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2003 Ligonier Conference The Myth of Influence, Part 2 John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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  Speaker 1: Rich and wonderful days in the Word of God, speaking
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  Speaker 1: of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And as
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  Speaker 1: you know, I gave you half of what is on
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  Speaker 1: my heart yesterday morning, and we want to complete the
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  Speaker 1: remainder this morning. So I would invite you to open
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  Speaker 1: your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Again, familiar portion
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  Speaker 1: of Scripture for us. and we'll jump right in sort
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  Speaker 1: of where we left off. As I said last time,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps the dominant myth prevailing in evangelicalism is that we
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  Speaker 1: must make the gospel acceptable so the perishing will be
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  Speaker 1: attracted to it and sort of seduced or lured into
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom. And of course, in the process, the true
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  Speaker 1: gospel is struggling to survive the hammers and chisels of
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  Speaker 1: contemporary Christianity. The efforts to make it inoffensive and acceptable
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  Speaker 1: seem to be endless. The myth is that this will
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  Speaker 1: result in more people being converted to Christ, a noble desire,
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  Speaker 1: but cannot happen without the presentation of the absolute truth
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  Speaker 1: of the gospel. No way to present the true gospel
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  Speaker 1: and make it easy to believe. It is hard to believe,
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  Speaker 1: and sooner or later the truth must come forward. It
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  Speaker 1: alone can save. And therefore, in a sense, all the
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  Speaker 1: rest is window dressing. And so we're looking at the
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  Speaker 1: shame of the gospel, trying to steal ourselves for the
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  Speaker 1: reality of how it is that we must present this
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  Speaker 1: glorious gospel. And when we proclaim the word of the cross,
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  Speaker 1: built into it from a human perspective is shame itself.
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  Speaker 1: And that's kind of our theme as we're working our
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  Speaker 1: way through this portion of 1 Corinthians, the shameful stigma
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  Speaker 1: of the cross we talked about yesterday. The fact of
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  Speaker 1: crucifixion itself was an immense barrier to belief in the deity,
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  Speaker 1: in the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The shameful
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  Speaker 1: simplicity of the cross that obviates and eliminates and cancels
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  Speaker 1: all human wisdom. And the shameful singularity of the cross,
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  Speaker 1: that is, it is Christ and it is Christ alone.
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  Speaker 1: And it is not only Christ and Christ alone, but
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  Speaker 1: full submission as much as one understands to his lordship,
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  Speaker 1: to the degree that one denies oneself and is willing
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  Speaker 1: not only to live for Christ, but if need be
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  Speaker 1: to die for him. And with that attitude, follows Christ
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  Speaker 1: in submissive obedience from the heart. At least makes the
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  Speaker 1: effort to do that willfully. Now let's sort of add
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  Speaker 1: some things today and they won't have equal balance in
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  Speaker 1: the time we have because I want to emphasize some
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  Speaker 1: more than others. But I do want to mention the
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  Speaker 1: shameful sentence of the cross. The shameful sentence of the
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  Speaker 1: cross because I think this is such a powerful point
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  Speaker 1: that must be made. In verse 18 again, The word
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  Speaker 1: of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness.
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  Speaker 1: Just grab that phrase, those who are perishing, those who
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  Speaker 1: are ruined, those who are destroyed, those who are on
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  Speaker 1: their way to hell. As the old hymn says, God
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  Speaker 1: is in the business of rescuing the perishing. And this
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  Speaker 1: implies judgment. This implies wrath. This implies punishment. As we
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  Speaker 1: all know, this makes the cross shameful in the eyes
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  Speaker 1: of the world because of the sentence that it reveals.
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  Speaker 1: The cross, after all, is to rescue the perishing. How
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  Speaker 1: does it do that? Verse 21, Paul says, we preach
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  Speaker 1: Christ crucified. It is, again, that substitutionary atonement where the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus takes on our guilt, is punished by God
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  Speaker 1: as if He had committed all the sins of all
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  Speaker 1: the people who would ever believe though in fact he
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  Speaker 1: committed no sin ever, yet God treats him as if
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  Speaker 1: he lived our lives so that he may in turn
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  Speaker 1: treat us as if we lived his life. You have
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  Speaker 1: then implied in the idea of perishing and in the
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  Speaker 1: great reality of substitution the obvious reality of man's sinfulness.
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  Speaker 1: And so the sentence that's inherent in the cross is
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  Speaker 1: that man is a sinner and he is on the
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  Speaker 1: way to eternal judgment. Christ was crucified for sinners. And
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  Speaker 1: so as we proclaim the gospel at its very outset,
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  Speaker 1: we must address the issue of sin. That must be,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, that must be the formidable foundation of all
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  Speaker 1: gospel presentation, an inescapable indictment of guilt, of damning guilt,
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  Speaker 1: of eternally damning guilt that rests upon every human being. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: if you're trying to make the gospel palatable, if you're
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  Speaker 1: trying to make the gospel popular, this has to be
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  Speaker 1: softened significantly, if not eliminated altogether. There is no greater
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  Speaker 1: breach of the reality of salvation in the gospel than
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  Speaker 1: to minimize sin. But it is hard for the sinner
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  Speaker 1: to swallow the fact that he is under such an indictment.
