A Pregação Que Deus Abençoa - Steven Lawson.

I invite you to take God's Word and turn with me to the book 1st Corinthians first Corinthians chapter 2 and I want to bring you a message at this conference that I want to entitle the kind of preaching God blesses I want to begin by reading the text reading the passage that will be the focus of our exposition in this hour Paul told young Timothy until I come give attention to the public reading of scripture to exhortation and to the teaching in other words read the text explain the text exhort with the test that is

the the engine that drives expository preaching you read the text you explain the text you exhort with the text I want to begin by reading this text of Scripture I want to set it before your heart and before your eyes one more time and then I want us to look and I want to teach with the text and then I want to exhort with the text God's Word reads and when I came to you brethren I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God for I determined

to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling in my message and my preaching we're not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God yet we yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature a wisdom however not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away but we speak God's wisdom in

a mystery the hidden mystery which God predestined before the ages to our glory the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood for if they had understood it they would not have prints they would not have crucified the Lord of glory but just as it is written things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which has not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love him there is a kind of preaching that God blesses and there is a kind of preaching that God

abandons years ago the great Bible teacher Donald Gray Barnhouse pastor of 10th Presbyterian downtown Philadelphia a predecessor the great expositor James Montgomery Boyce in a sermon that was aired on CBS radio a cry the nation speculated the following strategy of satan to be the most diabolical he said if Satan took over Philadelphia his most diabolical ploy would be this all of the bars would be closed all prostitution would be off the street all pornography would be banished the streets would be clean the neighborhoods would be filled with law-abiding citizens all swearing and cursing would be

gone children would say yes sir and no man and then Barnhouse added dramatically and every Church in Philadelphia would be packed to overflowing standing room only there would not be one there would not be one pew that content could contain one more citizen of Philadelphia the entire town would be packed into churches and then Barnhouse imagined the deadliest most diabolical danger would be this that in each of these packed churches Jesus Christ and him crucified would be never preached as there would be religion but no Christ there would be morality but no Christ there would

be cultural concern but no Christ as there would be positive thinking but no Christ there would be Christianity a form thereof but no Christ the most diabolical ploy would be for the churches of America to be filled with preaching that contained know Christ and him crucified would Barnhouse feared years ago my fear has come to pass in our end day Michael Horton has written a book entitled Chryslers Christianity that drives home this very point in his book Horton comments that the church in America has become more and more Christ less Horton writes the church in

America today is so obsessed with being practical relevant helpful successful and even well-liked that it mirrors the world itself aside from the packaging there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups important calls such religion Chryslers Christianity and then he writes the focus seems to be on us and our activity rather than on God and his work in Jesus Christ Jesus Horton says to these is a coach with a good game plan for our victory rather than a savior who

has already achieved it for us salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God's judgment by God himself close quote in short it was a Chryslers christianity that both Barnhouse and Horton warned of this is a danger into which many ministries fall it is a succumbing to the trap where Christ is relegated to the periphery and to the parameters rather than standing in the middle and the spotlight in the message Jesus Christ is less standing in the shadows what must be recovered in our day is the kind of

preaching that God blesses it is rooted and grounded in preaching the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ it is rooted and grounded in preaching Christ not merely as infallible teacher and moral example and he is both but preaching Christ as the suffering Savior and the sovereign lord of heaven and earth but to be sure we preach the full counsel of God but all of the lines of our theology intersect at that highest pinnacle which is Jesus Christ and him crucified that we preach all of the doctrines of the Bible we preach the full

truth that is disclosed unto us but it is all foundational and upon this great foundation of Revelation stands a towering mountain it is Calvary it is Golgotha and upon piled Calvary is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are to be forever preaching Christ and him crucified we preach Christ nailed to a cross we preach him lifted up on that judgement tree we preach him bearing our sins in his body and carrying our iniquities far away and pouring out his rich red blood on behalf of sinners this is what must be the very

