Sermon Notes:

This morning we continue our series, “Growing in Grace”, where we are working our way through the letter of 1 Corinthians. As we go passage by passage, we learn how the Grace of God applies to the everyday circumstances of our lives as we walk as believers of Jesus Christ in a fallen world.

Last week, we saw that there were divisions among the Corinthians because they were operating according to the logic of the world rather than the logic of the Gospel. They were proud of distinctions that came from the world rather than from Christ and they were giving honor to men rather than to God. Paul, however, says he was called to preach the Gospel but “not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” In our text this morning he is going to explain why using worldly means empties the Cross of its power and why there is no room for pride in the life of a believer. That is the main point of our message this morning, there is no room for pride in the life of a believer.

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 18. If you are using the blue Bible in the pew, it is page 1188. If you do not own a Bible, please consider that one our gift to you.

Paul begins with a foundational principal, a concept that is essential to a proper understanding of the Gospel and a truth that provides perspective to not only Church history, but what we experience in our own ministry. Paul says,

¹⁸ 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.

It is very difficult for us today to understand how shocking this sentence would have sounded to people in the 1^st century. Today, we tend to think of the cross as a positive symbol. We use it as a decoration and people are wearing crosses as jewelry. That would have seemed absolutely absurd in the first century.

Imagine someone today talking about the power of the message of the gas chamber, the noose, or electric chair? But even that doesn’t quite do it because we use those means to execute all sorts of criminals. The Romans only used crosses to execute the most reprehensible criminals of low status. Only those Rome considered scum were crucified. The cross was offensive, it was vulgar, it was gruesome. It was a universal symbol of shame and death and was not something to be mentioned in polite company.

I am not sure the English word “folly” captures the tone of Paul’s sentence either. There is nothing silly or lighthearted here. The word translated folly is μωρία, which is the Greek word from which we get our English word moron. This sentence is making a jarring claim that from the perspective of the world there is nothing respectable about the Gospel. It is a message that is vulgar and moronic to those in the world.

We have some firsthand evidence of how the Gospel message would have been received by a Roman culture obsessed with power and glory. Among the earliest artistic depictions Jesus is an image scratched into plaster called the Alexamenos graffito. It depicts a man on a cross with the head of an ass. Below is another man worshipping and a caption that says, “Alexandros worships his God”. The Gospel message sounds moronic and asinine to those who are perishing. Many today may not be so bold, or at least as rude, as those who taunted Alexandros but we need to understand that the Gospel is a scandal to those whom God has not revealed Himself.

But for those being saved, the Gospel is power of God. It is this message of the cross that God uses to transform us into those who will be raised in glory with Christ. Think about what was happening in Corinth. They were aligning themselves with teachers based on the things the world valued. Power, authority, eloquence, and influence. But Paul says that the power of God is displayed in those things that are rejected by the world. If we attempt to apprehend or evaluate heavenly things through earthly means we shall never see God.

Instead, God reveals Himself in ways that are hidden from those who do not have eyes to see it. Just think about the heroes of the Bible. The prophet Moses who was called to declare God’s Law was a stutterer. King David was an unimpressive shepherd boy whose armor didn’t fit. Hosea’s wife was a prostitute, Jonah went awol, Gideon was doubtful, Abraham was an idolator and a liar who had a barren wife. Even the Apostle Paul says that it is only through his weakness that the power of God is made manifest.

And of course, the most remarkable example is our Lord Jesus Christ. He was born to two poor teenagers who couldn’t afford a hotel room. He was not formally educated, worked in a menial profession as a carpenter, and spent much of his adult life as a homeless wanderer. Isaiah says that there was nothing impressive about His appearance and he died a convicted criminal, executed in a garbage dump. If we see the radiance of the glory of God in Christ, we see it only by grace through faith. Human wisdom will never lead us there.

Paul continues,

¹⁹ For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” ²⁰ 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? ²¹ 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.

Paul says the entire infrastructure of human wisdom which is built upon the presumption that we are somehow autonomous observers who can find the truth will be continually frustrated. If we seek truth without seeking to find it in God, we will fail because truth is not some independent entity in the universe. God is truth. Christ Himself is the wisdom of God. The learning of the world self-destructs precisely because it refuses to be subject to God.

It is true that humanity has progressed in knowledge over the past two millennia. We have a much better grasp on how much of the physical world works and we have used that knowledge to make significant improvements to our tools and abilities to communicate.

