God took on humanity in the person of Jesus, was born to a virgin mother, lived a perfect life, was crucified in our place, and was raised from the dead. This is the Christian message. And it is utter foolishness to those who are perishing. However, this same message renovates some people’s lives from the inside out. It changes who you marry, how you raise kids, how you pursue your career, and what you do in your leisure time. It changes everything.
According to Paul, there are only two categories of humans on earth: those who are perishing, and those who are being saved. And the difference is seen in their response to the preaching of the cross! There is something so glorious and transforming about Jesus, that learning about Him can literally change one’s destiny forever. That is why, Paul insists, we always and only “preach Christ crucified.”
It's a blessing to be with you. I'm pretty sure I am related to most of the audience or pastoring most of the audience, so I apologize to you guys for having to hear me again. But I have a beautiful topic, and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, so I hope that that you'll be blessed. If you have a copy of God's Word, please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
And I want to go ahead and read verses 18 through, really through the end of the chapter, verse 31. Paul says, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and here's just a little taste of what he's dealing with. Here are some of the subtitles from Halley's Bible Handbook for the book of 1st Corinthians. Factions, immorality, lawsuits, meat offered to idols, abuses of the Lord's Supper, false apostles, problems about marriage, disorderly conduct in the church, oh and heresies about the resurrection. How would you like for that to be the list of issues, to be the order of business in your next church conference, it would be terrifying, right? You would wonder maybe if you were even in the right church, would you run to the next church down the street?
Would you wonder, what am I doing here? Or would you lovingly labor to recenter, reunify the church around the gospel, around Christ crucified? Now of course I recognize there are times when we have to leave a church because of unrepentance and steady disobedience in the wrong direction. But the course that Paul took here, and the minutes of the long-distance business meeting that he basically was moderating in this letter, is contained for us to still benefit from today. So by the way, if you can't see the relevance of these issues and Paul's solutions for them to your own situation and to your own sins, then it's possible that we are guilty of the same blind complacency that the church at Corinth was gripped by.
The remarkable thing is that the church at Corinth thought they were doing well. That's the remarkable thing. And so Paul is writing to them and addressing these issues, and we must recognize that these are heart issues. Yes, there are some symptoms that Paul has to address, but these are chiefly heart issues, and that's why even though there is this huge diversity and tremendous difficulty of problems that he's going to deal with, Paul says, this whole time I'm really going to be talking about one thing, Christ and him crucified. That's what I'm going to talk to you about because the ultimate solution is never just some external band-aid for a particular heresy or difficulty.
It is always that there has become a straying away from Christ and his cross. Each of us should read this letter not just then as Paul's rebuke to the Corinthians, but as God's reminder to you, to me, of where genuine unity in our church, not just those churches, but in our church needs to come from, must come from, we need to be reminded of where genuine unity is found, where real genuine health is to be found in any local church. Christ, our sole ground of rejoicing. So When we take an honest appraisal of our own situation, of the state of the church today at large, we ought to come to a realization that it is a miracle that God would even continue to have an interest in us, much less bless us bountifully with his Holy Spirit as he promises to do. And I'm not just talking about those churches out there, but my church, your church, it is always a mercy and therefore a miracle that God continues to pour out his blessing on us.
So we ought to, our hearts ought to overflow in genuine gratitude like Paul does here. God is faithful, he says in 1 Corinthians 1.9, by whom you are called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord I'm so thankful Paul says as he writes to this erring Church I'm so thankful that God is faithful even when we are not and we will come to agree with Paul I think if we think at all not just with our minds but imbibing this passage within our soul, we'll come to be just as grateful as Paul, as Paul explains why we preach Christ crucified. Because first of all, he says Christ is the power of God in verses 18 through 20 that we just read. Secondly, Christ is the wisdom of God. And finally, Christ is the glory of God.
Christ the power of God. Christ the wisdom of God. Christ the glory of God. And so, let me just begin by considering Christ as the power of God, verses 18 through 20. Paul says in verse 18, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.
God, listen, the gospel, the Christian message is this. God took on humanity in the person of Jesus, was born to a virgin mother, lived a perfect, perfect life, was crucified in our place and was raised from the dead. This is the Christian message, and it is total foolishness to those who are perishing. It makes no sense to those who are perishing. Paul preached in Athens and shared the gospel with Greek philosophers at Mars Hill, and we read of this response in Acts 17 32.
