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![Christ died to save us from hell but not to save us from the cross. He died so that we could
be glorified, but not to keepus from being crucified. "If anyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross daily." For the Christian the cross of Christ is not
merely a past place of substitution. It is also a present place of daily execution.
Paul says in Romans 6:6, "Our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might
be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslavedto sin . . . Reckon yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus." In other words, never let the cross lose its crucifying
power in your life! Neverlet it slip into the dim and misty past as though Christ died for
sinners so that you can live for pleasure.
The pleasures are coming! Some are already here—like forgiveness and acceptance and a
measure of holiness and healing! But just like Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was
set before him, so it is with us in this fallen age according to the book of Hebrews (12:1–11).
Most of the joy we long for is still over the horizon. And so the writer of Hebrews says to us
(13:13–14), "Let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing abuse for him. For here we
have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come."
In other words if you would save your life, you must lose it, and if you would follow Jesus,
you must take up your cross daily. The great tragedy of much contemporary Christianity is
that the cross is safely relegated to the distant past. And practically what it means is that
Jesus was soakedin blood so that I can soak in a Jacuzzi. And the bigger the tub, the more
we honor the cross—so goes the prosperity gospel.
The Root of All the Pride and Boasting at Corinth
l "
Now what does all this have to do with our text in 1 Corinthians 2:1–5?
What Paul wants to show in this chapter is that the reason there is so much pride and
boasting at Corinth is that they are not letting the cross have its crucifying effect in the
present. They think they have advanced beyond the cross. The cross may have been
necessary to get them over the problem of sin; but now they are filled and rich and wise
and strong! They are kings! In their own eyes. The weakness of the cross, the foolishness of
the cross, the humiliation of the cross—these are long gone!
Look at Paul's agonizing use of irony in 1 Corinthians 4:8–11.
Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become
kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I
think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death;
because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools
for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong.
[Notice those two words: we are weak, and we are fools—the same two words used
to describe the cross in 1:25. Divine weakness and divine foolishness! Now
continuing at the end of verse 10:] You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. . .
[verse 16] I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
Now what's he saying? He's saying that they are wrong to think that Jesus died on the cross
so that IN THIS AGE they might have fullness, wealth, kingly dignity, worldly wisdom and
strength. The cross is not a mere event in history; it's a way of life! Take up your cross](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-81-2048.jpg)
![So the two descriptions about how Paul did come to Corinth are that he was with them in
weakness and fear and trembling, and that his message was in demonstration of the Spirit
and power.
What Paul's Weakness Was
What was Paul's weakness? In 2 Corinthians 10:10 his opponents were saying, "His letters
are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speechis of no account."
Evidently Paul did not have a very strong, appealing appearance. In fact there seems to
have been something wrong with Paul physically that made him chronically weak and
unattractive.
Listen to how Paul describes the first time he preached to the churches in Galatia
(Galatians 4:13–14): "You know it was because of a bodily ailment [=weakness] that I
preached the gospel to you at first; and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not
scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God."
The reason I think this weakness or ailment or condition was chronic is that Paul describes
his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12 with this same language of weakness. He says in
verse 9 that he will all the more gladly exult in his weaknesses because then the power of
Christ rests on him. Jesus says to him, "My power is made perfect in your weakness."
That's just the connection he makes here in our text, isn't it? He says in 2:3 that he was
with them in weakness. And then he says in verse 4 that his words were in the
demonstration of the Spirit and power—the same power that he says is made perfect in his
weakness.
Paul doesn't try to hide or deny his weaknesses that make him despicable to some. Instead
he exults that God would be willing to use such an earthen vessel so that the powerful effect
of his preaching might be clearly of God.
Paul's Fear and Trembling
And besides weakness there was this "fear and trembling" mentioned in verse 3. Which at
least means this: he did not come to Corinth with a cocky air about him. There was no
swagger or vanity or ostentation or pomposity. Instead there was meekness and a real
trembling because his inadequacy was so great and the stakes were so high and the dangers
were so real.
If you say, "Wait a minute, I thought Christians are supposed to be confident and
fearless," consider these words from a man who knew his share of suffering and
opposition, John Calvin.
The servants of the Lord are not so dull as not to see threatening dangers, nor so
insensitive as not to be affected by them. No! and in fact they must be seriously
apprehensive for two main reasons: 1) that, humbled in their own eyes, they might
learn to lean and rest completely on God alone; and 2) that they might be trained in
true self-denial. Paul, therefore, was not without a sense of anxiety, but he
controlled it, so that he nonetheless continued to be undaunted in the midst of crises.
(Commentary on the text)
Doing Everything in Relation to Christ Crucified](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-83-2048.jpg)
![Now what does all this have to do with the cross of Christ? That Paul is trembling and
fearful, that he is weak and unimpressive, that he avoids flourishes of oratory and
intellectual ostentation—what's all that got to do with the cross?
Well, in verse 2 Paul says that the reason he came to Corinth in this way is "because I
decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." What does
this mean?
It does not mean that the only thing he mentioned in his 18 months in Corinth was the
cross, because again in this letter he scolds them for not understanding other things too.
I think what it means is that whatever else he knew, whatever else he spoke about, and
whatever else he did, he would know it and say it and do it in relation to Christ crucified.
This brings us back to where we started. He will not let the cross become a historical relic.
He puts it at the center of his everyday work and relationships. He makes tents in the
shadow of the cross. He preaches in the shadow of the cross. He disputes with opponents in
the shadow of the cross. He eats and drinks and sleeps Christ crucified.
And the effect this has on him is make him a man of broken-hearted love, so out of step
with this glory-seeking world that he can only be explained by the power of God.
What Paul Means by "Power"
I didn't say much about the word "power" in verses 4 and 5 where Paul says that his
message was in "demonstration of the Spirit and power, that you faith might not rest in the
wisdom of men but in the power of God." Many take the power in these two verses to refer
to miracles. Paul certainly worked miracles. But I doubt that is what he means here.
I can't help but think that primary in Paul's mind is the power referred to back in 1:17
because it is the closest parallel to this verse, "Christ did not send me to baptize but to
preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom [that's the connection with 2:3–5], lest the
cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
And so when he says in 2:4 that he did not come with this kind of eloquence but came in the
demonstration of the Spirit and power, he most likely means the power of the cross. Christ
crucified is called the "power of God" in 1:24 and therefore it's called the "power of God"
in 2:5.
What Paul Wanted Most of All
l "
What Paul wanted more than anything in his life was to get out of the way of the power of
God. The thought that anyone might pin their hope or their faith on his eloquence or his
strength was a dreadful thought to Paul. All he wanted was to placard Christ crucified so
that the power of the cross could save sinners.
And so what did he do? He died on the cross every day. He died to intellectual show. He
died to impressive eloquence. He died to the secular demands of suave, self-assured,
powerful, attractive performances.
He was with us in weakness and in much fear and trembling so that our faith—yours and
mine, this morning—might rest not in the wisdom of a man, but in the power of God—the
power of Christ crucified.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-84-2048.jpg)
![NOTHING BUT JESUS
Dr. W. A. Criswell
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
3-27-55 7:30 p.m.
In the message of the morning, we were in the conclusion of the first chapter of the first
Corinthian letter, and now tonight, we begin the second chapter of the first Corinthian letter; and
if you will turn to the passage, you can look at it while I try to preach from it: First Corinthians,
the second chapter. It’s of a part and of a piece with the first chapter. Now the second chapter
begins:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony
– the oracles, the revelation –
of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
[1 Corinthians 2:1-5]
That’s the passage, and we take the first part of it tonight:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring
unto you the oracles of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
[1 Corinthians 2:1-2]
And the thought of the message tonight is from that word: "I determined not to know anything
but Jesus and Jesus crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. For you see, Paul had a tremendous reversal in
his personal devotion, the commitment of his life [Philippians 3:4-11]; and out of that
tremendous reversal came personal and theological and intellectual problems that were almost
overwhelming. Paul was trained in all the learning of the rabbis [Acts 22:3]. He possibly, almost
certainly, was a member of the Sanhedrin [Philippians 3:4-5]. He was a young man in his
thirties, maybe just thirty – certainly not more than thirty-one or thirty-two – when that
tremendous reversal came in his life.
For a young fellow like that to be a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Israelite
nation, was one of the most signal honors that could come to any neophyte. He said in his letters,
referring to himself – boasting not because of pride but because others forced him to defend his
ministry, his apostleship in Jesus [1 Corinthians 9:1-27] – he said of himself that he excelled in
the religion of the Jewish people above all others of his own peerage, his own age, his own group
[Galatians 1:14].](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-91-2048.jpg)
![He was a fine, brilliant, young student. He was a disciple of the school of Gamaliel [Acts 22:3],
and he was given to all the religion of Judaism [Galatians 1:13-14; Philippians 3:5-6]. Then in
the midst of his fervent and zealous exposition of rabbinical lore and knowledge – in the midst of
it, zealous even to the persecution of the church even in to strange cities [Acts 9:1-2; 1
Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:13] – in the midst of that devotion to the tradition of his fathers,
he became a Christian – the exact opposite of what he had been expounding [Acts 9:1-31;
Galatians 1:23].
Well I say, any such reversal as that would posit in any man’s life tremendous intellectual and
religious problems. So when Paul began to preach, it was not immediate upon his conversion;
but he went into Arabia, in the sands of the deserts, and he stayed there three solid years
[Galatians 1:11-18]. There he communed with God. There he talked to Christ. There he wrestled
like Jacob did at the River Jabbok [Genesis 32:22-32]. There he wrestled with God, and there did
those revelations come to him that made him refer to the gospel that he preached as "my gospel"
[Romans 2:16, 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8]: "Though I, or an angel from heaven, preach unto you any
other gospel than the gospel I have preached unto you, let him be anathema" [Galatians 1:8].
"For I have received of the Lord Jesus that which also I delivered unto you . . ." [1 Corinthians
11:23].
The gospel that Paul preached came out of tremendous personal struggle before the Lord; and the
things that he preached, he received by direct revelation from Jesus Christ [Galatians 1:12]. And
I say that period of tremendous reversal came right after his conversion when he opened his heart
to God to the new revelation and the new faith in Christ Jesus.
So he began to preach it. In the city of Damascus when he returned from Arabia [Acts 9:1-20;
Galatians 1:17] – in the city of Damascus, he first lifted up his voice preaching Jesus and Him
crucified [Acts 9:19-22]. They let him out, preserved his life by letting him down in a basket
over the wall [Acts 9:23-26]. Then he went to Jerusalem and he preached the same gospel: Jesus
and Him crucified [Acts 9:26-28]. The brethren sent him away lest he be destroyed [Acts 9:29-
30].
In the first missionary journey in Pisidian Antioch, the Judaizing people raised a mob against
him, and he was expelled from the city still preaching Jesus and Him crucified [Acts 13:14-52].
At Lystra, he was stoned and dragged out of the city for dead [Acts 14:6-19], but he arose with
the life quickened within him, his breath restored by God [Acts 14:20]; he arose still to preach
Jesus and Him crucified [Acts 14:20-21].
In Philippi, he was beaten and, with Silas, placed in an inner dungeon, but he was still preaching
Jesus, and Him crucified [Acts 16:22-33]. In Thessalonica and in Berea where he suffered
persecution [Acts 17:1-15], as everywhere else that he preached, he still was true to the gospel he
received from the Lord Himself. He was preaching Jesus, and Him crucified.
Then something happened in the city of Athens. I don’t know what. I don’t know why. You can
be persecuted and you can be beat, you can be put in stocks and in chains, you can be placed on
the inside of prison wall, and if you have a great conviction, if you have a tremendous
commitment, the harder you’re persecuted, the more adamantine are those convictions
crystallized in your soul.
But there’s something in a man’s life – weakness, the way he’s put together – I don’t know what
it is, but there’s something in the composition of a man’s soul that, when he’s in dead earnest and
he’s delivering his soul and he has a great truth and he’s trying to say it to the people, you just let](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-92-2048.jpg)
![the folks out there in front of him laugh at him and scorn and ridicule what he says, and it will
unnerve and unhinge and unhook like nothing else in the world.
I say, you can persecute a man for what he’s preaching, and if he’s sincere and earnest,
persecution just makes him the more fervent and zealous in his zeal to make known those truths.
But laugh at him, ridicule him, make fun of him, scorn him, and it does something to him.
Now, especially is that true if the scoffing and the ridicule is done by intellectuals – people of the
university, people of training, people of knowledge and understanding, people of scholarship and
background. Let them belittle him, let them speak of the ignorance in his life: "What he does, he
does because he doesn’t know any better. Why, listen to him! If he had studied, if he had learned,
if he were a product of the schools, he wouldn’t be as he is." And to laugh, and to joke, and to
scorn, and to belittle, and to ridicule is a weapon that not many men can withstand.
Now, Paul was human. He was a great man of God and had committed himself to the gospel of
Christ, but his experience at Athens [Acts 17:16-34] was something he had never met before.
Every time he preached, it had been in an atmosphere of either tremendous devotion to the cause
he espoused or tremendous opposition. But in any event, it was serious, dead in earnest either
way.
But in Athens they never hurt a hair of his head. They never laid a hand on his body. They never
so much as put the weight of a finger on him. Those Athenians – the intellectuals, the Epicurean
and the Stoic philosophers – as they listened to him preach the Lord Jesus, they looked at one
another and with raised eyebrows said, "Well. Well." And some of them laughed out loud [Acts
17:32], and some of the more courteous bowed and said, "Oh, yes, yes, we’ll hear you again of
the matter. Yes, yes. Yes, yes, we’ll uh – we’ll come back again, yes, yes. Yes, we understand."
And in disdain and in intellectual superiority, they walked away smiling and laughing to one
another [Acts 17:32].
Now I say that plunged the apostle Paul into a reexamination of all of his faith, of all of his
commitment, of all of his devotion, of all of his preaching. And if you don’t have that
background, the things that you’ll find here written by Paul won’t have much meaning to you for
Paul will be saying – listen to him: "Christ sent me . . . to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom
and the sophistry of men" [1 Corinthians 1:17], not like an Epicurean, not like a Stoic, not like a
Platonic teacher, not like a Socratic philosopher, not like an Aristotilean disciple: ",not with the
wisdom of men, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish idiocy," foolishness, moronic, "but unto us who are saved it is the
power of God" [1 Corinthians 1:17-18].
"For after that in the wisdom of the world," the smartness of the world, the philosophy and
metaphysics of the world, "For after that," in the sophistry of the world, the world by its wisdom,
by its sophistry, by its metaphysical acumen, by its philosophical insight, "the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe., We
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks idiocy" – foolishness,
ridiculousness! – "but unto us who are called, Jew or Greek, Christ the power of God, and the
revelation, and the wisdom and the gift of God" [1 Corinthians 1: 21, 23-24].
"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in sophistry," came not preaching philosophy or
metaphysics. When I came to you, I came not with beautiful and excellent orations; "When I
came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the
revelations of God. For I had determined" – he had just left Athens; all of that in his heart and in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-93-2048.jpg)
![his soul making his journey down there to Corinth – "For I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:1-2].
Now in another message, maybe still another, we’ll have other things to say. But tonight, at the
beginning of this revival meeting, I’m taking this text as a delineation of our task in this ministry.
This is a thing to which this pastor, this pulpit, and, I am persuaded, our people are fully
committed.
First, we have here a definition of method: "I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. "For Christ sent me . . . to preach the gospel,
not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect . . . for . . . it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:17, 21].
First, I say, a definition of method. How shall our church be organized? How shall it be run?
Around what shall it be built? And how shall we do and how shall we take seriously the
commandment of our God to evangelize the world? How shall we do it? This is the way we shall
do it. We shall build our church around the preaching ministry of the Son of God. We shall build
our church around its pulpit. We shall build our church around its sanctuary. We shall build our
church around its high altar before God. We shall preach our church around the message of Jesus
Christ.
A definition of how we shall do: we shall build our church around the ministry, the breaking of
bread, the preaching of the Son of God. All the other things that we do in our church are but to
lead to that great and high and holy and heavenly and precious hour when the Book is opened
and appeal is made in the name of Christ.
And of those things, we have many; we have many. We pray. All last week in the daytime and in
the evening, we had prayer services. Praying for what? That in prayer itself, people might be
saved: "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians
1:21]. Our praying was to the end that when the pastor lifts his hand God might bear His arm to
save. We’re to visit. We’re to knock at the door. But in no wise, and in no sense, is it our
persuasion that visitation evangelism could ever take the place of the gathering of our people
together for the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God.
We have many, many other programs in the church. We have a great recreational program. We
have a great social program. We have our retreats. We have our Sunday school. We have our
Training Union, our Brotherhood, our W.M.U. [Women’s Missionary Union]. We have a great
program that goes by day and by night seven days out of every week.
But the great end and the great purpose that lies back of all that we do is reaching out and up
toward this holy hour when on Sunday morning and on Sunday night the church gathers together
for the reading of the Word, for the preaching of the cross, and for the appeal that men turn and
accept Christ as their Savior. Our church is built around this focal point: the preaching of the
Word of God.
There are many substitutes that in our day especially are made for that. The church comes
together, and they look at a picture show. The church comes together, and they go through
Chautauqua services. The church comes together, and they have many and varied programs.
Always and without exception, that makes for a weak church, and the spiritual depth of the
people is thinner, and thinner, and more shallow, and more shallow!](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-94-2048.jpg)
!["It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:21].
"And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah" [Isaiah 38:4]. "And the word of God came to
Jeremiah" [Jeremiah 36:27]. And the word of the Lord came to Amos, and he lifted up his voice
and spake saying,[Amos 3:1, 3:8 7:16].
"And in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying,
‘Repent, ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" [Matthew 3:1-2] "And Jesus came into Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and saying, "Repent, ye, and believe the gospel" [Mark
1:14-15].
It’s a delineation. It’s a defining of method. How shall we do? We shall do this: "We are
determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2] and "It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:21]. This
is our method.
We have here a definition of content. What shall we preach? What shall we preach? Why, this is
what we shall preach. We shall preach the new theology. We shall preach the new light. We shall
preach the new psychology. We shall preach all of these things that go into psychiatry. We shall
preach all of the things that enter into the latest book reviews, the latest magazine articles, and
the latest current events, and what we think about all of the social issues of the day. We shall
preach intellectualism. We shall preach social amelioration. This is what we shall preach: the
sophistry of a passing moment.
No, sir! No, sir! We have here defined the content of our method: "For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. Our preaching,
our preaching is the Lord – in the beginning, in the middle, in the end, all in between. We have
one message and one sermon: it’s the Lord; it’s the Lord.
Somebody listening to Spurgeon time after time, somebody said about Spurgeon: "He has one
sermon – just preaches one sermon all the time." And somebody came to Mr. Spurgeon and said,
"Mr. Spurgeon, a man who’d heard you preach a lot said you have just one sermon, just one
sermon, and you preach that sermon all the time." And Mr. Spurgeon replied, "That’s right.
That’s right." He said, "Wherever in the Bible I take my text, I make a beeline to the cross and
start preaching about the Lord Jesus" [quoted in The Lutheran Standard, vol. 5, 1965].
That’s it. That’s it! We know one thing. We have one gospel. We have one message – Jesus
Christ and Him crucified: "And I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ
on the cross" [1 Corinthians 2:2], dying for our sins, raised for our justification [Romans 4:25].
I can tell it anywhere, anywhere – tell it anywhere – when a man preaches the gospel: find it
anywhere, sense it anywhere, see it anywhere. In the Garden of Eden, the Lord took animals and
slew them and poured their blood out into the ground – the first shedding of blood – and He
made coats of skins to cover the nakedness of Adam and his wife [Genesis 3:21]. That’s it.
That’s it – the blood. That’s the gospel; that’s Jesus. It looked forward to the covering, the
atonement of the Lord Jesus – Christ and Him crucified. This is it.
"And when I see the blood, I’ll pass over you" [Exodus 12:13]. That’s it. That’s it. It’s got a
color to it. It’s straight. It’s a crimson way. That’s it. "When I see the blood, I’ll pass over you"
[Exodus 12:13]. That’s the gospel: Jesus and Him crucified [1 Corinthians 15:3-4]. I’ll listen to
Isaiah:](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-95-2048.jpg)
![All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, unto his own way; and the Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . .
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened
up not His mouth.
[Isaiah 53:6-7]
That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. It’s the blood. It’s the blood. It’s the Lamb of God. That’s it. Look
into glory. "Who are these arrayed in white robes and whenst came they? These are they who
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" [Revelation 7:13-14].
That’s it. That’s is it. That’s it.
In the passage I read this morning: "And there came a soldier and pierced His side, and forthwith
flowed thereout blood and water" [John 19:34]. That’s it. That’s it. It has a color to it. The
preaching of the Son of God always has a color to it. It’s a scarlet message; it’s a crimson way.
It’s the story of the cross. It’s the preaching of the blood: "For I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. We have a definition of
content – that’s it: Jesus dying for our sins; Jesus buried; Jesus raised for our justification
[Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4]. That’s it.
Every time you see the pastor baptize a boy, a girl, a man or woman who’s given his heart to the
Lord Jesus – that’s it: He died for our sins; He was buried, and He was raised for our justification
[Romans 4:25]. Buried with the Lord in the likeness of His death and raised in the likeness of
His resurrection [Romans 6:5]. That’s it. We know one thing. We know one thing: Jesus Christ
and Him crucified [1 Corinthians 2:2].
I make a last avowal. A definition of method: preaching the gospel, everything leading to that
holy and sacred hour; a definition of content: Christ and Him crucified; a definition of life: "I am
crucified with Christ Jesus; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me; and the life
which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me"
[Galatians 2:20].
"Determined not to know to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1
Corinthians 2:2]. The Spirit of Christ in a man is the Spirit that exalts Him [John 16:14], the
crucified Christ: raising Him, raising Him – not looking at the man, not looking at the preacher,
not looking at the sermon, not looking at man – looking at the Lord Jesus; and the more the Spirit
of the crucified Lord is in us, the more do we hide ourselves away that He might be seen
[Galatians 2:20, 6:14].
Those nearest to the Lord in time were so much like that. You can hardly find them. All you can
find is the Lord Jesus that they uphold. For example, I turn in my Book. The first gospel here,
you say, is the Gospel of Matthew. What makes you think so? There’s not a man in the earth that
knows. The ancient tradition said that Matthew wrote an Aramaic gospel, and on the basis of that
Aramaic gospel, this first gospel was made in translation into Greek. But you won’t find
Matthew there: you won’t find his name; you won’t find his signature. Who wrote it? He didn’t
say. Matthew hid himself away, and there the Lord Jesus – just look unto Him.
Who wrote the second gospel? You say Mark. You could read Mark’s gospel a thousand years;
you’ll never find a signature to it. You’ll never find Mark mentioned. The tradition of the fathers
comes down and says to us, "Mark wrote it." That’s all. But Mark – hide himself away holding
up the Lord Jesus.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-96-2048.jpg)
![You say the third gospel is Luke. You could read it all you like; you’ll never see Luke there.
There’s not a mention of him nor a reference to him. He hid himself away, raising up the Lord
Jesus.
The Gospel of John: John never calls his name. When he refers to himself in the story, because
he was one of the disciples, he never calls his name. He just says "the disciple that Jesus loved"
[John 13:23], or, "the disciple that lay on His bosom" [John 13:23] at the Last Supper. It was the
Lord Jesus, not John – holding up the Lord Jesus. The crucified life is like that: not we; it’s Him.
It’s the Lord, not us. It’s Him, not of us. It’s the Lord Jesus – all the Lord Jesus.
A man went to hear two preachers. When he heard the first one, a world-famous man, he said,
"What a great orator. What a marvelous speaker. What a glorious preacher." When he heard the
second one, he went away saying, "What a marvelous Savior. What a glorious Lord! What a
marvelous Redeemer. What a wonderful, wonderful Jesus."
The commitment of our life: none of self and all of Thee. Kurios Iēsous – Lord Jesus, Lord
Jesus. For us, we hide ourselves away, put ourselves in the background, bury ourselves in our
hands, cover our faces like the seraphim who were close to the throne of God [Isaiah 6:2]. Do
you remember them – how they’re described? "With twain of their wings they flew, with twain
of their wings they covered their feet, and with twain of their wings they covered their faces"
[Isaiah 6:2]. Who would be equal to stand in the presence of God? We hide our faces; we cover
our faces [Exodus 3:6; Luke 5:8; Revelation 1:17].
Lord, Lord, that they don’t see me, that they don’t see us, because if they do, they’ll stumble.
They’ll make mistakes looking at us. They’ll fall into error looking at us, but they’re to look at
the Lord Jesus. We’re to raise up the Lord Jesus – not preaching ourselves but Christ Jesus and
ourselves His slaves [2 Corinthians 4:5]. That’s where the Greek is – "and ourselves His slaves
for your sake" [2 Corinthians 4:5]. If in His name we can wash feet [John 13:5-17], if in His
name we can minister [Ephesians 3:7, Colossians 1:23], if in His name we can serve [Romans
12:6-7], if in His name, we can help [Matthew 10:42], we are your slaves for Jesus’ sake [2
Corinthians 4:5]. But it isn’t us, it’s the Lord Jesus. Look to Him. Look to Him.
I don’t know how we are; I know He’s all right. I don’t know how we may fare; I know He’s all
right. I don’t know into what pitfalls we may stumble, but He is all right. I don’t know with what
error we live our lives day after day, but I know He is all right.
And if we can just look to Jesus. Don’t look to man; don’t look to organization; don’t look to
church; don’t look to ordinances; don’t look to the preacher. Look to Him. Keep your eyes upon
Him, and I know you’ll be all right. He’s all right. Holding up Jesus: "For I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. May we
pray?
Our Lord, all that in this spirit of dedication written large on the page here by Thy servant Paul,
would to God there might be a like commitment on the part of all the members of this church, the
body of Christ. We’re doing one thing. We know one thing. Our lives are committed to one
thing: not the exaltation of self, not pride and vanity and vainglory, but lifting up the cross,
raising high the banner of Jesus, pointing men to the Lamb of God.
Look! Look! Behold! Behold, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus! [John 1:29]. Look to Him. Look
to Him. Look and live [Numbers 21:7-9; John 3:14-15]. There He is. There He is. He’s at your
side. He’s knocking at the door of your heart [Revelation 3:20]. Let Him in; let Him in. Look to
Jesus: look and live, my brother, live [Numbers 21:7-9; John 3:14-15].](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-97-2048.jpg)
![O Christ, that as we stand in this holy place, it might be a raising of the cross upon which the Son
of God died, that men coming to these services might go out these doors not conscious of us but
conscious of the Lord who died for us, who was raised that we might live with Him. Ah, that all
that we do or say might flow to the glory of our Master, less and less and, finally, nothing of us;
more and more and more and, finally, all of Him [John 3:30; 2 Corinthians 5:15].
Oh, may the spirit of sacrifice, of self-effacement, of the abandonment of all that is selfish and
personal – that it might be more and more of the power and the presence and the glory of the
Lord Jesus determining one thing: raising high the cross of Christ in the pulpit, in the life, in our
witness and testimony. In all that we do, looking to Him, pointing to Him.
Bless, Lord, the appeal of tonight; and as our people shall bear it on wings of prayer to the great
host assembled, may somebody be saved. May somebody tonight look and live. May somebody
tonight give his heart to Jesus. May somebody tonight come down that aisle, take the pastor by
the hand: "Here I am, and here I come. I have felt His presence. I have sensed this call, and here I
am responding with my life." The Lord grant it in His holy name. Amen.
Now while we sing our song, while we make appeal, somebody you, give your heart to the Lord:
"Here I am Pastor, and here I come." Somebody you, put his life in the church: a family you, a
child, a youth – somebody re-give himself to the work and ministry and testimony of Christ.
However God shall make appeal, open the door, lead the way while we sing this song. Would
you come? Would you make it now? In the balcony, anywhere – while we sing, would you
come? As our people stand, pray, and wait, and make appeal, and sing the song, you come.
Great Texts of the Bible
The Sum of saving Knowledge
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.—1
Corinthians 2:2.
There is another way of translating the text. Some have translated it thus: “For I did not
determine to know anything among you.…” According to Godet, “the Apostle does not say ‘I
determined (judged good) not to know …’ but ‘I did not judge good to know …’ He
intentionally set aside the different elements of human knowledge by which he might have been
tempted to prop up the preaching of salvation. He deemed that he ought not to go in quest of
such means.”
I
The Apostle’s Determination
1. I determined. There is no doubt or hesitation in this statement. These are the words of one who
had weighed the matter well, and knew whereof he spoke. Here is one who blows the trumpet of
truth with no uncertain sound, who speaks with no tremor in his voice; who has a decided
conviction of what he knows and believes, and who thinks, and speaks, and acts in accordance
with that knowledge and belief. St. Paul has decided for himself what is true; and is determined](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-98-2048.jpg)
![to declare it and to stand by it.
St. Paul was no hired teacher—not an official expounder of a system. He preached what he
believed. He felt that his words were Eternal Truth; and hence came their power. He preached
ever as if God Almighty were at his side; hence arises the possibility of discarding elegance of
diction and rules of oratory. For it is half-way towards making us believe, when a man believes
himself. Faith produces faith. If you want to convince men, and ask how you shall do it, we
reply, Believe with all your heart and soul, and some souls will be surely kindled by your flame.1
[Note: F. W. Robertson.]
2. Not improbably this determination of St. Paul’s represents a temptation conquered, a soul-
conflict won. To such a one as he, it would be a trial of spirit to contemplate service in such a
city as Corinth. Corinth was a centre of fashion. Shall he essay to appeal to the fashionable
crowd with “Christ crucified” as the central theme? Will he not repel them thus? May he not
emphasize other aspects of Christ which will be attractive and not repellent? Thus the evil one
would ply him. But the God of peace crushed Satan under his feet, and his splendid “I
determined” rings out. Corinth was an æsthetic city. Its architecture is a proverb still, and its
brasses are still famous. Corinth was an intellectual city. Its typical Greek love of philosophy all
men know. It was an opulent commercial city too. Shall he not soften the truth and smooth his
message? Will not taste, and culture, and materialism, and wealth resent the preaching of “Christ
crucified”? It may be, but, “I determined,” cries this hero of the Cross. He will cry out and shout
in the delicate ears of Corinth nothing but the crucified Lord.
3. What is the ground of this intense and all-absorbing faith? St. Paul believes that he has in his
hand something that will explain man to himself, a man’s life to himself. He is so firmly
convinced of this that, although his mind is large and capacious and he can view with a
sympathetic admiration many of the magnificent manifestations of world-power, still, in his own
estimate, the sacred message which he has to give to the world is worth all else besides. He is
quite alive, as his letter shows, to the variety of powers, the nimbleness of intellect, the ambitious
skill which the Corinthians possess; he knows that they are a people eager to express themselves
in many ways, that they rejoice in the powers of rhetoric, in the gifts of tongue, in skilful
elucidation of philosophical mysteries. But still he comes to these, and he says: “I determined to
know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He has made up his mind that
this particular formula, “Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” expresses for the world a great, a
central, an extensive truth. This is the knowledge for which St. Paul counts all else but loss—“to
know Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” This is the simple gospel: its simplicity is its offence in
the eyes of many. Nevertheless there are infinite depths in it. It is as when we look into the clear
depths of some swift-flowing river. Its very clearness had deceived us. We thought it but a
shallow stream, and are astonished at its undreamed-of depths. So with this message of St. Paul,
we notice its simplicity first, its apparent narrowness, its exclusiveness; and then we see
something of its depth, its boundlessness, its comprehensiveness.
Berry told some of his Bolton friends, at the time, how startled and disappointed he had been at
finding himself powerless for a while to give help and comfort to a woman who was dying, amid
tragic and squalid surroundings, in one of the lowest parts of the town. He had been called upon
to minister to her, but as he unfolded the Christian message, as he was wont to preach it then—](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-99-2048.jpg)
![the doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood and the Eternal Love—as he told the story of the Prodigal
and the Magdalene, her heart gave no response, and she looked up with eyes which seemed to
him to ask if that was all he had to say to a lost and dying woman. Under a new afflatus, that
came he knew not whence, he began with trembling voice to speak on evangelical simplicities, to
tell of Christ’s death for a world’s sin, and to point her to the Cross for pardon. To his joy and
wonder he found that in response to words as simple as those he heard at his mother’s knee, the
sinful one found rest and peace.1 [Note: J. S. Drummond, Charles A. Berry, 35.]
Who speaketh now of peace?
Who seeketh for release?
The Cross is strength, the solemn Cross is gain.
The Cross is Jesus’ breast,
Here giveth He the rest
That to His best belov’d doth still remain.
How sweet an ended strife!
How sweet a dawning life!
Here will I lie as one who draws his breath
With ease, and hearken what my Saviour saith
Concerning me; the solemn Cross is gain;
Who willeth now to choose?
Who strives to bind or loose?
Sweet life, sweet death, sweet triumph and sweet pain.2 [Note: Dora Greenwell.]
II
The Concentration of his Message
Every act of self-determination involves a corresponding self-repression. Every selection
includes at least one alternative. No man commits himself to a really practical resolution without
first putting away and rejecting. Many pursuits invited St. Paul. They were attractive, pleasant,
honourable, useful to the world. He had all the instincts of a student. He was a scholar with
splendid capacity. He might have been, we feel persuaded, a greater than Philo, than Seneca—a
greater than Plato himself. “To know Jesus Christ, and him crucified” is the end for which](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-100-2048.jpg)
![everything else is sacrificed. By “Jesus Christ,” the Apostle understands His manifestation in
general—His life, death, and Messianic dignity. Yet, while confining himself to this elementary
theme of preaching, he might still have found means to commend Jesus to the attention and
admiration of the wise. But he determined “not to know anything, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified.” He will not know even Jesus Christ except in one aspect. That is the idea. One of our
best exegetes thus renders the words: “And even Him as having been crucified.” It is the
crucified Christ alone that he will know. Observe the far-reaching word “know.” Not merely
does he refuse to speak on any other theme, but he will “know” none other. The crucified
Saviour shall fill the whole horizon of his mind and heart. He will, so to say, severely limit his
Christology to this phase: “Even Him as having been crucified.”
1. St. Paul disdained systems of philosophy or the teaching of morality merely. The Gospel has
been presented as a philosophy. The development of the Church, the innumerable attacks of
scepticism, the rise of problems within Christianity itself have rendered imperative the
presentation of the Christian system as a well-ordered scheme of philosophical thought.
Profound thinkers have arisen from time to time in the Christian Church who have demonstrated
the reasonableness of Christianity as a philosophical system, and the work of these thinkers is of
great value. But where one man is converted by reading books of apologetics or theology, a
thousand are drawn and held captive by the pathos of Calvary—the moving, subduing story of
the Cross. Men of all orders and degrees, of all climes and tongues, have owned the wondrous
contagion of the Cross, and have yielded to its strange compulsion.
We are philosophers who have found the truth, chemists who have discovered (or rather been
told of) the elixir of life; as we read again our Plato and Aristotle, and even the modern searchers
after truth, we are the children
On whom those truths do rest
That they are toiling all their lives to find.
To be at the centre of all things; to have disclosed in our undeserving ears the secret of the ages;
to know for certain how the world came into being; to have in the Cross the long sought after key
to the suffering of the world; to be told what all this curious world is tending towards—that is
our real position in the realm of thought.1 [Note: A. F. Winnington Ingram, Messengers,
Watchmen, and Stewards, 16.]
2. Theology cannot take the place of the Cross. Nothing has been more fatal in the history of
Christianity than that marvellous intellectual curiosity which has been earnest to invent doctrine
after doctrine, experience upon experience, till there appears a complete scheme of dogmatic
ideas which is called systematic theology. But theological ideas, however systematic, lead only
to barrenness and dryness if theologians ignore the fundamental principle which the Apostle has
laid down—that the key is not to be found in a theology apart from a person, nor in a person
apart from a theology. Whatever the Apostles teach, they always teach Christ. They never turn
their teaching into dry intellectual formulae; they abhor the exaggerated rationalism—for it is
nothing more—of the extreme dogmatist, just as they have no sympathy with the incoherent gush
which satisfies indolent devotion.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-101-2048.jpg)
![A man may be a great theologian and at the same time a great sinner. If theology could save
anybody the devil himself would have been converted long ago. He is one of the most expert
theologians alive; he can quote Scripture for his purpose with marvellous propriety; but he is the
devil yet for all that. On the other hand, there are many whose theological knowledge is hardly
worth the name, but whose devout and godly lives are a pattern and an inspiration to all who see
them.1 [Note: H. W. Horwill.]
3. Science cannot take the place of the Cross. Some are constantly asserting the claim of science
to supersede Christianity. Many well-meaning Christians are spending the time which might be
devoted to evangelistic work in endeavouring to reconcile the book of Genesis with the latest
scientific theory, or in attempting, from a very superficial knowledge of the subject, to reply to
men who not only possess an enormously larger stock of facts on scientific matters, but who
also—and this is far more important—have had the advantage of a scientific training. Let us
leave to experts investigation into the condition of the early inhabitants of the world. The most
serious question in the world is not, What think ye of Darwin? or even, What think ye of Moses?
It is, What think ye of Christ?
O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee.
Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air—
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumour of thee there!
Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!—
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.
The angels keep their ancient places;—
Turn but a stone, and start a wing!](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-102-2048.jpg)
![’Tis ye, ’tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.
But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacop’s ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.
Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry,—clinging Heaven by the hems,
And lo, Christ walking on the water
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!1 [Note: Francis Thompson.]
4. St. Paul disdained human eloquence. It is certain that St. Paul was not unversed in the wisdom,
or unskilled in the rhetoric, which was all the vogue in his day. The Apostle could have
presented his message in a beautiful dress, and might have recommended himself to his hearers
by polished periods; but he knew very well that the power of the Gospel did not consist in these
things.
5. St. Paul was careful to efface self. He did not mar his message by any reference to himself.
His eye was fixed on Christ. His desire was to exalt Christ. His zeal expended itself in
proclaiming Christ the Saviour of sinners. There were no side glances at his own prospects, his
own reputation, his own success. He was content to hide behind the person of Christ, so that He
might be seen and loved, and honoured and exalted. Like John the Baptist, whose business it was
to cry “Behold the Lamb,” and to point his hearers away from himself, saying, “He must
increase, but I must decrease,” so it was St. Paul’s business to declare Christ crucified and to
keep himself in the background.
In any work which is to live, or be really beautiful, there must be the spirit of the Cross. That
which is to be a temple of God must never have the marble polluted with the name of the
architect or builder. There can be no real success, except when a man has ceased to think of his
own success.2 [Note: F. W. Robertson.]
As Michael Angelo wore a lamp on his cap to prevent his own shadow from being thrown upon
the picture which he was painting, so the Christian minister and servant needs to have the candle
of the Spirit always burning in his heart, lest the reflection of self and self-glorying may fall upon
his work to darken and defile it.3 [Note: A. J. Gordon.]
III](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-103-2048.jpg)
![The Comprehensiveness of his Message
When the Apostle tells us that he is determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, he impresses upon our minds that this is “the hidden wisdom which God hath ordained
before the world.” He means that to know Christ crucified is the maximum of knowledge, not the
minimum. He means that in Jesus Christ and Him crucified all doctrines culminate, and from
Jesus Christ and Him crucified all duties emanate and evolve. We live in a world which may well
be illustrated as a labyrinth, and as we pursue our way, there are many deviating paths down
which we may be tempted to wander. But for us who desire practical wisdom for the conduct of
life, we do not want a map of the whole labyrinth; what we do want is a silver thread which may
pass through our hands and guide us to the secret part of all things. That guiding thread St. Paul
claims to give us in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
“You are going down to the assize, my lord?” “Yes.” “What do you think you will do with that
remarkable series of frauds committed some time ago?” “I do not know.” “What do you think
you will do with that case of forgery, the most elaborate and intricate piece of business I ever
heard of in all our criminal jurisprudence—what do you think you will do with it?” “I do not
know.” “Why, are you going down to the city in a loose mind?” “No.” “What have you resolved
to do?” “One thing. I have determined nothing except one thing.” “What is that, my lord?” “That
the law shall be administered and justice shall be done.” That is what St. Paul said.1 [Note: J.
Parker.]
Mr. Guyse did not condemn, but both approved and practised, the preaching of Christian morals,
while he denied that such preaching is all that is meant by the phrase and commission, “to preach
Christ.” His statements on this department were the following:—
Preaching Christ (in a latitude of the expression) takes in the whole compass of Christian religion
considered in its reference to Christ. It extends to all its noble improvements of natural light and
principles, and to all its glorious peculiarities of the supernatural and incomprehensible kind, as
each of these may, one way or other, be referred to Him. In this sense there is no doctrine,
institution, precept, or promise—no grace, privilege, or duty toward God and man—no instance
of faith, love, repentance, worship, or obedience, suited to the Gospel state and to the design and
obligations of the Christian religion—that don’t belong to preaching Christ. But to bring all these
with any propriety under this denomination, they must be considered, according to their
respective natures or kinds, in their reference to Christ, that He may be interwoven with them
and appear to be concerned in them. They must be preached, not with the air of a heathen
moralist or Platonic philosopher, but with the spirit of a minister of Christ, referring them up to
Him, as revealed, or enjoined, or purchased by Him—as shining in their brightest lustres and
triumphing in all their glories through Him—as built upon Him and animated by Him—as
lodged in His hands who is head over all things to the church—as standing in the connections,
uses, and designs in which He hath placed them—as known, enjoyed, or practised by light and
grace derived from Him—as to be accounted for to Him—as acceptable to God, and
advantageous to our salvation, alone through Him, by faith in Him—as enforced upon us by
motives and obligations taken from Him—and as tending to His glory and the glory of God in
Him.1 [Note: John Guyse.]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-104-2048.jpg)
![A company of young men were once met at supper in the old days of Athens, and Socrates, the
great teacher of morality, was present. The conversation turned on their guest. “Socrates,” said
Alcibiades, “is like the figure of the Wood-god which you see in the workshops of sculptors: if
you open it, you shall find it filled with images of all the gods.” That was the highest praise
which in those days of heathen worship it was possible to give to a human being. It was as much
as to say that all the forms of Divine life imagined and worshipped at that time were to be found
in the one life of Socrates. And, far off, it may be taken as an outshadowing of the reality
presented to us in this word of St. Paul concerning Christ.2 [Note: A. Macleod.]
In Tennyson’s “Palace of Art” we have the story of how a soul tried to satisfy herself with an
environment completely beautiful. Art and Literature were drawn upon lavishly to make her a
meet dwelling-place. But into this paradise of all beauty despair crept, and made havoc. Fear fell
like a blight, and the question of questions came to be
What is it that will take away my sin,
And save me lest I die?
At last, come to her true self, and awake to her need of God,
“Make me a cottage in a vale,” she said,
“Where I may mourn and pray”.
Yet Tennyson had too wide a vision of the truth to make an end there. He honours the “first
needs” in his poem, but he is careful to leave room for all that enriches life. And so he makes his
penitent soul ask as a last request,
Yet pull not down my palace towers, that are
So lightly, beautifully built:
Perchance I may return with others there
When I have purged my guilt.1 [Note: Arch. Alexander.]
i. To know Jesus Christ
It is perfectly possible to know the things that are said about Christ, and not to know Him about
whom these things are said. Theological cobwebs have been wrapped round the gracious figure
of Christ with disastrous results. He must be known—by personal, persistent, private
communion; by long, intense contemplation—known as He was known to Loyola, on whose
upturned face and uplifted hands the very stigmata of the Cross started out.
1. To know Jesus Christ is to know man in ideal development. In Him we behold our human](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-105-2048.jpg)
![nature fully inspired and possessed by God. He is at once a revelation of God and a manifestation
of human perfection. As much of God as could be held in a human mind and heart, and shown in
human virtues, was found in Christ Jesus. He is the Son of Man, the only perfect specimen of
humanity that has lived upon the earth, the ideal of what we ought to be, and the type of the new
creation.
The Cross had become the unchanging centre of my thoughts, but these, as they revolved around
it, had gradually, yet surely, formed for themselves an orbit widely diverging from the circle in
which Christian consciousness is wont to move. The Cross, as I looked at it more and more
intently, became to me the revelation of a loving and a suffering God. I learnt to look upon the
sacrifice of the death of Christ, not only as being the all-sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the
whole world, but also as the everlasting witness to God’s sympathy with man. The mystery of
the Cross did not, it is true, explain any one of the enigmas connected with our mortal existence
and destiny, but it linked itself in my spirit with them all. It was itself an enigma flung down by
God alongside the sorrowful problem of human life, the confession of Omnipotence itself to
some stern reality of misery and wrong.2 [Note: Dora Greenwell.]
2. To know Christ is to know God. Christ, reveals God to us. The life of Christ shows us the
holiness of God; the patience of Christ shows us the longsuffering of God; the compassion of
Christ shows us the mercy of God; the tenderness of Christ shows us the gentleness of God; the
sympathy of Christ opens to us the very heart of God: while the death of Christ reveals to us the
justice of God.
Here hast thou found me, oh mine enemy!
And yet rejoice not thou, by strength shall none prevail.
By noon thine arrows fly,
None faileth of its mark; thou dost not tire;
And yet rejoice not thou! Each shaft of fire
That finds me here becomes a living nail.
What strength of thine, what skill can now avail
To tear me from the Cross? My soul and heart
Are fastened here! I feel the cloven dart
Pierce keenly through. What hands have power to wring
Me hence? What voice can now so sweetly sing
To lure my spirit from its rest? Oh now](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-106-2048.jpg)
![Rejoice my soul, for thou
Hast trodden down thy foeman’s strength through pain.1 [Note: Dora Greenwell.]
ii. To know Jesus Christ crucified
Education, Plato tells us, is the turning away of the soul from the images, shadows, simulacra of
things, to the facts and verities of real existence. Education is not increase of knowledge, nor is it
the quickening and strengthening of one faculty, such as the intellect. Education is the awakening
and unfolding of the whole nature, due regard being had to those capacities which belong to the
higher range. Nothing contributes more to man’s education than the discovery of a great fact, the
recognition and contemplation of a great thought. It uplifts, expands, and augments the entire
being. Now “Christ crucified” is the greatest, the most transcendent fact in the whole universe. It
is the master-thought of the Eternal. To know Christ crucified is to know the meaning of life.
The death of Christ is the solving power of the mystery of the universe. It is also to know how to
live and how to die. The Cross is the moral lever for the world. It lifts men above the power of
sin.
In a letter to a friend, Elmslie describes his experience among the children in an Edinburgh east-
end Sabbath School: “When I was ending I spoke of how Jesus deserved to be loved, and that
they should ask to be made to love Him. One little girlie whispered, ‘I will ask Him, for, oh, I do
want to love Him!’ and when I said it was time to go away they cried, ‘Oh, dinna send’s away
yet, tell’s mair about Jesus’; and then they came round me, and made me promise to tell them
‘bonnie stories about Jesus’ next Sabbath. I have found that nothing interests them more than
what is directly about Jesus. I could not help telling you all these little things, but I never had the
same sort of feeling in teaching a class before, and I would like you to remember sometimes my
poor little children down in the Canongate. I wish I could take them all into a better atmosphere,
for it is sad to think of their chances of ever becoming good in such an evil, wretched place.
Harper and I have been having many nice talks. I mean to preach often in the summer—I want
to.”1 [Note: W. Robertson Nicoll, W. G. Elmslie, 41.]
1. To know Christ crucified is to know the meaning of life.
(1) In the Cross of Christ we come to understand the mystery of human suffering. Sorrow and
pain pass no man by; and no reasoning can argue them out of existence, or reduce our fight with
disease and suffering to a phantom battle. Living in a world where the blows of misfortune are
constantly falling; where the ravages of suffering are nowhere long absent; where every joy is
every moment exposed to blight; where development yields new pain; where increasing
knowledge, increasing refinement, increasing goodness and sympathy mean increasing sorrow,
and men and women suffer, not for being worse, but for being better than their fellows, it is no
wonder that the Cross appeals to human hearts everywhere as a symbol of human life, and holds
us under the spell of a solemn fascination. Rejoice as we may,—and we ought to rejoice—in all
that brightens and sweetens life, yet the fellowship of suffering is wider and deeper than the
fellowship of happiness. A German poet has said that the image of humanity, broken in all its
limbs, transfixed in hands and feet and sorrowful unto death, has become distasteful to men; but](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-107-2048.jpg)
![that can be true of men only in their light, careless, self-indulgent hours. In all our deeper
experiences our feet tread the path that leads to Calvary, and we seek the Man of Sorrows
acquainted with grief. Christ has not diminished the suffering of the world, but He has given it a
new and nobler meaning, made it appear to be no longer God’s wrath and curse, but God’s love
and blessing.
The Cross is the supreme instance of the law that no moral or spiritual victory is won, no
glorious thing can be done, without suffering, and here suffering was borne to its farthest verge
in death.1 [Note: P. A. Ellis.]
(2) In the Cross of Christ we learn the meaning and power of self-sacrifice. The Cross, as the
revelation and symbol of redemption through sacrifice, needs to be brought back to our common
life. So far as the principle is concerned, it is right to apply, and we do instinctively apply, all the
New Testament phraseology of redemption to parents sacrificing themselves for the good of their
children, to patriots suffering and dying for the sacred causes of justice and freedom, to the vast
army of labourers who procure for us our necessities and luxuries at the cost of their nobler
growth and comfort. Without shedding of blood—blood of body, blood of brain, blood of
heart—there has been no remission of sins, no redemption from evil conditions, no progress from
a lower to a higher state of society. Figuratively, if not literally, men have been crucified, their
hands torn, their hearts pierced through with many sorrows, in the interest of every onward step
and movement of mankind. The work which really helps the world—work of statesman and
philanthropist, work of poet and painter and doctor, work of teacher and preacher—is work into
which men put their life, their heart’s blood. It is this power to give without counting the cost to
one’s self, this power of suffering and sacrifice, that is the secret of all redeeming work.
There are elements of suffering for sin which are not only possible to the guiltless, but which
only they are capable of. Not only can a good man suffer for another’s sin, but it is just in
proportion to his goodness that he will suffer. The sin of a dearly loved child will give pain to a
saintly mother far more keen than the child himself will feel. The child’s sin blunts his
sensitiveness to holiness and to the evil of sin. The mother’s holiness and love will be the
measure of her suffering. No suffering for sin can be so deep as that which is endured for the bad
by the good who love them and do not partake of their guilt.1 [Note: P. A. Ellis.]
(3) In the Cross of Christ we realize the meaning of sin. Before that, the world treated sin lightly;
after that it could not. The world will always treat sin lightly until it understands the meaning of
God condemning sin in the flesh where Christ died. Belief in Christ means, and must mean, a
sense of the guilt of sin, a hatred of sin, a personal sense of sin and penitence for it. Apart from
this there could be no coming to the Saviour, or trust in Him, since there would be no felt
necessity for salvation.
The true cross of the Redeemer was the sin and sorrow of this world—that was what lay heavy
on His heart—and that is the cross we shall share with Him, that is the cup we must drink of with
Him, if we would have any part in that Divine Love which is one with His sorrow.2 [Note: Dinah
Morris in Adam Bede.]
(4) In the Cross we come to know the victory of failure. The Cross is the revelation and symbol](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-108-2048.jpg)
![He carried the cross and fought the fight,
Great-hearted to do and bear.
Night fell—and the sword was sheathed,
And the cross of life laid down,
And into his ear was breathed
A whisper of fair renown;
And the nameless victor was glory-wreathed,
For the Voice that said, “Let thy sword be sheathed,”
Said also, “And take thy crown.”1 [Note: Percy C. Ainsworth Poems and Sonnets, 17.]
(5) To know Christ crucified is to know God as a loving Father. In St. Paul’s day this was an idea
so new and so wonderful and so wonderfully helpful that it excluded in the Apostle’s mind all
other knowledge. God was no longer a wrathful potentate, He was no longer the patron of the
Jewish nation only, He was the Father of all men, who willed not that any should perish. In the
knowledge of Jesus Christ there had burst upon the Apostle’s mind the all-transforming thought
that God was not law, but love. The death of Christ—this is the great truth of truths in the gospel,
the great wonder of wonders, the finishing and perfect proof of that love of God to us, beyond
which we can conceive nothing higher. All in the gospel rests upon it; without it the gospel could
not be understood. From the Cross of Christ streams all the light which makes the gospel the
message of peace and comfort to sinful and dying men.
In one of the ancient churches of Central Italy there is a unique representation of the Crucifixion.
Behind the Christ on the Cross we catch a dim vision of the Eternal Father; the hands of the
Father behind the hands of the Son, and the nails which pierce the Son piercing the Father also.
We shrink from it at first as coarse and rude, but as we think about it we feel that it is the old
painter saying, in the only language which he could command, what has been so long and
strangely forgotten, if not in form yet in reality, that God is in Christ, that the Father is in the
Son, that His love had not to be won by sacrifice, that it is His love which is embodied in the
sacrifice, that the Cross and Passion are the revelation in time and space, in visible and historical
form, of the grief and pain of a God who suffers for. and with His creation and His children.1
[Note: J. Hunter.]
2. To know Christ crucified is to know how to live and how to die.
(1) St. Paul wanted to find a power that should be adequate to cope with men’s dispositions and
reach down to the very centre of feeling, and that should take hold of men’s wills. And he found
that power in Christ. They who long after better things find their ideal in Him; He lives on by the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-110-2048.jpg)
![Experience, 31.]
The Sum of Saving Knowledge
david legge
I want you to turn with me to two texts, both from Corinthians - the first from 1 Corinthians, and
the second from the 2nd epistle. First of all, 1 Corinthians 2, just one text, verse 2 - the apostle
Paul, who is writing this epistle to the believers in Corinth, says: "For I determined not to know
any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified". Then turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11, and again one verse - writing to the same group of people at the same church, under
somewhat different circumstances, verse 3 of chapter 11: "But I fear, lest by any means, as the
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ". It would do you well to keep, perhaps, a marker in both of those texts.
Do we ever leave a blank where Christ should be? Taken up so much with the details of the
generals, the peripheral issues and secondary issues, that we leave the central character out of our
individual existence and the life of our churches?
Hanging in a Berlin Gallery is a most unusual art piece by the artist Menzies, it is called 'The
Unfinished Painting'. The artist, as is quite clear, was portraying the King and his generals, but it
took him such a long time getting the painting under way that he actually died in the midst of
creating this piece of art. All that he has really achieved is the detail of the generals round the
King, but there's a great void, a great gap in the centre of the picture right where the King should
be - the central character. All there is is a blank!
Now I think many of us as Christians have done the same thing. From the moment of our
conversion we have intended making Jesus Christ our Lord, and to a certain extent I'm sure we
have done that, and we often intend that some day in our Christian experience we will give
Christ the throne in every area of our lives. It's the same with our churches, we've all got great
intentions that we'll give the Lord of the churches, the Head of the church the reins of the
decision-making and the aims, and goals and objectives, the direction of our fellowship - but the
great question is: do we ever leave a blank where Christ should be? Taken up so much with the
details of the generals, the peripheral issues and secondary issues, that we leave the central
character out of our individual existence and the life of our churches?
Now we often use language that we intend to 'go through with God', we intend 'giving Christ His
rightful place as Head of the church and as Lord of our lives', but somewhere along the way,
sometimes very early in our experience and in the life of individual fellowships, we become
occupied with lesser details, trivialities, in comparison to the grandeur of Christ and His
centrality in our lives. Now both of our texts have this thesis to them, the centrality of Christ,
Christ alone. It was one of the clarion cries of the Reformation along with 'sola scriptura' and
'sola fide' - that is 'Scripture alone' and 'faith alone'. There were several others, but one very
central one was 'Sola Christos', which is 'Christ alone' - rediscovering the centrality of Jesus
Christ in our lives as Christians and in the life of the church. For after all, to the church, we read
in the New Testament, He is our one and only Head; to the Christian, He is our one and only](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/jesuswaspaulsnumberonesubject-200108034441/75/Jesus-was-paul-s-number-one-subject-112-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byGLENN PEASE
Jesus was paul's number one subject
Paul's sole focus in his ministry was on preaching "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." When ministering in Corinth, Paul determined to focus exclusively on this central message rather than on philosophy, rhetoric, or other topics. He did so for several reasons - it was the message from God, it was best suited to converting sinners and bringing comfort, and it promoted holiness. The crucifixion of Jesus revealed God's attributes of righteousness and mercy and provided pardon for sin, motivating obedience. Paul made "Christ crucified" his single overriding theme in emulation of Christ and to fulfill his duty as a preacher of the gospel.
