Corinthians chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 18
through 20 this morning. And I've entitled this message,
God's Purposed Destruction of Man's Wisdom. God's Purposed Destruction. of man's wisdom. Let's read this
together in verse 18. 4. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Now, the apostle has made it
abundantly clear. that God sent men, His men, into
this world for one purpose. He sends men for one purpose,
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We who are sent have
one message, one purpose, one aim, one goal, and that is to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing else. Nothing else. this
gospel of God's sovereign election, the gospel of Christ's perfect
righteousness, the gospel of His perfect redemption. We are
to preach the gospel of the effectual call of the Holy Spirit into
the hearts of sinners. to give them life and faith in
Christ. We are to preach this gospel that God keeps everyone
He has chosen and redeemed and called. He keeps them in the
faith unto the end. This is my sole purpose of being
sent. And our gospel, the cross of
Jesus Christ, is simply this. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is completely and absolutely the work of God alone. That's
our message. Our message is one of victory.
One of success. That Jesus Christ actually accomplished
redemption. That's totally opposed to the
religion of the world. Totally opposite of the wisdom
of man. The wisdom of the gospel is this,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's our message. That's the
gospel. And when this Gospel is preached,
Paul is also clear about this. There will be a division. This
Gospel always divides. Our Lord said, "...I came not
to bring peace, but a sword to set a man at variance against
those of his own household." And that's what the Gospel does.
It sets men at variance against one another. It doesn't bring
peace into the world. It brings division. And so every time this gospel
is preached, there's a division made. The sheep and the goats
are separated. The tares and the wheat are plainly
declared and separated by this gospel. Now whether the wheat
and tares know what they are at any given time, it doesn't
matter. This gospel is very clear as to who they are. And every
time it divides, separates, And how does he separate? He said
this, some will believe this is foolish. Those who believe this is foolishness
will perish. That's what he said, they that
perish count this gospel foolishness. But there's another division,
there's another side, but unto us which are saved, this gospel
is the power of God. power of God. We know it's the
power of God because we've experienced this in our own hearts. This
gospel has become effectual to us and has made a division. It
has separated the precious from the vile, the elect from those
left to themselves. And so now in the the Holy Spirit
by the Apostle Paul in these remaining verses. And I kind
of want to give you a picture of where we're going with this.
Because there are five things, five reasons given by the Spirit
of God that God has chosen preaching. The first reason is this, verses
19 and 20, God purposed preaching of the cross to destroy the wisdom
of man. In verse 21, preaching is chosen
because it pleased God. You want a reason why preaching
is the only reason we were sent? It pleased God. Now, I don't
need any other reason than that, do you? It pleased God. The third
reason that preaching is chosen is because it is how He purposed
to make Christ the wisdom and power to His people. Verse 22
through verse 25 tells us that He has become to us both the
wisdom and power of God. The manifestation, the experimental
union, takes place by the preaching of the Gospel. Fourthly, in this
passage, God chose preaching of the Gospel to humble His people, to humble us. He said in verse 26, "...you
see your calling, brethren, how not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but what God chose,
He chose the foolish things of the world." Does that not humble
you? Preaching is to humble you. Our gospel never gives any glory
to man. Have you noticed that? Anybody
ever pay any attention, notice that when I'm preaching and I
don't give you any glory? Every time I preach, I have no glory
to give you, because there is none to be had. Where then is
boasting? There's no boasting. So preaching
humbles us. That's what God uses it for.
And fifthly, God used the preaching of the Gospel to show us that
salvation is all of God, and all the glory belongs to God.
But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made into
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Book of verse
31, that all that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Now you understand why preaching
is necessary. Now we're going to just be dealing
with the first one. I'm not going to deal with all five. I'm going
to try to deal with just this first one, and then we'll go
in succession in the next few lessons. So let's look at this
first purpose, why God chose preaching. To destroy the wisdom
of man. Look at that in verse 19. Four, it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. And when this gospel is preached,
I told you that there is a division that takes place. And there are some men who count
this gospel foolishness. Now, who are these people? They
are the ones who have adopted earthly wisdom. They count the cross of Christ
foolishness because their wisdom says so. God says this, though,
I will destroy their wisdom. I will destroy their wisdom.