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  Speaker 1: Some years ago, I happened to be sitting on an
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  Speaker 1: airplane flying from Chicago to Los Angeles. In fact, it
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  Speaker 1: was after one of the meetings of the Biblical Council
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  Speaker 1: on Inerrancy where we were working on the inerrancy statement,
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  Speaker 1: and I was in the airport, and the pilot saw
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  Speaker 1: me standing there and came up and introduced himself to
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  Speaker 1: me and said, John, I just appreciate your ministry. My
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  Speaker 1: children came to Christ in your church, and I'm so
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  Speaker 1: grateful for the ministry you've had in their lives. And
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  Speaker 1: he said, where are you sitting? I said, well, I'm,
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  Speaker 1: you know, in the back of the plane with everybody else.
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  Speaker 1: He said, well, come to first class. And after I
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  Speaker 1: get this plane up in the air, I'll come back
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  Speaker 1: and we'll talk a little bit. I said, great. So
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  Speaker 1: I moved up there and I was working on a project.
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  Speaker 1: I was writing a review of Robert Shuler's book, Self-Esteem,
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  Speaker 1: The New Reformation. That was my project on the plane.
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  Speaker 1: And so I sat down with Robert Shuler's book in
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  Speaker 1: my hand, and we took off, and I was, just
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  Speaker 1: before we took off, Robert Shuler got on the plane
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  Speaker 1: and sat behind me. This is true, and I've never
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  Speaker 1: said this publicly. He walked by me, looked at me,
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  Speaker 1: apparently recognized me, and said, God loves you, and I'm trying.
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  Speaker 1: That was quite a greeting, actually. I won't divulge the
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  Speaker 1: whole conversation, but I will tell you that I did
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  Speaker 1: feel necessary to tell him what I was going to
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  Speaker 1: be doing on the flight and writing a review of
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  Speaker 1: his book, an amazing thing. Let me share some of
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  Speaker 1: the things that were in that book. Quotes. Quotes. It
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  Speaker 1: is precisely at this point that classical theology has aired
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  Speaker 1: in its insistence that theology be God-centered, not man-centered. Here's
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  Speaker 1: another one. This master plan of God is designed around
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  Speaker 1: the deepest needs of human beings. Self-dignity, self-respect, self-worth, self-esteem.
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  Speaker 1: The pearl of great price is genuine self-respect and self-esteem.
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  Speaker 1: Here's another one. If we follow God's plan as faithfully
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  Speaker 1: as we can, we will feel good about ourselves. Here's
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  Speaker 1: another one. God needs you and me to help create
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  Speaker 1: a society of self-esteeming people. Here's another one. God's ultimate
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  Speaker 1: objective is to turn you and me into self-confident persons.
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  Speaker 1: And the last one. Once a person believes he is
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  Speaker 1: an unworthy sinner, It is doubtful if he can really
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  Speaker 1: honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: So the greatest barrier to saving grace is to think
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  Speaker 1: you're an unworthy sinner. That's not a twist on the gospel.
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  Speaker 1: That's absolutely antithetical to everything in the gospel. That's polar opposite.
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  Speaker 1: The gospel frankly ignores superficialities. It is really totally disinterested
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  Speaker 1: in felt needs. It absolutely offers no relief from the
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  Speaker 1: struggles of life, in case you're wondering. It doesn't promise
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  Speaker 1: any relief. It goes rather to the profound and eternal
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  Speaker 1: issue of being saved from eternal punishment by God. If
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  Speaker 1: you haven't read Saved From What, you ought to read
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  Speaker 1: it and digest it because R.C. has taken us back
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  Speaker 1: to the basics. Sinners are saved from the wrath of
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  Speaker 1: God because of their sins. These are matters that the
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  Speaker 1: dead sinner usually doesn't contemplate. Felt needs preaching is silly, trite,
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  Speaker 1: and dangerous. And just to give you an illustration of this,
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  Speaker 1: and I like biblical illustrations as you probably know, turn
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  Speaker 1: to Luke 4. To me, this is one of the
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  Speaker 1: most fascinating moments in the life of Jesus. And this
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  Speaker 1: is one where you could spend a lot of time.
