Good evening, everyone. You can turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1, please. 1 Corinthians 1. As you're turning there, many of you may have read letters regarding updates for and prayed for the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies. On their seal or on their logo, they have a number of things written, and one of the things is a Latin phrase that's translated into English.
The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. recognizing the importance of a seminary to train, to empower, to instruct, to prepare preachers of the Word of God, they take that quote from the Second Helvetic Confession. The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. They realize the importance of the preaching of the Word. Ron Baines, a dear brother who has recently passed away, wrote these words.
He says the statement, that the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God is not equating the normativity of the Word of God with the act of preaching. This would leave us with two normative standards. Rather, the Word of God alone is normative, and preaching is instrumentally the Word of God. As the normative Word of God is faithfully exegeted and proclaimed, the preaching of the Word becomes the instrumental means that the Holy Spirit uses as He causes the faithful to hear the very voice of God.
These sorts of acknowledgements are taken from the Word of God that sets before us the importance or the primacy of the Word proclaimed, the very truth of God spoken forth by preachers of His Word. And one of those texts is in 1 Corinthians 1. And so let's read 1 Corinthians 1, 18-25, with a view towards regarding the importance of preaching. 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 18, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who 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. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You now again Be gathered here and engage in this act of worship, the preaching of Your Word. Help us again, Lord God, by Your Spirit to remain attentive. Help us, Lord God, to be focused upon Your Word's proclamation, that we might rejoice in Christ Jesus the Lord, that we might rejoice in our salvation.
And Lord God, that You would work by this act of worship to strengthen Your saints, to save sinners, that you might be glorified. And we pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
Introduction
Well, hopefully you never think it's self-serving for a preacher to preach about preaching. We come to the Bible and we're confronted very frequently, very often by this reality that the preaching of the Word of God is primary. It is the case that the proclamation of Jesus Christ is that proclamation whereby sinners are saved, then no doubt we are to hold in high regard proclamation. We are to hold in high regard preaching. because it is through the preaching of the Word that the so-called wisdom of the world is dashed to pieces and destroyed, and that the so-called foolishness of God, which is greater than the wisdom of men, is exalted and set before the minds of men as that which is primary, and that which is centered around Christ Jesus and Him crucified, Him risen, Him exalted, and Him being the King of men.
Notice in this passage, we have the proclamation of the Word of God, the preaching of the Word of God, set forth as that which, again, brings to an end the wisdom of the world.
Four Things About Preaching
We want to notice four things here as we move through this passage, sort of just keying in on a few phrases of the Apostle Paul here that brings to the fore the importance of preaching. And the four things that we're going to do are these. We're going to
Preaching Brings Sinners to Saving Faith
notice first Preaching is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith.
Preaching Builds Christ's Church
Secondly, preaching is the divinely ordained means of building Christ's church.
Preaching Has Christ as Its Sum and Substance
Thirdly, preaching has Christ as the sum and substance of its purpose. And then lastly, preaching has the cross as the apex of its content. Notice, first off, preaching is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith. You notice the language of the Apostle Paul here.
First off, he describes preaching in verse 18 as the message of the cross. We haven't yet gotten to point four. We haven't yet arrived there, but preaching, first off, is being used here. The language being used to describe preaching is the message of the cross.
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." You see, the wisdom of this world is not that wisdom which saves, is it? We cannot arrive at eternal life. We cannot gain some sort of favor before God.
We cannot arrive at the eschatological glory of being with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with all the saints and with all the heavenly hosts singing praises for eternity by the wisdom of the world. We are not brought into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not brought to the bliss of heaven through the wisdom of the world, but rather we are brought to the reality of everlasting life and salvation through, by the means of, the proclamation of Jesus Christ. Notice in v. 20, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? It's very interesting, as Christianity grows, as Christianity in the early church, and in these beginning years of the proclamation of Jesus Christ, as Christianity grows, and as the Lord adds to the church, the apostles go out, the disciples of Christ go out, and they proclaim the riches of Christ, and the Lord adds to the church those who are being saved.
We see Christianity growing. The report then comes of all of these being brought forth from darkness to light, from deadness to life, through the proclamation of Jesus Christ, but where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age?
Where is the wise, the scribe, the disputer of this age? Where are their proselytes? Where are their numbers being brought forth to salvation and everlasting life? They're nowhere.
