Now, I want to specifically focus on the fact that he said, I determined not to know anything
save Jesus Christ and crucify.
So when he's preaching the gospel, the Bible says that he's determined not to know anything
save Jesus Christ and crucify.
Now why is that?
Why would he say I determined?
Well, I think personally, because if you read in second Corinthians chapter number 12, the
apostle Paul speaks of a man who obviously went up to the third heaven, paradise, right?
And he saw things that were not lawful for men to speak of, right?
He saw that he was given revelations of God, and that's why the Bible says he was given
a thorn in the flesh to basically keep him humble.
So he was someone who obviously knew the word of God.
He knew doctrine, he knew Bible, and he knew a lot of what the Bible said, and obviously
he was taught by Jesus Christ himself.
He knew what the word of God said he could interpret the Bible.
So when he went out to preach the gospel, you know what he had to do?
He had to determine when he's speaking to someone not to know anything, save Christ
and him crucify.
Why?
Maybe because the temptation was to expound on other doctrines because he knew so much.
Now I think this is very important because you know, people in our church, regardless
of what level of spirituality you're at, you're going to learn a lot of Bible here.
Okay.
And in fact, you probably know more about Bible than your average church member going
to an independent fundamental Baptist church.
Okay.
You'll know a lot more Bible, a lot more doctrine, and the temptation may be, because you're
not preaching on a constant basis as far as the pulpit's concerned, that you want to go
out there where you are with so many and talk about the deep doctrines of God.
You know, you're preaching the gospel and you want to tell them about the Riper Ray
doctrine.
You know, you want to tell them about post-Trave and replacement theology.
You want to expound all these doctrines and the wisdom of God, but you know what we have
to do?
We have to determine on purpose that when we speak to people who are unsaved, not to
know anything, save Christ and then crucify.
You know, that's when I think people are become a little, become a little bit too thorough
in their gospel presentation because they just want to expound all their wisdom.
But you know what?
Paul, the apostle who knew the book, who knew the word of God, he was given revelations
of the Lord.
He tried to keep it as simple as possible.
And the Bible says that he determined to do that, you know, because he knew a lot of Bible.
So I think we as Christians ought to do the same.
You know, when we go on and preach the gospel, I'm not saying be simple, but the fact remains
when we go out there, we got to just talk about the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
If someone tries to get you off topic, going on to some other subject or doctrine, you
know, and it doesn't seem as though they're receptive, then hey, it's time to go.