I want you to think for a moment about the word
philosophy. What's the first thing, don't say
it out loud, but the first thing that pops into
your mind when you hear the word philosophy?
Some of you may think about a course back in
your college days that you were forced to take.
I know I had to take Philosophy 101 back in my
days. Or maybe you just think about philosophy
as the academic discipline that speaks to the
really deep questions about life. Most Christians
don't realize that the word itself, philosophy,
is born out of two biblical words. Two words
in the Greek that you see all over Scripture.
First of all, the word phileo, which is one of
the words in Koine Greek for love, and sophia,
which means wisdom. And so philosophy is the
love of, the pursuit of, the search for wisdom
in this life. And at the time that the Apostle
Paul was... Making inroads into the Mediterranean
world in the first century, Greek philosophy
ruled the day. It ruled the culture. On every
street corner in Corinth, you were likely to
run into somebody who was a follower of Plato
or Aristotle or Diogenes or Epicurus or even
Zeno. These were what we called sophists, and
there were many of them in those days, men who
espoused various ideas. within philosophical
frameworks, and they did it right there in the
marketplaces of Greece, often teaching in the
city square and engaging in public debates. And
at times, the more popular philosophers would
even open up schools where they would draw in
students and charge them fees to sit at their
feet and to learn. That's the culture that Paul's
walking into. Now, in a very simplistic way,
what philosophy attempts to do is to explain
the world that we live in. Explain the world
that we live in. To help its students to develop
a word that we often use today, to develop a
worldview. And in the process of doing that,
philosophy is supposed to train their students
how to think, how to employ reason and logic,
how to engage in argumentation. Now, you may
hear this and say, hold on a second, Jeff, aren't
we supposed to be suspicious about philosophy?
And my answer is yes, to a degree, but we should
also remember that as Christians, we engage in
philosophy too. Whether we realize it or not,
we engage in philosophy because we have a worldview,
don't we? We have a worldview that tells us how
we think the world operates, and it teaches us
how we're supposed to think. It teaches us how
to engage in argumentation, whether that's polemics
or apologetics. And church history -wise, you
might be surprised to know that there's always
been an interesting crossover between philosophy
and Christian thinking in the lives of men like
Augustine, for example. That's very common. And
here's why. Consider the questions. If you know
anything about the various divisions or categories
of philosophy, you'll see how the Bible speaks
to each one of these categories. For example,
metaphysics, the nature of reality and being
in existence. Epistemology, how do we know things?
The nature of knowledge and truth and belief
systems. Anthropology, what is the nature of
men and women? Axiology, the nature of values
and morality and ethics. Logic, the nature of
reasoning and argumentation, and political philosophy,
the nature of human governments, rights, and
justice. Those are all valuable categories that
mirror so much of what the scriptures tell us.
But, and this is a big but, having said that,
it's important to realize that there is a huge
difference between worldly philosophy and divine
wisdom. Worldly philosophy is fundamentally done
from below. from below, treating human observation,
human logic, human reasoning, and cultural experience
as ultimate. And of course, divine wisdom is
from above, where ultimate truth is discovered
only through the lens of God's revealed word.
What's interesting is if you look back at the
period from the high Middle Ages all the way
up to the time when the first universities were
being established in America, did you know that
theology was viewed as the queen of sciences?
It was the most important courses you could take
on campus. The queen of the sciences, and here's
the key, philosophy was the handmaiden to theology.
That's actually where our country was founded
upon. Meaning that philosophy serves theology
because all truth is God's truth. Amen? So philosophy
can be employed from below in order to help us
understand divine truth that comes down from
above. For example, how many times in scripture
do we hear God telling his people to assess evidence
and to draw inferences and to test whether something
is true or not? to be ready to give a defense
for what we believe, to renew our thinking, to
seek wisdom. All of those things are doing philosophy
in service to theology. But as we do these things,
using our God -given thinking and reason and
logic, again, we acknowledge that there is a
huge difference between our capacities as human
beings and the capacities of the Almighty. True?
Ultimately, human thinking, human wisdom is not
the gateway to truth. Only God's revelation is.
And so a couple of famous statements that have
been made in the academic world, the natural
man says, I understand in order to believe, but
we say, with thinkers like Augustine and Anselm,
I believe in order to understand. Or as Thomas
Watson, the great Puritan, once said, and I love
this statement, what reason can only wade in,
faith swims. I'll let you ponder that for just
a moment. This is our worldview as Christians.