heartbeat of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ if we are known for anything we must be known for preaching Christ and him crucified this is why I'm drawn to this text in 1st Corinthians 2 this day to share with you which says so much to us about the priority of straightforward red-hot no-holds-barred gospel preaching of Jesus Christ that this passage points back to the time when the Apostle Paul first came to Corinth on his second missionary journey Corinth was a wealthy commercial hub it was a prosperous cosmopolitan metropolis the city buzzed an outdoor theater

with the most renowned actors and dramatists andorra ters in the known world the corinthians were accustomed to the best communicators and the best orators and the best rhetoric of the ancient world how would Paul ever make a dent in the marketplace of ideas in Corinth how would Paul reach such a sophisticated City with Paul resort to a different ministry strategy to reach this the cultured elite of this town would Paul D emphasize preaching would he tone it down for these cultured ears would Paul try a sneak up approach on the Corinthians would Paul adopt an

alternate strategy other than preaching would he try to be suave and highly philosophical in order to reach these Greek minds and we are not left to wonder for Paul tells us what his approach was Paul came preaching and he came preaching Jesus Christ and he came preaching Jesus Christ crucified and this is what you and I need to be doing and must be doing as as we serve the Lord Jesus Christ it matters not if you pastor or minister in a large city or in a small city it matters not if you are with the

cultural elite are those who are unlettered and unlearning it matters not if you're involved in children's ministry or senior adult ministry it matters not if you lead a college ministry or a singles ministry or a young marrieds ministry there is the predominance of one message for every man in this room no matter where you serve no matter to whom you minister no matter what city you're in or if you're out in the country for each and every one of us it must be emblazoned on our soul we each christ and him crucified this is what

paul says to each and every one of us now as we look at this text my outline is a Trinitarian outline I want you to note each member of the Godhead in this passage I want you to note first the preeminence of Christ in verses 1 & 2 I want you to note the power of the Spirit in verses 3 through 5 and then finally the predetermined plan of the Father in verses 6 through 9 this is the kind of preaching that God blesses and if our preaching departs from this plumb line we have departed

from the blessing of God being upon our ministries and being on our upon our endeavors to serve the Lord there are no exception clauses to this kind of preaching I want you to note first the preeminence of Christ all preaching that has the favor of heaven upon it must have in the very center place the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ I want you to note beginning in verse 1 and when I came to you brethren notice past tense it looks back to the time of Paul's earlier visit to Corinth on the second

missionary journey when I came to you and he reminds them of how it was he came to them and what was the message with which he came to them I want you to note first the negative denial this is how he did not come to them this is how none of us must ever come to those to whom we minister this is out of bounds this is off-limits the blessing of God will not be upon our ministries if we do not emulate Paul's negative denial here note I did not I did not come with superiority

of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God he says I did not come with superiority of speech I did not come with wisdom and if there was ever a time to have tried superiority of speech and wisdom it was here in Corinth they loved superiority of speech they loved wisdom if Paul had come with superiority of speech and of wisdom he could have gathered a crowd from the very outset and could have been applauded for his message if Paul had gone door to door in Corinth and if he had surveyed the

Corinthians and if he had asked them what would you like in a church they would have answered give us superiority of speech and give us wisdom they loved those things superiority of speech speaks of a worldly delivery wisdom speaks of worldly doctrine in other words not only what you say but how you say it superiority of speech speaks of style of ministry wisdom speaks of substance of ministry superiority of speech speaks of the method wisdom speaks of the message superiority of speech is how one speaks wisdom is what one says obviously Paul did not buy

into the tired mantra that the message stays the same but the method is free to be whatever Paul says no the message is unchanging and the the method is unchanging now when he's not with superiority of speech we must be reminded that 45 miles away up the road lay Athens Athens was the crown jewel of the Greek culture and that's where the philosophers were born and lived that's where the great orator learned their skills Corinth was only 45 miles away and what was birthed in Athens played on Broadway in Corinth Paul says not with support

