Alright, let's turn now to 1
Corinthians chapter 1. Let's all pay good attention
because we're going to try to get somebody lost tonight. 1
Corinthians 1 verse 23, we read, but we preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. That's
going to be our subject. Preaching of Christ crucified. 1 Corinthians 1.23. If somebody asks you, what does
your pastor preach? This is our answer. We preach
Christ crucified. That's what we preach. And if
they say, well, what else does he preach? You can answer this
way. There's nothing else worth preaching.
That's it. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
We preach Christ crucified. Now there's three untos that
follow here in this verse and the next one. And they're going
to make up our divisions, these untos. Our divisions are going to be
in the form of questions. Here's the first question. What
is the preaching of Christ crucified to the Jew? Verse 23 says, We
preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block. That's what it is, a stumbling
block. Then secondly, what is the preaching of Christ crucified
unto the Greek? Verse 23 says, We preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. Now to the Jews, it's a stumbling
block. To the Greeks, he's foolishness. Here's the third question. What's
the preaching of Christ crucified unto them which are called? Verse
24 says, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Now the gospel
declares Christ is the wisdom and the power of God. That he's the power and the wisdom
of God to save his people. That he's the power and wisdom
of God to save his people without any help from his people. And
that message is despised by everybody in this world except for those
who are called of God. And that's what we're going to
see here tonight. I want everybody to pay close attention here because
when it says unto the Jews of Stumlinblock, And unto the Greeks'
foolishness, but unto us who are called, everybody sitting
here in this room tonight fits into one of those three groups.
Everybody sitting here does. You're either a Jew, you're a
Greek, or you've been called of God. You may fit into more
than one of those, but you fit into... Everybody that's not
been called is either a Jew or a Greek. They may be both, but
they're a Jew or a Greek. All right, let's look here at
the first thing. What's the preaching of Christ crucified to the Jew?
Verse 23 says, unto the Jews a stumbling block. Now I said
to you on Sunday, I believe it was Sunday, that I'm a Jew. I
said that all believers are Jews. In the spiritual sense of the
word in Romans 2, at the end of Romans chapter 2, we are.
But now in the sense it's used right here, we're not. We're
not. The Jews, in the sense that it's
used here, represent all who are religious. They're religious. But they're either trying to
come to God apart from Christ at all, or they're trying to
come to God with Christ, but in addition to something that
they've added to Christ. That's what a Jew is. They may
be natural descendants of Abraham. They may not. They may be worshipping
in a Jewish synagogue. They may not. They may not even
claim to be Jewish. They may claim to be Christians.
That's right. They may claim to be Christians.
They may be in a church. But all who are trying to come
to God apart from Christ are trying to come to God with Christ
plus something of their doing. They're a Jew in this sense as
it's used right here in this text. The preaching of Christ
crucified is a stumbling block to them. What does that mean?
A stumbling block. It means it gets them tripped
up. It means that they balk at it.
They stumble at it. It means they'd rather just kick
it out of the way. Kick the gospel and the truth
of Christ and what Christ has done out of the way and get on
with their religion. And I have to put up with it.
It's a stumbling block to them. The Jews are looking for a sign. Look back up there at Verse 22,
the Jews require a sign. They're looking for something
they can see outwardly. And are you looking for it usually
in a positive way? They're looking for it positively
in themselves and negatively in you. They want to bring you
down to lift themselves up. They see themselves outwardly
as doing all things right and see you as doing all things wrong.
That's what a Jew does. That's what these free will works,
will workers, is what they are. They're looking for a sign. They
look at the externals of religion. They look at what's outward.
How you dress. Touch not. Taste not. Handle
not. All the externals. Things they
can see. Because that's all they can see. It's outward. The outward. The
outward. Now the Jew thinks they came
to Christ by their wisdom and by their power. They think they
came to Christ by their wisdom and their power. Now if you don't
preach to a Jew man's will, and man's power, and man's wisdom,
and some sleeve, some aspect of this thing of salvation in
a man's hands, if you don't preach that to him, they stumble. They stumble. Because he thinks
man's will is free. or else God couldn't charge him
with sin. But you being responsible to
obey the will of God and you being unable to obey the will
of God are perfectly reconcilable. Just because you're responsible
to obey God doesn't mean you have the ability to obey God,
but you're still responsible to. We lost our ability in the
garden, but we're still responsible to obey God. God didn't give
the law at Mount Sinai thinking anybody would keep it. You know,
from the time Adam sinned in the garden, Romans 5 tells us
this, from the time Adam sinned in the garden until God gave
the law at Mount Sinai, people died. People died. Even though there had been no
law given, people died. You know why? Because the curse,
man came under the curse in the garden. Man fell in the garden.