The scribes are nothing. The so-called wise are nothing. The so-called disputers of this age are nothing. The proof of that is seen in that God has made foolish the wisdom of this world.
And the so-called wise, the so-called scribe, the so-called disputers of this age, they're rendered as dumb before the actual wisdom of the living and true God Who puts their wisdom down by that which is true wisdom, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the point of the Apostle Paul here. True wisdom, true power, does not come through the world's so-called wisdom, but it comes solely and alone through the triune God Who reveals true wisdom and power through the Lord Jesus Christ. Preaching is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith.
As we now read verse 21, that's brought into greater clarity. Notice in verse 21, For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. You see, we are not to call the day of preaching a day of small things. You know, there's a reason why it is to be seen as a colossal tragedy, as a horrible thing, when God, according to His hot and holy and wholesome justice, removes the preaching of the Word and calls it a famine.
If it is divine justice that is seen in revoking and removing the proclamation of the truth, the proclamation of the Word of God, if that is wholesome as a curse from the hand of God, then conversely, is it not to be seen as the highest blessing when we are able to gather around the church of the living God and engage in the act of preaching? Engage in this act of worship, the preaching of the Word, not because of the preacher, but because God has ordained the means of preaching as that means whereby He brings forth dead sinners to life through Jesus Christ the Lord. We are to count the day of preaching not as a day of small and low things, but as a day of high and heavy things. God using this, ordaining this, as that means by which He brings forth dead sinners to life.
A number of passages ought to jump to our minds, but you can turn back a little bit to the left to Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. Hopefully you know the passage that I'm going to. We're going to pick up reading in Romans 10.10 as we are remarking after the fact that preaching is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith.
Notice in Romans 10.10,
Romans 10 and the Logic of Preaching
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? You see the logic here as Paul is opening this up and bringing this to bear upon his audience.
The statement in verse 13 comes, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then this logical progression of argumentation follows. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? So, how are they to call upon this Lord if they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him then of whom they have not heard? So, sinners need to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to call upon the name of the Lord, they need to be those who are believing. In order to believe, they need to hear.
And in order to hear, they need a preacher. How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent, we read. This is Calvin on this language.
It is a proof and a pledge of divine love when any nation is favored with the preaching of the gospel. Do you get that? Do you feel the weight of that? It is a proof and a pledge of divine love. when any nation is favored with the preaching of the gospel.
That is why it is the opposite of a famine when the gospel is proclaimed in a nation and in a city. It is a feast. There is an abundance of food in that place where the gospel is being proclaimed. You think about this, kids, if you went into a restaurant, and you sat down, and you're hungry, perhaps you've worked all day.
Kids can work, you should be working a little bit. You go into a restaurant, you've worked all day, you're starving. The waitress, waiter, comes up to you, and you say, I'd like to order, and they interrupt you, and they say, sorry, we're out of food. stomach grumbling, you're weak, you need sustenance, our bodies need food. You go back the next day, sorry, and you die.
Eventually. No food. It's a famine. There's absolutely no food.
You cannot be fed, and if you are not fed, you will die. Well, let's transfer this argument to the high and holier things of gospel proclamation. Imagine. Imagine such a place and such an instance and such a season where there is no proclamation of the Word of God.
Not only, yes, will believers not have that feeding that they need, that normative means, that means of grace whereby the strength of our faith is grown by the Holy Spirit, the risen Christ, gifting us with His Spirit through the proclamation of the Word, that we might grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. But think about unbelievers. There is no food whereby they can taste of and come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no intake of the revelation and the truth and the glorious things of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember the invitations, the Old and the New Testament. Come, buy, and eat. Why would you spend your money on that which does not satisfy? Come buy and eat, but imagine there is a famine of that reality.
We are to count the day of preaching, the hour of preaching, the season of preaching as a high and heavy thing. We are not to see it as that which is lowly, and that which is small, and that which we can take or leave. As Christians, we are to see the glory in it. And because of this fact that it is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith, Calvin would go on to say at the point of Romans 10, it is enough for us to bear this only in mind that the gospel does not fall like rain from the clouds, but is brought by the hands of men wherever it is sent from above.
The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. You know, on this instrumentality, on it being a means of God bringing forth dead sinners to life, the second Helvetic Confession goes on to say,
Second Helvetic Confession on Preaching
inward illumination does not eliminate external preaching. For He that illuminates inwardly by giving men the Holy Spirit, the same one by way of commandment said unto His disciples, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. And so in Philippi, Paul preached the Word outwardly to Lydia, a seller of purple goods. But the Lord inwardly opened the woman's heart.