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  Speaker 1: I hope if you're a preacher, you'll preach on this
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  Speaker 1: passage in Luke chapter 4, verse 16, following. Jesus came
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  Speaker 1: to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. Now, he is
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  Speaker 1: just beginning his Galilean ministry here. He has, prior to this,
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  Speaker 1: been baptized about a year before, had some ministry down
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  Speaker 1: in Judea, as we well know, where he began his
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  Speaker 1: ministry cleaning the temple. And word has spread up the
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  Speaker 1: little land of Israel into the Galilee about this amazing person,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. The word has gotten back to his own hometown.
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  Speaker 1: He comes back to his own hometown. He comes to
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  Speaker 1: the synagogue. It says, as was his custom, he entered
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  Speaker 1: the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.
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  Speaker 1: He was given the place of the one who reads
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  Speaker 1: and explains the scripture. This must have been an exciting
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  Speaker 1: moment in his own hometown. Nazareth was a small sort
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  Speaker 1: of off the beaten track town. Definitely a blue collar
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  Speaker 1: town by measurements we might use today. Not particularly important,
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  Speaker 1: not the center of anything. Small enough so that everybody
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  Speaker 1: would have known his family. He would have been going
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  Speaker 1: back to the synagogue that he went to all his life,
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  Speaker 1: to all the people that he had known all his
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  Speaker 1: life growing up, all of his family, extended family, friends, neighbors,
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  Speaker 1: everybody in his world, everybody in his life would have
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  Speaker 1: been there. This was the Jesus they all had known
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  Speaker 1: growing up, the perfect child, the perfect young man, the
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  Speaker 1: perfect adult before he went off to begin his ministry.
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  Speaker 1: They knew him very, very well. He was given the
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  Speaker 1: book of the prophet Isaiah, and of course he read
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  Speaker 1: from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, messianic prophecy. The Spirit
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me
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  Speaker 1: to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me
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  Speaker 1: to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight
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  Speaker 1: to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden,
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  Speaker 1: to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And he
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  Speaker 1: closed the book and gave it back to the attendant
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  Speaker 1: and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue
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  Speaker 1: were fixed on him. He read that messianic prophecy that
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  Speaker 1: promised the anointed one would come with the Spirit of
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  Speaker 1: God on him and that he would preach the good news. Certainly,
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  Speaker 1: he exposited that text, but in particular, verse 21 notes,
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  Speaker 1: he began to say to them, just at the very beginning,
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  Speaker 1: today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Just
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  Speaker 1: absolutely a stunning statement. For centuries, they had been waiting
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  Speaker 1: for the Messiah to come. They had been waiting for
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  Speaker 1: the fulfillment of this promise. They had been waiting for
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  Speaker 1: the Lord's anointed to come and to preach the good
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  Speaker 1: news and to bring in the favorable year, the year
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  Speaker 1: of redemption. And Jesus simply says, it's now fulfilled. In
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  Speaker 1: verse 22, they were all speaking well of him and
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  Speaker 1: wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips.
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  Speaker 1: And they were saying, is this not Joseph's son? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: they couldn't make the connection. Because up until he had left,
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  Speaker 1: he had not been a teacher. Can you imagine being
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  Speaker 1: the incarnate God and not teaching through your adult years
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  Speaker 1: until after you were identified by John the Baptist, until
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  Speaker 1: after baptism, until the official timing of God to begin
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  Speaker 1: the ministry? They weren't used to hearing him say anything.
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  Speaker 1: And they had never heard anybody speak this way ever.
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  Speaker 1: The clarity of his mind, infinite. The mastery of the language, unparalleled.
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  Speaker 1: It was stunning beyond words to hear him speak. And
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  Speaker 1: they just couldn't connect it with the man they knew. Well,
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  Speaker 1: just to jump sort of to the end, And all
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  Speaker 1: in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard
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  Speaker 1: these things. And they rose up and cast him out
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  Speaker 1: of the city and led him to the brow of
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  Speaker 1: the hill on which their city had been built in
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  Speaker 1: order to throw him down the cliff. But passing through
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  Speaker 1: their midst, he went his own way. One sermon... among
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  Speaker 1: the people who knew him and loved him, and they
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  Speaker 1: tried to kill him by throwing him off a cliff.
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  Speaker 1: This is not seeker friendly. This is inconceivable. How do
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  Speaker 1: you do that? By today's measurements, somebody would say, you
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  Speaker 1: must be brain dead to go in and so offend
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  Speaker 1: an audience that after one sermon, they try to kill you.
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  Speaker 1: And these are not irreligious people. These are religious people.
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  Speaker 1: And these are not enemies. These are friends. How do
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  Speaker 1: you do that? Well, if you look at the middle,
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  Speaker 1: you see that he said to them, no doubt, verse 23,
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  Speaker 1: you will quote the proverb to me, physician, heal yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever we heard was done in Capernaum, do here in
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  Speaker 1: your hometown as well. do some tricks, do some signs,
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  Speaker 1: do some wonders. The Jews always seeking signs. And he said,
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  Speaker 1: truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in
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  Speaker 1: his hometown. What he's saying is a truism. It's axiomatic.
