WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.620 I want you to think for a moment about the word 00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:06.080 philosophy. What's the first thing, don't say 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:07.620 it out loud, but the first thing that pops into 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:09.000 your mind when you hear the word philosophy? 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:14.039 Some of you may think about a course back in 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:15.980 your college days that you were forced to take. 00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:19.140 I know I had to take Philosophy 101 back in my 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:21.480 days. Or maybe you just think about philosophy 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:24.260 as the academic discipline that speaks to the 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:27.879 really deep questions about life. Most Christians 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:30.379 don't realize that the word itself, philosophy, 00:00:30.460 --> 00:00:35.020 is born out of two biblical words. Two words 00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:37.600 in the Greek that you see all over Scripture. 00:00:37.859 --> 00:00:40.960 First of all, the word phileo, which is one of 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:44.700 the words in Koine Greek for love, and sophia, 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:48.020 which means wisdom. And so philosophy is the 00:00:48.020 --> 00:00:51.320 love of, the pursuit of, the search for wisdom 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:54.880 in this life. And at the time that the Apostle 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:57.659 Paul was... Making inroads into the Mediterranean 00:00:57.659 --> 00:01:00.439 world in the first century, Greek philosophy 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:04.219 ruled the day. It ruled the culture. On every 00:01:04.219 --> 00:01:06.359 street corner in Corinth, you were likely to 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:09.340 run into somebody who was a follower of Plato 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:15.459 or Aristotle or Diogenes or Epicurus or even 00:01:15.459 --> 00:01:18.359 Zeno. These were what we called sophists, and 00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:20.579 there were many of them in those days, men who 00:01:20.579 --> 00:01:23.469 espoused various ideas. within philosophical 00:01:23.469 --> 00:01:26.450 frameworks, and they did it right there in the 00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:29.450 marketplaces of Greece, often teaching in the 00:01:29.450 --> 00:01:33.150 city square and engaging in public debates. And 00:01:33.150 --> 00:01:35.930 at times, the more popular philosophers would 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:38.209 even open up schools where they would draw in 00:01:38.209 --> 00:01:41.030 students and charge them fees to sit at their 00:01:41.030 --> 00:01:45.010 feet and to learn. That's the culture that Paul's 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:48.379 walking into. Now, in a very simplistic way, 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.480 what philosophy attempts to do is to explain 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:54.700 the world that we live in. Explain the world 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:57.579 that we live in. To help its students to develop 00:01:57.579 --> 00:02:00.760 a word that we often use today, to develop a 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:03.859 worldview. And in the process of doing that, 00:02:03.959 --> 00:02:06.079 philosophy is supposed to train their students 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:10.120 how to think, how to employ reason and logic, 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.590 how to engage in argumentation. Now, you may 00:02:14.590 --> 00:02:16.509 hear this and say, hold on a second, Jeff, aren't 00:02:16.509 --> 00:02:19.090 we supposed to be suspicious about philosophy? 00:02:19.789 --> 00:02:23.229 And my answer is yes, to a degree, but we should 00:02:23.229 --> 00:02:25.810 also remember that as Christians, we engage in 00:02:25.810 --> 00:02:28.289 philosophy too. Whether we realize it or not, 00:02:28.469 --> 00:02:32.210 we engage in philosophy because we have a worldview, 00:02:32.409 --> 00:02:35.870 don't we? We have a worldview that tells us how 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:38.990 we think the world operates, and it teaches us 00:02:38.990 --> 00:02:41.729 how we're supposed to think. It teaches us how 00:02:41.729 --> 00:02:44.610 to engage in argumentation, whether that's polemics 00:02:44.610 --> 00:02:47.889 or apologetics. And church history -wise, you 00:02:47.889 --> 00:02:49.469 might be surprised to know that there's always 00:02:49.469 --> 00:02:52.750 been an interesting crossover between philosophy 00:02:52.750 --> 00:02:56.189 and Christian thinking in the lives of men like 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:59.729 Augustine, for example. That's very common. And 00:02:59.729 --> 00:03:01.930 here's why. Consider the questions. If you know 00:03:01.930 --> 00:03:03.810 anything about the various divisions or categories 00:03:03.810 --> 00:03:06.490 of philosophy, you'll see how the Bible speaks 00:03:06.490 --> 00:03:09.909 to each one of these categories. For example, 00:03:09.949 --> 00:03:13.729 metaphysics, the nature of reality and being 00:03:13.729 --> 00:03:17.229 in existence. Epistemology, how do we know things? 00:03:17.270 --> 00:03:19.729 The nature of knowledge and truth and belief 00:03:19.729 --> 00:03:22.849 systems. Anthropology, what is the nature of 00:03:22.849 --> 00:03:26.469 men and women? Axiology, the nature of values 00:03:26.469 --> 00:03:29.800 and morality and ethics. Logic, the nature of 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:32.960 reasoning and argumentation, and political philosophy, 00:03:33.099 --> 00:03:35.439 the nature of human governments, rights, and 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:38.740 justice. Those are all valuable categories that 00:03:38.740 --> 00:03:41.639 mirror so much of what the scriptures tell us. 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:46.520 But, and this is a big but, having said that, 00:03:46.539 --> 00:03:48.800 it's important to realize that there is a huge 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.819 difference between worldly philosophy and divine 00:03:51.819 --> 00:03:56.400 wisdom. Worldly philosophy is fundamentally done 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:00.520 from below. from below, treating human observation, 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.699 human logic, human reasoning, and cultural experience 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:08.840 as ultimate. And of course, divine wisdom is 00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:11.819 from above, where ultimate truth is discovered 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:14.699 only through the lens of God's revealed word. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:17.620 What's interesting is if you look back at the 00:04:17.620 --> 00:04:20.000 period from the high Middle Ages all the way 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.240 up to the time when the first universities were 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:25.680 being established in America, did you know that 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:27.899 theology was viewed as the queen of sciences? 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:32.160 It was the most important courses you could take 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:34.579 on campus. The queen of the sciences, and here's 00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:37.939 the key, philosophy was the handmaiden to theology. 00:04:40.019 --> 00:04:42.139 That's actually where our country was founded 00:04:42.139 --> 00:04:45.149 upon. Meaning that philosophy serves theology 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:50.810 because all truth is God's truth. Amen? So philosophy 00:04:50.810 --> 00:04:54.149 can be employed from below in order to help us 00:04:54.149 --> 00:04:57.009 understand divine truth that comes down from 00:04:57.009 --> 00:05:00.189 above. For example, how many times in scripture 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:03.689 do we hear God telling his people to assess evidence 00:05:03.689 --> 00:05:07.730 and to draw inferences and to test whether something 00:05:07.730 --> 00:05:10.649 is true or not? to be ready to give a defense 00:05:10.649 --> 00:05:13.990 for what we believe, to renew our thinking, to 00:05:13.990 --> 00:05:18.050 seek wisdom. All of those things are doing philosophy 00:05:18.050 --> 00:05:22.589 in service to theology. But as we do these things, 00:05:22.649 --> 00:05:25.230 using our God -given thinking and reason and 00:05:25.230 --> 00:05:27.529 logic, again, we acknowledge that there is a 00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:30.490 huge difference between our capacities as human 00:05:30.490 --> 00:05:33.250 beings and the capacities of the Almighty. True? 