Preaching that Pleases God - Pastor Mike Stone

Thank you for your heartfelt singing that has exalted our Lord and the gift of His grace through the shedding

of the blood of Christ.

I want to just briefly express again my deep gratitude for the invitation of

Brother Quatro and all those who had a part in bringing me here to Central Arkansas and

Pastor Tom, again, it's been a privilege to share these moments with you and to all those who had a part and so many who have

served me.

You have been a blessing to me and I thank the Lord for your kindness to me.

I would invite you this morning to turn with me to the first letter to Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter

2 is where we'll take our text this morning, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 in a moment we're going to

read the first five verses, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 1 through 5 and the

message I will simply label preaching that pleases God, preaching

that pleases God.

Perhaps you've heard the story of the young preacher who took his first pastorate fresh out of seminary and he

didn't know what to preach about that first Sunday so he decided he would preach about the things he'd heard preached

about when he was growing up in church as a boy and his pastor was really in the temperance

movement and so he took for his text his first Sunday Proverbs 20 verse 1, he

preached against intoxicating drink, for the Bible there says that wine is a malker, strong drink

a brawler, whoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

A gray -haired deacon met him in the lobby of the church and said pastor you're new to town you'd have no way to

know this but the Anheuser -Busch company is one of the largest employers in this county you're going to offend a

lot of the congregation.

If I were you I wouldn't preach anymore against beveraged alcohol.

Young preacher got up the second Sunday didn't know what to preach about decided he'd draw from his experience as

a young boy growing up in church and so he preached against cigarette smoking taking for his text First

Timothy or First Corinthians chapter 6 where we are the temple of the Holy Spirit were to glorify God with our

body.

That same gray -haired deacon met him in the lobby pastor you must not have been driving around the community very much.

This is longleaf tobacco country.

A lot of the church budget is supported through the sale of tobacco.

If I were you don't preach anymore against liquor.

Don't preach anymore against tobacco.

So the third Sunday he got up and didn't know what to preach about.

He drew from his experience as a young boy and he preached against playing the state lottery

took for his text First Timothy chapter 6 where the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil and many by

pursuing it have pierced themselves through with many a grief and wouldn't you know it that same gray -haired deacon was

waiting on him the lobby pastor not only is this alcohol country and tobacco country but

just across the state line there's a greyhound dog track.

Half your Christmas bonus is going to be made from money that the elders make on Friday and Saturday nights over at the

greyhound dog track.

Don't preach anymore against gambling and so he got up the fourth Sunday and he said I just gotta confess to you I

don't know what to preach about.

I preached against everything I know to preach against.

I preached against liquor.

I preached against smoking.

I preached against gambling and that's when the church treasurer jumped to his feet and said preach against

tithing brother ain't none of them here doing that.

You know there is a real challenge in the ministry to preach in a way that brings about

the approval of man.

I don't get up on any Sunday trying to figure out what can I say most offensive

to get the angriest text messages the angriest tags on Twitter and Facebook and

Instagram and the like.

I don't go out of my way to try to anger the blue -haired grandmas in our

congregation but the Apostle Paul says much about why he preached

and the goal and the aim of his pulpit ministry and I've labeled it preaching

that pleases God.

Every preacher in the room would know that I was lying if I said I don't care

if you like my sermon or not.

Of course I care.

Of course I would rather you be pleased and blessed and feel profited and edified

by the message but the faithful declarer of the Word of God whether that's a pastor in the.

Pulpit.

A deacon or an elder teaching a Sunday school class a stay at home mom

raising those homeschool children as was referenced a moment ago.

Anyone that would take the Word of God and declare what God has said should seek as their

ultimate and preeminent aim the glory of God and the approval of heaven

preaching that pleases God.

1st Corinthians chapter 2.

We begin reading in verse 1.

My Bible labels this second chapter Paul's reliance upon the Spirit

and I think that's a good moniker the Holy Ghost says.

And when I came to you.

Brethren.

I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the

testimony of God for I determined to know nothing among you except

Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom

but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

And then he gives his purpose clause so that your faith would

not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.

May God now add a blessing to the reading of this perfect authoritative and sufficient word as we consider for a

few moments this morning preaching that pleases God now I am really

preaching with one specific portion of this congregation in mind those who would be pastors

in the Lord's pulpits.

