1 Corinthians (Quality: Good)

[0:00] You may call thee now.

[0:30] Amen. Amen.

[1:30] Amen. Amen.

[2:30] Amen. Amen.

[3:30] Amen. Amen.

[4:30] Amen. Amen.

[5:30] Amen. Amen.

[6:30] Amen. In the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 2 and verse 2.

[7:14] The first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 2 and the second verse. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

[7:40] For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

[7:55] Paul is going back over the past. He is remembering certain occasions and incidents which had so befallen him in his ministerial work.

[8:16] He remembered the day when he had gone to Athens and how his spirit had been stirred as he walked the streets of that city.

[8:32] By reason of the images, the idolatry, which was so rampant on every side. Had he not come to the very metropolis of learning?

[8:49] For it was here in his day that there were to be gathered all those who were the leaders, the great philosophers, and so forth.

[9:03] And yet he sees an idol as he walks along. Here are people who boast of great knowledge, great wisdom.

[9:16] And he looks and he sees the description to the unknown God. Yes, why is in all that which was relative unto the world's prurus in all wisdom, and yet utterly ignorant of the existence of the true and the living God.

[9:46] Deep down in their inner beings they had the sense that there was a God. And therefore they must, by reason of their imaginations, so bring to light the figments that were formed thereby, and mold them into idols of stone and of silver and of gold.

[10:19] They felt that they had to have some expression before their eyes that there is one who is to be worshipped.

[10:30] But who he was, they didn't know. And you know, sometimes we go back to those days in which Paul records the rare instructions.

[10:44] And we think what a similar day to be a living. How few there are that seem to know the real and the living God, that have any dealings with him, that know what it is to have communion with him, that know what it is to be the subjects of that glorious regenerating grace whereby they have been created in him as new creatures.

[11:11] Oh, there is a quest which is revealing an awful vacuum which existed within the hearts of men.

[11:26] And Paul stood up amidst those people and he said, He said, He said,

[12:30] And he goes unto all that which is relative unto the Lord and the tabernacle and the rites and ceremonies and so forth.

[12:43] And he begins his exposition upon those scriptures, pointing out that all that which was so recorded in prophecy has found its fulfillment in one person.

[12:57] And that is in the person of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For in Jesus Christ you will alone find the testimony of God.

[13:10] Well, he has gone into that synagogue and he begins to speak to them about these things.

[13:20] For a time they seem, as it were, for a time they seem, as it were, to hear him in an acquiescent spirit. Then he begins to deal with those things that they held so dear by reason of tradition, the ceremonies and the rites.

[13:37] And when he began, as it were, when he began, as it were, to strike them all off, as being of no value in the realization of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the sum and the substance of it all, then they opposed him.

[13:58] Then they opposed him, and they blasphemed. And Paul turns to them and he says, Your blood be upon your own head.

[14:11] I am clean. From henceforth I go on to the Gentiles. He was determined that he would have nothing more to do with that people.

[14:22] He would indeed go away and leave them to their terrible deserts. But you know, Paul was acting in his own spirit.

[14:39] He evidently always was what we should call a hot-tempered man. And in that moment, he was overtaken by that spirit.

[14:52] How many are overtaken with the wrong spirit in the things of God. Because things do not fall out as they think they ought to.

[15:05] And that which is so declared in the word of God things to go contrary unto it. How the spirit of rebellion may work within the heart.

[15:16] And how there may be a seeking to separate from all those things. The earring is though anything you may say or do is utterly valueless.

[15:30] Well, Paul retires to bed that night. He didn't know what the word of God had already effected in the heart of Christmas and Sosthenes.

[15:41] He didn't know that. The Lord had worked in the hearts of some of them. But you see, Paul was looking at them in the general. And therefore, he misjudged the situation.

[15:55] Now, we may oftentimes look upon a church. That is, a visible church, a professing church. And we may look upon it and we may feel sometimes as though the work of the Lord is not going on.

[16:12] That our labors are futile. And yet, how little do we know of that wherein the Lord is accomplishing his own will in the hearts of his own people.

[16:25] You see, we lose sight of this fact. There is a visible church. That which can be seen by men. That wherein it may bear the name of a professing church.

[16:41] But the church that God deals with is the invisible church. That which is not seen evidently by man. But that wherein God by his enduring spirit so sanctifies the church unto himself.

[17:01] You know, in every church I am persuaded there is an invisible church. It isn't everyone that takes upon his name the name of the Lord that is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[17:15] It is them who are brought to do the will of God which is in heaven. And there is to be found the invisible church.