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:38.290 Ultimately, human thinking, human wisdom is not 00:05:38.290 --> 00:05:40.889 the gateway to truth. Only God's revelation is. 00:05:41.230 --> 00:05:43.949 And so a couple of famous statements that have 00:05:43.949 --> 00:05:46.149 been made in the academic world, the natural 00:05:46.149 --> 00:05:50.269 man says, I understand in order to believe, but 00:05:50.269 --> 00:05:53.410 we say, with thinkers like Augustine and Anselm, 00:05:53.490 --> 00:05:58.069 I believe in order to understand. Or as Thomas 00:05:58.069 --> 00:06:00.230 Watson, the great Puritan, once said, and I love 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:02.990 this statement, what reason can only wade in, 00:06:03.129 --> 00:06:07.610 faith swims. I'll let you ponder that for just 00:06:07.610 --> 00:06:12.089 a moment. This is our worldview as Christians. 00:06:12.209 --> 00:06:15.009 And yes, we do philosophy in order to defend 00:06:15.009 --> 00:06:17.430 our worldview. But we're going to be talking 00:06:17.430 --> 00:06:19.529 a lot about philosophy and about the limitations 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:22.649 of human wisdom, both today and over the next 00:06:22.649 --> 00:06:26.300 couple of weeks. So grab your Bibles. We're going 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:32.600 to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We covered 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:36.779 verses 10 to 17 last week. And that was the first 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:42.860 set of verses after Paul's greeting. And you 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:44.699 might recall that he immediately addressed what 00:06:44.699 --> 00:06:47.980 I see as what he thought was the most pressing 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:51.339 issue that he had to deal with there in the church 00:06:51.339 --> 00:06:53.899 of Corinth. And that was a lack of unity in the 00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:58.160 body. So he appealed to them as brothers, right? 00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:00.560 That gentle older brother came alongside them, 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:03.000 appealed to them, but appealed with authority. 00:07:03.139 --> 00:07:05.459 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he urged 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:08.100 them to come together and to start to speak. 00:07:08.569 --> 00:07:11.430 with one united voice. And the big rebuke was, 00:07:11.569 --> 00:07:14.910 stop lining up behind all these human teachers 00:07:14.910 --> 00:07:18.550 with this air of superiority looking down upon 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.290 others. Because that kind of man -centered approach 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:24.470 to body life and the forming of internal factions 00:07:24.470 --> 00:07:27.389 that are set against one another, absolutely 00:07:27.389 --> 00:07:31.759 destructive in a local church. But you have to 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:33.560 understand, this was somewhat cultural for the 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:36.079 Corinthians, right? As I just shared, Greeks 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.939 tended to adopt philosophical teachers and their 00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:41.420 worldviews as their own, and they were tempted 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:45.560 to line up behind various thinkers. So I'm a 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:49.139 Stoic or I'm an Epicurean, not that dissimilar 00:07:49.139 --> 00:07:53.399 from I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollos. This was 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:55.860 a cultural issue in that day. Only the problem 00:07:55.860 --> 00:07:59.189 is in a church setting. Those factions that get 00:07:59.189 --> 00:08:01.990 created end up being footholds for the enemy 00:08:01.990 --> 00:08:05.410 to get in there and to divide people. And so 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:09.089 Paul addresses the danger here. Now, I promised 00:08:09.089 --> 00:08:11.670 last Sunday I'd touch on verses 14 to 17 because 00:08:11.670 --> 00:08:13.970 we didn't have time for it last week. So let's 00:08:13.970 --> 00:08:16.850 start by reading those four verses, 14 to 17, 00:08:17.029 --> 00:08:19.709 and I'll just make a few observations about what 00:08:19.709 --> 00:08:22.290 Paul says about baptism here. Because in this 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:24.430 section, Paul's not specifically setting out 00:08:24.430 --> 00:08:27.410 to teach doctrinally about baptism, but there's 00:08:27.410 --> 00:08:29.689 some important things said here. So let's read 00:08:29.689 --> 00:08:32.429 it, verse 14. Paul says, I thank God that I baptized 00:08:32.429 --> 00:08:35.570 none of you except Crispus and Gaius. Do you 00:08:35.570 --> 00:08:38.710 remember Crispus? He was the former leader of 00:08:38.710 --> 00:08:40.769 the synagogue who got saved, which is amazing. 00:08:41.490 --> 00:08:44.230 So that no one would say you were baptized in 00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:47.850 my name. Now, I did baptize also the household 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:51.009 of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether 00:08:51.009 --> 00:08:54.529 I baptized any other. And how human is that? 00:08:54.590 --> 00:08:57.950 Paul's like, I don't really remember. I'm not 00:08:57.950 --> 00:09:00.049 sure exactly. I haven't written down a list. 00:09:00.830 --> 00:09:03.889 Interesting, right? Verse 17, for Christ did 00:09:03.889 --> 00:09:07.590 not send me to baptize. but to preach the gospel, 00:09:07.769 --> 00:09:10.669 not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross 00:09:10.669 --> 00:09:15.190 of Christ would not be made void. Is it not surprising 00:09:15.190 --> 00:09:18.710 that Paul speaks like this about baptism? That 00:09:18.710 --> 00:09:21.549 he would say essentially, I'm glad I haven't 00:09:21.549 --> 00:09:26.330 baptized many of you. Or to say, the Lord actually 00:09:26.330 --> 00:09:30.750 didn't send me to baptize. For those of your 00:09:30.750 --> 00:09:32.549 friends, your neighbors who are in the Roman 00:09:32.549 --> 00:09:34.970 Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church, 00:09:35.549 --> 00:09:38.570 who insist that baptism is the actual means by 00:09:38.570 --> 00:09:42.149 which people are saved, or your friends who might 00:09:42.149 --> 00:09:45.029 be in a Protestant church who insist that baptism 00:09:45.029 --> 00:09:48.330 is necessary alongside faith in order to be saved, 00:09:48.389 --> 00:09:51.230 for groups like that, this passage is very troubling, 00:09:51.330 --> 00:09:54.529 isn't it? It's very troubling. Because if baptism 00:09:54.529 --> 00:09:58.230 saves, or it's a necessary component to salvation, 00:09:58.809 --> 00:10:04.029 how do you explain Paul not emphasizing it? Right? 00:10:04.539 --> 00:10:06.940 Further, you can go further, in John chapter 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:10.600 4, John explicitly says that Jesus, the Savior 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:14.740 himself, did not baptize anyone. That only the 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:18.899 disciples did. How do you explain that? Or Peter, 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:21.600 the centerpiece of Catholicism, when given a 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.820 chance in Acts chapter 10 to baptize Cornelius 00:10:24.820 --> 00:10:27.899 and his household, he doesn't do it. It says 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:32.360 he orders others to baptize. So if salvation 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:34.700 comes through the waters of baptism, why is it 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:38.259 not emphasized and practiced by Jesus, by Paul, 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.279 or by Peter? It's an important thing to understand. 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:44.019 Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that 00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:46.879 baptism is unimportant. And Paul's not downplaying 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:50.179 baptism here in 1 Corinthians. Jesus did command 00:10:50.179 --> 00:10:52.919 us to go, right? Make disciples and to baptize. 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:55.879 So it's incredibly important that we comply with 00:10:55.879 --> 00:10:58.259 that command. It is part of our gospel obedience. 00:10:59.370 --> 00:11:01.269 And throughout the New Testament, we see two 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:04.710 things go hand in hand. Men and women first believe, 00:11:04.970 --> 00:11:08.730 and they're justified in the sight of God, and 00:11:08.730 --> 00:11:11.409 then they're baptized. And that baptism is that 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:14.389 outward sign and symbol of the new spiritual 00:11:14.389 --> 00:11:17.870 union they have with Christ. So baptism is very, 00:11:17.929 --> 00:11:20.269 very important, but what Paul's saying here is 00:11:20.269 --> 00:11:23.649 it's not the most important thing. It is important, 00:11:23.850 --> 00:11:27.090 but not the most important. And apparently the 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:29.210 Corinthians had been boasting about who baptized 00:11:29.210 --> 00:11:32.450 them. They were taking something so beautiful 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:35.450 and even making that a source of division in 00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:39.009 the body. And Paul sees that as a blasphemy against 00:11:39.009 --> 00:11:41.610 the true meaning of baptism. Baptism is about 00:11:41.610 --> 00:11:45.289 dying to self, not boasting. And so he's upset 00:11:45.289 --> 00:11:48.289 about this, right? That's why he rebukes them 00:11:48.289 --> 00:11:50.950 here. He's glad that he didn't make baptizing 00:11:50.950 --> 00:11:53.710 a priority because there's a more important calling 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:56.679 on his life, which is what? Preaching the gospel. 