What Do You Boast In? Part 2

Let's look at first Corinthians. So we're going to be

in verses twenty six through thirty one this morning. In April,

we were in verses eighteen through twenty five, just the

preceding section, and in that I titled that sermon wisdom

in Power, which was this juxtaposition of worldly wisdom and

power compared to godly wisdom and power. And the three

points that were made were where do we find true

wisdom and power? We find wisdom and power, true wisdom

and power in Christ crucified in the sacrificial death of

Jesus Christ on the cross. Why do we reject it?

Was the second point. The reason that we reject true

wisdom and power is because Christ crucified is an offense

to prideful man. It's natural that we would rejec as

an offense to us. I'm a sinner. No. And then thirdly,

when we know it, when do we know true wisdom

and power? And in the text, we saw that the

Lord gives us glimpses of true wisdom and power in

one another's lives, in the testimony of the Church, as

he is transforming us into wise and powerful sons and daughters.

But this reality that in the end wisdom, true wisdom,

and power will be made clear to all, and to

those that are in Christ will glory in that full revelation,

and those that have not submitted themselves to Christ, it

will be too late. And so the call was repent,

now turn to Christ, now that you would find true

wisdom and power. And so here we are in this

passage the next part of Paul's argument that we see

that humans have this tendency to look past the wisdom

and power that they see in the Gospel, or the

wisdom and power that God would show in the Gospel

of Jesus, and that we would have a tendency to

value or to privilege, or to pride ourselves in worldly

ways or by worldly categories. We do this with our

own experiences, our own accomplishments, our own preferences, our values

or possessions. Like we value what we know and then

we tend to sort based on that. It's like my

great grandmother, I'm told, used to always say that all

crows think theirs is the blackest. In other words, that

like our children, right, we think they're they are the best,

They're the greatest, They're every mama crow thinks their crow

is the blackest. I was picking on some of my

friends in the first service with this, But don't we

see this even with some of our own that that hunt.

And then you want to talk to him about hunting,

They're like, well, I don't. I don't gun hunt. I'm

a bow hunter. And then you got to get into it,

and then it's like, well, I don't bow hunt. I'm

a traditional archer, you know, I just use the stick

and string, not the the wheelies of the compound bow.

There's this pride in what we preference, right. This is

the social media influencer age that you have to you

have to privilege yourself, you have to preference yourself visibly

to others to get noticed. This is how the world

works and operates in our day. And this was no

different than here in Corinth where this was happening, not

just out in the culture out there, but this was

happening in the church. We're boasting in wisdom, boasting in wealth,

boasting in human power had taken root in the church

and what it was resulting in was strife, in division

and sin. Remember from what we talked about in April,

this church was experiencing, experiencing division amongst themselves is because

they were getting away from things of first priority, which

was the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so if I

look at our church here at Crossway, if I look

no further than my own heart, and I believe probably

in some of y'all's as well, I think that we're

prone to seek value, to seek identity in the same

types of things that the world does, maybe with a

little different twist or flavor, but the same type of wisdom,

the same type of strength, same types of affinities or

political group or other people that we would choose to follow.

And not in Christ alone, but in the world and

certainly in this church. When we do those things, it

leads us to discontentment at best, in division amongst ourselves

at worst. So if I were to say this passage

in a sentence, it would be this that God has chosen.

God has chosen the lesser of the world so that

we can only value, boast in or glory in Jesus Christ.

God has chosen those who are less so that we

can glory in Christ for his work. Let's read the passage.

Starting in verse twenty six, it says, for consider your

calling brothers not many of you were wise according to

worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of

no birth. But God chose what is foolish in the

world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak

in the world to shame the strong. God chose what

is low and despised in the world, even things that

are not to bring to nothing, things that are so

that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who

became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

So that, as it is written, let the one who

boasts boast in the Lord. We're going to get our

first point from the first verse here, verse twenty six,

and the first point is a call for you to

consider where you came from. Consider where you came from.

