The Word of the Cross and the Wisdom of God

Transcript

GR 2341
03/20/2022
The Word of the Cross and the Wisdom of God
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Gil Rugh

We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians 1 in your bibles. We’ve moved into the part of the letter, the bulk of the letter after introductory comments. And we’re reminded that Paul speaks rather warmly to the Corinthians in the opening verses, down through verse 9. And he concluded that section by saying, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” They’ve got every spiritual gift. They are functioning in many ways biblically, but there are divisions in the church. And they have to be dealt with. And really from chapter 1:10 through chapter 4, he’s going to deal with the matter of the divisions. And if you pick up with verse 10, and just read through the rest of the letter, you’d think, Paul is really down on this church. And there’s not much good about it. But the first nine verses put it in perspective. This is a group that God has brought together. And they are gifted by God. And God is faithful in dealing with them. So, it puts in perspective the things that must be corrected. This is a group of God’s people that God has brought together, that are gifted and equipped by Him for serving Him and bringing honor to Him. But there are things that need to be fixed, that need to be corrected.

We looked at verses 10-17 and he reminds them, you ought to be one, not only in form, but in reality. God has brought you together, you have been brought together because your faith in one Lord, one Savior, one who was crucified on your behalf. So that through faith in Him, you might have life. So, you know, you weren’t baptized in my name. You weren’t baptized in someone else’s name, you were baptized in the name of Christ. There ought to be an awareness of the oneness that’s there. Evidently, baptism was an issue, because he mentions it specifically, verse 13 of Chapter 1, “Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” And, you know, it’s just not a reality. We sometimes get focused on things that we need to deal with, but they become overwhelming. I think of many years here as a pastor, and think back over the conflicts and difficulties and divisions we’ve had. Look back and I think, well, some of those… boy, I have to scratch my head and think, what was that division about? Why was that such an all-church issue? We need to be reminded, we are together because Jesus Christ has loved us and died for us. We have placed our faith in Him. We are here as a testimony to His saving grace.

So, in verse 17, Paul said, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech,” not in words of wisdom, not to be impressing people, “so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.” Tremendous importance here. They are brought together because of a relationship established through faith in the death of Christ on their behalf. Made new because Christ was raised from the dead. Christ didn’t come and die so that we could decide who our favorites were, or what we liked or didn’t like.

And so he picks up with verse 18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” That’s the division. There are only two kinds of people in the world, saved and unsaved, period. I realize there are people that God may be dealing with that are on the way and you say, I can see God working, and I’m trusting and praying that they will come to trust Him soon. But until they do, they are lost and on their way to hell. There is no gray area. You go from lostness to life when you place your faith in Christ. This idea, well, as long as we just adjust in certain ways and do certain things, that may make us comfortable but it doesn’t change our relationship to the living God. You are either saved or you are lost, that’s verse 18. “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Those who are perishing, that’s a present tense, those who are being saved, in a present sense. That’s the two fixed categories of humanity. Those who are perishing, those who are being saved. That’s the division even here in a church like this. Just coming to this church and sitting here doesn’t mean, oh well, I’m one of those who’s being saved. No, have you really understood you are a sinner, and that Christ alone died for your sin and you have placed your faith in Him alone? Not in your baptism, not in your church attendance, but in Christ. That’s the division.