[17:25] church. But to turn away from that subject although we might have something in the way a prophet to gather from it let us for a moment follow Paul.

[17:39] Here he is at Corinth then and he has retired for the night. He still as it were taken up of his own spirit relative to the attitude that he has adopted toward this Jewish company.

[17:54] So the Lord comes to him. Ah yes Paul must be taught Paul must be instructed in the ways of the Lord.

[18:13] He mustn't go by that wherein the natural sense may perceive things but in that wherein the word of the Lord stands open in all its evident power and application and how was it made evident to him.

[18:31] the Lord came to him and he said in effect don't be like that Paul don't act in that spirit but be not afraid but speak and no man shall set upon thee to do thee harm for I have much people in this city it isn't only in that assembly that you are addressing it is outside the borders it is that which is yet cannot be perceived and yet shall indeed make up that wherein that spiritually invisible church don't consist now Paul you stay and you continue your ministry occurring for me it for 18 months and it was a lesson that he never forgot and it is the very essence and subject of our text yes he had always in some way been determined about all his ways and now he has been enclosed and separated unto one person and he declares

[20:02] I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified we've been reading this morning of that wherein he has been speaking of the Greeks and their foolishness we have been reading the Jews and what a stumbling block Jesus Christ was unto them and yet we have been informed of those whom God had indeed blessed occurring who had been enriched in all things by him in all utterance and so forth even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in them yes unto them God had made Jesus Christ to be wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption you notice how he words these things perhaps we should have put redemption first he doesn't he knows who he's writing to and yet by the spirit of

[21:18] God he drills upon the fact of the righteousness of Jesus then that which is relative unto the glorious wisdom the wisdom that has devised that wondrous plan in Christ Jesus whereby he should indeed be the righteousness of all them that believe on him sanctified unto himself and why because they are redeemed with his own precious blood so we look at the ministry and we look at the method and we look at the matter of that which is so involved in our text and when we look at the ministry we are at once reminded that here is a man who in his preaching centers entirely and wholly upon

[22:23] Jesus Christ Christ he tells us in the epistle to the Galatians he said please God yes he has to go right back to that there was no other reason for it Paul could see no reason in himself as to why this grace should have been bestowed upon him because he knew what a rebel and enemy he had been unto Jesus Christ and so he goes right back and he said please God you know it's a wonderful thing when in your experience and when the word of God doth so commune with you in your heart that you can go right back as it were before the word was made and you can trace the wonderful design and plan of God through all the ages concerning his people and you amongst them and you one who was indeed so involved in the eternal thought relative unto that love which he would make known unto his own oh yes it pleased

[23:46] God if I know anything of the work of regeneration if I know anything of that wherein he has brought my poor soul to trust wholly in Jesus Christ if he have taken away from me every other refuge and hope and has made me as it were to cast myself prone upon that glorious foundation of eternal love then there's only one reason for it and there's only one reason for it in your case and that is this it pleased God can you conceive the wonder of that thought or I dare not stay upon it because it would take all day to bring out the glories of it but he says it pleased God and now notice who separated me from my mother's womb when he was found there in all his unregeneracy when he was found there in all his corrupt nature when in sin was he conceived yes when he was born as an enemy of

[25:05] God there was one who was watching over him there was one who was indeed looking unto him in that which related unto the eternal pleasure concerning him he said he separated me from my mother's womb and for what purpose to call me by his grace and in calling him by his grace to reveal in him Christ that's why he's determined to know nothing say Jesus Christ and him crucified to reveal in me Christ that I might preach him among the heathen that's why his whole ministry is centered in one person he goes back to that wondrous call by grace he remembers how the

[26:12] Lord appeared unto him on the way to Damascus oh yes he had plenty of religion and he had so walked before men that that which was relative unto his conduct was blameless yes everything that related unto those former traditions and rites and ceremonies he had implicitly regarded unto the full and he only looked upon this one of whom he had heard and no doubt he was alive when Jesus Christ was crucified this one of whom he heard he only looked upon him as a usurper he only looked upon him as those who were to be classified with the transgressors one whose name was vile and when there was a sect as it were that arose out of the very fact of the name of