Man was a sinner in the garden. The law wasn't given at Mount
Sinai for the purpose of anybody keeping it. That's not why it
was given there. But man thinks he can come. He
thinks he can come by his will, by his power, by what he's done.
Look at John 3. John chapter 3. Man's will is not free. It's
bound by its nature. Natural man can't change himself
unless God creates him anew. Look at John 3.1. There was a
man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now this
man, he was a natural Jew. A natural Jew. This is what all
men are, even if they're in Christian religion. That's what they are.
This man had a teaching position. That's what it means when it
says he was a master, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to
Jesus by night. Wheel workers are polygamists.
They're trying to be married to everybody. They're trying
to be married to their religion, they're trying to be married
to their flesh, to their works, to their will, to every other
sodomite, and to Christ too. He came, he was a Pharisee, he
was a ruler of the Jews, and he come to Christ by night. He's
trying to get along with everybody. The same came to Jesus by night,
and he said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And Jesus answered, said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he can't see the kingdom of God. What are you talking about? What
are you come to me talking about? You don't have a clue what you're
talking about. He's saying to that man, I didn't draw you.
My Father in Heaven didn't draw you. You think you're fooling
me that you've come to me by night and gonna blow smoke up
my pants leg and make me think that I called you? This is omnipotent,
all-seeing God right here. He said, you can't see the Kingdom
of God unless you've been born of the Spirit of God. Nicodemus
said unto him, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. You must be born again. The wind
blows where it's listed. You can hear the sound, but you
can't tell where it's coming from or where it's going. That's
what it's like for everybody born of the Spirit. Now look
at what Nicodemus answered. He said to them, how can these
things be? You know why he said that? He couldn't see them, Carly. He couldn't see these things
that Christ was talking about. This wasn't stuff you could see
in the synagogue. This wasn't stuff they were doing
in the synagogue with all their carrying on and all their show
and all their carrying on in the synagogue. He's talking about
something unseen. And he said, how can that be?
How can these things be? Jesus answered him and said,
are you a teacher in Israel? You're a master in Israel. You're
preaching to people in Israel. You're teaching people how to
come to God in Israel and you don't know these things? Verily,
verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do know. That's what
Christ said. We speak that we do know. And
testify that we have seen. That's right. We see it by faith. We know it by the power and wisdom
of God having experienced it. We know. We're preaching what
we've seen. and you receive not our witness.
You don't receive my gospel, the Lord said to him. If I told
you earthly things and you don't believe, how are you going to
believe if I tell you heavenly things? If you won't believe the least,
how are you going to believe the greatest? That's what he's
telling him. He said in another place, no man can come to me
except my Father which is in heaven. Draw him. That's the
only way. Well, the Jew, back in our day, well, go to Romans
5. The Jew is a self-righteous man. He is a self-righteous man. He doesn't believe all men to
be depraved. He does not believe we fell in
a garden. He believes that his works are righteous and they
are going to count something towards his salvation. That's
what he believes. He believes they're going to
at least get him a better mansion and glory. That's what the self-righteous
Jew, whether he's in a synagogue or in a church calling himself
a Christian, that's what he is. Whether he's a Hindu or a Muslim
or whatever he's worshiping, that's what he believes. But
he won't deny what I'm about to read to you with his mouth,
the Christian Jew won't. He won't say this with his mouth.
He just won't. But he denies it in his words.
He denies it in how He treats you, how He treats Himself. He
denies it in the things He's trying to do to gain acceptance. Romans 5.19. But He won't say
this out loud. He doesn't believe this in His
heart. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. You see, Adam
sinned and we'd all fail. Christ obeyed and that's how
his people are made righteous. You see that? It's by Christ's
obedience. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. That the offense might abound.
Look back at Romans 5, look back at verse 12. As by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned." Now look at parenthesis. For
until the law, sin was in the world. Until the law came, sin
was in the world. But sin is not imputed where
there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over babies that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression. Adam being a figure, the picture
of Christ to come. Well, I just told you that. Why
did they die then? Because the curse was committed
in the garden. That's where man disobeyed God
and broke the law was in the garden. So now back over here
at Romans 5.20, the law entered that the offense might abound.