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Jesus was paul's number one subject
- 1. JESUS WAS PAUL'SNUMBER ONE SUBJECT EDITED BY GLENN PEASE “ForI determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians2:2. BIBLEHUB RESOURCES Pulpit Commentary Homiletics None But Christ Crucified 1 Corinthians 2:2 J.R. Thomson What is personal is here, as throughout these Epistles to the Corinthians, remarkably combined with what is doctrinal. These are the utterances of a noble minded and tender hearted man, writing to fellow men in whom he takes the deepest personal interest. Hence he writes of himself, and he writes of his correspondents; and to his mind both have the highest interest through their common relation to the Word of life. These Epistles are a window into the heart of the writer, and they are a mirror of the thoughts and conduct of the readers. How naturally, when thinking of present successes and discouragements, Paul reverts in memory to his first visit to Corinth! He has the comfort of a good conscience as he calls to mind the purpose and the method of that ministry. Human philosophy and eloquence may have been wanting; but he rejoices to remember that from his lips the Corinthians had received the testimony of God and the doctrine of Christ crucified. I. THE ONE GREAT THEME OF THE APOSTOLIC AND OF ALL CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 1. A Divine Person is exhibited. Christian preaching sets forth, not rabbinical learning, not Hellenic wisdom, not a code of morals, not a system of doctrine, not a ritual of ceremony, but a Person, even Jesus Christ. 2. An historical fact is related, even the crucifixion of him who is proclaimed. Everything relating to Christ's ministry was worthy of remembrance, of repetition, of meditation; but one
- 2. aspect of thatministry was regarded, and still is regarded, as of supreme interest - the Cross, as preceded by the Incarnation, and as followed by the Resurrection. In his earliest Epistle Paul had written, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross;" in one of his latest he taught that the incarnate Redeemer became obedient unto "the death of the cross." 3. Religious teaching of highest moment was based upon this fact regarding this Person. Thus sin was condemned, redemption was secured, a new motive to holiness was provided; for the cross of Christ was the power of God and the wisdom of God. II. REASONS FOR EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION IN THE MINISTRY OF RELIGION TO THIS ONE GREAT THEME. 1. A personal and experimental reason on the part of the preacher. Paul had a personal experience of the excellence and power of the doctrine of the cross. The knowledge which he prized he communicated, the blessings he had received and enjoyed he could offer to others. So must it be with every true preacher. 2. A more general reason - the adaptation of the gospel to the wants of all mankind. For Christ crucified is (1) the highest revelation of the Divine attributes of righteousness and mercy; (2) the most convincing testimony and condemnation of the world's sinfulness and guilt; (3) the Divine provision for the pardon of the transgressors; and (4) the most effectual motive to Christian obedience and service. The same doctrine is also (5) the mighty bond of Christian societies; and therefore (6) the one hope of the regeneration of humanity. APPLICATION. 1. Here is a model and an inspiration for those who teach and preach Jesus Christ. 2. Here is a representation of the one only hope of sinful men; what they may seek in vain elsewhere they will find here reconciliation with God, and the power of a new and endless life. - T. Biblical Illustrator I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul's theme J. Lyth, D. D.I. PAUL'S THEME.
- 3. 1. Christ. 2. Himcrucified. II. HIS DETERMINATION. 1. To know nothing else. 2. Spite of ridicule and reproach. III. HIS MOTIVE. This was — 1. His duty. 2. His delight. 3. His glory. (J. Lyth, D. D.) Paul's one theme J. C. Williamson.Paul was emphatically a man of one idea. He went forth not to baptize (1 Corinthians 1:17); not to preach self (2 Corinthians 4:5); not to teach philosophy (1 Corinthians 1:23); not to practise tricks of rhetoric (1 Corinthians 2:4); but everywhere in synagogues, market-places, judgment halls, prison, crowded cities, his one theme was "Christ and Him crucified." In the synagogues at Antioch and Thessalonica, what does he preach? — Acts 13:38; Acts 17:3. On Mars Hill, what? — Acts 17:31. Before Felix and Agrippa, what? Acts 24:25; Acts 26:23. In the prison at Rome, what? — Acts 28:31. And now in writing to the Corinthian Church, what? Why does Paul give such prominence to this theme? Because — I. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THEME. Philosophy would have reached only the cultured. A plea for the oppressed would have reached only the patriotic, but the Cross commands universal attention, for it touches a universal want. It means — 1. Remission of sins. Sin is the source of all ills. Christ is "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." 2. An immortality of glory. II. IT IS THE GRANDEST THEME. 1. Grand is the starry world above, but grander is the Cross. 2. It gives grandeur to the life. If it be grand to die for one's country, grander is it to die for the salvation of men. If it be grand to minister to a mind diseased, grander is it to minister to a soul diseased. The Cross made Paul's life grand, and Luther's, Whitfield's, and Wesley's. III. OF THE CENTRAL POSITION OF THE THEME IN THE GOSPEL. (J. C. Williamson.) The great subject of evangelical preaching J. Sherman.I. THE DETERMINATION OF THE APOSTLE. 1. "Jesus" signifies a Saviour. The kind errand upon which He comes is included in this name — to save from the guilt of sin, by imputing the merit of His sacrifice, and from the dominion of sin, by imparting His Spirit.
- 4. 2. Christ signifiesthe Anointed One (Psalm 45:7). As kings and priests and prophets were anointed, so He was especially anointed of God as the King, the Priest, and the Prophet of His Church. 3. A special emphasis must be laid upon the words, Him crucified. "Jesus Christ" they, know in heaven; "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," sinners are to be acquainted with upon the earth. 4. Paul determines to "know" this. To know sometimes meant —(1) Respect and love. "I beseech you to know them which labour among you in the Lord.(2) To make it known to others. And this the apostle did.(3) The word here signifies especially that he so resolved to preach among them "Christ crucified," as if he knew nothing so much as — nothing in comparison with — "Christ, and Him crucified." And read his sermons and epistles, and see how he carried out this blessed determination. II. SOME REASONS FOR THIS DETERMINATION. 1. It was a subject which God approved. He calls it "the testimony of God," because to His crucified Son God has given wonderful testimony in the Scriptures. 2. It was the subject calculated to convert sinners. And why? Because the Spirit, as the glorifier of Christ, will not apply any other subject but this. 3. It was fitted to comfort the sorrowful. We have in it everything adequate to our present and eternal necessities. 4. It was adapted to promote holiness. If I wish you to manifest His obedience in all your conduct, how is it to be obtained? "The love of Christ constraineth us." If I want to press upon your attention holy love to Christ, it proceeds from the same source. If I want to excite you to holy liberality, where can I point you but here? "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor," &c. 5. It agrees with the theme of heaven. (J. Sherman.) The man of one subject C. H. Spurgeon.Paul was a very determined man, and whatever he undertook he carried out with all his heart. "This one thing I do" was always his motto. He had once been a great opposer of Christ; it was not therefore to be wondered at that he should now bring all his faculties to bear upon the preaching of Christ crucified. I. WHAT WAS THIS SUBJECT TO WHICH PAUL DETERMINED TO SHUT HIMSELF UP while preaching to the Church at Corinth? 1. He first preached —(1) His great Master's person — Jesus Christ. (a)He held Him up as a real man, no phantom, but one who was crucified, &c. (b)He had no hesitation about His Godhead. He preached Jesus as the wisdom and power of God.(2) His work, especially His death. "Horrible!" said the Jew; "Folly!" said the Greek. But Paul did not, therefore, put these things into the background and begin with the life of Christ and the excellency of His example, and thus tempt them onward to His divinity and atonement. 2. Very impolitic this must have seemed.(1) Wise men would have remarked upon the hopefulness of the Israelites, if handled with discretion, and their advice would have been, "We do not say, renounce your sentiments, Paul, but disguise them for a little while." The apostle
- 5. yielded to nosuch policy, he would not win either Jew or Gentile by keeping back the truth, for he knew that such converts are worthless.(2) Another would say, "But if you do this you will arouse opposition. Do not provoke the contempt of all thinking men. Argue with them, and show them that you too are a philosopher. Be all things to all men. By these means you will make many friends, and by degrees bring them to accept the gospel." But the apostle puts down his foot with, "I have determined." 3. He resolved that his subject should so engross attention that he would not even speak it with excellency of speech or man's wisdom. He would hide the Cross neither with flowers of rhetoric nor with clouds of philosophy. Some preach Christ as the painter who, in depicting a sea fight, showed nothing but smoke. II. ALTHOUGH PAUL THUS CONCENTRATED HIS ENERGIES UPON ONE POINT, IT WAS QUITE SUFFICIENT FOR HIS PURPOSE. If the apostle had aimed at pleasing an intelligent audience, or had designed to set himself up as a profound teacher, he would naturally have looked out for something a little more new and dazzling. A select Church of culture would have assured him that such preaching would only attract the servants and the old women; but Paul would not have been disconcerted by such observations, for he loved the souls of the poorest and feeblest: and, besides, he knew that what had exercised power over his own educated mind was likely to have power over other intelligent people. 1. Paul desired to arouse sinners to a sense of sin, and what has ever accomplished this so perfectly as the doctrine that sin was laid upon Christ and caused His death? 2. But he wanted also to awaken the hope that forgiveness might be given consistently with justice. Need a sinner ever doubt when he has once seen Jesus crucified? 3. He longed to lead men to actual faith in Christ. Now, faith cometh by hearing, bus the hearing must be upon the subject concerning which the faith is to deal. 4. He wanted men to forsake their sins, and what should lead them to hate evil so much as seeing the sufferings of Jesus on account of it? 5. He longed to train up a Church of consecrated men, zealous for good works; and what more is necessary to promote sanctification than Christ, who hath redeemed us and so made us for ever His servants? I say that Paul had in Christ crucified a subject equal to his object; a subject that would meet the case of every man; a subject for to-day, to-morrow, and for ever. III. THE APOSTLE'S CONFINING HIMSELF TO THIS SUBJECT COULD NOT POSSIBLY DO HARM. A man of one thought only is generally described as riding a hobby: well this was Paul's hobby, but it was a sort of hobby which a man may ride without any injury to himself or his neighbour. 1. But Christ crucified is the only subject of which this can be said.(1) A class of ministers preach doctrine only, the effect of which is generally to breed narrowness, exclusiveness, and bigotry.(2) Others preach experience only.(a) Some of them take the lower scale of experience, and say that nobody can be a child of God except he groans daily, being burdened. This teaching brings up a race of men who show their humility by sitting in judgment upon all who cannot groan as deeply as themselves.(b) Another class preach experience always upon the high key. For them there are no nights; they sing through perpetual summer days. They have conquered sin, and they have ignored themselves. So they say, or we might have fancied that they had a very vivid idea of themselves and their attainments. Certainly their conventions and preachings
- 6. largely consist ofvery wonderful declarations of their own admirable condition.(3) Another class preach the precepts and little else, and the teaching becomes very legal; and after a while the true gospel which has the power to make us keep the precept gets flung into the background, and the precept is not kept after all. Do, do, do, generally ends in nothing being done.(4) Others make the second advent the end-all and be-all of their ministry, and in many cases sheer fanaticism has been the result. 2. But keeping to this doctrine cannot do hurt, because —(1) It contains all that is vital within itself. Within its limit, you have all the essentials for this life and for the life to come; you have the root out of which may grow branch, flower, and fruit of holy thought, word, and deed. This is a subject which does not arouse one part of the man and send the other part to sleep; it does not kindle his imagination and leave his judgment uninstructed, nor feed his intellect and starve his heart. As in milk there are all the ingredients necessary for sustaining life, so in Christ crucified there is everything that is wanted to nurture the soul.(2) It will never produce animosities, as those nice points do which some are so fond of dealing with. "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Christ," comes from not keeping to Jesus crucified; but was there ever yet a sect created by the preaching of Christ crucified? IV. BECAUSE OF ALL THIS WE SHOULD ALL OF US MAKE THIS THE MAIN SUBJECT OF OUR THOUGHTS, PREACHING, AND EFFORTS. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Paul's determination J. Lyth, D. D.Nothing but Christ — 1. Could satisfy the preacher. 2. Save the hearer. 3. Please God. (J. Lyth, D. D.) Method of preaching J. Clason.Paul had been trained up in all the learning that was common among the Jews, and it would seem from some casual expressions in his writings, in much also that was common among the Greeks; he might, therefore, have taken his hearers upon their own favourite grounds; he might have treated them in a way suited to the prevailing taste, he might have touched lightly upon those parts of the Christian system against which their prejudices were most powerfully directed, and thus have escaped not only the contempt of his auditors, but secured their admiration. I. This determination was plainly founded on a deep and heartfelt conviction that CHRIST JESUS, IN THAT WHICH HE HAS DONE AND SUFFERED, IS THE ONLY GROUND OF THE SINNER'S HOPE. The apostle knew that, though the case of the sinner was dreadful, it was not hopeless, and bearing in mind that the eternal safety of the soul is a matter compared with which everything else must Sink into insignificance, we cannot understand how he could form any other resolution than that which he here expresses, when he says, "I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." II. But the apostle's determination to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, rested not merely on the fact that, by the atoning death of Christ, it was rendered possible for God to extend
- 7. His pardoning mercyto rebellious man, but upon the other fact, that BY THE SAME MEANS, THE SINNER IS RENDERED A FIT SUBJECT FOR PARDON, AND ENDOWED WITH CAPACITY FOR ENJOYING THE BLESSINGS WHICH PARDON SUPPOSES IMPARTED. Man is not only guilty, but polluted; he is not only subjected to the wrath of God, here and hereafter, because he has broken His law and incurred its penalty, but he is excluded from His fellowship here, and from the enjoyment of Him hereafter, because, by the depravity of his tastes, his feelings, his desires, his affections, he is incapable of holding that fellowship, and enjoying that felicity. It is the tendency of the preaching of Christ crucified to remedy this evil, to reduce the rebellious sinner to throw aside the weapons of his rebellion, to enkindle within his bosom the flame of love, and to adorn his soul with all the virtues which adorn the Saviour, and to change him into the same image from glory to glory. And in illustration of this tendency of the preaching of Christ crucified to produce these effects, we remark, that the strongest possible assurance is thereby afforded to men of God's willingness to be reconciled to them. Nothing surely can tend more to dispel the fears and strengthen the confidence of his creatures, to soften their hearts, and to win them over to His service, than the view in which the gospel represents God as willing to be reconciled; as not only willing, but earnest that such a reconciliation should be effected, as even sending His Son to suffer and die, that this end might be effected, and delegating men as heralds to offer terms to the guiltiest and most unworthy. But, again, by the preaching of Christ crucified, there is such a demonstration of love afforded, as tends most directly to ensure a return of the same affection. Do we think of a departed parent's tenderness, her days of toil and nights of watching, that she might bring us (under the blessing of God), through the weakness and dangers of infancy, without wishing her alive, that we might afford her, during her declining years, a practical proof of our gratitude? Can the helpless orphan think of the beneficence of the philanthropist, whose hand has rescued him from want and ignominy and death, and raised him to affluence, without bedewing his grave as he stoops over it with the tears of sensibility and tender recollection? Can we think of the love of God, not only in saving us, but in giving up His Son to the death for us all, in order to save not His friends but His enemies, without having our hearts warmed with a kindred love, and constrained by an irresistible influence, to live no longer to ourselves, but to Him who hath died for us and risen again? And does not the contemplation of the character of Christ, as exhibited in His life of suffering and death and agony, tend to beget in us a conformity to His image? You behold the Son of God leaving a palace, and becoming the tenant of a prison; and who can indulge in pride that contemplates such an overpowering exhibition of humility? You behold the Lord of all worlds wandering to and fro upon this earth without a house to afford Him shelter, yet not repining; and who, having food and raiment, should not therewith be content? You behold Him rejected by the nation He was sent to save, yet lamenting its infatuation, and weeping in the foresight of its doom; and who would not pity the miserable man who does not forgive the injurious? You see the crucified Jesus laid in the grave; and who would not repose in the bed He has hallowed? You see Him rising in glory; and who would not exult in the hope of immortality? Had Christ not been crucified, this Spirit had never been sent to earth, to move, to arrange the disordered elements of our moral nature, to convert the desert into the fruitful field, and the bleak and barren wilderness into the paradise of God. What, then, we ask, should the apostle have determined to know, in comparison with the great subject upon which he dwelt? What is more suited to the hungry than bread — what more consonant to the state of the weary traveller than rest — what more cheering to the guilty than pardon; and what could the apostle, in his regard to the honour of his Master, and to the interests of his fellows of the city of Corinth, guilty and
- 8. polluted sinners, preachmore adapted to their situation, than that Jesus, by whose blood they might be forgiven, by whose Cross and Spirit they might be sanctified, and thus be prepared, both by title and qualification of nature, for a place in that heavenly family, in reference to which they were now foreigners and strangers. (J. Clason.) Christ crucified: the theme of St. Paul's preaching W. Moodie, D. D.I. WHAT IT IS TO MAKE KNOWN JESUS CHRIST. By separating the idea of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ crucified, the apostle means by the first to specify the person of Christ. To make known the person of Christ is to proclaim Him — 1. The incarnate God. Such he declares Him to be in many passages, "Who, being in the form of God," &c. "He is God over all, blessed for ever." He is the true God and eternal life." 2. The great Prophet of man. As such He was spoken of by the prophets (Isaiah 61:1). Hence they, by predicting His advent, applied to Him the epithet, the Messiah, or the Anointed. 3. Jesus Christ the example. "Leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps." Men are prone to imitation, it is one of the principles that come earliest into action, by it the child acquires the art of speech. Of this great principle Jesus Christ availed Himself in effecting His benevolent purposes on the moral condition of men; He commanded them to be perfect, as their Father in heaven is perfect; and, lest their hearts sink within them, and they should turn away from the effort in despair, He hath Himself obeyed His own commandments. In the example He has set they may confide: it is perfect in the embodying and personifying His law. II. WHAT IT IS TO MAKE KNOWN JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 1. For pardon — "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood." 2. Christ crucified for purification — for if He died a propitiation for men, to save them from their sins, His work must be either complete or completely ineffectual: ineffectual it would be to save them from the punishment of sin if they were still left under its ruling power. By that death Christ having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, sheds Him abroad on the hearts of His people, destroying the tyranny of passion, weakening the power of habit, correcting the taste, implanting new principles, regenerating the affections. 3. Christ crucified for protection — for the protection of those whom He died to save (Philippians 2:8-10; Ephesians 1:22.) He is the ruler of providence, and subordinates all its events to promote the object for which He was crucified, even the salvation of men. They are exposed to danger from temptation, the sin that remains within them would precipitate them into guilt, His grace restrains; the world would seduce, He discloses the vanity of its fascinations; in the hour of death, when trial assails every weakness of humanity, He illumines and supports. 4. For resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4, 12, 13). 5. For eternal glory — this is the consummation of it (John 17:24). Of His glory, "it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive"; but elsewhere it is said, that His followers shall be like Him, and that as they have borne the image of the earthly, so also shall they bear the image of the heavenly, and that image shall never be defaced. III. WHAT IS THE IMPORT OF THE PHRASE NOT TO MAKE KNOWN ANYTHING"?
- 9. 1. Anything atvariance with, or opposed to, these doctrines. These doctrines were novel; novelty of opinion implies opinions previously existing, which are for the most part not only distinct, but opposite; for truth is one, and opinions .respecting it are either consistent with it or are inconsistent. Novelty of opinion, therefore, implies opposition. The opposition in the present ease was extensive; the doctrines of Christianity contrasted themselves with every department, throughout the whole sphere of religious thinking, at Corinth. The sufficiency of reason to instruct and to .regulate was tacitly assumed by them; of the necessity of Divine instruction they had no general idea. Naturally allied to this was the sufficiency of human merit to command acceptance. The moral character of their gods was so low that few men, however bad, could despair of reconciling themselves to one or other deity: the thief, the murderer, the adulterer, could all find examples of their own vice in the superior beings they feared. A degradation of the standard of virtue necessarily followed, accompanied with callousness of moral disapprobation. Even in those religious rights where human inability appeared more unambiguously acknowledged in the sacrifices by which they deprecated the wrath of offended Deity, it is easy to descry the spirit striving by such means to establish a claim on the Divine equity for protection and blessing, rather than the mere mercy of God. And again, allied to this, and forming but a new aspect, was the assumption of the sufficiency of human effort to originate and carry on to perfection excellences of character. I mention further their notions of the relative value of the virtues: pride was with them elevation of spirit; brute courage, designated by way of eminence, virtue; a spirit of .revenge was esteemed honour, and the constituted favourite topic of their most lauded poets. Throughout the whole sphere there was a lamentable destitution of spirituality in their modes of thinking and feeling. Now, as these were the opinions that obtained at Corinth, and as all these are directly at variance with Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, with the Christianity which the apostle had to make known, it is obvious that in the text he referred specifically to these opinions, and that he considered them as what was not to be made known by one to whom was committed the ministration of the gospel; and condemning them thus specifically, he condemned them by their principles, and so he condemned all the consequences of such principles whenever they should in after years, under any other forms, appear. 2. Not anything exclusive of these doctrines. At first sight it appears impossible that any one, pretending to make known Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, should be able to do it in a way exclusive of the doctrines we have explained: they seem so essential to Christianity. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and Christianity, are convertible terms, they signify the same thing. But as what appears to man to be impossible is often possible with God, so what appears to man to be impossible is often possible with the great enemy of God and His Son: the arch enemy of the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, has devised the means of doing what is apparently impossible: these means vary with circumstances; but one of the most common is to originate controversy respecting the minor matters of the law and the subordinate or less essential parts of religion. By giving to these a temporary and unmerited importance, the attention of those appointed to make known Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is concentrated and engrossed, weightier matters are in proportion neglected, and the duty of promulgating Christianity is performed in a way more or less exclusive of its characteristic doctrines. S. Not anything so habitually as those doctrines. There is no virtue, no excellence, that in practice may not be carried to an extreme; and every extreme is bad. On this subject, of making known Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, men having indulged in the utmost extravagances; have, under the best and most pious feelings, conceived that in the words of the apostle they are enjoined so to make known the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel, as to exclude everything else; have tacitly
- 10. denied any importanceto the minor parts of the system, and have deemed the explication of them unworthy their attention. By thus failing to accommodate themselves to the demands of the system, and the mixed character of those who hear the gospel, they have given offence to the sensible, disgusted the almost Christian, and by limiting their range of topics, have introduced into their illustrations and enforcements a monotony of thinking, destructive, in no small degree, of ministerial usefulness. Such persons seem to act under the mistake that they have to make Jesus Christ known only to the unconverted. IV. WHAT IS EXPRESSED BY THE RESOLUTION, "I determined not to know anything," &c. 1. His conviction of the truth of these doctrines. 2. His sense of their importance. "Why am I invested," he would naturally ask himself, "by the Creator, the Ruler of men, with extraordinary and supernatural power to propagate among them these tenets, unless they are of more than worldly importance to them? 3. His determination to act worthily of his convictions. How peculiar and how sublime was the attitude in which he now stood! He saw the mightiest purposes of benevolence identified with his efforts, he saw the cause of truth dependent on his success, he heard the voice of gratitude for his own preservation summoning him to the sacred enterprise. (W. Moodie, D. D.) Preaching Christ D. Scott, D. D."Don't you know, young man," said an aged minister, in giving advice to a younger brother, "that from every town, and every village, and every hamlet in England, there is a road to London?" "Yes," was the reply. "So," continued the venerable man, "from every text in Scripture there is a road to the metropolis of Scripture — that is, Christ. And your business, when you get a text, is to say, now what is the road to Christ, and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis, Christ." In considering what is implied in preaching Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, we remark — I. That it implies THE PREACHING OF CHRIST'S DIVINITY. II. To preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, implies THE PREACHING OF THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER. "The Lord Jesus, it has been remarked, is the subject of all prophecy, the substance of all types, the end of the law, the jewel that lies in the casket of every promise, the sun in whom all the rays of heavenly truth centre, and from whom they radiate, filling the minds of all redeemed men, and of all holy angels, with their light and glory." III. Preaching Christ implies PREACHING HIM IN ALL HIS OFFICES AS PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING. IV. Preaching Christ, and Him crucified, implies THE SETTING FORTH IN ALL ITS FULNESS AND FREENESS CHRIST'S ATONING SACRIFICE, and commending Him and it for the acceptance of all hearers, Now, whilst the substitutionary work of Christ must ever be the theme of true gospel preaching, preachers should be careful to be fervent in spirit whilst commending Christ and His salvation to men. No doubt God may bless clear anal cold preaching. For illustration, when Dr. Kane was in the Arctic regions he cut a piece of ice clear as crystal, in the form of a convex lens, held it up to the sun's rays, and to the surprise of the natives
- 11. set in ablaze some dry wood which had been gathered. So an unconverted preacher may be the medium by which the truth may be brought to other hearts and kindle them with the holy flame of Divine love. Still, that is not usual, and it is well it is not. True preaching should be earnest; and, indeed, all the most eminent soul-winners may be said to have had their hearts in their mouths, so fervent were they in spirit. Thus, Richard Sheridan used to say, "I often go to hear Rowland Hill because his ideas come red-hot from the heart." Dr. Mason, when asked what he thought was the strong point of Dr. Chalmers, replied, "His blood-earnestness." And a Chinese convert once remarked in conversation with a missionary, "We want men with hot hearts to tell us of the love of Christ." Such is the manner in which Christ, and Him crucified, should be preached. (D. Scott, D. D.) St. Paul's determination H. Melvill, B.D.And was the apostle wrong in his determination? He speaks as if the doctrine of the Cross were ample enough, comprehensive enough, for all his powers. Does this at all indicate that he was of a narrow and contracted mind, which could apply itself to only one topic, whilst a hundred others, perhaps nobler and loftier, lay beyond its grasp? Nay, not so; the tone of the apostle is not that of a man who is apologising for the limited character of his preaching, or its humiliating tendency; it is rather that of one who felt that the Corinthians had nothing to complain of, seeing that he had taught them the most precious, the most diffusive, the most ennobling of truths. Here, then, is our subject of discourse — the apostle determined to know nothing save the Cross; but the Cross is the noblest study for the intellectual man, as it is the only refuge for the immortal. How different was the plan of the apostle from that pursued by many who have undertaken the propagation of Christianity. The missionary might keep back all mention of the Cross, because fearful of exciting dislike and contempt. But, all the while, he would be withholding that which gives its majesty to the system, and striving to apologise for its noblest distinction. Now, we need hardly observe to you that, so far as Christ Jesus Himself was concerned, it is not possible to compute what may be called the humiliation or shame of the Cross. It is altogether beyond our power to form any adequate conception of the degree in which the Mediator humbled Himself when born of a woman, and taking part of flesh and blood. But when the Redeemer, though He had done no sin, consented to place Himself in the position of sinners, then was it that He marvellously and mysteriously descended. "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." Here it is that the word "shame" may justly be used; for in this it was that Christ Jesus became "a curse for us." We read nothing of the shame of His becoming a man, but we do read of the shame of His dying as a malefactor. And it we allow that it was a shameful thing, that it involved a humiliation which no thought can measure, with what other emotions, you may ask, but those of sorrow and self-reproach, should we contemplate the Cross? Shall we exult in the Cross? The awful transactions of which Calvary was the scene should never be contemplated by us without a deep sense of the magnitude of the guilt which required such an expiation, and great self-abhorrence at having added to the burden which weighed down the innocent sufferer. But though of all men, perhaps, St. Paul was the least likely to underrate the causes of sorrow presented by the Cross, this great apostle, in determining to know nothing but the Cross, could adopt a tone which implied that he gloried in the Cross. And why, think you, was this? Or why, if there be so much of shame about the Cross, was the apostle wise, when addressing himself to a refined people, in determining to "know nothing but
- 12. Jesus Christ, andHim crucified? Indeed, there is no difficulty in finding answers to these questions; the only difficulty is in the selecting those which are the more pertinent and striking. 1. We may first observe that the great truth which the apostle had to impress on the Corinthians was that, in spite of their sinfulness and alienation, they were still beloved by the one true God. And how could he better do this than by displaying the Cross? The greater the humiliation to which the Son of God submitted, the greater was the amount of the Divine love towards man. We know not whether it be lawful to speak of the possibility of our having been saved through any other arrangement. We may not be able to prove, and perhaps it hardly becomes us to investigate, what may be called the necessity for Christ's death, so that, unless Jesus had consented to die, it would not have been in God's -power to open to us the kingdom of heaven. But we cannot be passing the bounds of legitimate supposition if we imagine for a moment that some less costly process had sufficed, and that justice had been satisfied, without exacting from our Surety penalties so tremendous as were actually paid. And is it not too evident to ask any proof, that in the very proportion in which you .diminish the sufferings of the Mediator, you diminish also the exhibition of His love, and leave it a thing to be questioned? It is, then, to "Christ Jesus, and Him crucified" that we make our appeal when we would furnish such evidence of Divine love as must overbear all unbelief. We do not rest our proof on .the fact that we have been redeemed, but on the fact that we have been redeemed ,through the bitter passion and the ignominious death of God's only and well beloved Son. It is here that the proof is absolutely irrefragable. Notwithstanding all which man hath done to provoke Divine wrath and make condemnation inevitable, he is regarded with unspeakable tenderness by the Almighty. Teach me this, and you teach me everything. And this I learn from Christ crucified. I learn it, indeed, in a measure from the sun, as he walks the firmament and warms the earth into fertility. I learn it from the moon, as she gathers the stars into her train and throws over creation her robe of soft light. But if I am taught by these, the teaching after all is but imperfect and partial. But when I behold Christ crucified, I cannot doubt the Divine love. I cannot doubt of this love, that it may justly be called inexhaustible, and that, if I will only allow myself to be its object, there is no amount of guiltiness which can exclude me from its embrace. 2. We proceed to observe that, although to the eye of sense there be nothing but shame about the Cross, yet a spiritual discernment perceives it to be hung with the very richest of trophies. It is necessarily to be admitted that, in one point of view, there was shame, degradation, ignominy, in Christ's dying on the Cross; but it is equally certain that in another there was honour, victory, triumph. There are impaled those principalities and powers, the originators and propagators of evil; there is fastened Death itself, that great tyrant and destroyer of human kind; there our sins are transfixed, having been condemned in the flesh, because borne in Christ's body on the tree. And am I, then, to be ashamed of the Cross? It is to be ashamed of the battle-field on which has been won the noblest of victories, of the engine by which has been vanquished the fiercest of enemies. It is to be ashamed of conquest, ashamed of triumph, ashamed of deliverance. And therefore was His death glorious, aye, unspeakably more glorious than life, array it how you will with circumstances of honour. This turns the crown of thorns into a diadem of splendour. This converts the sepulchre of Jesus into the avenue of immortality. 3. But we have hitherto scarcely carried our argument to the full extent of the apostle's assertion. Not only was he determined to know amongst the Corinthians "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," but he was determined to know nothing else. And if you consider for a moment what reason we have to believe that every blessing which we enjoy may be traced to the Cross, you will readily
- 13. acknowledge that St.Paul went no further than he was bound to go as a faithful messenger of Christ. I can say to the man of science, thine intellect was saved for thee by the Cross. I can say to the father of a family, the endearments of home were rescued by the cross. I can say to the admirer of nature, the glorious things in the mighty panorama retained their places through the erection of the Cross. I can say to the ruler of an empire, the subordination of different classes, the working of society, the energies of government, are all owing to the Cross. And when the mind passes to the consideration of spiritual benefits, where can you find one not connected with "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? But we have yet another remark to offer. St. Paul must have desired to teach that doctrine which was best adapted to the bringing the Corinthians to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world." If, therefore, he confined himself to any one doctrine, we may be sure that he considered it the most likely to be influential on the practice, on the turning sinners from the error of their ways, and making them obedient to God's law. And what doctrine is this if not that of "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? (H. Melvill, B.D.) The knowledge of Jesus Christ the best knowledge G. Whitfield, M. A.I. I AM TO EXPLAIN WHAT IS MEANT BY "NOT KNOWING ANYTHING, SAVE JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED." By Jesus Christ we are to understand the eternal Son of God. By this word "know," we are not to understand a bare historical knowledge. It implies an experimental knowledge of His crucifixion so as to feel the power of it. II. I pass on to GIVE SOME REASONS WHY EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD, WITH THE APOSTLE, DETERMINE "NOT TO KNOW ANYTHING SAVE JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED." 1. Without this our persons will not be accepted in the sight of God. Some may please themselves in knowing the world, others boast themselves in the knowledge of a multitude of languages. The meanest Christian, if he know but this, though he know nothing else, will be accepted; so the greatest master in Israel, the most letter-learned teacher, without this, will be rejected. 2. Without this knowledge, our performances, as well as persons, will not be acceptable in the sight of God. Two persons may go up to the temple and pray; but he only will return home justified, who, in the language of our Collects, sincerely offers up his prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord. Farther: As our devotions to God will not, so neither, without this knowledge of Jesus Christ, will our acts of charity to men be accepted by Him. As neither our acts of piety nor charity, so neither will our civil nor moral actions be acceptable to God, without this experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ has turned our whole lives into one continued sacrifice. III. EXHORT YOU TO PUT THE APOSTLE'S RESOLUTION IN PRACTICE, and beseech you, with him, to determine "not to know anything save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.(G. Whitfield, M. A.) The knowledge of Christ crucified Bp. Hacket.1. Let us be thankful to God for a crucified Redeemer. There is nothing in heaven and earth such an amazing wonder as this, nothing can vie with it for excellence.
- 14. 2. Let usdelight in the knowledge of Christ crucified, and be often in the thoughts and study of Him. Study Christ, not only as living, but dying.(1) This will keep up life in our repentance. We cannot look upon Christ crucified for us for our guilt, but the meditation of this must melt us into sorrow.(2) It will spirit our faith, when we shall see His blood confirming an everlasting covenant wherein God promises to be gracious.(3) This will animate us in our approaches to God. Not only a bare coming, but a boldness and confidence in coming to God was purchased by a crucified Christ (Hebrews 10:19).(4) This will be a means to further us in a progress in holiness. An affection to sin, which cost the Redeemer of the world so dear, would be inconsistent with a sound knowledge and serious study of a crucified Saviours(5) This will be the foundation of all comfort. What comfort can be wanting when we can look upon Christ crucified as our Surety, and look upon ourselves as crucified in Him; when we consider our sins as punished in Him, and ourselves accepted by virtue of His Cross. (Bp. Hacket.) The demonstration of the Spirit Bp. Stillingfleet.If the wisdom of men had been to advise about the most effectual means to promote Christianity in the world, they would presently have considered what those things are which are most likely to prevail on mankind, and, according to their several inclinations, would have made choice of one or the other of them. Some would have been for the way of external greatness and power as most apt to oversway the generality of mankind. Others would have thought this an improper way of promoting religion by the power of the sword, because that is more apt to affright than convince men, and the embracing religion supposes the satisfaction of men's minds about it, and all power doth not carry demonstration along with it; therefore such would have proposed the choosing out of men of the finest parts and best accomplishments, who, dispersing themselves into several countries, should, by their eloquence and reason, prevail on the more ingenious and capable sort of men, who by degrees would draw all the rest after them. Thus the wisdom of men would have judged; but the wisdom of God made choice of ways directly contrary to these. He would not suffer His truth to be so much beholden for its reception either to the power or the wit of men. I. WHY ST. PAUL DOTH SO UTTERLY RENOUNCE THE ENTICING WORDS OF MAN'S WISDOM? For we are not to imagine it was any natural incapacity or want of education which made him forbear them. The apostle implies an unsuitableness in these enticing ways of man's wisdom to the design of promoting the Christian religion; what that was I shall now more particularly search into. 1. As to the enticing words of persuasion. 2. As to the way and method of reasoning, or man's wisdom. 1. As to the way of eloquence then in so much vogue and esteem, called by St. Paul (ver. 1) the excellency of speech. And what harm was there in float that it could not be permitted to serve the design of the gospel? Is not the excellency of speech a gift of God as well as knowledge and memory? What are all the instructions of orators intended for but to enable men to speak clearly and fitly and with all those graces and ornaments of speech which are most apt to move and persuade the hearers? And what is there in all this disagreeable to the design of the doctrine of Christ? Are not the greatest and most weighty concernments of mankind fit to be represented in the most proper and clear expressions, and in the most moving and affectionate manner? Why, then, should St. Paul be so scrupulous about using the enticing words of man's wisdom? To clear
- 15. this matter weare to consider a twofold eloquence.(1) A gaudy, sophistical eloquence is wholly renounced by him, of which the apostle seems particularly to speak, mentioning if under the name of man's wisdom, which was in mighty esteem among the Greeks, but suspected and cried down by wiser men as that which did only beguile injudicious people. And the great orator himself confesses the chief end of their popular eloquence was so to move their auditors as to make them judge rather according to passion than to reason. This being the common design of the enticing words of man's wisdom in the apostle's age, had they not the greatest reason to renounce the methods of those whose great end was to deceive their hearers by fair speeches and plausible insinuations?(2) The apostle is not to be understood as if he utterly renounced all sober and manly eloquence; for that were to renounce the best use of speech as to the convincing and persuading mankind. And what is true eloquence but speaking to the best advantage, with the most lively expressions, the most convincing arguments, and the most moving figures? What is there now in this which is disagreeable to the most Divine truths? Is it not fit they should be represented to our minds in a way most apt to affect them? 2. As to the way and method of reasoning. So some think these words are chiefly to be understood of the subtilty of disputing because the apostle brings in demonstration as a thing above it. But this again seems very hard that the use of reasoning should be excluded from the way of propagating Christian religion.But that which St. Paul rejects as to this was — 1. The way of wrangling and perpetual disputing, by the help of some terms and rules of logic, so that they stuck out at nothing, but had something to say for or against anything. No man that understands the laws of reasoning can find fault with the methodising our conception of things by bringing them under their due ranks and heads; nor with understanding the difference of causes, the truth and falsehood of propositions, and the way of discerning true and false reasonings from each other. But men were fallen into such a humour of disputing that nothing would pass for truth among them. And therefore it was not fitting for the apostles of Christ to make use of these baffled methods of reasoning to confirm the truth of what they delivered upon the credit of Divine revelation. 2. The way of mere human reasoning as it excludes Divine revelation. The apostle proves the necessity of God revealing these things by His Spirit (vers. 10-12). II. TO INQUIRE INTO THE FORCE OF THAT DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER WHICH THE APOSTLE MENTIONS AS SUFFICIENT TO SATISFY THE MINDS OF MEN WITHOUT THE ADDITIONAL HELP OF HUMAN WISDOM; wherein are two things to be spoken of. I. What is meant by the demonstration of the Spirit and of power? 1. It must be something by way of proof of another thing, otherwise it could not bear the name of demonstration. If the apostle's words were understood of the conviction of men's consciences by the power of preaching, his argument could reach no farther than to those who were actually convinced, but others might say, We feel nothing of this powerful demonstration upon us. Since, therefore, St. Paul speaks for the conviction of others, and of such a ground whereon their faith was to stand (ver. 5), it is most reasonable to understand these words of some external evidence which they gave of the truth of what they delivered. 2. That evidence is described by a double character — it was of a Spiritual nature and very powerful. And such a demonstration was then seen among them in the miraculous gifts and works of the Holy Ghost.
- 16. 3. Why thiswas not as liable to suspicion as the way of eloquence and logic, since those had been only corrupted and abused by men, but the power of miracles had been pretended to by evil spirits.Why, then, did God reject the most reasonable ways of dealing with men in the way of eloquence and demonstration, which were more natural and accommodate to the capacities and education of the most ingenious minds, and make choice of a way which the world had been so much abused in by the imposture of evil spirits? 1. Because the method God ,chose did prove it was not the invention of men, which would have been always suspected if mere human arts had been used to promote it. Whereas if the way of promoting this religion had been ordinary with the usual methods of persuasion, men would have imputed all the efficacy of it only to the wisdom of men. For God knows very well the vanity and folly of mankind, how apt they are to magnify the effects of their own wit and reason. 2. God gave sufficient evidence that these extraordinary gifts could never be the effects of any evil spirits.(1) The publicness of the trial of it, when it first fell upon them on the day of Pentecost.(2) The usefulness of this gift to the apostles, for considering the manner of their education and the extent of their commission to preach to all nations; no gift could be supposed more necessary.(3) The manner of conferring these miraculous gifts upon others show that there was somewhat in them above all the power of imagination or the effects of evil spirits. II. The power of miracles, or of doing extraordinary things, as well as of speaking after an extraordinary manner. This seems the hardest to give an account of, why God should make choice of this way of miracles above all others to convince the world of the truth of the Christian doctrine, upon these considerations:(1) The great delusions that had been in the world so long before under the pretence of miracles.(2) The great difficulty there is in putting a difference between true and false miracles. 1. How we may know when anything doth exceed the power of mere nature as that is opposed to any spiritual beings; for some have looked on all things of this kind as impostures of men. 2. We must therefore inquire further, whether such things be the effects of magic or Divine power.For which end these two things are considerable. 1. That Christ and His apostles did declare the greatest enmity to all evil spirits, professing in their design to destroy the devil's kingdom and power in the world. 2. The devil was not wanting in fit instruments and means to support his kingdom; and God was pleased, in His infinite wisdom, to permit him to show his skill and power, by which means there was a more eminent and conspicuous trial on which side the greatest strength did lie. Thus the matter is brought to a plain contest of two opposite powers, which is greater than the other, and which shows itself to be the Divine power.To which purpose we may consider these two things. That the pretended miracles of the opposers of Christianity did differ from the miracles wrought by the apostles in several weighty circumstances. 1. In the design and tendency of them. Most of the wonderful things whereof the enemies of Christianity did boast were wrought either — (1)To raise astonishment and admiration in the beholders. (2)To gratify the curiosity of mankind. (3)To encourage idolatry. (4)To take men off from the necessity of a holy life.
- 17. 2. In thevariety, openness, usefulness, and frequency of them. The greatest magical powers were limited and confined; and the spirits which ruled in the children of disobedience were sensible of their own chains. I shall only add one circumstance more, wherein the miracles wrought to confirm the Christian religion exceed all others, and that is — 3. In the satisfaction they have given to the most inquisitive part of mankind, i.e., either to convince them of the truth of the doctrine confirmed by them, or, at least, to bring them to this acknowledgement that, if the matters of fact were true, they are a sufficient proof of a Divine power. (Bp. Stillingfleet.) The determination of Paul W. Owen.I. ITS IMPORT. 1. What are we to understand by "Christ, and Him crucified"? This theme is distinguished by — (1) Great simplicity. Other teachers engaged the mind with speculations on subjects of various degrees of interest, but this teacher had for his theme a Person and a fact. Leaving the philosophers to their "wisdom" he held up a Man, and that Man hanging on a Cross. Other instructors spoke with great respect of eminent men, whose opinions they were anxious to advance; but it was never known before that a person and his sufferings were to be the foundation and the superstructure of every discourse.(2) Vast comprehensiveness. It was not Paul's practice to indulge in an endless repetition of the name of Christ, or in a mere detail of His history, but to exhibit His life and death as the basis of a grand system of truth. He "preached Christ, and Him crucified," as the brightest and best revelation of the Divine character, and the grand announcement of mercy to man. In His incarnation and death we see the Divine love, for "God so loved the world," &c.; the Divine wisdom, for "Christ is the wisdom of God"; the Divine power, "for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation"; the Divine justice, for the Saviour lived and suffered that the righteousness of God might be revealed; the Divine truth, for Christ came to "confirm the promises made of God unto the fathers." 2. In what sense we are to understand the apostle's determination. He determined —(1) To exclude every subject that would deprive the gospel of its power. The gospel is a sharp, two- edged sword, but if we lower its ethereal temper by forging it anew on our own anvil, it will wound no conscience and slay no sin. It is a fire able to melt the hardest heart, but if we damp its flame by earthly additions, the heart of stone defies its power. It is the sincere milk of the Word; but the admixture of human fancies and dogmas will destroy its power to sustain. It is a mirror, in which the sinner is to see the correct reflection of his own image; but beclouded by the mists of error, the natural man cannot be expected to behold his face in this glass. And therefore would we humbly cherish the apostle's holy jealousy for the unadulterated gospel, and "know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.(2) To exclude everything that might tend to deprive the gospel of its glory. His anxiety on this subject is clearly expressed in vers. 1, 4, 5. He knew the effects assigned by the Greeks to human wisdom, the power ascribed to persuasive words, and how ready they would be, supposing great moral changes to follow, to give to his reasoning and eloquence the glory of bringing those changes about, and therefore was he most careful to prevent this evil. II. ITS REASONS. 1. His anxiety to be found faithful. A sacred trust had been reposed in him. How, then, could he most effectually shield himself from the woe threatened against unfaithfulness, and give up his
- 18. account with joyand not with grief? It was simply by having his mind so engrossed with the grand theme of the gospel as to shut out every other. 2. His desire to promote the highest interests of man. He was eminently a philanthropist, and it is easy to see how such a true lover of mankind would seize with avidity this remedy for universal suffering, and be ready to employ the rent means for "promoting the greatest good of the greatest number." In the great announcements of mercy connected with "Christ, and Him crucified," he had the panacea for the spiritual woes under which men were suffering. 3. His grand aim to give the greatest glory to God. When the Redeemer was within a few days of His crucifixion He said in His prayer, "Father, save Me," &c. (John 12:27, 28). From this prayer, and its supernatural answer, we learn, first, that the prevailing desire of every holy mind is the glory of God; and, secondly, that that glory was displayed in the death of Christ and its great results. The prayer of Christ is that of every child of God, "Father, glorify Thy name." It was so in a remarkable degree in Paul. And it was by the faithful exhibition of "Christ, and Him crucified," that he could most effectually secure the high end. he had thus constantly in view. All the Divine perfections are displayed in the sacrifice of Christ. And the effects of this great theme on the minds that receive it are of such a nature as to bring the highest honour to the Divine name. The case of the apostle is a striking illustration. When he became a preacher of the faith he had once attempted to destroy, men "glorified God in him." The character of the Divine artist could be seen in the work of His hands. What power, in turning the stubborn will, and causing it to move in the true way! What love, in receiving into the Divine friendship a bitter enemy! What wisdom, which when it was revealed caused the disciple of Gamaliel to count all his learned notions as dross, for the excellent knowledge to which it was now supplanted! And all who believe the gospel, become in like manner the living epistles of God, known and read by all men, and furnishing to the whole intelligent universe the best and the brightest displays of the character of God. (W. Owen.) The determination of Paul J. Lyth, D. D.Let us — I. EXPLAIN IT. He determined — 1. To preach Christ crucified, as the ground of hope, and the motive to obedience. 2. To exclude everything else. II. VINDICATE IT. This was — (1)All he was commissioned to preach. (2)All it was necessary to preach. (3)Everything else but weakens the efficacy of the truth. (J. Lyth, D. D.) The preaching of Christ crucified W. R. Taylor, A. M.I. THE APOSTLE PREACHED CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED. 1. Preaching Christ means making known the truth respecting Him, i.e., the great facts concerning His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection; the ends for which He did and suffered all this, and the benefits procured by it.
- 19. 2. Preaching Christand Him crucified is stating the fact of His ignominious death, and making known all the blessings connected with it. II. HE PREACHED NOTHING BUT CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED, i.e. — 1. He made Christ known on every occasion on which he addressed them. 2. He rejected from his preaching whatever was not intimately connected with this all-important theme. 3. He made known no doctrine, precept, promise, but in connection with Christ and Him crucified. III. HE DETERMINED TO PREACH NOTHING ELSE. It was not a hasty resolution, but his deliberate settled purpose. Let us consider what were the reasons which induced him, and which should induce every minister of Christ to adopt the same determination. 1. He saw the glory and excellency of this subject. Others might consider it foolishness, but the light of its glory had shone into his mind. When a man has his mind taken up with a subject in which he is delighted, he is quite out of his element if you lead him from it, and whatever subject he is engaged upon he will make it turn on his favourite theme. 2. The suitableness of this subject to answer the great ends of the Christian ministry. It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Paul knew that this was the only doctrine which could reach the hardened heart, bring peace to the conscience, inspire a hope of pardon, make men love God, and cultivate all the beauties of holiness. 3. His Lord's command. The question with him was, not what message will be agreeable, but what have I been commanded to deliver. He was commanded to preach the gospel, therefore necessity was laid upon him, and the Saviour has made the discharge of this duty a test of love to Him. Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep. (W. R. Taylor, A. M.) Paul's resolve J. Summerfield, A.M.I. THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE. Those who believe in the atonement interpret it as a sacrifice for sin, and consider faith in it necessary to salvation. Others understand it as a bare fact, or as martyrdom for truth. The apostle, however, gives his own explanation (1 Corinthians 1:23, 24). II. THE PROPOSITION THAT THIS IS THE ONLY DOCTRINE WHICH IS SAVING! 1. What is our condition?(1) We are corrupted!(2) Guilty — actually criminal, and this is the cause of eternal death. 2. This very condition it is which adapts the gospel to us. Try every other doctrine and see if it will do.(1) True, it reveals the glory of God, but what avails all our knowledge of God if no sacrifice? The gospel discovers His goodness in glowing characters, but while this rises on the scene it is shaded by His justice.(2) But you say, the gospel is a beautiful moral law for our guide. True; but what comfort is this to guilty man? Take the statute-book to the victim condemned to die; expatiate on the law he has violated; alas! he wants pardon, not law. 3. You say, there is the example of Jesus. Granted. We cannot study it too much; yet example is only law in action, and the former answer applies to it; if the law is unwelcome, so is its
- 20. exhibition. And whatis the fact? See the Jews. Was it not the excellence of the example which made them hate it? 4. You say, there are many promises in the gospel without that of Christ, or salvation by Christ. True; but hope cannot rest on them. The promise of a common providence, food, raiment, &c., is made; but we are guilty — and what are these if hell is to be our portion? And again, the promises are all to His people. 5. There is nothing, then, in the gospel on which to rest but the sacrificial death of Christ. Here, "what the law could not do," &c.Application: 1. The Cross is of no use to us if we do not confess our corruptions, inability, and danger. 2. We see the certainty of pardon — all is hope in the gospel, and all certainty too. Say not that you are unworthy — all your unworthiness is assumed in the gospel — it justifies in the character of ungodly. 3. We see what is meant by living a life of faith in the Son of God, all flows from Him, all your petitions are presented by Him, the blood of Christ and faith in that blood are all that stand between you and God. 4. Pray that a ministry may ever be among you to preserve this doctrine. (J. Summerfield, A.M.) The knowledge of Christ crucified J. J. S. Bird, B.A.I. THE KNOWLEDGE HERE MENTIONED. 1. Its subject.(1) Christ's person. Jesus points out divinity: the signification being Jehovah, the Saviour. It was given Him in fulfilment of the prophecy which declared that He should be called Immanuel, or God with us.(2) His offices. Christ or Messiah means "anointed," as were prophets, priests, and kings — all types of Christ.(a) He is the prophet of His Church (Deuteronomy 18:18, 19). He reveals to us the will of God, and accompanies it with the illuminating influences of the Spirit.(b) He is High Priest who, having offered sacrifice for sin, arose to make intercession.(c) He is King; He restrains, and finally destroys His enemies; He makes His people willing in the day of His power, governs them by His holy laws, and defends them. 2. His work. "Him crucified." The atonement thus made is explicitly inculcated in every part of the scriptures. In the prophets (Isaiah 53:5; Daniel 9:24, 26, &c.). By our Lord (Matthew 20:28; John 6:51); Matthew 26:28). By the apostle (Romans 5:6, 10; Colossians 1:14). It was pointed out by all the sacrifices, and in heaven the Redeemer appears as "a Lamb as it had been slain(Revelation 5:6, 9, 11, 12). 3. The kind of knowledge which we should have of this subject. There are two kinds of knowledge of Christ — speculative and practical. The former remains in the head, the latter in the heart. The former is obtained by exercise of our own faculties; the latter only by the Holy Spirit. The latter is intended in the text. This knowledge leads us to receive Jesus as our Divine Saviour; which prompts us to rely on Christ in reference to every one of His offices. Intellectual knowledge, however, is not to be neglected, because we cannot be affected by truths of which we are ignorant. II. ITS SUPREME IMPORTANCE.
- 21. 1. Absolutely itgives important benefits.(1) Acquaintance with the real character of God. The Cross of Christ impresses us with a sense of — (a)His holiness and justice. (b)His mercy and love. (c)His wisdom.(2) Peace to the wounded conscience.(3) The foundation of all Christian graces, tempers, and obedience. It is the view of Him whom our sins pierced which leads us to mourn for them. It strengthens faith — "He that spared not His own Son,... shall He not freely give us all things?" It furthers progress in holiness. We abhor that sin which heaped such suffering on the Redeemer. 2. Relatively —(1) It is more useful than any other kind of knowledge. Human learning has its important use, but the interests of eternity are preferable to those of time.(2) It is more easily acquired. It is true, indeed, that where a right disposition be wanting, you shall find things hid from the wise and prudent. It is true that persevering diligence is requisite. It is true that there are depths attending this knowledge which the utmost powers of intellect cannot fathom. (J. J. S. Bird, B.A.) Preaching Christ and Him crucified H. W. Beecher.1. The great men of the world are those who discover or apply great truths to the times in which they live, in such a manner as to work effectual reformations of society. A man is great, not by the measure of his faculty, but by the results which he produces in life. Paul was, then, one of the greatest. 2. It is more than a matter of curiosity, when a man has been raised up of God to do great things, to have him give a view of his own life, its aims and methods. Paul here sounds the keynote of his life and course. You will take notice, in all the preceding chapter and in this, that it is not Christ, but Christ crucified, Christ with His Cross, that was the essential qualifying particular. Paul did not mean, then, to be a skirmisher, nor an elegant trifler. He did not propose to be a routinist, either through ceremonies or dialectics. For it was his business to work a thorough change of character in the men that came under his influence, and so to lay the foundation for the renovation of society itself. What could be greater than this work? 3. Many things were going on for the renovation, or rather the restraint, of men's passions? But it was a work imperfectly understood, and not done. Paul declared what was the power by which it might be achieved. He did not declare that he meant to exclude everything else. The declaration is only a comprehensive renunciation of secular interests and influences as working powers. When a man goes into a community to work, he instinctively says, "How shall I reach these men? What things shall I employ for their renovation?" The apostle says, "After looking over the whole field, I made up my mind not to rely on my power to discourse eloquently, nor upon my intellectual forces. This had been done by many a man with great cogency. But Paul, looking at such men as Socrates and Plato, said, "I determined that I would rely upon the presentation of God's nature and government as manifested particularly through the Christ as a sacrifice for sinners. By these I meant to get a hold upon men's conscience, affections, and life." A warrior preparing for battle walking through his magazine passes by bows and arrows, and old-fashioned armour, and says, "They were good in their time and way, but I do not intend to rely upon them." But when he comes to the best instruments of modern warfare, he says, "Here are the things that I mean to depend upon." Therefore, when the apostle said, "I determined not to know," &c., he
- 22. avowed his faiththat in that there is more moral power upon the heart and the conscience than in any other thing, and his determination to draw influences from that source in all his work. In view of this I remark — I. THE PERSONAL INFLUENCE OF CHRIST UPON THE HEART IS THE FIRST REQUISITE FOR A CHRISTIAN PREACHER. We may preach much about Christ, but no man will preach Christ except so far as Christ is in him. There are many men that by natural gifts are qualified to stand pre-eminent above their fellows, who exert but little religious influence; and, on the other hand, there are many of small endowment whose life is like a rushing, mighty wind in the influence which it exerts. The presence of Christ in them is the secret of their power. II. A MAN'S SUCCESS IN PREACHING WILL DEPEND UPON HIS POWER OF PRESENTING CHRIST. There is a great deal of useful didactic matter that every minister must give to his congregation. There is a great deal of doctrine, fact, history, and of description that belongs to the ministerial desk. The Bible is full of material for these things, and ethics should occupy an important place. But high above all these is the fountain of influence, Christ who gave Himself a ransom for sinners, and now ever lives to make intercession for them. Though one preaches every other truth, if he leaves this one out, or abbreviates it, he will come short of the essential work of the gospel. Put this in, and you have all, as it were, in brief. III. THERE CAN BE NO SOUND AND EFFECTIVE METHOD OF PREACHING ETHICS, EVEN, WHICH DOES NOT DERIVE ITS AUTHORITY FROM THE LORD CHRIST. The motives derivable from the secular and human side of ethics are relatively feeble. Whatever method is pursued, the indispensable connection between the spiritual element and the practical development should be maintained. Morality without spirituality is a plant without root, and spirituality without morality is a root without stem and leaves. I have a right to introduce into my sermons all secular topics as far as they are connected with man's moral character and his hopes of immortality. If I discuss them in a merely secular way, I desecrate the pulpit; but if I discuss them in the spirit of Christ, and for Christ's sake, that I may draw men out of their peculiar dangers, and lead them into a course of right living, then I give dignity to the pulpit. IV. ALL REFORMATIONS OF EVIL IN SOCIETY SHOULD SPRING FROM THIS VITAL CENTRE. It is a very dangerous thing to preach Christ so that your preaching shall not be a constant rebuke to all the evil in the community. That man who so preaches Christ, doctrinally or historically, that no one trembles, is not a faithful preacher of Christ. On the other hand, it is a dangerous thing for a man to attack evil in the spirit of only hatred. The sublime wisdom of the New Testament is this: "Overcome evil with good." Was Christ not a reformer? Did He not come to save the world? And did He not hate evil? And yet with what sweetness of love did He dwell in the midst of these things, so that the publicans and the sinners took heart, became inspired with hope, and drew near to Him. Christ reformed men by inspiring the love of goodness as well as by hatred of evil, and He drew men from their sin as well as drove them from it. V. HENCE ALL PHILANTHROPIES ARE PARTIAL AND IMPERFECT THAT DO NOT GROW OUT OF THIS SAME ROOT. When philanthropy springs from this centre, and is inspired by this influence, it becomes, not a mere sentimentalism, but a vivid and veritable power in human society. Philanthropy without religion becomes meagre. It is the love of man uninspired by the love of God! VI. ALL PUBLIC QUESTIONS OF JUSTICE, OF LIBERTY, OF EQUITY, OF PURITY, OF INTELLIGENCE, SHOULD BE VITALISED BY THE POWER WHICH IS IN CHRIST
- 23. JESUS. There areother motives that may press men forward in a little way, but there is nothing that has such controlling power as the personal influence of Christ. (H. W. Beecher.) Preaching Christ and Him crucified A. D. Davidson.I. THIS IS THE GREAT DOCTRINE SUITABLE FOR MAN, VIEWED AS A BEING GUILTY IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. This state of guilt we bring into the world with us; we augment it by actual transgression, and we cannot remove it by any service or obedience of our own. In these circumstances the duty of the ambassadors of Christ is not to gain the applause of their perishing fellow-creatures, by displaying from week to week the depth of their own learning; but to offer simply this one remedy for men's guilt. II. THIS IS THE ONLY DOCTRINE SUITABLE FOR MAN, VIEWED AS A BEING WHO HAS TO BE RAISED TO HOLINESS. Describe holiness as you will; speak of its beauty and its dignity; invest it with all the charms which fancy can devise or language utter — and to the human heart alienated from Christ, your efforts will be as unavailing as if you were to exhibit the finest combination of colours to the blind, for "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." Or point to God, as the highest type of holiness — you only plunge the sinner into utter wretchedness. But the preaching of "Christ crucified" exhibits a new aspect of the Divine character, which he can look upon without fear; he now strives to keep God's holiness constantly before him; and his language is not "Depart from me," but "My soul thirsteth for God." III. THIS IS THE ONLY SUBJECT SUITABLE FOR MAKING AN IMPRESSION UPON MAN IN THE WAY OF LEADING HIM TO THE DISCHARGE OF ACTIVE DUTY. The growth of holiness in the heart is indicated by the fruits of righteousness in the life. Now, when the sinner is once convinced that God loves him, and when fear, and doubt, and suspicion have thus given place to hope, and joy, and confidence — then does he begin to ask what he can do to manifest his gratitude to his merciful Redeemer. (A. D. Davidson.) The centre of the gospel A. Saphir, D. D.1. The teaching of Paul is remarkable for comprehensiveness. In Romans he traverses the whole range of doctrines bearing on sin and salvation; in Ephesians, from another standpoint, he goes still further into thoughts of grace, love, glory; in Corinthians, Timothy, Titus, he discourses of human life, the world, congregational and individual difficulties; in Thessalonians, of prophecy and the future. Moreover, he impresses on all Christians to go on unto perfection, and not rest content with the elements of truth. Therefore, to "know Jesus Christ and Him crucified" is not to him the minimum, but the maximum of knowledge — the culmination of all doctrines, the starting-point of all duties. 2. Paul knew not Jesus in His earthly life; he saw Him only in His glory; yet the deepest impression left on the heart of Paul was the sweet name "Jesus"; the indelible image burnt into his soul was "Jesus Christ crucified." 3. Paul, more than any other, knew the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. His own weakness made him take hold of the inexhaustible power of God, as the crucifixion leads to resurrection-life and victory. As when he is weak then is he strong, so the Cross of Christ is the power of God.