How? By preaching the gospel. Every time the gospel is preached,
man's wisdom is utterly useless. It's destroyed. Now, the Apostle
in this text, when he says it is written, we know that it is
referring to an Old Testament passage. So for us to understand
this, we have to go back to that portion of Scripture and see
it. Go back to Isaiah chapter 29. Isaiah chapter 29. Now the Apostle
is quoting from verse 14. He says, Therefore, behold, I
will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even
a marvelous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise
shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. Now, in this passage up to that
point, there are two groups of men being described. Look back
at verse 1. It says, Woe unto Ariel, to Ariel,
the city where David dwelt. Add ye year to year, let them
kill sacrifices. So this first group of people
are the Jews. Those who are of the city of
David. God gives a woe unto them. Now the word Ariel means lion. It's a root word for it. And
you remember that it is the lion of the tribe of Judah, that Judah
is a lion's whelp. So we know this is talking about
Jerusalem. We know this is talking specifically
about David's dwelling place. And God gives a warning to Jerusalem.
He said, look, you just keep on sacrificing. You keep sacrificing
year after year after year. I said, let them keep doing that.
Why then was the woe given to them for sacrificing? Simply
because in their own wisdom they were looking to the sacrifices
and their obedience to the law for righteousness. God says woe unto them because
they look not at the sacrifices by faith looking to Christ. That's
what the sacrifices were intended for. They were intended to point
men to Christ. They were to look at the sacrifice
and by faith seek Christ who was to come. And they weren't
doing that. They were looking at their own
works, at their own ability to provide themselves righteousness
by obedience to the law. And what did God promise them?
You look in verse 2, he says, I will distress Ariel, and there
shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be unto me as Ariel. I will camp against thee round
about, I will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will
raise the forts against thee. Thou shalt be brought down, thou
shalt speak out of the ground, thy speech shall be low out of
the dust, and the voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar
spirit out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out
of the dust." He tells them that they're going
to be laid to the grave. He said, I'm going to take your
religion and I'm going to bury it. Don't you see that this is truly
speaking of national Israel? Isn't that exactly what happened
to that nation, that religion? God swore to those who had obtained
religious wisdom, earthly religious wisdom, salvation by works. He says, I will destroy you,
and He surely did. He destroyed that temple and
that altar in Jerusalem. And those Jews, they offered
their sacrifices year after year until Christ came, the one those
sacrifices pictured. And these religious men were
blinded by God so as not to believe on Him. Isn't that something? They had
the Word of God. They had the Word of God, and
they knew the Word of God better than anyone else. And yet Christ
stood in front of them, and they knew Him not. They did not understand. They
could not, by their earthly religious wisdom, see Him for who He was. Look at verse 10. For the Lord
hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep. Now, who did that? Who poured on them a spirit of
deep sleep, so as they should not know Christ? The Lord did. The Lord did that. He hath closed
your eyes, your prophets and your rulers, your seers hath
he covered. And the visions of all is become
unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver
to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray. And he say,
I cannot read it, it's sealed. And they deliver it to an unlearned
man and say, Read this. And he says, I can't, I'm unlearned. When Christ came into this world,
because of the wisdom of their foolish religious wisdom, God
sealed this book, and they could not understand it. He sealed
it. You know the key to this book?
It's Christ. You don't have the key, you ain't
opened this book. You can't learn this book, you can't know this
book. Not by wisdom. Behold, then, the severity and
absolute depravity of man's nature. Weren't we all born and this
book was sealed to us? This book was sealed to us. There
is none righteous, no, not one. There is, listen, none that understandeth. What does that mean? There's
no wise man. There's no wise man that can discern this book.
