Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Let's open our bibles together to the book of first Corinthians.
[00:00:21] First Corinthians, chapter two.
[00:00:26] Pastor David Guzick tells the story of a young girl who was listening to a guest speaker in her church. She was observing him from her unique position in the auditorium and from her unique perspective as a small girl sitting in the auditorium, she quickly noticed something that caused her to lean over to her mom and ask the question, where's the man who usually stands there so we can't see Jesus?
[00:01:00] Her mom was really confused, so she looked up at the podium and noticed that from the young girl, her daughter's perspective, that the stained glass window that was behind the preacher had a painting of Jesus. And normally the young girl's view was blocked by the pastor that was speaking. The guest speaker was shorter than their pastor and from a more humble position and less impressive stature, which I'm familiar with, he preached in a way that allowed the young girl to see Jesus clearly behind him as he was preaching.
[00:01:44] And I believe that this parable has some meaning for us, because if a preacher is not careful, he will get in the way of the gospel. Instead of being a servant to the gospel. Preachers can obscure Jesus by their preaching, either in the presentation or in the message of the gospel. And in our text today, in first Corinthians, chapter two, Paul is dealing with this exact problem. His concern is that the church at Corinth is losing sight of Jesus due to their focus being on something other than, and less important than Jesus. So this young girl's preacher, by comparison, was much smaller than the stained glass window.
[00:02:32] Yet he was positioned in a way that blocked out something that was much larger than him, a presentation of Jesus. As I said, this is a parable. It doesn't really reflect the pastor of the church or the visiting preacher. It's just something that gives us a story with a deeper spiritual meaning. And I believe that this story connects with me in a special way this evening because I believe I am about to preach the most important sermon I have ever preached. And I don't say that lightly. I believe that this is the most important sermon that anyone could ever preach.
[00:03:13] I feel the weight of this task, and I feel honestly unworthy to stand before you and preach these truths. But my goal in doing this is to preach Christ in a way that honors him and is aligned with his will.
[00:03:32] If you'll look with me at first corinthians, chapter two, verses one through five, I want to speak today on this topic. Christ crucified the heart of the gospel. Christ crucified. The heart of the gospel. Let's start reading together in verse one. This is the word of the Lord for his people.
[00:03:52] Paul writes, and I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
[00:04:10] And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. This is God's word. Tonight, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
[00:04:34] Father, we thank you so much for your word that is powerful, that is alive, and that I believe you are sending out tonight to accomplish a very specific purpose. Lord, I ask that you would speak through me tonight. Hide me behind the cross. God, I ask that you would speak to your people. And if there's anyone here tonight that does not know you, I pray that through the power of your holy spirit, you would draw them to yourself through the saving power of the cross. God, I pray that we would have a reverent spirit here tonight. I pray that we would be open to the truths and the teachings of the Holy Spirit, even when it challenges us in our position, in our perspective and God. I ask that most of all, Jesus would be preeminent in our service tonight. I ask all these things in Jesus name.
[00:05:26] Amen. Now, Paul is addressing multiple things in this passage of scripture, these five verses, but I want to just look at a few of these things tonight to really get to the heart of what he's talking about, the heart of the gospel, which is Christ crucified. The first thing that I notice in verse one is Paul is dealing with the method of the gospel. The method of the gospel.
[00:05:51] How you present the gospel matters.
[00:05:56] It matters that you present the true gospel, and we're going to get to that. But how you present the gospel matters. We are dealing with sacred, holy things. We are dealing with the eternal truth of God. And Paul's approach or his method was not an approach that was undertaken in pride or in human confidence.
[00:06:20] Paul was humble, and he was dependent upon something greater than his own ability.
[00:06:28] Da Carson talks about this in one of his commentaries, and he says what Paul avoided was artificial communication, that one prays for the speaker but distracted from the message.
[00:06:45] And that's one thing that is dealt with in this. But he goes on to clarify something that I think is really important for us because we don't want to fall in the other ditch. He clarifies, lazy preachers have no right to appeal to first corinthians two one five to justify their dereliction of duty in the study and careless delivery in the pulpit. And to that I say, amen. These verses do not prohibit diligent preparation, passion in the pulpit, clear articulation, or persuasive presentation. That's not what Paul is saying. Rather, these verses are warning against any method that leads people to say what a marvelous preacher, rather than what a marvelous savior.
