This is a great text. You'll
notice in verse 17, it begins with a far, and that tells us
that it has some connection and some explanation with that that's
gone before. So we're breaking in the middle,
but we have to do that because of the length of this section. So, in verse 17 to verse 24,
Christ crucified. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified, under the Jews a stumbling block, and under
the Greeks foolishness. but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God." Look at verse 21 again, by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe, and verse 23, we preach Christ crucified. Now, as one reads the first epistle
unto the Corinthians, and as it unfolds before us, and as
it does, we can see the reason for Paul writing this letter
unto the Corinthian church. And that was the condition of
the church at that particular time. It was a troubled church,
it was a confused church, and it had several issues, and they
didn't diminish the spirituality of that church, and so Paul writes
to them and takes up those issues one at a time. Now, the first
issue that he takes up is their party spirit and their division
concerning their minister. Or they had partied themselves
off in groups after this minister and another after that. Some
of them said, I'm a Paul. Others said, I am of the eloquent
one, Apollos. Others said, I am of Cephas,
and so on. And some of them even said, I'm
undenominational. I am of Christ. Now Paul discusses
this at length in the opening of this great epistle. And in
doing so, he comes to defending his manner of preaching the gospel
of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But here at verse 17,
he digresses, if I may use that term, he digresses for a time
and he addresses a certain issue for a time and stays with it
for a while in the epistle. And that is the matter of wisdom
in connection with the preaching of the gospel. Some commentators
think that there were those there in Corinth that criticized Paul
for his lack of eloquence in his public speaking, and for
his part, not speaking from a standpoint of wisdom, and that they were
critical of him, that he was not more eloquent in his speech,
that he was not more philosophical, which they liked and desired
to hear, For some of them there held a very high opinion of wisdom,
of the wisdom of men, of the learning of men, of the culture
of men, and of the wisdom of this world. And those people
craved eloquent and clever speech from those that would minister
unto them, having what J.B. Lange called in his commentary,
quote, an inordinate estimate of human wisdom, unquote. An inordinate, a too high estimate
of human wisdom. By wisdom of words. Calvin understood that to mean
that which consists in a skillful choice and arrangement of words
and of phrases, and a finesse of style that charmed those that
heard, rather than them have their attention upon the message. And the Corinthians had itching
ears for high sounding talk and clever speech. So Paul seeks
to separate them from that and show them the uselessness of
it. And that there is a wisdom in
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and wisdom abundantly
in the preaching of the cross if one has ears to hear it. Now, in our text, Paul lays out
here a very strong case why he avoided the preaching of wisdom
in declaring the gospel, why he did not use the wisdom of
man, why he did not appeal to the wisdom of the world. And
here are some of the reasons that he gives. First of all,
in chapter one and verse 17, We read it, so as not to make
the cross of Christ of none effect, or to make it void, or I think
the word probably is to make it empty, vain, and to have none
effect. Some say that it is from an old
verb that literally means to make it empty. We must not bury
the preaching of the cross under the bushel of empty rhetoric
of men or a preacher. The beauty of Christ must not
be buried or it must not be obscured by the skill of the orator who
brings or delivers the message. But there's a second one, and
we notice it in verse 19. He did not appeal to the wisdom
of the world because in Isaiah 29 and verse 14, it was written
that God will take away the sound judgment and the intelligence
from the leaders of the nation. Even so, says Paul, God will
bring to nothing the wisdom of men as having any influence on
the saving of sinners or upon their comprehending the gospel. That the wisdom of the world
will not aid their comprehending of the gospel. Their teachers
and their rabbis and their scribes would be ignorant of the gospel,
and so they were. Matthew 11 and verse 25 and 26. But there's a third reason. We
find that in the 26th verse of the first chapter. That is, they
should notice. They should look around. They
should glare out upon their congregation and they would see. Not many
wise men were among those who had been called by the gospel
into the grace of God. Look out among you, he said,
how that not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble. Not the
high ups of the world are they that are called by God through
the gospel. And especially in their day,
it was more the common folk that were affected and received the
gospel. But then there's a fourth reason
why. And it's over in chapter 2 and verse 2. He came among
them determined not to preach anything but the Lord and Savior
