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. And
if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles with the message
today, I'm going to be preaching from 1 Corinthians 1, in the
New Testament, 1 Corinthians 1, beginning around verse 17
and 18. And this is the second part of
a series of messages entitled The Power and the Wisdom of God. This is part two. If you missed
last week, I urge you to order the message. We offer our messages
free of charge and you can get them on, you can listen to them
on the internet or you can get them on DVD or CD. But this, I'm talking about how
the gospel, which is called in verse 17 or verse 18, the gospel
in verse 18, the preaching of the cross, And that's the preaching, not
just of a symbol, but it's talking about the glorious person and
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ when he died on
the cross. And so who is Jesus Christ? What did he accomplish? And in
that truth, we see the power and the wisdom of God. As I mentioned
last week in Romans 1, 16 and 17, Paul calls the gospel the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. And
he says, therein is the righteousness of God revealed. The preaching
of the cross is the same as the preaching of the blood of Christ,
his death. By his death, Sinners are saved
by His blood, which means His death. And the preaching of His
death, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the blood, all
the same thing. That's the same as the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel. Romans 117. And what that means
is that this, when Christ died on the cross, what did He accomplish? Who is He? He's God in human
flesh without sin. He died under the wrath of God
justly, based upon the sins of his people, imputed. You've heard that term imputed,
that means charged, accounted to him, reckoned to him. The
book of Isaiah 53 talks about that. The Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. That's all his people now, not
all without exception. And I mentioned this last week,
the preaching of the cross. The preaching of the gospel doesn't
preach one who died to make salvation possible for you if you do your
part. That's not grace. That's salvation
conditioned on you, not on Christ alone. The Bible preaches, the
gospel preaches, the preaching of the cross is that all of the
conditions of the salvation of God's people were put upon Christ. And when He died on that cross,
He fulfilled all the conditions and brought forth an everlasting
righteousness which actually demands and ensures the eternal
salvation and life of His people. There will be no one in hell
for whom Christ died. You say, well, what should I
do? You seek the Lord. How do you know for whom he died?
They believe. He says, look at verse 18 of
1 Corinthians 1, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish or that are perishing foolishness. You know, when I
preach the gospel, how do you react to it? But unto us which
are saved or are being saved, it is the power of God. the preaching
of the cross. In the hands of the Holy Spirit,
it's the power of God to those who are being saved. And he says
in verse 19, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, that's the worldly wise, not wise in the things
of God. Paul told Timothy, he talked
about the scriptures, the holy scriptures, the word of God,
which are able to make you wise unto salvation. When he says
he destroys the wisdom of the wise, he's not talking about
the wisdom of God here, by which God the Holy Spirit makes sinners
wise unto salvation. He's talking about worldly wisdom.
There are some wise people on this earth who are unbelievers,
even atheists. They're wise in finance, they
may be wise in government and politics, they're wise in international
affairs, they're wise in physical health, wise in a lot of ways.
but they're not wise naturally in the things of God. Remember
last week I made mention how I'm leading up to 1 Corinthians
2.14. The natural man, man as he is naturally born, woman as
she is naturally born, fallen in Adam, ruined by the fall,
spiritually dead, totally depraved, all the flesh, receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He has to be made wise unto salvation. And he says he will bring, in
verse 19, he will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
That's the intelligent. They know a lot of things. They
may know math, they may know physics, they may know brain
surgery, they know a lot of things, but they don't know God. They
don't know Christ. They don't even know themselves.
Who am I according to the word of God? Well, there's only two
types of people on this earth. You're either a sinner lost in
your sins, or you're a sinner saved by the grace of God. And
there is no salvation any other way but by God's grace through
the cross of Christ, which is His righteousness imputed to
people, His people. And where His righteousness is
imputed, He always gives life. He always gives faith to receive
Him. And He always brings them to
glory. The preaching of the cross is the preaching of a finished
work. Hebrews 10, 14. For by one offering, that's the
cross, His offering of His body on the cross, His blood, His
death. By one offering, He, Christ,
hath perfected, finished, completed forever. them that are sanctified."