[00:07:36] And one surefire way to distort or block the gospel is to approach the pulpit with pride.
[00:07:44] And that's not just this pulpit. This is the platform or the pulpit that God gives you in your school, in your home, in your church. One of the quickest way to shroud the gospel in unbelief is to approach people with a sense of pride. Jesus himself came as a servant. Paul, who was one of the most gifted writers and preachers in all of church history, probably the most gifted, was a very humble man, and he approached the preaching of the gospel in a very humble way.
[00:08:18] To prepare a sermon in a way that exalts the speaker is nothing short of blasphemy, because it steals the glory from God.
[00:08:30] And we're tempted to do that. As pastors, we want to be heard. We want to do our job well. We want to do it with excellence. We want to honor God with how we share the gospel, and we should desire that. But it's a fine line to step across to begin to enjoy the glory and the praise for yourself. Paul was saying, I'm nothing apart from Jesus, and none of us has anything to offer apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:09:01] And the other extreme that Carson dealt with is that to have so much confidence in our own ability that we fail to prepare or pray or present the truth of the gospel in the pulpit is the surest way to ensure our failure, because we cannot do this on our own. So Paul shows us the method that he uses in preaching the gospel, the method he employs. And Paul's method was humility. As Michael said, it's the posture of his heart. When we come before God to sing, to worship, to pray, and especially, I believe, to preach the gospel, the position of our heart should be one of humility. Now, I get excited when I get in the pulpit, and I'm sure you can tell that all day on Sunday. I mean, from the time I wake up, it's just not like any other day of the week for me. I get excited about preaching the gospel, and I should be excited about preaching the gospel, but it should always be because I'm excited about pointing people to Jesus. It's not about me. So Paul's method was humility. The second thing I noticed in verse two is the message of the gospel. And this is the most important thing about any sermon. That is the content, the message of the gospel. He says, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
[00:10:30] This word decided. That he used in this context means that he made a personal decision, a judgment call or a deliberate act of his will, a conscious choice, resolving how he would present Christ to the unregenerate sinners in Corinthe. He did not preach Christ crucified by chance. This wasn't random. It wasn't the force of habit, but it was a definite decision that he made through, I believe, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was preaching in a city that was filled with human wisdom.
[00:11:10] It would have been easy for him to give into the temptation to seek to sound wise or to present the gospel in a way that would win him favor with his crowd.
[00:11:22] Now, we know that Paul had said before that he would become all things to all people. We know that Paul could speak to these different cultures in a way that they understood, and I don't think he's speaking against that, but he's intentionally seeking to be spirit filled, word centered Christ exalting in his presentation, and it's an intentional decision on his part, and we should all choose this. He says, I decided to know nothing among you. And as I was studying this week, I was back and forth on what this meant, because the way I've always heard this passage and the way I've always thought of this is to say that I will preach nothing except for Jesus Christ and him crucified. And as I began to read this and study and dig down to the deeper meanings of the words, I notice that he does not say to preach. He says, I decided to know nothing among you. And I wondered if this meant something other than the preaching of the gospel. What is Paul talking about in this context? I thought it could possibly mean the way that they were living their lives. He didn't want to know anything about how they were living their lives other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. But that is not at all what he is saying.
[00:12:52] The deeper I dug into this, it pushed me from verse two, because verse two starts with the word for it's pointing us back to verse one. And verse one says, when I came to you, brothers, I did not come to you proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. So I believe what he's saying here, that he decided to know nothing among you. He didn't want to know anything in his proclaiming of the gospel.
[00:13:22] Another way to say this is he did not want to pull on any other source of knowledge than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:13:32] He decided not to lower his bucket into any other well of truth other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we got to remember, paul had many weapons in his arsenal. Paul was a very wise man.
[00:13:48] He had been trained by the best. He could address them with human wisdom. He could quote their poets, yet he chose not to. Why? Because he had a greater weapon.