Consider your calling here, as Paul puts it, or reflect

on who has called you and where you came from.

God has called all those in Christ to himself. He

has done the initiating work. And what he says here

is that not many of you were wise, not many

were powerful, not many were of noble birth, not to

say none, but not many, which I think we can

relate to that. So then God chose and often now

chooses the unpromising from society to build his church. Which

is a remarkable aspect of the early church's growth in

the Mediterranean is that most of the people that God

was calling in to become his were the undesirables that

were being converted. It was the undesirables that were being changed,

the undesirables that were being used for the gospel to

go out and spread. It wasn't in the typical power

structures of that time, and that's not to say there

were none, but for the most part, it was the undesirables.

And it was these lower class folks that He was

using to make kings and priests in his kingdom. So

the ones that the world otherwise would look at and say, no,

they don't have much value, God was giving them value

through Jesus Christ. And we see that this is who

Jesus came for. In Loop four, Jesus says, I came

to proclaim the good news to the poor. I came

to proclaim the good news to the ones that need me,

not the ones that don't have any that don't have

any need for me. And this has been God's pattern

from the beginning. We look at the Old Testament and

how God gathered his people and protected his people, and

he didn't use the one that society otherwise would say

that's the person in line for the job. He wasn't

picking the firstborn typically, and so just to go through

some examples of this, Abel replaced Cain as the son

favored by God. Isaac was chosen over Ishmael as the

son of promise. Jacob received the birthright and blessing instead

of Esaul. Joseph, the second youngest of Jacob's sons, with Rachel,

became the leader in the savior of his family when

he was disregarded by the others. And then maybe my

favorite character in the Bible, God uses Rayhab, the prostitute

who would have been neglected by the rest of society,

who wasn't even one of God's people. He chose her

to protect his people, like when she put her faith

in him that she became the courageous protector of God's people.

This is who God uses, not the ones that society

would prop up as wise and powerful, but the ones

that God makes wise and powerful so that the glory

would be his. When we think about David who was

the youngest and unassuming shepherd boy, and God chooses him

to go slay the giant when even his own peers

would have been mocking him in that. And then not

only does he use him to slay the giant, but

then he uses him to lead and protect and to

save his people. This is how God works, and God

didn't stop doing that after Jesus. There was a There

was a commentator on the culture in One's seventy eight AD,

guy named Celsus, and he was commenting on how Christian

thought of themselves or viewed themselves. In this part, I'm

gonna give you two different quotes. One of them is

how Christians viewed themselves, which is to say that they

would say, let no cultured person draw near, none wise,

none sensible, for all that kind of thing we count evil.

But if any man is ignorant, if any is wanting

in sense and culture, if any is a fool, then

let him come boldly. This is how Christians thought of

themselves previously, and we're going to get to why we

don't typically or naturally do that in our time. But

then he also wrote which was his perspective of Christians.

He wrote that he says, we see them talking about Christians,

We see them in their houses, wool dressers, cobblers, clothes cleaners,

in other words, people of insignificance, the most uneducated and

vulgar persons. He said that Christians were like a swarm

of bats or ants creeping out of their nests, or

frogs holding a symposium round a swamp, or worms in

an assembly in a corner of mud. Would it we

be so offended if there was a known cultural commentator

that referred to Christians in America as worms in an

assembly in a corner of mud, or as we gather together,

referred to us as frogs holding a symposium around a swamp,

Like that would be headline news on Fox News, Like

can you believe that this guy says this about Christians?

And yet this was the nature of the Church when

it was getting built, spreading throughout the Mediterranean and across

the world. This is who God is calling. He's calling

those worms, He's calling those frogs out of their low

places in this life into nobility with him for eternity.

God's pattern is to use the lesser, the unassuming, the

ones least powerful from the world's standards, so that his

power is on display, so that His power is on display.

