Let’s read the Word of God. It will be 1 Corinthians 2.

Start in verse 1. 1 Corinthians 2.

1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. It might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.

As we continue in our study in Corinthians, here we are. And if I could sum up Pastor Chad’s sermon from 1 Corinthians 2. from last week, that the gospel is enough. It doesn’t need to be adorned. It doesn’t need to be modified, spruced up. Nothing changed. It just needs to be presented on its own. And that’s that. The gospel is enough on its own. It is the power of God for salvation. So, knowing what Paul has told us, Paul has given us sort of an overarching principle on what the gospel is. And so now, he starts addressing, he goes back to address the Corinthians to sort of say, I practice what I preach. Because he says, and I, when I came to you. So Paul’s going to recall back and remind them of how he came to them with the gospel. And what it was that the gospel accomplished on its own.

And so, Paul, Paul went to the Corinthians in a certain way, and we’re going to explore how he did this today. And so I just want to start us off with this in your mind. When you go, and I’m going to tell you how it’s supposed to look. When you go. Okay? Paul came to the Corinthians. Now, when you go, Paul said, be imitators of me, right? As I imitate Christ. And I think that’s, in all things, Paul was worthy of being imitated in both his character, how he carried himself, and his tactic when he’s on a mission. So, when you go,

let, let Jesus be enough. Okay? The gospel is enough. Let Jesus be enough.

Lord, help me. Help me, Lord.

When you go, go in simplicity.

You don’t need to know, and we explored this last week, you don’t need to know all the rhetoric of man, you don’t need to be a scholar, you don’t need to have 15 letters on the side of your name, you don’t need to know the latest and greatest arguments, you don’t need nothing but Jesus. All you need to know is Christ. And I don’t simply mean facts about Christ. You need to have been with Him. You need to know Him personally, and know Him well. And when you go out, you take simply Jesus. And that doesn’t mean

elementary, or just not having anything quality about it. It just means nothing else added to it. Simply Jesus. You go in simplicity. So you’ve got to know who Jesus is. Paul said he decided, he decided, the NASB, it says determined. I determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ.

So Paul made a conscious decision. Paul made up his mind. I have decided. I don’t need nothing but Jesus. It’s a firm decision. I made it. I’m looking back. I’m not looking back. My mother-in-law were talking last night at something, not related to this, but just to illustrate it, sometimes in life we’re faced with these decisions, and there’s not necessarily a right or a wrong, maybe. Should I take this job or should I not? And you weigh out the pros and the cons. And then you make a decision, and you’ve just got to go with it. You can’t keep second-guessing yourself, and you can’t keep, well, what if? Well, what this? I promise you, if you make this determination, if you make this decision to only bring with you Jesus, you will not regret. Do not let Satan put in your mind that you need anything else. He’s a liar. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. You have to know who Jesus is. I love the header in my Bible, and maybe in yours too, in Colossians chapter 1, and going into 2, it has this header over that section, the incomparable Christ. And then it goes on to describe Him. He cannot be compared with anyone or anything in this world or out of this world or anything that you could imagine in your mind. He is incomparable. It says that all things were made through Him, and He holds all things together.

He’s the firstborn among all creation. There is none like Jesus. Come with me. Turn right now to Colossians 1. We’re going to go there in a minute.

Jesus, Jesus, in the beginning, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Jesus is and has been and always will be. You’ve got to know that about Jesus. Jesus spoke and in His creative power brought the cosmos into existence. Jesus holds that creation together by His power. Jesus is the head of all things. Jesus also laid aside His rightful place in heaven and was born of a virgin. He came into this world, as a man. That’s something you’ve got to know about Jesus that is unique to Jesus alone. He is God-man. I can’t stress that enough. Jesus reconciles all things back to Himself in His work. Jesus alone stepped down out of heaven and put on flesh. Jesus alone walked this earth, was tempted, was tempted in every way as you and I, yet without sin. Jesus alone. You can find no other sinless one around. Jesus. Only Jesus.

Jesus came as a prophet, the true prophet, as we just sang. Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom of God. Repent. The time is at hand. The kingdom’s here. Repent. Be saved. Jesus came with great mercy on His lips. Jesus offered salvation with His mouth foretelling what He was going to do on the cross.

