The People Saved By the Cross

Transcript

GRM 1013
8/10/2008
The People Saved by the Cross
I Corinthians 1:26-2:5
Gil Rugh


I want to continue the theme we were talking about in our service this morning on the cross, particularly as Paul unfolds it in I Corinthians 1, so if you would turn there. Something of the overwhelming importance of the cross is brought out by the simple fact in verse 18 Paul divides all humanity into two groups on the basis of their relationship to the cross—those who are perishing and those who are being saved. And all humanity is divided into one of those two groups, and it depends upon your relationship to the cross, have you come to understand and believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God has suffered and died to pay the penalty for your sin and you are trusting His work on the cross as payment in full for your sin. The world sees that as foolishness. Look at all the religious systems, whether they are variations of Christianity like we have in Protestantism and Roman Catholicism or they are far removed in Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism and on you go. Doesn't matter. They are all man trying with his own wisdom to devise systems that will enable him to be acceptable before God. And there are those who devise their own systems and are proud that they think they can do it without religion. But man's wisdom never accomplishes what he so desperately needs, and that is salvation from sin, cleansing that will make him acceptable before the throne of God.

You'll note, if the church would keep its focus on the centrality of the cross, it would help with a lot of issues. That's why Paul starts out with the Corinthians, a church wracked by division, by talking about the cross. If we are united around the cross of Jesus Christ and that is our focus, where do the divisions come from? Paul says the divisions come from the fact you've lost sight of the centrality of the cross. That's what unites us.

There was a study done a few years ago, two or three years ago now, and 52 of what they identified as significant evangelical churches in our country were surveyed and there were identified 172 problems and struggles in these churches. Interestingly, of the total 172 problems, 171 of the problems were issues with other Christians. Only one church mentioned non-Christians as the source of the struggle, and that only came up once. The biggest hindrance to a church in carrying out its ministry is its own internal division. We have major differences with the world and how they see the cross of Christ, but how can we bring the cross of Christ to the world when we've lost our focus. We are willing to divide the church of Jesus Christ over our own personal pettiness, if you will.

The solution, and that's why Paul starts out, in a church that's wracked by division by drawing their attention back. You know the issue is the cross here, folks. The issue is not who is the better teacher, the issue is not these superficial matters. The issue is the cross. But before Paul can deal with the issues of the division in the church, he has to draw their attention back to the issue of the cross and its significance.

In verses 18-25 where we have looked, Paul drew the contrast between how the world saw the cross and how a believer sees the cross. And we've seen that God's plan is foolishness from the world's perspective. God doesn't do it the way we would think it should be done. So the content of the message is different than the world would want to see. You might think that God in His wisdom might have devised a plan that would set the world back on its heels because they can't compete with this wisdom. But He devises a plan that the world looks at as foolish. But it's true wisdom because it's the only plan that can accomplish the goal—the salvation of sinful human beings.

But you know it's not only the content of the message that demonstrates the uniqueness of God's plan. Foolishness from the world's perspective. But the uniqueness of God's plan and its foolishness from the world's perspective is also seen in the people that God chooses to save. And so that is what Paul is going to focus on verses 26-31. The kind of people that God saves is contrary to the way the world does things. There are individuals in the world today making multiple millions of dollars to promote products, to have their names associated with things that people will want to buy. They are superstars and you go to people who are important, people that are looked up to, people that are significant when you want to get something done in the world. What Paul is going to say is Corinthians look at yourselves. God's plan is not only to use a message that the world calls foolishness, but He's going to use that message that the world looks at as foolishness to draw a people that are looked at as nobodies. And Paul can get pretty blunt. He says look around. If he were speaking here tonight he'd say, take a moment. Look at the person next to you. Now you have to admit that's a nobody. Now look at yourself and there's another thing about the uniqueness of God's plan—He didn't go to the famous, to the rich, to the important and draw those people. God's plan is to use the insignificant, unimportant people to accomplish the most important things in time and eternity.

Verse 26 picks it up, for consider your calling, brethren. And that for indicates he's continuing what he's been talking about in verses 18ff. Consider, give attention to, contemplate this, look at yourselves for a moment, folks. Consider your calling. Paul has a strong emphasis on the calling of a believer, which is a reminder it is God's sovereign grace that brings a person to salvation. People struggle with the concept of God's sovereignty and He is sovereign over all and it is His call and His work of divine choosing that brings about salvation of lost people.