[00:14:03] He had a greater well to pull from a greater storehouse of knowledge. And the truth of the gospel was what he chose to go to. He said, I chose to know nothing among you. Absolutely nothing among you, is how it would have read in the original Greek, except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
[00:14:27] Now, I want to point out that this phrase, accept Jesus Christ and him crucified, does not mean that the pre existence of Christ wasn't important, because you've got to remember he is co essential, co eternally God. He's a part of the trinity. He's existed throughout all eternity. He never came into existence. He's always existed. He is a part of the eternal godhead. So Paul is not saying that his pre existence doesn't matter.
[00:15:00] He's not saying that the cross and him crucified is more important than the prophecy of Jesus coming in the Old Testament.
[00:15:09] He's not saying that the providential preservation of his own life through his ancestors was not important, because it is. He's not saying that his virgin birth, his sinless life, his miracles, his resurrection, his ascension, his office as mediator, his office as king of kings and lord of lords, or his future return is not important. He's not saying that those things are important. He's not setting Christ crucified against everything else we know about Christ.
[00:15:40] Look at the verse again.
[00:15:42] How does he phrase this? He said, I chose to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ or Jesus the messiah and him crucified.
[00:15:54] So when he says Jesus the Christ, Jesus the messiah, this covers all of who Jesus is. This is his identity. This is the fullness of the deity that dwelt in him bodily. This is Jesus the Christ, the promised fulfillment. He fulfilled all the law, all the prophets, he was the one that came. That's why his crucifixion was significant, because he was the sinless lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. So this covers all of who he is and all that he did. But then he gets to the heart of the matter. He says in him, crucified.
[00:16:35] This is the crux, the pinnacle, the core, the essence of the gospel.
[00:16:44] And I'm gonna give you a spoiler alert right here. What Paul is dealing with is the atonement, how we can know that our sins are forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We're going to come back to that.
[00:17:00] Spurgeon said, this is the one thing needful for us to know. All our reading and studies will be in vain if we are ignorant of Christ and his atoning blood.
[00:17:13] If Paul the preacher, determined to know nothing but Christ crucified, we may be sure that it is above all things, important.
[00:17:25] And I believe the same choice confronts every one of us as christian messengers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:17:34] It is so easy, not only as a preacher or a Sunday school teacher, a small group leader or a women's group leader. I'm talking just as a Christian, a lay Christian who shares the gospel in the community, fulfilling the great commission wherever you go.
[00:17:52] It's so easy to be sidetracked by good and worthwhile things that can, if we're not careful, cast a shadow over the gospel.
[00:18:03] We can preach about social issues, the political debates of our day, the crisis in the Middle east, and everything that's going on around the world, or the decline of the family. Or we can tackle Bible prophecy, or major on predestination or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And there's a place for all of these things. I'm not saying we don't need to know these things or deal with these things, but that is never. These things are never the center. The gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified is always the center of the gospel message. For Paul, the choice was clear. He started at the Gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that became the center of his preaching.
[00:18:52] And once the center is in place, then he could deal with the other things that were important. The other things, the other truths could be arranged around the gospel of Jesus Christ. But Jesus must be in the middle of all things. The atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross is the center focus of the gospel.
[00:19:15] So Paul's message was the gospel of Jesus Christ in him crucified.
[00:19:22] His method was what his approach was, humility his message is the gospel, Jesus Christ and him crucified. The next thing I want you to notice in verses three and four is the mystery of the gospel. Paul is going to introduce us to a mystery that every single pastor should feel and every single person who listens to a pastor or a preacher should feel and be aware of. He says in verse three, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Do you notice how Paul deflects the glory away from himself? As a matter of fact, Paul demeans himself not in a sinful way, but in an honest way. And he's telling us that he's not preaching this on his own ability, on his own power, on his own wisdom, on his own confidence or strength. He says he's coming in weakness, in fear. His speech and his message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. So what was Paul's secret?
[00:20:40] Why was Paul successful? Was it his education under gamaliel?
[00:20:46] Was it how familiar he was with the law of God? Was it his personality? Was it how much he had traveled sharing the gospel? Was it his vast years of experience?
[00:20:57] No, he says, it is the demonstration of the spirit and of power. He's giving the glory to goddess. He deflects the credit from himself and says, the only reason I've been able to be effective at all in my ministry is because of the Holy Spirit of God and his power in my life.
