in the dark. I've told you before, but if
we turn these two switches over here right now off, it'd be dark
in here. I've been in here many times.
It's dark. I don't like to be in the dark, but can you imagine
spending all eternity in outer darkness? And it also tells us
it's a bottomless pit. A bottomless pit. You'll never
be able to get standing. Always be suffering, and that's
part of the suffering. Never a firmness. Oh, aren't you thankful when
we sing that hymn? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ's solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. When we sang that a few minutes
ago, I remembered when I was a child over here on the east
side of Houston, where I was raised, there was what they called
quicksand, I believe it was. Quicksand. And if you got in
that sand, of course, as a child, we were warned about it. It just
kind of sucked you in. Quicksand. Oh, it's good to be
on solid rock, isn't it? on Christ, on him alone, Christ
alone. And third, the testimony of God
testifies to his purpose to save sinners. It testifies to him
that he purposes to save sinners. That's the reason his son was
in this world for his great love and his punishing the sins of
his people and his son. The testimony of God testifies
to his purpose to save sinners. There are some people in this
world, there are people in this building, thank God for this,
that God purposed from old eternity to save. It didn't happen yesterday. God purposed from before the
foundation of the world to save. Paul says it in 2 Timothy, who
hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given unto us in Christ Jesus before the world began. There are some people that God
has purposed to save. Go back to our text, and I'm
almost finished. But to whom is this testimony
to be declared? Someone says, well, and I noticed
this, Paul didn't say that he came to Corinth. He doesn't say,
and I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or wisdom. Sharing with you. That word, I don't know, a few
years back, a preacher started using it. Sharing. Preaching
isn't sharing. Preaching is declaring. Brother
Scott Richardson used to say, God hasn't called me to explain,
but to proclaim the gospel. Paul came to Corinth declaring
unto them the testimony of God. Well, maybe the gospel is for
moral people. Maybe the gospel, this testimony
is for those who are naturally inclined. A few years back, they
said some people are born with a religious gene. Let me tell you something, everybody's
religious. Every person that's born on the
face of God's earth has some religion. That's just so. No, the gospel isn't just for
the moral people or the immoral people or the righteous people
or the unrighteous people. The gospel is for everyone. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. And you declare this testimony
of God. And be sure, preacher, be sure
not to leave out this word, that through this man is preached
unto you the righteousness, or preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins, and to him all that believe. Don't leave that out. All that believe are justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. You say preachers, preachers are not preaching to
get you to compliment when they finish. One desire every preacher has,
that you believe. You believe the testimony. Notice in the text again, Paul
said, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Some of the writers say, well,
Paul, he came to Corinth from Athens and he was so discouraged. Paul was not discouraged. It
doesn't mean a preacher doesn't ever get discouraged, but Paul
wasn't discouraged. You can't believe in the sovereignty
of God like Paul did and be discouraged. God's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. There's nothing that takes place
in this world that God has not ordained. It's not going to take
him by surprise. No, that's not it at all as far
as I'm concerned. The reason Paul was with them
and he wasn't trying to get people to make a profession of faith
by his cleverness, by his oratorical skills, by his great wisdom. But he wanted to preach the plain,
simple gospel that their faith, notice what he said in verse
five, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of God. It's not something I've talked
you into. If I can talk you into this,
someone else will come along and talk you out of it. No, that
your faith may stand. in the power of God. God takes this message, his gospel,
and writes it on your heart. You're not going to forget it.
They shall all be taught of God. That's what the script, that's
what the promise of the covenant is. They shall all be taught
of God. I pray that this testimony of
God will be believed by every person here in this room today.
It's my prayer. And that you'll find peace in
believing. Peace through Christ. There is
no peace in this world. A lot of people are under the false
delusion that money is going to give them peace or fame is
going to give them peace. I read about the sinking of a
ship called Central America in 1857, I believe it was. And it had, I think, over 400
passengers. It was sailing from Havana, Cuba
to New York. And on this ship, there were
many people. They had been gold miners. And
they were coming back with the gold dust and the gold Stones
that they had mined in California somehow making their way back.
And that ship went down in a hurricane. It was recovered several years
back. Millions of dollars worth of
gold on that ship. One man who was put on one of
the lifeboats with some of the ladies, the women that they rescued,
he said he saw this. This is what he witnessed. He
saw men pull out a bag and lay their gold out there and he said,
here, here it is, take it. And some had gold dust, they
spread out, here it is, take it, have it. It does me no good. And he and they and the gold
and all went down to the bottom of the ocean. There's only one
thing that will do your soul good. When you've come to that
last day and you're laying on that bed and they put that cloth
on your head and try to wipe off the sweat and my soul, my
soul is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to die is gain. I'm going home. I'm going home. That home that my Lord has prepared,
that's where I'm going. Nothing to be sad about that.
But if you're trusting in anything this world has to offer, oh, pity, God have mercy upon
you if you die in that condition. Well, number 49.