00:11:57.620 --> 00:12:00.000 Because it's the gospel, what Paul's about to 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.600 call the word of the cross, that is the ordinary 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:06.740 means by which God saves people. It's not baptism, 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:08.960 it's the preaching of the gospel. So what we 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:11.360 see in these stories is basically the apostles 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:14.360 Peter and Paul, they feel comfortable delegating 00:12:14.360 --> 00:12:17.139 baptism to others, but not the preaching of the 00:12:17.139 --> 00:12:20.840 gospel. Because that's the priority. Does that 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:24.049 make sense? Okay, good. That's enough on that 00:12:24.049 --> 00:12:26.450 because, again, this isn't some kind of doctrinal 00:12:26.450 --> 00:12:29.409 section on baptism, but those things are important 00:12:29.409 --> 00:12:32.429 to remember. Let's look at today's text now, 00:12:32.470 --> 00:12:36.629 verses 18 to 25. For the word of the cross is 00:12:36.629 --> 00:12:39.710 foolishness to those who are perishing, but to 00:12:39.710 --> 00:12:42.870 us who are being saved, it's what? The power 00:12:42.870 --> 00:12:46.450 of God. For it is written, I will destroy the 00:12:46.450 --> 00:12:48.350 wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the 00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:52.789 clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man? 00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:55.519 Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.419 this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom 00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:02.000 of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.879 the world through its wisdom did not come to 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:07.740 know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.639 of the message preached to save those who believe. 00:13:10.740 --> 00:13:13.799 That is an amazing sentence. Go home and diagram 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:18.379 it. It's amazing. Verse 22, for indeed Jews asked 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:21.750 for signs and Greeks searched for wisdom. But 00:13:21.750 --> 00:13:24.629 we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling 00:13:24.629 --> 00:13:27.570 block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those 00:13:27.570 --> 00:13:30.889 who are called, you can underline that word called, 00:13:31.070 --> 00:13:34.970 both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God 00:13:34.970 --> 00:13:37.350 and the wisdom of God because the foolishness 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:40.049 of God is wiser than men and the weakness of 00:13:40.049 --> 00:13:46.090 God is stronger than men. Wow. That is a beautifully 00:13:46.090 --> 00:13:50.539 philosophical... of the power and wisdom of God, 00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:53.779 is it not? So let's work our way through this. 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:56.460 And along the way, I'm gonna try to walk you 00:13:56.460 --> 00:13:58.159 through the logic here. It'll be a little bit 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:00.580 out of order from the way Paul writes it, but 00:14:00.580 --> 00:14:03.419 let's start where he starts in verse 18. And 00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:05.659 here in 18, we see, first of all, Paul is about 00:14:05.659 --> 00:14:07.980 to introduce the basic contrast that is gonna 00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:10.399 dominate his thinking all the way through chapter 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:15.600 three, okay? Human wisdom versus the cross. Notice, 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.149 first of all, the gar. At the beginning, that's 00:14:18.149 --> 00:14:20.850 the word for in English. That tells you, that's 00:14:20.850 --> 00:14:23.169 a connecting word that tells you that verse 18 00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:25.889 is a continuation of what he just said in verse 00:14:25.889 --> 00:14:28.570 17, especially that last phrase. He says, Christ 00:14:28.570 --> 00:14:31.250 sent me to preach the gospel, not in cleverness 00:14:31.250 --> 00:14:33.669 of speech, so that the cross of Christ would 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:35.990 not be made void. I like to read it this way. 00:14:36.029 --> 00:14:37.950 I think it's a better translation. So that the 00:14:37.950 --> 00:14:40.929 cross of Christ would not be emptied of its force. 00:14:43.129 --> 00:14:45.809 Which is a beautiful picture. Now, I'm going 00:14:45.809 --> 00:14:47.950 to skip over the phrase, not in cleverness of 00:14:47.950 --> 00:14:51.029 speech. It's a very important phrase, but I don't 00:14:51.029 --> 00:14:52.809 have time for it today. It's going to come up 00:14:52.809 --> 00:14:55.409 multiple times. So we'll get to it, trust me. 00:14:55.450 --> 00:14:57.889 Especially the beginning of chapter 2, Paul will 00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:00.470 come back to that idea. The main point here at 00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:03.490 the end of 17 is that Paul is starting to address 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:06.909 the importance of the power of the cross. And 00:15:06.909 --> 00:15:09.250 that's what he says in verse 18. The word of 00:15:09.250 --> 00:15:11.470 the cross, it's foolishness to those who are 00:15:11.470 --> 00:15:16.529 perishing, but to us as believers, the ones being 00:15:16.529 --> 00:15:19.789 saved, it's the power of God. So notice how blunt 00:15:19.789 --> 00:15:22.529 Paul is in this verse. Here's what he's saying. 00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:27.429 The cross is the great divider of humanity. It 00:15:27.429 --> 00:15:30.490 divides every one of us, every person into one 00:15:30.490 --> 00:15:35.279 of two groups, the lost and the saved. Now, I 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:39.039 realize that in life there are umpteen amounts 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:43.659 of dividers in the population of humanity. There 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:46.360 are divisions based on skin color and ethnicity 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:49.940 and language and culture and politics. All kinds 00:15:49.940 --> 00:15:53.039 of things divide, but they all pale in comparison 00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:55.759 to what Paul is talking about here. This is the 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:58.639 division of ultimate importance. This is the 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:02.220 only division of mankind that has eternal consequences. 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:05.389 This is the most important thing. Two camps, 00:16:05.509 --> 00:16:09.549 lost and saved. And notice how he describes both 00:16:09.549 --> 00:16:14.409 in the present tense. This is so important. He 00:16:14.409 --> 00:16:17.590 describes both groups in the present tense. Adam, 00:16:17.690 --> 00:16:19.789 earlier on, talking about missions, talked about 00:16:19.789 --> 00:16:23.289 the here and the now. The present tense. Look 00:16:23.289 --> 00:16:27.629 at it. Those who are perishing, those who are 00:16:27.629 --> 00:16:30.519 being saved. Can I just say sometimes in modern 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:34.019 evangelicalism, we make a mistake here. We tend 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:36.500 to think of lost and saved as nothing more than, 00:16:36.539 --> 00:16:39.580 you know, final destinations after judgment. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:43.379 But they are present day realities. We have to 00:16:43.379 --> 00:16:45.980 understand this. Paul's using the present tense 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:48.720 for a reason. He's saying, look, those who are 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.740 rejecting the gospel in the here and now, that 00:16:52.740 --> 00:16:56.000 initiates a process of spiritual ruin in their 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.710 lives. And for the believer, salvation is a present 00:17:00.710 --> 00:17:03.769 tense process where we are being progressively 00:17:03.769 --> 00:17:07.029 delivered from the power of sin in our lives. 00:17:07.450 --> 00:17:09.789 We sometimes call that sanctification, right? 00:17:10.029 --> 00:17:12.910 We're being delivered from sin's power over us. 00:17:13.029 --> 00:17:16.849 So I want you to rethink salvation. Salvation 00:17:16.849 --> 00:17:19.009 is the condition that stretches all the way back 00:17:19.009 --> 00:17:23.099 into eternity past. When we were chosen in Christ 00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:26.059 to be saved sovereignly by God, it extends to 00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:29.480 our earthly past, to the time that we were justified 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:32.380 in the sight of God. It extends to the earthly 00:17:32.380 --> 00:17:35.599 present right now when we're being sanctified 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:38.180 and conformed to the image of Christ. And salvation 00:17:38.180 --> 00:17:40.640 extends to the future completion when we will 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:43.039 be ushered into the presence of our Savior. Friends, 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:48.180 all of that is called being saved. It's a beautiful 00:17:48.180 --> 00:17:50.799 picture. Not just that final destination, all 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:54.430 of it. Even presently, we're being saved by Christ. 