When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, Some just plain mocked. This is not, we're not even going to debate about this, we're just going to make fun of you about this. The same was true of some in Corinth as Paul was writing to the church, and the same is true of many today. To the natural mind, whether Jew or Greek, whether American or North Korean, the preaching of the cross is offensive and it's unacceptable. Says well-known and outspoken atheist author Richard Dawkins, it has a fundamental incompatibility with the sophisticated scientist.
It's so petty, so trivial, it's so local, so earthbound, it's so unworthy of the universe, this message of the cross. But says well-known and outspoken Christian preacher John MacArthur that one man, even the Son of God, could die on a piece of wood on a nondescript hill in a nondescript part of the world and thereby determine the destiny of every person who's ever lived seems stupid. This word of the cross is foolishness. It is moronic, that's the root word, absolute nonsense to unbelievers who rely on their own wisdom. In other words, Paul says, to those who are perishing.
Two very, very intelligent, well-educated men approaching the same facts from two totally opposite perspectives. What makes the difference? It's not intellect, both intelligent, it's not even morality, both living a, you know, sort of somewhat moral life by general standards. What then makes the difference? Paul says the difference is salvation.
Salvation is what makes the difference. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Foolishness to one group and the power of God to the other. The power of God performing an effectual operation on the natural heart. The gospel concerning Jesus and his work on the cross comes in power to those whom God is sovereignly calling, as we'll see later in this passage.
But for now, let's just pause And notice there are not more than two categories of humans here. There are two categories alone, two only. There are those who are perishing, and there are those who are saved, Paul says. And the difference, all the difference, is seen in their response to the preaching of the cross. That's what the difference is.
Verses 19 through 20, Paul talks about how God destroys the wisdom of the wise. And interestingly, Paul is here quoting Isaiah 29, 14, where it is prophesied concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who's planning to annihilate Judah. God told Isaiah he need not fear because Sennacherib's plan would fail. Then how would it fail? Through strategic maneuvering?
No, although God, let's be clear, has used that at times in Scripture. Strategy is, God has not opposed a strategy about thinking things through and carefully approaching how we can be most effective, but that's not how God does it here. Was it through maybe reinforcements, you know, military reinforcements? No, although God does do that in other places in Scripture, so God does sometimes use human help to encourage and strengthen. But here, in this particular prophecy that Paul is quoting and Isaiah is giving concerning Sennacherib, God delivered them by sending one angel to kill 185, 000 men in one night.
You can read the whole story if you're not familiar with it in 2 Corinthians 17. It's exciting. But yet, what I want us to notice is that in context, now Paul is quoting that prophecy, and in context Paul says that event, one angel killing 185, 000 men in one night is merely a pointer to the power of Jesus Christ. Because Paul's talking about the power of Christ and quotes Isaiah and says, God destroys the wisdom of men. But here, beautifully, God doesn't destroy all his enemies.
In fact, he wins us. He changes us. It took one angel to kill 185, 000 men, but do you know it takes Jesus to save one person? One angel can kill 185, 000 people, but only Jesus can save one person. And that's what Paul is pointing to, the power of Christ that is needed and is on display in the heart of every single changed soul.
Verse 20, Paul contrasts the power and the permanence of God's word with human ways. Where are the worldly wise men? Where are the smartest people on earth? If we could put modern terminology in Paul's mouth, how are they working out for you? You know, you've looked maybe everywhere else, has the psychologist solved your relationship problems?
Has the scientist explained to you the meaning or purpose of life? No, of course, because science has no no voice to that whatsoever. Have the greatest minds on earth been able to solve the great problems of the human condition? Poverty, hunger, ignorance, crime, dishonesty? No, they just keep perpetually happening all over the world in every generation.
Their solution, in fact, often makes it worse instead of better. But by the way, I'll go a little bit deeper here, a little bit more personal, and say, how about your favorite preacher? You know, that guy that you listen to on the radio or that you call in to his talk show host and you're sure he has all the answers. Does he really? Has he really solved the human condition?
With the dawn of modernism over a century ago, people were confident that leaps in technology and education and machinery was going to usher in a new age of human accomplishment, And instead, of course, it brought on two world wars. Because advances in technology do not solve the problem of sin in the human heart, they just enable it. And what we had to discover the hard way is what we need so desperately as humans is not the power of a nuclear bomb, but the power of Christ who is the power of God. And so Paul goes on in verses 21 to 25 and says Christ is not only the power of God, Christ is the wisdom of God. Verse 21, the world did not know God through wisdom.
