Loyalty to Christ

Transcript

GR 1296
05-29-05
Loyalty to Christ
I Corinthians 1:16-18a
Gil Rugh

We have been studying 1 Corinthians together. We really just started into the book. We are in the middle of the first chapter, Paul has just begun the body of this letter with verse 10 of chapter 1. He’s had his introductory remarks which were standard for the letters of the time and important for the church at Corinth in the content he gave there. But now he moves to the substance of the letter with verse 10. And we noted that the real issue that he wants to deal with first and deal with extensively, for this will cover the next three chapters, through all of chapter 4, is the matter of divisions in the church at Corinth. Because this is a denial of their very heart of what the church is. It’s a denial of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And Paul will go into one of the fullest, most detailed and clear explanations of the cross of Christ in dealing with this matter of division than we have anywhere else in the New Testament. He is burdened for the church at Corinth. He says in verse 10 that he exhorts them that they all agree and there be no divisions, that you be made perfect, complete, everything you should be, having the same mind and the same judgment or the same opinion. The outstanding characteristic of the church of Jesus Christ is its unity, its oneness, manifesting before, as we noted, the watching world and watching angels, the uniqueness of the sovereign work of God in accomplishing His work of salvation through the death of His Son.

Paul elaborated why this was a burden. He had received a report from a lady whose name was Chloe and some of her family members. Some people associated with her had reported to Paul that there were divisions in the church at Corinth. And he knew that this was true and he gives some details beginning with verse 12. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. Now we noted at the end of verse 11, he said there are quarrels among you. We noted that word quarrels is often used in the lists that Paul gives in the New Testament of sins that are characteristic primarily of people who have never experienced God’s work of salvation. And now here is the church at Corinth that is to be characterized by unity and oneness not characterized by divisive quarrels, conflicts. And these conflicts are focused on different personalities. This is an important connection. I’m sure the people who would identify with Paul wouldn’t think that they were the cause of a quarrel; or the people that were identified with Cephas wouldn’t think they were causing quarrels, Cephas is a good man; or Apollos’ followers. But you see when you take positions aligning yourself with different individuals in the church, you become a cause of quarrels. We don’t think of ourselves that way because we think of ourselves as the right party, the spiritual party. It’s the others that are a problem. But by turning attention to people, even prominent, important people, even people that God has mightily used, we become part of the causing of quarrels and divisions among God’s people.

Now Paul may be using himself and others as an example, we noted, because in chapter 4 verse 6 he will tell the Corinthians that he has applied these things to Apollos and himself figuratively, so they can learn not to think too highly of people. So in other words if you can’t become a loyal party in the church at Corinth devoted to Paul or a loyal party in the church at Corinth devoted to Cephas or Apollos, then there is no room for any kind of party spirit in the church at Corinth.

Now let me just go on a little sidetrack here, not a long one. But the question comes up, then how do we know where unity in the church is? I shared with you that we shouldn’t be followers of Gil Rugh. It pains me to say that, but it’s true, biblically. This church does not belong to me, it belongs to Jesus Christ. Our loyalty is to Him. That doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate one another, we don’t appreciate those that God has used in our lives personally in special ways. However, the loyalty and devotion of our heart and the commitment of our lives is to Jesus Christ. So how does that carry out? Well God has established a pattern of order for His church and I just want to remind you of that quickly.

Back in Acts 14, recording Paul’s first missionary journey, his first travels to establish churches in other places. And we read in verse 23, and when they had appointed elders for them in every church. So in the very beginning as Paul traveled to establish churches, it was his pattern to establish within each church a group of men called elders, pastors, overseers who would be responsible for the care of that particular local church.

Turn over to Acts 20:17. Paul is traveling here and he wants to meet with the elders from the church at Ephesus, so we’re told in verse 17, from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him, note this, the elders of the church. That local church had a group of local elders who were responsible for the care of that church. Look down in verse 28, he instructs these elders or pastors, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, now note this, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God. You’ll note, the church does not belong to the elders, but they are the divinely appointed shepherds for the church. The Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased for Himself with His own blood. That’s why it’s the church of God. But God has delegated leadership responsibility to the overseers or the elders, and they are responsible for the care of the church.

Turn over to 1 Thessalonians 5:12, but we request of you brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord, and give you instruction. This is the responsibility of elders, pastors, overseers. And that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. And then note that last charge, live in peace with one another. And the peace of the body is maintained by the recognition that the elders or the overseers are those that Christ has appointed through His Spirit to have the responsibility of the oversight of the congregation.