Article I had in connection with this sermon, but it goes back a few years, a little over fifteen years now. And it’s from Bunissess Week magazine, which is not a religious publication, and it is entitled, “Evangelical America, Big Business Explosive Politics.” Then there’s a special report, and it’s got different churches, evangelical in the sense they claim to believe the word of God. They claim to preach the word of God, but they use different large churches as examples. And one of the pastors of one of these large churches is youthful looking and describes him a little bit. And he reassures the thousands that show up at each of his five weekend services, God has a great future in store for you. To keep them coming back, and I’m not reading consecutively here, to keep them coming back, they offer free financial counseling, low-cost bulk food, even a fidelity group for men, with sexual addiction. Demand is brisk for the self-help sessions. There are examples that they give of people they interviewed. They say, well, you know, it makes my life feel so much better. They brought in fifty-five million dollars in contributions the previous year. And this is just about seventeen years ago now. So, it’s a growing enterprise. The runaway success is modeled unabashedly on business. They borrow tools ranging from niche marketing to MBA hiring, to lift their share of US church goers. To reach these untapped masses, savvy leaders are creating Sunday schools that look like Disney World. Church cafes with the feel of Starbucks. They tailor a panoply of services to meet all kinds of needs. And it’s an extensive article, it goes on and on. They offer an upbeat message intertwined with a religious one. And on it goes.

You know, the interesting thing is, some of the churches that are mentioned in this article have undergone a decay because pastoral infidelity and whatever. Are we just a business? Are we just feeding the sheep or amusing the goats? This is from Charles Spurgeon. So, now we jump back a hundred plus years. Charles Spurgeon died in 1892. This article I read you was from an article in 2015. But he wants to say, the devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the church, that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them. My first contention is that providing amusement for the people, is nowhere spoken of in the scripture as a function of the church. Again, providing amusement is direct antagonism to the teaching of and life of Christ and all the apostles. Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would have been more popular when they went back because of this searching nature of His teaching. I don’t hear Him say, run after these people Peter. Tell them we’ll have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We’ll have a pleasant evening for the people, tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick Peter, we must get the people somehow. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapons. And on it goes.

I think the church is caught up and we look at churches that have success. And we think, what could we do to be successful? What could we do to get people to come, to fill in the empty seats? You know, are we doing something different? I used to say, and I’ve reminded you, move the people from this section over, move to the left, be careful you don’t push the person on the end of the bench off. The people this side, move to the right, be careful you don’t push, because we couldn’t get everybody in. Well, are we not teaching the word anymore? Well, are there conflicts, differences? Is Jesus Christ, the one who loved us and died for us on the cross, changed? So, I think the elements that we’re looking at in 1 Corinthians 1, is a crucial one. Let me read you what one modern writer says. The message of these sections from 1 Corinthians must be learned afresh by every generation of Christians, or the gospel will be sidelined by assorted fads. Western evangelicalism tends to run through cycles of fads. At the moment, books are pouring off the presses telling us how to plan for success. How vision consists and clearly articulated ministry goals, and on it goes. Even so subtle that we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analyses than on the gospel. Barna becomes more important than the bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements. I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy by peripheral insights that take on far too much weight, another current writer said.

At Corinth, the danger was not that they were adding to or taking away from the content of the gospel. Rather they were using human wisdom in an attempt to make the gospel appealing or more effective or more attractive. You can fill in the blanks. You know, Paul is clear, when we stick to the word of God, we find out this is what God uses. Sometimes, there are people breaking down the doors to get in. You can’t get everybody in. Sometimes it’s very thin. I encourage you again to read through the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 & 3. Take note, the two churches that received no rebuke from Christ, are the very ones that seem in danger of going out of business, that are struggling. But they are encouraged for their faithfulness. We want to be careful that we don’t decide, well, if God’s not blessing His word anymore, we’ll do something else. Oh, we won’t deny His word, but we’ll add to it and make it more effective. Then more people will come, and that will mean we’re more effective. It may mean we are less biblical.

