The Word of the Cross | 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

I want you to think for a moment about the word

philosophy. What's the first thing, don't say

it out loud, but the first thing that pops into

your mind when you hear the word philosophy?

Some of you may think about a course back in

your college days that you were forced to take.

I know I had to take Philosophy 101 back in my

days. Or maybe you just think about philosophy

as the academic discipline that speaks to the

really deep questions about life. Most Christians

don't realize that the word itself, philosophy,

is born out of two biblical words. Two words

in the Greek that you see all over Scripture.

First of all, the word phileo, which is one of

the words in Koine Greek for love, and sophia,

which means wisdom. And so philosophy is the

love of, the pursuit of, the search for wisdom

in this life. And at the time that the Apostle

Paul was... Making inroads into the Mediterranean

world in the first century, Greek philosophy

ruled the day. It ruled the culture. On every

street corner in Corinth, you were likely to

run into somebody who was a follower of Plato

or Aristotle or Diogenes or Epicurus or even

Zeno. These were what we called sophists, and

there were many of them in those days, men who

espoused various ideas. within philosophical

frameworks, and they did it right there in the

marketplaces of Greece, often teaching in the

city square and engaging in public debates. And

at times, the more popular philosophers would

even open up schools where they would draw in

students and charge them fees to sit at their

feet and to learn. That's the culture that Paul's

walking into. Now, in a very simplistic way,

what philosophy attempts to do is to explain

the world that we live in. Explain the world

that we live in. To help its students to develop

a word that we often use today, to develop a

worldview. And in the process of doing that,

philosophy is supposed to train their students

how to think, how to employ reason and logic,

how to engage in argumentation. Now, you may

hear this and say, hold on a second, Jeff, aren't

we supposed to be suspicious about philosophy?

And my answer is yes, to a degree, but we should

also remember that as Christians, we engage in

philosophy too. Whether we realize it or not,

we engage in philosophy because we have a worldview,

don't we? We have a worldview that tells us how

we think the world operates, and it teaches us

how we're supposed to think. It teaches us how

to engage in argumentation, whether that's polemics

or apologetics. And church history -wise, you

might be surprised to know that there's always

been an interesting crossover between philosophy

and Christian thinking in the lives of men like

Augustine, for example. That's very common. And

here's why. Consider the questions. If you know

anything about the various divisions or categories

of philosophy, you'll see how the Bible speaks

to each one of these categories. For example,

metaphysics, the nature of reality and being

in existence. Epistemology, how do we know things?

The nature of knowledge and truth and belief

systems. Anthropology, what is the nature of

men and women? Axiology, the nature of values

and morality and ethics. Logic, the nature of

reasoning and argumentation, and political philosophy,

the nature of human governments, rights, and

justice. Those are all valuable categories that

mirror so much of what the scriptures tell us.

But, and this is a big but, having said that,

it's important to realize that there is a huge

difference between worldly philosophy and divine

wisdom. Worldly philosophy is fundamentally done

from below. from below, treating human observation,

human logic, human reasoning, and cultural experience

as ultimate. And of course, divine wisdom is

from above, where ultimate truth is discovered

only through the lens of God's revealed word.

What's interesting is if you look back at the

period from the high Middle Ages all the way

up to the time when the first universities were

being established in America, did you know that

theology was viewed as the queen of sciences?

It was the most important courses you could take

on campus. The queen of the sciences, and here's

the key, philosophy was the handmaiden to theology.

That's actually where our country was founded

upon. Meaning that philosophy serves theology

because all truth is God's truth. Amen? So philosophy

can be employed from below in order to help us

understand divine truth that comes down from

above. For example, how many times in scripture

do we hear God telling his people to assess evidence

and to draw inferences and to test whether something

is true or not? to be ready to give a defense

for what we believe, to renew our thinking, to

seek wisdom. All of those things are doing philosophy

in service to theology. But as we do these things,

using our God -given thinking and reason and

logic, again, we acknowledge that there is a

huge difference between our capacities as human

beings and the capacities of the Almighty. True?

Ultimately, human thinking, human wisdom is not

the gateway to truth. Only God's revelation is.

And so a couple of famous statements that have

been made in the academic world, the natural

man says, I understand in order to believe, but

we say, with thinkers like Augustine and Anselm,

I believe in order to understand. Or as Thomas

Watson, the great Puritan, once said, and I love

this statement, what reason can only wade in,

faith swims. I'll let you ponder that for just

a moment. This is our worldview as Christians.