That's why God gave the law to make us see we're guilty. And
he said, but where sin abounded, grace did much more bound. That
as sin reigned under death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. His
people, they're going to live because of what Christ did. But,
now I reminded you that he could go by the name of Christian,
even though he's a Jew. No different than a Pharisee.
But next, the Jew stumbles because he doesn't understand the lawful
use of the law which God gave at Mount Sinai to Moses. Look
at Romans 5.20 there again. The law entered that the offense
might abound. That's why the law entered. Look
back at Romans 3. Look at verse 19. Romans 3.19,
now we know what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world may become guilty before God. That's why it was given. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there should no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. That's why it was given. That's
why it was given. But because the Spirit of God
hasn't given him a new heart, the Jews. He hadn't given him
a new heart. He hadn't been born of God. And
he hadn't had his conscience purged from dead works, from
trying to come to God and establish his own righteousness, and to
keep working and working and working for a better place in
glory. Because God hadn't purged him of that deadness and that
vileness. He keeps on doing it. He's got
a zeal for God, but it's not according to knowledge. Look
over at Romans 10. Romans 10, verse 4. But Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. You see that?
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Well, why does he keep on working
then? Why does he keep on going about trying to establish a righteousness? Because of those last three words.
It says, to everyone that believeth. He don't believe. He don't believe
Christ is the end of the law. That's why he keeps on working.
Christ is only the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. But to everyone that believes,
he's the end of the law for righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes, but only to those who believe, not
to the unbeliever. Oh, he won't say his law keeping
is for righteousness sake now. Oh, he wouldn't tell you that.
But he'll tell you this, he'll say it's for sanctification.
Because by my law keeping, I'm getting more and more holy. You
get further and further away from God by that. That's right. Look over Galatians 3. Let me
see if I can tell you what God thinks of that. I've used this illustration before.
Maybe I can eventually get somebody to throw up and then you'll enter
into what I'm talking about. It's what God thinks of our works,
our works for holiness and our works for righteousness. I'm
trying to come to God that way. Have you ever been at a festival
and you got on a pair of shorts And you go into that port-a-potty
and it stinks so bad you can't stand it. And what you see down
in that hole, you don't even want to look down in there. And
something accidentally sprinkles on your leg. You know how that
makes you jump back. You know how that makes you feel.
That's what God thinks about our progressive sanctification. That's exactly what he thinks
about it. It's called abomination to God. That's what it means,
a sulfurous stench. That's what it means, abomination.
Look here now at Galatians 3 and look at verse 2. This only what
I've learned of you. Now, you be honest about this.
You're sitting there. Somebody here tonight fits in
here into this category of a Jew. Somebody here thinks they're
righteous. I'm sure somebody here thinks they're righteous
by something they've done. Look here now. This only what
I learned of you. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law? Was it by something you did that
made you born again? If so, that means I had never
been born again. That means everything I'm doing,
I'm doing in the flesh. That means everything I'm doing,
I'm doing just trying to bring myself up to God by my works.
But now look at the next thing. Or by the hearing of faith. Did
you hear the gospel of Christ, crucified priest, and the Spirit
of God quickens your heart and made you let go of everything
and lay hold of Christ and rest in Him? Now, if you did, if that's
how you came to Christ, then let me answer this next question.
Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, or are you now
made perfect by the flesh? You're going to contribute anything
to you being made perfect. Is that, is that, Colossians
said we've been made fit. meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life by God the Father, by what He's done
in Christ, by what the Spirit of God's done in quickening us
and bringing us to rest in Him where we're complete. And that's
how we are fit to enter into the kingdom of glory, not by
us making ourselves. He's saying, are you making yourself
more and more perfect? Are you making yourself a little
gradually more perfect by your flesh? That's what Paul's saying.
Now look what he called it. Go back to Galatians 1. Verse
six, I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that calls
you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel. But I look, which is not another.
But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven. Listen to that. Though we or
an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. That's strong. That's strong. Paul's serious
about this now. I mean, that's serious business
right there. Well, now let's go back to 1 Corinthians. Why
is it that the Jew stumbles? It's because he had been made
free. He hadn't been made free. That's why I keep so stumbling
over these things. He hadn't been made free by Christ. He's not been made to believe
redemption's been accomplished by Christ alone, by the blood
of Christ alone. In fact, he's afraid of liberty.
