Today in our study we come to 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verses 17 to 31. Our subject today is Christ
crucified, the power and wisdom of God. Hear
the word of the Lord as the Apostle Paul wrote
to the Corinthians under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. These are God's words. Let us pay
heed to them. Verse 17. For Christ did not send
me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of no effect. For the message
of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved, it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer
of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom
of this world? For since in the wisdom of God
the world through wisdom did not know God, it
pleased God through the foolishness of that message
preached to save those who believe. For Jews
request the sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a
stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness,
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the wisdom of God is foolisher than men,
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
stronger than men. For you see your calling,
brethren, that not many according to the flesh,
not many mighty nor many noble are called. But
God has chosen the foolish things of the world
to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to put to shame
the things which are mighty, and the base things
of the world and the things which are despised,
God has chosen, and the things which are not,
to bring to nothing the things that are, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. But of
him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us
wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. That as it is written, he who
glories, let him glory in the Lord. Let's pray
and ask God's blessing. Father, we come to you,
Lord, with this rich passage. And Lord, we pray
that in the moments, the minutes before us, Lord,
I pray. that we could learn what you are speaking
here. We pray, Lord, that you would bring it
to our hearts, that you would ignite this within
us and give us a love for the cross and an understanding,
Lord, and make us truly wise, even though that
wisdom appears as foolishness to men. We pray,
Father, for your blessing and for the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit as I speak these words. We
pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All throughout the
world, a universally recognized symbol is a cross
on a building which signifies that within those
walls is a church that in some way proclaims
the crucified Lord Jesus Christ. While an object
of scorn, of ridicule, and of hatred to many,
even not being allowed to be displayed in some
parts of the world, the cross is an enduring
emblem of the fact that on or around AD 30 or
33, scholars disagree on the exact date, during
the Jewish Passover season, the man known as
Jesus, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, was, as Acts 2 says, delivered by
the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,
was taken by lawless hands, was crucified and
put to death. He was accused and delivered by
the Jewish leaders to the Roman authorities who
carried out the execution, and thus both were
complicit in his death. He was murdered, but
in that very act, he laid down his life as an
atonement for his people, all those in the past
and the present and in the ages to come. who
would be called and chosen by God the Father,
and who believed in faith to the saving of their
souls. But a crucified God is unpalatable and
unsavory to many. As stated in the passage today,
the Jews stumbled at this because it did not
fit their understanding of who the Messiah would
be, and they considered this the foolish tale
of an imposter. And to the Greeks who prize human
wisdom, the crucifixion is foolishness against
their understanding of God's fashion in their
own understanding of human wisdom and reason.
But God in his great wisdom chose the foolish
things of the world to put to shame the wise.
And the weak things of the world. To put to shame
the things which are mighty. And abase and despise
things of the world. That of a crucifixion on
the cross. To bring to nothing the things that
are. That no flesh might glory in his presence.
The Corinthian church misunderstood the simplicity
of the gospel. And they misunderstood the ministry
of the gospel that God had ordained. both in
the message of the ministers and in the nature
of the mission of the ministers. This was the
underlying reason for the divisions amongst them.
Today in this passage, Paul addresses the message
of the minister of God and what the church is
to believe and to understand. And he tells them
to stop their boasting and their glorying in
themselves. That message is that all ministers
of God are called to preach the pure gospel.
which is Christ crucified, the power and the
wisdom of God. And through the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ, those who are called are in Christ,
who became for us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, all in Christ,
so that all who glory will glory in him. So today,
it is my intent and purpose to exalt and glorify
our triune God for such a wonderful work through
the cross and to understand what Paul is teaching
the Corinthian church in this passage and then
to apply this word from God to us. The first
point is to consider Paul's mission to preaching
the gospel simply and not with human eloquence.
Verse 17, for Christ did not send me to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of no effect. The leading and grand purpose
of Paul as a minister is to preach the pure gospel.
And that in its purity, it is nonetheless in
all of its power and in its simplicity. It is
not. in the eloquent wisdom of words or the persuasive
words of human wisdom as Paul speaks in chapter
2 and verse 4. By using these words, Paul is
most likely signifying human reason in the manner
of rhetorical argumentation which was so highly
prized among the Greeks. The way the Greeks would
approach it would be with eloquence as a fine
orator or a deep philosopher attempting to show
off his deep reason and extraordinary science
and skill. Matthew Henry says Paul did not set
himself to captivate the ear by fine turns and
eloquent expression nor to please and entertain
the fancy with lofty flights of sublime notions.
