Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If
you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'll be preaching
from 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I've been on this chapter, and
I'm going to head on into chapter 2, leading up to some thoughts
that we need to understand concerning what it means to be a sinner,
what it means to be saved from sin, all of these things. This
message here is part of a series. The first three messages are
entitled The Power and Wisdom of God. But this today, I'm gonna
give it a different title. And the title is Let Us Glory
in the Lord. Let Us Glory in the Lord. And
it's where the Apostle Paul has been talking about the power
and the wisdom of God revealed in the preaching of Christ crucified. That's Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. which is the basis of salvation. It is the power of God and the
wisdom of God. And he made mention here, he
says, look at verse 22. He says, for the Jews require
a sign. That's kind of a symbolic of,
or representative of the religious segment of humanity looking for
a sign. In other words, they're not looking
for the word of God. See, that's what I tell people all the time.
I tell you all the time, you've got to get into the word of God. and stop looking for the opinions
of men and the signs and all that, look to God's word. And
then he says, the Greeks or the Gentiles seek after wisdom. That's
human wisdom, human philosophy. So you have human intelligence,
human philosophy, human wisdom, and religious wisdom. But he says in verse 23, but
we preach Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block and
under the Greeks or the Gentiles foolishness. Now, go back and
get the other messages. I dealt with them very much in
the last message. But what he's saying here is
the Jew, they represented those who were seeking to establish
a righteousness of their own by their works. And if the gospel
is preached, the gospel of Christ crucified and risen from the
dead, it tells us that Christ is the only righteousness that
God will accept. The perfection of righteousness
that God requires to save and justify His people cannot be
found in us or worked out by us. It can only be found in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you desire the
righteousness that God requires, the only way you're gonna find
it is looking to Christ as the author and finisher of faith.
Christ crucified, risen from the dead. Christ came to establish
the only righteousness upon which God could save and justify a
sinner and still be God. Now that's foolishness to the
natural man. He says in verse 24, but unto
them which are called Or verse 23, he says, but we preach Christ
crucified under the Jews a stumbling block, under the Greeks foolishness.
Verse 24, but under them which are called. Now that calling
is the specific, invincible, irresistible call of the Holy
Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. And how do you know if
you receive that irresistible call, that powerful call? Well, I'll tell you how. You'll
receive Christ as he is identified and distinguished in the Word.
And so he says, but unto us which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
see there's no national ethnic barrier here. It's for anybody
who wants it God's way. Now, by nature, you won't want
it God's way. I didn't want it God's way, but
if you receive this powerful calling, you'll want it His way.
And he says, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Now look at verse 25. He says, because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. Now, my friend, he's speaking
here rhetorically, to make a point. He says the foolishness of God
is wiser than men. There is no foolishness with
God. God is the embodiment of all wisdom, real wisdom. But he's saying what men look
to and what the natural man, unbelieving people, look at and
call foolishness, my friend, it's wise above what they even
know. And then he says, the weakness
of God is stronger than men. What men by nature look to in
God as weakness. Christ hanging on the cross and
dying. That represents weakness to the
natural man. But it's the power of God. It's
the strength of God. In the Old Testament, he's called
the arm of the Lord. His arm is strong. When Christ
died on that cross, he didn't, now he suffered the infirmities
of the flesh, but he wasn't doing something weak there, he was
doing something powerful and strong. He, by his blood, was
putting away the sins of his people. And he, by his death,
was bringing in a perfect, everlasting righteousness that cannot be
contaminated. and that's what is imputed, charged,
accounted to all His people. We stand before God by His wisdom,
His power. We stand before God dressed in
robes of righteousness, not our own, but given us freely by God
through Christ. It's imputed to us. So it is
my righteousness, but not in the way that I worked it out,
not in the way that I appropriated. It was freely given to me by
God through Christ. It was imputed, charged, accounted,
reckoned to me. So he says in verse 26, he goes
back to this calling. He says, for you see your calling,
brethren, How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. Now this is the calling of the
gospel. This is what Romans 1, 16 and 17 talks about. How the gospel of Christ is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to
the Jew first and the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. If the righteousness of God is
revealed to you in your heart, that's the work of the Spirit
in this calling, from faith to faith, the gift of faith, for
as it is written, the justified, the just, shall live by faith.
And who are the justified? They are those who are not guilty.
They are those who are righteous in God's sight through Christ,
by His grace through Christ, and it's known by this calling.
So he says, for you see your calling, brethren. And he says,
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. Now read verse 27. He says, but
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, confuse them. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confine the things that are mighty. He
confuses the strong. Verse 28. And he's chosen the
base things of the world, and things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nothing
not things that are. Why? Verse 29, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. Now what is all that saying?