It's sealed. Therefore God sovereignly blinded
them and withheld His grace and His power to give them understanding. And now see the cause in verse
13, for as much as this people draw near to me with their mouth,
and with their lips do they honor me, but have removed their hearts
far from me. For their fear toward me is taught
by what? The precepts of men. The wisdom
of men. What draws men away from this
worship of God, this sincere worship of God? It is this, the
wisdom of man. Natural wisdom despises the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And though men may honor God
with their mouths, they are far from Him in their
hearts. These Jews who offered their
sacrifices year after year outwardly were moral and zealous and religious. They were obedient to the law
as best as man could judge. But God says this, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. His people worshipped Him with
their lips, but in their hearts they did not know Him. Go to, hold your place here,
but go to Mark chapter 7. This is, the Lord uses this prophecy
in Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, look at verse
5. Here's those men that God said
He would destroy. The Pharisees, in verse 5, they
ask, the Pharisees and scribes ask Him, Why walk not the disciples
according to the tradition of our elders, and eat bread with
unwashing hands? And he answered and said, Well,
hath the prophet Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites? As it is written,
This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. Howbeit in vain do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the
commandment of God, you hold the traditions of men as washing
of pots and cups, and many other such like things you do. And
he said unto them full well, you reject the commandment of
God, that you may keep your own traditions. For Moses said, Honor
thy father and thy mother, whoso curseth father and mother, let
him die. These men had a wisdom. And this
was their wisdom. that if you ate with unwashing
hands and you wash your cups and you wash your plates that
that would somehow keep you pure from sin but if you ate something
dirty or filthy it would defile you now where do they get that
from the word of god nowhere nowhere it is a It is of the
wisdom and the doctrines of men that they came up with that.
And Jesus said, look, you've put aside the commandment of
God by your traditions, by your wisdom. You've made null and
void the gospel. And so Jesus easily now destroys
their wisdom by preaching the gospel to them. And he takes that one law. All
he has to do is take one law to show them. I mean, there's
plenty he could have done, but he just took one. He said, honor
thy father and thy mother. And he that honors not his father
and mother, let him die at the death. Now that one thing should
have convicted them of their, convinced them of their need
of Christ. That's what it was for. The law was never intended
to save us. The law was intended only to
expose our guilt. Yet men in wisdom, they take
the law and they see it as a way to honor God. And in order to
do that, they have to fix it. They have to add something to
it. They have to manipulate it so
they can honor it, so they can do it. And by doing so, they make null,
by their wisdom, by their doctrines, they make null and void the Word
of God. Verse 11, he says, But you say,
If a man shall say unto his father and mother, It is Corbin, that
is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mayest be profited by me,
he shall be free. And you suffer him no more to
do aught for his father and mother, making the word of God of none
effect through your traditions. which you have delivered, and
many such things you do." So then Christ, having exposed the
foolishness, having destroyed their wisdom. Doesn't that just
destroy their wisdom? He said, all your traditions
are junk. They're garbage. They're worthless. They have no value to you. And
then He said this in verse 14, He called the people together
and said unto them, hearken to Me, every one of you, and understand.
there is nothing from without a man that entering into him
can defile him you get that we know people that have uh... i
know this you you know alcoholics and and drug addicts i have them
in my family i'm sure that you've known some are have been your
family i want to understand this it is not the alcohol the drugs
that defile the man we say bad alcohol bad drugs
they're horrible Christ said, it's not what enters into a man
that defiles him. Look, if it were possible to
have a holy man and you to give him enough wine to get him drunk,
you know what would come out of him? Holiness. What would be the problem of
a drunk holy man? It'd be nothing. He'd only do
that which was holy, only that which is good. But you take drink and drugs
and give it to a wicked man, and what comes out? What's already
there, friends. Don't you see that what they're
doing is already what they are? This is the wisdom of God that
destroys the wisdom of man. Man is not made a sinner by what
he does. Man is a sinner in his very core. We sin because we are sinners. It's the heart of man that is
the problem. This is the wisdom of God that
destroys the wisdom of free will, works religion. Man is dead in
trespasses and sin. Man has a heart problem that
no outward religion can fix. The law of God is good. The law
of God is right. Everything the law of God says
is perfect. No one denies that who is a believer
in Christ. We know that is true. And because
the law is true and just, we know this, the sinner must die. Every sinner must die. So then where is man's wisdom
as to how man can live? All are sinners, all must perish. How then can a man be made alive? How can a man escape the wrath
of God? Oh, here's the wisdom of God.
The wisdom of man is to say, well, do this, and you can live.
Do that, and you can live. Be baptized, and you can live.