[00:21:20] When Paul went to Corinth, he refused to rely upon his skills and the schemes of oratory that were modeled by the main speakers in his day. We've talked about this the last few weeks.
[00:21:34] He would not accommodate the gospel to the style of the greek philosophers, and he did not try to decorate the truth with pagan wisdom in order to make it more acceptable to the lost. Paul didn't care anything about that, and we're going to see that when we start dealing with the extent of the atonement. Paul is preaching a message that in and of itself is offensive to the world. It's offensive to the religious system. It's offensive to those who were outside of the religious system. The Jews and the Gentiles, the Jews and the Greeks were offended by the gospel when they truly understood it, and he did not try to decorate it in a way that would make it more acceptable to them.
[00:22:23] Again, David Guzick put it this way. He said Paul was an ambassador, not a salesman.
[00:22:30] We got a lot of salesmen in our day that are trying to become better salesmen, and they can throw a sales pitch on you, and you can be saved and born again, and you'll be ready to get saved again after you hear them. Why is that? Because they're developing this skill that's connected with our human nature that Paul is saying, I don't want to do that. I want to speak the gospel clearly. And the power comes not from my words, comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:01] If being a preacher gets in the way of the message that we're delivering, if being a messenger of the gospel in our homes, in our schools, in our jobs, gets in the way of the message that we are preparing and we're getting in the way of the gospel, instead of being a servant of the gospel, we're falling into the danger of obscuring Jesus and the truth of the gospel because of our presentation or because of a message that doesn't truly reflect the gospel.
[00:23:45] Paul was fearful. Paul was weak, and he points this out.
[00:23:51] What did he have to be fearful about?
[00:23:55] Well, I believe that Paul was fearful for the souls of men. He realizes he is preaching to people that are in danger of hell, people that are in danger of the judgment, the wrath of God being poured out on their sins. And that's a fearful thing, to stand before someone with a message that can save their souls.
[00:24:15] I believe he was fearful because of the sacred responsibility of delivering the gospel, so much so that God said, many of you should not desire to be preachers or teachers, because it's a solemn, sacred responsibility.
[00:24:32] I believe he's also fearful of the judgment seat of Christ. We will give an account for every word that we speak.
[00:24:40] If that's true for every christian, how much more true is it for the pastor and the shepherd?
[00:24:49] And I believe Paul was ultimately fearful because he was aware, as I'm aware tonight very vividly, that my task is impossible alone.
[00:25:00] Only armed with human tools, all I can do is fail. Apart from the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, apart from the power of the gospel being unleashed through the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing I can do can convince anybody of their need of Jesus Christ.
[00:25:24] So Paul's secret, this mystery, Paul's success was that he was an ambassador of Christ. He was connected to God. He was empowered by goddesse, and he was driven by the power of the Holy Spirit, by God himself. And Paul gives the spirit of God all the glory for his ministry. So Paul's secret was the power of the spirit of God.
[00:25:49] And finally, I want you to notice number four. We see this in verse five, the motive of the gospel.
[00:25:56] He says, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of Mendez, but in the power of God. Do you see what Paul is saying there? He's attaching the way he presents the gospel to what people that hear him receive as the gospel.
[00:26:16] I've heard it said before that you need to be careful, because whatever you get people with is what you're going to have to keep them with.
[00:26:26] If you're preaching a false prosperity gospel, that is what you are going to have to keep them with.
[00:26:33] There's no bait and switch in the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that we're sinners in need of a savior and that Jesus Christ is a sinless, perfect lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
[00:26:48] And he says, the reason I'm so careful and so fearful about presenting the gospel to you in the right way is I don't want your faith to rest or to be rooted or anchored in something that can never save you. The wisdom of man. I want your faith to be anchored in the power of God. He's saying, I want the object of your faith to be Jesus Christ himself and him crucified.
[00:27:17] It's not our faith that saves us. Do you realize that? Some of us have strong faith, some of us have weak faith. It's not my faith that saves me. It's not the size of my faith that saves me. It's the object of my faith.
