In writing to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21, the Apostle Paul makes this statement. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This is the wisdom of our God
in salvation. This is God's revealed will of
how he saves sinners. And he tells us it's not by our
wisdom. It's not going to be by our works,
good or otherwise, and it's not going to be by our wisdom and
understanding. This is God's wisdom. Now, our
God has given us the testimony of His Word. His Word is given
to us here in the scriptures contained in the Holy Bible. This is the Word of God. This is God revealing His mind
and His thoughts to men. He's telling us what He thinks,
what is so. It's the truth. It's the truth.
And he gives his word to us. And by us, I mean all children
of Adam. Any one of us can pick this word
up and read it and know what God's thoughts are by his grace,
by his grace. Now, Adam, God created Adam. And when he formed Adam, he put
him in the garden. And Adam was under a covenant
of works. All he had to do was obey God. And the Lord told him. He said, of all the trees of
the garden, thou mayest freely eat. You can take whatever you
want of these trees here, except for that tree in the midst of
the garden. Don't eat of that. And the day
you eat of it. You shall surely die. You shall surely die. And we know that Adam transgressed
the law of God. He transgressed the law of God.
He ate that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. I don't think there was anything
special about that tree, no particular powers in that tree. It's just
that God said, don't eat of it. Don't eat of that one. And Adam
ate of it. And he died that very day spiritually. Sin entered by that one man,
Adam, and death through sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. We all were in Adam when Adam
sinned. We transgressed and rebelled
against the true and living God. And so we're all born. We all
come forth being born of Adam's seed. When you come from your
parents, you're born of Adam's seed. And if you don't believe
God, all you need to do is just be honest with yourself and look
in the mirror because we see that we're all sinners. Every
one of us is a sinner against the true and living God. You
just look at the world, look at your own heart, look at your
own thoughts and your own deeds and dealing with others and what
we think. We are dead in trespasses and sins, and so this is the
testimony of God's word to us. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Every one of us is a sinner.
And God in his wisdom testifies to these things to us in his
word. You know, this word is a recording
of all our history. It's a history. It's a synopsis
of the creation of the world. From the foundation of the world
to this day, this is telling us our history. And God has even
given us a special focus on his people. The best of the best. He's put special focus on his
people. He's recorded for us the patriarchs. Those are the first fathers and
how God revealed himself to them. He's given us word of when Moses
gave the law to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. He's recorded for us the forming
of the nation of Israel under that law and what they did and
how they received it. and how at first they were willing. They said, we'll do it. We'll
do all that you command, Lord. He has recorded for us the kings,
the priests, the prophets, and he's recorded for us the coming
of the Messiah, his Son, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh. And he tells us what he did,
how he went about doing good. He tells us why he came, that
he came to redeem a people from their sins by the shedding of
his own blood. He tells us of his crucifixion,
whereby he died as the Lamb of God, bearing the sins of his
people, as the substitute of his people to put away their
sins, and to obtain eternal redemption for them, to give them life,
to give us life in Christ, to have fellowship with holy God. And God did all this to make
known to us His wisdom, to make known to us His salvation for
His people. So that we read in Galatians
3.22 that the scripture, this word of God, His word, Contained
here in the Holy Bible, His word, the scripture, hath concluded
all under sin. God is letting us know. He's
making known to us we are all sinners. Even those of us who
think we're really good, those who you think are really good,
all are sinners against the true and living God. Why did the Lord
do this? He did this that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Remember, God's wisdom is that by our wisdom we're not going
to save ourselves. He's making this known to us.