superiority of speech by that he means not as the Greek orator spoke in order to butter up their listeners and not resting upon rhetorical techniques to manipulate people not relying upon a rhetorical devices to win over the listeners and not looking to Train vocal inflections not leaning on debate techniques or commanding gestures or flowery eloquence or play-acting skills learn from the Greek schools of rhetoric and not using the art of persuasive manipulation through discourse Paul says you know I did not come to you and pander you and try to build bridges to you in such

a way that I would beguile you and try to manipulate you then Paul addresses the message itself I did not come to you with such a worldly method and neither I have have I come to you with a worldly message he says not with wisdom and when he says not with wisdom he is referring to the wisdom of this world the wisdom of man which refers to man's solutions to man's own problems a philosophy in the ancient world was a total worldview philosophy in the ancient world addressed such questions as where did I come from

Who am I where am I going what is life all about why am I here what is meaning what is truth how can I find happiness how should I live what is death where do I go after death what happens in the end dying who is God all of these were addressed by the Greek philosophers of the day and they gave a man centered worldview with man's solutions to man's problems and Paul says I did not come to you in such a way to give man centered diagnosis of man's problems and then to give man's

prescription Paul referred to wisdom earlier in Chapter 1 in verse 19 I would refer you back across the page and here we think not just what does Paul think of wisdom but Paul actually quotes the Old Testament here and he quotes what God thinks of human wisdom in first Corinthians 1 in verse 19 Paul writes for it is written and as he does he quotes from Isaiah 29 verse 14 God is the speaker God is speaking first person and God says I will destroy the wisdom of the wise that is to say God is death

on human wisdom I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside and then Paul begins to taunt and mock the wise men of this world for their the bankruptcy of their ideas to be put up against the gospel of Christ in him crucified and in verse 20 Paul says where is the wise man where is the scribe where is the debater of this age the real answer to those rhetorical questions is there is not a man who can match wits with the genius of Almighty God and

God's solutions to man problems all of man's solutions are bankrupt and it is God and God alone who has true wisdom in verse 21 for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God man's wisdom never leads to God man's wisdom leads away from God man's wisdom is in a front and an offense to Almighty God man's wisdom will never lead to the knowledge of God and then in verse 22 for indeed Jews asked for signs and Greeks search for wisdom Paul also warned against this wisdom in

Colossians 2 and in verse 8 when he says see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy the word philosophy meaning the love of wisdom the love of man's wisdom see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit philosophy is that's what man's wisdom was it is nothing but empty deception according to the tradition of men it is just error that has grown old and it has passed down from one generation to the next it is the same poison with a different label in each generation according to the

elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ Paul says this is how I did not come to you Corinthians I did not come to you with superiority of speech and I did not come to you with man's wisdom as notice now positively proclaiming to you the testimony of God this will not mix you cannot take superiority of speech and mix it with preaching you cannot take man's wisdom and mix it with the testimony of God it is like gas and oil it will not mix it is repelled it will always separate claiming speaks

of God's method and the testimony of God speaks of God's message I did not come to you with worldly delivery and worldly doctrine instead I came to you with God's doctrine and with God's delivery that is what he is saying here the testimony of God refers to the the substance of the message it is from God and it is about God God is both the source and the subject of what Paul preached in Corinth and Proclamation refers to the way that Paul delivered the testimony of God this is the kind of preaching God blesses when

there is the proclamation and the declaration of the testimony of God now Paul becomes more specific in verse 2 notice how he tightens the focus and and draws our attention now to the very heart of the matter this is at the very part of the testimony of God this is where all of the lines of theology intersect this is the the connecting point for the truths of Scripture for I determined notice that word determined it means to be intentionally and firmly resolved I cannot be turned away from this I cannot be turned to the left