[00:27:34] I can have a whole lot of faith in an airplane and an airline pilot, a whole lot of faith in him and he can let me down. And no matter how big my faith is, if that plane is not up to par and that pilot doesn't know what he's doing, I can have all the faith in the world. And when I get on an airplane, I do. I'm just ready to go, I'm excited. But I can have so much faith in this guy and he can let me down and I can die because my faith was placed in the wrong object. On the same hand. On the. On the other hand, someone with no faith, have you ever flown with someone like that? They know they're going to die. They're typing out their will. I've done this before, by the way. Post something on facebook about goodbye. See you guys on the other side. Just in case you don't make it. You want this kind of veiled message. I've done that before. And you can get on an airplane with almost no faith, like all the faith you have is enough to get you to your seat, get you buckled up, and then you start praying, dear Lord Jesus, please do something. Do a miracle, get me there. Very, very, very little faith. But if the plane is sound and the pilot has done his homework, and he's a good pilot, you can get to where you're going with almost no faith. If the object of your faith is sound, and Paul is telling us that nothing other than the gospel of Jesus Christ declared in the power of the Holy Spirit, can save a soul, nothing other than the gospel of Christ crucified can reconcile man to goddess or redeem the lost. That is the only message that can save us. There is no message of human dignity that can save us. There is no message of human accomplishment that can save us.
[00:29:25] Only the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died as our substitute, can save us. If your faith rests in anything other than the power of God invested in the gospel of Jesus Christ, your faith is in vain.
[00:29:41] Paul's motive was salvation by grace alone through faith, alone in Christ, alone, according to scripture, alone for the glory of God alone. That was his motive. That's why he was doing what he was doing.
[00:29:58] So that's our text, and I want to get down to practical application. As I wrap this up, as I close this out, I want to ask this question of the text. What does it mean to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified?
[00:30:17] I believe what that means is that the heart of the gospel message is the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And I want to spend the last few minutes in here talking about what that means, because it is being attacked in our day, it is being attacked in our churches, is being attacked in our seminaries, and the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross, which is what he means when he says he wants to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He's dealing with the nature of the atonement.
[00:30:54] So I want to pull out a really big term for you guys tonight, okay? This term deals with the penalty of sin being paid for. It deals with the sacrifice, a substitution, and it deals with the atonement. And the term that everybody needs to be familiar with is penal substitutionary atonement.
[00:31:16] Penal just means the penalty for our sins. Substitutionary is a substitute. And I want to read this quote to you because you're going to see from this quote why this is so controversial.
[00:31:30] Jesus died a violent, substitutionary death to be the sacrifice of atonement. For the sins of Jews and Gentiles. By this death, Jesus took upon himself God's righteous judgment and wrath against sin, against the sins of those for whom he's dying. By dying as their penal substitute, Jesus paid the penalty for their sins. And he therefore both propitiated God's wrath against their sin and expiated their sin so that the sins of the Jews and Gentiles would be forgiven, and so that they would be justified by faith, forgiven of their sins, reconciled to God, reconcile to each other, and participate in the future resurrection, and saved from God's wrath.
[00:32:20] That is a mouthful. And yes, thank you, Jesus. That is the message of the gospel. Christ died as our substitute. Now, there's a couple of terms in here that I would bet that a few people said. What does that mean? The term expiation means that Jesus sacrifice cleanses us from sin's pollution and removes the guilt of sin from us.
[00:32:47] That's expiation that happens through the atoning work of Christ on the cross. He died to remove and cleanse sin's pollution and the guilt of sin from you. That is an important part of salvation. I never heard this term until I was an adult. I think that's a shame. I heard it described, but I didn't understand what it meant.
[00:33:07] Propitiation, on the other hand, and I did hear this term a lot growing up due to the tradition I was raised in. Propitiation refers to the satisfaction of God's wrath by Jesus sacrifice, which both satisfies the justice of God and results in his favorable disposition toward us. That's the powerful message of the gospel, that God can remove your sins and can look upon you with favor because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
[00:33:41] Now, I want to walk through scripture and what it actually means. I'm not going to read every single one of these references. I can get these to you later if you want. If you want to get these from me, but I'm going to just skim through this. But this is explaining what the point of the cross of Jesus Christ was about, what penal substitutionary atonement is about why Jesus blood was, was shed. According to the scriptures, sin must be paid for.
[00:34:15] We see that in Romans 323, the wages of sin is death. One Peter 118 and 19 tells us that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Some people. You see why some people aren't comfortable with this type of terminology.