Take the Lord's Supper, you can live. Join the church, you can
live. Make a decision, you can live. No, that's the wisdom of
man. God destroys that. The only way for a man to be
made alive is he must die. Here's the wisdom of God. We
who are in Christ have died. We died in a substitute. We must have Jesus Christ to
be our substitute and die for our sins under the justice of
God. where you can by no means obtain
righteousness by our works, must be made righteous by Jesus Christ. This is the wisdom of God that
destroys the wisdom of men. And so what does man need? What
does man need? Man needs a new heart. He doesn't need to reform the
old one. He needs a brand new one. That's
why Jesus said you must be born from above. You must be born
of the Spirit of God by the will of God and by the power of God. This is why we must be faithful
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must preach the wisdom of
God that salvation is of the Lord, and then we must faithfully wait
for Him to apply it. This is wisdom. Simply to declare
the Word of God and wait for God to apply it to His people.
That's wisdom. Add nothing to it. Take nothing
from it. Simply declare the gospel. We must surely wait on the power
of God. The wisdom of the world doesn't
wait on God, does it? The wisdom of religion in this
world, they try to create reverence for God. That's why they need all the
sights and the sounds and the smells. That's why they need
entertainers and celebrities to stir up men in the flesh so
as to give reverence to God. They wear their religious robes
and speak in pious tones. Why? To cause men to reverence
God. But all their outward efforts
cannot make a man reverence God. Our Lord Jesus said it well.
He said, you hypocrites, for you are like whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful on the outside, but within are
full of dead men's bones. Religion and the wisdom of man
only dresses up the corpse, but cannot give life. cannot give life. Therefore, morality preaching
will only lead to immorality. You not seeing that? I mean,
just look at this nation for the past century. It has been
nothing but free will works religion throughout this country. And all their pressing for morality
leads to immorality. What is God doing? He's destroying
the wisdom of the wise. Is that not the wisdom of the
false church? The false church is always trying to get you to
be moral, to obey the law of God. And say, if we can just
get the Ten Commandments back into the schools, if we can just
get somebody reading the Word of God in schools, praying in
schools, if we can get the government just to do away with abortion,
if we can just get the government to stop same-sex marriages, then
everything would be well. No, it's not an outward morality
problem. Man has a heart problem. And
the only solution is the wisdom of God, that God come and give
them a new heart and a new life and faith in Christ. That's the
only hope for man. And I'll tell you this, just
as surely as God destroyed Jerusalem and all their works, You know
that Jewish religion is not even close to what it was before the
temple was destroyed. You look at the Jewish religion
now, it's not even a shadow of what it was. It's a totally different
religion altogether. They say, oh no, we're the same.
No, they're not. Ask them one question, where's
the blood? If you're the same, where's the sacrifices? They're
not the same. Why? God ground that religion
to powder. And He said that in this passage.
He said, You will speak from under the dust. You will be as
one as a familiar spirit. You'll be one as a ghost. That religion's gone. Why? Christ
has fulfilled all of those types and shadows and pictures. Christ
was pictured in those things and now He has come. We don't
need those pictures anymore. And God said, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. That's what God will do with
religious wisdom. What about all Just carnal wisdom. That too. He'll destroy that
too. I like the way God puts it in
verses 7-9 in Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 29, verses
7-9, He says it like this. He said, the wisdom of man is
like this. A man is going to bed starving to death. Dying of thirst. And in his sleep
he dreams of a meal. He dreams of the best spread
that you can possibly imagine. He can even taste the food in
his dream. Have you ever been? I've done
that. I've had the best steak in my dreams. I don't think I've
ever had a steak so good as the one I dreamed of. They can feel the water quenching
the thirst of their palate in their dream. They feel the water
going into their body. They feel rejuvenated. Until
when? They wake up. And they wake up
worse than they were before they went to sleep. He said that's
exactly what the wisdom of man is. Men think all is well. Ask a religious
man if he's going to heaven. Well, sure I am. How do you know? I feel it in my very soul. What's your evidence? Well, I've
been baptized, I've joined the church, I've done this, I've
done that, I've made my decision. What is that? God says it's nothing
but a dream. A vain dream and one day you
will wake up and God will destroy all your wisdom. All your wisdom. God says this about His gospel,
I've laid in Zion for a foundation of stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. That's the gospel, isn't it? God says this, "...judgment
will I also lay to the lion, and righteousness to the plummet.
