The arguments that men always
have about the matter of God's choice and purpose to condemn
sinners, why that would ever be an issue, I can't comprehend
that. Why anybody would find an issue
with God's creating vessels unto honor and some to dishonor. And
why would a man bow up about that? I mean, he doesn't have any problem
with God creating a vessel unto honor. You know, he doesn't have
any problem with God loving somebody, but he has a problem with God
condemning some. And, you know, it's a thing that As you pause and think about
it, really and truly at the heart of that reluctance is just a
reluctance to recognize that God is an absolute God. I mean,
that's really what it boils down to because man says, well, it's
all right for God to do this, but that's wrong to think that
God would do this. But the Lord is never ashamed. He's never ashamed. in the Scripture
to declare that he will do exactly what he wants to do, how he wants
to do it, and he don't care if you like it or you don't. And
that's exactly what Paul says there, who are thou, man, to
reply against God. What could we say? I mean, it's
not blasphemous to repeat something God has said. And, you know,
there's no blasphemy involved looking at what the Scripture
records about what God is saying. Now, if we make something up,
then that would be blasphemous. But what blasphemy is, is saying,
well, God, you don't have the right to do with your own what
you will to do. Now, that's just God's prerogative.
And you know, that doesn't always make me happy when I think about
that. Because I think a lot of times, you know, I wouldn't do
it like that. Exactly correct. I mean, you
know, when a man ever comes to grips with that, he can't have
any arguments against anything that God would do, because if
he understands that That's the amazing thing, is that God would
show mercy, not that God would destroy. But may the Lord give
us hearts that are mindful of that and that desire to simply call on our faces and
worship God as He is, not like we'd like for Him to be. You
know, that's what people do a lot of times in religion, is that
they kind of go around and they sample this religion or that
one or this church or that church until they find one they like.
And then when they find one they like, that's what they go at. But brethren, that's not what
the Lord hasn't called us to look at what we like. What is
the truth of God? And that's the thing that we
want to to seek out. And of course, that's what Paul
is saying here to these Corinthians in this first chapter of I Corinthians
and pointing out to them this very truth. And then in verse
17 we read this, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For 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? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God." Now, we talked about
that last week a little bit, but this issue that was raised
this morning falls right into that. In the wisdom of God, It
pleased the Lord that in His wisdom the world would not know
Him. Now that's kind of contrary to
how men think. Men think God just wants people
to know Him. Don't they? Isn't that the picture
that they have of God? Here's God. He just wants them.
He just wants man. I mean, He created man. When
I was a little boy, that's what they taught us in Sunday school. They said, you know, God was
lonely. And so He created man so He'd
have, you know, somebody to worship Him and He'd have fellowship
with and all that. How foolish is that? I mean,
the Lord is perfect. He doesn't need anything. He's
never stood in need one day. He does not need anything. But
in His, according to His will and His purpose, He does the
things that He does. And it says here, in the wisdom
of God, That is in the purpose of God, in that which He laid
out. He ordained it so that the world
by wisdom would not know Him. He designed it that way. So that
a man, I believe it was Job that said, can a man by searching
find out God? I mean, can a man, can you read
every book in the world and know God? I mean, can you go to the
depths of the sea and the heights of the skies and wherever you
want to go and know God? You can't do it. Can you get everybody in the
world together and get the best knowledge that everyone has and
compress it down into one thing? Can you know God? No. The truth of the matter is that
the world by wisdom cannot know God. And what Paul is saying
here is that it is a revelation that a man might come to the
knowledge of God. And he said, after that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God according to God's
purpose. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now some take that to
mean that the act of preaching, that is a man standing up in
front of a congregation and speaking words, that somehow is that which
saves people. You've heard it before. Somebody
gets up and preaches and then they say, now you've got the
opportunity to be saved. because I've preached and now
it's time for you to act and you can come forward." That's
not what it's saying. It's not talking about the act of preaching. It's the foolishness of preaching.
What is the foolishness of preaching? It's not the act of preaching.