- 24. (A. Saphir, D.D.) Nothing but Christ J. LythI.CHRIST THE SUBJECT. II.CHRIST THE MOTIVE — we believe, therefore speak. III.CHRIST THE END — to Him be all the glory. (J. Lyth, D.D.) The Christian ministry . Maurice.I. IS A MINISTRY OF ONE TEXT ONLY. "Save Jesus Christ." As such — 1. It is most adapted to the intellectual condition of the world. 2. It is most adequate to reveal God. "In Him dwells the fulness of the God-head bodily," &c. 3. It is most complete. Christ is the Alpha and Omega of its tidings. Everything in Him and through Him. II. AS A MINISTRY OF ONETEXT IS A MINISTRY OF THE ONE BEST TEXT. "Save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." It is the best because — 1. Jesus is its sum and substance. "Save Jesus Christ." 2. It reveals the Saviour in the most pleasing aspects of His love. "Him crucified." 3. It brings the Saviour within the reach of all. "Among you.(W. Maurice.) Are Christians narrow? C. F. Deems, D. D.1. Paul preached to the Corinthians all that had done him any good, and all he knew that would do them good: that was, the crucified Jesus Christ. 2. At the first this seems a narrow basis on which to erect a private character and a public life. But Paul deliberately adopted it. In his case it succeeded, and he believed it must succeed in every case. To a Greek, occupied with his philosophies, to a Roman, taken up with his politics, this must have seemed absurd. Even now superficial scientists and engrossed materialists regard the whole system of Christianity as a narrow theory, standing in contrast with "the liberal arts." 3. Does the history of the mental development and practical life of Paul, or any other Christian, confirm that view? Let us remind ourselves of certain things taught by the history of mind. Men have attempted to liberalise themselves by dipping into all the arts and sciences, and have thereby become most pleasant society men, and have made some figure while they lasted. But how long did they last? Compare them with the men who have each taken some great field of intellectual labour and devoted their lives to it, and how small they seem. Compare, e.g., the Admirable Crichton with Copernicus! What has Crichton done for the world? His life perished like a splendid rainbow, while that of the one-ideaed Copernicus fell on all fields like fructifying showers. Then Paul may have been right in selecting one single topic for study and preaching. And he was; for the knowledge of "Christ crucified— I. RAISED PAUL TO BE AT THE HEAD OF ALL THE PHILOSOPHERS. The study of Jesus led Paul — and will lead us — into the perception that the material is only an expression of the ideal, that there is a soul to the universe. It is in seeking to explain the existence of such a being as Jesus of Nazareth, and such a life as His, that we come to the underlying basis of the spiritual world. Matter could not do it at all. Now it is so that all questions of bodily and mental health
- 25. and disease, ofthe moral forces of the universe, of the social questions of human life, of development and progress, are concerned with Jesus more than with any other one person or subject known to men. For what was all this universe of worlds and men created? "For Him," said Paul, speaking of Jesus. We have not yet found the centre of the physical universe; but we have demonstrated that there is a centre to every system, and that, there is one last, supreme, unmovable point, around which all worlds revolve. The man who shall determine that exact spot shall wear the grandest starry crown among the princes in the Court of Astronomy. But to know Christ, in all He was and did, would be to know the whole material universe. Science has no other basis so broad, philosophy has no other element so simplifying and unifying all the works of God. "The heavens declare the glory of God," but that glory "shines in the face of Jesus." For all that work which found its consummation on the Cross of Christ all the other works of God were wrought. Believing this, Paul became the philosopher who lifted a light which is now the central splendour of all human intellectual efforts and results. II. ENLARGED PAUL INTO A BROAD, INTELLIGENT HUMANITARIAN. Recollect the age in which he lived, and the nation from whom he sprung. It was not an age of humanity; indeed our race had no right views of the value of humanity till Christ came. Now there is no view of humanity which so makes every man precious to every other man, as the doctrine that the God became flesh, and that love found its greatest expression in a sacrifice, in which every man had an interest, and which should bring good to every man. It takes in all there is of God and all there is of man. It is to the heart of man what the doctrine of universal gravitation is to his intellect. All the atoms of the whole material world rush toward one another, because they rush towards the centre. All the individual hearts of our whole humanity rush toward one another, just as all feel the attraction of the loving crucified One. Paul was lifted to his broad love for man, by refusing to know among his brethren anything except their relation to Him who had loved them and given Himself for them, the just for the unjust, to bring them to God. The more he knew of that love the more humanitarian he became, until the distinction between Jew and Gentile, &c., lost itself in the great fact that man was the object of the love of the Heavenly Father, as taught by the dying Redeemer. III. MADE PAUL A MOST PRACTICAL BUSINESS MAN. A good practical business man is one who in the beginning sets before himself distinctly an end worth the devotion of his life; who uses the methods reasonably adapted to the gaining of that end; who pushes his work by sustained efforts to its legitimate conclusion, and who promotes the general weal in gaining his own ends. Now such a man was Paul, and he learned to become such at the Cross of Christ. Full of business, never idle, never hurried, "the care of all the Churches" on him, study and trouble and work always pressing, he succeeded in organising Christian societies whose influence will go on for ever. So those men who make a business of their religion and a religion of their business, these men, by the knowledge of the crucified Jesus, become the greatest, the best, the most practical business men. This text is as good a motto for the merchants as for the preachers. IV. MADE PAUL A TENDER, HAPPY MAN, LOVING AND BELOVED IN HIS GENERATION. Paul does not seem to have been an amiable man naturally. But from being the hard, ambitious student of Gamaliel and instrument of the Sanhedrin, how tender he became! The Cross had softened him and his love begat love. Read the salutations in his letters. See what friends he made. Conclusion: Now, consider this case. Here was a man born in a province, taught in a sectarian school, reared under every political and ecclesiastical influence calculated to cramp and embitter him, driven from his own people at last, and killed by their conquerors after years
- 26. of persecution. Thisman became a profound philosopher, a wide and consistent philanthropist, a man of great practical business capabilities, and a tender, noble gentleman, through Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. No other culture ever made such results. Will you now dare tell me that Christianity is not liberal, that Christians are narrow, that the religion we preach to you is in the way of human progress or individual advancement? (C. F. Deems, D. D.) The right subject in preaching"Preach Christ Jesus the Lord," said Bishop Reynolds two hundred years ago. "Determine to know nothing among your people but Christ crucified. Let His name and grace, His spirit and love, triumph in the midst of your sermons. Let your great end be to glorify Him in the heart, to render Him amiable and precious in the eyes of His people, to lead them to Him as a sanctuary to protect them, a propitiation to reconcile them, a treasure to enrich them, a physician to heal them, an advocate to present them and their services to God, as wisdom to counsel them, as righteousness to justify, as sanctification to renew, as redemption to save. Let Christ be the diamond to shine in the bosom of all your sermons." Those who most closely follow such advice are most likely to stay the plague of modern superstition and infidelity, as well as build up the waste places of our Church and restore the foundations of many generations. One great idea John Bate.It is said that Luther was a man of one idea, and that idea — Jesus. But it does not mean, I suppose, that he had no other ideas in his mind. This would be false to fact. It means, I conceive, that Jesus was the one idea of his mind from which all others emanated; the same as the trunk of a tree is one, but gives life and growth to scores of branches, hundreds and thousands of buds and leaves; just as great tradesman has one idea, his trade, but that divides and works out into a thousand ideas of ways and means of promoting his trade. In this sense Paul, Wesley, Howard, Whitefield, Wellington, &c., were men of one idea. He who wishes to fulfil his mission in this world must be a man of one idea. (John Bate.) COMMENTARIES Pulpit Commentary Homiletics None But Christ Crucified 1 Corinthians 2:2 J.R. Thomson What is personal is here, as throughout these Epistles to the Corinthians, remarkably combined with what is doctrinal. These are the utterances of a noble minded and tender hearted man, writing to fellow men in whom he takes the deepest personal interest. Hence he writes of himself, and he writes of his correspondents; and to his mind both have the highest interest through their common relation to the Word of life. These Epistles are a window into the heart of the writer, and they are a mirror of the thoughts and conduct of the readers. How
- 27. naturally, when thinkingof present successes and discouragements, Paul reverts in memory to his first visit to Corinth! He has the comfort of a good conscience as he calls to mind the purpose and the method of that ministry. Human philosophy and eloquence may have been wanting; but he rejoices to remember that from his lips the Corinthians had received the testimony of God and the doctrine of Christ crucified. I. THE ONE GREAT THEME OF THE APOSTOLIC AND OF ALL CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 1. A Divine Person is exhibited. Christian preaching sets forth, not rabbinical learning, not Hellenic wisdom, not a code of morals, not a system of doctrine, not a ritual of ceremony, but a Person, even Jesus Christ. 2. An historical fact is related, even the crucifixion of him who is proclaimed. Everything relating to Christ's ministry was worthy of remembrance, of repetition, of meditation; but one aspect of that ministry was regarded, and still is regarded, as of supreme interest - the Cross, as preceded by the Incarnation, and as followed by the Resurrection. In his earliest Epistle Paul had written, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross;" in one of his latest he taught that the incarnate Redeemer became obedient unto "the death of the cross." 3. Religious teaching of highest moment was based upon this fact regarding this Person. Thus sin was condemned, redemption was secured, a new motive to holiness was provided; for the cross of Christ was the power of God and the wisdom of God. II. REASONS FOR EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION IN THE MINISTRY OF RELIGION TO THIS ONE GREAT THEME. 1. A personal and experimental reason on the part of the preacher. Paul had a personal experience of the excellence and power of the doctrine of the cross. The knowledge which he prized he communicated, the blessings he had received and enjoyed he could offer to others. So must it be with every true preacher. 2. A more general reason - the adaptation of the gospel to the wants of all mankind. For Christ crucified is (1) the highest revelation of the Divine attributes of righteousness and mercy; (2) the most convincing testimony and condemnation of the world's sinfulness and guilt; (3) the Divine provision for the pardon of the transgressors; and (4) the most effectual motive to Christian obedience and service. The same doctrine is also (5) the mighty bond of Christian societies; and therefore (6) the one hope of the regeneration of humanity. APPLICATION. 1. Here is a model and an inspiration for those who teach and preach Jesus Christ. 2. Here is a representation of the one only hope of sinful men; what they may seek in vain elsewhere they will find here reconciliation with God, and the power of a new and endless life. - T.
- 28. Biblical Illustrator I determinednot to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul's theme J. Lyth, D. D.I. PAUL'S THEME. 1. Christ. 2. Him crucified. II. HIS DETERMINATION. 1. To know nothing else. 2. Spite of ridicule and reproach. III. HIS MOTIVE. This was — 1. His duty. 2. His delight. 3. His glory. (J. Lyth, D. D.) Paul's one theme J. C. Williamson.Paul was emphatically a man of one idea. He went forth not to baptize (1 Corinthians 1:17); not to preach self (2 Corinthians 4:5); not to teach philosophy (1 Corinthians 1:23); not to practise tricks of rhetoric (1 Corinthians 2:4); but everywhere in synagogues, market-places, judgment halls, prison, crowded cities, his one theme was "Christ and Him crucified." In the synagogues at Antioch and Thessalonica, what does he preach? — Acts 13:38; Acts 17:3. On Mars Hill, what? — Acts 17:31. Before Felix and Agrippa, what? Acts 24:25; Acts 26:23. In the prison at Rome, what? — Acts 28:31. And now in writing to the Corinthian Church, what? Why does Paul give such prominence to this theme? Because — I. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THEME. Philosophy would have reached only the cultured. A plea for the oppressed would have reached only the patriotic, but the Cross commands universal attention, for it touches a universal want. It means — 1. Remission of sins. Sin is the source of all ills. Christ is "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." 2. An immortality of glory. II. IT IS THE GRANDEST THEME. 1. Grand is the starry world above, but grander is the Cross.
- 29. 2. It givesgrandeur to the life. If it be grand to die for one's country, grander is it to die for the salvation of men. If it be grand to minister to a mind diseased, grander is it to minister to a soul diseased. The Cross made Paul's life grand, and Luther's, Whitfield's, and Wesley's. III. OF THE CENTRAL POSITION OF THE THEME IN THE GOSPEL. (J. C. Williamson.) The great subject of evangelical preaching J. Sherman.I. THE DETERMINATION OF THE APOSTLE. 1. "Jesus" signifies a Saviour. The kind errand upon which He comes is included in this name — to save from the guilt of sin, by imputing the merit of His sacrifice, and from the dominion of sin, by imparting His Spirit. 2. Christ signifies the Anointed One (Psalm 45:7). As kings and priests and prophets were anointed, so He was especially anointed of God as the King, the Priest, and the Prophet of His Church. 3. A special emphasis must be laid upon the words, Him crucified. "Jesus Christ" they, know in heaven; "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," sinners are to be acquainted with upon the earth. 4. Paul determines to "know" this. To know sometimes meant —(1) Respect and love. "I beseech you to know them which labour among you in the Lord.(2) To make it known to others. And this the apostle did.(3) The word here signifies especially that he so resolved to preach among them "Christ crucified," as if he knew nothing so much as — nothing in comparison with — "Christ, and Him crucified." And read his sermons and epistles, and see how he carried out this blessed determination. II. SOME REASONS FOR THIS DETERMINATION. 1. It was a subject which God approved. He calls it "the testimony of God," because to His crucified Son God has given wonderful testimony in the Scriptures. 2. It was the subject calculated to convert sinners. And why? Because the Spirit, as the glorifier of Christ, will not apply any other subject but this. 3. It was fitted to comfort the sorrowful. We have in it everything adequate to our present and eternal necessities. 4. It was adapted to promote holiness. If I wish you to manifest His obedience in all your conduct, how is it to be obtained? "The love of Christ constraineth us." If I want to press upon your attention holy love to Christ, it proceeds from the same source. If I want to excite you to holy liberality, where can I point you but here? "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor," &c. 5. It agrees with the theme of heaven. (J. Sherman.) The man of one subject C. H. Spurgeon.Paul was a very determined man, and whatever he undertook he carried out with all his heart. "This one thing I do" was always his motto. He had once been a great opposer of Christ; it was not therefore to be wondered at that he should now bring all his faculties to bear upon the preaching of Christ crucified.
- 30. I. WHAT WASTHIS SUBJECT TO WHICH PAUL DETERMINED TO SHUT HIMSELF UP while preaching to the Church at Corinth? 1. He first preached —(1) His great Master's person — Jesus Christ. (a)He held Him up as a real man, no phantom, but one who was crucified, &c. (b)He had no hesitation about His Godhead. He preached Jesus as the wisdom and power of God.(2) His work, especially His death. "Horrible!" said the Jew; "Folly!" said the Greek. But Paul did not, therefore, put these things into the background and begin with the life of Christ and the excellency of His example, and thus tempt them onward to His divinity and atonement. 2. Very impolitic this must have seemed.(1) Wise men would have remarked upon the hopefulness of the Israelites, if handled with discretion, and their advice would have been, "We do not say, renounce your sentiments, Paul, but disguise them for a little while." The apostle yielded to no such policy, he would not win either Jew or Gentile by keeping back the truth, for he knew that such converts are worthless.(2) Another would say, "But if you do this you will arouse opposition. Do not provoke the contempt of all thinking men. Argue with them, and show them that you too are a philosopher. Be all things to all men. By these means you will make many friends, and by degrees bring them to accept the gospel." But the apostle puts down his foot with, "I have determined." 3. He resolved that his subject should so engross attention that he would not even speak it with excellency of speech or man's wisdom. He would hide the Cross neither with flowers of rhetoric nor with clouds of philosophy. Some preach Christ as the painter who, in depicting a sea fight, showed nothing but smoke. II. ALTHOUGH PAUL THUS CONCENTRATED HIS ENERGIES UPON ONE POINT, IT WAS QUITE SUFFICIENT FOR HIS PURPOSE. If the apostle had aimed at pleasing an intelligent audience, or had designed to set himself up as a profound teacher, he would naturally have looked out for something a little more new and dazzling. A select Church of culture would have assured him that such preaching would only attract the servants and the old women; but Paul would not have been disconcerted by such observations, for he loved the souls of the poorest and feeblest: and, besides, he knew that what had exercised power over his own educated mind was likely to have power over other intelligent people. 1. Paul desired to arouse sinners to a sense of sin, and what has ever accomplished this so perfectly as the doctrine that sin was laid upon Christ and caused His death? 2. But he wanted also to awaken the hope that forgiveness might be given consistently with justice. Need a sinner ever doubt when he has once seen Jesus crucified? 3. He longed to lead men to actual faith in Christ. Now, faith cometh by hearing, bus the hearing must be upon the subject concerning which the faith is to deal. 4. He wanted men to forsake their sins, and what should lead them to hate evil so much as seeing the sufferings of Jesus on account of it? 5. He longed to train up a Church of consecrated men, zealous for good works; and what more is necessary to promote sanctification than Christ, who hath redeemed us and so made us for ever His servants? I say that Paul had in Christ crucified a subject equal to his object; a subject that would meet the case of every man; a subject for to-day, to-morrow, and for ever.
- 31. III. THE APOSTLE'SCONFINING HIMSELF TO THIS SUBJECT COULD NOT POSSIBLY DO HARM. A man of one thought only is generally described as riding a hobby: well this was Paul's hobby, but it was a sort of hobby which a man may ride without any injury to himself or his neighbour. 1. But Christ crucified is the only subject of which this can be said.(1) A class of ministers preach doctrine only, the effect of which is generally to breed narrowness, exclusiveness, and bigotry.(2) Others preach experience only.(a) Some of them take the lower scale of experience, and say that nobody can be a child of God except he groans daily, being burdened. This teaching brings up a race of men who show their humility by sitting in judgment upon all who cannot groan as deeply as themselves.(b) Another class preach experience always upon the high key. For them there are no nights; they sing through perpetual summer days. They have conquered sin, and they have ignored themselves. So they say, or we might have fancied that they had a very vivid idea of themselves and their attainments. Certainly their conventions and preachings largely consist of very wonderful declarations of their own admirable condition.(3) Another class preach the precepts and little else, and the teaching becomes very legal; and after a while the true gospel which has the power to make us keep the precept gets flung into the background, and the precept is not kept after all. Do, do, do, generally ends in nothing being done.(4) Others make the second advent the end-all and be-all of their ministry, and in many cases sheer fanaticism has been the result. 2. But keeping to this doctrine cannot do hurt, because —(1) It contains all that is vital within itself. Within its limit, you have all the essentials for this life and for the life to come; you have the root out of which may grow branch, flower, and fruit of holy thought, word, and deed. This is a subject which does not arouse one part of the man and send the other part to sleep; it does not kindle his imagination and leave his judgment uninstructed, nor feed his intellect and starve his heart. As in milk there are all the ingredients necessary for sustaining life, so in Christ crucified there is everything that is wanted to nurture the soul.(2) It will never produce animosities, as those nice points do which some are so fond of dealing with. "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Christ," comes from not keeping to Jesus crucified; but was there ever yet a sect created by the preaching of Christ crucified? IV. BECAUSE OF ALL THIS WE SHOULD ALL OF US MAKE THIS THE MAIN SUBJECT OF OUR THOUGHTS, PREACHING, AND EFFORTS. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Paul's determination J. Lyth, D. D.Nothing but Christ — 1. Could satisfy the preacher. 2. Save the hearer. 3. Please God. (J. Lyth, D. D.) Method of preaching J. Clason.Paul had been trained up in all the learning that was common among the Jews, and it would seem from some casual expressions in his writings, in much also that was common among the Greeks; he might, therefore, have taken his hearers upon their own favourite grounds; he
- 32. might have treatedthem in a way suited to the prevailing taste, he might have touched lightly upon those parts of the Christian system against which their prejudices were most powerfully directed, and thus have escaped not only the contempt of his auditors, but secured their admiration. I. This determination was plainly founded on a deep and heartfelt conviction that CHRIST JESUS, IN THAT WHICH HE HAS DONE AND SUFFERED, IS THE ONLY GROUND OF THE SINNER'S HOPE. The apostle knew that, though the case of the sinner was dreadful, it was not hopeless, and bearing in mind that the eternal safety of the soul is a matter compared with which everything else must Sink into insignificance, we cannot understand how he could form any other resolution than that which he here expresses, when he says, "I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." II. But the apostle's determination to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, rested not merely on the fact that, by the atoning death of Christ, it was rendered possible for God to extend His pardoning mercy to rebellious man, but upon the other fact, that BY THE SAME MEANS, THE SINNER IS RENDERED A FIT SUBJECT FOR PARDON, AND ENDOWED WITH CAPACITY FOR ENJOYING THE BLESSINGS WHICH PARDON SUPPOSES IMPARTED. Man is not only guilty, but polluted; he is not only subjected to the wrath of God, here and hereafter, because he has broken His law and incurred its penalty, but he is excluded from His fellowship here, and from the enjoyment of Him hereafter, because, by the depravity of his tastes, his feelings, his desires, his affections, he is incapable of holding that fellowship, and enjoying that felicity. It is the tendency of the preaching of Christ crucified to remedy this evil, to reduce the rebellious sinner to throw aside the weapons of his rebellion, to enkindle within his bosom the flame of love, and to adorn his soul with all the virtues which adorn the Saviour, and to change him into the same image from glory to glory. And in illustration of this tendency of the preaching of Christ crucified to produce these effects, we remark, that the strongest possible assurance is thereby afforded to men of God's willingness to be reconciled to them. Nothing surely can tend more to dispel the fears and strengthen the confidence of his creatures, to soften their hearts, and to win them over to His service, than the view in which the gospel represents God as willing to be reconciled; as not only willing, but earnest that such a reconciliation should be effected, as even sending His Son to suffer and die, that this end might be effected, and delegating men as heralds to offer terms to the guiltiest and most unworthy. But, again, by the preaching of Christ crucified, there is such a demonstration of love afforded, as tends most directly to ensure a return of the same affection. Do we think of a departed parent's tenderness, her days of toil and nights of watching, that she might bring us (under the blessing of God), through the weakness and dangers of infancy, without wishing her alive, that we might afford her, during her declining years, a practical proof of our gratitude? Can the helpless orphan think of the beneficence of the philanthropist, whose hand has rescued him from want and ignominy and death, and raised him to affluence, without bedewing his grave as he stoops over it with the tears of sensibility and tender recollection? Can we think of the love of God, not only in saving us, but in giving up His Son to the death for us all, in order to save not His friends but His enemies, without having our hearts warmed with a kindred love, and constrained by an irresistible influence, to live no longer to ourselves, but to Him who hath died for us and risen again? And does not the contemplation of the character of Christ, as exhibited in His life of suffering and death and agony, tend to beget in us a conformity to His image? You behold the Son of God leaving a palace, and becoming the tenant of a prison; and who can indulge in pride that contemplates such an overpowering exhibition of humility? You behold the Lord of all
- 33. worlds wandering toand fro upon this earth without a house to afford Him shelter, yet not repining; and who, having food and raiment, should not therewith be content? You behold Him rejected by the nation He was sent to save, yet lamenting its infatuation, and weeping in the foresight of its doom; and who would not pity the miserable man who does not forgive the injurious? You see the crucified Jesus laid in the grave; and who would not repose in the bed He has hallowed? You see Him rising in glory; and who would not exult in the hope of immortality? Had Christ not been crucified, this Spirit had never been sent to earth, to move, to arrange the disordered elements of our moral nature, to convert the desert into the fruitful field, and the bleak and barren wilderness into the paradise of God. What, then, we ask, should the apostle have determined to know, in comparison with the great subject upon which he dwelt? What is more suited to the hungry than bread — what more consonant to the state of the weary traveller than rest — what more cheering to the guilty than pardon; and what could the apostle, in his regard to the honour of his Master, and to the interests of his fellows of the city of Corinth, guilty and polluted sinners, preach more adapted to their situation, than that Jesus, by whose blood they might be forgiven, by whose Cross and Spirit they might be sanctified, and thus be prepared, both by title and qualification of nature, for a place in that heavenly family, in reference to which they were now foreigners and strangers. (J. Clason.) Christ crucified: the theme of St. Paul's preaching W. Moodie, D. D.I. WHAT IT IS TO MAKE KNOWN JESUS CHRIST. By separating the idea of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ crucified, the apostle means by the first to specify the person of Christ. To make known the person of Christ is to proclaim Him — 1. The incarnate God. Such he declares Him to be in many passages, "Who, being in the form of God," &c. "He is God over all, blessed for ever." He is the true God and eternal life." 2. The great Prophet of man. As such He was spoken of by the prophets (Isaiah 61:1). Hence they, by predicting His advent, applied to Him the epithet, the Messiah, or the Anointed. 3. Jesus Christ the example. "Leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps." Men are prone to imitation, it is one of the principles that come earliest into action, by it the child acquires the art of speech. Of this great principle Jesus Christ availed Himself in effecting His benevolent purposes on the moral condition of men; He commanded them to be perfect, as their Father in heaven is perfect; and, lest their hearts sink within them, and they should turn away from the effort in despair, He hath Himself obeyed His own commandments. In the example He has set they may confide: it is perfect in the embodying and personifying His law. II. WHAT IT IS TO MAKE KNOWN JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED. 1. For pardon — "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood." 2. Christ crucified for purification — for if He died a propitiation for men, to save them from their sins, His work must be either complete or completely ineffectual: ineffectual it would be to save them from the punishment of sin if they were still left under its ruling power. By that death Christ having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, sheds Him abroad on the hearts of His people, destroying the tyranny of passion, weakening the power of habit, correcting the taste, implanting new principles, regenerating the affections. 3. Christ crucified for protection — for the protection of those whom He died to save (Philippians 2:8-10; Ephesians 1:22.) He is the ruler of providence, and subordinates all its
- 34. events to promotethe object for which He was crucified, even the salvation of men. They are exposed to danger from temptation, the sin that remains within them would precipitate them into guilt, His grace restrains; the world would seduce, He discloses the vanity of its fascinations; in the hour of death, when trial assails every weakness of humanity, He illumines and supports. 4. For resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4, 12, 13). 5. For eternal glory — this is the consummation of it (John 17:24). Of His glory, "it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive"; but elsewhere it is said, that His followers shall be like Him, and that as they have borne the image of the earthly, so also shall they bear the image of the heavenly, and that image shall never be defaced. III. WHAT IS THE IMPORT OF THE PHRASE NOT TO MAKE KNOWN ANYTHING"? 1. Anything at variance with, or opposed to, these doctrines. These doctrines were novel; novelty of opinion implies opinions previously existing, which are for the most part not only distinct, but opposite; for truth is one, and opinions .respecting it are either consistent with it or are inconsistent. Novelty of opinion, therefore, implies opposition. The opposition in the present ease was extensive; the doctrines of Christianity contrasted themselves with every department, throughout the whole sphere of religious thinking, at Corinth. The sufficiency of reason to instruct and to .regulate was tacitly assumed by them; of the necessity of Divine instruction they had no general idea. Naturally allied to this was the sufficiency of human merit to command acceptance. The moral character of their gods was so low that few men, however bad, could despair of reconciling themselves to one or other deity: the thief, the murderer, the adulterer, could all find examples of their own vice in the superior beings they feared. A degradation of the standard of virtue necessarily followed, accompanied with callousness of moral disapprobation. Even in those religious rights where human inability appeared more unambiguously acknowledged in the sacrifices by which they deprecated the wrath of offended Deity, it is easy to descry the spirit striving by such means to establish a claim on the Divine equity for protection and blessing, rather than the mere mercy of God. And again, allied to this, and forming but a new aspect, was the assumption of the sufficiency of human effort to originate and carry on to perfection excellences of character. I mention further their notions of the relative value of the virtues: pride was with them elevation of spirit; brute courage, designated by way of eminence, virtue; a spirit of .revenge was esteemed honour, and the constituted favourite topic of their most lauded poets. Throughout the whole sphere there was a lamentable destitution of spirituality in their modes of thinking and feeling. Now, as these were the opinions that obtained at Corinth, and as all these are directly at variance with Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, with the Christianity which the apostle had to make known, it is obvious that in the text he referred specifically to these opinions, and that he considered them as what was not to be made known by one to whom was committed the ministration of the gospel; and condemning them thus specifically, he condemned them by their principles, and so he condemned all the consequences of such principles whenever they should in after years, under any other forms, appear. 2. Not anything exclusive of these doctrines. At first sight it appears impossible that any one, pretending to make known Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, should be able to do it in a way exclusive of the doctrines we have explained: they seem so essential to Christianity. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and Christianity, are convertible terms, they signify the same thing. But as what appears to man to be impossible is often possible with God, so what appears to man to be impossible is often possible with the great enemy of God and His Son: the arch enemy of the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, has devised the means of doing what is apparently
- 35. impossible: these meansvary with circumstances; but one of the most common is to originate controversy respecting the minor matters of the law and the subordinate or less essential parts of religion. By giving to these a temporary and unmerited importance, the attention of those appointed to make known Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is concentrated and engrossed, weightier matters are in proportion neglected, and the duty of promulgating Christianity is performed in a way more or less exclusive of its characteristic doctrines. S. Not anything so habitually as those doctrines. There is no virtue, no excellence, that in practice may not be carried to an extreme; and every extreme is bad. On this subject, of making known Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, men having indulged in the utmost extravagances; have, under the best and most pious feelings, conceived that in the words of the apostle they are enjoined so to make known the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel, as to exclude everything else; have tacitly denied any importance to the minor parts of the system, and have deemed the explication of them unworthy their attention. By thus failing to accommodate themselves to the demands of the system, and the mixed character of those who hear the gospel, they have given offence to the sensible, disgusted the almost Christian, and by limiting their range of topics, have introduced into their illustrations and enforcements a monotony of thinking, destructive, in no small degree, of ministerial usefulness. Such persons seem to act under the mistake that they have to make Jesus Christ known only to the unconverted. IV. WHAT IS EXPRESSED BY THE RESOLUTION, "I determined not to know anything," &c. 1. His conviction of the truth of these doctrines. 2. His sense of their importance. "Why am I invested," he would naturally ask himself, "by the Creator, the Ruler of men, with extraordinary and supernatural power to propagate among them these tenets, unless they are of more than worldly importance to them? 3. His determination to act worthily of his convictions. How peculiar and how sublime was the attitude in which he now stood! He saw the mightiest purposes of benevolence identified with his efforts, he saw the cause of truth dependent on his success, he heard the voice of gratitude for his own preservation summoning him to the sacred enterprise. (W. Moodie, D. D.) Preaching Christ D. Scott, D. D."Don't you know, young man," said an aged minister, in giving advice to a younger brother, "that from every town, and every village, and every hamlet in England, there is a road to London?" "Yes," was the reply. "So," continued the venerable man, "from every text in Scripture there is a road to the metropolis of Scripture — that is, Christ. And your business, when you get a text, is to say, now what is the road to Christ, and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis, Christ." In considering what is implied in preaching Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, we remark — I. That it implies THE PREACHING OF CHRIST'S DIVINITY. II. To preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, implies THE PREACHING OF THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER. "The Lord Jesus, it has been remarked, is the subject of all prophecy, the substance of all types, the end of the law, the jewel that lies in the casket of every promise, the sun in whom all the rays of heavenly truth centre, and from whom
- 36. they radiate, fillingthe minds of all redeemed men, and of all holy angels, with their light and glory." III. Preaching Christ implies PREACHING HIM IN ALL HIS OFFICES AS PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING. IV. Preaching Christ, and Him crucified, implies THE SETTING FORTH IN ALL ITS FULNESS AND FREENESS CHRIST'S ATONING SACRIFICE, and commending Him and it for the acceptance of all hearers, Now, whilst the substitutionary work of Christ must ever be the theme of true gospel preaching, preachers should be careful to be fervent in spirit whilst commending Christ and His salvation to men. No doubt God may bless clear anal cold preaching. For illustration, when Dr. Kane was in the Arctic regions he cut a piece of ice clear as crystal, in the form of a convex lens, held it up to the sun's rays, and to the surprise of the natives set in a blaze some dry wood which had been gathered. So an unconverted preacher may be the medium by which the truth may be brought to other hearts and kindle them with the holy flame of Divine love. Still, that is not usual, and it is well it is not. True preaching should be earnest; and, indeed, all the most eminent soul-winners may be said to have had their hearts in their mouths, so fervent were they in spirit. Thus, Richard Sheridan used to say, "I often go to hear Rowland Hill because his ideas come red-hot from the heart." Dr. Mason, when asked what he thought was the strong point of Dr. Chalmers, replied, "His blood-earnestness." And a Chinese convert once remarked in conversation with a missionary, "We want men with hot hearts to tell us of the love of Christ." Such is the manner in which Christ, and Him crucified, should be preached. (D. Scott, D. D.) St. Paul's determination H. Melvill, B.D.And was the apostle wrong in his determination? He speaks as if the doctrine of the Cross were ample enough, comprehensive enough, for all his powers. Does this at all indicate that he was of a narrow and contracted mind, which could apply itself to only one topic, whilst a hundred others, perhaps nobler and loftier, lay beyond its grasp? Nay, not so; the tone of the apostle is not that of a man who is apologising for the limited character of his preaching, or its humiliating tendency; it is rather that of one who felt that the Corinthians had nothing to complain of, seeing that he had taught them the most precious, the most diffusive, the most ennobling of truths. Here, then, is our subject of discourse — the apostle determined to know nothing save the Cross; but the Cross is the noblest study for the intellectual man, as it is the only refuge for the immortal. How different was the plan of the apostle from that pursued by many who have undertaken the propagation of Christianity. The missionary might keep back all mention of the Cross, because fearful of exciting dislike and contempt. But, all the while, he would be withholding that which gives its majesty to the system, and striving to apologise for its noblest distinction. Now, we need hardly observe to you that, so far as Christ Jesus Himself was concerned, it is not possible to compute what may be called the humiliation or shame of the Cross. It is altogether beyond our power to form any adequate conception of the degree in which the Mediator humbled Himself when born of a woman, and taking part of flesh and blood. But when the Redeemer, though He had done no sin, consented to place Himself in the position of sinners, then was it that He marvellously and mysteriously descended. "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." Here it is that the word "shame" may justly be used; for in this it was that Christ Jesus became "a curse for us." We read nothing of the shame of His becoming a man, but we do read of the shame of His dying as a malefactor. And it
- 37. we allow thatit was a shameful thing, that it involved a humiliation which no thought can measure, with what other emotions, you may ask, but those of sorrow and self-reproach, should we contemplate the Cross? Shall we exult in the Cross? The awful transactions of which Calvary was the scene should never be contemplated by us without a deep sense of the magnitude of the guilt which required such an expiation, and great self-abhorrence at having added to the burden which weighed down the innocent sufferer. But though of all men, perhaps, St. Paul was the least likely to underrate the causes of sorrow presented by the Cross, this great apostle, in determining to know nothing but the Cross, could adopt a tone which implied that he gloried in the Cross. And why, think you, was this? Or why, if there be so much of shame about the Cross, was the apostle wise, when addressing himself to a refined people, in determining to "know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? Indeed, there is no difficulty in finding answers to these questions; the only difficulty is in the selecting those which are the more pertinent and striking. 1. We may first observe that the great truth which the apostle had to impress on the Corinthians was that, in spite of their sinfulness and alienation, they were still beloved by the one true God. And how could he better do this than by displaying the Cross? The greater the humiliation to which the Son of God submitted, the greater was the amount of the Divine love towards man. We know not whether it be lawful to speak of the possibility of our having been saved through any other arrangement. We may not be able to prove, and perhaps it hardly becomes us to investigate, what may be called the necessity for Christ's death, so that, unless Jesus had consented to die, it would not have been in God's -power to open to us the kingdom of heaven. But we cannot be passing the bounds of legitimate supposition if we imagine for a moment that some less costly process had sufficed, and that justice had been satisfied, without exacting from our Surety penalties so tremendous as were actually paid. And is it not too evident to ask any proof, that in the very proportion in which you .diminish the sufferings of the Mediator, you diminish also the exhibition of His love, and leave it a thing to be questioned? It is, then, to "Christ Jesus, and Him crucified" that we make our appeal when we would furnish such evidence of Divine love as must overbear all unbelief. We do not rest our proof on .the fact that we have been redeemed, but on the fact that we have been redeemed ,through the bitter passion and the ignominious death of God's only and well beloved Son. It is here that the proof is absolutely irrefragable. Notwithstanding all which man hath done to provoke Divine wrath and make condemnation inevitable, he is regarded with unspeakable tenderness by the Almighty. Teach me this, and you teach me everything. And this I learn from Christ crucified. I learn it, indeed, in a measure from the sun, as he walks the firmament and warms the earth into fertility. I learn it from the moon, as she gathers the stars into her train and throws over creation her robe of soft light. But if I am taught by these, the teaching after all is but imperfect and partial. But when I behold Christ crucified, I cannot doubt the Divine love. I cannot doubt of this love, that it may justly be called inexhaustible, and that, if I will only allow myself to be its object, there is no amount of guiltiness which can exclude me from its embrace. 2. We proceed to observe that, although to the eye of sense there be nothing but shame about the Cross, yet a spiritual discernment perceives it to be hung with the very richest of trophies. It is necessarily to be admitted that, in one point of view, there was shame, degradation, ignominy, in Christ's dying on the Cross; but it is equally certain that in another there was honour, victory, triumph. There are impaled those principalities and powers, the originators and propagators of evil; there is fastened Death itself, that great tyrant and destroyer of human kind; there our sins are transfixed, having been condemned in the flesh, because borne in Christ's body on the tree. And am I, then, to be ashamed of the Cross? It is to be ashamed of the battle-field on which has
- 38. been won thenoblest of victories, of the engine by which has been vanquished the fiercest of enemies. It is to be ashamed of conquest, ashamed of triumph, ashamed of deliverance. And therefore was His death glorious, aye, unspeakably more glorious than life, array it how you will with circumstances of honour. This turns the crown of thorns into a diadem of splendour. This converts the sepulchre of Jesus into the avenue of immortality. 3. But we have hitherto scarcely carried our argument to the full extent of the apostle's assertion. Not only was he determined to know amongst the Corinthians "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," but he was determined to know nothing else. And if you consider for a moment what reason we have to believe that every blessing which we enjoy may be traced to the Cross, you will readily acknowledge that St. Paul went no further than he was bound to go as a faithful messenger of Christ. I can say to the man of science, thine intellect was saved for thee by the Cross. I can say to the father of a family, the endearments of home were rescued by the cross. I can say to the admirer of nature, the glorious things in the mighty panorama retained their places through the erection of the Cross. I can say to the ruler of an empire, the subordination of different classes, the working of society, the energies of government, are all owing to the Cross. And when the mind passes to the consideration of spiritual benefits, where can you find one not connected with "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? But we have yet another remark to offer. St. Paul must have desired to teach that doctrine which was best adapted to the bringing the Corinthians to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world." If, therefore, he confined himself to any one doctrine, we may be sure that he considered it the most likely to be influential on the practice, on the turning sinners from the error of their ways, and making them obedient to God's law. And what doctrine is this if not that of "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? (H. Melvill, B.D.) The knowledge of Jesus Christ the best knowledge G. Whitfield, M. A.I. I AM TO EXPLAIN WHAT IS MEANT BY "NOT KNOWING ANYTHING, SAVE JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED." By Jesus Christ we are to understand the eternal Son of God. By this word "know," we are not to understand a bare historical knowledge. It implies an experimental knowledge of His crucifixion so as to feel the power of it. II. I pass on to GIVE SOME REASONS WHY EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD, WITH THE APOSTLE, DETERMINE "NOT TO KNOW ANYTHING SAVE JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED." 1. Without this our persons will not be accepted in the sight of God. Some may please themselves in knowing the world, others boast themselves in the knowledge of a multitude of languages. The meanest Christian, if he know but this, though he know nothing else, will be accepted; so the greatest master in Israel, the most letter-learned teacher, without this, will be rejected. 2. Without this knowledge, our performances, as well as persons, will not be acceptable in the sight of God. Two persons may go up to the temple and pray; but he only will return home justified, who, in the language of our Collects, sincerely offers up his prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord. Farther: As our devotions to God will not, so neither, without this knowledge of Jesus Christ, will our acts of charity to men be accepted by Him. As neither our acts of piety nor charity, so neither will our civil nor moral actions be acceptable to God, without this
- 39. experimental knowledge ofJesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ has turned our whole lives into one continued sacrifice. III. EXHORT YOU TO PUT THE APOSTLE'S RESOLUTION IN PRACTICE, and beseech you, with him, to determine "not to know anything save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.(G. Whitfield, M. A.) The knowledge of Christ crucified Bp. Hacket.1. Let us be thankful to God for a crucified Redeemer. There is nothing in heaven and earth such an amazing wonder as this, nothing can vie with it for excellence. 2. Let us delight in the knowledge of Christ crucified, and be often in the thoughts and study of Him. Study Christ, not only as living, but dying.(1) This will keep up life in our repentance. We cannot look upon Christ crucified for us for our guilt, but the meditation of this must melt us into sorrow.(2) It will spirit our faith, when we shall see His blood confirming an everlasting covenant wherein God promises to be gracious.(3) This will animate us in our approaches to God. Not only a bare coming, but a boldness and confidence in coming to God was purchased by a crucified Christ (Hebrews 10:19).(4) This will be a means to further us in a progress in holiness. An affection to sin, which cost the Redeemer of the world so dear, would be inconsistent with a sound knowledge and serious study of a crucified Saviours(5) This will be the foundation of all comfort. What comfort can be wanting when we can look upon Christ crucified as our Surety, and look upon ourselves as crucified in Him; when we consider our sins as punished in Him, and ourselves accepted by virtue of His Cross. (Bp. Hacket.) The demonstration of the Spirit Bp. Stillingfleet.If the wisdom of men had been to advise about the most effectual means to promote Christianity in the world, they would presently have considered what those things are which are most likely to prevail on mankind, and, according to their several inclinations, would have made choice of one or the other of them. Some would have been for the way of external greatness and power as most apt to oversway the generality of mankind. Others would have thought this an improper way of promoting religion by the power of the sword, because that is more apt to affright than convince men, and the embracing religion supposes the satisfaction of men's minds about it, and all power doth not carry demonstration along with it; therefore such would have proposed the choosing out of men of the finest parts and best accomplishments, who, dispersing themselves into several countries, should, by their eloquence and reason, prevail on the more ingenious and capable sort of men, who by degrees would draw all the rest after them. Thus the wisdom of men would have judged; but the wisdom of God made choice of ways directly contrary to these. He would not suffer His truth to be so much beholden for its reception either to the power or the wit of men. I. WHY ST. PAUL DOTH SO UTTERLY RENOUNCE THE ENTICING WORDS OF MAN'S WISDOM? For we are not to imagine it was any natural incapacity or want of education which made him forbear them. The apostle implies an unsuitableness in these enticing ways of man's wisdom to the design of promoting the Christian religion; what that was I shall now more particularly search into. 1. As to the enticing words of persuasion. 2. As to the way and method of reasoning, or man's wisdom.
- 40. 1. As tothe way of eloquence then in so much vogue and esteem, called by St. Paul (ver. 1) the excellency of speech. And what harm was there in float that it could not be permitted to serve the design of the gospel? Is not the excellency of speech a gift of God as well as knowledge and memory? What are all the instructions of orators intended for but to enable men to speak clearly and fitly and with all those graces and ornaments of speech which are most apt to move and persuade the hearers? And what is there in all this disagreeable to the design of the doctrine of Christ? Are not the greatest and most weighty concernments of mankind fit to be represented in the most proper and clear expressions, and in the most moving and affectionate manner? Why, then, should St. Paul be so scrupulous about using the enticing words of man's wisdom? To clear this matter we are to consider a twofold eloquence.(1) A gaudy, sophistical eloquence is wholly renounced by him, of which the apostle seems particularly to speak, mentioning if under the name of man's wisdom, which was in mighty esteem among the Greeks, but suspected and cried down by wiser men as that which did only beguile injudicious people. And the great orator himself confesses the chief end of their popular eloquence was so to move their auditors as to make them judge rather according to passion than to reason. This being the common design of the enticing words of man's wisdom in the apostle's age, had they not the greatest reason to renounce the methods of those whose great end was to deceive their hearers by fair speeches and plausible insinuations?(2) The apostle is not to be understood as if he utterly renounced all sober and manly eloquence; for that were to renounce the best use of speech as to the convincing and persuading mankind. And what is true eloquence but speaking to the best advantage, with the most lively expressions, the most convincing arguments, and the most moving figures? What is there now in this which is disagreeable to the most Divine truths? Is it not fit they should be represented to our minds in a way most apt to affect them? 2. As to the way and method of reasoning. So some think these words are chiefly to be understood of the subtilty of disputing because the apostle brings in demonstration as a thing above it. But this again seems very hard that the use of reasoning should be excluded from the way of propagating Christian religion.But that which St. Paul rejects as to this was — 1. The way of wrangling and perpetual disputing, by the help of some terms and rules of logic, so that they stuck out at nothing, but had something to say for or against anything. No man that understands the laws of reasoning can find fault with the methodising our conception of things by bringing them under their due ranks and heads; nor with understanding the difference of causes, the truth and falsehood of propositions, and the way of discerning true and false reasonings from each other. But men were fallen into such a humour of disputing that nothing would pass for truth among them. And therefore it was not fitting for the apostles of Christ to make use of these baffled methods of reasoning to confirm the truth of what they delivered upon the credit of Divine revelation. 2. The way of mere human reasoning as it excludes Divine revelation. The apostle proves the necessity of God revealing these things by His Spirit (vers. 10-12). II. TO INQUIRE INTO THE FORCE OF THAT DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER WHICH THE APOSTLE MENTIONS AS SUFFICIENT TO SATISFY THE MINDS OF MEN WITHOUT THE ADDITIONAL HELP OF HUMAN WISDOM; wherein are two things to be spoken of. I. What is meant by the demonstration of the Spirit and of power?
- 41. 1. It mustbe something by way of proof of another thing, otherwise it could not bear the name of demonstration. If the apostle's words were understood of the conviction of men's consciences by the power of preaching, his argument could reach no farther than to those who were actually convinced, but others might say, We feel nothing of this powerful demonstration upon us. Since, therefore, St. Paul speaks for the conviction of others, and of such a ground whereon their faith was to stand (ver. 5), it is most reasonable to understand these words of some external evidence which they gave of the truth of what they delivered. 2. That evidence is described by a double character — it was of a Spiritual nature and very powerful. And such a demonstration was then seen among them in the miraculous gifts and works of the Holy Ghost. 3. Why this was not as liable to suspicion as the way of eloquence and logic, since those had been only corrupted and abused by men, but the power of miracles had been pretended to by evil spirits.Why, then, did God reject the most reasonable ways of dealing with men in the way of eloquence and demonstration, which were more natural and accommodate to the capacities and education of the most ingenious minds, and make choice of a way which the world had been so much abused in by the imposture of evil spirits? 1. Because the method God ,chose did prove it was not the invention of men, which would have been always suspected if mere human arts had been used to promote it. Whereas if the way of promoting this religion had been ordinary with the usual methods of persuasion, men would have imputed all the efficacy of it only to the wisdom of men. For God knows very well the vanity and folly of mankind, how apt they are to magnify the effects of their own wit and reason. 2. God gave sufficient evidence that these extraordinary gifts could never be the effects of any evil spirits.(1) The publicness of the trial of it, when it first fell upon them on the day of Pentecost.(2) The usefulness of this gift to the apostles, for considering the manner of their education and the extent of their commission to preach to all nations; no gift could be supposed more necessary.(3) The manner of conferring these miraculous gifts upon others show that there was somewhat in them above all the power of imagination or the effects of evil spirits. II. The power of miracles, or of doing extraordinary things, as well as of speaking after an extraordinary manner. This seems the hardest to give an account of, why God should make choice of this way of miracles above all others to convince the world of the truth of the Christian doctrine, upon these considerations:(1) The great delusions that had been in the world so long before under the pretence of miracles.(2) The great difficulty there is in putting a difference between true and false miracles. 1. How we may know when anything doth exceed the power of mere nature as that is opposed to any spiritual beings; for some have looked on all things of this kind as impostures of men. 2. We must therefore inquire further, whether such things be the effects of magic or Divine power.For which end these two things are considerable. 1. That Christ and His apostles did declare the greatest enmity to all evil spirits, professing in their design to destroy the devil's kingdom and power in the world. 2. The devil was not wanting in fit instruments and means to support his kingdom; and God was pleased, in His infinite wisdom, to permit him to show his skill and power, by which means there was a more eminent and conspicuous trial on which side the greatest strength did lie. Thus the matter is brought to a plain contest of two opposite powers, which is greater than the other, and
- 42. which shows itselfto be the Divine power.To which purpose we may consider these two things. That the pretended miracles of the opposers of Christianity did differ from the miracles wrought by the apostles in several weighty circumstances. 1. In the design and tendency of them. Most of the wonderful things whereof the enemies of Christianity did boast were wrought either — (1)To raise astonishment and admiration in the beholders. (2)To gratify the curiosity of mankind. (3)To encourage idolatry. (4)To take men off from the necessity of a holy life. 2. In the variety, openness, usefulness, and frequency of them. The greatest magical powers were limited and confined; and the spirits which ruled in the children of disobedience were sensible of their own chains. I shall only add one circumstance more, wherein the miracles wrought to confirm the Christian religion exceed all others, and that is — 3. In the satisfaction they have given to the most inquisitive part of mankind, i.e., either to convince them of the truth of the doctrine confirmed by them, or, at least, to bring them to this acknowledgement that, if the matters of fact were true, they are a sufficient proof of a Divine power. (Bp. Stillingfleet.) The determination of Paul W. Owen.I. ITS IMPORT. 1. What are we to understand by "Christ, and Him crucified"? This theme is distinguished by — (1) Great simplicity. Other teachers engaged the mind with speculations on subjects of various degrees of interest, but this teacher had for his theme a Person and a fact. Leaving the philosophers to their "wisdom" he held up a Man, and that Man hanging on a Cross. Other instructors spoke with great respect of eminent men, whose opinions they were anxious to advance; but it was never known before that a person and his sufferings were to be the foundation and the superstructure of every discourse.(2) Vast comprehensiveness. It was not Paul's practice to indulge in an endless repetition of the name of Christ, or in a mere detail of His history, but to exhibit His life and death as the basis of a grand system of truth. He "preached Christ, and Him crucified," as the brightest and best revelation of the Divine character, and the grand announcement of mercy to man. In His incarnation and death we see the Divine love, for "God so loved the world," &c.; the Divine wisdom, for "Christ is the wisdom of God"; the Divine power, "for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation"; the Divine justice, for the Saviour lived and suffered that the righteousness of God might be revealed; the Divine truth, for Christ came to "confirm the promises made of God unto the fathers." 2. In what sense we are to understand the apostle's determination. He determined —(1) To exclude every subject that would deprive the gospel of its power. The gospel is a sharp, two- edged sword, but if we lower its ethereal temper by forging it anew on our own anvil, it will wound no conscience and slay no sin. It is a fire able to melt the hardest heart, but if we damp its flame by earthly additions, the heart of stone defies its power. It is the sincere milk of the Word; but the admixture of human fancies and dogmas will destroy its power to sustain. It is a mirror, in which the sinner is to see the correct reflection of his own image; but beclouded by the mists
- 43. of error, thenatural man cannot be expected to behold his face in this glass. And therefore would we humbly cherish the apostle's holy jealousy for the unadulterated gospel, and "know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.(2) To exclude everything that might tend to deprive the gospel of its glory. His anxiety on this subject is clearly expressed in vers. 1, 4, 5. He knew the effects assigned by the Greeks to human wisdom, the power ascribed to persuasive words, and how ready they would be, supposing great moral changes to follow, to give to his reasoning and eloquence the glory of bringing those changes about, and therefore was he most careful to prevent this evil. II. ITS REASONS. 1. His anxiety to be found faithful. A sacred trust had been reposed in him. How, then, could he most effectually shield himself from the woe threatened against unfaithfulness, and give up his account with joy and not with grief? It was simply by having his mind so engrossed with the grand theme of the gospel as to shut out every other. 2. His desire to promote the highest interests of man. He was eminently a philanthropist, and it is easy to see how such a true lover of mankind would seize with avidity this remedy for universal suffering, and be ready to employ the rent means for "promoting the greatest good of the greatest number." In the great announcements of mercy connected with "Christ, and Him crucified," he had the panacea for the spiritual woes under which men were suffering. 3. His grand aim to give the greatest glory to God. When the Redeemer was within a few days of His crucifixion He said in His prayer, "Father, save Me," &c. (John 12:27, 28). From this prayer, and its supernatural answer, we learn, first, that the prevailing desire of every holy mind is the glory of God; and, secondly, that that glory was displayed in the death of Christ and its great results. The prayer of Christ is that of every child of God, "Father, glorify Thy name." It was so in a remarkable degree in Paul. And it was by the faithful exhibition of "Christ, and Him crucified," that he could most effectually secure the high end. he had thus constantly in view. All the Divine perfections are displayed in the sacrifice of Christ. And the effects of this great theme on the minds that receive it are of such a nature as to bring the highest honour to the Divine name. The case of the apostle is a striking illustration. When he became a preacher of the faith he had once attempted to destroy, men "glorified God in him." The character of the Divine artist could be seen in the work of His hands. What power, in turning the stubborn will, and causing it to move in the true way! What love, in receiving into the Divine friendship a bitter enemy! What wisdom, which when it was revealed caused the disciple of Gamaliel to count all his learned notions as dross, for the excellent knowledge to which it was now supplanted! And all who believe the gospel, become in like manner the living epistles of God, known and read by all men, and furnishing to the whole intelligent universe the best and the brightest displays of the character of God. (W. Owen.) The determination of Paul J. Lyth, D. D.Let us — I. EXPLAIN IT. He determined — 1. To preach Christ crucified, as the ground of hope, and the motive to obedience. 2. To exclude everything else.