The pure gospel Is that Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. And to that end he was crucified
for our sins. That is the pure and the simple
gospel. We see this so clearly in this most well
known passage in John chapter 3. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son.
that whoever believes in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God did not send
his son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.
To his son in the faith. Timothy, Paul writes
in chapter 1, verse 15 of 1 Timothy, this is
the faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners of whom I am chief. And then in Romans
chapter 5, verse 8, he says, God demonstrates
his own love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than...
Having now been justified by his blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through him. Now there are
other places in the scriptures where the apostles
develop deep and rich theological truths that
are a result of this salvation. Even Peter admits
that Paul, he says, Our beloved brother Paul,
according to the wisdom given to him, has written
to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking
in them of these things in which some things
are hard to understand. which untaught and unstable
people twist to their own destruction, as they
do also the rest of the scriptures. Paul is not
denigrating the ability to speak persuasively
using sanctified human reason according to the
wisdom that was given him by God, but not so
with the foundational and basic truth of the
pure and the simple gospel. This should be the
grand object of all ministers, to minister according
to the gifts that God has given each one, to
proclaim Christ crucified, and to recognize that
God gives the increase in the proclamation of
the gospel. All ministers of the gospel, no matter
how lofty their minds or how eloquent their speech,
they must be able to proclaim with clarity and
boldness the simple gospel message and call sinners
to believe and have faith in God through Jesus
Christ. By the Holy Spirit. This means that we
cannot. We must not. We may not shy away. Hide
or in any way denigrate the fact. That Jesus
died on the cross. And he shed his life's blood.
As an atonement for our sin. Thus bringing about
a reconciliation. Between sinful man and a holy
God. They must proclaim this. They must preach
this great truth so that all, under the sound
of their voice, are called to repentance and
faith in the crucified one. To this very end,
God has ordained that whenever and wherever the
church is gathered together to worship our triune
God, what are they to do? They are to proclaim
the death and crucifixion of Christ in the Lord's
Supper. Every Sunday. As we meet here together,
no matter what the subject matter is before us,
no matter of what truths there are that are proclaimed
from the richness in the word of God, and whether
spoken eloquently or perhaps less so, every Sunday
we proclaim this truth in the Lord's Supper.
Jesus died and was crucified for us, and we remember
this. We remember this in the Lord's Supper.
To do otherwise is to make the cross of Christ
of no effect, Paul says. If Christ is only preached
as a good man, as one who became divine and makes
us divine by his persuasiveness and his teachings
and his moral life, then we are still in our
sins and have not escaped the wrath to come.
For even the devils and demons believe, knowing
who he is, and they tremble. But there is no
atonement for them, no way of escape from the
wrath to come. And if all men do is speak lofty
words in the manner of the Greeks or call for
signs like the Jews or attempt to create God
in their own image as all false religions do,
then all are still in their sins. There is no
atonement through just believing that Jesus was
a good and a holy man who lived a moral life.
There's no atonement. There's no appeasement
of a holy God who cannot abide nor tolerate sin.
The cross has no effect if this is all that we
preach. Back in the early 20th century, during
the modernist and fundamentalist debates, there
were men like Harry Emerson Fosdick. He was a
prominent early 20th century modernist and liberal
Protestant preacher. And he irreverently referred
to the traditional doctrines of blood atonement.
as a slaughterhouse religion, as meaning a bloody
religion. To him and others like him, the idea
that Jesus' sacrificial death and shed blood
were necessary to appease God's wrath and to
atone for sin wasn't anachronism. It was an old
thing, kind of like a tradition, but not one
worthy. of continuing to believe. He and they
viewed such ideas as primitive and outdated and
incompatible with modern ethics and science,
arguing that Christianity needed to evolve beyond
them. Of course, they rejected literal interpretations
of doctrines like the virgin birth of Christ,
biblical inerrancy, and substitutionary atonement,
and they saw the historical emphasis on a bloody
substitutionary sacrifice as barbaric and something
the church should move past to remain relevant
and thus the cross was made of no effect through
the lofty ideas of human reason just like the
wisdom of the world of which Paul is writing
against in this letter There is no gospel, there
is no saving faith, there is no redemption, no
power to save and to sanctify in such a belief.