And yes, we do philosophy in order to defend
our worldview. But we're going to be talking
a lot about philosophy and about the limitations
of human wisdom, both today and over the next
couple of weeks. So grab your Bibles. We're going
to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We covered
verses 10 to 17 last week. And that was the first
set of verses after Paul's greeting. And you
might recall that he immediately addressed what
I see as what he thought was the most pressing
issue that he had to deal with there in the church
of Corinth. And that was a lack of unity in the
body. So he appealed to them as brothers, right?
That gentle older brother came alongside them,
appealed to them, but appealed with authority.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he urged
them to come together and to start to speak.
with one united voice. And the big rebuke was,
stop lining up behind all these human teachers
with this air of superiority looking down upon
others. Because that kind of man -centered approach
to body life and the forming of internal factions
that are set against one another, absolutely
destructive in a local church. But you have to
understand, this was somewhat cultural for the
Corinthians, right? As I just shared, Greeks
tended to adopt philosophical teachers and their
worldviews as their own, and they were tempted
to line up behind various thinkers. So I'm a
Stoic or I'm an Epicurean, not that dissimilar
from I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollos. This was
a cultural issue in that day. Only the problem
is in a church setting. Those factions that get
created end up being footholds for the enemy
to get in there and to divide people. And so
Paul addresses the danger here. Now, I promised
last Sunday I'd touch on verses 14 to 17 because
we didn't have time for it last week. So let's
start by reading those four verses, 14 to 17,
and I'll just make a few observations about what
Paul says about baptism here. Because in this
section, Paul's not specifically setting out
to teach doctrinally about baptism, but there's
some important things said here. So let's read
it, verse 14. Paul says, I thank God that I baptized
none of you except Crispus and Gaius. Do you
remember Crispus? He was the former leader of
the synagogue who got saved, which is amazing.
So that no one would say you were baptized in
my name. Now, I did baptize also the household
of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether
I baptized any other. And how human is that?
Paul's like, I don't really remember. I'm not
sure exactly. I haven't written down a list.
Interesting, right? Verse 17, for Christ did
not send me to baptize. but to preach the gospel,
not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross
of Christ would not be made void. Is it not surprising
that Paul speaks like this about baptism? That
he would say essentially, I'm glad I haven't
baptized many of you. Or to say, the Lord actually
didn't send me to baptize. For those of your
friends, your neighbors who are in the Roman
Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church,
who insist that baptism is the actual means by
which people are saved, or your friends who might
be in a Protestant church who insist that baptism
is necessary alongside faith in order to be saved,
for groups like that, this passage is very troubling,
isn't it? It's very troubling. Because if baptism
saves, or it's a necessary component to salvation,
how do you explain Paul not emphasizing it? Right?
Further, you can go further, in John chapter
4, John explicitly says that Jesus, the Savior
himself, did not baptize anyone. That only the
disciples did. How do you explain that? Or Peter,
the centerpiece of Catholicism, when given a
chance in Acts chapter 10 to baptize Cornelius
and his household, he doesn't do it. It says
he orders others to baptize. So if salvation
comes through the waters of baptism, why is it
not emphasized and practiced by Jesus, by Paul,
or by Peter? It's an important thing to understand.
Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that
baptism is unimportant. And Paul's not downplaying
baptism here in 1 Corinthians. Jesus did command
us to go, right? Make disciples and to baptize.
So it's incredibly important that we comply with
that command. It is part of our gospel obedience.
And throughout the New Testament, we see two
things go hand in hand. Men and women first believe,
and they're justified in the sight of God, and
then they're baptized. And that baptism is that
outward sign and symbol of the new spiritual
union they have with Christ. So baptism is very,
very important, but what Paul's saying here is
it's not the most important thing. It is important,
but not the most important. And apparently the
Corinthians had been boasting about who baptized
them. They were taking something so beautiful
and even making that a source of division in
the body. And Paul sees that as a blasphemy against
the true meaning of baptism. Baptism is about
dying to self, not boasting. And so he's upset
about this, right? That's why he rebukes them
here. He's glad that he didn't make baptizing
a priority because there's a more important calling
on his life, which is what? Preaching the gospel.
Because it's the gospel, what Paul's about to
call the word of the cross, that is the ordinary
means by which God saves people. It's not baptism,
it's the preaching of the gospel. So what we
see in these stories is basically the apostles
Peter and Paul, they feel comfortable delegating
baptism to others, but not the preaching of the
gospel. Because that's the priority. Does that
make sense? Okay, good. That's enough on that
because, again, this isn't some kind of doctrinal
section on baptism, but those things are important
to remember. Let's look at today's text now,
verses 18 to 25. For the word of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved, it's what? The power
of God. For it is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the
clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man?