Come over to Hebrews 13, the last verse we’ll look at on this section. This is not complicated, but we find it very difficult to follow through on when we get involved in these situations of division. Hebrews 13:17, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. The elders will give an account for the condition of this flock before the throne of God. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. It would not be good for the elders to have to give a report that they constantly fought against our leadership, they constantly wanted to go their own way. That would not be a good report. So it’s very simple, God has appointed a group of men. We say, oh they’re just men. But they are just men that the Holy Spirit has made overseers or elders for this local flock. So we commit our allegiance to Jesus Christ and we submit to the authority that He has placed in the church, the elders. Now let me say something, sometimes we have divisions along the lines of pastors or elders. This may have been happening in the church at Corinth. That may be why Paul does not address the elders specifically. It’s like in our church, we have multiple staff, we have multiple pastors; people sort of get attached to one of the pastors. In and of itself there is nothing wrong with that, certain men have had a greater ministry in your life as a pastor than another. But you must never forget that your loyalty is not to that pastor. Your loyalty is to Jesus Christ. You demonstrate that loyalty to Jesus Christ by your submissiveness to the leaders that He has appointed, the elders as a group. The general problems we’ve had as a church with quarrels and divisions, they have centered around individuals, personalities. The Board of Elders has not split in any of these. They have maintained their unity as God’s appointed leaders. It does not keep splits from happening. Why? People decide, well I support this person; I think he’s a godly man, and I think the elders were probably wrong in the way they dealt with him. Wait a minute, now. You see what’s happening? The Holy Spirit has appointed these elders but I see myself as over them. All of a sudden they are not as spiritual as I am. I’m the one with true insight. We have decisions that are made. Our splits haven’t come, basically, over doctrine generally, we’ve had some of that. It usually comes over personalities or over side issues. People like this or they don’t like that. Much of the responsibility the elders have is just for the general care of the church. Somebody has to decide, we will meet at 10 o’clock on Sunday morning, not 10:30. Well I think that 10:30 is a better time and I think we would reach many more people if we met at 10:30, in fact I’m going to go to a church that meets at 10:30. I think they have a better spiritual heart, desire for people. Why did the elders pick 10? Maybe they wanted to get out early to get to the golf course, maybe they wanted to beat the other people to the restaurant. The elders will give an account for their motives and their decisions, and if they weren’t made with a pure heart before the Lord. But you understand the body is not responsible, the elders will give an account for the body, the body won’t give an account for the elders, according to Hebrews 13:17.

So sometimes we create the quarrels and divisions and frustrations for ourselves because we have to think we sit to arbitrate over whether the elders have made a good decision or not. Now if the elders would say we’re changing our constitution and our doctrinal statement, we no longer believe the Bible is the Word of God, we no longer believe in the resurrection of Christ, obviously there is a clear issue and we part ways. We’ve never had an issue like that. So where do the divisions come? We decide this is an exception. I’m not being divisive, it’s everyone else. One pastor left this church and wrote a letter, still have it in my file. You know what he said? He rejects the leadership of all the elders of this church, they’ve all gone astray. What arrogance, what arrogance. That’s why I told you if I decide I don’t like what the elders are doing and I tell you I’m starting the church of Gil Rugh across town, don’t come. That means your loyalty to me or to Christ, and we demonstrate our loyalty to Christ by submissiveness to the leaders He has appointed. We’re studying the book of Exodus on Sunday nights. When the people grumbled against Moses and Aaron, whom did they grumble against? The Lord, right? What did Moses say? You’re not grumbling against me, you’re grumbling against the Lord. The Lord said, I heard the grumblings of the people of Israel against Me. The people of Israel didn’t think they were grumbling against God, they were grumbling against Moses and Aaron, it was their poor leadership. But that was the leadership God appointed.

So all that to say God’s established pattern for the unity of the church is simple. The plurality of godly men called elders, pastors, overseers are responsible for the oversight of the church. What do I do when my favorite man is in the minority? What are the elders doing? What is the leadership they provide? Well, but you don’t know how he’s been used in my life. What is the leadership God has provided? Well I can’t help it, I think the elders are wrong here. You can help it, you just don’t want to help it because personalities become involved and your own personal emotions are going to make your decision. So what’s God’s plan for the leadership of the church? Not so difficult. I’m not trying to claim power for myself. If I wanted power for myself I’d preach to you how to follow the senior pastor regardless of what happens, and if there is any difference with the elders, go with the senior pastor, and always vote for a raise.