Christ and Him crucified. There's a final one. It's in
chapter 2 and verse 5. He would have their faith not
to stand in the wisdom of men, or the skill of their oratory,
or in the eloquence of their preaching, but in the demonstration
of the Spirit and power of God. He would have them to know that
it was not the preacher that convinced them or that turned
them, but it was the Spirit of God and the message of God. And I think from that we can
take a lesson that we ought to beware of the silver-tongued
legalist or deceiver that might come among the people of God. Now, as to why Paul did not preach
the wisdom of men, chapter 1, verse 17, his main mission from
Christ was to preach the gospel, or what he calls also the cross,
and that by reason, or in Acts 9, verse 15, He is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles, before the kings
of the earth, and before the children of Israel. Paul would
write in Galatians chapter 1 verse 15 and 16, that God separated
me from my mother's womb, call me by his grace that he might
reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen. So Paul minister, apostle, ambassador
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His calling to preach, to be
a herald, to be a gospeler for the Lord Jesus Christ. Robertson
put it this way in his word studies in the New Testament, quote,
preaching was Paul's forte, unquote, or Paul's strong point. Preaching was the strong point
of Paul, to preach, to proclaim, to announce, to declare, and
that Christ crucified upon the cross. The essence of his preaching
is summed up in what we call the gospel, the good news or
the glad tidings of Christ our Lord. And the golden kernel in
the gospel is the death, the crucifixion, the suffering, and
the death of our Lord. The sum and the substance of
the gospel is the good news that Christ died, that he died for
our sin, that he lay in the grave three days and three nights and
then has overcome death and that he lives again evermore to make
intercession for his blessed elect. Hence the related words
of Paul, preach gospel and Christ. And coming back to the contrast
between the wisdom of the world and the preaching of the gospel,
we must understand that Paul condemns neither learning nor
eloquent preaching in themselves unless and until they obscure
the gospel or they charm the people away from the glory and
the simplicity of Christ crucified, that is, the gospel. His point
is Worldly wisdom has been tried. Worldly wisdom has been tested. Worldly wisdom has been proven
to be not only powerless to save, but at many places in time an
actual stumbling block to those that trust in it rather than
in the gospel. Now, let me make a very quick
point, and then we'll be again on our way. There are many people
today who counted a shame and a loss that the so-called greatest
minds and the highest educated of our day are not employed in
the spread of Christianity, because they covet human intelligence
as if it had a better grasping of the truth of God and at explaining
it unto others, which of course is not the case. Ignorant and
unlearned, Peter and John preach the gospel with power. But now we're coming to verse
21. Let's look at it again. after that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now this following,
up on verse 19, and 20, that there was a display in the wisdom
of God in his former dealings with mankind from of old, meaning
either in creation that is manifested the power and the wisdom of God,
or in giving the human family century after century after century
in which by their own wisdom they could not discern or come
to a knowledge or an understanding of the things of God. In fact,
in Romans 1 and verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools. Now, again, compare the modern
world. The more educated than ever it
has been are the people. Ever learning, but as Paul said,
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 7. What did God do when wisdom did
not prove, the wisdom of men, the wisdom of the world did not
prove effective to bring men to the knowledge and the worship
of God? It pleased God, on the other
hand, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now, not foolish preaching, which
we have a lot of, but the foolishness of preaching. For you see, the
message of the gospel, the message of the cross, is held in contempt
is an insult to both the Jew and the Gentile. Or in verse
18, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. 22nd verse, the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Now this shows the blindness
of both people, Jew and Gentile, yea, of the whole world. For consider, The Jews of our
Lord's generation, those that lived in that time among whom
he dwell, saw the greatest manifestation and the greatest number of miracles
ever done by a servant of God. In fact, the Jews had a history
of miracles done by their great prophet. Prophets like Moses
in that generation. The great works done in and through
Moses. In the time of Elisha and Elijah. Those great miracles that were
wrought among them. In fact, the apostle Peter reminds
them on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2 and verse 2, Jesus
of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by signs and miracles
and wonders, which God did by him in the midst of you, even
