1 Corinthians 2:1

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 

Here we see with complete clarity the claim being made by Paul. 

It was not by his skill that people had come to Christ through his preaching. 

He laid no claim that skill could tactically corner the agnostic. 

He did not claim that he could then counter punch with a soliloquy of philosophy to deliver the atheist, bound hand and foot to surrender his soul to the gospel and Christ.

Quite to the contrary;

I …, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 

Paul simply Preached Christ Alone

WHY?

We are told in the last verse of this portion;

1 Corinthians 2:5

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

We are so often enthralled by the orations and speeches and debates by intellectuals on whichever media program we might see, but this does not necessarily bring people to Christ.

We see the brilliant, expert arguments of men such as Jordan Peterson, and we might claim with Festus that “much learning doth make thee mad” (Acts 26:24), and yet we can’t help but be impressed by it.

We see the rapid fire responses by someone like Ben Shapiro and think, ‘how can a mind be so fast in responding so clearly?’. Like Job, Mr Shapiro has “filled his mouth with arguments” (Job 23:4) and who can stand against him?

 The great orators of the recent past swept up the world into a frenzy, whether it was Barak Obama in the first decade of this century, or Adolph Hitler in the 3rd decade of the last century, these all be like King Herod in the first century to whom the people gave shout saying;

“It is the voice of a god, and not of a man” (Acts 12:22)

‘So much skill, so much knowledge, surely this is the way to God!’

But then you say to yourself; “But I have none of these things! I have no such knowledge to employ, ALL I have is to preach Christ Alone!“

And this is all that is needed for God to Convert OR Convict the heart. And that is the point of this passage!

When we read Paul’s letter here to the Corinthian Churches we are somewhat comforted; 

1 Corinthians 2:1

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 

He had just affirmed to us in the previous chapter;

1 Corinthians 1:23–24

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

The apostle doubles down respecting this as he describes himself from the perspective of his enemies, in his second letter to the Corinthian Churches;

2 Corinthians 10:10

10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.

It feels good to know that we don’t NEED more wisdom than “Christ Crucified”. We don’t need more skill than to preach Christ alone.  

While we might be comforted by this, we are also a little perplexed because we know that Paul certainly had great learning and great understanding. And so we need to consider this;

Turn to 

Acts 22:3–5

3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. 4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. 5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.

In Philippians 3, Paul refers to himself saying;

Philippians 3:5

5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

Yet with all this knowledge and with all this understanding, he seems to have deliberately set it all at nought that the Power of God through the gospel would affect the heart.

That Christ alone receives the glory.

To him and to those he preached to, it was NOT SKILL NOR PHILOSOPHY BUT to PREACH CHRIST ALONE.

Yet we still find ourselves a little perplexed. How is it that Paul, who certainly has MUCH learning and wisdom, determined that it would not be through…

excellency of speech or of wisdom, that he would declare unto them the testimony of God. ?

1 Corinthians 2:2-3

2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 

What is evidenced beloved is a conscious humility before God. A determination that HE would not place himself in the way of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That it would not be by his intellect nor by any confidence on his part, but by Christ Alone…that he may save some.

In the ancient days of the time of Moses we see an indication where Paul may have learned or understood the power of God speaking through men.

Turn to 

Exodus 4:10–12

10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. 

11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

So great was Moses in the early years of Israel. He was so lifted up by the people and yet he speaks of himself as ineloquent and “slow of speech, and of a slow tongue“. 

The Bible tells us that Moses was no mean man, he was not a dill, not a fool.

Turn back to the New Testament book of Acts and see there what is said of him;

Acts 7:20–23

20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months: 21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. 22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. 23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

While all this is true we come to understand the truth of what is written in Numbers 12:3

3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

There was a great humility in Moses. 

Moses trembled at the word of God and would not presume to be able to speak on his behalf. 

How few are the men today who tremble when it comes to preaching the word of God? How few they are that presume to do so and find themselves corrupting the word of God for their lack of reverence and fear and trembling.

When the people cried out to king Herod in that first century saying, “it is the voice of a god, and not of a man.” They forget the very next verse;

Acts 12:23

23 And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

God commanded false prophets to be stoned in days of old, and while we dont see this occurring in these days, IT DOES NOT MEAN GOD WILL NOT HOLD MEN ACCOUNTABLE!