This is passages like this, have come to cause people to call
true Christianity the common man's religion. Well, the thing
about it is, in God's sight, do you know that all people are
common in God's sight? What Paul is doing here, he's
putting things in perspective. You see, we are subject in our
humanity to esteem highly one person above
another. That's just the way we are. We
look upon influential people, people that are rich, people
that are famous, people that are strong, all of that. People who have degrees, bachelor's
degrees, master's degrees, PhDs. And we look upon people who,
those people, as they have more influence than the common man. The kings, the princes. You can't
go into a grocery store now without seeing in a magazine about the
queen of England or the prince or the princess, you know. I mean, it's all, you know, that's
the way it is. People want that stuff, celebrity. I've often
said that celebrity pretty much is the new religion. And that
impresses us. And those things, but now, and
listen to what I'm saying now. A person, for example, who is
wise in the things of the world, who rises in, let's say, religion,
the Pope or whoever, we look up to those people, and here's
what happens, and here's what Paul is doing. We think that
means something to God. But you know what? It means nothing
to God. You say, well, I've got a PhD. I don't have a PhD. I've got
a PhD. Okay, that may mean something
if you're wanting to teach in college or if you're wanting
to rise in a company or whatever. But when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to a right relationship with God, it means nothing. Years ago, I think it was back
in the 70s, there was a false preacher, and he was a false
preacher now. I don't know where he is now,
he may be dead. But he used to appear on a popular talk show. And he had what he called his
10 most wanted list. And on that list, he had 10 people,
men and women, whom he said, and this is his own words, he
said, if I could get them saved. And first of all, that's wrong
anyway. We don't get anybody saved. Only God saves sinners,
salvations of the Lord. But he would say, if I could
get these people saved, I could convert the whole world. You
could? And they were people of influence,
movie stars, sports figures. The talk show host that he appeared
on, that was one of, he said, if I could get these people saved,
I could convert the world. Well, my friend, that's foolishness. That means nothing to God. Think
about the Lord Jesus Christ when he came into the world and began
in his public ministry. Why didn't he go to the temple
and find the high priest? Caiaphas, or Annas or Caiaphas,
it was a political mess back then, and save them. And therefore convert the whole
Jewish, that's not what he did. You know what he did? He called
some old fishermen, Peter and his brothers. And listen to this,
he went and called a tax collector named Matthew, a hated man. You
see, the way that we think God should work, that's not the way
he works at all. Why didn't Christ go to Rome
and convert Caesar and then turn the whole empire into Christianity?
No, no, that's not the way God works. You know, in history,
much later on, you remember the Roman Emperor Constantine. He
had a false conversion through a sign, the sign of the cross.
But he claimed to be a Christian, and so he turned the whole Western
world into Christianity. But it's false Christianity.
That's not the way God works. And that's what he's saying here.
God hath chosen the foolish things, verse 27, of the world to confound
the wise. You see, the way we think, naturally,
is, well, he ought to get the most influential men in religion
and finance and entertainment and sports and turn the, no,
that's not the way God works. There's not, look at it again,
verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
You're calling, if you were truly called unto salvation, it had
nothing to do with your station in life. You see, it's not that
God does not call kings to salvation. He called David, Solomon. We could go on. It's not that
God refuses to save rich people or influential people. But here's
what it means, it means that their position and their influence
in this world had absolutely nothing to do with God's choice
of them or calling of them. That's what it means. Not many
noble, mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Verse 27,
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty. Now, why did God do it this way?
Look at verse 29, he tells us. In these last three verses, he
tells us that no flesh should glory in his presence. That word glory, it means boast. It means have confidence. That
no flesh should glory. God will not share his glory
with you or with me or with anybody. You know, in the book, in the
Old Testament, often it is said that God is a jealous God. And I had a man ask me about
this years ago. He said, well, jealousy's sinful,
isn't it? And I told him, I said, not with
God. When we get jealous, We get jealous because we think
somebody is desiring or wanting something that belongs to us.
And like, for example, if a man gets jealous because somebody
desires his wife, now that's right, because she is yours.
You're one flesh with your wife, and you're wives with your husbands.
And so you belong to each other. And that's your right, that's
under God's law. But if somebody steals my glory as a human being,
I don't have any right for that anyway. I'm nothing. That's why
God does it. He brings to nothing the things
that are. But God, when he's jealous, he's
rightfully jealous because all glory and honor and praise belongs
to him. None of it belongs to the preacher,
or to the people, or to the church, or the denomination, or any individual
member. It all belongs to God. So God has arranged these things
in salvation. He's planned and purposed these
things in salvation. That he gets all the glory in
Christ. And that's what Christ prayed
back in John 17. In the high priestly prayer,
Incidentally, if you want to see the Lord's Prayer, here it
is. It's not Matthew chapter six. That's the model prayer.