And the same Paul, after a beautiful development of his thought in Romans 10.17, at length comes to the conclusion. So faith comes from hearing, and notice this, and hearing from the Word of God by the preaching of Christ You see what the Helvetic Confession does there at the point of Romans 10.17 where it says, So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It argues for the fact that when the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed, it is as if Christ Himself is preaching to the congregation. That's why Paul could tell the Ephesians that Christ came and preached to them. that the One who is Peace Himself came and preached to the Ephesian Christians.
Christ never went to Ephesus, but by virtue of faithful apostolic witness and attestation to the glorious riches of Christ, it was as if Christ Himself was there proclaiming the riches of His glorious Gospel. The Helvetic Confession already noted the practical example in Acts 16, where proclamation comes, and Lydia, that seller of purple, is brought forth from deadness to life in Christ. If you ever want to have some interesting side reading, you can read John Gill on Acts 16-13, because he goes on for what seems like pages about what the selling of purple means. I think it's one of the longest sections on a verse that I've ever read of John Gill, and I've read a lot of Gill, and he's just waxing eloquent on the theology of the color purple, and how Lydia probably dyed it from shellfish, the blood of shellfish, and all these sorts of things.
But you see, here's this Lydia, down by a river. If you've been here for our preaching on Philippians 2, 5 to 11, We've made some mention occasionally of the various things going on in the history of Philippi and that sort of thing. Well, Acts 16, the Apostle Paul is in Philippi and he's preaching. He comes to Philippi and they get wind, if you will, of the fact that they gather together down by the river, the Jews, in order to pray and meditate upon the Word of God.
Now, that river is most likely the River Krenides, which used to be the name of Philippi before Philip II of Macedon rolled in and changed it to Philippi. And so these faithful Jews are down at the river praying and meditating. And Lydia, she's either a Greek proselyte to Judaism, or she's a Jew herself. But nevertheless, she's down there as a seller of purple, as a faithful Jew, going about the business of what Jews do.
There's no synagogue in Philippi, so she's down at the river. But you see, she's in unbelief. She has not yet come to a knowledge of this Christ, the glorious King of kings and Lord of lords who died for sinners and rose again. And so Paul comes and he preaches Christ to her, and we read the report.
The narrative is that the Lord opened her heart to receive the things spoken by the Apostle Paul. You see the utility of the preaching of the Word. how important it is, the primacy of it. It is that means that God uses to bring forth dead sinners to life.
Application: Pray for Preachers
What's an application? What can we gain from this? As we rehearse the importance of preaching, what is an application here? If preaching is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith, then this is an application.
You're to pray for preachers. We need our prayers. When Pastor Butler and I and whoever's opening worship comes up here, and in the course of that time of worship, which is prayer to our Triune God, and we ask for God to bless the preacher, that's genuine and that's real. When we append that or when we include this reality that the preacher does not lean upon his own understanding and strength, that's true and that's real.
Pray for your preachers. Pray for those who preach here. Pray for those who preach anywhere. Because it is by that divinely ordained means that God brings forth sinners to saving faith.
There's a number of things that we could note in the context here. And if you find your way back to 1 Corinthians, notice that there's something of a difference of medium that contrasts the preaching of the Word with other things, other methods, if you will. Notice, again, beginning in verse 21, In the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Notice, for Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. You see the contrast here. We're discussing the means, the glorious and divinely ordained means of the preaching of the Word. It's contrasted here to the Jews who request signs, and the Greeks who seek after wisdom.
Preaching of the Word of God comes as that divinely ordained means. It's not the signs that the Jews seek after. Remember though, in their dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ, the veracity of Christ as the Messiah was attested to them by Christ doing miracles and signs and wonders. That's the argument of the Apostle Peter in Acts 2.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by miracles and signs and wonders, which He did in your midst, as you yourselves also know." The Jews saw signs. They sought after signs, but you see, they didn't really like the signs. Jesus ultimately brings them to this point, and He says, you will not get a sign except, or the only sign that you will get is the sign of the prophet Jonah. Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the giant fish, Christ Himself will be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth.
That's the sign. Gospel verity will be the sign. And how did that sign come to the minds and to the ears of those Jews? It came by the proclamation of the Word.