nor to the right I care not what my critics say I care not what others have to say I am determined to know nothing among you and when he says to know nothing among you absolutely unequivocably nothing nothing of human wisdom nothing of worldly mentre nothing of humanistic philosophy nothing of secular humanism nothing of human psychology nothing of human sociology nothing of comparative religion nothing of positive thinking nothing of motivational pep talks I determined to know nothing among you when I was with you and for those 18 months in Corinth except please note the exclusivity

of this there is nothing outside of what follows everything that I had to say fit within the sphere of what now follows except Jesus Christ and him crucified this is to say the core essence of what Paul preached in Corinth is very simply the person and work of Christ I want to say again Paul preached the full counsel of God we know that from Acts chapter 20 when he met with the elders at Ephesus he said that there was a full disclosure of all of the doctrines that God had revealed to him and yet he

says I know nothing among you except Christ in him crucified that is to say that all of the areas of truth and doctrine all come together and set forth in the primacy and in the centrality of this message Jesus Christ and him crucified Paul was one-track minded in his preaching the apex and pinnacle of his preaching was rooted and grounded in Christ and in Christ alone he was the Alpha and the Omega of what Paul had to say and everything in between for Paul preaching Christ and him crucified speaks to the primacy of the cross

it speaks to the centrality of the cross it speaks of the supremacy of the cross the sovereignty of the cross the exclusivity of the cross and the finality of the cross the glory of the cross the efficacy of the cross the purity of the cross Paul preached the fullness of the power of the cross he preached that by the cross the wrath of God toward sinners was alone appeased and satisfied that holy God is reconciled to sinful man and that sinners in bondage to sin have been redeemed we sing a hymn what can wash away

my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus what can make me whole again nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh precious the flow that makes me white as snow no other fount I know nothing but the blood of Jesus and it is by the cross we are saved it is by the cross we are sanctified Paul tells us there is power to change and transform our lives from the inside out with the power of the cross and there is the eternal security of the believer in the finality of Christ's death upon Calvary's cross to guarantee

the eternal salvation of everyone for whom Christ has died Paul has already said this in Chapter 1 in verse 18 we read for the word of the Cross is foolishness it is moronic to the unconverted mind it is stupid it is of no sense it is irrational it is illogical it is foolishness to those who are perishing and my fear is that our preaching is no longer foolishness to unconverted ears my fear is that too many preachers want to be so accepted by the world that they have pandered to spiritual superiority of speech and they

have adopted the wisdom of this world in order to gain a hearing from those who are in the world when the fact of the matter is when we bring the pure message of the Cross to those who hear it and who are lost it must be foolishness to them he says but to us are being saved it is the power of God and verse 23 Paul says but we preach Christ crucified there is no preaching of Christ apart from preaching Christ crucified to jesus stumbling block into Gentiles foolishness men in our preaching there must always

be the primacy and the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ and the preaching of the cross of Christ not only to unbelievers unto salvation but to under unto the Saints of God for their sanctification and for their glorification Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said the best sermons are the sermons which are fullest of Christ a sermon without Christ is an awful thing it is a horrible thing it is an empty well it is a cloud without rain it is a tree twice dead plucked up by the roots a sermon without Christ Spurgeon said is an abominable

thing it is giving men stones for bread and scorpions for eggs yet they do so who failed to preach Jesus a sermon without Christ you might as well speak of a loaf of bread without any flour Spurgeon went on to say if you leave that Christ you have left the son out of the day the moon out of the night you have left the waters out of the sea and the floods out of the river you have left the harvest out of the year the soul out of the body you have left joy out of

heaven you have robbed all of it's all there is no gospel worth thinking of much less preaching if Jesus is forgotten he must be the Alpha and the Omega of our ministries Spurgeon said I take my text and make a beeline to the cross Spurgeon said let the v2u the mark of true gospel preaching where Christ is everything and man is nothing where salvat where salvation is all of grace through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Christ men is your preaching rooted and grounded in the centrality of