- 44. II. VINDICATE IT.This was — (1)All he was commissioned to preach. (2)All it was necessary to preach. (3)Everything else but weakens the efficacy of the truth. (J. Lyth, D. D.) The preaching of Christ crucified W. R. Taylor, A. M.I. THE APOSTLE PREACHED CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED. 1. Preaching Christ means making known the truth respecting Him, i.e., the great facts concerning His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection; the ends for which He did and suffered all this, and the benefits procured by it. 2. Preaching Christ and Him crucified is stating the fact of His ignominious death, and making known all the blessings connected with it. II. HE PREACHED NOTHING BUT CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED, i.e. — 1. He made Christ known on every occasion on which he addressed them. 2. He rejected from his preaching whatever was not intimately connected with this all-important theme. 3. He made known no doctrine, precept, promise, but in connection with Christ and Him crucified. III. HE DETERMINED TO PREACH NOTHING ELSE. It was not a hasty resolution, but his deliberate settled purpose. Let us consider what were the reasons which induced him, and which should induce every minister of Christ to adopt the same determination. 1. He saw the glory and excellency of this subject. Others might consider it foolishness, but the light of its glory had shone into his mind. When a man has his mind taken up with a subject in which he is delighted, he is quite out of his element if you lead him from it, and whatever subject he is engaged upon he will make it turn on his favourite theme. 2. The suitableness of this subject to answer the great ends of the Christian ministry. It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Paul knew that this was the only doctrine which could reach the hardened heart, bring peace to the conscience, inspire a hope of pardon, make men love God, and cultivate all the beauties of holiness. 3. His Lord's command. The question with him was, not what message will be agreeable, but what have I been commanded to deliver. He was commanded to preach the gospel, therefore necessity was laid upon him, and the Saviour has made the discharge of this duty a test of love to Him. Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep. (W. R. Taylor, A. M.) Paul's resolve J. Summerfield, A.M.I. THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE. Those who believe in the atonement interpret it as a sacrifice for sin, and consider faith in it necessary to salvation. Others understand it as a bare fact, or as martyrdom for truth. The apostle, however, gives his own explanation (1 Corinthians 1:23, 24).
- 45. II. THE PROPOSITIONTHAT THIS IS THE ONLY DOCTRINE WHICH IS SAVING! 1. What is our condition?(1) We are corrupted!(2) Guilty — actually criminal, and this is the cause of eternal death. 2. This very condition it is which adapts the gospel to us. Try every other doctrine and see if it will do.(1) True, it reveals the glory of God, but what avails all our knowledge of God if no sacrifice? The gospel discovers His goodness in glowing characters, but while this rises on the scene it is shaded by His justice.(2) But you say, the gospel is a beautiful moral law for our guide. True; but what comfort is this to guilty man? Take the statute-book to the victim condemned to die; expatiate on the law he has violated; alas! he wants pardon, not law. 3. You say, there is the example of Jesus. Granted. We cannot study it too much; yet example is only law in action, and the former answer applies to it; if the law is unwelcome, so is its exhibition. And what is the fact? See the Jews. Was it not the excellence of the example which made them hate it? 4. You say, there are many promises in the gospel without that of Christ, or salvation by Christ. True; but hope cannot rest on them. The promise of a common providence, food, raiment, &c., is made; but we are guilty — and what are these if hell is to be our portion? And again, the promises are all to His people. 5. There is nothing, then, in the gospel on which to rest but the sacrificial death of Christ. Here, "what the law could not do," &c.Application: 1. The Cross is of no use to us if we do not confess our corruptions, inability, and danger. 2. We see the certainty of pardon — all is hope in the gospel, and all certainty too. Say not that you are unworthy — all your unworthiness is assumed in the gospel — it justifies in the character of ungodly. 3. We see what is meant by living a life of faith in the Son of God, all flows from Him, all your petitions are presented by Him, the blood of Christ and faith in that blood are all that stand between you and God. 4. Pray that a ministry may ever be among you to preserve this doctrine. (J. Summerfield, A.M.) The knowledge of Christ crucified J. J. S. Bird, B.A.I. THE KNOWLEDGE HERE MENTIONED. 1. Its subject.(1) Christ's person. Jesus points out divinity: the signification being Jehovah, the Saviour. It was given Him in fulfilment of the prophecy which declared that He should be called Immanuel, or God with us.(2) His offices. Christ or Messiah means "anointed," as were prophets, priests, and kings — all types of Christ.(a) He is the prophet of His Church (Deuteronomy 18:18, 19). He reveals to us the will of God, and accompanies it with the illuminating influences of the Spirit.(b) He is High Priest who, having offered sacrifice for sin, arose to make intercession.(c) He is King; He restrains, and finally destroys His enemies; He makes His people willing in the day of His power, governs them by His holy laws, and defends them. 2. His work. "Him crucified." The atonement thus made is explicitly inculcated in every part of the scriptures. In the prophets (Isaiah 53:5; Daniel 9:24, 26, &c.). By our Lord (Matthew 20:28; John 6:51); Matthew 26:28). By the apostle (Romans 5:6, 10; Colossians 1:14). It was pointed
- 46. out by allthe sacrifices, and in heaven the Redeemer appears as "a Lamb as it had been slain(Revelation 5:6, 9, 11, 12). 3. The kind of knowledge which we should have of this subject. There are two kinds of knowledge of Christ — speculative and practical. The former remains in the head, the latter in the heart. The former is obtained by exercise of our own faculties; the latter only by the Holy Spirit. The latter is intended in the text. This knowledge leads us to receive Jesus as our Divine Saviour; which prompts us to rely on Christ in reference to every one of His offices. Intellectual knowledge, however, is not to be neglected, because we cannot be affected by truths of which we are ignorant. II. ITS SUPREME IMPORTANCE. 1. Absolutely it gives important benefits.(1) Acquaintance with the real character of God. The Cross of Christ impresses us with a sense of — (a)His holiness and justice. (b)His mercy and love. (c)His wisdom.(2) Peace to the wounded conscience.(3) The foundation of all Christian graces, tempers, and obedience. It is the view of Him whom our sins pierced which leads us to mourn for them. It strengthens faith — "He that spared not His own Son,... shall He not freely give us all things?" It furthers progress in holiness. We abhor that sin which heaped such suffering on the Redeemer. 2. Relatively —(1) It is more useful than any other kind of knowledge. Human learning has its important use, but the interests of eternity are preferable to those of time.(2) It is more easily acquired. It is true, indeed, that where a right disposition be wanting, you shall find things hid from the wise and prudent. It is true that persevering diligence is requisite. It is true that there are depths attending this knowledge which the utmost powers of intellect cannot fathom. (J. J. S. Bird, B.A.) Preaching Christ and Him crucified H. W. Beecher.1. The great men of the world are those who discover or apply great truths to the times in which they live, in such a manner as to work effectual reformations of society. A man is great, not by the measure of his faculty, but by the results which he produces in life. Paul was, then, one of the greatest. 2. It is more than a matter of curiosity, when a man has been raised up of God to do great things, to have him give a view of his own life, its aims and methods. Paul here sounds the keynote of his life and course. You will take notice, in all the preceding chapter and in this, that it is not Christ, but Christ crucified, Christ with His Cross, that was the essential qualifying particular. Paul did not mean, then, to be a skirmisher, nor an elegant trifler. He did not propose to be a routinist, either through ceremonies or dialectics. For it was his business to work a thorough change of character in the men that came under his influence, and so to lay the foundation for the renovation of society itself. What could be greater than this work? 3. Many things were going on for the renovation, or rather the restraint, of men's passions? But it was a work imperfectly understood, and not done. Paul declared what was the power by which it might be achieved. He did not declare that he meant to exclude everything else. The declaration is only a comprehensive renunciation of secular interests and influences as working powers.
- 47. When a mangoes into a community to work, he instinctively says, "How shall I reach these men? What things shall I employ for their renovation?" The apostle says, "After looking over the whole field, I made up my mind not to rely on my power to discourse eloquently, nor upon my intellectual forces. This had been done by many a man with great cogency. But Paul, looking at such men as Socrates and Plato, said, "I determined that I would rely upon the presentation of God's nature and government as manifested particularly through the Christ as a sacrifice for sinners. By these I meant to get a hold upon men's conscience, affections, and life." A warrior preparing for battle walking through his magazine passes by bows and arrows, and old-fashioned armour, and says, "They were good in their time and way, but I do not intend to rely upon them." But when he comes to the best instruments of modern warfare, he says, "Here are the things that I mean to depend upon." Therefore, when the apostle said, "I determined not to know," &c., he avowed his faith that in that there is more moral power upon the heart and the conscience than in any other thing, and his determination to draw influences from that source in all his work. In view of this I remark — I. THE PERSONAL INFLUENCE OF CHRIST UPON THE HEART IS THE FIRST REQUISITE FOR A CHRISTIAN PREACHER. We may preach much about Christ, but no man will preach Christ except so far as Christ is in him. There are many men that by natural gifts are qualified to stand pre-eminent above their fellows, who exert but little religious influence; and, on the other hand, there are many of small endowment whose life is like a rushing, mighty wind in the influence which it exerts. The presence of Christ in them is the secret of their power. II. A MAN'S SUCCESS IN PREACHING WILL DEPEND UPON HIS POWER OF PRESENTING CHRIST. There is a great deal of useful didactic matter that every minister must give to his congregation. There is a great deal of doctrine, fact, history, and of description that belongs to the ministerial desk. The Bible is full of material for these things, and ethics should occupy an important place. But high above all these is the fountain of influence, Christ who gave Himself a ransom for sinners, and now ever lives to make intercession for them. Though one preaches every other truth, if he leaves this one out, or abbreviates it, he will come short of the essential work of the gospel. Put this in, and you have all, as it were, in brief. III. THERE CAN BE NO SOUND AND EFFECTIVE METHOD OF PREACHING ETHICS, EVEN, WHICH DOES NOT DERIVE ITS AUTHORITY FROM THE LORD CHRIST. The motives derivable from the secular and human side of ethics are relatively feeble. Whatever method is pursued, the indispensable connection between the spiritual element and the practical development should be maintained. Morality without spirituality is a plant without root, and spirituality without morality is a root without stem and leaves. I have a right to introduce into my sermons all secular topics as far as they are connected with man's moral character and his hopes of immortality. If I discuss them in a merely secular way, I desecrate the pulpit; but if I discuss them in the spirit of Christ, and for Christ's sake, that I may draw men out of their peculiar dangers, and lead them into a course of right living, then I give dignity to the pulpit. IV. ALL REFORMATIONS OF EVIL IN SOCIETY SHOULD SPRING FROM THIS VITAL CENTRE. It is a very dangerous thing to preach Christ so that your preaching shall not be a constant rebuke to all the evil in the community. That man who so preaches Christ, doctrinally or historically, that no one trembles, is not a faithful preacher of Christ. On the other hand, it is a dangerous thing for a man to attack evil in the spirit of only hatred. The sublime wisdom of the New Testament is this: "Overcome evil with good." Was Christ not a reformer? Did He not come to save the world? And did He not hate evil? And yet with what sweetness of love did He dwell
- 48. in the midstof these things, so that the publicans and the sinners took heart, became inspired with hope, and drew near to Him. Christ reformed men by inspiring the love of goodness as well as by hatred of evil, and He drew men from their sin as well as drove them from it. V. HENCE ALL PHILANTHROPIES ARE PARTIAL AND IMPERFECT THAT DO NOT GROW OUT OF THIS SAME ROOT. When philanthropy springs from this centre, and is inspired by this influence, it becomes, not a mere sentimentalism, but a vivid and veritable power in human society. Philanthropy without religion becomes meagre. It is the love of man uninspired by the love of God! VI. ALL PUBLIC QUESTIONS OF JUSTICE, OF LIBERTY, OF EQUITY, OF PURITY, OF INTELLIGENCE, SHOULD BE VITALISED BY THE POWER WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. There are other motives that may press men forward in a little way, but there is nothing that has such controlling power as the personal influence of Christ. (H. W. Beecher.) Preaching Christ and Him crucified A. D. Davidson.I. THIS IS THE GREAT DOCTRINE SUITABLE FOR MAN, VIEWED AS A BEING GUILTY IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. This state of guilt we bring into the world with us; we augment it by actual transgression, and we cannot remove it by any service or obedience of our own. In these circumstances the duty of the ambassadors of Christ is not to gain the applause of their perishing fellow-creatures, by displaying from week to week the depth of their own learning; but to offer simply this one remedy for men's guilt. II. THIS IS THE ONLY DOCTRINE SUITABLE FOR MAN, VIEWED AS A BEING WHO HAS TO BE RAISED TO HOLINESS. Describe holiness as you will; speak of its beauty and its dignity; invest it with all the charms which fancy can devise or language utter — and to the human heart alienated from Christ, your efforts will be as unavailing as if you were to exhibit the finest combination of colours to the blind, for "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." Or point to God, as the highest type of holiness — you only plunge the sinner into utter wretchedness. But the preaching of "Christ crucified" exhibits a new aspect of the Divine character, which he can look upon without fear; he now strives to keep God's holiness constantly before him; and his language is not "Depart from me," but "My soul thirsteth for God." III. THIS IS THE ONLY SUBJECT SUITABLE FOR MAKING AN IMPRESSION UPON MAN IN THE WAY OF LEADING HIM TO THE DISCHARGE OF ACTIVE DUTY. The growth of holiness in the heart is indicated by the fruits of righteousness in the life. Now, when the sinner is once convinced that God loves him, and when fear, and doubt, and suspicion have thus given place to hope, and joy, and confidence — then does he begin to ask what he can do to manifest his gratitude to his merciful Redeemer. (A. D. Davidson.) The centre of the gospel A. Saphir, D. D.1. The teaching of Paul is remarkable for comprehensiveness. In Romans he traverses the whole range of doctrines bearing on sin and salvation; in Ephesians, from another standpoint, he goes still further into thoughts of grace, love, glory; in Corinthians, Timothy, Titus, he discourses of human life, the world, congregational and individual difficulties; in Thessalonians, of prophecy and the future. Moreover, he impresses on all Christians to go on
- 49. unto perfection, andnot rest content with the elements of truth. Therefore, to "know Jesus Christ and Him crucified" is not to him the minimum, but the maximum of knowledge — the culmination of all doctrines, the starting-point of all duties. 2. Paul knew not Jesus in His earthly life; he saw Him only in His glory; yet the deepest impression left on the heart of Paul was the sweet name "Jesus"; the indelible image burnt into his soul was "Jesus Christ crucified." 3. Paul, more than any other, knew the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. His own weakness made him take hold of the inexhaustible power of God, as the crucifixion leads to resurrection-life and victory. As when he is weak then is he strong, so the Cross of Christ is the power of God. (A. Saphir, D. D.) Nothing but Christ J. LythI.CHRIST THE SUBJECT. II.CHRIST THE MOTIVE — we believe, therefore speak. III.CHRIST THE END — to Him be all the glory. (J. Lyth, D.D.) The Christian ministry . Maurice.I. IS A MINISTRY OF ONE TEXT ONLY. "Save Jesus Christ." As such — 1. It is most adapted to the intellectual condition of the world. 2. It is most adequate to reveal God. "In Him dwells the fulness of the God-head bodily," &c. 3. It is most complete. Christ is the Alpha and Omega of its tidings. Everything in Him and through Him. II. AS A MINISTRY OF ONETEXT IS A MINISTRY OF THE ONE BEST TEXT. "Save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." It is the best because — 1. Jesus is its sum and substance. "Save Jesus Christ." 2. It reveals the Saviour in the most pleasing aspects of His love. "Him crucified." 3. It brings the Saviour within the reach of all. "Among you.(W. Maurice.) Are Christians narrow? C. F. Deems, D. D.1. Paul preached to the Corinthians all that had done him any good, and all he knew that would do them good: that was, the crucified Jesus Christ. 2. At the first this seems a narrow basis on which to erect a private character and a public life. But Paul deliberately adopted it. In his case it succeeded, and he believed it must succeed in every case. To a Greek, occupied with his philosophies, to a Roman, taken up with his politics, this must have seemed absurd. Even now superficial scientists and engrossed materialists regard the whole system of Christianity as a narrow theory, standing in contrast with "the liberal arts." 3. Does the history of the mental development and practical life of Paul, or any other Christian, confirm that view? Let us remind ourselves of certain things taught by the history of mind. Men have attempted to liberalise themselves by dipping into all the arts and sciences, and have thereby become most pleasant society men, and have made some figure while they lasted. But how long did they last? Compare them with the men who have each taken some great field of
- 50. intellectual labour anddevoted their lives to it, and how small they seem. Compare, e.g., the Admirable Crichton with Copernicus! What has Crichton done for the world? His life perished like a splendid rainbow, while that of the one-ideaed Copernicus fell on all fields like fructifying showers. Then Paul may have been right in selecting one single topic for study and preaching. And he was; for the knowledge of "Christ crucified— I. RAISED PAUL TO BE AT THE HEAD OF ALL THE PHILOSOPHERS. The study of Jesus led Paul — and will lead us — into the perception that the material is only an expression of the ideal, that there is a soul to the universe. It is in seeking to explain the existence of such a being as Jesus of Nazareth, and such a life as His, that we come to the underlying basis of the spiritual world. Matter could not do it at all. Now it is so that all questions of bodily and mental health and disease, of the moral forces of the universe, of the social questions of human life, of development and progress, are concerned with Jesus more than with any other one person or subject known to men. For what was all this universe of worlds and men created? "For Him," said Paul, speaking of Jesus. We have not yet found the centre of the physical universe; but we have demonstrated that there is a centre to every system, and that, there is one last, supreme, unmovable point, around which all worlds revolve. The man who shall determine that exact spot shall wear the grandest starry crown among the princes in the Court of Astronomy. But to know Christ, in all He was and did, would be to know the whole material universe. Science has no other basis so broad, philosophy has no other element so simplifying and unifying all the works of God. "The heavens declare the glory of God," but that glory "shines in the face of Jesus." For all that work which found its consummation on the Cross of Christ all the other works of God were wrought. Believing this, Paul became the philosopher who lifted a light which is now the central splendour of all human intellectual efforts and results. II. ENLARGED PAUL INTO A BROAD, INTELLIGENT HUMANITARIAN. Recollect the age in which he lived, and the nation from whom he sprung. It was not an age of humanity; indeed our race had no right views of the value of humanity till Christ came. Now there is no view of humanity which so makes every man precious to every other man, as the doctrine that the God became flesh, and that love found its greatest expression in a sacrifice, in which every man had an interest, and which should bring good to every man. It takes in all there is of God and all there is of man. It is to the heart of man what the doctrine of universal gravitation is to his intellect. All the atoms of the whole material world rush toward one another, because they rush towards the centre. All the individual hearts of our whole humanity rush toward one another, just as all feel the attraction of the loving crucified One. Paul was lifted to his broad love for man, by refusing to know among his brethren anything except their relation to Him who had loved them and given Himself for them, the just for the unjust, to bring them to God. The more he knew of that love the more humanitarian he became, until the distinction between Jew and Gentile, &c., lost itself in the great fact that man was the object of the love of the Heavenly Father, as taught by the dying Redeemer. III. MADE PAUL A MOST PRACTICAL BUSINESS MAN. A good practical business man is one who in the beginning sets before himself distinctly an end worth the devotion of his life; who uses the methods reasonably adapted to the gaining of that end; who pushes his work by sustained efforts to its legitimate conclusion, and who promotes the general weal in gaining his own ends. Now such a man was Paul, and he learned to become such at the Cross of Christ. Full of business, never idle, never hurried, "the care of all the Churches" on him, study and trouble and work always pressing, he succeeded in organising Christian societies whose influence will
- 51. go on forever. So those men who make a business of their religion and a religion of their business, these men, by the knowledge of the crucified Jesus, become the greatest, the best, the most practical business men. This text is as good a motto for the merchants as for the preachers. IV. MADE PAUL A TENDER, HAPPY MAN, LOVING AND BELOVED IN HIS GENERATION. Paul does not seem to have been an amiable man naturally. But from being the hard, ambitious student of Gamaliel and instrument of the Sanhedrin, how tender he became! The Cross had softened him and his love begat love. Read the salutations in his letters. See what friends he made. Conclusion: Now, consider this case. Here was a man born in a province, taught in a sectarian school, reared under every political and ecclesiastical influence calculated to cramp and embitter him, driven from his own people at last, and killed by their conquerors after years of persecution. This man became a profound philosopher, a wide and consistent philanthropist, a man of great practical business capabilities, and a tender, noble gentleman, through Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. No other culture ever made such results. Will you now dare tell me that Christianity is not liberal, that Christians are narrow, that the religion we preach to you is in the way of human progress or individual advancement? (C. F. Deems, D. D.) The right subject in preaching"Preach Christ Jesus the Lord," said Bishop Reynolds two hundred years ago. "Determine to know nothing among your people but Christ crucified. Let His name and grace, His spirit and love, triumph in the midst of your sermons. Let your great end be to glorify Him in the heart, to render Him amiable and precious in the eyes of His people, to lead them to Him as a sanctuary to protect them, a propitiation to reconcile them, a treasure to enrich them, a physician to heal them, an advocate to present them and their services to God, as wisdom to counsel them, as righteousness to justify, as sanctification to renew, as redemption to save. Let Christ be the diamond to shine in the bosom of all your sermons." Those who most closely follow such advice are most likely to stay the plague of modern superstition and infidelity, as well as build up the waste places of our Church and restore the foundations of many generations. One great idea John Bate.It is said that Luther was a man of one idea, and that idea — Jesus. But it does not mean, I suppose, that he had no other ideas in his mind. This would be false to fact. It means, I conceive, that Jesus was the one idea of his mind from which all others emanated; the same as the trunk of a tree is one, but gives life and growth to scores of branches, hundreds and thousands of buds and leaves; just as great tradesman has one idea, his trade, but that divides and works out into a thousand ideas of ways and means of promoting his trade. In this sense Paul, Wesley, Howard, Whitefield, Wellington, &c., were men of one idea. He who wishes to fulfil his mission in this world must be a man of one idea. (John Bate.) PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
- 52. THE MAN OFONE SUBJECT NO. 1264 A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAYMORNING, OCTOBER31, 1875, BYC. H. SPURGEON,AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. “ForI determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2. PAUL was a very determined man and whateverhe undertook he carried out with all his heart. Once let him say, “I determined,” and you might be sure of a vigorous course of action. “This one thing I do” was always his motto. The unity of his soul and its mighty resolutenesswere the main features of his character. He had once been a greatopposerof Christ and His cross and had shown his opposition by furious persecutions. It was not so very much to be wondered at that when he became a disciple of this same Jesus, whomhe had persecuted, he should become a very ardent one and bring all his faculties to bear upon the preaching of Christ crucified. His conversionwas so marked, so complete, so thorough, that you expectto see him as energetic for the truth as once he had been violent againstit. A man so whole-heartedas Paul, so thoroughly capable of concentrating all his forces as the apostle was—andso entirely won over to the faith of Jesus—waslikelyto enter into his cause with all his heart and soul. And thus he was determined to know nothing else but his crucified Lord. Yet do not think that the apostle was a man easily absorbedin one thought. He was, above the most of men, a reasoner, calm, judicious, candid, and prudent. He lookedat things in their bearings and relations and was not a sticklerfor minor matters. Perhaps even more than might perfectly be justified, he made himself all things to all men that he
- 53. might by allmeans win some, and therefore any determination which he came to was only arrived at after taking counselwith wisdom. He was not a zealot of that class whichmay be likened to a bull which shuts its eyes and runs straight forward, seeing nothing which may lie to the right or to the left—he lookedall round him, calmly, quietly, and though he did, in the end, push forward in a direct line at his one objective, yet it was with his eyes wide open, knowing perfectly what he was doing and believing that he was doing the best and wisestthing for the cause which he desired to promote. If, for instance, to have opened his ministry at Corinth by proclaiming the unity of the Godhead, or by philosophically working out the possibilities of God’s becoming incarnate—ifthese had been the wisestplans for spreading the Redeemer’s kingdom—Paulwould have adopted them. But he lookedatthem all and having examined them with all care, he could not see that anything was to be gained by indirect preaching, or by keeping back a part of the truth. Therefore he determined to go straight forward and promote the gospelby proclaiming the gospel. Whethermen would hear or whether they would forbear, he resolvedto come to the point at once and preach the cross in its nakedsimplicity. Insteadof knowing a greatmany things which might have led up to the main subject, he would not know anything in Corinth save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul might have said, “I had better beat about the bush and educate the people up to a certainpoint before I come to my main point. To lay bare my ultimate intent at the first might be to spread the net in the sight of the birds and frighten them away. I will be cautious and reticent and will take them with guile, enticing them on in pursuit of truth.” But not so—lookingatthe matter all round as a prudent man should, he comes to this resolve, that he will know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I would to God that the “culture” we hear of in these days, and all this boasted“modern thought,” would come to the same conclusion. This most renowned and scholarly divine, after reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting everything as few men could do, yet came to this as to the issue of it all—“I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” May God grant that the criticalskill of our contemporaries and their laborious considerationmay land them on the same shore by the blessing of the Holy Spirit.
- 54. The Man ofOne SubjectSermon #1264 Tellsomeone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 21 2 2 I. Our first consideration, this morning, will be, WHAT WAS THIS SUBJECT TO WHICH PAUL DETERMINED TO SHUT HIMSELF UP WHILE PREACHING TO THE CHURCH AT CORINTH? Thatsubject was one, though it may also be divided into two—it was the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ—laying specialstress upon that part of His work which is always the most objectedto, namely, His substitutionary sacrifice, His redeeming death. Paul preached Christ in all His positions, but he especiallydwelt upon Him as the crucified one. The apostle first preachedhis greatMaster’s person—Jesus Christ. There was no equivocationabout Paul when he spoke ofJesus of Nazareth. He held Him up as a realMan, no phantom, but one who was crucified, dead, and buried—and rose againfrom the dead in actualbodily existence. There was no hesitation about His Godheadeither. Paul preached Jesus as the Sonof the Highest, as the wisdom and the power of God, as one “in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” You never doubted when you heard Paul, but that he believed in the divinity and the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ—andworshipped and adored Him as very God of very God. He preachedHis person with all clearness oflanguage and warmth of love. The Christ of God was all in all to Paul. The apostle spoke equally clearlyupon the Redeemer’s work, especiallylaying stress upon His death. “Horrible!” said the Jew, “How can you boastin a Man who died a felon’s death and was cursedbecause He was hanged on a tree!” “Ah,” said the Greek, “tellus no more about your God that died! Babble no longer about resurrection. We never shall believe such unmitigated foolishness.”But Paul did not, therefore, put these things into the backgroundand say, “Gentlemen, I will begin with telling you of the life of Christ and of the excellencyof His example—andby these means I shall hope to tempt you onward to the conclusionthat there was something divine in Him and then afterwards to the further conclusionthat He made an atonementfor
- 55. sin.” No, hebeganwith His blessedpersonand distinctly describedHim as he had been taught by the Holy Spirit. And as to His crucifixion, he put it in the front and made it the main point. He did not say, “Well, we will leave the matter of His death for a time,” or, “We will considerit under the aspectof a martyrdom by which He completed His testimony.” No. Paul gloried in the crucified Redeemer, the dead and buried Christ, the sin-bearing Christ, the Christ made a curse for us, as it is written, “Cursedis everyone that hangs on a tree.” This was the subject to which he confined himself at Corinth—beyond this he would not stir an inch. He does not merely determine to keephis preaching to that point, but he resolves not even to know any other subject. He would keephis mind fastclosedamong them to any thought but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Very unwise this must have seemed. Callin a council of worldly wise men and they will condemn such a rash course, for, in the first place, such preaching would drive away all the Jews. Holding, as the Jews did, the Old TestamentScriptures and receiving, therefore, a greatdeal of teaching about the Messiahand holding very firmly to the unity of the Godhead, the Jews hadgone a long way towards the light—and if Paul had kept back the objectionable points a little while, might he not have drawn them a little further—and so by degrees have landed them at the cross?Wise men would have remarked upon the hopefulness of the Israelites, if handled with discretion, and their advice would have been, “We do not say, renounce your sentiments, Paul, but disguise them for a little while. Do not say what is untrue, but at the same time be a little reticent about what is true, or else you will drive awaythese hopeful Jews.”The apostle yielded to no such policy. He would not win either Jew or Gentile by keeping back the truth, for he knew that such converts are worthless. If the man who is near the kingdom will be driven right awayfrom the gospelby hearing the unvarnished truth, that is no guide as to Paul’s duty. He knows that the gospelmust be a “savorof death unto death” to some as well as of “life unto life” unto others and therefore whichever may occur, he must deliver his own soul. Consequences are notfor Paul, but for the Lord. It is ours to speak the truth boldly and in every case we shall be a sweetsavorunto God. But to compromise, in the hope of making converts, is to do evil that goodmay come—andthis is never to be thought of for an instant. Another would say, “But, Paul, if you do this, you cause opposition. Do you not know that Christ crucified is a byword and a reproach
- 56. to all thinkingmen? Why, at Corinth there are a number of philosophers and I tell you, it will create unbounded ridicule if you so much as open your mouth about the Crucified One and His resurrection. Do not you remember on Mars’Hill how they mockedyou when you spoke upon that theme? Do not provoke their contempt. Argue with their Gnosticismand show Sermon #1264 The Manof One Subject Volume 21 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 3 3 them that you too are a philosopher. Be all things to all men. Be learned among the learned and rhetoricalamong the orators. By these means you will make many friends and by degrees your conciliatoryconduct will bring them to acceptthe gospel.” The apostle shakeshis head, puts down his foot, and with firm voice utters his decision, “I have determined,” he says, “I have already made up my mind. Your counsels and advice are lost upon me. I have determined to know nothing among the Corinthians— howeverlearned the Gentile portion of them may be, or howeverfond of rhetoric—save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” He stands to that. It is further worthy of note that the apostle had resolvedthat his subject should so engross the attention of his hearers that he would not even speak it with excellence ofspeechor garnish it with man’s wisdom. You have heard perhaps of the famous painter who drew the likeness ofJames I. He representedhim sitting in a bower with all the flowers of the seasonblooming around him—and nobody ever took the smallestnotice of the king’s visage for all eyes were charmed by the excellence of the flowers. Paulresolvedthat he would have no flowers at all. The portrait which he sketchedwouldbe Christ crucified, the bare facts and doctrine of the cross without so much as a single flowerfrom the poets or the philosophers. Some of us need not be very loud in our resolutionto avoid fine speech, for we may have but slender gifts in that direction. But the apostle was a man of fine natural powers and of vast attainments—a man whom the Corinthian critics could not have despised—andyet he threw awayall ornaments to let the unadorned beauty of the cross win its own way. As he
- 57. would not addflowers, so he would not darken the cross with smoke, for there is a way of preaching the gospelamid a smother of mystification and doubt so that men cannotreceive it. A numerous band of men are always boiling and stirring up a huge philosophic caldron which steams with dense vapor, beclouding the cross of Christ most horribly. Alas for that wisdom which concealsthe wisdom of God, it is the guiltiest form of folly. Some people preach Christ as I have seenrepresentations of a manof-warship in battle. The painter painted nothing but the smoke and you have said, “Where is the ship?” Well, if you lookedlong you might discerna fragment of the top of one of the masts and perhaps a portion of the boom. The ship was there, no doubt, but the smoke concealedit. So there may be Christ in some men’s preaching, but there is such a cloud of thinking, such a dense pall of profundity, such a horrid smoke ofphilosophy that you cannotsee the Lord. Paul painted beneath a clearsky. He would have no learned obscurity. He determined not to know how to speak afterthe manner of the orators, not to know how to think deeply according to the mode of the philosophers, but only to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified—and just to set Him forth in His own natural beauties unadorned. He dispensed with those accessorieswhichare so apt to attract the eyes of the mind from the centralpoint—Christ crucified. “A rash experiment,” says one. Ah, brethren, it is the experiment of faith and faith is justified of all her children. If we rely upon the power of mere persuasion, we rely upon that which is born of the flesh. If we depend upon the powerof logicalargument, we againrely upon that which is born of men’s reason. If we trust to poetic expressions andattractive turns of speech, we look to carnal means. But if we rest upon the nakedomnipotence of a crucified Savior, upon the innate powerof the wondrous deed of love which was consummated upon Calvary—and if we believe that the Spirit of God will make this the instrument for the conversionof men, the experiment cannot possibly end in failure. But oh, my brethren, what a task this must have been for Paul! He was not like many of us who are neither familiar with philosophy, nor capable of oratory. He was so greata master of both that he must have found it necessaryto keephimself constantly in check. I think I can see him, every now and then— when a deeply intellectual thought has come across his mind and a beautiful mode of utterance has suggesteditself—reining himself up and saying to his mind, “I will leave these deep thoughts for the letter to the
- 58. Romans. I willgive them all this in the eighth chapter. But as for these Corinthians, they shall have nothing but Christ crucified, for they are so carnal, so grosslyslavish before talent that they will run awaywith the idea that my excellent wayof putting the truth was the power of it. They shall have Christ only—and only Christ. They are children and I must speak to them as such. They are mere babes in Christ and have need of milk—and milk alone must I give them. They claim to be cleverand learned but they are conceited, high-minded, full of divisions and controversies.I will give then nothing but ‘the old, old story of Jesus and His love,’and I will tell them that story simply as to a little child.” Boundless love to their souls thus made him concentrate his testimony upon the one central point of Jesus crucified. The Man of One SubjectSermon #1264 Tellsomeone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 21 4 4 Thus I have shownyou what his subjectwas. II. Now, secondly, ALTHOUGH PAUL THUS CONCENTRATEDHIS ENERGIES UPON ONE POINT OF TESTIMONY, IT WAS QUITE SUFFICIENT FOR HIS PURPOSE. If the apostle had aimed at pleasing an intelligent audience, Christ and Him crucified would not have done at all. If againhe had designedto set himself up as a profound teacher, he would naturally have lookedout for something new, something a little more dazzling than the personand work of the Redeemer. And if Paul had desired, as I am afraid some of my brothers do, to collecttogethera class ofhighly independent minds which is, I believe, the euphemism for free-thinkers—to draw togethera selectchurch of the men of culture and intellect, which generallymeans a club of men who despise the gospel—he certainlywould not have kept to preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This order of men would deny him all hope of successwith such a theme. They would assure him that such preaching would only attractthe poorer sortand the less educated—the servantmaids and the old women. But Paul would not have been disconcertedby such observations, forhe loved the poorestand feeblestsouls and besides, he knew that what had exercisedpower
- 59. over his owneducated mind was likely to have powerover other intelligent people, and so he kept to the doctrine of the cross, believing that he had therein an instrument which would effectuallyaccomplishhis one desire with all classesofmen. Brethren, what did Paul wish to do? Paul desired, first of all, to awakensinners to a sense of sin—and what has everaccomplishedthis so perfectly as the doctrine that sin was laid upon Christ and causedHis death? The sinner, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, sees atonce that sin is not a trifle that it is not to be forgiven without atonement, but must be followedby penalty, borne by someone or other. When the guilty one has seenthe Sonof God bleeding to death in pangs unutterable in consequence ofhis sin, he has learned that sin is an enormous and crushing burden. If even the Son of God cries out beneath it, if His death agony rends the heavens and shakes earth, what an awful evil sin must be. What must it involve upon my soul if in my own person I shall be doomed to bear its consequences? Thus the sinner rightly argues and thus is he arousedto a sense ofguilt. But Paul wantedalso to awakenin the minds of the guilty that humble hope which is the great instrument of leading men to Jesus. He desired to make them hope that forgiveness might be given consistentlywith justice. Oh, brethren, Christ crucified is the one ray of light that can penetrate the thick darkness of despair and make a penitent heart hope for pardon from the righteous Judge. Needa sinner everdoubt when he has once seenJesus crucified? When he understands that there is pardon for every transgressionthrough the bleeding wounds of Jesus, is not the best form of hope at once kindled in his bosom and is he not led to say, “I will arise and go unto my Father, and will sayunto him, Father, I have sinned”? Paul longed, yet further, to lead men to actual faith in Jesus Christ. Now, faith in Jesus Christcan only come by preaching Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing, but the hearing must be upon the subject concerning which the faith is to deal. Would you make believers in Christ, preach Christ. The things of Christ, applied by the Spirit, lead men to put their reliance upon Christ. Nor was that all. Paul wanted men to forsake their sins and what should lead them to hate evil as much as seeing the sufferings of Jesus on accountof it? You and I know the powerof a bleeding Savior to make us take revenge upon sin. What indignation, what searching ofheart, what stern resolve, what bitterness of regret, what deep repentance have we felt when we have seenthat our sins became the nails, the hammer, the spear,
- 60. yes, the executionersofthe Well-Beloved? And Paul longed to train up in Corinth a church of consecratedmen, full of love, full of self-denial, a holy people, zealous for good works. And let me ask you, what is more necessaryto preach to any man to promote his sanctificationand his consecrationthan Jesus Christ who has redeemed us and so made us foreverHis servants? What argument is strongerthan the fact that we are not our own, for we are bought with a price? I say that Paul had, in Christ crucified, a subject equal to his objective. He had a subject that would meet the case ofevery man, however degradedor howevercultured, and a subject which would be useful to men in the first hours of the new birth and equally useful when they were made meet to be partakers ofthe inheritance of the saints in light. He had a subject for today and tomorrow, and a subject for next year, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He had in the crucified Jesus a subjectfor the prince’s palace and a subject for the peasant’s hut, a subject for the mar Sermon #1264 The Manof One Subject Volume 21 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 ket place and a subjectfor the academy, for the heathen temple and for the synagogue. Whereverhe might go, Christ would be both to Jew and Gentile, to bond and free, the wisdom of God and the powerof God—and that not to one form of beneficialinfluence alone—but unto full salvation to everyone that believes. III. But I must pass on to a third remark, that THE APOSTLE’S CONFININGHIMSELF TO THIS SUBJECT COULD NOT POSSIBLYDO HARM. You know, brethren, that when men dwell exclusively upon one thing they getpretty strong there, but they generally become very weak in other points. Hence a man of one thought only is generallydescribed as riding a hobby. Well, this was Paul’s hobby, but it was a sort of hobby which a man may ride without any injury to himself or his neighbor. He will be none the less a complete man if he surrenders himself wholly and only to this one theme. But let me remark that Christ crucified is the only subject of which this canbe said. Let me show you that it is so. You
- 61. know a classof ministers who preachdoctrine—and doctrine only. Their mode of preaching resembles the counting of your fingers—“one,two, three, four, five,” and for a variety, “five, four, three, two, one”—alwaysa certain setof greattruths and no others. What is the effectof this ministry? Well, generallyto breed a generationof men who think they know everything, but really do not know much—very decided and so far, so good—but very narrow, very exclusive, very bigoted and so far, so bad. You cannot preach doctrine alone without contracting your own mind and that of your hearers. There are others who preach experience only. They are very goodpeople. I am not condemning either them or their doctrinal friends, but they also fall into mischief. Some of them take the lowerscale ofexperience and they tell us that nobody canbe a child of God unless he feels the horrible characterof his inbred sin and groans daily. We used to hear a gooddeal of that some years ago;there is less of it now. Am I wrong in saying that this teaching trains up a race of men who show their humility by sitting in judgement upon all who cannot groandown to as deep a note as they can? Another class has lately arisenwho preach experience, but theirs is always upon the high key. They soaraloft, as I think, a little in the balloon line. They own only the bright side of experience. They have nothing to do with its darkness and death. Forthem there are no nights and they sing through perpetual summer days. They have conquered sin and they have ignored themselves. So they say, but we should not have thought so if they had not told us so; on the contrary, we might have fancied that they had a very vivid idea of themselves and their own attainments. I hope I am mistaken, but it has appearedto some of us poor fallible beings that in some beloved brethren self has grownmarvelously big of late. Certainly their conversations andpreaching largely consistofvery wonderful declarations oftheir own admirable condition. I should be pleased to learn of their progress in grace, if it is real, but I had soonerhave made the discoverymyself, or have heard it from somebody besides themselves, for there is an inspired proverb which says, “Let another praise you, and not your own lips,” and for my part, if any other man thought it right to praise me, I would rather that he held his tongue, for man-magnifying is a poor business. Let the Lord alone be magnified. I think it is clear that grave faults arise from exclusively preaching an inner life instead of preaching Christ, who is life itself. Another class ofministers have preachedthe precepts and little else.
- 62. We need thesemen as we need the others—theyare all useful and actas antidotes to eachother—but their ministries are not complete. If you hear preaching about duty and command, it is very proper. But if it is the only theme, the teaching becomes very legalin the long run. And after a while, the true gospel, whichhas the powerto make us keepthe precepts, gets flung into the background—andthe precepts are not kept after all. Do, do, do, generally ends in nothing being done. If a brother were to undertake to preachthe ordinances only, like those who are always extolling what they are pleasedto call the holy sacraments—well, youknow where that teaching goes—ithas a tendency towards the southeast—andits chosenline runs acrossthe city of Rome. Moreover, belovedbrother, even if you preachJesus Christ, you must not keepto any other phase of Him but that which Paul took, namely, “Him crucified,” for under no other aspectmay you exclusively regardHim. For instance, the preaching of the SecondAdvent, which in its place and proportion is admirable, has been by some taken out of its place, and made the end-all and be-all of their ministry. That, you see, is not what Paul had selectedand it is not a safe selection. In many cases, sheerfanaticismhas The Man of One SubjectSermon #1264 Tellsomeone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 21 6 6 been the result of exclusively dwelling upon prophecy and probably more men have gone mad on that subject than on any other religious question. Whether any man could ever become fanaticalabout Christ crucified I cannotsay, I have never heard of such an instance. Whether a man ever went insane with love to the crucified RedeemerI do not know, but I have never met such a case. If I should ever go crazy, I should like it to be in that direction, and I should like to bite a greatmany more, for what a blessedsubject it would be for one to be carried awaywith—to become unreasonablyabsorbed in Christ crucified—to have gone out of your senses with faith in Jesus. The factis, it never can injure the mind, it is a doctrine which may be heard forever and will be always fresh, new, and suitable to the whole of our manhood. I say
- 63. that the keepingto this doctrine cannot do hurt and the reasonis this—it contains all that is vital within itself. Keep within the limits of Christ, and Him crucified, and you have brought before men all the essentialsfor this life and for the life to come. You have given them the root out of which may grow both branch and flowerand fruit of holy thought, word, and deed. Let a man know Christ crucified and he knows Him who to know is life eternal. This is a subject which does not awakenone part of the man and send the other part to sleep. It does not kindle his imagination and leave his judgement uninstructed, nor feed his intellect and starve his heart. There is not a faculty of our nature but what Christ crucified affects for good. The perfect manhood of Christ crucified affects mind, heart, memory, imagination, thought, everything. As in milk there are all the ingredients necessaryfor sustaining life, so in Christ crucified there is everything that is needed to nurture the soul. Even as the hand of David’s chief minstrel touched every chord of his ten-stringed harp, so Jesus brings sweetmusic out of our entire manhood. There is also this to be said about preaching Christ exclusively, that it will never produce animosities. It will not impregnate men’s minds with questions and contentions as those nice points do which some are so fond of dealing with. When certain questions are settled by my judgement and by your judgement, and by a third and a fourth man’s judgement, a contestis sure to ensue. But he who stands at Christ’s cross and stays there, he stands where he may embrace the whole brotherhood of true Christians, for we are perfectly joined togetherin one mind and judgement there. There is no vaunting of man’s judgement at the cross. “Iam of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Christ,” comes from not keeping to Jesus crucified. But if we keepto the cross as guilty sinners needing cleansing through the precious blood and finding all our salvationthere, we shall not have time to set ourselves up as religious leaders and to cause divisions in the church of Christ. Was there ever yet a sect createdin Christendom by the preaching of Christ crucified? No, my brethren, sects are createdby the preaching of something over and above this, but this is the soul and marrow of Christianity and consequently, the perfect bond of love which holds Christians together. IV. I shall not say more, but pass on to my last reflection, which is this—Becausethen Paul made this his one sole subjectamong the Corinthians and he did no hurt by doing so, which cannot be said of any other subject, I COMMEND TO YOU THAT WE
- 64. SHOULD, ALL OFUS, MAKE THIS THE MAIN SUBJECT OF OUR THOUGHTS, PREACHING, AND EFFORTS. Unconverted men and women, to you I speak first. To you I have nothing else to preach but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul knew there were great sinners at Corinth, for it was common all over the then world to call a licentious man a Corinthian. They were a people who pushed laxity and lasciviousnessofmanners to the greatestpossible excess,yetamong them Paul knew nothing but Christ and Him crucified, because allthat the greatestsinnercan possibly need is to be found there. You have nothing in yourself, sinner, and you need not wish for anything to carry to Jesus. You tell me you know nothing about the profound doctrines of the gospel—youneednot know them when coming to Christ. The one thing you need to know is this—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to save sinners and whoeverbelieves in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. I shall be glad for you to be further instructed in the faith and to know the heights and depths of that love which passes knowledge, but just now the one thing you need to know is Jesus Christ crucified. If you never get beyond that, if your mind should be of so feeble a castthat anything deeper than this you would never be able to grasp, I for one shall feel no distress whatever—foryou will have found that which will deliver you from the powerof sin and from the punishment of it—and that which will take you up to heavento dwell where that same Sermon #1264 The Manof One Subject Volume 21 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 Jesus who was crucified sits enthroned at the right hand of God. Oh, dear broken heart, if you will ever find healing, it is in those wounds. If you ever find rest, you must have it from those pierced hands. If you ever hear absolution, it must be spokenfrom those same lips which said so sweetly, “It is finished.” God forbid that we should know anything among sinners except Christ and Him crucified. Look to Him and Him only, and you shall find rest unto your souls. As for you, my brethren and sisters who know Christ, I have
- 65. this to sayto you—keepthis to the front and nothing else but this, for it is againstthis that the enemy rages. Thatpart of the line of battle which is most fiercely assailedby the enemy is sure to be that which he knows to be most important to carry. Men hate those they fear. The antagonismof the enemies of the gospelis mainly againstthe cross. Fromthe very first it was so. They cried, “Let Him come down from the cross and we will believe in Him.” They will write us pretty lives of Christ and tell us what an excellent man He was, and do our Lord such homage as their Judas’ lips canafford Him. They will also take His Sermon on the Mount and saywhat a wonderful insight He had into the human heart, and what a splendid code of morals He taught, and so on. “We will be Christians” they say, “but the dogma of atonementwe utterly reject.” Our answeris, we do not care one farthing what they have to say about our Masterif they deny His substitutionary sacrifice. Whetherthey give Him wine or vinegar is a small question so long as they rejectthe claims of the Crucified. The praises of unbelievers are sickening. Who needs to hear polluted lips lauding Him? Such sugaredwords are very like those which came out of the mouth of the devil when he said, “You Son of the Highest,” and Jesus rebukedhim and said “Hold your peace and come out of him.” Even thus would we say to unbelievers who extol Christ’s life—“Hold your peace!We know your enmity, disguise it as you may. Jesus is the Savior of men or He is nothing. If you will not have Christ crucified you cannot have Him at all.” My brothers in Jesus, letus glory in the blood of Jesus. Letit be conspicuous as though it were sprinkled upon the lintel and the two side posts of our doors. And let the world know that redemption by blood is written upon the innermost tablets of our hearts. Brethren, this is the testpoint of every teacher. When a fish goes bad, they say it first stinks at the head and certainly when a preacher becomes heretical, it is always about Christ. If he is not clearabout Jesus crucifiedand you hear one sermonfrom him—that is your misfortune. But if you go and hear him again, and hear another like the first, it will be your fault. Go a third time, and it will be your crime. If any man is doubtful about Christ crucified, recollectHart’s couplet, for it is a truth— “You cannot be right in the rest. Unless you think rightly of Him.” I do not need to examine men upon all the doctrines of the Westminster Assembly’s Confession. Ibegin here, “What do you think of Christ?” If you cannot answerthat question, go and publish your own views where you like,
- 66. but you andI are wide as the poles asunder. Neither do I wish to have fellowship with you. We must have plain speaking here. It is “Christ crucified” which God blesses to conversion. GodblessedWilliam Huntingdon to the conversionof souls—Iam sure of that, though I am no Huntingdonian. He blessedJohn Wesleyto the conversionof souls. I am quite as clearabout that, though I am not a Wesleyan. The point upon which the Lord blessed them both was that in which they bore testimony to Christ—and you shall find that in proportion as Jesus Christ’s atonement is in a sermon, it is the lifeblood of that sermon—and is that which God sanctifies to the conversionof the souls of men. Therefore keepit always prominent. And I ask you now, my brethren, one more thing. Is not Christ and Him crucified the thing to live on and the thing to die on? Worldlings can live upon their flimsies. They can delight themselves under their Jonah’s gourds while they last. But when a man is depressedin spirit and tortured in body, where does he look? If he is a Christian, where does he fly? Where, indeed, but to Jesus crucified? How often have I been glad to creepinto the temple and stand in the poor publican’s shoes and say, “Godbe merciful to me a sinner,” looking only to that MercySeatwhich Jesus sprinkledwith His precious blood? This will do to die with. I do not believe we shall die seeking consolationfrom our peculiar church organizations. Norshall we die grasping with a dying clutch either ordinance or doctrine by itself. Our soul must live and die on Jesus crucified. Notice all the saints, when they die, whether they do not getback to Calvary’s greatsacrifice. Theybelieved a greatmany things. Some of them had many crotchets and whims and oddities, but the main point comes uppermost in death. “Jesus diedfor me, Jesus died for me”—they The Man of One SubjectSermon #1264 Tellsomeone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 21 8 8 all come to that. Well, where they get at last, do you not think it would be well to go at first? And if that is the bottom of it all, and it certainly is, would it not be as wellfor us to keepto that? While some are glorying in this and some in
- 67. that, some havethis form of worship and some that, let us say, “Godforbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I unto the world.” Brethren, I commend to you more and more the bringing of the cross ofChrist into prominence, because it is this which will weld us more and more closelyto one another and will keep us in blessedunity. We cannotall understand those peculiar truths which depend very much upon nice points and shades of meaning in the Greek which only critics canbring out. If you are going in for these pretty things, brother, you must leave behind many of us poor fools, for we cannotgo in for these things, and you only puzzle us. I know you have got that dainty point very beautifully in your own mind and you think a greatdeal of it, and I do not wonder, for it has costyou a gooddeal of thinking and it shows your powerful discernment. At the same time, do you not think you ought to condescendto some of us who never will, as long as ever we live, take up with these knotty points? Some of our brains are of an ordinary sort. We have to earn our bread and we mingle with ordinary people. We know that two times two will make four, but we are not acquaintedwith all the ambiguous principles which lie concealedin the lofty philosophy to which you have climbed. I do not know much about it. I do not climb to such elevations myself, and I shall never get up there along with you—might it not be better for the unity of the faith that you would kindly leave some of these things alone, agree betterwith your friends at home, show more love to your fellow Christians, and attend a little more to commonplace duties? I do not know but what it might do you good, and bring a little of your humility to the front, if you getdown there with Jesus Christand Him crucified. PersonallyI might know a host of things—I especiallymight, for everybody tries to teachme something. I get advice by the wagonload—one pulls this earand one pulls that. Well, I might know a greatdeal, but I find I should have to leave some of you behind if I went off to these things—and I love you too wellfor that. I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If any man will keepto that, I will say, “Give me your hand, my brother. Jesus washedit with His blood as He did mine. Come, brother, let us look up togetherat the same cross. Whatdo you make of it?” There is a tear in your eye, and there is one in mine, but yet there is a flush of joy upon both our faces becauseofthe dear love that nailed Jesus there. “What shall we do in the
- 68. sight of thiscross?”Mybrother says, “I will go and win souls,” and I say, “So will I.” He says, “I have one way of speaking,”and I reply, “I have another, for our gifts differ, but we will never clash, for we are serving one Lord and one Masterand we will not be divided, either in this world or in that which is to come.” Let Apollos saywhat he likes, or Paul, or Peter—we willlearn from them all and be very gladto do so—but still, from the cross we will not move, but stand fast there—forJesus is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. Amen. ALEXANDER MACLAREN THE APOSTLE'S THEME ‘I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’—1 Corinthians 2:2. Many of you are aware that to-day I close forty years of ministry in this city—I cannot say to this congregation, for there are very, very few that can go back with me in memory to the beginning of these years. You will bear me witness that I seldom intrude personal references into the pulpit, but perhaps it would be affectation not to do so now. Looking back over these long years, many thoughts arise which cannot be spoken in public. But one thing I may say, and that is, that I am grateful to God and to you, dear friends, for the unbroken harmony, confidence, affection, and forbearance which have brightened and lightened my work. Of its worth I cannot judge; its imperfections I know better than the most unfavourable critic; but I can humbly take the words of this text as expressive, not, indeed, of my attainments, but of my aims. One of my texts, on my first Sunday in Manchester, was ‘We preach Christ and Him crucified,’ and I look back, and venture to say that the noble words of this text have been, however imperfectly followed, my guiding star. Now, I wish to say a word or two, less personal perhaps, and yet, as you can well suppose, not without a personal reference in my own consciousness. I. Note here first, then, the Apostolic theme—Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, the Apostle, in this context, gives us a little autobiographical glimpse which is singularly and interestingly confirmed by some slight incidental notices in the Book of the Acts. He says, in the context, that he was with the Corinthians ‘in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,’ and, if we turn to the narrative, we find that a singular period of silence, apparent abandonment of his work and dejection, seems to have synchronised with
- 69. his coming tothe great city of Corinth. The reasons were very plain. He had recently come into Europe for the first time and had had to front a new condition of things, very different from what he had found in Palestine or in Asia Minor. His experience had not been encouraging. He had been imprisoned in Philippi; he had been smuggled away by night from Thessalonica; he had been hounded from Berea; he had all but wholly failed to make any impression in Athens, and in his solitude he came to Corinth, and lay quiet, and took stock of his adversaries. He came to the conclusion which he records in my text; he felt that it was not for him to argue with philosophers, or to attempt to vie with Sophists and professional orators, but that his only way to meet Greek civilisation, Greek philosophy, Greek eloquence, Greek self-conceit, was to preach ‘Christ and Him crucified.’ The determination was not come to in ignorance of the conditions that were fronting him. He knew Corinth, its wealth, its wickedness, its culture, and knowing these he said, ‘I have made up my mind that I will know nothing amongst you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ So, then, this Apostle's conception of his theme was—the biography of a Man, with especial emphasis laid on one act in His history—His death. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity. His relation to the truth that He proclaimed, and to the truths that may be deducible from the story of His life and death, is altogether different from the relation of any other founder of a religion to the truths that he has proclaimed. For in these you can accept the teaching, and ignore the teacher. But you cannot do that with Christianity; ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life’; and in that revealing biography, which is the preacher's theme, the palpitating heart and centre is the death upon the Cross. So, whatever else Christianity comes to be—and it comes to be a great deal else—the principle of its growth, and the germ which must vitalise the whole, lie in the personality and the death of Jesus Christ. That is not all. The history of the life and the death want something more to make them a gospel. The fact, I was going to say, is the least part of the fact; as in some vegetable growths, there is far more underground than above. For, unless along with, involved in, and deducible from, but capable of being stated separately from, the external facts, there is a certain commentary or explanation of them: the history is a history, the biography is a biography, the story of the Cross is a touching narrative, but it is no gospel. And what was Paul's commentary which lifted the bare facts up into the loftier region? This—as for the person, Jesus Christ ‘declared to be the son of God with power’—as for the fact of the death, ‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures.’ Let in these two conceptions into the facts—and they are the necessary explanation and presupposition of the facts—the Incarnation and the Sacrifice, and then you get what Paul calls ‘my gospel,’ not because it was his invention, but because it was the trust committed to him. That is the Gospel which alone answers to the facts which he deals with; and that is the Gospel which, God helping me, I have for forty years tried to preach. We hear a great deal at present, or we did a few years ago, about this generation having recovered Jesus Christ, and about the necessity of going ‘back to the Christ of the Gospels.’ By all means, I say, if in the process you do not lose the Christ of the Epistles, who is the Christ of the Gospels, too. I am free to admit that a past generation has wrapped theological cobwebs round the gracious figure of Christ with disastrous results. For it is perfectly possible to know the things that are said about Him, and not to know Him about
- 70. whom these thingsare said. But the mistake into which the present generation is far more likely to fall than that of substituting theology for Christ, is the converse one—that of substituting an undefined Christ for the Christ of the Gospels and the Epistles, the Incarnate Son of God, who died for our salvation. And that is a more disastrous mistake than the other, for you can know nothing about Him and He can be nothing to you, except as you grasp the Apostolic explanation of the bare facts—seeing in Him the Word who became flesh, the Son who died that we might receive the adoption of sons. I would further point out that a clear conception of what the theme is, goes a long way to determine the method in which it shall be proclaimed. The Apostle says, in the passage which is parallel to the present one, in the previous chapter, ‘We preach Christ crucified’; with strong emphasis on the word ‘preach.’ ‘The Jew required a sign’; he wanted a man who would do something. The Greek sought after wisdom; he wanted a man who would perorate and argue and dissertate. Paul says, ‘No!’ ‘We have nothing to do. We do not come to philosophise and to argue. We come with a message of fact that has occurred, of a Person that has lived.’ And, as most of you know, the word which he uses means in its full signification, ‘to proclaim as a herald does.’ Of course, if my business were to establish a set of principles, theological or otherwise, then argumentation would be my weapon, proofs would be my means, and my success would be that I should win your credence, your intellectual consent, and conviction. If I were here to proclaim simply a morality, then the thing that I would aim to secure would be obedience, and the method of securing it would be to enforce the authority and reasonableness of the command. But, seeing that my task is to proclaim a living Person and a historical fact, then the way to do that is to do as the herald does when in the market-place he stands, trumpet in one hand and the King's message in the other—proclaim it loudly, confidently, not ‘with bated breath and whispering humbleness,’ as if apologising, nor too much concerned to buttress it up with argumentation out of his own head, but to say, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ and to what the Lord saith conscience says, ‘Amen.’ Brethren, we need far more, in all our pulpits, of that unhesitating confidence in the plain, simple proclamation, stripped, as far as possible, of human additions and accretions, of the great fact and the great Person on whom all our salvation depends. II. So let me ask you to notice the exclusiveness which this theme demands. ‘Nothing but,’ says Paul. I might venture to say—though perhaps the tone of the personal allusions in this sermon may seemto contradict it—that this exclusiveness is to be manifested in one very difficult direction, and that that is, the herald shall efface himself. We have to hold up the picture; and if I might take such a metaphor, like a man in a gallery who is displaying some masterpiece to the eyes of the beholders, we have to keep ourselves well behind it; and it will be wise if not evena finger-tip is allowed to steal in front and come into sight. One condition, I believe, of real power in the ministration of the Gospel, is that people shall be convinced that the preacher is thinking not at all about himself, but altogether about his message. You remember that wonderfully pathetic utterance from John the Baptist's stern lips, which derives much additional pathos and tenderness from the character of the man from whom it came, when they asked him, ‘Who art thou?’ and his answer was, ‘I am a Voice.’ I am a Voice; that is all! Ah, that is the example! We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. We must efface ourselves if we would proclaim Christ.
