Now this morning I want to bring
the message out of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 13 through 31. Title of the message, Christ
the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. Now Paul preached to
the Corinthians for a year and a half. And he left Corinth and
he went into Syria. And during this time many false
teachers came among them and taught false doctrine. And they
began to misuse the gifts. They abused the ordinances. They
cast doubts on the resurrection. They even divided up into groups
and claimed to be more spiritual because who baptized them? Some
said, I am of Paul. Some said, I am of Apollos. Others
said, I am of Christ. Who baptizes you adds not to
your spirituality. So Paul asked this question.
He said, is Christ divided? No, he's not divided. The body
of Christ is not divided. In Christ we are one. Our Lord
said a house divided against itself cannot stand. For one
believer to exalt himself above another believer is not of God. God is not the author of confusion
or pride. Now Paul is not saying anything
against the ordinances of baptism. He's just saying under the present
circumstances, I'm glad that I baptized only a few of you.
Just one or two of you. His main business was to preach
Christ crucified. Paul was not after a following.
He's not like today's preachers. He wasn't after a following.
He was there to preach Christ and Him crucified. He said, for
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. This
was Paul's first business, preaching Christ. God's preachers are to
give themselves to the study of God's word so that they might
preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And not with wisdom
of words. They are not to do it with wisdom
of words, but they are to do it with simplicity of speech.
We don't need to sound eloquent or philosophical. We preach a
crucified Christ in the language of the scriptures, and that's
enough. For the preaching, he says in verse 18, for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. And it's
foolishness to them no matter how you preach it. When we tell
men and women that God saves sinners by His grace alone, through
Christ alone, to them it's foolishness. The lost man cannot receive the
things of God. He has nothing to receive them
in. He has no heart. He has no faith. He has no life. He's dead. He's
dead in trespasses and sins. The righteousness of Christ does
not make sense to the lost man. He just believes that surely
there's something he must do. He cannot grasp reconciliation
by the blood of Christ alone. Surely there's more to it than
this, he thinks. Jesus Christ living, dying, rising
for our justification doesn't make sense to the lost man. Paul
said in Acts 24 14, after the way which they call heresy, the
way of grace, the way of Christ alone, the way of justification,
the way of his righteousness, they call heresy. But unto us,
which are being saved, unto the believer, the true believer,
it's the power of God. The gospel is the power of God.
Do you know anything that changes a man like the gospel? Nothing. Absolutely nothing will change
a man like the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ when it comes
in power. It is the only means by which God saves sinners. This
gospel which concerns Christ crucified is the power of God
to save sinners. The law is not the power of God
to save, it is the power of God to condemn. But Christ conquered
death, hell and the grave. Christ satisfied justice. Christ
is the power of God to save. It is through Christ crucified
that we are justified and cleansed from all unrighteousness and
reconciled to God. If we are saved, this is how
it happens. There is no other way to be accepted
of God and saved except through this gospel of Christ crucified. God will not save through any
other way. This is the only way that God can be both just and
justifier is through the blood and righteousness of his Son.
He says in verse 19, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent The wise men of this world cannot understand the mystery
of the gospel. When our Lord taught the people,
the wise men of the world would not receive what he had to say.
They called him a madman. They thought he was crazy. Because
they couldn't understand the mystery of the gospel. Therefore
they thought he was crazy. Paul says here in verse 20, where
is the wise? If he is so wise, where is he? If he is so wise, why does he
not believe the gospel? Where is the scribe, the one
who teaches and studies the scriptures? Where is the dispute of this
world? Where are they? If they are so wise, then why
do they call this wisdom of God foolishness? If they are so wise,
how did they miss it so easily when he preached it? Where's
the scribe at? This is the one who ought to
be here supporting this gospel. He's the one who studies the
scriptures. Christ said, you search the scriptures. They wish
to testify of me. Where's he at? He's in foolishness. He ought to be here, but he's
not. He's in foolishness. Where's the disputer of this
world? I'll tell you where they all are. They are all in foolishness. They are all in darkness. They
are all dead in trespasses and sins. God has turned their wisdom
into foolishness. The worldly wise man teaches
evolution. That we came from a monkey. Isn't
that foolishness? The religious man teaches that
God wants to save you if you let him. And that Christ died
for people that are in hell. Isn't that foolishness? And the
disputer of this world is disputing over things that doesn't amount
to a hill of beans. He's disputing over global warming. I'll give you global warming.