So, we pick up with verse 18 again in 1 Corinthians 1, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” The word of the cross. It stands in contrast to verse 17, the cleverness of speech. Because in Greek, they both are the same thing. They say the same thing, they use the word ‘logos’. Logos means word. The clever words or the word of the cross. The clever word, we don’t deny the truths, we just make them part of a bigger, more expressive approach. And the danger is, we nullify. Remember, Paul says, I don’t use cleverness of speech, words of wisdom, “so that the cross of Christ would not be (nullified) made void,” verse 17, the end of the verse. We want to be careful, we think, we’re not denying anything, we’re just being more effective. But we’re really canceling the effectiveness of the cross. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” It’s foolishness, we get the word ‘moron’. Just carry over this word. It’s moronic, its stupidity, it’s just not attractive. It doesn’t grab on to me. “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” Cicero, some of you maybe haven’t read him lately, but he is an old Roman writer, he died in 43 BC. So, over a hundred years before Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians. But he said concerning the crucifixion of Roman citizens, the very word ‘cross’ should be far removed. Not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears. That’s for pagan criminals that are non-Roman citizens. Roman citizens, we don’t even think about the cross. But Paul says, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross, when he wrote to the Galatians. The word of the cross is foolishness. We get the word moron, moronic, its stupidity, makes no sense, its foolishness to those who are perishing. To those who are perishing. Now, we think, to make them feel more comfortable, we want to have a broader emphasis, than maybe personally.

I’ve had people share this, personally we share the gospel, but in our services they are geared more broadly. Paul didn’t know about that. God has not planned that for His church. Paul says, “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” You know, they are not perishing because they regard the word of the cross as foolishness. One man wrote this very clearly, rather they treat it as foolishness because they are perishing. That’s where they are, they are perishing. They need to hear the message of the cross. They’re not that interested in it unless God is doing something supernatural in their heart. Those who are perishing, that’s a present participle, that’s their condition. That’s the condition of every person you come in contact with, who is not being saved. They are perishing. That’s the contrast here. Those who are perishing, those who are being saved, both present participles, that’s it. Every person you meet. Well, I don’t know whether they were. Well, didn’t you ever talk about it with them? Did you ask them? Did you ever consider your relationship with the living God? Ever consider what is required of you to be acceptable to Him? Oh, I go to church. Oh okay, that’s good. It may be good, it may not be. What do you hear at that church? What do you believe is necessary?

So, he draws the contrast, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. It’s moronic, its stupidity, it just doesn’t make any sense to those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. Now this present tense, there’s the past tense, the present tense, and the future tense for us who are being saved. We have been saved, we were justified when we placed our faith in Christ. Now we are being saved, that’s our sanctification by the power of God. And we’re being saved from the very presence of sin when we are glorified. So, justification, sanctification, glorification are included. Here he is drawing a contrast between the present reality of either being lost or being saved. Being on your way to heaven or being on your way to an eternal hell.

To those of us who are being saved, the word of the cross is the power of God. That’s our salvation. What do I have my hope in? Oh, I was baptized, and I go to church, not every Sunday, but I go you know, a couple of times a month anyway. You know, I’m baptized, I lead a good life. I try to read the bible periodically. Well, wait a minute, do you understand what it means to be saved? How were you saved? To those of us who are being saved, who have placed our faith in Christ. Verse 17, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” You ask the average protestant, and they think they’ve been saved if they’ve been baptized and go to a church. Ask the average Roman Catholic, well, you were baptized a catholic, of course. Everything else just fits into place, but wait a minute. It is a personal, individual matter and it settles it for time and eternity. The message of Christ, the cross, the word of the cross, the message of the cross, we got that. The message of the cross, the word of the cross is to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Come back to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 23:28, “ ‘The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak my word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?’ declares the Lord. ‘Is not My word like fire?’ declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock?’ ” That’s the unique thing about the message of Jesus Christ, in His death to pay the penalty of sin. That intervenes in a life in a way that nothing else can. It shatters my former hope, my former beliefs, my former anticipations. I realize, I am a sinner. I still remember so many years ago, when it became clear to me, I am a sinner. I need what Jesus Christ did on the cross. There’s not hope, I’ve got to trust Him. That’s where you have to come. I’m trusting Him, Him alone as my Savior.

