text:
If you have your Bibles tonight I'd like to ask you to turn to the first book of Corinthians and the first chapter. As I mentioned this morning, we are in a series dealing with the purpose of the church insofar as its message is concerned. This morning we talked about the fact that the message that the church preaches is a divisive message, that is that if the church is to really be the church the message that it preaches is going to divide people, that the church can never court the world it must be its antagonist. And then we presented the portion of Scripture in Matthew chapter 7 where we saw those who were religious people standing before the judgment seat of Christ...or I should say the judgment of Christ who were not able to enter the Kingdom of God because they had not fulfilled the requirement of doing the will of God. We found out then that Christ came not to bring peace but a sword and that must be the message of the church in any age.
Tonight I want to take that a step further and I want to talk about the foolishness of the world and the foolishness of preaching. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 beginning at verse 17, the Apostle Paul says this, "For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect, for the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness, but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks, or the Gentiles, seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Gentiles foolishness. But unto them who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men." May we pray.
Father, as we approach this most important passage, together may we see what is the message that we are to preach. May we see that preaching is an indispensable part of that which has been assigned to the church and that the message of the preacher must be the message of the cross. Perhaps tonight, Father, we shall see anew the cross, a glimpse of it that we have never seen before, to that end we pray and to the end that those who know not Christ might this night meet Him and be saved for it's in His name we pray. Amen.
Verse 17, Paul says, "For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." Paul says that the issue of priority in the ministry is simply the issue of the cross. It is not to be set aside and substituted with the wisdom of words. Nothing is less important that when...than what you think or what I think. The thing that it is of priority is the cross of Jesus Christ, that is what He said. Christ said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Myself."
Paul's desire then was to set before men the cross of Christ in its simplicity. That was the message which he proclaimed. He didn't want to decorate it with any cleverness. He didn't want to add to it any little fancy words to make men think more of the language than the cross. He didn't want to add dimensions to it that would make men think more of the speaker than of the message. He only wanted the cross of Christ to stand out. And he as a preacher of the gospel wanted to find his life hidden behind that cross so that he was totally invisible.
Now the situation in Corinth when this epistle was written was a very problematic situation. The Corinthian church was the most fouled up church in existence. Paul had to take the first great long series of chapters to tell them how messed up they were before he could even get in to how to help themselves. And they had one particular thing that was an issue in Corinth at that time and that was the idea that wisdom was all in all. It was a place of philosophers. And it was a place where people accepted other people on the basis of how delicately they could handle words. And the man who was articulate and clever in the way he said things would gain a great following for they sought after philosophy.
And as a result of that, if you'll notice back in verse 12, well actually you can go clear back to verse 10 and he says there are divisions among you, and then when he comes to verse 12 he says, "Some of you are following Peter, some of you are following Apollos, some of you are following me, and some of Christ." Now what was causing this division? Well it was simply this, they were among themselves deciding whose words they liked the best. Whoever sounded the wisest to them was the one they went after and it became sort of a contest where some would say, "Well Apollos is definitely the greatest preacher." "No, no, no, Peter is the greatest preacher." "No, no, no, Paul is the greatest." "No, Christ even in all of the beautiful simplicity of His message He's still the greatest." And they were all divided over the issue of who was the most clever speaker. And wisdom was the big issue in Corinth and it had caused divisions.
The Apostle Paul says, "Wait a minute, folks, wisdom isn't the issue at all. The issue is the cross of Jesus Christ. Wisdom has nothing to do with that. In fact, in the minds of men," he says, "it's foolishness." All the wisdom of man is a futile attempt at anything.
Who was the wisest man who ever lived? Who was it? Solomon. "Who said, `Vanity, vanity, all is vanity?'" Solomon. Wisdom never brought Solomon anything but the realization that he didn't have anything. Wisdom, the wiser he got allowed him to see that the more wisdom he had the better he was able to understand that he didn't have anything. And he said, "I sought for wisdom but vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
Paul says, "I'm not coming to you with clever words, I'm coming to you with the cross of Jesus Christ. That's my only message." And I say to you right now as a pastor, that's my only message. When the day comes that I start trying to entice you with clever words, that's the day you can kick me out because that's the day I'm through. The only message that I can proclaim and still be as God would have me to be is the cross of Jesus Christ, not clever words but the cross of Christ.
Then Paul uses a great preacher's technique. Having mentioned the cross of Christ in verse 17, he sort of comes up in verse 18 with this, "By the way..." have you ever heard a preacher get off the subject? You see, he's been talking about wisdom, hasn't he? And he's been talking about the divisions in Corinth. And he's talking to a specific issue at Corinth and all of a sudden he says, "The cross of Christ...by the way, let me tell you about the cross of Christ." I like that about Paul because I do that. He says, "By the way," verse 18 to 25 is his aside, if you please.
The cross must be preached. It is the only standard and so in verses 18 to 25 Paul suggests three features of the preaching of the cross. Now you're going to find out the longer you come here that I like to have three or four points that are very clear so that you can kind of have something in your brain to hang the truth on. If we can nail three little nails in your head then you can hang something on those and you can remember it a little better...at least I can, it helps me and I trust it will help you.
So Paul suggests three features of the preaching of the cross. First of all, he talks about the dynamic of the preaching of the cross. Then he talks about the demand for the preaching of the cross. And then he talks about the defiance toward those who preach the cross and toward the cross itself. The dynamic, the demand and the defiance and we'll see these as we go from verse 18 through verse 23 in particular and then we'll note verse 24 and 25.
First of all, then, the dynamic of the preaching of the cross is in verse 18. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing," for it's a linear tense, "foolishness, but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God." Now the Greek word for power is dunamis, it's the same word from which we get our word "dynamite." The dynamite of the gospel is the cross, the dynamic of the gospel is the preaching of the cross.
Now you will notice that he says "for the preaching of the cross." Now the word "preaching" is really not the right word for preaching, it is the word logos, a very familiar word to anyone who studied the Bible. It means the word of the cross. Now that's a very important thing and I want you to see it because he has just said in verse 17 that I am not preaching the wisdom of...what?...words and now he makes a fantastic contrast in verse 18, "But I am preaching the word of the cross."
Now I want you to catch something there initially. Did you notice that the wisdom of words is plural? Does that suggest a degree of confusion? Is there any more obvious characteristic of philosophy than words and more words and more words and more words? And is there anything more beautiful than the simplicity of that single word "the word of the cross?" Do you see the complexness of the wisdom of words that tangle in the very term? And all of a sudden Paul shifts gears in verse 18 and says, it's not the words of the cross, it's the simple unified concept of the cross itself. There's a difference right there.
Now the term logos is very important. It doesn't mean just word. There's another Greek word for word itself and that's the word rhema, that means just a word. Logos is something completely different. Logos means a body of truth, like if you go to your friend and you say, "Hey, give me the word," which is common vernacular. "Hey what's the word on so-and-so?" You don't mean one word, do you? You mean the totality of truth about that certain thing. "Give me the word on this, or give the word on that," you mean what about it in totality. And so the Greek term logos is the same thing. And what Paul is saying here is "For the word, or the totality of truth about the cross is the power of God." It's not just a wooden stick that's the power of God. It's the totality of that which surrounded the cross that is the power of God.
You remember in John's gospel in the first chapter in the first section there he talks about the Word was made flesh. Now who is the Word there? Christ. Now do you see what he's saying? He uses that same term logos because Christ was the totality of truth in human flesh, wasn't He? He was the very embodiment of truth about God. He was the revelation of the self-disclosed God. He was God in human flesh. He was total God. And so John calls Him the logos. You see, the logos, John picked that term up from philosophy because to philosophers logos was the whole truth about anything. And so God says...John says, "Are you looking for the whole truth about God? Look at Jesus, He is that logos, He is that body of total truth about God." And here Paul picks it up again and he says this, "The logos or the total truth that has power is the cross." And so it's very important to realize what he's saying here. The preaching of the cross is the only dynamic that the church of Jesus Christ has. It's the only power to transform the souls of men. It's the only thing, he says at the end of verse 18, that can save, the power of God. And so Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:2, "For I determined to know nothing among you save Christ and Him...what?...crucified." And so he says in Galatians 6:14, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And he says in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 3, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I received how that Christ died according to the Scriptures." And he goes on to say He was buried and rose again the third day.
The preaching of the cross is the dynamic of salvation. Not only was this the burden of the heart of the Apostle Paul, but this was Peter's message. And I want you to just grab your Bible and we're just going to fly through a couple of chapters in the book of Acts because I think they're important to us in this regard. And they're much more important than anything I would have to say personally so let's look right at what the Word says. And I want you to see there's four sermons in Acts that Peter preached, four fantastic sermons, and I want you to see the theme of every single sermon and then I want you to file this concept in your brain for a few minutes later I'm going to come back to it and you're going to see something really exciting about Peter.