All are still in their sins and only hope to
achieve immortality through human means, creating
a God made in their own image. Now this belief
was not limited to their time. It is still with
us today in many different forms. Even as it
was then and as it was in the days of Paul in
Corinth. Number two. The gospel is the message
of the cross. It is the power of God to those
who are being saved. Verse 18. For the message
of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing. But to us who are being saved. It
is the power of God. The power of God speaks
of the strength, of the might, and of the ability
of God to save. And it comes through the cross
of Christ. This is the message of truth. It is
the message of salvation. For all have sinned.
All have come short of the glory of God. No man
can save himself. including the use of human
reason, it will never, never save anyone. And
no man can approach God on the basis of his own
works and righteousness. The scripture speaks
here of salvation in the past. That is, we have,
actually not here, but elsewhere. The scripture
speaks of salvation in the past. We have been
saved. It speaks of the present. We are being
saved. And of the future, we will be saved. In
the past, have been, is it like Ephesians 2,
verse 8 and 9. For by grace, you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone
should boast. But also then Paul in Romans chapter
5 speaks of that we will be saved, but God demonstrates
his own love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than
having now been justified by his blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through him. But in this
verse, it is the present and continuous sense
that we are those being saved. For not only was
the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our
sins in the past, but the blood is atoning and
making provision for what is happening to us
as we are being saved. Being saved from the sins
that we still commit. This is why we have this
time of confession. In the beginning of the service,
we again, we cleanse, we are cleansed from our
sins. Through the blood of Jesus Christ. Even
as we confess them and ask God for forgiveness.
Through the blood of Christ. We are being saved.
The blood of Christ makes provision for what
is happening to us. Even as we go through our
everyday life. This is as John the Apostle Paul
writes in 1 John 1 .8. If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is
not in us. There is none among us that is sinless.
The idea of sinless perfection, as some teach,
of the Christian being in a state where he can
no longer sin and is entirely sanctified, this
is simply wrong. It is false and it is deceptive.
But to all, as we are being saved in this life,
we continually run to the Father. For indeed,
as 1 John continues in verse 9, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
From whence does this forgiveness come? It comes
from the power of God to those being saved through
the message of the cross. The everlasting gospel.
And this is why we must be continually reminded
of the cross. Because we still sin. And so as
we sin, we are reminded again of the cross. Cleansing
us from sin. Cleansing us from sin. Yes, we sin.
And then we are cleansed and washed and cleansed
and washed. Yes, we are being saved. But in this,
we look back to the cross where Jesus atoned
for all of our sins. The gospel is the message
of the cross. It is the power, the strength,
the might of God. To those being saved. Number
three. We consider the paradox. Of the message
of the cross. In verses 18 to 25. This is the
paradox of the message. For indeed it is very
profound. And yet it is so simple. It is a simple
truth. With incredible ramifications. First of
all, we look at verse 18 of the cross as foolishness
versus power. Through the saving message of the
cross, those who are saved experience the power
of God, as I have just recounted. But to those
who are perishing in their sins and who do not
believe and trust in the atoning work of Christ,
the message of the cross is foolishness. It is
silliness. It is absurdity. How in the world
could a man dying the death on a cross in the
very early A .D. 30, 33, somewhere around there.
How could a cross save us? A man dying the death.
It seems utterly impossible and foolish and ridiculous
according to human reasoning. To believe such
a thing, it is ludicrous to the natural mind,
to those who are perishing in their sin. And
yet, the scriptures tell us, what a fate awaits
them. To die in their sins is to face a holy
God on the judgment day, to be judged, to be
condemned, to be pronounced guilty and cast away
into eternal darkness and into the fires of hell.
We read of this in the book of Revelation chapter
20 verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne
and him who sat on it from whose face the earth
and the heaven fled away and there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead small and
great standing before God. and books were opened,
and another book was opened, which is the book
of life, and the dead were judged according to
their works by the things which were written
in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were
in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead
who were in them, and they were judged, each
one according to his works. Then death and Hades
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the
second death, and anyone not found in the book
of life was cast into the lake of fire. These
are so sobering, sobering words. And as we consider
the cross of Christ, in which all of our dead
works and our sins were placed upon him, and
he died. So that we can stand before God. As
holy. As righteous. And as forgiven. And on that
day. We will be able to stand before the God.
Of the universe. And he will pronounce us. Cleansed.
Forgiven. Through Christ. Because Christ stands
before him. And intercedes on our behalf. And
thus. We will ever be with the Lord. God destroys.
