Transcript

Well, let’s look together over the first Corinthians chapter two as we continue our study, verse by verse, through this wonderful New Testament book on Sunday evenings for 1 Corinthians chapter two. And I want us to look together at verses one through five. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

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. And 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, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Now Paul is continuing his reproof. Maybe even you could say rebuke of the church at Corinth, for placing their confidence on the messenger and not the message on the preacher. It the truth preached by the preacher. Remember some of them said, well, we’re of Apollos, and some said, well, we’re of Paul. And others said, well, we’re of Cephas. And then a most carnal group of all — we’re of Christ. We’re the spiritual ones. And Paul is building on that. Remember, this is just a letter, and he’s just going to keep his thoughts running along. And so when we get to what call… of course, when Paul wrote the letter, he didn’t have chapters in verses we’ve put those in to help us organize the text.

But he’s continuing to show that there was no reason for them to look to him as anyone special. That his message in the way he preached it personally, had any saving effect. He’s pointing them back to Jesus. He’s saying, you’ve got to get back to Christ. He is the reason he’s the key. Now, as we look at this particular argument, I want us to glean some very significant things.

I’ve been titled this message God’s Gospel, God’s gospel. I’m picking up on that phrase there. The last part of verse one where he says, “I am proclaiming to you the testimony of God”. What he’s saying is, I came to you just to share with you what God says about what the purpose of life is and how a man can be saved. I came to share with you God’s testimony. God’s gospel. Now the testimony of God is the gospel of Jesus Christ. But it’s God’s gospel. It’s not our gospel. It’s not possible. It’s not the church’s gospel. It’s not the Pope’s gospel. It’s God’s gospel. He thought it up. He put it together. It’s His it’s matter of fact, three times in 2 Thessalonians, the gospel is called the Gospel of God.

So as we look at these verses, verses one through five of chapter two, I want us to notice three things about God’s gospel. Number one, let’s notice the perfection of the gospel, the perfection of the gospel. And we see both in verses one and in verse three. Look at verse one with me. He says, “and when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech, nor of wisdom”.

Now, first of all, that word superiority there means a preeminence or a rising above. It means excessive speech in order to amuse and allure and attract a carnal mind. He said, I didn’t do any of that to make the gospel more appealing. I didn’t come with superiority of speech. That next word “speech”, speaks of his style of preaching, his eloquence are his vocal quality.

Now the apostle Paul may have been a good speaker and had a good voice, but he never put confidence in that. That’s not where the power was. Had a dynamic or charismatic personality and style of delivery, but he made no attempt to use that to influence the hearer. What he was, he didn’t work at trying to draw our lure people with his personal style, oratory skills, our ability.

Now notice not only superiority of speech, “nor of wisdom”. Wisdom means the content of the message. He said, I didn’t change the content at all to make the gospel appealing to the carnal Corinthian mind. I just shared the gospel. In other words, the apostle Paul made no attempt to sell the gospel message. He just shared the gospel truth. He makes no attempt to make the gospel acceptable to the contemporary wisdom and philosophy of the Corinthian culture. He’s simply saying, no superiority of speech are wisdom. And then he goes on “proclaiming to you the testimony of God”. I just kept it simple. Like Wilson says, he neither varnishes the gospel by elaborate our eloquent language, nor distorted it by philosophical subtlety.

He just laid it out there. Now when he says “proclaiming to you the testimony of God”. The testimony of God means it’s God’s testimony, and he is the content of it. It’s the issue at hand as God sees it. Now, if you’re giving a testimony, you’re going to relate. This is what I see in it. This is how I saw it. And Paul says, I didn’t come to you relating how I viewed it. I came relating to you how God views the situation. I came just to tell you what God says about you and what God says about salvation and man’s relationship to God. You see, God’s testimony is the most important of all. God’s testimony how he sees the situation.

So no other testimony really matters. No other testimony is really accurate. No other testimony is worthy of proclamation. Now I’m talking about the perfection of the gospel. So what is the point of verse one? Paul simply is saying this. The gospel didn’t need my eloquence. It didn’t need my style, didn’t need my charisma. It did not need, any particular, aspect I could put on it. The gospel is perfect by itself. The gospel can stand alone. The perfection of the gospel. The gospel needs no human help. It’s perfect. Just teach the gospel. Preach the gospel. It’ll do the work. That’s the point. He’s making the perfection of the gospel. Paul said, man, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t pad it all. Just gave it to.