00:17:54.609 --> 00:17:57.390 It's beautiful. So make sure you see this. And 00:17:57.390 --> 00:17:59.269 by the way, those who are perishing right now, 00:17:59.329 --> 00:18:02.470 as we speak, as we sit here this morning, that's 00:18:02.470 --> 00:18:05.829 what gives us the urgency to be on mission. They 00:18:05.829 --> 00:18:09.950 are perishing. They are in spiritual ruin. That's 00:18:09.950 --> 00:18:13.009 why we bring the King's message to the people. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.079 And those of us who are being saved, that's why 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.619 we continue to come here every Sunday. That's 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:21.000 why we continue to gather together for worship 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:23.720 and prayer and study of God's word because we're 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:26.279 being saved. We want to follow after our savior. 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:30.440 These are present day realities and we shouldn't 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:33.940 forget that. So then what's the object that separates 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:37.839 all of us into one or two of these camps? Whatever 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:40.279 it is, because it's an ultimate division, it's 00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:43.299 got to be super important, right? In fact, If 00:18:43.299 --> 00:18:45.579 this is eternal in nature, it's got to be the 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:49.599 most precious thing in all of humanity, in all 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:51.279 of earth, in all of life. It's got to be the 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:53.500 most precious thing. And what is it? It's the 00:18:53.500 --> 00:18:57.740 word of the cross. That's what Paul says. The 00:18:57.740 --> 00:19:00.579 word of the cross separates us into two camps. 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:04.000 And when you talk about the word of the cross, 00:19:04.059 --> 00:19:06.259 think about... Think of it as the message of 00:19:06.259 --> 00:19:08.660 the whole of Scripture, the entire story of God 00:19:08.660 --> 00:19:11.759 and of mankind and of salvation, all of which 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:14.259 culminates at the very apex of human history 00:19:14.259 --> 00:19:17.519 when God the Son took on flesh and died a sacrificial 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.960 death to wash away sins. But it's the whole of 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:23.460 Scripture is the word of the cross because it 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:27.140 all leads to the cross. That's what separates 00:19:27.140 --> 00:19:29.859 those who are perishing and those who are being 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:33.079 saved. Do you believe the word of the cross or 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:36.240 do you not? So when we go out there with the 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:37.720 king's message, we've got to ask that question. 00:19:37.859 --> 00:19:39.279 Do you believe in the word of the cross or do 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:43.579 you not? Which camp are you in? To those who 00:19:43.579 --> 00:19:45.859 don't believe and are perishing, the word of 00:19:45.859 --> 00:19:48.700 the cross is foolishness, Paul says. In fact, 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:51.700 it's an offense to them. How many times have 00:19:51.700 --> 00:19:53.220 you ever done this? You've tried to share with 00:19:53.220 --> 00:19:55.759 somebody and you see it in their face or in their 00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:57.799 body language or they just tell you, I'm super 00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:01.819 offended by what you're saying. It happens. It's 00:20:01.819 --> 00:20:04.650 offensive. I'll give you two reasons why. First 00:20:04.650 --> 00:20:07.089 of all, there's the cultural objection. Death 00:20:07.089 --> 00:20:09.910 by crucifixion was despised in the ancient world. 00:20:10.450 --> 00:20:13.009 It was a form of execution that was reserved 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:15.890 for slaves and barbarians and criminals, the 00:20:15.890 --> 00:20:18.960 scum of the earth. And we all know because we've 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:21.460 seen the pictures and artwork and on film just 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:24.119 how physically painful crucifixion was, just 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:27.039 how personally degrading it was to be stripped 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:30.599 almost naked, to be hung on a cross, and to have 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:33.460 everybody around just walk by and watch you slowly 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:37.579 die. There's a cultural objection here. That 00:20:37.579 --> 00:20:43.059 is offensive to the world. It's grotesque. It's 00:20:43.059 --> 00:20:45.680 a shameful death. And the idea that God would 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:49.880 use that to reconcile humanity to himself, for 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:51.319 the people in Paul's day, they would have said, 00:20:51.339 --> 00:20:53.200 nope, that's unthinkable. That's foolishness. 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:56.579 The second reason the word of the cross was foolish 00:20:56.579 --> 00:21:00.440 and offensive was its simplicity. The gospel 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:02.579 is a very simple message. Children can believe 00:21:02.579 --> 00:21:07.849 it, right? Here was Paul. Going to the people 00:21:07.849 --> 00:21:10.849 of Corinth, people who loved intricate philosophies 00:21:10.849 --> 00:21:13.390 and saying, look, I have a very simple and straightforward 00:21:13.390 --> 00:21:18.910 message. You're a sinner. Start there. Your sin 00:21:18.910 --> 00:21:21.009 is a debt that you owe to the one true God, the 00:21:21.009 --> 00:21:24.960 creator who made all things. But God has offered 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:26.960 you a remedy for that problem that you have. 00:21:27.140 --> 00:21:29.539 He himself came to earth and took on human flesh. 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:32.420 He died on a cross to pay the penalty for your 00:21:32.420 --> 00:21:35.420 sins. All you have to do is trust in him, trust 00:21:35.420 --> 00:21:37.480 that he was raised from the dead, and you will 00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:39.859 be saved from his wrath and live with him forever 00:21:39.859 --> 00:21:43.180 in the heavenly realms. That's the simple message. 00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:47.240 And what does the world say to that? What does 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:50.440 the world still to this day say? That's ridiculous. 00:21:51.679 --> 00:21:56.079 Just believe in that one guy? Sounds like foolishness. 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:00.240 And the truth is, the proud man won't accept 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.680 it. And the self -righteous man doesn't feel 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:08.380 he needs it. The natural man will never submit 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:10.539 his life to that kind of a savior. First of all, 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:12.519 because then he'd have to admit that he's a sinner. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:14.940 And he'd have to admit that, yeah, there's really 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:17.579 a consequence for my sin. And then he'd have 00:22:17.579 --> 00:22:20.210 to accept the simplicity of it all. And you know 00:22:20.210 --> 00:22:23.349 what man wants? Wait, give me, I can't just be 00:22:23.349 --> 00:22:25.309 saved by faith. It's got to be a whole bunch 00:22:25.309 --> 00:22:27.910 of religious ceremonies that I've got to walk 00:22:27.910 --> 00:22:30.009 through or a whole list of things that I have 00:22:30.009 --> 00:22:34.329 to do to earn this. So when you tell them no, 00:22:34.430 --> 00:22:37.289 you just believe. You're putting your trust in 00:22:37.289 --> 00:22:40.910 the sacrifice of the God -man. You're following 00:22:40.910 --> 00:22:45.269 after him as Savior and Lord. Too simple. Too 00:22:45.269 --> 00:22:49.410 simple. It's foolishness. But here's the thing, 00:22:49.450 --> 00:22:51.710 and Adam touched on this earlier as well. When 00:22:51.710 --> 00:22:54.109 God opens a man's spiritual eyes to see that 00:22:54.109 --> 00:22:57.369 this is true, that he is a sinner, that he has 00:22:57.369 --> 00:23:00.349 a need for a savior, once God brings a man's 00:23:00.349 --> 00:23:04.190 heart to life and changes his affections, what 00:23:04.190 --> 00:23:05.950 that man would have looked like one day and said, 00:23:05.990 --> 00:23:07.710 that's foolishness. Now he looks at it and says, 00:23:07.789 --> 00:23:12.890 you know what? That's the power of God. So let 00:23:12.890 --> 00:23:15.519 the world think I'm a fool. That's fine. Let 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.019 them scoff at me. Let them regurgitate all their 00:23:18.019 --> 00:23:21.960 intricate philosophies and their worldviews about 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:24.779 life. I know where I stand, and I'm not ashamed 00:23:24.779 --> 00:23:28.259 of the gospel. I've moved from this camp to that 00:23:28.259 --> 00:23:32.019 camp, from lost to saved. Yes, the brutality 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:35.460 of the cross is the path to salvation. The world 00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:37.799 turns away from it. It's too graphic for them. 