And yes, we do philosophy in order to defend

our worldview. But we're going to be talking

a lot about philosophy and about the limitations

of human wisdom, both today and over the next

couple of weeks. So grab your Bibles. We're going

to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We covered

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

verses 10 to 17 last week. And that was the first

set of verses after Paul's greeting. And you

might recall that he immediately addressed what

I see as what he thought was the most pressing

issue that he had to deal with there in the church

of Corinth. And that was a lack of unity in the

body. So he appealed to them as brothers, right?

That gentle older brother came alongside them,

appealed to them, but appealed with authority.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he urged

them to come together and to start to speak.

with one united voice. And the big rebuke was,

stop lining up behind all these human teachers

with this air of superiority looking down upon

others. Because that kind of man -centered approach

to body life and the forming of internal factions

that are set against one another, absolutely

destructive in a local church. But you have to

understand, this was somewhat cultural for the

Corinthians, right? As I just shared, Greeks

tended to adopt philosophical teachers and their

worldviews as their own, and they were tempted

to line up behind various thinkers. So I'm a

Stoic or I'm an Epicurean, not that dissimilar

from I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollos. This was

a cultural issue in that day. Only the problem

is in a church setting. Those factions that get

created end up being footholds for the enemy

to get in there and to divide people. And so

Paul addresses the danger here. Now, I promised

last Sunday I'd touch on verses 14 to 17 because

we didn't have time for it last week. So let's

start by reading those four verses, 14 to 17,

and I'll just make a few observations about what

Paul says about baptism here. Because in this

section, Paul's not specifically setting out

to teach doctrinally about baptism, but there's

some important things said here. So let's read

it, verse 14. Paul says, I thank God that I baptized

none of you except Crispus and Gaius. Do you

remember Crispus? He was the former leader of

the synagogue who got saved, which is amazing.

So that no one would say you were baptized in

my name. Now, I did baptize also the household

of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether

I baptized any other. And how human is that?

Paul's like, I don't really remember. I'm not

sure exactly. I haven't written down a list.

Interesting, right? Verse 17, for Christ did

not send me to baptize. but to preach the gospel,

not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross

of Christ would not be made void. Is it not surprising

that Paul speaks like this about baptism? That

he would say essentially, I'm glad I haven't

baptized many of you. Or to say, the Lord actually

didn't send me to baptize. For those of your

friends, your neighbors who are in the Roman

Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church,

who insist that baptism is the actual means by

which people are saved, or your friends who might

be in a Protestant church who insist that baptism

is necessary alongside faith in order to be saved,

for groups like that, this passage is very troubling,

isn't it? It's very troubling. Because if baptism

saves, or it's a necessary component to salvation,

how do you explain Paul not emphasizing it? Right?

Further, you can go further, in John chapter

John 4 · chapter mention

4, John explicitly says that Jesus, the Savior

himself, did not baptize anyone. That only the

disciples did. How do you explain that? Or Peter,

the centerpiece of Catholicism, when given a

chance in Acts chapter 10 to baptize Cornelius

Acts 10 · chapter mention

and his household, he doesn't do it. It says

he orders others to baptize. So if salvation

comes through the waters of baptism, why is it

not emphasized and practiced by Jesus, by Paul,

or by Peter? It's an important thing to understand.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that

baptism is unimportant. And Paul's not downplaying

baptism here in 1 Corinthians. Jesus did command

us to go, right? Make disciples and to baptize.

So it's incredibly important that we comply with

that command. It is part of our gospel obedience.

And throughout the New Testament, we see two

things go hand in hand. Men and women first believe,

and they're justified in the sight of God, and

then they're baptized. And that baptism is that

outward sign and symbol of the new spiritual

union they have with Christ. So baptism is very,

very important, but what Paul's saying here is

it's not the most important thing. It is important,

but not the most important. And apparently the

Corinthians had been boasting about who baptized

them. They were taking something so beautiful

and even making that a source of division in

the body. And Paul sees that as a blasphemy against

the true meaning of baptism. Baptism is about

dying to self, not boasting. And so he's upset

about this, right? That's why he rebukes them

here. He's glad that he didn't make baptizing

a priority because there's a more important calling

on his life, which is what? Preaching the gospel.

Because it's the gospel, what Paul's about to

call the word of the cross, that is the ordinary

means by which God saves people. It's not baptism,

it's the preaching of the gospel. So what we

see in these stories is basically the apostles

Peter and Paul, they feel comfortable delegating

baptism to others, but not the preaching of the

gospel. Because that's the priority. Does that

make sense? Okay, good. That's enough on that

because, again, this isn't some kind of doctrinal

section on baptism, but those things are important

to remember. Let's look at today's text now,

verses 18 to 25. For the word of the cross is

foolishness to those who are perishing, but to

us who are being saved, it's what? The power

of God. For it is written, I will destroy the

wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the

clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man?

Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of

this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom

of the world? For since in the wisdom of God,

the world through its wisdom did not come to

know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness

of the message preached to save those who believe.

That is an amazing sentence. Go home and diagram

it. It's amazing. Verse 22, for indeed Jews asked

for signs and Greeks searched for wisdom. But

we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling

block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those

who are called, you can underline that word called,

both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God

and the wisdom of God because the foolishness

of God is wiser than men and the weakness of

God is stronger than men. Wow. That is a beautifully

philosophical... of the power and wisdom of God,

is it not? So let's work our way through this.

And along the way, I'm gonna try to walk you

through the logic here. It'll be a little bit

out of order from the way Paul writes it, but

let's start where he starts in verse 18. And

here in 18, we see, first of all, Paul is about

to introduce the basic contrast that is gonna

dominate his thinking all the way through chapter

three, okay? Human wisdom versus the cross. Notice,

first of all, the gar. At the beginning, that's

the word for in English. That tells you, that's

a connecting word that tells you that verse 18

is a continuation of what he just said in verse

17, especially that last phrase. He says, Christ

sent me to preach the gospel, not in cleverness

of speech, so that the cross of Christ would

not be made void. I like to read it this way.

I think it's a better translation. So that the

cross of Christ would not be emptied of its force.

Which is a beautiful picture. Now, I'm going

to skip over the phrase, not in cleverness of

speech. It's a very important phrase, but I don't

have time for it today. It's going to come up

multiple times. So we'll get to it, trust me.

Especially the beginning of chapter 2, Paul will

come back to that idea. The main point here at

the end of 17 is that Paul is starting to address

the importance of the power of the cross. And

that's what he says in verse 18. The word of

the cross, it's foolishness to those who are

perishing, but to us as believers, the ones being

saved, it's the power of God. So notice how blunt

Paul is in this verse. Here's what he's saying.

The cross is the great divider of humanity. It

divides every one of us, every person into one

of two groups, the lost and the saved. Now, I

realize that in life there are umpteen amounts

of dividers in the population of humanity. There

are divisions based on skin color and ethnicity

and language and culture and politics. All kinds

of things divide, but they all pale in comparison

to what Paul is talking about here. This is the

division of ultimate importance. This is the

only division of mankind that has eternal consequences.

This is the most important thing. Two camps,

lost and saved. And notice how he describes both

in the present tense. This is so important. He

describes both groups in the present tense. Adam,

earlier on, talking about missions, talked about

the here and the now. The present tense. Look

at it. Those who are perishing, those who are

being saved. Can I just say sometimes in modern

evangelicalism, we make a mistake here. We tend

to think of lost and saved as nothing more than,

you know, final destinations after judgment.

But they are present day realities. We have to

understand this. Paul's using the present tense

for a reason. He's saying, look, those who are

rejecting the gospel in the here and now, that

initiates a process of spiritual ruin in their

lives. And for the believer, salvation is a present

tense process where we are being progressively

delivered from the power of sin in our lives.

We sometimes call that sanctification, right?

We're being delivered from sin's power over us.

So I want you to rethink salvation. Salvation

is the condition that stretches all the way back

into eternity past. When we were chosen in Christ

to be saved sovereignly by God, it extends to

our earthly past, to the time that we were justified

in the sight of God. It extends to the earthly

present right now when we're being sanctified

and conformed to the image of Christ. And salvation

extends to the future completion when we will

be ushered into the presence of our Savior. Friends,

all of that is called being saved. It's a beautiful

picture. Not just that final destination, all

of it. Even presently, we're being saved by Christ.

It's beautiful. So make sure you see this. And

by the way, those who are perishing right now,

as we speak, as we sit here this morning, that's

what gives us the urgency to be on mission. They

are perishing. They are in spiritual ruin. That's

why we bring the King's message to the people.

And those of us who are being saved, that's why

we continue to come here every Sunday. That's

why we continue to gather together for worship

and prayer and study of God's word because we're

being saved. We want to follow after our savior.

These are present day realities and we shouldn't

forget that. So then what's the object that separates

all of us into one or two of these camps? Whatever

it is, because it's an ultimate division, it's

got to be super important, right? In fact, If

this is eternal in nature, it's got to be the

most precious thing in all of humanity, in all

of earth, in all of life. It's got to be the

most precious thing. And what is it? It's the

word of the cross. That's what Paul says. The

word of the cross separates us into two camps.