However as I've already mentioned there's application that I pray the Spirit of God will make to every

heart.

Whether you're personally sharing your faith in an evangelism encounter all the way to pastoring and

shepherding the local church.

I believe that Paul would lay out for us three characteristics of the kind of preaching that brings

about the pleasure of our Lord.

First it is preaching that has a singular message.

The preaching that pleases God has a singular message.

Paul is reminding them of the ministry that he had for some 18 months in the ancient city of Corinth.

That ministry is recorded for us in the book of Acts in the 18th chapter.

But one synopsis of that ministry is found in Acts 18 verses 4 and 5 where the

Spirit of God says that Paul was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath trying to persuade the

Jews and the Greeks solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the

Christ.

Now while Luke the physician records some of the things.

That Paul.

Did Paul actually begins the apologetic defense of his preaching

ministry by noting some things that he did not do.

And as I alluded last night I believe that it is more than fair taken over a period of time to

measure a preaching ministry not merely by what is said but by what is

not said not merely by what is done but by what is not

done.

Four times in these five verses Paul emphasizes that his preaching ministry could be

characterized and highlighted by things that he did not and would not

do.

First of all in verse 1 he denounces a superior speech.

He denounces a superior speech he says very bluntly I did not come to you with superiority

of speech now this concept is obviously a burden for the Apostle Paul because he references

this back in chapter 1 in verse 17 he alludes to it again in this text down in verse

4.

Paul of course knew that in Corinth and the nearby sister city of Athens they were known for their superior

speech and for eloquent speakers.

In the day before Twitter feeds and Instagram posts they would entertain themselves it was

the the entertainment of the day to get together and see who could come up with the most superior

speech.

I remind you it was the land of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates and a good

speaker listen carefully a good speaker could get a big following even if what

he actually said made little sense.

The emphasis was placed on how he said it more than what he said it

was style over substance charisma over content and I

don't have to go very far in the American church to find many points of application.

Even today people can be mesmerized and drawn away into false teaching and false

movement so long as it is delivered by a powerful speaker.

That's why people can sit in the churches and under the preaching of the faithful men that are here today shake

your hand at the door and say great word pastor and before the end of the day they're posting videos from

Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar Joyce Meyer and others.

We live in a day that is far more concerned with and consumed and

captivated by style over substance.

Paul said I'm aware that that is a danger even in his ancient day

so he went out of his way to preach without superior

speech.

Now I do not think that that means that we should try to go out of our way to craft the most

boring homilies for God's people.

We preach the most exciting truth that has ever been received by human heart or heard by human

ear and our preaching should reflect that we have been captivated by the glory

of this glorious God.

But Paul just simply says that that's not where I put my hope.

I place no confidence in the superiority of speech.

He denounces a superior speech secondly in verse 1.

He decries a worldly wisdom.

The idea of superiority in verse 1 should be grammatically carried over not only to speech

but also to wisdom.

So he says I didn't come with superiority of speech and I did not come with superiority of wisdom.

Now again wisdom is an important concept for Paul in the opening up this letter.

Starting back in chapter 1 in verse 19 he mentions wisdom no less than 18

times up to this point and he'll talk about it again here in the second chapter.

Paul decries a worldly wisdom.

My friend and evangelist the late Bill Sturm was once preaching on a major Bible

conference and in that conference there were three speakers in that session.

There was a PhD holder that opened the session, a well -known PhD recipient that would

close that session, and Brother Bill was nestled between these two as he described himself

a mule at the Kentucky Derby.

You've heard the old statement that some people graduate magna cum laude, summa cum laude, cum laude.

He graduated high school thank you laude.

He did not have the degrees hanging on the wall and in his inimitable way he said that

he began to feel intimidated as the first eloquent speaker was just giving a

profound sermon and he began to be very self -confident, lack self

-confidence which is an expression itself of pride and he said he sensed as if the Spirit of God in his

humorous way he said he felt the Lord remind him, I called them to preach to the educated.

I called you to preach to the ignorant and there's more of your crowd than their crowd.

Paul decries a worldly wisdom.

He goes on to acknowledge that his only task was to testify of the grace of God.

By way of illustration I want you to imagine that you are in a local courtroom.