God's going to burn it up. There's your global warming.
Where are these men? They're in foolishness. That's
where they are. The world, by wisdom, it says,
natural wisdom knew not God. Natural wisdom will never recognize
God for who He is. When He came into this world,
He said the world knew him not. When he came unto his own, his
own received him not. But it pleased God, now in verse
21, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. And here's what
this is saying, it pleased God by what this world calls foolishness,
to save them that believe. By the preaching of Christ crucified,
God is pleased to save the vilest of men who believe. This gospel
may sound like foolishness to men but it's the wisdom and power
of God to save sinners. Now it says the Jews require
a sign. The Jews represent the religious
people but lost. They said show us a sign. How
many times did he show them a sign? How many signs did he show and
yet they did not believe? Seeing a miracle has never ever
created faith in the heart. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
is a work of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't come by seeing miracles.
It's a gift of God. They said, let us see a miracle.
Prove to us that you're God. God does not need to prove to
anyone who He is. And He's not going to prove to
anyone who He is. He declares who He is. Whether
you believe it or not. But we preach Christ crucified. We will not change our message
because it makes or offends man's wisdom and pride. Because it
offends man's thoughts of himself. It offends his wisdom. It offends
his thoughts of God. But he's just going to have to
be offended because God's not going to change the gospel. The
gospel has never changed in 6,000 years and it's not going to.
It's not ever going to. We are going to preach the effectual
sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ as the only way to God.
And it will always be a stumbling block to the religious lost man.
He will never be able to reconcile his works with Christ's work.
His ideal of salvation with God's way of salvation. And the Greek,
which represents the worldly wise man, he will always call
it foolishness. He will never understand the
wisdom of God in Christ with his natural wisdom. God must
reveal it. Salvation comes by revelation.
But unto them which are called, listen, unto them which are called,
called by the Spirit of God, called by the grace of God, called
effectually, this is an effectual calling. This is not God calling
and then leaving it up to you. This is God affectionately calling
you, bringing you to His Son. Both Jew and Greek, he says here.
God's going to save some out of all nations. And Christ will
be the one by whom they are called and unto whom they are called.
And by Him they shall be saved. Christ the power of God and Christ
the wisdom of God. Because what men call foolishness,
if it's of God, is wiser than men. And what men call weakness,
if it's of God, is stronger than men. Now Paul tells those Corinthians
to notice their calling. He says, not many wise, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. The disciples were called unlearned
and ignorant men. For the most part, the wise and
the mighty and the noble are passed by. They are left alone.
Now he didn't say not any, he said not many. He said in Matthew
11, Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and
hast revealed them to babes. Be glad you're not so rich and
mighty and noble. God doesn't save many of those,
not many at all. But here are the ones he saves,
the foolish things, in verse 27. The foolish things, the weak
things, the base things, things which are despised, things which
are not. Does this offend you? Does this offend you, to be called
this? Not if God shows you who you are. You say amen to this,
you know this is who and what you are. And the reason God did
this was that no flesh of glory in his presence, no person is
going to be able to take any part of the redemptive glory
of Christ to himself and say, look what I did. No, it's look
what he did. Unto him be all glory, honor,
and praise. Then Paul sums up the whole chapter
in verse 30 and 31. Of Him, that is of God the Father,
are you in Christ Jesus? That's how you ended up in Christ.
If you're in Christ, that's how you got there. God the Father
put you in Him. That's the sum of it all. If
Christ is made unto us, unto every believer, unto the church,
all that we need, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Jesus Christ is all I need. In Him, it says in Colossians,
in Him we are complete. We lack absolutely nothing and
we bring nothing. We add nothing. We do nothing. Christ did it all. We fall down
at His feet. We receive Him. And that faith
by which we receive Him is the gift of God. And if any man is
going to glory, verse 31, let him glory in the Lord. Jesus Christ is the glory of
His people. Until next week, may God bless
His Word.