Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Art.
Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want everybody to turn there
with me and pay close attention tonight. This is an important
message. Man's fleshly wisdom and man's
fleshly might and man's fleshly influence are not used by God. Not in any way. They're not used
by God. Not in preaching, or in trying
to get folks to come here preaching, or in trying to get folks to
believe the preaching. Not used at all. Just not used. The Apostle is going to show
us a new argument tonight. Now let's review just a moment. He said back up there, in answer
to the Corinthians, they were having problems with saying,
I'm of this preacher and I'm of that preacher. And they were
saying, some were saying, well, I'm of Christ, I don't even need
a preacher. And Paul was correcting that. And he said in verse 17, Christ
sent me not to baptize. He didn't send me to try to make
converts, but to preach the gospel. That's it, to preach the gospel.
Not with wisdom of words. not with wisdom of words, not
with man's wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect. And then Paul went to showing us how, or why rather,
that God sent him to preach the Gospel. Why Christ sent him to
preach the Gospel. First thing he told us in verse
19 is, for it's written. When you are here and you are
hearing the Gospel preached, this is the fulfillment of Holy
Scriptures. God's doing what He said He would
do. We've been reading it all in
Isaiah. God said He's going to save through the preaching of
the Gospel. We've read it in the Psalms. He said He's going
to save through the preaching of the Gospel. We've read it
all through the Scriptures. Jeremiah, I'm going to save through
the preaching, I'm going to send you pastors. It's written. And
then He said this, it's the wisdom and pleasure of God. This means
of preaching Christ crucified is the wisdom and pleasure of
God. And then He said, there are some Jews that require a
sign and there are Greeks that seek after or that look for knowledge,
wisdom. And he had some elect among the
Jews and the Greeks. And he said through this gospel,
them that God calls, he's going to make Christ their power and
their wisdom. That's why he was sent to preach
the gospel. Now we come to the next reason. And the next proof
he gives of why Christ sent to preach the gospel and why he's
not going to use the wisdom of men, why he's going to do it
through the Word only, not using the wisdom or might or influence
of men. The proof he's going to give
here is your calling. Who did God choose? And who has
God called? He's basically saying, look around
you. Now watch what he says here in verse 26. For you see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty. and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence." Now, let me repeat my proposition
to you. Man's wisdom, fleshly wisdom,
man's fleshly might, man's fleshly influence will not be used of
God. It will not be used of God at
all. Now here's what I want you to see first. Who did the choosing? Who did the choosing? Three times
in that passage I read it said, God hath chosen. God hath chosen. God hath chosen." Now, God is
sovereign to make His choice. He's sovereign to choose. Sovereign
to choose His people. Sovereign to choose the means
by which He'll save. And sovereign to execute His
purpose and save His people. God's absolutely sovereign. He's
sovereign. Let me just give you these scriptures,
because you know most of these scriptures. Psalm 115.3 says,
Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased. There's nothing left out of that
statement, whatsoever. Whatever God has pleased, that's
what God does. Psalm 135.6 says, Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He. Just in a certain place, Can
God just work His will in a certain place? That did He in heaven,
and in earth, and in the seas, and in all deep places. And then
you know this one, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to His will
in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand." Nobody can stop God from doing
what He will. And nobody can question Him.
Nobody can say, what doest thou? We saw in Ephesians that He said
God works everything after the counsel of His own will. Everything. And He said this through Isaiah.
Not only does He work His will, He tells us from the beginning
what He's going to do, and then He does it. Do you realize how
much that shows us that God is just that much more sovereign?
That He can show you what He's going to do, declare what He's
going to do, then do it exactly the way He said He was going
to do it. He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall
stand, I will do all my pleasure And this is what he said his
pleasure was. I'm going to call the man that
executeth my counsel from a far country. He was talking about
Cyrus. He was going to call Cyrus from
a far country to come and save Israel out of their captivity
in Babylon. But it's a picture of him calling
Christ from a far country and him coming to this earth to execute
the counsel of God. And you know what else it declares?