Who are they who are sanctified? They who were set apart by God
and given to Christ and for whom He died, was buried, and arose
the third day. The preaching of the cross also
includes the preaching of the resurrection. If a person preaches
the death of Christ without preaching the resurrection of Christ, he
has not preached the cross of the Bible. And if your Savior
is still hanging on that cross, that's why I don't like crucifixes.
It's got a picture of Jesus hanging on it. It's not Jesus there.
Nobody knows what he looked like. His cross led to his resurrection
because in his cross he established righteousness that demands life
for him and for his people. Christ as the surety, the substitute,
and the redeemer of his people. And God gave him a people before
the foundation of the world. And he said in John 6.37, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Somebody says, well,
then it doesn't matter if I come to him and I wasn't one whom
God gave him, he won't receive me. Oh no, listen to it. 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 out. Those who truly come
to Him as He's revealed and identified and distinguished in the Word
of God will never be turned away because God gave them to Him
before the foundation of the world. And He died for them. He established righteousness
for them. We'll look back at verse 20. This is 1 Corinthians
1. He says, where is the wise? Where
is the scribe? Now a scribe was an interpreter
of the law. Where is the disputer of this
world, the debaters, the arguments? Well, where are they in the scheme
of things? That's what he's saying here.
We're in the pecking order. Well, in the eyes of men, they're
way up there. They're the best of the best.
They're the leaders, religious, political, all of that. But here's
what he says in verse 20. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? Now, listen. When it comes to
the things of God, you know, it always amuses me in politics
that when movie stars, celebrities give their opinion, and people
act as if that carries some weight. Well, let me tell you something.
To me, that would be like the king listening to the court jester
on matters of state. What was a court jester? He was
there to entertain the king. He wasn't there to advise the
king in politics and international affairs, in diplomacy. And these movie stars, I mean,
I get entertained by them. I see a good movie, a good act,
but I don't care what he thinks about the president or the Congress
or politics. I don't care what he thinks about
it. His view is no better than mine. and yet people will follow them. And that's what he's talking
about here, the wisdom of the wise. Where is the scribe? God's made foolish the wisdom
of the world. When it comes, listen, a person
may be as smart as Einstein, And that's okay in things of
the world. But when it comes to the things
of God and a right relationship with God and how God saves sinners,
they're as dumb as the dumbest person on earth, naturally. Unless God has given them the
knowledge, unless God has revealed it to them and opened their eyes
and their ears to see the things of the Spirit of God, they have
no more weight in their views Somebody says, well, this is
what I think. Well, who cares what you think? What does the
word of God say? That's what we need. And then
look at verse 21. He says, for after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. The world by worldly
wisdom, no matter how high it goes, will not get a person to
God. You see, this is what I call
reasoning from the ground up. In other words, in the Bible,
it goes something like this, where God said, you thought I
was altogether one such as yourself. You thought God was like you.