This is God's plan. His God's plan has always been

about himself, and in his kindness, he lets us be

a part of it for our joy, but always for

his glory. And that's why we can't glory in the

things that we are tempted to glory in the human

things that differentiate ourselves. And so as a rich country

which by the world's standards, almost every person in this

assembly would be considered that in not only a rich country,

but also where Christianity for the last however many years,

has been the prevailing power broker of the social and

power structures, it might be hard for us to get

our heads around this idea of being, you know, the

frogs and the swamp. But the reality is this is

how the Lord has typically operated with his people. And

so what we need to do with that reality is

we must not We need to fight against then privileging

ourselves and our qualities and the things that we hold

dear to Jesus Christ himself, all of that must be

subordinated to him. And it's not to say that nobody

that is rich or wealthy can get saved. I mean

the new Testament is examples of those that are in

different powerful positions that we're saved and benefited the Gospel.

But we also look at the New Testament that says,

you know, how easy is it for a rich man

to get into heaven. It's harder than a campbell through

the head of a needle. In other words, it's impossible.

Apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ, who is

the equalizer, we all stand on common ground because of Christ.

So where did you come from? You came from, whether

you had noble standing or if you were like the

most of us lesser in society. You were all far

off from God. Consider that you were dead in your trespasses,

that you were rebels, sinners, with no ability to pick

yourself up out of the eternal hole of damnation that

you were found in before Christ chose you and pulled

you out. But God, being rich mercy, raised us up

to new life in faith in Jesus Christ. And so

this common story that is the story for all Christians

for all of time, should bring us together in unity

with one another. We should not differentiate. So it's important

that we consider each of us where we came from

as we seek to not boast. And as we orient

our hearts to boasting in the Lord. So when we

consider where Christ has taken us, then we go to

our point number two, which is we cease boasting in

human concerns. We no longer boast in human concerns. How

could we? God chose you so that you would no

longer boast in human categories. Let's read in verse twenty seven,

he says, but God chose what is foolish in the

world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak

in the world to shame the strong. God chose what

is low and despised in the world. Three times, Paul

writes that God chose. He's emphasizing that it's God doing

the choosing. So how can you boast if it's God

the one. If it's God, that's the one that's that's

doing the work. And he finishes that verse twenty eight,

which I stopped reading before, that God chose what is

low and despised in the world. God shows what low

and despised the world, even the things that are not

to bring to nothing, the things that are, in other words,

in God's economy, the people the world thinks the least

of will be lifted high, whereas the people that the

world thinks the most of will be brought low. This

is this is God's plan. And as one commentator put it,

in Roman society, what they valued most was education or knowledge,

wealth and breeding or this to say, like your family lineage, right,

like where you came from, which is not probably too

different if we were to be honest, and some of

the ways that we would be tempted as well to

boast in or to value these human concerns. There was

a story of a guy that I was discipling at

one point that was starting to turn or had turned

to Jesus and was starting to walk that out what

does it look like to faithfully walks as a follower

of Jesus? And he was kind of doing that alongside

another guy, And I was talking with this one dude

and he was saying like, yeah, I was telling some

of my friends about it, and they were giving me

a hard time, like, dude, you're smart, You've got perspective,

you have other things going for you, Like why are

you believing this Jesus stuff? Like I understand this other friend,

who I said was walking alongside, Like I understand how

that guy would believe it, Like he's not that sharp.

He you know, he might not have as many things

going for him. So it's like this psychological crutch, like

I get it how he might follow, but come on, man, like,

don't waste your time with this. But how comforting is it?

And so that's a real perspective. But how comforting is

it that the guy that doesn't need it is actually

the guy that Jesus is not coming for that God

would choose what the world would otherwise neglect. And in

a this big I would imagine that there's quite a

few folks that don't know Jesus as Lord and savior,

and some of you might be held up in following

him because there's things in your life that you feel

like you might need to get cleaned up before you

approach him, or things that you need to get under control.