He scares him to death to hear men preach that the believer's
free in Christ. He says, oh, you can't say that. That's licentious doctrine to
tell a man he's free, and he's free from the law. You can't
tell him that. He's taken one of the most glorious doctrines
there is, that if Christ shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed. free from the law's yoke and
the law's rule, free from the law's judgment, free from the
law's guilt, free from the law's curse and condemnation. So free
from the law that the law attests with God Almighty and says of
His people, they are as righteous as God Almighty is righteous.
You don't get more accepted than that. You don't get more righteous
than God. You don't get more holy than
God. That's what the law says of his people. We can't find
one. The law says 613 of us have looked
him over from top side, bottom side, backwards and forwards,
inside and out, and we can't find a spot in him. He's perfect. That's what it said of Christ.
And because that's what the law said of Christ. And because He
took all our spots and our blemishes and bore them in His own body
on the tree and put them away. Now the law says, I'm satisfied. And the Spirit of God's washed
us, not by works of righteousness which we've done, but by His
mercy He saved us. He came and called us through
Christ Jesus and He quickened us to life and He gave us life
and He washed us. And now the law says, they're
fit to come into your presence, God." And God says, they sure
are. They're as fit as my son. In
fact, as sure as he's sitting right here at my right hand,
so are they. That's how perfect they are.
And a man says, oh, you can't tell sinners that. That's licentiousness. You're telling a man he's free
and he can live like he wants to. Start living like you want
to. If you're not living like you
want to, and you're living in religion, you're living a lie.
That's right. If you got on a garb of religion,
anybody got on a garb of religion, and religious works, and religious
duties, and religious church-going, and religious law-keeping, and
religious singing, and religious praying, and religious hoop-dee-doo,
that is not free in Christ, it don't do you any good. You're
living a lie. The believer does what he wants
to do. The believer lives like he wants
to live. As far as serving God, he wants
to serve God. He doesn't want to serve sin.
He wants to do it by faith, not by law. He does it by love, not
by law. Because he sees what Christ has
done for him. And he's following Christ. And
the law never did that. Those that were saved in the
Old Testament under the Old Testament dispensation, when they were
called by God to faith in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit of God,
they were saved the same way then as sinners are saved now.
And they were led and motivated and walked, not by law, they
did it by faith in Christ Jesus. From righteous, able, all the
way to the last one that was just called. They've all been
saved and they're all walking by the same Spirit the same way.
That's true. He might be a five-point Calvinist
in letter, on paper, and in his head. But when he's with believers,
he says salvation is by the irresistible grace of God. But when he gets
with his better friends, he starts recounting about how he accepted
Jesus and how he let God save him. When he's with believers,
he'll declare the flesh prophets nothing. But when he's with those
he's most comfortable with, he'll talk proudly about how well he
keeps the law. all the sin he's put away and
how he don't sin like he used to. And look down as holier than
thou knows on them poor sinners over there that do. Can't be
quite as good as me. He'd stomach to hear that Christ
died for a particular people now and then, but it's all the
same to him, same message to him, and he'd really rather hear
that Christ died for all men. With believers, he may not speak
much of the signs that he's looking for and that he can see, like
his morality, and his Sabbath keeping, and his tithing, and
his abstinence, and his humanitarian missions. But with his good friends,
he'll proudly talk about the sin he stops sinning, and all
the things he's doing for God. He makes sure all know that he
tithes, makes sure they all know he prays, and ironically, he
makes sure they all know he's self-abasing. With believers, he may say he
has no confidence in traditions of men, but he really takes great
confidence in the religion of Mama and Daddy, in a certain
denomination, and in his history. He receives every person who
professes to believe God, all of them, to believe Christ. He accepts all of them, with
the exception of one, those who declare Christ is all. Even one
as pious and as tolerant and as open-minded as he can only
stomach so long that separatist group, that group, that sect
that he labels as hyper-Calvinist. Oh, they take the finished work
of Christ too far. Oh, they take the absolute sovereignty
of God too far. Oh, to hear them talk, you'd
think God's actually God. You'd think Christ actually rules