Jesus in His compassion, because of who He is, because of who Jesus is, Jesus in His compassion walked the earth touching lepers.

I don’t know about you, but I hear about somebody with the COVID-19 and, and I’m going to keep my distance. I’m not Jesus. Jesus carries the power of healing in Himself. Jesus, Jesus touches a woman who’s been stricken with a health issue for years and years and years and no doctor in the land can solve it and Jesus was just a touch. I actually heard just brushing His garment. Healed. None but Jesus.

Jesus, again, I was talking to my mother-in-law last night and we were just sharing just different, different trials that come about in life and how you, how you wrestle with them and you pray through them and Lord, I’m trying to make the best decision that I can and I’m trying, I’m trying to be faithful to You. This is hard. I don’t know what the right thing to do is. This is a burden to me. This is weighing on me. Jesus is not foreign to that.

Jesus knows, knows full well what it means to be oppressed in weakness. He knows what it means to be weak in the flesh. The New Testament tells us that He sympathizes with our weakness. He’s well acquainted with it. He’s not standing far off, not able to relate to you and I. Yes, He is the King of Heaven. Yes, He is the Lord of Glory. But He’s the Man of Sorrows. I’m reading a book. It says, who could have thought up a Savior like that? Not me. Only the Lord can be that high and that mighty and put Himself so low. Jesus sat at the table and He ate with sinners. Filthy folks like you and me.

Jesus broke bread with the unworthy.

Jesus gave His life for the undeserving.

Who could have thought up a Savior like that?

Thank you, Dan Ortlund, for that line. It’s going to stick with me. I recommend that you pick up one of those books, Gentle and Lowly, on your way out and get to know Jesus more. Thank you.

I determined to know nothing except that Jesus. Jesus came to save us from our sins. Undeserving, unworthy, unfit for His kingdom, yet He came to make us sons and daughters of the Most High.

I will preach nothing but Jesus and Him crucified. And Paul adds that little tag there, Jesus and Him crucified, just to say, yes, I understand how foolish that seems to you. You’re talking about this great King that’s going to come and deliver His people? He died on a cross. I watched Him. I watched the blood and the water flow out of His side. That’s the King. Is this the King you proclaim? Yes, it is. Call me a fool. Call me a simpleton. Call me whatever you like. I don’t need your approval. Because the King of Heaven has shown Himself to me and given me a living hope.

I will preach Jesus and Jesus crucified.

I will go in simplicity. That’s all. That’s all I need is the gospel. All you need is to know Christ. That’s it.

There’s apologetics. I think that’s a big fancy. It’s been around for a long time, but now you can get on YouTube and watch any Joe Blow be an expert in apologetics. He has the secret formula to standing on the street corner and winning people over to Jesus. And there’s a popular… There’s a popular form of apologetics called evidential apologetics. And what these people will do is try to reason you.

They’ll try to say that there’s a middle ground. Hey, you come… You meet me halfway. I’m going to step in. All right, I’m going to leave Jesus and the cross aside. I’m going to leave all that… I’m going to convince you that there is a God first based on evidential things around us. Look at the heavens. Look at… You know, just… Biology and how the human body works. How can you deny that there’s a God who created things? Oh, okay. And then once they get you there, they’ll try to reason you to, well, see, this God is specifically… No. Paul said, I know nothing but Jesus and Jesus crucified. I think that’s… I think that’s a waste of time. I’m not saying God can’t out of the ordinary do things with people who are teaching false ways of accomplishing, his mission, but that doesn’t mean we should partake in it, okay? I would… This is just kind of a side note on apologetics, by the way. I am going to lobby for a presuppositional apologetic. I am going to come to you with all my cards on the table. This is where I’m at. The one true God eternally existing as one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit created all things and hold together all things, and the Son stepped into time as a human and gave his life for you. And if you don’t acknowledge that, if you don’t submit to that and bow the knee and confess him, you will die and perish in your sins. But he is inviting you. He says, come to me, anyone.

That’s the apologetic that I’m… I’m going to take the Word of God and I’m going to take the Word of God and I’m going to raise the value. If you need an apologetic to validate this Word, you’ve subverted it to that apologetic. Do you see that? If you need something to say that this is valid, you’ve placed it under whatever apologetic you’re coming with. You have to leave the Word as the top, the authority. There is no one above it. So please, when you go, go in simplicity and just come at it with the Word. You can’t… You can’t reason someone to God. You can’t. That’s not the way it works. And you have to be okay with that. Yeah, I know, our human minds and our flesh… Well, I mean… Stop it. Paul said, I don’t know anything but Jesus. If it’s good enough for the Apostle Paul, it’s got to be good enough for you.

