The topic that has been assigned
to me is the topic, foolishness to the Greeks. And I want to
invite you to take God's Word and turn with me to the book
of 1 Corinthians. You're going to want to have
your Bible out and have it in your lap and follow along with
me in the course of this message. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And I want to begin reading in
verse 18. Paul told young Timothy, until
I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture,
to exhortation and to teaching. And that's really what we do.
We read the text, we explain the text, and we exhort with
the text. And that's really the engine
that drives biblical preaching. So, I want to begin by reading
at least a portion of the text that we will look at. We'll look
at more than what I will read. and then I want to explain it,
and then I want to exhort with it. And that is the apostolic
pattern that God gave to Timothy and has come down to us. So 1
Corinthians chapter 1, I want to begin reading in verse 18. This is the reading of the inerrant
and the inspired and the infallible Word of the living God. For the Word of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the
clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man? Where
is the scribe? Where is the debater of this
age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of the
world, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through its
wisdom – now listen to this. did not come to know God." Now
listen to this. God was well-pleased through
the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs
and Greeks search for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and
to Gentiles, foolishness. But to those who are the called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. From the dawn of human history,
man has tried to discover what life is all about. Man has pondered
the questions of ultimate reality. Who am I? What am I? Where have I come from? Where
am I going? Who is God? What is truth? What is reality? Where may I
find fulfillment? What is success? What is death? What lies beyond death? What happens after I die? These are searching questions
that the Greek philosophers of the ancient world all addressed
and all sought to answer. In the first century, the Greeks
pursued philosophy, which means the love of wisdom. And by that,
they meant man's wisdom. The ancient Greek culture was
overrun with the prevailing secular philosophies of the day. Philosophy is man's diagnosis
of man's problems. and offers man's solutions as
he lives in this world. The ancient Greek culture was
literally saturated with these philosophies, and there were
as many philosophies as there were philosophers. And there
were some fifty mainline dominant philosophies in the first century
in the Roman Empire bubbling out of Athens, which was only
forty-five miles away from Corinth. And all of these ideologies,
and all of these philosophies were coming down from Athens
just down the road to Corinth, and Corinth was a cosmological,
was a cosmopolitan metropolis. It was a cultured city. There
were open door amphitheaters, and they loved for the philosophers
of the day to come into Corinth and to win them over with their
rhetoric, and with their drama, and with their theatrics, and
with their learned speech. The philosophers of the day were
the rock stars of the first century. Mothers wanted their young sons
to grow up and to be the sages of the day, and to provide the
answers for people to shape and guide their living. It was no
ivory tower type of philosophy of how many angels could dance
on the head of a pin, but it addressed the real issues of
the day. Who am I? What am I? How did
I get here? Where am I going? The deep, probing
issues of the day. And in the year 50 A.D., the
Apostle Paul came to this bastion of gathered philosophy on his
second missionary journey. And when Paul arrived, he immediately
began to preach the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And he would write elsewhere,
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto
salvation. And he put the gospel up in the
marketplace of ideas in the first century. And the gospel was in
direct contradiction with the philosophies of the day. It was
in direct conflict. The polar contradiction between
the philosophies of the day and the gospel of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ could not have been any more dramatic. and for Paul and the Apostles,
and all of the writers of Scripture, and for the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. The only true answers to all
of these life questions are found not in philosophy, but are found
in the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And as Paul writes, this is front-loaded
in the lengthy book of 1 Corinthians. Paul immediately goes to this
issue. And in the first chapter, he
addresses the church, and so we need to be addressed as well
in this day that the gospel is absolute foolishness to the unbeliever. Beloved, let us remember that
