Series: 1 Corinthians
Title: The Most Important Reason for Preaching
Text: 1 Cor 1: 29-31
Date: August 6, 2015
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Our subject is “The Most Important Reason for Preaching.” We come now to the last reason given for which Christ sent Paul to preach the gospel of Christ crucified.
1 Corinthians 1: 29: That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
God chose to use the means of the public preaching of Christ crucified by which God makes each of his children to cease glorying in our flesh in God’s presence, whereby God makes Christ all to each of his children and whereby God brings his child to glory only in the Lord.
Todays’ vainly religious world is like unbelieving Israel in the wilderness. They grew weary of waiting for Moses to come down out of the mount. So they made an idol they could see and bow down to it and rose up to play. It has been 2015 years since Christ ascended into the mount of God. The vainly religious world has grown weary of waiting on the Lord to work in his people through the simple declaration of the gospels Weary of waiting on Christ to return. So they have made them an idol—called church—and a few days a week they put on a play called church.
But God had at least one elect child in that mob, named Aaron. God called him out. And I pray God has more that he may call out and call into Christ, into his true church. If he does he will do it through the preaching of Christ and him crucified.
NO FLESH BUT OF GOD
First, God chose to save through the preaching of the gospel of Christ because this is the means by which God makes no flesh glory in his presence but God makes us to know it is of God that we are in Christ—1 Corinthians 1: 29: That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,…
Most folks in religion glory in their flesh. When asked of their hope they almost always begin with the word “I.” But God chose to save through the preaching of the gospel of Christ to make it so no sinner can stand in God’s presence and glory in himself:
God’s people do not glory that we made ourselves born-again. .We do not glory that we converted ourselves from unbelief to faith in Christ. We do not even glory that we taught ourselves the gospel. Certainly, we do not give ourselves praise for making us righteous and holy and redeemed.
There is one reason God true called do not glory! It is because God chose to save through the foolishness of preaching, “That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,…”
IN GOD’S PRESENCE
Now, let’s focus on this phrase “in God’s presence.”
God is omnipresent—everywhere all the time. But God is especially present in the place where God chooses for his name to be preached in truth—and it is God who blesses his child to hear and know Christ.
Exodus 20: 24:…in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
Deuteronomy 12: 5: But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:…7: And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God,…11:…there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye [come] 12: And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; 13: Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: 14: But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes,…
Deuteronomy 14: 23:…that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.
God our Savior, Christ himself, is present with the preachers he sends to minister his word and with the people he gathers.
Matthew 28: 18: And Jesus came and spake unto them [his preachers] saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19: Go ye therefore,…20: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 18: 20: For where two or three are gathered together in my name, [gathered together by him in his name] there am I in the midst of them.
Acts 18:9: Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 10: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
It is God in Christ who gets all the glory for speaking and making his presence known in our hearts.
Hebrews 1: 1: God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2: Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,…
John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Hebrews12:25: See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Hebrews 2: 1: Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2: For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3: How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4: God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
When God and his Son makes his prescence known in our hearts we cease glorying in our flesh because he effectually makes all his children know it is “of God that are ye in Christ”
1Thessalonians 2:13: For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
Mark16:20: And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
2 Thessalonians 2: 13: But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 4:17:…the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
OF GOD ARE YE IN CHRIST JESUS
Now, focus on this phrase “of God are ye in Christ Jesus.” Scripture speaks of three ways God’s people are in Christ Jesus and all three are of God.
Representative Union. God put all his elect in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world—“according as he chose us in him.” God’s elect have always had a Representative Union in Christ. We had a representative union in Adam. Adam was a type of Christ in representation. All Adam’s offspring were in Adam in the garden. (Rom 5: 12-21) So all who Adam represented—including God’s elect—died in the garden by Adam’s sin. But all who Christ represented—God’s elect—were in Christ when he obeyed. Therefore, all are justified and sanctified in Christ. Therefore, all shall be made eternally alive and righteous and holy by Christ.
1 Corinthians 15: 22: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Vital Union. By God’s grace, God’s elect have always had a vital union in Christ as a branch is in the vine or as a member is in the body. (John 15:1-7). But we are brought to know this union in this next way we are united.
Conscious Union. We know something of these other unions, when through the gospel, God puts us in Christ in our conscious experience of it. “We are made willing in the day of his power.” By the blood of Christ declared in the gospel the Holy Spirit purges our conscience. God makes all his elect experience this in time. God gives life, God-gives faith in Christ and God does it through the preaching of the gospel of Christ—“Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.”
This union is of God and not of us: not of ourselves or any other man; not of our fleshly will or any other man’s will; not because of who our parents are or who we are; not by the church, not by the preacher; not because we are wiser or better or study and pray more than others —“But of God are ye in Christ.”