Now, he continues, this saint emphasized that in verse three, and I was with you in weakness. Now that word “weakness” means without favor and dignity. It means rendering one contemptible. Paul says, when I was with you, there was nothing about my condition that would have made me appealing to any person in Corinth. He said I was there in weakness. I mean, there’s nothing about the way I preached or the way I, the way my composure was made up when I was there. That would have drawn any attention to me. I was there in weakness. And then also, he says, I was there in fear and trembling, which is the result of the weakness. I mean, as a matter of fact, Paul had been imprisoned in Philippi. Then he went from Philippi to Berea and Thessalonica, and he got driven out of both of those cities. Then he goes over to Athens, and they actually laugh him out of the court there in Athens. And he leaves all of that and comes to a mighty cosmopolitan, cultural pagan Corinth. And he says, I want you to know, when I arrived, I was a mess. There wasn’t any dignity or nobility, our boldness on my part. I was there among you with weakness, fear and trembling. I just barely got the gospel out.

What is Paul’s point? The Gospel doesn’t depend on men, doesn’t depend on man’s ability. Man’s strength. Man’s courage. Man’s demeanor to to handle the the obstacles at hand and charge through it. He said I was in weakness, fear and trembling. I just shared the gospel and it transformed your lives. What’s the point? The gospel is perfect. Doesn’t need man. The gospel is perfect just the way it is.

Boy, I love the human transparency of the Apostle Paul. Here he shows us that he knew fear. So much fear he is actually trembling at this time. I guess if you’re not been run out of about four cities in a row, we’d hit the next one with a little bit of trembling. But he controlled his fear, and he did not allow it to stop him from going forward. How many times have you not wanted to go out so winning? There was some fear there, but you didn’t let the fear stop you from going forward. How many times have you gone out and and you didn’t have it all together, and you didn’t feel confident and you didn’t have courage, but you share the gospel, and God saved somebody.

What is the whole point? The point is, humanly speaking, Paul is saying, I couldn’t have helped the gospel if I wanted to. I didn’t have any personal charisma to put into it. But the gospel is perfect. It doesn’t need any help. It doesn’t need man’s assistance. It’s perfect. Matter of fact, if you try to help the gospel, you’ll just pervert it. You just pervert it. Don’t try to help it. Just share it. Listen to me. God’s gospel won’t sell to this contemporary world. The gospel won’t sell, but it will save. Paul says it won’t sell, but it will save. And I believe whatever else Paul is showing us here, we get a strong picture of the perfection of the gospel. It needs nothing else. Just share the truth of the gospel and God, the Holy Spirit will use it to save those who are is His.

Now look secondly at the particulars of the gospel. Now he shows us some particulars. Are the nature are the essence of what the gospel really is. He shows us very clearly in verse two. He says, “for I determined to know nothing among you, accept Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. Now the first three words “for I determined”. And then he goes on to “know nothing”. Why is it that Paul was so stuck on that simple message? That phrase, I determined, means that I decided that nothing else was business, that the only real thing in the real job I had to do is to share with you lost pagans in Corinth the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. Why was he determined? Friend he was determined because he had tasted the truth. He’d been saved. He’d been converted. And now all of the philosophy, all other teachings, all of the good things he might do pale in comparison to the importance of sharing the gospel.

I do not believe the Apostle Paul is trying to be determined. I just believe he is saved. My friend, when you’re saved, you’re convinced. Amen. You’re convinced. I mean, I may teach other people other things. If I’m driving instructor, I may teach people how to drive. But in my heart, I’m convinced that it isn’t even worthy of comparison to the importance of teaching a person the gospel. I may do and preach and be involved in a lot of things in life, and that’s good. And God gives us our proper roles. But once you’re saved and you’ve tasted the gospel and the salvation of God, nothing else in your heart can even compare to the importance of the gospel. That’s why Paul said, when I came to you, he wasn’t coming to train them in discipleship. He’s come in the lost pagans and friend lost people simply need the gospel. That’s all they need. That’s what they need.