in heaven and in earth and all powers He has over His church
to govern and turn the king's heart as He will. You'd think to hear them talk
that the believers complete in Christ and that Christ is all. To hear them preach and to hear
them talk, you'd think that what they're saying is, as surely
as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the believers
as complete in Christ as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And they say, oh, that can't
be. You tell somebody that, we'll lose our yoke over them. Our
whip will have to be ground up. They won't listen to what we're
saying anymore So they say instead stay away from that sect stay
away from that separatist party You know, that's a that's a cult
what you believe in there because they say Christ is all in all
flesh is grass That's what this book says This
book says, comfort ye my people. Speak to my people. Tell Jerusalem
her warfare is accomplished. Go tell them Christ's done it
all. Go tell them Christ has conquered Satan and will bruise
him under their feet shortly. Go tell them that the victory's
won and the Lord's rewarded them double for all their iniquity. So for the sake of his own vainglory,
The man who trusts in his own power and wisdom stumbles at
the truth of Christ, until the Jew, the preaching of Christ,
crucifies a stumbling block. And you know what? My heart's
prayer for any who do not see Christ as all, do not see God's
absolutely sovereign, those who do not believe Christ is all,
Those that aren't like us who are really determined to preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified only. You know what I pray for
them? I pray for them what Paul prayed for his countrymen in
his day. He said, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I say with
all my heart, my heart's desire and prayer for 99% of Christians
is that they might be saved. I bear them record, they have
a zeal of God, but it is not according to knowledge, for they
going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." What's the difference
in me saying that and Paul saying it in his day? Would you answer
me that? There's none. There's none. So when the Jew hears us preach
this, over in verse 30, 1 Corinthians 1.30, of him Are you in Christ Jesus? Of God
are you in Christ Jesus? Who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption? That's what you've
got to have for inner glory. That's what Christ is to us,
brethren. He's wisdom and He's righteousness and He's sanctification
and He's redemption because God put us in Christ and blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Him and called us by His grace. that as it is written, he that
glorieth. Let him glory in the Lord. Let
him quit talking about himself. Let him quit talking about what
man can do and start talking about what God has done. You've
heard that, read that old article, I think, I want to say it was
C.H. McIntosh maybe that wrote it
that said that works religion is do-do religion. That's what
it is. That's what God called it. He
called it dung. Paul called it dung. But it is do-do religion.
It's do this, do that, don't do this, do that, don't do that.
The gospel is what's already done. It's what God's already
finished. All right, let's move on now. Let me make this statement before
I do move to the next point. Vain, man-exalting works religion
is by far the worst enemy of our souls. Now, Clare, you're saying it'd
be worse for a man to be in a church that's preaching works religion
than not. That's exactly what I'm saying.
That's exactly what I'm saying. Paul said it's not another gospel.
Not another gospel. Am I getting too narrow for anybody?
I hope so. I hope I get so narrow that somebody
falls off that Broadway and finds himself lost in a ditch somewhere,
and God saves them before they plunge into hell for all eternity.
That's what I hope. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte,
and when he's made, you make him a twofold more child of hell
than yourselves." That's what the Lord said. Why is that? Well, because now he not only
has, before he just had no hope, but now he's got a false hope.
And the Lord said, if thine eye is evil, thy whole body shall
be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in you is really darkness, that's great darkness. If you walk in
darkness and think it's light, that's terrible. He said, Jesus
said, verily I say unto you, the publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you. So you see, I'm not making
this up that it's worse to be in false religion than not. Christ
said it. Christ taught it. All right,
let's look at this Greek here for a little bit. Verse 23, we
won't stay as long on him. I got more hope for the Greek
than the Jew. What is the preaching of Christ
crucified unto the Greek? 1 Corinthians 1.23. Unto the Greek's foolishness.
To the Greek's foolishness. Now again, he may be from Greece,
but they represent all who have their hearts set on the world.
On its wisdom, on its riches, on its applause, on its sports,
so on. He may be from some other background.