Not only does that mean you can't know, you can't discover God through your own human reasoning ability, but it actually means human wisdom has a tendency to obscure God. It gets in the way because we tend to rely on our human wisdom. We actually...our view of God is actually obscured by our own wisdom. This is what Paul says in Romans 1, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So it's not that they can't see the truth when they look out and see a sunset or the mountains or molecules or stars in the sky.
God says these are declaring, these are singing my prayers day and night, 24-7. You cannot look around you and not see that there's a God. But the reason humans don't know God, can't know God, without him revealing himself to us by his Spirit in his Word, is not that we can't see evidence of his working in creation. In other words, it's not God's fault. It's because humans use our wisdom to suppress our knowledge of God.
Isn't that horrible? Shouldn't that give us a deep sense of distrust in ourselves, in our wisdom, in our solutions, to know that that it is not God who is actively obscuring himself from us. He's not hiding from us. No, it is our own wisdom which hides God from us. It is not God but our own wisdom that is to blame for our ignorance.
And Paul is reminding the Corinthian Church that human wisdom didn't, couldn't save you in the first place and it can't do any better now. So as a believer I want to say that to you. Paul is writing to people who are professing believers and he's reminding them of this because we as professing believers tend to forget it. That human wisdom didn't start this journey of following Christ, and it cannot improve this journey of following Christ. We dare not ever at any point in our life rely on our own wisdom rather than on God's.
The 19th century English preacher Charles Spurgeon observes that God in effect is saying here in 1 Corinthians, philosophy I give thee this problem find me out here are my works find me out Discover in the wondrous world that I have made the way to worship me acceptably. I give thee space enough to do it. There are data enough. Behold the clouds, the earth, the stars. I give thee time enough, I will give thee four thousand years, and I will not interfere.
But thou shalt do as thou wilt with thine own world. I will give thee men enough, for I will make great minds and vast, whom thou shalt call lords of earth. Thou shalt have orators, thou shalt have philosophers. Find me out, O reason, find me out, O wisdom. Find me out if thou canst.
Find me out unto perfection, and if thou canst not, then shut thy mouth forever. And then will I teach thee that the wisdom of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. Yay, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. And he teaches us this lesson, Paul says, all in the person and work of Jesus Christ in the cross of Jesus. That's why Paul says, I will only preach to you Christ and him crucified.
That is God's wisdom on display. He is God's wisdom on display. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe, Paul says. Paul is not talking about foolish preaching, by the way, which should never be our goal, right? There's far too much of that in every generation.
Just careless preaching, foolish preaching, not prepared preaching, not preaching without great effort. There's nothing wrong with speaking eloquently, there's nothing wrong with speaking reasonably. Paul did continually. In fact, that was his mode of operation. He would go in and reason with the Jews in order to show them that Jesus was their Christ, the Messiah.
No, Paul's not talking about bad preaching, nor is Paul saying that preaching in and of itself saves anyone. All you have to do is observe any sermon ever preached, and there are a variety of responses to it, so preaching itself is not saving anybody. But Paul is saying that the message the Spirit of God honors and empowers is alone the message of Christ and him crucified. That's it. That's the only message that the Spirit will honor.
And those who by faith embrace Christ and Him crucified are the only ones who will ever be saved. The message of Christ is the means, the same means, the only means by which God saves people in every age of the world. It does not change from one generation to the next with advances in technology, the latest trends in academic thinking. It never changes. It's always one message.
Jesus. We preach Christ crucified. That's what Paul says. We preach Christ crucified. Now, the obstacles, the excuses, are as varied as the people themselves.
Paul brings this fact up. Some want a miraculous sign, others deny miracles and say, no, we don't even believe there are miracles, and demand God reveal himself through secular means of knowledge and discovery. So on one hand, Some people are saying, you know, I will only believe in you, Jesus, if you do such and such a sign. And other people are saying, I don't even believe there are miracles, and you have to do it this way. Now, the objections, let me say, either of those are more than met in Christ.
Christ did many miracles, and his resurrection has more objective evidence for it than any other event in ancient history. So all of those objections even are met in Christ, but the fact is the objections are not... They are just screening a heart problem. What Paul talks about in Romans 1, a suppressing of the truth. Notice that although some Jews and Gentiles are rejecting it, though, Paul is preaching the gospel to everyone.
To everyone. This is why he describes his own ministry in Acts 20-21 as testifying both to Jews and to Greeks. In other words, it doesn't matter who. It doesn't matter what their objection is. It doesn't matter what their excuse may be.
It doesn't matter because I'm not going to bring different salvation messages to different people testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That was it. That was Paul's message. Now, did he reason? Yes.