And then he goes on to say, “I determined to know nothing among you. Accept Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. Now, friend, that’s the gospel. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus is the person. He was the person born in Bethlehem, born of the Virgin Mary, grew up in Nazareth. His father was a carpenter, and he was the one who was appointed of God from the foundation of the world to be the Savior of the world, because he’s co-equal with God the Father. He’s Jesus, the person who literally actually lived there, fully man and fully God at the same time. But he’s also Christ. Now, Christ is not his last name, it’s his office. He’s Jesus, the person who held the office of Christ, our Messiah, our Savior. That’s what the word Christ means. Just like I am, Jeff and I hold the office of Pastor. Christ, or Jesus is the person who held the office of Christ to be the Savior. And there’s only one who could hold that office. And it was Jesus.

So he says, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. This is the gospel. Now in Galatians 1:7, the apostle Paul, writing to the churches of the Galatia region, says this “Some tried to distort the gospel” and Galatians 1:9, he says something else very important. He says, “if anyone comes to you preaching a different gospel, let that man be accursed of God”. Condemned or damned of God. So Paul said, there are those who try to pervert the gospel, distort possible, but there’s only one true gospel. And Paul gives us the particulars, the essence, the nature. When he says, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. As a matter of fact, I looked it up on my computer. The word gospel appears 94 times in the New Testament. And of the 94 times it appears in the New Testament, as I was looking at it, there’s only one time that it appears in a verse where it’s used to define what the gospel is only once, all the other times it’s referring to some other aspect. Only one time is the word gospel used, and the following verses show that it’s used to say, I’m giving you a definition of what the gospel is.

Now, because that’s so very important. I want you to turn to that one time. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. We don’t even have to go through verse eight, but we may. He says, “now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand”. Here’s what he’s saying now listen, he said, in church at Corinth I came preaching this gospel. You received the truth of that gospel, and it saved you. And right now, today, you’re standing on that gospel truth to keep you saved. Verse two “by which also you are saved. If you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believe in vain”. Now the point of verse two is this if you believed, and it wasn’t in vain, you will hold fast. If you turn out to be one who doesn’t hold fast, it means that the original you believed in vain. The faith that falters at the finish was faulty at the first.

Verse three. “For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also receive”. Now notice Paul’s not saying this is my particular twist on God’s truth. He’s saying I received it from God. It’s not mine. This is God’s gospel. “I delivered to you of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures”. Verse four, “and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures”. Now, folks, that’s the gospel. That’s the gospel. Jesus died on the cross. And when Paul gives us the gospel in nugget form in 1 Corinthians 2, he just says Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He does not mention the resurrection, but it’s implied. How do I know it’s implied? Because when Jesus Christ was crucified, the Bible says he had to die because the wages of sin is death. Now listen to me. If Jesus took death for you, in other words, he took the wages of sin for you, which is death. The only reason for him to stay dead is if he hadn’t taken it yet. As if he hasn’t exhausted the full blow of sin in our place.

But once he died, my friend, he fully expiate and took death, the blow of judgment for us in our place. So he came alive because he’s finished with the punishment of our sin. It’s done, it’s done. There’s nothing else to do. That’s why he could rise again. You see, if you lose your salvation, it would mean Jesus is down there still trying to die for all of your sin. It’d mean every time you sin, you’d have to say, God forgive me. And God would have said, okay, Jesus died a little more for that one. Then you sin again. God forgive me. Okay, Jesus and Jesus will still be down there in the tomb dying a little more, dying a little more each time you sin. But Jesus rose from the dead because once and for all the Bible says he’s taken all the death for all the punishment of all of your sin. That’s done with, it’s finished. It’s satisfied and complete. That’s why he rose again to say, it’s finished. I’m finished with taking punishment for sin. I don’t have to take anymore. It’s all done. You can meditate on that tonight and shout right in the middle of the night. There’s nothing else to do, you’ll never convince me Jesus is going to step off the throne of heaven and one Hallelujah Boulevard and step up into the clouds. Descend back to heaven and go back to the cross and die a little bit more because you lost your salvation and had to get it back. It’s not going to happen friend. And I’m chasing rabbits now. I got to get back to my outline.