Men OUGHT to fear. Men OUGHT to tremble before presuming to speak on the Lords behalf.  20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.Isaiah 8:20

It seems that Moses, like Paul it seems that he;

2…determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 1 Corinthians 2:2-3

We live in a time and age when it seems that only the learned men are listened to. 

Those who have letters before their names are the ones that are given a platform.They have written books, they have appeared on TV and invited on special podcasts to show their wears and tickle the ears of the people.

But this is NOT whom God chooses.

And those like Moses and like Paul, who may indeed have great learning, humble themselves in fear and much trembling before handling the word of God.

O, if men only understood what danger they are in as they foolishly act and speak contrary to God! 

Men who desire the praise of other men.

Men, whom Jude said walk “after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage” (v16)

Yet what a wonderful opening it is for you and I. What a blessing it is if we might just receive of the Lord, open our mouths to Preach Christ Alone!

Jeremiah did so.

Jeremiah 1:6–7

6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

I don’t recall if I mentioned Jeremiah last time respecting the modern Churches KPI’s. 

How does one measure the success of Jeremiahs long 40 year ministry?

Every month we receive a newsletter from a missionary oversees and every newsletter we get excited that people are being saved….and so we give for the work of that missionary because WE ALL WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH SUCESS!

But what if the missionary was Jeremiah?

Each month, “0” souls saved.

January “0”

February “0”

March “0”

April “0”

…..that report would have begun, WITHOUT CHANGE, in 1984……now 40 years later, NOTHING HAS CHANGED…

Imagine for a moment that every few years Jeremiah returns to his supporting Churches and testifies to his ministry.

We see his heart, his tears. We hear of his trials and see evidence of his wounds for the Lord. We feel his broken heart  and know he preaches the word of God in truth in spite of the pain he endures for it..

Is he counted successful in our eyes?

How many would continue to support him beloved?

How many are the pastors today that may resemble the prophet Jeremiah? How many of you Preach CHRIST ALONE and have so little to show for it? 

Do we measure efficacy by results? If so, how do we measure Jeremiah and missionaries like him?

WHAT KPI’s do you put in place beloved?

He wanted to stop. He certainly wanted to give up. He’d had enough. 

Faithless brethren who judged him with vanity and condemned him so terribly. Put in stocks, put into prison, a dungeon in which he sank in the mire.

No bread in the streets, and left to rot by those he preached to.

Jeremiah 20:7–9

7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. 8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. 9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

God does not judge as we judge.

Jeremiah preached the word of the Lord and passed the responsibility to the hearers of the word.

He did not speak with eloquence, he simply opened his mouth and preached CHRIST ALONE.

Paul wrote

Galatians 6:14

14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 

1 Corinthians 2:4

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 

Now we are approaching the the point of the matter. 

Many people have been enticed by smooth words, things that sound good. 

“Word salads” are used a great deal today to cover the deceitful hearts of many false teachers and liars. 

There seems to be a “Salad School” for politicians today. 

Questions are answered without being answered. Enticing words that carry no meaning are employed by these people to deceive the hearts of the simple. 

Last century this SKILL of saying nothing by using lots of words was called “Jargon”.

Richard Mitchel, the late author of a regular magazine called The Underground Gramarian, wrote a book simply titled LESS THAN WORDS CAN SAY.

He notes simply, “When there is no idea in the mind, a word rushes into the vacuum “[1]

Examples abound in his book, but one is sufficient to get the idea of words that carry no value but sound great.

Its given in a bureaucratic handbook for teaching children.

“Our program is designed to enhance the concept of an open-ended  learning program with emphasis on a continuum of multi-ethnic, academically enriched learning using the identified intellectually gifted child as the agent or director of his won learning. Major Emphasis is on the cross-graded, ,multi-ethnic learning with the main objective being to learn respect for the uniqueness of a person” [2]

We see it employed among WOLVES IN SHEEPS CLOTHING.

While Paul refers to himself as “rude in speech” in 2 Cor 11:6, godless men with enticing words are seen in Romans 16

Romans 16:17–18

17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Peter reveals them with even greater clarity, turn there with me.

2 Peter 2:17–19

17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 

In place of this the apostle desired to trust in Christ Alone.

1 Corinthians 2:4

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 

He set aside his wisdom, his knowledge, his oratory skills, his rhetoricians persuasiveness via the wisdom of men, but rested ONLY in the power of God to take the truth of the gospel to the heart.