You and I are not going to save ourselves by our works and we're
not going to save ourselves by our wisdom and our skills and
what we bring to God. That's not salvation. Our Lord
reveals to us his wisdom in saving the poor the needy, the broken
sinner. God tells us how He saves sinners. How He gives unworthy sinners,
rebels against the true and living God, He tells us how He saves
them for Himself to the glory, the honor, and the praise of
our God. This is God's wisdom. And so
our Lord is showing the perfection of His salvation by His Son. He's telling us it's not possible
for you or I to save ourselves, but I've sent one who has redeemed
my people. I've sent one who has saved my
people perfectly, completely, so that you lack nothing to come
to me in the blood of my Son. I give you everything you need
in Jesus Christ whom I have sent to save my people. He established for us by His
obedience and His faithfulness to the Father, He established
the covenant of grace for us, so that now we come to God, not
in perfect obedience by our works, but in the perfect obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are received by God in grace. in grace, having our sins washed
by the blood of Christ, having the guilt of our sins removed
so that we come to God by faith trusting Christ, trusting that
His blood is sufficient to save me. that He has redeemed me and
purchased me from that death, that punishment that I earned
and I deserved because I rebelled against God in my sin, not only
in Adam but because of what I do and what I am by nature. But
Christ's blood has put it all away and He makes His people
to hear that word, to believe Christ. delivering us from trusting
our works, delivering us from trusting our wisdom, opening
our ear to hear this good news. And he convinces us that this
is what we need and that Christ is sufficient to save us to the
uttermost. And so if it were not for Christ,
we would have been standing before God, suffering under the just
and holy wrath of God. paying the price for our sins,
and that was an eternal death. An eternal death that we could
never have paid off and satisfied God by dying under His wrath. That's an eternal death. We would
have died, but Christ, in grace and mercy, came. And as a willing
savior, a willing sacrifice, he put himself up. He went willingly
to the cross, bearing the sins of his people, bearing the wrath
of God for the sins of his people. To put that away from us. forever
to deliver us so that the law now, that law which Adam broke
in the garden when he sinned against God, that law which was
against us that we could not keep or fulfill is put away. It's silenced. It has nothing
more to say to you. It has no more authority over
you anymore. You're under the authority of
Christ. You that believe Him, you that
come to God and trust His blood, you are under the authority of
Christ. And God the Father receives you for Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake. It says in Romans 6, verse 6
and 7, knowing this, that our old man, that's what we are in
Adam, our old man is crucified with Christ. He's writing to
believers, he's crucified with Christ, that the body of sin,
might be destroyed. When he speaks of the body of
sin, he's talking about me, my body, what I am in Adam, and
my works, all my sin. He's talking about the law of
that covenant of works, which was over us in Adam. He's talking
about that law. He's talking about all our works,
and what we are, and what we think. That whole body of sin,
that inheritance in Adam, has been put away. by the Lord Jesus
Christ so that it has no more authority over you. Don't be
afraid of that. Don't fear that. When we were
under that body of sin, we labored, we strove, we spent, we did everything
we could because we were terrified to die, wondering, have I done
enough to please God? Did I do enough? Am I good enough
to stand before God? Or am I going to be destroyed
by His perfection, by His holiness? Now in Christ, coming to God,
trusting Christ, resting in the blood of Christ, we're at peace. We're at peace and we trust Him
and we want to know Him. We want to hear Him. We want
to worship Him and have fellowship with God and draw near to Him. Not like Adam who ran from God
when he heard the voice of God coming in the garden. We don't
run from God now, we want to hear His word. And we rejoice
in what he's done for us. We rest in him. Again, well actually
I didn't even finish it. That henceforth we should not
serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. That's what
I'm talking about. We're not laboring, trying to
make a righteousness for ourselves. We are righteous. We that believe
in Christ are righteous by the blood of Christ. Again, in Romans
6.14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, It shall not
have the rule over you, and drive you to and fro, and scared to
die, and laboring under the devil. No more. For ye are not under
the law, but under grace. Under grace. Through Christ our
God makes known to us His gracious will and purpose for His people
in His Son. To give you rest, to give you
an expected end. Instead of doubting and wondering,
when I get up there and I'm weighed in the scales, am I going to
be found wanting? Yes. In your works, in your wisdom,
yes. You and I will be found wanting. But in Christ, it's
done. The works are finished. From
the foundation of the world, we're complete in Christ. Complete
in Him. Salvation is come, and it's wrought
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe Him. Believe him, he
is the hope of the sinner, the needy sinner he saves. He is
gracious to all who come to him. But this world now, they hear
what you hear. This world, whether Jew or Gentile,
by their wisdom, they try to know God, but he tells us plainly,
they don't know me. They don't know me. They didn't
figure me out. They groped, and they felt about, and blindness,
and they could not find me out. They could not understand me,
and they don't believe me. Yet our God is willing to show
His power. In spite of our enmity, in spite
of our unbelief, God is willing to show His almighty gracious
power to break through all those obstacles that we put up against
the true and living God, and to bring us to Himself, to give
us a knowledge of Himself. How so? Yet please God, by the
foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. It pleases
God through this means right here, the foolishness of preaching
to you, to deliver his people out of darkness, from their false
vain hopes that cannot save. God does that through the foolishness
of preaching, attending that word as it pleases him with his
spirit, to make that word effectual in your heart, to deliver you
from all that you were trusting him. Now the Apostle tells us
here what the hang up is for the Jew and the Gentile in 1
Corinthians 1 verse 22. For the Jews require a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom. When you read Greeks, you can
put Gentiles in there. It's just that the Greeks were
foremost in their philosophies and their inventions of man and
the age of man's reason and enlightenment. So they boast. So they think.
