The Message of the Cross Divides
First B Jackson
2014-07-20

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Hey. Good morning, First B family. How are we doing? Good to see you all.

Good to see you. Why don't we stand up? We'll begin. We're worshiping song.

Hallelujah.

Let all things let all things their creator bless and worship him in humbledness.

From Psalm one forty seven one, how good to sing praises to our God. How delightful and how fitting. It is good to be here together. Let's just open up in prayer. God, we give you thanks for a new day.

I thank you God for creating us, for sustaining us, for loving us so much that you would come to Earth in a human form. Take our sin, die in our place, and make us right with with you through faith. That is that is a gift and so that alone just ought to to to make us really chime up and and be grateful and and so we want to just offer ourselves to you this morning and and give you praise. Amen. You can be seated.

Amen. Good morning. We're here. Welcome to First B. Glad y'all are here this morning and I've got a few announcements.

I think if Renzi put em up here.

So, do you remember our combined worship service that we had just a few weeks back? This is a follow-up to that, the family Sunday follow-up. And, here's what I'd like you to do. If you do have a phone and you're a family person or you just would like this right here, include your name, and what I'd like to do is just send out links to you via text message. They'd be family devotional ideas, verses of encouragement, YouTube, video links, articles, and marriage and family, things like that.

To just keep us encouraged here to live out our faith in our homes and making family worship a priority. And so if that's you and you go, I'd like that. Give me a text and I'll put you on a little list. I don't get obnoxious with text, I'll send them, every once in a while if I see something helpful and, and you can get that. So if you want to give it a text right now and then, in the back there are some resources that there's some devotionals.

I've got, a couple back there and again they're free and I want you just take them if you're a family person and you go, I don't have anything to read to my kids but I I want to to read them something and make family worship a priority in our home, grab those. They're free. Don't feel guilty about taking them. Just just take them. So does that sound good?

Alright. I hope to hear from you via text message. I've got a little YouTube video waiting for you with this pretty mug on it. Okay?

Carl just gave y'all permission to like take out your phones and text them right now. So Church. Yeah. Church. So, the connect connect commission actually is one of the service commissions of this church.

It's one of the purposes, one of the things that we do is connect one another fellowship among believers is important and the connect committee has a connect hour between services down the hall and the fellowship hall. There'll be coffee and usually donuts or pieces of donuts, fruit, and whatnot. So, but there's always conversation and people hanging out between services between ten and eleven. Monday nights at First B is happening on Monday nights at First B. We really are doing it here and on Monday nights now, 06:15 is meal, music, and a message and we're always, that sounds like it, we say it every single week.

Meal, music, message but Carl has a way of mixing this up and making it interesting. Last week, we had a guy who it was his very first week at Monday night and he made supper for everybody and it was delicious. Really, really good but he had committed during the week this week. He said, I'm going to get here and I'm going to get a part and it was his first Sunday on Sunday and when he heard about Monday nights, he said, I'll be here tomorrow and I'll help cook. So, among all the rest of you who helped set up chairs and wash the dishes and everything else.

Thank you for doing that but it is cool because when you can get in and get serving immediately, it just makes a difference. You get to know people quicker. Wednesday morning prayer time at 07:30 in the morning every Wednesday morning. This has been going on for years and years and years. So, Wednesday morning, 07:30.

Usually, in my office down the hall on the way to the fellowship hall. If it's not in my office, it'll be in the fellowship hall. Pretty easy to spot. Thank you. We're glad that you're here.

That's the last one for this morning. Would you all stand up and greet one another and then we'll bring you back together with a song.

I am not skilled to understand,

but God is will and God is plan. I only know in his right hand Christ died and saved me this sorry. And in my heart, I find a need For him to leave my savior

that he would leave his place on high and come sinful men to die. You count a strange sword instead of I before

I knew my

savior. My Savior loves, and my Savior lives, and my Savior's always there for me. My God, he was. My God, he is. My God, he's always gonna be.

My savior loves, my savior lives. My savior's always there for me. My God, he was. My God, he is. My God, he's always gonna be.

Yes. Living, dying, let me bring.

My strength, my soul is from the spring. And I can't live to be Before I knew my savior.

But my savior loves, my savior lives, my savior's always there for me. My God, he was. My God, he is. My God, he's always gonna be. My savior loves.

My savior lives. My savior's always there for me. My God, he was. My God, he is. My God, he's always gonna be.