There's a question for the witness on the stand related to the testimony of a witness from yesterday

and the judge asked the court reporter, would you read back the testimony of Mrs.

Jones that she gave to this court yesterday?

The court reporter has but one job.

Accurately share the previous testimony.

The reporter doesn't get extra points for.

Style.

They're not auditioning for an Oscar.

In fact if you know anything of stenographers and court reporters they are trained to deliver the testimony in a

stoic way to allow the content of the testimony to be what is

emphasized.

And similarly brothers and sisters when we share the gospel Pastors when you preach in the pulpit,

brothers and sisters when we share the gospel to the parishioners of our daily lives we've got

just one task to accurately, plainly, and simply declare

what God has said.

You say I don't know how to declare it in an eloquent kind of way.

You may be just the kind of messenger that God in His grace wills to use.

Paul denounces a superior speech.

He decries a worldly wisdom but the singular message also is characterized because thirdly

he.

Declares.

A crucified Christ.

Look down in verse 2.

For I determined to know nothing among you.

Stop for just a moment.

One of the most educated men in the history of the world his intellect, his acumen, his

achievements would rival the biggest names in whatever movement in the body of

Christ you would place yourself in.

Paul could be on anybody's short list to be the president of a seminary or the president of some

parachurch organization.

Paul knew more and had forgotten more than what most of us will ever learn.

And yet he said at the end of the day I don't want you to be impressed with all of these other things that I know.

I was content when you left my preaching if you said all that I know that he knows is that Jesus Christ

died on the cross as a propitiation for our sins and He was buried in a borrowed

grave and bodily resurrected from the dead on the third day offering repentance to

anyone who will simply believe He will forgive them of their sin.

Paul said I was content if you thought that's all that I knew.

Paul declares a crucified Christ.

Spurgeon said that you may as well talk about bread without.

Flour.

As a sermon without Christ.

He would say if you've got a sermon that doesn't make its way to the cross go home and vow to never

preach again until you can come up with a sermon that points to Christ.

Now Paul at the beginning of this letter says I'm content to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified and

that is very telling when you think about all of the doctrinal and practical truth

that he will cram into this letter.

We don't have the time this morning to give a survey of the letter but can I just briefly give you a

16 point outline of this book.

Paul says it's just Jesus Christ and Him crucified although in chapter 1 he speaks of the

superiority of divine wisdom over earthly wisdom.

Chapter 2 addresses spiritual maturity.

Chapter 3 speaks of the judgment seat of Christ and the reward of the saint.

Chapter 4 admonishes us to be faithful servants of Christ.

Chapter 5 he deals with church discipline and excommunication, a lost

discipline in the modern American church.

In chapter 6 he deals with lawsuits and sexual immorality.

In chapter 7 he deals with every aspect of marriage you could possibly imagine.

Chapter 8 he warns us not to use our liberty as a stumbling block.

He elaborates further on Christian.

Liberty.

In chapter 9.

Chapter 10 deals with the sin of idolatry.

Chapter 11 deals with complementarian order in the Lord's.

Church.

And the proper receiving and distribution of the Lord's supper.

Chapter 12 is about spiritual gifts.

Chapter 13 also about spiritual gifts in the excellency of love.

Chapter 14 deals with speaking in tongues.

Chapter 15 of course is about the resurrection of Christ and its impact on the resurrection of all who would

follow him by grace.

Chapter 16 deals with love offerings, evangelistic opportunities, and all of the farewells that he gives

to his associates.

And yet in each and every one of these things Paul said all of those chapters were under one

broad heading.

Every sermon that I preach was but a sub -point of the one sermon that I wanted to preach.

This is the gospel that I deliver to you that was of first importance, that Christ died

for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to

the Scriptures.

Paul said I didn't come with superior speech, I didn't come with worldly wisdom, but I came

declaring to you a crucified, buried, and bodily resurrected Savior

named Jesus Christ.

On the door of my study in the office where I pastor, I have a sign

that I printed out off the computer.

I have a number of these that I rotate.

The sign simply has a question on it.

Where's the cross?

It's a reminder to me in my sermon preparation that my sermon isn't finished

simply by an exegesis of the text and the formulating of an outline, the preparation of an

introduction and a conclusion, the insertion of relevant illustrations.