I've often said on this program, you know, that this is why people
are so ignorant and they misinterpret, even people who call themselves
Christian. they're so ignorant of and they're so confused about
God's love and God's hatred. And they'll say, well, God loves
everybody and God doesn't hate anybody. Well, my friend, the
Bible, as much as you hate to hear this, you may hate to hear
this, as much as you may think this is foolishness, the Bible
will not support you on that stand. The reason you think God
loves everybody and hates nobody is because you think everybody
deserves God's love just because God created them and you think
nobody deserves God's hatred. But you're wrong. The Bible says
that God hates people. Yes. The problem you have with
that is that you equate God's hatred and God's love with your
hatred and your love or my hatred and my love. You see, my hatred,
when it comes from the flesh, is sinful. It's wrong. It usually comes out of my selfishness,
or my self-righteousness. But God's hatred is not emotional,
and it is not unfair, and it is not unjust. You know what
God's hatred is? It is God's justice. His wrath
against all to whom sin is imputed, to whom sin is charged. The Bible
says God hates all workers of iniquity. It doesn't say God
loves the sinner but hates the sin. It says in Psalm 5, God
hates all workers of iniquity. Well, aren't we all workers of
iniquity? Then how can God love any of
us? Well, here's the power and the wisdom of God. If God loves
any sinner, any worker of iniquity, there must be a way that God
can justly look at that person as being not a worker of iniquity. Now how is that possible? There's
only one way. Here's the power and the wisdom
of God. It's the preaching of the cross. You see in Isaiah
53 it says, The LORD hath laid on Him, on Christ, the iniquity
of us all. The all there is not all without
exception, but it's all for whom Christ died. Their iniquity,
their sins were imputed, charged to Christ, and His righteousness
has been imputed, charged to them, and when God looks upon
them, He doesn't see them as workers of iniquity. Now that
doesn't mean God pretends, or God fakes it. It doesn't mean
that God looks at us as if we're something we're not. It means
that God does not charge His people with iniquity. Now doesn't
the Bible teach that? Over in the book of Romans, listen
to this. This is Romans chapter eight.
And listen to what it says here. Romans chapter eight and verse
33. Listen to this. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Now who are those to whom
God does not charge with iniquity? whom God does not charge with
sin, His elect. He chose them in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And who are the elect? All who
come to faith in Christ. That's who the elect are. Not
just the Jews. It's Jew and Gentile who believes
in Christ. Those who are being saved in
1 Corinthians 1. And what is the basis upon which
God does not charge them with their sin? What is the basis
upon which God justly imputes righteousness to them? Look at
verse 34 of Romans 8. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. There's
the power and the wisdom of God, the preaching of the cross, the
preaching of his death, burial and resurrection, his righteousness. It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. You see, Christ intercedes
for his people, all for whom he died. And there's where we
find the love of God in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but God's wrath. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but righteous indignation. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but God's hatred, which is His just wrath against all to whom
sin is imputed. And how do you know that's the
love of God? Well, look at Romans 8 and verse 35. He says, therefore,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? That's God's
elect, all for whom Christ died. That's who God loves. And he
goes on, you read the rest of that chapter and nothing will
separate us from the love of Christ. We'll go back to 1 Corinthians
1. So he says in verse 21, for after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Now listen to this, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. How
does God save his people? In the power of the Holy Spirit
through the preaching and hearing of the gospel. Over in the book
of Romans again, you can look at chapter 10, chapter 10 speaks of how the
Jews, how they, how they would refuse to believe because it
crossed their natural religious human wisdom. But here he says,
verse 12 of Romans chapter 10, listen to this, he says, there's
no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the Jew and the
Gentile. In other words, as far as the issue of sin is concerned. Now my friend, listen to me,
the Bible recognizes that there's a lot of differences between
people. You take a person who is ultra
religious, but who's in false religion. And then you take a
person who is just totally irreligious and immoral. There's a big difference
between those two. You take a person who just has
no respect for the laws of the land, no respect for others and
the possessions of others, no respect for themselves, and take
a person who's a religious pillar of the community. There's a big
difference there. But when he says there's no difference between
Jew and Gentile, what is he talking about? He's talking about one
specific area, and that is salvation, and how a sinner is made right
with God. When it comes to that, there's
absolutely no difference. Give you an example of that,
look at Saul of Tarsus, Paul the apostle before he was converted. He was an ultra-sincere, dedicated,
religious man. Look at the thief on the cross
who was saved in the last hour of his life. He was an immoral
person. A thief! But when it comes to
salvation, how God makes sinners righteous, there's no difference
between Saul of Tarsus and the thief on the cross. If either
one of them would be saved, it was gonna be by grace. Through
the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look
at Romans chapter 10 there, verse 12. There's no difference between
the Jew and the Gentile, the Greek, for the same Lord over
all is rich unto all that call upon him. Now remember, last
week I talked about how we're leading up to 1 Corinthians 2.14,
the natural man receiveth the things of the Spirit of God.