[00:34:32] Shedding of blood, a sacrifice, a substitute. It makes us uncomfortable, but we're going to see why that is we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. When Jesus Christ died, he suffered as a substitute in the place of me, in the place of you, and on behalf of fallen humanity. Christ's death made it possible for men and women to be declared righteous based on their faith in him, and his death even goes further than that. It actually cleanses our sins when we place our faith and trust in him.
[00:35:16] Two, Corinthians 521 makes it clear for our sakes, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness. Do you see how God takes our place? Our sin is laid on him, and his righteousness is given to us by grace through faith.
[00:35:38] Christ's death was not merely a statement against evil or an expression of love, as some people want to describe it, but it was a payment that satisfies God's righteous demands against a sinful people.
[00:35:54] And Christ's death was necessary for several reasons. I'm going to give you three. Number one, sin alienates us from God. This is something a lot of pastors don't want to talk about. A lot of pastors on tv won't deal with sin. Why don't they ever mention sin? Because they don't want to talk about separation from God. Alienation from God sin alienates us from God. Those who are controlled by sin cannot please God. Jesus Christ's death made peace with God possible and actually accomplished it for those who believe in him.
[00:36:30] Colossians 121 says, and you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Christ came not just to provide us with a good example, but to die on our behalf and to bear the cost for our sin.
[00:37:00] Our language about the sacrifice of Christ on the cross should match the biblical language.
[00:37:08] Alienation, sin, death, separation from God, reconciliation, all these terms important.
[00:37:16] Galatians 313 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who's hanged on a tree.
[00:37:26] So sin alienates us from God. Secondly, God is holy.
[00:37:33] Why does substitutionary atonement matter? Why does Christ paying the penalty for our sin matter? Why is sin such a big deal? Why is it even an issue? Because God is holy.
[00:37:47] Our sin offends a holy God. God's holy character requires that sin be punished.
[00:37:54] Sin makes us the object of God's wrath until the penalty of sin is paid and romans 323 tells us all of sin and falls short of the glory of God. Verse 24 says, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Listen to this atonement language, whom God put forward as a propitiation or atoning sacrifice by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just or righteous, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[00:38:42] So by laying down his own life, Jesus paid the price on our behalf, satisfying God's demand. And this payment was made to God, not to Satan. There are actually people that teach that Jesus paid a ransom to Satan to redeem us back.
[00:38:59] That is heresy.
[00:39:02] The payment was made to God. God was the one who was offended. God was the one who was sinned against. God was the one who was about to pour his wrath out on us. And through the sacrifice, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our ransom was paid.
[00:39:19] Third, the presence of sin renders us helpless. We cannot save ourselves. Romans 310 says, as it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. We do not have the will or the ability to offer anything acceptable to God on our own behalf. We cannot be saved by good works. We cannot earn God's favor. We can only suffer from the guilt and the penalty of Adam's sin and from the effects of our own sinful nature and actions.
[00:39:55] But God, who's rich in mercy, sent Jesus Christ to die in our place as our substitute. His blood was shed for us so that he might be righteous in dealing with our sin, while at the same time providing his own righteousness to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Christ's death was more than an attempt to reverse the human course that was started by Adam.
[00:40:24] Christ's death served as a substitute payment for the trespasses of all mankind.
[00:40:32] I don't know how I can be more clear than that. Go back to the Old Testament. We see in Genesis chapter three.
[00:40:40] The animals were killed as a sacrifice for Adam and Eve who had sinned and deserved to die. The blood was shedden. They were covered with the clothing of the substitute animal that shed its blood. You can move all the way through the sacrificial system that preceded the law. Then we see the giving of the law. We see the levitical system, where it was explained in great detail in the book of Leviticus. How to sacrifice the animals and what all the sacrifices meant. And they all hinged on an animal being a substitute for the sins of people, and then carried on through the Old Testament, the prophets, Isaiah. What did he say? He said he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his wounds we are healed. That's substitutionary atonement.
[00:41:37] Christ is paying the penalty. He's standing in as our substitute. And the Bible tells us this is the only way of salvation. And here's the good news. Jesus did everything that needed to happen for you and I to be saved. All I can do is fall on my knees before him, admit that I'm a sinner, ask him to forgive my sins and to save my soul. And the Bible says, for by grace you are saved through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's not works so that no one can boast. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.