If I have not made it clear that this sermon, whatever the specific topic is about,

is really just a subset.

It's a sub -point to the grand central theme of the Scripture, the glorious exaltation of

Jesus Christ.

And brothers, I tell you that if you preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that preaching

pleases God.

And I will remind you it's that kind of preaching according to chapter 1 that Paul said God is well

pleased to take the preaching of that message and save those who

believe.

Paul's preaching ministry was characterized by singular message.

But secondly, the preaching that pleases God is typified by selfless

manner.

In verses 3 and 4, Paul exemplifies for us the humility with which we should

approach the preaching of the Word of God.

And his selfless manner is demonstrated here and declared to have three distinct

characteristics.

First of all, there was a fearful demeanor.

Look at verse 3 again in your Bible.

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

Weakness, fear, and trembling.

What an uncomfortable trinity of emotions.

Weakness, fear, and trembling.

Could you imagine the low paltry attendance at the weekend Bible conference where the

association, the state convention, are one of our national Southern Baptist entities.

Implores pastors to make their reservations at the local hotel.

Here's the early bird special.

Here's what it will cost if you wait to the last minute.

We want to teach you and model for you how to preach with

fear.

How to preach with weakness.

How to take the pulpit with trembling heart, trembling hand,

and trembling voice.

Weakness, fear, and not just trembling but much

trembling.

Weakness.

This is in direct contrast to the oratorical skills of the sophisticated aristocratic

speakers of Corinth and nearby Athens.

Paul actually embraced his weakness.

Perhaps he had already heard that they said that he was not a gifted orator.

That while his letters were weighty, his speech was contemptible and his appearance

unimpressive.

When Paul heard that criticism meant to cut him to the quick, Paul said, hallelujah, to

God be the glory.

In a later time of personal weakness, Paul would be reminded and would testify to this same congregation

that he had learned that in spite of the glorious revelations and his accomplishments, God had

given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, that he would

ultimately understand that the strength of God and the power and the

sufficiency of Christ is perfected, listen carefully, not in your accomplishments,

not in your credentials, not in your abilities or competencies, but the strength of

Christ is perfected in weakness, that which we eschew and disdain,

Paul embraced because he knew that it was the key, the capstone, the pathway to

experiencing the power of the resurrected Christ when he preached the Word of God.

There's weakness and then he says fear.

I was with you, he says in verse 3, in weakness and in

fear.

Brother, don't ever get the idea you'd be a better preacher if you just had some more courage.

We perhaps would be more effective preachers if we had more fear.

Now why would Paul have been afraid?

There's some human reasons for that.

He'd been beaten with rods in Philippi, he'd been run out of Thessalonica, he'd been chased out of

Berea, and before he would leave the city of Corinth, they tried to have him arrested.

But for the reassuring promise of Christ Himself, Paul would have been fearful in the worst

kind of way.

In Acts 18 verses 9 and 10, the Bible says that the Lord, I

believe referencing the Son of God, Christ Himself, said to the Apostle Paul in a night vision,

do not be afraid any longer but go on speaking and do not be silent, here's why, for I

am with you and no man will attack you in order to harm you.

It has often been said that the man of God and the will of God is invincible until the will

of God has been completed in his life in that particular assignment.

Paul was overcome with a holy dread and a divinely given

fear that our brother so powerfully referenced last night.

He knew there was much at stake when he opened the book of God and declared what God had

said.

He said, I was with you in weakness and in fear.

Then he says there was much trembling.

This is a phrase that Paul uses several times in the New Testament.

As one commentator says, it reflects the idea that Paul was completely overwhelmed at the task of

evangelizing this great Corinthian city.

So if God has laid an evangelistic encounter on your heart and you are fearful,

Pastor, if God has laid a sermon on your heart and you have a holy dread to preach it to God's

people, Paul would say you're on the right track now.

There was a fearful demeanor.

Secondly, we see in verse 4, a feeble delivery.

A feeble delivery.

And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom.

Again, I believe Paul is contrasting the weak demeanor and the intellectualism of Corinth, but he's

primarily contrasting the weakness of human wisdom contrasted with

the power of God.

Paul is not saying I had a weak message.