And confounds. Human wisdom. In this great truth.
He confounds it. Verse 19 to 21, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
This is a prophecy from Isaiah chapter 28. Where
is the wise, Paul says? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God
made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since
in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom
did not know God, it pleased God through the
foolish. of the message preached to save those
who believe. And in this great action, prophesied
by the prophets of old and attested to by the
voice of the Father thundering as Jesus was baptized,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And again at the mount on the transfiguration,
he again says, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear him. no wise men of the
Greeks or Jews could come up with anything like
this it goes against experience and reason no
wise no scribe no disputer of the age would ever
have this kind of wisdom or knowledge but in
so doing as Paul quotes Isaiah 29 and verse 14
that in this marvelous work God destroys the
wisdom of those who think themselves wise and
he brings to nothing the understanding of those
who are thought to be prudent he makes this world
wisdom foolish turning it upside down and paul
says it pleased him it pleased god through the
foolishness of the message preached to save those
who believe it brought god pleasure and he thought
it good to choose that seeming foolishness of
the proclamation and preaching of the gospel
to save those who believe. Who then are we to
out -reason and out -think God? In our supposed
day of enlightenment and progress, we think,
we think we can out -think God, and yet we still
think. And speaking we, collectively, our modern
age still thinks that the created world evolved
out of nothing and that there is no difference
between girls and boys and that they're interchangeable,
assigned at birth, they say. Seriously? God laughs
at them. And while he laughs at those who set
themselves against him, he uses a wooden cross
and metal nails that pierce through the flesh.
And a sword that pierces the side of Jesus. And
through the cross, through the cross and blood
and the death, he saves all those who then will
trust and believe in him. And it pleases him
that this is the message that is preached and
proclaimed. And he sends forth the Holy Spirit
to accompany that preaching. And he gives faith
to those who hear and they believe. And are saved.
What an amazing and wonderful story. Impossible
to reason. Or understand apart. From the revelation
that God planned it. That he executed it. And
through the preaching of it. The heart is made
alive. The spirit is quickened. And dead men
are raised. And come to life. And obtain eternal
life. Hallelujah. This is the plan of God. In
this crucifixion. That we. Would be saved. No
the cross. The cross offends both Jews and Greeks.
As he brings out in verse 22 through 24. The
Jews request a sign. And the Greeks seek after
wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. To the
Jews a stumbling block. And to the Greeks foolishness.
But to those who are called. Both Jews and Greeks.
Christ the power of God. And the wisdom of God.
Again, to the natural unsaved man and woman,
this is offensive. On the one hand, it is too
easy. And on the other hand, it is too hard.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will
be saved, you and your household. This is too
simple. And yet it calls out for all of you,
every part of you, a total casting of yourself
upon Christ. The Jews were always seeking a sign
from Jesus. John chapter 2, verse 18, the Jews
answered and said to him, that is to Jesus, what
sign do you show us since you do these things?
Nicodemus confessed that they knew that Jesus
was a teacher from God because of the signs.
John 3, verse 2, this man came to Jesus by night
and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are
a teacher come from God, for no one can do these
signs that you do unless God is with him. The
truth is that Jesus did many signs and so did
the apostles. Here's a few. John chapter 2 verse
11 and the miracle of turning water into wine
at the wedding in Cana. It is recorded this beginning
of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested
his glory and his disciples believed in him.
This was the beginning of signs that Jesus did.
We see more signs of the day of Pentecost. Acts
chapter 2, verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you
by God. How? Through miracles, wonders, and signs,
which God did through him in your midst, as you
yourselves also know. John again records in John
chapter 12, verse 37. But although he had done
so many signs before them, they did not believe
in him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might
be fulfilled, which he spoke, O Lord, who has
believed our report, and to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed? The problem was not
that they didn't see any signs. The problem was
that they didn't like. the signs that they saw
because it didn't fit their ideal they wanted
a messiah who would deliver them from roman rule
one who was made in their own image and according
to their own ideas and thus as the apostles preached
christ crucified they being complicit in his
murder were offended and they stumbled not believing
Paul writes of this in Romans 9 verse 31. Israel,
pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained
to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they
did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by
the works of the law. For they stumbled at that
stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I
lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense,
and whoever believes on him will not be put to
shame. The crucifixion of their Messiah, that
was a stumbling stone to them. And not having
faith, but seeking to justify their own works
by the deeds of the law, and not having the faith,
they stumbled at Jesus and him. crucified this
of course is not all of them but it was many
of them and sadly it continues to this day and
we pray that their eyes would be opened and that
the spirit of god would work in them and that
many would be saved and believe in jesus now
the greeks however they sought after wisdom And
so this message is just utter foolishness to
them. The crucified Christ was offensive to their
sensibilities for they wanted a God of reason,
a God of philosophical abilities and imagination
with a development and soaring rhetoric of the
wisdom of the world. To them, the cross of Christ
is offensive, regarded as foolishness and an
absurdity. The common thing between them both,
though, between both Jews and Greeks, is that
they wanted a God like them. They wanted a God
like them, made in their image and according
to their imagination and in their likeness. And
so do many in our day. Oh yes, we refer to God.
