The Power and Wisdom of God (I Corinthians 1:18-31)

We are in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18.

1 Corinthians 1:18

If you are able, please stand with me for the reading of God's word.

Verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.

Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the teacher of the law?

Where is the debater of this age?

Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish?

For since, in God's wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.

For the Jews ask for science, and the Greeks seek wisdom.

But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles.

Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, continu consider your calling.

Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing, to bring nothing, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence.

It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us, our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, in order that, as it is written, that the one who boasts can boast in the Lord.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you so much for your word and for your love.

And for the access we have to you through salvation through faith in your Son.

I thank you for the gift that is.

Please fill me with your spirit to teach your word.

Please fill the hearers with your spirit to discern and divide accurately according to what you tell them as well.

And be glorified in your name.

Amen.

Okay.

So just a little bit of groundwork just right at the beginning.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give a little bit of groundwork, and then I'm gonna spoil my whole sermon right afterwards so that you know exactly where I'm going with it, which is nice.

So, first of all, Corinth.

We've had a couple weeks in Corinth and it's been awesome.

We're gonna have a lot of time together in Corinth, obviously.

We have 1 Corinthians, we have 2 Corinthians, we're gonna get to know Corinth in and out.

So, something that is important to really reiterate as it pertains to this so that we have proper understanding.

Because, I mean, honestly, this chapter is usually is sometimes weaponized in really weird ways in the church.

And so, with that in mind, what we get to do is provide context here.

And the good news for me is the context has already been given in the last couple of weeks, so I just get to point back to that and go, hey, listen to the sermon that was preached awesomely then, and piggyback off of that.

So, having that said, Corinth is not a task and error.

I know.

Shocking?

Mind-blowing.

Turns out they are two different places.

So, in especially in ancient times, the big transit scenarios were ships, right?

Ships bring cargo, ships bring people, ships bring this whole thing.

And so, usually where there is a port, you have a whole lot of people, and you have a whole lot of diverse thinking, you have a whole lot of diverse people, you have a whole lot of uh healthy friction in that way.

Corinth has not one, but two ports.

And again, a couple uh I recommend you listen to the sermon a couple weeks ago where it's really well illustrated that idea of how you had the two ports on both sides, and then you had to bring the ships across and land.

It's so cool.

I don't know, I nerd out on these things.

So um, having that said, two ports and a thoroughfare of trade.

And what that meant is that Corinth is a very big place that has a whole bunch of people who don't look, think, act like each other.

Corinth is not a tasketier.

So, having that said, if we are going to spend so much time in this book and the next book, assumably, we gotta put our Corinth hats on while we study it in order to understand what is going on.

Why am I saying this?

Because there is a difference, there's a fundamental difference in the societal currency between a place like Corinth and a place like we may be familiar with.

And so here's the biggest thing that I would say is that with the ports, with the trade routes, you have to deal with people who don't think like you think.

You have to deal with people who don't look like you look, you have to deal with people who don't believe like you believe.

And there is a familiarity in that friction and that dialogue where you can actually have that kind of dialogue without wanting to kill each other afterwards, believe it or not.

And we can call that the stereotypical city mindset in that way.

One of the things we love when we move, well, we did we're part of church plant in Fayetteville, Arkansas for a while there.

And there was the university there, there was Tyson, you know, Tyson chicken headquarters there, there was Walmart headquarters there, and so Fayetteville was not like the rest of Arkansas, let me tell you.

And it was interesting to see that same idea and the same friction, the same ability to have open dialogue with people and really not have a huge fallout as a result.

There's a dark side to that, in that at that point in time you have so many different thoughts and ideas and everything, that there is no cultural code.

And it's very, very easy at that point in time to have no moral code, right?

Because at that point in time, it's basically like, well, you think this and I think this, and I'm of this camp, and you're this point, and we can get a we can agree, but we can't arrive on what's actually true.

I just, I'm this and you're that, and you do you, and we're all good, right?

That's the dark side of that.