Christ and him crucified do people think of you predominantly as a preacher of Christ one who is always magnifying and lifting up the glories of the person and the work of Christ I want you to know second not only the preeminence of Christ but the power of the Spirit Paul goes on to say I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling that is not how the Greek actors came that is not how the Greek orders stood before their audiences that is not how the great rhetoric issues of the day cast

a spell over their mesmerised listeners to the contrary Paul said I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling Paul came to court after being beaten and imprisoned in Philippi after being run out of town from Thessalonica and Berea after being scoffed at and ridiculed in Athens he was physically weak he was emotionally drained he had been rejected he had been mocked he had been it been taunted when he arrived in Corinth he was in human weakness physically emotionally he is a man who has been pulled at in every direction and

challenged at every point but it would be in this weakness that the power of the Holy Spirit of God would come upon him no preacher is any stronger than when he in his weakness is holding forth Christ and him crucified when he says weakness and fear and trembling he does not mean that he was fearful of his audience he does not mean that he was fearful of man and he does not mean that he was fearful of being intellectually weak on his part for Paul said I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the

power of God unto salvation he was eager to go to Rome the chief city in the world and to put the gospel up in the marketplace of ideologies and to challenge every ISM in every philosophy and the power of God alone would be able to change and transform from the inside out know Paul's weakness and fear and trembling was of a different kind it was because he understood the seriousness of his mission he understood that in preaching heaven and hell were hanging in the balances he understood that he was preaching with souls in need of

salvation who are perishing he was preaching as Richard Baxter once said as a dying man to dying men as never to preach again such weakness and fear and trembling is one of the marks of every great preacher it was in Martin Luther the mighty reformer when he stood up to preach Spurgeon said of him Luther said he could face his enemies but could not go up his pulpit stairs without his knees knocking together preaching is not child's play Spurgeon said it is not a thing to be done without labor and anxiety it is a solemn

thing it is an awful work to undertake and by awful he speaks of the all that should the heart and the soul of every preacher when John Knox was first called into the ministry and he was called by his congregation in the castle at st. Andrews to preach the Word of God to them he was in such a despair of his own inadequacy that Knox burst into tears and withdrew for several days because of the enormity of the task that was laid upon him Spurgeon said of himself that his own church officers could not leave

him alone for even ten minutes before the start of one of those grand services as people gathered by the thousands to hear him preach for fear that he might faint before being brought to preach before them he understood that the weight of the message and the mission was upon him and it called for sobriety in his soul Paul understood that he must answer to God on the last day for his preaching for his doctrine he must faithfully discharge the full counsel of God that one day he would stand at the judgment seat of Christ that

he would be tested as by fire on the last day that he would be as James 3 verse 1 says let not many of you become teachers my brethren knowing as such we shall incur a stricter judgment someone was telling me this week of being at a pastors conference in another part of this country and one of the pastors coming up to the man who relayed this to me for the success of spiritual leadership in his church he says it really comes down to swagger you have to have a swagger about you well by that

standard the Apostle Paul was an abysmal failure because when he came to Corinth he came in much fear and weakness and trembling that's what he says in verse 4 and my message that's his doctrine and my preaching that's his delivery and my message and my preaching both substance and style both message and ministry both doctrine and delivery and my message and preaching were not here's another negative denial he's telling him in reminding them how he did not come were not in persuasive words that's his delivery of wisdom that is his doctrine Paul was not buttering

up his listeners he was not tickling their ears he was not pandering to their fancies he was not appealing to human words of wisdom there were no calculated theatrics there was no manipulating techniques there was no hyper emotionalism and no improper humor Paul says you know that I did not come in this manner Paul how did you come and he tells us in this verse but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power in Paul's weakness the power of God by the Holy Spirit was operative and active in his life and he was enabled and

supernaturally energized by God to carry out the preaching of Jesus Christ and the cross and this word demonstration refers to evidence presented in a court of law and Paul reminds them that it was clearly evident to their very eyes and before their senses they could clearly see the power of the Spirit in his ministry as he spoke his ministry was supernaturally upheld and empowered by God now this is what jesus promised in Luke 24 verse 49 I am sending forth the promise my father upon you and you will be clothed with power from on high