And when you talk about the word of the cross,

think about... Think of it as the message of

the whole of Scripture, the entire story of God

and of mankind and of salvation, all of which

culminates at the very apex of human history

when God the Son took on flesh and died a sacrificial

death to wash away sins. But it's the whole of

Scripture is the word of the cross because it

all leads to the cross. That's what separates

those who are perishing and those who are being

saved. Do you believe the word of the cross or

do you not? So when we go out there with the

king's message, we've got to ask that question.

Do you believe in the word of the cross or do

you not? Which camp are you in? To those who

don't believe and are perishing, the word of

the cross is foolishness, Paul says. In fact,

it's an offense to them. How many times have

you ever done this? You've tried to share with

somebody and you see it in their face or in their

body language or they just tell you, I'm super

offended by what you're saying. It happens. It's

offensive. I'll give you two reasons why. First

of all, there's the cultural objection. Death

by crucifixion was despised in the ancient world.

It was a form of execution that was reserved

for slaves and barbarians and criminals, the

scum of the earth. And we all know because we've

seen the pictures and artwork and on film just

how physically painful crucifixion was, just

how personally degrading it was to be stripped

almost naked, to be hung on a cross, and to have

everybody around just walk by and watch you slowly

die. There's a cultural objection here. That

is offensive to the world. It's grotesque. It's

a shameful death. And the idea that God would

use that to reconcile humanity to himself, for

the people in Paul's day, they would have said,

nope, that's unthinkable. That's foolishness.

The second reason the word of the cross was foolish

and offensive was its simplicity. The gospel

is a very simple message. Children can believe

it, right? Here was Paul. Going to the people

of Corinth, people who loved intricate philosophies

and saying, look, I have a very simple and straightforward

message. You're a sinner. Start there. Your sin

is a debt that you owe to the one true God, the

creator who made all things. But God has offered

you a remedy for that problem that you have.

He himself came to earth and took on human flesh.

He died on a cross to pay the penalty for your

sins. All you have to do is trust in him, trust

that he was raised from the dead, and you will

be saved from his wrath and live with him forever

in the heavenly realms. That's the simple message.

And what does the world say to that? What does

the world still to this day say? That's ridiculous.

Just believe in that one guy? Sounds like foolishness.

And the truth is, the proud man won't accept

it. And the self -righteous man doesn't feel

he needs it. The natural man will never submit

his life to that kind of a savior. First of all,

because then he'd have to admit that he's a sinner.

And he'd have to admit that, yeah, there's really

a consequence for my sin. And then he'd have

to accept the simplicity of it all. And you know

what man wants? Wait, give me, I can't just be

saved by faith. It's got to be a whole bunch

of religious ceremonies that I've got to walk

through or a whole list of things that I have

to do to earn this. So when you tell them no,

you just believe. You're putting your trust in

the sacrifice of the God -man. You're following

after him as Savior and Lord. Too simple. Too

simple. It's foolishness. But here's the thing,

and Adam touched on this earlier as well. When

God opens a man's spiritual eyes to see that

this is true, that he is a sinner, that he has

a need for a savior, once God brings a man's

heart to life and changes his affections, what

that man would have looked like one day and said,

that's foolishness. Now he looks at it and says,

you know what? That's the power of God. So let

the world think I'm a fool. That's fine. Let

them scoff at me. Let them regurgitate all their

intricate philosophies and their worldviews about

life. I know where I stand, and I'm not ashamed

of the gospel. I've moved from this camp to that

camp, from lost to saved. Yes, the brutality

of the cross is the path to salvation. The world

turns away from it. It's too graphic for them.

But you know what we do with it? We sing hymns

about it. Have you ever thought about that? We

put crosses up in our buildings. This means of

execution, this brutal thing, we sing praise

songs about it. For us, the word of the cross

is the power of God to save. We are different

from the world. Amen? So let's drop down into

verses 22 and 23, and we're going to see why

most people are perishing. Verse 22. What does

it say about Jews? They ask for signs. What does

it say about Greeks or Gentiles? They search

for wisdom. Paul says, but we, we preach Christ

crucified. And to the Jews, this is a stumbling

block. And to the Gentiles, it's foolishness.

So here we go. Two groups of people. We're very,

as Bible readers, we're familiar with these two

groups, Jews and Gentiles, right? And to the

unredeemed in both camps, the cross is a problem.

