1 Corinthians 2:1-9 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 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. 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: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

The Church at Corinth was one of Paul’s biggest successes. As we studied before, Paul “reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” (Acts 18:4). Paul emphasized to the Jews that “Jesus was Christ”, but they rejected that message (Acts 18:5). At that point, the Apostle focused on the Gentiles. This brought it’s own challenges.

Corinth was a Roman Colony, populated largely by freed slaves . As the city existed because of the benevolence of Rome, the citizens would have participated in banquets honoring the Emperor. To show loyalty to the empire, the citizens were expected to honor the gods of Rome, and in particular the chief god, the Roman Emperor. One commentary notes:

“Corinth is probably the Church of the New Testament that is most like the modern Church.”

Though Corinth had many faults, it was by the Grace of God and the Power of His Spirit that the Church stood at all. As Paul writes Corinth, he reminds them that he relied on the Testimony of God – The Gospel – to found Corinth.

The Testimony Of God Is That We Are Broken,
And Only Christ Can Fix Us

1 Corinthians 2:1-2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Corinth was known for it’s philosophers and scholars, for it’s athletic achievement and strength. When Paul came to Corinth, he did not depend on “excellence of speech” (hyperochē logos, elevated or inspiring words). This does not mean that Paul consciously avoided deep truths. Some of the Pauline writings are very deep. The Apostle Peter wrote of Paul’s letters in

2 Peter 3:16 (ESV) … There are some things in {Paul’s writings} that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

The Chief Apostle Peter, himself a ordinary fisherman, found in Paul’s epistles “things .. that are hard to understand”. This was not because Paul sought to be fancy, but because Paul was a very educated man. Paul was educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of Israel (Acts 22:3). Paul had a distinguished background. He told the Church at Philippi:

Philippians 3:5-6 (ESV) … {I was} circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

When Jesus spoke the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Paul could have played the part of the Pharisee, for he was a Pharisee, a “Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee”. When the Pharisee and the Tax Collector went to God to pray, the Pharisee said:

Luke 18:11-12 (ESV) ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

But the poor Tax Collector would not even lift his eyes to Heaven, but said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). Jesus said the Tax Collector would have been justified or made right in God’s eyes, but not the Pharisee.

Paul could have been that Pharisee in that parable.

Paul was so certain he was right before God, that he went about attacking Churches, and persecuting Christians.

Paul (then called Saul) was there when the Evangelist Stephen was martyred. (Acts 7:58). As Saul, he led a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem, and scattered believers, running for their lives, throughout Judea and Samaria. The Bible says “Saul was RAVAGING the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women to prison” (Acts 8:3). Saul’s very BREATH – expelled from a self righteous and hate filled heart – stank of “threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1).

Then Saul met Jesus on the Damascus Road.
And Saul became Paul.

Illustrate Self Righteousness: Beloved, self righteousness is no more than self worship, making of yourselves more than you are. I read a wonderful illustration of self righteousness the other day. I read a daily devotional called “Beside Still Waters”, and came across an article written by Brother Winfred Zimmerman (Clayton DE) called “Brownfields of the Heart”:

“Scattered across the U.S. are areas designated by the government as “brownfields”. These are parcels of land that are so contaminated with hazardous chemicals that nobody will use them. On the worst of these, the damage is obvious. The landscape is depressing … the ground is barren and useless.”

I never knew about brownfields, but when I read that article it really struck home. You cannot fix a brownfield by covering it up with good soil, for the bad will eventually creep up through the good, and contaminate the whole. The only way to fix a brownfield is to remove all the pollutant, no matter how deep it goes.

So it is with the human heart. We are all terribly flawed, broken by sin. We all “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We can cover over our sin with a shallow covering of good works, but truthfully, unless the heart is changed, the pollutant is still there. Jesus said:

Mark 7:18-23 (ESV) Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus [Jesus] declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Good without God is Bad: It is the heart that needs to be changed, or the brownfields of the heart, the sin within, will eventually bubble to the top. When Jesus was being tried by the High Priest, the one who was supposed to be God’s Representative to Israel, the High Priest knowingly collaborated to bring in liars (a violation of the 9^th commandment). Matthew 26:60 notes that “many false witnesses came forward”. The Priest, robed in splendor on the outside, was but a covered brownfield.

Such was Saul before he was Paul. But now Paul operates differently.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

Paul said “my focus was not my pedigree, nor my education, nor my status as a Roman citizen”. He said, I declared “unto you the testimony of God”. What is God’s “testimony”?

God’s testimony is that we are all born into this world sinners. We are, as the theologians call it, “Totally Depraved”.

The Prophet Isaiah cried out, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (ESV Isaiah 53:6) “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.” (Isaiah 64:6-7).

We are born wandering away from God. Our “righteousnesses are as filthy rags”. We fall far short of God’s standard, the standard that He set in the Garden. The Psalmist David said:

Psalm 51:5 (ESV) … I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Psalm 58:3 (ESV) … The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

Our first birth brings forth a broken, sinful creature. Those who know not Christ are “dead in trespasses and in sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Those without Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are those who, according to God, “by nature deserve God’s wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).