I mean, that's not foolishness in itself. What's foolish is
what's being preached. See, the preaching of the gospel
is foolish to men. It's not something that men believe
by nature. A man can't believe it. It doesn't
make any sense that God would secure the salvation of His people
and send forth His Son to demonstrate this and to manifest it and to
bring it to pass in the earth unto His glory and that be it.
Now that doesn't make sense to me. You see, they believe man
has such an important role to play in God's creation. It's almost as if God wouldn't
be complete if He hadn't created man. Now listen, if God had never
created a man, it wouldn't have made any difference, would it?
And as far as God's concerned, it wouldn't have changed Him
at all. But it pleased God. I don't claim to know the mind
of God. All I know is what the Scripture
says. I don't know what the Lord has done or what He hasn't done,
but I know what it says here in the Word of God that He's
been pleased to show us that He's done. And it has pleased
Him in the creation of men in the earth and the ordination
of some unto eternal life. It has pleased Him through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now that's what it says right
there. Preaching to save them that believe. Now, who are them
that believe? They are those whom God in His
mercy has visited. Because why will a man believe
apart from that? There is no way that a man can
believe. How do I know that? Because by
wisdom men cannot. know God. They cannot believe
Him. Now, Peter said, the Lord said,
Whom do men say that I am? And Peter said, Well, some say
you're Elijah, some Isaiah, some one of the prophets. But he said,
But who do you say that I am? And Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord said, flesh
and blood have not revealed this unto you, but my Father which
is in heaven." Now what does that tell us about what faith
is and what it is that Peter believed? He believed in the
Son of God. He believed that Christ was the
Son of God. And why did he do it? Because somebody came along and
preached to him? No. He believed because God gave
him faith. It was revealed to him. It was
shown to him. Because there were multitudes
that heard the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that did not believe. But the Lord is pleased to give
faith, and so men believe. And it is through the foolishness
of preaching, because you see, believing What we believe is
we believe that God is who He says He is in Christ and that
He has done what He set out to do. That's what we believe because
if we didn't believe that Jesus Christ saved sinners when He
went to the cross, why would we believe it? I mean, why would
we rest in it if we didn't believe it? See, a man can't rest in
something he doesn't believe in. I mean, if you've got an
old car, at your house and it runs some days and it doesn't
others. Some days it will crank and others
it won't. Sometimes it will get you halfway
to town and sometimes it will get you to town. You wouldn't
get in that to go to California. Why? Because you don't believe
in it. You don't have no confidence at all in that, do you? Because
you believe the thing will let you down and so consequently
you don't trust it. But you see, if you've got a
car that's never broke down, maybe it's brand new and you
get in that thing and you don't even think about it, do you?
I mean, you're just going somewhere. You're not thinking about whether
or not the car will get you there. You see, the man that believes
in his car, he's not worried about the car. But the man that
does not trust the Lord, he is always wondering whether or not
that is sufficient. Is Christ sufficient? No. The
man that believes in Christ, he knows he is sufficient. Now
he does not know necessarily all the time whether or not he
personally is included in that number whom the Lord has redeemed,
but he knows this, that all those that are, are indeed saved. That is not the question. That
is not the issue. He knows who Christ is. See, that's what it
is that he's talking about here. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That is, the message
that has come forth has brought life and immortality to light. The gospel of Jesus Christ as
it is declared unto men, those who are given faith will believe.
We have confidence and rest in that. Otherwise, why would we
preach it? See, we don't preach the gospel
in order to get men to believe. We preach the gospel because
we know there are some of God's people in the world who will
believe it. And we desire for them to hear
that sweet sound just like we've heard it. I mean, we're not trying
to change the goats and the sheep. But what we want to do is call
the sheep. We want the sheep to come. We
want the sheep to hear. We want God's people to rejoice
in the things of God. And that is what the Scripture
says here, that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching.