But notice look at 1 Corinthians 2:2. Last phrase Paul said, I just decided nothing else was important. I was just going to “preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. Now he said, Jesus and Him crucified, my friend. That was the deathblow to the liberal theologian.That is the deathblow to the liberal preacher. Notice Paul did not say I preached Jesus Christ and just ended there because liberals were run all over the world. With that and back. You see, he did not say, I preach Jesus Christ. A great teacher. He did not say, I preach Jesus Christ, a good example for all mankind. He did not say, I preach Jesus Christ, the perfect human being, a model for all of us. He did not say, I preach Jesus Christ. I knew a starting point in the development of the human race.

No, he said, I preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because when you say the God of heaven put on human flesh to cure our problem, and our problem was so severe, it took the death of the Son of God to rid us of our problem. My friend, I want you to know Christ and Him crucified is cutting the Achilles heel of human pride. It leaves us as nothing but depraved sinners, unworthy before God. It leaves us knowing that there’s no way we could say to ourselves, there’s nothing good in us. We’re worthless, damned, condemned sinners, and God sent his Son to save us, and that’s the only hope we had.

Paul said, I want to keep it clear. I preach Jesus Christ and I’m not going to leave you your freedom to make that mean whatever you want. But the Jesus Christ who was crucified because you’re a sinner with a spiritual problem.

Now, let me give you a few challenges in here tonight. You know, there are a lot of good things that a church can be a part of. A church can be a part of feeding the hungry. The church can be a part of clothing the destitute. And the church can be a part of providing homes for the homeless and a thousand other good social things. But my friend, once you know what Paul knows, once you’ve tasted what Paul has tasted, then you know the social needs of man are nothing in comparison with the spiritual need of man. It’s not that we do not do those things, it’s just that we know that if we go out and clothe everyone but don’t get them the gospel, we’ll just send them to hell and better clothing. We just know if we go provide homes for all the homeless, but we don’t give them the gospel. We just send in the hell from better homes. That’s why we know that we know that we know this is not a social gospel. It’s a spiritual gospel. Man has a spiritual problem. There’s a holy God, and man is sinful before that, Holy God and Jesus Christ took the blow of sin on Calvary’s cross. And you can be free and nothing else matters in comparison to that. Paul says, I’m determined. I’ve settled it. Nothing else matters but to get that message out.

Now, not all of us can be called to preach now. We’ve got a number of men in our church who build homes, and they build good homes. But once you see they got what Paul got, didn’t mean they start building homes. It just means the reason and the purpose behind home building just changed for them. Now they want to be a great home builder, to use their resources and their influence to spread this gospel, not just have the reputation of putting people in the finest homes they can put them into. I mean, it all changes when you get saved and you taste it.

I’ve talked to men who are very successful and had financial resources and they and they’d say, Brother Jeff, I want to do something for the community, and I want to do good things to help the poor and others. And that’s not evil. But as they mature in the Lord and they realize, hey, that doesn’t last. In one sense, I’m not really helping anybody. You know, we’ve got enough money in this church. We could put $1 million a year into this community, and every cotton picking liberal newspaper in America would be in my office and have cameras in my face saying, Woohoo, you’re a wonderful pastor and a wonderful church for all the good community things you do. Knowing all the while, we should have been using our energy and our resources and our finances to talk to people about their sin problem, not their social problem.

And by the way, friend, you get the sin problem cured. The social problem take care of itself, you get the sin problem cured and you won’t have the social problems. A man didn’t become a drunkard when he’s regenerated of the Holy Spirit. Man doesn’t beat his wife and he’s regenerate by the Holy Spirit. Man doesn’t lay out and be lazy and a bum and not pay his bills when he’s regenerated, by the Holy Spirit. My friend, I want to tell you we’re about a spiritual gospel. Jesus Christ and Him crucified, not a social gospel, not a social gospel.

Well, Paul is the outline. Just think he talks first of all about the perfection of the gospel. It doesn’t need any help. It doesn’t need your adornment. It doesn’t need your twist. It doesn’t need you to make it user friendly or seeker friendly. It didn’t need you to make it, applicable, or palatable to the boomers and the busters or generation X. Just give them the gospel. It’s perfect. Just like it is.