He may not be from Greece. He may dabble in religion for
its wisdom sake, for its intellectual sake. But for the most part,
his mind is set on the world. To the Greek, the preaching of
Christ crucified is foolishness. It is foolishness. You give him
philosophy, he loves that. You give him arts, you give him
science, you give him history, you give him politics, you give
him sports, you give him recreation. You can even give him a study
of religion and philosophy as long as it's academical. or a
system of theology. But now when you start preaching
Christ crucified to Him, that's foolishness to Him. And the Greeks
usually considers all religious people as hypocrites. As all
as hypocrites. You give them a hypocrite, an
actor, on a silver screen or in a theater, and that's alright. But now as far as religion goes,
or one on Capitol Hill, that suits him fine. You give him
a novel, or you just tell him something novel. Tell him something
new. Anything but the scriptures.
He'll take the latest song. He'll take the latest theory.
He'll take the latest joke. He'll take the latest quip of
useless trivia. He'll take a few lines of foreign
language. He'll take a walk to a museum,
or a walk in nature. And it doesn't matter, he may
be rich, he may be poor. He may be eating goose dung on
$100 saltine crackers, or he might be eating potted meat on
Wonder Bread. It don't matter. But he thinks he's the wisest
man on the planet. For unto the Greek, the preaching
of Christ crucified is foolishness. Don't take him to the church
house, though, unless it's just for one time, for sport, or to
let him hear something he never heard before. Those are the two
categories that all unbelievers fit into. Some more than one. Some are in religion and worldly
too. But that's all of them right
there. A man's either self-righteous, refusing to bow to the truth
that Christ is all, or he's a brilliant ignoramus thinking our gospel
is foolishness. He's one of the two, or a mixture
of both. All right, they could be rich, recognized, or poor
and unnoticed. It don't matter. It don't matter.
All right, here's the third thing. What's the preaching of Christ
crucified unto them which are called? Verse 24. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Unto them which are called. When
were they called? Ephesians 1 says we were called
from eternity. It says we were called in in
heavenly places when God chose His people and put them in Christ
and blessed them with all spiritual blessing. That's speaking of
every believer. That's speaking of everybody
that shall believe. That means that they were given every spiritual
blessing that could possibly be given to them by God in Christ
in eternity in heavenly places before He made the world. That
means every one of them are going to be saved. Those that they
were predestinated into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. God determined their destiny
from the beginning. And then they're called affectionately
of God in time through the preaching of this gospel that the Jews
stumble over and that the Greeks think is foolishness. And the
Spirit of God enters in, and of God are you in Christ Jesus,
born again, created anew, given the mind of Christ, given faith,
granted repentance, blessed of God to believe on Christ and
rest in Him. And it says, verse 24, both Jews
and Greeks. God's got His people amongst
both those categories. and he calls them out, and he
calls them out, and he makes them one in Christ from all other
kinds of backgrounds, from every kind of background, out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation. The grace of God
does in the hearts of his people what the religions and politics
of this world only attempt and what they fake. The grace of
God does it. Verse 24. But here's the most
important thing. Christ is the power of God. and
the wisdom of God. Christ crucified is the message
that declares the perfection of God's power and His wisdom.
Why did God allow the Jew and the Greek to even come about?
Couldn't He have stopped that? Couldn't He have prevented these
two groups of people, this whole, all the mass of religion you
see in the world And whatever it is, wherever it is, whatever
country, whatever it is. And all the massive intellectualism
you've seen, couldn't God have stopped all that? Why did He
allow it to go on? It was God's way of making the
wisdom of this world appear to His people as just what it is.
Foolishness. Look back at verse 19. For it's
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. And I'll bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where's the disputer of this
world? If not God made foolish the wisdom of this world. For
after that in the wisdom of God, God did this in his wisdom. The
world by wisdom knew not God. That was according to God's wisdom.