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  Speaker 1: People who know you before you become what Jesus became,
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  Speaker 1: of course, in terms of ministry, couldn't make the connection.
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  Speaker 1: It was just too much of a connection to make.
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  Speaker 1: He recognized that they were having a problem. He recognized
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  Speaker 1: that they wanted more signs. They were having trouble acknowledging
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  Speaker 1: who he was because of familiarity. They willfully rejected the
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  Speaker 1: miracles that already had been done as plenty of evidence.
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  Speaker 1: They knew they were being done in Capernaum or they
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have said what they said. They wanted more. They
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  Speaker 1: wanted signs. Now, of course, the Lord doesn't do any signs.
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  Speaker 1: But in verses 25 to 27, and you'll see how
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  Speaker 1: this all comes together. He says, I say to you
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  Speaker 1: in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the
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  Speaker 1: days of Elijah. When the sky was shut up for
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  Speaker 1: three years and six months and a great famine came
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  Speaker 1: over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to
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  Speaker 1: none of them but only to Zarephath in the land
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  Speaker 1: of Sidon to a woman who was a widow. That's
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  Speaker 1: one of the stories in the Old Testament that the
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  Speaker 1: Jews like least. That story about Elijah is really a
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  Speaker 1: burr to them. There were many widows in Israel in
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  Speaker 1: the days of Elijah, many. And there was a famine,
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  Speaker 1: but God didn't take food to any Israel widow. But
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  Speaker 1: to a widow in Zarephath, in the land of Sidon,
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  Speaker 1: to a woman there, Baal worshipers. Why would God send
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  Speaker 1: his son out of the land of promise and the
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  Speaker 1: covenant people into the pagan land of Baal worship to
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  Speaker 1: a widow there? Well, you remember the story and I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure you remember it well. First King 17, that widow
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  Speaker 1: there was a penitent widow and a believer in the
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  Speaker 1: true God. And so God sent his prophet to her
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  Speaker 1: even though she was a Gentile. She was penitent and
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  Speaker 1: she was a true believer, as the story indicates. And
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  Speaker 1: then he says in verse 27, there were many lepers
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  Speaker 1: in Israel in the time of Elisha. The incredible story
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  Speaker 1: in 2 Kings of Naaman, none of them was cleansed,
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  Speaker 1: but only Naaman the Syrian, 2 Kings 5. Naaman was
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  Speaker 1: a terrorist. Naaman was a border terrorist who would come
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  Speaker 1: across the border who would rape and pillage and kidnap
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  Speaker 1: young ladies. And one of the young ladies that he
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  Speaker 1: kidnapped out of Israel, of course, is the one that
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  Speaker 1: told him about the prophet Elisha. And he came back
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  Speaker 1: and eventually came to a place of penitence and was
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  Speaker 1: healed of his leprosy. And the message that Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: giving them is very simple. God has never been able
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  Speaker 1: to do in Israel what he would do because you
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  Speaker 1: will not repent. because you will not acknowledge your bankrupt condition.
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  Speaker 1: He had to go to find a widow among Baal worshipers.
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  Speaker 1: He had to go to find an enemy of Israel,
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  Speaker 1: a terrorist, a pagan named Naaman, to find someone with
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  Speaker 1: a penitent and believing heart. That's the bottom line. An
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  Speaker 1: all of this leads back to what he said in
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  Speaker 1: reading Isaiah 61 look what it says he sent me
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  Speaker 1: to preach the gospel appointed me to preach the gospel
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  Speaker 1: to the poor the captives the blind and the downtrodden
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  Speaker 1: those are the key ideas Unless you see yourself as
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  Speaker 1: a poor, prisoner, blind, and oppressed, if you do not
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  Speaker 1: see yourself in that spiritual condition, the gospel doesn't come
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  Speaker 1: to you. And those Jews sitting in that synagogue that
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  Speaker 1: day were offended at this because they were not the
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  Speaker 1: spiritually poor. They were the spiritually rich. They were the devout,
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  Speaker 1: faithful synagogue people. They were the Jews who kept the
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  Speaker 1: ceremonies and the Sabbath. They were not poor. They were
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  Speaker 1: spiritually rich. They had achieved a certain status by their
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  Speaker 1: devotion to the law and the ceremony. They were not prisoners.
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  Speaker 1: They were the free. They were the liberated. They were
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  Speaker 1: not bound to sin and iniquity. They were not the blind.
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  Speaker 1: They were those who could see. They were not the oppressed.
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  Speaker 1: They were not the bearers of guilt. They had been liberated.