Come back to Jeremiah 20, look at verse 7, “O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived; You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. Each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, because for me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.” At the middle of verse 10, “All my trusted friends, watching for my fall.” Verse 11, “the Lord is with me like a dread champion.” The word of God, it hasn’t changed. Hundreds of years before Paul wrote the Corinthians, Jeremiah wrote very similar to what Paul wrote. Because the word of God is the word of God, it is unique, it is something different than everything else in the world. And it is through faith in what God has said and done that brings salvation.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1 and let me just read you Hebrews 4:12 which many of you have memorized. “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of the soul and the spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” That’s where we want to be careful, we give forth the word of God, in season and out of season. When it’s popular and people are breaking down the doors to get in. When it’s not popular, then they are running and hiding from it. Don’t bother me with that, that doesn’t . . . well, come to our service, we’ll have something that’s uplifting and makes you feel good. Well, if they don’t want to hear the word of God, they ought not want to be in church. The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth, God’s truth. So, the contrast of verse 18, “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

And that’s where we’re entrusted to tell others. I understand some have the gift of evangelist and they lead people to Christ. Most of us just share the gospel, and sometimes we bear the result of a negative response. Pretty soon, if we’re not careful we begin to think, well, I’m not gifted. Most of those who Paul addressed didn’t believe because the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And you have a message of foolishness as far as the unbelieving world in concerned. But you must tell them. Well, I’m not good. Tell me, are you saved? Well, yes of course, I go to this church. Would I go to this church if I wasn’t saved? Might, there have been people who haven’t been saved who have gone to this church, you may be one of them. We’re glad you’re here, but going to this church doesn’t save you. Being baptized in this church doesn’t save you. Believing the message that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. He was raised because the penalty was paid in full. When you place your faith in Him, you are identified with Him in His death, burial and in His resurrection to new life. He cleanses you, He makes you new on the inside. So, those “who are being saved it’s the power of God.” Some people we can’t tell. Had a dear couple that attend a liberal church in town, but I would see them at lunch regularly. I would share the gospel with them, he was just delighted and yes, maybe he was saved, he was just in a place where he’s not being taught the word, I don’t know. I have to make that decision. But I can’t hide behind, well, I’m not gifted as an evangelist so I don’t tell. Well, you don’t have to be, just tell them what happened to you. There came a time when I realized I wasn’t acceptable to God in my condition. I couldn’t be acceptable in any other way but trusting Christ. Have you ever trusted Christ? If you’ve trusted Him, you can pass it on. It doesn’t mean you need to have super intellectual ability.

Alright, look at verse 19, “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’ ” What Paul draws from, is an event that’s written hundreds of years before. I say this because we get the idea that we have to be pertinent and up to date. One of the problems of the world is, we’re behind, we’re out of it. And we see in our country, a deterioration going on. Where at one time you could talk. Early in my ministry I got invited to the High School, I got invited to the University, now it doesn’t happen, because you don’t want to bring in religious things. People say, well, my pastor would come and speak about marriage and divorce. Oh okay, have him come. My pastor would come and speak on death and dying. Oh have him come. Maybe some do, but I don’t get invited anymore. But Paul didn’t say, well, Paul you know, he wrote hundreds of years before, so we have to update what he had to say. He just quotes what he said, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. That’s from Isaiah 29, and the Assyrians were threatening the southern kingdom, Judah. And Hezekiah, you know, what are we going to do? Maybe we should align with Egypt and get ready to do battle. Egypt never came to rescue Judah from the Assyrians, but God intervened. You know what? One night the Assyrian army went to sleep, but one hundred and eighty-six thousand didn’t wake up in the morning, that’s in chapter 37:36-27. One hundred and eighty-six thousand didn’t wake up in the morning. Then they went home, and the Assyrian king was killed by his own family member. God’s work is to use His word. When we give forth His word, we’re enabling God to do His work, that only He can do. When we begin to make adjustments… and that’s where Paul is going next, when he asks, “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?” So, the foolishness again, verse 18 the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But God has made foolish, there’s real foolishness. Where’s the wise man, where’s the scribe, where’s the debater of this age? They were the professional experts of their time. You went to them, you went to the wise man, the scribe, the debater. But God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. It’s characteristic of this age.