For the Jews, the gospel was problematic for

several reasons. First of all, again, there's

the crucifixion. And if any of you follow on

YouTube or some social media, one of the many

ministries that are doing street evangelism in

Israel or street evangelism to Jews in America,

you will find that there are a couple of common

objections to the idea of Yeshua as Messiah.

It comes up over and over again. First of all,

the crucifixion. My Messiah, as I read it, they

say, could not be overcome and executed like

that. It's a stumbling block for them. Even though

their own scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures,

not only talk about a suffering servant who will

die for sin and even describe some aspects of

crucifixion. By the way, when it gets pointed

out to them, they're flummoxed by that. But that's

one. The other one is, well, if this Yeshua was

the Messiah, where is his kingdom? Huge stumbling

block. We don't see a messianic age being ushered

in. There's no peace. There's no prosperity.

The foreign occupiers are still in the land.

That is not our Messiah. It's a materialistic

view. It's not a spiritual view of Messiah. It's

purely materialistic. That's still to this day

what the lost in Israel cannot see because they're

looking for a materialistic kingdom. So these

things are stumbling blocks to the Jews. And

by the way, that too was prophesied, was it not?

In the Psalms and by Isaiah, the Messiah was

going to be a rock of offense. He was going to

be a rock to be stumbled over. Again, that's

found in their own Hebrew scriptures. And then

thirdly, as Paul points out here, even if they

could get past the lack of a kingdom and the

idea of crucifixion, they still wouldn't be persuaded

by the gospel because in it they don't see a

display of power. They don't see a miracle or

a sign or a wonder. And this brings us back to

the gospels. When you read the gospels, how many

times do you see Jesus talking to a Jewish crowd

and they say, well, give us a sign. Give us a

sign that tells us that you can cleanse the temple.

All the time. They expected their Messiah to

be this wonder worker who would just do fun things

at their demand. Show us things. And I have to

admit, and maybe you've had the same experience.

Sometimes I read the gospel, and I'm like, oh,

Jesus, just give them a miracle, man. Like, they

ask for it. Just do something wild so that everybody

can see who you are. I mean, that's my fleshly

response to that, right? But I remember Dr. MacArthur

once giving this interesting reason why Jesus

doesn't do that. He said something to the effect

of, if Jesus starts doing things at their demand,

then he ends up in their pocket. In their pocket.

He's less of a Messiah and more like a genie

in a bottle. Who's in control in that situation?

The person who rubs the lamp and asks for the

genie. And that's not who Jesus is. He doesn't

do that. He doesn't act upon our demands. We

submit to him. So that's the Jews. Lots of stumbling

blocks here. The Gentiles, the Greeks, they're

a whole different bunch. They want a great philosophy.

They want something complex and intricate. I've

already mentioned, they are super impressed by

intellectual pursuits, knowledge and wisdom and

great thinkers. And that is such a contrast to

the gospel. And we can admit this, right? Here's

this Jewish man, Paul, bringing into the Greek

world the story of a itinerant rabbi from Galilee.

Not impressive to Greeks. From this rural land.

Who even knows where Galilee is on the map? If

you live in Corinth, you're like, where? And

this guy's a nobody in their eyes. He's a blue

-collar son of a carpenter. He has no pedigree.

He never got a large following. He never wrote

anything down. He's just an itinerant rabbi.

And then later he's arrested as a criminal. He's

put to death for the crime of sedition. And the

Greek says, and somehow that's supposed to be

important to me? That makes no sense. That is

foolishness. It's not an impressive story. It's

not an entertaining story. No thank you. This

is what Paul's dealing with in Corinth, in the

whole Greek world. It's difficult. So to both

camps, Paul says, look, regardless of what you

want to hear, I'm going to give it to you straight

and simple because we don't shapeshift the message

so that it's more palatable for anybody, Jew

or Gentile. We simply preach this, Christ crucified.

That's it. Or as we heard, if you want to expand

on that, our call to worship from earlier, while

we were still helpless at the right time, Christ

died for the ungodly. That was us, right? He

died for the ungodly. God demonstrates his love

toward us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And now having been justified

by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath

of God through him. That's the expansion on Christ

crucified. That's the message. That's the king's

message. And you can almost picture Paul saying

to them, look, I know you have your philosophies.

