Classic Sermon Outlines (continued)
feorge Waitefield
SERMON TWENTY-NINE .-
A WORTHY RESOLUTION
I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
—I CORINTHIANS 2:2
THE PERSONS to whom these words were written were the members of the Corinthian Church. They were not only divided into different sects, by one saying, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," but also had many amongst them who were so full of this world's wisdom and so wise in their own eyes that they set at naught the simplicity of the Gospel, and accounted the apostle's preaching foolishness. What was the sum of Paul's wisdom? He tells them in the words of the text, which is a resolution worthy of the great apostle Paul and no less worthy for every minister and every disciple of Christ.
I. THE CONTENT OF THE RESOLUTION.
A. A Determination to Know.
1. Not just historical knowledge. By the word "know" we are not to understand a bare historical knowledge; for to know only historically that Christ was crucified by His enemies at Jesusalem will do us no more good than to know that Caesar was slain by his friends at Rome.
2. But to approve. The word "know" means to know so as to approve; as when Christ said, "I know you not," that is, I know you not so as to approve you. It implies experimental knowledge.
CLASSIC SERMON OUTLINES — George Whitefield
B. A Determination to Know Jesus Christ Crucified.
By Jesus Christ we are to understand the eternal Son of God. He is called Jesus, Savior, because He saves us from the guilt and power of our sins. He is called Christ, which signifies anointed, because He was anointed by the Holy Spirit to be a prophet to instruct, a priest to make atonement, and a king to govern. He was crucified upon the cross that He might become a curse for us; for it is written, "Cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree" (Galatians 3:13). This knowledge so gripped the apostle that he was determined not to know anything else. He resolved to make this the governing principle of his life.
II. THE REASONS FOR THE RESOLUTION.
A. Without Christ Crucified Our Persons Will Not Be Acceptable to God.
Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him (John 14:6). He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). None ever were or ever will be received up into glory but by an experimental application of His merits to their hearts. We might as well think to rebuild the tower of Babel or reach heaven with our hands as to imagine we could enter therein by any other door than that of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Other knowledge may make you wise in your own eyes and puff you up; but this alone edifies and makes wise unto salvation.
B. Without Christ Crucified Our Deeds Will Not Be - Acceptable to God.
"Through faith," that is, through a living faith in a Mediator to come, "Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain" (Hebrews
11:4). It is through a like faith, an experimental knowledge of the same divine Mediator, that our sacrifices of prayer, praise, and thanksgivings come up as an incense before the throne of grace. As our devotions to God will not, so neither, without this knowledge of Jesus Christ will our acts of charity to men be accepted by Him. If we gave all our goods to feed the poor and yet were destitute of this knowledge, it would profit us nothing.
A Worthy Resolution
C. Without Christ Crucified Our Morality Will Not Be _ Acceptable to God.
While we grant that morality is a substantial part of Christianity and that Christ came not to destroy or take away moral law as a rule of action, but to explain and so fulfil it; yet we affirm that our moral actions are not acceptable in the sight of God the Father unless they proceed from the principle of a new nature or a vital faith in the Son of God. Whether we eat or drink or do anything for man, it must all be done out of a love for and knowledge of Him who died and rose again. This is necessary to render our works, even our most ordinary deeds, acceptable in the sight of God.
III. THE PRACTICE OF THE RESOLUTION.
A. The Essential Thing in the Practice of the Resolution.
May I exhort you to put the apostle's resolution into practice and beseech you, with him, to determine "not to know anything, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." I say, determine, for unless you sit down first and count the cost and from a well-grounded conviction of the excellency of this above all other knowledge whatsoever, resolve to make this your chief study, your only end, your one thing needful, every frivolous temptation will draw you aside from the pursuit after it. The more your enemies persuade you to know other things, the more should you determine not to know anything but Christ crucified.
B. The Importance of the Practice of the Resolution.
Riches shall fail, pomp shall cease, vanities shall fade away; but the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified abides forever. Of whatever, therefore, you are ignorant, do not be ignorant of this. If you know Christ and Him crucified you know enough to make you happy, although you know nothing else; without this all of your other knowledge cannot keep you from being everlastingly miserable. Do not value the contempt of friends with which you must necessarily meet upon your open profession to act according to this determination. Your Master, whose you are, was despised before you.
CONCLUSION
Let us not be content with following Christ afar off, for then we shall, as Peter did, soon deny Him. Let our speech and all of our actions
CLASSIC SERMON OUTLINES — George Whitefield declare to the world whose disciples we are and that we have indeed determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Then it will be well with us and we shall be unspeakably happy here; and, what is infinitely better, when others that despised us shall be calling upon the mountains to be falling upon them, we shall be exalted to sit down on the right hand of God and shine as the sun in the firmament, in the kingdom of our Redeemer.