The perfection of the gospel. Paul also talked about the particulars of the gospel. Jesus died. He was buried and rose again. That’s enough. And that’s what the gospel is. Lastly, he reminds us of the power of the gospel, the power of the gospel. Look at it there in verses four and five. In verse four he says, “and my message”, that’s the substance of what he was saying “and my preaching”. That’s the presentation of what he was saying. “Were not in persuasive words of wisdom now”, that phrase, persuasive words that comes from that phrase, “persuasive” comes from the same root, which means plausible words. What Paul is playing on is that the Corinthians lusted after worldly philosophy. They lusted after knowledge and learning, and that the Corinthian philosophers would have plausible words. That means words that seem good and right, words that seem worthy of belief. But they’re showy and they’re superficial. They’re pleasing, but there’s no truth in them. In other words, their philosophies in their religions never change the human heart. And Paul said, when I came, I didn’t come with that plausible flowery stuff that seems appealing and it’s just showy and superficial, he said. I came with something that had power in it to change men’s hearts.

That you got to understand in Corinth, the Corinthians were very well aware of the pagan religions. They were everywhere. Remember the temple of Aphrodite was right in the middle of the city, and they had a thousand prostitutes there. They would they would be involved in all kinds of rites and rituals and outward manifestations that they said showed the power of their gods on their lives. They were used to this talk of the power of God. And so what Paul is doing, he’s comparing the true power of God, changing hearts to that false, showy, empty power that their false God said appeared on the outside. And I just want to submit to you, friend. I believe a whole lot of what you’re watching on TV that’s falsely called Christian television – is sometimes full of superficial, shallow, outward, showy stuff, and aren’t anywhere close to the true power of God that changes men’s hearts.

Now, A.T. Robertson, listen to what he said. He said “Corinth put a premium on the veneer of false rhetoric and thin thinking”. They put a premium on that stuff. But Paul is claiming that his message, the gospel, has the power to do what no philosophy in Corinth could do and no religion could ever do. And that’s transform a man’s heart by the inward working of the Holy Spirit of God.

Notice how it’s worded there in verse four, “and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power”, “demonstration of the spirit and of power”. And here’s what he means. He means what happens when you preach the gospel truth, is the Holy Spirit of God takes it and does a miracle work on the hearts of men and women and young people. He said, it’s been demonstrated to you what true power is, because your own hearts have been changed, and that’s greater than any outward manifestation you could ever think of.

And first of all, when the Holy Spirit takes the word of the gospel and applies it the men’s heart, what does he do? He first convicts them of sin. You preach the gospel and the Holy Spirit in his sovereignty chooses to lighten the hearts of certain men, convincing them, convicting them that they are a sinner before a holy God, that they are unrighteous before a righteous God. What did John 16:8 say? When the spirit comes, he’ll convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and there’s no way in the world you, sitting there in the pew tonight will ever really soberly realized I’m a sinner before sinless God. I’m unrighteous before a righteous God, and I stand in his just judgment. Unless the Holy Spirit convinces you of that. But Paul said, when I preach the gospel, the Holy Spirit came into your heart and worked a miracle, showing you you’re a sinner before a holy God. Listen to me, friend. You’ll sit there and pompous, pious and pride, thinking you’re pretty good ol’ guy, until the Holy Spirit slays you.

But not only will it come and convict you, it’ll come and convert you. In Romans 1:16, Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation”, the power of God to do outward signs, manifestations, and wonders. That’s secondary it’s the power of God to save a man’s soul. Convicting him of sin, and converting to faith in Jesus which saves him. That’s what Paul means demonstration of the spirit and power. You see, the Word of God is powerful. Listen to Ephesians 4:12, “for the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart”. Paul said, man, the Word of God is like a two edged sword to slash you to pieces. Ephesians 6:17 says, the sword of the spirit is the Word of God. And here’s what happens when the gospel is preached. The Holy Spirit takes that word, that two edged sword, and he slays the old man in you.

With one forceful slash the old man is slain before the feet of the Lord. Now what do I mean, the old man? I mean the old man that says, I ain’t so bad. The old man that says my ways okay. The old man that says, well, I’m as good as all the hypocrites down the church. The old man is full of rationalizations and justifications and explaining away your sinfulness before Holy God, I want to tell you, and the Holy Spirit comes. That stuff is dead. And you just say, oh, make woe is me. I’m sinful and undone. And then after he slays the old man, what’s he do? He burst the new man in you, the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes to live inside of you, and the person of the Holy Spirit. That’s why 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “therefore, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation”.

