A reminder that life can change in an instant,
never to be the same again. To our families,
this week were touched by death in a way that
was shocking and unexpected. A character Cargill
was driving down a road running about 35 miles
an hour last Sunday night. It's a bridge that
connects to a crossing that's hard to just drive
away, and extends until the pavement is dry ahead
and then it began to roll. They'd gone down and
stayed in the plane along with three others in
the Mediterranean. They'd taken off from the
use of fuel adults in bad weather and had completed
their job working with the Israeli submarine.
And my cab radio back said that they were on
their way back to the carrier. And the next thing
they knew, they disappeared from the... radar
and the apparently covering radio tape that occurred
in something in Pacific. And the plane and the
four bodies are all taken to the bottom of a
thousand feet of water. There's a medic training.
Micro -molecule is the name I'm coming up with.
And it's a Jackson drone. But I hope you'll read
it. And if you do, I'm reflecting on this. Driving
down the highway, I brought to my mind a verse
that all of us know, in Romans, verse 28. And
I know that sometimes Romans, verse 28, seems
to be a little shallow. People quote it. The
guy that passed through that first line in my
heart said, I thought about these events. The
great truth just popped out of this verse. The
word of the God is good. The second God is his
work. The third God has his purposes. I wish
we knew the purposes of you. There are times
in life when we ache to understand the answers.
The God has promised to be a people. I'd like
for us to focus this morning on the second of
those crews that popped out of World War II.
And God has worked, not only has God worked in
the particulars of our lives, God has worked
in overarching defense. God has worked in our
world to make calling out a people for His name
to speak. And God has purposefully called in
those who are the nobodies that despise those
of the down upon. to confound the world in its
wisdom that exalts those who are wise and intellectual,
those who are powerful and those who are mighty.
May God show us the opposite direction and show
us His wisdom in choosing those who are nobody.
If off the phone we can continue this theme as
we pick up our study in 1 Corinthians chapter
2. There is work in speech or wisdom, proclaiming
to you the testimony of God. God determined to
know nothing about you except Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. God was with you in weakness and
in fear and in much trembling, and my message
and my preaching were not in persuasive words
of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and the power that your faith to not rest on
the wisdom of men who are the power of God. God
is at work in our world today. The amazing thing
is that God chooses to use people like you and
me to do His work. God has a way to do His work
and that work involves that God will limit himself
to the employment of redeemed yet imperfect people
and working out his eternal saving purposes.
Even the Apostle Paul was amazed that God would
use him in his own testimony in 1 Timothy chapter
1. He said, Christ Jesus, our Lord, strengthens
me, putting me into service, even though I was
formerly a blasphemer. Here we have his verses
and heart reflections about what happened when
he came back. to proclaim the gospel to them.
In the testimony that he gives in these five
verses, we can determine four actions that explain
every Christian's heart in God's work. What Paul
said in these verses that was uniquely about
his entrance to Corinth explains what your heart
and my heart is in God's work. First of all,
you are to go. That's your part of God's work.
Notice the apostle says, when I came to you,
when I came to you, all that commission from
Jesus Christ. You recount this commission several
times, but one of them is in Acts 26, where the
Lord has recorded that saying to him, but arise
and stand in your feet for this purpose. I have
appeared. and a witness. For God has made delivering
you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles
to whom I am sending you. For Jesus said to Paul,
and then those are the words of Jesus in Matthew
chapter 28 when he said, Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations. pointed out that
there really is only one imperative in this verse,
that is, make disciples. In Willem, it says,
going, make disciples of all nations. But in
Matthew, when he gives this particular construction
of a sentence as a part of the poem, it has the
effect of an imperative for Willem. What he is
saying is, go and make disciples. Does that mean
you and me? Or did the words of Jesus commanding
for me to reply only to the apostles who are
frightened in that day? Or did the one who whispered
to him on that mountain top responsible for the
words that he said to the disciples? The goal
is to all the world to make disciples. What would
you recognize that the primary audience was the
apostles, of course? But there is an application
to all of us that was not given uniquely to them.
First of all, Jesus said, go into all nations.
It was impossible for me to go into all nations.