- 71. But I turnto another direction in which this theme demands exclusiveness, and I revert to the previous chapter where in the parallel portion to the words of my text, we find the Apostle very clearly conscious of the two great streams of expectation and wish which he deliberately thwarted and set at nought. ‘The Jews require a sign—but we preach Christ crucified. The Greeks seek afterwisdom,’ but again, ‘we preach Christ crucified.’ Now, take these two. They are representations, in a very emphatic way, of two sets of desires and mental characteristics, which divide the world between them. On the one hand, there is the sensuous tendency that wants something done for it, something to see, something that sense cangrasp at; and so, as it fancies, work itself upwards into a higher region. ‘The Jew requires a sign’—that is, not merely a miracle, but something to look at. He wants a visible sacrifice; he wants a priest. He wants religion to consist largely in the doing of certain acts which may be supposed to bring, in some magical fashion, spiritual blessings. And Paul opposes to that, ‘We preach Christ crucified.’ Brethren, the tendency is strong to-day, not only in those parts of the Anglican communion where sacramentarian theories are in favour, but amongst all sections of the Christian Church, in which there is obvious a drift towards more ornate ritual, and aesthetic services, as means of attracting to church or chapel, and as more important than proclaiming Christ. I am free to confess that possibly some of us, with our Puritan upbringing and tendency, too much disregard that side of human nature. Possibly it is so. But for all that I profoundly believe that if religion is to be strong it must have a very, very small infusion of these external aids to spiritual worship, and that few things more weaken the power of the Gospel that Paul preached than the lowering of the flag in conformity with desires of men of sense, and substituting for the simple glory of the preached Word the meretricious, and in time impotent, and always corrupting, attractions of a sensuous worship. Further, ‘The Greeks seek afterwisdom.’ They wanted demonstration, abstract principles, systematisedphilosophies, and the like. Paul comes again with his ‘We preach Christ and Him crucified.’ The wisdom is there, as I shall have to say in a moment, but the form that it takes is directly antagonistic to the wishes of these wisdom-seeking Greeks. The same thing in modern guise besets us to-day. We are called upon, on all sides, to bring into the pulpit what they call an ethical gospel; putting it into plain English, to preach morality, and to leave out Christ. We are called upon, on all sides, to preach an applied Christianity, a social gospel—that is to say, largely to turn the pulpit into a Sunday supplement to the daily newspaper. We are askedto deal with the intellectual difficulties which spring from the collision of science, true or false, with religion, and the like. All that is right enough. But I believe from my heart that the thing to do is to copy Paul's example, and to preach Christ and Him crucified. You may think me right or you may think me wrong, but here and now, at the end of forty years, I should like to say that I have for the most part ignored that class of subjects deliberately, and of set purpose, and with a profound conviction, be it erroneous or not, that a ministry which listens much to the cry for ‘wisdom’ in its modern forms, has departed from the true perspective of Christian teaching, and will weaken the churches which depend upon it. Let who will turn the pulpit into a professor's chair, or a lecturer's platform, or a concert-room stage or a politician's rostrum, I for one determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. III. Lastly, observe the all-sufficient comprehensiveness which this theme secures.
- 72. Paul says ‘nothingbut’; he might have said ‘everything in.’ For ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ covers all the ground of men's needs. No doubt many of you will have been saying to yourselves whilst you have been listening, if you have been listening, to what I have been saying, ‘Ah! old-fashioned narrowness; quite out of date in this generation.’ Brethren, there are two ways of adapting one's ministry to the times. One is falling in with the requirements of the times, and the other is going dead against them, and both of these methods have to be pursued by us. But the exclusiveness of which I have been speaking, is no narrow exclusiveness. Paul felt that, if he was to give the Corinthians what they needed, he must refuse to give them what they wanted, and that whilst he crossed their wishes he was consulting their necessities. That is true yet, for the preaching that bases itself upon the life and death of Jesus Christ, conceived as Paul had learned from Jesus Christ to conceive them, that Gospel, whilst it brushes aside men's superficial wishes, goes straight to the heart of their deep-lying universal necessities, for what the Jew needs most is not a sign, and what the Greek needs most is not wisdom, but what they both need most is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. And we all, scholars and fools, poets and common-place people, artists and ploughmen, all of us, in all conditions of life, in all varieties of culture, in all stages of intellectual development, in all diversities of occupation and of mental bias, what we all have in common is that human heart in which sin abides, and what we all need most to have is that evil drop squeezed out of it, and our souls delivered from the burden and the bondage. Therefore, any man that comes with a sign, and does not deal with the sin of the human heart, and any man that comes with a philosophical systemof wisdom, and does not deal with sin, does not bring a Gospel that will meet the necessities evenof the people to whose cravings he has been aiming to adapt his message. But, beyond that, in this message of Christ and Him crucified, there lies in germ the satisfaction of all that is legitimate in these desires that at first sight it seems to thwart. ‘A sign?’ Yes, and where is there power like the power that dwells in Him who is the Incarnate might of omnipotence? ‘Wisdom?’ Yes, and where is there wisdom, except ‘in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’? Let the Jew come to the Cross, and in the weak Man hanging there, he will find a mightier revelation of the power of God than anywhere else. Let the Greek come to the Cross, and there he will find wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. The bases of all social, economical, political reform and well-being, lie in the understanding and the application to social and national life, of the principles that are wrapped in, and are deduced from, the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have not learned them all yet. They have not all been applied to national and individual life yet. I plead for no narrow exclusiveness, but for one consistent with the widest application of Christian principles to all life. Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus, and to know everything in Jesus, and Jesus in everything. Do not begin your building at the second-floor windows. Put in your foundations first, and be sure that they are well laid. Let the Sacrifice of Christ, in its application to the individual and his sins, be ever the basis of all that you say. And then, when that foundation is laid, exhibit, to your heart's content, the applications of Christianity and its social aspects. But be sure that the beginning of them all is the work of Christ for the individual sinful soul, and the acceptance of that work by personal faith.
- 73. Dear friends, ourshas been a long and happy union but it is a very solemn one. My responsibilities are great; yours are not small. Let me beseechyou to ask yourselves if, with all your kindness to the messenger, you have given heed to the message. Have you passed beyond the voice that speaks, to Him of whom it speaks? Have you taken the truth—veiled and weakened as I know it has been by my words, but yet in them—for what it is, the word of the living God? My occupancy of this pulpit must in the nature of things, before long, come to a close, but the message which I have brought to you will survive all changes in the voice that speaks here. ‘All flesh is grass … the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.’ And, closing these forty years, during a long part of which some of you have listened most lovingly and most forbearingly, I leave with you this, which I venture to quote, though it is my Master's word about Himself, ‘I judge you not; the word which I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in the last day.’ OUR DAILY BREAD Talking About Jesus Bible in a Year: • 2 Kings 4-6 • Luke 24:36-53 I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. — 1 Corinthians 2:2 comment journal share give Today's Scripture & Insight: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 Former major league baseball player Tony Graffanino tells of an ongoing ministry effort in a European country. Each year his organization holds a week-long baseball camp. During this week they also offer a daily Bible study. In past years, the leader tried to find reasoned ways to convince the campers that God exists so they would place their faith in Him. After about 13 years, they had seenonly 3 people decide to follow Jesus.
- 74. Then they changedtheir approach, says Graffanino. Instead of “trying to present facts, or winning arguments for a debate,” they simply talked about “the amazing life and teachings of Jesus.” As a result, more campers came to listen, and more chose to follow Him. The apostle Paul said that when we tell others about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we should set “forth the truth plainly. . . . We do not preach ourselves,” he said, “but Jesus Christ as Lord” (2 Cor. 4:2,5 niv). This was Paul’s standard for evangelism: “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). We should be knowledgeable about the Bible and about the reasons for our belief, and sometimes we need to explain those reasons. But the most compelling and effective story we can tell puts Christ in the center. By: Dave Branon Reflect & Pray Father God, please use me in the lives of others. Remind me to talk about who Jesus is and His life and teachings. And not to be dragged into debates, but to share Jesus’ amazing life. The risen Christ is the reason for our witness. https://odb.org/video • /contributors/stephen-belokur-profile-84025?ref=SermonDetailsView all Sermons Is Jesus Enough? Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Sep 26, 2017 /contributors/stephen-belokur-profile- 84025?ref=SermonDetails (rate this sermon) | 4,571 views Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Denomination: Nazarene
- 75. Summary: In 1Corinthians there was an atmosphere of chaos and so the apostle Paul writes a letter. And in that letter he reminds them of the focal point of what he taught them when he was there and that is, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Is that all they need? • 1 • 2 • 3 • Next Please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 which we will read in a few minutes. The church in Corinth in the Bible was filled with problems. The simple act of communion had been perverted into a feast for the rich to gorge themselves in front of those who were poor and had no food. The spiritual gift of speaking in unknown languages had been invaded and misused by those who had come out of pagan temples where “spirits” would speak through people in unintelligible utterances. An incestuous sexual relationship between a man and his step-mother was not only being tolerated but was being bragged about in the church. There were factions and infighting among the people. There was bedlam and confusion and people shouting their “prophecies” over the top of one another in their gathers. And in the middle of all of that what did Paul do? What does he say he did? With that in mind let’s go ahead and read: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 1 Corinthians 2:3 NIV “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He preached Jesus the Christ who came and gave His life for our salvation. When Paul said that he was ignorant of everything spiritual except for the facts that Jesus was the Messiahand that He had been crucified he was not saying he was trying to cut through the garbage and focus on what really mattered? Paul had a laser-like focus and that focus was aimed directly at Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One of the Old Testament. And that brings us to the question, “Is Jesus enough?” What do you mean, “Is Jesus enough?” Jesus is all sufficient. Jesus is God Himself. How could Jesus be anything less than enough? What if we came in here this morning and all we had was Jesus?
- 76. What if whenwe came in we didn’t discuss our health or our jobs or the weather or our families but only Jesus? What if there was no piano and no keyboard and no guitar and no drums or any other musical instruments or singing but only Jesus? What if there was no projection of the words and no hymnals and no bulletins but only our Bibles and Jesus? What if during the offering time we just sat in silence and thought about Jesus and His kingdom? Preach a series for growth in 2020... ~ Pick One ~ H e a r t Faith M i n d Knowledge A c t i o n Purpose Refreshyour faith in the new year... N e x t S t e p s S e r i e s https://www.sermoncentral.com/Total-Prep- Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=3&ref=sskWizardhttps://www.sermoncentral.com/T otal-Prep-Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=3&ref=sskWizardHYPERLINK "https://www.sermoncentral.com/Total-Prep- Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=3&ref=sskWizard"Learn More Reboot your church in the new year...
- 77. B e gi n n i n g s S e r i e s https://www.sermoncentral.com/Total-Prep- Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=30&ref=sskWizardhttps://www.sermoncentral.com/ Total-Prep-Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=30&ref=sskWizardHYPERLINK "https://www.sermoncentral.com/Total-Prep- Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=30&ref=sskWizard"Learn More Renew your purpose in the new year... E s t a b l i s h e d S e r i e s https://www.sermoncentral.com/Total-Prep- Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=18&ref=sskWizardhttps://www.sermoncentral.com/ Total-Prep-Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=18&ref=sskWizardHYPERLINK "https://www.sermoncentral.com/Total-Prep- Packages/Detail?TotalPrepPackageId=18&ref=sskWizard"Learn More What if instead of music there were only testimonies of praise about what Jesus had done in and through us that week for Him and for His Kingdom on earth? What if instead of music there were only testimonies of how we had grown in the Lord and testimonies about what we had learned from the Holy Bible? What if instead of a prayer chorus before the prayer time we confessedthe ways we had failed Jesus that week and sought the prayers of brothers and sisters in Christ for strength in the coming week? What if we spent an extended time in reading the Scriptures to find out how we could be more like Jesus? What if the sermons always focused on what Jesus wants us to become and what Jesus wants to do in and through us? What if we spent an extended time in prayer asking Jesus to help us to be what He wants us to be and to help us to do what He would have us to do? Would we be satisfied with such a service? Would Jesus be enough? Would people walk away saying, “Well, that was boring” or would we be energized and refreshed by the presence of the Lord God Almighty? If we were to have such a service it would be a service that would be focused on the most needed thing – salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and growth into mature Christians who can contribute to the Kingdom of God here on earth. Now we see that in Corinth great destruction came into the church when attitudes and practices from outside the church were brought into the church.
- 78. Can a Christcentered worship service remain a faithful Christ centered worship service when we add things to it? What could we possibly add? In the Bible music is found in worship. They would sing songs about the great acts of God and His great deliverances. They would sing songs of praise as they proceeded to the temple for sacrifices. Sometimes praise choirs would evenlead the army into battle! And, of course, we see worship music in the greatest worship event of all eternity around the throne of God in heaven. Well, we could add music. It would have to be God centered and not just “God” but including songs about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The songs would have to be centered on the Lord and theologically correct. They could not be “feel good” songs focused on merely stirring our emotions. What did we sing this morning? Christ the Lord is Risen Today – Remembering our resurrected Savior A Shelter in the Time of Storm – A testimony song of the Lord’s protection Hallelujah! – Recounting the birth of Jesus and His sacrifice for our sin Refiner’s Fire – A prayer song for a sanctified life How Deepthe Father’s Love for Us – Recognizing the Father’s great gift of His Son for our salvation, recounting our guilt and remembering our undeserved salvation. All of them point to the work of the Triune Godhead on our behalf. Another part of the worship music is the instrumentation. Are the instruments being played well enough to keepfrom being a distraction from focusing on the Lord? Is any instrumentalist or vocalist seeking to draw attention to themselves thereby drawing focus away from the Lord? Are the attitudes of the people leading the music focused on our Lord and Savior for His glory? If so, then the music is seeking to glorify the Lord and that is always good. If not then changes would have to be made. If you want to know how far off the grid this can go just go to your computer and type in “Rock star worship leader” and you’ll find articles about the woes that some churches go through.
- 79. I am nottrying to pat myself and the praise team on the back. This focus of “turning our eyes upon Jesus” is our driving force. Why? Because we believe Jesus is enough. Powerful Preaching with PRO 14 days FREE, get started now... Enter your name and email to begin. Credit card required, cancel any time. Plus, get email updates & offers from SermonCentral. Privacy Now this same laser-like focus can be applied to every part of our worship service and the only part that I can think of that is not directly focused on drawing attention to Jesus is perhaps the announcement and greeting times. So, you see, evenwhen we add things like music to a “Jesus is enough” worship service it can still be a “Jesus is enough” worship service. Now, let’s take this whole thing to another level; from the church to me. Is the central focus of my life “Jesus is enough?” Do I live completely for Him? Can I say, “Jesus is enough?” Whatever He wants I want? Our society outside of the church is pleasure driven. Suzanna Wesley was the mother of John and Charles Wesley. This is what she said in an interview. “How would you judge the lawfulness or unlawfulness of ‘pleasure?’" Use this rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sight of God, takes from you your thirst for spiritual things or increases the authority of your body over your mind, then that thing to you is evil. By this test you may detect evil no matter how subtly or how plausibly temptation may be presented to you.” ? Susanna Wesley There will always be a tension between the allurements of this world and the purity and sufficiency of Jesus in our lives but with maturity and a greater love for Jesus His sufficiency increases and the allure of sin decreases. And on and on it goes, every decision reinforcing that “Jesus is enough” or that “no He’s not.” The first step of having a “Jesus is enough” life is coming to salvation. (explain) The next step is coming to the point where you can declare that your entire life is surrendered to Him and that He has the permission to go through your life and keepwhat He wants to keepand to throw out what He wants to throw out. And, whatever He wants to throw out you will pick up and carry to the curb for the garbage man to take away. “Jesus is enough” is the place where you will find all you everreally need.
- 80. Anything else isloss. The Present Power of Christ Crucified • Resource by John Piper javascript:; /authors/john-piper J o h n P i p e r P h o t o /authors/john-piper https://twitter.com/JohnPiper https://www.desiringgod.org/bookshttps://www.desiringgod.org/books/desiring- godhttps://www.desiringgod.org/books/why-i-love-the-apostle-paul /labs/the-bible-and-the-sermon-are-not-always-enough /interviews/how-do-i-respond-to-sexual-dreams /labs/how-pervasive-is-pauls-concern-with-conflict-in-the-church /interviews/what-should-i-expect-my-first-time-through-the-bible /interviews/are-personal-resolutions-effective-or-futile /articles/he-took-up-arms-against-liberalism/authors/john-piper • Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 Topic: Sanctification & Growth I wonder if you would agree with the following view of the cross of Christ: the crucifixion of Christ was a once-for-all substitution of the Son of God in my place so that I would not have to suffer but could enjoy the abundant life that he purchased for me. This is a common view today—in practice if not in theory. And it is very near the view that Paul had to contend with at Corinth. The Cross and the Christian l " The problem with this view of the cross is that it leaves out a huge fact—namely, the one Jesus statedin Luke 9:23—"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." When Christ died on the cross for sinners, he not only stood in my place, doing what I never could do (forgiving my sin), but he also showed me what I must do if I would save my life, namely, take up my own cross and join him on the Calvary road of death to self.
- 81. Christ died tosave us from hell but not to save us from the cross. He died so that we could be glorified, but not to keepus from being crucified. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily." For the Christian the cross of Christ is not merely a past place of substitution. It is also a present place of daily execution. Paul says in Romans 6:6, "Our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslavedto sin . . . Reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." In other words, never let the cross lose its crucifying power in your life! Neverlet it slip into the dim and misty past as though Christ died for sinners so that you can live for pleasure. The pleasures are coming! Some are already here—like forgiveness and acceptance and a measure of holiness and healing! But just like Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him, so it is with us in this fallen age according to the book of Hebrews (12:1–11). Most of the joy we long for is still over the horizon. And so the writer of Hebrews says to us (13:13–14), "Let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing abuse for him. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come." In other words if you would save your life, you must lose it, and if you would follow Jesus, you must take up your cross daily. The great tragedy of much contemporary Christianity is that the cross is safely relegated to the distant past. And practically what it means is that Jesus was soakedin blood so that I can soak in a Jacuzzi. And the bigger the tub, the more we honor the cross—so goes the prosperity gospel. The Root of All the Pride and Boasting at Corinth l " Now what does all this have to do with our text in 1 Corinthians 2:1–5? What Paul wants to show in this chapter is that the reason there is so much pride and boasting at Corinth is that they are not letting the cross have its crucifying effect in the present. They think they have advanced beyond the cross. The cross may have been necessary to get them over the problem of sin; but now they are filled and rich and wise and strong! They are kings! In their own eyes. The weakness of the cross, the foolishness of the cross, the humiliation of the cross—these are long gone! Look at Paul's agonizing use of irony in 1 Corinthians 4:8–11. Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. [Notice those two words: we are weak, and we are fools—the same two words used to describe the cross in 1:25. Divine weakness and divine foolishness! Now continuing at the end of verse 10:] You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. . . [verse 16] I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Now what's he saying? He's saying that they are wrong to think that Jesus died on the cross so that IN THIS AGE they might have fullness, wealth, kingly dignity, worldly wisdom and strength. The cross is not a mere event in history; it's a way of life! Take up your cross
- 82. DAILY, Jesus said!They weren't taking up their cross daily. They were taking up their scepter daily. They were sitting on their throne daily. They were leaving in the past what belongs in the present, namely, the cross. And they were trying to bring into the present what belongs in the future, namely, the power and dignity of glorified saints. And the result was that the cross was being emptied of its power to humble, and the inheritance was being contaminated with pride. And Paul was doing what he could in these early chapters of 1 Corinthians to show us that the Christian life is a life on the cross. The cross is not merely a past place of substitution; it is also a present place of daily execution—the execution of pride, and the execution of boasting in men, and the execution of self-reliance, and the execution of the love of money and status and the praise of men. Paul's Experience of the Present Power of the Cross l " What Paul does in 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 is illustrate from his own experience what he means by the present power of the cross. Let me try to lay out for you the building blocks of these five verses and then look at a few of them more closely. Paul describes the way he came to Corinth with two negative statements about how he DID NOT come, and two positive statements about how he DID come. In addition he tells us the GROUND of this kind of coming, namely, the cross. And he tells us the GOAL of this kind of coming, namely, that faith might rest in God's power not man's wisdom. How Paul Did Not Come to Corinth First, notice the two descriptions of how Paul did not come to Corinth. The first is in verse 1: "When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words of wisdom." The second description of how he did not come is in verse 4: "My speechand my message were not in plausible words of wisdom." This is exactly what Paul had said in 1:17—he preached the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom. We are going to see tonight that there was indeed a wisdom in what Paul spoke but it is not the wisdom of this world. And Paul's style of presenting the gospel was not with flourishes of eloquence that might win a following of people who just admire oratory. We know from Paul's letters that he was a profound thinker and that he could use language powerfully. But the point he is making here is that he did not preach the gospel with the hope of appealing to the worldly, unspiritual admiration of those things. He did not want people to respond because of his oratory or his intellect. How Paul Did Come to Corinth That is the description of how Paul did NOT come. Now what are the two descriptions of how he did come? The first is in verse 3: "I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. And the second description of how he did come is in verse 4. After saying that his speechand message were not in plausible words of wisdom, he goes on to say positively, that his speech and message were "in demonstration of the Spirit and power."
- 83. So the twodescriptions about how Paul did come to Corinth are that he was with them in weakness and fear and trembling, and that his message was in demonstration of the Spirit and power. What Paul's Weakness Was What was Paul's weakness? In 2 Corinthians 10:10 his opponents were saying, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speechis of no account." Evidently Paul did not have a very strong, appealing appearance. In fact there seems to have been something wrong with Paul physically that made him chronically weak and unattractive. Listen to how Paul describes the first time he preached to the churches in Galatia (Galatians 4:13–14): "You know it was because of a bodily ailment [=weakness] that I preached the gospel to you at first; and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God." The reason I think this weakness or ailment or condition was chronic is that Paul describes his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12 with this same language of weakness. He says in verse 9 that he will all the more gladly exult in his weaknesses because then the power of Christ rests on him. Jesus says to him, "My power is made perfect in your weakness." That's just the connection he makes here in our text, isn't it? He says in 2:3 that he was with them in weakness. And then he says in verse 4 that his words were in the demonstration of the Spirit and power—the same power that he says is made perfect in his weakness. Paul doesn't try to hide or deny his weaknesses that make him despicable to some. Instead he exults that God would be willing to use such an earthen vessel so that the powerful effect of his preaching might be clearly of God. Paul's Fear and Trembling And besides weakness there was this "fear and trembling" mentioned in verse 3. Which at least means this: he did not come to Corinth with a cocky air about him. There was no swagger or vanity or ostentation or pomposity. Instead there was meekness and a real trembling because his inadequacy was so great and the stakes were so high and the dangers were so real. If you say, "Wait a minute, I thought Christians are supposed to be confident and fearless," consider these words from a man who knew his share of suffering and opposition, John Calvin. The servants of the Lord are not so dull as not to see threatening dangers, nor so insensitive as not to be affected by them. No! and in fact they must be seriously apprehensive for two main reasons: 1) that, humbled in their own eyes, they might learn to lean and rest completely on God alone; and 2) that they might be trained in true self-denial. Paul, therefore, was not without a sense of anxiety, but he controlled it, so that he nonetheless continued to be undaunted in the midst of crises. (Commentary on the text) Doing Everything in Relation to Christ Crucified
- 84. Now what doesall this have to do with the cross of Christ? That Paul is trembling and fearful, that he is weak and unimpressive, that he avoids flourishes of oratory and intellectual ostentation—what's all that got to do with the cross? Well, in verse 2 Paul says that the reason he came to Corinth in this way is "because I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." What does this mean? It does not mean that the only thing he mentioned in his 18 months in Corinth was the cross, because again in this letter he scolds them for not understanding other things too. I think what it means is that whatever else he knew, whatever else he spoke about, and whatever else he did, he would know it and say it and do it in relation to Christ crucified. This brings us back to where we started. He will not let the cross become a historical relic. He puts it at the center of his everyday work and relationships. He makes tents in the shadow of the cross. He preaches in the shadow of the cross. He disputes with opponents in the shadow of the cross. He eats and drinks and sleeps Christ crucified. And the effect this has on him is make him a man of broken-hearted love, so out of step with this glory-seeking world that he can only be explained by the power of God. What Paul Means by "Power" I didn't say much about the word "power" in verses 4 and 5 where Paul says that his message was in "demonstration of the Spirit and power, that you faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Many take the power in these two verses to refer to miracles. Paul certainly worked miracles. But I doubt that is what he means here. I can't help but think that primary in Paul's mind is the power referred to back in 1:17 because it is the closest parallel to this verse, "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom [that's the connection with 2:3–5], lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." And so when he says in 2:4 that he did not come with this kind of eloquence but came in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, he most likely means the power of the cross. Christ crucified is called the "power of God" in 1:24 and therefore it's called the "power of God" in 2:5. What Paul Wanted Most of All l " What Paul wanted more than anything in his life was to get out of the way of the power of God. The thought that anyone might pin their hope or their faith on his eloquence or his strength was a dreadful thought to Paul. All he wanted was to placard Christ crucified so that the power of the cross could save sinners. And so what did he do? He died on the cross every day. He died to intellectual show. He died to impressive eloquence. He died to the secular demands of suave, self-assured, powerful, attractive performances. He was with us in weakness and in much fear and trembling so that our faith—yours and mine, this morning—might rest not in the wisdom of a man, but in the power of God—the power of Christ crucified.
- 85. I beg ofyou today, don't treat the cross like a historical relic of the past. It is the very power of God to change everything in your life. If you would be his disciple, if you would save your life and not lose it, take up this cross daily, count this world to be the Calvary road, not the streets of gold. Then people will see that your treasure is in heaven, and God will get the glory. Dr. Jack L. Arnold Winter Park, Florida Sermon #7 FIRST CORINTHIANS Christ And Him Crucified I Corinthians 2:1-5 Does it make any difference what we preach and how we preach it? Is the content of the gospel important, and is the way we present the gospel to people significant? If people are coming to church and are happy with Jesus what difference does it make as to what and how we preach? How many of us have honestly sat down with the Bible and tried to evaluate the general evangelical gospel of the twentieth century America? How many of us have tried to find out whether the mass evangelistic campaigns and the simple, canned gospel presentations of our day are actually scriptural? Have we swallowed hook, line and sinker the worldly philosophy that if something works it must be right? Have we sold out the gospel in order to play the numbers game? These are questions the Apostle Paul will answer for us by principles in this passage through the things which happened to the Corinthian church two thousand years ago. In I Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul shows his message of Christ was not given to him by any worldly wisdom. Because human wisdom plays no part in man’s salvation, Paul’s message, method and his motivation were not based on human wisdom. THE MESSAGE 2:1-2 When I came to you, brothers. The Apostle Paul refers to the time when he first came to Corinth. Before there were any Christians in that pagan city, Paul determined to have a message, method and a motivation in his evangelism which would please God and not men. I did not come with eloquence. The professional Greek philosophers were masters at making speeches and while they may have said little, they always said it beautifully. Paul was not a great orator who could keep the people on the edge of their seats, who used great illustrations and flowery words to impress people. For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing” (I Cor.
- 86. 10:10). Preaching thegood news of Christ is not delivering edifying discourses beautifully put together, but it is bearing witness to what God has done in Christ for man’s salvation. It is interesting to compare possibly the three greatest evangelists in North America during the last 150 years -- D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham. Neither Moody nor Graham was known for impressing audiences with lofty rhetoric; frequently their sermons were deemed simplistic. Sunday was known for a flashy style, but he still preached a very basic gospel message. But all three centered on the cross and the need for personal conversion. As a result, they gave encouragement to millions of "down-and-outers," and countless came to the Lord through their preaching (Craig Blomberg, First Corinthians). Or superior wisdom. Paul did not present human reasoning and philosophy to these Corinthians. He preached clearly, accurately and bluntly the Cross of Jesus Christ. Paul was not against using the mind or even using strong persuasion, but the mind was to be used to put down all the false arguments of the unsaved as to why they should not believe in Christ. But when it came to telling the gospel, Paul was a straight shooter and told it like it is. When Paul arrived in Corinth, the whole city was given over to exploring methods of fulfilling life by various philosophical schools, by giving themselves over to fleshly indulgences in the worship of sex, by immersing themselves in various commercial and business enterprises, and by seeking after beauty, art, music and the aesthetic things of life. He knew the godless, self- centered culture of Corinth and made a definite decision he would not speak in lofty, flowing phrases or great high sounding words or tell people all they needed was a little knowledge in special subjects or some insightful approach to life represented by a human philosophy. He committed himself to preaching Christ and Him crucified. Our American culture is much like Corinth. The wisdom of the world sounds so good. Through various media we are encouraged “to seek after the good life," “to become beautiful people”, “to live life with gusto,” “to find the real thing,” and “to live only for today.” In America we have swallowed a secular religious approach to life which says all that matters is the “here and now” and because man’s basic nature is good, we need to discover the great hidden powers within us. There are ten thousand variances of this one secular philosophy which says man is “number one” and that he can improve himself, and that by so doing, he can save himself. The essence of the New Age movement is self-improvement through discovering man’s higher powers which is god in us. According to the pollsters about 70% of all evangelicals believe people are basically good and become sinful by doing sinful acts, so the key is merely self-improvement where some of the bad things we do drop away. As I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. Paul preached “the testimony of God," the gospel, God’s message not man’s message. He tells us he received this message from Jesus Christ Himself. "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11-12). Notice carefully Paul “proclaimed” the gospel. He told the truth and let the chips fall where they may. He understood the gospel had power within itself to save. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Suppose there was a lion in a cage. On the outside of the cage there were some tough guy hecklers who were saying, “That lion is harmless; it has no power; it can’t hurt us.” All the
- 87. words in theworld will never convince the hecklers that this lion is a very dangerous animal. However, if the zoo keeper comes and opens the door of the cage and lets the lion out, now unbelievable power has been unleashed and I can assure you the hecklers will flee. What’s my point? Don’t cage up the gospel. Open up the cage and let the gospel out. Tell the message with confidence and souls will be saved. For I resolved. Paul made up his mind to preach Christ, and Him crucified, because this is the only message which can bring salvation to people. Why did he make this determination to preach a crucified Christ to them? The Cross of Christ is a judgment on the wisdom of man. The Cross says all of man’s wisdom, all of his philosophy, all of his good works, all of his achievements cannot bring salvation to him. What did the smart, the powerful and the religious people of Jesus’ day do to Him? They crucified Him. They denied, rejected and put Him to death because He brought judgment upon all their worldly ideas as having any merit in the salvation of a soul. Modern man still rejects Christ crucified because the Cross still says man cannot save himself by any human effort. Men basically do not reject Christ because they think He is crazy. They reject Him because they think He may be right, and if He is right then they are wrong. If they are wrong, then they have to set aside pride and humbly admit that Jesus is the Savior and He is God. Christ is a threat to modern man because He brings judgment upon human wisdom and says He alone is the way of salvation. The Apostle Paul understood it was only the message of the Cross which could save worldly men and women, so he made a resolve, a determination to preach nothing else. To know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ. Paul preached Christ as the God- Man, Christ the Messiah, Christ the Jehovah of the Old Testament and Christ the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He taught Christ was very God and very man. He held back no truth on the person of Christ And Him crucified. Paul did not preach Christ the great teacher, or Christ the supreme example, or Christ the martyr, or Christ the ideal man, or Christ the great humanitarian, or Christ the first prophet. He preached Christ crucified. When Paul came to Corinth, he did not start with the power of positive thinking. He began with the fact that people are sinners and Christ died for sinners. To tell a brilliant thinker, or a mighty military man, or a suave politician, or a cultured person in the arts that he is a sinner is not the best way to win friends and influence people, but this is where Paul began in his preaching. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12). Paul explained the only hope for sinners is the crucified Christ, and the only way to be saved is to acknowledge one’s total need of the crucified Christ. Paul was no compromiser or man pleaser. He never watered down the message of the Cross. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I lying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). To preach Christ crucified, encompasses many doctrines such as sin, judgment, hell, heaven, substitution, redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, justification, faith, repentance and salvation. The Cross touches every phase of the Christian faith and of Christian living. What Paul was saying is that “Christ and Him crucified” was the kernel of his message and the core of his preaching. He concentrated when preaching to the unsaved on the central truth—the crucified Christ.
- 88. The message ofChrist was met with great opposition in Paul’s day just like it is in our day, but we cannot stop preaching the message just because men react to it in that way. "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (I Cor. 9:16b). Why? This is the only message which transforms lives. It is this message which will change the world, for if it turned the world upside down in the first century, it surely can do so today. Paul did not preach social reform but a crucified Christ because he knew people who were converted to Christ would have a social impact upon the world. Therefore, we must dedicate ourselves to spreading the message of Christ which transforms people who in turn transform society. The story is told about a man who had been an alcoholic before he became a Christian. His old friends laughed and made fun of him and said, “You don’t really believe that Jesus turned water into wine, do you?” He replied, “Well, I don’t know about water changed to wine, but I'll tell you one thing I've seen. I've seen a lot of beer turned to furniture around my house!” THE METHOD 2:3-4 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. Paul came to Corinth in physical weakness for he had been physically persecuted just a few weeks before his arrival. He also had some kind of physical ailment. These things only made him totally dependent on God for results. He also came in "fear, and with much trembling.” Paul was overwhelmed by the task of evangelizing the great city of Corinth. His fears were allowed by God to humble him, causing him to rest on the Holy Spirit for results. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words. Paul's content (message) and method (preaching) were not in any way related to human wisdom. Again we must remind ourselves that the Greek professionals could argue so well they could convince just about anybody of anything. They could devise all kinds of systems for persuading people to acknowledge their particular philosophy or speculation. When Paul came to Corinth, he did not use previously designed methods for persuading people to become Christians and to accept the doctrines he was preaching. Rather, Paul's method was to rest in the sovereign work of the Spirit to convict and move men and women to respond to Jesus Christ by faith. Apparently Paul did not beg and plead with the Corinthians to come to Christ but preached Christ crucified and trusted in the Holy Spirit to apply the message to the heart, causing them to be broken by the Spirit so they would turn to Christ in submission, yielding to Him alone for salvation. But with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. Paul, in faithfulness and obedience, declared the message of Christ in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and God started to work, and people began to come to Christ. A few from the higher class believed, and the Spirit of God saved hundreds of common folks in that city. God even reached down to the morally outcast in the community and some of these were marvelously saved. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God” (I Cot. 6:9-11). Soon there was a spiritual awakening in Corinth, and before they knew what had happened a church was planted in that sinful city. Christians began to witness. Home meetings sprang up. There was a lot of “coffee cup” evangelism. The city was alive with spiritual excitement. There was no mass, city-wide evangelistic campaign. There were people just like you and me sharing
- 89. what God haddone in their lives through Christ This is the biblical way of evangelism. There may be a cultural place in our society for mass evangelistic campaigns, but they are not God’s primary way of getting evangelism done. What then was Paul’s method? It was to share the gospel with everyone, depending upon a powerful demonstration of the Holy Spirit. A demonstration means “a convincing proof,” so it is through the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit that men are convicted of sin and convinced of their need of Christ. Paul’s methodology reflects his theology--God sovereignly saves sinners by grace through faith in Christ. When Paul came to Corinth, he did not have a fancy evangelistic organization. He did not have a team of advance agents with emphasis upon advertisements on radio, TV and billboards. He did not go after only the influential people, thinking that with them he could make a big impact upon the city. No! He came in the power of the Spirit to preach to any and all who would receive the message of Christ crucified. He didn’t target just the rich or the poor, the educated or the uneducated, the corporate executives or the little people. He targeted any and all for Christ, letting the Holy Spirit save whom He pleased. This was his method in every city where he went. "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, be-cause our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” (I Thess. 1:4-5). We are living in a day and age in which the methodology of most Christians in America reflects their theology—one that is more man-centered than God-centered. Consequently, Christians have capitulated to methods of human persuasion designed by wise and intelligent men but which are human wisdom at best. Many Christians are incensed if an altar call is not used at the end of a church service. The altar call is helped along by soft music and constant pleading of the pastor or evangelists for people to come forward to make a decision for Christ (“Just one more verse”). During this time of coming forward, there are no doubt many emotional psychological factors taking place. Yet, altar calls are not found in scripture and were not used in the church until about a hundred and fifty years ago. It is not sin to use an altar call, but it is a human method and in my opinion does not depend wholly on the Holy Spirit for results. Then there are all the canned methods of presenting the gospel, whether they have four, six, eight or ten steps to easy conversion. A person is led along by clever questions and salesmanship psychology, resulting in a point of decision where a person prays a canned prayer or mimics the prayer of the one witnessing to him. Please do not misunderstand me for I do use the gospel presentation in Evangelism Explosion when I have the time to make a longer presentation. I also use a tract called “Would You Like To Know God Personally?” by Campus Crusade for Christ when I just have a short time to make a presentation. However, I do make a few changes in these presentations to make them a more scriptural. Then in our generation within a few short years the popularity of the “seeker friendly church” has sprung up in which Sunday mornings are used to bring unbelievers to church and a non-offensive, watered down presentation of the gospel is made so as to help people like and enjoy Christ. Then hopefully they will come back and more direct evangelism can be used. Again, do not misunderstand me. There are many things in the “seeker friendly church” we all can learn from but the one thing we can never do is water down the gospel in order to make it pleasing to people. Certainly we need no human, man-made gimmicks to get people to Christ. What we want is for the Holy Spirit to convince men of their need of Christ and He can do His work without any artificial means of persuasion. We need common men and women, preachers and evangelists, to depend upon the Holy Spirit for results
- 90. as they declarethe message of the crucified Christ to all men. When we do it God’s way there will be two basic results: one is that there will be souls saved and the other is that there will be lots of opposition from the non-Christian world and also from the unsaved and unspiritual people in the church. When we declare Christ’s message with Christ’s methods, depending on the Christ's Spirit, we will get Christ's results. Probably not as many people will make professions of faith but far more of those who make professions of faith will stay with Christ and follow Him all the days of their lives when the biblical methods and message are used. THE MOTIVATION 2:5 So that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. The reason Paul preached the message of Christ and did not use the persuasive methods of men’s wisdom was that he wanted their faith to be founded and grounded on the power of God. Saving faith is ultimately rooted in the power of God. Saving faith is the result of the work of God, the Holy Spirit, convincing a man of his sin, of God’s wrath on his life, of the death of Jesus Christ for him and leading him to a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. Supernatural saving faith is what Paul preached without any superhuman, superficial methods of persuasion. Rationalistic faith which accepts Christianity as the most acceptable and logical philosophy of life is not saving faith but a false faith. Emotional faith that conjures up all kinds of psychological responses and religious experiences in man is not saving faith but false faith. How often when I talk to people, especially in the deep South, and ask them if they are saved, born of God’s Spirit, at peace with God, they answer, "Well, I went down front in one of the church services. I wept publicly with the pastor. I prayed the sinner’s prayer,” but this is not necessarily saving faith. It is possible for a person to walk down a hundred sawdust trails, pray a thousand canned prayers, weep over sin and still never be saved. Why? Saving faith is the work of the Holy Spirit, convincing a person of the work of Jesus Christ on his behalf and leading him into a permanent acceptance of Jesus Christ into his life as Lord and Savior. It would be a tragic thing indeed if a person had a faith which rested on some rational approach to Christianity or a faith which was placed on some emotional experience but was not true saving faith. The person would be deceived, thinking he or she was a Christian only to die and discover in hell he or she never had true saving faith in the crucified Christ for salvation. Human wisdom and methods may deceive men but when men truly are moved by the supernatural power of God, they cling only to Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus put it this way, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). CONCLUSION If you are a non-Christian and the Holy Spirit is convicting you of your sin and is working in your heart, convincing you that Christ died for you, that His death for sin paid your debt to God and that you can have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Christ by receiving Him as Savior and Lord, then quietly bow your will to Him and by faith say, “Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me a sinner. I cannot save myself. I accept you at this moment as my Savior and Lord. I have heard your voice calling me. I yield to you alone for salvation, and I promise to follow you all the days I live.” When you do this and mean it, you will know saving faith has come to you through the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.
- 91. NOTHING BUT JESUS Dr.W. A. Criswell 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 3-27-55 7:30 p.m. In the message of the morning, we were in the conclusion of the first chapter of the first Corinthian letter, and now tonight, we begin the second chapter of the first Corinthian letter; and if you will turn to the passage, you can look at it while I try to preach from it: First Corinthians, the second chapter. It’s of a part and of a piece with the first chapter. Now the second chapter begins: And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony – the oracles, the revelation – of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. [1 Corinthians 2:1-5] That’s the passage, and we take the first part of it tonight: And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the oracles of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. [1 Corinthians 2:1-2] And the thought of the message tonight is from that word: "I determined not to know anything but Jesus and Jesus crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. For you see, Paul had a tremendous reversal in his personal devotion, the commitment of his life [Philippians 3:4-11]; and out of that tremendous reversal came personal and theological and intellectual problems that were almost overwhelming. Paul was trained in all the learning of the rabbis [Acts 22:3]. He possibly, almost certainly, was a member of the Sanhedrin [Philippians 3:4-5]. He was a young man in his thirties, maybe just thirty – certainly not more than thirty-one or thirty-two – when that tremendous reversal came in his life. For a young fellow like that to be a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Israelite nation, was one of the most signal honors that could come to any neophyte. He said in his letters, referring to himself – boasting not because of pride but because others forced him to defend his ministry, his apostleship in Jesus [1 Corinthians 9:1-27] – he said of himself that he excelled in the religion of the Jewish people above all others of his own peerage, his own age, his own group [Galatians 1:14].
- 92. He was afine, brilliant, young student. He was a disciple of the school of Gamaliel [Acts 22:3], and he was given to all the religion of Judaism [Galatians 1:13-14; Philippians 3:5-6]. Then in the midst of his fervent and zealous exposition of rabbinical lore and knowledge – in the midst of it, zealous even to the persecution of the church even in to strange cities [Acts 9:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:13] – in the midst of that devotion to the tradition of his fathers, he became a Christian – the exact opposite of what he had been expounding [Acts 9:1-31; Galatians 1:23]. Well I say, any such reversal as that would posit in any man’s life tremendous intellectual and religious problems. So when Paul began to preach, it was not immediate upon his conversion; but he went into Arabia, in the sands of the deserts, and he stayed there three solid years [Galatians 1:11-18]. There he communed with God. There he talked to Christ. There he wrestled like Jacob did at the River Jabbok [Genesis 32:22-32]. There he wrestled with God, and there did those revelations come to him that made him refer to the gospel that he preached as "my gospel" [Romans 2:16, 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8]: "Though I, or an angel from heaven, preach unto you any other gospel than the gospel I have preached unto you, let him be anathema" [Galatians 1:8]. "For I have received of the Lord Jesus that which also I delivered unto you . . ." [1 Corinthians 11:23]. The gospel that Paul preached came out of tremendous personal struggle before the Lord; and the things that he preached, he received by direct revelation from Jesus Christ [Galatians 1:12]. And I say that period of tremendous reversal came right after his conversion when he opened his heart to God to the new revelation and the new faith in Christ Jesus. So he began to preach it. In the city of Damascus when he returned from Arabia [Acts 9:1-20; Galatians 1:17] – in the city of Damascus, he first lifted up his voice preaching Jesus and Him crucified [Acts 9:19-22]. They let him out, preserved his life by letting him down in a basket over the wall [Acts 9:23-26]. Then he went to Jerusalem and he preached the same gospel: Jesus and Him crucified [Acts 9:26-28]. The brethren sent him away lest he be destroyed [Acts 9:29- 30]. In the first missionary journey in Pisidian Antioch, the Judaizing people raised a mob against him, and he was expelled from the city still preaching Jesus and Him crucified [Acts 13:14-52]. At Lystra, he was stoned and dragged out of the city for dead [Acts 14:6-19], but he arose with the life quickened within him, his breath restored by God [Acts 14:20]; he arose still to preach Jesus and Him crucified [Acts 14:20-21]. In Philippi, he was beaten and, with Silas, placed in an inner dungeon, but he was still preaching Jesus, and Him crucified [Acts 16:22-33]. In Thessalonica and in Berea where he suffered persecution [Acts 17:1-15], as everywhere else that he preached, he still was true to the gospel he received from the Lord Himself. He was preaching Jesus, and Him crucified. Then something happened in the city of Athens. I don’t know what. I don’t know why. You can be persecuted and you can be beat, you can be put in stocks and in chains, you can be placed on the inside of prison wall, and if you have a great conviction, if you have a tremendous commitment, the harder you’re persecuted, the more adamantine are those convictions crystallized in your soul. But there’s something in a man’s life – weakness, the way he’s put together – I don’t know what it is, but there’s something in the composition of a man’s soul that, when he’s in dead earnest and he’s delivering his soul and he has a great truth and he’s trying to say it to the people, you just let
- 93. the folks outthere in front of him laugh at him and scorn and ridicule what he says, and it will unnerve and unhinge and unhook like nothing else in the world. I say, you can persecute a man for what he’s preaching, and if he’s sincere and earnest, persecution just makes him the more fervent and zealous in his zeal to make known those truths. But laugh at him, ridicule him, make fun of him, scorn him, and it does something to him. Now, especially is that true if the scoffing and the ridicule is done by intellectuals – people of the university, people of training, people of knowledge and understanding, people of scholarship and background. Let them belittle him, let them speak of the ignorance in his life: "What he does, he does because he doesn’t know any better. Why, listen to him! If he had studied, if he had learned, if he were a product of the schools, he wouldn’t be as he is." And to laugh, and to joke, and to scorn, and to belittle, and to ridicule is a weapon that not many men can withstand. Now, Paul was human. He was a great man of God and had committed himself to the gospel of Christ, but his experience at Athens [Acts 17:16-34] was something he had never met before. Every time he preached, it had been in an atmosphere of either tremendous devotion to the cause he espoused or tremendous opposition. But in any event, it was serious, dead in earnest either way. But in Athens they never hurt a hair of his head. They never laid a hand on his body. They never so much as put the weight of a finger on him. Those Athenians – the intellectuals, the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers – as they listened to him preach the Lord Jesus, they looked at one another and with raised eyebrows said, "Well. Well." And some of them laughed out loud [Acts 17:32], and some of the more courteous bowed and said, "Oh, yes, yes, we’ll hear you again of the matter. Yes, yes. Yes, yes, we’ll uh – we’ll come back again, yes, yes. Yes, we understand." And in disdain and in intellectual superiority, they walked away smiling and laughing to one another [Acts 17:32]. Now I say that plunged the apostle Paul into a reexamination of all of his faith, of all of his commitment, of all of his devotion, of all of his preaching. And if you don’t have that background, the things that you’ll find here written by Paul won’t have much meaning to you for Paul will be saying – listen to him: "Christ sent me . . . to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom and the sophistry of men" [1 Corinthians 1:17], not like an Epicurean, not like a Stoic, not like a Platonic teacher, not like a Socratic philosopher, not like an Aristotilean disciple: ",not with the wisdom of men, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish idiocy," foolishness, moronic, "but unto us who are saved it is the power of God" [1 Corinthians 1:17-18]. "For after that in the wisdom of the world," the smartness of the world, the philosophy and metaphysics of the world, "For after that," in the sophistry of the world, the world by its wisdom, by its sophistry, by its metaphysical acumen, by its philosophical insight, "the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe., We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks idiocy" – foolishness, ridiculousness! – "but unto us who are called, Jew or Greek, Christ the power of God, and the revelation, and the wisdom and the gift of God" [1 Corinthians 1: 21, 23-24]. "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in sophistry," came not preaching philosophy or metaphysics. When I came to you, I came not with beautiful and excellent orations; "When I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the revelations of God. For I had determined" – he had just left Athens; all of that in his heart and in
- 94. his soul makinghis journey down there to Corinth – "For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:1-2]. Now in another message, maybe still another, we’ll have other things to say. But tonight, at the beginning of this revival meeting, I’m taking this text as a delineation of our task in this ministry. This is a thing to which this pastor, this pulpit, and, I am persuaded, our people are fully committed. First, we have here a definition of method: "I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. "For Christ sent me . . . to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect . . . for . . . it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:17, 21]. First, I say, a definition of method. How shall our church be organized? How shall it be run? Around what shall it be built? And how shall we do and how shall we take seriously the commandment of our God to evangelize the world? How shall we do it? This is the way we shall do it. We shall build our church around the preaching ministry of the Son of God. We shall build our church around its pulpit. We shall build our church around its sanctuary. We shall build our church around its high altar before God. We shall preach our church around the message of Jesus Christ. A definition of how we shall do: we shall build our church around the ministry, the breaking of bread, the preaching of the Son of God. All the other things that we do in our church are but to lead to that great and high and holy and heavenly and precious hour when the Book is opened and appeal is made in the name of Christ. And of those things, we have many; we have many. We pray. All last week in the daytime and in the evening, we had prayer services. Praying for what? That in prayer itself, people might be saved: "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:21]. Our praying was to the end that when the pastor lifts his hand God might bear His arm to save. We’re to visit. We’re to knock at the door. But in no wise, and in no sense, is it our persuasion that visitation evangelism could ever take the place of the gathering of our people together for the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. We have many, many other programs in the church. We have a great recreational program. We have a great social program. We have our retreats. We have our Sunday school. We have our Training Union, our Brotherhood, our W.M.U. [Women’s Missionary Union]. We have a great program that goes by day and by night seven days out of every week. But the great end and the great purpose that lies back of all that we do is reaching out and up toward this holy hour when on Sunday morning and on Sunday night the church gathers together for the reading of the Word, for the preaching of the cross, and for the appeal that men turn and accept Christ as their Savior. Our church is built around this focal point: the preaching of the Word of God. There are many substitutes that in our day especially are made for that. The church comes together, and they look at a picture show. The church comes together, and they go through Chautauqua services. The church comes together, and they have many and varied programs. Always and without exception, that makes for a weak church, and the spiritual depth of the people is thinner, and thinner, and more shallow, and more shallow!
- 95. "It pleased Godby the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:21]. "And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah" [Isaiah 38:4]. "And the word of God came to Jeremiah" [Jeremiah 36:27]. And the word of the Lord came to Amos, and he lifted up his voice and spake saying,[Amos 3:1, 3:8 7:16]. "And in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" [Matthew 3:1-2] "And Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and saying, "Repent, ye, and believe the gospel" [Mark 1:14-15]. It’s a delineation. It’s a defining of method. How shall we do? We shall do this: "We are determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2] and "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" [1 Corinthians 1:21]. This is our method. We have here a definition of content. What shall we preach? What shall we preach? Why, this is what we shall preach. We shall preach the new theology. We shall preach the new light. We shall preach the new psychology. We shall preach all of these things that go into psychiatry. We shall preach all of the things that enter into the latest book reviews, the latest magazine articles, and the latest current events, and what we think about all of the social issues of the day. We shall preach intellectualism. We shall preach social amelioration. This is what we shall preach: the sophistry of a passing moment. No, sir! No, sir! We have here defined the content of our method: "For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. Our preaching, our preaching is the Lord – in the beginning, in the middle, in the end, all in between. We have one message and one sermon: it’s the Lord; it’s the Lord. Somebody listening to Spurgeon time after time, somebody said about Spurgeon: "He has one sermon – just preaches one sermon all the time." And somebody came to Mr. Spurgeon and said, "Mr. Spurgeon, a man who’d heard you preach a lot said you have just one sermon, just one sermon, and you preach that sermon all the time." And Mr. Spurgeon replied, "That’s right. That’s right." He said, "Wherever in the Bible I take my text, I make a beeline to the cross and start preaching about the Lord Jesus" [quoted in The Lutheran Standard, vol. 5, 1965]. That’s it. That’s it! We know one thing. We have one gospel. We have one message – Jesus Christ and Him crucified: "And I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ on the cross" [1 Corinthians 2:2], dying for our sins, raised for our justification [Romans 4:25]. I can tell it anywhere, anywhere – tell it anywhere – when a man preaches the gospel: find it anywhere, sense it anywhere, see it anywhere. In the Garden of Eden, the Lord took animals and slew them and poured their blood out into the ground – the first shedding of blood – and He made coats of skins to cover the nakedness of Adam and his wife [Genesis 3:21]. That’s it. That’s it – the blood. That’s the gospel; that’s Jesus. It looked forward to the covering, the atonement of the Lord Jesus – Christ and Him crucified. This is it. "And when I see the blood, I’ll pass over you" [Exodus 12:13]. That’s it. That’s it. It’s got a color to it. It’s straight. It’s a crimson way. That’s it. "When I see the blood, I’ll pass over you" [Exodus 12:13]. That’s the gospel: Jesus and Him crucified [1 Corinthians 15:3-4]. I’ll listen to Isaiah:
- 96. All we likesheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, unto his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened up not His mouth. [Isaiah 53:6-7] That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. It’s the blood. It’s the blood. It’s the Lamb of God. That’s it. Look into glory. "Who are these arrayed in white robes and whenst came they? These are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" [Revelation 7:13-14]. That’s it. That’s is it. That’s it. In the passage I read this morning: "And there came a soldier and pierced His side, and forthwith flowed thereout blood and water" [John 19:34]. That’s it. That’s it. It has a color to it. The preaching of the Son of God always has a color to it. It’s a scarlet message; it’s a crimson way. It’s the story of the cross. It’s the preaching of the blood: "For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. We have a definition of content – that’s it: Jesus dying for our sins; Jesus buried; Jesus raised for our justification [Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4]. That’s it. Every time you see the pastor baptize a boy, a girl, a man or woman who’s given his heart to the Lord Jesus – that’s it: He died for our sins; He was buried, and He was raised for our justification [Romans 4:25]. Buried with the Lord in the likeness of His death and raised in the likeness of His resurrection [Romans 6:5]. That’s it. We know one thing. We know one thing: Jesus Christ and Him crucified [1 Corinthians 2:2]. I make a last avowal. A definition of method: preaching the gospel, everything leading to that holy and sacred hour; a definition of content: Christ and Him crucified; a definition of life: "I am crucified with Christ Jesus; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" [Galatians 2:20]. "Determined not to know to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. The Spirit of Christ in a man is the Spirit that exalts Him [John 16:14], the crucified Christ: raising Him, raising Him – not looking at the man, not looking at the preacher, not looking at the sermon, not looking at man – looking at the Lord Jesus; and the more the Spirit of the crucified Lord is in us, the more do we hide ourselves away that He might be seen [Galatians 2:20, 6:14]. Those nearest to the Lord in time were so much like that. You can hardly find them. All you can find is the Lord Jesus that they uphold. For example, I turn in my Book. The first gospel here, you say, is the Gospel of Matthew. What makes you think so? There’s not a man in the earth that knows. The ancient tradition said that Matthew wrote an Aramaic gospel, and on the basis of that Aramaic gospel, this first gospel was made in translation into Greek. But you won’t find Matthew there: you won’t find his name; you won’t find his signature. Who wrote it? He didn’t say. Matthew hid himself away, and there the Lord Jesus – just look unto Him. Who wrote the second gospel? You say Mark. You could read Mark’s gospel a thousand years; you’ll never find a signature to it. You’ll never find Mark mentioned. The tradition of the fathers comes down and says to us, "Mark wrote it." That’s all. But Mark – hide himself away holding up the Lord Jesus.