He said I was willing to give it in a feeble delivery.

For he knew that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that are perishing.

But to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Paul was content to have a feeble delivery.

In the church where I'm blessed to pastor, humanly speaking, I inherited a healthy church.

My predecessor is a faithful Bible expositor and we had a building not much larger than

this one.

We were in three services on Sunday morning and we had broken ground for a building we now

occupy that seats just over 1 ,000 people.

Bottom line, by the grace of God and the work of those who came before me, I inherited a healthy church that was

bound for space.

And when we opened up that new sanctuary, it seemed as if every week the power of God was just falling

and with the simplest of sermons, people were expressing their faith in Christ and others were coming

to unite with the Lord's church.

We'd only been in that new building a few weeks when Georgia Power, that's our electrical provider,

came and hooked up the lights for our new parking lot.

I'd been off that afternoon, late into the evening over in Savannah, Georgia, about two hours from our house

making a hospital visit.

It was a serious situation and so I got back into town very late.

In fact, it was about 1 .30 or 2 a .m. where I passed the church on the way to my house.

I was not prepared for what I saw because the lights had just been connected while

I'd been out of town.

And I drove into that little town where I'm so honored and blessed to serve and I saw the parking lot

illuminated and the thing that really captured my attention were these huge lights that were illuminating the steeple

piercing the night sky.

And I drove into the parking lot and I wept.

God was pouring out His blessings on the congregation.

I had never finished seminary.

I'd never pastored a church before.

I don't say that to get your sympathy.

I say that to say I did not know exactly what I was doing in the flesh.

And I cried out verbally to God sitting in my car that night in the parking lot.

Out loud, I said, God, I have no business pastoring this church.

I will confess to you that my ministry started not long after the smiling preacher out of Houston,

Texas and so there was a part of me that was thinking the heavens were going to open and God was going to say, oh no, you're a gifted child,

you're wonderful.

But I'm telling you, God reminded me of the truth of His Word that it

is in our weakness that He is made strong.

And I was reminded by the Spirit of God that is the very kind of person that God wills to use as

the one that says I do not deserve to pastor this church.

That is exactly right.

We deserve hell and judgment and anything over that is the blessing, the grace and the mercy of

God.

And Paul says in essence, I'm glad that I didn't come and leave you impressed with how much I knew

or how eloquently I could lead, how skilled I could preach.

I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.

He says he has a feeble delivery, a fearful demeanor,

but thirdly, his preaching was marked by a faithful demonstration.

Verse 4, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom,

but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

I'll ask a rhetorical question here.

I know the answer that you would give, but we don't live out this answer

in our own ministries as, certainly not as universally as we would affirm it.

But the question, dear pastor friend, which would you rather have?

The applause of men or the power of God?

Which would you rather have?

People say, what a preacher, or your listeners leave saying, what a Savior.

Leaving saying, what a church, or saying, what a marvelous grace I have found

through Christ.

Paul said, I am grateful that I came with this fearful demeanor and a feeble delivery

because that was the avenue through which God faithfully demonstrated, not my

power, but His power.

I was with you, he says, in a demonstration of the Spirit and of

power.

Those of you who follow our family on social media know that everybody in my family, my wife and all four of

our children, we love to deer hunt.

Our youngest, Matthew, he's 10 now.

He's really cut out most of my deer hunting or harvesting at least because 95

percent of the time when I go hunting, Matthew wants to go hunting.

I know those days are limited and so we take one gun and he holds it and I let him shoot.

The first deer that he ever shot, he would just turn six years old.

We were in a buddy stand.

I bought him an appropriately gauged and calibrated rifle for a six -year -old

and he harvested his first deer by himself with me sitting right there for all of you helicopter moms.

About 40 yards shot.

Thought it was a doe, turned out to be a button buck.

That's an entirely different story.

But I remember something from that day.

My six -year -old son, who's a mini -me and I'm already a mini -me.

He's a mini -mini -me.

Raised the gun, set the scope,

put it tight against his shoulder and by our preparation he gave me a slight little nod.

I reached around and took the safety off the gun and he slowly and carefully

squeezed off a fatal shot.

Do you know that deer would have been no more dead

if David Blanton of Realtree had squeezed off that shot?