That's what Pentecost was. The Word of God. The Word of Truth. Coming to these who sought after a sign.
And the Greeks seek after wisdom. You see, the Greeks perhaps, they thought that true knowledge and true salvation, if you will, after that idea, comes not by the proclamation of this Messiah massacred upon Calvary's tree. True wisdom comes from the human mind, the human eye, observing the natural world, contemplating after our own observation that the human mind can somehow bring itself to salvation for lack of a better term. You see, that's why we have the importance of revelation.
The importance of the Gospel proclaimed. You see, man can look from when he's brought forth from the womb, if he lives 120 years, he can look upon the natural world and contemplate the natural world. And of course, he's never going to come to a knowledge of our God and of His Christ. Yes, the law of nature testifies that there is a God.
It shows that there is a God who is to be feared, trusted, and worshipped, and served with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. But the acceptable way of worshipping that God is revealed by the Holy Scripture. And the only way of coming to saving contact with that God is through the Christ proclaimed through the act of preaching. The wisdom of God.
The folly of man. The wisdom of God. The reality of preaching as the primary means, as the important medium of the Christian religion was seen at the time of the Reformation as well. At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church, and the centrality of the Mass, the blasphemy of the Mass and transubstantiation, where the pulpit was a lectern off to the side and dead center was the altar, where they would, in their carnality and in their blasphemy, sacrifice Christ in an unbloody sacrifice upon the altars of Rome.
Another medium that was prime at the time of the Reformation as well were the radical reformers who repudiated everything Catholic, and a lot of things truly Protestant, and instead of preaching being primary, it was perhaps direct inward illumination from God. Our forebears, though, the Protestant Reformers, saw what the Scriptures set forth. The centrality of preaching. The centrality of the pulpit.
No statues, and no bedecked crosses, and no graven images. Why? Because it's by the proclamation of the Word that sinners are brought forth from deadness to life. You see, the preaching of the Word served Among many other things, it served the reality of the Second Commandment.
I don't want to go on about history the whole time here, we're going to move on in a second, but there were a couple times in history where Christians came up against the worship of icons, or the use of icons in churches, statues, or three-dimensional images, or two-dimensional images, as aids to worship. Seeing it rightly as a violation of the Second Commandment did the Reformers in the 16th and 17th centuries, but even prior to that, they opposed it at the point of Christology. But at the time of the Reformation, the proclamation of the Word of God served to dash to pieces violations of the second commandment. This is Calvin, and hopefully you can enter in with me here on the importance of preaching in dashing to pieces violations of the law of God.
If we just think about this for a second, the first commandment. That I am the Lord your God who brought you from out of bondage in Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall have no other gods before me.
What serves that commandment? The proclamation of the one and only living and true God, doesn't it? If we were to go through every commandment, we would see that the proclamation of the Word of God serves to drive the force of all of those commandments. Pedagogically, that is, to drive the sinner to Christ.
At each and every point, the preacher of the Word of God comes, and he drives the wholesome holiness and righteousness and justice of all of those ten words to the point where the one hearing can feel the weight, if you will, of the righteousness and the holiness of God, the immensity and the purity of His law, the reality that He stands condemned before that holy God and before the purity of the law, and that the only way of salvation is Jesus Christ the Lord. But you see, after that, not but, but as well, not only does the proclamation of the Word serve that pedagogical use of the law to drive sinners to Christ, it no doubt serves the civil use as well, but the normative use. How did the reformers come up against all of these graven images and icons in churches in the 16th and 17th century? By forcing upon the minds of men the reality and the weight of the proclamation of the Word.
Paul declares, Calvin wrote, that by the true preaching, of the Gospel, Christ is portrayed in a manner crucified before our eyes. He's quoting Galatians 3.1 there. You can read that on your own time. But the Galatians never laid their eyes upon Christ.
But what he's saying here is that the proclamation of the Word is such that it comes with the weight of clarity that those who are hearing the Word proclaimed about this Christ, it is as if He is clearly crucified before their eyes. He goes on to say, of what use then were the erection in churches of so many crosses of wooden stones, silver and gold? if this doctrine were faithfully and honestly preached. Christ died that He might bear our curse upon the tree, that He might expiate our sins by the sacrifice of His body, wash them in His blood, and in short, reconcile us to God the Father. From this one doctrine, the people would learn more than from a thousand crosses of wood and stone.