If God has a preacher, one of his lost children somewhere in
a far country, he can send his preacher from a far country and
execute his counsel. He says, I've spoken it, I'll
also bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will also do it. Now that's
who God is, sovereign. And men don't like that. Our
flesh by nature, Our flesh, all sinful flesh, hates God to have
all authority and all sovereignty over all things, especially in
salvation. Man hates that. Man hates it.
Man doesn't like to be... He doesn't like to be told this
is who God's chosen and this is only who God's chosen. He
doesn't like to be told this is how God saves and the only
way God saves. Man wants to take God's way and
twist it around and conform it to his experience because he
thinks he's experienced something and he thinks, well, that's how
God ought to save then. Surely I'm saved. Surely I'm
wise. Surely I'm mighty. Well, who
are you to want to twist God's Word and God's way and God's
means around to fit our experience? No, we got to be brought into
God's way by God Himself, made to bow to God. You can see how
men don't like God's authority by just looking at the world.
You're seeing right now in the news all these videos, and they
film the police officer, and he's doing something, being rough
with somebody, and then they protest it. And it's big news. It sells news, and the news people
don't care what it's showing, just so it sells commercials. That's all they care about. But
you're watching it, and you see it. Now, if somebody in authority
is abusing their authority, they should be punished. They should
be. They shouldn't abuse their authority.
But I will tell you something. It's the citizen's responsibility
to obey the officer that God's put in authority. It's their
responsibility to obey him. Don't sass him, don't back talk
him, do what he says, and do it right now. That's their responsibility. And if they don't do it, it's
that authority's duty to subdue the lawbreaker, to subdue the
rebel. That's what the law-abiding citizens
want him to do. They're not complaining. They
want Him to do that. It's those who hate God's authority that
don't want Him to do that. But see, when you rebel against
the police officer, just the little, lowly, roly-poly police
officer, it's rebelling against God. Because God put him there. God put him there. Listen to
this. Listen to this. It says, there's no power but
of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God."
God put him there. Now, the reason I'm pointing
that out to you is, when you see men rebel in the streets
against lower authority, just remember what's going on in the
heart against God's authority over all salvation. That's just
a little glimpse into the heart of man and what he thinks about
God saving his people in God's way, sovereignly, as God will. Men can argue, men can rebel,
they can do what they want to. God says, be still and know that
I am God. He said, I will be exalted among
the heathen, I'll be exalted in the earth. And He will. So
God's choice is the best way. Whatever God chooses, however
God chooses, and who God chooses, that's the best way. Look here,
1 Corinthians 1.25. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. There's no weakness or foolishness
in God, but what men call foolishness and what men call weakness is
still wiser and stronger than men. I mean, wiser than the wisest
men and stronger than the strongest men. God said, my ways are not
your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, God said, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So that's
the first thing. We're looking at God's choice
here. This is God's choice. This is God's way. God's sovereign
right to choose as He will. Now secondly, what did God choose? What did God choose and why?
First of all, God chose foolish things. Look here in verse 27.
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. Now this includes
the preaching of Christ. It includes the preaching of
Christ. We saw back there in verse 18, the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness. He said in verse
21, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. That's what men call it, foolishness. This means right
here what we're doing. Men call it foolish. Why? They
don't call it foolish if you stand up and tell them something
to do. They don't call it foolish if you preach morality and benevolent
deeds and if you preach humanitarian efforts and give them something
to go out and do. They don't call that foolishness. What they
call foolishness is to declare the truth that God chose His
Son. God chose His Son. God chose
to exalt His Son. And God chose to exalt him in
the salvation of a chosen people. Now that's foolishness to a man. He hears that, he says that's
foolishness. But God's going to make every
knee bow and every tongue confess. He's going to exalt his Son.
He has, He is, and He shall. They say that's foolishness.