Look back in I Corinthians 1:1-2. Paul said he was called as an apostle. Every time you see that word called, emphasizing God's sovereign intervention and work to bring it about. Paul was called as an apostle. He's writing to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. That is God's work that has brought them to Himself. Down in verse 9, God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son. Down in verse 24, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, the wisdom of God. Verse 26, now consider your calling, brethren. God is sovereignly at work.

In II Timothy 1:8-9 Paul says this, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. There is mystery here that I can't fully comprehend and explain, that the sovereign God from eternity chose me and called me to Himself. How else can you explain that a sinner consumed with himself, enslaved with sin, enslaved to the devil, blinded by his sin should turn from his sin and believe in the Savior. The sovereign grace of God came into that life and they were called to the salvation which is in Christ.

Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh. And that expression according to the flesh really goes with all three of these expressions. Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. Look at them from a human perspective, look at the congregation. It's composed of average people. Where are the superstars, so to speak? The famous, the rich, the prominent, the powerful? He doesn't say that not any of those are saved, not any of those were called, but they are the exceptions and not the rule. How does the world do it? It goes to the rich and famous, it goes to the powerful, the influential. That influences us, superstar Christianity. What do we want to put on a platform to give a testimony? Average person who got saved by the might power of God? No, if an athlete gets saved, if a prominent musician, if a person well known in this. Their testimony will make a difference. We try to adopt the world's view. Get so-and-so to promote this product and it will sell, get this person to say they trusted Christ and everybody will want to follow Christ. How does God do it? Consider your calling, brethren. Look around at our church. The Corinthians looked around at themselves. There are not many wise according to the flesh, there are not many that are viewed humanly speaking as the mighty, the noble. They are average people. Not may of you have been asked to sign a contract for $30 million to promote athletic gear. Sorry. I'm a preacher, nobody has asked me to put my name on anything. It's average people. That's the way God does His work.

So it's not only the content of the message that is opposed to the way the world would structure a message, it's also the people that God has chosen to save. That's different than the world does it. If we're honest we've all thought it—if this prominent person would get saved and come to our church, it would make a difference. God doesn't do it our way because that would turn attention from God and His way to this superstar. It's just not the way God does it. God has a way of humbling even the superstars that do get saved, genuinely saved.

Consider your calling, brethren, there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen, and here we have this sovereign work of God. Three times in verses 27-28 we have this statement, God has chosen, God has chosen, God has chosen. He's the one doing the calling, He's the one doing the choosing. He is sovereign in the process. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the things which are wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen the things that are not so that He many nullify the things which are. God is sovereign over it all. Ephesians 1:3-4 says that God has chosen us in Christ from before the foundation of the world. There is no negotiating here. One thing salvation does, it brings you to your knees, it humbles you. You are in awe of the grace of God that would save an undeserving sinner like you know yourself to be. There is a light that comes on and I see myself as God sees me as I really am. And I have some recognition of the awesome holiness of this God, the wonder that He would save me. It's a humbling process, it brings me to reality.

God has chosen the opposite of the things of the world and the things the world admires in verse 26—the wise, the mighty, the noble. He's chosen the foolish in verse 27, the weak, the base, the despised, the things that are considered as nothing. And with these He shames the wise, shames the things which are strong, nullifies the things which are viewed as important, as mighty, as powerful. The weak nobodies of the world, and they are bringing a message of salvation that enables God's power to transform a life for time and eternity, to bring them forgiveness of sin. God, do it this way. He saved an Apostle Paul. Before Paul was an apostle obviously, a man of significance and importance, and He brings him to nothing and then He begins to use him. If we were to do it the world's way we'd think you finally got somebody who amounts to something. Now you're going to use that position that he has as a Pharisee, as a rising star in Judaism. No, first you shatter all that, put all that on the dung heap, take him to the desert and teach him a few things and then bring him back. He's a despised apostle, as Paul describes himself and the other apostles in his other letter to the Corinthians. The nobodies of the world, despised by everybody. Now God is ready to use him. The people that God uses, it's amazing—the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised. And yet they accomplish what no one else can because they are the ones entrusted now as God's servants with the power of God that can accomplish what the mightiest man in the world cannot accomplish—the salvation of a soul—because they become the instruments God uses with His message to call the chosen to His salvation. A world dictator can't get salvation done. God takes the base, humble person. Remarkable plan.