Verse 21, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God.” Note that, “the world through its wisdom did not come to know God.” So, the challenge we have is not, well, let’s relate more to the world so we can present the gospel more clearly. We need to present the gospel as clearly as we can to a world that doesn’t relate to it at all. So, God can do what only He can do, is reach into a heart and transform it, make it new by causing that person to believe the truth that’s presented. “God was well pleased,” the middle of verse 21, “through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” God was well pleased, its His sovereign decision. This is the way God works. We want to be careful because what happens is, we subtly… we don’t deny, oh no, we still have the same doctrinal statement. But we adjust our ministry so that it will be more appealing to whom? Well, to those who look for the worldly wisdom. Then what? We have nullified, we’re back to the end of verse 17, “so that the cross of Christ would not be made void,” cancelled.

We mix it in such a way that really, we can get a full auditorium, but we’re not seeing people saved. Oh, I think people, they’ve cleaned up their life, they are living a lot better. Well, that’s not the goal. I mean, you understand the Jews lived a lot better life than the average Roman did. They believed certain things. They believed in the creator God. And they believed in a husband and wife, if that would get you to heaven. But Paul has, and you’re aware of this, just as much to say about the Judaizers as he does about the pagan Gentiles. In fact he says the Judaizers are in a worse condition because they think they are alright. Because they’ve adopted the morality that the law required without the faith in the God who gave the law. If we’re not careful, we’ll do the same thing. We don’t deny anything. Paul, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He immersed himself in the Old Testament. He could quote the Old Testament and he knew the Old Testament. He had a running start, but he wasn’t any closer to heaven. You read his testimony in like the book of Galatians and so on. That doesn’t get him closer to God. It just brings more confusion.

God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God.” The smartest men in the world are not the people you go to to find out how to get to heaven, how to have your sins forgiven. You can have men that are brilliant, men that are very wise, but 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.” You can be one of those messengers, you ought to be, to share with people. Let me tell you what God has done in my life. Let me tell you how I came to know the living God. I came to understand, I was a sinner, there was no way I could make myself acceptable to God. I realized God sent His Son to die in my place on the cross to pay my penalty. When I placed my faith in Him, He made me new on the inside. If you’re a believer, you can share that. Oh yeah, but the unbeliever doesn’t want to hear that. Of course he doesn’t want to hear it, that’s what we’re talking about. So, when we decide, well, we’ll have in our main services something the unbeliever wants to hear. As I read in Business Week from a number of years ago, yes, if we get the MBA’s, we get all the people that have all the knowledge and they’re really smart, but they also claim to believe the truth, then we wed the two and people realize, oh, it’s believers that are really smart. No, because when you become a believer in Jesus Christ, you become one of the world’s stupid ones, you become a moron. Unless God uses your testimony to lead that other person to Christ. “God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached,” foolishness from the world’s standpoint but not from God’s standpoint, “to save those who believe.”