The Lord's Prayer. Listen to this in verse one of
John 17. These words spoke Jesus, verse
one, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. You see, the glory of the Father
and the Son and the Spirit are mutual. You can't glorify the
Father without the Son, and you can't glorify the Son without
the Father. In verse two he says, as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, listen to this, that he should give eternal life,
to whom? To as many as thou hast given
him. Remember he said in John 6, 37,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast down. And he says in verse
three, and this is life eternal that they might know thee the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And then
verse four, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. The work of redemption
to save his people from their sins. And then verse five, and
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the word was the glory of God. So back over in 1 Corinthians
1.29, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Well, what do
God's people, those whom God chose, those whom Christ redeemed,
those who are called into the kingdom by the Spirit through
the gospel, preaching of the gospel, what do they glory in? In whom do they glory? Verse
30, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus. who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Verse 31, that according as it
is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now
that's what it is for God's people who've been called to glory.
They glory not in themselves, not in their preacher, they glory
in Christ. Paul said it in Galatians 6.14,
God forbid that I should glory, save, accept in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world. He wrote it in Philippians chapter
three in verse three. He says, we are the circumcision.
That means the spiritually circumcised, born again by the spirit, which
worship God in spirit. and rejoice, that word rejoice
in Philippians 3.3 is the same word glory here in 1 Corinthians
1. And rejoice, glory in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. How do we glory
in Christ? We see that what Christ has done
for us and what he is to us. What has he done for us? He died
on the cross to save me from my sins. And God has made him
unto us wisdom. When it comes to God and a right
relationship with God, Christ is all my wisdom. He's my righteousness. When it comes to God and me and
a right relationship between God and me, Christ is my righteousness. He's my sanctification, my holiness. He's my redemption. And so that
according as it is written, he that glorieth, let us glory in
the Lord. He's quoting over here from Jeremiah
9. In Jeremiah 9, 23, he says, thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. Verse 24, but let him that glorieth
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And
the fulfillment of everything that he said there is not found
in you or me, it's all found in Christ. Christ is the embodiment
of the glory of God. And he by himself glorified God
in the salvation of his people. when he obeyed unto death and
died on that cross, so that how can we know, again, if God chose
us from the beginning? How can we know if Christ died
for us on the cross? How can we know that we've been
born again, called by the Holy Spirit? Well, let's glory in
the Lord for all things. Don't look to yourself. You know
so many people. They look at Christ almost like
they do some kind of a jumpstart. That you believe on Him and then
you get busy working it out for yourself. Or you believe on Him,
He did everything to get you started, but now you've got to
maintain it, you've got to preserve it. Well, my friend, if that's
your case, you're not glorying in the Lord. You're glorying
in self. There's people who say, well,
we're saved by grace, but if we don't keep on, or if we don't
do the work that we're supposed to do, we can lose that salvation.
You're not glorying in the Lord. Christ is the Savior of His people. He's a complete Savior. And the
Bible says that He's able. to bring his people to salvation
to the uttermost, to the nth degree. Paul wrote, he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Now, what have I committed unto
him? I've committed unto Christ, God in human flesh, the God-man,
the Lord my righteousness, I've committed unto him my whole salvation. And if you haven't committed
unto Him your whole salvation, then you're glorying in something
other than Him. If you haven't committed unto
Him your whole salvation, the preaching of the cross will be
a stumbling block to you, or it'll be foolishness to you.
Now, committing it all to Him is an act of faith, God-given
faith. And what that tells you is this,
before you committed it all unto Him, it was all dead works. It was all fruit unto death.
It was all, as Paul calls it, loss, even done. You remember
Paul said that. He said, I look at it all as
loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dumb that I may win Christ
and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
And that's why in 1 Corinthians 2, we'll pick up with that next
time. He says, and I brethren, when I came to you, verse one,
came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God in verse two, for I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That's what I'm preaching. That's what this ministry is
all about. It's not trying to help you find a better life now,
even though in Christ there is a better life, even though outwardly
it may seem worse. Think about Saul of Tarsus, Paul,
the apostle. Before he was saved, he had it
a little easier. And then after he was saved,
what happened? Then he become persecuted for
Christ's sake. And he had to flee. He was persecuted
on every side. And that's why he said that this
was one of the ways that God showed him that his glory was
in Christ. And so he said, I didn't come
to you with excellency of speech or wisdom. In other words, I'm
not coming to you with human speech and human wisdom that
would deny or hide or cloak or water down the message of salvation
by God's grace in Christ. He said, I come to you preaching
this one message, Christ crucified. And that means raised from the
dead. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ is not just historical
fact. even though it is historical
fact, but it's not just historical fact. It's the power and the
wisdom of God. And what it does, when God calls
people to this salvation, it brings them to glory in the Lord,
boast in Him, have confidence in Him, my assurance of salvation. My assurance of being accepted
with God, my assurance of being heard of God in prayer, my assurance
and confidence of being blessed of God, my assurance and confidence
of being saved and finally glorified is not on me or in me, it's all
in Christ. And that's what we do, that's
what brings the fellowship of people of true Christianity together. They all glory in the Lord, so
let us glory in the Lord. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.