I have a new… Well, one of my favorite passages is in Mark. Mark chapter 11. Speaking about authority.

The Pharisees and the rulers come to Jesus and they say, what authority are you doing these things on? And Jesus, being my Jesus, says, well, let me ask you a question and then I’ll tell you on what authority I’m doing this. I say, okay. And Jesus asked them. He said, is the baptism of John of God or of man? And so they kind of huddle up and they start reasoning among themselves and they’re like, well, if we say it’s of God, they’re going to say, well, why’d you kill him? And then they said, well, but if we say it’s of man, then they’re going to stone us because everybody believes that John the Baptist is a prophet. So Jesus boxes them in. Whenever he’s challenged on his authority, Jesus answers to no one on authority. Jesus answers them with this, that I’m not going to tell you on what authority I do these things. You can’t answer me that. I love it. And that’s how the story ends. Jesus said, I’m not going to answer you.

You can’t challenge Jesus’ authority. That’s the Jesus I preach. Jesus is supreme in all things. All things.

When you go, go in solicitude. Solicitude. Not solitude. Not by yourself. Solicitude. It’s to have great care or concern over something. Paul says that he was with the Corinthians in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. There’s a couple of different ways to interpret it and go about it. I think they’re kind of holding hands. But they’re somewhat different. I’ll give you what I believe those words mean. Weakness. We know that Paul, in Philippians, he said, I’m content with having nothing. I’m content with knowing nothing except Jesus. I’m not coming to you with anything about myself that brings merit to what I’m coming to you with. I am coming in weakness. I am unworthy. I am not able to do this. It is simply the power. It is the power of God working in me. And so I have a great care and concern to make sure I’m constantly lessening myself so that He can be greater. Am I in the Bible there? I decrease so that He increases. In weakness. We also know that He oftentimes went without. He said, I have learned how to go on in life with much. And with nothing. There were many times in Paul’s life where he was weak, probably physically. But that didn’t cause him to start utilizing means. Here’s the point. That didn’t cause him to start utilizing means that would prop himself up, that would make himself look grander, that would make himself look like he had more swag and more sway and more ability and more pull with the government. Or, hey, I got all these resources. So, evidently, I’ve been with God. No. Paul said, I was with you in weakness. There was nothing in me that could have helped you out except the message that I preached. And in fear and in trembling, I think it’s… That’s why I chose the word solicitude. I go about making a conscious effort to lessen myself, to know that I know nothing, to know that I have nothing, to know that I can offer you nothing and do nothing for you except for the message that I preach. And I have a great care and concern over that. And I do it with fear and trembling. I understand what a great task this is. And especially for Paul. Paul’s an apostle. He’s been called by the Lord to go out and to preach this message. And so he’s going to take great care and he’s going to understand the magnitude of the office that he’s filling. Now, Paul is… I am an apostle. I can’t mess this up. So I constantly got to realign myself. Realign myself. You know when somebody’s watching, maybe your boss is watching you over your shoulder at work and you’re just kind of like, oh, I can’t open my email. I can’t check my Facebook. I can’t check… You ought to do that all the time. But especially when somebody’s watching, you got a little bit of fear and anxiety about you. You’re like, I better get this work done. Just a silly illustration to paint the picture. The Lord has given us a grand task to be ambassadors for His kingdom. The Lord has charged us to go out into all nations and make disciples. And we ought to take great care over how we’re doing that. Solicitude. Go out with solicitude.

Maybe most importantly, when you go, go in the Spirit.

Paul says that he didn’t utilize the world’s means and whatever he could conjure up. He only relied on the Spirit and power.