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  Speaker 1: That's how they viewed themselves, self-righteous. And Jesus is saying
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  Speaker 1: to them, the gospel comes to the poor prisoners, blind
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  Speaker 1: and oppressed. Those who know they are spiritually bankrupt, that
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  Speaker 1: they are prisoners to their sin and to judgment. They
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  Speaker 1: are blind to spiritual reality and they bear an immense
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  Speaker 1: and tolerable weight of guilt. That was the message. And
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  Speaker 1: he says to them, the gospel comes to those people.
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  Speaker 1: But with you, it's always been the same. It was
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  Speaker 1: the same in Elijah's day, and it was the same
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  Speaker 1: in Elisha's day. Your self-righteousness has cut you off from
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  Speaker 1: the gospel. In the day of Elijah, he had to
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  Speaker 1: go to a widow, a Gentile widow in the land
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  Speaker 1: of Baal worshipers. In the time of Elisha, God went
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  Speaker 1: and did a miracle for a border terrorist who killed
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  Speaker 1: your people and passed by all the widows and all
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  Speaker 1: the lepers in Israel. And here it is again. I
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  Speaker 1: am here. And the question is, will you recognize that
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  Speaker 1: you are the poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed You are
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  Speaker 1: spiritually bankrupt. You are in prison before an almighty God
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  Speaker 1: awaiting execution. You are blind to spiritual reality and the
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  Speaker 1: burden of guilt is massive that oppresses you. And they
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  Speaker 1: heard the message and they tried to throw him off
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  Speaker 1: a cliff. And they were his family and friends. This
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  Speaker 1: is just a riveting story How did Jesus do evangelism?
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  Speaker 1: This is the shameful sentence of the cross that the
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  Speaker 1: sinner hates. These are all barriers to belief. That's why
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I said it's hard to believe. It's hard to believe. Well, now,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: it's so hard... The stigma of the cross, the simplicity,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: the singularity, the sentence of the cross, it's so hard
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: to believe. How is the Lord going to overcome this? Well,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: maybe the Lord could overcome this if we could get
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: enough rich and famous and popular and powerful and influential
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: people to be the purveyors of this gospel. And maybe
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: somehow we could ease the burden burden of believing this
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: thing if we can get some really wonderfully powerful and
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: adored and beloved and popular people to carry this message.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And that leads us to the fourth or fifth point,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: is it? Fifth point, the shameful society of the cross. Sorry.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Go back to 1 Corinthians 1 and meet The shameful
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: society of the cross. Verse 26. For consider your calling, brethren,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that there were not many wise according to the flesh,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: God has chosen the weak things of the world. to
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: shame the things which are strong, and the base things
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of the world, and the despised God has chosen, the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: things that are not, that he might nullify the things
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that are. Boy, this is just compounding the problem. Not
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: only do we have a message that's hard to believe,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: but we have it being proclaimed by people who don't
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: matter anymore. Not many wise,, not many intellectuals. Not many,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: not many power wielders, power people. Not many, not many
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: high born, aristocratic. 178 AD, Celsus said, The vulgarest and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the most uneducated are Christians. There are few, but not many.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: In fact, verse 27, God has chosen the foolish, the non-intellectuals.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: God has chosen the weak, the astene, the powerless, the impotent.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: God has chosen in verse 28 the agenes. Base means
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the people of no birth. The lowborn. Without any aristocracy.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: With no heritage of significance. The nobodies. And it keeps
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: going lower. Verse 28. The despised. The this is a
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: perfect passive participle, essentially means the people considered as nothing.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: The non-intellectual, powerless nobodies who are considered as nothing. Those
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: who are literally despised for their lack of importance. Can
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it go lower? Yes. Yes. The things that are not,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the non-existing ones, Not only are you nobody, you don't
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: even exist. There isn't a more contemptible expression in Greek
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: than this. The nothings. Being somebody was everything. Still is
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to the perishing. Wouldn't God want to use somebodies? Doesn't
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: he want to use famous people and powerful people to
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: give his testimony? Wouldn't this somehow help us to overcome
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: these terrible, shameful elements of the cross? No, in fact,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: God has disdained the wise and the mighty and the aristocratic,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and he's the nobodies and the non-existent ones. And he's
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: done it, please notice, he's done it, verse 27, to
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: shame the wise and to shame the things that are
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: strong and to, verse 28, nullify the things that are
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to literally kataskune, to put to shame the wise and
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the strong, to show that he's not dependent on them,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that they are not necessary to his purpose and his plan,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: to katargeo, to nullify, neutralize, and render absolutely inoperative all
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: human strength and wisdom. Here you have a message that's
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: hard to believe. And if you're dead in trespasses and sins,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: it's actually impossible to believe. And it's not given to
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: those who somehow can gain our attention and perhaps be
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: more convincing of its truth, but rather it's put in
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the hands of the nobodies. Why? Verse 29, that no
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: man should boast before God. So that God gets all
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the glory. There will never be any human credit for
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the salvation of anyone. I need to expand on this
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit with an illustration. Turn to 2 Corinthians
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: chapter 4. And I'm just sort of introducing these things.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I would like someday to develop these kind of thoughts
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: into something more full and But I think this is interesting.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 5. If I signed a
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: book of yours, I may have put under my name
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians 4, 5 to 7 because I often go
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: back to this passage as a reminder of who I am.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For God
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: who said light shall shine out of darkness is the
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: one who has shown in our hearts to give the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the face of Christ. I mean, that verse we preach