All right, back to 1 Corinthians 1. Let me say something to the pastors and elders. Sometimes pastors/elders, using the terms together, for not all of our pastors sit on the governing Board of Elders, but all of our pastors would be elders. Sometimes pastors are guilty of currying favor, sometimes pastors think their ears are garbage cans and they listen to things they shouldn’t listen to and they say things they shouldn’t say and they thus are guilty of leading the sheep wrongly. I am not to gather followers around myself, oh I hear somebody and they have a complaint. I understand that, I can see your complaint, I don’t know why the elders do it that way, I don’t think it’s the best way either. If I were on the board I wouldn’t have done it that way, but it’s the way they did it. That’s not godliness, that’s trying to build people around me who will like me because I agree with them. And pastors can become very good at putting out these feelers to find out what people don’t like and then developing that. And you find a pastor doing that, you ought to shut him up quickly and tell him, you are supposed to be a godly man, the standards of godliness ought to be modeled in your life and this is wrong. Now the problem is, when we’re doing that we’re usually looking for someone who will agree with us, so we don’t want to shut him down. And pastors have to deal the same way. My ear is not a garbage can and you just can’t come and dump everything in there you want to dump in. And you want to grumble and complain, don’t come to my door, and you shouldn’t go to any of the elders or pastors in that sense. If you have something you’re concerned about, certainly. These things must be handled in godly ways.

All right, back to 1 Corinthians 1. Look at verse 13, this all is division over men. Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I mean using himself as an example Paul shows the absurdity of becoming loyal to Paul over others and thus creating a Paul faction in the church at Corinth. Do you think I died for your sins? Paul didn’t go to the cross for you, did he? Did you get baptized in the name of Paul? Was baptism identifying you as a follower of Paul or a follower of Jesus Christ? The question is obvious. Well you see what the problem is, it’s obvious. What then is the division in the church? Paul didn’t die for you. Cephas didn’t die for you. Apollos didn’t die for you. Gil Rugh didn’t die for you. Jesus Christ died for you.

Turn back to Matthew 10. Here is what Jesus said to those who would become His followers. Matthew 10:37, he who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. See what Jesus is saying, I will not be one of many, I will not be one of a few, I will not be one of two. I will be everything. If you want to be my follower, I must be more important to you than the closest members of your family. Your commitment to me must supersede your commitment to your parents, to your children, to your husband, to your wife. I demand absolute loyalty. And that means you will follow Me whatever the price. You take up your cross, you follow Me. Now is that clear? How do we divide the church? Over Pauls and Peters and Apolloses and other much, much, much lesser people and figures. Jesus Christ demands our complete loyalty. If this church is about Gil Rugh, it’s in a sad, pathetic condition. This church must be about Jesus Christ and His truth and honoring Him. There have been people greatly used in my life and I appreciate their ministry in my life. My loyalty is not to them, it’s to Jesus Christ. I trust that being loyal to Jesus Christ my life and ministry will be a benefit to them as well, and them to me. But I never want my vision to get blurred. This church is about Jesus Christ. The loyalty of my life is to Jesus Christ. If it costs me my dearest family members, if it costs me my closest friends, my loyalty is to Jesus Christ. We say, of course. Then how does the church come unraveled every time these divisions come up and have splits and conflicts and so on. One commentator wrote, you go to any city you find this church was a break-off from this church, which was divided off this church, which came out of this split, which came out of this one. You say what in the world is the testimony of the church? Well all of that loyalty to Christ is good but there came a time when I did put someone above Christ because I thought my loyalty to him was good. Never works. We never want to say it that way. We want to imply that we’re being godly and spiritual by going contrary to what God has clearly said. And that never, never is the path of godliness.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1. Listen to what one writer said, the problem is not that the Corinthians failed to understand these truths and that Paul needed to set them straight. The problem is that they have failed to live out the implications of their belief in a crucified Christ and their unity in Him. Look at verse 14, Paul mentioned at the end of verse 13, were you baptized in the name of Paul? Now he’s going to go on to talk about baptism, which will lead into an extensive discussion of the message of the cross. And it may be at Corinth some of the division occurred around who baptized you. Isn’t that how personalities become important in our lives? Key people, pastors, use our common term. Well they were at this time in my life, they married me, they baptized me, they did the funeral for my parents. These kinds of things develop an attachment. And it’s great that God uses people in our lives like this. But it becomes ugly when our loyalty to Christ gets transferred from Christ to the people that He uses. At Corinth, who baptized you? I was baptized by Paul, you know Paul the apostle, you know Paul that founded this church, you know the Paul that received the gospel directly from. Christ. He baptized me. I am a Paulite. Well you know Peter is no slouch. Who preached the first sermon from the starting of the church in Acts 2? Peter. Who preached for the first time to the Gentiles in Acts 10? Peter. Yes, and you know who baptized me? I just happened to be in the city where Peter was preaching, and I believed and he baptized me. I can’t help it, I’m loyal to Peter.