That deer would have been no more dead if Michael Waddell would have put down his bow

and taken up that rifle.

You hunters may know some of those names.

The bottom line is the power to take the life of that animal

was not contained in the finger.

The power was in the gun.

And anyone faithfully, rightfully, accurately

squeezing that trigger would get the exact same effect.

Paul said when I was with you there was weakness, there was fear, there was

trembling.

But he did what he would later charge young Timothy to do.

He rightly divided, accurately handled the word of truth and he saw it be the power of God

unto salvation for all who would believe.

Can't help but think maybe he's remembering brother Crispus there in

the Corinthian city.

Acts 18 .8 records that Crispus the leader of the synagogue believed in the Lord with all

of his household.

Perhaps Paul is thinking back to some of those adulterers and fornicators and liars and

homosexuals that he would reference in First Corinthians chapter 6 and say and such were some of you.

But he knew that when he had preached the gospel God by nothing more than the kind intention of His

own will restored families and mended broken lives and dried up drunks and and saved

the home wreckers and liars began telling the truth and in each and every case Paul left the pulpit

saying I know that I did not and could not have done that.

That was only the power of God.

He gives us here the characteristics of preaching that pleases God.

It has a singular message.

It's about Christ.

There was a selfless manner.

If it's going to be about Christ it cannot be about us.

Thirdly and finally, verse 5 I reference as his purpose statement I would label a

spiritual motive.

A singular message, a selfless manner, a spiritual motive.

What Paul says here in verse 5 is itself, listen carefully, it is itself a

profound example of the gospel itself.

Here's what I mean.

He told them in chapter 1 that salvation was completely the work of God

so that no one could boast except in the Lord.

You find that in chapter 1 verses 29 and 31.

Pastors listen very attentively.

Having told them doctrinally that salvation is of God and not of the

flesh that you can't boast in self but in the Lord, he intentionally

wanted his homiletic approach to mirror the message of the

gospel itself.

That how can I make the sermon and the.

Preaching.

All about me while simultaneously telling you it's not about me, it's all

of God.

Now in this spiritual motive there are three things I'll leave you with this morning.

First he's motivated by a faith to develop.

A faith to develop, verse 5, so that your faith would

not rest on the wisdom of men.

I didn't come this far to needlessly offend anyone today but Paul wasn't interested in numbers

to pad his resume.

He was interested in developing their faith.

The preaching that pleases God is not focused as much on decisions

but on discipleship.

In teaching what thus saith the Lord, whether they're flocking down the

aisle or whether they're running out the back door.

Paul was content to evaluate his ministry by whether the people's faith

was being developed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I first started preaching, especially preaching revivals and outside meetings,

people would ask me how did it go?

My wife, for example, when I would be on my way home, usually from a revival in our

general community, I would call and ask, you know, here's what time I'm going to be home, you need me to stop by the

store on the way home and get anything?

By the way that's good, that's good husband advice.

And after she would give me the list of the bread and the milk and the things she wanted me to stop and get, she would invariably ask how did it go

tonight?

When I was younger in the.

Preaching.

Ministry, I was naive enough, innocent enough, quite frankly,

ignorant enough that I gave her an answer.

Sometimes I would say it went great.

Man, the illustrations flowed, I felt God moving through me, the music was

wonderful, the altars were filled, there were this many decisions of this and I began to categorize all the public

decisions that had been made.

It was wonderful.

More times, however, I would say it was awful and probably it was my

fault.

I don't feel that I was as prepared as I needed to be.

My thoughts didn't flow, there wasn't a lot of cogency in my speech and when the invitation

was given you couldn't even get a little boy to get up and move toward the bathroom.

I mean it was dead as dead as 3 a .m. in downtown Perryville, Arkansas.

I mean it was dead.

The longer that I've pastored, the more that I've studied and

learned, not only in God's Word, our preeminent authority, but has been confirmed through

experience, testified of through what I have seen and heard in my own life.

Now we have a little practice.

When I get to the airport and get past TSA, I'll call my wife and tell her I'm at the gate waiting on my plane.

She'll say, how'd it go this weekend?

And you know what I will tell her?

It's our new custom.

I don't know.

That doesn't mean we can't make some general assessments that we have no discernment at all as to what God might have done

in a meeting, but the reality is I have no idea

what God does through the faithful preaching of His Word.