But when the Holy Spirit of God brings salvation, home to the
heart of the sinner, this sin and rebellion which is resisting
the truth of God and stands opposed to the truth of God, it falls. It falls. It falls by the preaching
of the gospel, this simple message. What the Jew was requiring and
saying, I need a sign. You need to show me this is the
truth. And what the Greek was saying, you need to come with
flowery language. You need to come and convince
me with reason and human understanding. Otherwise, I won't believe. All
that falls before God. It falls before Him through the
foolishness of the preaching of the gospel. That's how God
destroys the wisdom of man and the hope of man, that vain hope
that man is trusting Him, through the preaching of Christ. This
is where He declares to you His salvation, how that Christ obtained
everything we need to be reconciled to God, to stand before God,
accepted of Him, received of Him, and He makes that known
to us in the day of grace when He makes, when He forms that
new creation in us, the Lord Jesus Christ, by His grace and
power. He does that. He gives us, He
takes that old heart, that faithless, cold, dead heart of man, and
He removes it, and He puts in a new heart, a heart that is
soft, pliable to God, and hears God. and believes Him. And He
grows us. He grows us. We don't have it
all and understand it all immediately. But one thing we know, it's Christ. I need Christ. And He'll take
you and He'll lead you and grow you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said it this way, We have
a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in the dark place, until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. The Lord
is constantly telling us in his word You and me, our thoughts,
our best deeds, our most intelligent, wise thoughts, are all darkness. And this gospel comes as light
shining in the darkness, knocking down all those things that exalt
themselves against the knowledge of Christ. He brings them down
through the preaching of Christ. You know, there's something to
the plainness of preaching Christ crucified. It's a simple message. It doesn't seem like it should
have any effect on us. The Jews rejected it. The Greeks
rejected it. They thought it was nonsense,
silliness. They put it off. They put it
from them. And it shows us that God's way is contrary to man's
way. Let me read back in 1 Corinthians
1, 18 through 19. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God, so that my wisdom, the wisdom of man,
is brought to confusion before God. and it cannot stand up to
the truth of God. And God does this so that I don't
have any glory in my salvation. I can't stand before you and
boast of what I've done for the Lord. My boast is what Christ
has done for me. For it's written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. That was spoken of In Isaiah,
that's a prophecy of Isaiah. Speaking of the day when the
gospel would be preached, when Christ would come and accomplish
redemption, and he'd send out this good word, this glorious
word, to announce to the people that their salvation has come,
that Christ has already accomplished our redemption by the death and
resurrection of himself. To turn us from our works, to
turn us from our ways, And the natural man thinks it's foolish. But to you that believe Christ,
to you that are sinners, to you that need Him, it's not foolish.
It's the truth. It's the truth. Our Lord said
it this way in Matthew 11, 25, and 26. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. wisdoms justified of her children. Those who are truly wise hear
this word and rejoice in it. We rejoice in it. Our God is
the Lord and sinful man is going to bow before our God and confess
that Jesus Christ is all. You that believe, bow before
him and confess him now. But even the wicked who refuse,
they're going to bow before God and confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. in that day. So where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Indeed, He does. He does, He
has, and He does to this day through the simplicity of the
preaching of Christ. Let me give you an example of
what Paul preached. He tells us in 1 Corinthians
15. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Let's look at verses 1 through 4. Paul says, Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel, the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. By which
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless ye have believed in vain. God's people don't forget
His good word. We don't forget it. We don't
turn from it. We continue in Christ to the end. For I, now
here it is, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received. how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. That simple
word, that declaration of Jesus Christ crucified, and what He
accomplished in His crucifixion for His people by His death and
resurrection, putting away their sins and obtaining life for them,
that word separates, it divides those that are the Lord's and
those that are not the Lord's. Simply by faith, revealed, manifested,
all who believe Christ have eternal life. God has revealed in them. You that believe that Jesus Christ
is the Savior, that you cannot save yourselves, and Christ did
it. He did it all. You that believe
Him, that's the manifestation of God's power in you, which
has given you faith to believe Christ, to trust Him. And all
who don't believe, that's a manifestation that you're not the children
of God. At least the day of grace hasn't come to you yet. It may
yet come. Keep coming and hear that word,
praying that the Lord be merciful to you, to give you what he gives
to all his children, faith, life, his spirit, hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how he manifests them
that are his. He gives them faith in Christ, to trust Christ alone. And so we see, now the Jews require
a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. What he's saying there
is, for the Jews, The sign is their wisdom. And for the Greeks,
your wisdom, the wisdom they want to hear, that is their sign.