[00:42:14] What he did on the cross, the shedding of his blood, created in Christ Jesus in order to do good works.
[00:42:24] So that's the gospel. That's the true gospel. I don't know if I've ever presented it any more clearly than that in a single sermon. I always try to present the gospel in some way in every sermon I preach.
[00:42:37] But due to the topic of what Paul is dealing with, Jesus Christ and him crucified is dealing with the way our sins are atoned for through his sacrificial death and resurrection.
[00:42:51] So, in closing, and I know I said that a little while ago, but I'm still closing, I want to contrast this with some false gospels that we see during our day.
[00:43:03] One is the prosperity gospel. This is one of the most famous gospels in our day, and this is a gospel that the heart of this gospel, the prosperity gospel, is. It's focused on me. It's all about me. It's all about material wealth. Kosty Hinn, who is the nephew of Benny Hinn, who is a prosperity gospel preacher on the tv, if you like him, I apologize.
[00:43:29] Not really. I definitely want to help you see the error of what he's teaching.
[00:43:35] But his nephew, who used to preach the same gospel, the same false gospel, his nephew, costy Hinn, says this, the prosperity gospel is damning and abusive. It exploits the poor. It ruins the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable people. And the preachers of the prosperity gospel are the ones getting rich off of it. You won't hear the preachers of the prosperity gospel talking about sacrificial atonement, substitutionary atonement, or Christ paying the penalty for our sins to satisfy the wrath of God. And that is the only thing that can save us. So in leaving that out, they minimize the atonement by not focusing on it, and they replace it with materialism.
[00:44:23] Prosperity, temporal, temporary prosperity. The gospel brings true prosperity, eternal prosperity. Prosperity as defined by God. Not just money in your bank, not just planting a seed and growing your retirement account.
[00:44:39] That is not the gospel.
[00:44:43] There is another, and again, I run the danger of making someone angry here. I'd love to have a conversation with you, but the Roman Catholic Church is teaching a false gospel.
[00:44:55] They reject penal substitutionary atonement. And according to official catholic doctrine, they say that through the merging of faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross and your good works, you can be saved.
[00:45:12] That is a false gospel.
[00:45:16] Now, do I believe there are people who are truly saved in the Roman Catholic Church? Yes, I do, because they explain the Trinity, they explain who God is, they share the scriptures, they explain the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the Holy Spirit in his power can take just a few verses about the cross, pierce the heart of the sinner, because remember, the power is not in the preacher or even in the church that's delivering it. It's in the power of the Holy Spirit. So people can even listen to false prosperity gospels, hear a verse that they read, hear enough of the gospel to believe in Jesus and be saved. So I do believe that there are people in the Roman Catholic Church that have been saved through the power of the Holy Spirit in hearing the gospel. But the official doctrine of the Catholic Church adds to the gospel and minimizes the nature of the atonement.
[00:46:16] The Eastern Orthodox Church part of my job as a pastor is to point out false doctrine. Part of my job as a pastor is to correct when something is trying to enter into our community.
[00:46:32] Eastern Orthodox Church attributes justification according to their own writings to man's own meritorious work, along with his right notion of God in divine things. This is a quote from Joshua Shupping, who is a former orthodox priest.
[00:46:51] He says, what is the good news of the Orthodox Church?
[00:46:56] You are saved by your meritorious works, your trust in Christ is useless, and you cannot be confident of Christ's mercy for Christ doesn't save you. According to Eastern Orthodoxy's canonically binding testimony, all Jesus purchased for you on the cross is the chance for you to work for your own salvation, not to work out your salvation, but to work for your salvation. Christ is only giving you a chance to earn your way to heaven. Lord, protect us from such a false gospel.
[00:47:31] The Eastern Orthodox Church openly denies penal substitutionary atonement and focuses on the incarnation of Christ rather than the shed blood and atoning work of Christ on the cross.
[00:47:52] Jehovahs Witnesses believe that salvation requires faith in Christ along with association with Gods organization, which they believe is their religion and obedience to its rules. The atonement, as viewed by Jehovahs Witnesses is one where a perfect life is traded for a perfect life formally lost, not dying for sins committed against a holy God or teaching the false gospel.
