What is a Protestant? What is a Protestant? I would suspect over this current weekend that if that question were asked of very many people, the reality is we would be grieved at the response many would give. What is a Protestant? Some would claim to be Protestants because of a certain organization that they happen to belong to. Some would claim to be Protestants because of a particular school they attended in their youth. Maybe their surname, that tells them that they're a Protestant. Maybe the community in which they live in, to them, that dictates that they are a Protestant. Maybe it's even the football team that they support. Maybe it's their political affiliations, who they vote for on election day. The sad reality is that when we go out there in this day and age in which we live, and we ask the question of many who would perceive themselves to be Protestant, we would be grieved with their response. Now let's be clear. Let's pause at this point. Let's emphasize that there will be those over the coming couple of days who will earnestly and sincerely seek and want to thank the Lord for his preserving hand. And that's right, and that's proper. There will be many who will sincerely thank the Lord for sending King William to the banks of the Boyne. They will sincerely thank the Lord for preserving the Protestant religion and the liberties of England. All of those things are right and good. We should indeed thank the Lord for his preserving hand. We should indeed thank him for how he has ordered things, preserved his people, delivered us from oppression, and blessed us. But isn't it the truth this evening that there will be very many people out there tonight, maybe even gathered round bonfires, And when you ask them what does it mean to be a Protestant, they don't have the faintest clue. That's the reality of the day and the age in which we live. You want to define Protestantism, you could go into the history books, of course. We could talk about the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. We could talk about Luther and Zwingli and Calvin. We could talk about the five solas. faith alone, Christ alone, scripture alone, God's glory alone, grace alone. All of these things are good and proper. Protestantism, of course, is based on scripture, is based on this teaching of this book. It is biblical. And as free Presbyterians, we are unashamedly Protestant. But when the question is asked, What does it mean to be a Protestant? Perhaps we could answer with the words of Paul the Apostle. In 1 Corinthians 1 verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. What does it mean to be Protestant? It means to preach Christ crucified. It means that the truths, the fundamentals of the gospel are front and center. That's what it is to be a Protestant evangelical Christian. To preach Christ crucified. To be standing on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look this evening at these two verses. We look at verse 23 and 24. It says, but we preach Christ crucified onto the Jews, a stumbling block and onto the Greeks foolishness, but onto them, which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And what we see in these two verses essentially is a little summary. You see everywhere where people aim to be faithful to the blood and to the book and to preach the gospel message, there will be a response to the gospel message. That's what we see in these two verses. There may be a positive response, those who accept Christ, who accept the message of the gospel, but there may also be a negative response. Those who reject the Savior, those who want nothing to do with the gospel. And that is the pattern that we see everywhere where the Word of God is faithfully preached. Everywhere where Christ crucified is preached before men, there will be responses either positive or negative. And so for a few moments this evening as we look at these two verses, 23 and 24, we want to contemplate contents and effects of gospel preaching. That's what we see in these two verses. We see the contents and the effects of gospel preaching. Firstly, what do we notice? We see that gospel preaching is preaching the person and the work of Jesus Christ. That's so important. If you are to preach the message of the gospel, if this denomination is to preach the message of the gospel, then we must always preach the person and the work of Jesus Christ. What does verse 23 say? But we preach Christ crucified. We have before us this evening the scriptures, and it is in the scriptures that we see Jesus Christ. We turn to the scriptures and we see that they are full of Christ. Old Testament and New Testament. Now perhaps there are some who would claim to be Christians and they argue that point. And they say you don't see Christ in the Old Testament. Well, that's far from the truth. From the very start of this book to the finish, Christ is there. The very opening page of scripture, we see the creation account. And Christ is there. He's there alongside God the Father and God the Holy Ghost. What does John 1 and the verse 1 to 3 tell us? It describes the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Over in Colossians as well we see Jesus Christ once more identified as the Creator. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. What do we see from creation? Prior to creation, eternity past, we see Christ. He is eternal. He is without beginning. He is uncreated. He is indeed the creator. He is the eternal son. No beginning, no end. He is God. Preaching the gospel is preaching the person on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's here at the very outset of Scripture. But as you move through the Old Testament, again you see Christ. Prior to his coming into this world, prior to his incarnation, we see that Christ appears to men in the Old Testament. Don't we read often in the Old Testament of the angel of the Lord? Who's that? It's Christ. It's the second person of the Trinity. You think of all the prophecies, all the symbols in the Old Testament pointing to Christ. Christ is given titles in the Old Testament. He is the seed of the woman. He is Shiloh. He is the wonderful, the counselor, prince of peace, mighty God. He is the son of righteousness. Christ is in the Old Testament. And if we're to preach the gospel, then we must preach the person and the work of Jesus Christ. You move into the New Testament then, you see the incarnation, you see Christ born into this world, you see a divine person, God the Son, united a human nature with himself. The Shorter Catechism says, and so was and continueth to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. You think about Christ's earthly ministry, His compassion, His care, His sympathy, His love for sinners. You think of Christ's preaching and teaching. Never man spake like this man. Wasn't that said of the Savior? You think of the miracles that Christ performed during His earthly ministry. He restored sight to the blind. He healed the lame. He cast out the demons. He raised the dead. John 20 reminds us that the Savior did many other signs, but these have been recorded that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Listen, preaching the gospel, fundamental to that is preaching the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Preaching his spotless, perfect life. fulfilling that law that you and I, fallen men and women, could not fulfill. You see the Lord Jesus Christ, tempted of Satan in the wilderness, he didn't sin. The Bible says he could do no sin. You see his sufferings in life. You see how the world, how mankind hated Christ, scoffed at Christ. You see Christ and how he was betrayed. That sham trial that was held, how he was scourged, how he was mocked, how the crown of thorns was planted into his head, how the crowds cried out, crucified him. You think about the nails that pierced his hands and feet, the blood that was shed, the silent suffering of the Lord Jesus. The wrath of God against sin is poured out upon God the Son, forsaken. Agony, distress that we cannot even begin to comprehend. You think of Christ's death on Calvary's cross, a substitute for his people, paying the price. You think of his wonderful resurrection, and in that resurrection there is the promise that one day you and I who are saved will rise from the grave as well. If we're going to be faithful, If we're going to preach the gospel message, then we have to preach the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we dare not claim that we preach the gospel if we steer away from the person and work of Christ. Every time we preach the gospel, we must get to Christ. And if we're going to preach the gospel, then we have to get to the wonderful truth of justification. Because the scripture says that we cannot buy forgiveness for our sins. Our good works will never merit us salvation. There's nothing good in us. We're condemned. A holy and just God must punish us. And then we read these words in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, And here we have, listen, the truth of justification, a truth that is biblical, a truth that is founded on Holy Scripture, a truth that all who call themselves Protestants must believe in. Justification means that for the believer at the cross of Calvary, the guilt, the legal responsibility of our sins was made over to Christ and he paid the price for us. But you know justification also means that the perfect righteousness of Christ was imputed to us. And that means we stand before God clothed in perfect righteousness. Christ's perfect righteousness. That means we have peace with God. There's no stain, there's no sin to condemn us now. We're reconciled to God. We have friendship with God. What a transaction we see there. Our sins imputed to Christ on the cross of Calvary and his righteousness imputed to us. And that's all of God's grace. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Listen, we're dead in trespasses and sins until the Holy Ghost arrests us and awakens us and draws us on to the Saviour. This is marvellous, this is wonderful. You ask this evening, if this is justification, if this is how man has peace with God, then how do I get this justification for myself? It's through Jesus Christ. It's through Jesus Christ. If we're going to preach the gospel, we have to preach the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to have peace with God? You want your sins dealt with? You want to have a home in heaven? You can only have it through Jesus Christ. Romans 5, 1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, it's through Christ. What must I do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pause there, and I ask the question this evening, can you say that you're justified? Can you say that you have peace with God? Can you say that you're saved? Why? Because you have placed your trust on Jesus Christ. The gospel. If we're preaching the gospel, it means we're preaching the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what else do we see here as we consider the context and the effects of gospel preaching? Well, we learn as well that preaching Christ is often met with unbelief. That's the reality. Preaching Christ is often met with unbelief. You look at 1 Corinthians 1 and the verse 23 again. But we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block, And on to the Greeks' foolishness. When the gospel message is