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of
this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom
of the world? For since in the wisdom of God,
the world through its wisdom did not come to
know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness
of the message preached to save those who believe.
That is an amazing sentence. Go home and diagram
it. It's amazing. Verse 22, for indeed Jews asked
for signs and Greeks searched for wisdom. But
we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling
block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those
who are called, you can underline that word called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. Wow. That is a beautifully
philosophical... of the power and wisdom of God,
is it not? So let's work our way through this.
And along the way, I'm gonna try to walk you
through the logic here. It'll be a little bit
out of order from the way Paul writes it, but
let's start where he starts in verse 18. And
here in 18, we see, first of all, Paul is about
to introduce the basic contrast that is gonna
dominate his thinking all the way through chapter
three, okay? Human wisdom versus the cross. Notice,
first of all, the gar. At the beginning, that's
the word for in English. That tells you, that's
a connecting word that tells you that verse 18
is a continuation of what he just said in verse
17, especially that last phrase. He says, Christ
sent me to preach the gospel, not in cleverness
of speech, so that the cross of Christ would
not be made void. I like to read it this way.
I think it's a better translation. So that the
cross of Christ would not be emptied of its force.
Which is a beautiful picture. Now, I'm going
to skip over the phrase, not in cleverness of
speech. It's a very important phrase, but I don't
have time for it today. It's going to come up
multiple times. So we'll get to it, trust me.
Especially the beginning of chapter 2, Paul will
come back to that idea. The main point here at
the end of 17 is that Paul is starting to address
the importance of the power of the cross. And
that's what he says in verse 18. The word of
the cross, it's foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us as believers, the ones being
saved, it's the power of God. So notice how blunt
Paul is in this verse. Here's what he's saying.
The cross is the great divider of humanity. It
divides every one of us, every person into one
of two groups, the lost and the saved. Now, I
realize that in life there are umpteen amounts
of dividers in the population of humanity. There
are divisions based on skin color and ethnicity
and language and culture and politics. All kinds
of things divide, but they all pale in comparison
to what Paul is talking about here. This is the
division of ultimate importance. This is the
only division of mankind that has eternal consequences.
This is the most important thing. Two camps,
lost and saved. And notice how he describes both
in the present tense. This is so important. He
describes both groups in the present tense. Adam,
earlier on, talking about missions, talked about
the here and the now. The present tense. Look
at it. Those who are perishing, those who are
being saved. Can I just say sometimes in modern
evangelicalism, we make a mistake here. We tend
to think of lost and saved as nothing more than,
you know, final destinations after judgment.
But they are present day realities. We have to
understand this. Paul's using the present tense
for a reason. He's saying, look, those who are
rejecting the gospel in the here and now, that
initiates a process of spiritual ruin in their
lives. And for the believer, salvation is a present
tense process where we are being progressively
delivered from the power of sin in our lives.
We sometimes call that sanctification, right?
We're being delivered from sin's power over us.
So I want you to rethink salvation. Salvation
is the condition that stretches all the way back
into eternity past. When we were chosen in Christ
to be saved sovereignly by God, it extends to
our earthly past, to the time that we were justified
in the sight of God. It extends to the earthly
present right now when we're being sanctified
and conformed to the image of Christ. And salvation
extends to the future completion when we will
be ushered into the presence of our Savior. Friends,
all of that is called being saved. It's a beautiful
picture. Not just that final destination, all
of it. Even presently, we're being saved by Christ.
It's beautiful. So make sure you see this. And
by the way, those who are perishing right now,
as we speak, as we sit here this morning, that's
what gives us the urgency to be on mission. They
are perishing. They are in spiritual ruin. That's
why we bring the King's message to the people.
And those of us who are being saved, that's why
we continue to come here every Sunday. That's
why we continue to gather together for worship
and prayer and study of God's word because we're
being saved. We want to follow after our savior.
These are present day realities and we shouldn't
forget that. So then what's the object that separates
all of us into one or two of these camps? Whatever
it is, because it's an ultimate division, it's
got to be super important, right? In fact, If
this is eternal in nature, it's got to be the
most precious thing in all of humanity, in all
of earth, in all of life. It's got to be the
most precious thing. And what is it? It's the
word of the cross. That's what Paul says. The
word of the cross separates us into two camps.