I've heard them all. They're all over the city,

but I'm not here just to offer you a competing

philosophy. I bring you only this, the God -man

hung upon a tree for your sins. Trust in him

alone and be saved. That's it. And again, to

the natural unredeemed man, Jew or Gentile, that

is unacceptable. But here's the key to this whole

passage. It's the language of verse 24. So look

at the end of 23. To Jews a stumbling block and

to Gentiles foolish, but, big but, but to those

who are the called, both Jew and Greek, Christ

the power of God and the wisdom of God. So here's

the thing. If Paul had stopped at verse 23, we'd

all be in trouble. Like you run into a cul -de

-sac here with nowhere to go. Think about this.

If Jews won't accept it because it's a stumbling

block, if Greeks won't accept it because it's

foolishness, who's left to talk to? That's the

whole world. Paul's answer is the called. That's

who. Those whom God has chosen to save, both

Jew and Gentile. Guys, this is a subtle but important

description of the doctrine of election right

here in 1 Corinthians. The gospel is offensive

to every type of people on the earth unless God

calls them out of their unbelief. Then everything

changes. Salvation hinges on what? Us? No, on

God who calls. Gotta know that. And if God calls

people affectionately, they're going to respond

and believe. Their eyes are going to be open.

Their spiritual hearts are going to be brought

to life. And instead of the word of the cross

being offensive, they will say, I want that.

I hope that's your testimony. It was once offensive.

It was once foolish to me. And then one day my

eyes were open and I began to understand spiritual

truth and I embraced it. I wanted it. I received

it. That's the testimony. Christ is the power

of God and the wisdom of God. And then Paul uses

two phrases in verse 25 that you, again, you

would not expect to see this. He talks about

God's foolishness and God's weakness. This is,

like last week, another appeal to the absurd.

Because it's absurd to think that God is either

of those things. But even if God was foolish,

even if somehow he was foolish, even then his

foolishness would be wiser than all the combined

wisdom of mankind through all ages. That's what

he's saying. And even if somehow you could say

God was weak, his weakness would still be stronger

than all the combined strength of men throughout

all the ages. It's the appeal to the absurd.

And through the work of the cross, which is the

most foolish of plans from a human perspective,

God outsmarted human wisdom and he overpowered

all human strength. And here's why. If I've lost

you, pay close attention to this. Here's why.

Because at the cross, there was true power. True

power. The type of power that no man has. The

type of power that no other message carries with

it. The power to wash away sins. The power to

save a man's soul. The power to grant eternal

life. No man has that kind of power. No message

other than the gospel has that kind of power.

At the cross, that was true power. You've got

to understand this. You've got to see this. It's

beautiful the way Paul lays this out, right?

And so then look, go back up to verse 19 and

look what he describes. There we go. Verse 19.

Here he cites Isaiah 29, 14. And he says, for

it's written, this is what God's going to do.

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the

cleverness of the clever I will set aside. And

there's multiple interpretations of that. The

discernment of the discerning I will set aside.

The intelligence of the intelligent, however

you want to interpret the Greek there. Now, I

don't have time to walk through that Old Testament

passage. I'll just summarize it for you. This

was in the days of Isaiah, in the days of Sennacherib,

the greatest Syrian king. And so God is promising

the leaders of Judah in that day that he was

going to act in unexpected ways. I am going to

surprise you, blow your mind, in order to do

two things. First of all, to expose your lack

of understanding and wisdom, leaders. And number

two, to show you my power in graciously rescuing

you from destruction at the hands of the Assyrian

king. I'm going to shock you, surprise you, blow

you away to show you how foolish you really are

and also to show you how gracious I am. And what

Paul's saying, the reason Paul employs this passage

is he's saying here in 1 Corinthians 1, in that

day, God was still doing this type of thing.

He was still doing it. He's destroying the wisdom

of the wise. He is setting aside the cleverness

of the clever, and at the same time, he is graciously

moving to save his elect. What he was doing in

the days of Isaiah, he's doing in the days of

Paul. Graciously saving the elect, opening their

eyes, bringing their hearts to life, and saving

them for all eternity. What an incredible, you

know, sort of comparison and contrast here. The

fact is, God has always worked in ways that are

contrary to our human wisdom because his thoughts

are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways.

How many times in life have you been totally

surprised by God? So many times. I never would

have drawn that up. Never would have thought

of that. Would human beings have ever conceived

of the possibility of a triune God? Would human

beings ever have conceived of God the Son stepping

out of heaven and taking on flesh to be born

of a virgin? Come on. Would we ever have conceived

of the apparent weakness of the cross actually

becoming victory over sin and death? We wouldn't

have come up with that stuff. So in light of

God's wondrous ways, in verse 20, he asks three

stinging questions. Okay, so where's your wise

men? Where are your scribes or your experts in

the law? Where are your debaters? The underlying

question of this is this. What have those kinds

of men actually contributed to the condition

of mankind? What have they actually done? By

their skills and talents, have they ever saved

anybody for all eternity? Have they ever been

able to fix the corruption in a man's heart?