And what this truth reveals to us is that there

is nothing that we can do to get cleaned up

or to get under control to come to God. He's

going to call you and you respond in faith, in repentance,

and that He is going to make you become who

you are in Christ. He is going to sanctify you.

He is going to progressively make you more christ Like.

There's nothing you can do on the front end to

earn his initiation. It's one hundred percent him doing the work,

him getting the glory, you responding in faith. And he

wants you the one that is broken, the one that

is sick, the one that's had the heartache and the hardship.

That's who he came to save. And so then for

the Christians that are here, how can we then boast

in the things that we would boast in? How can

we boast in human things? But we do. We see

it here in Corinth. We see it here in our church.

I see it in my heart and in my life.

And James saw it and spoke to it in his letter.

And I'm going to flip and read this passage from

James chapter two on partiality. This was a real thing

that the church was experiencing. He says, my brothers, show

no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord,

Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. For if a man

wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly,

and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in,

and if you pay attention to the one who wears

the fine clothing and say, hey, you sit here in

this good place. What you say to the poor man

you stand over there or sit down here at my feet?

Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become

judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not

God chosen those who are poor in the world to

be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which

he has promised to those who love him. See what

was when we were going through this, There was somebody

in the sermon prep group on Tuesday when we meet

for lunch, the exegetical lunch, that coined the term currency

of hierarchy, which I love you you might not, but

every subculture, every group has these different currencies of hierarchy

how they sort based off of And I would just

speak to my own experience growing up. Not that this

was explicitly taught to me. It was more out there

in the community. But there was this thing that I

have personally coined the pretty people game, where people are

privileged based on how they look externally. Somebody that's, you know,

beautiful is going to get more attention. Somebody that has

a lot of money is going to get more attention

from from the community around. Somebody that has some sort

of powerful access is going to be privileged over others

that don't. This is the pretty people game, and it's

not always played that explicitly. And I would say even

when I fallen victim to playing it, or for those

that played around me, I don't think anybody's admitting that

they're playing it right, like that just happens. But I

think that same type of attitude happens in a lot

of different realms of life that impact and touch each

of our hearts. I think it's helpful to name some

of these examples. But let's think about in politics, right,

like we where with a badge of courage. If we

are conservative, Man, not only am I conservative, but I'm

on the far right. I'm I'm so conservative. This is

where I stand, and this is the badge of courage

that I've got on or on the other side of

the aisle. It's like, I'm more on the liberal side,

and now I'm so open minded. I'm just I'm so

open minded. This is my badge of courage, how open

I am? Or then the one that's like, well, I'm

not either of those. Those people are both in the

wrong ditches. I'm going to pride myself on being a centrist.

I'm just right down the middle. I'm not influenced by

either party. I make my own decisions. I'm a centrist.

So you see how we start doing this in these

sneaky ways in our lives. Another example is you know

how we handle our children, and even the choices we

make with our children that some of us would say like, well,

I want my kids in public school because I want

them to be a witness and a testimony. I want

them to learn how to live out in the world

and to stand firm in Christ. And I'm proud of

that decision. Or on some other side like whoa, I

can't believe that you would let your kids be in

public school. I send my kids to private school so

they'd be protected from the things that you're allowing them

to be exposed to. Or maybe even another step the

other way is like, well, we homeschool our kids because

we're convicted to do so. But now all of a sudden,

that's become a badge of courage that I wear and

might even you know, look down my nose at somebody

else for And it goes all different ways with that,

or how about this one that's really taken off price

since twenty twenty, this idea that we would pride ourselves

on how crunchy we are, oh so crunchy with my

chickens and my eggs. We had chickens until they pooped

all over everything and we had to get rid of them.

Or you know, we make our own bread, sour dough.

I love. We can't ever seem to keep it alive.