Pastor, be encouraged when no one moves publicly.

That may have been your most effective sermon on that subject.

You never know the private, unspoken, secret issues the Spirit of God may have put His

finger on.

You may go home for lunch and say, man that seemed like a waste of.

Time.

And it may be your most effective pulpit experience in weeks, months, or years.

You don't know what God did.

The flip side of that is also true.

When the altars were filled and the amens resounded in the building and everybody shakes your hand and they

announce to you that was.

The.

The greatest sermon on whatever the subject was they've ever heard in their life, you still don't

know what actually happened.

They can clap and applaud and amen your sermon on prayer, but if they don't go home and increase their prayer life, it was not a

demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

Away with this idea that we rush off to Twitter and Facebook to try to announce

what we somehow supernaturally know God did in a service.

Again, I came to offend no one, but you don't know.

But you can know this, if I'm faithfully preaching the Word of God,

God has promised.

He will use the preaching of His Word and that it will not return to Him void

without accomplishing first that for which He sent it forth.

A faith to develop.

Secondly, He's motivated by a foundation to destroy

so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of

men.

A foundation to destroy.

Now typically the destruction of a foundation is a bad thing.

You have inspectors come if you're building a building and they inspect the foundation before the walls

go up, before the roof is erected.

You've got to be sure you've got a firm and a solid foundation.

Why would Paul want to destroy a foundation?

Because it was a bad foundation.

He says, if your faith is resting on what here again he calls the wisdom of

men, that foundation needs to be excavated,

dug up, removed, and rebuilt on the only foundation which

has actually been laid by the Holy Ghost, the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Built upon that, the doctrine of the Apostles.

If your flawed foundation is destroyed and replaced with a healthy biblical

one, that is a good thing.

Dr. Leon Morris comments on this verse and writes, a faith, remember he's wanting

to build their faith, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men.

Morris says a faith that depends on clever reasoning may be

demolished by a more acute argument, but the faith that is produced by

and built on the power of God can never be overthrown.

Paul says, I'm glad that you don't point back to me as your foundation

of faith.

In fact, he rebukes those in chapter 1.

You remember the preacher worship going on there?

I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, and then the dignified people with their stained -glass vocal chords, I am of

Christ.

Paul rebukes every one of them because even those that said that they were of Christ, it's

obvious in the context they're saying that in some legalistic, highfalutin, holier -than -thou sort of way.

Paul says, I don't want you basing your faith, again I mean to offend no one,

but I don't want you, Paul says, to base your faith on who it was that signed your Bible

or signed your baptismal certificate, whose picture you had yourself made with

and posted on Instagram.

I don't want you to place your faith for the salvation of your children in Dr. Deep Bridge's that's

coming in three weeks for Harvest Day.

Paul says, nobody has

greater ability to share the power of the gospel than does anybody else,

because the power is in the gospel itself.

And anyone who rightly proclaims the gospel can have, listen, and will have the same

biblically -based fruit as anyone else.

Away with this idea that one person has a greater gift of evangelism or he's got the gift of

harvesting or drawing the net.

I didn't come to offend anybody, but nobody has the gift of drawing the net because net drawing is not a

spiritual gift.

Evangelism is a commandment from God and God is faithful to save

those who believe when we faithfully preach the gospel.

There's a faith to develop.

There's a foundation to destroy.

Finally, there's a focus to declare.

He doesn't leave them just with the negative.

He mentions the positive at the end of verse 5, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of

men.

I can imagine this letter being read aloud for the first time.

Someone might say, well, what's it supposed to rest on?

But on the power of God.

This ties us back to the conclusion of chapter 1.

In fact, with.

Your Bible.

Open, look back at verse 29 of chapter 1.

He's really just continued saying the same thing that God's calling the weak and the debased things of the world.

Verse 29, so that no man may boast before God.

Verse 31, so that just as it is written, let him who boasts

boast in the Lord.

Spurgeon comments here that we might preach until our tongues rotted.

Until 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 the soul.

I want to close my message in a rather uncomfortable way, but I believe it is not only

demonstrative of the truth of the gospel, but exemplary of this

very text.

The next few moments will be rather awkward for most of us.