This message we declare is foolishness because we declare that God chose
for His Son to be made a man. And the natural man hears that
and he thinks, God became a man. That man that we call Jesus Christ,
you mean to tell me he is God and man? They say, that's absurd. They're so foolish to believe
that. God chose for his son to be born of a virgin. But why? Because he had to be holy. He
couldn't be born of us. He declared our sinfulness by
being born of a virgin. He couldn't be born of a man.
God chose him to be born into poverty. raised in a poor situation,
without any form, without any comeliness, uneducated by men,
so that there would be nothing in him that would make men look
at him and go, now that's a prophet to be followed. Now that right
there, that's a... Oh, just look at him. That's
what every other religion does. They try to set up a prophet
and exalt him in such a way before men, fleshly speaking, in ways
that appeal to the flesh that men just, they just want to follow
him. God didn't do it that way. God made his son to be poor.
He made his son to walk in poverty. He made his son to be uneducated
so that he wasn't impressive to the educated folk. That's
wisdom of God. That's God's wisdom to do it
that way. God chose for His Son to go to a bloody cross and die.
Men look at that and men see man having his way with God.
Men look at that and men see that man messed up and they just
crucified him. And they don't realize everything
men were doing, they were doing exactly according to God's will.
They were doing what God already determined to be done. Because
there, God's declaring His righteousness. That bloody cross, that shameful
cross, that place you look at and men say, that's just foolishness! Men don't even preach it! That
right there is the whole gospel. This whole book is right there
on the cross, brethren. That's where you see God declaring
His righteousness. That's where you see God fulfilling
the positive and negative of the law. You see God... loving
His people, and you see Christ loving God, fulfilling the righteousness
of the law. And you see Him doing it, bearing
the sin of His people and putting away their sin, justifying them
from all their sins, so that God's justice is satisfied. Righteousness
and justice. Two parts of the same thing.
Two parts of righteousness. You see it fulfilled on the cross.
And God's just now, and He's the Justifier. And not only that,
He sent His Son there because His Son is the righteousness
of God that God's provided for His people. But sinners don't
see that cross as being anything precious. Wise men, mighty men,
noble men look at that cross and say, that's foolish. That's
foolish. That's foolish. God chose His body to go into
a grave. You know, We wouldn't have done
it that way. We wouldn't have done it that
way. You're going to exalt your son and cause people to follow
him. That looks a lot like defeat
in the eyes of men. His body taken down and buried
in a tomb. But God chose it that way because
He chose for three days later He's going to bring him out of
that tomb. And Christ walked out of that tomb. Resurrected. A glorified man. And men hear that and they say,
that's foolish. There's no way a man could rise
from the dead. I've never seen anybody rise from the dead. Just
because you and me can't do it, don't mean God can't do it. You
see what I'm saying? The foolishness of God that men
call foolishness is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. I don't think you could get much
more weak than seeing Christ's body laid in a tomb. That's much
more strong than men because he put away sin. He totally put
away the sin of his people. And he came out of that grave
declaring, it's done! It's accomplished! And then he
went to the right hand of the Father, and God chose for him
to be the head over his church. To be the prophet, priest, and
king of his people. To send his preachers, and send
his gospel, and move his people, and move the hearts of kings,
and raise up kingdoms, and put down kingdoms, and make his church
triumph in this earth. God chose his son to do that.
Through the preaching of the gospel. Through the preaching
of the gospel. And men still look at this and
they say, oh, that's just foolishness. But I'll tell you when they'll
quit calling it foolishness. foolishness, when he sends this
gospel to them, and Christ comes into their heart, the Word comes
in, and the Word quickens them, and the Word makes them go from
being dead sinners, unable to believe, and He gives them new
hearts, living hearts, fleshly hearts, faith to believe on God. That's when they're going to
have a radical change of mind called repentance. That's when
they're going to turn from calling it foolishness and say, this
is the power and wisdom of God. Christ, the power and wisdom
of God. Now, to further show us this, I want you to see what
Paul is saying here. He says here to show us that
this has nothing to do with the wisdom of man, or the might of
man, or the nobility of man. He shows us here that these foolish
things are us. Us! God's preacher, Christ's
preacher that He sends to preach, all His preachers that He sends
to preach, and all His church that He's going to use to support
the gospel through which He's going to call His people out.