As for crosses of gold and silver, it may be true that the avaricious, that is, those who have greed for riches, give their eyes and minds to them more eagerly than to any heavenly instructor. What's the point there? See, the heart of natural man wants to keep everything before his eyes. The heart of sinful man wants to keep everything before his eyes save for Christ and Him crucified.
He doesn't want to hear this. He'll have a bedecked and bejeweled cross before he'll hear the Word of Christ and His cross proclaimed. the importance of the preaching of the Word of God. Secondly, preaching is the divinely ordained means of building Christ's church. It's the same text.
This is intimately connected. But you see, not only is it the divinely ordained means of bringing dead sinners forth from deadness to life in Christ, but it's also the same divinely ordained means for building Christ's church. What do you think Christ has in mind besides the fact of His own oblation, His own sacrifice that He was about to give upon Calvary's tree? But remember in that instance in Matthew 16 where He asks His disciples who they think that He is after they have already answered who other people think that He is.
Who do you think I am? Who do you say I am? Christ says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And He gives that promise to the church that I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Understand and know and be safe in your assumption that Christ has in mind that when He ascends to the right hand of the Majesty on High, He will send forth preachers of the Word to proclaim the riches and the excellencies of Himself. In Mark 16, notice what we have there. In Mark 16, preaching is the divinely ordained means of building Christ's church. In Mark's account of the Great Commission, we have in verse 14 of Mark 16, later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table, and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. You see here the first commission, if you will, that commission prior to his ascension that he gives to the disciples and You must understand that this serves the previous promise that he made to build his church, that I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Go into all the world, he commands, and preach the gospel to every creature.
It is the means that God uses to build his church. Do you know that there is an intimate connection between that and the prophecy in Daniel 7?
Daniel 7 and the Kingdom Spread by Preaching
Remember what's going on in Daniel 7. We alluded to it, I think, last week in our preaching on Micah 5. In Daniel 7, there's the prophecy concerning the four kingdoms and then a final kingdom. So, I get the five kingdoms.
We have the lion of Assyria Babylon. We have that giving way to the bear of Persia. That giving way to the leopard of Alexander the Great and the Greeks. And then that giving way to this final and fourth and terrible beastly kingdom that has this iron beast with the deadly teeth.
But then we read after that, that the conquering kingdom which shall not fade away is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read, culminating in verse 13, I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." How is that kingdom built and how is that kingdom spread?
But through the instrumentality of the preaching of the Word. The Holy Spirit, no doubt, as that effectual means that is joined with the instrumentality of the Word, that uses the instrumentality of the Word to spread forth the glorious riches of Christ and to build His Church. This prophecy of this Kingdom that destroys that fourth and final Kingdom this conquering kingdom, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which shall not pass away, the King, prior to His ascension, gives a commandment, and the commandment is, go, preach the Gospel. The importance, the primacy of the preaching of the Word.
What's an example of this in the book of Acts? Well, the whole book of Acts is an example of this. When you come to the book of Acts, the whole book of Acts is an example that preaching is the divinely ordained means of building Christ's church. What happens on the day of Pentecost but this?
If you turn to Acts 2. And you all know what happened on the day of Pentecost, don't you? Peter. Peter proclaims richly the Christ who lived, who died, who rose again, who is the ascended King, who sent forth the promise of the Spirit that they were beholding, and that all who believe on Him will have everlasting life.
And it comes to this point in Acts 2.40, and with many other words He testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. then those who gladly received His Word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them." See, the proclamation of the Word of God for the building of His church.
Application: Pray and Pay for Preachers
What can we take away from this as an application? We've already noted, pray for preachers, And I don't want to have this sound strange to your ears, and I wasn't just trying to rhyme, but also pay for preachers. Not pray for the Word of God because come buy and eat without money and without price. But preachers, the proclamation of the Word of God requires the people of God, in fact, to such a point to such a point that the preaching of the Word of God requires people to provide physical sustenance and money in order that the proclamation of the Word can go forth victorious.