In chapter 2 verse 22 Peter's preaching and notice the theme of his message, "You men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Now what's the theme of that message? The cross.
Now watch his next message in the third chapter and notice verse 13. "The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified His Son Jesus whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let Him go and you denied the Holy One and the Just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and kill the Prince of life." There's the same theme, the cross of Jesus Christ.
We're not done. Look at Acts chapter 4, Peter is preaching again in verse 10, "Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified." And he goes to talk about the resurrection, again the same theme.
And then you go over and you see him again in Acts chapter 10 and in verse 38 we read this, "How God," and this time he's preaching not to the Jews but he's preaching to the Gentiles, "How God...particularly in the house of Cornelius...h.how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him and we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree."
What is the theme that recurs in every single sermon of Peter in the book of Acts? The cross of Jesus Christ. That is the only theme. It is always the cross in all of Scripture. Do you remember how that on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24 Christ said, "O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" Do you know what the theme of the Old Testament is? The cross of Christ. Every single sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to that final sacrifice.
The cross looks like idiocy to the world. It looks like pure foolishness but it is not. What looks like weakness is really the greatest power in all the universe, the cross of Christ. The word "foolishness" is an interesting verse...interesting word in verse 18, it's the word, listen to this one, Greek, moron. It's an interesting word. Do you know what it means? Stupid. You knew that.
Now the idea of stupid is the idea of pointless...p.pointless. And what they're saying is...Paul is saying to people who don't know Christ the cross is one great big pointless piece of stupidity, it's a waste of time. You say, "Well why does the world say the cross is so pointless?" I'll tell you why. What's the world hung up on? Look back at verse 10 to 17, what's the world's problem? What did they...where are they searching for the answer, in what? In wisdom, aren't they? They're looking for the answer in human wisdom. And when somebody comes along and says it's in the simplicity of the cross, they can't buy that because it rejects all philosophy, it rejects all the books and treatises and theses and volumes that have ever been written, it's too simple and looks stupid. It's not even very profound to the observer.
But what looks like stupidity because it is not the wisdom of men is really the highest wisdom of God. Even religion, if you'll notice, when man contrives his own religion, have you ever noticed how complex it gets? Have you ever talked to anybody who is in another religion or a cult or an occult or something else and have you ever tried to figure how out complex that whole situation is? Whenever man does anything he relies on his own wisdom and he comes up with some kind of a complex elaborate conglomeration leading nowhere. You see, man's afraid that he's going to have to crush his ego if he's going to accept the simplicity of the cross. And you want to know something? He's right, he's going to have to crush his ego. There's no place in the cross of Christ for your ego or mine.
That's a hard thing for man to swallow. It's too big a sacrifice and he can't quite understand it. But, you see, that's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14. You remember what he said? "The natural man understandeth...what?...not the things of God, to him they are...what?...foolishness." Why? Because they're spiritually discerned and Paul says he's spiritually dead. And I always use the illustration, if you stick a dead man with a pin, what happens? Nothing happens. If anything does, you're in a lot of trouble. Nothing happens. And the reason nothing happens is because to be dead is to be insensible to physical stimulus. The same thing is true in the spiritual world, did you know that? The unsaved man gets jabbed with spiritual truth and what happens? Nothing, he's spiritually dead, he's insensible. And so the cross looks to him like the greatest stupidity because it doesn't require anything on the part of his brain or intellect or the wisdom of men. But the cross is still the theme. The cross based on the sacrificial plan of God from the beginning without the shedding of blood there was no remission for sin. From the time of Abel until 70 A.D. till the temple was destroyed by Titus, for those years all that time God had in motion a sacrificial system. You know why it stopped in 70 A.D.? Because that was after Christ died and there was no more need.
And, you know, you confront an orthodox Jew today and ask him one question that he'll never be able to answer...ask him why they don't sacrifice anymore? You and I know why. Because in the economy of God, Christ became that final sacrifice, the veil of the temple was rent and access was wide open, there's no need of sacrifice anymore. And the book of Hebrews paints the picture, doesn't it? We are under the blood of a new covenant, aren't we? All the prefiguring and prophesying of the Old Testament points toward the cross of Christ. And did you know that the New Testament centers on that? Have you ever looked at the gospels? Two-fifths of Matthew deals with the events around the cross. Three-fifths of Mark deals with the events around the cross. One-third of Luke deals with the events around the cross. And one-half of John's gospel deals with the events around the cross.
Paul gave priority to the cross, didn't he? Peter gave priority to the cross. In Hebrews the writer gave priority to the cross, he said He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Revelation 5:12, John says, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." The cross is the reigning theme from one of the Bible to the other. Paul says it's the message of the power of God. It's the scarlet thread that runs from the beginning to the end. There's no Christianity without the cross. There's no answer to anything without the cross. There's no answer to the problem in the longing of the heart of a man without the cross for it's the dynamic of God.
You say, "But is the cross necessary? Why not a bloodless Christianity? Why do we have to have that cross?" Well, you know, a lot of people ask that question. You know, there was one guy in the Bible who really didn't...and we've talked about him, this is why I had you remember what Peter said in his sermon...because Peter didn't think the cross was necessary. If you'll remember correctly Peter was very reluctant for the Lord to suffer. Now he knew that He was the Lord and he knew the system that God had ordained, but do you remember that in Matthew 16 Peter was there and Christ said, "Who do men say that I am? And Peter said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." What a fantastic statement. "And Christ looked him in the eye and said, Flesh and blood didn't tell you that, Peter, My Father in heaven did, you got that right out of heaven. That's a divine statement, Peter." Peter made a divine statement, "Thou art the Christ," what a tremendous statement. He knew He was the Christ, but, you know, he never thought that the crucifixion or suffering had anything to do with that. The very next thing Jesus does is tell them He's going to die and Peter comes to Him and says, "Lord, let it not be so. And Christ said to him, Get thee behind Me, Satan." You see, Peter with his mouth confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of the living God but he couldn't see the need of the cross...not at all. And then in the garden in John 18, do you remember what he tried to do? When the soldiers came to take Jesus Christ, he grabbed a sword and tried to stop them, didn't he? He only got as far as the first guy and he only got as far as the first guy's ear. Christ gave him a new ear.
You see, Peter still didn't understand that the suffering was necessary. Christianity isn't Christianity without suffering, without the suffering Savior. In Acts 3:18 it says, "But those things which God before had shown by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled." Even Peter didn't see that. But do you know what happened? You know what happened to Peter after the cross? He became an Old Testament scholar because he saw the need of the cross. Do you know what the theme of 1 Peter is? Take a wild guess...the cross. And what was the theme of all four of his sermons? The cross. First Peter 2:24 Peter just wells up everything that's within him and he says, "Christ who His ownself bore our sins in His own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed."
The post-cross Peter really knew the significance of calvary. The Old Testament, you remember, that it was a part of the sacrificial system, that there was one who would bear away sin was symbolized by the scape goat in Leviticus 26, the goat was symbolically the recipient of the sins of the people and then he bore them away. And is it not true that it is Christ who has borne away our sin? Who has paid the penalty for...excuse me...for us? And the veil was rent and instant access is ours. Yes, the dynamic...the dynamic of the preaching of the gospel is the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation.
What about the demand? Why do we have to preach the cross? Verses 19 to 21, "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
Here is the demand. We've seen the dynamic of the preaching of the cross. Here is the demand for it and it is this, that the world with all of its wisdom doesn't know anything. And he says I'm going to destroy the wisdom of the wise, I'm going to take all their wisdom and add it up to zero, I'll bring it to naught, he says. And then he asks, "Where is the wise? Who is really wise? Who is really a scribe? Who is really an effective debater? Hasn't God taken all of the wisdom of man and made it foolishness?"
All that has been written, all that has been said adds up to nothing. The Apostle Paul had it right when he said they're ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. It is the complex world that is stupid and it is the simple cross that is profound, is it not? This is what demands that we preach Christ and Him crucified, the inability of men by their own wisdom to come to any answers about reality and peace. Paul uses two quotations here in verses 19 and 20. He quotes from Isaiah 29 and Isaiah 33 to point out how human wisdom is going to fail and be destroyed. You know, there is a way and it seems right to a man but the ends thereof are the ways of...what?... Human wisdom doesn't lead very far. In verse 19 he's going to bring it to nothing, what a statement. All of the world's wisdom adds up to zero, nothing. And in chapter 3 verse 19 of this self-same letter Paul says, "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." It's zero. In Jeremiah 8:9, Jeremiah in chapter 8 is standing outside the temple gate, he used to pick the greatest places to preach, and he'd stand out there and he indicted the wise men of Israel, the guys that sat around spinning all the stuff off the top of their heads and this is what he said, he told the people, he said, "These wise men have rejected the word of wisdom of the Lord and therefore what wisdom is in them?" Boy, what a statement.