God's ways are different than the world's ways. The church can't get away from its infatuation with the world and what the world will find appealing, the way the world will do it. And we think we've accomplished something when we can get our name in a magazine and the world is recognizing us. For what? Preaching the cross? Because we've structured an organization like a business more effectively than some secular businesses have? What does that accomplish? Face it, the world is not giving out its honors for preaching the message of the cross. God's ways are different and so He gathers a people that are viewed as foolish and weak and base and despised. But they overpower the world because they accomplish what the world with its mightiest, with its wisest, with its most noble cannot.

Why? So that no one may boast before God. God has a purpose in all of this. He gets all the glory. How does salvation get accomplished? You present the message of the cross. What can we add to make it more effective? How can we be more effective in reaching our generation? You can't. For every generation it's the same. You present the message of the cross. Well maybe we can have more important people, people that will be respected. One magazine article I was reading, their staff, they have MBAs from Harvard. Well that gets attention. I mean, these are not just average nobodies. These are people that have demonstrated their abilities and their wisdom in the world. They are worthy of respect. Praise God, He does save MBAs from Harvard, thank God He saves some wealthy. But you understand that's not how He carries out His ministry, and that's not basically who He is calling to Himself. Remember it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. We're talking about exceptions. Praise God for exceptions. But the idea that this is what makes our ministry effective as a way of saying we don't do it God's way. And it's not God who is doing our ministry, give us the credit we deserve—we're doing it. But you understand it's not God's work being done. God gets all the glory. Because there is no other explanation. How could this get done with this group of people, giving this kind of message. You know the only explanation? God does it. Give you credit, give me credit? I know what God had to work with. Anybody that gives me the credit needs to sit down and think again, anybody who gives you the credit. You know who gets the credit—God. Look around, look at our church, look at what God has done with us. There is no room for boasting for anybody here, none.

So that no one may boast before God, no flesh, no human being may boast before. No one can come and say, God, it was a great plan, but you know I tweaked it and it was much more effective. With these adjustments ............ Wait a minute, no, it's not the way God does it. When all is said and done God intends there be no explanation but that He did it. The world looks at it, they don't understand it and because it's not their way they don't appreciate it, they don't like it. But we know God gets all the glory. No boasting from man.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus. Do you note the emphasis on sovereignty in this first chapter? Just on the calling that we looked at. Then the emphasis in verses 27-28, God has chosen. Now in verse 30, but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, by His doing you are in Christ Jesus. How did you get into Christ Jesus? Well, I considered the evidences, I evaluated and I thought a man as smart as me knows this has to be true. Nobody got there that way. It was God sovereignly intervening in that life and it was by His doing that you came to be in Christ Jesus. Every single person in Christ Jesus has that same testimony—it was God's doing. How did you come to know the Savior? Well first and foremost let me tell you it was all the work of God. And I can tell you how He worked in human circumstances and individuals He used and people, praise the Lord, that were instruments that God brought into my life, our family and so on. Let's get it all clear, it was God's work. You know this is what the Corinthians had lost sight of. That's why they are divided around Paul, they're divided around Peter, they're divided around Cephas. To this day we're always looking for someone to divide around. You understand, God gets all the glory. No boasting but in the Lord and what He has done. How could the Corinthians be divided like this, around personalities? I mean, these are great men in the church—Peter, Paul, Cephas. But you understand they are nobodies. God has chosen to use them and whoever is in Christ Jesus is there by virtue of the work of God.

But by His doing you were in Christ Jesus, who is the one who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Wisdom from God. I realize, God opened my eyes to see, He brought me to my knees before Christ. This is not the world's wisdom, this is not the issue here. Jesus Christ is God's wisdom, He's God's provision to bring about the salvation of lost people, my lost soul. I saw Christ to be God's wisdom. His righteousness, the one who could provide what I could not provide for myself. His righteousness for me. Sanctification, holiness, set apart from sin for God, me a defiled sinner. Redemption, a word that means to purchase by paying the price. I was set free from the bondage of control and power of sin, the devil. I was set free because He had paid the penalty for me.