The dark side on the other side of that, which is sometimes more the small town idea, is that rather than the currency of knowledge, wisdom, uh, education, experience, it is connection to the culture.

And so it is more important to know this person's great granddaddy who works at the grocery store, because that guy has the wisdom, even if he has no idea what he's talking about.

And so at that point in time, it is you have the tribal bubble.

And the best way I can look at that because it is after November, and I can make a Christmas movie reference, is the Jim Clory version of the Grinch.

Howville is, and how you have the mayor, stereotypical small town at its worst in that way.

So, we also lived in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Still recovering.

But having that said, we did not have people flowing through who thought different things, who did, and and basically, I kid you not, a lot of the conversation started with, or continued with, well, what you need to understand is, and then you hear something absolutely asinine afterwards, but that's what's in the water, and so that therefore it must be true.

And so, having that said, that's the dark side.

The positive side is there is a moral code, it just may not be anything having to do with the gospel or with scripture, and that's the danger we run into today.

Um, in that.

So, why am I telling you this?

We really need to figure out how to think about Corinth as Corinth and not as what we might be familiar with.

So, because Corinth is really big on wisdom, right?

Is really big on teachers.

We saw that last week with the different uh distinctions and divisions of I'm a Paul, I'm Paulist, makes a little more sense when you realize that they had their different groups and their factions that they preferred.

Didn't actually arrive at anything meaningful, but they actually have their different groups in that way.

Whereas you have in in the more rural areas, that's where you're gonna get the idea, you know, it's there's so much more that can be caught that can be taught, which is true if you can't teach but love to fish.

So, with that, is there's definitely you need both, is the punchline with that.

One is not better than the other.

And so, what I would hope is that the reason why I'm telling you this is so we can understand this passage better.

And also, really, so I mean, at the end of the day, we're really encountering a place where there's this weird alt gospel where um Jesus died to return us to 1950s Americana.

And I know that sounds crazy, except people really believe that, if you really so with that, and so it's really hard if we're if we have that in the uh in the water stream, it's really hard to understand what is going on with Corinth.

And so that's why this passage can get really weird really fast.

And so, having that said, here's the thing that I need you to understand in this passage wisdom cannot achieve salvation.

In the book of Romans, we spend a lot of time talking about how the law could not bring about salvation.

Here, wisdom cannot achieve salvation.

What brings about salvation?

Only faith, confession, and belief in Jesus Christ as a substitutionary atonement for our sins.

That's it.

So, that's what we're up against here in this passage, and what we're talking about here is that wisdom cannot get us there.

And that sounds like yeah, duh to us, but that is revolutionary for a place like Corinth.

So, having that said, as we continue through this passage, just keep that in mind.

The whole point of this passage and the whole point of what we're talking about is that salvation comes in Jesus alone.

And that is not something that you can be enlightened into.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Amen?

Alright, so verse 18.

The word of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but is the power of God to us who are being saved.

Here's what I love here.

Right off the right off the bat here.

The word of the cross.

He could have called it the gospel, right?

He could have called it Jesus.

Here, it's the word, or your translation may say the message of the cross.

That to us is very normal.

That's in our thought stream, the cross, you know, it's on our walls, it might be in the jewelry, it's on these different things.

That is totally abhorrent and offensive to a place in the Roman Empire who get to see people on crosses living out their last hours in a horrific way.

So, right off the bat, Paul is going straight at them by saying the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to where people in course might be like, yeah, that's stupid, because that does not sound like a good bet.

Basically, he's starting off by saying our fundamental basis of faith and salvation is that God was willing to be tortured to death by his own creation, and that is the fundament of our faith.

And to somebody who is uh a little more intellectually fluid in that way, that sounds crazy.

So hold on to that thought for a moment.

Foolishness, by the way, is mentioned six times in this passage alone.

So Paul is saying something on purpose.

Uh foolishness, uh, by the way, has its root in the same word we get moron from.

So isn't that nice?

That's where we get that lovely feeling of like, wow, I feel good about me now.

Um, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

The word of the cross is the power of God to us who are being saved.