I mean, if you reject the only real truth, what wisdom do you have? All the wise men of all time end up with a pile of nothing if they neglect the one basic truth in all wisdom, the cross of Jesus Christ. Verse 21, "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God." You couldn't find God by wisdom. Impossible. "But it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
Do you know that the wisdom of man was a calculated act on the part of God? Did you know that? Did you know that God gave man a certain amount of wisdom just so he could run himself into a stone wall? That's what that verse says. That says, "In the wisdom of God," you know what that means? That means God had a plan and His plan was this...watch the next phrase...that the world by wisdom knew not God. God planned for the world to use its brains to come to zero.
You say, "Why would He do that? Why would God make a plan to allow men to run to the extreme of their brain and come up with nothing?" You know why? Because He wanted them to come up with nothing so that they would realize that on their own they couldn't do anything, they had no answers. They had no power for self-salvation. Paul says with all their wisdom in Romans 1:22, professing themselves to be wise they became...what?...fools. That was a calculated plan of God. He wanted men to run up against a stone wall.
If you're here tonight and you've been hoping that your own wisdom, your own brain is going to bring you the answers. You're wrong. And, in fact, you may be on the path that God has set you on so that you're going to hit that stone wall so hard that you're not going to be able to pick yourself up the next time and you're going to cry out to God and ask Him to pick you up. That's what He wants. Human philosophy, human theology, man-centered and man-authored ideas may tax the limits of the human brain, they may run to the very extreme of human ability and when they get to the very extreme of the human capacity, they're just inching up on God's scales toward stupidity. That's what he says. Notice, God planned to frustrate man that man might fall on his face and cry out to God.
In Romans 11:32, great verse, listen to it, he says, "For God hath concluded," did you get that? God worked it all out. "God hath concluded...listen to this...He hath concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon them." Fantastic truth. Romans 11:32, I'll say it again, "He concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy on them." God ran them against a stone wall, they were all wiped out with nothing to believe in, then God could come with mercy.
Did you know that Christ can never enter your life until you're a broken man, broken woman, until you've run the gamut and found out you're zero, till you know that by yourself you can't figure out what life's all about? You haven't got any purpose to life, you don't know where it is. When you come to that place then God can have mercy on you.
Well we've seen the dynamic of the preaching of the cross. We've seen the demand for it, that men can't find it by their own wisdom. Now let's look at the defiance toward the preaching of the cross. What happens when the cross is preached? You think these men would hear it in their frustration but they don't. Notice verse 22 and 23. "For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified." Now what does it do, what's the reaction? "Unto the Jews it's a stumbling block and unto the Gentiles it's foolishness."
Here is the defiance toward the preaching of the cross. Now let's notice the Jews very quickly and we'll be done in a moment. Let's notice the Jews first. He says the Jews are seeking a sign and that's their hangup. He doesn't say that but, I mean, you know, that's what he means....aha. The Jews are seeking a sign and that's their problem. And they look at the cross and they say...Oh, that's a stumbling block, that's not the sign we're looking for.
Do you know why the Bible says that...John recorded it, he said, "He came unto His own and His own received Him not,"...do you know why the Jews won't receive Christ? Do you know why the cross of Christ is a stumbling block? I'll tell you why. Two reasons, number one is incredible, it is absolutely incredible to a Jew that the one chosen to be Messiah would end up nailed to a cross. They can't buy that. You know, as a matter of fact, Judas was in on the whole thing because he thought that Christ was going to set up the Kingdom and he'd be a part of it. And if you don't think that's true, he was a worse guy than James and John, and what were they in it for? Do you remember that they sent their mother to Jesus? And they said, "Mother, would you ask Jesus if we could sit next to Him in the Kingdom?" See what they had on their minds. It's incredible to a Jew that the Messiah would end up nailed to a cross.
You say, "Well why?" Well in Deuteronomy 21:23 you know what it says? "Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree." Now by the very...the very law of Israel it was a curse to hang on a tree. How could they accept a crucified Messiah? It couldn't be done. Amazingly enough the crucifixion instead of proving Christ, you know, they didn't see Isaiah 53, they didn't see that at all...the fact that He was going to suffer...no, no. They still don't understand what that's all about. But all they could see was the idea of the curse of hanging on a tree. And so instead of the crucifixion proving Christ, it eliminated Him. They couldn't understand the cross.
And then secondly why they don't believe, not only because the cross is an offense to them, but secondly because they want a sign and Christ didn't give them any signs. It's an old story with the Jews, very interesting. They were always looking for Messiahs who could do tricks. And they would come along from time to time, there was a guy named Thudis(??) 45 A.D. who had a whole plan figured out...no, it was 45. B.C., 45 B.C., he had a beautiful plan. He was going to take all the people of Jerusalem out and divide the Jordan River, just part it like that and they would all walk across a dry shod. Well he got the crowd out there but he just couldn't do it. Then there was an Egyptian who came along and he came along about oh about nine years later in 54, around there, and his plan was to go up to the Mount of Olives and say, you know, "zap" or something or other and all the walls of Jerusalem would fall down. Now would you believe that history records for us that 30 thousand Jews gathered with him on the Mount of Olives to watch the walls fall down? And 30 thousand Jews made their way back to their homes.
There was another one who came along and claimed that he could dive off the temple. He did, beautiful. The only thing that was bad was the landing. They were always looking for a sign. And do you know that Satan tempted Christ this way? Do you remember that the third temptation of Christ was for Him to dive off the pinnacle of the temple? Why would he tell Him to do that? Because all the Jews would have to do would be to see somebody bail out off the top of that thing and angels come and carry Him and land Him on the ground and that would be it. But Christ came to die. He came to suffer.
In Matthew chapter 12, you remember the scribes and the Pharisees came and they said, "Master, we would see a sign from Thee." He said, "No sign is going to be given this evil adulterous generation." And then the Pharisees joined up with the Sadducees, which was a very strange relationship, and they came to Him, I think it's the sixteenth chapter, and they said again, "We want another sign," and He never gave them a sign.
It was the idea that if You could do some tricks that are really fantastic, we'll follow You. And they looked at Jesus Christ and they saw Him meek and lowly, they saw Him deliberately going around avoiding the spectacular. They saw Him ending on a cross and He brought no earthly kingdom...an impossible Messiah. And so He was a stumbling block and so was the cross.
Now what about the Gentiles? It says the Gentiles seek after wisdom. Well we've been talking about that. The Greeks and the Gentiles, they were hung up on the wisdom end of it. They were mental acrobats. One writer in early church history says that they sat around in the cities and croaked like frogs. This is kind of an interesting comment on the kind of discussions they had. They were really...they were really excited about glittering words and they would sit around discussing hair- splitting trivialities and spinning theories off their brains and everything was in the terms of human wisdom. You remember at Athens when Paul arrived at Athens in the Gentile world and he started talking about Christ being resurrected? And they got together and they said, "Oh, we've got a guy with a new theory. Let's get him up here." And they besought Paul that he would come up and spin his new theory...anything new, any new doctrine to chew on. You see, Gentiles can't accept the simplicity of the cross, it's too simple. Human wisdom was and is too much a part of the heart of man and this is a self-designing world and it can't admit to itself that everything it's come up with is useless in matters of the soul.
Now I'm not disparaging wisdom in all their other areas. But in matters of the soul, all the wisdom of the world is nothing. You say, "Wow, this is kind of a hopeless passage. We might as fold up the church and go home, nobody is going to believe." Wait a minute...verse 24 and 25, "But unto them who are called both Jews and Gentiles," isn't that interesting how God goes right by the barriers and calls some? "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
It did look kind of hopeless there, didn't it? It looked like maybe no Gentiles would ever believe. It looked like maybe no Jews would.... But wait a minute, God's a lot wiser, a lot more loving, a lot more gracious, a lot more merciful and so He reaches down and calls those of us who are to be His, both Jew and Gentile. The Jews won't come apart from their religion and the Gentiles won't come apart from their wisdom. But Jesus Christ strips both aside and in His love and grace and in the call of God He brings to His side those who are His own from both the Jews and the Gentiles. What tremendous power is in the cross, is it not?
Let me ask you tonight as we close. Are you looking for a sign? Do you expect religion to be some fantastic thing where all kinds of things are going off in space and all kinds of strange things are happening? You're not going to get a sign. Are you hung up on some kind of religious rules and laws to reach favor with God and the cross offends you? You're never going to get to God by keeping any rules. Or maybe you're so eager centered...ego-centered that you're spinning out your own ideas about God, about reality and about eternal truth.