faithfully preached, when Christ is presented before sinners, inevitably there will be those who reject that message and reject Christ. We must never enter into the temptation of seeking to change the gospel message in order to make it more palatable to sinful man. The sad reality is that we have seen that happen in this day and generation. The gospel message has been presented and nobody responds. There's no positive response. There's no coming forward. People seem to be unmoved. There's no crying out to the Lord for forgiveness. There's no crying in faith and repentance. It seems so few are being saved. And we see some respond to that by seeking to change the message of the gospel. Maybe water it down a little. Maybe seek to make it less confrontational. Well listen, biblical Protestantism must preach the gospel plainly. simply and directly. We must preach the gospel as we find it in the scriptures. We must call men to faith and repentance. We must call them to cry to the Lord for salvation. That's what Christ did. That's what the apostles did. As you read about the early church in the New Testament, that's what they did as well. You look at this verse 23. There's the pattern. Paul, the apostle here, perhaps one of the greatest preachers that we read about, he preached the Lord Jesus Christ to the lost and many turned away. To the Jews, it was a stumbling block. To the Greeks, it was foolishness. Men and women, we cannot be surprised when we preach the person and work of Christ, when we preach the gospel, if people don't suddenly rush forward. Because the reality is, often, Often, preaching Christ is met with unbelief. That's what Pollock has experienced. We don't change the message then. We don't introduce gimmicks or distractions in some kind of an attempt to hoodwink some into some false profession. That's not what we do. We stay faithful. We preach on. We stay true to this wonderful message. You look at the little clauses that have been included there to describe those who have a negative response to the gospel. Unto the Jews, a stumbling block. Now that stumbling block, that's a scandal or an offense. That's the meaning of the word. When the Jews think on the gospel message, when they thought on the person and the work of Christ, they saw his humble birth, his humble earthly background. Born in a manger, a carpenter, They looked at Christ's company. He was a friend of sinners. They looked at the fact He had not set up a temporal kingdom or overthrew Roman oppression. That's not what they looked for. That's not what they wanted in a Messiah. And therefore to suggest that Christ crucified was their Messiah was a scandal. It was offensive to them. It was a stumbling block. And then when they thought upon the cross, that this one you tell me who is our Messiah was crucified and died. That was repulsive to them. How could he be our Messiah? They were filled with self-righteousness. They rejected any doctrine that said it was only through the death of Jesus Christ that they could have peace with God. And the reality is that there are many in this day in which we live and their response is exactly the same. You tell them that they can only have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work and that Christ had to die for them. They're repulsed by that. How dare you? There's pride within their hearts. There's many people out there today and they find the preaching of the cross distasteful. And I'm not talking about going over the detail of the cross, which is sometimes hard for us, we who even are Christians, to comprehend and to imagine. The sufferings of Christ, as we read them here in the Gospels, they're immense sufferings, they're beyond description, and you and I who are saved, we rejoice in what Christ suffers for us, but as we read the details, at times we shudder. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about those people and when you tell them that they can only be saved because of Christ's death on the cross, they're repulsed because they're proud. They think they're above that message. And it's almost as if God's wonderful plan of salvation doesn't meet their standards. How dare any fallen man have that kind of attitude? And I ask you this evening, you're in this service, is that where you are? You think you're above this message of the cross? How dare you think that? This is God's wonderful message of redemption. And it's given to men freely that we might be saved. The Jews saw Christ crucified. This message is a stumbling block, but the Greeks, verse 23 says, they saw it as foolishness. On to the Greeks' foolishness. Now the word Greeks there, that refers to anyone who's not a Jew. It means Gentiles, effectively. And the Gentiles, they viewed the preaching of the cross as fictional, as folly, as foolishness. How could God the Son be crucified? How could he die? How could the execution of one bring about the pardon of many? How could the death of one bring about the life of many? How could peace and pardon for men be bought by Christ's shed blood? They can't see that. They see it as foolishness. We see that back in verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. And here's the reality, men and women. When we're faithful, when we preach the gospel, when we preach the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, so often this message is met with unbelief. You think about the parable of a sower. The sower goes out with the seed, throws it to the ground. Some lands on fertile soil, it finds root, it springs forth, there's life, there's growth. Oh, that's positive. But some lands on poor ground. Days, weathers, there's no growth. The preaching of the gospel is often met with