amid our efforts to avoid anti-intellectualism, and in our efforts to avoid slothfulness
in study, that nevertheless, the heart of the message that
we study, that we learn, that we live, that we teach, that
we preach, that we bear witness to is absolute insanity to the
world. And the day that our message
stops being foolishness to the Greeks and to this world is the
day that our message has lost its purity and lost its power. Now as we look at this text today,
I want to lay out for you what is really the threefold foolishness
of the Greeks. In the text that I just read,
we see first of all that we have a foolish message. And then beginning in verse 26,
through the end of the chapter, Paul will add to the challenge
that we face. A foolish message, God has chosen
to take foolish messengers. It's not just the content, but
the couriers of this message. Foolish message, foolish messengers
in the eyes of the world. And then to compound it even
more, in chapter 2, verses 1 through 5, a foolish method. And that method is to set aside
the learned superiority of speech learned from Athens and from
all of the rhetoricians and the Greek dramatists and actors of
the day. And God's chosen message is for
a man to stand naked, armed with only the testimony of God, and
to preach the Word of God, and to proclaim the Word of God in
a straightforward manner in demonstration of power and the Holy Spirit. It is a foolish message. It is
a foolish messenger. and it is a foolish method. Therein is the foolishness to
the Greeks. So I want to begin in verse 18,
walking through this text with you. And I want you to note first
a foolish message. The message that has been entrusted
to you and has been entrusted to me, the message that lies
in your Bible as it lays open in your lap this morning. I want
you to know that in the eyes of the world, it is a foolish
message." Paul begins in verse 18, for the Word of the cross. The word of the cross refers
to the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul will
further identify that in chapter 15 and in verse 3 when he says,
for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. and that He was buried, and that
He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
This is the very epicenter of our message. This is the heart
and soul of our message. It is the Word of the cross.
It is Christ and Him crucified. It is the only way of salvation. It is the only way by which holy
God can receive sinful man into fellowship with Himself. It is
through the provision of a bloody cross upon which His Son died. Jesus said, I am the way and
the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but
through Me. Peter said to the Sanhedrin,
there is salvation in no other name. For there is no other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Paul
wrote, there is one God and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, the
testimony born at the proper time. The Bible says that God
made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him. The Bible says that Christ bore
our sins in His body upon that cruel judgment tree. The Bible
says we all like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned
to his own way, but the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all
upon Him. This is the Word of the cross. Think of its sufficiency. Think
of its finality. Think of its exclusivity. Think of its necessity. Think
of its glory. We're not just dogmatic about
the cross, we are bulldogmatic about the cross. for there is
no other way of salvation under heaven but through the bloodstained
cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Now, verse 18
says, for the word of the cross is foolishness. No matter how carefully we present
no matter how much apologetics we provide, no matter how many
supporting references we can surround it. The Word of the
cross is unequivocally, absolutely foolishness to those who are
perishing. This word foolishness comes from
a Greek word, moros, from which we derive the English word moron. There is a total inability of
the sinner to see and understand the cross. It is idiotic to those
who are perishing. It is dumb. It is stupid. It is unintelligent. It is insane. It is madness. It is lunacy. It is nonsense to those who are
perishing. And it is so because the cross
in the first century was a sign of shame. It was a sign of disgrace. It was reserved for only the
most notorious criminals of the day. No Roman citizen could even
be crucified. It was reserved for the terrorists
and for the thieves and for those who were the most despicable
of human beings. There was no greater shame than
to be publicly executed upon a cross. It was a mark of humiliation,
of degradation, of indignity, of dishonor. It was a scandal. It was offensive. It was repugnant. And the reason that it was is
because the Christians preached. that the eternal destiny of every
man and every woman of Adam's fallen race hinges upon their
relationship to the one who hung naked upon that cross. For the
word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing."