Let me ask you tonight, what foolishness, what foolishness is keep you from the wisdom of God? May we pray.
Our Father, we again thank You for this tremendous portion of Scripture. We thank You for the clarity with which the gospel is presented, through the cross of Jesus Christ. O God, we just rejoice in the cross, our souls love it for it is that by which Thou didst purchase us. O God, Thy grace is multiplied a million fold and manifest in the fact that even though some seek a sign and some follow after wisdom, Thou dost still call those both Jew and Greek to be Thy own, Thine own to join Thee in Thy Kingdom. Lord, we don't know the hearts of those here tonight. Perhaps there are some who have been going along depending on human wisdom...God, strip them completely naked and bare, cause them to arrive at zero, knock them down so that they cannot get up and cause them to ask Thee to lift them. Father, tonight if there are some here who don't know Christ, who do not know the cross of Jesus Christ, the wisdom of God, right now may they receive that self same Christ into their life for it was on that cross that He bore their sins and Thou hast said that all we have to do is believe on Him and receive Him into our lives and our sins are forgiven and the cross becomes to us wisdom and truth. God, we pray for those. May this be a night when they make that decision and they open their heart to Jesus Christ.
And right now why don't you just say, "I can't do it on my own, God, I want Christ to come into my life. I accept the work that He did for me on the cross, to forgive my sin, I invite Him in to my life right now." Can you pray that right where you sit?
Lord, Jesus, I believe in You, I accept Your work on the cross for me and I invite You into my life. I can't do it on my own, I realize that. Take control.
Invite Him in right now. Did you invite Him in? If some of you did, He came in. Praise the Lord. He always comes when you call.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text:
In Power Line vs. ThinkProgress, a Scorecard, we noted that a reader has gone to the trouble of summarizing some of the lies and misrepresentations that the left-wing web site ThinkProgress has propagated, particularly in connection with its smears of Charles and David Koch. That summary, with links to to the TP posts and refutations of them by us and others, is called the CAP Error and Dishonesty Tracker. I wrote when we first posted this page:
The Error and Dishonesty Tracker reveals how shameless TP and similar left-wing web sites are. Out of all of the blatant lies and errors in which we and others have caught TP, that site has made only a single correction. That is a testament to the sorry state of liberal "journalism" on the internet.
That statement remains true. The CAP Error and Dishonesty Tracker has been updated to add one of the all-time classics, Contango Confusion, one of the most embarrassing moments ever suffered by a political web site. Check out the Error and Dishonesty Tracker; it is a useful reminder of the intellectual bankruptcy of the American left.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Envoy Media Group necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 26 diseños de 11 diseñadores freelance.
FloridaDebtRelief.org assists individuals and families in debt by providing fast and convenient direct referrals to debt relief organizations. These debt relief specialists offer debt assistance through a variety of debt reduction programs including:
Debt management through credit counseling agencies, credit card debt settlement, debt negotiation, and debt mediation.
Many people will come to our site via email, display, and search advertisements. This is why it's vital that our site converts extremely high (40% - 60%)
People who are in debt. It's important to know that these people have been exposed to hundreds of debt relief advertisements and sites online, which is why the design must convey credibility, trust, safety, emotion, social proof (everyone's doing it), etc.
The demographics are:
- 60% Women to 40% men
- 28 - 35 years old 45%, 36 - 55 years old 55%
- Owe $20,000+ in credit card debt
We are asking for the following:
1. Homepage Design
2. Landing Page Design
In our experience, we've found that the more people trust the site and the easier it is to take action (fill out form) the higher the conversion.
Be the most reputable debt relief site in Florida.
High Conversion is our #1 objective.
Below I've provided a checklist that you may find helpful, from Richard Stokes book, "Ultimate Guide to Pay Per Click...." http://www.amazon.com/
1. Single Conversion Goal
o Does every page in your sales funnel have a primary call-to-action?
o Can the purpose of the page be understood by a typical visitor in less than five seconds?
o Is the intended goal of the page clearly spelled out in a headline?
2. Eyeline
o Do the shapes and colors of the page clearly lead the eye to the desired call-to-action?
3. Anxiety
o Are you asking for data the visitor may not want to give?
o Can you use testimonials?
4. Length
o Is the page copy of the appropriate length?
5. Friction
o Too many elements on the page?
o Too many links or navigation elements?
o Sufficient white space on the page?
Thank you!


text:
ReleasesBack to
Ron Carter
This CD has an interesting combination of players. It may be the only recording to include both pianist McCoy Tyner and his successor with the John Coltrane Quartet, Alice Coltrane (who adds atmosphere with her harp). This set also matches the young altoist Gary Bartz with Wayne Shorter (doubling on tenor and soprano), who he succeeded in Miles Davis' group, and has reunions between Shorter and bassist Ron Carter and between Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones. The all-star sextet stretches out on lengthy renditions of four of Tyner's modal originals, and there is strong solo space for the leader and the two saxophonists. Wayne Shorter in particular is often quite intense. Stimulating music. ~ Scott Yanow


text:
Concerns of a True Pastor: Integrity, Reverence, Sanctification
Well we come to that highlight of our time of worship when we hear the voice of God, when God speaks to us. I never cease to be amazed at the rich variety of texts in the Word of God. Every word of God is pure, the Old Testament says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Some Scripture is profoundly theological, some Scripture is richly experiential, some Scripture is exhortation and instruction, some Scripture is narrative and example. The variety is so wonderful and so rich. And one of the joys I have as an expositor of Scripture is just to take what comes in the flow of the study of God's great Word. What a treasure we have.
And as I told you last week, I have had a special love for 2 Corinthians because it is the heart of the Apostle Paul. No epistle written by Paul, and he wrote thirteen of the New Testament epistles, no epistle gives us a better look at the man's heart than this one. This is so important to me and it should be to all of us. We live in a day when we analyze everything, when we think we can accomplish everything we need to accomplish by sophisticated methodology. We can do just about anything we want to do if we can figure out the best method for doing it. Churches, church leaders, pastors, people involved in spiritual ministry are forever, it seems, looking for new methods, new patterns, new understanding of the demographics of the society around them, of the hot buttons of the culture in which they minister trying to find the tools and trying to find the schemes and plans in which to have effective ministry. And I suppose that does have a place, but I am convinced that the greatest impact in ministry will always be made from the inside out, that what God is looking for is people whose hearts are totally devoted to Him. And that's what makes 2 Corinthians so rich.
It's not a book about methodology and yet it's one of the most, if not the most, pastoral of all Paul's letters. It doesn't tell us anything about his techniques, it just tells us everything about his heart. And the ministry of the man and the immense success of the man was a result of the overflow of what he was before God. That's why it's been such a cathartic experience for me to have spent these last many years studying 2 Corinthians because we've been interacting in the depth of the heart of the Apostle Paul, this great Apostle who was more than a great teacher, who was more than a gifted communicator, who was more than an astute and profound theologian, he was a man who walked with God. He was a man whose heart was given toward God. He was a man who was consumed with all the right things, driven by all the right passions and motivated by all the right desires. That's what makes him so attractive to me. Here was a man that God used to affect the world and he's still affecting us, and he affects me every time I read anything he wrote. Here is a man whose impact is incalculable, whose impact will only be able to be understood in eternity. And here is a man about whose techniques we know very little, but about whose heart we know very much. And you must understand that this Christian life that we live, this Christian ministry in which we're engaged is all about walking with God, it's all about knowing God profoundly and deeply. It's all about having righteous and pure, holy aspirations and longings and motives. It's all about the inside. It's all about our hearts. It's all about our attitudes and our motives. This is the word that needs to be preached today. This is the message that needs to be told today to young pastors and those who are training for ministry. This is what we're committed to in the Master's Seminary. It's fine to teach technique, it's fine to teach methodology, but in the end a man will be no greater in the hands of God than his own spiritual character will allow. What he is in his heart is what he is, and that's what God can use mightily.
And we've seen that all the way through 2 Corinthians. We find ourselves in the text, this morning, in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians and we're looking at this last section of this great epistle. Second Corinthians chapter 12 starting in verse 12 and running all the way to verse 10 of chapter 13 is really one final section and we'll be taking it as such, though we'll break it down into a number of messages. Paul is bringing his letter to an end. He's concluding this profusely personal and profoundly rich letter. He's summing it up and you wouldn't expect him to go anywhere else but back into his heart. He's going to tell you what he's feeling here. He's going to let us in on his desires. He's going to let us in on what motivates him, what drives him, what compels him. In fact, I've entitled this section, "The Faithful Pastor's Concerns...The Faithful Pastor's Concerns."