I was not too long ago in a major committee meeting of our

denomination.

I'll not give you all the names, but just the who's who.

Whoever the who's who is to you, picture them in the room.

And there was an unknown, not really a country preacher, but an

unknown preacher of a rather small congregation also on that committee.

The man who had been assigned to bring the devotional word that day to start the committee meeting

called in at the last minute unable to attend.

And the chairman looked to this little known, unknown preacher

to fill in at the last minute and just bring a devotional word.

It is hard perhaps for some of you to fathom what was happening in that room.

A large, impressive conference table, weighty

denominational matters on the agenda, and brother no name is called

upon to bring the word of God.

I have no doubt that he is a gifted and well -trained speaker, but in that moment it was

painfully obvious he was, as we say in South Georgia, as nervous as a cat

on a hot tin roof.

He had not even brought a Bible with him to that meeting.

Me being familiar with that building knew that the Bible that had been in front of him, it was a business meeting, you know, you don't always take a Bible

to those meetings.

He had obviously picked up one of the ceremonial decorative Bibles that was out in the

lobby outside that committee room, the kind that might be on a Lord's Supper table or on a table in the lobby.

Big family Bible.

Its binding had already sort of dry rotted and large sections of that book were beginning to loosen as he

tried to turn through its pages.

He had very quickly grabbed a yellow legal pad out of a nearby office area and jotted

down a few notes, and as he turned the pages of that yellow legal pad, his

hand was shaking.

I was not impressed with the other people in the room.

I'd been in the room with them on many other occasions, but this man was noticeably

nervous.

He fumbled with that big Bible and the yellow legal pad, and because that meeting was around this

same time of the year, we weren't far away from most of our churches beginning some sort of

preparation for Resurrection Sunday.

He apologized that he knew he would tell us nothing new, that he knew that we had preached the same

message even better, no doubt, than he was about to convey.

But he said, I want to start on the last night before our Lord's death.

With trembling voices, he spoke of a basin and a towel, that he reminded us was a

preview of Calvary, that our Lord, as a picture of Philippians chapter 2,

laid aside his outer garments and took on the form of a servant and knelt

before his people.

He spoke of an agonizing prayer in Gethsemane's garden where in his humanity our Lord

prayed to escape the cup of death, but in his deity, part of the divine council that planned this very act of

redemption, he said, nevertheless, not my will but your will be done.

As he nervously and with trembling hand turned the page on that legal pad, I sensed in the room

that some of us were beginning to feel sorry for this brother, the situation that he had just been suddenly

placed in.

It was obvious he was not at his best.

He spoke of a betrayal in the garden and how our Lord could relate to us when

those closest to us betray us.

He talked about an arrest in Gethsemane, a night of unjust and illegal

trials, an unjust conviction.

He spoke briefly of the flogging post, the whips, the nails,

the spear.

He announced that he would now read from Matthew 19 .30.

I, along with some others in the room, rightly

knew that in his nervousness he had announced the wrong text.

And after fumbling his way through Matthew 19, realizing that that was not a crucifixion passage,

he apologized that he had meant to announce John 19 .30, where

our Master in agony cried out, it is finished.

And I sensed in that room that all of the sympathy, the

bless him, as we would say in the South, bless him for the sad situation

he's been put in, called upon at the last in this oppressive meeting.

Those whispers turned to bless him.

Hallelujah.

I saw out of my periphery some of the most powerful men in American evangelicalism

begin to wipe tears of gratitude from their eyes as our brother says, there was a last breath, there was a torn

veil, there was a satisfied wrath.

But with trembling voice he says, but hallelujah three days later there was a resurrection.

I thought the room would turn half Pentecostal.

What had happened in that moment as we wiped our tears, I thought we just saw a man

who sat at this table without superiority of speech, without worldly wisdom.

In fact, he had weakness and fear and literal trembling.

But his otherwise poor devotional was dripping with the

blood of Calvary and it was infused with the power of the

risen Christ.

It was preaching about Jesus and that's preaching

that pleases God.

Father in heaven may our pulpits be alive with the glory of Christ.

As one songwriter says, show us Christ.

God reveal your glory through the preaching of your word

until every heart confesses Christ is Lord.

In Jesus' name we preach and pray.

Amen.