That's who we're talking about here. And He says here, they're
things. They're just things. Why does
He call us things? Well, one, He's showing us that
in our flesh, in our wisdom, and in our might, and in our
influence, we're not even worthy to be called men. We're only
worthy to be called things. And another thing He's doing
here, and He's showing us, this is how the world regards us.
They're just things. Remember what they said about
Christ? Look at Luke 23. Look at Luke 23. Christ said,
if they've called me this, they're going to call you that. Look
at Luke 23. Look at verse 2. They began to
accuse Him, saying, We found this. Fellas added, that's added
by the translators. What they said is, we found this. Just like you would say, like
Paul is calling us things. We found this. This. Perverting the nation, forbidding
to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ the
King. We found this. You see, if they treated him
that way, they're going to treat his people that way. That's how
they're going to regard his people. And Paul's saying, but God chose
these things. God chose these things on purpose. But now look at verse 26. Let's
look at these things. What did God choose? Who did
God choose and why? You see your calling, brethren.
He's saying, look around you now. How that not many wise men
after the flesh are called. There's wisdom from men. That's
a type of wisdom. And those that get wisdom from
men are what he's calling here wise after the flesh. And then
there are those who get wisdom from God. Wisdom from above.
They're truly wise. Wise in spiritual things. Wise
in things that matter. Now, when you observe God's church,
when you look at it past or present, you don't see many wise men after
the flesh called. There are not many wise after
the flesh called. Verse 27, But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. When Christ
was here, one of the works Christ was doing, when He was going
about calling His apostles, He was beginning, starting to establish
the earthly gospel church. The church in these last days. That's what he began to do. He
established it and he called out, he passed by some wise scribes
and Pharisees, men that had learned under the best teachers in the
nation. He passed them by. And he went
and chose out fishermen, uneducated fishermen, unwise fishermen. That's who he chose. But he made
them wise because Christ was their wisdom. He made them wise
unto salvation. Paul was an exception. Paul was
a wise man. Paul was one of those Pharisees.
And God called him. He called him. Now, listen to
what the Scriptures say. This is what God said. This is
Christ's Word Himself. He said, it's harder, brethren,
I'm sorry, let me get to that in just a minute. Why did He
choose them? He chose them to confound the wise. He chose foolish
men to confound the wise. You know, they were saying, they
were always saying of Christ, they said, how does He even,
how does He, how does He know letters? He's not learned. We
didn't teach Him. He hadn't learned. How does He
know letters? They were confounded by this. You know, if you look
at what, when we go through this and you think about what churches
are doing today, They're using to attract sinners just the opposite
of what God really uses. They want a man who has got a
Ph.D. and got all these degrees behind
his name so that you look at him and think, oh, he's got to
be wise. That's not who God used. God used unlearned men, not taught
in their cemeteries. And then look here. God chose
weak things. weak things. He says, verse 26,
You see your calling, brethren, how that not many mighty are
called? God had chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. If you
look around, you won't see many mighty men. These are the wealthy,
influential men. You won't see many mighty men.