In so doing at the end of this great epistle, he gives us a benediction. He pronounces on us a blessing and the blessing is to learn from the heart of this man, is to touch base with the motives of this man and pursue those very same motives in our own lives. If you were to read the literature available today on the church you might come to the conclusion that it's a very complex thing to lead a church, it's a very complex thing to pastor a church, very complex thing to be a spiritual leader, very complex thing to lead a Christian life, to function within the church because there's so many different options, there's so many different viewpoints, there's so many different approaches. In actuality, however, I think ministry from a pastoral standpoint, from the standpoint of spiritual leadership, from the standpoint of life in the church, ministry is not complex, it is confoundingly simple because the direction for it is laid out in Scripture. And methods come and methods go and cultures come and cultures go and the whims of people come and go and the mood of the mob shifts and changes in every climate, but the principles of godliness and virtue that effect ministry powerfully never change. And power and effectiveness in ministry is confoundingly simple because it's a matter of having a right heart before God and being passionate about the right things. And that's Paul...that's Paul. And we're going to learn from him, not by explicit instruction but by model and example as he opens his heart to us in this great passage.
Now the occasion for writing 2 Corinthians must be understood. And we've learned as we've gone through this epistle that the occasion is very clearly indicated to us by our study of the New Testament. False teachers had come to Corinth. Paul had founded the church there. He had written them three letters before he wrote this one, two of them, of course, are in the text of the New Testament. There were two others that he wrote. He had a tremendous burden for that church where he had literally spent almost two years of his life ministering. False teachers had come to his beloved church.
The first thing they did was assault his character to try to destroy him so they could replace hm as the reigning teachers and then teach their damnable lies. But before they could get a platform, they had to destroy him because he was the beloved teacher. And so they started an assault on Paul. Sad to say, the Corinthians bought into their assault, believed some of the lies and began to follow the false teachers. And Paul's heart was literally broken. He was so depressed he lost his heart for ministry and he walked away from an open door in Troas, as he indicates in chapter 7, because he had no heart for the ministry he was so broken hearted over the defection and the mutiny of the Corinthians.
The background then of this epistle is he is reaffirming his integrity, he is reaffirming his authenticity as a true Apostle, he is reaffirming his character to the Corinthians in contrast to the false apostles and the false teachers who have captivated them. That's the background. This is a very personal letter. All through the letter he describes his own character and his own personality and his own virtue and his own authenticity and his own integrity and his own motivation because he wants them to see what a true Apostle is like in stark contrast to false teachers.
And that's what we find as we come to this closing section. I told you last Sunday that there are five things that typically characterize all false teachers, you can look for them, they'll always be there. Number one is pride. False teachers invariably seek for notoriety, popularity. They want the big crowds. They want fame. They want the world to recognize them. They want to be famous in the world. Pride drives them.
Secondly, they're characterized by selfishness. They do what they do to get money. They do what they do to acquire things, to gain prosperity and comfort in this world. They are selfish.
Thirdly, they are characterized by the word "deception." Their agenda is to corrupt the truth and they are really the emissaries of the enemy himself. False teachers then are always characterized by pride, that is their concern for their own notoriety, their own popularity, their own esteem, their own honor in the world...by selfishness, they want by virtue of that honor and esteem to gain money and wealth and prosperity and build their empire...thirdly, they function on the basis of deception. They are subtle and sometimes even blatant in their effort to deceive. The fourth word that characterizes them is irreverence. They are of all people on the face of the earth the most irreverent because they carry out the agenda of Satan against God. God proclaims truth through His true preachers and teachers, and Satan proclaims lies through false teachers. So false teachers are the most irreverent of all. They do the work of Satan explicitly. They are irreverent, or to borrow another word from the Old Testament, blasphemous. And the fifth word is destruction. They're known by pride, selfishness, deception, irreverence, and destruction. They abuse people. They use people. They manipulate people for their own good, their own ends, leading them into error. Error leads them into sin. And sin destroys.
Paul wants us to understand and certainly wanted the Corinthians to understand that that was the very opposite of his own motivation. Rather than being motivated by pride, he was motivated by humility. Rather than being driven by selfishness, he was driven by the desire to sacrifice himself in an utterly unselfish way. Rather than being characterized by deception, he was a man of complete integrity and honesty. Rather than being irreverent, his whole life was an act of worship and homage to God. Rather than being given over to things that destroy, he was committed to the edification of the church. And so the things that we see in this passage that characterize Paul are humility, unselfishness, integrity, reverence and edification...the very opposite of what characterizes false teachers.
These are the attitudes of his heart and they go in a number of different directions. Let me give you just a brief review of what we talked about last time. First of all, in verse 12 he refers to the first attitude, the first motive, the first concern of this true pastor and it's with regard to the world. With regard to the world, his concern was simply faithfulness. And therein was the evidences of his humility. Look at verse 12, "The signs of a true Apostle were performed among you," and he had done those signs...signs, wonders and miracles which are referred to in that verse, and we've covered that in a past message. But he says all of that was done in a ministry with all perseverance. Perseverance is from the Greek word hupomone which means to get under and remain there and it has to do with the ability to endure a very difficult and trying experience. His whole ministry was conducted under persecution from the time that he was first commissioned, called on the Damascus Road, until an axe head flashed in the sun and cut his head off his body, the whole time he lived in the imminent reality that every day he lived could be his last, he could be executed at the hands of Gentiles or Jews, both of which were always plotting his death. He was under the constant threat of imprisonment and consequent execution. He chronicles that all the way through this entire epistle, as we noted starting in chapter 1. He sums it up, as you will see, back in verse 10 when he says, "I'm well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties for Christ's sake, for when I am weak then I am strong." That's all he ever had in his life, he had to be content with it.
He wasn't asking anything from the world. From the world, the false teachers want popularity, notoriety. They want the crowds. They want the accolades. They want the hoopla. They want the fame. All that Paul ever wanted from the world was what God intended the world to give him and that was persecution because persecution had a positive effect. Verse 7, "To keep me from exalting myself there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me to keep me from exalting myself. Considering this...concerning this I entreated the Lord three times it might depart from me, and He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" God wanted him to suffer because suffering kept him...what?...humble. And when he was humble he was useful. He didn't want anything from the world, the world had nothing to give him.
The world offers nothing to us, nothing at all. He never sought popularity with the crowd. He never sought popularity with the politicians. He never sought popularity with the world around him. He never sought acceptance by the reigning philosophers and educators of his time. He never wanted honor from the unconverted, the unconverted couldn't give him any kind of just honor. He only sought to be faithful to the truth and he knew that if he was faithful to the truth it would create a hostility that would result in persecution and that was the character of his life. That's the way it always went.
Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter 4 for a moment, back in the very first letter that he wrote them. He warns them about being arrogant. Arrogance is always a virtue in the secular world. Pride is always seen as a virtue in the ungodly world. But not to God and in verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 4 Paul warns people about becoming arrogant in behalf of one against the other. In other words, letting your arrogance affect your relationships with others, always thinking of yourself as superior, and then in verse 7 he says, "For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive but if you did receive it why do you boast as if you had not received it?" Who do you think you are?....he's saying. There's no place for boasting, you don't have anything you didn't receive. And if you received it from somebody else, why do you boast as if you deserved it or earned it?
And then he gets really sarcastic with these Corinthians. "You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us. Aren't you something?" That's all sarcasm, dripping sarcasm. Boy, you think you're hot stuff, we would say in the vernacular.
Well he says in verse 8, "I would indeed that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you." I wish it were true. You're proud, you're arrogant. They were so arrogant they were even parading their iniquities, according to chapter 5. Aren't you something...he says. You're rich, aren't you? You're filled, aren't you? You've arrived, you're kings.
Quite the contrary, listen to how he describes himself. Verse 9, "God has exhibited us apostles last of all." Here we are the greatest of men, anointed by Jesus Christ, called as eyewitnesses of the living Christ, as eyewitnesses of the exalted and glorified Christ whom Paul had seen on the Damascus Road for himself. Here we are the Apostles, the chosen, called to be the writers of the New Testament truth, called to establish the foundations of the New Covenant doctrine, here we are and what are we? We're nothing. We're men condemned to death. To the world we're nothing but a spectacle. Verse 10 gets sarcastic again. "We are fools for Christ's sake but you're wise. We are weak but you are strong. You are distinguished and we're without honor." That's irony. And he is again mocking their arrogance.
Verse 11, "To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty...here's the facts...we are poorly clothed, we are roughly treated, we are homeless, we work to the point of sweat and exhaustion...that's what the word toil means...we work with our own hands. When we are reviled, or cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted we endure...the same term again...when we are slandered we try to conciliate.: And this is how he sums it up. "We are become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things even till now."