That's what they're looking for. But God's word doesn't meet man
where man wants to be met. God's word cuts right to the
heart of the matter saying, you, me, we're sinners. We cannot
save ourselves by our works or our wisdom. You need to hear
Christ. Look to Christ. Believe on Him.
He cuts right through it all. All the nonsense that we put
up, He cuts right through it all and shows us the Lord Jesus
Christ. He shows us, if you do not believe,
you shall die in your sins. But Christ has come to deliver
His people from that death. This is our message, verse 23.
But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness. First, why is Christ's death
a stumbling block to the Jew? Why is Christ's death a stumbling
block to the Jew? Because Christ on the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ dying in the place of his people as the
substitute takes all my works in religion, all my works under
the law, everything I sacrificed and gave to God trying to earn
his acceptance, it renders it all worthless before Christ. You're saying everything I did,
everything I gave up isn't my salvation, accounts for nothing
with you, Lord? It doesn't, because what the
Lord is telling us is it's all in Christ. You are saved. If you are saved, it's by the
blood of Jesus Christ alone. That's all I need. That's all I accept. I accept
and receive those who come to me in the blood of my Son, trusting
Him. That's my wisdom right there.
That's my works. That's your works. That's everything
I need is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's why the Jews stumble
over it. They're saying, wait a minute. What about my righteousness? What about my years of service?
What about what I did? You're just throwing that away
for Christ? Yes. Yes. All you need is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why is the death of Christ on
the cross for sinners foolishness for the Greek? Well, because
they spent years developing their skills and oratory, their oration. They would stand up there and
they'd reason with you and say, well, you know, this thing or
that thing. And if you do this, this will
lead you to godliness. This will be your wisdom. This
will be your acceptance with God. You'll ascend into greater
heights if you do these things. But Christ on the cross, the
simplicity of Christ on the cross, renders all the wisdom of man
nonsense, foolishness. That's not your salvation, God
saying. Everything you said was lies and darkness. That's not
salvation. My son Jesus Christ is salvation.
And so the Greeks say, that's foolish. That's foolish. How
can a man in weakness accomplish such great things by the death
of himself? And so they don't believe it.
They don't hear that. Instead of man teaching man what
he must do to save himself, Christ has made unto us our light and
our understanding. He reveals to us the true and
living God. It's that simple message because
we're declaring Christ is everything. He's all. Come to the Lord in
Jesus Christ the Son. His blood avails for everything
we need. His blood speaks for you. He
stands for his people. and brings us into the presence
of God, reconciled to Him, received of Him. He gives us life and
power and grace to know the Lord, to believe Him, and to grow in
that grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so, In the preaching of Christ is where God reveals His power.
This is where He manifests those whom He loves and chose from
the foundation of the world. He gives you faith to believe
Christ, to be done with your works to save yourself, to be
done with your wisdom to give you understanding of God, and
to come in Jesus Christ the Son alone. Verse 24, but unto them
which are called, that is, effectually called by the grace and power
of God. If you believe Christ, don't pat yourself on the back
for that. Faith is not of the flesh. Faith is a spiritual gift
of God that he gives when he gives you life. Believe him.
Unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the
power of God, and the wisdom of God. That's how He calls us,
through His Son. Hear Him. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You will not be ashamed to stand
before God in that day, trusting wholly on the blood of Christ.
I pray He make that word effectual in each of our hearts. Amen.