THE PREACHING OF CHRIST AN HIM CRUCIFIED.
1 Corinthians 1: 23
Sermon by :
Rev. L. Roth
(Especially suitable for the First Lord’s Day of a New Year)
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(December 2007)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 257: 1, 2, 4
Law of God
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1
Text: 1 Corinthians 1: 23
Psalter 308: 1, 2, 3
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 107: 1, 2, 4
Sermon
Psalter 387: 1, 3, 4
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 427: 5, 6
Doxology: Psalter 279: 4
1 Corinthians 1:23 The Preaching of Christ, and Him Crucified
Beloved Congregation.
We are privileged to gather together again for an hour of worship on the first Lord’s Day of this New Year 2008. May we count it a privilege which by the grace of God will never testify against us. In that regard we need to ask ourselves the question, What is the purpose of our coming together in the House of God? What do we expect to find here? Hopefully, we are not merely gathered merely out of custom! Surely, we are not gathered here to try and sooth our conscience. Or, are we merely in this place of worship because, well, we had to do, because our parents expect this of us, or because of peer pressure or something of that nature? Oh that the words of the Psalmist might be the testimony of our hearts for the first time but also by renewal again and again, One thing have I desired and that will I seek after that I might dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life and inquire in His Temple.
Well now, let us regard the words of our text this morning under the following theme, THE PREACHING OF CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED. In the first place let us consider A Stumbling Block to the Formalist. Secondly, let us regard Real Foolishness to the Ungodly. In the third place let us examine The Wisdom of God to the Called.
In the first place let us consider the preaching of Christ is A Stumbling Block to the Formalist. As we try to understand the central and only theme of true Gospel preaching, congregation, we must not neglect the context in which the Apostle Paul speaks these words. He has written these words first of all for the benefit of the Church at Corinth. And as we have read from the preceding verses, there was a problem of party spirit in that relatively new congregation. Some said they were of Paul, others of Cephas, referring to Peter, and yet others declared themselves followers of Apollos. However, as Paul indicates in verse 17, Christ did not send him first and foremost to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. By the grace of God and His Spirit the Gospel tidings are the power of God unto salvation. For the message it contains is the good news of salvation in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Savior.
Now, the Apostle Paul himself had experienced the renewing power of Christ’s work as Savior in a most powerful way on the road to Damascus. He had been changed from a zealous Pharisee who sought to stamp out the name of the Lord Jesus to a humble supplicant of His grace, Lord, what would Thou have me to do? Yes, Paul knows what he is talking about from personal experience. He has been there. He knows what it is to be taken up with one’s own religious exercises and activities. He once was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. But all the things of which he once was so proud of, became loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Yes, congregation, the Apostle Paul knows what he is talking about; he has been there. He knows how extremely difficult it is lay aside everything which you once thought were plus points in your credit column. When God’s servant was struck down on the road to Damascus, we read that for three days and three nights he did not eat or drink. And Ananias was given the message, Behold he prayeth. It was through this conversion experience that the Apostle was given to learn that all things in this life outside of Christ’s righteousness is useless refuse. It’s nothing but garbage which cannot save us. It cannot even put us in a more favorable light with the Lord. It is nothing more than dung, of no value as far as having merit is concerned.
Well now, Paul declares, We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block. Why was the cross of Christ such a stumbling block to the Jewish people? Well, for one thing, the Messiah of their conceptions was one who would be a glorious temporal prince restoring the throne of David and Solomon in Jerusalem. He would lead the nation as in former days and restore the former glory Israel. Yes, they hoped for an earthly utopia wherein they would experience a time of peace and prosperity as a nation once more, that Israel might be restored to its former glory. But Paul is preaching a Savior Who was crucified. And that whole idea, congregation, was most repugnant and detestable to their thought. For as the Old Testament Scriptures teach, Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. No, this teaching of Paul did not sit well at all with the Jews. A crucified Savior is no savior to them. That individual is condemned by God. No two ways about it!
But, while the whole thought of a crucified Savior was repulsive to the Jews because of their misunderstanding of the Messiah’s fulfillment of the Scriptures, Christ crucified was also a stumbling block to them for another reason. The offence of the cross also lay in this, beloved, namely, that the preaching of Christ’s sacrifice reveals the insufficiency of the religious man’s righteousness. Let me state this truth in another way. Man’s sin is so serious that it required the death of God’s Son upon the cross to atone for it. And as a result of this, all the activities in which we may engage to please God lie outside the scope of having any merit whatsoever. That means, congregation, that our best works, our most wholesome activities mean nothing, absolutely nothing as far as having any meritorious value. Did the Prophet Isaiah not say that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags?
What does this then imply also for us today? That means that you and I must be convinced that all our virtues and so called good qualities are worthless in God’s sight as far as having any merit in them at all. This includes all your tears, all your prayers, all your sighing and longing. All your labors for the cause of Christ, your kindness and acts of mercy mean nothing, absolutely nothing. All your virtues and all your so called plus points are nothing more than a good-for-nothing rag that must be thrown away. It’s not even good for a grease monkey to wipe off the grime and grease from off his hands. As our Catechism also teaches us in Lord’s Day 23, beloved, our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.