You arrogant Corinthians, you who think you're superior, you who think you're kings, you who think you reign, you who think you've arrived, you are the wise and you are the prudent and we're just scum and dregs. Very graphic language. Scum is just what you think it is in the Greek, it's scum. That's what's left after the food at the bottom of the garbage can hardens, scrapings of food scoured off dirty dishes, pots and thrown away. Dregs, that was the bitter residue in the process of making the wine into pure wine, they would let it sit in skins in the dregs, the bitterness would all go to the bottom and there would be this terrible, bitter dregs that would eventually hardened at the bottom and be thrown away. We're the ones, we're the discards, we're the scum, we're the dregs.
Paul wanted nothing from the world. He didn't expect anything from the world. The world had nothing to offer him because the world has nothing that lasts. It all gets burned up. He didn't seek anything from the world. He only sought persecution which was inevitable because all that live godly in this present age will suffer persecution. That's what it says, 2 Timothy 3:12. That's what he sought. He sought to be so faithful that the inevitable hostility of an ungodly system would come against him. He sought, as Peter put it in 1 Peter 5:6, to be humbled under the mighty hand of God that he might be exalted by God at the appropriate time. He knew his reward was heavenly. False teachers are proud. False teachers want the notoriety. True teachers are humble, faithful and are willing to preach the truth and garner the hostility of the environment in which they live, they are willing to be called the scum and the dregs. They're willing to be regarded as criminals and outcasts. They're willing, through history it's been proven, to be sacrificed as burnt offerings on pagan ceremonial altars. That's fine. They will persevere for the truth.
Secondly, I just remind you of what we saw last week with regard to himself. With regard to the world he was content to be faithful and to persevere humbly. With regard to himself he was content to be a sacrifice. False teachers, they don't want to give up anything, they want to get everything. They're selfish, self-aggrandizing, self-consuming. They want everything they can get and they use and abuse people in order to get it. Not Paul. Look at verse 13, we remember this from last Lord's day. He says, "For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches?" See the false teachers had come to Corinth and they said, "Ah...you've, you've got a phony guy who came here, Paul was a fake, he's not a true Apostle. We're the true Apostles. Paul wasn't, he was a phony, he was a fake so you've got a substandard ministry here, you've got a substandard man coming with a substandard life, bringing a substandard message and consequently you've got a substandard church here. You're a real inferior group to the rest of the churches because you had this man in your midst."
They were...the false teachers were telling the Corinthians that they had a substandard, inferior ministry in their presence. Paul says in verse 13, "In what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches? The only thing that you didn't get that they got? Except-he says in verse 13-that I myself didn't become a burden to you." The only thing that you didn't get that the other churches got was a bill for my services rendered. I was never a burden, I didn't take anything. Didn't take any money, didn't take anything from you. He..he was very wise, he knew that the man who preaches the gospel has a right to live with the gospel, he had said that in 1 Corinthians 9, he told them that no soldier goes to war and doesn't expect to get fed. No farmer plants a field and doesn't expect to eat the crop. The workman's worthy of his hire. You can't muzzle the ox that treads the grain, you've got to feed it. He knew he had a right to it but he also knew that false teachers plied their trade to get money out of the pockets of their unwary subjects and he didn't want to be associated with that. And the Lord protected him from that and the Lord knew that false teachers would come in and they would have had something with which to accuse him had he taken anything. So the Lord made sure that while he was in Corinth he never took any money and he never took anything from them. "I was never a burden to you."
Earlier, you remember, in chapter 11 he says there was a time when I was in great need, didn't have daily necessities, probably didn't have food, didn't have what he needed to make it from day to day. He said, "I never even told you about that, I waited till somebody came from far away and met my need. I didn't want to be chargeable to you at all. I have never been a burden to you."
The reason, verse 14, "I do not seek what is yours but you." I want you, I don't want your...I don't want what's yours. False teachers, they want what's yours, they don't want you, they don't care about you. They just as soon damn you, they just want what you have. True teachers don't want you...they just...they don't want yours, they just want you...and that was Paul. He just wanted you for the Kingdom, you for God, you for eternal glory.
And then he makes an analogy. "For children are not responsible to save up for their parents but parents for their children." This is just normal, I'm your spiritual father and I care about providing what you need. I don't expect you to provide for me.
How far will you take this, Paul? Verse 15, "I'll most gladly spend.." What does he mean by the word "spend"? To literally spend, it's a Greek word that means to exhaust your resources. I'll spend everything I have...money, time, talent, energy, everything I have. I'll do that gladly, most gladly and then I'll spend it till it's expended. That literally means to be exhausted. I will give you everything I have, I will exhaust my money, I will exhaust my time, I will exhaust my talent, I will exhaust my energy, I will exhaust my life, everything because your souls are at stake. This is sacrifice.
With regard to the world his concern was faithfulness. With regard to himself his concern was sacrifice. This is the mark of a true man of God. He wanted to give his life away. He told the Philippians, "I want to be offered on the sacrifice of your faith." I'm willing to die getting the gospel to you for your eternal souls. And sad, and here's the pathetic part of it, end of verse 15, "If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?" Is this the thanks I get? If I love you the more as evidenced by my ongoing sacrifice, do I get this in return? Your hostility? Your diffidence? Your mutiny? Your rebellion? As I love you more are you going to love me less? Is this my reward?
It can be, folks, I tell you, it can be. And I'll tell you, it can be a heart-crushing experience for a faithful pastor when some people come in and lie about him and distort his character and win favor with people who falsely accuse one who has sacrificially loved them. That was Paul's experience. That is a very painful thing to endure.
Now that takes us to the third element in Paul's concerns. His concern with regard to the world was that he would be faithful. His concern with regard to himself, sacrificial. His concern with regard to his ministry, his concern was to be honest. His concern was to be honest. Verse 16 he says, "Be that as it may, whether you love me or you don't, I didn't burden you myself. I've been faithful never to be a burden to you. Nevertheless...he says...crafty fellow that I am...and here he gets sarcastic again...crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit." That is ludicrous. That is ridiculous. What man runs a scam which benefits him nothing? That's his point. What are you...what do you think I did? Come in there, spent two years of my life, write all these letters, make these trips, send Titus, go through all this grief, travel all over the place trying to sort you out, aren't I clever? Aren't I deceitful? Boy, I really took you in. And what did I get? Nothing... Some scam.
The whole thought is ludicrous. And they knew it because they knew he had never taken anything. Those who are engaged in true ministry are honest and up front and straightforward. And you can look at their life for a long time and it has integrity. False teachers are deceptive. They're deceitful. Paul uses the term "crafty fellow," it's a Greek term that identifies an unscrupulous deceptive person up to every trick. And that's probably what the false teachers said about Paul, "Yeah, he's a really crafty guy," and they're sort of scratching their hair trying to figure out how that all works when you don't get any benefit from it. You just get a lot of grief. Yeah, he says, "I took you in by deceit." That's an interesting phrase, it looks real benign in your Bible, I took you in by deceit, it's not. I took you in is a fishing word, it means to catch. I caught you. Are you ready for this? The Greek word dolos, deceit...it means fish hook. I hooked you. And nothing, frankly, is more deceptive than fishing to the fish. I mean, the whole idea is you don't drop your line down in there with a lure that says, "I would like you for dinner." And you don't just drop a great big hook down there that's obvious. You put something down there that looks like dinner and you deceive the fish.
Now those were terms used in the Greek word for chicanery and deception. It also can mean hunting because the word "deceit," dolos, can also be used to mean trap. I baited the trap and got you, I baited the hook and I'm really a clever guy, aren't I? I went fishing for you and I hooked you. I went hunting for you and I caught you in my trap. I took you in by deceit.
These false teachers had gone to Corinth and said Paul was a liar and a charlatan and a fraud and a fake and a deceiver and he come in there and he trapped them and he caught them in his deceptive hypocritical scheme. They circulated these vicious lies about him. And the sad, sad thing is the people had believed them. They believed them.
There's probably another little thing I need to mention here that's behind the scenes but it's in the epistle elsewhere, as I'll show you in a minute. The problem here was they were saying to those people, most likely..."Well Paul just hasn't brought his scheme yet to its final end...in fact, he's so subtle you can't really see what he's doing yet because he hasn't taken anything yet." I mean, they tried to use everything they could. And my guess, and I think it's a fairly educated guess, is Paul, you remember, before he wrote 1 Corinthians had sent Titus there. Titus was his companion, his son in the faith. He had sent Titus there before the writing of 1 Corinthians with a prior letter referred to in 1 Corinthians 5, a letter before 1 Corinthians, not an inspired letter but a letter surely of good, sound instruction. Titus delivered that letter and at that time Titus told the Corinthian church about an offering, about a collection that was going to be taken. Go back to chapter 8. Now verse 6 says, "Consequently we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well." What he's talking about here, this gracious work, is referred to in verse 4 as the support of the saints. Let me just give you a quick statement. The church was founded in Jerusalem initially. And when the church was founded on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims because it was the time of Passover and then the feast of First Fruits and all of that, all that great Jewish holiday period caused pilgrims to flood into the city of Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean world. So they were all there in Jerusalem for this great time and this great event...Pentecost being that great event.