unbelief. You know, I was reading during the past week, and apparently it was the practice during the years of the 20th century, every 10 years or so, that in the United States of America, there would be the White House Conference for Children and Young People. During President Eisenhower's term of office, he had this conference. But what was pressing at the conference was the criminal activity so many people across the United States, so many young people were engaging in. This was a massive problem. Young people everywhere were engaging in minor criminal activity. In this great conference, experts were gathered, psychologists and educators and criminologists. They all came up with theories. This is how we can help the young people. No, we'll do this instead. I have another idea. But there was one man at that meeting and finally he could take it no more. He worked for a Christian organization. He got the attention of the chairman. He wanted to speak. He stood to his feet and he relayed his own experience. As I say, he worked for a Christian organization specifically with young people, and he sought to outline his experience of lives transformed, young people's lives utterly transformed by the gospel, transformed for the better by Jesus Christ. And when he had finished speaking, silence. There was a nervous coughing. Embarrassed shuffling of papers up and down the table. The chairman quickly thanked the individual for his contribution and then swiftly moved on. What's the reality we see there? People don't want to hear about Christ. That's the truth. So often people don't want to hear. And when we're faithful and the gospel is preached and Christ is presented before men, often that message receives unbelief. We're thinking about the context and the effects of the gospel. Gospel preaching is preaching the person and work of Jesus Christ. Preaching Christ is often met with unbelief, but finally, one more thing we note from verse 24, preaching Christ grips some hearts. is not wonderful. Preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, this message of the gospel, it does indeed grip the hearts of some. And there may be many who reject this message, but the gospel grips the hearts of some. What do we read in verse 24? But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Them which are called. Now that's a reference to believers, to true Christians, those who have been effectually called, those who have been illuminated by the Spirit of God and they've come to Christ, they're saved. And those individuals are both Jews and Greeks, that's what the text says. It doesn't matter about their backgrounds, what unites them is the saving interest they have in the crucified Savior. And you see the contrast we see here between these two verses, between those who respond aright to the gospel and those who reject the gospel. For the unbelievers, Christ crucified is a stumbling block, it's foolishness. But to those who believe, Jesus Christ is Savior and Redeemer. Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. You think of the deity of Christ. You think of the fact that he is eternal. We covered much of this at the outset. He's the creator. You think of the plan of salvation. Christ crucified. Redemption through his blood. Christ's destruction of Satan and death and hell. Christ rising up from the grave victorious. Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. Then you think about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and how this gospel has spread across this globe. could only spread through the power and wisdom of God. The message of the gospel was taken by weak men, by unlearned men, men who were anointed by the spirit of God, and these men were used to spread the message of Christ. And the message was that men must repent, they must cast off their sins. They must follow Christ and the road will be difficult but that is what you must do. And yet this message carried by weak men and by many who perceive it to be completely unattractive, this message spread. And many were saved. Did you ever marvel at that? This message of the gospel was carried by weak men. This message of the gospel is perceived as so unattractive by the world, and yet this message of the gospel spread over the whole world. Why? Because the power and wisdom of God was there. The power and wisdom of God. Through all the persecutions, through all the trials over the years, this message, the gospel of Christ, has survived. Why? Because it is the power and the wisdom of God. Lives have been transformed, why? Because the gospel of Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. And those who are saved, those who have been enlightened by the Spirit of God, they see the doctrine of Christ, the person, the work of Christ, and they see God's power and God's wisdom. The preaching of Christ crucified, the person and the work of Christ, it provokes differing responses. Often it's met with unbelief. It's seen as foolishness. It's depicted as absurd. But to those who are born again, Christ and him crucified is the power and the wisdom of God. Now I ask you this evening, what's your response? What's your response to the gospel message? What's your response to Christ crucified? Will you turn your back and say that message is absurd and walk out of this place and reject the Savior? Or will you repent of your sin? Believe on Jesus Christ, receive him as saviour and lord. Will you cry out for forgiveness? And will you look to the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, he who has risen from the grave, he who is alive forevermore, and say the power and the wisdom of God. But we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.