What’s new? You’re eyes still the same, you’re ears still the same, your hair color still the same, at least it was last time before you got Clairol on it. I mean, the outside… what’s the new creation. There’s a new man in you. That’s the working of the spirit and of power. He comes in there and he slays the old man. And you say, my old way don’t work. My way, ain’t right. My old philosophies are dead, evil, sinful and selfish. I died of that. And I reach out to grab hold of Jesus. He’s the only true way. And there’s a new man birthed inside of you.

And my friend, listen to me. When that happens in a man’s heart, that is the greatest demonstration of the power of God on planet Earth today. Don’t you go chasing somebody because he’s going to do some miracle. My friend, when a person is transformed from the inside out by the preaching, the gospel and the application of gospel truth to their heart, that is the miracle power of God. Paul says, that’s the center of it all,

Paul said when I came, I was full of weakness and trembling, no eloquence, no particular style, no particular charisma made me appealing to anybody. I just shared the gospel. But look at all of you. Been transformed from the inside out. God demonstrated his power.

Now look at verse five and we’ll be through. When God gets through with us. “That your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men” now, “but on the power of God”. Paul says, I did everything I knew to do to keep you from being impressed with me. I did everything I could to let you know it was God that changed you and in essence, what he’s saying stop all of this stuff is saying, I’m of Appolos. Stop this message saying I follow Cephas, or I follow Paul. He said, none of us saved you. Christ did that. None of what we did could have gone into your heart, convicted you of sin, and brought you to saving faith in Jesus Christ. God did that through the preaching of the gospel. Don’t put your wisdom on us? He says, your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men. You see, if their faith rested on Paul’s eloquence, then that faith could be overthrown by superior eloquence, by somebody who preaches personality or charisma. But faith, produced and resting on the power of God can never be overthrown. Faith that is produced and rest on the on the power of God can endure every assault, but it will not endure unless you are fully convinced God’s done a work in your heart. It’ll never be never last. You see you can explain a lot of things away, but you can’t take away the change in Jeff Noblit’s heart. You just can’t do nothing about that. Amen.

Paul said. You’re you’re facing not rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God. Now, what is the power of God? Well, Romans 1:16, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God”. Amen. He said, that’s where our faith should lie. A saving faith that grows out of that all powerful activity of the Divine Spirit in the heart of man. Somehow, some way I heard the gospel. Somehow, someway, I knew I was undone before. Holy God, I don’t know how you could explain it mentally. I don’t know what words you use, but you knew you didn’t have a right standing with that holy God. Somehow, someway, you you reached, hold and grab hold of Jesus. And you know that happened because God was doing a work in your heart that day, that night, that morning, whatever it was. Don’t let your faith rest on anybody else.

That word “rest” is a good understanding of what faith is. Rest. You know the book of Hebrews several times says, “enter into his rest”, some of you today, and not resting on Jesus. And you ought to be. You know, rest means what I’m fixing to do, right here. Just put all that I have on it and just rest on Jesus, just sitting back and resting on who he is and what he’s done.

Like Spurgeon says, “your faith didn’t save you, Christ saves you”. You get to looking at your faith, you’ll find faultiness in a lot of your faith, but you’ll never find fault in Jesus. Did I say the right thing that… you notice he didn’t say you were saved because you pray the sinner’s prayer. Now, you may have done that, but that’s not why you’re saved. It’s because you repented of sin and trusted Jesus as your Savior. Rest on the power of God, not on man.

Now listen, my faith is not based in some outward manifestation. Some preacher did, or some thing or something that happened. I saw this sign somewhere and all this stuff. It’s based on the inner transformation that happened when the gospel was preached to me.

Now listen, when I heard the gospel and there was an inner transformation in me, I was convicted, I couldn’t save myself. I was convicted, my way was wrong, and I embraced Jesus Christ as my only hope. When I had that inner transformation, now listen, that resulted in an outward manifestation, and that outward manifestation that comes out of a child of God is the greatest demonstration of God’s miracle power on planet Earth.

What is the outward manifestation that is the greatest manifestation of the power of God on earth today? Now, who can tell me? What is that thing that comes out of a child of God? That is the manifestation that there’s been a great miracle power working in their hearts or it couldn’t be there.