Paul was clothed with power from on high in acts 1 and verse 8 jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses and Paul would write to the Thessalonians in chapter 1 in verse 5 in his first letter to them and say for our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction now here is why verse 5 so that your faith would not here's another negative denial if I had come to

you with superiority of speech and if I had come to you with the worldly message with worldly wisdom so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men you would be a false convert you would be a spurious disciple and a counterfeit believer in Jesus Christ you would be religious but lost you would be a professor of Christ who does not possess the Lord Jesus Christ your faith would be built upon the quicksand of this world for your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God Paul

was so weak that God could use him there is no one too weak for God to use only men who are too strong for God to use men who are too strong in and of themselves God says not by might and not by power but by my spirit says the Lord Martyn lloyd-jones has written to me the classic' on preaching it is a book entitled preachers and preaching a series of messages he gave at Westminster seminary several years ago and in this series of lectures lloyd-jones comments on the ministry of the holy spirit of god

in the life of the preacher listen to what lloyd-jones says if there is no power it is not preaching true preaching after all is God acting it is not just a man uttering words it is God using him he is being used of God he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit it is God giving power and enabling through the spirit to the preacher in order that he may do this work in a manner that lists him up beyond the efforts and endeavors to a position in which the preacher is being used by the

spirit and becomes the channel through whom the spirit works it is the Holy Spirit who gives to the preacher clarity of thought clarity of speech ease of utterance a great sense of authority and confidence as you are preaching an awareness of a power not your own thrilling through the whole of your being and an indescribable sense of joy you are a man possessed you are taken hold of you have a feeling that you are not actually doing the preaching you are looking on you are looking on it yourself in amazement it is not your effort

you are just the instrument you are the channel you are the vehicle the Spirit is using you and you are looking on in great astonishment what about the people Lord John says they sense it at once they can tell the difference immediately they are gripped they become serious they are convicted they are moved they are humbled some are convicted of sin others are lifted up to the heavens they know at once that something unusual is happening as a result they begin to delight in the things of God they want more and more teaching how we

need the Spirit of God to embolden our preaching and to give us passion and zeal and fire as we proclaim the testimonies of God jean-marie who was the great systematic theologian professor at Westminster seminary he came from a high church Scottish presbyterian background would never be mistaken for someone who would be caught up in any kind of emotionalism dr. John Murray said this preaching without passion is not preaching at all close quote what he is saying where the Holy Spirit of God is filling the preacher and empowering the preacher there is the energy of God

being released in flowing through that man as he preaches the Word of God JW Alexander one of the Princetonian professors in his great book thoughts on preaching says the whole mass of truth by the sudden passion of the preacher is made red-hot and burns its way into the listener Narcisse for all states dispassionate preaching is a lie it is where the Spirit of God is ministering with power in the life of the preacher he is trembling he is in weakness but there is a demonstration of power and of the Holy Spirit upon him a young

man once came to Martyn lloyd-jones and said dr. Jones what is lloyd-jones what is the difference between teaching and preaching Lloyd Jones said young man if you have to ask me the difference between teaching and preaching it is obvious that you have never heard preaching because if you have heard preaching you would not ask me that question there is the demonstration of power and the Holy Spirit upon the preacher of God as he is magnifying the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ the noted Puritan Richard Baxter wrote a very famous book entitled reformed

pastor it spoke not of his theology it was assumed he would be reformed in his theology it spoke of his ministry Baxter writes what speak cold for God and for men's salvation can we believe that our people must be converted or condemned and yet speak in a drowsy tone can we believe that in the name of God that we must labor to awaken our own hearts before we can go to the pulpit that we may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners remember they must be awakened or be damned and that a sleepy preacher