We might even refer to Jesus. But it's made after
man's image and not according to the scriptures.
And the revelation that God has given to us.
He goes on and says, but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, the cross is not offensive.
It is not offensive. It is the power of God.
The wisdom of God. Christ in his crucifixion
and resurrection and ascension is both the power
of God and the wisdom of God which is far above
any sign that the Jews would have desired and
any wisdom that the Greeks wanted to see. The
calling here that is spoken is the undeniable
calling of God of saving sinners who then believe
in him. This is not speaking of just the wide
and evangelistic general call and invitation
to the world, but is the effectual calling of
those who are partakers of that heavenly calling.
Those whom God has saved and called with a holy
calling, as 2 Timothy 1 verse 9 says, not according
to their works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given to them in Christ
Jesus before the time began. But to those who
are called. both Jews and Greeks. The cross is
the power of God. And then we see in verse 25
that this foolishness, this so -called foolishness
of God is actually wiser than men. And this so
-called weakness of God is actually stronger
than men. God who is greater than all. He is
wiser than the wisest person on the earth. He
is stronger than any created being. He laughs
at them because even his foolishness and weakness
is much stronger than anything that they could
ever do or think. In fact, their ability even
to reason at all comes from his good hand. But
we preach Christ. crucified this is the message
that is needed and this is the message that all
ministers must preach this was the message of
Peter this was the message of Apollos and this
is the message of Paul ministers all one planted
one watered and God gives the increase and gets
the glory we're going to see this develop more
in chapter 2 Number four, then, we finally consider
what is God's purpose in choosing the foolish
and the weak. Verses 26 to 31. We see, first
of all, the Corinthians' own calling and experience.
He reminds them, verse 26, For you see your calling,
brethren, that not many wise according to the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
In their congregation, there was not many of
the mighty and noble in the city. They were caught
up in their own imaginations of their hearts
in wanting what they thought was the wisdom of
the world. And so not many of them were part
of the congregation. He shows that God has a
purpose in choosing what is foolish and what
is weak according to man's understanding. But
Paul then uses this as an illustration to them
in light of their misunderstanding. This is not
an example. gate that the prophecies that kings
and rulers and princes will come to Christ but
he shows them that in Corinth to the Corinthians
not many were there not many of them were saved
and thus he shows the power of the cross and
the necessity of that which seems foolish to
men is actually more powerful God then also Shows
a deliberate choice to shame the wise and the
strong. The ones who were perceived wise and
strong. In Corinth. Verse 27 and 28. God has
chosen the foolish things of the world. To put
to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak
things of the world. To put to shame the things
which are mighty. And the base things of the
world. And the things which are not. The things
which are despised. God has chosen. And the things
which are not. to bring to nothing the things
that are. You know, God has a way of these incredible
paradoxes of making a grand point with something
that we think is, why? Why did he use this? Something
so simple, something so plain, and yet through
this, he destroys the wisdom of the wise. God
has this way of doing it, and he did it with
the cross. He did it with the cross. Why does
he do this? Well, it's for his own glory's sake.
Because what seems to be the foolishness of God
actually ends up being demonstrated that it's
much wiser than the humanly wise. Now in this,
God is not saying that we purposely seek weakness,
foolishness, and baseness. Though we may seem
fools for Christ, yet indeed we are to seek wisdom
and strength, but according to God. and according
to his word, and not according to human wisdom.