This is such a reality that Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, can bring forth the example of Christ as coming down from the pinnacle of richness and riches to this lower ignominy of shame and poverty so that we, in our poverty, might be made rich in order to argue for the Corinthian church to give for the churches in other areas, so that the proclamation of the gospel can go forth to the uttermost parts of the earth. So we are to pray and we are to give support. We are to pray and as we are able, we are to give so that those who are, in fact, the confession of our faith speaks something to this with regards to the church of Christ and with regards to the duty of Elders. Notice in, notice, you don't have a copy of the Confession, but notice in chapter 26 in verse 10, the work of pastors being constantly to attend the service of Christ in His churches, in the ministry of the Word and prayer, with watching for their souls as they that must give an account to Him, It is incumbent on the churches to whom they minister, not only to give them all due respect, but also to communicate to them of all their good things according to their ability, so as they may have a comfortable supply without being themselves entangled in secular affairs.
I smile, but brethren, I don't want you to get the wrong impression here, but we are to provide support to those who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? So that the proclamation of the Gospel can go forth. Imagine just for a moment, if preaching hinges upon the exegetical precision and proper proclamation of the Word of God, the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God only insofar as the Word of God is being accurately preached, then we ought not to have preachers, we ought not to have pastors tangled in secular affairs, stealing them away from the time needed to preach the riches and the excellencies of the Word of the living and true God.
Thirdly, preaching has Christ as the sum and substance of its purpose. Preaching has Christ as the sum and substance of its purpose. Notice back in 1 Corinthians 1. What is the language first off in verse 22?
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. So, preaching is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith.
Preaching is the divinely ordained means of building Christ's church. But you see, it is only effectual preaching if preaching has Christ as the sum and substance of its purpose. So much so that in 1 Corinthians 2, as we move along, we see here in verse 2, For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. and then later in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 15 as well. But the point here is preaching has Christ as the sum and substance of its purpose.
A Christless proclamation is no proclamation at all. Now, your mind might be working here a little bit. Well, what about What about the proclamation of the book of Esther? Or the proclamation of spending some time in the book of Deuteronomy?
Make no mistake that when we say Christ is the sum and substance of preaching's purpose, We're not saying that an explication of Deuteronomy is unwarranted. Of course it is. It's the Word of God. But remember what the Word of God is and what it isn't.
First, what it isn't, it's not this book of 66 books haphazardly slapped together, just some ancient and dusty tome of antiquated truths. But rather, what do we acknowledge the Bible to be? But that Word from on high that has as its central message and as the trajectory of the whole, Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of men. Spending time in Deuteronomy is spending time in Christ, because when we get to the New Testament, what do we have but the opening up of the Old Testament to show that the Old Testament promised Christ to come, and the New Testament testifies that He has.
That's borrowing the words of, I think, William Perkins. I would have to check my references, but I think that's what he said. You get the point from Luke 24, though. We've noted this before, make no mistake, that Luke 24 is an absolutely vital passage of Holy Scripture for understanding the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God. where in the Scriptures we find a consent of all the parts document that has this as its primary target, a scope of the whole, to testify to Jesus Christ, the One who comes in the fullness of the times to give Himself for guilty sinners.
Luke 24, Christ Himself says, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms all spoke concerning Me. You know, it's such a reality Christ is the sum and substance of preaching's purpose, that one Baptist of old, Nehemiah Cox, has said something like this, that in all our search after the mind of God in the Holy Scriptures, we are to manage our inquiries with reference to Christ. He is the scope of the whole, the target, the trajectory of the Word points to this One who comes and who in the mind of the Apostle Paul is the sum and substance of proclamation's purpose. I love when we get to certain passages in the Pauline epistles where we have stuff like this in Colossians 1.
Speaking of preaching having Christ as the sum and substance of His purpose, Paul in Colossians 1 preaches much concerning the full divinity, the full humanity of Christ, the fact that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And then we get to this glorious statement in v. 28, Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. See the importance of the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ in the church's proclamation? A Christless proclamation is no proclamation at all.
It is Christ who is preached by the Word that is the divinely ordained means of bringing sinners to saving faith, because what is the only way to saving faith but through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Acts 5.12. The reality that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior given among men. The only Savior by which we have salvation.
Preaching has Christ as the sum and substance of its purpose.
Pentecost as a Christ-Full Message
What's a practical example of this? We already read from Acts chapter 2, 40 and a little bit following. But remember what preceded that. What does Peter do when he opens up his mouth on the day of Pentecost?
Which, remember, is an absolutely marvelous instance of the grace and the strengthening power of God. Because only 50 days previous, he was denying the very Christ that he proclaims on the day of Pentecost. Don't you see a glorious example of the empowerment that God gives by His Spirit to proclaimers of the Word? Peter, before the patio interrogations of a servant girl, can't own Christ, and yet 50 days later on the day of Pentecost, before a multitude of sinners, before a multitude of unbelieving Jews, He opens up His mouth, and with great boldness and great courage, He proclaims, the riches and the excellencies of Christ.