Well on Pentecost the church was founded, the Spirit of God came. And many of these people were converted to Christ in that first crowd, and then the second crowd. And in a few chapters you have 20-30 thousand people making up the church very rapidly. And now they have a problem. There are pilgrims there and they should go home but the problem is, there's only one church in the world and it's in Jerusalem. There aren't any other churches. So they can't go home to their home church because there is no church. And so they're drawn to stay. And so the church in Jerusalem has to absorb all of these people who basically have no homes and no livelihoods and no nothing and that becomes a huge drain on the resources. Early in the book of Acts, you remember what happened? The people in the church are selling things they have and taking the money and spreading it around and they're bringing money in, laying it at the Apostles' feet and you remember some people were actually selling land, they're liquidating their capital assets in order to get the cash to help these people. And it goes on like that. Well eventually they ran out of money. And these people don't leave because now they're a part of the church.
Furthermore, the Jews who believed lost their status in the family. Many of them lost their careers, lost their jobs. They don't have any support anyway in Jerusalem because the Jewish community is so hostile against the church and persecuting the church with a fury, right? So this church has tremendous financial need.
Paul realized that meeting that need he was going to have to go somewhere else and by then the churches in the Gentile world had been planted so he went from place to place making a collection to take money back to the Jerusalem church to aid the believers there. It was to meet their need, first of all, and two, it was to conciliate the Jewish church and the Gentile church. Jews and Gentiles had a huge gulf between them but in Christ they were one, as Paul points out in Ephesians 2, the wall was broken down. It was time to practically bring them together and money coming from Gentile churches to the aid of the Jews in Jerusalem would go a long way to conciliate and to build bridges across old gulfs and chasms. And Paul knew that and so he started this collection. Originally he had sent Titus with this preface to 1 Corinthians, and he had told Titus to start the collection, keep the collection going. Then when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians he referred to that collection. First Corinthians 16 he says, "Keep collecting so that when I get there I don't have to take a big collection, you'll have it already collected when I arrive and I can take it to Jerusalem."
Well, you can just hear the false prophets. "Aha, I see, here's the scam, it's unfolding right now. This thing never gets to Jerusalem, folks, this is going into Paul's pocket. Paul's not telling you the truth, he's going to get this money, he's going to pocket this money." I mean, they only could think like deceivers, right? So they projected their own attitude toward everything on to him and assumed that he would have done just what they would have done.
There's really a dead giveaway. "To the pure all things are...what?...are pure, and to the defiled, everything is defiled." So they projected their own defilement on Paul and said he's going to take this money and keep it. "He never claimed to be a burden to you, well he just soft-soaped you, this is something else. You're going to get this huge collection that you've been collecting over years and he's going to come and walk off with this deal. He is a liar. He is a thief. And you have been deceived."
Now how is Paul going to refute this bizarre, ludicrous, ridiculous accusation? How's he going to refute it? Verse 17, back to chapter 12, "Certainly...he says...I have not taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you, have I? I sent Titus. I didn't take advantage, there's no record. Let's go to the facts. Have I taken advantage? Is there any evidence that I've ever defrauded you of anything ever anytime? I have never been a burden to you." Verse 14, "I will not be a burden to you." Verse 16, "I did not burden you." That's the fact. "I've never taken advantage of you through any of those I have sent to you." Verse 18, "I urged Titus to go to come to you. I didn't send him alone but I sent the brother with him. Titus did not take any advantage of you, did he? Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit and walk in the same steps? Weren't we exactly the same? There wasn't any difference."
You see, if they were impugning Paul's motives and calling him a deceiver, then they were impugning everybody with him because it had to be collusion. Everybody had to be in on the scam.
Go back to chapter 8 again to fill in the gap here. In chapter 8 of this epistle he reminds them not only of the first time Titus came but the second time Titus came. And Titus actually went three times, the third time delivering 2 Corinthians. He went the first time, started the offering and brought the first letter. Went the second time with the severe letter and kept the offering going. The severe letter was the one written between 1 and 2 Corinthians, as you remember. And now he goes back a third time with this epistle and he says in this letter in verse 16, "Thanks be to God who put the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus. Titus feels the way about you that I do. He not only accepted our gospel but being himself very earnest has gone to you of his own accord," and here comes the key, verse 18, "We have sent along with him the brother." This is for accountability sake just so there's no possibility that this is a scam. Paul's aware of these things. We sent the brother. Who is this? "Whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches." He doesn't even name the guy. We didn't need to name him because he had already been there with Titus so they knew who he was, everybody knew who he was. And he was famous as a preacher. He was appointed by the churches. Paul looked for some outside person outside his own little group of friends who was appointed by the churches so there would be no question about collusion here. "And his job was to travel with us in this gracious work which is being administered by us for the glory of the Lord Himself and to show our readiness." Verse 20, "Taking precaution that no one should discredit us in our administration of this generous gift." I don't want to do anything that's going to cause anybody to criticize us, so we had the churches pick a man and send him along for accountability.
"We have regard," verse 21, "for what is honorable not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men. We're concerned not only about what men think but about what God thinks." And thirdly, here's another person, "We've sent with him our brother," this is another unnamed man whom they would have known because he had already come. We've often tested him. We found him diligent in many things. Now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner, fellow worker among you. As for our other brethren, these other two, they are messengers of the churches of glory to Christ."
Let me ask you this. Could somebody describe you that way? A glory to Christ...that's a pretty high commendation, isn't it? Paul says I've covered those basis, you know the facts. You know I never took anything from you, you know Titus never defrauded you. And you know he came with a brother widely known and famous among the entire church for his preaching, and you know there was another brother sent as a...as appointed by the churches as well and you know we did all this so no suspicion could be grounded in any reality whatsoever. Titus went at that beginning...beginning the collection. A year later 1 Corinthians was written, encouraging them to keep the collection going. Titus went back after 1 Corinthians, brought the Severe Letter, encouraged them to keep it going. He goes back with this letter and he's there again for the third time. They knew Titus and they knew the men that were with him and they were all trustworthy, more lies by the false teachers, more deception, more untruth, more assault. Paul says in verse 18, "Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit and walk in the same steps? Was there any difference in any of us? Weren't we all the same? Didn't we all treat you exactly the same? We were beyond legitimate accusation. We were beyond any justified suspicion. You know there was no deceit in our ministry. There was no cunning craftiness. There was only honesty. There was only integrity."
Beloved, this is characteristic of a true man of God. Paul in Romans 9:1 says, "I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit." This was an honest man. And whenever he wanted to affirm his honesty, he called upon his conscience. Second Corinthians 1:12, "Our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you. I have a clear conscience." Let me remind you. The conscience is the highest court on earth. God is the court in heaven. But on earth the conscious is...the conscience is the highest court. It is a God-given device that every person possesses which triggers feelings of shame, remorse, fear and guilt when we sin. Paul says I look deep into my heart and my conscience does not accuse me. That's a great testimony to his integrity, isn't it? We conducted ourselves appropriately, all of us did, you have no reason for such foolish suspicion. I have conducted my ministry with complete integrity and honesty.
In Galatians 1:20, "Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying." Isn't it sad that he had to say that so many times? That's because there were so many gainsayers going around telling everybody he was a liar. And the only thing he could do would be to say, "I appeal to God, before God I'm not lying. I appeal to my conscience, my conscience is clear, I'm not lying." A man of great integrity.
Second Corinthians 4:2, the false teachers had accused him of all kinds of terrible things. But he says here in 4:2, "We have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, but by manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." He says before God I'm telling you the truth. My own conscience affirms I'm telling you the truth. And I even appeal to your conscience, you've seen my life. The false teachers said he's crafty, he's subtle, he's deceptive, he adulterates, twists, perverts the Word of God. Paul says I've renounced that, I don't walk in shame, I don't walk in craftiness. I don't adulterate the Word of God, I just proclaim the truth. My conscience is clear and yours should be too, you've seen my life, you've watched me. The man was a man of great integrity.