Yes. Living, dying, let me pray.

A wind I survey the on

We're the whole round. Let's pray together. God, we we thank you. Thank you for this love. So amazing, so so divine.

It truly does demand our life, our soul, our all. And God, we confess. That's hard to do. That's hard to give. But God, it's possible.

It's possible because your Holy Spirit in us. So, we give you thanks. We God, we ask for the the strength and the courage and the wherewithal to follow you every day. Amen. You may be seated and I'll ask the the Frontline team to to come forward here as we participate in the worship of giving.

God so loved that he gave. That's one of my my my very favorite verses. God so loved that he gave. We serve a very generous God. We realize that he's he's good.

Would you agree? God is really good. He's generous. He's given freely and and really he sets the example for us. And so that's that's part of why we do this here.

So can we pray together and God, we do give you thanks. You have been extremely generous. You've created us. You've sustained us this far and God, we believe that you'll continue to do that all the days of our life and so, would you take these gifts, these offerings of ours and and and the heart that we have to give them, God. I pray that it would be pure and full of joy.

Not not giving grudgingly but really just in in reverence and awe and thankfulness and gratefulness for all you've done. We give in Christ's name. Amen.

Who am I at the Lord and Vogueer? Would care to know my name? Of my ever wondering heart.

And not because of who I am,

but because of what you've done. And watch me rise again.

Who am I? That dumb voice that calm the sea will call out through the rain and

calm the storm in me. And not because of who I am, but because of what you've done. Not because of what I've done, but because of who you are.

I am because I would quickly fade

and eat a dingo tomorrow

So, I, last week, had lots of maps and illustrations and pictures and unintentional puns and all kinds of sorts of stuff to keep things lively and interesting. This week, it's mostly text. Mostly, it's just going to be text on the screen. We don't have a whole lot of visuals this week because it is straight up didactic teaching from Paul and when that gets to be the case, it can be easy to not. I will, if I need to, do jumping jacks or get you all to stand up and stretch in the middle of this but I don't think you're going to need it really.

First Corinthians 118 through two five is the text for the morning. There is a Bible in front of you too if you want to see it but it'll be on the screens. We'll go through it just like we always do. A little bit at a time and try to digest what we're taking in. But I do want to say something before I start.

This cross right here and the crosses that some of you may be wearing on your necklaces or your earrings and all that to us is a symbol of our allegiance with Christ. Heck, there are a lot of people that have crosses that's not really a symbol of Christ, it's just something cool. Tattoos and whatnot that they have that it's cool because it is a powerful symbol, and some people just see it as a power symbol. But if you will think back to first century Corinth that we discussed last week with the aqueduct and the promiscuity and the riches and the wealth and everything else, if you think back to them being under Roman rule, the cross is the death penalty. The cross is like the electric chair or the hangman's noose or the guillotine in France.

It is offensive. It is not something that is just something pretty that we have kind of as one of our decorations. The cross is an offense. It is a big deal and it's something that they see as what? The cross.

That makes no sense. So, I want you to think of the cross. Try to put yourself in that perspective. I'm glad that you've come to embrace it. I think that you should show it.

That's fine but at the same time, you need to put yourself in the mindset that this is like the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. This is like grainy black and white photos of the death camp at Auschwitz. It is something that has a depth there that stirs people and so for us to just start off and say the cross, from our perspective of the cross, doesn't make as much sense. I don't usually like to manipulate feelings but you gotta see this that it is a it's an offense. It's a big deal.

So, I want you to see that before we start. There are three paragraphs that we're gonna cover and it is, first of all, the foolishness of the cross and I should probably have put foolishness in the quotes. They can't they don't put quotes in Old Testament in Old Text in Greek. None of the uncials or the manuscripts or any papyri have quotes on them, but the foolishness of the cross is the first part. The next paragraph is on the converts of the cross, those that have been called and who responded to that call, the converts of the cross, and then the third is the proclaimers of the cross.

This sounds so far like a baptist sermon. There are three points right there. I probably won't refer to those again. That has nothing to do with the rest of the sermon, but if you need it, it's the foolishness of the cross first, and then the converts of the cross, and then the proclaimers. That's what these go, but they all follow-up under a topic sentence, which we'll get to next.