And that's our point when He opens His mouth on the day of Pentecost. It is a Christ-full message. This man attested to you by miracles and signs and wonders which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have crucified by lawless hands.
But that same Christ God has raised from the dead. He did not seek corruption, but He has arisen victorious. Christ is the sum and substance of preaching's purpose. And what's an application that we can take from that reality?
One of the things is to know Him, to learn about Him, to read your Bibles and to understand. You know, on this point, we've been preaching through the book of Philippians, and we've noted Hopefully not to the point of exhaustion, we can never exhaust the truth of God, but hopefully you're not tiring of learning of Christ from that small hymn in Philippians 2. We have the deity of Christ, the full deity of Christ, He's perfect Godhead, and the full humanity of Christ, He's perfect manhood, yet without sin. The knowledge of those two things, that He is fully God and fully man in one person, for our salvation, is absolutely necessary.
You see, there were those in the early church, and they're around today, no doubt, who, if they rejected the divinity of Christ, then salvation was affected, not just because they rejected the divinity of Christ, but the scheme of salvation was affected. They were called by other names, but they were called adoptionists. And when they stole away from the reality of the Person of Christ, His divinity, what filled the gap in salvation, or what replaced salvation, was obedience to the Law. Because you see, this Christ was not divine by virtue of being equal with the Father, but this Christ gained His divinity by the performance of the Law, so you too must enter into. eternal life and be divinized, if you will, by obedience to the law.
You see how our knowledge of Christ affects how we'll think concerning salvation? If we reject the deity of Christ, then we tear down the glorious reality of the holiness of God, the perfection of His law. The law is dropped down to a point where we, weak and feeble in our humanity, can still nevertheless obey its every precept and be just like Christ, exalted by the Father. No.
No. This one, equal with the Father, comes down. Perfect in Godhead. Takes on perfect manhood.
And He gives His life for guilty sinners. The perfection of His obedience unto the law in the stead of all those who believe. And taking upon Himself the law's curse in the stead of all those who believe by bearing the wrath of God in our stead upon that tree. We are to know him the prayer of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 15 and following we won't go there right now but what a place that we have where the Apostle Paul prays and One of the repeated themes is that those for whom he is praying, Ephesian Christians, those for whom he is praying would have an understanding and a knowledge and this surpassing grasp upon the reality of the riches and the excellencies of Christ and the redemption of the sons of men.
We are to have an understanding and knowledge and a wisdom. We'll close with this observation.
Preaching Has the Cross as Its Apex
Fourthly and lastly, preaching has the cross as the apex of its content. Kids, apex simply means the highest point. Preaching has the cross as the apex of its content. Notice, if you can find your way back to our passage, 1 Corinthians 1, what is the language of the Apostle here?
But language that exalts the glory of the cross. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Exalting the glory of the cross. Why?
Because the cross was an implement of torture, shame, ignominy. The most abject, abasing humility. And yet, as Christians, we lift it up as the apex of preaching's content. Notice the Apostle Paul again in v. 21.
Well, first off, remember in v. 18, for the message of the cross. And then v. 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. to the Jews a stumbling block into the Greeks' foolishness. You see, remember, the Jews could not endure a crucified Messiah.
That's the language of Spurgeon preaching on Galatians 6.14. The Jews could not endure a crucified Messiah. They looked for pomp and they looked for power. They couldn't endure this one executed upon a Roman gibbet.
But you see, in that is the wisdom of God. In Christ upon a cross, bloodied, beaten, defeated, but not really defeated. In that is the wisdom and the power of God. Jews look upon that and they see scorn.
He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We do not esteem that. We do not esteem Him. They sought after pomp and power.
They wanted a messiah of political and social victory. A conqueror who would dash to pieces the Roman armies. All those sorts of things. One who sweeps in upon a white steed.
But actually he does for Christians. Remember, he's the one who rides upon a white steed. Victorious and true. But you see, the Jews wanted not a bloody messiah upon Calvary's cross, they wanted a messiah of their own making, a messiah of their, folly of their own opinion.