And when you talk about the word of the cross,
think about... Think of it as the message of
the whole of Scripture, the entire story of God
and of mankind and of salvation, all of which
culminates at the very apex of human history
when God the Son took on flesh and died a sacrificial
death to wash away sins. But it's the whole of
Scripture is the word of the cross because it
all leads to the cross. That's what separates
those who are perishing and those who are being
saved. Do you believe the word of the cross or
do you not? So when we go out there with the
king's message, we've got to ask that question.
Do you believe in the word of the cross or do
you not? Which camp are you in? To those who
don't believe and are perishing, the word of
the cross is foolishness, Paul says. In fact,
it's an offense to them. How many times have
you ever done this? You've tried to share with
somebody and you see it in their face or in their
body language or they just tell you, I'm super
offended by what you're saying. It happens. It's
offensive. I'll give you two reasons why. First
of all, there's the cultural objection. Death
by crucifixion was despised in the ancient world.
It was a form of execution that was reserved
for slaves and barbarians and criminals, the
scum of the earth. And we all know because we've
seen the pictures and artwork and on film just
how physically painful crucifixion was, just
how personally degrading it was to be stripped
almost naked, to be hung on a cross, and to have
everybody around just walk by and watch you slowly
die. There's a cultural objection here. That
is offensive to the world. It's grotesque. It's
a shameful death. And the idea that God would
use that to reconcile humanity to himself, for
the people in Paul's day, they would have said,
nope, that's unthinkable. That's foolishness.
The second reason the word of the cross was foolish
and offensive was its simplicity. The gospel
is a very simple message. Children can believe
it, right? Here was Paul. Going to the people
of Corinth, people who loved intricate philosophies
and saying, look, I have a very simple and straightforward
message. You're a sinner. Start there. Your sin
is a debt that you owe to the one true God, the
creator who made all things. But God has offered
you a remedy for that problem that you have.
He himself came to earth and took on human flesh.
He died on a cross to pay the penalty for your
sins. All you have to do is trust in him, trust
that he was raised from the dead, and you will
be saved from his wrath and live with him forever
in the heavenly realms. That's the simple message.
And what does the world say to that? What does
the world still to this day say? That's ridiculous.
Just believe in that one guy? Sounds like foolishness.
And the truth is, the proud man won't accept
it. And the self -righteous man doesn't feel
he needs it. The natural man will never submit
his life to that kind of a savior. First of all,
because then he'd have to admit that he's a sinner.
And he'd have to admit that, yeah, there's really
a consequence for my sin. And then he'd have
to accept the simplicity of it all. And you know
what man wants? Wait, give me, I can't just be
saved by faith. It's got to be a whole bunch
of religious ceremonies that I've got to walk
through or a whole list of things that I have
to do to earn this. So when you tell them no,
you just believe. You're putting your trust in
the sacrifice of the God -man. You're following
after him as Savior and Lord. Too simple. Too
simple. It's foolishness. But here's the thing,
and Adam touched on this earlier as well. When
God opens a man's spiritual eyes to see that
this is true, that he is a sinner, that he has
a need for a savior, once God brings a man's
heart to life and changes his affections, what
that man would have looked like one day and said,
that's foolishness. Now he looks at it and says,
you know what? That's the power of God. So let
the world think I'm a fool. That's fine. Let
them scoff at me. Let them regurgitate all their
intricate philosophies and their worldviews about
life. I know where I stand, and I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. I've moved from this camp to that
camp, from lost to saved. Yes, the brutality
of the cross is the path to salvation. The world
turns away from it. It's too graphic for them.
But you know what we do with it? We sing hymns
about it. Have you ever thought about that? We
put crosses up in our buildings. This means of
execution, this brutal thing, we sing praise
songs about it. For us, the word of the cross
is the power of God to save. We are different
from the world. Amen? So let's drop down into
verses 22 and 23, and we're going to see why
most people are perishing. Verse 22. What does
it say about Jews? They ask for signs. What does
it say about Greeks or Gentiles? They search
for wisdom. Paul says, but we, we preach Christ
crucified. And to the Jews, this is a stumbling
block. And to the Gentiles, it's foolishness.
So here we go. Two groups of people. We're very,
as Bible readers, we're familiar with these two
groups, Jews and Gentiles, right? And to the
unredeemed in both camps, the cross is a problem.
For the Jews, the gospel was problematic for
several reasons. First of all, again, there's
the crucifixion. And if any of you follow on
YouTube or some social media, one of the many
ministries that are doing street evangelism in
Israel or street evangelism to Jews in America,
you will find that there are a couple of common
objections to the idea of Yeshua as Messiah.