as ye yourself also know. Jesus did many, countless miracles
among the Jew in their midst, in their sight, in their hearing. And what did they do? Answer,
they crucified him in the face of his miracles, his wonders,
his signs, and his power. He had the credentials of the
Messiah by His great works, and yet they crucified Him. Then
think of the wisdom-loving Greeks. Was there ever a greater display
of wisdom than that by which God purposed to reconcile sinners
unto himself, saving the guilty by providing a substitutionary
one to bear their sin and to die in their place? So says Paul. We preach Christ crucified. In face of all of that, we preach
Christ crucified. Now let me speak negatively here
just for a minute. We preach Christ not as a reformer. We do not preach him as one coming
to reform something. We do not preach Christ as a
social worker. We do not preach Christ as a
community organizer. We do not preach Christ as a
philosopher, nor as a martyr, nor as a misunderstood teacher. We preach Christ crucified, Christ
put to death upon the cross. Christ crucified after the manner
of the Romans, not stoning as was the manner of the Jew, but
the death of the cross as was the manner of the Gentiles or
Romans. Now, such crucifixions were common
and they were frequent in the Roman Empire. In fact, there
were two crucified with our Lord, one on either side of him. Those two died for their own
crime and for their own sin being malfactored. One of them even
confessed before he died in Luke chapter 23 and 41, we are receiving
the due reward of our deeds, but this man, speaking of Jesus,
had done nothing amiss. And their crucifixion was of
no benefit unto any other, unless it deter someone from a life
of crime or following in their way. But Christ crucified the
man on the middle cross. But he was numbered with a transgressor. Isaiah 53 and verse 12 predicted
he would be numbered with a transgressor. And Matthew 15 and 38 recorded
that it came to pass. This shows the kind of death
that he died. And Paul in Philippians chapter
2 and verse 8 calls it even the death of the cross, not just
the death of the cross and not just death, but even the death
of the cross, the most painful of any form of death, the most
shameful of any ever devised until that time. Under Roman
law, this manner of death was reserved mostly for slaves and
the vilest offenders against the kingdom. It was painful and
it was shameful. It was done before the public. It was done as a public spectacle. And the one to be crucified was
stripped of their clothes, fastened upon a stake, and mocked and
jeered for those that passed by having a lust for blood. And the Lord was hanged. to enhance
his shame between two criminals as if to make him appear that
he had been the worst of the three, put there in the middle. So Paul says, we preach Christ
crucified, the death of Christ. Christ crucified was at the heart
of Pauline doctrine. All of his theology concerning
redemption and salvation revolved around the death of Christ that
he died upon the cross. Yea, not only did he preach Christ
crucified, but he declares in chapter 2 and verse 2, I determine
not to know anything among you. My chief emphasis in being among
you was to declare Christ and Him crucified, and while it stumbled
the Jew, and it seemed to be foolishness unto the wise Greeks,
Yet to the call, yet to them that are called, Christ is the
power of God and the wisdom of God. And we must be clear that
the death of our Christ upon the cross was not an accident. that he died, that he was put
there, was in no way an accident. It was in no way what we might
look upon or call an unfortunate tragedy. And neither did it fly
out of the bounds of God's sovereign purpose and providence. nor was it in any way a failure
or a disappointment to the Father and the Son. The death of Christ
upon the cross was not a disappointment, it was not a failure, either
in the eye of the Father or the Son, nor in the eye of the saints
of God. Let me go on to say, everything
about the death of our Lord on the cross was, as we read in
Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. All of those that had a
hand in the death of our Lord, and that would be Pilate and
Herod and the Gentile and the people of Israel, did but what
the Lord's hand and counsel determined before should be done. That's
declared in Acts chapter 4 verse 27 and verse 28. Because you
see, Christ was not only appointed to die, but he was appointed
to die a certain and a specific kind of death. And that would
be the kind of death that answered the type of the serpent on the
pole in the wilderness lifted up in Numbers chapter 21. And
again in John 3 and 14, the Son of Man as Moses lifted up the
serpent on the pole must be lifted up. Christ can be seen in such
things as the Jews delivering him over unto the Romans, whose
method of execution was by crucifixion as opposed to the Jew and that
by stoning. Though more than one time the
Jews were mindful and ready to stone the Lord, even picking
up stones in their hand to stone him. But God foiled them for
two reasons. His time had not yet come, and
that was not to be the manner of his death. He was not to be
stoned. He was to be crucified and lifted
up. And again, the actions of Pilate,
who found no fault in Jesus worthy of him being put to death. Luke