Jews to Jews, Christ was a stumbling block. Spurgeon in that quote would say something to the effect of, are all our washings and all our ceremonies, are these all to be put away and nothing remain but a bleeding savior? And Paul's answer is absolutely. All of those washings, all of those ceremonies, all of those mosaic institutions had in them, while virtuous and while ordained by God for their particular purpose, wrapped up in their purpose was that they pointed forward as shadows, as copies to the true, the Lord Jesus Christ who would come in the fullness of the times and bring to an end those things which pointed forward to Him.
Jesus Christ, our Savior, preaching has the cross as the apex of its content. When Paul says here, it's a striking statement in 1 Corinthians 2, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If he has already said that in that, in Christ crucified, is true wisdom and true power, then this doesn't surprise us, does it? For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." We have practical examples like that in the preaching of the book of Acts.
The cross is not absent from the book of Acts. Some scholars, in their revisionist treatment of the book of Acts, like to steal away the reality that the cross is a central element of preaching in the book of Acts. We already noted, but only briefly, the fact of it being in Acts 2. But in Acts 5, we have the cross there as a central reality.
Notice in Acts 5, at verse 30, we have these words. But Peter, backing up to verse 29, and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. You see, this would have come as with the weight of a multitude of daggers to the heart. of these unbelieving Jews.
And remember that the two-edged sword of the Word of God cuts two ways. In the book of Acts, we have those examples brought forth where the Word proclaimed cuts to the heart. And one response wrought by the Spirit of God is that they cry out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must we do to be saved?
Here, or in other instances, we have the reality where the word comes and they're cut to the heart, but it's a different cutting to the heart. And it results in men frothing at the mouth and being caught up in venomous and murderous rage and putting, for example, to death. a person such as godly Stephen. But you see, this would have cut to the heart because Peter's proclamation contains the cross of Christ, the God of our fathers, raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. The very thing that is the salvation and the only salvation of men, the cross of Christ, He uses here as a dagger in order to drive them to the realization that they were complicit in the murder of the Son of God's love.
And that the weight of that proclamation would bring them to bend a knee to the King of kings and to the Lord of lords. They cried out, may His blood be upon us and our children. The Apostle Peter here uses the weight of the proclamation to show them at the point, not only did they violate that word which speaks to murder, but they exercise the horrific reality of transgressing that law upon the Prince of Peace. The cross of Christ is brought as a dagger to the heart.
Proclamation, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is at the apex of preaching's content.
Application: Glory in the Cross
And we'll close with this application, and that is we should be like Paul. Now, I know when we've been preaching through the book of Philippians, we've been noting that Christ is set forth as the chief exemplar for his people. He's not only an example, the saving work of Christ is first and foremost that which saves sinners to the uttermost. But he's also an example.
As well, though, Paul and the Apostles are examples of those four Christians, and we are to follow after such as the Apostle Paul. In Paul's letters, we have the striking reality that what is at the heart of the Apostle Paul's proclamation is Christ and Him crucified. We are to be like Paul. Where might we have an example in the Bible that we can sort of use as our point of application to be like the Apostle Paul?
God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross is the crux of our Christianity. The cross is the apex of Christian proclamation. Paul, Spurgeon wrote, did not blench before the sharp and practical reply of the conquerors of the world.
He trembled not before Nero and his palace, whether to Greek or Jew, Roman or barbarian, bond or free. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but gloried in the cross. He determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His motto, we preach Christ crucified.
He had the cross for His philosophy, the cross for His tradition, the cross for His gospel, the cross for His glory and nothing else. If you're here tonight and you're Christ's, rejoice in the cross. The day of preaching is a day of high and heavy things. If you're here tonight and you don't know Christ, seek after the cross of Christ because it is only there that we have salvation.
It's only in the doing and the dying of the Son of God and in His rising again that we have salvation. Everyone who believes on Him shall have everlasting life. You know, don't leave here tonight without closing with Christ, without owning Him as Savior. It is possible only with God to have each and every one who draws breath in this room to leave these two doors singing, Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for time in Your Word. We thank You for time in worship. We rejoice in our Christ and in His cross. And we thank You that You did send Him in the fullness of the times.
Born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law we pray Lord God that you would help us to rejoice in Christ to Rejoice that we have heard the good word of proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ at some point by Your spirit and word you brought us forth from deadness to life by the reality of Christ in him crucified And we pray that you would help us to own our Savior to rejoice in him and to live each day Bringing glory to you and bringing honor to the Lord Jesus Christ And we pray in His most precious name. Amen.