But like I said, I like wordplay, and in the Greek, there's some wordplay between the last verse I shared last week which was one seventeen and I said, if you want to know more about this, tune in next week. So, one seventeen B says, Christ called Paul to be an apostle that he said that to begin with and the the rest of the verse says, he did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross should be made of no effect. When he says not with wisdom of words, it's two words. Boom. Boom.

Right back to back. Wisdom of words. And then this is the next thing. For the message of the cross, actually, it's for the word of the cross, and so he's doing a a turnaround. He's kinda going, not with the words of wisdom, but words of the cross.

And it's a rhetorical feature where he's switching channels. He's saying, these are in direct opposition to each other. They go against one another. And we'll see that because this is his top his thesis sentence, we'll say. When you were in high school or wherever you learn it, fifth grade, fourth grade, when you learned to write a paragraph, you wrote a thesis sentence and that sums up what the paragraph will say and then you go from there.

Or it might be a thesis sentence for several paragraphs. This one covers everything we'll talk about today and it is really one point to this message. There's one point to this message. The message of the cross, the message of this heinous thing. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But direct disjunctive. It's like a conjunction but it's a disjunctive. It is completely opposite but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Amen. Lord, would you please illumine what it is you'd have us take away today and see that your wisdom and the world's wisdom are not the same.

Never the twain shall meet, lord. Would you show us what that means today? In Jesus name, amen. So that's Paul's thesis sentence. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God, which this is simple drawing.

The message of the cross divides people into two groups. Now if you think about Corinth, like I said last week, they had several, they were an emerging middle class, they had several different divisions. They had slave and free, roughly 52% they say, 50 something percent, just over half were slaves. 50 something percent slave, 50% free, about. They had men and women, fifty fifty there too.

They had Scythians, barbarians, Greeks, Jews, some Jews. They had lots of different kinds of people that were represented in Corinth, but Paul breaks it down for him and says, the message of the cross divides you into only two parties and you can be any of those other things and fall into one of these two and those are the only two. To those who are perishing, which is an active verb, you're in the process of dying. You are perishing. It's an active verb.

It's active on the part of the participant. To those who are actively perishing, and then to those who are being saved. To the ones who are being saved, that's a passive verb. You can't save yourself. He says that in his opening, in the thesis sentence.

To those who are being saved, someone else is saving them, God is saving them, to those who are being saved. Those are the two groups. There are those who are perishing and those who are being saved. And if you look at what they take the message of the cross to be, they take it as foolishness or they take it as the power of God. Now, are those completely opposite things?

They're completely opposite things. One eighteen, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved. That's it. One, two. Two types of people, that's all.

For it is written, he goes on, now he's proven his thesis statement here by backing it up with scriptural support. Now Paul was a student of the Old Testament scriptures. Some of these guys might have been, but it's not highly likely, but it still matters because it's still the truth. When he presents it at the synagogue, he would have gone all over Isaiah and Jeremiah and all others, Amos, and who knows where else? But when he's presenting it to them, he still presents it because it's still truth.

If you look back in Acts 17 when he spoke to the Epicureans and Stoics, he had tried this tack of using their own poets and using their own arguments with them and he was well learned. He knew all about Old Testament. He knew about Judaism. He knew about things past and he knew a lot about poetry and philosophy and everything else and he would argue from any position. He says so but he's breaking it down very very clearly for the Corinthians and saying there are two groups.

The message of cross is where it happens. The division is at the message of the cross. And then he backs it up with Old Testament support. Like I said, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. That's a thus saith the Lord from Isaiah.

Thus saith the Lord, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. That's the New King James version of the Bible if you're wondering and this is Isaiah twenty nine fourteen which is that direct quote from the New King James. It says, therefore, behold, this is the Lord speaking. I will again do a marvelous work among this people. A marvelous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.

So Paul is taking what he knows to be true and he's sharing it with these folks in Corinth. Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me? Does anybody know what solipsistic means? That would kill at a philosophy convention. Actually, kills anywhere because solipsistic is our natural state.

We all are born with a solipsistic worldview. Solipsistic means of or having to do with me, me being the center. And we all are born that way. Do you think that you're not? Does anybody think you're not born self centered?

We all know that. If I were to put up here a picture of your fifth grade class, it's your whole fifth grade class, they're 20, 30, 40, 57, whatever, you might have gone to school in Kelly, I don't know. If you have your whole class up there, where would your eye go first? To myself. How many of y'all have ever lost an argument?