Beloved, it is the SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST ALONE that converts or convicts the heart of man. BOTH are attended to and BOTH are effective for the glory of God.

1 Thessalonians 1:5

5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, ….

2 Corinthians 1:12

12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

That simple Gospel is seen all through the new testament;

John testifies

1 John 4:14–15

14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

1 John 5:11–13

11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

And so WHY IS THIS TRUE?

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Beloved we mentioned something before that needs to be understood.

Please listen carefully as I close this sermon this morning, for if this is understood and this is truly beleived in the heart, you will be a blessing to the Lord no matter how the gospel is received.

FIRST and foremost:

No matter the result of the gospel of Christ alone, you are seen by God as effective for his work,

Yes, this is true. 

Turn to Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55:10–11

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

In the book of Acts Paul places the responsibility on the heads of those who have heard his words BUT NOT ACCEPTED IT;

Acts 18:5–6

5 And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. 6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. 

Therefore, IF YOU ARE FAITHFUL in simply proclaiming the truth of the gospel, no fanfare, no excellency of speech, no enticing words, but Christ Alone;

Just like Jeremiah, you will be seen as faithful; BUT WHY?

Because the effect of the word of God is to foster a clear response!

Recall Jesus own words;

Luke 12:51–53

51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Truth is divisive. It separates from error. It shines a light on darkness, it divides good and evil and it does this work IN THE HEART OF MAN.

This is the second and possibly most important to understand

If you can understand this next point, you will not only understand the gospel of Christ alone, but you will understand why it is that you can stand so firm REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME.

EVEN TO DEATH!

The gospel speaks to the HEART OF MAN, not the head.

It is the HEART that must “repent” not the head. It is NOT a Change of Mind, but a change of heart! The gospel speaks to the heart NOT THE HEAD!.

It is the HEART that is deceitpfull above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9), NOT THE HEAD.

The fool hath said in his HEART there is no God (Ps 14:1)

NOT THE HEAD.

When the eunuch asked of Phillip the evangelist “what doth hinder me to be baptised“, Phillip responded If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest (Acts 8:37), not the HEAD.

THIS IS WHY it is not the wisdom of words, but in the power of God to convert the HEART!

Consider some of these quotes for a moment and tell me if there is a problem with the head or the heart!

Professor of Philosophy Thomas Nagel wrote this in his book “The Last Word” Oxford University Press 1997;

“I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”[3]

Conssider those words. Is it a problem with the head or the heart? Remember he is an intelligent man, where does the problem lie?

Aldous Huxley was a teacher and philosopher and famous writer of over 50 books including the critically acclaimed dystopian novel A Brave New World.

He was an atheist, darwinist and brother of Julian Huxley, a famous evolutionary biologist and the first director general of UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation). 

Aldous Huxley wrote; 

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption … For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation.”

Beloved, is the problem the head or the heart?

Last quote;

George Wald was a Havard Scientist and Neurobiolgist, he died in 1997 with a career that spanned more than 5 decades. In 1967 he won his part of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work studying the human eye.

He is a very intelligent man.

In his 1972 book titled “Frontiers of Modern Biology on Theories of Origin or Life” he wrote;

“One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are — as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation.”

“I do not want to believe in God. Therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation leading to evolution”

Where is the problem beloved? Is it in the head or in the heart?

Jeremiah 17:9

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Beloved listen carefully. What else can the heart deceive BUT the MIND?

What we have witnessed through these quotes are rare glimpses of HONESTY in such intelligent men, who testify by their own words the problem they have with God is a HEART PROBLEM.

And for the rest of their days they will employ the mind to do everything it can to affirm the deception of the heart.

IF YOU CAN understand this, not only will you be able to undertand the type of repentace that is needed to be saved, you will also understand why the GOSPEL OF CHRIST ALONE is the power of God unto salvation.

The Bible says;

2 Corinthians 4:7

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 

It is the very reason why the apostle wrote;

1 Corinthians 1:18–19

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

And finally 

Romans 1:16–17

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

[1] Less Than Words Can Say. Richard Mitchell.

Pg 108

[2] Less Than Words Can Say. Richard Mitchell.

Pg 166

[3] “The Last Word”by Thomas Nagel, Oxford University Press: 1997

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