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: not ourselves but Christ Jesus. We all understand that. But
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the heart of this message, this incredible gospel, is that
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: light shining out of darkness from God, obviously, God who
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: said light shall shine out of darkness in his creative
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: act is the one who has shown in our hearts
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: of God in the face of Christ. That sort of
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: sums up the whole theme of the week. That the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: glory of God shines out in the face of Jesus Christ.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: This glorious Shekinah, this eternal radiance of God, this majestic, inexplicable,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: incomprehensible majesty of God is the heart and soul of
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the gospel that we carry. In contrast to that, verse 7,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: greatness of the power may be of God and not
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: from ourselves. Again, we find that God wants to glorify himself.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: There never should be a human explanation for any effective
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: advance of the gospel. There cannot be a human explanation
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: because we are nothing but earthen vessels. I want to
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: camp on that. The glory of the gospel is indicated
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: in verse 6. Light shining out of darkness. The light
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. This
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: immense concept. And we carry this immensity in clay pots.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: God has determined to put this glory in a clay pot.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: That's what an earthen vessel is. I want to talk
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: about that because I think we might not quite understand it.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Astrakinos is the Greek word. It literally means baked clay.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Baked clay. Dirt baked hard. Cheap pots. Unrefined. Breakable. Ugly. Replaceable. Valueless.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Like the pot that you keep a plant in that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: has virtually no value. We are clay plants. pots. I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: want to talk about what clay pots were used for
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: in ancient days, and I can start by commenting on
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: David Daniel's book on William Tyndale. I've just finished reading
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: that biography of William Tyndale by David Daniel, the Yale professor,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and in it there's a section on Thomas More. Thomas More,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: of course, was a passionate defender of Roman Catholicism who
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: was a determined that he was going to do everything
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: he could to stop William Tyndale from putting the Bible
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: in English and getting it into the hands of the people,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: a terrible crime by the standards of Roman Catholicism at
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: the time. Thomas More not only attacked William Tyndale, but
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Thomas More also went after Martin Luther. And some of
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: the things that Thomas More wrote about Martin Luther, I
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: couldn't even speak in public. Well, I could but they
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: would get edited out of the tape. I would have
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: to explore a rather rangy scatological vocabulary to deal with
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: the things. For those of you who don't know what
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about, there will be a dictionary somewhere, and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: you can look that up. Suffice it to say that
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: he called Luther a privy pot. Does that help? He
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: called Luther a privy pot. And frankly, Luther probably would
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: have agreed based upon 2 Corinthians chapter 4 because that's
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: exactly what an earthen vessel was used for. A privy pot.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: He said a lot of other horrible things about Luther.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: But he was a privy pot. This idea is extended
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: in 2 Timothy 2, 20, where Paul says, in a
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: large house, there are not only gold and silver vessels,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: but vessels of wood and earthenware, and some are to
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: honor and some to dishonor. A house has some vessels, gold,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: silver vessels, you serve the food on. That's to honor.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: It has other vessels that you take the result of
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: eating out in dishonor. And that's what the clay pots
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: were used for. The Apostle Paul says, look, we have
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the glory of God in a privy pot. That's how
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: low it goes. Don't overestimate your importance. The early preachers
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: of the gospel were not the elite intellectuals of Egypt
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: or Greece or Rome or even Israel. The greatest scholars,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: they tell us, may have been in Egypt. The greatest
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: library was in Alexandria. That perhaps was why. The most
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: distinguished philosophers were in Athens. The powerful were in Rome.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: The biblical scholars were in Jerusalem. And God disdained all
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: of them for privy pots. I just finished a book,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Twelve Ordinary Men, on the apostles. I'm telling you, they
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: were really painfully ordinary men. Agonizingly ordinary. Not one was
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: a priest. Not one was a scribe. Not one was
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: an archon, a ruler of a synagogue. Not one was
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: a Pharisee. Not one of them had any educational credentials
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: or any power base or any influence or anything. Up
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: to seven of them may have been fishermen. They worked
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: with their hands. One was a terrorist. One was a
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: tax collector. You know the story. And they were really
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: clay pots. When the Lord passed by Herodotus, the historian,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: and He passed by Socrates, the thinker, and He passed
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: by Hippocrates, the father of medicine, He passed by Plato,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the philosopher, and Aristotle, the wise, and Euclid, the mathematician,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and he passed by Archimedes, the father of mechanics, and Hipparchus,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the astronomer, and Cicero, the orator, and Virgil, the poet,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and everybody else who was somebody. And he started off
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: with 12 ordinary men, and one of them was a wicked,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: wretched traitor. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse... Another
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: really helpful passage if you want to see how Paul
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: viewed himself. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6, these things I
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: in us you might learn not to exceed what is
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: written in order that no one of you might become
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: arrogant on behalf of one against the other. You know,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: this idea, I'm of Paul, I'm of Sebas, I'm of Christ,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I'm of Apollos, this is absolutely distasteful to Paul, and
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: it's obviously an offense to God. Back in chapter 3,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: verse 5, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? You know,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: we can't have this kind of thing. We're nothing. We're nobody.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: We may plant and somebody may water, but it's God
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: who gets the glory. It's God who brings the increase.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Verse 7, who regards you as superior? And what do
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: you have that you didn't receive? And if you received it,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: why do you boast as if you didn't receive it?