Perishing is in the present tense, which means presently, right
now, their lives are self-destructing. They are unraveling like a cheap
sweater. They are imploding from the inside
as they live their quiet lives of desperation. But to us who
are being saved. It is the power of God. That is what the cross is for
us. It is the power of God to reconcile us to God. It is the
power of God to pardon our sins. It is the power of God to satisfy
and to propitiate the righteous anger of God towards me. The
word save means to be delivered from great danger. It means to
be rescued from ruining. It means to be liberated. Several
years ago, R.C. Sproul wrote a book entitled,
Saved From What? And in that book, he so carefully
argues that we're not saved from just living a lonely life, that
we're not saved from low self-esteem. I mean, we're not saved from
just living a mundane life. We are being saved from the wrath
of God that rightly hangs over every unconverted person. It is God alone who can save
us from God Himself. The word of the cross is to those
who are perishing, foolishness. Paul punctuates that in verse
19 when he says, for it is written, and he quotes now from Isaiah
29 verse 14 and says, it has always been this way. Man has
always sought to find his own way of religion, to find his
own philosophical, ideological way to approach life. Man has
always looked within himself for his own answers, and he has
looked to the world around him. And it has always been this way,
and he quotes now Isaiah 29, verse 14, and God is the speaker
in this text. Please note what God says. God says, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise. man's own efforts to concoct
his own way by which he may live his life in a meaningful way
that is autonomous from God, independent from God, and how
man would seek to commend himself before a holy God in his own
efforts or in his own ideology, in his own worldview, and in
his own thinking. God says, I will destroy it. I will expose it. I will judge
it. I will damn it. and the cleverness
of the clever. I will set aside. God will discard
it. It is of no value to anyone. God will nullify it. God will
cast it in the depths of the sea. In verse 20, Paul mocks
the supposed brilliant men of this world. Paul calls them out
of the crowd to come stand publicly. Where is the wise man? The wise
man refers to the great thinkers of the age. And as he calls for
the wise men to step forward, he is referring to those who
have a secular worldview, a man-centered worldview, whose own worldview
could be summarized in this way. that from man and through man
and to man are all things. To man be the glory forever.
Amen. Where is the wise man? Where
are the brilliant thinkers of the day? Where are the evolutionists? Where are those who say that
everything has come from nothing? Where are they? Where is the
scribe, referring to the expert in the law? Where is the debater,
the one skilled in the schools of Athens for public rhetoric
and disputation? Where are they? Let them offer
their foolishness. has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world?" And the answer to that rhetorical question
is a resounding amen. God has exposed the idiocrity
of it all in the light of the cross of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. So Paul begins now to explain
what he has just stated. And verse 21 begins with the
word for, which means an explanation of what he has just stated is
now in order. For since in the wisdom of God,
meaning this was the genius of God, this is God's plan, this
is God's intentional purpose from before the foundation of
the world. For since in the wisdom of God,
the world through its wisdom did not come to know God." Not
one of them. No exceptions. All who would
cling to the wisdom of this world are on a bridge to nowhere. It
is a dead end. It is total futility and bankruptcy
of worldly thinking. No one can come to know God when
they draw from the dry cisterns of this world's thinking. They
are all like blind men with flashlights looking for the noonday sun,
and they are so blind that they cannot even see the glory of
God shining brighter than ten thousand suns above. That's a statement of total depravity,
is it not? that the genius of God, the wisdom
of God, and the power of God would be proclaimed and trumpeted
to a lost and dying world, and for the world to hear of the
cross and see the word of the cross made known to them, and
for their estimate to be, it is absolutely insane lunacy It
speaks to the blindness of human minds. It speaks to the deadness
of human souls. And later in chapter 2 and verse
14, he will say that for the natural man, the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness
to him and he cannot understand them. It is a moral inability. He cannot. It's not just that
he will not, but that he cannot. We are describing a sunset. to blind people. We are describing a beautiful symphony to people
who have no ears. We are describing the glories
of God to people who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. But notice at the end of verse
21, This was God's plan all along. This is how God intended it to
be. God was well pleased, meaning
God delights in this. God loves this. God loves it
to be this way. God was well pleased through
the foolishness of the message. And the message is the cross,
and the foolishness is the perceived foolishness as the world sees
it and views it. God was well pleased through
the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Paul will go on to tell us in
a moment. that God is so well pleased to
do it this way, a foolish message carried by foolish messengers
and presented with a foolish method, so that no flesh may
glory before the Lord, so that all credit and all glory will
go to God alone, that no one will be able to explain it. by
the winsomeness of the message, or by the greatness of the messengers,
but that all glory will go to God for the establishment of
His kingdom upon this earth." Verse 22, for indeed, Jews asked
for signs. They were looking for a miracle-working,
political Savior who would break the yoke of Roman oppression
and liberate them from the tyranny of Caesar. They were looking
for a man to appear on the scene who would perform signs and wonders
and miracles to accomplish the end that they have, which would
be the establishment of the theocracy of Israel. Jews ask for signs. Greeks search for wisdom. They
want a new worldview. They want a new approach to life. They want a new way to see the
world and the universe around them. But, to the contrary, and
one thing to note in this text are the number of buts. Martin
Lloyd-Jones has said, thank God for the buts in the Bible. But We don't give the Jews what
they want. We don't give the Greeks what
they want. We give them something else.