Did he use eloquence? Yes. But this was his point. This was where his reason was always running to. This is where his eloquence was always trying to draw people toward, was repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.
To those who are called, not clearly the external gospel call to which people respond differently, but to those who are called with God's sovereign effectual call, Paul says, whether they're Jew, whether they're Greek, whether they're Asian, whether they're African, whether they're even American, the message of Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God. Remember verse 9 in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul had said, God is faithful by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord it is by God's calling that we're introduced into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ and to those who are thus called Christ as revealed in his word is seen as the power and the wisdom of God. Notice how Paul's emphasis is not just on the person of Jesus though but also on the work of Jesus. The cross goes against all the wisdom of man, all that man considers powerful. God's wisdom is completely otherworldly, and nowhere do we see that more than at the cross.
He doesn't say, I'm going to preach to you Christ and his perfect life, although of course that's part of the message of the cross. But Paul emphasizes the cross because the cross is this ultimate display of the contradiction of human wisdom about how things goes and God's wisdom, human power and God's power. The cross, which indicated a curse to the Jews and was an instrument of torture in the Greco-Roman world, became the instrument of salvation. It was totally unlike anything any human would have planned. So when we Christians today, when we say cross, it's almost always like with a good connotation.
In fact, your wife may even wear one around her neck. But this was not... This was like saying back in Paul's day, this message that he was carrying everywhere was like talking about Nazi gas chambers. This was not polite society talk. Paul is saying the cross has been made the wisdom and power of God even though to people it is totally repulsive.
Warren Wiersbe comments this, Crucifixion was not only a horrible death, It was a shameful death. It was illegal to crucify a human citizen. Crucifixion was never mentioned in polite society, any more than we today would discuss over dinner the gas chamber or the electric chair. That's not polite dinner conversation, right? Those who have been called by God's grace and who have responded by faith realize that Christ is God's power and God's wisdom.
Not the Christ of the manger, not the Christ of the temple, not the Christ of the marketplace, but the Christ of the cross. It's in the death of Christ on the cross that God has revealed the foolishness of man's wisdom and the weakness of man's power. Let me say this, Let me just say this in a way of personal application. I can't give you anything more practical in your Christian life Than Christ and him crucified when you wake up if you're like me I'm not a morning person and sometimes I doubt my salvation until I've had two cups of coffee at least. It's just I wake up with and immediately all the bad things from yesterday or burdens start weighing down on me or maybe I even had a bad dream like I literally did last night and I wake up you know just discouraged I always I wake up already discouraged kind of and there is nothing nothing more practical than reminding yourself that God in Jesus on the cross did what you cannot accomplish today.
So you might as well just go ahead and lift that burden. You cannot do what needs to be done today. God has already done it in Christ on the cross. And just roll the victory of Christ on the cross over in your mind and in your soul until it tastes beautiful to you before you have breakfast. And it will change the way that you face every challenge, every difficulty that you have.
So verse 25, Paul says, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Of course, he's speaking in a hyperbole because God has no foolishness or weakness, but that's to contrast the fact that he's calling Christ the power of God. So the weakness of God is better than the best of men. How much more so the power of God, which is Jesus himself. And so finally, Paul says in verses 26 through 31, Christ is also therefore the glory of God.
Christ is the power of God, Christ is the wisdom of God, and so therefore Christ is the very glory of God. God is in no way dependent on the wisdom or efforts of men in order to accomplish salvation, Paul reminds us in verses 26 to 28. And this is displayed, Paul gives a sermon illustration, the fact that God is not dependent on human wisdom to save people is displayed, Paul says—I'm going to give you a sermon illustration, Paul says—in the kinds of people that you are. Isn't that humbling? So he says, just look at yourself and you'll see that there's not a lot of human wisdom in the room.
There's not a lot of glorious things that people would look at and say and be impressed by or put on the on the news or or make a movie about no just look at yourself Paul says look at the kinds of people that God is saving that's maybe the greatest illustration of the fact that that it's it's not us that it's not us God does not save according to human giftedness, but according to the gift of grace. God is not recruiting his people from the Dean's List of the local university, from those featured in Forbes magazine, from the most valued player awards of any sports organization, this is not what makes Christians Christians. The philosopher Celsus wrote mockingly, actually, on behalf of Christian, so he's pretending to be a Christian, writing just mockingly in 81 78, and he says, Let no cultured person draw near, none wise, none sensible, for all that kind of thing we count evil. But if any man is ignorant, if any man is wanting and sense and culture, if anyone is a fool, let him come boldly to become a Christian. We see them in their own houses, he now speaks about them.