It comes up over and over again. First of all,
the crucifixion. My Messiah, as I read it, they
say, could not be overcome and executed like
that. It's a stumbling block for them. Even though
their own scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures,
not only talk about a suffering servant who will
die for sin and even describe some aspects of
crucifixion. By the way, when it gets pointed
out to them, they're flummoxed by that. But that's
one. The other one is, well, if this Yeshua was
the Messiah, where is his kingdom? Huge stumbling
block. We don't see a messianic age being ushered
in. There's no peace. There's no prosperity.
The foreign occupiers are still in the land.
That is not our Messiah. It's a materialistic
view. It's not a spiritual view of Messiah. It's
purely materialistic. That's still to this day
what the lost in Israel cannot see because they're
looking for a materialistic kingdom. So these
things are stumbling blocks to the Jews. And
by the way, that too was prophesied, was it not?
In the Psalms and by Isaiah, the Messiah was
going to be a rock of offense. He was going to
be a rock to be stumbled over. Again, that's
found in their own Hebrew scriptures. And then
thirdly, as Paul points out here, even if they
could get past the lack of a kingdom and the
idea of crucifixion, they still wouldn't be persuaded
by the gospel because in it they don't see a
display of power. They don't see a miracle or
a sign or a wonder. And this brings us back to
the gospels. When you read the gospels, how many
times do you see Jesus talking to a Jewish crowd
and they say, well, give us a sign. Give us a
sign that tells us that you can cleanse the temple.
All the time. They expected their Messiah to
be this wonder worker who would just do fun things
at their demand. Show us things. And I have to
admit, and maybe you've had the same experience.
Sometimes I read the gospel, and I'm like, oh,
Jesus, just give them a miracle, man. Like, they
ask for it. Just do something wild so that everybody
can see who you are. I mean, that's my fleshly
response to that, right? But I remember Dr. MacArthur
once giving this interesting reason why Jesus
doesn't do that. He said something to the effect
of, if Jesus starts doing things at their demand,
then he ends up in their pocket. In their pocket.
He's less of a Messiah and more like a genie
in a bottle. Who's in control in that situation?
The person who rubs the lamp and asks for the
genie. And that's not who Jesus is. He doesn't
do that. He doesn't act upon our demands. We
submit to him. So that's the Jews. Lots of stumbling
blocks here. The Gentiles, the Greeks, they're
a whole different bunch. They want a great philosophy.
They want something complex and intricate. I've
already mentioned, they are super impressed by
intellectual pursuits, knowledge and wisdom and
great thinkers. And that is such a contrast to
the gospel. And we can admit this, right? Here's
this Jewish man, Paul, bringing into the Greek
world the story of a itinerant rabbi from Galilee.
Not impressive to Greeks. From this rural land.
Who even knows where Galilee is on the map? If
you live in Corinth, you're like, where? And
this guy's a nobody in their eyes. He's a blue
-collar son of a carpenter. He has no pedigree.
He never got a large following. He never wrote
anything down. He's just an itinerant rabbi.
And then later he's arrested as a criminal. He's
put to death for the crime of sedition. And the
Greek says, and somehow that's supposed to be
important to me? That makes no sense. That is
foolishness. It's not an impressive story. It's
not an entertaining story. No thank you. This
is what Paul's dealing with in Corinth, in the
whole Greek world. It's difficult. So to both
camps, Paul says, look, regardless of what you
want to hear, I'm going to give it to you straight
and simple because we don't shapeshift the message
so that it's more palatable for anybody, Jew
or Gentile. We simply preach this, Christ crucified.
That's it. Or as we heard, if you want to expand
on that, our call to worship from earlier, while
we were still helpless at the right time, Christ
died for the ungodly. That was us, right? He
died for the ungodly. God demonstrates his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. And now having been justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath
of God through him. That's the expansion on Christ
crucified. That's the message. That's the king's
message. And you can almost picture Paul saying
to them, look, I know you have your philosophies.
I've heard them all. They're all over the city,
but I'm not here just to offer you a competing
philosophy. I bring you only this, the God -man
hung upon a tree for your sins. Trust in him
alone and be saved. That's it. And again, to
the natural unredeemed man, Jew or Gentile, that
is unacceptable. But here's the key to this whole
passage. It's the language of verse 24. So look
at the end of 23. To Jews a stumbling block and
to Gentiles foolish, but, big but, but to those
who are the called, both Jew and Greek, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. So here's
the thing. If Paul had stopped at verse 23, we'd
all be in trouble. Like you run into a cul -de
-sac here with nowhere to go. Think about this.