The power of God is mentioned multiple times in this passage as well, and this is important to understand what he is being what he is saying.

It's the word of the cross, is the power of God.

It all goes through the cross.

There's no other way around, there's no enlightened thought, there's no Gnostic thought, there's no this over here, there's no well, there's multiple roads.

He's saying it all goes through the cross, and spoiler alert, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart of the individual, that sounds crazy.

And yet, when the Holy Spirit works on our hearts to convict and to uh prod us in that direction, we understand and we hear and believe.

So, all that to say, you can't think yourself to salvation.

I love the put the uh, this is kind of a weird candy, I'll encourage you to uh check this out.

I love the uh account of C.

S.

Lewis of his salvation.

And uh this is nice because this is 2022 and it's no longer trendy to call to mention C.

S.

Lewis in every single sermon.

Uh so now it's okay to do.

Uh but with that, you have this account of him taking walks with his good friend at university, J.R.

Tolkien, right?

And their discussions, and then the work of the Holy Spirit.

So I definitely recommend check that out.

It's a really cool story in that way, to where you have a brilliant man who is ultimately uh encounters, he hears it and it sounds crazy, and then the Holy Spirit gets a hold of his heart.

So, having that said, the cross is the power of God who is being saved.

For it is written, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.

One thing too that's nice about this and thing to remember as we go through this book is Paul is speaking the language of Corinth to Corinth.

He speaks in hyperbole, which we'll see in a moment.

He speaks in very specific ways that are almost exaggerated to make his point.

And so here he's saying, look, I know this sounds stupid to those who are perishing.

It's the power of God to us who are being saved, because it's written in scripture, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.

Here's the thing to remember there will never be a day in all of history where God comes around to our way of thinking.

There is never going to be a day where God sits down and goes, I see your point.

I finally understand where you're coming from.

Right?

There will be a day where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And so, having that said, this is a really good way of demonstrating that picture.

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the intelligence of the intelligence.

Even the most brilliant thinker in the world, their thinking and understanding is like a toddler.

Have you ever had, I'm sure you have, a toddler explain how life works to you?

Yes.

It makes a perfect sense within the context of their world and their understanding.

It's just that their world and understanding is very limited.

And at no point do you sit there and sit down with your toddler and be like, you know, years later and go, you know, you had it nailed.

When you cover your eyes, I can't see you anymore.

It doesn't work that way.

So and if you keep this in mind, how valued wisdom is, how valued intellect is, how valued uh healthy dialogue is to a place like Corinth, Paul is not.

He's not acquiescing here, and yet he's speaking their language to directly attack their language.

So, verse 20, where's the one who's wise?

Where is the teacher of the law?

Where is the debater of this age?

Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish?

Here's what I love about this is that this is perfect oratory dialogue here.

You can see him being like, where's okay, raise your hand if you're wise, right, in this group of believers.

How about the teacher of the law?

How about the debater of this age?

Here's the funny thing is those people we see in the book of Acts are actually in the church of Corinth.

That's what's weird.

Crispus and Sosthenes in Acts 18, 8 and 18, 17, they're actually rulers in the synagogue.

And then you have Apollos in Acts 18, 24 and 19.1, who is spoken of as an eloquent debater.

So the funny thing is Corinth actually has these people in their church bloodstream, but Paul is speaking here in hyperbole of hey, none of us has a seat at the table with God.

That's the punchline.

So, and the reason why I'm saying it this way is what I'm pushing back against is that this passage is about the power of Jesus to save.

This sermon is not titled, God Prefers Stupid People.

That's what we're pushing back and forth against with that idea.

So here, he is in hyperbole saying, Well, okay, does anybody want to debate with God here?

Where's the wise?

Where's the teacher of the law?

Where's the debater of this age?

And the best way I've seen this see this demonstrate is in the book of Job.

Where Job's an intense read.

And uh with that, he ends up plating his case, and then in Job 38, 2, God shows up and says, Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words?

Spoken to somebody who lost everything, by the way.

Uh, and that that is intense.

And it's the idea, who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words?