I have lost an argument. I've lost lots of I'm married to Tanya. I lose arguments all the time. Tanya is right. No.

I'm just kidding. I I that is actually true, but I am kidding. I I heard DA Carson one time say that he's lost a lot of arguments over the time, and he is a scholar, a gentleman, a theologian, a wonderful pastor and preacher, but he said, I've lost arguments. And he said, but when I go home at night and I think about that argument, I think about, oh, if I had said this, oh, this is the right verse to prove that. I should have stopped in there.

I never should have let that go. That was a fallacy argument on his part. He said, I've lost many an argument, but I've never lost the rerun. After you've had the chance to Monday morning quarterback it, you figure it out. He still thinks he's right.

He lost the argument but he still thinks he's right. I still think I'm right after an argument sometimes too because we only see things from our own perspective. Now, if we do that, think about the devil. The devil says, I will make myself like the most high. I will elevate myself and that original sin that got him thrown out of heaven which he has passed on to Adam by thinking, you need to know this.

You need to know the difference in good and evil. God doesn't want you to know this. You need to know this and Adam and Eve both wanting to elevate themselves and raising themselves up knowing better than God because I can only see things from my own perspective, solipsistic view, that gets us in trouble. It is the original sin of pride and self. And so if it's if we see things only from our own perspective, we will be damned and that's the truth.

So,

when he

gets to this point, after quoting from Isaiah, he says, where is the wise? Now, in Athens, 50 miles away where he had been in the last chapter of Acts 17, This is in Acts 18, his time with the Corinthians. He said, where is the wise? Well, the Epicureans were set up as wise in Athens, and the Stoics were set up as wise. In our day, it may be the postmoderns.

We are so pluralistic that we don't even know who the wise are. But we'll have experts on the learning channel. We'll have people that are Spinozan philosopher. There'll be people that are Kantian that follow Immanuel Kant. There'll be people that follow different philosophies and philosophers.

Where is the wise? And if you examine it and you think about it, you go, where would they ever come up with the cross? Naturally speaking, from their own solipsistic view, how do I get out of this? People have either fallen into two camps over the years. Either man is elevated above all and he is the end all thinking.

Secular humanism tells us that it is within in us that we are good, naturally, born good, and we are elevated above all above all creatures, and our knowledge is paramount. And then there there are other religions and other philosophies that say, we are a worm. We are lowly. The truth that Christianity points out is that both of those things are true. We are elevated above all other creatures because we're created in the image of God and we are lowly because we have the capacity to choose him and we don't.

So we are both lowly and uplifted but you don't get to that by Epicurean thought and you don't get to that by stoic thought and you don't get to that by human secular thought. You don't get to it by the philosophies of this world. You will never arrive at the cross by trying to figure it out. This is what Paul's point is. The message of the cross will be foolishness if you look at it from the eyes of the world, but it'll be the power of God if you will just accept it through faith.

Where is the scribe? The scribe at that time would have been somebody who writes the scriptures, who writes things down, the theologians were constantly copying scriptures, taking them in. Where is the scribe? Where is one who is paying attention? And where is the disputer of this age?

These are all rhetorical questions, obviously. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? What he's saying is you're not going to arrive at this by disputation and there are plenty of people disputing in this age, right? Tons of em disputing against the existence of God, against the existence of morality in general, even of truth. That truth even exist.

My goodness. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Let's back up to that underlying part.

In the wisdom of God, let's consider for a moment that God is what he says he is. He is the creator of the universe. In the wisdom of God, he's the creator of the universe. He is the intelligent designer. It's in his wisdom that he gets to set the rules.

Right? When he spun this earth on its axis, he's the one who did it. He's the one who said how fast it would go and for how long. In the wisdom of God, the the world through wisdom did not know God. He's saying, you cannot come to this just by your own human reason.

And that's what set a lot of people in enlightenment thinking. It set a lot of people on a spiral path that they wanted some of them set out to prove the existence of God, and then they got into this loop. They could've read right here that you're not going to find it that way. It does not come from the wisdom of men. It does not come from your reasoning.

I do believe it's reasonable. From the backside of the cross, it's perfectly reasonable. It's an moment crossing over but you're not gonna arrive that without faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. So the world through wisdom did not know God.

What if God had said, okay, everybody with an IQ of over 117 gets in. That's the wisdom of this world. Right? He didn't do that. A child can understand the gospel.