I think the Holy Spirit is… underestimated. I don’t want to say forgotten. Undervalued. Especially today because we have so many things going on and productions and whatnot. And we just don’t rely on the Spirit. When you wake up in the morning, you better be calling on God and that His Spirit would fill you up. And that He would direct you. The Spirit has so many… Jesus said it’s better for me to leave you because if I don’t, I won’t send the Spirit. It must be really important. If Jesus says it’s better for me to go and to not be with you so that I can send the Spirit, there’s something weighty there. Paul says I came to you in the Spirit. Again, I can accomplish nothing on my own power and my own knowledge and my own wisdom. I need the Spirit of God to show me the way. To show me what this Word means. I need the Spirit of God to empower me to speak the Gospel to those friends at school when they might laugh at me and they might chide me and they might snicker behind my back. You’ve got to be okay with that. You’ve got to rely on the Spirit to comfort you in that time. You’ve got to rely on the Spirit to encourage you. You’ve got to rely on the Spirit to correct you when you start using other means besides the ones that God has prescribed. You’ve got to rely on the Spirit to convict you of sin when maybe you don’t know that you’re sinning. You need to ask Him, show me, Lord, whatever is unpure in me so that I can be more like Jesus. You need the Spirit of God.

This has been a shortfall in my Christian walk to give a lot of thought and intentional prayer on asking the Spirit, inviting the Spirit to stir me up. I just hop out of bed. I’m on my way. And I rush it. And I don’t allow the Spirit of God, the mechanism that He uses to train us and to renew us and to rebuke us and to carry us along. All those things. The very means that God is using. The Holy Spirit.

I don’t pay enough attention to that, so I encourage you to be consciously in the Spirit. Make a decision. Determine to go about your day in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And of the power of God. And here’s why. Here’s why you need to do all these things. So that the people that you are ministering to in your life and the people that see you and you don’t know that they’re seeing you and the people in your home, your children, everyone around you, so that the people who you proclaim this Jesus to don’t rest on your intelligence and your wisdom. And your pomp and skills that you got. But they simply know that man, the power of God is moving here. This certainly can’t be Chase. I love that passage in chapter 1 where he says, not many of you are noble. Amen. I’m Chase Como. I grew up in a town of about 2,500 people. I went to Welsh High School. And I made decent grades. And I graduated early. I tested out of the vocational school because I couldn’t keep my stuff together. And I just needed to hurry up and get my diploma before I really botched it. And I worked some dead-end jobs. And I’m just, here’s my point, I’m a nobody. I’m not noble. And when Paul says something like that, I’m like, thank you, Lord, for using the weak and the base things of the world to accomplish your mission. Thank you that you would include me. All right? Everybody in here should be amen. And thank you for using me, a nobody, with nothing. Amen?

Whoever I minister to, whoever I preach the gospel to, I hope that I don’t leave a mark on them that isn’t the mark of the Lord. I hope that I hope that I haven’t given them something that is anything other than Jesus. And I think it’s easy to do. You can sprinkle the name of Jesus all over this thing. You can paint it in Jesus. And you can have Bible verses all over it. And you can do all this. I love this saying, what you win them with is what you win them to. And so if you win them with a simple gospel, that’s what you’ve won. You’ve won them to. Nothing else. Just the gospel. If you win them with the gospel, but it’s also got this other stuff over here. And if you look in this closet, it’s got some more stuff that you can pull out if you’ve got some extra people and all this other stuff. You’ve won them to something other than the gospel.

What you win them with is what you win them to. So win them with Jesus and Jesus crucified. Determine. Make a point to know, nothing but that.

Now,

he says, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it’s not a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. Paul is not saying to be idiots. Paul is not saying to be unlearned. And to be some kind of weird cult that, you know, just be a normal person. Go to school and learn. But when it comes to the things of God, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to your reason for living, when it comes to the reason for life and all these different things, it has to be rooted in the wisdom of God. It has to find its sum and substance in Christ. So again, Paul is not saying we don’t have to, we don’t have any wisdom and we don’t have any smarts about us. He’s just saying that those things are not founded in earthly wisdom and earthly knowing. They’re founded in God’s wisdom. And again, I have to have a source and authority for all of those things and it’s the Word. So when the Bible tells me that the heavens and the earth were created by God, then that’s my wisdom. I know that because God is my wisdom. Because God has revealed that to me.