So that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Remarkable, absolutely remarkable. Comes back to this. All the focus goes on the cross, we saw in the message. The work in drawing the people, all the focus goes to what God has done for us in Christ. All the glory goes to Him. We thank you, Lord, for instruments like Paul, like Peter, like Cephas, but Lord you are the one who gets all the glory. They are just instruments. What was Peter? He was a fisherman. But you used him for your glory. Why is part of the church at Corinth proud and parading around that they are followers of Peter? What happens to us in our thinking as the people of God? I mean, we talk about the world's view of these things and you understand Paul is addressing the church to try to get their focus brought back to where it needs to be, to put an end to the divisions at the church. And how many churches have divided around personalities in our day, nothing to do with doctrine. I just like him. What does that have to do with anything? You boast in him and not in the Lord? That's what he's bringing the Corinthians to, you understand. He's heard there are divisions among them, I Corinthians 1:12. Verse 11, I've heard there are quarrels among you; verse 12, some say I am of Paul, some say I am of Apollos, some say I am of Cephas, some say I am of Christ. Let's talk about the cross, folks, and how you got saved. Let's talk about the God who brought it all about. I mean, how is this church going to impact the world once they have taken their focus off the cross and off the God who accomplishes salvation and are parading around like the world, trying to make their own celebrities. Just like you see the world do, we buy football jerseys and they have the name of their favorite player on the back. We're parading around as though ................ I mean, to God be the glory. That's the point. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Come back to Jeremiah 9, this section is really bracketed by Jeremiah. Verse 23, thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches. But let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, declares the Lord. What do we boast in? We boast in the Lord. Even if you are wise, mighty, rich, it's nothing. What matters is, do you know the Lord. That's what we boast in—our God, who He is, what He has done. All we are as a result of His doing, is it not? What do we have that we've not received? The most humble people on the face of the earth ought to be the people who have experienced the saving power of God in their lives, knowing how unworthy, undeserving they are. But God, for reasons known only to Himself, when He counseled with Himself in eternity, chose you, called you, exposed you to the wonder of the message of the cross. And by His divine power saved you. Why? God knew you were so valuable. What a horrible, horrible teaching inflicted on the church—God knew you were so valuable so He saved you. Directly the opposite. He knew you were worth nothing, but He saved you anyway. That's grace and we of all people should be personality centered? Truth centered, cross centered, God centered people.

I want to look at the opening verses of chapter 2 as Paul continues. And there is a break here. Through the first 17 verses Paul spoke in the first person, singular—I, I—verses 10ff particularly. Look at verse 10, now I exhort you brethren; verse 11, for I have been informed; verse 14, I thank God; verse 16, I did not baptize. In verses 18-31 he switched basically to the second person plural and he elaborated here on what he had said in verse 17 as he developed that section more fully. In chapter 2:1-5 he goes back to the first person singular. Now when I came to you, brethren, I did not come......; for I determined to know ...........; I was with you; my message, my preaching. You could directly from verse 17 to 2:1, but he gives you a fullness of understanding when he said, Christ did not send me to baptize, verse 17, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. Chapter 2 verse 1, and when I came to you, brethren, I did not come to you with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony. But he showed you in that intervening section what we have experienced—the unique wisdom of God, the salvation through the cross, the wonder of the people that God has chosen to save, and showed how God's ways are different than the world's ways. Now he comes back to the message that he preached.

One person who has written much and studied much in the area of the social conditions and customs of Corinth in the days of Paul has written something interesting. We like to think our day is different, we live in a unique time. Let me read you what he has written. To the modern person it comes as somewhat of a surprise how seldom ancient pagans express any hope for or interest in eternal life or personal resurrection. What they generally sought from religion was blessings in the present, such as health, wealth, rescue from peril, or the promise of a good harvest or of a child. In general salvation to a pagan meant a material benefit sought in and for this life. It is hardly surprising that some of the converts at Corinth had this worldly view of the benefits of faith in Christ. You know, nothing changes. Sinful people are self-focused and even their interests in religion and salvation have to do with benefits, primarily for this life. We think people have lost any interest in eternal issues. You understand they never really had much interest there. Even their religion has to do with the benefits for now and maybe making a safety valve for after I die. But it primarily focuses on benefits that come to me now. And it continues to be the same today. And the same message comes to accomplish the same work—God's salvation.

So Paul talks about what it was like when he came to Corinth. When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. Paul reminds them what is recorded in Acts 18, when he arrived at Corinth to carry out his ministry. He didn't come to impress them with his wisdom, with the breadth of knowledge, how he had thought through the philosophical issues of the day, how he could argue with the scholars of Corinth. He didn't come to dress up the message of a crucified Savior, present it in such a way that it would appeal to those people with their interests. That's not what he did. I didn't come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, the message of Christ.