Paul using himself as an example said, were you baptized in the name of Paul? Look at verse 14, I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius. Now these two men are mentioned, they are obviously early converts in the church at Corinth, and Paul did baptize them. We know of Crispus because in Acts 18:8 he is mentioned as the ruler of the synagogue. He becomes a believer and Paul baptized him. Gaius is evidently another prominent individual, greatly used in the church at Corinth, because Paul, most writers believe, wrote the book of Romans when he was in Corinth. Turn back a page or two and you’ll be in Romans 16, look at verse 23. Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. So here Paul is in Corinth being hosted by Gaius and Gaius is host of the whole church. So here is a prominent influential person in the life of the church at Corinth. Paul baptized him. Evidently Gaius also was one of Paul’s early converts. But Paul’s practice wasn’t to baptize.

I thank God that I baptized none of you, back in 1 Corinthians 1:14, verse 15, so that no one of you would say you are baptized in my name. Paul purposely didn’t make a practice of generally baptizing people, because people love to attach themselves to someone. And so if they hear Paul preach the gospel and here it is, the mighty Paul, and they are saved under his ministry, then he baptizes them, their whole life is wrapped up in Paul. Paul says I am thankful to God that I didn’t baptize others of you. Because that would have just helped lead to more confusion. Now he says there is another person I baptized, verse 16, I did also baptize the household of Stephanos. It’s like the Spirit of God brings this to his mind, and there may be others. The point is, I’m not looking to make a complete list. There are few that I baptized, but he says I baptized the household of Stephanos. Beyond that I don’t know whether I baptized any other or not, I don’t keep a record of baptisms, I don’t keep track. I baptized this person, I baptized that person. Those are the really saved, those are the really baptized. I did it. Stephanos, another prominent person, he’ll be mentioned in 1 Corinthians 16:15-17. There Paul said he and his family were the first converts in the province of Achaia. Again, those early, initial converts. It was natural that Paul did baptize them. Evidently after that baptism occurred generally, it didn’t take a specifically ordained, divinely appointed apostle to baptize.

All right, what about baptism? Is he saying baptism is not important? Baptism is important, but baptism is not a necessary part of salvation. And that was Paul’s focus. Look where he goes in verse 17, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now I want you to note something. Paul’s commission was to preach the Gospel, the gospel did not include baptizing. Very crucial. God did not send me. That verb translated to send, in its noun form we get the word apostle from it. An apostle is a sent one. Paul says God did not send me to baptize, that was not my commission. My commission was to preach the gospel. In saying that he is making clear that the gospel, which in Romans 1:16 he says is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, does not include baptism. The gospel does not include baptism.

Now baptism has a place to play. Baptism is a response of obedience for a person who has trusted Christ to publicly declare that faith in Christ, publicly declare they are now a follower of Jesus Christ. Regarding this matter of the place of baptism in relation to salvation, come back to Romans 3. The end of Romans 3 and Romans 4, let me just highlight this for you. I realize for many of you, you are well familiar with this. Anytime I talk to anyone who has an issue thinking baptism is necessary for salvation I always take them to this passage. This is the passage we have to start with; this is the passage we have to end with, because until they have resolved the issue of this passage, there is nothing else to say. The end of Romans 3, and he has talked about that righteousness comes through faith in verses 22-24. We are justified as a gift by His grace. Verse 28, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. For the Jews the issue was, do you have to be circumcised, do you have to keep the law to be saved. Judaizers, according to Acts 15, taught you must believe the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and also be circumcised and keep the law. Then you can be saved.