23 and 14. Nor did Herod find any cause
of death in him. Matthew 27 and verse 19. And Pilate had a very disturbing
dream by his wife that was conveyed unto him. And Pilate went against
his conscience. He knew that Jesus was a just
man. He knew that he had done nothing
worthy of death. And still, in Matthew 27 and
26, he delivered Jesus over to them to be crucified, even though
In Mark 15 and verse 10, he knew that the chief priest had delivered
Jesus up for envy. He knew that it was a Jewish
religious matter. But the determining and overriding
will in the death and crucifixion of our blessed Lord was the will
and the purpose of God. We read in Romans chapter 8 and
verse 32, he spared not his own son, but delivered him up for
us all. He spared him not. He spared
not His Son. He did not hold anything back
that sin deserved in that He gave Him up to the death of the
cross. He also did not lessen the stroke
in any degree because it was His only beloved Son. Could you and I or I do that? He neither withheld nor reduced.
the judicial suffering which sin deserved and required. Our Lord must and did drink the
full and bitter cup of the agony of the cross and of his crucifixion. A man named William G.T. Shedd wrote, and I'm quoting,
he was not spared the expiating agony which he volunteered to
endure in the covenant, unquote. God delivered him up. God delivered
up not an animal, not a beast, not an angel, but his very own
son. God delivered him up to suffer
the penalty required to put away the sin of the elect. As it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangs on a tree, Deuteronomy 23, 21 and 23, mentioned by Paul
in Galatians 3 and 13. And God lay the iniquity of us
all upon Christ, Isaiah 53 and verse 6. He made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. And 1 Peter chapter 2 and 24,
who His own self and His own body bear our sins on, or some
say, to the tree. The Father delivered up the Son. as typified in Abraham offering
up his beloved son Isaac in Genesis chapter 22, Hebrews 11, 17 through
19. John Murray noted, who delivered up Jesus to die? not Judas for gain, not Pilate
for political expediency, not the Jews for envy, and not the
Romans for justice. The death of Christ upon a cross,
Him being crucified, can only be rightly viewed and understood
as Christ vicariously bearing the sin of the elect. dying in order to save his people
from their sin, satisfying the justice of God, bearing the curse
of the law, destroying the works of the devil and him that had
the power the devil I know there's some that view the cross when
they do they see no further than the love of God that God so loved
that he gave his only begotten son oh yes and we dare not to
dismiss the fact that the love of God is a part of the salvation
and the giving of Christ. We dare not dismiss it. It is
true. God so loved that he gave his
son. And that love that is fixed upon
his elect is an everlasting love, Jeremiah 31 and verse 3. God's love has been manifested
in the giving of his son according to Romans chapter 5 and verse
8. Still the going forth of that
love. The manifesting of that love
in saving efficacy required the fulfilling of the justice of
God and the satisfying of the broken law. Grace and love, you
see, are dispensed. but they are not dispensed at
the expense of justice and righteousness. Justice and righteousness must
be fulfilled and must stand. When Paul adds in Romans 8, 32,
for us all, he is not speaking universally, but taking in its
context, it refers to the us in verse 31, to those of us called
according to his purpose in verse 28 to verse 30. Now going back
to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22, 23 and verse 24 we notice
verse 23 opens again with but. In some translations you might
see it yet but yet and this implies some kind of a contrast or at
least some kind of distinction which is easily seen when we
scan those verses. In verse 21, It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Verse 22, For since, or seeing
that, the Jews ask signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom. Verse
23, But we preach Christ, and preach Him as having been crucified. We preach Him having been delivered
up to the awful death of the cross. We proclaim Him, we preach
Him, we declare Him, we announce Him as having been put to death. We as one rope do not preach
Him as a sign-shower or a philosopher, but as a sin-bearer. We must consider the theology
that is concerned here, that in preaching Christ as having
been crucified, because many others had been crucified also. Many others had been crucified
in the same way on Roman crossing. In fact, two more were with our
Lord that day, with the Lord fulfilling prophecy numbered
among the transgressor. But such transgressors as those
having been crucified were criminals. They were vile thieves. They
were robbers. They were vile persons. They
were insurrectionists and such like, who deserved their death
and could neither save themselves nor save others by what they
did, for their death had no merit, no merit at all, in their suffering
and in their death, even though they suffered and they died the
same kind or the likeness of the death of our Lord. But Christ
died not as a guilty criminal, not as a vile malfactor, but
as an innocent, sinless substitute, and that by God's appointment.