Have they ever proven to be able to pay the debt

for a man's sin? Any of them? And the obvious

answer is no. But listen, it's not as though

God is against philosophy or against law or against

rhetoric. Listen, hear me carefully in this.

God is not anti -intellectual. All of those disciplines

have their place in the world. But when you hold

them up and compare them to the word of the cross,

which does save, which does address man's corrupt

heart, which does pay the debt for sin, when

you compare those two things, the stuff of the

world looks very underwhelming. It looks very

fleeting. Again, it's not wrong to engage in

intellectual pursuits, but it's very temporary,

isn't it? You can't compare it to the word of

the cross. Now still, let me add a warning to

this. Don't underestimate the pull of worldly

wisdom. This is really important for, I'm looking

at the younger generation here. It can be very

seductive because it appeals to the pride of

our intellect. And if we're not careful, we can

find ourselves immersed all day long, every day

in worldly things. And eventually that sort of

leaks into our psyche. It leaks into our heart

and we find ourselves actually accepting worldly

wisdom over God's revelation. That can happen

to us. Paul actually warns in his letter to the

Colossians about this very thing. He says, see

to it that no one takes you captive. Look at

that phrase. Makes you a prisoner through philosophy

and empty deception. According to what? The traditions

of men. According to the elementary principles

of the world rather than according to Christ.

Take that warning seriously. Young people, if

you spend all day every day online, And you're

just looking at memes and you're looking at posts

and you're looking at comments. Man, that stuff

will sink in, won't it? And pretty soon we're

starting to buy that stuff more than we're understanding

God's revelation. Be careful. When compared to

the wisdom that comes from God, even what we

perceive as the smartest traditions and the best

teachings of men, Paul says they're just elementary

principles. They're just the basics. They're

earthly. And again, none of it has real power.

It can't transform the nature of a man. It can't

lead a person into the presence of God. It has

no power or effect beyond this earthly life.

So just be warned by that. Interestingly, the

New Testament gives us a great example. Paul

himself, this great example in Acts 17. Did you

know that Paul visited Athens? The very epicenter

of Greek philosophy. He went to Athens and he

goes to the Areopagus. If you've never been to

Athens, this rocky hill that's set above the

city. And in the Areopagus is where all the sophists

of Athens, the most famous philosophers in that

day, they sat there with their, you know, stroking

their beards and just judging everybody's teachings

and everybody's wisdom. And Paul walked into

that situation, right? And what did he find there?

He found a great altar. with the inscription

you see on the screen, to an unknown God. And

that was supposed to be a statement of great

wisdom to those folks. Why? Well, we're so earthly

wise, we don't want to miss honoring a God that

we don't know about, so we'll just create this

altar to the unknown God. Talk about foolishness,

right? This is the epicenter of philosophy. Supposed

wise men create a possible God. who's not really

a God at all, and then bow to him just in case.

And Paul confronts them. And you picture Paul,

this old grizzled Jewish guy, right? Walks up

to these great thinkers and he confronts their

arrogance and he says, what you worship in ignorance,

this I proclaim to you. And he goes on to talk

about the creator of the universe and the resurrection

of Christ. It's beautiful. Read Acts 17 when

you get home tonight. And the world says, come

on, those philosophers in Athens, they were so

smart, they're so wise. Paul says, nah, no. Apart

from the gospel, they live and breathe in a world

of ignorance. Now, I want to close with verse

21, because to me, this is where the big idea

is really located. Look at verse 21. This is

the foundation for why gospel mission should

always be an emphasis in the local church. Adam

talked about a few different missions that we

love, right? TMAI, our GO teams that are going

to scatter across the world. He talked about

the students in IBEX in Israel. And I'll just

add something that he didn't want to talk about

out of humility, Adam's ministry with Children's

Hunger Fund. Ministries that we love. At CHF,

they seek to feed people physically while at

the same time feeding them spiritually with the

gospel. and partnering with local pastors and

local churches to fulfill the Great Commission.

It's a beautiful ministry. We love these things.