I tried to think as I was preparing this message. Of all the churches
I know of, how many rich fellows, how many Like, just how many
doctors in wisdom, doctors of education, how many doctors,
how many wise men do I know? There are not many. They are
not many. There's a lot more who fit this
other description. Unwise, poor, there's a lot more
of them. This is so now just like it was
so then. Now here's what I want to show
you. Luke 18, 24. concerning these wealthy men,
rich men. And they're wealthy in just physical,
temporal riches. And also, men who are rich in
their esteem of themselves, rich in their works, and rich in what
they think of themselves. Look at what he says here. The
Lord Jesus said, verse 24, "...how hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of God." For it's easier for a camel to
go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God." You know, we make a big mistake teaching our children
to grow up and chase wealth. That's a bad mistake. I mean,
what Christ says there is just true, right there on the face
of it. Very few rich men are going to be saved. They just
pierce through. They can't stop serving the world
and serve God. They can't come down and bow
to God. They trust those riches. Now look over at Psalm 49 and
verse 6. They that trust in their wealth
and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them
can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for
him." The Catholic Church don't want their folks reading that.
They don't want their church reading that. That's how they
make a lot of money, you know, trying to redeem them out of
purgatory. They made that up. so they could get money. And
if you pay enough, you can get him out of purgatory. There's
no such thing as purgatory and no such thing as redeeming somebody
from seeing corruption. It ain't going to happen. Look
here. For the redemption of their soul is precious. It takes precious
blood to redeem a soul. And once it's redeemed, it ceases
forever. It's done. Now look at verse 9. He says,
No man can redeem his brother that he should still live forever
and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die,
likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their
wealth to others. All men are going to perish.
Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever,
and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their
lands after their own names, and think it's going to stay
that way. That's what he said. And look what happens. Nevertheless,
man being in honor abideth not. That's not going to continue,
he said. He's like the beasts that perish. This their way is
their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings. He says,
think of that. You see one man do all this and
get his nest on high, and he puts his name on his estate,
and he thinks it's going to last forever, and he dies and goes
to the dust, and it gets fought over by all the kids and divided
up. And the first thing a kid does when he gets his hand on
a little piece of it is, names it after his name, starts thinking
it's going to last forever. God said they see this happen
and they still do that. He says, like sheep, they're
laid in the grave, death shall feed on them, and the upright
shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty
shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will
redeem my soul. God will redeem my soul from
the power of the grave, for He shall receive me. You see, we
have Christ our Redeemer. That's where wealth is. That's
where the true riches are. Christ our Redeemer. He paid
the precious blood. His precious blood. Now, the
majority of those God saves are weak. They're poor. They're without
money. They're without position in the world. They're without
influence over anybody in this world. Why? We get to thinking
this. I've thought this. Boy, if God
just would save that rich man and that powerful man, that influential
man, just think what we could do in spreading this gospel.
God's not going to do it that way. God says, I'll take the
rich man away and I'll show you what I can do by my power with
a bunch of weaklings so that you see the powers of God, not
of you. That's how God operates. Alright, look here. And you remember
when that second temple was being built? And Zerubbabel was the
governor. Zechariah was the preacher. God
sent Zechariah to Zerubbabel, the governor, with a message
to tell him how his house was going to be built. And that house
being built is a picture of Christ building his spiritual house,
building his church with his people. And you know how he said
it was going to be built? He said this, not by might, Not
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. There's where the power
is. There's where the power is. But
he says here he chose those weak sinners to preach this gospel
to confound the mighty. To confuse them, to put them
to shame, to confuse those who trust in their power and riches.
Now, several of you are looking at, helping me look at the banks. And you're going to see this
when they start asking you questions. And they start talking to you
about wanting to know how you're governed and all this stuff.
When you see them in person and when you talk to them on the
phone, you can hear it. They are totally confused. They're totally
confused about how in the world you get by like you do. You don't
have laws and bylaws and bylaws for the bylaws and everybody
watching one another and everybody holding everyone accountable
and all that stuff. You don't have all that? We got something
way better than that. We got Christ the head of His
church. We got Christ walking in the
midst of the candlesticks. We got Christ ruling in the hearts
of His people. That's the power we got. But
they've confounded by this. They're just confused by it.
They just look at you with a puzzled look. Now look, God chose base
things. Verse 26, You see your calling,
brethren, how that not many nobles are called. Not many noble are
called. Look at verse 28. God chose base
things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not to bring to nothing things that
are. Noble means of a noble birth,
well-bred, from known, influential, powerful families. Not many noble
are called. You know many people like that
in the Church of God. Not in the true Church of God.