God lay upon him the iniquity of us all, and He made him to
be sin, who knew no sin, and that to save them that believe. We notice again, the twofold
view and reaction of the preaching of Christ crucified. Number one, of the sign-seeking
Jews and the wisdom-loving Gentiles who counted it folly. that the
death of one could save others, and the legalistic Jew who rejected
the thought that by faith in Christ righteousness should be
imputed apart from the law. Now these kind are with us yet. These sign seekers and these
legalists are with us yet unto this day and has brought us in
a large part a godless and Christless religion called Christianity
in much places. But secondly, verse 24 the view
on the other hand of the call ones and whether Jew or Gentile
while even crucified He is viewed as both the power and the wisdom
of God by those that are called by those regenerate converted
to that belief. The cross is to the ones being
saved the power of God. The call ones are those affectionately
called unto salvation. God willing, next Sunday I plan
to preach on the called of Jesus Christ. And their view is the
crucifixion of Christ is the power and the wisdom of Almighty
God. They see the cross drastically
different from the unbelieving Jew, warning aside, and the unbelieving
Greek, warning philosophy. Their only hope The only thing
in which we glory and in which we rejoice is the cross of our
Lord. All who are called, all who are
being saved can say with Paul in Colossians 2 and verse 20,
I am crucified with Christ. Yet I live. Again, in Galatians
6 and verse 14, listen to this. Whereby, or by whom? By Christ,
by his cross. The world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world. Take that in. By Christ, the
world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. The cross is
the death of Christ. Christ who died upon it, who
shed his blood there, and he gave his life. And by a cross,
we do not mean the material wooden cross on which our Lord was affixed
and upon which he died. But what a statement. Not only
was Christ crucified, but by and through his death, the world
and Paul, as light would understand it, Henceforth, we are dead,
each to the other, the world to us and us unto the world. And not just Paul in some unique
way, since everyone called has also died to sin and has been
reckoned so from the rudiments of the world by the death of
Christ. Colossians 2, 14 through 17, Paul declares that the ordinances
once against us have been nailed to the cross. And verse 16, saying,
let no man judge you in regard unto them. We are crucified with
Christ. We are crucified to the world
by his death. We are dead to the law by the
body of Christ, that we might be married to another, even to
Christ, as Paul so eloquently lays out in Romans 7 and verses
1 through 4. Dead to the law, freed from its
oversight and its rigor, that we might be joined in union even
unto Christ. I close by saying, my brother
and sister, my friend, there is no gospel, there is no salvation
to be had apart from Christ crucified. There is no putting away of sin,
there is no justification, there is no forgiveness apart from
Christ crucified and having died upon the cross. our sins on Him,
God punishing them fully in Him, and not imputing them to us,
but imputing righteousness. Christ crucified our salvation,
the power and the wisdom of God. Think upon that and remember
our salvation lies only in the crucified Christ. Not one hanged
on a cross somewhere in a church, but that one who died upon a
cross, who was put in the grave, came out of that grave, and lives
again at the right hand of God. That Christ, that one.