You have done things that are wrong. Uh-huh. Jesus did not ever do anything wrong. Really? That must have been hard, but he didn't.

And you know what? His clean slate, he wants to give that to you if you'll just admit it and turn to him. I want to do that. It's that simple. I want that clean slate.

I don't want to do anything wrong. I want him to help me when I'm starting to do some stuff wrong. I don't want to pay the penalty for my sin. I don't want to I don't want to do that. I I trust that if he did that, I want to do that.

If you seek after him, you'll find it. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. As a preacher, a fairly new preacher, I love the foolishness of preaching. I love that he mentioned it that way. Now, I know that probably needs quotes too.

The foolishness of preaching. What is preaching and proclamation are the same word and Paul has one message. He's like Billy Graham. One message. It's the same message.

The message of the cross divides people into two classes. One of em, those who are perishing and one of em those who are being saved. God through the foolishness of message preached to save those who believe. And then he goes on to say, for Jews request a sign. Did the Jews request signs?

Did they get them? Yes. For crying out loud. And what did they cry for? More signs.

Even as Jesus is on the cross, he said, if you will take yourself down from there, then it's always an if then. There's a you do this and then we'll do that. Well, what's to say? He takes himself down from the cross. Well, was good for today.

What are gonna do today for me? What are you gonna do for me now? That's not the walk of faith. That is the walk of sight, and we're justified by faith. The just will walk by faith and not by sight.

The Jews request a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom which is true of the Greeks. We look back to the ancient Greeks anytime that we're studying anything because they have considered it all. Philosophy of the ancient Greeks was a an amazing system. The way that they went through things very methodically and they're seeking after wisdom and then Paul says and this is why I mentioned the offensive nature of the cross at the beginning. We preach or we are proclaiming Christ who is the Messiah, the king, the anointed one, the holy, the good, everything great.

Military leader is what they had built it up in their minds to think he was gonna be from all of the prophecies. They thought, whoo. He's finally gonna whip Rome or whoever was over them in the thousand years previous. The Messiah is coming and he's gonna whip them off. We're gonna be the big cat.

Finally, we get to be on the side of the one who wins. But we preach Christ. Amen. Crucified. Woah.

I don't know about that. The Jews would say, uh-uh. Anointed king, messiah, messiah? No. For me, as a Jew, that would be a stumbling block.

I can't get my mind wrapped around how that works. He's supposed to be a king, a mighty man like David, but crucified. So for the Jews that became a stumbling block, what they were looking for is a sign, what they get is a stumbling block. Now was that stumbling block the sign? Yes.

It was the sign that they were looking for if they would just open their eyes to see it. The Greeks are seeking after wisdom and what do they get? That's foolishness. Have you all ever talked to anybody, just a friend, maybe a classmate, somebody that is just hanging out with you and they say, what are you going to church on Sunday? Yeah.

Why? Well, because I want to be a part of the body of Christ. I mean, we believe that Jesus died for sins. That's ridiculous. What difference does it make to you if a first century Jew died outside the wall of Jerusalem?

What can that do for you? That's ridiculous. Foolishness. Have you had that response before? Maybe if someone be would be so bold in our in our polite, pluralistic, tolerant society.

Wisdom, they get foolishness and we still get it today. People say, no, I've looked through everything and I really like Ayn Rand, or I really like Immanuel Kant, or I really like Rene Descartes. I don't know. Rene Descartes. You know who Rene Descartes is?

I think therefore I am, Cogito ergo sum. He's one of those philosophers that spins it and spins it and spins it. I think in an honest approach to try to find out God. He started that way, and it finally fried his brain. You know what I mean?

He just keeps on going, I think therefore I am. Time is it? Renee Descartes walks into a bar. Sorry. Y'all need a lift.

You can stretch if you want to. Stand up. Renee Descartes walks into a bar and he says to the bartender, he says, I want seven drinks. And so after the seven drinks, he says, give me another. And he says, sir, I will not serve you another.

I think you are drunk. I think not. Poof. He disappeared. Sorry.

Sorry. Okay. We'll get back to the lesson. Wisdom foolishness, that's that's to give you a comparison right there. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, it's open to everybody to those who are called and is he calling?

He's calling. The message of the cross. If I be lifted up, I will raise all men unto myself. Those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. That's what they get.