Look at verse 22, “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified.” If just doesn’t get any clearer, any better than that. It wasn’t determined by what men want, it was determined by what God did. And that’s what we’re to tell. Doesn’t matter you may have only gone to the fifth grade. Well, how am I going to witness to college students? Well, let’s first of all settle whether you know the living God. Whether you know Jesus Christ. You know you’re a sinner. Yes, I know I’m a sinner. I know Christ took my place on the cross and paid my penalty. And I’ve trusted Him. But the unbeliever, those college educated, don’t want to hear that. You know, when I used to go to the college class, you know what I used to go through? Why Christ came. Oh, well, you’re here to talk about marriage and divorce and yes, let’s talk about marriage and divorce. And I might throw out some statistics on marriage and divorce and that. But let me tell you what the bible says the real problem is. And I walk through the gospel. The real problem is, we’re sinners, that’s what God says. So, you may not believe it, but give me a hearing. The bible says we’re sinners, and as such we are self-centered, self-oriented and operate to please ourselves. That creates problems. It creates a problem between God and us. It’s going to be my way or the highway. God says, it’s My way or hell. And I go through the gospel. Are you more intelligent than the professor? I remember I was at one of the universities in town and afterwards the professor walking back to his office said to me, you know, I know what you’re talking about Gil, that’s what my parents believe. And he walked through the gospel, yes that’s what my parents believe. I don’t believe it. I just went through the gospel with him, but at least he was clear, he understood, yes, that’s the gospel. That’s what the bible says, I don’t believe it. Well, I’m praying for you. That’s the goal.

The Greeks, there’s a division here, the Jews ask for signs, the Greeks search for wisdom. And we’ve got that division today. And we’ve got this certain group of charismatics that God does all these miracles today. And we’ve got other group. We’ve got wisdom and we mix it with, like the business article was, we’ve got the MBA, he’s in charge of this element of our church. And we’ve got these programs for our church. So, we’ve mixed all these together. Paul says, the Jews ask for signs. We won’t go back, but in Jesus, oh show us a sign, show us a sign. You know what Jesus said? Luke 16:31, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.” Did that make the big change? No, let’s say the disciples stole the body. It’s not what we need, you know, boy if I could do a miracle or two, people would pour in here to see if I was going to do a miracle. “Jews ask for signs and the Greeks search for wisdom.”

We live in a college town, wisdom, being smart. And young people grow up and some grow up in Christian homes, but they don’t believe. Having Christian parents doesn’t guarantee you’re going to be a Christian son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter. Each generation has its own. It’s like the professor at the college I spoke at, he says, yeah, my parents believe that, I don’t believe it, but I know what you’re saying. I know the message you’re teaching but I don’t believe that. My parents do, they would be very comfortable with what you said. Well, of course Israel, generation after generation, pretty soon the believers are a small element in the large nation. It started out with Abraham and his family, the family explodes. “But we preach Christ crucified,” verse 23. You note that, the Jews want signs, the Greeks want wisdom. What do we do? “We preach Christ crucified,” we proclaim that Christ has been crucified to pay the penalty for sin, that’s “to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles,” there’s our word again, “foolishness.” What do I got, I’m not reaching anybody. What am I going to say? Deuteronomy 21:23 said that one who died on the cross was cursed by God. Let me just read you Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us -- for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’ ” You know what, Jesus Christ, how He died? He was hung on a tree, a cross made out of a tree, cut down.

To the Gentiles, here's our word ‘moron’ again. The Gentiles, they’re just foolish, moronic. So, we’ve had professing believers who are saying, well, we’re going to do signs, we do miracles, we have miracles today. And that’s what the Jews would like. And the others, well, we’re going to wed it with the wisdom of the world. You know what we have? We have a message that is not appealing to anyone apart from the special work of God in a life. “But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks.” God saves Jews today, He saves Gentiles today. Primarily ministry to Gentiles. The nation Israel as a nation is set aside under the judgement of God. Much of what we see going on in the world today, moving toward that seventieth week of Daniel. But there are Jews being saved today. Marilyn’s family on one side was Jewish. But Gentiles, Jews. What are we doing? We’re not entertaining people, we’re not giving them what they want. Oh, well, give them what they want, and then when we get them, then we’ll… You can fill auditoriums, but we’re here to preach Christ. “To those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” That’s what, both, it’s the power of God, the wisdom of God. Once you’ve trusted Christ, and you know what it means to be made new, to be cleansed from your sin, from your guilt before God, to be made new on the inside, now I understand, I can appreciate this is the power of God. This is the wisdom of God. I have to tell someone. New believers are usually more open and vocal to talk about it. We ought to be just as vocal after thirty, forty, fifty years, I want to tell people about Jesus Christ. That’s the difference, “we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.”