Jesus said, all nations, if you have a broader
group, can do in going to them. Furthermore,
His assurance says, the more I have left you,
even to the end of the age. who are only going
to live a natural lifetime. They were not going
to be alive until the end of the age. So Jesus
is giving this permission to hearers until the
end of the age that has moved us. They want to
go into all the nations. This is the work of
God. And your part is to go. God's work is still
in me. And they said 1 .1 billion people in the
world today have never heard once the Gospel
of Jesus, not once. Of the 6 ,528 known languages
in the world, about 2 ,000 of them did not yet
have one word or scripture in the language. in
people groups are still waiting for their first
viable functioning local church in their midst.
They don't have one. Despite all of this, did
you know that 99%, 99 % of our evangelistic efforts
in the world go to those who've already heard?
Who already have the gospel? You see the command
of Jesus is to go and it's for all believers.
We are all missionaries. We are all sent by the
Lord for some of us. That command is especially
pertinent. Because the Lord is calling some of
us to go talk culturally to people who have never
heard. For God we have an army of people from
within great church who is rising up to say,
I send the call of God in its... special way
in my life, dear missionaries. We pray for you
that God will call you out, make it clear to
your heart, to the divine care that we may send
you. But beyond that, the fact is that all of
us are missionaries. That's how God's work is
going to get done. In Revelation chapter 7 verse
9, If also John says, after these things, I look
and behold, a great multitude which no man could
tell. From every nation and all tribes and peoples
had come, standing before the throne and before
the last person. People from every nation and
all tribes and peoples. the representatives of
every group that didn't want to go through and
have died out in the sea. What does it mean?
It says every time, every people group. Well,
you know, I can't define those terms precisely
for you and I don't have the answers to all those
kinds of questions. But I can tell you this,
it's God's will that the gospel knows at every
single corner of the earth. Your job is to go.
That's your part in God's work. To go whether
it be across the street or to be around the world
is sort of an isolated place on this road to
reach the people who have not yet heard the gospel
one time. Your part is to go. Your part is to
see yourself as if you're mystery, as if you're
fossil, because you said that when I came to
you, brethren, this coming was not an accident.
church of Antioch and passed him out into the
works of mission in this very particular special
sense. And though he was an apostle, and none
of us can be apostles of the sense that Paul
was, we are all sent as we're seen to the world.
Something else that comes here, another action
that Paul recounts in his testimony, helping
us understand where our heart is. part is that
the order will claim the testimony of God. Notice
the content of what both will claim. It was the
testimony of the text saying the mystery of God.
In other words, it was that which God had revealed
in Jesus Christ. In verse 70, it says, we speak
God's wisdom in a mystery. What is that? Remember
two weeks ago, two words, Christ. What? Crucified.
All the things we have preached in the name of
Christ, crucified. I determined to know nothing
about you except the name of Christ and him,
crucified. Christ is of course the anticipated
anointed one of God, the servant of the Lord,
who fills the office of prophet and priest. The
message that Paul was proclaiming was that this
Christ of the Jewish people had expected the
servant of the Lord to see him. You might make
propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins
only, but for the sins of the whole what? The
whole world. Your part is to go, and in knowing
your part is to tell the mystery of Jesus Christ,
to proclaim the testimony of God about His Son
that He was crucified. David Brainerd was a great
missionary to the American Indians in the first
half of the 18th century. He said that regardless
of his ministry, by the way, David Brainerd died
at 30 years of age. Died at 30 years of age.
That was one of the first in the class we could
talk about. Death came early to David Brainerd,
but he was deeply involved in The work of God
is free, just as life was. This was a step I
never got away from Jesus, and have crucified
in my preaching. I found that once these people
were gripped by the great evangelical meaning
of Christ, that the place where I was at, I did
not have to give them any instructions about
change in their behavior. They were raised at
the time of Paul. And that message was the transforming
power of God to the lives of the earth. Strived
on the cornerstone of a large, well -known, fashionable
church was the church. But we... that had grown
up along its wall and covered nearly a part of
the cornerstone. Until today, it reads, but we
preach. The message is gone. To preach a social
message. And the answer stands before the congregation.