John 1: 10: He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11: He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Now stay with the context. God does this through the preaching of the gospel. This is why God chose to save through the preaching of the gospel—that no flesh should glory in his presence but of God are ye in Christ Jesus. This doctrine clearly taught by the Holy Spirit in God’s word. We can no more deny this doctrine than we can deny the doctrine of Christ’s particular redemption of his people. We cannot deny it because it is for God’s glory in Christ Jesus his Son and for our abasement.
Deuteronomy 14: 23:…that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.
If God said he would do this work through the word alone then we would drop bibles out of the skies. But God purposed to do this work through the public preaching of Christ.
WISDOM
Thirdly, through the preaching fo the gospel, through this operation of God’s grace, God makes Christ all unto each of his children—1 Corinthians 1: 20: who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
“Wisdom” glorifies Christ as that Wisdom who was with God before the foundation of the world. In whom God declared the works of salvation finished from the foundation of the world. “Wisdom” glorifies Christ as the Wisdom of the cross in whom God is both a Just God and a Savior. And in the context, “Wisdom” glorifies Christ as our Prophet.
When God makes Christ Wisdom unto us he says, “Hear ye him.” Then we hear and the child of God is given “the mind of Christ” and discerns all truth. By Christ our Wisdom we “know the things that are freely given to us of God.” Christ sends his preacher and gathers his people; Christ gives his preacher the word to preach; Christ preaches into the hearts of his people; God in Christ makes it effectual in our hearts; God reveals his glory in the face of Christ. All of this is included in those words of John:
John 1: 18: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Colossians 2:3: In [Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Proverbs 2: 5: Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 6: For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SANCTIFICATION
And it is of God that Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification. I included these together because they are different aspects of the same thing.
Righteousness satisfies the law for justification. Sanctification satisfies the law in the holy motives of true heart-obedience. Christ is both. God makes Christ both unto his child.
Christ is the Righteousness of his people. Christ justified his people on the cross making us righteousness. Through the preaching of the gospel, of God, is “the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to faith.”
2 Corinthians 5:21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Of God is Christ made unto us Sanctification (Holiness). Out of Christ’s wounded side flowed water and blood. Justification, by his blood; sanctification, by the water. Christ is both.
Psalm 32:2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” (Zech 13: 1)
We sing,
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.
The Spirit of Christ enters to dwell in all his people making us holy by his Spirit of holiness. Thus a new man is created in God’s image and likeness. We are made partakers of the Divine nature, of God’s holiness, and Christ is that holiness without which no man shall enter God’s presence and see the Lord.
Brethren, this is not inherent righteousness and holiness because in our flesh dwells no good thing. This is imparted righteousness and holiness from God in the new man of God’s creating. There is no spiritual life except there be righteousness and holiness. The moment Adam sinned he died because he became unrighteous and ungodly. Spiritual life necessitates a new man be created within, in Christ’s righteousness and holiness—
Romans 8: 10: And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Wherever the Spirit of Christ dwells there will be fruits of the Spirit. Sin comes from our flesh of us, but there will be fruits of the Spirit of God in the new man. This is one reason why believers are not under the law but under grace. There is no law against the fruits of the Spirit—
Galatians 5: 22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23: Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
We have Christ ruling our hearts now, rather than the letter of the law and our sinful flesh. Brethren, when God makes Christ Righteousness and Holiness unto us, God bring us to believe and rest in Christ. And here is the good news:
Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit
REDEMPTION
And God makes Christ Redemption unto his child. Redemption includes all the liberty Christ purchased for his people. Christ redeemed his people from guilt, from hell, from sin, from the power of Satan, and from the grave.
There is coming a “day of redemption” when the work of Christ shall be consummated, when each of his people shall be redeemed in body, soul and spirit. (Rom 8:23; Eph 1:14, 4:30; Heb 9:12.) Then everything we have in part now we will have in fully in perfection in glory with Christ.
Now, do not forget the context. There is but one means by which God does this work, the preaching of Christ and him crucified. It is so no flesh shall glory in his presence—because God in Christ comes in person in the preaching of the gospel. It is to make his child know that it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus. It is to make Christ our All: Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption. Seeing that God puts us in Christ, seeing that Jesus Christ is made all this to all whom God saves, then it is evident we cannot do this and have none of this in ourselves by nature.
GLORY IN THE LORD
So lastly, God does all this through the preaching of the gospel for this most important reason—this is the sure and certain result God’s work produces in his child—1 Corinthians 1: 31: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Those whom God has truly saved, glory only in the Lord!
Amen!