We give them the truth. We give them that in which is
contained the wisdom of God and the power of God. Now, if Paul
had gone door to door surveying the citizens of Corinth, and ask them, what would you
like in a church? And we'll deliver, we'll give
you what you're looking for in a church. Ten out of ten times,
that survey would have said, give us signs and give us worldly
wisdom. And Paul could have packed out
an amphitheater and declared himself a church. Well, it wouldn't
have been a church, it would have been a crowd. Paul says,
we will not cater to the world. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a
doctor before being called into the ministry, said, I never let
the patient write the prescription. And so it was with Paul. They
clamor for signs. They clamor for worldly wisdom. Someone could justify it and
say, well, couldn't we just have it at the beginning of the service,
just to attract a crowd, get them in here? No, you'll keep
them the way you get them. Paul says, but, total contrast. Instead, diametrically opposed,
he said, we preach Christ crucified. Christ crucified is a complete
oxymoron for what the Jews and the Greeks were looking for.
It's like saying black light. It's like saying freezer burn.
It's two things that do not go together. Baptist scholar, two things that
do not go together. Alright, Presbyterian evangelist,
how about that? It works both ways. The name Christ means the Anointed
One, the Messiah, the One who comes in the power of the Spirit
of God and who will usher in the kingdom of God, the long-expected,
mighty Deliverer, the One who will come in the omnipotence
of God by His Spirit. We preach this Christ, crucified. We preach a murdered
Messiah. We preach a dead Deliverer. We preach a slaughtered Savior. We preach a crucified Conqueror. In the eyes of the world, the
Word of the cross is absolutely incomputable. It is irrational. It is illogical. A crucified
Christ. To Jews, a stumbling block. They
can't get past it. They are tripped up by it. They
can't go around it. It is a rock of offense. He is. And to Gentiles, foolishness. This isn't deep or profound to
us? Why, even a little child could
believe this. So how will anyone ever believe?
How is it that you've come to believe? How is it that I have
come to believe? It is by the sovereign grace
of our God. Notice verse 24. There it is.
It leaps off the page. another bot, but to those called."
This is the main thread that runs through this opening chapter.
those who are the called of God. It refers to the sovereign summons
of God. Standing behind the call of God
is that towering doctrine of sovereign election and predestination. Notice this word called. Look
at verse 1, Paul called as an apostle. Verse 2, saints by calling. Verse 9, God is faithful through
whom you were called into fellowship with His Son. Here in verse 24,
but to those who are the called, look at verse 26, for consider
your calling, brethren. It's dominant. The sovereign
call of God is the only way by which those who are in the world
who consider the gospel, the Word of the cross to be foolishness,
it is the only way that their eyes will be opened. It is the
only way that their ears will be opened. It is the only way
that their hearts will be opened. It is the only way by which they
will be drawn into saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a supernatural,
sovereign work of God the Holy Spirit, irresistibly and effectually
drawing out those who are chosen to God. And we must never dummy
down the message. and try to make this which is
foolishness to the world appear to be in their eyes brilliant,
because at the very center of our message hangs a crucified
Savior who is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. But to those who are the called,
both Jews and Greeks." I'm glad Paul said that because this is
underscoring there is only one way of salvation for both Jews
and Greeks. There are not two roads leading
up the mountain. There are not ten roads leading up to the mountain.