It's a message dealing with the issues of the
day. There is no Bible, there is no There is
no crucifixion of Christ for the sins of the
world. Let us not forget that we're going to
have a particular message to proclaim, and that
is Christ crucified for our sins. So it is how
the apostle said he did this. He said, I preach
nothing except Jesus Christ. without superiority
of speech or wisdom, and if they're not in persuasive
words of wisdom. Paul said here that he delivered
this message. It was not with some overhanging
of speech. He did not use this position to manipulate
the Corinthians. He did not come to them with
enticing words trying to We simply came and preached
Christ crucified. Some of us feel like we don't
know enough. Some of us feel like if we went
to somebody who asked a question and we don't
know what to say, that it's a shame to us. Some
of us feel like if we go out and tell people
about Jesus, that we have to have all of the
apologetic arguments now. and we have to have
every plot down in our minds so we know exactly
what we're going to say or what argument we're
going to have to be prepared and learned in terms
of all of that elucidation. It's not our sway
to judge. It's not our intellectual argument
that gets God's work done. It is our simply proclaiming
the message of Christ crucified. Jesus, who He
is, and why He came, and what He did for us.
That's the best of them. And that's all we need
to deliver to do our part. Your part will not
work if you simply, compassionately pass on the
message of Christ, crucified for our sins. Your
part is to go, and your part is to go. with all
conditions and God's plan for station. The devil
will have divine receipt of weakness and quaking,
shaking, much trembling at this. But perhaps,
he also is very forthright in saying that he
is also within his fear. There was like a certain
fright, a terror that caught him. In his own
heart, yet he was finished with his tortuos.
of the apostles was always being brave, and always
being courageous, and never being afraid of anything.
Bring on the lion, not an apostle. Paul said
that that wasn't the condition he was in for
it. But we remember that he just been an atheist
that had this tremendous confrontation with intellectuals
on Mars Hill. And Paul there proclaiming the
gospel to them in the context that happened.
He had been through some tough days. There were
people out there searching for him to kill him.
Their reason for life had been afraid. Are you
ever afraid of doing God's work? From the bravest
people in the world, the moment they think about
witnessing somebody else begin shaking with fear.
It's all in the life that I live. We're all afraid.
We're afraid we'll get our own flesh, and I think
the devil makes us afraid too. We're afraid of
what people will say. We're afraid we'll say
the wrong thing. We're afraid they won't expect
me. But listen, if we're afraid, we're just like
all of us. That's not the issue. Our heart is
to give the message in the power of the Holy
Spirit. our fears in the power of the Holy Spirit,
thought that I was with you that way. But he
says my message, my preaching, were in demonstration
of the spirit and the power. My victory says
the apostle speaks of a proof that is showing
forth a display by the operation of the Spirit
of God in him, that affecting the hearts and
lives of the spirit in contrast. the defensive
methods of proof by rhetorical arts and philosophic
arguments. Paul says there was a demonstration
of the Holy Spirit's power in what I was doing.
Yet then here I did not use philosophic arguments.
I did not use persuasive words to try to impress
you. He says I simply gave to you the gospel
even though I have fear and I was in trembling.
He says, I live out of the power of the Holy
Spirit and all experience and insights. The Holy
Spirit affects you. The Holy Spirit steps up
and gives you your heart. He came down to work
for us to depend upon how brave you are, how
courageous you are, to depend upon whether or
not you're just willing to obey and do the right
thing in the power of the Holy Spirit. You may
do that feeling afraid, you may work family,
the Holy Spirit can give those words and make
them light in the heart of those who are with
us. That's how God does his work. Here we go.
They will proclaim the testimony of God, which
is Christ crucified. Don't get sidetracked in
the other issue. The power of the Holy Spirit
is coming upon him, not yourself. That's your
part of God's work. The Father had written about
what occurred in the belly factory a number of
years ago, when there was an elongated bar of
steel that weighed about 500 pounds that was
suspended by a chain. Opposite that, there was
suspended a cork. It was a very simple cork in
a bottle on a slope that might meet again that
iron bar where you slide from the ground. For
the first several minutes, nothing happened except
the cork came bouncing back. The record says
after about ten minutes. And it was rolling.