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:40.420 But you know what we do with it? We sing hymns 00:23:40.420 --> 00:23:44.009 about it. Have you ever thought about that? We 00:23:44.009 --> 00:23:47.650 put crosses up in our buildings. This means of 00:23:47.650 --> 00:23:51.390 execution, this brutal thing, we sing praise 00:23:51.390 --> 00:23:56.309 songs about it. For us, the word of the cross 00:23:56.309 --> 00:23:59.109 is the power of God to save. We are different 00:23:59.109 --> 00:24:04.289 from the world. Amen? So let's drop down into 00:24:04.289 --> 00:24:06.990 verses 22 and 23, and we're going to see why 00:24:06.990 --> 00:24:11.710 most people are perishing. Verse 22. What does 00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:15.190 it say about Jews? They ask for signs. What does 00:24:15.190 --> 00:24:17.910 it say about Greeks or Gentiles? They search 00:24:17.910 --> 00:24:22.109 for wisdom. Paul says, but we, we preach Christ 00:24:22.109 --> 00:24:25.210 crucified. And to the Jews, this is a stumbling 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:28.230 block. And to the Gentiles, it's foolishness. 00:24:28.490 --> 00:24:31.589 So here we go. Two groups of people. We're very, 00:24:31.710 --> 00:24:33.670 as Bible readers, we're familiar with these two 00:24:33.670 --> 00:24:36.430 groups, Jews and Gentiles, right? And to the 00:24:36.430 --> 00:24:39.069 unredeemed in both camps, the cross is a problem. 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:43.539 For the Jews, the gospel was problematic for 00:24:43.539 --> 00:24:45.079 several reasons. First of all, again, there's 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:51.200 the crucifixion. And if any of you follow on 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:54.660 YouTube or some social media, one of the many 00:24:54.660 --> 00:24:57.539 ministries that are doing street evangelism in 00:24:57.539 --> 00:25:00.420 Israel or street evangelism to Jews in America, 00:25:00.619 --> 00:25:03.000 you will find that there are a couple of common 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:06.460 objections to the idea of Yeshua as Messiah. 00:25:06.740 --> 00:25:08.880 It comes up over and over again. First of all, 00:25:08.900 --> 00:25:13.319 the crucifixion. My Messiah, as I read it, they 00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:16.299 say, could not be overcome and executed like 00:25:16.299 --> 00:25:20.519 that. It's a stumbling block for them. Even though 00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:22.480 their own scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures, 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:25.920 not only talk about a suffering servant who will 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:28.680 die for sin and even describe some aspects of 00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:31.000 crucifixion. By the way, when it gets pointed 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:34.619 out to them, they're flummoxed by that. But that's 00:25:34.619 --> 00:25:37.380 one. The other one is, well, if this Yeshua was 00:25:37.380 --> 00:25:41.329 the Messiah, where is his kingdom? Huge stumbling 00:25:41.329 --> 00:25:44.509 block. We don't see a messianic age being ushered 00:25:44.509 --> 00:25:46.789 in. There's no peace. There's no prosperity. 00:25:47.029 --> 00:25:49.509 The foreign occupiers are still in the land. 00:25:49.609 --> 00:25:53.250 That is not our Messiah. It's a materialistic 00:25:53.250 --> 00:25:55.869 view. It's not a spiritual view of Messiah. It's 00:25:55.869 --> 00:25:58.710 purely materialistic. That's still to this day 00:25:58.710 --> 00:26:03.210 what the lost in Israel cannot see because they're 00:26:03.210 --> 00:26:05.829 looking for a materialistic kingdom. So these 00:26:05.829 --> 00:26:08.009 things are stumbling blocks to the Jews. And 00:26:08.009 --> 00:26:10.410 by the way, that too was prophesied, was it not? 00:26:10.490 --> 00:26:13.750 In the Psalms and by Isaiah, the Messiah was 00:26:13.750 --> 00:26:17.549 going to be a rock of offense. He was going to 00:26:17.549 --> 00:26:20.509 be a rock to be stumbled over. Again, that's 00:26:20.509 --> 00:26:24.130 found in their own Hebrew scriptures. And then 00:26:24.130 --> 00:26:26.750 thirdly, as Paul points out here, even if they 00:26:26.750 --> 00:26:30.230 could get past the lack of a kingdom and the 00:26:30.230 --> 00:26:33.730 idea of crucifixion, they still wouldn't be persuaded 00:26:33.730 --> 00:26:35.950 by the gospel because in it they don't see a 00:26:35.950 --> 00:26:38.789 display of power. They don't see a miracle or 00:26:38.789 --> 00:26:41.869 a sign or a wonder. And this brings us back to 00:26:41.869 --> 00:26:43.650 the gospels. When you read the gospels, how many 00:26:43.650 --> 00:26:46.369 times do you see Jesus talking to a Jewish crowd 00:26:46.369 --> 00:26:49.650 and they say, well, give us a sign. Give us a 00:26:49.650 --> 00:26:51.690 sign that tells us that you can cleanse the temple. 00:26:53.069 --> 00:26:56.170 All the time. They expected their Messiah to 00:26:56.170 --> 00:27:00.470 be this wonder worker who would just do fun things 00:27:00.470 --> 00:27:05.359 at their demand. Show us things. And I have to 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:07.579 admit, and maybe you've had the same experience. 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:09.940 Sometimes I read the gospel, and I'm like, oh, 00:27:10.019 --> 00:27:13.240 Jesus, just give them a miracle, man. Like, they 00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:16.559 ask for it. Just do something wild so that everybody 00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:20.220 can see who you are. I mean, that's my fleshly 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:22.809 response to that, right? But I remember Dr. MacArthur 00:27:22.809 --> 00:27:24.769 once giving this interesting reason why Jesus 00:27:24.769 --> 00:27:27.009 doesn't do that. He said something to the effect 00:27:27.009 --> 00:27:29.910 of, if Jesus starts doing things at their demand, 00:27:30.230 --> 00:27:34.730 then he ends up in their pocket. In their pocket. 00:27:34.829 --> 00:27:37.250 He's less of a Messiah and more like a genie 00:27:37.250 --> 00:27:39.589 in a bottle. Who's in control in that situation? 00:27:39.930 --> 00:27:41.970 The person who rubs the lamp and asks for the 00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:45.309 genie. And that's not who Jesus is. He doesn't 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:48.329 do that. He doesn't act upon our demands. We 00:27:48.329 --> 00:27:52.799 submit to him. So that's the Jews. Lots of stumbling 00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:55.579 blocks here. The Gentiles, the Greeks, they're 00:27:55.579 --> 00:27:57.940 a whole different bunch. They want a great philosophy. 00:27:58.180 --> 00:28:01.259 They want something complex and intricate. I've 00:28:01.259 --> 00:28:04.099 already mentioned, they are super impressed by 00:28:04.099 --> 00:28:06.779 intellectual pursuits, knowledge and wisdom and 00:28:06.779 --> 00:28:09.680 great thinkers. And that is such a contrast to 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:13.000 the gospel. And we can admit this, right? Here's 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:16.839 this Jewish man, Paul, bringing into the Greek 00:28:16.839 --> 00:28:20.940 world the story of a itinerant rabbi from Galilee. 00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:25.779 Not impressive to Greeks. From this rural land. 00:28:26.059 --> 00:28:28.940 Who even knows where Galilee is on the map? If 00:28:28.940 --> 00:28:32.380 you live in Corinth, you're like, where? And 00:28:32.380 --> 00:28:34.640 this guy's a nobody in their eyes. He's a blue 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:37.299 -collar son of a carpenter. He has no pedigree. 00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.400 He never got a large following. He never wrote 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.940 anything down. He's just an itinerant rabbi. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.339 And then later he's arrested as a criminal. He's 00:28:47.339 --> 00:28:49.680 put to death for the crime of sedition. And the 00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:52.839 Greek says, and somehow that's supposed to be 00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:56.299 important to me? That makes no sense. That is 00:28:56.299 --> 00:28:59.519 foolishness. It's not an impressive story. It's 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:04.559 not an entertaining story. No thank you. This 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:06.319 is what Paul's dealing with in Corinth, in the 00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:10.619 whole Greek world. It's difficult. So to both 00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:13.200 camps, Paul says, look, regardless of what you 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:15.740 want to hear, I'm going to give it to you straight 00:29:15.740 --> 00:29:19.000 and simple because we don't shapeshift the message 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:21.920 so that it's more palatable for anybody, Jew 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:25.400 or Gentile. We simply preach this, Christ crucified. 