[27:22] Christ to call themselves Christian then that name inspired within him a terrible hatred and he resolved and determined in his own mind that as far as he had the power he would exterminate every one of them from the face of the earth that is the man who is on the way to Damascus hatred enmity against the people of God that the Lord appeared unto him Saul he said Saul why persecutest thou me Paul has been preaching of the ignorance of the Greeks he knew well what that ignorance was with all his profession when he comes to the point he has to look up and he says who art thou

[28:23] Lord who art thou Lord do you ever examine yourself relative to your standing in the professed faith of Jesus Christ do you really know him Paul you know felt that he never as it was knew him to the fall even when he was here upon earth he said oh that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his death you see everything that relates unto his desires and his longings is all summed up in that wherein he ministers unto the people of one person and one person only never mind Apollos never mind Peter or he was God see verse never mind all these others what are they they're simply instruments that are used by

[29:26] God oh he says Paul and what am I I'm only what I am by the grace of God there's no other reason for it saved the father's pleasure and what is the center what is as it were that wherein the ray of divine light from heaven shines forth in that from which we receive the streams of light into our own soul by the Holy Spirit it all centers in Jesus Christ would you know God there's only one way for you to know God and that is as he reveals himself in Jesus God hath spoken in his son you go back to John you read in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God you look at the original and in the

[30:28] Greek and you find it translated thus in the beginning was the speech and the speech was with God and the speech was God God hath spoken unto us in his son Jesus Christ here he reveals himself you can never know God save as you come to him by Jesus Christ he that hath seen me hath seen the father are he said I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me if you would know God then may you learn of it even as Paul was so taught it first in that wherein you do come and you confess your utter ignorance of him and in uttering your ignorance of him ascribe unto him his lordship his lordship that you are now in subjection unto him that he has brought you down to his feet and then you say

[31:46] Lord what wilt thou have me to do my own will in these matters is gone everything that relates unto many fleshly seeking yea with all its ardency and all with all its zeal is now crucified our poor we're coming to it aren't we you're going to tell us soon I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live but not I all that which related to the old poor has now gone how dost thou live then Paul I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and that's the only one that Paul can preach he finds in him there the fountain he drinks here in the streams he finds his thirst and his hungers appeased by that wherein these blessed riches of the divine grace are so received by him why did we say it all centered in one person oh we read many times in these epistles of

[33:10] Paul that wherein if he has one aim one desire it is that he may bring the people into the realization of what Christ has done for them and what he is unto them now you go to every one of these epistles start at Romans go through the lot and you'll find in the very first verse what is foremost the Lord Jesus Christ in some cases we do not find the triple words we find simply Jesus Christ the savior the anointed of God but in every letter in every word that he wrote it's Jesus Christ why even in the first four verses is the same epistle

[34:11] I think you'll find that he uses Jesus Christ again and again oh yes I have to stop here because it has just struck me notice how he addresses this epistle he says caught to be an apostle of Jesus Christ how did you become that for through the will of God the will of God it wasn't my will it wasn't that wherein I would so as it were think out a course of action it is that which I left entirely the will of God Lord what thou have me to do you go you be told what you got to do you go for a few days into the desert you read the old testament that wherein you have been striving as it were to keep the law and so forth now you get away in the quiet and read it meditate in the light of that wherein

[35:24] I have revealed myself unto thee I have shown thee what a sinner thou art I have shown thee the great need that thou hast myself as thy savior now go to the word of god read it and Paul read it as a new book the old book as it were passed away it was no longer the letter everything in that book seen now to shine forth through every sacrifice through every right through all the offices in connection with the tabernacle and that which was associated with the temple of Solomon and so forth it all seems to shine forth with a glory that he has never seen before and where in did the glory consist it was in him who is the reality of all that which is set forth in substance and shadow yes says

[36:25] Paul I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified did his determination unto this end so spring out of the very fact of his old nature he wouldn't leave any ground for anybody rejoicing in man if they were going to glory then they were going to glory in the Lord and he gives this as an instance of it he said I brethren when I came to you I came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God no far from it I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling there there wasn't much self assertion in that was it here is one who is humbled before them and he said my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and power that's the only gospel that's going to do you or me any good