There is only one way. There is a way that seems right
to a man, but the end thereof is the end of death. Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. Do you see how totally dependent
we are as we study the Word of God and as we plunge into the
depths, as we love God with all of our mind, as we show ourselves
to be workmen approved in the text of Scripture, as we let
the Word of Christ richly dwell within us, as we have a Christian
worldview, we see the world around us through the lens of the sovereignty
of God, as we have all of this, nevertheless we remain totally,
completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit to call out those
whom God has chosen to save. He concludes this section in
verse 25 with one more explanation, just
to drive it home, lest we forget to underscore, to emphasize. because the foolishness of God,
that which is perceived to be in the minds of the world absolutely
moronic, because the foolishness of God in the cross of Jesus
Christ is in reality wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger
than man. Jesus said in Matthew 11 verse
25, I praise You, Father, for You have hidden these things
from the wise and the intelligent. They'll never find it. They'll
never see it. They'll never get it. God has
hidden it, and He has revealed it unto babes. Whether it be a young person
or whether it be a man with a Ph.D., Anyone on this planet will have
to lay their intellectual arrogance and their intellectual pride
in the dust and come like a little child in humility and call upon
the Savior to save them. All you need to know is what
a great sinner you are and what a great Savior He is, and you
may receive Him by faith. That's not rocket science. Now notice second, not only the
foolish message, were that not challenging enough, but the foolish
messengers, and this would be you and me. Paul now turns from
the content to the couriers of this foolish message. And Paul
identifies them and us as predominantly in the eyes of the world, those who are foolish. Notice
verse 26. indicates that He's continuing
to give explanation to what He has just said. It's the continuation
and continuity of His previous thought. He has not shifted direction
in His thinking. He is plumbing yet deeper beneath
the terrain. He is giving us richer, deeper
insight regarding why the world considers the Word of the cross
to be foolish. It's not just they look at the
cross and they see foolishness, but the world looks at us as
well and concludes foolishness. So look at verse 26, "'For consider
your calling, brethren.'" The word consider means do the math
on this, add it up, do an inventory, reckon, think, ponder. "'For consider your calling,
brethren." When he says, calling, he is saying, consider where
you were when God called you. Consider what your lot in life
was, where it was that God found you. And for the most part, God
has called those whom the world considers to be foolish. Notice what he says. There were not many wise according
to the flesh. Wise here referring to the brilliant
thinkers of the age by human standards. According to the flesh
means this worldly existence. Now notice he says, not many.
There will be a few brilliant thinkers, but they are in the
minority. in the kingdom of God, as they
are drawn out of the world into faith in Christ. For there were
not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, very
few with financial clout, very few with political leverage,
very few who cast waves in the world, not many noble. meaning not many well-born, not
many aristocrats, not many with distinguished ancestry, not many
kings, not many princes, not many of royalty. This is what
Paul reminds us, that on the whole, we are merely common men
and women with an uncommon message. Verse 21 is another but, but God has chosen. Please note,
this was God's sovereign choice, not that God just took the leftovers
from what was left over from the world, but before God even
created the world, before God spoke the world into existence.
God already was the architect of an extraordinary plan, and
it was so antithetical to what our plan would have been. We
would have chosen those who were the high and the mighty because
they would bring influence, and they would bring clout. And if
that person says that I should be saved, if that person preaches
the gospel, then I need to really give attention to that person
because that person says it, and the danger is, is that my
faith is in that person. And so God, from before the foundation
of the world, God has chosen the foolish things of the world,
a foolish message and foolish messengers, to shame the wise. And God has chosen And please
note, God's choosing stands behind His calling in the previous verse.
God has chosen the weak, those who are intellectually weak by
the world's standards, those who are financially weak by the
world's standards, those who are politically weak by the world's
standards. God has chosen the weak to shame
the things that are strong. You and I ought to be encouraged
by this. Because sometimes I come to a
conference like this and I hear the towering intellect. I see
the brilliance. I see the beauty. I see all of
the things among people I meet, and at times I think, how could
God ever use me? How could God ever use you? God
has intentionally reached to the bottom of the barrel. I mean, we didn't make who's
who. We didn't even make who's not. I mean, it's just us. But we
are God's first-round lottery picks. We are God's sovereign
first-round franchise picks. We are the one. God has passed
over the kings and the mighty of this world in order to take
ordinary people like you and me and give us this extraordinary
message and turn us loose on the world so that when His Spirit
calls people out of the world, that the only explanation is
there has to be a God in heaven because look at them. We're all just a bunch of nobodies
telling everybody about somebody. the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you are someone of the
upper elite in this world, God is actually going to have to
work a little bit harder with you because you bring so much to
the table, and it's easy to lose your dependence upon God. And it's easy for your stuff
to get into the spotlight. And God is a jealous God. And
so, on the whole, He takes people with nothing and gives them the
riches of Christ and gives them this message so that they can
proclaim it to the world. Notice what He continues to say
in verse 28. and the base things of the world."