00:29:26.859 --> 00:29:30.700 That's it. Or as we heard, if you want to expand 00:29:30.700 --> 00:29:33.240 on that, our call to worship from earlier, while 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:36.059 we were still helpless at the right time, Christ 00:29:36.059 --> 00:29:39.819 died for the ungodly. That was us, right? He 00:29:39.819 --> 00:29:42.460 died for the ungodly. God demonstrates his love 00:29:42.460 --> 00:29:45.019 toward us in that while we were yet sinners, 00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:48.059 Christ died for us. And now having been justified 00:29:48.059 --> 00:29:51.180 by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:54.559 of God through him. That's the expansion on Christ 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:58.470 crucified. That's the message. That's the king's 00:29:58.470 --> 00:30:01.609 message. And you can almost picture Paul saying 00:30:01.609 --> 00:30:03.750 to them, look, I know you have your philosophies. 00:30:04.529 --> 00:30:06.910 I've heard them all. They're all over the city, 00:30:06.950 --> 00:30:09.650 but I'm not here just to offer you a competing 00:30:09.650 --> 00:30:14.369 philosophy. I bring you only this, the God -man 00:30:14.369 --> 00:30:18.109 hung upon a tree for your sins. Trust in him 00:30:18.109 --> 00:30:22.210 alone and be saved. That's it. And again, to 00:30:22.210 --> 00:30:24.670 the natural unredeemed man, Jew or Gentile, that 00:30:24.670 --> 00:30:27.730 is unacceptable. But here's the key to this whole 00:30:27.730 --> 00:30:32.349 passage. It's the language of verse 24. So look 00:30:32.349 --> 00:30:35.049 at the end of 23. To Jews a stumbling block and 00:30:35.049 --> 00:30:40.869 to Gentiles foolish, but, big but, but to those 00:30:40.869 --> 00:30:45.970 who are the called, both Jew and Greek, Christ 00:30:45.970 --> 00:30:49.430 the power of God and the wisdom of God. So here's 00:30:49.430 --> 00:30:53.170 the thing. If Paul had stopped at verse 23, we'd 00:30:53.170 --> 00:30:55.849 all be in trouble. Like you run into a cul -de 00:30:55.849 --> 00:30:57.990 -sac here with nowhere to go. Think about this. 00:30:58.109 --> 00:31:00.589 If Jews won't accept it because it's a stumbling 00:31:00.589 --> 00:31:02.829 block, if Greeks won't accept it because it's 00:31:02.829 --> 00:31:06.730 foolishness, who's left to talk to? That's the 00:31:06.730 --> 00:31:11.970 whole world. Paul's answer is the called. That's 00:31:11.970 --> 00:31:15.819 who. Those whom God has chosen to save, both 00:31:15.819 --> 00:31:18.880 Jew and Gentile. Guys, this is a subtle but important 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:22.619 description of the doctrine of election right 00:31:22.619 --> 00:31:25.400 here in 1 Corinthians. The gospel is offensive 00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:28.259 to every type of people on the earth unless God 00:31:28.259 --> 00:31:31.579 calls them out of their unbelief. Then everything 00:31:31.579 --> 00:31:37.299 changes. Salvation hinges on what? Us? No, on 00:31:37.299 --> 00:31:42.369 God who calls. Gotta know that. And if God calls 00:31:42.369 --> 00:31:44.490 people affectionately, they're going to respond 00:31:44.490 --> 00:31:46.490 and believe. Their eyes are going to be open. 00:31:46.670 --> 00:31:48.250 Their spiritual hearts are going to be brought 00:31:48.250 --> 00:31:50.450 to life. And instead of the word of the cross 00:31:50.450 --> 00:31:53.049 being offensive, they will say, I want that. 00:31:54.970 --> 00:31:58.990 I hope that's your testimony. It was once offensive. 00:31:59.269 --> 00:32:02.410 It was once foolish to me. And then one day my 00:32:02.410 --> 00:32:04.650 eyes were open and I began to understand spiritual 00:32:04.650 --> 00:32:07.769 truth and I embraced it. I wanted it. I received 00:32:07.769 --> 00:32:11.720 it. That's the testimony. Christ is the power 00:32:11.720 --> 00:32:15.160 of God and the wisdom of God. And then Paul uses 00:32:15.160 --> 00:32:17.559 two phrases in verse 25 that you, again, you 00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:19.500 would not expect to see this. He talks about 00:32:19.500 --> 00:32:22.400 God's foolishness and God's weakness. This is, 00:32:22.420 --> 00:32:24.980 like last week, another appeal to the absurd. 00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:27.700 Because it's absurd to think that God is either 00:32:27.700 --> 00:32:30.539 of those things. But even if God was foolish, 00:32:30.859 --> 00:32:34.670 even if somehow he was foolish, even then his 00:32:34.670 --> 00:32:37.670 foolishness would be wiser than all the combined 00:32:37.670 --> 00:32:41.430 wisdom of mankind through all ages. That's what 00:32:41.430 --> 00:32:43.950 he's saying. And even if somehow you could say 00:32:43.950 --> 00:32:46.529 God was weak, his weakness would still be stronger 00:32:46.529 --> 00:32:49.349 than all the combined strength of men throughout 00:32:49.349 --> 00:32:52.930 all the ages. It's the appeal to the absurd. 00:32:54.089 --> 00:32:56.109 And through the work of the cross, which is the 00:32:56.109 --> 00:32:58.109 most foolish of plans from a human perspective, 00:32:58.490 --> 00:33:01.990 God outsmarted human wisdom and he overpowered 00:33:01.990 --> 00:33:06.859 all human strength. And here's why. If I've lost 00:33:06.859 --> 00:33:09.200 you, pay close attention to this. Here's why. 00:33:09.779 --> 00:33:14.799 Because at the cross, there was true power. True 00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:20.240 power. The type of power that no man has. The 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:23.319 type of power that no other message carries with 00:33:23.319 --> 00:33:28.259 it. The power to wash away sins. The power to 00:33:28.259 --> 00:33:30.539 save a man's soul. The power to grant eternal 00:33:30.539 --> 00:33:33.900 life. No man has that kind of power. No message 00:33:33.900 --> 00:33:36.599 other than the gospel has that kind of power. 00:33:37.660 --> 00:33:42.140 At the cross, that was true power. You've got 00:33:42.140 --> 00:33:43.819 to understand this. You've got to see this. It's 00:33:43.819 --> 00:33:45.819 beautiful the way Paul lays this out, right? 00:33:46.279 --> 00:33:48.640 And so then look, go back up to verse 19 and 00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:53.000 look what he describes. There we go. Verse 19. 00:33:53.740 --> 00:33:57.640 Here he cites Isaiah 29, 14. And he says, for 00:33:57.640 --> 00:33:59.200 it's written, this is what God's going to do. 00:33:59.339 --> 00:34:01.839 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the 00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:04.559 cleverness of the clever I will set aside. And 00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:06.900 there's multiple interpretations of that. The 00:34:06.900 --> 00:34:09.599 discernment of the discerning I will set aside. 00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:12.280 The intelligence of the intelligent, however 00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:15.750 you want to interpret the Greek there. Now, I 00:34:15.750 --> 00:34:17.309 don't have time to walk through that Old Testament 00:34:17.309 --> 00:34:19.630 passage. I'll just summarize it for you. This 00:34:19.630 --> 00:34:22.530 was in the days of Isaiah, in the days of Sennacherib, 00:34:22.530 --> 00:34:25.369 the greatest Syrian king. And so God is promising 00:34:25.369 --> 00:34:28.210 the leaders of Judah in that day that he was 00:34:28.210 --> 00:34:31.909 going to act in unexpected ways. I am going to 00:34:31.909 --> 00:34:35.150 surprise you, blow your mind, in order to do 00:34:35.150 --> 00:34:37.750 two things. First of all, to expose your lack 00:34:37.750 --> 00:34:40.750 of understanding and wisdom, leaders. And number 00:34:40.750 --> 00:34:45.070 two, to show you my power in graciously rescuing 00:34:45.070 --> 00:34:47.849 you from destruction at the hands of the Assyrian 00:34:47.849 --> 00:34:51.150 king. I'm going to shock you, surprise you, blow 00:34:51.150 --> 00:34:53.889 you away to show you how foolish you really are 00:34:53.889 --> 00:34:57.510 and also to show you how gracious I am. And what 00:34:57.510 --> 00:34:59.989 Paul's saying, the reason Paul employs this passage 00:34:59.989 --> 00:35:03.369 is he's saying here in 1 Corinthians 1, in that 00:35:03.369 --> 00:35:05.750 day, God was still doing this type of thing. 00:35:06.280 --> 00:35:09.420 He was still doing it. He's destroying the wisdom 00:35:09.420 --> 00:35:12.039 of the wise. He is setting aside the cleverness 00:35:12.039 --> 00:35:15.739 of the clever, and at the same time, he is graciously 00:35:15.739 --> 00:35:19.380 moving to save his elect. What he was doing in 00:35:19.380 --> 00:35:21.260 the days of Isaiah, he's doing in the days of 00:35:21.260 --> 00:35:25.619 Paul. Graciously saving the elect, opening their 00:35:25.619 --> 00:35:28.340 eyes, bringing their hearts to life, and saving 00:35:28.340 --> 00:35:31.440 them for all eternity. What an incredible, you 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:35.630 know, sort of comparison and contrast here. The 00:35:35.630 --> 00:35:38.210 fact is, God has always worked in ways that are 00:35:38.210 --> 00:35:41.690 contrary to our human wisdom because his thoughts 00:35:41.690 --> 00:35:44.349 are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. 