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Stop exalting yourselves. And then he gets sarcastic. You are
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: already filled. You have already become rich. You have already
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: become kings without us. Aren't you something? I wish it
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: were true. On the contrary, verse 9. Listen to this.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Lowest of the low. As far as the public was concerned,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: they were the lowest of the low. They were all
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: martyred and John finally was exiled. And Paul had his
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: head chopped off. The lowest of the low. Treated like
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the scum of the world. Men condemned to death. We've
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: become a spectacle to the world. That expresses the image
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: of prisoners in a parade being led down to the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: arena to die at the hands of gladiators or at
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the mouths of wild beasts. And then in verse 10
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: he says, we're fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Gets sarcastic again. We are weak, but you are strong.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: You are distinguished, but we are without honor. Just pull
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: it out. Paul says we're fools, we're weak, we're without honor.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: In fact, to this present hour, verse 11, we're hungry,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: we're thirsty, we're poorly clothed, we're roughly treated, we're homeless.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Yet we toil working with our own hands. When we're reviled,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: we bless. When we're persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: we try to conciliate. And here's the thing I want
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you to see. We have become as the scum of
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the world, the dregs of all things even until now.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: This is the shameful society of the cross. You take
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: the apostles, the best, the first generation of Christ chosen preachers,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: and they are scum and dregs. You know what those
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: words mean? Scum is perikatharma. Katharma, catharsis, to cleanse, to clean. Peri,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: to clean around. It means that which is removed by
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: cleaning thoroughly. Where the, where the goo that gets cleaned
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: out of the bottom of the pot. Used metaphorically, by
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: the way, for criminals of the lowest class who were
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: sacrificed to deities in the pagan world to pacify angry gods.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: When they wanted to pacify their angry deity because they
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: were having a plague or lost a war, they would
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: find some scumbag person in their society who meant nothing
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: to anybody and they would offer him up to the deity.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: believing that if they eliminated that one element of filth
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: from their society, that God might be pacified. That's used,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the term perikatharma was used for such people. Then the
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: second word, dregs, peripsema, means that which comes off by scraping.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: So Paul goes down even lower. We're not only the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: goo that you have to clean out, we're the scum
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: and the dregs that you have to scrape off. The
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: last refuge to be scraped off the bottom of the pot.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: So the glorious gospel so hard to believe is carried
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: by scum, dregs, in the eyes of the world. You know,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: it seems to me that the Lord made it as
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: hard as it could possibly be made to believe. And
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: you know, at this particular point, you could say, well,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: it is really a flawed strategy. There certainly must have
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: been a better way. But remember, go back to our text,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians chapter 1. There's one other point I want
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: to make. No one's salvation depends upon any human. There
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: never will be the salvation of anyone for which a
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: human being can take credit. We're just a clay pot
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: that proclaims the glory of God in the face of
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And it is impossible for us, no matter
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: how clever we are, to empower someone into new life.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: And there's one more monumental reality I want you to
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: see here. Final point, the shameful sovereignty of the cross.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: The shameful sovereignty of the cross. How's anybody going to
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: get saved, you say? If we preach a gospel like
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: you're talking about, how's anybody ever going to believe? It's
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: just too hard to believe. Verse 27. But God has,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: what's the next word? Chosen. Same verse. And God has chosen.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Verse 28. God has chosen you. Verse 30, I love
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: the NASB translation of this. By his doing, you are
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Jesus became to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: and redemption by his doing, by God's doing. Back in
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: verse 18 it says, the cross is the power of
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: God to those who are being saved. Verse 21 says,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: those who are being saved are those who believe. Verse
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: 24 says, those who believe are those who are the called.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Verse 27 says, those who are the called are those
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: God has chosen, so that in the end, verse 30,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: all that Christ is to us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: redemption is by His doing in Christ Jesus. This is
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: the glorious sovereignty of God. Salvation comes to those who
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: who believe because they're called, because they're chosen. That's why
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: verse 29 says that no man should boast before God.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And verse 31, that just as it is written, let
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: him who boasts boast in the Lord. Taken out of Jeremiah.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Why do we want to construct a new gospel today?