In the eleventh chapter of 2 Corinthians, verse 31 he says, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying." It's sad, isn't it? He keeps saying he's not lying, he's not lying, he's not lying. So many accusations. Such a man of integrity must have become weary trying to defend his honesty. First Timothy 2:7, I love this passage. "There's one God, verse 5, one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all the testimony born of the proper time and for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying." What else can you do when people say you're a liar and you're a fraud and you're fake, what can you do? You can say I'm telling you I'm not lying, before God I'm not lying, my conscience is clear, your consciences should be clear too, you know my life, you've seen me. And look at the facts." There's no deceit in his ministry.
With regard to the world he was humble, faithful. That's the way it needed to be. With regard to himself, he was selfless and sacrificial. With regard to his ministry, he was honest, had integrity. Just the opposite of false teachers. Fourth, the next thing that's concerning Paul is with regard to his Lord and with regard to his Lord his concern was reverence...reverence. Verse 19, quite an interesting verse. All this time you've been thinking we're defending ourselves to you. How about that? "All this time, all this time you thought all this lengthy explanation of my personal integrity and all this defense of my apostleship, you thought that it was all for you because you're the judge and you're the jury and you're the tribunal that's going to sit in judgment on my life, huh? You thought probably all this time because maybe that's what the false teachers have told you that I've been making excuses for my character and my conduct failures and trying to justify myself to convince you as if you were the judge, as if I was on trial before you. You've been thinking that all along, haven't you? Wrong! You're not my judge. You're not my jury. You're not my tribunal." First Corinthians chapter 4 he had told them in his earlier letter, this is very straight, "To me...verse 3...it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court." It is minuscule. It is well nigh immaterial. It doesn't matter. It's unimportant. It's insignificant what you think of me, or what any human court thinks of me. Verse 5, "Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring delight the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts and then each man's praise will come to him from God. He says you're not my judge, God's my judge. You're not to sit in judgment on me, you don't have that right. That right belongs to God. You're not my tribunal. You're not writing all of this so you can render the final verdict on my life.
Back to verse 19, "Actually, it is the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ." What's he saying here? You're not my judge, who is? God is my judge, not you. God is my judge. We shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, he said in chapter 5 verse 10. In chapter 2 verse 17 he said, "We speak in Christ in the sight of God." He was conscious all the time that God was watching. God would be his judge. Everything had to be finally rendered in God's hands. God was his only judge. Second Timothy 4, you know the familiar words. "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing in His Kingdom, preach the Word...preach the Word." Why? Because God is your judge. Chapter 4 of 2 Timothy verse 8 he says, "There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day." God will render the final verdict on my life, not you. That's why he was so reverent. As you see the life of Paul in the book of Acts and you go through all his epistles, you're overwhelmed with his reference for God, always talking about God, rejoicing that he was in Christ but everything was in the sight of God, in view of God to the glory of God, to the honor of God, to the majesty of God. He's not subject to some self-appointed kangaroo court made up of men.
You say, "Well then why does he bother to tell them all this stuff? Why does he bother with this defense?" Well that comes to the last point with regard to the church. With regard to the world his concern was faithful humility. With regard to himself, sacrifice. With regard to his ministry, honesty. With regard to God, reverence. And with regard to the church, listen his concern was sanctification...sanctification. Verse 19, "Why then are you giving this all to us?" End of verse, "It is all for your...what?...what's the word?...upbuilding, beloved." At the same time that he was seeking to reverence God, at the same time that he knew who his judge was and that he was seeking to please God and God alone, he also sought the spiritual well-being of the Corinthian church. And here's the point. If he was discredited, they wouldn't listen to him. If they didn't listen to him, they wouldn't hear the Word of God. If they didn't hear the Word of God, they wouldn't grow. Bottom line, their sanctification was dependent on listening to him. He wanted to convince them that he was the true spokesman of God, not so they could sit in judgment on his life, but so they could listen to his teaching. It was all for your upbuilding, it's all for your edification. You're not my judge but you are my spiritual responsibility. You're not going to sit in judgment on my life, but you are going to sit under my teaching and only if you trust in me as the true Apostle of Jesus Christ are you going to hear what I say and believe it and therefore grow.
He calls them "beloved" tenderly here. He's been sarcastic and I think putting in the word "beloved" sort of balances it off a little. You're not my judge but all that I'm teaching, all that I'm trying to accomplish here ultimately benefits you because when you hear the truth you're built up in the truth. God has given to the church apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and teaching pastors for the edification of the saints, for the building up of the saints. And Paul was one of those. He was given to the church for the building of the church. Chapter 10 verse 8 of 2 Corinthians, "The Lord...he says...gave him for building you up and not for destroying you." Chapter 13 verse 10 as he closes out this epistle, he says that his task which the Lord gave him, end of verse 10, was for building up and not for tearing down. Peter says, "As babes desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby," and the pure milk of the Word was coming through the Apostles, at that time it was coming through the Apostle Paul, thirteen New Testament epistles coming through him. The Word coming to him by revelation. He was the source of divine truth and their edification was dependent, their spiritual growth was dependent on that truth. And if they stopped listening to Paul, then they stopped getting fed to divine truth and they would not grow. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable...profitable to make the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works, whole, complete, perfect." Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:32, he commended them to the Word of God so that it would build them up." So Paul says you're not my judge, but you are my spiritual responsibility. You're not the tribunal that's going to set the verdict on my life, but you are my children and I'm responsible for your nurture. And that's why all of this effort so that he would reposition himself in the place to be heard trustingly and believed so that they could grow. We can't grow apart from the Word, you know that? And in those days they couldn't grow apart from this Apostle. If they didn't trust his preaching and teaching and writing, they would be missing what God had provided for them.
Now, that introduces the subject of sanctification. All of this, he says, for your upbuilding. And that then becomes the theme clear to the end of chapter 13. Everything left now is going to come under the subject of sanctification as Paul closes out this epistle and gives to us the elements of a sanctified church. This is a great section of Scripture and we'll start into it next time, the elements of a sanctified church. Join me in prayer.
Father, what a joy to get into the heart of this beloved Apostle. What a testimony. What an example he is to us. Here was a passionate man, here was a driven man. Here was a man consumed, compelled. I suppose some psychologists might say he was an obsessed man, certainly compulsive but compelled by all the right things, compelled by humility to be faithful and endure endless suffering, seeking nothing from the world, humble. Here was a man with regard to himself sacrificial, willing to spend everything he had until he had exhausted it all, including his own life and breath...sacrificial. Here was a man honest. Though his life has been searched and searched and searched, there is no hint of deception anyplace. Such great integrity. This is a man who sets a standard for us to follow. Here is a man who's reverent, a man who lives his life before you, not before men, who is more concerned about what heaven says than what earth says, who wants your commendation most of all. And here is a man with regard to the church who is consumed with the church's building up, so much so that he goes to these lengths to protect his platform not for the sake of personal gain because it didn't come and wouldn't come in this world, but for the sake of teaching his beloved children. May this model of ministry be restored in churches around the world. May such men be raised up and may all who already stand in places of ministry be faithful to this pattern and may this model be the very pattern that all of us follow who should live our lives humbly and sacrificially and honestly, living our lives reverently before You in order that we might be the source of the strengthening of all those around us. This is a high calling, this is a noble man and we desire to be like him, even as he was like Jesus Christ who set the standard of humility, sacrifice, integrity, who set the standard for reverence and who is the true builder of His church. We pray in His name and for His glory. Amen.


text:
A few days ago, an eBay auction offering thousands of video games was listed at over $1.2 million. An obscene figure, but when you consider it included the complete catalogues of every game released on the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Virtual Boy, Master System, Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast (just to name a few), it seemed like there might be someone out there willing to actually buy it.
Which was an interesting story, but what was more interesting were the motivations of the guy behind it. A man who, for over a decade, had amassed a collection of video games so extensive his eBay listing had enough pictures in it to crash a browser.
Frenchman Andre began his collection - which he jokes he houses in a "bat cave" - as a joint endeavour with his twin brother around fifteen years ago, then took over as the sole curator around 2004-05 when his sibling dropped out.
While you'd think a stash of games of this size must have crippled him financially, he says that's not the case. "I don't know how much it would have cost me, I never did the math as I bought", he told me. Most months he only picked up a few games, meaning that over the 15 years his collection grew "slowly but surely".
Amazingly, the bulk of the games were obtained without Andre having to venture too far from home; aside from a trip to Japan in the late 90s where he grabbed a few titles, the rest were purchased either online or from retailers in France.
His rarest game is a copy of bizarre Mega Drive title Go-Net, which with less than half a dozen verified copies is one of the most hard-to-find retail games on the planet.
So why sell? He would only say it was for "personal reasons", though with the money raised he plans to first go on a holiday then use the proceeds to open his own business. That is, if he actually gets the money; as of today, the "buyer" still hasn't parted with the cash...