Because you see, it's foolish to the world, because that's
the contrast here. It's not foolish to us. I mean,
the Gospel is not foolish to me. It's foolish to my pleasure. I mean, you know, the whole unbelieving
heart, it's foolish to that. But to the world, you see, the
gospel that we preach, it is foolishness. A waste of time. I mean, that doesn't help anybody.
That's what some will tell you. Oh, well, what you're preaching,
that doesn't help anybody. Well, we don't preach the gospel
to help people. Now, I hope people will be helped
when we preach the gospel, but I'm not interested primarily
in helping people. I'm primarily interested in declaring
the glory of God in the redemption of Jesus Christ. And I know that
in the declaration of that glory that some will believe. And that
rejoices my heart, and I'm glad, you know, to see that take place. But this is foolishness unto
men, and it is foolish to the world." And then he goes on to
say how it is. He said, "...for the Jews require
a sign." See, the Jews, they wanted to see something. Now,
that's why the Lord came doing miracles, because He would bring
the very things that people say that they would want God to do
is going to bear witness against them in the day of judgment. And the Jews desire a sign. They want to see some manifestation. Well, what did they get? They
got the clearest manifestation of the prophetic messenger of
God that could ever be sent to men. And did they believe it?
No. Because, you see, they say, well,
we want a sign. And the Lord raised Lazarus from
the dead. We want a sign, and he fed five thousand with five
loaves and three fishes, or two fishes. How many was it? Five
loaves and two fishes, I think it was. But he did those things,
and then they put him to death. And guess what he did? He gave
them a sign. He rose from the dead. But did
they believe it? Well, they said, the Jews said,
we want a sign. No, they didn't want a sign.
See, men say they want these things. Well, I believe God if.
I read a discussion the other day, some people said, what would
it take to get you to believe in God? Brothers, I mean, who
cares? I'm not interested in that because
if I can convince you, if I could tell you something that would
cause you to believe in God, somebody smarter than me would
come along later and convince you otherwise. Because you see,
it's not by those things that the Lord has been pleased to
grant to me untruth. The Jews require a sign. The
Greeks, on the other hand, they're not interested in that religious
stuff. Look, all I want is the facts. Just explain it to me. Well, what did the Lord send
into the world? He sent the Word. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And who came into the world? The Logos. Now that Logos is the word that
we get our English word logic from. And the Greeks said, ìDonít
give us none of that mumbo-jumbo. We want to figure this out. We
want the logic.î And the Lord sent the logic. But they didnít
want logic. What they wanted was their own
understanding. See, they didnít want the understanding
of God. They wanted what they wanted. and it pleased the Lord to have
it so. And so he sent that which the
Jews wanted, so-called, and he sent that which the Greeks wanted,
but what was it to them? Foolishness. It wasn't anything
that they really wanted. They said, no, it can't be that.
You know, we've all been in this situation where we don't want
to believe something. And somebody tells us how it
is, and they lay it right out in front of us, and we say, no,
it couldn't be. It couldn't be that way. But
it is. You see, and God, through the
foolishness of preaching what men would consider foolishness,
has chosen to save them that believe. And so Paul says, the
Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but what do
we give them? The only message we've got Jesus
Christ and Him crucified because, you see, that is indeed unto
the Jews a stumbling block. Now Christ crucified you would
have thought and risen you would have thought would not be a stumbling
block, but it was because Christ crucified is the very thing that
they hated. And unto the Jews a stumbling
block and unto the Greeks foolishness. It's just religious mumbo-jumbo.
And the world by wisdom cannot know God. And they'll never grasp
it because it's not given to them under that way. But under
them which are called, those which are called, both
Jews and Greeks. Now you see, the Jews seek after
sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, and it's foolishness
to them in both cases, but except that even among the Jews and
the Greeks there are those who are called, and to them what
is foolishness to everybody else is to them the power of God.