And then he continues to unpack this and basically be like, I don't recall you being there when I created everything out of nothing.

I don't recall you being there when I breathed life into living creatures.

I didn't ask your opinion when I formed everything, because you weren't there.

And that is a really good depiction of what he is saying here because we have a lot of really smart people in Corinth.

Um and that's okay, it just isn't going to save you.

Again, Solomon, in all of his wisdom, was an absolute disaster.

What I love about those first kings is that you know, anytime you see something happen in threes in scripture, God's really saying, Hey, pay attention.

So you have Saul, who is this tall, good-looking, charismatic guy who was a disaster.

And then you have David, who was the warrior, who I know that we like to forget the second half of his life, he was a disaster.

And then you have Solomon, all of his wisdom was a disaster because no human can fill God's throne.

And here, in the same way, where's the one who's wise?

Where's the teacher of this law?

Where's the debater of this age?

Who has a right to sit at the table with God and say, actually, I think this is how salvation works?

Hasn't God, continuing verse 20, made the world's wisdom foolish?

Or since in God's wisdom the world did not know wisdom through God, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.

Okay, so when we taught in Romans, we talked about this idea of especially the Jewish side of the church and their uh wanting to be saved through the law.

And we talked about the idea of righteousness being on top of a mountain.

This is imagery, this is not real.

On top of a mountain, and the law does not get you to the top of the mountain no matter how hard you try.

Here, wisdom, human wisdom, human intellect does not get you to the top of the mountain no matter how hard you try.

It's the same thing, different perspective, different issue, different church.

But with that, ultimately, it's the same message that not only can we not go and achieve righteousness, but God brought righteousness down to us through the person of Jesus.

So, in verse 22, we see the currency of this age.

The Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom.

It's not like he's once again, there's no polemic against the two things.

He just can't save you.

Uh and here, we saw in verse 21 what does save you?

Belief.

Those who believe.

Believe in what?

Verse 23.

We preach Christ crucified.

Again, going straight for the heart there.

He's not saying we preach the gospel.

Which is fine.

There's nothing wrong with that word.

But we or uh we we we preach a better way.

We preach these different things, all of these fluffy ways to say he's talking about the crucifixion, the torturous death of the Son of God in the most horrific way possible.

To those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

So in verse 23, we saw that that idea of Christ crucified is a stumbling block for the Jews because you can't earn it, and foolishness to the Gentiles because you'd never choose it.

And here, both to both Jews and Gentiles, to those who are called Christ as the power of God, again he says that, and the wisdom of God.

We saw in verse 18 that the word of the cross is the power of God to us who are being saved.

Here, Christ crucified.

Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Again, Paul here is speaking in hyperbole because God doesn't have bad days.

There's no Monday in eternity, apparently.

So praise the Lord for that.

Isn't that amazing?

I always uh my poor children are always there, like, can you please stop saying this during school time?

Uh whenever they're doing math and they don't want to do math, and that's a universal thing for you know, I guess children, but uh maybe not all of them, but with that, and I always have to tell them about how their great-grandfather, my grandfather, sent things into space using a slide rule, and they have everything at their fingertips.

Yeah, I'm that old man.

Also get off my lawn.

And with that, even that at the echelon of that is still like uh is still like a toddler compared to God's wisdom.

We don't we don't sit there and he doesn't sit there and be like, oh man, there's a new guy in town.

I have to step up my game, I have to figure out what he's about.

Maybe he has a point.

And that sounds crazy, except that's how Corinth works.

Because you have a new person in town, and you have to figure out what they're about.

You have to step up your game, you have to maintain your contingency.

We see that a lot in 2 Corinthians, by the way, when they turn against Paul and they're like, eh, well, his letters are really intense, but when he shows up, we're like, You?

You're that guy?

Okay.

So, point number one in these first chunks is that wisdom cannot achieve salvation any more than the law could.

Point number two, excluding boasting.

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling.

Not many were wise in verse 26.

Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Indeed, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence.

Again, want to give you the spoiler up front so you know exactly where we're going with this.