Listen, this is you and me. Base things meaning the bottom
rung, the lowly, and the despised, meaning we are sneered at by
the world, and the despised. Note, God has
chosen. Notice how intentional God is
in this. Notice how purposeful God is
in this. Notice how sovereign God is in
this. Notice how wise and how powerful
God is in this. God has chosen the things that
are not. That means the nobodies. They're
just not. They're not this. They're not
that. They're just not. So that. Here's the explanation.
Here's the purpose. So that He, God, may nullify. to totally render ineffective,
to totally disarm and set aside so that He may nullify the things
that are in this present world system. It will be a grassroots movement.
It will be a bottom-up movement. Verse 29, again He says, Here's why it is this way. Here
it is why God says it must be this way, so that no man – now, there's
no exception to no man – so that no man may boast before God, so that every one of us would
look in the mirror and say, Lord, all that I am, I am by grace.
I, too, once thought the cross was foolishness. I, too, saw
in the cross a stumbling block. I, too, sneered at it until that
day by grace the Spirit of God sovereignly regenerated me and
brought me into the kingdom. Verse 30, by His doing you are
in Christ Jesus. By His doing encompasses the
whole of the ordo salutis. It encompasses the whole of God's
sovereign election, of which He makes mention in verse 27.
It includes His sovereign calling, of which He mentions in verse
2 and 9 and in verse 24. It is entirely a work of grace. It's by His doing. We all, like
sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to
his own way. It's by His doing. I remember when I was in college
and first beginning to preach and to teach and to go into churches
and places. I had a friend who sometimes
would get in my little Volkswagen Bug with me and just drive out
on Sunday evenings as I would head out. And I'd go by his dorm
room to pick him up, and he had a poster that hung over his bed
in his dorm room. I'll never forget it. I went
to school out in West Texas, and it was a scene from the prairie
out in West Texas, and it's just flat and nothing growing, and
there were a series of fence posts and a lonely, desolate
scene. And on top of one of the fence
posts, perfectly balanced, was a turtle. And at the bottom of the poster
it said, the turtle knows it did not get there by itself. It made the point. that it is
by His doing we are in Christ Jesus. We did not get into this
on our own. We weren't looking for it. We
weren't seeking it. God is the great seeker. It is
all of sovereign grace from eternity past, our birth marked out by
God, the time, the event, the circumstances of our regeneration
and our conversion. It is by His doing that you are
in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, true wisdom
from God, found in the cross. Our eyes were opened to see the
wisdom and the power of God, and who became to us righteousness,
imputed forensic righteousness, and sanctification being set
apart from the power and the pollution of sin, and redemption,
that ransom price that was paid upon Calvary's cross. When Jesus
cried out, it is finished, He was saying, paid in full. All of this by God's doing. Verse 31, so that. Here's another
explanation. Paul's just layering explanation
upon explanation. He is digging deeper. He's renewing
our minds right now. So that. just as it is written. And Paul appeals to the Old Testament
to let us know it's always been this way in every age and in
every part of redemptive history. Let him who boasts, boast in
the Lord. Beloved, it is only the teaching
of sovereign grace that enables us to fully and most completely
boast in the Lord. And as long as I feel that I
am making some contribution to my salvation, even if I am the
supply of my own faith and my own repentance, or if I am the
one who first took the initiative to look after God, it is a divided
house in boasting in the Lord. But when I understand it was
all foolishness to me, and it is by grace alone that He thought
it, He bought it, He brought us to Himself, then all glory
goes to Jesus Christ. This is the mind of God. This
is the mind of Christ. This is the way that it is. This
is truth. It is a perceived-to-be foolish
message, and no matter how much perfume we spray on it, it is
still a foolish message. And it has been entrusted to
foolish messengers, perceived-to-be, like you and me. And now finally,
the method by which this foolish message is to be brought. It is a foolish method. Note verse 1 of chapter 2. Paul continues. Notice the first
word of verse 1, and. That means it's a continuation
of thought. There is no break in thought.