- 97. You say thethird gospel is Luke. You could read it all you like; you’ll never see Luke there. There’s not a mention of him nor a reference to him. He hid himself away, raising up the Lord Jesus. The Gospel of John: John never calls his name. When he refers to himself in the story, because he was one of the disciples, he never calls his name. He just says "the disciple that Jesus loved" [John 13:23], or, "the disciple that lay on His bosom" [John 13:23] at the Last Supper. It was the Lord Jesus, not John – holding up the Lord Jesus. The crucified life is like that: not we; it’s Him. It’s the Lord, not us. It’s Him, not of us. It’s the Lord Jesus – all the Lord Jesus. A man went to hear two preachers. When he heard the first one, a world-famous man, he said, "What a great orator. What a marvelous speaker. What a glorious preacher." When he heard the second one, he went away saying, "What a marvelous Savior. What a glorious Lord! What a marvelous Redeemer. What a wonderful, wonderful Jesus." The commitment of our life: none of self and all of Thee. Kurios Iēsous – Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus. For us, we hide ourselves away, put ourselves in the background, bury ourselves in our hands, cover our faces like the seraphim who were close to the throne of God [Isaiah 6:2]. Do you remember them – how they’re described? "With twain of their wings they flew, with twain of their wings they covered their feet, and with twain of their wings they covered their faces" [Isaiah 6:2]. Who would be equal to stand in the presence of God? We hide our faces; we cover our faces [Exodus 3:6; Luke 5:8; Revelation 1:17]. Lord, Lord, that they don’t see me, that they don’t see us, because if they do, they’ll stumble. They’ll make mistakes looking at us. They’ll fall into error looking at us, but they’re to look at the Lord Jesus. We’re to raise up the Lord Jesus – not preaching ourselves but Christ Jesus and ourselves His slaves [2 Corinthians 4:5]. That’s where the Greek is – "and ourselves His slaves for your sake" [2 Corinthians 4:5]. If in His name we can wash feet [John 13:5-17], if in His name we can minister [Ephesians 3:7, Colossians 1:23], if in His name we can serve [Romans 12:6-7], if in His name, we can help [Matthew 10:42], we are your slaves for Jesus’ sake [2 Corinthians 4:5]. But it isn’t us, it’s the Lord Jesus. Look to Him. Look to Him. I don’t know how we are; I know He’s all right. I don’t know how we may fare; I know He’s all right. I don’t know into what pitfalls we may stumble, but He is all right. I don’t know with what error we live our lives day after day, but I know He is all right. And if we can just look to Jesus. Don’t look to man; don’t look to organization; don’t look to church; don’t look to ordinances; don’t look to the preacher. Look to Him. Keep your eyes upon Him, and I know you’ll be all right. He’s all right. Holding up Jesus: "For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" [1 Corinthians 2:2]. May we pray? Our Lord, all that in this spirit of dedication written large on the page here by Thy servant Paul, would to God there might be a like commitment on the part of all the members of this church, the body of Christ. We’re doing one thing. We know one thing. Our lives are committed to one thing: not the exaltation of self, not pride and vanity and vainglory, but lifting up the cross, raising high the banner of Jesus, pointing men to the Lamb of God. Look! Look! Behold! Behold, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus! [John 1:29]. Look to Him. Look to Him. Look and live [Numbers 21:7-9; John 3:14-15]. There He is. There He is. He’s at your side. He’s knocking at the door of your heart [Revelation 3:20]. Let Him in; let Him in. Look to Jesus: look and live, my brother, live [Numbers 21:7-9; John 3:14-15].
- 98. O Christ, thatas we stand in this holy place, it might be a raising of the cross upon which the Son of God died, that men coming to these services might go out these doors not conscious of us but conscious of the Lord who died for us, who was raised that we might live with Him. Ah, that all that we do or say might flow to the glory of our Master, less and less and, finally, nothing of us; more and more and more and, finally, all of Him [John 3:30; 2 Corinthians 5:15]. Oh, may the spirit of sacrifice, of self-effacement, of the abandonment of all that is selfish and personal – that it might be more and more of the power and the presence and the glory of the Lord Jesus determining one thing: raising high the cross of Christ in the pulpit, in the life, in our witness and testimony. In all that we do, looking to Him, pointing to Him. Bless, Lord, the appeal of tonight; and as our people shall bear it on wings of prayer to the great host assembled, may somebody be saved. May somebody tonight look and live. May somebody tonight give his heart to Jesus. May somebody tonight come down that aisle, take the pastor by the hand: "Here I am, and here I come. I have felt His presence. I have sensed this call, and here I am responding with my life." The Lord grant it in His holy name. Amen. Now while we sing our song, while we make appeal, somebody you, give your heart to the Lord: "Here I am Pastor, and here I come." Somebody you, put his life in the church: a family you, a child, a youth – somebody re-give himself to the work and ministry and testimony of Christ. However God shall make appeal, open the door, lead the way while we sing this song. Would you come? Would you make it now? In the balcony, anywhere – while we sing, would you come? As our people stand, pray, and wait, and make appeal, and sing the song, you come. Great Texts of the Bible The Sum of saving Knowledge For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.—1 Corinthians 2:2. There is another way of translating the text. Some have translated it thus: “For I did not determine to know anything among you.…” According to Godet, “the Apostle does not say ‘I determined (judged good) not to know …’ but ‘I did not judge good to know …’ He intentionally set aside the different elements of human knowledge by which he might have been tempted to prop up the preaching of salvation. He deemed that he ought not to go in quest of such means.” I The Apostle’s Determination 1. I determined. There is no doubt or hesitation in this statement. These are the words of one who had weighed the matter well, and knew whereof he spoke. Here is one who blows the trumpet of truth with no uncertain sound, who speaks with no tremor in his voice; who has a decided conviction of what he knows and believes, and who thinks, and speaks, and acts in accordance with that knowledge and belief. St. Paul has decided for himself what is true; and is determined
- 99. to declare itand to stand by it. St. Paul was no hired teacher—not an official expounder of a system. He preached what he believed. He felt that his words were Eternal Truth; and hence came their power. He preached ever as if God Almighty were at his side; hence arises the possibility of discarding elegance of diction and rules of oratory. For it is half-way towards making us believe, when a man believes himself. Faith produces faith. If you want to convince men, and ask how you shall do it, we reply, Believe with all your heart and soul, and some souls will be surely kindled by your flame.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson.] 2. Not improbably this determination of St. Paul’s represents a temptation conquered, a soul- conflict won. To such a one as he, it would be a trial of spirit to contemplate service in such a city as Corinth. Corinth was a centre of fashion. Shall he essay to appeal to the fashionable crowd with “Christ crucified” as the central theme? Will he not repel them thus? May he not emphasize other aspects of Christ which will be attractive and not repellent? Thus the evil one would ply him. But the God of peace crushed Satan under his feet, and his splendid “I determined” rings out. Corinth was an æsthetic city. Its architecture is a proverb still, and its brasses are still famous. Corinth was an intellectual city. Its typical Greek love of philosophy all men know. It was an opulent commercial city too. Shall he not soften the truth and smooth his message? Will not taste, and culture, and materialism, and wealth resent the preaching of “Christ crucified”? It may be, but, “I determined,” cries this hero of the Cross. He will cry out and shout in the delicate ears of Corinth nothing but the crucified Lord. 3. What is the ground of this intense and all-absorbing faith? St. Paul believes that he has in his hand something that will explain man to himself, a man’s life to himself. He is so firmly convinced of this that, although his mind is large and capacious and he can view with a sympathetic admiration many of the magnificent manifestations of world-power, still, in his own estimate, the sacred message which he has to give to the world is worth all else besides. He is quite alive, as his letter shows, to the variety of powers, the nimbleness of intellect, the ambitious skill which the Corinthians possess; he knows that they are a people eager to express themselves in many ways, that they rejoice in the powers of rhetoric, in the gifts of tongue, in skilful elucidation of philosophical mysteries. But still he comes to these, and he says: “I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He has made up his mind that this particular formula, “Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” expresses for the world a great, a central, an extensive truth. This is the knowledge for which St. Paul counts all else but loss—“to know Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” This is the simple gospel: its simplicity is its offence in the eyes of many. Nevertheless there are infinite depths in it. It is as when we look into the clear depths of some swift-flowing river. Its very clearness had deceived us. We thought it but a shallow stream, and are astonished at its undreamed-of depths. So with this message of St. Paul, we notice its simplicity first, its apparent narrowness, its exclusiveness; and then we see something of its depth, its boundlessness, its comprehensiveness. Berry told some of his Bolton friends, at the time, how startled and disappointed he had been at finding himself powerless for a while to give help and comfort to a woman who was dying, amid tragic and squalid surroundings, in one of the lowest parts of the town. He had been called upon to minister to her, but as he unfolded the Christian message, as he was wont to preach it then—
- 100. the doctrine ofthe Divine Fatherhood and the Eternal Love—as he told the story of the Prodigal and the Magdalene, her heart gave no response, and she looked up with eyes which seemed to him to ask if that was all he had to say to a lost and dying woman. Under a new afflatus, that came he knew not whence, he began with trembling voice to speak on evangelical simplicities, to tell of Christ’s death for a world’s sin, and to point her to the Cross for pardon. To his joy and wonder he found that in response to words as simple as those he heard at his mother’s knee, the sinful one found rest and peace.1 [Note: J. S. Drummond, Charles A. Berry, 35.] Who speaketh now of peace? Who seeketh for release? The Cross is strength, the solemn Cross is gain. The Cross is Jesus’ breast, Here giveth He the rest That to His best belov’d doth still remain. How sweet an ended strife! How sweet a dawning life! Here will I lie as one who draws his breath With ease, and hearken what my Saviour saith Concerning me; the solemn Cross is gain; Who willeth now to choose? Who strives to bind or loose? Sweet life, sweet death, sweet triumph and sweet pain.2 [Note: Dora Greenwell.] II The Concentration of his Message Every act of self-determination involves a corresponding self-repression. Every selection includes at least one alternative. No man commits himself to a really practical resolution without first putting away and rejecting. Many pursuits invited St. Paul. They were attractive, pleasant, honourable, useful to the world. He had all the instincts of a student. He was a scholar with splendid capacity. He might have been, we feel persuaded, a greater than Philo, than Seneca—a greater than Plato himself. “To know Jesus Christ, and him crucified” is the end for which
- 101. everything else issacrificed. By “Jesus Christ,” the Apostle understands His manifestation in general—His life, death, and Messianic dignity. Yet, while confining himself to this elementary theme of preaching, he might still have found means to commend Jesus to the attention and admiration of the wise. But he determined “not to know anything, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He will not know even Jesus Christ except in one aspect. That is the idea. One of our best exegetes thus renders the words: “And even Him as having been crucified.” It is the crucified Christ alone that he will know. Observe the far-reaching word “know.” Not merely does he refuse to speak on any other theme, but he will “know” none other. The crucified Saviour shall fill the whole horizon of his mind and heart. He will, so to say, severely limit his Christology to this phase: “Even Him as having been crucified.” 1. St. Paul disdained systems of philosophy or the teaching of morality merely. The Gospel has been presented as a philosophy. The development of the Church, the innumerable attacks of scepticism, the rise of problems within Christianity itself have rendered imperative the presentation of the Christian system as a well-ordered scheme of philosophical thought. Profound thinkers have arisen from time to time in the Christian Church who have demonstrated the reasonableness of Christianity as a philosophical system, and the work of these thinkers is of great value. But where one man is converted by reading books of apologetics or theology, a thousand are drawn and held captive by the pathos of Calvary—the moving, subduing story of the Cross. Men of all orders and degrees, of all climes and tongues, have owned the wondrous contagion of the Cross, and have yielded to its strange compulsion. We are philosophers who have found the truth, chemists who have discovered (or rather been told of) the elixir of life; as we read again our Plato and Aristotle, and even the modern searchers after truth, we are the children On whom those truths do rest That they are toiling all their lives to find. To be at the centre of all things; to have disclosed in our undeserving ears the secret of the ages; to know for certain how the world came into being; to have in the Cross the long sought after key to the suffering of the world; to be told what all this curious world is tending towards—that is our real position in the realm of thought.1 [Note: A. F. Winnington Ingram, Messengers, Watchmen, and Stewards, 16.] 2. Theology cannot take the place of the Cross. Nothing has been more fatal in the history of Christianity than that marvellous intellectual curiosity which has been earnest to invent doctrine after doctrine, experience upon experience, till there appears a complete scheme of dogmatic ideas which is called systematic theology. But theological ideas, however systematic, lead only to barrenness and dryness if theologians ignore the fundamental principle which the Apostle has laid down—that the key is not to be found in a theology apart from a person, nor in a person apart from a theology. Whatever the Apostles teach, they always teach Christ. They never turn their teaching into dry intellectual formulae; they abhor the exaggerated rationalism—for it is nothing more—of the extreme dogmatist, just as they have no sympathy with the incoherent gush which satisfies indolent devotion.
- 102. A man maybe a great theologian and at the same time a great sinner. If theology could save anybody the devil himself would have been converted long ago. He is one of the most expert theologians alive; he can quote Scripture for his purpose with marvellous propriety; but he is the devil yet for all that. On the other hand, there are many whose theological knowledge is hardly worth the name, but whose devout and godly lives are a pattern and an inspiration to all who see them.1 [Note: H. W. Horwill.] 3. Science cannot take the place of the Cross. Some are constantly asserting the claim of science to supersede Christianity. Many well-meaning Christians are spending the time which might be devoted to evangelistic work in endeavouring to reconcile the book of Genesis with the latest scientific theory, or in attempting, from a very superficial knowledge of the subject, to reply to men who not only possess an enormously larger stock of facts on scientific matters, but who also—and this is far more important—have had the advantage of a scientific training. Let us leave to experts investigation into the condition of the early inhabitants of the world. The most serious question in the world is not, What think ye of Darwin? or even, What think ye of Moses? It is, What think ye of Christ? O world invisible, we view thee, O world intangible, we touch thee, O world unknowable, we know thee, Inapprehensible, we clutch thee. Does the fish soar to find the ocean, The eagle plunge to find the air— That we ask of the stars in motion If they have rumour of thee there! Not where the wheeling systems darken, And our benumbed conceiving soars!— The drift of pinions, would we hearken, Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors. The angels keep their ancient places;— Turn but a stone, and start a wing!
- 103. ’Tis ye, ’tisyour estrangèd faces, That miss the many-splendoured thing. But (when so sad thou canst not sadder) Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss Shall shine the traffic of Jacop’s ladder Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross. Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter, Cry,—clinging Heaven by the hems, And lo, Christ walking on the water Not of Genesareth, but Thames!1 [Note: Francis Thompson.] 4. St. Paul disdained human eloquence. It is certain that St. Paul was not unversed in the wisdom, or unskilled in the rhetoric, which was all the vogue in his day. The Apostle could have presented his message in a beautiful dress, and might have recommended himself to his hearers by polished periods; but he knew very well that the power of the Gospel did not consist in these things. 5. St. Paul was careful to efface self. He did not mar his message by any reference to himself. His eye was fixed on Christ. His desire was to exalt Christ. His zeal expended itself in proclaiming Christ the Saviour of sinners. There were no side glances at his own prospects, his own reputation, his own success. He was content to hide behind the person of Christ, so that He might be seen and loved, and honoured and exalted. Like John the Baptist, whose business it was to cry “Behold the Lamb,” and to point his hearers away from himself, saying, “He must increase, but I must decrease,” so it was St. Paul’s business to declare Christ crucified and to keep himself in the background. In any work which is to live, or be really beautiful, there must be the spirit of the Cross. That which is to be a temple of God must never have the marble polluted with the name of the architect or builder. There can be no real success, except when a man has ceased to think of his own success.2 [Note: F. W. Robertson.] As Michael Angelo wore a lamp on his cap to prevent his own shadow from being thrown upon the picture which he was painting, so the Christian minister and servant needs to have the candle of the Spirit always burning in his heart, lest the reflection of self and self-glorying may fall upon his work to darken and defile it.3 [Note: A. J. Gordon.] III
- 104. The Comprehensiveness ofhis Message When the Apostle tells us that he is determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he impresses upon our minds that this is “the hidden wisdom which God hath ordained before the world.” He means that to know Christ crucified is the maximum of knowledge, not the minimum. He means that in Jesus Christ and Him crucified all doctrines culminate, and from Jesus Christ and Him crucified all duties emanate and evolve. We live in a world which may well be illustrated as a labyrinth, and as we pursue our way, there are many deviating paths down which we may be tempted to wander. But for us who desire practical wisdom for the conduct of life, we do not want a map of the whole labyrinth; what we do want is a silver thread which may pass through our hands and guide us to the secret part of all things. That guiding thread St. Paul claims to give us in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. “You are going down to the assize, my lord?” “Yes.” “What do you think you will do with that remarkable series of frauds committed some time ago?” “I do not know.” “What do you think you will do with that case of forgery, the most elaborate and intricate piece of business I ever heard of in all our criminal jurisprudence—what do you think you will do with it?” “I do not know.” “Why, are you going down to the city in a loose mind?” “No.” “What have you resolved to do?” “One thing. I have determined nothing except one thing.” “What is that, my lord?” “That the law shall be administered and justice shall be done.” That is what St. Paul said.1 [Note: J. Parker.] Mr. Guyse did not condemn, but both approved and practised, the preaching of Christian morals, while he denied that such preaching is all that is meant by the phrase and commission, “to preach Christ.” His statements on this department were the following:— Preaching Christ (in a latitude of the expression) takes in the whole compass of Christian religion considered in its reference to Christ. It extends to all its noble improvements of natural light and principles, and to all its glorious peculiarities of the supernatural and incomprehensible kind, as each of these may, one way or other, be referred to Him. In this sense there is no doctrine, institution, precept, or promise—no grace, privilege, or duty toward God and man—no instance of faith, love, repentance, worship, or obedience, suited to the Gospel state and to the design and obligations of the Christian religion—that don’t belong to preaching Christ. But to bring all these with any propriety under this denomination, they must be considered, according to their respective natures or kinds, in their reference to Christ, that He may be interwoven with them and appear to be concerned in them. They must be preached, not with the air of a heathen moralist or Platonic philosopher, but with the spirit of a minister of Christ, referring them up to Him, as revealed, or enjoined, or purchased by Him—as shining in their brightest lustres and triumphing in all their glories through Him—as built upon Him and animated by Him—as lodged in His hands who is head over all things to the church—as standing in the connections, uses, and designs in which He hath placed them—as known, enjoyed, or practised by light and grace derived from Him—as to be accounted for to Him—as acceptable to God, and advantageous to our salvation, alone through Him, by faith in Him—as enforced upon us by motives and obligations taken from Him—and as tending to His glory and the glory of God in Him.1 [Note: John Guyse.]
- 105. A company ofyoung men were once met at supper in the old days of Athens, and Socrates, the great teacher of morality, was present. The conversation turned on their guest. “Socrates,” said Alcibiades, “is like the figure of the Wood-god which you see in the workshops of sculptors: if you open it, you shall find it filled with images of all the gods.” That was the highest praise which in those days of heathen worship it was possible to give to a human being. It was as much as to say that all the forms of Divine life imagined and worshipped at that time were to be found in the one life of Socrates. And, far off, it may be taken as an outshadowing of the reality presented to us in this word of St. Paul concerning Christ.2 [Note: A. Macleod.] In Tennyson’s “Palace of Art” we have the story of how a soul tried to satisfy herself with an environment completely beautiful. Art and Literature were drawn upon lavishly to make her a meet dwelling-place. But into this paradise of all beauty despair crept, and made havoc. Fear fell like a blight, and the question of questions came to be What is it that will take away my sin, And save me lest I die? At last, come to her true self, and awake to her need of God, “Make me a cottage in a vale,” she said, “Where I may mourn and pray”. Yet Tennyson had too wide a vision of the truth to make an end there. He honours the “first needs” in his poem, but he is careful to leave room for all that enriches life. And so he makes his penitent soul ask as a last request, Yet pull not down my palace towers, that are So lightly, beautifully built: Perchance I may return with others there When I have purged my guilt.1 [Note: Arch. Alexander.] i. To know Jesus Christ It is perfectly possible to know the things that are said about Christ, and not to know Him about whom these things are said. Theological cobwebs have been wrapped round the gracious figure of Christ with disastrous results. He must be known—by personal, persistent, private communion; by long, intense contemplation—known as He was known to Loyola, on whose upturned face and uplifted hands the very stigmata of the Cross started out. 1. To know Jesus Christ is to know man in ideal development. In Him we behold our human
- 106. nature fully inspiredand possessed by God. He is at once a revelation of God and a manifestation of human perfection. As much of God as could be held in a human mind and heart, and shown in human virtues, was found in Christ Jesus. He is the Son of Man, the only perfect specimen of humanity that has lived upon the earth, the ideal of what we ought to be, and the type of the new creation. The Cross had become the unchanging centre of my thoughts, but these, as they revolved around it, had gradually, yet surely, formed for themselves an orbit widely diverging from the circle in which Christian consciousness is wont to move. The Cross, as I looked at it more and more intently, became to me the revelation of a loving and a suffering God. I learnt to look upon the sacrifice of the death of Christ, not only as being the all-sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, but also as the everlasting witness to God’s sympathy with man. The mystery of the Cross did not, it is true, explain any one of the enigmas connected with our mortal existence and destiny, but it linked itself in my spirit with them all. It was itself an enigma flung down by God alongside the sorrowful problem of human life, the confession of Omnipotence itself to some stern reality of misery and wrong.2 [Note: Dora Greenwell.] 2. To know Christ is to know God. Christ, reveals God to us. The life of Christ shows us the holiness of God; the patience of Christ shows us the longsuffering of God; the compassion of Christ shows us the mercy of God; the tenderness of Christ shows us the gentleness of God; the sympathy of Christ opens to us the very heart of God: while the death of Christ reveals to us the justice of God. Here hast thou found me, oh mine enemy! And yet rejoice not thou, by strength shall none prevail. By noon thine arrows fly, None faileth of its mark; thou dost not tire; And yet rejoice not thou! Each shaft of fire That finds me here becomes a living nail. What strength of thine, what skill can now avail To tear me from the Cross? My soul and heart Are fastened here! I feel the cloven dart Pierce keenly through. What hands have power to wring Me hence? What voice can now so sweetly sing To lure my spirit from its rest? Oh now
- 107. Rejoice my soul,for thou Hast trodden down thy foeman’s strength through pain.1 [Note: Dora Greenwell.] ii. To know Jesus Christ crucified Education, Plato tells us, is the turning away of the soul from the images, shadows, simulacra of things, to the facts and verities of real existence. Education is not increase of knowledge, nor is it the quickening and strengthening of one faculty, such as the intellect. Education is the awakening and unfolding of the whole nature, due regard being had to those capacities which belong to the higher range. Nothing contributes more to man’s education than the discovery of a great fact, the recognition and contemplation of a great thought. It uplifts, expands, and augments the entire being. Now “Christ crucified” is the greatest, the most transcendent fact in the whole universe. It is the master-thought of the Eternal. To know Christ crucified is to know the meaning of life. The death of Christ is the solving power of the mystery of the universe. It is also to know how to live and how to die. The Cross is the moral lever for the world. It lifts men above the power of sin. In a letter to a friend, Elmslie describes his experience among the children in an Edinburgh east- end Sabbath School: “When I was ending I spoke of how Jesus deserved to be loved, and that they should ask to be made to love Him. One little girlie whispered, ‘I will ask Him, for, oh, I do want to love Him!’ and when I said it was time to go away they cried, ‘Oh, dinna send’s away yet, tell’s mair about Jesus’; and then they came round me, and made me promise to tell them ‘bonnie stories about Jesus’ next Sabbath. I have found that nothing interests them more than what is directly about Jesus. I could not help telling you all these little things, but I never had the same sort of feeling in teaching a class before, and I would like you to remember sometimes my poor little children down in the Canongate. I wish I could take them all into a better atmosphere, for it is sad to think of their chances of ever becoming good in such an evil, wretched place. Harper and I have been having many nice talks. I mean to preach often in the summer—I want to.”1 [Note: W. Robertson Nicoll, W. G. Elmslie, 41.] 1. To know Christ crucified is to know the meaning of life. (1) In the Cross of Christ we come to understand the mystery of human suffering. Sorrow and pain pass no man by; and no reasoning can argue them out of existence, or reduce our fight with disease and suffering to a phantom battle. Living in a world where the blows of misfortune are constantly falling; where the ravages of suffering are nowhere long absent; where every joy is every moment exposed to blight; where development yields new pain; where increasing knowledge, increasing refinement, increasing goodness and sympathy mean increasing sorrow, and men and women suffer, not for being worse, but for being better than their fellows, it is no wonder that the Cross appeals to human hearts everywhere as a symbol of human life, and holds us under the spell of a solemn fascination. Rejoice as we may,—and we ought to rejoice—in all that brightens and sweetens life, yet the fellowship of suffering is wider and deeper than the fellowship of happiness. A German poet has said that the image of humanity, broken in all its limbs, transfixed in hands and feet and sorrowful unto death, has become distasteful to men; but
- 108. that can betrue of men only in their light, careless, self-indulgent hours. In all our deeper experiences our feet tread the path that leads to Calvary, and we seek the Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief. Christ has not diminished the suffering of the world, but He has given it a new and nobler meaning, made it appear to be no longer God’s wrath and curse, but God’s love and blessing. The Cross is the supreme instance of the law that no moral or spiritual victory is won, no glorious thing can be done, without suffering, and here suffering was borne to its farthest verge in death.1 [Note: P. A. Ellis.] (2) In the Cross of Christ we learn the meaning and power of self-sacrifice. The Cross, as the revelation and symbol of redemption through sacrifice, needs to be brought back to our common life. So far as the principle is concerned, it is right to apply, and we do instinctively apply, all the New Testament phraseology of redemption to parents sacrificing themselves for the good of their children, to patriots suffering and dying for the sacred causes of justice and freedom, to the vast army of labourers who procure for us our necessities and luxuries at the cost of their nobler growth and comfort. Without shedding of blood—blood of body, blood of brain, blood of heart—there has been no remission of sins, no redemption from evil conditions, no progress from a lower to a higher state of society. Figuratively, if not literally, men have been crucified, their hands torn, their hearts pierced through with many sorrows, in the interest of every onward step and movement of mankind. The work which really helps the world—work of statesman and philanthropist, work of poet and painter and doctor, work of teacher and preacher—is work into which men put their life, their heart’s blood. It is this power to give without counting the cost to one’s self, this power of suffering and sacrifice, that is the secret of all redeeming work. There are elements of suffering for sin which are not only possible to the guiltless, but which only they are capable of. Not only can a good man suffer for another’s sin, but it is just in proportion to his goodness that he will suffer. The sin of a dearly loved child will give pain to a saintly mother far more keen than the child himself will feel. The child’s sin blunts his sensitiveness to holiness and to the evil of sin. The mother’s holiness and love will be the measure of her suffering. No suffering for sin can be so deep as that which is endured for the bad by the good who love them and do not partake of their guilt.1 [Note: P. A. Ellis.] (3) In the Cross of Christ we realize the meaning of sin. Before that, the world treated sin lightly; after that it could not. The world will always treat sin lightly until it understands the meaning of God condemning sin in the flesh where Christ died. Belief in Christ means, and must mean, a sense of the guilt of sin, a hatred of sin, a personal sense of sin and penitence for it. Apart from this there could be no coming to the Saviour, or trust in Him, since there would be no felt necessity for salvation. The true cross of the Redeemer was the sin and sorrow of this world—that was what lay heavy on His heart—and that is the cross we shall share with Him, that is the cup we must drink of with Him, if we would have any part in that Divine Love which is one with His sorrow.2 [Note: Dinah Morris in Adam Bede.] (4) In the Cross we come to know the victory of failure. The Cross is the revelation and symbol
- 109. of victory, butof victory in failure and because of failure. There never was such an apparent failure as the Crucifixion. But the Cross was not the end but the beginning—the beginning of victory—an endless victory to the cause of goodness in the world. There are successes that are sadder than any failures, and failures that are more glorious than any successes. And the history of all that is best on this earth is one continuous illustration of this law of the Cross. The lives of not a few of the great religious leaders of the last century seemed more or less a failure— Robertson’s, Maurice’s, Colenso’s; but they are having now a second and a better life—the victory which comes of the apparent defeat, and because of it. He passed in the light of the sun, In the path that the many tread, And his work, like theirs, was done For the sake of his daily bread; But he carried a sword, and, one by one, Out there in the common light of the sun, The sins of his life fell dead. His feet never found the way That leads to the porch of fame, But he strove to live each day With a conscience void of blame; And he carried a cross whose shadow lay Over every step of his lowly way, And he treasured its splendid shame. So life was a long, hard fight— For the wrong was ever there, And the cross ne’er out of sight, The cross of a grey world’s care; But right through the day to the failing light
- 110. He carried thecross and fought the fight, Great-hearted to do and bear. Night fell—and the sword was sheathed, And the cross of life laid down, And into his ear was breathed A whisper of fair renown; And the nameless victor was glory-wreathed, For the Voice that said, “Let thy sword be sheathed,” Said also, “And take thy crown.”1 [Note: Percy C. Ainsworth Poems and Sonnets, 17.] (5) To know Christ crucified is to know God as a loving Father. In St. Paul’s day this was an idea so new and so wonderful and so wonderfully helpful that it excluded in the Apostle’s mind all other knowledge. God was no longer a wrathful potentate, He was no longer the patron of the Jewish nation only, He was the Father of all men, who willed not that any should perish. In the knowledge of Jesus Christ there had burst upon the Apostle’s mind the all-transforming thought that God was not law, but love. The death of Christ—this is the great truth of truths in the gospel, the great wonder of wonders, the finishing and perfect proof of that love of God to us, beyond which we can conceive nothing higher. All in the gospel rests upon it; without it the gospel could not be understood. From the Cross of Christ streams all the light which makes the gospel the message of peace and comfort to sinful and dying men. In one of the ancient churches of Central Italy there is a unique representation of the Crucifixion. Behind the Christ on the Cross we catch a dim vision of the Eternal Father; the hands of the Father behind the hands of the Son, and the nails which pierce the Son piercing the Father also. We shrink from it at first as coarse and rude, but as we think about it we feel that it is the old painter saying, in the only language which he could command, what has been so long and strangely forgotten, if not in form yet in reality, that God is in Christ, that the Father is in the Son, that His love had not to be won by sacrifice, that it is His love which is embodied in the sacrifice, that the Cross and Passion are the revelation in time and space, in visible and historical form, of the grief and pain of a God who suffers for. and with His creation and His children.1 [Note: J. Hunter.] 2. To know Christ crucified is to know how to live and how to die. (1) St. Paul wanted to find a power that should be adequate to cope with men’s dispositions and reach down to the very centre of feeling, and that should take hold of men’s wills. And he found that power in Christ. They who long after better things find their ideal in Him; He lives on by the
- 111. cords of love,He bids them live righteously and holily in this present world; and with the command comes the power. There is power in Christ to transform the nature and to renew the life; and because the Apostle knew this, he made Him the theme of his preaching, and uplifted Him before the longing eyes of Jew and Gentile. Does God have no heroes but those who lead on a great battlefield? Has He no saints but those in pictures, with a halo about their head? Heroism in the common life, that is what the world needs; men and women who in common places will do everyday duties without noise or glitter, just because the heart and conscience say, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” (2) There is one study, the deepest, hardest of all; which is equally and supremely necessary for every one to make some progress in before the application of it comes. It is the study of how to die. We cannot think how ever it will be possible for us to go through that. One thing we hope. We hope that we may not die reluctant, as if under doom, but with life’s onward action and life’s hopefulness still present in us; looking tenderly back, but looking calmly, earnestly, before us. If that is our hope, on what can it rest? It is assured to us as soon as Christ crucified is assured to us. The saints of all time, in proportion to the measure of their faith and of their self-sacrifice, have found death robbed of its terrors. Pausing a moment ere the day was done, While yet the earth was scintillant with light, I backward glanced. From valley, plain, and height, At intervals, where my life-path had run, Rose cross on cross; and nailed upon each one Was my dead self. And yet that gruesome sight Lent sudden splendour to the falling night, Showing the conquests that my soul had won. Up to the rising stars I looked and cried, “There is no death! for year on year, re-born I wake to larger life: to joy more great, So many times have I been crucified, So often seen the resurrection morn, I go triumphant, though new Calvaries wait.”1 [Note: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of
- 112. Experience, 31.] The Sumof Saving Knowledge david legge I want you to turn with me to two texts, both from Corinthians - the first from 1 Corinthians, and the second from the 2nd epistle. First of all, 1 Corinthians 2, just one text, verse 2 - the apostle Paul, who is writing this epistle to the believers in Corinth, says: "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified". Then turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and again one verse - writing to the same group of people at the same church, under somewhat different circumstances, verse 3 of chapter 11: "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ". It would do you well to keep, perhaps, a marker in both of those texts. Do we ever leave a blank where Christ should be? Taken up so much with the details of the generals, the peripheral issues and secondary issues, that we leave the central character out of our individual existence and the life of our churches? Hanging in a Berlin Gallery is a most unusual art piece by the artist Menzies, it is called 'The Unfinished Painting'. The artist, as is quite clear, was portraying the King and his generals, but it took him such a long time getting the painting under way that he actually died in the midst of creating this piece of art. All that he has really achieved is the detail of the generals round the King, but there's a great void, a great gap in the centre of the picture right where the King should be - the central character. All there is is a blank! Now I think many of us as Christians have done the same thing. From the moment of our conversion we have intended making Jesus Christ our Lord, and to a certain extent I'm sure we have done that, and we often intend that some day in our Christian experience we will give Christ the throne in every area of our lives. It's the same with our churches, we've all got great intentions that we'll give the Lord of the churches, the Head of the church the reins of the decision-making and the aims, and goals and objectives, the direction of our fellowship - but the great question is: do we ever leave a blank where Christ should be? Taken up so much with the details of the generals, the peripheral issues and secondary issues, that we leave the central character out of our individual existence and the life of our churches? Now we often use language that we intend to 'go through with God', we intend 'giving Christ His rightful place as Head of the church and as Lord of our lives', but somewhere along the way, sometimes very early in our experience and in the life of individual fellowships, we become occupied with lesser details, trivialities, in comparison to the grandeur of Christ and His centrality in our lives. Now both of our texts have this thesis to them, the centrality of Christ, Christ alone. It was one of the clarion cries of the Reformation along with 'sola scriptura' and 'sola fide' - that is 'Scripture alone' and 'faith alone'. There were several others, but one very central one was 'Sola Christos', which is 'Christ alone' - rediscovering the centrality of Jesus Christ in our lives as Christians and in the life of the church. For after all, to the church, we read in the New Testament, He is our one and only Head; to the Christian, He is our one and only
- 113. Lord. What ourtwo texts this morning affirm to us is that Christ ought to have His rightful place, He should always be the focal point of our lives and pre-eminent in our church. The inference of that is, in the negative sense, therefore we should never let anything or anyone take Christ's place - and to do that is tantamount to transgressing the first commandment, to have no other gods before Him. Now we need to ask the question: what is the relevance of this affirmation in both of our texts to the Corinthians who Paul was writing to? Well, if you look at our first text in 1 Corinthians 2:2, you'll see that Corinth was rife with the problem of disunity and sectarianism. In chapter 1 verse 11 we read: 'For it hath been declared unto me', Paul says, 'of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?'. Simply what had happened was, these Corinthian believers had taken their eyes off Christ and had fastened them upon men. We should never let anything or anyone take Christ's place - and to do that is tantamount to transgressing the first commandment, to have no other gods before Him... Some of them, verse 12 says, were followers of Paul, they loved the apostle to the Gentiles. Perhaps it was his forensic detail as he analysed the Old Testament Scriptures and interpreted them into the new covenant. Perhaps it was his legal mind, his weight of argument. Then there were others who followed Apollos - we know from the New Testament that he was a very gifted orator, and we know that good preachers often sway people and have great following, and perhaps this is why some said, 'We'll follow this man Apollos'. Then there was Cephas, which is just another name for the apostle Peter. We know, of course, that Peter was a man of the people. He was a blunt man, a rough man, but a man who the people, I'm sure, heard gladly - a passionate man of the people. Naturally people would have loved this apostle. Then there were those, the fourth group, they said: 'We are of Christ'. They were the exclusives, they believed they were the Lord's true people, they didn't fall into the trap of following mere men, they followed the Son of God. But here was their problem: they looked down at others to their exclusion. But from our second text we find out not only did these Corinthians take their eyes of Christ and fasten them upon men, but Corinth was also rife with Greek philosophy and human wisdom - that was a problem in first and second Corinthians. We see here that Greek philosophy and human wisdom took the place of Christ, and they effectively took their eyes off Him and fastened them upon the intellect and speculation. I should have said this is more characteristic of first Corinthians - if you turn back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 this time again, and verses 23 and 24, we see this: 'But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men'. So in 1 Corinthians, people were taking their eyes off Christ and putting them upon men, taking their eyes off Christ, putting their eyes upon Greek philosophy and human wisdom. Then when we come to 2 Corinthians now, your second text, chapter 11 and verse 3, we find that there were false apostles who were infiltrating the church. They were saying: 'Don't follow Paul, follow us'. We'll not go into the detail of all that, but that's the context. Paul explains to them that he is jealous, in verse 2, over the Corinthians with a godly jealousy: for he had espoused them to one
- 114. husband, that is,as virgins to Christ - 'But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ'. Now although Paul here fears that these false apostles should lead believers astray with false doctrine, as the serpent did Eve, his great fear is that their minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ; that they should take their eyes off Christ and get them fixed on anything or anyone else. Now what is the relevance of this to us? Well, many of us as Christians in the Christian life have varied struggles from the beginning of our faith to the end - and they are one after the other, when we get to grips with one particular struggle, we find another in the waiting room for us. Before our conversion Satan battles to blind our minds to the Gospel, and then once that battle is won, after conversion there is a battle between the world, the flesh and the devil, and the things of God. We could call it the battle between the carnal and the spiritual. If you ever get the victory in those things - and you'll never have complete victory until you get to glory - but if you ever get to grapple with the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil; often then comes, I feel, one of the greatest struggles in all of the Christian life, and that is the tension that there is between spiritual things and Christ. The battle, the struggle between spiritual things and Christ. What is central to your spiritual life? I could ask it like this: is the centre of your spiritual life a Him or an it? Let me outline this for you in three points - it's a question: what is central to your spiritual life? I could ask it like this: is the centre of your spiritual life a Him or an it? Well, an 'it', to explain further, could be an experience that you have had since you first believed. It could be a particular doctrine that you love, and we find that people in relation to salvation often have a particular understanding of it that they love. Some are called Arminian, some are called Calvinists. Then in prophecy there are those who are pre-millennial, a-millennial, post-millennial, and them that don't know. Some people, their 'it' is a particular church denomination: Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Brethren, Baptist, or an independent like the Iron Hall - and that's their 'it'. It may be a work that they are involved in: the pastorate, a preacher, an elder, a deacon, a missionary, an evangelist, it may be a Sunday School teacher, a youth leader, it could be anything - and your particular work is your 'it'. It could be a scheme of Bible interpretation, the way you believe the Bible ought to be interpreted - figuratively, literally, in this scheme, that scheme, or the other. It may even be a Bible version or a Bible reference - it could be anything, but here's the point: it is an 'it'. No matter how good and legitimate those things may be - and some of them are important, and I have views on several of them - we must beware in the Christian life that we never replace Him with an 'it'. What is central to your Christian life? The tempter, the devil is conscious that good men and women who perhaps have grappled with the world, the flesh and the devil, they're never going to be deflected by outright evil. So he comes along and here is his ploy: he seeks to get them obsessed with secondary or peripheral truths, in order that they should give preeminence to those things, and the centrality of Christ is taken away. He has been displaced by an 'it'! Oh, this so easily can happen. It has been observed by some who have studied church history that almost every organisation which began in the Spirit with Christ as central, has sooner or later been gradually drawn from devotion to Jesus Christ. I quote one: 'Almost every sect or denomination existing took a detour from the highway of Christ to byways of lesser importance: vegetarianism, abstaining from tea or coffee, holy days, which Sabbath day on which to worship - the traditions
- 115. that build uparound some simple statements of our Lord until they have become divisive doctrines of men that have nothing in them to feed the soul'. What is true of organisations down Christian history is also true of individuals. We can so easily be distracted from Christ alone - are you? A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Missionary Alliance, wrote these words of his own experience: 'I wish to speak to you about Jesus, and Jesus only'. He goes on, 'I often hear people say, 'I wish I could get hold of Divine Healing, but I cannot'. Sometimes they say, 'I have got it'. If I ask them, 'What have you got?', the answer is sometimes, 'I have got the blessing', sometimes it is, 'I have got the theory'; sometimes it is, 'I have got the healing'; sometimes, 'I have got the sanctification'. But I thank God we have been taught that it is not the blessing, it is not the healing, it is not the sanctification, it is not the thing, it is not the it that you want, but it is something better. It is 'the Christ'; it is Himself. Plenty of people get the idea and do not get anything out of it'. Have you got the theory? Have you got the doctrine? What do you get out of it? Have you got the theory? Have you got the doctrine? What do you get out of it? 'They get it into their head, they get it into their conscience, they get it into their will; but somehow they do not get Him into their life and spirit, because they have only that which is the outward expression and symbol of the spiritual reality'. Is that a struggle in your life? Is it one you're even aware of? That you could have at the centre of your spiritual experience an 'it', rather than a 'Him', Jesus, Christ alone? Out of that experience in A.B. Simpson's life came a hymn that you'll find in your Redemption Hymnbook, that goes like this: 'Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord; Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word. Once His gifts I wanted, Now the Giver own; Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone. Once 'twas painful trying, Now 'tis perfect trust; Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost. Once 'twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast; Once 'twas constant drifting, Now my anchor's cast'. The chorus goes: 'All in all forever Jesus will I sing Everything in Jesus And Jesus everything'. Is your interest this morning in a church? I love Iron Hall, but is that the central thing in your spiritual life? I love the holy Scriptures, but even that should never be the central thing in our spiritual experience. I love certain doctrines, but our love for these things, these 'its', must always
- 116. be motivated byour love for Christ. A. B. Simpson again described on one occasion seeing a picture of the Constitution of the United States, and it was very skilfully engraved in copperplate. He said that when you looked at it closely it was nothing more than a piece of writing, but when you look at it from a distance it actually formed a portrait of George Washington. He said these words: 'I saw the person, not the words, nor the ideas; and I thought, 'That is the way to look at the Scriptures and understand the thoughts of God, to see in them the face of love, shining through and through; not ideas, nor doctrines, but Jesus Himself as the Life and Source and sustaining Presence of all our life''. As the hymn says: 'That through the sacred page, I would see Thee, Lord'. That's our goal, what is central to your spiritual life? Our love for these things, these 'its', must always be motivated by our love for Christ Samuel Rutherford died around the middle of the 17th century, and his letters were printed in 1664 in Holland, and in another edition in 1668. You can still buy them, I have a copy of them at home. Rutherford's letters are not valued today because of their descriptions of 17th-century Aberdeen, or delightful studies of people he had met, or his prison experience as he was exiled for his faith in Christ. They are valued for one reason and one reason alone, he was a man who was completely enamoured with Jesus Christ. Whilst Rutherford was deeply and passionately involved in the political and religious conflicts of his time, he made sure not to allow anything that he was involved with, anything going on in his environment, to dim his love for Christ or distract him from the central passion of his life. This is graphically illustrated in one experience when Rutherford was preaching in the open air in Edinburgh. He happened to be dwelling at that moment on some of the controversies of his day; and he was talking, perhaps, about the political realm which was strongly married to the religious. All of a sudden he broke through that into these words: 'Woe is unto us for these sad divisions that make us lose the fair scent of the Rose of Sharon!'. Then the story goes that he went on commending Jesus Christ for about a quarter of an hour: His precious attributes, His title. All of a sudden, from the crowd, the Laird of Clanderston called out these words, and mark them please: 'Aye, now you're right! Hold you there!'. Aye, now you're right! Hold you there! Oh, we can rant and rave over a lot of things, can't we? Preachers are more guilty of that than any I suppose, but we need to get Christ central to our spiritual experience, and we need to fix on Him and Him alone. What is central to your spiritual life? Here's a second question that relates to both of our texts: what was central to Paul's spiritual life? Paul, you remember, was a Pharisee of the Pharisees before his conversion. In other words, he spent his whole life painting the generals, and the central figure of spiritual existence was missing, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He knew all the doctrines, the traditions, the philosophies, but all of a sudden an instant took place in his life on the road to Damascus that caused him to rethink all his values, and from that time on he placed Christ and Him crucified at the centre of all his picture. Did Paul take a detour on his way to glory after that event? Did he all of a sudden take on a ministry that was particularly dedicated to one doctrinal feature? No, he didn't, what we find about him is read in Philippians chapter 3:8, where he says: 'Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ'. The end of verse 13 as well: 'This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'. Christ! To win Christ, he
- 117. counted everything loss,everything else as secondary, everything else was peripheral! Christ was his focus! We don't know how damp the walls were, we don't know how hard the floor was to sleep on, we don't know what the meals were like or the jailers - all is of Christ! It's all about Jesus alone! Oh, I wish I had time to go through all of his works and his epistles, but when you read his works one thing is very evident as you look at them as a whole: he doesn't speak of a lot of things. Now there are certain biographical details that are obvious, he shares some things concerning the religious life that he had before he was converted, he also tells us about some sufferings that he experienced for the name of the Lord Jesus - but that's about it. Isn't it remarkable? He doesn't tell us if he was married, so it's been speculated about - if you think that was important enough, maybe that was one of his sufferings in amongst the great list! He doesn't tell us much about his early childhood, he never mentions his father or his mother. He was an extremely educated man, yet he never mentioned anything concerning his academic achievements. All of the space that he gives us in the New Testament is there to extol Jesus Christ alone! Even when he's in prison we don't know the number of the bars on the window, if there were any. We don't know how damp the walls were, we don't know how hard the floor was to sleep on, we don't know what the meals were like or the jailers - all is of Christ! It's all about Jesus alone! There was a lot of politics going on. In fact, when he was writing from Rome we don't hear anything about the political situation, nothing of the edicts of Nero. There's no mention of the attempted assassination upon the Emperor's life, there's no mention of a slave uprising - all we find as Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, the Head of the body, who is far above all principalities and powers, who fills all in all. That is why he said to the Corinthians: 'I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified' - Christ alone was central to Paul's life! Christ alone. Then thirdly - I've asked you what's central to your spiritual life, what was central to Paul's spiritual life - but maybe, and I hope, you're sitting there asking: how can I make Christ the centre of my life? I'm hoping members of this fellowship and those in leadership are asking the question: how can we make Christ the centre of our church life? It's very simple. If something or somebody has taken his place, we need to depose it and enthrone Him again. Nothing can be more simple to state, but more difficult to accomplish. It may be a sin that is our 'it', it may be one of those many things I've already mentioned, or it may simply be the self-life, that we are living for number one and our existence and our gratification. I heard recently about a church in the United States and they had their motto hanging outside the church building, and it was 'Jesus only'. It had been hanging out there for so long, and had got so tattered, that the sign was just left 'us only' - 'Jes' had been torn away. 'Us only', that's often the way it is, isn't it? 'We' are the biggest problem, 'I' am the biggest problem. Whatever the 'it' may be in place of Him, what we need to do is get 'it' out of the road, even if we are 'it' - get ourselves out of the picture! The problem is often 'I' am central to 'my' portrait. We need to give Christ His preeminent place again in our lives and in our church. As John the Baptist said: 'He must increase, and I must decrease'. It's the hardest thing in the world, but is the most necessary thing if we're going to know God's blessing! As John the Baptist said: 'He must increase, and I must decrease'. It's the hardest thing in the world, but is the most necessary thing if we're going to know God's blessing!
- 118. I heard awonderful story that illustrates this well, about a man and a wife who had taken a little daughter with them to stay at the home of a friend. On the bedroom wall of the little girl's bedroom, just over the head of the bed was a portrait of the Lord Jesus. Just opposite the bed was a dresser with a mirror upon it, and the phenomenon was like this: when the girl woke up in the morning, the very first morning she cried for her mother and father to 'Come in quickly, quickly! I can see the reflection of Jesus in the mirror'. While lying on the bed, what was happening was, the picture was reflecting in the mirror and she was seeing it. Then all of a sudden she got up to see it clearly, and as she quickly rose up to get a better look, she brought her body in between the picture and the mirror and she couldn't see Him any more. So she lay down again and she saw the picture, got up again and it was blocked. Up and down several times, she fixed her eyes upon the mirror, and then she said to her parents - and this is profound, listen: 'Mummy, when I can't see myself I can see Jesus; but every time I see myself I don't see Him!'. That's it, isn't it? When I see this doctrine, or this practice, or this person, or this church, or this denomination, this hobby horse, that 'it', that thing - I don't see Jesus! Not that those are unimportant, but they're less important. Oh, if we could get ourselves and our 'its' out of the way, we could see Him. As I conclude my message this morning, it's very simple: Christ should be central and alone in that preeminent position in our lives and here in this church. Augustine said: 'Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all'. Is He central? In our Christian lives we may be on the road for a while - how many years? 10, 20, 30, 40, 50? Down those years, I'm sure, we have progressed somewhat in knowledge, gifts, abilities, experiences that we've had with the Lord, wisdom that we've gleaned from others and through our experiences. Even in the church, in this church, thank God we have a lot of things going for us - Bible-based ministry, outreach in the Gospel, a good welcome at the door, good singing, children and youth activities, beautiful buildings, tremendous resources - but here's a sobering thought: all of those things are distractions if Christ is not central. All of them! A distinguished British scholar called Henry Jowett, on one occasion was invited to the coronation of Edward VII in Westminster Abbey at the turn of last century. He observed, sitting there as a guest, with great interest those who were assembling around - princes and princesses of regal houses in Europe being seated, Duchesses, Dukes, other lesser nobility. Homage was being paid to each of them as they were being brought to their seat in that great Abbey - 'But then the king arrived', Jowett said, 'and all eyes turned away from those of lower rank and were fixed upon him'. 'So', Jowett continues, 'literature, music, art, and the sciences are worthy of our respectful attention, but when Jesus Christ comes into the heart He must be King, and all lesser subjects take their lesser place'. That's the only way to have Him central to your experience: replace your 'it' for Him, or your other person for Christ, and let Him be your all. I read a beautiful poem with which I will finish this morning, it's very simple. It's called 'Christ My All': 'Christ for sickness, Christ for health, Christ for poverty, Christ for wealth, Christ for joy, Christ for sorrow, Christ today and Christ tomorrow; Christ my Life, and Christ my Light, Christ for morning, noon and night, Christ when all around gives way Christ my everlasting Stay;
- 119. Christ my Rest,and Christ my Food Christ above my highest good, Christ my Well-beloved Friend Christ my Pleasure without end; Christ my Saviour, Christ my Lord Christ my Portion, Christ my God, Christ my Shepherd, I His sheep Christ Himself my soul to keep; Christ my Leader, Christ my Peace Christ hath wrought my soul's release, Christ my Righteousness divine Christ for me, for He is mine; Christ my Wisdom, Christ my Meat, Christ restores my wandering feet, Christ my Advocate and Priest Christ who ne'er forgets the least; Christ my Teacher, Christ my Guide, Christ my Rock, in Christ I hide, Christ the Ever-living Bread, Christ His precious Blood hath shed; Christ hath brought me near to God, Christ the everlasting Word Christ my Master, Christ my Head, Christ who for my sins hath bled; Christ my Glory, Christ my Crown, Christ the Plant of great renown, Christ my Comforter on high, Christ my Hope, draws ever nigh'. 'I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified'. 'I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ and Christ alone'. 'Oh, teach us Lord, to look through all to Thee, to rest not even in Scripture, faith or prayers; but rest in Thee, in Thee Thyself, and then to love Thee back with love that clings and dares'. May we know nothing else in our lives, and in our church, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Deliver us, we pray, from being distracted from Him to anything or anyone else. We thank You that we are saved through Christ alone, may we live for Him alone from this day forth. Amen. DAVID LEGGE Well, good morning to you all. It is a privilege to be here with you, and thank you for the invitation to share with you today - it's great, and we do trust that together we will know the Lord's help and His voice as we seek Him today. I have been given this title: 'Why Just Jesus?' -
- 120. and it's reallybroken up into two subjects: 'The Sufficiency of Jesus', and 'The Necessity of Jesus'. So we're taking 'The Sufficiency of Jesus' in our first session. I want you to turn with me in the New Testament to two Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 2 and 2 Corinthians 11. I'm only reading one verse from each of these chapters, 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2, and then 2 Corinthians 11:3. Paul, of course, speaking to the Corinthians says: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified", and then 2 Corinthians 11:3, to the same group of people, but now in somewhat a different context, labouring the same theme, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ". Let us pray please, and as we pray I would ask you: would you pray for yourself, and pray that you would have ears to hear what the Spirit has to say, that you would have a heart to receive what God wants to impart to us today from His word? So let's pray for one another, but do specifically pray for yourself that you might hear what the Lord has to say. Let us seek His face now: Abba Father, we come to You in that name that is above every name, Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that He has been exalted to the highest place that heaven affords, and we thank You that You have put all principalities and powers beneath His feet. We come to You in that mighty name, and we take the authority that He has given to us, and we ask now that all would be subject to Jesus in this place today. We want ourselves, afresh, to bow to His Lordship and His Majesty. We long, Lord, that there would be no ungodly influences in our minds or our hearts, or even in this place, as we seek to see Jesus - the Author and Finisher of our faith. Lord, we long to consider Him, to have hearts that are de-cluttered from the things of this world, time and sense. We ask now for the help of the Holy Spirit to come to us, to minister the Lord Jesus to our minds, to our spirits. We thank You for the blessed Holy Spirit, the One whom Jesus promised would come and testify of Him - and so, Lord, we pray, we say: Come, Holy Spirit, minister to us the glories of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, and give me the help that I need, Lord, Amen. I feel that there is an Evangelical crisis today, that our confession conflicts with what we communicate and what we convey to the world around us... The centrality and the sufficiency of Christ was a cardinal truth that Paul was at pains to impress upon the Corinthians - 'Solas Christos', 'Christ alone' - and that's what is your theme today, isn't it? 'Just Jesus', and this first session, 'The Sufficiency of Christ'. So Paul was preaching to these Corinthians - as we do, I'm sure, in our churches - that Christ does not just bring us salvation, He is our salvation. To the Christian, the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of their life; and to the church, He is Head of the Body. Of course, these are statements that all right-thinking Bible believers would cherish. The sufficiency of Christ is affirmed in the Bible by New Testament doctrine, and in church history by the orthodox creeds of the church. I hope all Baptists, I'm sure, would say a hearty 'Amen' to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient, that He is our Lord, and that He is Head of the Body. There is no dispute really about that, so I'm not going to try to convince you of something that you already believe. However, where there is disparity is between what we profess to believe and how we behave. Let me repeat that: where I believe there is disparity, is between what we profess to believe and how we behave. I feel that there is an Evangelical crisis today, that our confession conflicts with what we communicate and what we convey to the world around us. So the question I want to pose to you on the back of what I have been given as a subject is: do we portray the sufficiency of Christ? We know He is sufficient, we believe He is sufficient - but is that what we convey? Is
- 121. that what wecommunicate to the world around us? You see, the sufficiency of Christ is not meant to be a mere cliched confession of doctrine, neither is it enough to proclaim the sufficiency of Christ in Gospel preaching. In fact, Paul laboured to these Corinthians, if you look at chapter 4 and verse 20, he said: 'For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power'. We are meant to show by our lives that Christ is sufficient. It is my conviction that there is a deficiency of power in our modern Christian profession. One of the reasons for this, I would suggest to you, is that often our confession is theoretical and not practical - it is of the mind, and not of the heart. In this same book, in chapter 8, if you look at it, and verse 1, Paul says: 'Knowledge puffs up'. A mere knowledge of spiritual realities is not sufficient. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, back a few chapters, and verse 13, he says: 'These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches'. Our Christian faith, profession, and proclamation must be more than merely cerebral. I believe there is a great shortfall of power in our Christian witness today. I would suggest to you that it is because we are not embodying Christ. It is my conviction that there is a deficiency of power in our modern Christian profession... Incarnational reality is still at the heart of God's plan. 'What is that?', you say. Well, 'Great is the mystery of godliness', God was manifest in flesh, and we know that Christ was Incarnate God. God's heart and mind was manifested to us in the flesh of His Only Begotten Son. Yet what we often fail to realise is that God's intention is that incarnational reality would continue. Now that our Lord Jesus Christ, bodily, is absent from us and is at the right hand of the Father, nevertheless He has poured out His Spirit and He is present with us, and He's meant to be incarnated in the Body that is now His church - a community where the life of Christ is manifested. So we need to show Christ to the world, we need to show that He is sufficient - and if we are trying to portray that to the world, He therefore must be sufficient for us. So the great question is: is He? I'm sure you may have heard the story about the work colleague who often bent the office rules and gossiped, and yet they were a professing believer in Christ. On one occasion they were seeking to witness to an office friend, and the person just very curtly replied to them: 'I can't hear what you're saying for seeing what you're doing'. There is a large extent where it could be said of the church by the world: 'I can't hear what you're saying for seeing what you're doing'. Now I'm convinced that one of the reasons why we see less returns for our evangelism is that people in the pew are hearing our words, and then they're looking at what our lives produce, and they conclude: 'This doesn't add up!'. Whether we like it or not, people are not weighing up our theological tenets of Christiology, they're weighing us up to see if they can believe us in what we are saying about Christ. It is true that many are not reading the Bible today, but they are reading you and me. We are epistles written unto men - but what I want to ask you just now in this session is: when people around you read you, when people in our world and our communities read our churches, are they reading about the sufficiency of Christ? Were they reading that from the Corinthians? People are not weighing up our theological tenets of Christiology, they're weighing us up to see if they can believe us... Well, look at it with me. We see Corinth was rife with disunity and sectarianism, chapter 1 shows us that, if you look, chapter 1 verse 11, Paul says: 'For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions', quarrels,
- 122. 'among you. NowI say this, that each of you says, 'I am of Paul', or 'I am of Apollos', or 'I am of Cephas', or 'I am of Christ'. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?'. What the Corinthians clearly had done was, they had taken their eyes off Christ and they had fastened their eyes upon mere men. Now, good men, verse 12 - Paul, the great apostle, with his forensic mind and his legal argumentation, anybody who was mildly intellectual would have seen the appeal of the ministry of Paul the apostle, and he had his followers in Corinth. Then there was Apollos, and of course he was the gifted orator, the charismatic preacher - we all love good preaching, and it's easy to follow a good preacher. Then we have Cephas, Peter, and he was the passionate, down to earth man of the people - and the ordinary five-eight folk, well, they followed Peter. Then you have the exclusive crowd, and they were following Christ - and I don't believe that Paul said that in a positive way, but those who said 'We are of Christ', I think, had the attitude: 'Well, we're the Lord's people, we're not following mere men, rather we are following the Lord'. That might sound initially good and orthodox, but the problem is that they were using that as an argument to separate from these other folk. There was this partisan spirit that infected the church, because Christians labelled themselves by the names of men. If I could put it to you: it was not enough that their identity was secured in Christ, they had to find their identity in more by becoming followers of Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, and even saying that they were following Christ to fracture themselves from the rest of the Body. Now we can do the same, and I'm not going to delve into areas where angels fear to tread - but we can name ourselves by the names of men, whether it's Calvin, or Arminius, or Darby. It has to be said - and I have a real conviction about this - that some believers derive their sense of worth by those names. I really think we have to look at our hearts: what does that portray? Does it, could it, portray that Christ isn't enough? Also, when we label ourselves according to doctrines, rather than Christ. Now please don't misunderstand me, I have my own persuasions, I have my own theological leanings - we all have, and doctrine is important, and we are to take heed to the doctrine, and take heed to ourselves, but not at the expense of the sufficiency of Christ! We are to take heed to the doctrine, and take heed to ourselves, but not at the expense of the sufficiency of Christ! I grew up, some of you may know, in a Bible-believing, sort of 'fundamentalist' Church. I remember growing up through the ranks of Sunday School and into Bible Class, and I remember being in the teenage Bible Class, and the leader decided to take us on a voyage through Christian doctrine. It was helpful, but one thing that I do remember being taught was: 'You can't just call yourself a Christian these days'. You may have heard that. The teacher said: 'It's too broad a term' - they didn't quite say it covers a multitude of sins, but that was what they were getting at. So he proceeded weekly, with good motivation and intent, to study a series of labels by which we could define ourselves as Christians. Now by the end of that series the definition that I had of what I was supposed to be was something like this - now I might be exaggerating a little for effect, but this is much of what I can remember - 'I am a Bible-believing, evangelical, separatist, non- ecumenical, non-charismatic, dispensational Christian'. Each week he took one of these things as to how we defined ourselves and made ourselves different from others who would even profess Christ. Now, what do you think the average non-Christian would reply to that? If you introduced yourself and said: 'Oh, I'm not just a Christian, I'm a Bible-believing, evangelical, separatist,
- 123. non-ecumenical, non-charismatic, dispensationalChristian'? Probably the answer you would get from them is: 'Huh? What is that?'. Now listen: there's something wrong, really something wrong, if we have to put all these appendages onto the word 'Christian' to define who we are - and often many of them define what we are against, rather than being what we are for. Now yes, the term 'Christian' has been abused - but therefore it is up to us to redefine it not by mere labels, but by our lives! The sufficiency of Christ must be manifested in our individual personal experience, and in the experience of God's community, the Body, the Church. There is so much division in the church it's incredible! It staggered me recently to find out, according to the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, that there are approximately 41,000 Protestant denominations - 41,000! Now, I ask you: does that portray that Christ alone is sufficient? Does it? In fact, our Lord Jesus taught that unity, not division, shows to the world that Christ is sufficient. In what has commonly been called His High Priestly Prayer, John 17:21, 'that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me'. It's not just unity for unity's sake, unity in truth in Christ manifests the sufficiency of Christ to the world. So what does division manifest? That Christ is not enough. There are approximately 41,000 Protestant denominations - 41,000! I ask you: does that portray that Christ alone is sufficient? Not only was Corinth rife with disunity and sectarianism, Corinth was also rife with Greek philosophy and human wisdom. They had taken their eyes off Christ and fastened them upon intellect and speculation. Look at chapter 1 again, verses 23 and 24, Paul says: 'But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness', you could translate that 'moronic', 'but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God'. To the Greek, highbrowed boffins of philosophy and intellect, this Christian Gospel was moronic - of a Saviour who died in ignominy and shame and rose again - because they thought it was pointless to resurrect the body. So the Corinthians felt under pressure to rise to the intellectual arguments, to have some kind of philosophical aptitude, the weapons of their warfare were not enough any more. I want to say to you today: we don't need Christ plus a brain the size of Einstein's to take on the Richard Dawkins of this world. Yes, we thank God for the thinkers and apologists in the church, we need them - but Christ and His power are sufficient! I think many of us have lost faith in that. We've become intimidated by intellectualism. Neither do we need to compete with entertainment for that matter - and listen, you can't compete with the entertainment of the world, you can't compete with the technology and their advancements of the world, you can't compete with the publicity machine of the world. If Christ alone is manifest among us - and there is a caveat to that, He must be manifested in our lives and in our churches in the power of the Holy Spirit, because He is the One who testifies and witnesses to Christ, we cannot do it without Him - but if He is manifested among us in power, it will be noised abroad that the Lord is in the house, that His power is present to heal. That might sound idealistic to some, but I'm telling you from the depths of my soul's conviction that it is all that will do, and it is all that will make the difference in our community. We don't need Christ plus a brain the size of Einstein's to take on the Richard Dawkins of this world...