This passage is not about God prefers insignificant people.

Because there is no insignificant person, by the way.

Turns out everybody's made in the image of God.

This is about we have no way to boast in this.

And again, if we still have our Corinth hats on, that we're still remembering that in that ability to have dialogue, to have a healthy friction, to have a hetero heterogeney of uh different thoughts and ideas.

I said it with confidence, uh, then with that boasting is a big part of that, right?

Because at that point in time, you can you actually have the critical thinking skills, you have the eloquence, you have the ability to do that.

And here, Paul is direct, and Paul spent a lot of time in Corinth, he's not confused about the culture.

He's not sitting here going, man, I just I don't I don't think I understood how really how entrenched this was in the Church of Corinth.

He just didn't care.

He was like, this is exactly what you need to hear.

And with that is him saying, two Corinthians who are believers, brothers and sisters, consider your calling.

You ain't that great.

So that is how we're ending this morning.

All y'all, you ain't that great.

God bless you be one with no.

Why would he need to say that?

Because boasting is a big part of this.

Why do we do why do we know this?

Because in the last half of this chapter, in the first half, I belong to Paul.

I belong to Apollos, I belong to Cephas in verse 12, I belong to Christ.

And I'm like, I'm just glad I didn't baptize anyone except for that guy and maybe that guy, and I don't even remember, but that's not my point.

And you have these factions and these groups of who their person is, who their tribe is, who their people is, because that's really all it is.

There's no difference between the whole, for lack of a better way, say it, city mindset and small town mindset.

It's just that you have more people here, and so you have smaller bubbles versus one small bubble.

We're wired that way.

We're wired to tribalize, and that's why we have passages like this, where Paul gently reminds us through the work through the power of the Holy Spirit that we're not saved because we're special.

We're saved because God is good.

And he offers that salvation, and he offers that salvation at a level that anybody can receive.

He didn't offer it up here, he offered it down here.

Because let's let's think about this for a second.

If you are in a debating mindset, if you are in an arguing mindset in that way, then the best way to be dismissive is to say, well, you just don't understand.

Or you just can't grab it, or you're just not there yet.

Come back in a month and you'll get it.

Best way to send somebody along if they don't agree with you.

Here, the bar of salvation, or not the bar, the entrance is so accessible to everybody that anybody can achieve it.

It's also got to be encouraging too, because there's got to be a rough place to minister.

Can you imagine that?

You think about the uh the different things they experience in Corinth on a daily basis.

And he's talking to these believers too, and he's reminding them like, hey, this is you know, if if you have bad days, if your your uh growth chart is not how you would, you know, is not quite like this, like you'd prefer it to be.

That's the work of the Lord through the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual.

And at that point in time, we're just called to be faithful.

So with that, verse 29 So that no one may boast in his presence.

Nobody can sit there and say, I got it.

I figured it out, I've nailed it, I've done that.

Which sounds crazy, except that's a lot of times how we operate.

We have our own little subsets of this wisdom issue to where we're basically like, we've been enlightened and you haven't, and if you have it, then you're an idiot, and we're we're not, because we have the information, and so therefore, there you go.

I'm going to sucker punch you with the gospel and run, not out of love, but because I did my duty, but you're probably fuel for hell anyway.

Hyperbole.

So, with that, no one may boast in his presence.

And verse 30, it is from him that you are in Christ Jesus.

Now let's talk about Jesus.

He became wisdom from God for us.

He didn't give us the wisdom, hand us a book and say, go forth.

Hand us a book is about hand us the secret info and say, go forth.

He is the wisdom from God for us.

Do you know what that means?

In order to live in that and walk in that, we need to live in him and walk in him.

We need to stay close to Jesus in order to live in that.

Jesus did not come down from a mountaintop with the answers, give us the answers and say K bye.

And then we have to impart that.

He is the answer.

And we walk with him in that.

And Jesus Christ is our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

That's a lot of syllables.

Righteousness is right standing, is uprightness.