That sets up a God. It's in its own image. There
are many scriptures that call us to seek wisdom
and to be wise, to be strong in the Lord, but
our minds and our reason must be sanctified through
the word and the spirit. And God uses these seemingly
foolish things to overturn our order, to reorient
our mind, and to bring us to the point of sanctification
and understanding of what true wisdom is and
what true reason looks like. In this then, number
three. Of this last point. If this stops the
human boasting before God. And we see this verse
29. He says. See God wants pure worship from
us. Not boasting worship. Not where we come before
the Lord. And we boast in our own gifts. That
we were able to do this. And thus this makes
us more acceptable to you. That's the problem
of work. Salvation. We continually revert to
it. We set up idols. God's in our own image and
we want our own good works to outweigh the bad
so that God will surely just let us in instead
of falling at our feet, confessing that we are
undone, that we are sinners, that we cannot help
ourselves and we cannot save ourselves and thus
we need Christ. We need the crucifixion. We need
the atonement. This stops all human boasting
before God. so that no flesh should glory in
his presence. Finally then, in verse 30 and 31,
he speaks to us of the sufficiency of Christ,
who is really and truly the source of everything
good that we have. He says, but of him, you are
in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from
God. Yes, we can be wise. But it's through Christ.
It is Christ's wisdom. Because of Him, we are
in Christ Jesus. And He becomes wisdom for us.
And He is righteousness for us. And He is sanctification
for us. And He is redemption for us. So that
as it is written, He says, He who glories, let
him glory in the Lord. Oh, I hope and trust that
out all of this, that each one of you goes away
from here glorying in the Lord. Not in that I
have done this and I have done this and it's
because of my reason or because of my decision
or because of my this or that, but that we glory
in the Lord for it is him who is our righteousness.
It is him who is our sanctification. It is him
who is our. sanctification, our glorification,
and our wisdom in Christ. And so therefore, we
glory in the Lord. We rejoice in him. We extol
the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the one whose
blood was shed for us on a cruel cross. And he
overcame death in that greatest feats of all,
the resurrection of the body from the dead. Well,
how shall we then live then in light of this?
First of all, dear Christian, embrace the cross.
Embrace the cross of Christ. Do not be ashamed
of it. In fact, do as Jesus says, take up your
cross and follow Christ. Understand the scandal
and the foolishness of the cross. Do not weaken,
change, or dilute the gospel to fit the world
or to make your message. Appear more pleasing
to the flesh. Embrace the cross. In bringing
about such a great salvation. God has spoken
to us by his son. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 to
3. whom he has appointed heir of all things,
through whom also he made the worlds, who bring
the brightness of his glory and the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. And after recounting the glory and the
majesty and the exaltation of Christ, Paul continues
in chapter 2 of Hebrews, verse 3, and he asks
this question, How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? Which at the first began
to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to
us by those who heard him. And God also bore
witness both with signs and wonders and various
miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according
to his own will. Brothers and sisters, embrace
the cross of Christ. Let it be glorious to you
and thank God for it. Number two, reject boasting.
Reject boasting in human leaders or in our own
status. or in our achievements, or even the achievements
of others. The Corinthians had their factions,
and so can we. God chooses the lowly and the
humble, the ones who tremble at his word. In
a culture that idolizes charismatic or gifted
leaders or influencers, as the term currently
is, that defines success in a worldly way, instead,
worship the God of heaven. Embrace his ways.
Boast in him and not in yourself or in other
men. Boast in Christ crucified. Number three,
find your calling. Find your identity and find
your fulfillment in Christ. In and through Jesus
Christ. For he is your wisdom. All of these other
things. Glory in him. Let him be your identity.
In summary, this passage calls us to a counter
-cultural faith. It is a faith that is humble,
that is cross -centered, unimpressed by worldly
status and measurements, and wholly unified around
Jesus Christ alone. around Jesus Christ alone.
This is a faith that challenges our pride and
our self -sufficiency and yet it also comforts
our insecurities because God doesn't depend on
our strength or our smarts or our status. He
uses what the world thinks is weak and foolish
to accomplish his purposes and then we obey.
Because of the transformed work of Christ in
us. Yes, we obey. Yes, we do. But we give the
glory to him and not to ourselves. We are able
to obey because of his provision. It is all him
working in us. What do we have that we didn't
receive? Nothing. It all comes from him. Let
us live this out daily. That we proclaim the
simple and the pure gospel. That we embrace the
offense of the cross. That we reject division.
And that we boast in the Lord. That we'll preach.
And that message. will transform lives as it
has in the past, as it is doing now, and will
continue to do so until the Lord returns. Even
so come, Lord Jesus. Let's pray.