What is it? Because you speak in tongues. Is that the outward manifestation? Because you get a word of prophecy, a word of knowledge. You do signs and wonders and miracles. All right, Love!
“All men will know you’re my disciples by the love that you have one for another”. Listen to me, friend. You can come up here and I slap you in the face and heal you of everything in your body. But God says that doesn’t merely show the miracle power of God, as when you get a collectivity of people from all backgrounds, all personalities, all walks, all sides of the track, and they love each other selflessly. And the only way a person can do that is if they’ve been born again an the Holy Spirit of God is ruling their heart.

That is the greatest manifestation of the power of God.

What did 1 Corinthians 13:13 tell us? Or 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the whole chapter. Paul’s been dealing with spiritual gifts. This is a carnal, backslidden church and they are enamored with outward manifestations and signs. Ah they love it. Everybody want to speak in tongues, everybody wants a word of knowledge, everybody want the effect of miracles, everybody want these outward manifestations.

And so Paul just wraps it up, says, I tell you what, if you speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but don’t have love, you’re nothing. If you have prophecy and you have so much faith, you can move a mountain, but you don’t have love, you’re nothing.

What is he saying? Satan can produce a lot of that outward junk. But Satan can never bring a group of people together who would deny themselves and love one another because they love the people God’s brought into the family.

So what Paul says, listen, your faith should rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God, a power that’s come in and transform you inwardly and brought an outward manifestation of love, one for another, that the world cannot understand, that don’t you put a human worldly definition on that love? I’m not talking about this gushy, mushy sentimentality, a worldly mess.

Brother. I’m talking about love that looks a brother in the eyes is brother. That’s sin. And I love you. And I don’t want it in your life anymore. Because you hurt Jesus and you hurt, and you say, I’m talking about love that reaches out for one another than curse one another.

That’s why we organize our church into Sunday school classes, so you can get in a small enough group so that the love that’s birthed and shed abroad in your heart book of Romans says by the Holy Spirit can be actually illustrated, manifested, and shared one to another as the family of God. Listen to me. It doesn’t matter if we have hot shot preachers in here. It doesn’t matter how much I may appeal to you and my preaching ability or my oratory skills. It didn’t matter how stirring the music, if we are not member to member loving with a supernatural, transforming love, Christ love, agape love one to another. We’re not showing the power of God to this world. It’s just not there.

That’s why when I go to the doctor and my wife goes to the doctor, our baby goes to the doctor. He says, I don’t want you to go back to church because I know how your people are. Know what he saying that you’re just be all over one another, loving each other. That’s what you want to hear in the community. That’s what you want to hear. Listen, that’s the power of the gospel. Now, you look around this room, just look around at your brothers and sisters in this room. You wouldn’t hang out with these cats unless God doesn’t work in your life. Come on now. I’d find me a few deer hunters and a few Bass fishermen. I’d say, the heck with the rest of you. Amen. But I have more fun with some of you sissies than I do the Bass fishermen now [laughter].

You know what I mean. We label each other. We are arrogant about other people we don’t get along with it. But once you come, once you’re born again, you know. Hey, the ground level at the cross isn’t it. Just doesn’t matter anymore, does it? The Gentile in a Jewish church in Jerusalem, they hate it. They despise Gentiles with all their heart. Call them dirty Gentile dogs. The Apostle Peter went with the flow and Paul found out about it. Paul said, I pulled in beside and publicly rebuked him in the presence of all, because he stood condemned. He wasn’t acting on the love that had been birthed in his heart in regeneration. You see, we we transcend all bit. We got rich people in here and poor people, but we’re equal in love in Jesus Christ. We got one side, both sides. Some people live in the middle of the tracks, I believe. But we all love in Jesus Christ. We couldn’t do it. It’s the miracle power of God. So Paul says, listen, I’ll tell you something about the perfection of the gospel. It don’t need us. We just get the privilege of sharing it. It’s a perfect gospel, he said. I wanted to remind you the particulars of the gospel. It’s Jesus and Him crucified. And once he was crucified, he died and took all the punishment for our sins. So of course he rose again because of no reason to stay dead, if death’s been taken out of the way. If it’s all done.

Then lastly says, I will remind you of the power of the gospel. It’s that inward working of the Holy Spirit taking the gospel message and transforming your hearts and the outward manifestation is that you have a love for other believers like the world can’t understand.

Let’s be that kind of church.

Let’s honor God’s gospel.