The power of God is the power that transforms lives. It is what has alcoholics sit down to drink. It is what have drug addicts sit down the drugs. It's what have proud people humbled or humbled. The transforming power of God is what makes for a new creation.

Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God and the wisdom of God supersedes the wisdom of man. He goes on to say, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. I put this on its own slide for a reason. This one's hard understand especially in context of a bunch of different scriptures. The foolishness of God is wiser than men.

So, the way that you could think about this and it's wrong and I'm trying to alleviate that right now. God is super smart, but he also does some things that aren't as smart. No. God is super smart. He is omniscient.

Omniscient is he is all knowing. So he doesn't do anything that's foolishness. But from your manner of looking, some things that God does may appear to be foolish. So the foolishness of God, in quotes, the foolishness of God is wiser than men's wisdom is what it actually says than the wisdom of men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, is God weak or is God strong?

God is strong. He's omnipotent. He is all strong. The weakness of God. Where do you get that?

Well, the weakness of God. I'm going to flip forward through a few slides to get to another. There's a quote by this guy named Celsus. Have you ever come up against somebody that says, I don't know why you would even bother to go to church. It's just for like stupid people.

It's just for people that can't think for themselves. They're sheep. They say they're sheep. Have you had it ever run-in anybody like that? This is what Celsus who is writing not long after this.

It was one hundred years later or less after this. He says, the following are the rules laid down by them, meaning Christians. Let no one come to us who has been instructed or who is wise or prudent for such qualifications are deemed evil by us, Christians. But if there be any ignorant or unintelligent or uninstructed or foolish persons, let them come with confidence by which words, acknowledging that such individuals are worthy of their God, they manifestly show that they desire and are able to gain over only the silly and the mean, like mean is average, and the stupid with women and children. That says what the wisdom of the Greeks was telling them.

This is what the wisdom of the Greeks comes up with. This is a wise philosopher that came up with this and he puts silly, average, stupid, women, and children all in the same group and that's the only people that they can win and actually, today, in missions, a lot of times in new countries when people start witnessing in the community, it is often children and women that come first and it takes forever to get men interested. We'll see why in just a minute. What do we trust in? We trust in our power.

We trust in our money and we trust in our wisdom because why? Because we're solipsistic solipsistic. We can only see things from our point of view. Let me see. Where are we now?

Yes. For you see, your calling brothers and sisters, you see your calling brothers that not many wise according to the flesh and not many mighty and not many noble are called. It says not many. It doesn't say not any. In fact, I should have put a slide in there.

It would have been one picture in the whole bunch. The picture is of a piece of concrete. It looks like concrete. A piece of stone that they had carved that says, Erastus on it. Erastus will be addressed later on in this book and I'll put the picture in there then but he was a patron and he was somebody who was fairly well up in the government and says so.

Not many. It's not not any. It's not impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's not impossible for a wise man to accept something by faith, and it's not impossible for a powerful person to admit their weakness, but it doesn't happen as often as it does someone who knows that they're broke and knows that they are powerless and knows that they are not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised.

God has chosen and the things which are not to bring or the things that are not of nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. That's a quote. Actually, it's not an direct quote. He's taken the information that he already knows from his study of the Old Testament and he's processing it for this group. So, if you look at that, he talks about the wise, the mighty, and the rich and this is from Jeremiah nine twenty three twenty four.

Forecasting the time of the Messiah. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glories or him who boast boast or glory in this that he understands and knows me. To know him is to love him.

He understands and knows me that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgement, and righteousness in the earth. For in these, I delight. Loving kindness, judgement, and righteousness. He's saying glory in the fact that you know me, that you trust my wisdom over your own wisdom. But God has chosen the foolish things.

I already read that. The last thing says, so that no flesh should glory in his presence. Y'all remember Ephesians two eight and nine? Two eight and nine? All y'all are watering volunteers.

You all know it. For it is by grace that we're saved through faith and that not of ourselves so that no one can boast before God. Nobody's going to get into heaven and go, I discovered planet so and so because I did the mathematical equations and figured out that the shadow of so and so, it's not going to be like that. It's not going to be because they're smart. It's not going to be because they're powerful.

It's not become going to be because of noble birth. It's only going to be because they have accepted what he has told them. They have taken the message of the cross and believed it. That no flesh should glory in his presence. And he follows that up with saying, but of him, you are in Christ Jesus.