Look at verse 29, is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, is one. Now note this, since God is one. That’s the point of that section. There is only one God, there can only be one way of salvation. Paul’s arguing that the only way of salvation is by faith in the revelation that God gives of Himself. He moves into chapter 4, what do we say about Abraham? Here is the great example, the Jews would admire Abraham. These Jews who were saying you have to be circumcised to be saved, got confusing because they said you have to believe in Christ but you also have to be circumcised. Is that true? Well, let’s look at Abraham. Since there is only one God, if we can find how God saved one person, we’ll know how this one God will save everyone who is ever saved. What did Abraham find? Well verse 3, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Verse 5, but to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Okay, Genesis 15:6, God spoke, and the scripture says Abraham believed what God said and God credited it to Abraham as righteousness. That’s what’s quoted in verse 3. Now we have a question, verse 9, is this blessing then on the circumcised or the uncircumcised also? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Now think back in Genesis, Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed God, God declared Abraham righteous. All right that’s when he was declared righteous. When was Abraham circumcised? Not in Genesis 15, not any time before Genesis 15, not in Genesis 16, in Genesis 17. At least 14 years have gone by since Genesis 15, probably 17 years. How do we know that? In chapter 15 God declares Abraham righteous by faith. In chapter 16 we are told that Abraham conceives a son through Hagar and Abraham is 86 years old when Ishmael is born, according to Genesis 16. Then Genesis 17 begins and tells us Abraham is now 99, and that’s when God instructs him to be circumcised. So Abraham was 85 or younger when God declared him righteous. He was 99 when he was circumcised. So when was Abraham declared righteous by faith? Was circumcision part of that being declared righteous or was it not? It was not. Therefore, Paul’s conclusion is, circumcision cannot be required for salvation. Verse 16, for this reason it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace.

Now you think, well that was Abraham. What about now, maybe things have changed? Well they hadn’t changed for 2000 years when Paul wrote this to the Romans. Now come down to the end of chapter 4. And he repeats, verse 22, therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now let me ask you something. There is only one God, there is only one way of salvation. Abraham believed God, God declared Abraham righteous, that was 15 years before Abraham was circumcised. Was that before or after Abraham was baptized? Abraham was never baptized. How can people be paddling around saying you have to be baptized to be saved? How can you say baptism is necessary for salvation? You are saying there are two Gods, the God who saved Abraham by faith and the God who saves people today by faith plus baptism. And then of course, like the Roman Catholic Church, they’ve added all the sacraments in there and so on. Could the scripture be any clearer?

So when Paul says, God sent me, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, because baptism is not necessary for salvation. Salvation has always been by grace through faith. There has never been any other way of salvation, there never ever will be any other way of salvation. Because there is only one God.

All right, come back to 1 Corinthians 1. Christ did not send me to baptize. Now again, that does not excuse us from saying, well, then, baptism is not important. Baptism is not important for salvation. Baptism is not part of salvation. Salvation is complete and settled and you are declared righteous by God through faith in the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Baptism is an act of obedience as a child of God to do what God says He requires of you as His child.

Now Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now note what follows, these next couple of verses are among the most important verses in all the Bible, and they are particularly relevant to the evangelical church today. To preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech. That word cleverness, sophia, we carry it over into some English words. We have the word sophomore, we’re going to get the word mores or morales, moria, meaning we get the English word moron from it. A sophomore is a what? Wise fool, right? From the Greek word sophia and the Greek word moria. He’s a wise moron, two words, we are familiar with these. Paul will talk about moron in a moment, and the word moron, using the Greek word moron.

Now literally in verse 17, in wisdom of word. That becomes important because he’s going to draw a contrast. Cleverness of speech gives you the idea, but I want you to pick up wisdom of word, because it’s going to contrast in verse 18 with the word of the cross. I preach the gospel, but not in a word of wisdom. I preach the word of the cross. And there will be a direct conflict. Not in wisdom words. This refers to cleverness of speech, winning arguments, impressing people by your ability to argue, present your case, rather than the content of what you say. A serious matter, what Paul is talking about here. Paul says He entrusted the gospel to me, but I was not to go now and present it dressed up in the wisdom of words, in man’s wisdom. This is absolutely essential. This addresses the most popular movement in the evangelical world, in the church world, today, and that is what is called seeker services. We have come up with the idea where you take the gospel, but you have to present it dressed up in a way that will be appealing, desirable and attractive to unbelieving people. What is wrong with that?