[37:52] I wonder how many years some of you have been listening to the gospel I wonder how many years you have been given acquiescence unto the latter of those things which you have heard proclaimed in the pulpit I wonder how many of you have been affected by the mighty power of God in the word oh I've seen people through the years of my ministry whom I've had to mourn over oh they've been brought up as strict Baptists they have almost adopted it because it is that which was relative to the religion of their parents and their grandparents yea and they almost assume that because they are strict Baptists they must be right and everything is going to be right yes and we have looked at them and we've not even seen any sign of that wherein the Lord has dealt with them because the first evidence that God has dealt with anybody in his divine grace is to bring them down from the high horse and to lay them in the dust here take away all that forced piety here take away all that wherein you have previously boasted and here bring you right down into the very ashes here burn it all up by reason of the revelation of his holiness and of his righteousness he won't leave you anything in your soul and these are the ones that he comes to and when he comes he says live live and they arise yes and they become manifest as the spiritual

[40:00] Israel of God this is that which God worketh so wonderfully in the hearts of his people they are affected their whole life is changed do we know this have we participated in the mighty power of the gospel of God in this matter has it entered into your heart and got hold of you it isn't a matter of what you're holding it's a matter of that which holds you that is going to stand you in eternity has it brought you to that same place as Paul where you have to say I am determined to know nothing save Jesus

[41:00] Christ and him crucified ah if I preach says Paul I must preach Christ there's nothing else worth knowing there's no true knowledge apart from him no talk about salvation my salvation is holy of the Lord that is what Jonah had to go down into the depths to vain out didn't he he had to learn in the very depths that salvation was of the Lord yes and that is where we learn it and that is where we come to the truth we find that everything else of no value and when we use that word of no value we mean in connection with everything that is spiritually saving

[42:07] I can't lean upon my reasonings I can't lean upon my intellectual powers of being able to assimilate certain doctrines and so on in the word of God I've got to get beyond it and there is only one person that can answer all my queries and all my problems and all my perplexities we have to come for you may say ah but these things are worse things so actually so terribly detached from us is it haven't you got the word of God like Paul had and if there is that spirit walking within your heart of grace then you'll come to these scriptures and you'll read them with a new understanding you won't pass over them easily you'll find that many a verse when you read it it will hold you you won't be able to get beyond it because it will become the subject of your soul's meditation your feet upon it your drinking to the depths of that salvation which is contained in it and it will all come forth to the same end simply to thy frost

[43:39] I cling nor the place for me I am determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified but then you see this preaching must be of necessity he must preach this because of the divine aspect what is the divine aspect it is that wherein God decreed before the world began that he would indeed bring a people unto himself yes and he would indeed set apart those instruments of his own divine purpose whereby they should be so used unto the gathering of his people here is the word of God here are the servants who are truly sent by God would you know as to whether a man is sent by God or not

[44:51] I'll tell you you'll find there is an authority within his language that cannot be refuted you'll find that there is putting to his mouth language that you cannot argue against or reason against because you have to acknowledge that it is the truth he's not there to tell you about his own experience he's not there to tell you about all the things that he's passed through why when I read through this the new testament I don't find Paul saying much about himself true Philippians 3 he unfolds a little of his own experience but to what end for the glory of God that Christ and him crucified might be exhorted thereby I test my own experience by this no I don't bring it before the people

[45:53] I may in one or two cases where I feel as though the spirit doth indeed so lead me to speak but for the most part I test my own inward experience of the things of God in this way where are they leading me what are they showing me to whom do they bring me I if Christ is not in my experience then it is nothing worth oh yes it's not what I will do it's not what I can do it's what he has done it's what he will do for me what is the result am I to do nothing no I am to go forth in this world and shine his lights to set forth the glories of him who hath called me by his grace to declare the wondrous grace in my practice and in my life wherein he hath called me in other words you are knowing the same determination which was in the heart of

[47:17] Paul when he wrote these words yes in finishing this discourse this morning no we haven't finished there is much more for you to meditate upon and to think about but if we come to an end just let us for a moment analyze that word determination what does it mean you have the fact of decision in determination and decision means a cutting off cutting off from everybody cutting off from all that which relates unto yourself in what sense that you are no longer going to be led by men that you acknowledge one Lord and one master and one only you cut off from all others save

[48:24] Jesus Christ and him crucified determination there is there is another word to hear and that is steadiness what does that mean it means being rock like the storms may come but the rock remains firm you you you like

[49:26] Paul though not to the same degree may have to pass through times of temptation of persecution of trial some of some of our brethren are having to do in other parts of the world but if there is this determination in the heart then thou hast that rock like character come what may let the waves break against me still will I stand I am determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified ere since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supplied redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die

[50:33] Amen shall we go by singing hymn 477 477 give me the wings of faith to rise within the valent sea the saints above how great their joy how bright their glory be in 477 horse or face

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[55:19] Thank you. Thank you.