That is an extremely difficult lesson for us to learn. Just as the sailors in the ship on which Jonah lay sleeping, cast everything overboard to lighten the ship to save their lives, all to no avail, we too must throw all and everything overboard by which we are inclined to try and find acceptance with God. How blessed, how unspeakably blessed to be brought to that point in our life by the power of the Holy Spirit, beloved. For then there remains but one thing left, namely, that perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Oh to be brought there, beloved, so that by the eye of faith the Lord Jesus becomes your all in all. Oh to experience the power of those well known words penned by Augustus Toplady, Could my tears forever flow, Could my zeal no languor know, These for sin could not atone, Thou must save, and Thou alone, Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling.
Oh how blessed is that man, that woman, that teenager, that child whose only hope is in the blessed Savior, and Him crucified. Then everything else in life falls into the background. Then the blessed Redeemer becomes your joy, your boast and the love of your heart. Oh when the beauty and the all sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness is applied to your heart dear friends, then all and every thing that is of us, falls away, completely away. Yes, then the remnants of seeking to improve yourself become a burden to the heart. May we know where to bring all these things, dear friends by the Holy Spirit’s grace. Then alone can we find true peace. This brings us to our second thought, that the cross of Christ Is Real Foolishness to the Ungodly.
Now, as you may know, congregation, the Church of Corinth was located right in the middle of the Roman Empire. While most of the Jews did not receive the Gospel at Corinth, in Acts 18:8 we do read however that a certain Crispus and all his house believed on the Lord and that not a few Corinthians also believed and were baptized. And so the Corinthian Church was made up of a mixed congregation, of both Jews and Greeks. Now, as we just saw, the preaching of the cross was to the Jews a stumbling block. This basic truth was a real thorn to their way of thinking as well as to the sentiments of their hearts. By the deeds of the law they thought they were doing quite well. But then Paul also mentions another segment of society, namely, the many Greeks who were living in that area. To them the preaching of Christ crucified was foolishness. Let us seek to understand why this was so.
We must realize, congregation, that the Greeks gloried in the fact that their ancestors were the philosophers and poets since ancient times. We have only to think of Paul’s discussion with them on the Areopagus concerning the place of the gods. The Athenians, remember, had also made an altar for the unknown god so as to appease all the gods and win their favor. Well now, Paul declared Him unto them, the God of heaven and earth who sent forth His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus to pay for the sins of His people. But when Paul spoke of Christ’s atonement and His resurrection, the philosophers of that day mocked God’s servant and dismissed him.
Well now, in a similar manner today mankind dismisses the message of the Gospel through the atonement of Christ. Why? Because man is wise in his own conceits. While we may not be so taken up by the rhetoric and discussions of philosophy today, by nature we also are indoctrinated with the wisdom of this world. This wisdom may not be immersed in philosophy per se and yet the underpinnings are subscribed to. This so called wisdom does not come first of all from God, but is man centered. Today it may be in modern means of medicine, communication and technology. But it is all centered upon man. For example, today we have the capacity to probe outer space. We may perform invasive heart surgeries. We may make all kinds of nifty, time saving gadgets. Oh what great knowledge man has! But at the same time, modern man is blind, terribly blind to his lostness and his one basic need of a Deliverer from his sin. Instead of climbing the heights of true wisdom, as a human race we are heading into a free fall of great evils. Drug addictions, government corruption, sexually transmitted diseases, wars on various fronts, and ruining of the environment are standard fare. And yet man refuses to face up to his sinfulness. Instead he keeps looking to himself for the answers to the world’s problems instead of calling upon the living God. If man was truly wise he would examine his own nature and come to the conclusion that our hearts are desperately wicked; that is the root problem!
And yet, just as the philosophically inclined Greeks regarded the cross of Christ as absolute foolishness, so also modern man in the “wisdom” of his own conceits does much the same thing. How can a “man” who was put to death by crucifixion be the Savior of the world? Oh yes, it’s okay to give some lip service to the Lord Jesus as a kind of insurance policy; but to actually put all your confidence in that sort of thing so as to pay homage to the Lord and His Christ, that’s going a little too far. How can anyone be so naïve so as to put their hopes in that kind of stuff? People who are slaves to that sort of thing are weaklings who do not take control of their own lives and destiny.
Yes, congregation, that’s the reality when it comes to modern man’s way of thinking. It’s foolishness to put your hopes in a Son of God Who has laid down His life as a sacrifice for sin. How can that be? You know, beloved, this vital Truth concerning salvation in and through the Savior is not flattering to mankind at all.
Because this means that all the wisdom of this world combined amounts to nothing at all. You see, dear friends when the preaching of Christ and Him crucified is brought home to the heart then we, you and I become fools for Christ’s sake. But alas, the world has no understanding of these things. New life in and through the Savior is foolishness to them. Why? Because, as Paul writes in the next chapter, Chapter 2:14, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him; neither can He know them for they are spiritually discerned.
Well now, how is that with us, beloved? What do you think of Christ Jesus? We have just celebrated His humble birth. Maybe the thought of a Christ Child being laid in a manger is not unaffecting to you. There is something about that which is touching. But, what about a crucified Savior? What about a bleeding, dying Surety Who laid down His life as a sacrifice for all manner of sin and uncleanness? Is it true of you what the Prophet Isaiah had prophesied about 600 years before the actual event of Christ’s suffering, He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty in Him that we should desire Him.