If Jews won't accept it because it's a stumbling
block, if Greeks won't accept it because it's
foolishness, who's left to talk to? That's the
whole world. Paul's answer is the called. That's
who. Those whom God has chosen to save, both
Jew and Gentile. Guys, this is a subtle but important
description of the doctrine of election right
here in 1 Corinthians. The gospel is offensive
to every type of people on the earth unless God
calls them out of their unbelief. Then everything
changes. Salvation hinges on what? Us? No, on
God who calls. Gotta know that. And if God calls
people affectionately, they're going to respond
and believe. Their eyes are going to be open.
Their spiritual hearts are going to be brought
to life. And instead of the word of the cross
being offensive, they will say, I want that.
I hope that's your testimony. It was once offensive.
It was once foolish to me. And then one day my
eyes were open and I began to understand spiritual
truth and I embraced it. I wanted it. I received
it. That's the testimony. Christ is the power
of God and the wisdom of God. And then Paul uses
two phrases in verse 25 that you, again, you
would not expect to see this. He talks about
God's foolishness and God's weakness. This is,
like last week, another appeal to the absurd.
Because it's absurd to think that God is either
of those things. But even if God was foolish,
even if somehow he was foolish, even then his
foolishness would be wiser than all the combined
wisdom of mankind through all ages. That's what
he's saying. And even if somehow you could say
God was weak, his weakness would still be stronger
than all the combined strength of men throughout
all the ages. It's the appeal to the absurd.
And through the work of the cross, which is the
most foolish of plans from a human perspective,
God outsmarted human wisdom and he overpowered
all human strength. And here's why. If I've lost
you, pay close attention to this. Here's why.
Because at the cross, there was true power. True
power. The type of power that no man has. The
type of power that no other message carries with
it. The power to wash away sins. The power to
save a man's soul. The power to grant eternal
life. No man has that kind of power. No message
other than the gospel has that kind of power.
At the cross, that was true power. You've got
to understand this. You've got to see this. It's
beautiful the way Paul lays this out, right?
And so then look, go back up to verse 19 and
look what he describes. There we go. Verse 19.
Here he cites Isaiah 29, 14. And he says, for
it's written, this is what God's going to do.
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the
cleverness of the clever I will set aside. And
there's multiple interpretations of that. The
discernment of the discerning I will set aside.
The intelligence of the intelligent, however
you want to interpret the Greek there. Now, I
don't have time to walk through that Old Testament
passage. I'll just summarize it for you. This
was in the days of Isaiah, in the days of Sennacherib,
the greatest Syrian king. And so God is promising
the leaders of Judah in that day that he was
going to act in unexpected ways. I am going to
surprise you, blow your mind, in order to do
two things. First of all, to expose your lack
of understanding and wisdom, leaders. And number
two, to show you my power in graciously rescuing
you from destruction at the hands of the Assyrian
king. I'm going to shock you, surprise you, blow
you away to show you how foolish you really are
and also to show you how gracious I am. And what
Paul's saying, the reason Paul employs this passage
is he's saying here in 1 Corinthians 1, in that
day, God was still doing this type of thing.
He was still doing it. He's destroying the wisdom
of the wise. He is setting aside the cleverness
of the clever, and at the same time, he is graciously
moving to save his elect. What he was doing in
the days of Isaiah, he's doing in the days of
Paul. Graciously saving the elect, opening their
eyes, bringing their hearts to life, and saving
them for all eternity. What an incredible, you
know, sort of comparison and contrast here. The
fact is, God has always worked in ways that are
contrary to our human wisdom because his thoughts
are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways.
How many times in life have you been totally
surprised by God? So many times. I never would
have drawn that up. Never would have thought
of that. Would human beings have ever conceived
of the possibility of a triune God? Would human
beings ever have conceived of God the Son stepping
out of heaven and taking on flesh to be born
of a virgin? Come on. Would we ever have conceived
of the apparent weakness of the cross actually
becoming victory over sin and death? We wouldn't
have come up with that stuff. So in light of
God's wondrous ways, in verse 20, he asks three
stinging questions. Okay, so where's your wise
men? Where are your scribes or your experts in
the law? Where are your debaters? The underlying
question of this is this. What have those kinds
of men actually contributed to the condition
of mankind? What have they actually done? By
their skills and talents, have they ever saved
anybody for all eternity? Have they ever been
able to fix the corruption in a man's heart?