Well, who are you going to reach, Paul? Well, verse 24, “to those who are the called,” the called, that’s the same as those who in verse 18 are being saved. Those who are being saved. It’s the same in verse 21, those who believe, those who believe, those who are called. Why did I believe? Because God had called me. Why? Many years ago, my Mother met some people at the church that she would occasionally go to, and they reached out to her. Elderly people. I don’t know that they would have been able to do a debate with a university professor, they just presented the gospel to her. They presented the gospel to her again and again, finally she believed it. She dropped out of high school to get married. Then she shared the gospel, then took me to a meeting and I heard the gospel. I thought, boy, I need this, I need to get saved. My cousin went forward at that same gospel meeting and he said I could hardly keep from laughing. Well, he got saved later, much later. He was a missionary and passed away in Omaha. God does great things. You can think of people who you shared the gospel with. Well, I don’t know that I could have, if they had gotten into certain things. Don’t get into them. Just tell them, look I can only tell you what’s happened to me. I could tell you what God did in my life. I could tell you that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and He paid it in full. Oh yeah, we believe in Christ also; I mean the average Protestant, the average Catholic, they’re going to say, yes, I believe in Christ, I believe in His death, sure, that’s me. But that’s just not saving faith. If you had asked my parents, of course, we’re not pagans. But they weren’t saved people either.

So, “we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the 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.” What can you say? The foolishness of God, the stupidity of God. We could say that, but as the world looks at it, you tell them that you have to place your faith in Christ. Doesn’t matter whether you’re Protestant, Catholic, Mormon or whatever, you need to place your faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone. And He will make you new, He will transform you in a way that no one or nothing else can do. Well, it’s alright if you believe it. But I really believe it, but it’s true, I encourage you to consider it. You might have a tract you give them, you might have a portion of the New Testament, the gospel of John, you give a person. We’re just instruments that God is using in the lives of others. There’s no other way.

Paul is writing to a church that he established. He’s going over these basics. Let me read you what one writer wrote recently about this passage in 1 Corinthians. One can scarcely conceive of a more important and more difficult passage for the church today than this one. It is difficult for the very reason it was in Corinth. We simply cannot abide the scandal of God doing things His way without our help. The preaching of the cross alone has the power to set people free. There’s much in the scripture, but it all comes back, the word of God is for the people of God. The word of God is so that you can become one of the people of God. By how? Well, come to this church. I’m going to clean up my life. I’m going to dress differently. I’m going to behave differently. I’m going to… You haven’t understood the message. Jesus Christ came and died on the cross because there’s nothing you can do, nothing I can do.

So, we’re back to verse 18, “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.” That’s all we have to share. I don’t have to be able to debate. I go to the university, I didn’t have to be able to debate with the professor. What you’re saying, yes, that’s something to consider. Now let me give you the other side. What if the bible is true when it says you are a sinner and the penalty for your sin is death, including an eternal separation from God in hell? God sent His Son to die… That’s all it is, it keeps coming back to the same basic, simple, concise message. I don’t have to be able to debate up here on this level. God has saved some people and that’s fine, but basically what it comes down to, you either believe the message of the cross or you don’t. You either believe the message of Jesus Christ or you don’t. That’s it. This auditorium divided, you’re either among those who are being saved or those who are perishing. And it depends on whether you’ve placed your faith in Christ.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your word. It is a simple word, it is a clear word. It is a word written that we might understand and believe in. We thank You for the work that only You could in a heart. To open our blinded eyes to see and believe that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for sin. There is no hope, there is no salvation, there is no Savior apart from the one You have provided. The one who is sufficient to cleanse, forgive, make new, everyone and anyone who believes in Him. We give You praise in Christ’s name. Amen