will hardly awaken drowsy sinners though you give the holy things of God the highest praises in words yet if you do it coldly you will seem by your manner to unsay what you said in the matter you will unsay what you say if you say it without demonstration of the power and of the Spirit and then Baxter said it is a kind of contempt of great things especially of so great things to speak of them without affection and fervency Jonathan Edwards said that one of the goals of great preaching is to raise the affections of

the listener and the preachers own affections by the power of the Spirit must be raised do you know what it is to preach and demonstration of the power and the spirit do you know what it is to be in trembling and in weakness and in fear do you know what it is to call out to God and to plead with God to accompany you into the pulpit and to manifest the fullness of his power in your mind and in your heart and in your disposition as you administer the Word of God every one of us

as we preach the Word of God we must be men who are marked by the filling of the Spirit of God our lives must be dominated by a power from on high we must be men who know what it is to preach in the energy of the Spirit of God a third and finally I want you to know the pre determining plan of the Father we have spoken of the son and we have spoken of the spirit but I want you to note third and finally the role of the Father the preaching of Christ and

him crucified in the power of the Spirit is the eternal purpose of God note verse six yet we do speak wisdom Paul says it's not that we don't speak wisdom we simply speak wisdom of different kind we speak not the wisdom of this world we speak the wisdom that has come down from above that has been given to us by God and when he speaks of wisdom here in verse six he is saying that this wisdom is found in the gospel of Christ in him crucified he says we speak wisdom among those who are mature

of the mature he refers not to only mature believers he is referring to all believers for this word can be used of one who has full membership in a group it's referring to all believers who have a full inheritance of salvation and this is important to note because Paul speaks the gospel not only to those who are without Christ but he speaks the gospel to those who are mature and this speaks of the power of sanctification in the preaching of the Cross and the guarantee of glorification in the preaching of the Cross now note he

again uses negative denial before he uses positive assertion he says a wisdom however not of this age or of the rulers of this age what Paul has to say it has not come from the culture it has not come from society it has not come from the intelligence II of this world it has not come from men Solomon said there is a way which seems right to a man but the end thereof is the end of death he says that those who are the wisdom of this world are passing away why would we draw wisdom

from men who are passing away this is to say they are unraveling they are perishing they are imploding but now here is positive assertion but we speak God's wisdom God's wisdom is so antithetical to man's wisdom our message could not be any more juxtaposition and antithetical to the wisdom of this world they do not even overlap they are polar opposites God's wisdom is eternal man's wisdom is temporal God's wisdom is divine man's wisdom is demonic God's wisdom is pure man's is impure God's wisdom is cross centered man's wisdom is man's centered and culture centered God's

wisdom saves man's wisdom damns god's wisdom is perceived to be foolish but actually it's brilliant man's wisdom is perceived to be brilliant but is entirely foolish god's wisdom is heavenly man's wisdom is earthly God's wisdom provides an alien righteousness God's wisdom self-righteousness but we speak God's wisdom and now here's the sphere here's the location of the divine genius of God it is in a mystery meaning it is unintelligible to the unconverted mind until God by the preaching of the Cross and by the work of the Holy Spirit reveals it to the unsaved mind the hidden

wisdom in other words man could never find it out on his own were we to divide up into little small groups it's been the next 10,000 years designing a plan of salvation none of us could have ever come up with the genius of God in the plan of salvation that God would send His only Son into this world born of a virgin under the law to keep the law on our behalf and give to us an active righteousness go to the cross be lifted up to die all the sins of all those who would believe

would be transferred to the Godman Christ who would die in our place shed his blood and make the only propitiation of the righteous anger of God that there could be be taken down from that cross be put in a borrowed tomb and be raised on the third day and come walking out a living risen victorious Savior ascend to the right hand of God the Father and there be the savior of all who will call upon his name only God could have designed the plan of salvation it was the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the

ages to our glory Paul is saying my message is not a trendy contemporary message it is not it has not just recently appeared on the scene it is not a new discovery of this generation this message is ancient it is old it is transgenerational it is older than mankind it is older than man's sin it is older than this world Paul says we've gone back to old past and we are preaching the old old story the heart of this hidden mystery is Jesus Christ and him crucified in verse 8 the wisdom which none of the