I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Back in verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would be nullified. And that's what I did when I came to Corinth. And the Corinthians ________________ what did Paul do. I think we would be almost dumbfounded if we could hear a recording of the Apostle Paul's message. That's basic foundational stuff. That's what he did when he came to Corinth, that Greek city infatuated with wisdom. Paul is just like I didn't know anything else. I determined to know nothing among you. Nothing else we're going to talk about, nothing else I'm going to present but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. You know what made Paul so effective? He limited himself to what God said. We won't take time tonight, we've done it other times, Jeremiah 1, when he was called to be a prophet. What did God say? I put my words in your mouth. Ezekiel 2-3, when God calls Ezekiel what does He do? Puts His words in Ezekiel's mouth, you go tell them what I said. Whether they listen or not, you tell them what I told you. Period. You know what made those prophets effective? They did what God told them. God gave me a message, here it is. Remember, that's what a herald is—he comes with a message, his authority is not his own. The authority is the one who gave him the message, here's what he said. How can I enhance the fact that Almighty God has spoken, here's what He has said. Almighty God has worked, here's what He has done. I think I have to dress it up? I think I have to tweak it to make it appealing? I have to sort it ought for the culture of our day? ______ _____________.

You know, Paul comes to Corinth traveling and things haven't gone well from the human perspective when Paul arrives at Corinth. His travels, he came by Asia Minor. God says you can't go into Asia Minor and preach the Word, shuts the door. Paul's intention was to go into Asia to preach the Word. ______________ God says no. All right, closed door. What next? Well, he's called over to Greece. Wonderful. He comes to Philippi, preaches the gospel. He is beaten and thrown into the inner prison. Leaves there and goes to Thessalonica. The opposition becomes so intense after a short time in Thessalonica he has to leave the city. Goes on down to Athens and preaches. They think he's a fool. No significant response there, no church established so he goes on to Corinth. When he arrives in Corinth in Acts 18 you can appreciate why he says I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. The weakness probably refers to his bodily problems that seem to plague Paul throughout his ministry. He just wasn't well physically.

You know, I think if I were God doing this, if I can say this with proper respect, I'd say if I were to do one thing for Paul I'd give him a strong physical constitution. Because he's going to be a man who is going to pour his life out for me and the least I can do is give him the strength physically that he can keep on going. What does He do? He breaks Paul down physically. Do you think it doesn't take its toll on him and then you add the beatings and the opposition. Paul says I was there in fear and in much trembling. You know God had to intervene and tell Paul in Acts 18:9-10, here's what the Lord said to Paul in the nighttime vision. Do not be afraid any longer. Go on speaking, do not be silent. I am with you. No man will attack you to harm you for I have many people in this city. You know we get the idea that Paul is walking around in a bubble and he's not impacted by these things. So I got beaten in Philippi, didn't bother me. So I got run out of Thessalonica, that's all right. So nobody listened to me in Athens, that's okay. I go to Corinth ............. He was human, he was but dust as the psalmist says. That was his frame. He was a man of like passions, even as the prophet was. Then he had the physical problems. Easy to begin to think, Lord do you really want me to do this here. Am I accomplishing anything but causing trouble? And you know, Lord, my own health is breaking down and I've been driven out of the synagogue here. The opposition is already building. And the Lord says, that's all right, Paul, don't be afraid. I don't think Paul was out preaching the gospel because he never had any fears. He was doing it because God told him to do it. And he came to appreciate the uniqueness of the way that God worked.

Turn over to II Corinthians 12. Here it has to do with Paul dealing with the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to buffet him. Evidently a physical affliction of one kind or another, whatever the possibilities don't concern us right now. Paul prayed three times that the Lord would give him deliverance. You can understand, Lord, if you'd only relieve me from this affliction I'd have so much more strength, so much more stamina to serve you. You know, constant physical affliction has a way of wearing you down, takes its toll not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually, as some of you have experienced. The response of the Lord was, I can take care of that. The response of the Lord is I could take care of it, Paul, but I won't. What I will do for you is give you my grace to endure the affliction. We think when grace comes He removes the affliction, the weakness, the problem. He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. You know what Paul? You can go on. You know what Paul? You can go to the next city and preach the gospel again. You can drag your body and discipline it and make it do what it doesn't want to do. He says when he says I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. My grace is sufficient for you. Why? For power is perfected in weakness. Just the opposite of what the world sees. Power is perfected in weakness. I have to have a weak instrument, that's an instrument that I can use in a greater way, God tells Paul.