I actually like the New American Standard Version because the but of him is a weird construction to me. New American Standard says, but by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus. But by his doing, it's not of man so that no one can boast. Of his doing, you are in Christ Jesus who made who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. So that just as it is written, let him who boast or let him who glories glory in the Lord.

That's that quote of nine twenty four like I just mentioned and then this righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That is the wisdom from God in Christ Jesus. Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The wisdom of God. These are all three are available through means of the cross and they are only available through means of the cross.

The righteous standard which God requires, only one person could meet. He did not deserve death but he voluntarily took it on. It is his righteousness that we receive when we believe that he acted that way on our behalf. So the righteousness of God is satisfied with a just person dying in our place. Substitutionary atonement covers the righteousness of God.

Sanctification. Almost all problems of sanctification have something to do with our solipsistic selves and our pride. The sanctification process of humbling ourself and esteeming others as better. Jesus was actually better than everyone but through his obedience to death on a cross, humbled himself, showed us the way, and that's what we usually need to have to be sanctified. When you open yourself up humbly before God, he will begin to sanctify and use you.

If you think you've got it all figured out, make sure it's his wisdom and not your wisdom because you probably don't have it all figured out and redemption. At this time, where it's half slave and half free, how do you get out of slavery? Redemption. Somebody pays the way for you to make it out of slavery. Jesus did that.

Slavery to sin is ended with the cross. Alright. Y'all need to stretch? Anybody? Everybody, it's a lot of text, no pictures.

We got six minutes left. But of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption that as it's written. He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. What do we tend to glory in? Social skills including being good looking.

That's a social skill. Like, you you don't get to choose it always, but social skills is what people tend to glory in. Oh, that guy's great. He's lovely. Political skills.

We have power. We have the ability to manipulate other people. Political skills. And then intellectual skills. Dude, that guy's smart.

He's really smart. I'm really smart. We tend to glory in one of these three things and that's what Paul hits over and over. Celsus, we already read that. I think it's funny that they that when people fall off of what's true, they fall off either on one side or another.

Oh, Christianity just keeps women down. Oh, they keep women down but this is what the world says about it, you know? Oh, they elevate just the imbeciles in another place. Celsus said that. Or they they fall off on the opposite extreme, which I can't think of right now.

First Corinthians two one through five. Now, is the part that's about the proclaiming. We've already been through the foolishness of the cross and the converts to the cross. It's those who are believing or those who are being saved or who have believed or those being saved. Corinth, first Corinthians two one through five says, and I, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony.

Actually, in a lot of manuscripts, it says, mystery, testimony, or mystery either way but it's the testimony or mystery. I want to admit that of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, like I said, Paul had argued before the Epicureans and the Stoics. He had argued for before different philosophies using their own means, methods, and some of their own quotes but what he was saying is when I got to Corinth, I decided it's just the cross.

This is what I'm going to preach and this is where I'm going to make my stand is at the cross. I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now literally, did he just, no, no, no, I won't listen to anything. I'm just gonna preach the cross. No.

He's got a brain. He's got a mind, and he doesn't mind using it. You can see it all over his works. He's a very intelligent guy, and he encourages people to love God with their mind. But he says, keep this the sinner.

The cross must be the sinner. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Where had he come from right before he got to Corinth? Philippi, beaten, jailed, beaten, stayed in jail, released from jail. Philippian Jabular gets saved.

Thessalonica had to leave in the middle of the night, dragged out through the streets, and everybody he left behind was being punished because he had been there. On down to Athens, then across. I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling when I was there with you. That's the way it was. It wasn't like I was standing up in my toga in the academy with my hand held high like these sculptures and saying, oh, I'm wonderful and I have a silver tongue and you should listen to me and I've got it all figured out.

He said, no. I didn't have it figured out. I was there and thought I had it figured out, but then God removed the scales from my eyes and it was all about the cross. I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling, my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men. You shouldn't ascribe to a certain philosophy, but in the power of God.

I thought of this because this week I use this verse and I often use this verse. When somebody's got something in their mind that's recurrent thought that comes up. A lot of times we think if it's not nice thoughts or if it's ugly thoughts or if it's repetitive destructive thought, you just think you gotta take that thought captive. And that's the short hand in Christian circles is, whoo. You gotta just start taking that thought captive.