But for all that knowledge, we still lack wisdom. The world continues to learn facts without ever understanding their significance. Think of all of the experts, researchers, and think-tanks in all of the universities, colleges, and agencies all around the world working to solve the problems of the world. There are many extremely intelligent people dedicated to helping solve these problems and yet we human societies face the same fundamental problems that have been with us since we have kept historical records. Ultimately, the wise men of the world do not have the answers. Indeed, they cannot have the answers because they are blinded to the cause and therefore the solution.

Sin and the resulting separation from God is ultimately at the foundation of every social, economic, and political problem we face. Human wisdom is unable to bring us to God and thus human wisdom is unable to solve the problems caused by sin and it is therefore unable to provide salvation or hope. The impressive explosion of knowledge we have seen in the last days enables us to produce better machines, but it is unable to produce better men and is therefore impotent to provide solutions to our most critical problems.

Many of the greatest thinkers in history have even recognized the limits of unaided reason and yet even then, they are incapable of accepting the obvious implication that God’s Word is true. It is said that the philosopher Socrates believed he was the wisest of all men because he alone knew that he knew nothing.

Mathematician and philosopher Bertram Russell admitted that “As soon as we begin to philosophize… we find... that even the most everyday things lead to problems to which only very incomplete answers can be given.”

And Martin Heidegger, who is among the most significant philosophical thinkers of the 20th century, when asked about the ability of philosophy to contribute to a better world famously said, “philosophy will be unable to effect any immediate change in the current state of the world. This is true not only of philosophy but of all purely human reflection and endeavor. Only a god can save us.”

Sadly, Heidegger did not actually believe in God, but he did recognize the limits of what human wisdom could do for us. Whatever other value they may have, ultimately science and philosophy are frustrated even by earthly questions, and cannot therefore begin to be helpful in addressing spiritual questions related to salvation.

The world often assumes that religion is the opposite of these rational approaches, but the false religions are simply a different form of fallen human wisdom. They claim to be from God, but they are formed in the imagination of men and like their rational counterparts, they also come to nothing. The world is filled with temples and altars and mosques and even churches where a God of human invention is worshipped. Religion shaped by the wisdom of the world is not like the faith of the Gospel. It is not a theology of the Cross, it is a theology of glory.

Men imagine that they can appease God through their offerings and their obedience. They imagine that they can reform themselves if they just try harder. They think they can do good works or contribute in some way to their salvation. They have invented pilgrimages and festivals and rituals that they think accomplish some sort of atonement because such things appeal to their fleshly wisdom.

All these efforts, whether through the pursuit of intellectual mastery of the world or through the doctrines of men designed to manipulate God, will come crashing down. This was the rebuke of Jesus against the scribes and pharisees, that they had substituted human wisdom for the revealed teaching of Scripture. Whatever wisdom derives from fallen men, whether scientific or religious will all end in frustration. Paul says, ²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

He is quoting here from Isaiah, and they are references to Egypt and Assyria. God has worked throughout the history of redemption to make foolish those who oppose His work in bringing His people to salvation and this pattern is continuing in God’s work in Corinth and here in Southgate. The experts and wise men of Egypt and Assyria were made into fools when they presented the wisdom of the world against God’s purposes and the same remains true for all who do so now.

Some reject the Gospel because they are searching for an intellectually stimulating answer. Others because they seek some glorious religious experience. Both approaches appear to be pathways to wisdom, but they are not. We meet many people who believe that all pathways lead to God. The truth is that all pathways lead to the same place, except one. But that place is not heaven. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ leads there.

Paul continues in verse 22,

²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

The Gospel is nonsense both to those who seek a purely rationalistic solution and those who seek Him through religious discipline or experience because in order to accept the Gospel, we must humble ourselves and submit to God. In the Garden of Eden our father and mother Adam and Eve sought wisdom independent of God. They looked for truth that could be found outside of the worship and obedience to the creator. Remember? Genesis 3:2–7 says,

² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…”

All these thousands of years later sinful human beings are still seeking to be wise, to become like God, apart from Him. That is the essence of sin itself. We want to enjoy the blessings of the creation without a relationship with the creator. This is foolishness and in the end that pathway leads only to shame and destruction.

But for those to whom, by grace, God reveals Himself, the Gospel is power. It is power because in it our sin is forgiven. We are reconciled to God. Our nakedness is covered, and our shame is removed. If we put our faith in this message that the world cannot understand; that our only hope is to trust in what God has done, then and only then we have obtained wisdom.

The Gospel message is hard for us because to accept it we must come to terms with the fact that we are utterly dependent upon God for salvation. We do not need to set aside our intellect to be a Christian, only our pride. The theologian Anselm of Canterbury summed it up well when he said, “I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so I can understand. For this also I believe, that unless I believe I shall not understand.” It is not until we deny ourselves and admit our inability that we can see clearly for the first time. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

This is why the clear preaching of God’s word is so important. We must clearly preach that God is holy, that we have all sinned, and that judgment is coming. We must be crystal clear that salvation is by grace alone, that sinners have no ability to please God whatsoever. We must preach the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. We must preach the full Gospel with urgency because it is the only hope for a dying world and nobody else is going to tell them.