Paul's response, this is the greatness of Paul, most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Could it be any more reversed from the way the world thinks? We think, if only the Lord would remove this difficulty, if the Lord would only remove this suffering, if the Lord would only remove this problem, I could be so effective for Him. I could do so much more for Him. The Lord has a way of breaking us down, confronting us with our inabilities, our weaknesses, our frailties. Then He says, my grace is sufficient. I don't take those things away because I want to work powerfully in and through you, but all the glory has to come to Me.

So what was the criticism among some of Paul's opponents at Corinth? He's not much when you see him, and his speech won't impress you. But we look at it and say, how powerfully he was used of God. I imagine if Paul came to speak we'd look and say, this must be his front man, must come along to help Paul. That's him? He'd preach and we'd say, that's it? What was the power? The simplicity, the clarity. I've been in many Bible studies, many classes, I've heard people that presented it that clearly. God used it, turned it loose. How often we get so caught up with the problem that we're going through that we miss the opportunity. I think I can't go on until God deals with this physical problem, this other problem, this difficulty. And when He deals with that, then I'll be able to really serve Him. No, now is the time.

So that's the beauty of Paul, I gladly boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me. If it's an issue of being physically strong or having the power of Christ work mightily in me, I'll take the power of Christ every day. And I look at my weakness now as an occasion to more greatly used of God. And that makes me thank God for my weaknesses. That's different than the way the world works.

So you come back to I Corinthians 2. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom. Forget it. How many people say, I don't have the ability to present these things clearly. You may not be a gifted teacher, but you know the message of the cross. That's what you present. I don't think that's going to impress anyone. I don't think so either. So unless God sovereignly in His grace chooses to use that message of the cross you present, salvation will not occur. But you understand, that's not my responsibility.

My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. People got saved. So that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. You see the terrible thing that can happen when we mix the message of the cross with other things. You have people placing their faith in the wisdom of men, not the power of God. And you have a pseudo salvation, which inoculates people against the saving message of the cross. You can't mix it with man's wisdom, man's methods. You can't think that you'll use the world's ways. We're not a celebrity ministry. You're right, we are just average common people. Who goes to your church? Well a variety of people, some you may know from work, from school, from other activities. They are just normal, average people. Do we have any well-known people, important people? We're just all sinners saved by grace. Doesn't mean there aren't people that may be more well known on occasion. Let's face it, we're just basically overall just average people. __________ important. Eternity hangs on this issue. What a terrible thing that people would be drawn to place their faith in the wisdom of men, rather than in the power of God. What a terrible thing that the church which is to be the pillar and support of the truth would adjust the message and the result would be that we'd have ten services a weekend with thousands of people who would come to place their faith in the wisdom of men rather than in the power of God. What a horrible trade off. Does not mean that in times in God's grace thousands of people might get saved by the message of the cross. But you understand it will have to be God's doing, doing it His way with His message, calling His people. We can't add to it. I just wish our church would grow. Three or four faithful men struggling with what we'd call small ministries and a handful of people, faithfully presenting the Word, faithfully our sharing the gospel. Lord, if you'd bless .............. But it's in God's hands. What they are doing every day is pleasing the Lord. The world can't appreciate how successful they are. Sadly, some Christians don't appreciate how successful they re. But they are pleasing their Lord and God uses the message of the gospel. Sometimes we are a savor of life to life, sometimes we are a savor of death to death, and it is God who makes us sufficient for these things.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, a reminder that it was your sovereign work that brought about salvation for each of us. All of us can boast, but our boast can only be in you—the wonder of your work, the power of the gospel. Lord, we are but sinners saved by grace. Guard us from the allurements of the world, the desire for acceptance, recognition, success. Lord, may we count it a privilege to be your servants, to give forth the message which is your power for salvation, the message of the cross. Not to be embarrassed about the cross, not to be embarrassed about the fact that we are insignificant in the eyes of the world. But that's all right, you have claimed us for Yourself, we belong to You, we are Your children. We don't boast about our earthly accomplishments, we boast about you and what you, the living God, have accomplished in us and by your grace accomplished through us. Thank you for calling us to Yourself. Thank you for bringing us together as your church in this place, thank you for the ongoing work of Your Spirit. Lord, use us as instruments in the days of the week before us, to share the wonder of the message of the cross of Jesus Christ so that you might use that message to accomplish Your work, to bring honor to Yourself. We pray in Christ's name, amen.