00:35:44.449 --> 00:35:46.070 How many times in life have you been totally 00:35:46.070 --> 00:35:51.150 surprised by God? So many times. I never would 00:35:51.150 --> 00:35:53.829 have drawn that up. Never would have thought 00:35:53.829 --> 00:35:56.030 of that. Would human beings have ever conceived 00:35:56.030 --> 00:36:00.039 of the possibility of a triune God? Would human 00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:03.119 beings ever have conceived of God the Son stepping 00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:06.079 out of heaven and taking on flesh to be born 00:36:06.079 --> 00:36:09.820 of a virgin? Come on. Would we ever have conceived 00:36:09.820 --> 00:36:13.360 of the apparent weakness of the cross actually 00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:18.039 becoming victory over sin and death? We wouldn't 00:36:18.039 --> 00:36:21.280 have come up with that stuff. So in light of 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:23.619 God's wondrous ways, in verse 20, he asks three 00:36:23.619 --> 00:36:27.679 stinging questions. Okay, so where's your wise 00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:32.139 men? Where are your scribes or your experts in 00:36:32.139 --> 00:36:35.960 the law? Where are your debaters? The underlying 00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:38.920 question of this is this. What have those kinds 00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:41.739 of men actually contributed to the condition 00:36:41.739 --> 00:36:47.179 of mankind? What have they actually done? By 00:36:47.179 --> 00:36:50.119 their skills and talents, have they ever saved 00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:54.079 anybody for all eternity? Have they ever been 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:56.039 able to fix the corruption in a man's heart? 00:36:57.480 --> 00:37:00.400 Have they ever proven to be able to pay the debt 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:04.840 for a man's sin? Any of them? And the obvious 00:37:04.840 --> 00:37:08.659 answer is no. But listen, it's not as though 00:37:08.659 --> 00:37:12.099 God is against philosophy or against law or against 00:37:12.099 --> 00:37:14.559 rhetoric. Listen, hear me carefully in this. 00:37:14.619 --> 00:37:17.760 God is not anti -intellectual. All of those disciplines 00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:20.219 have their place in the world. But when you hold 00:37:20.219 --> 00:37:22.559 them up and compare them to the word of the cross, 00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:26.530 which does save, which does address man's corrupt 00:37:26.530 --> 00:37:29.030 heart, which does pay the debt for sin, when 00:37:29.030 --> 00:37:31.250 you compare those two things, the stuff of the 00:37:31.250 --> 00:37:35.349 world looks very underwhelming. It looks very 00:37:35.349 --> 00:37:40.250 fleeting. Again, it's not wrong to engage in 00:37:40.250 --> 00:37:43.329 intellectual pursuits, but it's very temporary, 00:37:43.449 --> 00:37:46.510 isn't it? You can't compare it to the word of 00:37:46.510 --> 00:37:49.849 the cross. Now still, let me add a warning to 00:37:49.849 --> 00:37:52.010 this. Don't underestimate the pull of worldly 00:37:52.010 --> 00:37:55.480 wisdom. This is really important for, I'm looking 00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:58.000 at the younger generation here. It can be very 00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:01.460 seductive because it appeals to the pride of 00:38:01.460 --> 00:38:04.179 our intellect. And if we're not careful, we can 00:38:04.179 --> 00:38:07.260 find ourselves immersed all day long, every day 00:38:07.260 --> 00:38:10.360 in worldly things. And eventually that sort of 00:38:10.360 --> 00:38:13.599 leaks into our psyche. It leaks into our heart 00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:16.380 and we find ourselves actually accepting worldly 00:38:16.380 --> 00:38:19.619 wisdom over God's revelation. That can happen 00:38:19.619 --> 00:38:22.639 to us. Paul actually warns in his letter to the 00:38:22.639 --> 00:38:24.980 Colossians about this very thing. He says, see 00:38:24.980 --> 00:38:27.019 to it that no one takes you captive. Look at 00:38:27.019 --> 00:38:30.880 that phrase. Makes you a prisoner through philosophy 00:38:30.880 --> 00:38:35.340 and empty deception. According to what? The traditions 00:38:35.340 --> 00:38:38.880 of men. According to the elementary principles 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:41.559 of the world rather than according to Christ. 00:38:41.780 --> 00:38:44.059 Take that warning seriously. Young people, if 00:38:44.059 --> 00:38:47.300 you spend all day every day online, And you're 00:38:47.300 --> 00:38:49.179 just looking at memes and you're looking at posts 00:38:49.179 --> 00:38:51.400 and you're looking at comments. Man, that stuff 00:38:51.400 --> 00:38:54.480 will sink in, won't it? And pretty soon we're 00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:58.280 starting to buy that stuff more than we're understanding 00:38:58.280 --> 00:39:02.619 God's revelation. Be careful. When compared to 00:39:02.619 --> 00:39:05.139 the wisdom that comes from God, even what we 00:39:05.139 --> 00:39:07.820 perceive as the smartest traditions and the best 00:39:07.820 --> 00:39:10.400 teachings of men, Paul says they're just elementary 00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:13.539 principles. They're just the basics. They're 00:39:13.539 --> 00:39:16.880 earthly. And again, none of it has real power. 00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:20.960 It can't transform the nature of a man. It can't 00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:23.340 lead a person into the presence of God. It has 00:39:23.340 --> 00:39:25.940 no power or effect beyond this earthly life. 00:39:26.940 --> 00:39:29.239 So just be warned by that. Interestingly, the 00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:31.380 New Testament gives us a great example. Paul 00:39:31.380 --> 00:39:35.480 himself, this great example in Acts 17. Did you 00:39:35.480 --> 00:39:39.800 know that Paul visited Athens? The very epicenter 00:39:39.800 --> 00:39:43.170 of Greek philosophy. He went to Athens and he 00:39:43.170 --> 00:39:45.230 goes to the Areopagus. If you've never been to 00:39:45.230 --> 00:39:48.610 Athens, this rocky hill that's set above the 00:39:48.610 --> 00:39:52.289 city. And in the Areopagus is where all the sophists 00:39:52.289 --> 00:39:54.349 of Athens, the most famous philosophers in that 00:39:54.349 --> 00:39:57.329 day, they sat there with their, you know, stroking 00:39:57.329 --> 00:40:00.949 their beards and just judging everybody's teachings 00:40:00.949 --> 00:40:03.590 and everybody's wisdom. And Paul walked into 00:40:03.590 --> 00:40:06.389 that situation, right? And what did he find there? 00:40:06.449 --> 00:40:08.949 He found a great altar. with the inscription 00:40:08.949 --> 00:40:12.409 you see on the screen, to an unknown God. And 00:40:12.409 --> 00:40:13.789 that was supposed to be a statement of great 00:40:13.789 --> 00:40:19.510 wisdom to those folks. Why? Well, we're so earthly 00:40:19.510 --> 00:40:22.010 wise, we don't want to miss honoring a God that 00:40:22.010 --> 00:40:23.889 we don't know about, so we'll just create this 00:40:23.889 --> 00:40:26.929 altar to the unknown God. Talk about foolishness, 00:40:26.929 --> 00:40:31.210 right? This is the epicenter of philosophy. Supposed 00:40:31.210 --> 00:40:35.110 wise men create a possible God. who's not really 00:40:35.110 --> 00:40:38.349 a God at all, and then bow to him just in case. 00:40:40.349 --> 00:40:43.829 And Paul confronts them. And you picture Paul, 00:40:43.929 --> 00:40:46.929 this old grizzled Jewish guy, right? Walks up 00:40:46.929 --> 00:40:49.869 to these great thinkers and he confronts their 00:40:49.869 --> 00:40:52.789 arrogance and he says, what you worship in ignorance, 00:40:53.050 --> 00:40:56.789 this I proclaim to you. And he goes on to talk 00:40:56.789 --> 00:40:59.769 about the creator of the universe and the resurrection 00:40:59.769 --> 00:41:03.219 of Christ. It's beautiful. Read Acts 17 when 00:41:03.219 --> 00:41:05.920 you get home tonight. And the world says, come 00:41:05.920 --> 00:41:08.940 on, those philosophers in Athens, they were so 00:41:08.940 --> 00:41:13.260 smart, they're so wise. Paul says, nah, no. Apart 00:41:13.260 --> 00:41:16.000 from the gospel, they live and breathe in a world 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:20.960 of ignorance. Now, I want to close with verse 00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:23.260 21, because to me, this is where the big idea 00:41:23.260 --> 00:41:25.780 is really located. Look at verse 21. This is 00:41:25.780 --> 00:41:29.840 the foundation for why gospel mission should 00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:33.659 always be an emphasis in the local church. Adam 00:41:33.659 --> 00:41:35.760 talked about a few different missions that we 00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:38.880 love, right? TMAI, our GO teams that are going 00:41:38.880 --> 00:41:41.159 to scatter across the world. He talked about 00:41:41.159 --> 00:41:44.739 the students in IBEX in Israel. And I'll just 00:41:44.739 --> 00:41:47.440 add something that he didn't want to talk about 00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:50.179 out of humility, Adam's ministry with Children's 00:41:50.179 --> 00:41:54.000 Hunger Fund. Ministries that we love. At CHF, 00:41:54.039 --> 00:41:56.159 they seek to feed people physically while at 00:41:56.159 --> 00:41:58.539 the same time feeding them spiritually with the 00:41:58.539 --> 00:42:01.070 gospel. and partnering with local pastors and 00:42:01.070 --> 00:42:03.309 local churches to fulfill the Great Commission. 00:42:03.510 --> 00:42:05.769 It's a beautiful ministry. We love these things. 