This is where it comes from. It's second Corinthians, same group of people, a little later on. Ten five, it says, we are destroying speculations. What is philosophy? It is speculation.

They have nothing to go on except for what's in between their ears. Nothing. You can look at evidence and come up with different theories, but it's speculative, and you have to admit that. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing. There are lots of philosophies that claim to be lofty.

Pluralism itself claims to be lofty. We should tolerate everyone. We should tolerate everyone As we're witnessing to them about the way that they can live forever with Jesus. We should. It's a lofty thing to respect others.

Granted. But we're destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God because that's what it is. If it is the wisdom of the world, it is against the knowledge of God. And we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And what is the obedience of Christ?

This, the cross. It is the humbling of himself before God walking each day a perfect life and dying the perfect death that could be offered. And I, brethren, are we? I was with you, my speech, power of God. That's it.

Demonstration of the spirit and of power, the Holy Spirit, and of power that is transforming power of God and that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God and I think it gets back to this, the message of the cross. One point sermon. The message of the cross is this, for those of you who are believing, who believe, you're those who are being saved and it is the power of God but to those who are perishing, it is foolishness. I'm gonna bring up something that I didn't bring up in the first service. If somebody thinks that it's foolishness, but they see how you live your life and it is sufficiently different from the way the world lives their life, they will be inquisitive, and they will wonder and you can point to.

There is no philosophy about it but the cross because God did this for me, I must do this for him. This is the way that I live and I love it. Alright. I think that that is the end of the sermon officially. I do want to read one thing and it's rather lengthy but I read lots of philosophy this week I want you all to hear this.

So, Blaise Pascal is a he was a French philosopher and he also became a Christian. When he was doing all his spinning, he didn't land with the wisdom of the world. He systematically sought out God consciously. He even Pascal's wager is, if you think that there might be a god, it would behoove you to live like there is one so that in hopes that he might one day convert you. That's Pascal's wager.

Look it up on Wikipedia. It's pretty fun. Pascal said this, this is also three paragraphs. Bear with me. I do not mean that you should this is God speaking in Pascal's thoughts.

Pensees is the name of this book. I do not mean that you should submit your belief to me without reason. I do not aspire to overcome you by tyranny. In fact, I do not claim to give you a reason for everything. And to reconcile these contradictions, I intend to make you see clearly by convincing proofs those divine signs in me which may convince you of what I am and may gain authority for me by wonders and proof which you cannot reject so that you may then believe without.

The things which I teach you, since you will find no other ground for rejecting them except that you cannot know of yourselves if they are true or not. What he's saying in that paragraph is that there is no ontological proof of God. I affirm that. You cannot prove that God exist. Nobody else can prove that he doesn't either.

It is faith. By faith, God has willed to redeem men and to open salvation to those who seek it. But men render themselves so unworthy of it that it is right that God should refuse to some because of their obduracy, their hard headedness, what he what he grants freely by grace to others from a compassion which is not due to them. If he had willed to overcome their obstinacy of the most hardened, he could have done so. He didn't.

He could have done so by revealing himself so manifestly to them that they could not have doubted of the truth of his essence as it will appear at the last day. With such thunders and such a convulsion of nature that the dead will rise again and the blindness will see him. Do you get that? He could have shown them that while he was here. It was not God's way to do that.

He could have and on the day of the Lord, they will know. No doubt about it. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the father. So, last paragraph.

It is not in this matter that he has willed to appear in his advent of mercy. He did not want to show himself like that in this advent of mercy because as so many make themselves unworthy of his mercy, he has will to leave them in the loss of the good which they do not want. You can choose one side or the other of that cross. It was not then right that he should appear in a manner manifestly divine and completely capable of convincing all men but it was also not right that he should come and so hidden a manner that he could not be known by those who should sincerely seek him. He has willed to make himself quite recognizable by those and thus willing to appear openly to those who seek him with all their heart and to be hidden from those who flee him with all their heart.

He so regulates the knowledge of himself. The wisdom of God is what we've been talking about. He so regulates the knowledge of himself that he has given signs of himself, visible to those who seek him and not to those who seek him not. There is enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition. The message of the cross is true and it divides all humanity into two groups.

Those who are perishing and those who are being saved. Would you stand with us?

Let's pray together. God, if we're to boast in anything today, may it be your wisdom and not ours. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Now, may the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and may you wish Wally Kaufman a happy birthday on the way out the door. Go in peace.