Not many noble. Instead, it says God chose base
things. That means He chose men of low
birth. Men who are ignoble, not noble. God chose things which are despised.
He chose folks that the rich and the noble look down their
noses at and despise them in utter contempt. That's who God
chose. That's who God chose. God chose
things which are not. That means he chose people that
this world calls nobodies, and who indeed are nobodies. And
he brings them to see they're nobodies. This is for real, and
I'm not kidding with you. There's a church not far from
where Brother Rupert Ravenbart lives, and they have on their
sign, this is the church where everybody is somebody. Well,
let me tell you about this church that Paul is describing. It's
the church where everybody is nobody. You want to have peace
in a church? You want to see a church that
will get along and don't have to have all these rules and regulations
govern them? You find a church where Christ
has made His people nobodies. A worm He can't very well lift
up his head at an ant and find fault with him. He's just a worm. He's just a worm. And one worm
can't lift up his head against another worm and say anything.
We're just worms. Maggots is what the word is.
Maggots. Nobodies. Now, why did God choose
and call nobodies? Look at verse 28. To bring to
naught things that are. God's using nobodies. He's using
people this world do not acknowledge. Me and you, He's called. Nobodies.
Not wise, not mighty, not rich, not influential in any way, not
from any kind of noble birth as far as man's concerned, but
we're born of the King of kings and Lord of lords. That's a noble
birth. But this world don't recognize that, and this world looks at
us and thinks, there's nobody. This world's churches, and just
like the rest of the world, are trying their best to be heard
above everybody else. Everybody trying to get louder
than the next one, so they can get the attention, and they can
draw everybody then. They want the most hits on Facebook,
and they want the most hits on Twitter, and they want the...
Churches are just like the rest of the world. That's not how
God's church operates. He said, I sent my people to
be nobodies in the midst of all these somebodies and to just
preach Christ. And when they do that, God says
through His power, He's going to call His child. And when He
calls His child, the first thing He does is He makes that child
a nobody. He makes that child seek. We
don't have any wisdom. We don't have any power. We don't
have any noble birth. We don't have anything to trust
Him, period, in this life. We're nobodies. And when he does
that, little by little, he's bringing this world and all false
religion, everything, he's bringing it to nothing too. He's doing
that. And I'll tell you why, because
when he's brought all his children out of this world, This world's
too busy to even recognize it going on. They don't even know
it's going on. The kingdom of God comes without observation
because it's spiritual, it's in the heart, it's a work that
men don't even see. And this world don't recognize
it. Christ said, Behold you despisers in wonder and perish for I work
a work in the midst of you which you'll no wise believe though
a man declare it to you. Men hear this and they say, I
don't believe that. I don't believe God's doing that. Well, God's doing it. He's doing
it. And when He's called the last
sheep out, look at 2 Peter 3.10. 2 Peter 3.10. He's going to bring
it all to naught. All man's governments, all man's
civilizations, all pagan religions, all man's best works and all
his deeds and all the things that he put his hopes in. I showed
you this last time. Whatever's not born of God is
temporal, carnal, and it's going to perish with the earth. It's
earthy. Whatever Christ has not created
is earthy. It don't matter how pretty it
looks on the outside. He's earthy. And look here what's
going to happen to it. Did I say 2 Peter 3? Did I tell
you the right place? Look here, 2 Peter 3 and look
at verse 10. The day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night. Men won't even know this. No
man is going to not know this. "...in which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
a fervent heat. The earth also, and the works
that are therein shall be burned up." Now, if I understand that
correctly, once God's got all His people removed from here,
and God takes His presence away from here, and burns the whole
thing up, this is going to be hell. This right here will be
hell. there'll be a new heavens and a new earth that's been created
in the righteousness of Christ. And His people who are new creatures
in Christ, new creations created by Christ, by His Spirit, so
that they're eternal things that cannot perish. They're that kingdom
that cannot be moved. And this kingdom is going to
come down and His people are going to dwell with Him in that
new heavens and new earth forever. This is what he's talking about.