00:42:06.309 --> 00:42:08.670 And all of those ministries operate under the 00:42:08.670 --> 00:42:11.090 banner of exactly what Paul talks about here 00:42:11.090 --> 00:42:14.909 in verse 21. God's heart for those whom he is 00:42:14.909 --> 00:42:17.050 going to save out of the ignorance of worldly 00:42:17.050 --> 00:42:21.230 wisdom. I'll say it again. God's heart for those 00:42:21.230 --> 00:42:24.869 whom he will save out of the ignorance of worldly 00:42:24.869 --> 00:42:29.090 wisdom. Verse 21. For since in the wisdom of 00:42:29.090 --> 00:42:32.769 God, the world through its wisdom did not come 00:42:32.769 --> 00:42:36.010 to know God. In other words, in spite of all 00:42:36.010 --> 00:42:39.730 the wisdom, it couldn't get people to God. Because 00:42:39.730 --> 00:42:43.030 of that, God was well pleased himself through 00:42:43.030 --> 00:42:45.989 the so -called foolishness of the message that's 00:42:45.989 --> 00:42:49.389 being preached to save those who believe. So 00:42:49.389 --> 00:42:51.789 the world lacks the wisdom and power to lead 00:42:51.789 --> 00:42:54.630 anyone to salvation. So the Lord steps in and 00:42:54.630 --> 00:42:57.199 goes, I'm well pleased to do this myself. And 00:42:57.199 --> 00:42:58.800 we knew this from the beginning, did we not? 00:42:58.900 --> 00:43:01.219 That God is sovereign over all of it. He says, 00:43:01.219 --> 00:43:04.380 I'm well pleased to do this. Because by the world's 00:43:04.380 --> 00:43:06.300 wisdom, you'll never get to me. You'll never 00:43:06.300 --> 00:43:09.639 get there. So he's doing it. And he's going to 00:43:09.639 --> 00:43:14.960 use a message. And this is so God. So countercultural. 00:43:14.980 --> 00:43:17.360 I'm going to use a message that looks to the 00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:20.760 world to be foolish. But that's actually my plan 00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:23.480 to save people. He's going to do it through the 00:43:23.480 --> 00:43:26.280 proclamation of this unique message. And it's 00:43:26.280 --> 00:43:28.440 something that cannot be discerned and received 00:43:28.440 --> 00:43:33.340 by man's intellect alone. That's important. It 00:43:33.340 --> 00:43:36.519 can't be received by human reasoning. It's a 00:43:36.519 --> 00:43:38.780 message that can only be discovered and received 00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:41.900 spiritually. And that means that God first has 00:43:41.900 --> 00:43:44.579 to do a work in the heart of man to prepare him 00:43:44.579 --> 00:43:47.880 to hear it and receive it. So God does the work. 00:43:47.900 --> 00:43:49.940 He does the preparation. He does the saving. 00:43:50.039 --> 00:43:52.699 As we say here, it's this monergism. It's all 00:43:52.699 --> 00:43:57.340 the work of God. Here's just one reason why I 00:43:57.340 --> 00:43:59.840 think that's so beautiful. Because I know there's 00:43:59.840 --> 00:44:02.360 objections to this whole idea that, well, it's 00:44:02.360 --> 00:44:05.099 all God. But here's one of the reasons why it's 00:44:05.099 --> 00:44:07.539 so beautiful. If God had decided to proclaim 00:44:07.539 --> 00:44:10.880 his message to the world in a way that was discoverable 00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:14.900 by intellect and by reason, then only the smartest 00:44:14.900 --> 00:44:20.099 people would be saved. Right? Only the elites 00:44:20.099 --> 00:44:23.900 of society, the connected people, the high IQ 00:44:23.900 --> 00:44:27.099 people. would have heard that message using their 00:44:27.099 --> 00:44:29.619 reason, logic, and intellect would have received 00:44:29.619 --> 00:44:37.920 it. And the rest of the world? Out of luck. And 00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:40.099 what would that do if only the smartest people 00:44:40.099 --> 00:44:43.199 could understand the message? It would just feed 00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:46.280 their egos. It would feed their egos. They'd 00:44:46.280 --> 00:44:49.000 be saying, look how smart I am. Look how wise 00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:50.900 I am. Look how important I am. Look how spiritual 00:44:50.900 --> 00:44:54.289 I am. It's completely the opposite of the gospel. 00:44:54.909 --> 00:44:57.929 Gordon Fee, the late New Testament scholar, beautifully 00:44:57.929 --> 00:45:01.190 describes this. He says, a God discovered by 00:45:01.190 --> 00:45:04.969 human wisdom would be both a projection of human 00:45:04.969 --> 00:45:09.090 fallenness and a source of human pride. And this 00:45:09.090 --> 00:45:10.889 would constitute the worship of the creature, 00:45:10.889 --> 00:45:16.409 not the creator. That's where we'd be if it was 00:45:16.409 --> 00:45:19.800 just by man's intellect. So instead of that scenario, 00:45:19.980 --> 00:45:22.099 it pleased God to send out the king's messengers 00:45:22.099 --> 00:45:25.239 with this very simple message, Christ crucified. 00:45:25.659 --> 00:45:28.460 And then to prepare the hearts of his chosen 00:45:28.460 --> 00:45:33.139 ones to receive it. That's the plan. And because 00:45:33.139 --> 00:45:39.500 of that simplicity, children can believe. And 00:45:39.500 --> 00:45:44.119 adults, even grandparents. The poor can believe. 00:45:45.130 --> 00:45:47.650 as well as the rich, the smart and the not so 00:45:47.650 --> 00:45:52.650 smart can all believe. Even people with really, 00:45:52.710 --> 00:45:56.769 really messy pasts can believe because God does 00:45:56.769 --> 00:46:00.130 the work to prepare the heart. That's why people 00:46:00.130 --> 00:46:02.130 all over the world will gather on Sunday mornings 00:46:02.130 --> 00:46:04.469 just like this one and they will worship Christ 00:46:04.469 --> 00:46:07.610 with one voice. White, brown, black, it doesn't 00:46:07.610 --> 00:46:11.190 matter. Every shape and size together. Blue collar 00:46:11.190 --> 00:46:14.309 worshiping alongside white collar. The scientist, 00:46:15.159 --> 00:46:18.219 Locking arms with the high school dropout because 00:46:18.219 --> 00:46:22.400 it's all God's work. Even Dodgers fans and Giants 00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:32.360 fans. Worshiping together. It's possible. So 00:46:32.360 --> 00:46:35.440 what God has done in the gospel and his plan 00:46:35.440 --> 00:46:38.219 is he's leveled the playing field. And again, 00:46:38.260 --> 00:46:40.800 using this message that is so simple, so humbling, 00:46:40.820 --> 00:46:45.940 and so offensive to the natural mind. Jesus Christ, 00:46:46.099 --> 00:46:51.659 dying on a cross to take away my sin, wounded 00:46:51.659 --> 00:46:55.300 for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities, 00:46:55.400 --> 00:47:01.420 dying in my place, the just for the unjust, the 00:47:01.420 --> 00:47:05.380 innocent for the guilty. Think about it. That's 00:47:05.380 --> 00:47:08.960 the word of the cross. That's the wisdom of God. 00:47:09.019 --> 00:47:12.360 That's the power of God, to save those who will 00:47:12.360 --> 00:47:16.679 believe. I want you to bow your heads. I'm going 00:47:16.679 --> 00:47:18.659 to give you a little bit of time to reflect on 00:47:18.659 --> 00:47:20.460 some of this. I'm actually going to put an interesting 00:47:20.460 --> 00:47:23.219 quote on the screen from John Piper. And this 00:47:23.219 --> 00:47:25.900 is something if you want to use as a way to meditate, 00:47:25.960 --> 00:47:30.139 listen to what he says. He says, life is wasted 00:47:30.139 --> 00:47:35.519 if we do not grasp the glory of the cross. Cherish 00:47:35.519 --> 00:47:38.840 it for the treasure that it is. Cleave to it 00:47:38.840 --> 00:47:42.539 as the highest price of every pleasure. and the 00:47:42.539 --> 00:47:45.960 deepest comfort in every pain. What was once 00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:50.079 foolishness to us must become our wisdom and 00:47:50.079 --> 00:47:56.760 our power and our only boast in this world. Father, 00:47:56.880 --> 00:47:58.800 I pray for us this morning that we will find 00:47:58.800 --> 00:48:03.360 the balance in this passage that we have from 00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:07.619 Paul, that we will see that there is... in this 00:48:07.619 --> 00:48:10.860 world. There is philosophy and intellectual pursuits 00:48:10.860 --> 00:48:13.679 that we can engage in. We can even use those 00:48:13.679 --> 00:48:16.960 things as a servant to our theology. But Father, 00:48:17.019 --> 00:48:19.820 will you protect us from being taken in by those 00:48:19.820 --> 00:48:22.699 things, taken captive by those things, that we 00:48:22.699 --> 00:48:24.639 would understand that it's your revelation that 00:48:24.639 --> 00:48:28.079 matters most and that we would look to the word 00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:30.880 of the cross as the ultimate truth that guides 00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:34.320 our lives, the king's message sent by the king. 00:48:35.309 --> 00:48:38.250 by the King's messengers, to this lost world 00:48:38.250 --> 00:48:42.050 that so badly needs to be saved. Lord, help us 00:48:42.050 --> 00:48:45.730 to grasp the glory of the cross. Help us to cherish 00:48:45.730 --> 00:48:48.449 it for the treasure that it is and to cleave 00:48:48.449 --> 00:48:53.329 to it in good times and in bad times. What was 00:48:53.329 --> 00:48:57.510 once foolish to us, help it now become our wisdom 00:48:57.510 --> 00:48:59.530 and our power. Help it to be the thing that we 00:48:59.530 --> 00:49:02.269 boast in, not ourselves, but in Christ alone. 00:49:02.389 --> 00:49:04.170 Thank you for the beauty of this passage this 00:49:04.170 --> 00:49:06.699 morning. Help us now to respond well in song. 00:49:07.699 --> 00:49:10.659 May you be glorified in our voices, but more 00:49:10.659 --> 00:49:12.380 importantly, in our hearts. Be with us now, in 00:49:12.380 --> 00:49:13.460 Christ's name, amen.