Well, let’s finish reading. Sometimes we get answers to our question by just finishing the sentence. Not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void, the cross of Christ would not be made void. Listen to what one commentator said: Paul also knew that he was responsible to Christ, not only for what He preached, but for how He preached. Content and method must harmonize. Faulty content is heretical and so is wrong methodology. Evangelicals too often condemn faulty content but approve faulty methods. If worldly logic or non-scriptural reasons are used to move sinners to a decision for Christ, then the cross has been stripped of its divine significance. Paul says I didn’t dress up the message of the cross in attractive clothing. You say, well wouldn’t you want to make the Gospel as attractive as possible? I don’t want to do anything with the Gospel but present it. It is not my responsibility to dress it up so it looks better. It is not my responsibility to try to make the message of the cross more desirable, more attractive, more interesting. My responsibility is to present the gospel. That’s what Paul is saying, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. Here’s what a Greek dictionary says regarding the Greek word translated void, kanao. Means to empty, destroy, render void, of no effect. When you take the gospel of Christ and then you dress it up and put it in the context of man’s wisdom, that message of man’s wisdom acts as an antidote to cancel out the power of the gospel for salvation. It’s absolutely crucial, we must understand this. This is different than the Galatian heresy. Remember when Paul wrote to the Galatian churches, he pronounced it anathema. He said that all those who altered the gospel were cursed to hell, anathema. Those were Judaizers corrupting the message of the gospel. Understand, that’s not the problem at the church in Corinth. They could take a pure Gospel but nullify its impact by dressing it up and trying to make it more appealing with man’s wisdom. Paul said I would not do that.

He’s going to elaborate on this--this is a burning issue for Paul. He understood he could have had a “more effective ministry” in Corinth. He purposely chose not to. More effective from human standards, but not from God’s perspective. So that the cross of Christ would not be made void. The problem at Corinth was not that they were changing the gospel, adding to it or taking away from it, the problem at Corinth was they were trying to dress up the gospel so it would look more appealing and more attractive to people. Let me read you what one commentator on the Greek text here said, I thought it was very much to the point. To treat the gospel of the cross of Christ as a vehicle for promoting self esteem, self fulfillment and self assertion, turns it upside down and empties it of all that it offers and demands. Now how many sermons are preached and the gospel is a means of self esteem and self fulfillment and helps you learn to love yourself. I watch periodically portions of one television preacher that you can hardly avoid. I want to read some examples to you in our study next time. This particular man always starts out by having everybody raise their Bibles and say, this is the Bible, this is God’s Word, I will be taught God’s Word. He always ends, as far as I can tell, the times I’ve watched him, by saying, we like to give you who are watching us an opportunity to trust Christ as your Savior. And he presents the gospel and invites them to pray and trust Christ. You know the problem with the program is not how it starts out, this is the Word of God, or how it ends in presenting the Gospel. The problem is with everything in between. He’s a health and wealth preacher. The message of Christ is presented as a way to build your faith so that you can be prosperous and successful. The cross of Christ is presented as a way for you to experience self fulfillment, the message of the cross is presented as a way that you can live apart from the stress and burdens of life. And it’s all man’s wisdom. And sometimes we get confused because we say, well at least they presented the gospel. But you understand they presented the gospel in the context of man’s wisdom, which was the antidote to the Gospel. Satan is brilliant. Encourage them to present the gospel, but do it in the context of making it more effective by dressing it up with man’s wisdom. And then the gospel will not be the power of God for salvation. And that becomes very acceptable in the evangelical church today. You can preach self esteem and self fulfillment and success in life and all the other stuff—psychology and everything else—but you put in the gospel and people walk out and say he presents the gospel every message. You ought to go out and say, he presents the antidote to the gospel in every message, so very, very sad.

You say, I think you’re being too harsh. Well the issue is not whether I’m being too harsh. What does God say? The Spirit of God speaking, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words so that the cross of Christ would not be made irrelevant, void, empty, worthless. Look at the next statement, this is as far as we’ll go, but I want to draw your attention to it. For the word of the cross, there is the contrast, we’re contrasting the wisdom of word with the word of the cross. That’s why I wanted you to get the literal translation in verse 17, cleverness of speech, wisdom of word. Now we pick up, when we talk about the word of wisdom we’re talking about the word of the cross. They contrast with one another. Why do people try to take the message of the cross and present it in a context where it’s dressed up in the wisdom of man, worldly wisdom, as it will be developed? Because the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. That word translated foolishness is what we get the English word moron from, morose, moria. And the Greek word moron means somebody who is foolish, somebody who is stupid. When I was a teenager, I don’t know if they still talk that way, oh, you’re a moron, you’re such a moron. What did we mean? You’re so stupid, you’re an idiot, you’re a fool. Foolishness, stupidity.