The little thing in the fridge long enough shows you

how much I'm involved in it, or that we are

so proud of ourselves for raising the food that we

raise in the garden. Look, all of these things are awesome,

Like they're great, Like let's continue to do these things,

but they cannot define us, and they can't and we

cannot sort by how faithful we are to our garden

or to our sourdough reserve whatever it's called. Starter, that's right,

sourdough starter. That can't be our identity. And to think

that we don't have like we kind of laugh at these,

but like the reality is we have this in the

church as well. Like I would speak to the kids

even now, like if you are inclined to find an

identity as being raised in a Christian home, as if

that's sufficient before the Lord, it's misguided. And that's not

to say we shouldn't raise our kids in a Christian

home by all means that should be all, that should

be our primary goal as parents, but as kids, our

identity has to be in Christ alone. And then lastly,

I mean we see this even with church culture, conference culture.

It's not the ones that are necessarily the most godly

because we can't see their whole lives. It's not the

ones that are the most faithful because we can't see it.

Who comes to speak at the conferences are the ones

that have the biggest social media followings. So we see this.

This happens, and it's not always with ill motives, but

it can be sneaky and it can sneak into our hearts.

And so this is a reminder that we need to

be on guard against these things. And so the reason

that Jesus comes to save those that are broken, to

save the humble, not the proud, is so that no

human might boast. In verse twenty nine, no human might boast.

So we've kind of talked about these different sneaky ways

that boasting can come into our lives. But let's look

at boasting specifically right here. Boasting in the Bible is

most always negative, and it refers to excessive pride and

self glorification. It is the polar opposite from humility. It

is a heart that believes that what you value aside

from Christ alone is better than what others value as Christians.

For most of us, this type of boasting can be

super sneaky. It's not so obvious. But God knows, and

this is the warning, Like we see this in twenty

nine that no human being, he didn't just leave it

at might boast, but he says, might boast in the

presence God. This boasting doesn't go unnoticed by our King.

And so then what does this look like for Christians?

Here's just a couple of examples. How about when we

might step out in public displays or acts of righteousness

with the motivation of being seen or even praised by others,

Like in other words, that my prayer life would be

so much more on fire before you, guys, than it

would be before myself in the Lord whose presence I'm in,

when I'm on my knees in my room by myself.

Public displays of righteousness for the sake of others, Or

how about this when we would attribute gifts or accomplishments

that have been given by God to our own prowess.

Somebody rightly encourages you, and in your heart you receive

that as this is from you, this is what you

have accomplished, This is what you have done, not giving

praise to the Lord that's been referred to from up

here as being a glory thief, that we would thieve

God's glory for his work that he is doing in

his people. Or how about this when you're discipling someone,

maybe it's a family member, somebody that you love well,

maybe it's a spouse or even a child. And if

you're like me, you actually say this out loud, but

maybe some of you it just goes unspoken, or you

say it only in your head. But when you're trying

to get them to understand and they're not getting it,

and you say, why don't you get this? Why can't

you get this thing that I'm trying to impress upon you,

as if you getting it was your own wisdom or power. No,

it was God's an of the Holy Spirit. Instead of

going why don't you get this? We should hit our

knees and say, Lord, change this about me first, but Lord,

change this about this person that I care so deeply about.

Or even when we would refuse to admit or confess

our own weaknesses or our own failures, fearing like that

that might diminish our standing in Christian community, like I

want to withhold. I don't want y'all to know, because

I want y'all to think more highly of me than

I believe you otherwise should we have got to push back.

We have got to trust in Christ for all of

these things. And so as you reflect on God's instruction

to stop boasting, I want you to consent. You know

these sneaky ways that it can become part of your program,

and just be committed to warring with them. And we're

going to talk about this here at the end. But like,

let's invite others into helping us see these areas in

our lives where we might not otherwise be able to

perceive so clearly ourselves. So to glorify and please God

and to stay united unified as a body, we must

not boast in ourselves. Instead, we must crow loudly for Christ.