What he's saying there is man by nature will not call upon
the Lord, not the true Lord. Now men will call upon an idol,
a god of their imagination, but if left to ourselves, we will
not call upon the Lord. That's the natural man. But he
does say this, verse 13 of Romans 10, Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. His name is that which
identifies and distinguishes him. It's not just looking up
in the sky and calling upon Jesus. You know there are counterfeit
Christ? How do you know the one you're
calling upon? When you go to church on Sunday, How do you
know that you're going to praise and worship the true Christ of
the Bible and not a counterfeit? Does that sound foolish to you?
Oh, I wouldn't even think that we could be calling upon a counterfeit
Christ. Really? You better check it out
with the scripture. Christ said in the last days
there'll become many who say Jesus is here, Jesus is there,
don't listen to them. He said they're trying to deceive
you. They're deceived themselves. Remember how I told you? It's
the glorious person in the finished work of Christ. Look at verse
14. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? The calling is the calling of
faith. It's out of desperation, but
it's a faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. And how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard?
The natural man won't hear. He has to be given ears to hear
and eyes to see. You must be born again or you
cannot see the kingdom of God. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sinned?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace, the preaching of the cross, peace by the blood
of his cross, his righteousness, that was accomplished in his
death and his resurrection, how beautiful are them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they've not all obeyed the
gospel, some obeyed and some haven't. Why did some obey and
some didn't? Were the ones who obeyed better
people than the ones who didn't? No. is all attributed to the
sovereign grace and power and wisdom of God. For Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed our report, verse 17, so then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So back over in
1 Corinthians 1.21. He says, 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. Now
that's not the preaching of foolishness. There are a lot of preachers
today who preach, but they preach foolishness. But when he talks
about the foolishness of preaching, he's talking about how the world
looks at the preaching of the cross. how the world looks at
the preaching of that message, which in essence is the power
and the wisdom of God. And so he says in verse 22, he
says, for the Jews require a sign. They're looking for signs. Many
people today are looking for signs. The Greeks or the Gentiles
seek after wisdom, worldly wisdom. They want debates, arguments,
opinions. Verse 23, but we preach Christ
crucified. The death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ as a finished work that wrought forth righteousness
for his people to ensure their salvation unto the Jews a stumbling
block. Here's the Jew trying to establish
a righteousness of his own and he trips over the preaching of
another righteousness that he had no part in producing. And
unto the Greeks foolishness. It's foolish. It just doesn't
make sense to them. I've had people say, well, if
I believed that, there'd be more people lost than saved. That's
not your business. Your business is to see the word
of God. And so he says in verse 24, now here's the believer,
here's the one who has been born again of the Holy Spirit. He says, but unto them which
are called, That's the effectual, powerful calling. Called unto
salvation, the gospel, the power of God unto salvation. Called,
both Jews and Greeks, he says, Christ the power of God, Christ
the wisdom of God. Now I'm gonna expound upon those
verses next week in more detail. And I wanna show you some more
scripture that applies to them. But those who are called, you
know the Bible teaches there are two callings. There's a general
call that comes in many forms, which man, if left to himself,
he'll reject. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. And
then there is what we call the effectual, the invincible calling
of the Spirit. And so what happens when the
Spirit brings a person under the preaching of the true gospel
not a false gospel, but the true gospel. He gives that person
life from Christ. That's regeneration. That's that
quickening in Ephesians chapter 2. And he brings that person
to see things that he didn't see before. To love and believe
and submit to the things of God in Christ. Who Christ is. His
righteousness. What he accomplished as the ground
of my whole salvation. And he sees that Christ is the
power of God. The dynamite of God. And Christ
is the very wisdom of God in His person and in His finished
work. And that's the calling of God. The power and the wisdom of God.
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 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. 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.