And all of those ministries operate under the

banner of exactly what Paul talks about here

in verse 21. God's heart for those whom he is

going to save out of the ignorance of worldly

wisdom. I'll say it again. God's heart for those

whom he will save out of the ignorance of worldly

wisdom. Verse 21. For since in the wisdom of

God, the world through its wisdom did not come

to know God. In other words, in spite of all

the wisdom, it couldn't get people to God. Because

of that, God was well pleased himself through

the so -called foolishness of the message that's

being preached to save those who believe. So

the world lacks the wisdom and power to lead

anyone to salvation. So the Lord steps in and

goes, I'm well pleased to do this myself. And

we knew this from the beginning, did we not?

That God is sovereign over all of it. He says,

I'm well pleased to do this. Because by the world's

wisdom, you'll never get to me. You'll never

get there. So he's doing it. And he's going to

use a message. And this is so God. So countercultural.

I'm going to use a message that looks to the

world to be foolish. But that's actually my plan

to save people. He's going to do it through the

proclamation of this unique message. And it's

something that cannot be discerned and received

by man's intellect alone. That's important. It

can't be received by human reasoning. It's a

message that can only be discovered and received

spiritually. And that means that God first has

to do a work in the heart of man to prepare him

to hear it and receive it. So God does the work.

He does the preparation. He does the saving.

As we say here, it's this monergism. It's all

the work of God. Here's just one reason why I

think that's so beautiful. Because I know there's

objections to this whole idea that, well, it's

all God. But here's one of the reasons why it's

so beautiful. If God had decided to proclaim

his message to the world in a way that was discoverable

by intellect and by reason, then only the smartest

people would be saved. Right? Only the elites

of society, the connected people, the high IQ

people. would have heard that message using their

reason, logic, and intellect would have received

it. And the rest of the world? Out of luck. And

what would that do if only the smartest people

could understand the message? It would just feed

their egos. It would feed their egos. They'd

be saying, look how smart I am. Look how wise

I am. Look how important I am. Look how spiritual

I am. It's completely the opposite of the gospel.

Gordon Fee, the late New Testament scholar, beautifully

describes this. He says, a God discovered by

human wisdom would be both a projection of human

fallenness and a source of human pride. And this

would constitute the worship of the creature,

not the creator. That's where we'd be if it was

just by man's intellect. So instead of that scenario,

it pleased God to send out the king's messengers

with this very simple message, Christ crucified.

And then to prepare the hearts of his chosen

ones to receive it. That's the plan. And because

of that simplicity, children can believe. And

adults, even grandparents. The poor can believe.

as well as the rich, the smart and the not so

smart can all believe. Even people with really,

really messy pasts can believe because God does

the work to prepare the heart. That's why people

all over the world will gather on Sunday mornings

just like this one and they will worship Christ

with one voice. White, brown, black, it doesn't

matter. Every shape and size together. Blue collar

worshiping alongside white collar. The scientist,

Locking arms with the high school dropout because

it's all God's work. Even Dodgers fans and Giants

fans. Worshiping together. It's possible. So

what God has done in the gospel and his plan

is he's leveled the playing field. And again,

using this message that is so simple, so humbling,

and so offensive to the natural mind. Jesus Christ,

dying on a cross to take away my sin, wounded

for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities,

dying in my place, the just for the unjust, the

innocent for the guilty. Think about it. That's

the word of the cross. That's the wisdom of God.

That's the power of God, to save those who will

believe. I want you to bow your heads. I'm going

to give you a little bit of time to reflect on

some of this. I'm actually going to put an interesting

quote on the screen from John Piper. And this

is something if you want to use as a way to meditate,

listen to what he says. He says, life is wasted

if we do not grasp the glory of the cross. Cherish

it for the treasure that it is. Cleave to it

as the highest price of every pleasure. and the

deepest comfort in every pain. What was once

foolishness to us must become our wisdom and

our power and our only boast in this world. Father,

I pray for us this morning that we will find

the balance in this passage that we have from

Paul, that we will see that there is... in this

world. There is philosophy and intellectual pursuits

that we can engage in. We can even use those

things as a servant to our theology. But Father,

will you protect us from being taken in by those

things, taken captive by those things, that we

would understand that it's your revelation that

matters most and that we would look to the word

of the cross as the ultimate truth that guides

our lives, the king's message sent by the king.

by the King's messengers, to this lost world

that so badly needs to be saved. Lord, help us

to grasp the glory of the cross. Help us to cherish

it for the treasure that it is and to cleave

to it in good times and in bad times. What was

once foolish to us, help it now become our wisdom

and our power. Help it to be the thing that we

boast in, not ourselves, but in Christ alone.

Thank you for the beauty of this passage this

morning. Help us now to respond well in song.

May you be glorified in our voices, but more

importantly, in our hearts. Be with us now, in

Christ's name, amen.