Have they ever proven to be able to pay the debt
for a man's sin? Any of them? And the obvious
answer is no. But listen, it's not as though
God is against philosophy or against law or against
rhetoric. Listen, hear me carefully in this.
God is not anti -intellectual. All of those disciplines
have their place in the world. But when you hold
them up and compare them to the word of the cross,
which does save, which does address man's corrupt
heart, which does pay the debt for sin, when
you compare those two things, the stuff of the
world looks very underwhelming. It looks very
fleeting. Again, it's not wrong to engage in
intellectual pursuits, but it's very temporary,
isn't it? You can't compare it to the word of
the cross. Now still, let me add a warning to
this. Don't underestimate the pull of worldly
wisdom. This is really important for, I'm looking
at the younger generation here. It can be very
seductive because it appeals to the pride of
our intellect. And if we're not careful, we can
find ourselves immersed all day long, every day
in worldly things. And eventually that sort of
leaks into our psyche. It leaks into our heart
and we find ourselves actually accepting worldly
wisdom over God's revelation. That can happen
to us. Paul actually warns in his letter to the
Colossians about this very thing. He says, see
to it that no one takes you captive. Look at
that phrase. Makes you a prisoner through philosophy
and empty deception. According to what? The traditions
of men. According to the elementary principles
of the world rather than according to Christ.
Take that warning seriously. Young people, if
you spend all day every day online, And you're
just looking at memes and you're looking at posts
and you're looking at comments. Man, that stuff
will sink in, won't it? And pretty soon we're
starting to buy that stuff more than we're understanding
God's revelation. Be careful. When compared to
the wisdom that comes from God, even what we
perceive as the smartest traditions and the best
teachings of men, Paul says they're just elementary
principles. They're just the basics. They're
earthly. And again, none of it has real power.
It can't transform the nature of a man. It can't
lead a person into the presence of God. It has
no power or effect beyond this earthly life.
So just be warned by that. Interestingly, the
New Testament gives us a great example. Paul
himself, this great example in Acts 17. Did you
know that Paul visited Athens? The very epicenter
of Greek philosophy. He went to Athens and he
goes to the Areopagus. If you've never been to
Athens, this rocky hill that's set above the
city. And in the Areopagus is where all the sophists
of Athens, the most famous philosophers in that
day, they sat there with their, you know, stroking
their beards and just judging everybody's teachings
and everybody's wisdom. And Paul walked into
that situation, right? And what did he find there?
He found a great altar. with the inscription
you see on the screen, to an unknown God. And
that was supposed to be a statement of great
wisdom to those folks. Why? Well, we're so earthly
wise, we don't want to miss honoring a God that
we don't know about, so we'll just create this
altar to the unknown God. Talk about foolishness,
right? This is the epicenter of philosophy. Supposed
wise men create a possible God. who's not really
a God at all, and then bow to him just in case.
And Paul confronts them. And you picture Paul,
this old grizzled Jewish guy, right? Walks up
to these great thinkers and he confronts their
arrogance and he says, what you worship in ignorance,
this I proclaim to you. And he goes on to talk
about the creator of the universe and the resurrection
of Christ. It's beautiful. Read Acts 17 when
you get home tonight. And the world says, come
on, those philosophers in Athens, they were so
smart, they're so wise. Paul says, nah, no. Apart
from the gospel, they live and breathe in a world
of ignorance. Now, I want to close with verse
21, because to me, this is where the big idea
is really located. Look at verse 21. This is
the foundation for why gospel mission should
always be an emphasis in the local church. Adam
talked about a few different missions that we
love, right? TMAI, our GO teams that are going
to scatter across the world. He talked about
the students in IBEX in Israel. And I'll just
add something that he didn't want to talk about
out of humility, Adam's ministry with Children's
Hunger Fund. Ministries that we love. At CHF,
they seek to feed people physically while at
the same time feeding them spiritually with the
gospel. and partnering with local pastors and
local churches to fulfill the Great Commission.
It's a beautiful ministry. We love these things.
And all of those ministries operate under the
banner of exactly what Paul talks about here
in verse 21. God's heart for those whom he is
going to save out of the ignorance of worldly
wisdom. I'll say it again. God's heart for those
whom he will save out of the ignorance of worldly
wisdom. Verse 21. For since in the wisdom of
God, the world through its wisdom did not come
to know God. In other words, in spite of all
the wisdom, it couldn't get people to God. Because
of that, God was well pleased himself through
the so -called foolishness of the message that's
being preached to save those who believe. So
the world lacks the wisdom and power to lead
anyone to salvation. So the Lord steps in and
goes, I'm well pleased to do this myself. And
we knew this from the beginning, did we not?