The river of truth is still flowing with unbroken current. And when I came to you, brethren,"
he's looking back to when Paul first came to Corinth in the
year 50 A.D. It is now five years later. He's
writing this in 55 A.D. He was there for eighteen months,
one of his longest days on his missionary journeys. And when
I came to you, brethren, he is saying to them, you remember
exactly how it was when I came to you. And he tells them how he did
not come. I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom."
Superiority of speech refers to the delivery. Wisdom refers
to the doctrine. Superiority of speech refers
to how you say it. Wisdom refers to what you say. Superiority of speech refers
to the style. Wisdom refers to the substance. If I hear one more person say
this, I'm going to scream. The message never changes, but we are free to present it
however we want. This stands in direct contradiction
to that kind of lunacy. Paul says, let me tell you how
I did not come. And the reason he says this is
the church at Corinth is beginning to cave in to the influences
of Athens and all of the Greek culture, and the desire to have
superiority of speech win us over, and to use all of the human
manipulative tools of public rhetoric. They loved that in
Corinth, and it was seeping into the church like a broken sewer.
And Paul has to write them and say, there will not be worldly
doctrine in this church, and there will not be worldly delivery
in this church. There will be straightforward
adult presentation of the Word of the cross. He says, I did not come with
superiority of speech without reliance on the oratorical skills
and the rhetoric devices of the Greek actors with all of their
theatrics and with all of their dramatics, their sleight of hand
speech techniques. I did not come with superiority
of speech or of wisdom. I did not come with man's perspective. I did not come with man's solutions. I did not come with man's diagnosis. Proclaiming to you the testimony
of God. Please note that. Proclaiming
is the way it is to be delivered. And the testimony of God is the
doctrine. And superiority of speech does
not mix with proclaiming. and wisdom does not mix with
the testimony of God. They are in total contradiction
with each other. The testimony of God refers at
its heart to the Word of the cross. Verse 2, Paul was resolved. Paul was resolute. Paul was bulldogged
about this. I was determined. I set my course. I did not budge to the left nor
to the right, for I determined to know nothing among you except. There is no exception to what
follows, for I determined to know nothing among you. You couldn't
get me off the topic, you couldn't get me off the subject, and you
could not convince me to deliver it in a different manner, for
I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified." Paul preached the full counsel
of God. Paul preached the entirety of divine revelation that had
been entrusted to him. Paul taught what we would say
today is every major discipline of theology and every area of
theology, but for him to say, I preach Christ and Him crucified
means that all of the lines of His theology intersects at the
highest apex and at the highest pinnacle. It is the supreme manifestation
of the glory of God. It is in the person and work
of Jesus Christ. Paul says, I preach Christ and
Him crucified. He preached all of the doctrines
of grace. But standing in the middle and
rising to the highest point in Paul's doctrine and in Paul's
theology is the glory of God that is revealed in the cross
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And a preacher who does not preach
Christ and Him crucified is like a barber who does not cut hair.
It matters not what else you do. You're not a barber. And
if you do not preach Christ and Him crucified, and that is the
dominant thrust of your message, you have missed the point of
the Word of God. Verse 3, Paul says, I was with
you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. The Greeks
knew nothing of this. Their rhetoricians, their dramatists,
their public speakers, they were cocksure of themselves. They
strutted onto the stage. They had a swagger about them. They had learned all the techniques
of the day. And Paul says, I did not come
as these other men have come into your town. I was the antithesis. Not only was my message the antithesis,
but my delivery was the antithesis. And he said, I was in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And by that, he does not mean
he had the fear of man. By that, he does not mean he
had the fear of public speaking. By that, he means he had the
fear of God and the weightiness of the responsibility and the
gravity of the mission. He felt the burden of the Lord
upon him and the gravitas of glory. He came, as Richard Baxter once
said of himself, I preach as a dying man to dying men as never
to preach again. He came in fear and trembling
that he would be faithful to the call of God upon his life
to be a faithful steward, to fulfill the charge that had been
entrusted to Him, that He would not cater to the spirit of this
age, that He would not compromise the message nor the method in
any way, but that He would preach what God had given Him as the
truth of heaven for earth. He says in verse 4, in my message
and my preaching, there again, message is the doctrine, preaching
is the delivery. Message is the style, or message
is the substance, preaching is the style. It's not just what
I say, but how I say it. Paul says, in my message and
my preaching, he tells us again how I did not come to you. it
would have in some way corrupted the message if I had come in
a way that was not totally reliant upon the Holy Spirit of God.