- 124. You see, tonarrow this down: essentially the Corinthian problem was that, for them, it was always Christ plus something else. That was the Galatians' problem as well. They were not communicating the sufficiency of Christ, because they themselves needed more than Christ. They needed man-made labels, they needed intellect, they needed stature, prestige - and so the world had communicated to them the insufficiency of Christ alone. Look at our other text, 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3: 'But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ'. Now, although in the context here Paul fears that false prophets and apostles should lead believers astray with their doctrines as the serpent did Eve, his great fear is - as the New American Standard translates it - 'That your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ'. That was his ultimate fear, that their heart relationship with Christ should be interrupted, should be robbed from them by these other considerations. I believe this is still the case today, because the tempter is conscious that good men, Christian men, will often not be deflected by outright evil - and so the enemy's ploy is to get them obsessed with other things, with secondary issues or peripheral truths, and then when those things are given the preeminence in the life or in the church it displaces Christ from the central position. It has been observed by some that almost every organisation which began in the Spirit has sooner or later been gradually drawn from a purity of devotion to Jesus Christ. I'm quoting you one observer, listen: 'Almost every sect or denomination existing took a detour from the highway of Christ to byways of lesser importance - vegetarianism, abstaining from tea or coffee, holy days, which sabbath day on which to worship, the traditions that build up around simple statements of our Lord until they have become divisive doctrines of men that have nothing in them to feed the soul'. Movements of God's Spirit, sometimes individual men that have founded movements or denominations, and the man becomes a movement, and then the movement becomes a monument. What is true of organisations can be true of individuals when we get distracted from Christ alone! A.B. Simpson very personally speaks from his own experience, and says, listen: 'I wish to speak to you about Jesus, and Jesus only. I often hear people say, 'I wish I could get hold of Divine Healing, but I cannot'. Sometimes they say, 'I have got it'. If I ask them, 'What have you got?', the answer is sometimes, 'I have got the blessing', sometimes it is, 'I have got the theory or the doctrine'; sometimes it is, 'I have got the healing, the experience'; sometimes it is, 'I have got the sanctification'. But I thank God', Simpson says, 'that we have been taught that it is not the blessing, it is not the healing, it is not the sanctification, it is not the thing, it is not the it that you want, but it is something better. It is 'the Christ'; it is Himself'. Listen to what he says here: 'Plenty of people get the idea and do not get anything out of it'. Many of our people in our churches have got the idea, but they're not getting anything out of it! They get it into their head, and into their conscience, and into their will - but somehow they do not get Him into their life and their spirit, because they have only that which is the outward expression and symbol of spiritual reality. A.B. Simpson wrote a hymn which is probably in none of our hymnbooks now, but it's a wonderful hymn. Listen how it goes: 'Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord; Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word. Once His gifts I wanted,
- 125. Now the Giverown; Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone. Once 'twas painful trying, Now 'tis perfect trust; Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost. Once 'twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast; Once 'twas constant drifting, Now my anchor's cast'. And here's the chorus: 'All in all forever Jesus will I sing Everything in Jesus And Jesus everything'. His sufficiency is for living, for life now, and witnessing that to all men! If they are to believe our message, we must be the message... Now, to sum up what I feel God has been saying to me and wants to say to you - well, here it is: evangelism is much more than profession. It's much more than saying: 'Just Jesus is enough, or sufficient'. It's much more than proclamation, telling the glad tidings, proclaiming the corigma of the New Testament. It is not just profession or proclamation, it is possession! It is walking around in the flesh, incarnating Christ and His power and His Gospel, so that others see: 'Christ is sufficient in him, Christ is sufficient in the church, so Christ can be sufficient in me!'. That was the apostolic witness and their experience. Listen in Acts 4: 'When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus' - that's it! Possessing Christ and being possessed of Him, Christ who is our life, Christ in you the hope of glory. You see, His sufficiency is not just for dying - you know, a ticket to heaven when you pass away - but His sufficiency is for living, for life now, and witnessing that to all men! But if they are to believe our message, we must be the message. Now, I have a hunch - it may only be a theory - that many who have preoccupations with theological hobbyhorses, pet doctrines, spiritual obsessions of belief or practice, I believe that it often betrays an absence of the sufficiency of Christ in their life. Christ is not enough. Now, as I've said, don't misunderstand me: I have my beliefs, and my persuasions and convictions - but we need to ask ourselves: is our interest in church, is our interest in Scripture doctrine even, is our interest in evangelism, is it motivated from an all-consuming passionate love for Christ alone? I'll touch a bit more on this in our next session - but if it's not, do you know what it is? This is strong: it's idolatry. A.B. Simpson describes seeing a picture of the Constitution of the United States. Very skilfully it was engraved on a copper plate, so that when you looked at it closely you saw nothing more than a piece of writing, but when you stood back a number of paces and looked at it from a distance it was the face of George Washington. A.B. Simpson said: 'I saw the person, not the words, nor the ideas; and I thought, 'That is the way to look at the Scriptures and understand the thoughts of
- 126. God, to seein them the face of love, shining through and through; not ideas, not doctrines, but Jesus Himself as the Life and Source and sustaining Presence of all our lives''. Is our interest in church, is our interest in Scripture doctrine, is our interest in evangelism, is it motivated from an all-consuming passionate love for Christ alone? 'Sirs, we would see Jesus', and if they are going to see Jesus, they must see Him in us. If they're going to see Him as sufficient for their lives and their eternities, He must be sufficient for us. Could we pray? I trust that you have opened your heart already, as I invited you to, in prayer. What has God been saying to you? What's He saying to this Body? Will you engage with God just in this moment of quietness? What has He been communicating to you? Deal with Him, speak to Him about it. Tell Him the struggles, the mixed motivations there are at times in all our ministries, mine included. Ask yourself, just in this attitude of quietness and prayer: is Christ sufficient? If I could be a bit personal, my ministry now is quite lonely in a sense, I don't have a church around me as I go about in itinerant ministry - there is not a 'big thing' around me, as it were, and a group of people, and it can be difficult. In the quiet weeks when there is nothing going on, I have heard the still small voice of God saying to me: 'David, am I not enough? Am I sufficient?'. He is, and we would all say He is, but when those other things are stripped away, we can get a bit desperate. Father, I do trust that Your voice has been heard, O God, and I pray that whatever You're saying to individuals and to this group, Lord, that they would have ears to hear - and, as our Lord said, that Your words would go deep down into our ears, right into our hearts. Lord, we want to say to You, and proclaim publicly, a declaration that Christ is sufficient. Yet, Lord, we want it to be more than lip service. We want our lives to witness to that fact: that He is enough for us, He's what we live for, Who we live through, and He lives on us that the world may see that You have sent Him. In Jesus' name alone, and for His glory, we ask these things, Amen. The Christ-Centred Church 1Corinthians 2:1, 2 The Reverend Bryn MacPhail / June 18, 2006 Over the last number of weeks we have considered those characteristics, which should mark the Christian Church. The characteristics we have studied should not be considered an exhaustive list. Nor have these characteristics been arranged according to their importance. For I submit to you that the characteristic to be studied this morning is the preeminent characteristic. It is the mark above all other marks—no, it is more: to speak of a local congregation as Christ-Centred is to talk about the very foundation of that congregation’s ministry. A local congregation can be marked by an array of impressive characteristics and corresponding programs, but if Christ is not at the heart of what is taking place in the congregation, there is a fundamental problem. On the other side of things, if a congregation is beset with all kinds of obstacles and difficulties, it can do none better than to fix her eyes on the Saviour of the Church, Jesus Christ.
- 127. To this end,if there were ever a sermon for you to reread, if there were ever a sermon to obtain the CD-ROM and listen to again, this is the one. I say this not because Bryn MacPhail has any particular pearls of wisdom for you—no—I say this because the biblical text before us today speaks primarily about Jesus Christ and our relationship to Him. If we rightly apply such a text, then our feet will be set on a most sure foundation. However, if we allow the words of Paul to pass over us without ever entering into us, we run the risk of forfeiting the most important thing about our assembling—the blessing that comes from union with the crucified Christ. In 1Corinthians, chapter 2, Paul outlines for the people of Corinth his approach to his ministry among them. We know from various sources that Paul was a man of profound learning. We know that he had been educated by some of the most revered Jewish scholars of his day. We are quite sure that Paul had a brilliant mind, and my guess is that he might have been tempted to persuade the Corinthians by presenting them with polished arguments, and by excelling in the graces of oratory. He might have said to himself, ‘The philosophers of Corinth are very wise men; if I would be a match for them, I must be very wise, too.’ But what does Paul say instead? “When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speechor wisdom, (I came) proclaiming the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (2:1,2). Paul did not address the Corinthians with the wisdom of the day; he addressed them by proclaiming Jesus Christ. Now, when Paul says that he was “determined” only to preach “Christ crucified”, this does not mean that the only thing he mentioned during his 18-month stay in Corinth was the cross. In his letters to the Corinthians Paul covers a myriad of subjects. What I think Paul means here is that whatever else he knew, whatever else he intended to communicate, he would say it, and he would do it, in relation to Christ crucified. For Paul, the cross of Christ wasn’t the only thing he preached, but it was at the centre of what he preached. The cross was the foundation of Paul’s ministry in that it influenced everything he said and did. And so should it be with us at St. Giles Kingsway. Everything that we do should have some relation to what Christ has done. We may lack an explicit connection to the cross with some of our activities; nonetheless, we would do well to articulate a reasoning for our activities that relates to the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. I regret to report to you that there are congregations where the message of Christ crucified is notably absent. I do not mean to be unkind when I say that I suspect the ministers of such congregations to be largely responsible for this. I noted this problem on a few occasions while working with search committees as an interim moderator, as we reviewed applications from interested ministers. On more than one occasion, I was compelled to ask the committee, ‘What is fundamentally wrong with the narrative section of this application?’ My answer was that the applicant, in the course of three or four pages, failed to make a single reference to Jesus when describing Christian ministry! I agree with the theologian who says, ‘Christ is Christianity’. Without Christ, and His glory, as the chief motivation, a congregation descends into being little more than another community service club. For this reason, it is critical that there be unity on this point: Our gathering is all about Christ— who He is and what He has done. And all that we do must be for the sake of His glory.
- 128. This may seemobvious to some, but I fear that if we do not name this—if we do not clearly, and repeatedly, articulate this as our ‘end game’, we run the risk of being a congregation where the members work at cross-purposes (no pun intended!) with one another. Needless to say, if we work from different starting points, if we build upon different foundations, we will become highly unproductive as a congregation. Moreover, our lack of progress will likely lead to internal tension and spiritual exhaustion. We’ll find ourselves in a situation like the man who was walking down a residential street and noticed another man struggling with a washing machine at the doorway of his house. When the man volunteered to help, the homeowner was overjoyed, and the two men began to work and struggle with the bulky appliance. After several minutes of fruitless effort, the two men stopped and looked at one another huffing and puffing. They were on the verge of total exhaustion. Finally, when they caught their breath, the first man said to the homeowner: ‘We’ll never get this washing machine into the house!’ To which the homeowner replied, ‘Into the house? I’m trying to get the washing machine out of the house!’ Leaders within a congregation may not agree on every single procedural or theological point, but we cannot afford to push in opposite directions when it comes to that which lies at the heart of church ministry. We must agree on the place of the cross—and no, I don’t mean the place of physical crosses within our sanctuary, I’m talking about the place of the cross event within the collective conscience of St. Giles Kingsway. We ought to be confessing that our inclusion in the covenant is not based on something we have done, but rather, our relationship with God is based entirely upon what Christ has done for us. The Bible teaches us that, apart from Christ, none of us were living according to God’s Law (Rom. 3:10-12). It’s not that we are as bad as we conceivably could be. No, by human standards, many people are quite attentive to advancing their moral character. I sometimes hear people described to me as ‘good-living people’. We know we’re not perfect, but many people imagine that they are good enough, and are therefore on track to be welcomed into heaven based on some achieved level of morality. Perhaps we could gain entry into heaven according to our own morality if it were the case that God evaluated us relative to how we rank among our peers. But the Bible nowhere teaches this. Instead, God instructs the people of His covenant, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2; 1Pet. 1:16). This Divine standard poses a serious problem for humanity. The implication of the Divine standard is that our predicament apart from Christ is dire. Our sin—the fact that we are not perfectly obeying God’s laws, estranges us from Him because He is a Holy God (Rom. 5:10). And this estrangement threatens both our earthly comfort and our eternal standing. In other words, what every human being needs more than anything else is to have a right relationship with the God of this Universe. We may have all sorts of worthwhile needs that relate to our physical and emotional well-being, but we do not possess a single need that surpasses our need to be reconciled to the Almighty.
- 129. The message ofthe New Testament is that the cross of Christ, when approached with faith, provides us with this reconciliation with God that we so desperately need (Rom. 5:10). At the cross, not only are our sins forgiven in Christ, but we also gain the positional holiness that is necessary for our union with a holy God. That is, faith in the death of Christ brings a two- pronged blessing of pardon and righteousness (Rom. 5:17). I can think of nothing better. I can think of nothing better than to be eternally reconciled to our Creator. And neither can Paul. And I suspect it is for this reason that Paul would move from congregation to congregation, determining to “know nothing among (the people there) except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1Cor. 2:2). I have preached nearly 200 sermons in this pulpit since my arrival in 2002. Not all of those sermons spoke of the cross. Like Paul, we have studied many different subjects together. And yet, my ultimate aim in this pulpit is the same as Paul’s. The most important message you could hear is the message of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Some may disagree. Many disagreed with Paul in his day. Paul conceded that “(the) Jews asked for signs, and the Greeks searched for wisdom; but (Paul) preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks” (1Cor. 1:22, 23). I pray that the cross of Christ is not a stumbling block to you. I pray that the cross of Christ is not foolish simplicity to you. If it is either of these things to you, I invite you to ask the Lord to show you the wonder of the cross. The cross is no mere icon—it is far more than a religious symbol. Faith in the cross of Christ is the way to eternal life (Jn. 14:6). I pray that the cross of Christ is, or will become, the most precious thing in your life. And I pray that, as a congregation, the cross of Christ is what will animate our every action. Indeed, all other grounds for religious activity is sinking sand. Amen. DON ROBINSON Unchanging I Cor. 2:2 On January 13,1961 twenty-six people met at Marlin Tabernacle to organize the Grace Baptist Temple. Don Martin was called to be the pastor of this new church. Charter members: Mr. & Mrs. Donald G. Martin Gloria L. Martin Mrs. Leroy Boshear Mr. & Mrs. Aurand Merida Jr. Miss Josephine Owens In our Constitution we have stated the purpose of the existence of Grace Baptist Temple. A few years ago we sought to summarize that purpose into a mission statement. The mission of Grace Baptist Temple can be simply stated in three words: winning, building, and sending. Our goal is to win people to Christ, build them up in the faith, and send them forth to serve the Lord.
- 130. Now 1961 wasa long time ago! Much has happened in the past 42 years. Souls have been saved, believers have been built up in the faith, and many have been sent out to serve the Lord around the world. How is it that we have been able to maintain our purpose and goals for all of these years? Let me give you a few thoughts this morning on how this church has been able to stay true to its founding purpose and principles for all of these years. I. The Message Is Unchanging A. Christ Is The Central Theme 1 Cor. 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1. The pulpit of Grace Baptist Temple is not for sale. 2. It is not to promote social or political causes. 3. It is simply to proclaim the simple message of the Gospel. 4. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the gospel message! B. The Whole Counsel Is Needed For Growth Ac 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. 1. We preach and teach the Bible, God's Holy Word. 2. With Christ as our central theme, we declare that all Scripture is profitable. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 3. Inspiration = God Breathed 4. Profitable = Helpful, Useful In Teaching a. Doctrine = What Is Right b. Reproof = What Is Wrong c. Correction = How To Get Right d. Instruction = How To Stay Right C. The Unchanging Message Changes Lives 1. I stand before you as a life that was changed by the message of Christ. 2. Seated next to you in the pew you will find folks whose lives were changed because of the Gospel. 3. It is the only thing that works! JOHN 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 2 Cor. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
- 131. II. Our Hopeis Unchanging A. Jesus is coming again! 1. That is our hope 2. And we are looking for Him to return soon! JOHN 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 1 THESS. 4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. B. Our hope is based on God's faithfulness 1. It is less a theological position, and more a faith position. 2. The Lord has promised in His Word that He will return. 3. We believe it is true, if for no other reason than because He said it. 4. And God is faithful…He will accomplish all that He has promised. Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; III. Our Focus on Evangelism is Unchanging. A. Our Past. 1. It was because of the desire of the folks at the Indianapolis Baptist Temple to reach others. 2. As folks were saved and others expressed an interest in establishing a church the Grace Baptist Temple of Bloomington, Indiana was established. 3. That vision was passed on to this church and continues yet today. B. Our Present. 1. We are actively involved in establishing churches here in Indiana. 2. We are actively involved in missionary endeavors in over thirty countries around the world. 3. We are actively involved in reaching our community for Christ. a. Every SS Class that meets... b. Every ministry established... c. Every sermon preached and every lesson taught... d. It is all done to 'equip the saints for the work of the ministry' and that means reaching others with the gospel! C. Our Future. 1. Should the Lord tarry His coming, we will continue to reach out to others.
- 132. 2. We willcontinue to support mission works here and around the world. 3. We will continue to witness to others through the services of this church and through the lives of each member. This church has been able to stay true to its founding purpose and principles for all of these years simply because some things have not changed, and for that I am thankful. The need of men and women; boys and girls has not changed; we need a Savior! But thank God, His grace has not changed! This morning, if you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, God's grace is extended to you today. Would you come and place your trust in Christ today? Are you serving God with your life today? Why not come this morning and commit your life to Him. Maybe you need to come this morning and place your membership in this church. Come today. Perhaps you have never been obedient to God's command to be baptized, why not come and submit to Him today. Whatever the need would you come this morning! RAY PRITCHARD Jesus Christ and Him Crucified 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (v. 2). We have a word for people like Paul. We call a person like him a “one-note Johnny.” He was a man of one message. If you heard him in Thessalonica or Athens or Rome, it was always the same—Jesus Christ and him crucified. He never strayed from his basic message. Someone once asked the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon (many think he was the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul) why all his sermons sounded alike. “That’s simple,” he replied. “I take my text wherever I can find it, and then I make a bee-line for the cross.” He and Paul came from same mold. In our text we discover the pastor’s life work. If a man could come to the end of his ministry and have someone say, “He spoke to us only of Jesus Christ and him crucified,” his ministry would not have been in vain. As Dr. Criswell pointed out, if people want to know about sports or the latest news, they can read the paper or turn on the TV. These days you can watch Fox or CNN or MSNBC or you can surf the Net or watch 500 channels or listen to the radio. If it’s news or sports or the weather or the latest world crisis, there are plenty of ways to follow the story. But if you want to know how to be right with God, if you want to know how to have your sins forgiven, if you want to know how to go to heaven, then you need the message Paul preached: Jesus Christ and him crucified.
- 133. This week Iam celebrating my 55th birthday. That in itself is hardly a world-shaking event, but I am truly celebrating it because it feels like I have reached an important milestone. When I was a teenager, 55 seemed positively ancient. Now it feels perfectly normal. But when you have lived 55 years, you can’t pretend to be young anymore. If God wills, I may live another 30 years (or another 30 minutes—who knows?), but I’ll never be a teenager again. I’m definitely closer to the finish line than to the starting line. I find myself in a stage of life where I am trying to get rid of things I don’t need to carry with me. For most of us, life can be divided into two phases— accumulating and de-accumulating. After decades of trying to amass things, I am well over into the de-accumulation side. I find myself throwing things away left and right. It’s not a good week for me unless I can fill up a trash bag or two with things I don’t need anymore. I find myself going through something similar spiritually. I want to go back to basics in every area. I want to find those things that are true and that matter eternally, and that’s where I want to spend the bulk of my time in the next few years. I pray, “Lord, strip away the things that don’t matter, even the good things, so that what is left are the things that will still matter 10,000 years from now.” I have seen a lot of fads and trends and movements in the last 40 years. I’ve lived through the bus ministry, small group ministry, body life, Bill Gothard seminars, sharing services, the Charismatic renewal, church renewal, church growth, the balanced church, contemporary worship, renewal worship, drama teams, liturgical worship, concerts of prayer, prayer and fasting, seeker-sensitive churches, Experiencing God, the Prayer of Jabez, and the Purpose- Driven Church and the 40 Days of Purpose. Not to mention the Puritan revival, the emerging church movement, Christian hedonism, Gen X worship, and preaching to the postmodern mind. You can find valuable truth in each of those trends and movements if you look for it. But sooner or later, all those movements are destined to be forgotten. They will be one more addition to the stack of dusty seminar notebooks that I’ve lugged around from place to place for the last 30 years. The grass withers, the flower fades, only the Word of the Lord lasts forever. And that’s why Paul labored as he did “so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (v. 5). All that comes from man must perish with man; what comes from God lasts forever. In this passage we see Paul’s message (vv. 1-2), his method (vv. 3-4), and his motive (v. 5). It’s the answer to the question, “Paul, why do you what you do?” If we want a ministry with a world- changing impact, then we need to heed his answer. I. His Message “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2). Note that Paul begins not with the positive, but with the negative—"I did not come.” The terms “eloquence” and “superior wisdom” describe a certain oratorical style commonly associated with the sophists. They were the greatest public speakers of their day. Great crowds flocked to hear them because they spoke in the style of traditional Greek rhetoric, with extensive quotations, with literary allusions, and with a refined style that made them seem brilliant, witty, charming and entertaining. They combined the suave demeanor of Peter Jennings with the clever wit of David Letterman. Evidently some early Christian preachers felt the need to emulate their style. They crafted their sermons into eloquent, stylized, highly polished discourses. Paul utterly rejected that approach to preaching although he could have done it himself. As a well-educated Rabbi, he knew Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and no doubt he also knew Latin. Trained at the feet of
- 134. Gamaliel, he couldhold his own in any argument. If Paul wanted to show off his intellect, he certainly knew how to do it. But he rejected that approach. There have always been preachers who felt the need to copy the ways of the world. Here’s one way to spot the sort of approach Paul rejected. When you hear a man enamored by worldly wisdom, you say, “What a wonderful sermon!” When people heard Paul preach, they said, “What a wonderful Savior!” Paul cared not at all what people thought about him as long as they heard the message of Jesus. His reputation didn’t matter as long as the gospel was preached clearly. The phrase “I resolved” means he made a conscious choice to do things a certain way. He didn’t fall into it by chance or by force of habit. Paul preached as he did because he chose to do it that way. That same choice confronts every minister of the gospel. It’s so easy to be sidetracked by good and worthwhile things. We can preach about social issues, the political debates of our day, the crisis in the Middle East or the decline of the family. We can tackle Bible prophecy or we can major on predestination or we can spend our days arguing about some aspect of church government. There is a place for all those things, but that place is never at the center. For Paul the choice was clear: “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” He started there and that became the center of his preaching. Once the center was in place, every other truth could be arranged around it. But Jesus must be in the middle of all things and all things must be properly related to him. God Bless Them Anyway Here are three words to summarize Paul’s preaching: clarity, simplicity, boldness. Paul was so clear that no one could miss his message. He was simple because he spoke plainly about what Jesus Christ accomplished in his death on the cross. And he was bold in stating that truth over and over again. He was a man of one message, a preacher with a one-track mind, a one-note Johnny who would not be silent. He focused on the cross because that was the one part of the Christian message the world could not duplicate. In almost every city in America there are numerous service clubs that do a great deal of good. They raise money to alleviate human suffering and to help those who cannot help themselves. The government has an entire category of 501c3 organizations that are considered to be “public charities” because they operate for the benefit of others. God bless all those who serve others and reach out to those in need. But it is not given to the service clubs to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. We have the Republicans and the Democrats, and they think they have it all figured out. They don’t, but God bless them anyway. They have their politics, but it is not given to them to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. We have the public school system that labors valiantly to educate the children of America. They do the best they can, and God bless them in their efforts, but it is not given to the public school system to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. That calling is given to only one organization on the face of the earth—the church of Jesus Christ. To us—and only to us—did God vouchsafe the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is our message, our only message. We are to tell it because no one will if we don’t. The Greeks loved philosophy so Paul could have said, “I need to talk about Plato and Socrates in my sermons.” But he didn’t, even though no one would have blamed him if he had. The words of James Denney ring true to me: “No man can give at once the impression that he himself is clever and that Jesus Christ is mighty to save.” You can impress people with your cleverness or you can impress them with Jesus, but you can’t do both.
- 135. It is notenough for us to say that Jesus was a great moral teacher. He was, but the world largely believes that already. And it is not enough to say that he came down from heaven. Many already believe that. It’s not even enough to say that he was born of a virgin. We must go all the way and declare that God himself came down to earth in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must say that when he died on the cross, God laid on him all our sins. He took our place, dying where we should have died, bearing our punishment, standing as our substitute, taking our sin and its punishment upon himself. He died that he might be our Savior and bring us home to God. He was the just dying for the unjust, the good dying for the bad, the righteous dying for the unrighteousness, the holy dying for the sinful. And in his death he won our salvation. Then he rose from the dead on the third day, proving all his claims to be true. This is the message unbelievers need to hear. What good will it do to say to an unbeliever, “Be nice” or “Try harder” or “Clean yourself up” or even “Give money to the church.” That advice is both dangerous and misleading. Unbelievers can never really be nice or try harder or clean themselves up apart from God. And they don’t need to give money to the church. They need to be born again. The Gospel in Ten Words Here is the message of the gospel in just ten words: Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. That’s the whole gospel right there. There is enough truth in those ten words to save the whole world. Stop right now and say those words to yourself. Go ahead. Say them out loud: Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. That’s good. Now do it again: Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. Say it out loud so that those ten words will burn into your soul. This is the heart of the gospel. This is our message. This is what we must preach to the world. Paul regarded preaching as nothing less than the forceful declaration of the truth of God. True preaching is not sharing. It is not dialogue or discussion. When I stand behind the pulpit, I’m not having a dialogue with the congregation. This isn’t a large-group discussion. If you want to discuss something, we can go out for a Coke and we’ll talk for a while. If you buy me a piece of chocolate pie, I’ll stay an extra 45 minutes. Discussion is good and has its place, but that’s not what preaching is all about. Preaching is not dialogue because God is not negotiating with the human race. He has declared the terms of salvation (they couldn’t be better since he made it free for the asking) on the basis of the death of his Son. Let us then be gospel-centered in all that we do. We have no other message, and if we substitute anything for the message of the cross, we have taken away the one message the world needs to hear. And when the preacher preaches, let him not labor for applause but for the souls of men. This was Paul’s approach—may it be ours as well. One final thought before we move on: To give people what they need, sometimes you must not give them what they want. Most parents learn this early on. When your daughter is sick, she may want another cookie, but what she needs is the medicine the doctor prescribed. If you love her, you’ll give her what she needs, not what she wants. The same is true as we speak to others about Christ. They may want to hear other things; we must tell them about Jesus for he alone can save them.
- 136. II. His Method “Icame to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:3-4). Here is Paul’s evangelistic plan. It’s called “fear and trembling.” Paul has in mind the chilly reception he received when he first came to Corinth (Acts 18:1-11). At one point he felt so abandoned and alone that the Lord came to him in a vision with these words, “Do not be afraid; keepon speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9- 10). Corinth was a hard city to begin with, and Paul’s reception there had discouraged him to the point that preaching was difficult because of the inner doubts and uncertainty he faced. He wasn’t the picture of confident self-assurance that many of us may associate with the Apostle Paul. He responded in a totally human fashion, which I find greatly encouraging. We’ve all had his experience when trying to share Christ with others. Have you ever tried to witness to someone only to find that you “tang” gets all “tongueled” up? Or have you tried to quote John 3:16 to a lost person only to discover that you’ve forgotten everything after “For God"? Certainly all of us have had seemingly disastrous witnessing experiences where everything we said ended up sounding like nonsense to us. It happens. Paul certainly knew what that was like. Occasionally someone asks me if I get scared or nervous before I preach. The answer is yes, and it happens every single time. No matter how many times I’ve preached or how well-prepared I am, there is always a sense of nervousness that comes just before I stand up. I hope I don’t ever lose that, because if I do, I need to get out of the pulpit. If speaking for Christ ever becomes routine, then something has gone wrong inside your heart. We need “holy nervousness” when we witness to others lest we fail the Lord or fail the person to whom we are speaking. I am comforted by the thought that Paul was a man like I am—a man of like passions, if you will. As I consider his life, I realize that nothing in Paul could explain his success—except God! The New Testament doesn’t give us any descriptions of Paul’s appearance, but Paul himself quoted his opponents who said of him, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing” (2 Corinthians 10:10). We do have this early description of Paul that comes from outside the New Testament. He was “a man of middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were far apart; he had large eyes, and his eyebrows met, and his nose was somewhat long.” If that is accurate, then Paul was no first-century Arnold Schwarzenegger. He wasn’t much to look at and he didn’t cut an impressive figure in the pulpit. Imagine two members of the Corinthian church meeting each other in the marketplace: “Hey, who’s preaching this Sunday?” “Paul.” “Paul? Oh, No! I’ve invited my neighbors to church this Sunday. I thought Dr. Smartypants was preaching. Paul is hard to understand. He’s too deep for me. And his sermons are so long.” So if you feel a bit afraid and unqualified to witness for Christ, if you sometimes get worried about what others will think, join the club. There are plenty of people in that club, and Paul is the president. Remember this: If people are impressed by what you say, unlikely to be impressed by Jesus. It’s so easy to manipulate people by telling funny stories or sad stories, and using certain kinds of music to get them stirred up. But manipulation and the power of the Holy Spirit are two different things. What we need is can be summed up in one old-fashioned word: unction. We need the unction of the Holy Spirit that will take our feeble human words and fill them with supernatural power. When that happens, lives will be radically changed.
- 137. III. His Motive “Sothat your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:5). Note the striking contrast—the wisdom of men versus the power of God. If you build on one, you cannot have the other. Ministries built primarily on human personality do not last. Evangelical Christians tend to be just as “star-struck” as anyone else. We all have our favorite pastors and Christian leaders. Sometimes people even talk about “John Piper’s church” or “Andy Stanley’s church” or “David Jeremiah’s church.” Or they rave about Ravi Zacharias or Tony Evans or John MacArthur or whoever it is they happen to like. I know what they mean when they say they go to “Chuck Swindoll’s church,” but the phrase is unsettling all the same. There is nothing wrong with having heroes we look to for spiritual leadership, but our faith must go beyond our heroes. We need something deeper than the popularity and wisdom of even the most godly Christian leaders. We need a faith built on the unchanging rock of God’s truth. Let’s face it. All our heroes will be dead sooner or later, and if our faith rests on them, how will it survive when they are gone? Eventually the best preachers and teachers must go the way of all flesh. I am profoundly aware that my own days are numbered. I say that without any sense of frustration. That’s just the way it is. Build Your Life on Jesus Christ So while it is good and even vital to love and respect your spiritual leaders, you must not build your whole spiritual life around them. Build your life on Jesus Christ. He will still be here after all the pastors have come and gone. Every church needs a demonstration of God’s power through the preaching of the cross. Listen to the words of Charles Spurgeon: The power that is in the Gospel does not lie in eloquence of the preacher, otherwise men would be the converters of souls, nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning, otherwise it would consist of the wisdom of men. We might preach until our tongues rotted, till we would exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless the Holy Spirit be with the Word of God to give it the power to convert a soul. This was Paul’s strategy and it ought to be ours as well: Take the Word of God. Preach it accurately. Pray for the power of God to bless the Word of God. Trust God for changed lives as a result. The Word of God, preached in the power of God, always results in lives changed by God. This was how the tiny band of believers turned the world upside down in the first century. We must pray for God to do that again in our day. The world has no answer to a life radically changed by Jesus Christ. The world may answer our arguments, but it cannot answer the power of God let loose in the human heart. Only God can take a person trapped in sin and set him free.
- 138. Only God cantake a person chained to alcohol and set him free. Only God can take a person living in the hell of sexual addiction and set him free. Only God can do it. Only he can take a heart of stone and replace with a heart of flesh. Only he can give life in the place of death. And he does it as his people faithfully preach the message of the cross So we ask God to do it again in our day—to use us to preach the message of the cross wherever we go, and then to pour out his Spirit so that our preaching results in changed lives. Pray for this. Ask God to do it in your witness to others. Ask God to do it when the congregation gathers for worship. The Jews said, “Show us a sign.” Paul said, “I give you the sign of the cross.” The Greeks said, “Show us wisdom.” Paul said, “I will show you Jesus, the very wisdom of God.” What the world needs is not reformation but true and lasting deliverance from sin. Such a deliverance can be found only in the cross. Where sin is the problem, the cross is God’s answer—God’s only answer. Only the gospel itself meets the deep needs of the human heart. It is only the gospel of Jesus Christ— Christ and Him crucified—that gives life to sinners who are dead in their transgressions and sins. You don’t start with the third floor when you construct a building. You start with the foundation, and you make sure that you lay it deep and strong. For the Christian, there is only one foundation—Jesus Christ and him crucified. Build your life on that solid rock. Stand on that rock and it will take you safely home to heaven. Take me to the Cross Billy Graham tells the story of a police officer on night duty in a city in northern England. As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep with tears running down his cheeks. The child said, “I’m lost. Please take me home.” “I’ll be glad to take you home. Where do you live?” the officer replied. But the little boy was so tired and so scared that he couldn’t remember his address. The policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue. Then he remembered that at the center of the town stood a church with a large white cross that towered high above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, “Do you live anywhere near that place?” The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, “Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.” That is the mission of the church. We are to point people to the cross, and the cross will lead them safely home to God. This is our message to the world today, and it is God’s message to you. The cross is God’s provision for your sin. If you go to the cross, you will find your way home to God. Many people are lost and confused and the cross of Christ beckons you to come, repent of your sin and receive Christ. Come to the cross and you will find your way home to God. The church stands today with an utterly unique message that is given to us and to no on else. In a world of hurting people, to those who are angry and to those who are in despair, to those who have lost their way, to every man and woman, to every boy and girl, the church of Jesus Christ
- 139. says to everyonewho will listen, “Go to the cross and the cross will lead you home.” May we never be ashamed of the cross but preach it boldly as the only hope of the world. Amen. JOSEPH PARKER The People's Bible by Joseph Parker 1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.Paul's Style of Preaching 1Corinthians 2:1 Did the Apostle voluntarily deny himself the pleasure of being eloquent? Was he not an eloquent man? Not in the sense in which Apollos was eloquent, the fluent, ornate, dazzling style of eloquence, but rather suggestive, stimulating, audacious, and yet chastened with the sublimest spirit of devotion. Was Paul his very best intellectual self when he went to Corinth? He says he was not. In one sense, the Corinthians saw the poorest aspect of his manifold nature; and yet, if they had known it, they were in reality seeing the very best aspect of the man's ministry. But they were sensuous, objective, looking out for spectacle and colour, and not listening with the inner ear, which alone can hear the true music of life and speech. The Apostle had a specific reason for not being verbally eloquent: he was talking to children; he would rebuke their intellectual vanity by presenting himself under aspects that were, apparently at least, humiliating. But the reason is deeper than a mere accommodation to Corinthian infancy; the reason is given in plain terms. The Apostle went to Corinth to declare the testimony of God. That was an all-explanatory reason; in the glory of that function the worker lost all his individuality. The Apostle recognised himself to be but a vessel, an instrument, a medium; he himself being as surprised as those who heard him at the music which God sounded through his voice. It is always so with great teaching and great speaking; the speaker is as surprised as the hearer. Why? Because he yields himself to the hands of God, and he knows not what tune will be played upon the instrument of his soul. Who ever found the Apostle Paul wondering what he should say, as to the substance, the pith, and the purport of his doctrine? The Apostle Paul was an errand-bearer; he had himself nothing to say to the world; he had a testimony to deliver, and his testimony was the testimony of God. That carries the whole purpose and thought of Christian ministry. The Apostle must fill his mind with Divine messages, he must read the prophets, and peruse the life of Christ, and study the ministry of the Cross, and only tell what he himself has been told. Preachers have nothing to say; they are unfaithful when they utter any word of their own, then they steal an honour, and arrest public attention with thoughts that are not worth taking out of the dust. The sermon is nothing, the text is everything: but were this theory proceeded upon, all Corinthian congregations would be dissolved. "Excellency of speech or of wisdom" has its subtle temptations. There is a profanity of sentence-making, there is a blasphemy of rhetoric. We do not want the vessel, we want the life- giving fluid which it holds. It is not the goblet that saves us, it is the blood. Has he time to think out of what vessel he drinks who is dying of thirst? Does he take up the goblet and ask questions as to its age, as to its decoration, as to its symbolism? He sees not the vessel, he lays hold of it and drains it, because he is conscious of a fatal thirst. But the Corinthians in all this have
- 140. themselves to blamethat so much attention is paid to the vessel. Their criticisms are flippant, superficial, profane. There are not wanting those who speak about a "finished style"; the heavens frown on them that they should talk such folly and madness within presence of the Cross. The Apostle Paul, therefore, comes before all Christian ages as the exemplar of Christian apostolicity and Christian ministry. The strength of the temptation may be in some degree measured by the strength of the resolution with which Paul encountered it. Read: "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Men have to gird themselves for great occasions; sometimes men have to go into training for a long time, that they may strengthen muscle and fibre, and flesh and bone, so as to endure the conflict well, and come out of it triumphantly. No man can know how long the Apostle was in corning to this determination. His, indeed, was a swiftly acting mind; he did not hover about a subject, but fell upon it with energetic precision. Yet we have the Apostle here in various moods; trembling like a leaf wind-shaken, and standing like a rock. He was a manifold man. He cried in public, and in public he thundered. The one thing he determined to know was the all-inclusive thing. He was not content to know about Jesus Christ. Many persons are fascinated by that theme who are not Christians. There is nothing less acceptable to the Son of God than a compliment paid to his character, if the payment of that tribute be not followed by the imitation of his Spirit and the reproduction of his life. Many persons preach about Jesus Christ who never preach him. The whole difficulty lies in that word "about." They are within sight of him, they have a clear vision of his personality, his figure, his colour, his height, his bulk, his historical relations; they write learned essays about him, they paint verbal pictures of the Messiah, they turn his miracles and mighty signs and wonders into poesy, into idyllic incidents. They do not preach Christ. Sometimes they preach Christ best who never name him. Were a minister to preach upon the forgiveness of sins, he would be termed a moralist, a legalist; whereas, he is preaching the very agony of the Cross of Christ. No man can preach the forgiveness of a foe without preaching Christ, yet Christ's name may not be mentioned. We are humiliated and disgraced by bigots, who call that preaching Christ which simply names the Name without penetrating to the inner meaning, thought, and purpose of the Son of God. You cannot reconcile two enemies without preaching Christ. He who does Christ's work preaches Christ himself. Could we persuade the Church to accept this definition what charity would be developed, what nobleness, what consciousness of one man supplying what is lacking in the ministry of another, and what a grasp of the whole ministry we should secure! There must be some strong men willing to live on begged bread until they can drill this doctrine into the stony heart of a nominal but insufferable Church. Why was the Apostle not satisfied with knowing about Jesus Christ? Because Jesus Christ may be but a historical name, one of many, the brightest point in a series of brilliant points; what the Apostle would know was Jesus Christ "crucified," that word bearing all the emphasis of his meaning. Many persons fall short of the Cross; they can witness the performance of any number of miracles, and be appropriately amazed; they can listen to any number of discourses and say, "How wonderful!" All this amounts to nothing: unless a man be crucified with Christ, on Christ's Cross, he is none of Christ's. But this would cut down the Church by millions. All the proud people would have to go; all the self- satisfied people would be scattered, while all persons who have little theories and religious inventions and pious tricks of their own would have to be dispersed. Who is sufficient for these things? The man who thinks he has about him one rag of respectability would have to be driven forth, and Jesus Christ would be left with a few broken hearts, a few sinners having one only cry, "God be merciful unto me a sinner." Numerically, the Church would be small; energetically,
- 141. spiritually, dynamically, itwould be omnipotent. He who erases the word "crucified" erases the words "Jesus Christ." How was the Apostle with the Corinthians? He explains his spirit and his attitude in pathetic terms:—"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." What a various character was Paul! Hear him on one occasion when they tell him that bonds and imprisonment await him in every city; he says, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Then you describe him as a mighty north wind tearing down the valleys of time, never to be resisted or turned back. At Corinth he was in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. This was not all bodily infirmity; there was a touch of another sensation in this mysterious experience. It would be curious to range on the one side all the heroic utterances of Paul, when he is giant conqueror, not a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles; and then to put down on the opposite page all the times of his depression, when he needed cheering words from angels and from God himself; for no man so much needed cheering as the Apostle Paul. Peter had better spirits. Collate the passages in which God is obliged, so to say, by the constraint of love to come to Paul and say, "Fear not." Listen to Paul as he says: "There stood by me the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul." To no man in the Church was that word so frequently addressed; yet at other times he seemed to carry the whole Church by his strength, to hold the whole flock of Christ within the fold of his heart. Poor is the life that has only one line in it! How stricken with the disease of monotony the soul that can only sing one tune! Sometimes the Apostle could only rebuke vanity by what might appear to be excessive humility on his own side. The Apostle had to create an atmosphere in which it was impossible for any man to speak above his breath, lest he should convict himself of ostentation and self-idolatry. The mystery wrought by this apostolic action ended in a consciousness on the part of the Corinthians that they must not display themselves, if he, the greatest, was so tremulous, so self-restrained, and so consciously and lovingly subject to the chastening of the Divine Spirit. The only way in which certain blatant persons can be put down is by the silence of the men who are attacked. Paul could only rebuke the vanity of the Church by exhibiting himself in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. For not one man amongst them did he care one iota, so far as that man's intelligence or power was concerned. Every man in that Church acquired his quality and his value by his attachment to One greater than himself. This was a studied depreciation; this was a calculated abasement. How does the Apostle describes his preaching? He says: "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom": I never made a sermon: to make a sermon! why, that is to make an idol, a graven image, a shape in clay; and to breathe into its nostrils my own dying breath, why that were waste of life: I simply said, Thou Blessed One of the Cross, put into my heart what has to be uttered by my tongue; tell me thy word, and I will go and speak it, though every man be a lion, and every town a den of lions. "Enticing words of man's wisdom:" small inventions of man's mind; man's answers to the puzzle of the universe; man's renewed attempt to answer an unanswerable enigma; man's profession of being able to arrange the little pieces of the universe so as to get the shape of the whole; man correcting himself to-day for what he said yesterday, and begging the pardon of an audience whilst he retracts an assertion and replaces it with another which is equally devoid of truth. What we want is the burning heart, the burning tongue, the self that has no self, the heroic egotism that in the very grandeur of its passion forgets the pettiness of its individuality.