We All Need A Second Spiritual Birth

Preach: The first birth is corrupt. This is why we all need to be born again, born a SECOND time, born SPIRITUALLY into the Kingdom of God. The testimony of God is that we are all broken, born broken into this world. But God’s testimony is also this: God HIMSELF was born into this world, and lived a perfect life, a life without sin. The Bible says “those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). And yet Jesus Christ, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), pleased God. The Father said of Jesus, “THIS is MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I am WELL PLEASED” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). God went on to say “Listen to Jesus!” (Mark 9:7). In the flesh we cannot please God, but the God-Man Jesus pleased God. All that He did pleased God. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus Christ was perfect Man, sinless Man, holy Man, righteous Man, the Son of Man. And Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus WILLINGLY died. Jesus came into this world with one thing in mind.

He wanted to save you. He was willing to die for you. Jesus said:

John 10:11, 15, 17 … I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. … the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. … the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

Paul told Corinth,

1 Corinthians 2:2-5 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. 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: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Paul did not put on airs, or make himself something that he was not. Paul showed the Corinthians that he was but a man. He was with Corinth in “weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling”. Paul was not doubting his calling as an Apostle. But what he relied on was not his own strength, but on the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the Testimony of God. The Cross is the Testimony of God.

• The Cross testifies as to what God thinks of SIN. SIN is what God says is wrong. There are all kinds of sins. Sometimes called “the works of the flesh”, sin is defined in Scripture like

Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV) … sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV) … do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Sin is horrible. It separates us from God. It is an eternal offense against the righteousness nature of the Creator. Sin is no “mistake” or “accident”, but the outward action of a heart dispossessed from God. Do you want to know what God thinks about sin? Look to the Cross. Look to ..

1 Corinthians 2:2 …. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified

Jesus Christ was crucified for us, for our sins. The Prophet said:

Isaiah 53:3-5 (ESV) He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins in full. Paul did not mince words as her preached to the Corinthians. Any hope that anyone has to be right with God depends on casting yourselves upon Jesus.

Jesus gave Himself for us. When we give ourselves to Him, we gain righteousness in God’s eyes. We gain the status of children of God.

God’s Testimony Is That He Will Change Places With You, If You Will But Believe In Christ

The Apostle writes:

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

When Jesus was crucified on Calvary, the “princes of this world” though nothing of it. To them, an unknown carpenter’s Son had gotten on the wrong side of the law. It was a matter of, wrong place, wrong time. But that wasn’t true. Jesus Christ was, is, and will always be God’s only way to rightness with Him.

We are saved by taking our defective and sin riddled lives to the Cross. We give ourselves to Jesus, and Jesus gives His life to us. The Apostle Paul wrote of his old life as Saul, saying:

Philippians 3:7-11 But whatever gain I had {in my previous life}, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul in effect said, “I exchanged the old, broken down, sin and fame loving me for a life believing on Jesus. And I am not regretting it!”

When you trade your old, flesh driven life for a life bound to Jesus, your life changes for the better. We who are saved by faith in Jesus have a right relationship with God. The Apostle said:

1 John 2:1-6 (ESV) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the {COVERING} for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Salvation is necessarily a free gift from God. You cannot earn it, nor deserve it. To be saved you give yourself to Jesus as Christ, the Messiah. You give Jesus the broken you, and follow Him. Jesus causes you to be born again, and gives you a Christ following, God loving you.

The only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus. Jesus was clear:

John 14:6 … I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

There is but one way to have peace with God, and that is by laying your life down at the feet of Jesus. “Our faith does not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God” (vvs 5). Jesus said:

Matthew 16:24 (ESV) If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Before we were saved, the unbeliever selfishly lived for themselves. You see it all the time on television.

“You do you”
“Be yourself”
“Love yourself”

The way of the Cross is different. The way of the Cross is to be like Jesus, to lay your life down for a greater good. You are called to do love. You are called to reject selfishness. You are called to be “lights in the midst of darkness” (Matthew 5:16). The Christian is not as he or she was – you are changed, and will continue to change until you reach eternity. We are no longer bound to the darkness. The Apostle said in:

Colossians 1:12-14 (ESV) {daily be} giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

One thing that every Christian has in common is that we are heavenward bound. The Apostle writes:

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

If you love God, you are headed toward an eternal life that is unimaginable in it’s beauty. We are, dear believers, sons of God headed for home. Until that day comes we are to daily take up the Cross, and follow Jesus. Let us live our lives so as to honor and glorify our Savior and Lord.

Do you know Jesus Christ? Is He your Savior and Lord? If so, glory awaits you. But if not, the pit of hell is your destiny. Please, do not go one more minute without receiving Jesus Christ as He is – your Lord and Savior. May God through His Word and His Spirit draw multitudes into His family this very day. Amen and Amen.