That God is sovereign over all of it. He says,
I'm well pleased to do this. Because by the world's
wisdom, you'll never get to me. You'll never
get there. So he's doing it. And he's going to
use a message. And this is so God. So countercultural.
I'm going to use a message that looks to the
world to be foolish. But that's actually my plan
to save people. He's going to do it through the
proclamation of this unique message. And it's
something that cannot be discerned and received
by man's intellect alone. That's important. It
can't be received by human reasoning. It's a
message that can only be discovered and received
spiritually. And that means that God first has
to do a work in the heart of man to prepare him
to hear it and receive it. So God does the work.
He does the preparation. He does the saving.
As we say here, it's this monergism. It's all
the work of God. Here's just one reason why I
think that's so beautiful. Because I know there's
objections to this whole idea that, well, it's
all God. But here's one of the reasons why it's
so beautiful. If God had decided to proclaim
his message to the world in a way that was discoverable
by intellect and by reason, then only the smartest
people would be saved. Right? Only the elites
of society, the connected people, the high IQ
people. would have heard that message using their
reason, logic, and intellect would have received
it. And the rest of the world? Out of luck. And
what would that do if only the smartest people
could understand the message? It would just feed
their egos. It would feed their egos. They'd
be saying, look how smart I am. Look how wise
I am. Look how important I am. Look how spiritual
I am. It's completely the opposite of the gospel.
Gordon Fee, the late New Testament scholar, beautifully
describes this. He says, a God discovered by
human wisdom would be both a projection of human
fallenness and a source of human pride. And this
would constitute the worship of the creature,
not the creator. That's where we'd be if it was
just by man's intellect. So instead of that scenario,
it pleased God to send out the king's messengers
with this very simple message, Christ crucified.
And then to prepare the hearts of his chosen
ones to receive it. That's the plan. And because
of that simplicity, children can believe. And
adults, even grandparents. The poor can believe.
as well as the rich, the smart and the not so
smart can all believe. Even people with really,
really messy pasts can believe because God does
the work to prepare the heart. That's why people
all over the world will gather on Sunday mornings
just like this one and they will worship Christ
with one voice. White, brown, black, it doesn't
matter. Every shape and size together. Blue collar
worshiping alongside white collar. The scientist,
Locking arms with the high school dropout because
it's all God's work. Even Dodgers fans and Giants
fans. Worshiping together. It's possible. So
what God has done in the gospel and his plan
is he's leveled the playing field. And again,
using this message that is so simple, so humbling,
and so offensive to the natural mind. Jesus Christ,
dying on a cross to take away my sin, wounded
for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities,
dying in my place, the just for the unjust, the
innocent for the guilty. Think about it. That's
the word of the cross. That's the wisdom of God.
That's the power of God, to save those who will
believe. I want you to bow your heads. I'm going
to give you a little bit of time to reflect on
some of this. I'm actually going to put an interesting
quote on the screen from John Piper. And this
is something if you want to use as a way to meditate,
listen to what he says. He says, life is wasted
if we do not grasp the glory of the cross. Cherish
it for the treasure that it is. Cleave to it
as the highest price of every pleasure. and the
deepest comfort in every pain. What was once
foolishness to us must become our wisdom and
our power and our only boast in this world. Father,
I pray for us this morning that we will find
the balance in this passage that we have from
Paul, that we will see that there is... in this
world. There is philosophy and intellectual pursuits
that we can engage in. We can even use those
things as a servant to our theology. But Father,
will you protect us from being taken in by those
things, taken captive by those things, that we
would understand that it's your revelation that
matters most and that we would look to the word
of the cross as the ultimate truth that guides
our lives, the king's message sent by the king.
by the King's messengers, to this lost world
that so badly needs to be saved. Lord, help us
to grasp the glory of the cross. Help us to cherish
it for the treasure that it is and to cleave
to it in good times and in bad times. What was
once foolish to us, help it now become our wisdom
and our power. Help it to be the thing that we
boast in, not ourselves, but in Christ alone.
Thank you for the beauty of this passage this
morning. Help us now to respond well in song.
May you be glorified in our voices, but more
importantly, in our hearts. Be with us now, in
Christ's name, amen.