And hell shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters
shall overflow their hiding place. The covenant you made with death
and hell shall be disannulled, and your arrangement with hell
shall not stand. And the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, and shall be trodden down by it." And this is the
report that will vex your soul night and day for all eternity.
The bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and
covering narrower than he can wrap himself in it. Friend, the bed of man's wisdom
is too short. And the covering of his self-righteousness
is not enough. to cover him before God. I'm
here to tell you this morning the wisdom of God is this, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He that believeth shall not make
haste. We will not abandon this foundation
of our souls. Why? We know this, it is the
wisdom and power of God. Therefore what? God has destroyed
all of our wisdom, hasn't He? You believe, do you have any
wisdom other than Christ? Let's go with Corinthians, look
at this. Paul says this in verse 20, and
he's talking to the church. Remember that church was always
separated over those pastors. They thought they were wise in
trying to choose out the best pastor. They said, I like Paul,
I like Apollos, I like Peter. Paul says, that's carnal. That's
not God's wisdom, that's earthly wisdom. And so Paul then asked the church,
listen, I'm talking to you, believers, this morning. Where's the wise? Where's the prudent among the
church of God? Where's the disputer among God's
church? Now listen, if any of y'all raise
your hand on those, listen to what he said. Hath not God destroyed
the wisdom of this world? How dare you raise your hand
and consider yourself wise or prudent? What is the confession of the
church? We confess that we have no wisdom
by nature. We confess that sin is mixed
with all we do. We confess that our flesh is
so vile and corrupt that it is in constant dispute
with the gospel and must be mortified at all costs. Now isn't that
your confession this morning? For you see, verse 26, For you
see, brethren, your calling, how not many wise after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. Why? Because God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty. So what
do you have to boast in? You as believers. Paul said this in Galatians,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. There is my boast in the wisdom
of God. There is my hope in the wisdom
of God. Who's the wisdom of God? Christ
is the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. So then, who
does God call? Go back one more time to Isaiah,
and I'll close with this. I want you to see the church
now. God says, I'm destroying the wisdom of the wise. How?
By the preaching of the Gospel. But God is going to do something
else by this Gospel. He is going to call His people.
And look at His people as they are mentioned in verse 18. He
says, And that day shall the deaf hear the words of this book, "...and
the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek shall increase their
joy in the Lord, and the poor among them shall rejoice in the
Holy One of Israel." Here's wisdom. God says, I'm going to save not
the wise, but the blind, the deaf, and the poor, and the meek. I choose the off-scouring of
the world. They will hear what wise men
cannot. They will see what prudent men
cannot. And they will rejoice in what
the world calls foolishness. This is the promise of God that
we will worship the Holy One of Israel. Believer, are you not willing
to be taught of God? Isn't that how we came? We were
taught of God. How then shall we endure? By
the teaching of God. By the wisdom of God. And friends, we're not here to
dispute this gospel either. It is not our purpose to debate
this gospel. We are not a disputer of the
world. I know some men who claim to be wise, especially in the
church, go about trying to debate men. This gospel is not to be
debated. Why should truth be debated? Truth is truth, whether you debate
it or not. All we do is proclaim the wisdom
of God. And then what? We wait on God
to apply it. Don't you see how God will destroy
the wisdom of the world by preaching? God chose preaching to destroy
the wisdom of the world. So then you, believer, behold
the Son of God who was made flesh. Behold Jesus Christ who pleased
God with His righteousness. Behold Christ who by His death
has satisfied the justice of God. Behold the wisdom of God
that the Holy Spirit quickens us from the dead. So that we
may sing with the hymn writer, Behold the man upon the cross,
my sin upon his shoulders. and shamed I hear my mocking
voice call out among the scoffers." It was my sin that nailed him
there until it was accomplished. His dying breath had brought
me life. I know that it is finished. I
will not boast in anything. No gifts, no power, listen, no
wisdom. but i will boast in jesus christ
his death and resurrection as that's the wisdom of god that
destroys the wisdom you make note of this when god
says it is written that means God has and God is and God shall
destroy the wisdom of this world. I thank God that this blind,
deaf sinner is made to see the wisdom of God in Jesus Christ. If you see Him, be thankful and
praise God for His wisdom. I pray God will help us to do
that. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.