Yeah, we talked about this at length when we went through Romans, but it's that idea if you have like a plumb line, this turns out gravity works, and you have a line that stands as true and upright.

And if you are correctly aligned, that is righteousness.

Jesus is our righteousness.

Sanctification is a washing to holiness.

Jesus does that for us by his blood, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Redemption, that is a payment of purchase.

A like you redeem something, you're handing them either money or a coupon or a voucher or something, and you get something in return.

So Jesus is our righteousness.

Jesus is our sanctification.

Jesus is our redemption.

In order to that, as it is written, that the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

So everything about our faith, everything about our salvation, everything about our hope goes through Jesus.

There is no work around, there's no yes but, there is no, okay, yes, but I'm really of this camp, and that makes me more saved than them, if we are truly in Christ.

I want to be careful to couch that because there are people who claim Jesus who also just clearly do not believe in him, or clearly do not follow him and preach a different gospel.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about people who confess truly salvation and faith in Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit.

So, having that said, the temptation in the book, in the Church of Court, here we see in 1 Corinthians, is to create hierarchies, to create divisions, to create bubbles, based on, okay, yeah, but we're saved, but I'm a better saved than you are.

My salvation is of purer blood, my salvation is smarter, my salvation is more coherent in that way, because I heard it from Paul, because I heard it from Apollos, because I heard it from Peter, Cephas, or just the catch-all, I belong to Christ, which hopefully we're all in that camp.

With that, the temptation is to be like, well, we're all part of the body of Christ, but really we're better part of the body of Christ than those people because we do this and we don't do these things.

And let's be real, there's a lot of really messed up stuff that happens in Corinth.

Um, but I love that um, as was mentioned in the in the intro of this book a couple weeks ago, he's talking to believers, the saints, followers of Christ, amidst this.

Now, that doesn't mean that he doesn't, when we get to a couple chapters later, he still tells them, like, what are you doing?

Get this person out of there.

This is not, you can't say this is okay, and like basically leaven the whole lump in that way.

So it's not just to say, hey, everything's fine, we're all part of, you know, with that idea.

You still at the same time is saying, like, that ain't okay according to scripture.

So, but with that, our my hope in this is that we understand truly, salvation comes through Jesus.

It comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the individual to accept, to confess, to receive Jesus.

And then we don't graduate from that.

We don't go to stage two of Jesus.

There is no stage two of the gospel.

We dig deeper into Jesus.

This is why, once we get around to later chapters, he has to tell them, look, you guys are a part of the body.

You're all part of one body.

Stop arguing and stop having preference for one another.

Stop dividing that.

Stop nailing communion in such a way that some people are like just like bloated, and other people are hungry, that feast in that way.

Okay, so we started with the word of cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it's the power of God to us who are being saved.

What is this power?

This power is Jesus.

I want to be very, very clear.

There is no salvation outside of Jesus.

Salvation comes through faith, confession, and belief in Jesus alone.

That does not happen alone through plausibility.

It happens, well that's part of it, it happens through the work of the Holy Spirit on the life of the individual.

Which is beautiful.

Pressures off in that way.

Because otherwise it'd be really tempting to be like, man, I really have to outsmart my neighbor so that I can sucker them into my, you know, uh multi-level marketing scheme of salvation.

So I mentioned that this passage can be weaponized sometimes in very strange ways.

So where do we go wrong when we study this?

Because I it's important to say this.

Okay.

This is gonna sound ludicrous, but these passages can sometimes be used to delight in ignorance and laziness.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard this taught by people who have intentionally opted, shepherds, pastors who have intentionally opted to go.

I really don't think it's important to grow in my understanding of the faith and theology.

I'm just gonna copy and paste my sermons off of the blue letter Bible commentary, and uh this is this is what it is.

It's good to go.

And actually, I'm I figured it out and I found the secret by not growing in maturity, by not learning, by not growing.

I don't know, it sounds crazy, you'd be amazed at how many times I hear this.

And is it comp it is this strange compensation and delighting in ignorance and laziness.

That is not what Paul is saying here.