rulers of this age has understood for if they had understood it and they would not have crucified the Lord of glory it was God's wisdom that their lack of wisdom would fulfill his wisdom and we conclude verse 9 which has nothing to do with heaven it has everything to do with the gospel but just as it is written things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered into the heart of man it is referring to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ which could never be self discovered it would

have to be divinely revealed to man in his word and then through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ Christ in him crucified because for the natural man I would never see it heart would never discern it ear would never hear it except it be God who would make it known to a lost and dying world because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men this is the kind of preaching that God blesses there is the preeminence of Christ and him crucified there is the power

of the Holy Spirit in the life of the preacher and there is the predetermined plan of God from before time began being made known through the proclamation of the word as I look over this audience I see young men I see old and seasoned men the message of the Apostle Paul to each and every one of us is that whether you are a young man or a father in the faith whether you are new to the ministry or you have been in the ministry for many decades there is but the primacy of one message for

each and every one of us whether we stand in a pulpit or stand in a prison and have ministry there whether we go to the hospital or whether we go into children's ministry no matter to whom we minister as long as we are on this earth the heart of our message is Jesus Christ in him crucified a preacher who will not preach the centrality of Christ is like a barber who will not cut hair it doesn't matter what else you do you are not a barber if you do not cut hair and you are not

a god called preacher fulfilling the call of God upon your life except at the center of your preaching there is Jesus Christ and him crucified one man who stands out as a glowing testimony of this in church history is the noted Scottish preacher Andrew Bonner Bonner was the younger brother of the famous older brother Horatius Bonner Boehner and he was the closest friend of that Scottish Worthy Robert Murray McShane you're familiar with Robert Murray McShane he was converted at age 18 and who died at age 29 and he was the instrument in the hand of

God for bringing about great revival in the land of Scotland Andrew Bonner and McShane were closest of friends and they were both of the same age and they decided to reach the world for Christ together and they left Scotland and they went to the mission field together first they went to Europe and then they went to Palestine to preach the gospel to Jews and to Muslims they did frontline preaching of the gospel in some of the hardest places in the world to preach the gospel when they came back to Scotland Robert Murray McShane one of

the greatest preachers the world has ever known died at a young age aged 29 and Bonner gathered up his diary in Journal and published them for the world to know of the devotion of his best friend in the ministry but Bonar would live until the age of 82 he pastored for 54 years he died at age 82 while still in the ministry and still pastoring in Glasgow Scotland and Bonner reflected in his latter years why would his best friend Robert Murray McShane died at age 29 and why would I be allowed to live until the

ripe age of 82 why God Bunner said why am I spared so long is a question I often ask he then reasoned to this in one thing I know it must be that I may preach Christ and him crucified whenever and wherever it is in my power men do you know why you're on this earth do you know why you are still alive do you know why there is still breath in your lungs why there is still blood in your veins while there is still strength in your bodies it is that we may proclaim and

spread the glorious news of Jesus Christ and him crucified and this is why we are here and as long as we are here upon planet Earth this is at the very highest pinnacle of our purpose as men of God I will get spurge in the last word I received some years ago orders from my master to stand at the foot of the cross until he come he has not come yet but I mean to stand here till he does if I should disobey his orders and leave those simple truths I know not how I would

expect his blessing here then I stand at the foot of the cross and tell the old old story stale though it may it sound to itching ears and worn threadbare as critics may deem it it is of Jesus Christ and him crucified I love to speak of Christ who loved of Christ who live of Christ who died the substitute for sinners the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God I remain anchored to the cross of Christ men we have received the same marching orders we must stand at the foot of the

cross and preach the power of the Cross until the one who was crucified upon that cross returns from glory for us may we be found faithful to proclaim the message of the cross of Jesus Christ and when he returns may he find us standing at the foot of the cross let us pray