He's going to bring to nothing everything that he is right now. I wish the young folks could
get this. I pray God would teach you this in your heart. Nothing you see with your carnal
eye is going to last. You can call that foolishness
if you want to, but I pray God to make you see that to know
this and believe and trust God's Word is wisdom. Because nothing
you see here is going to last. God's going to burn it all up. He's going to burn it all up.
There's going to be global warming, don't you worry about that, on
an epic proportion. Alright, now look here. Why did
God choose these foolish, weak, base things and pass by the wise
and mighty and noble of this world? Verse 29, here's the preeminent
reason, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Nothing God does is the way we
do it. Man chooses those who will be the most helpful to him.
Isn't that who we choose? We choose those who are going
to be most helpful to us. God chooses those that He's going
to help the most. They have nothing at all for
God, no ability to help God. He chooses useless things. That's my subject tonight, by
the way. God's choice of useless things. Just useless. But He does it so that there
be no flesh glory in His presence. He chooses these foolish means
of preaching. And then He chooses these lowly
things, you and me. to support this gospel and further
this gospel and spread it through the world and preach it, a thing
the world calls foolishness, preached by people the world
calls foolishness. And he does it so that there
won't be any flesh glory, nobody's going to be boasting, nobody's
going to be bragging in God's presence. Now, first of all,
that means this. As Christ's church, we cannot
boast, we cannot brag. I can't, you can't. that we've
ever done anything to build God's church. We can't do that. We
haven't called one sinner to life. We haven't given faith,
repentance, righteousness, holiness, redemption, or anything to one
sinner. And we never will. We never will. No preacher of
Christ is going to ever make that boast. If you hear a man
making a boast about how many churches he's built, look out. Look out. And no child of God
called is going to make that boast. Shall the axe boast itself against
him that hews therewith? That's what we are. We're just
an axe in God's hand. God's doing the hewing. We're
just vessels in His hand. That's it. Paul said this, by
the grace of God I am what I am. And the grace of God that was
bestowed on me was not in vain. He said I labored more abundantly
than all those other preachers did. Yet, not I, but the grace
of God which was with me. And then here's the second thing
it means. When you're called by God into His church, There's
not one child God calls that's going to glory in Christ's presence. We're not going to boast. We're
not going to say that it was by our wisdom and our searching
and our knowledge. Salvation is not in what you
know. Salvation is who. It's who. Christ has made wisdom
to His people. We're not going to make our boast
that it was by our might. We thought we had some might
to establish some kind of righteousness. Christ becomes the power of God.
And you see, He's your righteousness. He's your righteousness. We're
not going to make any boast about our birth. We don't have any
noble birth. Christ is our life. He birthed
us. He birthed us. Jeremiah 9.23. We'll close with this. This is the only way, this means
of preaching, using nobody's This is how God makes it so that
nobody can glory in Christ's presence. We're going to look
at that more in detail as it applies to the sinner in his
heart next time. But for now, we're just looking
at it kind of with the other passage. But look here, Jeremiah
9, let me get to it. Jeremiah 9, 23, Thus saith the
Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glories, glory in this. You ready? You ready? That he understandeth and knoweth
the doctrine of election. That he understands and knows
the doctrine of particular redemption. That he knows and understands
the doctrine of God's regenerating grace. No.
That he knows and understands me. Me. Now watch what he says. That I am the Lord. that exercises
loving kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth.
In other words, the wisdom and the might and the nobility is
all of me, God said. Now watch what he says here.
For in these things, those graces of God he just mentioned, yes. But what have we been looking
at? What things have we been looking at? These things that
know we don't have anything to glory in. These things that know
we're nobody. all the glorious gods. He says,
in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Amen.