We must boast loudly in Jesus Christ, which is our

third point. For those that are in Christ, we're called

to boast in him. Verse thirty says because of Him,

because He has chosen you. You are in Christ. In Christ,

you're a new creation. In Christ. The old things, even

the good things, are subordinate to Him. You are now

sons and daughters of the most High God. You are

a part of his family. You're no longer an individual

with your own individual preferences. Not that those go away,

but those are under and subjected to Christ's lordship. So then,

how does Paul describe Christ here and what he's done?

We see that Paul refers to him as wisdom, that

he is wisdom. In other words, Jesus has fulfilled all

of the wisdom teaching from throughout the Old Testament that

no human could ever live up to. Jesus fulfilled that perfectly.

And then he became the sacrifice for us. And when

he became the sacrifice for us, he became righteousness. He

became sanctification, and he became redemption righteousness. He is our

perfect standing before a holy God. Sanctific Christ is continuing

to make us holy as he welcomes you into relationship

with him. For those that have been saved by the blood,

they will progressively, over a span of their life, become

more and more like Christ. They will be changed, they

will be sanctified. It's never as fast as we want it,

but He's promised to do that for his people. And

then they're a part of the redeem They're redemption. You

were purchased by the Christ, which was Christ's death, that

he paid the ultimate costs, and now you can walk

in the freedom of that purchase for all eternity. You

are redeemed. And so then for us to live a

life acting like the dude that was born on third

that acts like he hit a triple like, No, it

was Christ that put us there, we can't be that way.

In God's wisdom and love, he resists the proud, but

he gives grace to the humble, those humble enough to

receive Christ by faith, believing that Christ is your righteousness,

your sanctification, and ultimately your redemption. And so when we

look at that Christ, the one who made the sacrifice

for us, when we see him in the scriptures, it

doesn't just make us stop boasting in human things. We're

compelled when we see him in his glory. We can't

do anything else but boast in his name and in

his work. It's not just stopping what he says for

us not to do, it's calling us to this new

life of boasting in him. He receives the glory. And

so in verse thirty one here in conclusion, we see

that Paul rites let the one who boasts in the Lord,

which is a quote from Jeremiah chapter nine. And in

that passage from Jeremiah, he's rebuking God's people for walking

in hypocrisy. He actually says in there, he says, look

at y'all with this outward sign of your God's people,

the sign of circumcision, and yet your hearts are so

far from me. Your hearts are uncircumcised. In other words,

they were living this life like they were God's people,

except for because of their pride that was blocking them

from right relationship with Him, their hearts remained uncircumcised. And

so this needs to be a warning to us all.

And I like to invite the band to come on

up as we wrap up here. This has got to

be a warning to us that we would not be

so blinded by our preferences that we would not be

so blinded by the things of the world that we

would not be so tempted to look past Jesus to

these other things, even if they're good and have a

heart and heart that misses Christ completely. And so my

encouragement that I left with the first service, folks, is

each of you that's in small group this very week,

that I would encourage you to wrestle with yourself. Lord,

where am I maybe boasting in areas of my life

or things that I find dear or hold dear? Where

am I boasting in those things that's sinful? And if

you're having a hard time coming up with that, which

I would understand, that you might invite somebody else, Invite others,

Invite the guys in your small group or the girls

in your small group, and say, hey, brother, sister, friend,

where do you see this in me? Because I don't.

I want to be so oriented with Jesus. I want

to be so submitted to His lordship that I want

there to be zero boasting in my life. So I

would encourage you to do that this very week. Let's

confess that to the Lord. Let's let him change you

and sanctify you for His glory, which is ultimately going

to be a protection for his church, that would protect

us in unity, that would protect the Lord's testimony. And

so we will not boast in anything but the blood

and work of Jesus Christ. Let's all stand together and

sing that confess with our mouths, so that we can

walk out of here in faith