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: when we can't save anybody anyway. But you know, it's
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: so sad. This is a shameful doctrine. Let me read
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: you some things. And I'm going to read you statements
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: from evangelicals because this is so sorry. to hear and
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: to read. What a sorry situation we have in evangelicalism
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: when things like this are said. Here's a popular evangelical writer,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: very popular writer, millions of books, to suggest that the merciful, long-suffering, gracious,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: and loving God of the Bible would invent a dreadful
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: doctrine like election. which would have us believe it is
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: an act of grace to select certain people for heaven
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: and by exclusion others for hell comes perilously close to blasphemy.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Here's another one from another person. The flawed philosophical theology
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: of pre-selection is an attempt to eliminate man's capacity to
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: exercise his free will which reduces God's sovereign love to
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: an act of a mere dictator. Here's another one. Calvinism
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: makes our Heavenly Father look like the worst of despots.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Here's another one. President of a Christian university. Such is Calvinism,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: the most unreasonable, incongruous, self-contradictory, man-belittling, and God-dishonoring scheme of
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: theology that ever appeared in Christian thought. No one can
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: accept its contradictory, mutually exclusive propositions without intellectual self-debasement. It
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: holds up a self-centered, selfish, heartless, remorseless tyrant for God
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: and bids us worship him. Here's a pastor of Calvary
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Chapel who wrote, Calvinism makes God a monster who eternally
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: tortures innocent children. removes the hope of consolation from the gospel,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: limits the atoning work of Christ, resists evangelism, stirs up argumentation, division,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: promotes a small, angry, judgmental God rather than the large-hearted
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: God of the Bible. See, even people who are within
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: the framework of evangelicalism see the sovereignty of the cross
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: as shameful. Here's another one. To say that God sovereignly
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: chooses who will be saved is the most twisted thing
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: I have ever read. Makes God no better than a
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: pagan idol. Talk about blasphemy. Here's another one from a
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: theological institute. Calvinism makes God a diabolical monster, reduces man
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: who was created in the image of God to a
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: mere robot. All of that comes from commendations of Dave
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: Hunt's book, What Love Is This? Dave Hunt says, tragically,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Calvinism's misrepresentation of God has caused many to turn away
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: from the God of the Bible as from a monster. Listen, folks.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: If God doesn't determine in his will as the God
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: of the universe to save sinners, nobody would be saved.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: If God doesn't save the sinner, the sinner is doomed.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: The shameful sovereignty of the cross, and yet that's the
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: only hope, the only hope. not apart from, faith through faith.
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  Speaker 1: So what are we left to do? Human pride is destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: The gospel assaults our emotions. It collides with our intellect.
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  Speaker 1: It crushes our will. It attacks our relationships. It devastates
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  Speaker 1: our sense of personal well-being. By defining us as perishing
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  Speaker 1: sinners under the judgment of God. It is proclaimed by
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  Speaker 1: the scum and the dregs. There's only one hope. And
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  Speaker 1: that is the shameful sovereign power of God. Shameful from
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: a human viewpoint. But all glorious to God. so that
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  Speaker 1: no man should ever boast. Let him who boasts boast
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  Speaker 1: in the Lord. Knowing that, how do we minister? Let's
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  Speaker 1: hear what Paul said, chapter 2. I'll just read it
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  Speaker 1: to you. When I came to you, brethren, I didn't
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  Speaker 1: come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing
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  Speaker 1: among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was
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  Speaker 1: with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
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  Speaker 1: And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive
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  Speaker 1: words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
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  Speaker 1: of power, so that your faith should not rest on
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  Speaker 1: the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
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  Speaker 1: That's the ministry model. We're not looking for influence in
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  Speaker 1: the world. We just look for opportunities to present the
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  Speaker 1: true gospel and let God do His glorious work. Father,
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  Speaker 1: we thank You for the clarification that Your Word brings
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  Speaker 1: to everything and certainly, of course, to those matters which
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  Speaker 1: are related to your kingdom. We only could desire one thing,
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  Speaker 1: knowing the truth, and that is to be faithful to
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  Speaker 1: proclaim it, unwaveringly faithful. And behind that proclamation, to live
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  Speaker 1: a life that supports what we say. So may we
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  Speaker 1: live lives that exalt our Christ. as we proclaim his
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  Speaker 1: glorious gospel. Clay pots at best, but shining out from
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: us is your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And as we faithfully proclaim that, wherever there is good soil,
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  Speaker 1: fruit will be born to your glory. Thank you for
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: this high and holy calling May we be faithful to
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  Speaker 1: it in your son's name. Amen.