The bar began to get pretty low on a little bit.
It didn't stand up to the course of an hour because
of the steady rhythmic beating of that little
cork. The bar weighed 500 pounds. Your part is
to be the spirit of that soul. For him, from
release, is power through you. John Scott was
one of the great preachers of our day of evangelical
languages. Like, it seems that the... so that
your faith should not rest on the lips of a man
but on the power of God. Paul wanted the foundation
of faith to be following God's working and not
his own persuasiveness. Paul did not want his
own disciples. He did not want his own disciples
to live in him. No faith will serve in him. Dr.
MacArthur relates a comment made to him by another
pastor in this church who was preaching. Sadly,
the pastor said to Dr. MacArthur after the morning
service, do you see that man over there? He is
one of my converts. Not the Lord, but mine. He
was not hosting in this. He was simply acknowledging
that this man for following him to therapy. Let
us never speak to build others on ourselves.
Let us make subtle temptations to make others
repayment upon us in prayer. And we may even
disguise that in we're doing is yielding to the
temptation to build our own ego. To think that
somehow others need us so badly that they keep
coming to us. Also, the fear is that we cannot
build others on ourselves. We must build and
find the right. But the faith may not be upon
you or upon me. And I will. How large is the
power of persuasiveness? With their faith they
rest upon the power of God, which is Christ.
Your part in God's work is to introduce others
to Jesus, and then to get out of the way. But
keep pointing them to Him, by doing God's work.
You are doing a work that matters the most to
all the works in the world. We have a part of
it by God's desire. You are helping a person
by taking God's word to them. That is a help
that is more significant than anything else you
can do for them. must be left all their arms
around you and thank you that you did your part
in God's work in their lives. In the heart of
London's city is the dwelling of the poor. These
bright and folded words were uttered, I have
cried. What was I more? Hooked by a lonely woman,
died on the terrace floor, having not one hope
to comfort. I have cried. What was I more? In
the heart of London's city I have Christ, what
more can I want? When a word falls, I repeat
them o 'er and o 'er. God delights to hear me
say, I have Christ, what more can I want? Look
away from earth's detractions. Friendly joy will
soon be o 'er. Rest not till my heart exclaimeth,
I have Christ. talk about your memorial service,
which conducted this week. Will I be able to
What are you doing with life without work? If
it wasn't my part, I'd just spend 30 minutes
talking about it. That's your part. It's not
hard. It's not complicated. It's a very simple
answer. That's your part. I'm just waiting. What
might hinder me with you in doing God's work
responsible for much of our lives as carnal creatures?
Living to believe ourselves in our flesh? Or
being absorbed in this tranquil life? All those
regarding demons, the mystic fake and him having
love for this present world? Or looking after
this crap? You know, I believe that that is one
of the most effective weapons the devil has.
That his heart's going against our big and powerful
government. Because there's not a person like
me, like John, whose life is on incredibly complex
and complicated. We are very busy people. We
have a lot on our plate. And it is easy for -
doing those many things that will overlook the
eternal things and the real reason why I'm still
being here and that is that we might do our part
in God's work. My plea with all of us is that
we stop and think this morning about what God
wants us to do about and that we give back. to
understand Harvard at the door in 1966. Went
with a buddy of his to college in Mexico to see
his buddy's parents for missionaries here. He
was 19 at the time, and he wrote an entry in
his journal, among them being a couple of sentences.
Because missionaries are very difficult just
doing what they're asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies
trying to absolve... For nobody, that's okay.
God shows us that nobody's like God, because
it involves God and glory. Don't blackout and
boast this person. But he has chosen us, nobody,
that we like us just to think that it's going
to begin to work. Let's be of God our Father's
children. Amen. Father God, I pray that we would
Forgive us for the great sin of getting our eyes
off of Jesus, and off of the gold mine, and off
of the past that has come up before us, and getting
our eyes off of the destruction of the world,
and the busyness of life. Lord Jesus, help us
to so manage our lives and our spirits that we
don't forget.