My message and my preaching were not, not in persuasive words
of wisdom. Paul was persuasive. All preaching
is persuasive. We are trying to win people to
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are after those who
are perishing that they might be rescued. But we are not persuasive
with worldly manipulative technique, neither do we use the words of
wisdom to do so. But in demonstration of the Spirit
and power. I lectured yesterday on Charles
Haddon Spurgeon, one illustration I could have given that is etched
in my mind. As the Metropolitan Tabernacle
was built, the largest Protestant worship sanctuary on the planet. It was built in such a way that
there were two platforms. There was a platform that was
lower, and Spurgeon stood there and led the congregational singing
himself. There were over six thousand
people in attendance. He said it sounded like the roaring
of the sea and the waves of the ocean for the congregation to
sing their glories to God. And at the appointed time to
preach the message, he would ascend to the higher platform
to be heard and to be seen. There was no electrical projection
of a voice. There was a double staircase
that arose on both sides, and on each staircase there were
fifteen steps that led up to where he would preach. He had
no pulpit. He simply had a writer's desk. upon which he would lay
the back of an envelope where he had scribbled out an outline. And as he would make that lonely
journey up to the top platform to preach the Word of the Lord
before those 6,000 people and knowing it will be sold on the
street corners of London and around England and be cabled
across the Atlantic and it will appear around the world. With
each step upward, Spurgeon repeated this creed, I believe in the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the Holy Spirit. His confidence was not in the
theatrics of the day. His confidence was in a demonstration
of the power of the Spirit of God as He would take the Word
of God and preach the truth of God. At its heart is the cross
of the Son of God. That is what Paul is saying. And he concludes, verse 5, so
that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on
the power of God. You bring a message that is appealing
to the world, and you deliver it in a fashion that they like. Those who commit their lives
will commit themselves to men and the wisdom of men. But those
who bring the foolishness of the cross and the power of the
Holy Spirit, regardless of what the intelligentsia of this world
has to say, their faith will rest upon the power of God and
upon the wisdom of God. When John Newton came to the
end of his life, he began to lose his mind. He began to lose
his memory. Sometimes it would be embarrassing,
and in the middle of a message, he would not have the recall
that he needed to complete the sermon. He would lose his place.
He would forget what he was saying. And in those desperate moments,
he would always go back to saying this, I know two things. I know what a great sinner I
am. And I know what a great Savior
He is. May you and I be used by God
in this lost and dying world that is perishing. May we be
used by God to continually proclaim, not relying upon persuasive words
of wisdom and not relying upon superiority of speech or the
wisdom of men. but relying exclusively upon
the truth of God and the Spirit of God. May we declare the good
news to a lost and dying world that though we be great sinners,
Christ is a great Savior, and He hung upon the cross for guilty
sinners such as you and me, and whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. And God will use foolish messengers
like you and me, not many mighty, not many wise, not many noble,
to shame the things that are, so that all glory and all boasting
will go to the Lord. May the Lord bless each of us
with these truths. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, our time
is short here upon the earth. There's no time for games. There's
no time for distractions. Sinners are perishing. Death is approaching. Eternity
is looming. God, may You use us with a renewed
mind. to share and to proclaim the
Word of the Cross to our children, to our in-laws, to our friends,
to our loved ones, to those with whom we do not presently know,
but that providence will direct our steps to. May we be faithful. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.