Now you see, a man who has been brought to a place of faith in
Christ, that is the power of God to him. Do you think he can
convey that to other people? No. They say, old Al, he's done
got religion on us. He's trying to pawn this off
on us. He's trying to persuade us, but
that's just foolish. And it is foolish to them. We
shouldn't be amazed at that. Now, you know, when the Lord
has brought us to faith, and especially before we have been
confronted with the way men think. Now, when we were
in that way, we thought that way, but once we were convinced
and we thought we could, you know, well, now we see it so
we can tell them. But what happens? No, they don't.
They can't see it either. Well, why did we see it? Because
God showed it to us. Because we were the call according
to His purpose. That's what Paul says here. We
preach Christ crucified unto the Jews of the Stoneman block
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks. You see, it's not being a Jew
or being a Greek that keeps a man from faith. It's just being a
human and thinking these things are foolishness until God is
pleased to show us that it's not. But unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. He's the sign and the logic to
the people of God. You see, they don't need anything
else. That's what they're looking for.
They're not wanting something other than that. Now, there are
people who claim to be believers in Christ who want more than
Christ. I mean, they want more than that. Paul said that this is what it
is. It is Christ, the power of God
and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men. That is, that which men consider
to be foolishness actually exceeds their wisdom. They can't see
it. Now is God foolish? Of course
God's not foolish. I mean, God couldn't be foolish.
So it doesn't mean God's going around here causing foolishness.
No. Men regard God's wisdom as foolishness,
and God says, well, here's the foolishness, which is the wisdom
of God, and they don't receive it. Because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men. Now, can God be described in any way as being weak? No,
but men regard it that way. You see, they say, oh, well,
that's a weak argument. That's a weak argument. So it
is to the wisdom of men. Stephen Hawking, he doesn't have
any time for the gospel, but he's a great wise man, so they
tell us. I mean, a lot of these guys, you know, that are in prominent
places and they've thought all these things through, Deepak
Chopra and Oprah Winfrey and all these people, you know, they
just know better. Muhammad Ali. I mean, you see,
they all know. But you see, they say, well,
the gospel, that's foolish. That's foolish. It's foolish.
to think that salvation is in Christ alone. Why? Well, we want to embrace all
the religions of the world. I mean, we're all going to the
same place. We're all trying to get along.
We're all trying to see things the same way. Let's just all
band together. No. You see, those that are called,
they see that Christ is the wisdom of God. It's not man figured
it out and Christ is one way and this way over here is another
way. No. It's Christ and Christ alone. That is the wisdom of God. And
it's the only wisdom we want. You see, we consider that the
wisdom of the world is foolish, whereas the world considers the
wisdom of God foolish. And how are we any different
except by the mercy of God, being the called, being those whom
the Lord has been pleased to open our eyes? For ye see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called. Now, he didn't say
not any. Because I believe that He has
some wise men in the earth, but the point He is making here is
that they did not achieve the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ
through their wisdom. It is not many wise men of God.
And the reality is that the wise men of this world in general,
generally speaking, they are not looking for Christ, are they?
See, the only people who are looking for Christ is the poor
in spirit. The Lord Jesus said, Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. See, blessed
are those that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed
are those that mourn. You see, those are the ones whom
the Lord calls. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many noble, are
called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. Who was one of these
politicians here a while back said that religion, it was just
a crutch, believing in God was just a crutch for people, just
helping them along the way? That's what the world thinks.
But you see, it is foolish, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, yes. It's a true thing. It appears foolish to men. And
we don't have to be ashamed to tell a man, you know, if he thinks
he's so wise that he can't believe it. You know, you're right. It's
foolish to you. But it's the power of God to
me. And God has chosen these things to confound the wise. Men by wisdom cannot know God.
He can't find Him by searching. I mean, you can go to school
your whole life in a quest to find God, but you'll never find
Him. Not that way. Now, the Lord may,
in mercy, He might open your eyes one day, but you'll discover
that it wasn't through all of that, because when you've learned
all of that, you're still going to be empty until such time as
God gives you the revelation of the fact that Jesus Christ
is the wisdom of God and the power of God. And such is the
blessing of the calling of God's people.