We see them in their own houses, their wool dresses, their cobblers, the worst, the vulgarest, the most uneducated persons. They are like a swarm of bats or ants creeping out of their nest. They're like frogs holding a symposium around a swamp. They are worms convening in mud." So he loved Christians. But what a description.
I mean, isn't it amazing that he could offer that critique and it not be immediately laughed at because there was that sense about Christians. That they are like worms convening in mud. Now let me say are there smart intelligent believers? Yes. Are there well-educated rich famous athletic believers?
Certainly. But that, amazingly, is not a distinguishing factor in their salvation at all. It has nothing to do with their athleticism or their intelligence or education. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to preach in Scotland and visit in the home of Ian Murray, who of course started one of the best Christian book publishers of today, The Banner of Truth. And at the time when he was beginning this ministry of publishing old Puritan writings, a minister told Ian Murray there would be no demand for this whatsoever.
But then, Ian Murray had a trainyard worker show up at his door begging for cases of books. And Ian Murray said this, we have seen over and over again that reading Christian books and even commentaries has nothing to do with one's education, but everything to do with spiritual hunger. That's what makes the difference. It has nothing to do with education. There are intelligent people reading Banner of Truth, but that's not the only people who are reading it.
It's the people who are spiritually hunger who are reading it. On the same trip, we were blessed to visit a monument in the public market set up to commemorate the Scottish Covenanters who were executed there in the 1660s for their Christian faith, and as we stood looking at the Covenanters' Martyr Memorial, I was so struck by the fact that the martyrs included not only many preachers, yes, lots of preachers, but students, servants, Shoemakers, weavers. One of them was a 16-year-old boy, a 16-year-old boy who stood up and said, I will not bow down to anyone but Christ. Yes, the great scholar and speaker Paul was an apostle, but so was that uneducated fisherman Peter, right? It just has nothing to do with who we are.
It has everything to do with who God is in Christ for us. Think about it, the forerunner of the Messiah grew up in a desert eating bugs and honey. The Messiah himself was born to poor parents in a small village in a small trough for a cradle. God does not operate. Let us just let us just let that sink in again, because we have to continually remind ourselves of this.
God does not operate according to what is considered in human society to be wise or glorious or powerful or successful, and he will not operate that way in your life. He will not operate to exalt the things exalt the things that you think or other people think are amazing, but always to exalt Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To those people who have come to see themselves as sinners, as needy, bankrupt, before a holy and majestic God. This actually makes sense, though. This actually makes sense because that's precisely the kind of Savior we need.
We don't need a Savior who's going to just continue down the path of our own wisdom. We've already gotten as far down that as we need to go. In fact, the further we we go into the woods of our own wisdom, the more we get lost in the forest, right? We just, we're just, oh my goodness, it's just worse and worse. We just make things worse and worse.
We do not need a Savior like us, we need a Savior above us who would condescend to come down and save us. It's precisely this kind of Savior that we need, not just one whom we can relate to. I don't want just a Savior I can relate to, one who can stand in my place, who can be my substitute, who can do for me what I could not do for myself and make a way between sinner me and holy God. The only thing, therefore, that God's people, all of God's people, have in common is their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That's the only thing you'll find in common.
You'll find differing educational backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds, different convictions, by the way, on secondary issues. Let us always keep that in mind. But we will always find that every real Christian has this in common, their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. No matter who they are, where they come from, they have all been humbled, And they've been brought to trust in Christ and his work on the cross for them. They look to Christ alone as the champion of their lives, the champion of their salvation.
And so in verses 29 through 31, Paul says, by the way, this is no accident. This is no accident. God has designed salvation in such a way that he displays his glory in every facet of it. It is by God's doing, by God's working, not your own, that you are in Christ. And in Christ, God has become our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
And so, verse 31, Paul says, let everyone, anyone who boasts, boast in the Lord. We have no room to boast, no room to boast except in Christ. But in Christ, we ought to be constantly boasting. That's the way Paul puts it in another place in Galatians 6.14. Far be it, Paul says, for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
I should never boast in myself, my own accomplishments, the things that I have done, the things that I am doing for Jesus. I should never boast about me. But Paul says, I should never stop boasting about Christ. May this be true of us as we see Christ as the power of God, as the wisdom of God, as the glory of God himself come down to us to be our Lord and Savior. May we never stop boasting of what he has done for us in Christ.
May God bless you.