It pleased God after that by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. What's that mean? It means, Jonathan,
for 4,000 years. For 4,000 years. God gave the Jews the oracles
of God, spelled it out for them, told them what the Messiah was
going to do when He came, how He was going to accomplish the
salvation of His people. And He gave the Greeks all of nature
and all of heaven and earth to declare His name. For 4,000 years,
He gave that to them to figure out who God is and how God will
be worshipped. In Romans 1 it says, so they're
without excuse. because when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts. and
creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own flesh, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who's blessed forever." So the consummate wisdom
of man, after 4,000 years of trying to figure out how to come
to God and how to worship God, was this. Worship man. That's the best he could come
up with. Worship a fallen, polluted, God-hating rebel. Or carve out
a four-footed beast and let's worship Him. That's the best
man could come up with. That's the best wisdom man's
got to offer. But in the fullness of time,
God sent the one that He purposed from eternity. He sent Christ
into the earth. For after that, the wisdom of
the the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom didn't know God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them from
that belief. He sent John the Baptist into this earth saying,
the king's here, stand up and quit your show and your charade,
the king's here now. And Christ came forth preaching
the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Oh, but he came forth in a way
that was foolish to man. A baby threw a virgin. And then
he went to call out those that he was going to use to preach
this gospel. And he didn't go to the ivory halls of the well-educated
Gamaliel's. He didn't go there. They didn't
come dressed in white with their garments all tailored out and
things on them with all the law sewed into their garments. They
came in fishing boots, just old white gumbo runners. That's what
they came walking in. They didn't come with their fingers
all pedicured and their hands all nice and neat. They came
with fish scales still on their fingers. They didn't come preaching
in the language that went over everybody's head so that when
they got through, they said, man, I don't know what he said, but
that sure was some smart stuff, wasn't it? They came preaching
in language so simple that you could not misunderstand what
they were saying. And that's why the world hated
them and hated their leader, Christ our King. And that's why
they do it today. That's why they hate it today.
It ain't changed. Why did God do that? Look down at verse 25.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness
of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. It's still that way. I know some
rich folks. I know some mighty folks. I know
some noble folks that are called. But they've come down off their
high horse, just like Paul came down off his on the road to Damascus.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise, to leave them scratching their head and saying, why is
God using that yahoo? Why is he saying that? Don't
he know he could be having the kind of following we got if he
would just craft his words a little better? He's such a dummy. And God's chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base
things of the world. You see these weak things and
these base things and these nothing things? He's talking about me
and you, brethren. Can you fit in there? Base nothings,
despise nobodies. That's us. And our gospel to
this world is that. And yet God chose these things,
things which are not, to bring nothing, things that are. Here's
the reason, verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. We preach Christ crucified. He's
the only power and wisdom of God. The justice of the law is
satisfied and God's given grace to His people and mercy to His
people in perfect harmony with His justice and His holiness
and revealed all His holy character in a process. More wisdom and
power than creation. More wisdom and power than the
creation of a man. That's right, is this salvation
of His people in perfect justice, in perfect harmony with His holiness. Because Christ went to the cross
and took the place of His people and had the wrath of God poured
out on Him in their room instead. And He suffered the worm that
never dies when God forsook Him there on that cross. When He
cried out and said, I'm a worm and no man. So when He said it's
finished, it was finished. And he gave up the ghost and
he went into the holiest of holies, not with the blood of others,
but with his own blood. And he made atonement for his
people. And God said, it's done. Everything I purposed from the
beginning is done. Now just send them forth and call them out. And bring them home. And that's
what he's doing. That's incarnate God upon a cross. The substitution of God, God
providing himself a lamb, Christ satisfying the justice of heaven,
mercy being given to rebellious sinners. Every ounce of so-called
wisdom of men has to bow into nothingness before that kind
of wisdom, that power. For those that have been called
out of the mind of Christ, true wisdom comes from God in the
heart of his people by making us to know Christ our wisdom.
and then nature. Everything about nature, you
know what happens? You understand the world. You understand why
he made it. You understand when he spoke
light in the beginning, you quit worrying about evolutionists
and don't even want to argue about that junk anymore. Why?
Because I see the way he created the world shows how he created
me anew in my heart. He said, let there be light and
there was light and I beheld the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus and there was a new creation made. You know where we are right now?
I'm persuaded we're in hell right now. And I'm persuaded when God
takes his presence and the glory of his power off this place right
here, that's when it's gonna burn up. That's when it's gonna
be the worm that never dies. And all the while you get to
see that new heavens and that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And know we got, if you're there
in hell, you got nobody to blame but yourself. This is what we glory in, the
Lord. Our wisdom is Christ. Our righteousness
is Christ. Our sanctification is Christ.
Our redemption is Christ. Our acceptance is Christ. Our
completion is Christ. Our glorification and our glory
is Christ. Our inheritance and our reward
is Christ. You know what I said? Christ
is all. And He is in all that believe.
Do you believe Him? Are you stumbling over this?
Or are you counting it foolishness? If so, you don't believe Him. But Christ is all. Christ is
all. In all who believe. If you believe
Him, it's because He dwells in you. And He's all. He gets all
the glory for that. Amen.