The word of the cross is stupidity, it’s foolishness to those who are perishing. That being the case, we want to dress it up so that it doesn’t look so stupid, so that it doesn’t look so foolish. Isn’t that the whole thing in the seeker service? Like I said, I want to read some material to you from a secular source evaluating the evangelical church in the United States. And even the outsider looks at the evangelical church and says, this is what it is. Go out and take a survey to find out what people in the community like and don’t like about churches so that we can change it to make it more appealing. We have a seeker service. Why? Why not a service for those who are perishing? That’s what Paul says. He talks about those who are perishing. In II Corinthians 2 he’ll talk about we are a saver of life to life and death to death, the one to those who are perishing we are this, to those who are being saved we are this. Why don’t we say, this is not a seeker service, this is a service for those who are perishing. Or maybe we ought to call it a service for the enemies of God, because the Bible says those who have not believed in Christ are the enemies of God and we, before we believed, were God’s enemies. We create this terminology that softens it. The problem is, it corrupts our theology. These aren’t such bad people, these aren’t sinners in rebellion against God, in the process of perishing and doomed to eternal hell. These are seekers with a good heart and we want to present our service so that they will be comfortable. You see how man’s wisdom becomes appealing? Don’t we want to reach people? I mean do you want to bring your neighbor here and have me offend them? Or have your teacher in a class offend them? And we know the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing so if they’re an unbeliever and I bring them in for just a blunt presentation of the gospel, either there is going to be a supernatural act of God’s grace, and we’ll talk about this in our next study, that will bring them to salvation, or they’re going to think this is the height of stupidity and foolishness. Why would they ever want to come back?

And so we begin to desire to make a change. We must see the connection here. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That’s what He sent me for, to preach the gospel. Not in man’s wisdom, the words of man’s wisdom. That would cancel out the effectiveness of the gospel for salvation. Why would you do that, why would you try to use man’s wisdom in presenting the cross? Because the word of the cross is foolishness. Verse 18 begins with the conjunction for, expresses purpose, tells us why. For the word of the cross is foolishness. I don’t want people to think I’m stupid, don’t want people to come to church with you, unbelieving associate, sit through a service and go out and have them think, they are fools. That’s the dumbest, stupidest thing. We want them to go away and say, wow, that was interesting, that was appealing, I liked that. But that won’t happen in the majority of cases so we begin to adjust it. Now we have seeker services and everybody is falling over themselves, a place where an unbeliever can come and not feel that he’s under judgment, not feel that he’s being attacked, not feel that he’s being singled out as a sinner, not being exposed to the power of God that brings about salvation, right? I don’t think we have to go out of our way to be offensive, but the content of the message is the issue. I don’t have to be belligerent and say, I just wanted to tell you, you are a wretched, vile lost sinner, an enemy of God, going to hell and you deserve it. Good for you. I don’t have to be belligerent in that sense, but I have to be bold with the truth of the gospel. I must tell them the truth of the gospel is that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. And you are hopelessly lost apart from Jesus Christ. That’s the message of the cross.

You know, the word of the cross is foolishness. We go all around talking about all the good things God will do for you and how He’ll fulfill your life and how He’ll give you a happier marriage, and how He’ll make you a better person. Paul said I was called to preach the cross, that’s the offensive thing, that’s the trouble spot. I’ll read you an example from Cicero, he didn’t think a Roman ought to even have to hear the word cross, it’s so disgusting. And here Paul is storming through the Roman world preaching the cross, the very thing that people find offensive. God’s ways are not man’s ways. We must choose man’s wisdom or God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom brings salvation, man’s wisdom brings destruction.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Thank You for the message of the cross of Christ. Lord, may it be true of us personally and true of us as a church that we declare with Paul, we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believes. May we not be embarrassed to share this message with family and friends, may we not be reluctant to invite them to sit under the message of the truth of the cross. Lord, we know only You can do a saving work in a heart, and You have chosen to only do that saving work through the message of the cross. May that be our glory with the Apostle Paul, may we say with him, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Christ. May that message be strong in the ministry of our church, in the testimony that we give personally. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.