[00:48:23] Mormons theirs is a little bit more in depth, but according to their definition of salvation, you cannot be saved in your sins by grace. You are saved after you do all you can do. That is quoting their scripture, you're saved by grace after you do all you can do. You must give your best. You must deny yourself of all ungodliness. You must turn from all former sins and commit them no more. If you commit any past sin, the former sins return. God help us. I would be lost forever if that were the case.
[00:49:00] Therefore, in order to remain forgiven, you must never commit the sin again.
[00:49:06] Mormonism teaches that Jesus atoning sacrifice took place in the garden of Gethsemane and was only completed on the cross of Calvary. To Mormons, a person must exercise faith in Jesus Christ, repent of his or her sins, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and obey God's commandments in order to be forgiven of sins and live forever in the highest level of heaven with Goddesse.
[00:49:33] And that's just a few of the false gospels that are being taught in our day.
[00:49:38] This is why we have to know our Bibles church. This is why we have to know scripture. This is why we have to go through books of the Bible, learning and growing and studying. So I repeat, salvation according to God's word. Salvation according to God is only available by grace alone. We cannot earn it through faith alone, placing all of our hope and trust in Christ alone. Who said I am the way, the truth and the life? And no one comes to the Father except through Jesus sinless life, sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection.
[00:50:18] That's what Jesus meant when he said no one comes to the Father except through me. He's talking about his sacrificial atoning work on the cross that he was getting ready to go and do.
[00:50:31] Salvation is available by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to scripture alone, which is God's inspired word, and it's our final authority in faith and practice for the glory of God alone.
[00:50:48] Salvation is only available by grace alone. Through faith alone in Christ alone, according to scripture, alone for the glory of God alone. What Jesus Christ did on the cross, shedding his blood for my sins and for your sins, according to the scripture as prophesied, is the only thing that bought our salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
[00:51:16] As a free gift by grace from God himself to us, we have hope of salvation, and we can know that we are born again. We can know that we have salvation today, right now, I have been reconciled to God through the sacrificial, atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And all God's people said, amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Lord, I thank you for the power of the gospel. Lord, I thank you for the clarity of the gospel.
[00:51:50] This is a truth that we have to know. We have to know what the basis of our salvation is. We've got to know that it is not in our own works. It is in you alone and what you did on the cross. Jesus and Lord, we agree and profess publicly your truth. And Father, I ask that if anyone is here tonight through the power of your Holy Spirit, if they don't know you as their lord and savior, that they would simply confess that they are a sinner and receive the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for their sins, that their sins can be atoned for, that those sins can be removed, and that their debt of sin and the wrath of God can be forever satisfied and removed from their life. God, I pray that no one would leave this building tonight with the weight of sin and guilt and shame on them. Through your sacrifice on the cross, we have been set free by grace, through faith.
[00:52:53] God, may these truths be planted deep in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things, things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:53:03] Well, I want to close our service tonight by saying that we don't apologize for going deep into doctrine.
[00:53:11] The Bible goes deep into doctrine, and we should know that. But I don't want anybody leaving here tonight thinking that you have to go to your work tomorrow and repeat everything I just said for someone to be saved.
[00:53:24] You can simply say, Jesus Christ died to save sinners, and that encapsulates everything I said tonight. And the gospel is so deep that we're going to plumb its depths for the rest of our lives in eternity and not understand it fully and deeply to the extent that God does even angels desire to look into the things that we're talking about tonight and don't fully understand it. But the gospel is so deep that we can plummet steps forever and never exhaust its truth.
[00:53:57] But it's so simple to understand that a child can turn and tell a friend that Jesus loves you and he died to save you from your sins, and they can come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. That's the power of the gospel. The only way to explain that is through the power of the Holy Spirit. He takes the seed and he germinates it. He gives it life. He breathes life into those who are lost. So I just want us to celebrate as a church, we need to constantly be striving to go deeper in the word and know God in a deeper way. But also we need to be prepared to share it in simple truth with everybody we meet. So hope church, we are going to go and make disciples of all nations, of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Knowing that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit that indwells us. Amen. You are sentence.