Charles Spurgeon once observed that some preachers seem intent to arouse man's activity but what we want to do is to kill it once for all---to show him that he is lost and ruined, and that his activities are not now at all equal to the work of conversion; that he must look upward. They seek to make the man stand up: we seek to bring him down, and make him feel that there he lies in the hand of God, and that his business is to submit himself to God, and cry aloud, 'Lord, save, or we perish.' We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all. When he says, 'I can pray, I can believe, I can do this, and I can do the other,' marks of self-sufficiency and arrogance are on his brow."

We do not work our way up to God, rather He stoops down to save us. We are not saved because we were worth saving. In fact, the only thing of our own we contribute to salvation is the sin that made it necessary. The believer is saved to the glory of God alone. Paul presents the Corinthians themselves as an illustration of this truth:

²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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;

There were not many in Corinth who were great intellectuals, politically powerful, or wealthy. Indeed, any of those who were, exchanged the trappings of such things to be counted among the lowly. Paul is pointing out that nothing in terms of worldly value led to them receiving the promises. Even so, those who have accepted the word of the Cross, who have latched on to this doctrine of the outcasts, possess enlightenment beyond the great philosophers of Athens, victory greater than the soldiers of Rome, and crowns more splendid than those of the Caesars. That is quite a claim to make about this group of slaves, shopkeepers, and farmers. It is quite a claim to make about us as well. And how did this come about? God designed it that way.

Look at verse 28 and following,

²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Salvation is by the grace of God alone and to the glory of God alone. God frustrates the wisdom of the flesh. It is God who chooses, it is because of Him that we are in Christ. All that is of value in our salvation comes from our union with Christ through faith. Paul says in Christ we have righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. From start to finish salvation is a gift of God’s grace.

Our righteousness, the basis upon which we are found acceptable to God comes from our being in Christ. Our sanctification, which is our growing in holiness and being transformed to be more like God comes from our being in Christ. Our redemption, which is the hope of our resurrection and the renewal of our corrupt bodies into a state of glory comes from our being in Christ. All these things come from our union with Christ through faith and the Bible teaches us in verse 30 that we are in Christ not because of our wisdom, but because of God.

These truths should transform how we evaluate nearly everything. It means that we cannot evaluate the success of any kingdom work using the criteria the world uses. It isn’t necessarily the eloquent preacher who will be the best. It isn’t the large church who has tons of programs that will most help its members grow.

People who visit here or look at our content online could assume that I am doing the most important ministry work here. They would be wrong. Brother Craig who leads the prayer meeting, and Dennis who chooses what we sing are as important. Those like Bill, Rachael, Camilla, Sandy, and several others who work tirelessly in the background to keep things going are of as much value as the preacher. The most important ministry in the entire church is done by those who faithfully pray and intercede on behalf of this church and their fellow members. All of us have been brought into the Kingdom by God and no one is more important than any other.

Paul has shared this amazing deep doctrinal truth to show how misguided and foolish it is for believers to divide because of worldly judgment which comes ultimately from pride. Because salvation is by grace and because the glory of God is revealed in weakness we are reminded of our main point. There is no room for pride in the life of a believer.

There should be no pride in us because everything of value we have, we have received. There should be no divisions among us because we have all received whatever gifts and talents we have from the same source. It was the wisdom of God that we would be saved not through our effort, abilities, or intelligence, but by His grace.

He subverts the sophistication of the flesh with the simplicity of the Gospel. But in the foolishness of God, we find another wisdom and power. We learn profound mysteries that the philosopher and scientist can never imagine. We receive an intimacy with God that no religious mystic can approach.

The doctrine of God teaches us about our relationship to the creator. It teaches us how a holy God can be both perfect in justice and yet forgive sinners and be gracious to them. It is revealed to us how we can approach God, how to become his children, and how He delights to transform us into the image of His Son.

In Christ, to us is given the knowledge of things to come and the secret of eternal life. In Christ we receive the doctrines of grace through which we understand that our salvation is greater than the power of sin, death, and the devil and are empowered to live a life in pursuit of holiness without guilt.

We do not receive these things because we are smarter or better than any other sinner. Flesh and blood did not reveal these things to us. We have received them through the power of God. Let us therefore go from this place today praying that God would help us to know nothing among ourselves except Christ crucified so that He alone receives the glory in all things.