- 142. How, then, didPaul preach? "In demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The converts might be few, but they should be good. No man should be able to say that his minister was not present, and therefore he could not defend his own religion; no one should be driven to say, If you want to know what I believe, consult my preacher: let every man have his own conviction wrought in him by God the Holy Ghost. Faith that stands in the wisdom of men may be overturned by the very energy that created it. Any man who accepts Christ as the result of controversial study may reject Christ tomorrow because some mightier controversialist has undertaken to teach a contrary doctrine. We must come to Christ through the heart. It is not the intellect that receives Christ, but when the heart lays hold upon him it takes another heart greater still to extract the infinite benediction. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." It is because the heart is not touched that we have bigotry, sectarianism, separation one from another, so that one saith, It is so, and another saith, It is not so. Men cannot be reconciled in opinion; they can be one in the ocean of love. But would not this be mere emotion? I answer, No. We should be careful how we admit the existence of any such thing as mere emotion. There may be an animal emotion, but the emotion that is spoken of in connection with the Cross of Christ is a soul-melting passion, a fire that brings into one all the various elements of life, fusing them together, and representing them in outward action as a unity strong and indissoluble. The Apostle gathers himself together, and says, "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." That is to say, we can be wiser than we appear to be: whilst I was in Corinth I taught the alphabet; I could have spoken a fluent literature that would have amazed and distressed you all; but wisdom is not to be spoken in the presence of children; we speak to children in children's language; we speak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect, them that are strong, them that are spiritually-minded; men who can handle a mystery without taking the bloom off it; men who can see the meaning of a parable without being bewildered by its accidentals; men who see the spirit is greater than the word, the letter, the form. There be those clever people who examine the robe that has been brought out for the shoulders of the prodigal, and who take up his shoes and examine them, and take off the ring that they may look at it; and there be those who see no robe, nor shoes, nor ring, but join the infinite gladness because a soul has been raised from the dead. Do not waste the parables, the mysteries, the symbols of God; they teach some inner core- truth, some heart thought; seize them, and as for the drapery let it flow as it may, for God is often redundant in his gift of cloud and colour, flowers and music. Paul is very ironical in the after parts of his discourse. It is a beautiful and profitable intellectual study to follow this man in all the gamut of his intellectual action. He looks at the Corinthians with a countenance charged with expressions they can never understand. He speaks "the wisdom of God in a mystery," in a parable, in a concealed way, in a way that is only half disclosed; "even the hidden wisdom," the wisdom that rises, floats, passes, falls out of view, returns, shines with added glory, and then dissolves in added clouds and darkness. Then the Apostle says, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Where is it so written? Some say in an Apocryphal book. But that is a poor answer; ten thousand other things may be written in Apocryphal books which we have never read. But it is written—where? Did any one try to find out whether this passage is inscribed in the Old Testament? We take it for granted it is written because Paul says it is written; there we are poor Papists, there we are miserable idolaters; Paul says it is written, and therefore we accept it, and never inquire where—the fact being it is not written. We should study Paul's method of quoting the Bible. When Paul seeks to establish a
- 143. given doctrinal pointhe will give you, as it were, chapter and verse; at other times he will give you, not chapter and verse, but the whole Bible. It is lawful so to quote the Bible as to lose all sense of chapter and verse. Chapter and verse are not Divine inventions, they are not human inventions—we will not press the inquiry farther. We have been ruined by chapter and verse. We may be biblical when we have no text to quote. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." When did he say so? Never, and yet he never said anything else. If you ask for chapter and verse, then Jesus Christ never said these words; but if you ask for Jesus Christ's teaching you cannot have a finer, more suggestive declaration of the doctrine and purpose of his life. So "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." You find an echo of this in Isaiah, in more places than one, but not in this connection, and not in this relation; and yet the whole Old Testament simply says this. When you have read through from Genesis to Malachi, you might say the whole is comprehended in one saying, namely, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Talk about the finality of the Book! it begins but never ends. Thus this is the teaching of Paul when he says: "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." There is a continual spiritual communication going on between God and the believer. We know many things by the spirit we do not know by the letter. The ear of corn has outlived the seed out of which it sprang; the flower expresses the secret of the root, and the fragrance of the flower. What shall be said of that? always giving itself away, shaking out its blessing on the wind, so that, though rich men wall in their flower-gardens, the fragrance comes over the wall and blesses the humblest little child that plays on the road. Dear little child, sniff this gift of odour, by-and-by thou shalt have a whole paradise. Have we the spirit of interpretation and sympathy, the spirit that sees afar off? If so, we are rich, and we are never alone. 1 Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.A Supreme Purpose In Life 1Corinthians 2:2 What does this mean? Perhaps you will reply that a child can answer that inquiry. Let us try first whether a man can. Say, then, what does it mean? You may answer, It means that the Apostle Paul in going to Corinth had made up his mind not to listen to anything, but to preach or teach or converse regarding Jesus Christ and him crucified. He would not speak about weather, or health, or commerce, or nature; he would close his ears against all minor topics and all meaner appeals, and would listen to nothing from sunrise to sundown but Jesus Christ and him crucified. You wonder that any one should ask what words so obvious in their significance could mean. First then, they do not mean that. It is an awkward criticism for you. They mean largely the contrary of that. Where is the child, then, that you set in the midst of us at the first to answer the inquiry, What does this mean? Let us try to get the real meaning into our minds and hearts. It will revolutionise life; it will centralise, and dignify, and sacredly utilise all the elements, emotions, tumults, and conflicts of life. Let the paraphrase stand thus: In coming to Corinth, the only one thing I had made up my mind about was that, whatever else there might be to see and to do, and to arrange, I would fix my mind and heart on Jesus Christ and him crucified. This determination was the only determination the Apostle had formed in his mind; other objects he
- 144. had left tobe considered within the lines of the occasion. If there was weather to be talked about, he would refer to it; if there was health to be inquired about, he would inquire about it; if nature revealed some apocalypse of beauty which challenged the attention of the eyes, he would turn his vision upon the revelation of God. The only thing I have made up my mind about, says the Apostle, is to know Jesus Christ and him crucified; upon that my mind is fixed; that is certain, that is unchangeable; whatever else may happen, this is the only thing I have at present made up my mind about. So other objects are not excluded; the Apostle is not a mere fanatic; Paul does not say that he will do nothing whilst at Corinth but talk about Jesus Christ and him crucified; as a matter of fact, he did a great many things at Corinth, and yet everything he did is perfectly consistent with this determination. The picture is that of a man who has made up his mind to one thing; he may do fifty other things, he does not know what he will do with the other subjects; he is certain and fixed upon this one thing, and all else shall be ruled by it as gravitation rules the motions of the worlds. We perish for want of a dominating thought. We cannot get the arch together because we have no keystone. The two parts would gladly approach one another, but they cannot, because the keystone, that wondrous wedge that binds the distant and the separate, is wanting. Many a life is ruined for want of a keystone. Many a man is wandering about the world doing nothing because he is destitute of a sovereign purpose. If he could make up his mind about any one thing, that one thing being worthy of life, his whole course would be elevated, and sublimated. That is the Apostle's position. Take the matter from a lower point of view. Say a man shall make up his mind to go to London, or to Paris to make money. He says, in effect, On that point I am certain; what I may do about other matters I cannot tell: I am going to London or to Paris to make money, and everything has got to bend to that. Will you not look at some of the museums? I may. Will you not run into the galleries of art? Possibly; all depends. Depends upon what? Upon how such things affect my main object, which is to make money. That, in the religious sense, is just the meaning of the Apostle. Will you not look at the beautiful sculpture to be found in the famous city? Possibly; all depends. Depends upon what? Depends upon the success of my mission, which is Jesus Christ and him crucified. I will certainly look on the rocks that man has not chiselled, I may look on the stone he has partially spoiled. May you not hear some of the famed orators of Greece? I may; it all depends. Depends upon what? Upon the opportunities which are offered to me, or created by me, of proclaiming Jesus Christ and him crucified. Will you not call upon your friends, and speak with them on the subjects of the day? I may; it all depends. Depends upon what? Upon how I get along with this subject; that must rule everything; the one thing I have made up my mind about is to know nothing, save Jesus Christ and him crucified; everything else must wait. Now we understand the text. Paul's method was consistent; he always worked upon this plan. Once he said, "This one thing I do." How often is that passage misunderstood. The Apostle was not doing this one thing as the only thing he was doing, but he was doing this as the supreme motive and purpose and object of his life, and that supreme purpose ruled all minor things. Often we are exhorted by the apostolic motto to concentration of mind, saying, This one thing I do, and nothing else. The Apostle never said so. He said, Whatever else I may be doing, I am certain about doing this particular thing, namely, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus; I may be doing innumerable other things, all partaking of the quality of this supreme purpose, but this—this—this I am certain about. Where did Paul learn this great and gracious doctrine? Where he learned everything of the nature of Christian doctrine and Christian philosophy. He learned it in the school of Jesus Christ. Does Jesus Christ lay down this rule of supremacy of purpose? Yes, he does. Where? In these words:—"Seek ye first the
- 145. kingdom of God,and his righteousness, and all these things"—trifles, baubles for children to play with—"shall be added unto you." Have a supreme purpose. Every man should have a supreme purpose in life; it will give definiteness to all his processes of thought and action. How many aimless people there are in the world! They awake in the morning without a plan, they make no programme, they draw up no scheme; they may be east or west, and it is just possible they may be north or south; they are driving without reins, without whip, and without aim. They think the horses, which they call their impulses, know the road. What does all this come to? To ruin, to disappointment, to chagrin, to despair. Whenever the Apostle Paul awoke he knew that what he had to do that day was to proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified, to make these great histories and doctrines clearer and clearer to human comprehension. Whatever else the day might ask at his hands that tribute must be paid. Such a purpose determines the tone of a man's life. Life is not a question of separate actions. Life, in its higher interpretation, means tone, atmosphere, unexpressed but mighty music; a quality not to be named or traced etymologically. A man cannot get rid of his supreme purpose. The avaricious man has avarice painted upon his face. He cannot cover it with a smile, he cannot hide it with a frown; by many a trickster's grimace he seeks to rub out the signature, but there it is, and that projecting truth-telling chin. All his questions have avarice at the base, avarice at the top, and avarice in the middle line. He is asking about affairs, possibilities, markets; he fingers everything with the hands of a bargain-maker: what he can get out of it, is his purpose. The dreamer cannot hide his supreme purpose. He wants to create new heavens and a new earth; he longs to take the stars to pieces to see where the light comes from; he knows he saw an angel on that white-thorn hedge; he is sure that the spirit of some seer or singer was in that bird's note— "Did you not hear it?" he says, "I did." Dear soul! the world is the sweeter for his dreaming and singing: go on! The Apostle could not hide the supreme purpose of his life, nor did he ever seek to do so. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.... I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth:... I count not my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus:... I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Heroic soul! almost the Son of God! A supreme purpose of this kind always ennobles character. The whole range of thought is elevated. Some minds have no mountain chains running through them. They are flat; they are of the nature of table-land; they are by no means either useless or despicable, they have their own utility. Other minds are Alpine; they reach and stretch, they uplift themselves as if to find their right place in the very noonday of the sun. He who has Christ living in him lives an uplifted or elevated life all his contemplations are high, wide, radiant, noble, beneficent; all things are new. He may never preach a sermon in any formal sense, yet he never ceases to preach in a vita significance. In this subject chosen by the Apostle Paul there is neither poverty nor monotony. This subject never runs out; it is a perennial fountain. All the little cataracts take a summer holiday: we do not know where they have gone, they are never there when we want them, they take their holiday when we take ours; we are welcome to look at the stones which they run over after snow and rain; if it will do us the least good in the world to see where they do gambol, we may spend all day in the torrent-bed, but the torrent itself is gone. Niagara never takes a holiday. Great Niagara! Who that has stood behind it has not said, Surely in a few hours that cataract must have run itself out; surely we shall not find it here in the morning. Yet it gallops with the centuries; it
- 146. foams and plungesas if God had set upon it the seal of eternity. Poor is that symbol, though one of the best we can at the moment find, by which to represent the eternal rush of the redeeming, ennobling, sanctifying influence poured upon the world by the Son of God. Wherever there is anything beautiful, Christ and Christ crucified is there; wherever you find anything that is really progressive, you find Christ and him crucified; wherever you hear true singing, the joy, the gladness of the heart ruled by reason, inspired by hope you find Jesus Christ and him crucified. You find that great subject in the museum, in the art gallery, on the death-bed, in the cradle, everywhere. Without the crucified Christ the world could not live; its foundations are laid upon him, and those foundations are but the beginnings of pinnacles, for until the topstone is brought on God's creation is not finished. Mark what distinctiveness this gave to Paul's personality and ministry. He found his subject in his character. You knew him to be a man of prayer, a man of God; you could not be long with him before he took off the key from his girdle and opened some new world of vision, some larger sphere of hope and service and rest. If you let him alone one moment he was at the Cross. You might detain him on minor subjects if you solicitously urged him to give his opinion about them, as about life upon the earth, and marriage, and service, and duty, as we define those terms; but the moment your solicitousness took its finger from him he was at Calvary. You could not keep him back from, the altar; having been there he would abide there. He might accept a tent for a night, but his abiding sanctuary was built on a Golgotha. How easy it is to see a perversion of this purpose, or an undue limitation of its range. How easy it would be to say, This kind of purpose would fit well apostles and preachers, evangelists and ministers, or Christians of leisure who had yielded themselves to the charms of a contemplative life. I will answer you—you are wrong; you are doing injustice to the genius of the history and the doctrine. This singleness or loftiness of purpose is just as possible to the humblest man of business as to the mightiest man of eloquence, or the most favoured child of contemplation and holy dream. Often we hear it said "Business must be looked after; business must be looked after in the spirit of the business; we wish we had more time for religious contemplation: far are we from ignoring the claims of the Cross, but we must leave its deeper study, and its fuller unfoldment of meaning to men who are consecrated to sacred leisure." You are fundamentally wrong, you are wrong at the core. Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ crucified, are not subjects for contemplation. They are the most active subjects in the world. They are the factors of civilisation, they are the sovereign thought of progress. Every man may do his business, whatever it be, in the spirit of Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is what the Apostle desires to have us all attain. He would have us show pity and do justice and obey the golden rule, and it is impossible to do these things apart from Jesus Christ and him crucified. Here is the doctrine that needs prominence, enforcement, and practical glorification. A man's wages ought to be earned and paid in the spirit of Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is not a sentiment to be set among the stars and telescopically surveyed; this is a rule of conduct, this is the inspiration of life, this is the meaning of all true things. We cannot get some people to understand this. We shall never get right by socialistic theories, anarchical programmes, and a certain vulgar power of befooling the trustful classes: we can only get right by Jesus Christ and him crucified. Of course, a proposition of this kind would be received with execration by socialists and anarchists of the baser sort. He who proclaimed this doctrine would be scoffed at with certain derisive epithets, and would be honoured by the brand of certain contemptuous criticism; yet the preacher, the teacher, the Christian, must never fold his flag as if in defeat; he must unfurl it and say still more sweetly and still more loudly, The world's only hope is in Jesus Christ and him crucified.
- 147. What have weseen amongst persons who would undertake to work the economics of the age on the basis of other theories? We have seen tyranny of the worst description, selfishness that had been saturated in the very pools of corruption, narrow-mindedness that could not take in the whole of any question, an obstinacy mistaken for firmness, and a recklessness which was characterised as splendid generalship. Let us have justice on all sides, let us hear every man's case, be he great or small; the beggar in the ditch shall have all the benefactions that justice can confer upon him, and the man who thinks for the world and guides its affairs shall not be denied justice because he has acquired eminence. Do not listen to the men that want to merely mechanise life, and rule it by schedule and stipulation: the only real security of life, joy, progress, and heaven you will find in Jesus Christ and him crucified, when properly interpreted. Christ will put all business right; Christ will pay every labourer his wages; Christ will sanctify the millions of the capitalist, and keep the richest man modest and humble within the environment of his life. The world can never be pacified, the classes can never be united or reconciled, the balance of society can never be properly established, except in connection with Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is not a mere doctrine, a section of metaphysical inquiry, a dreamy sentiment that only leisurely minds can contemplate; this is the real force and the real secret of life and action. The subject was not only Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ crucified. Many persons would get rid of the last word if they could. Paul never sought to get rid of it; he magnified it, he glorified it. He did not preach Jesus Christ the socialist, Jesus Christ the theorist, Jesus Christ the wonder, Jesus Christ either a prospective or a retrospective Aristotle, or Plato, or Socrates. Paul preached morning, noon, and night, Christ on the Cross, Christ crucified, Christ shedding his blood that men might not die. We can make no gospel out of any other word than "crucified." There are theorists who show some other aspects of Christ's sacrifice; nor are they to be derided or undervalued; they have a right motive, and some would say a right conception, and they are to be honoured for their earnestness as students: but we cannot move the world without the Crucified in another, in a deeper, in a more tragic sense. Speaking of my own ministry in this place and elsewhere, I growingly feel that power can attach to it only in proportion as it is inspired by the pathos, not of a moral example only, but of a real personal sacrifice. What it means I cannot tell: love is not to be scheduled, the Spirit of God is not to be caged in by formal or theological bars: higher than heaven, who can reach it? wider than the horizon, who may lay his fingers upon it? We can only say concerning God's rule, His mercy endureth for ever:— It is not a thing to be explained in words, or to be defended exhaustively in mere terms; it is a passion to be felt, it is an inspiration to be accepted, it is a mystery on which we may lay down our aching lives as a little child lays down its weariness on its mother's heart. CHARLES SIMEON The People's Bible by Joseph Parker 1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.Paul's Style of Preaching
- 148. 1Corinthians 2:1 Did theApostle voluntarily deny himself the pleasure of being eloquent? Was he not an eloquent man? Not in the sense in which Apollos was eloquent, the fluent, ornate, dazzling style of eloquence, but rather suggestive, stimulating, audacious, and yet chastened with the sublimest spirit of devotion. Was Paul his very best intellectual self when he went to Corinth? He says he was not. In one sense, the Corinthians saw the poorest aspect of his manifold nature; and yet, if they had known it, they were in reality seeing the very best aspect of the man's ministry. But they were sensuous, objective, looking out for spectacle and colour, and not listening with the inner ear, which alone can hear the true music of life and speech. The Apostle had a specific reason for not being verbally eloquent: he was talking to children; he would rebuke their intellectual vanity by presenting himself under aspects that were, apparently at least, humiliating. But the reason is deeper than a mere accommodation to Corinthian infancy; the reason is given in plain terms. The Apostle went to Corinth to declare the testimony of God. That was an all-explanatory reason; in the glory of that function the worker lost all his individuality. The Apostle recognised himself to be but a vessel, an instrument, a medium; he himself being as surprised as those who heard him at the music which God sounded through his voice. It is always so with great teaching and great speaking; the speaker is as surprised as the hearer. Why? Because he yields himself to the hands of God, and he knows not what tune will be played upon the instrument of his soul. Who ever found the Apostle Paul wondering what he should say, as to the substance, the pith, and the purport of his doctrine? The Apostle Paul was an errand-bearer; he had himself nothing to say to the world; he had a testimony to deliver, and his testimony was the testimony of God. That carries the whole purpose and thought of Christian ministry. The Apostle must fill his mind with Divine messages, he must read the prophets, and peruse the life of Christ, and study the ministry of the Cross, and only tell what he himself has been told. Preachers have nothing to say; they are unfaithful when they utter any word of their own, then they steal an honour, and arrest public attention with thoughts that are not worth taking out of the dust. The sermon is nothing, the text is everything: but were this theory proceeded upon, all Corinthian congregations would be dissolved. "Excellency of speech or of wisdom" has its subtle temptations. There is a profanity of sentence-making, there is a blasphemy of rhetoric. We do not want the vessel, we want the life- giving fluid which it holds. It is not the goblet that saves us, it is the blood. Has he time to think out of what vessel he drinks who is dying of thirst? Does he take up the goblet and ask questions as to its age, as to its decoration, as to its symbolism? He sees not the vessel, he lays hold of it and drains it, because he is conscious of a fatal thirst. But the Corinthians in all this have themselves to blame that so much attention is paid to the vessel. Their criticisms are flippant, superficial, profane. There are not wanting those who speak about a "finished style"; the heavens frown on them that they should talk such folly and madness within presence of the Cross. The Apostle Paul, therefore, comes before all Christian ages as the exemplar of Christian apostolicity and Christian ministry. The strength of the temptation may be in some degree measured by the strength of the resolution with which Paul encountered it. Read: "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Men have to gird themselves for great occasions; sometimes men have to go into training for a long time, that they may strengthen muscle and fibre, and flesh and bone, so as to endure the conflict well, and come out of it triumphantly. No man can know how long the Apostle was in corning to this determination. His, indeed, was a swiftly acting mind; he did not hover about a subject, but fell upon it with energetic precision. Yet we have the Apostle here in various moods; trembling like a leaf wind-shaken, and standing like a rock. He
- 149. was a manifoldman. He cried in public, and in public he thundered. The one thing he determined to know was the all-inclusive thing. He was not content to know about Jesus Christ. Many persons are fascinated by that theme who are not Christians. There is nothing less acceptable to the Son of God than a compliment paid to his character, if the payment of that tribute be not followed by the imitation of his Spirit and the reproduction of his life. Many persons preach about Jesus Christ who never preach him. The whole difficulty lies in that word "about." They are within sight of him, they have a clear vision of his personality, his figure, his colour, his height, his bulk, his historical relations; they write learned essays about him, they paint verbal pictures of the Messiah, they turn his miracles and mighty signs and wonders into poesy, into idyllic incidents. They do not preach Christ. Sometimes they preach Christ best who never name him. Were a minister to preach upon the forgiveness of sins, he would be termed a moralist, a legalist; whereas, he is preaching the very agony of the Cross of Christ. No man can preach the forgiveness of a foe without preaching Christ, yet Christ's name may not be mentioned. We are humiliated and disgraced by bigots, who call that preaching Christ which simply names the Name without penetrating to the inner meaning, thought, and purpose of the Son of God. You cannot reconcile two enemies without preaching Christ. He who does Christ's work preaches Christ himself. Could we persuade the Church to accept this definition what charity would be developed, what nobleness, what consciousness of one man supplying what is lacking in the ministry of another, and what a grasp of the whole ministry we should secure! There must be some strong men willing to live on begged bread until they can drill this doctrine into the stony heart of a nominal but insufferable Church. Why was the Apostle not satisfied with knowing about Jesus Christ? Because Jesus Christ may be but a historical name, one of many, the brightest point in a series of brilliant points; what the Apostle would know was Jesus Christ "crucified," that word bearing all the emphasis of his meaning. Many persons fall short of the Cross; they can witness the performance of any number of miracles, and be appropriately amazed; they can listen to any number of discourses and say, "How wonderful!" All this amounts to nothing: unless a man be crucified with Christ, on Christ's Cross, he is none of Christ's. But this would cut down the Church by millions. All the proud people would have to go; all the self- satisfied people would be scattered, while all persons who have little theories and religious inventions and pious tricks of their own would have to be dispersed. Who is sufficient for these things? The man who thinks he has about him one rag of respectability would have to be driven forth, and Jesus Christ would be left with a few broken hearts, a few sinners having one only cry, "God be merciful unto me a sinner." Numerically, the Church would be small; energetically, spiritually, dynamically, it would be omnipotent. He who erases the word "crucified" erases the words "Jesus Christ." How was the Apostle with the Corinthians? He explains his spirit and his attitude in pathetic terms:—"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." What a various character was Paul! Hear him on one occasion when they tell him that bonds and imprisonment await him in every city; he says, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Then you describe him as a mighty north wind tearing down the valleys of time, never to be resisted or turned back. At Corinth he was in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. This was not all bodily infirmity; there was a touch of another sensation in this mysterious experience. It would be curious to range on the one side all the heroic utterances of Paul, when he is giant conqueror, not a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles; and then to put down on the opposite page all the times of his
- 150. depression, when heneeded cheering words from angels and from God himself; for no man so much needed cheering as the Apostle Paul. Peter had better spirits. Collate the passages in which God is obliged, so to say, by the constraint of love to come to Paul and say, "Fear not." Listen to Paul as he says: "There stood by me the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul." To no man in the Church was that word so frequently addressed; yet at other times he seemed to carry the whole Church by his strength, to hold the whole flock of Christ within the fold of his heart. Poor is the life that has only one line in it! How stricken with the disease of monotony the soul that can only sing one tune! Sometimes the Apostle could only rebuke vanity by what might appear to be excessive humility on his own side. The Apostle had to create an atmosphere in which it was impossible for any man to speak above his breath, lest he should convict himself of ostentation and self-idolatry. The mystery wrought by this apostolic action ended in a consciousness on the part of the Corinthians that they must not display themselves, if he, the greatest, was so tremulous, so self-restrained, and so consciously and lovingly subject to the chastening of the Divine Spirit. The only way in which certain blatant persons can be put down is by the silence of the men who are attacked. Paul could only rebuke the vanity of the Church by exhibiting himself in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. For not one man amongst them did he care one iota, so far as that man's intelligence or power was concerned. Every man in that Church acquired his quality and his value by his attachment to One greater than himself. This was a studied depreciation; this was a calculated abasement. How does the Apostle describes his preaching? He says: "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom": I never made a sermon: to make a sermon! why, that is to make an idol, a graven image, a shape in clay; and to breathe into its nostrils my own dying breath, why that were waste of life: I simply said, Thou Blessed One of the Cross, put into my heart what has to be uttered by my tongue; tell me thy word, and I will go and speak it, though every man be a lion, and every town a den of lions. "Enticing words of man's wisdom:" small inventions of man's mind; man's answers to the puzzle of the universe; man's renewed attempt to answer an unanswerable enigma; man's profession of being able to arrange the little pieces of the universe so as to get the shape of the whole; man correcting himself to-day for what he said yesterday, and begging the pardon of an audience whilst he retracts an assertion and replaces it with another which is equally devoid of truth. What we want is the burning heart, the burning tongue, the self that has no self, the heroic egotism that in the very grandeur of its passion forgets the pettiness of its individuality. How, then, did Paul preach? "In demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The converts might be few, but they should be good. No man should be able to say that his minister was not present, and therefore he could not defend his own religion; no one should be driven to say, If you want to know what I believe, consult my preacher: let every man have his own conviction wrought in him by God the Holy Ghost. Faith that stands in the wisdom of men may be overturned by the very energy that created it. Any man who accepts Christ as the result of controversial study may reject Christ tomorrow because some mightier controversialist has undertaken to teach a contrary doctrine. We must come to Christ through the heart. It is not the intellect that receives Christ, but when the heart lays hold upon him it takes another heart greater still to extract the infinite benediction. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." It is because the heart is not touched that we have bigotry, sectarianism, separation one from another, so that one saith, It is so, and another saith, It is not so. Men cannot be reconciled in opinion; they can be one in the ocean of love. But would not this be mere emotion? I answer, No. We should be careful how we admit the existence
- 151. of any suchthing as mere emotion. There may be an animal emotion, but the emotion that is spoken of in connection with the Cross of Christ is a soul-melting passion, a fire that brings into one all the various elements of life, fusing them together, and representing them in outward action as a unity strong and indissoluble. The Apostle gathers himself together, and says, "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." That is to say, we can be wiser than we appear to be: whilst I was in Corinth I taught the alphabet; I could have spoken a fluent literature that would have amazed and distressed you all; but wisdom is not to be spoken in the presence of children; we speak to children in children's language; we speak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect, them that are strong, them that are spiritually-minded; men who can handle a mystery without taking the bloom off it; men who can see the meaning of a parable without being bewildered by its accidentals; men who see the spirit is greater than the word, the letter, the form. There be those clever people who examine the robe that has been brought out for the shoulders of the prodigal, and who take up his shoes and examine them, and take off the ring that they may look at it; and there be those who see no robe, nor shoes, nor ring, but join the infinite gladness because a soul has been raised from the dead. Do not waste the parables, the mysteries, the symbols of God; they teach some inner core- truth, some heart thought; seize them, and as for the drapery let it flow as it may, for God is often redundant in his gift of cloud and colour, flowers and music. Paul is very ironical in the after parts of his discourse. It is a beautiful and profitable intellectual study to follow this man in all the gamut of his intellectual action. He looks at the Corinthians with a countenance charged with expressions they can never understand. He speaks "the wisdom of God in a mystery," in a parable, in a concealed way, in a way that is only half disclosed; "even the hidden wisdom," the wisdom that rises, floats, passes, falls out of view, returns, shines with added glory, and then dissolves in added clouds and darkness. Then the Apostle says, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Where is it so written? Some say in an Apocryphal book. But that is a poor answer; ten thousand other things may be written in Apocryphal books which we have never read. But it is written—where? Did any one try to find out whether this passage is inscribed in the Old Testament? We take it for granted it is written because Paul says it is written; there we are poor Papists, there we are miserable idolaters; Paul says it is written, and therefore we accept it, and never inquire where—the fact being it is not written. We should study Paul's method of quoting the Bible. When Paul seeks to establish a given doctrinal point he will give you, as it were, chapter and verse; at other times he will give you, not chapter and verse, but the whole Bible. It is lawful so to quote the Bible as to lose all sense of chapter and verse. Chapter and verse are not Divine inventions, they are not human inventions—we will not press the inquiry farther. We have been ruined by chapter and verse. We may be biblical when we have no text to quote. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." When did he say so? Never, and yet he never said anything else. If you ask for chapter and verse, then Jesus Christ never said these words; but if you ask for Jesus Christ's teaching you cannot have a finer, more suggestive declaration of the doctrine and purpose of his life. So "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." You find an echo of this in Isaiah, in more places than one, but not in this connection, and not in this relation; and yet the whole Old Testament simply says this. When you have read through from Genesis to Malachi, you might say the whole is comprehended in one saying, namely, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
- 152. them that lovehim." Talk about the finality of the Book! it begins but never ends. Thus this is the teaching of Paul when he says: "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." There is a continual spiritual communication going on between God and the believer. We know many things by the spirit we do not know by the letter. The ear of corn has outlived the seed out of which it sprang; the flower expresses the secret of the root, and the fragrance of the flower. What shall be said of that? always giving itself away, shaking out its blessing on the wind, so that, though rich men wall in their flower-gardens, the fragrance comes over the wall and blesses the humblest little child that plays on the road. Dear little child, sniff this gift of odour, by-and-by thou shalt have a whole paradise. Have we the spirit of interpretation and sympathy, the spirit that sees afar off? If so, we are rich, and we are never alone. 1 Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.A Supreme Purpose In Life 1Corinthians 2:2 What does this mean? Perhaps you will reply that a child can answer that inquiry. Let us try first whether a man can. Say, then, what does it mean? You may answer, It means that the Apostle Paul in going to Corinth had made up his mind not to listen to anything, but to preach or teach or converse regarding Jesus Christ and him crucified. He would not speak about weather, or health, or commerce, or nature; he would close his ears against all minor topics and all meaner appeals, and would listen to nothing from sunrise to sundown but Jesus Christ and him crucified. You wonder that any one should ask what words so obvious in their significance could mean. First then, they do not mean that. It is an awkward criticism for you. They mean largely the contrary of that. Where is the child, then, that you set in the midst of us at the first to answer the inquiry, What does this mean? Let us try to get the real meaning into our minds and hearts. It will revolutionise life; it will centralise, and dignify, and sacredly utilise all the elements, emotions, tumults, and conflicts of life. Let the paraphrase stand thus: In coming to Corinth, the only one thing I had made up my mind about was that, whatever else there might be to see and to do, and to arrange, I would fix my mind and heart on Jesus Christ and him crucified. This determination was the only determination the Apostle had formed in his mind; other objects he had left to be considered within the lines of the occasion. If there was weather to be talked about, he would refer to it; if there was health to be inquired about, he would inquire about it; if nature revealed some apocalypse of beauty which challenged the attention of the eyes, he would turn his vision upon the revelation of God. The only thing I have made up my mind about, says the Apostle, is to know Jesus Christ and him crucified; upon that my mind is fixed; that is certain, that is unchangeable; whatever else may happen, this is the only thing I have at present made up my mind about. So other objects are not excluded; the Apostle is not a mere fanatic; Paul does not say that he will do nothing whilst at Corinth but talk about Jesus Christ and him crucified; as a matter of fact, he did a great many things at Corinth, and yet everything he did is perfectly consistent with this determination. The picture is that of a man who has made up his mind to one thing; he may do fifty other things, he does not know what he will do with the other subjects; he is certain and fixed upon this one thing, and all else shall be ruled by it as gravitation rules the motions of the worlds. We perish for want of a dominating thought. We cannot get the arch together because we have no keystone. The two parts would gladly approach one another, but
- 153. they cannot, becausethe keystone, that wondrous wedge that binds the distant and the separate, is wanting. Many a life is ruined for want of a keystone. Many a man is wandering about the world doing nothing because he is destitute of a sovereign purpose. If he could make up his mind about any one thing, that one thing being worthy of life, his whole course would be elevated, and sublimated. That is the Apostle's position. Take the matter from a lower point of view. Say a man shall make up his mind to go to London, or to Paris to make money. He says, in effect, On that point I am certain; what I may do about other matters I cannot tell: I am going to London or to Paris to make money, and everything has got to bend to that. Will you not look at some of the museums? I may. Will you not run into the galleries of art? Possibly; all depends. Depends upon what? Upon how such things affect my main object, which is to make money. That, in the religious sense, is just the meaning of the Apostle. Will you not look at the beautiful sculpture to be found in the famous city? Possibly; all depends. Depends upon what? Depends upon the success of my mission, which is Jesus Christ and him crucified. I will certainly look on the rocks that man has not chiselled, I may look on the stone he has partially spoiled. May you not hear some of the famed orators of Greece? I may; it all depends. Depends upon what? Upon the opportunities which are offered to me, or created by me, of proclaiming Jesus Christ and him crucified. Will you not call upon your friends, and speak with them on the subjects of the day? I may; it all depends. Depends upon what? Upon how I get along with this subject; that must rule everything; the one thing I have made up my mind about is to know nothing, save Jesus Christ and him crucified; everything else must wait. Now we understand the text. Paul's method was consistent; he always worked upon this plan. Once he said, "This one thing I do." How often is that passage misunderstood. The Apostle was not doing this one thing as the only thing he was doing, but he was doing this as the supreme motive and purpose and object of his life, and that supreme purpose ruled all minor things. Often we are exhorted by the apostolic motto to concentration of mind, saying, This one thing I do, and nothing else. The Apostle never said so. He said, Whatever else I may be doing, I am certain about doing this particular thing, namely, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus; I may be doing innumerable other things, all partaking of the quality of this supreme purpose, but this—this—this I am certain about. Where did Paul learn this great and gracious doctrine? Where he learned everything of the nature of Christian doctrine and Christian philosophy. He learned it in the school of Jesus Christ. Does Jesus Christ lay down this rule of supremacy of purpose? Yes, he does. Where? In these words:—"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things"—trifles, baubles for children to play with—"shall be added unto you." Have a supreme purpose. Every man should have a supreme purpose in life; it will give definiteness to all his processes of thought and action. How many aimless people there are in the world! They awake in the morning without a plan, they make no programme, they draw up no scheme; they may be east or west, and it is just possible they may be north or south; they are driving without reins, without whip, and without aim. They think the horses, which they call their impulses, know the road. What does all this come to? To ruin, to disappointment, to chagrin, to despair. Whenever the Apostle Paul awoke he knew that what he had to do that day was to proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified, to make these great histories and doctrines clearer and clearer to human comprehension. Whatever else the day might ask at his hands that tribute must be paid. Such a purpose determines the tone of a man's life. Life is not a question of separate actions. Life, in its higher interpretation, means tone, atmosphere, unexpressed but mighty music; a
- 154. quality not tobe named or traced etymologically. A man cannot get rid of his supreme purpose. The avaricious man has avarice painted upon his face. He cannot cover it with a smile, he cannot hide it with a frown; by many a trickster's grimace he seeks to rub out the signature, but there it is, and that projecting truth-telling chin. All his questions have avarice at the base, avarice at the top, and avarice in the middle line. He is asking about affairs, possibilities, markets; he fingers everything with the hands of a bargain-maker: what he can get out of it, is his purpose. The dreamer cannot hide his supreme purpose. He wants to create new heavens and a new earth; he longs to take the stars to pieces to see where the light comes from; he knows he saw an angel on that white-thorn hedge; he is sure that the spirit of some seer or singer was in that bird's note— "Did you not hear it?" he says, "I did." Dear soul! the world is the sweeter for his dreaming and singing: go on! The Apostle could not hide the supreme purpose of his life, nor did he ever seek to do so. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.... I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth:... I count not my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus:... I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Heroic soul! almost the Son of God! A supreme purpose of this kind always ennobles character. The whole range of thought is elevated. Some minds have no mountain chains running through them. They are flat; they are of the nature of table-land; they are by no means either useless or despicable, they have their own utility. Other minds are Alpine; they reach and stretch, they uplift themselves as if to find their right place in the very noonday of the sun. He who has Christ living in him lives an uplifted or elevated life all his contemplations are high, wide, radiant, noble, beneficent; all things are new. He may never preach a sermon in any formal sense, yet he never ceases to preach in a vita significance. In this subject chosen by the Apostle Paul there is neither poverty nor monotony. This subject never runs out; it is a perennial fountain. All the little cataracts take a summer holiday: we do not know where they have gone, they are never there when we want them, they take their holiday when we take ours; we are welcome to look at the stones which they run over after snow and rain; if it will do us the least good in the world to see where they do gambol, we may spend all day in the torrent-bed, but the torrent itself is gone. Niagara never takes a holiday. Great Niagara! Who that has stood behind it has not said, Surely in a few hours that cataract must have run itself out; surely we shall not find it here in the morning. Yet it gallops with the centuries; it foams and plunges as if God had set upon it the seal of eternity. Poor is that symbol, though one of the best we can at the moment find, by which to represent the eternal rush of the redeeming, ennobling, sanctifying influence poured upon the world by the Son of God. Wherever there is anything beautiful, Christ and Christ crucified is there; wherever you find anything that is really progressive, you find Christ and him crucified; wherever you hear true singing, the joy, the gladness of the heart ruled by reason, inspired by hope you find Jesus Christ and him crucified. You find that great subject in the museum, in the art gallery, on the death-bed, in the cradle, everywhere. Without the crucified Christ the world could not live; its foundations are laid upon him, and those foundations are but the beginnings of pinnacles, for until the topstone is brought on God's creation is not finished. Mark what distinctiveness this gave to Paul's personality and ministry. He found his subject in his character. You knew him to be a man of prayer, a man of God; you could not be long with him before he took off the key from his girdle and opened some new world of vision, some
- 155. larger sphere ofhope and service and rest. If you let him alone one moment he was at the Cross. You might detain him on minor subjects if you solicitously urged him to give his opinion about them, as about life upon the earth, and marriage, and service, and duty, as we define those terms; but the moment your solicitousness took its finger from him he was at Calvary. You could not keep him back from, the altar; having been there he would abide there. He might accept a tent for a night, but his abiding sanctuary was built on a Golgotha. How easy it is to see a perversion of this purpose, or an undue limitation of its range. How easy it would be to say, This kind of purpose would fit well apostles and preachers, evangelists and ministers, or Christians of leisure who had yielded themselves to the charms of a contemplative life. I will answer you—you are wrong; you are doing injustice to the genius of the history and the doctrine. This singleness or loftiness of purpose is just as possible to the humblest man of business as to the mightiest man of eloquence, or the most favoured child of contemplation and holy dream. Often we hear it said "Business must be looked after; business must be looked after in the spirit of the business; we wish we had more time for religious contemplation: far are we from ignoring the claims of the Cross, but we must leave its deeper study, and its fuller unfoldment of meaning to men who are consecrated to sacred leisure." You are fundamentally wrong, you are wrong at the core. Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ crucified, are not subjects for contemplation. They are the most active subjects in the world. They are the factors of civilisation, they are the sovereign thought of progress. Every man may do his business, whatever it be, in the spirit of Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is what the Apostle desires to have us all attain. He would have us show pity and do justice and obey the golden rule, and it is impossible to do these things apart from Jesus Christ and him crucified. Here is the doctrine that needs prominence, enforcement, and practical glorification. A man's wages ought to be earned and paid in the spirit of Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is not a sentiment to be set among the stars and telescopically surveyed; this is a rule of conduct, this is the inspiration of life, this is the meaning of all true things. We cannot get some people to understand this. We shall never get right by socialistic theories, anarchical programmes, and a certain vulgar power of befooling the trustful classes: we can only get right by Jesus Christ and him crucified. Of course, a proposition of this kind would be received with execration by socialists and anarchists of the baser sort. He who proclaimed this doctrine would be scoffed at with certain derisive epithets, and would be honoured by the brand of certain contemptuous criticism; yet the preacher, the teacher, the Christian, must never fold his flag as if in defeat; he must unfurl it and say still more sweetly and still more loudly, The world's only hope is in Jesus Christ and him crucified. What have we seen amongst persons who would undertake to work the economics of the age on the basis of other theories? We have seen tyranny of the worst description, selfishness that had been saturated in the very pools of corruption, narrow-mindedness that could not take in the whole of any question, an obstinacy mistaken for firmness, and a recklessness which was characterised as splendid generalship. Let us have justice on all sides, let us hear every man's case, be he great or small; the beggar in the ditch shall have all the benefactions that justice can confer upon him, and the man who thinks for the world and guides its affairs shall not be denied justice because he has acquired eminence. Do not listen to the men that want to merely mechanise life, and rule it by schedule and stipulation: the only real security of life, joy, progress, and heaven you will find in Jesus Christ and him crucified, when properly interpreted. Christ will put all business right; Christ will pay every labourer his wages; Christ will sanctify the millions of the capitalist, and keep the richest man modest and humble within the environment of his life. The world can never be pacified, the classes can never be united or
- 156. reconciled, the balanceof society can never be properly established, except in connection with Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is not a mere doctrine, a section of metaphysical inquiry, a dreamy sentiment that only leisurely minds can contemplate; this is the real force and the real secret of life and action. The subject was not only Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ crucified. Many persons would get rid of the last word if they could. Paul never sought to get rid of it; he magnified it, he glorified it. He did not preach Jesus Christ the socialist, Jesus Christ the theorist, Jesus Christ the wonder, Jesus Christ either a prospective or a retrospective Aristotle, or Plato, or Socrates. Paul preached morning, noon, and night, Christ on the Cross, Christ crucified, Christ shedding his blood that men might not die. We can make no gospel out of any other word than "crucified." There are theorists who show some other aspects of Christ's sacrifice; nor are they to be derided or undervalued; they have a right motive, and some would say a right conception, and they are to be honoured for their earnestness as students: but we cannot move the world without the Crucified in another, in a deeper, in a more tragic sense. Speaking of my own ministry in this place and elsewhere, I growingly feel that power can attach to it only in proportion as it is inspired by the pathos, not of a moral example only, but of a real personal sacrifice. What it means I cannot tell: love is not to be scheduled, the Spirit of God is not to be caged in by formal or theological bars: higher than heaven, who can reach it? wider than the horizon, who may lay his fingers upon it? We can only say concerning God's rule, His mercy endureth for ever:— It is not a thing to be explained in words, or to be defended exhaustively in mere terms; it is a passion to be felt, it is an inspiration to be accepted, it is a mystery on which we may lay down our aching lives as a little child lays down its weariness on its mother's heart. Volume 46 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 1 CHRIST CRUCIFIED NO. 2673 A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, MAY 6, 1900. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD’S- DAY EVENING, EARLY IN THE YEAR 1858. “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2. CORINTH was situated in the midst of a people who admired eloquence and wisdom. This Epistle was written in the age of orators and philosophers. The apostle Paul was a man of profound learning; he had been educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the wisdom of the East.
- 157. We are quitesure he was a man of a very capacious mind; for, although his writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit, yet the Holy Spirit chose as His instrument a man evidently possessing the capacity for strong and vigorous thought and argument; and as for his oratorical powers, I believe that, if he had chosen to cultivate them, they would have been of the very first order, for we have in some of his Epistles eloquence more sublime than ever fell from the lips of Cicero or Demosthenes. The temptation would exist, in the mind of any ordinary man entering into such a city as Corinth, to say within himself, “I will endeavor to excel in all the graces of oratory; I have a blessed gospel to preach that is worthy of the highest talents that ever can be consecrated to it.” “I am,” Paul might have said to himself, “largely gifted in the matter of eloquence, I must now endeavor to carefully polish my periods, and so to fashion my address as to excel all the orators who now attract the Corinthians to listen to them. This I may do very laudably, for I will still keep in view my intention of preaching Jesus Christ; and I will preach Jesus Christ with such a flow of noble language that I shall be able to win my audience to consider the subject.” But the apostle resolved to do no such thing. “No,” said he, “before I enter the gates of Corinth, this is my firm determination; if any good is to be done there, if any are led to believe in Christ the Messiah, their belief shall be the result of hearing the gospel, and not of my eloquence. It shall never be said, ‘Oh! No wonder that Christianity spreads, see what an able advocate it has;’ Rather, it shall be said, ‘How mighty must be the grace of God which has convinced these persons by such simple preaching, and brought them to know the Lord Jesus Christ by such humble instrumentality as that of the apostle Paul!’” He resolved to put a curb upon his fiery tongue, he determined that he would be slow in speech in the midst of them; and, instead of magnifying himself, he would magnify his office, and magnify the grace of God by denying himself the full use of those powers, which, had they been dedicated to God— as indeed they were—but had they been fully employed, as some would have used them, might have achieved for him the reputation of being the most eloquent preacher upon the face of the earth. Again, he might have said, “These philosophers are very wise men; if I would be a match for them, I must be very wise, too. These Corinthians are a very noble race of people; they have been for a long time under the tutorage of these talented men. I must speak as they speak, in enigmas and with many sophisms; I must always be propounding some dark problem. I need not live in the tub of Diogenes; but if I take his lantern, I may do something with it; I must try and borrow some of his wisdom. I have a profound philosophy to preach to these clever people; and if I liked to preach that philosophy, I should dash in pieces all their theories concerning mental and moral science. I have found out a wondrous secret, and I might stand in the midst of the market place, and cry, ‘Eureka, Eureka, I have found it,’ but I do not care to build my gospel upon the foundation of human wisdom. No, if any are brought to believe in Christ, it shall be from the simple unadorned gospel, plainly preached in unpolished language. The faith of my hearers, if they are converted to God, shall not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” 2 Christ Crucified Sermon #2673 2 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 46 Can you not see, dear friends, that the apostle had very good reasons for coming to this determination? When a man says that he is determined to do a certain thing, it looks as if he knew that it was a difficult thing to do. So, I think it must have been a hard thing for the apostle to determine to keep to this one subject. “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” I am sure that nine- tenths of the ministers of this age could not have done it. Fancy Paul going through the streets of
- 158. Corinth, and hearinga philosopher explain the current theory of creation. He is telling the people something about the world springing out of certain things that previously existed, and the apostle Paul thinks, “I could easily correct that man’s mistakes; I could tell him that the Lord created all things in six days, and rested on the seventh, and show him in the Book of Genesis the inspired account of the creation. But, no,” he says to himself, “I have a more important message than that to deliver.” Still, he must have felt as if he would have liked to set him right; for, you know, when you hear a man uttering a gross falsehood, you feel as if you would like to go in, and do battle with him. But instead of that, the apostle just thinks, “It is not my business to set the people right about their theory of the creation of the world. All that I have to do is to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Besides, in Corinth, there was now and then sure to be a political struggle, and I have no doubt that the apostle Paul felt for his people, the Jews, and he would have liked to see all his Jewish kindred have the privilege of citizenship. Sometimes the Corinthians would hold a public meeting, in which they would support the opinion that the Jews ought not to have citizenship in Corinth; might not the apostle have made a speech at such a gathering? If he had been asked to do so, he would have said, “I know nothing about such matters; all I know is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” They had political lectures, no doubt, in Corinth; and one man delivered a lecture upon this subject and another upon that; in fact, all kinds of wonderful themes taken from the ancient poets were descanted upon by different men. Did not the apostle Paul take one of the lectures? Did he not say, “I may throw a little gospel into it, and so do some good?” No, he said, “I come here as Christ’s minister and I will never be anything else but Christ’s minister; I will never address the Corinthians in any other character than that of Christ’s ambassador. For one thing only have I determined to know, and that is, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Would to God that all the ministers of this age had determined to do the same! Do you not sometimes find a minister who takes a prominent part in an election, who thinks it his business to stand forth on the political platform of the nation; and did it ever strike you that he was out of his place, that it was his business to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? Do we not see, at every corner of our streets, a lecture advertised to be delivered on this and that and the other subject, by this minister and that, who leave their pulpits in order that they may be enabled to deliver lectures upon all kinds of subjects? “No,” Paul would have said, “If I cannot spread the gospel of Christ legitimately, by preaching it openly, I will not do it by taking an absurd title for my sermon; for the gospel shall stand or fall on its own merits, and with no enticing words of man’s wisdom will I preach it.” Let anyone say to me, “Come and give able advocacy for this or that reform,” and my answer would be, “I do not know anything about that subject, for I have determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” As Albert Barnes very well says, “This should be the resolution of every minister of the gospel. This is his business—not to be a politician; not to engage in the strifes and controversies of men; not to be merely a good farmer, or scholar; not to mingle with his people in festive circles and enjoyments; not to be a man of taste and philosophy, and distinguished mainly for refinement of manners; not to be a profound philosopher or metaphysician, but to make Christ crucified the grand object of his attention, and to seek always and everywhere to make Him known. He is not to be ashamed anywhere of the humbling doctrine that Christ was crucified. In this, he is to glory. Though the world may ridicule, though philosophers may sneer, though the rich and the gay may deride it, yet this is to be the grand object of interest to him; and at no time, and in no society, is to be ashamed of it. It matters not what are the amusements of society around him; what fields of science, or gain, or ambition, are open before him; the minister of Christ is to know only Christ and Him crucified
- 159. alone. If hecultivates science, it is to be that he may the more successfully explain and vindicate the gospel. If he becomes in any manner familiar with the works of art and of taste, it is that he may more successfully show to those who cultivate them the superior beauty and excellence of the cross. If he studies the plans and the employments of men, it is that he may more successfully meet them in those plans, and more successfully speak to them of the great plan of redemption. The preaching of the cross is the only kind of preaching that will be attended with success. That which has in it much respecting the Sermon #2673 Christ Crucified 3 Volume 46 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 3 Divine mission, the dignity, the works, the doctrines, the person, and the atonement of Christ, will be successful. So it was in the time of the apostles; so it was in the Reformation; so it was in the Moravian missions; so it has been in all revivals of religion. There is a power about that kind of preaching which philosophy and human reason have not. ‘Christ is God’s great ordinance’ for the salvation of the world; and we meet the crimes and alleviate the woes of the world just in proportion as we hold the cross up as appointed to overcome the one, and to pour the balm of consolation into the other.” Would that all ministers would keep this mind, that they should do nothing outside the office of the ministry, that to be once a minister is to be a minister forever, and never to be a politician, never to be a lecturer; that to be once a preacher is to be a preacher of Christ’s holy gospel until Christ takes us to Himself to begin to sing the new song before the throne. Now, brethren and sisters, I have discharged my duty in saying these things. If they apply to any ministers whom you admire, I cannot help it. There is the text, and what do we learn from it but this, that the apostle Paul determined to do everything as a minister of Christ. And, my dear brethren and sisters, it is your duty to do this as hearers. As Christians, it is your duty and privilege to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I. And first, with regard to THE DOCTRINES WHICH YOU BELIEVE, I beseech you, do not know anything except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. You are told by one person that such-and-such a system of theology is based upon the soundest principles of reason. You are told by another that the old doctrines which you have believed are not consistent with these advanced times. You will now and then be met by smart young gentlemen who will tell you that, to be what is called a Calvinist, is to be a long way behind this progressive age, “for you know,” they say, “that intellectual preachers are rising up, and that it would be well if you would become a little more intellectual in the matter of preaching and hearing.” When such a remark as that is made to any one of you, I beseech you to give this answer, “I know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. If you can tell me more about Christ than I know, I will thank you; if you can instruct me as to how I may become more like Christ, how I may live nearer in fellowship with Him, how my faith in Him may become stronger, and my belief in His holy gospel may become more firm, then I will thank you; but if you have nothing to tell me except some intellectual lore which you have with great pains accumulated, I will tell you that, although it may be a very good thing for you to preach, and for others who are intellectual to hear, I do not belong to your class, nor do I wish to belong to it; I belong to that sect everywhere spoken against, who after the way that men call heresy worship the Lord God of their fathers, believing all things that are written in the law and in the prophets. I belong to a race of people who believe that it is not the pride of intellect, nor the pomp of knowledge that can ever teach men spiritual things. I belong to those who think that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God has ordained strength, and I do not believe that out of your mouth God has ordained any strength at all. I belong to the men who like to sit, with Mary, at the
- 160. feet of Jesus,and to receive just what Christ said, as Christ said it, and because Christ said it. I want no truth but what He says is truth, and no other ground for believing it but that He says it, and no better proof that it is true than that I feel and know it to be true as applied to my own heart.” Now, dear friend, if you can do that, I will trust you anywhere—even among the wisest heretics of the age. You may go where false doctrines are rife, but you will never catch the plague of heresy while you have this golden preservative of truth, and can say, “I know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” As for myself, I can truly say, that Jesus Christ and Him crucified, is the sum of all knowledge to me; He is the highest intellectualism; He is the grandest philosophy to which my mind can attain; He is the pinnacle that rises loftier than my highest aspirations; and deeper than this great truth I wish never to fathom. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the sum total of all I want to know, and of all the doctrines which I profess and preach. II. Next, it must be just the same in YOUR EXPERIENCE. Brethren, I beseech you, in your experience, know nothing except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. You may go out tomorrow, not merely into the outside world, but into the church, the nominal church, and you will meet with a class of persons who take you by the ear, and who invite you into their houses, and the moment you are there, they begin to talk to you about the doctrines of the gospel. They say nothing about Christ Jesus; but they begin at once to talk of the eternal decrees of God, of election, and of the high mysteries of the covenant of grace. While they are talking to you, you say in your hearts, 4 Christ Crucified Sermon #2673 4 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 46 “What they are saying is true, but there is one lamentable defect in it all; their teaching is truth apart from Christ.” Conscience whispers, “The election that I believe is election in Christ. These men do not talk anything about that, but only of election. The redemption that I believe always has a very special reference to the cross of Christ. These men do not mention Christ; they talk of redemption as a commercial transaction, and say nothing about Jesus. With regard to final perseverance, I believe all that these men say; but I have been taught that the saints only persevere in consequence of their relation to Christ, these men say nothing about that.” This minister, they say, is not sound, and that other minister is not sound; and let me tell you that, if you get among this class of persons, you will learn to rue the day that you ever looked them in the face. If you must come into contact with them, I beseech you to say to them, “I love all truths that you hold, but my love of them can never overpower and supersede my love to Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; and I tell you plainly, while I could not sit to hear erroneous doctrine, I could just as soon do that as sit to hear the truthful doctrine apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. I could not go to a place where I saw a man, dressed in gorgeous robes, who pretended to be Christ, and was not; and, on the other hand, I could not go to a place where I saw Christ’s real robes, but the Master Himself was absent; for what I want is not His robe, nor His dress, I want the Master Himself; and if you preach to me dry doctrine without Jesus Christ, I tell you it will not suit my experience; for my experience is just this, that while I know my election, I can never know it except I know my union with the Lamb. I tell you plainly that I know I am redeemed, but I cannot bear think of redemption without thinking of the Savior who redeemed me. It is my boast that I shall to the end endure, but I know—each hour makes me know—that my endurance depends upon my standing in Christ, I must have that truth preached in connection with the cross of Christ.” Oh! Have nothing to do with these people, unless it is to set them right; for you will find that they are full of the gall of bitterness, the poison of asps is under their tongue; instead of
- 161. giving you thingswhereon your soul can feed, they will make you full of all manner of bitterness, and malice, and evil speaking against those who truly love the Lord Jesus, but who differ from them in some slight matter. You may meet with another class of persons who will take you by the other ear, and say to you, “We, too, love Christ’s doctrines, but we believe that our friends on the other side of the road are wrong. They do not preach enough experience;” and you say, “Well, I think I have got among the people who will suit me now;” and you hear the minister insisting that the most precious experience in the world is to know your own corruption, to feel the evil of the human heart, to have that filthy dunghill turned over and over in all its reeking noisomeness, and exposed before the sun; and after hearing the sermon, which is full of pretended humility, you rise from your seats more proud than you ever were in your lives, determined now that you will begin to glory in that very thing which you once counted as dross. The things which you were ashamed once to speak of, you now think should be your boast. That deep experience which was your disgrace shall now become the crown of your rejoicing. You speak to the dear brothers and sisters who imbibe this view, and they tell you to seek first, not the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but the hidden things of the prison, the discovery of the unrighteousness and unholiness of the soul. O my dear friends, if you wish to have your lives made miserable, if you want to be led back to the bondage of Egypt, if you want to have Pharaoh’s rope put round your necks once again, take their motto for your motto; but if you wish to live as I believe Christ would have you live, I would entreat you to say, “No, it does me good sometimes to hear of the evil heart, but I have made a determination to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and you do not tell me anything about Him.” These men preach one Sunday upon the leper; but do they preach, the next Sunday, upon the leper healed? These men tell all about the filthy state of the human heart, but they say little or nothing about that river that is to cleanse and purify it. They say much about the disease, but not so much about the Physician; and if you attend their ministry very long, you will be obliged to say, “I shall get into such a doleful condition, that I shall be tempted to imitate Judas, and go out, and hang myself. So, good morning to you, for I have determined to know nothing in my experience but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” I would be very earnest in trying to warn you about this matter, for there is a growing tendency, among a certain order of professing Christians, to set up something in experience beside Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Tell me that your experience is all concerned with the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will rejoice in it; the more of Christ there is in it, the more precious it is. Tell me that your experience is full of the knowledge of your own corruptions, and I answer, “If there is not in it a mixture of the knowledge Sermon #2673 Christ Crucified 5 Volume 46 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 of Christ, and unless the knowledge of Christ predominates to a large degree, your experience is wood, hay, and stubble, and must be consumed, and you must suffer loss.” By the way, let me tell you a little story about Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. I am a great lover of John Bunyan, but I do not believe him infallible; and the other day I met with a story about him which I think a very good one. There was a young man, in Edinburgh, who wished to be a missionary. He was a wise young man; so he thought, “If I am to be a missionary, there is no need for me to transport myself far away from home; I may as well be a missionary in Edinburgh.” There’s a hint to some of you ladies, who give away tracts in your district, but never give your servant Mary one. Well, this young man started, and determined to speak to the first person he met. He met one of those old fishwives; those of us who have seen them can never forget them, they are extraordinary
- 162. women indeed. So,stepping up to her, he said, “Here you are, coming along with your burden on your back; let me ask you if you have got another burden, a spiritual burden.” “What!” she asked; “do you mean that burden in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress? Because, if you do, young man, I got rid of that many years ago, probably before you were born. But I went a better way to work than the pilgrim did. The evangelist that John Bunyan talks about was one of your parsons that do not preach the gospel; for he said, ‘Keep that light in your eye, and run to the wicket-gate.’ Why, man alive! That was not the place for him to run to. He should have said, ‘Do you see that cross? Run there at once!’ But, instead of that, he sent the poor pilgrim to the wicket-gate first; and much good he got by going there! He got tumbling into the slough, and was like to have been killed by it.” “But did not you,” the young man asked, “go through any Slough of Despond?” “Yes, I did; but I found it a great deal easier going through with my burden off than with it on my back.” The old woman was quite right. John Bunyan put the getting rid of the burden too far off from the commencement of the pilgrimage. If he meant to show what usually happens, he was right; but if he meant to show what ought to have happened, he was wrong. We must not say to the sinner, “Now, sinner, if you will be saved, go to the baptismal pool; go to the wicket-gate; go to the church; do this or that.” No, the cross should be right in front of the wicket-gate; and we should say to the sinner, “Throw yourself down there, and you are safe; but you are not safe till you can cast off your burden, and lie at the foot of the cross, and find peace in Jesus.” III. Let me conclude by saying, brethren and sisters, determine, from this hour, that IN YOUR FAITH you will know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I am perfectly certain that I have not a grain of my own merit to trust in, and not so much as an atom of creature strength to rely upon; but I find myself often, during the seven days of the week, relying upon merit of my own that does not exist, and depending upon strength of my own which I at the same time confess has no existence at all. You and I often call the Pope antichrist; but do we not ourselves often play the antichrist, too? The Pope sets himself as the head of the Church; but do not we go further by setting ourselves up sometimes to be our own saviors? We do not say so, except in a sort of still small voice, like the mutterings of the old wizards. It is not a loud, out- spoken lie, because we would know then how to answer it; “but now,” whispers the devil, “how well you did that!” and then we begin to rely upon our works, and Satan says, “You prayed so well yesterday, you will never be cold in your prayers again; and you will be so strong in faith that you will never doubt your God again.” It is the old golden calf that is set up once more; for, although it was ground to powder, it seems to have the art of coming together again. After we have been told, ten times over, that we cannot have any merit of our own, we begin to act as if we had; and the man who tells you, in his doctrine, that all his fresh springs are in Christ, yet thinks and acts just as if he had fresh springs of his own. He mourns as if all his dependence was upon himself, and groans as if his salvation depended upon his own merits. We often get talking, in our own souls, as if we did not believe the gospel at all, but were hoping to be saved by our own works, and our own creature performances. Oh, for a stronger determination to know nothing henceforth but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified! I would to God that I could make that resolution myself, and that you would all make it with me. I heard once of a countryman, who was preaching, one day, and he preached very nicely the first half of his sermon, but towards the end he entirely broke down, and his brother said to him, “Tom, I can tell you why you did not preach well at the end of your sermon. It was because you got on so nicely at first that devil whispered, ‘Well done, Tom, you are getting on very well;’ and as soon as the devil said that, you thought, ‘Tom is a very fine fellow,’ and then the Lord left you.” Happy would it have been
- 163. for Tom ifhe could have determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and not to have known Tom at all. That is what I desire to know myself; for if I know nothing but 6 Christ Crucified Sermon #2673 6 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 46 the power which comes from on high, I can never be less powerful at one time than at another, and I can glory in my infirmity because it makes room for Christ’s power to rest upon me— “I glory in infirmity, That Christ’s own power may rest on me: When I am weak, then am I strong, Grace is my shield, and Christ my song.” It would be a good resolution for you, brethren, and for myself, to determine to know nothing about ourselves, and nothing about our own doings. Now, friend John, begin to think nothing about yourself, and to know nothing but Jesus Christ. Let John go where he likes, and be you relying not upon John’s strength, but upon Christ’s. And you, Peter, know nothing about Peter at all, and do not boast, “Though all men should deny You, yet will I never deny You;” but know that Peter’s Lord Jesus is living inside Peter, and then you may go on comfortably enough. Determine, Christian, that, by the grace of God, it shall be your endeavor to keep your eye single, to keep your faith fixed alone on the Lord Jesus, without any addition of your own works, or your own strength; and determining that, you may go on your way rejoicing, singing of the cross of Christ as your boast, your glory, and your all. We are now coming to the table of our Master, and I hope that this will be our determination there, to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; and may the Lord give us His blessing! Amen.