Paul is anything but lazy.

We can all agree on that.

This goes wrong when we take this and we start building kingdoms as a result.

When we start, we start building our own little bubbles as a result and saying, hey, we have this.

Because we have this, we're right.

Because we're right, they're wrong.

Because they're wrong, they're bad.

Because we're right, we're good.

Everybody come inside this bubble, you're safe.

It's a really bad, scary world out there.

Don't go out there or you'll die.

That is contrary to what we've seen thus far with the first half of this chapter.

Being careful how I say this, but it's still worth saying.

This goes wrong with the war on intelligence that we have seen in the last 25 years in uh evangelical Christianity.

Um I can't tell you how many times I've heard from well-meaning and Jesus-loving Christians that scientists are all idiots.

They may be wrong completely, unequivocally, but when we have this mentality, what all that you've done is excused yourself from a conversation and an opportunity to share the gospel.

Now, I'm not saying I agree with that, with with different understandings, particularly if somebody's empirical data automatically excludes the supernatural, that's gonna get really hard to achieve the right conclusion.

So I'm hear me, please hear me.

Do not email me about this unless you have a different disagreement with that.

I am not saying that I'm all for this.

What I am saying is it's a really, it is a really big black eye in the evangelical community that we have achieved our own little I'm a Paula and a polis by saying Christians are brilliant and people who are not Christians are not only just like lost, but are stupid.

And that is the tribal currency that we carry in our community, if we are honest.

Again, we don't have to agree.

A lot I don't agree with.

Oh, a lot I don't agree with.

But the problem with that is if again, this is this is the hard punch for the morning.

So we're gonna go and then we can't, it's gone.

In the last 25 years, we have created our own Christian alt intelligence that is devoid of critical thinking and devoid of compassion and love.

That's a problem.

Because what that does is it fuels self-righteousness within the heart of the believer and the individual.

It does nothing to promote the gospel, and like I said, all that does is excuse us from a conversation we could have had.

You can have a conversation with somebody and not agree with them.

Happens all the time.

I don't even Thursday Ben does not agree with Monday Ben.

That's you know, but having that said, somehow we have Lionized, and it's a part of our, I realize it's a part of our culture, we have Lionized this as a virtue when it is a vice.

And that is not what Paul is talking about here in this passage.

What is Paul talking about here?

Salvation is a free gift available to all, not just the elite.

Salvation comes through faith in Jesus alone.

His substitutionary atonement, his work on the cross, his perfect, sinless life and substitutionary death, to where he took our sin upon him so that we could take his righteousness upon us and be declared righteous in the eyes of God, even when we were guilty.

It is a free gift that cannot be received any other way except by being received in faith.

And as a result, we have the opportunity to boast in that.

How many things do we boast in as Christians that are asinine?

Just me, I do that all the time.

With that, what would happen if we boasted in the glory of Jesus at every opportunity?

In a genuine way that matches our lifestyle.

Boasted in what he has done, not in a way that demonstrates that we're right and they're wrong, whoever they are, in a way that shows that is worship.

So that's just something that we, like I said, this pastor can go right in many ways.

It can go wrong in many ways, but the way that it goes right is to remember everything we have, we have in Jesus.

We have nothing apart from him, and we can boast in him, and that should not build us up.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

And I thank you for your salvation that you have given us.

I thank you that that is not according to human wisdom.

I thank you that it is only through the work of your spirit on souls that are darkened in their understanding that we can receive that gift and can accept that salvation.

And I thank you that you have done that for us.

That we so were we.

And I ask, Lord, that we would continue to boast in you.

Lord, would you break down our bubbles and our narratives to where we are boasting of ourselves?

Would you urge us forward to boast in you and boast in your salvation?

Would you convict us of the ways that we would attempt to bring about different gospels as well as would be normal in the Corinthian church?

That we would seek to either soften the blow or seek to harden the punch.

Let us let us have our eyes on you at all times and be glorified.

I thank you again for the salvation you offer us.

To you alone be glory, Jesus.

In your name.

Amen.