I spent some time on this and I’m glad I did. This word mature here, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Does that mean that with Brother Chris or Mr. Mark, those are the guys that I can try to share some wisdom with because they’re mature? Does that mean that Sierra and Zamira are excluded from being taught the wisdom of God? I don’t think so. And here, go to, I know I skipped the Colossians passage, we’ll talk about it some other time. Go to Philippians 3. One of the first, one of the earliest sermons I can remember after coming to faith, Mr. Coley, he’s still ministering over there in South Huntsville. But he preached on verse 10, the Holman Christian Standard Version says, my goal is to know him. The ESV says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. A little bit farther on from that, there’s that base knowledge of Christ, right? There’s that essential thing. My goal is to know him. My goal is to know Jesus. The power of his resurrection.

Verse 14.

In that, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Let those of us who are mature think in this way. I will press on in knowing Christ. So, the mature that we impart wisdom to, that we spend our time giving our pearls to, those are the people who we know have resolved to press on in Christ. That’s it. So, there is a time when we go out and we proclaim Christ and Christ crucified, but with those who say, yes, amen, I’m going to follow that, we impart this, we go a little bit deeper, so it’s not, I mean, where’s the line? Is it 10 years following the Lord? Is it 20? Is it two? I don’t think it matters. Zamira said, I believe, I’m getting baptized, I’m following. We impart wisdom to her because she has said, I want to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. I want to fellowship in his sufferings so that I too can be raised from the dead and I’m going to press on towards that goal. Let those of us who are mature think that way. Let us think like Zamira. We have a simple resolve to press on in Christ. And so then there is a time for us to go a little deeper and kind of search the meaning of things founded in the word.

When you go, remember you’re talking a secret language. It’s kind of like a secret club, you know. Paul says the world can’t understand these things. So don’t go spinning your wheels trying to make people understand things that they can’t understand and you don’t have the power to make them understand.

He says if they would have understood these things, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord and that’s kind of a sobering thought. Well, Lord, couldn’t you just have made them understand? Well, then they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord. God in his wisdom confines people to things and he shows them those people things.

Christ’s cross was not a plan B. So in God’s wisdom, in heavenly wisdom, God decided to veil these things from the rulers and the authorities so that his son would be crucified on the cross.

But as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him, let’s go to Isaiah 64. Paul is quoting Isaiah.

He says, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil and make your name known to your adversaries. Would you just erupt among us, Lord? Would you show yourself?

The nations might tremble at your presence when you did awesome things that we did not know and did not look for. You came down and the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you who acts for those who wait for him.

We speak in a secret language

because God in his graciousness has shown them to us. If you have something in the secret code, you’ve got to be able to decipher it. You’ve got to have the legend and the master to be able to decode this and know what this letter is saying. And God in his graciousness has given that to us. The world doesn’t have it. So when you speak of these heavenly things, just know that they can’t understand it. So you need to pray and ask God to be merciful as he has and to let them know the bread on your table, that’s God coming down and showing himself mighty and feeding you and filling your belly. Hey, the wife that you sleep next to every night, that’s God’s gracious gift. You attribute all those things to God and he just piles it on and he piles it on and he does these things for us and it finds its culmination and its climax in the cross of Christ. God who did not spare his son but gave him to us, will he not freely with him give us all things? God has given us everything. God has given us an understanding and a faith to attribute all of those things to him. When you think about your faith and the fact that you believe, give thanks to God because you now know a secret language. So when you go, go God’s way and that’s when God reveals himself. When you go, go God’s way and that’s when God’s going to reveal himself. You pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your graciousness in revealing yourself to us. You’ve used the foolish things of the world. You’ve used weak means. But Lord, you’ve shown yourself to be strong. You’ve shown yourself to be mighty and gracious.

We just thank you, Lord. Everything that we have, everything that we know, everything that we can hope for, Christ in us, the hope of glory is from you, Lord. So we just praise your name this morning. I pray that your spirit would be with us. Rain heavy on us and fill us up and be on us and among us and in us, Lord. That you wouldn’t let us go astray. That you wouldn’t let us like Eve, revert to things of the world and leave the simplicity of the gospel. Pray that you wouldn’t let us go down a path of trying in our own power to advance your kingdom, Lord. But that we would simply go in the way that you’ve instructed us and that we would be able to witness with our eyes and our ears, Lord. Things that no one’s seen. Lord, we just ask that you would use us to bring about a great salvation in our city, Lord, in our schools, in our workplaces and among our friends, Lord. Make us effective, Lord, by the power of your spirit. So I ask that you would do this in Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen.