How thankful we should be that
God has recorded His Word for us in the Scriptures and preserved
that Word unto this very day. Not only has God spoken by His
Son in the Gospel in a former day, not only did God speak in
the beginning by Christ, the Word of God, and created the
world by His speech, not only did the Word of God bring forth
all living creatures and bring forth man upon this world, not
only did God breathe life into the first man Adam, that he lived
and walked with God, not only did God speak by His prophets,
through the ages when man in his disobedience went astray
from Almighty God and rebelled and turned to sin as sin entered
the world and left by sin. Not only did God preach by those
prophets of the forthcoming Messiah whom God would send into this
world as a saviour for sinners, not only did that Messiah the
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself come into this world,
born a man, born of woman, very God and very man. Not only did
the very Son of God, the Word of God, walk and live in this
world and preach the mighty Word of God, the mighty Gospel unto
all those who heard Him. Not only having died, having
taken away sin, having drunk the cup of God's wrath, having
laid down his life, having cried out that salvation is finished,
having been laid in the grave. having risen again with almighty
power on the third day. Did Christ himself send forth
his disciples, his apostles with that very gospel and sent them
forth into the four corners of the world in those days? Not
only did he bring forth mighty signs and save many people by
his gospel in the early days of the apostolic church, not
only was Paul sent forth and traveled throughout Europe, to
many strange places, to many towns, and preached mightily
by the power of the Spirit to those who heard. Not only did
God preach His Gospel in those days, but God moved Paul, God
moved John, God moved Matthew, God moved the disciples, the
apostles, to record in the Scriptures the words of Jesus Christ. To record their accounts of what
they saw of the Son of God and what He said and what He did.
To record the acts of the apostles and where the apostles went and
what they preached and the mighty results of that preaching. And
to record the letters, the epistles that Paul and the other apostles
sent forth to the churches. God caused these men to write
and to set down in words the very Word of God. And God took
those words, not only of the Apostles but also of the Prophets
that preceded them, and preserved those words in the Scriptures,
and has preserved those words unto our day. Not only has God
preached his gospel from the beginning and sent forth preachers
throughout every generation but he's given us his word. that
we may take that word and we may read of those wondrous things
that God has done for his people throughout all time and we may
hear the voice of the preacher and go to the word and see if
what we hear preached is really what God has said and written
down. What a precious thing it is to
have the Scriptures, the Bible, preserved unto our day, and have
the freedom in our land to pick up those Scriptures and to read
them, and to read the very words of the Apostles, the very words
of Jesus Christ, the very word of God. How we should be careful
not to take the freedom we have to read the scriptures for granted
and to shun it and to leave it and to waste our time on so many
other things. There are many countries, many
people who do not have this freedom, who do not have this access.
There are many who have lost their lives for simply picking
up a Bible and reading it. There are many who gave their
lives that we might have the Bible and read it. Poor Tyndale,
that man of God that God used so mightily to bring this word
into the English tongue. paid with his life as did many
of his contemporaries. He paid with his life that we
might read and what do we do in our foolishness and folly
today? We leave that book on the shelf
and we go and we read and we watch and we listen to just about
anything else. When the Word of Life, the Word
of God, that Word that conveys by the Spirit of God, the power
of God and the wisdom of God that delivers the dead sinner
from condemnation and brings him into everlasting life, we
leave the record of that Word, we leave the Scriptures on the
shelf and we ignore it. to our peril. But God has sent his word and
God has preserved his word and God has preserved the epistles
and kept them that those whom he has chosen might in time read
and hear and believe. What a precious thing it is that
in that word, Paul's epistle to the Corinthians has been recorded
for us. Because this first epistle of
Paul to the Corinthians, which we will look at in a moment,
is full of hope for those who are weak. Full of hope for those
who have no strength. Full of hope for those who try
and fail. full of hope for those who know
what they are before Almighty God and know
what they should be and know that by their own strength,
their own wisdom, their own works and their own will, they will
never attain to that which they ought to be. But here's a message
that tells them that God have chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise and God have chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and
base things of the world and things which are despised have
God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Are you one of those? One of the foolish things of
the world. One of the weak things of the
world. One of the base things of the
world. One of those things which are
not a nothing. A nothing. Having no great wisdom,
no great strength, no great reputation. Has God shown you that that's
what you are? Because if you're one of those,
hopeless, helpless, with no ability, struggling and failing and feeling
far off from God, with no ability to gain unto Him. If you're one
of those sinking fast, here's a message that says unto such
as you that God has chosen chosen the foolish, the weak, the base,
the nothings, chosen them to call them unto salvation through
his Son. Chosen. He has not chosen the wise, not
many wise, not many mighty, not many noble. Oh by grace they might take one
or two from here or there, one or two wise in the eyes of the
world, one or two rich and mighty, one or two with a noble name,
and he might take them and show them in their experience that
all that men see in them is nothing. And that despite the name, despite
the knowledge, despite the reputation, they come to know that in God's
eyes they are nothing. Oh, he might choose one or two,
but God's means is to choose nothings, those who know they're
nothing. Where are you? Where are you? What's your view
of yourself? There's great hope in this passage
for those who are cast down. Those who are full of fear. Those
who know that they cannot be what they should be. Those who feel that the hand
of almighty God has gone out against them. or deserves to
go out against them. This epistle was written to a
church gathered in Corinth, originally under Paul's preaching. A church,
a people called out from a wicked Gentile nation. A people who
were once idolaters worshipping all manner of false gods, full
of all manner of superstitions, indulging in all manner of iniquity,
an evil people, a fleshly people, a sinful people, a people who
live for their own glory, for their own ends, a hedonistic
people, a pleasure-seeking people, A people who knew nothing of
the one true and living God. A people who had none of the
heritage of the Jews, none of the background of religion of
those of whose race Christ was born. A people who lived in darkness. are people who deserve to be
cast out. They'd never given God a thought. They'd never bowed down before
Almighty God. They'd never sought Him. They'd
sought themselves, their own pleasure, their own gratification. Much like you and much like me. much like our day and age and
generation and land in which we live here today. Hedonistic,
pleasure-seeking, as if life is simply there to be grasped
for the 70 years or so of which you have to bring yourself as
much pleasure and riches and gratification as you can gain
before you're finally laid in the grave. foolish world a foolish
generation that thinks that there is no immortality to the soul
that you're just born you experience and live for a while as a pile
of chemicals and fluid in the body and at the end you're laid
in a grave or burnt up in cremation and then you're gone And the
only eternity that there may be to a person is that record
in history which remains with others. So they go about seeking
to make a name for themselves, seeking to do something wonderful
culturally that people might remember, oh that's the person
that wrote this book, that's the person that made that film.
That's the person that built those great buildings. That's
the person that led that country. Oh what a great person that was. So they keep themselves remembered. But their idea and the idea preached
to us today by the wisdom of man all around is that we're
born, we live, we die and that's it. So gain as much riches, gain
as much pleasure, gain as much gratification as you can now. Live for the day, for tomorrow
we die. Oh what folly is the wisdom of
this world. Because when you die, your soul
continues. And that brief moment of pleasure
is a distant memory when you stand before Almighty God and
answer to Him for what you have done, fought and said in this
world. I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, God says, 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? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Have he not? Where's the wise
from a hundred years ago? Where are those wise poets and
authors from the 1800s now? They're in the grave. and laid
in the grave their soul continues in one place or other. They were
either brought to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of
God, and delivered from the folly of their ways that they might
enter into eternal glory, or they were cast out in the hellfire
forevermore. and what happened with the wise
and the disputers of this world and the scribes from a former
day will happen to this generation, your generation too. Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? But as foolish as this world's
wisdom is today, so it was at Corinth This foolish people,
this people who lived in darkness, this people who worshipped a
thousand gods and worshipped their own selves, one day had
a man that they despised come into their town with the gospel. Miserable Paul, this nothing
of a man no great wisdom of words with him no great beauty or handsomeness
with him nothing to put on a pedestal but here comes a man ridiculed
and scorned by the world into their town and he stands up and
he speaks to them of Jesus Christ. And their foolish hearts, their
wisdom may have scorned him, they may have disputed with him,
they may have treated the preaching of the cross that they heard
from him as foolishness. But that which they considered
folly, was and is the power of God. And when God determines
to have a man, woman or child hear that gospel, hear that preaching
and live, there is nothing that they can do, say or think which
will stand in its way. If God comes with his gospel
and preaches unto you, Christ, then you can rage against it
all you like, you can dispute with it all you like, you can
question all you like, but in the end, all your defenses, all
your rebellion, all your foolishness will fade away. It will crumble
in the face. of that which God calls the power
of God unto salvation. 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 belief. For the
Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God. and the wisdom
of God. Oh you may hear this message
and you in your wisdom might find it to be a stumbling block
or foolishness. You might argue against it, you
might say well give me a sign. it's just words. You might say
oh it's ancient you're just reading from an ancient book I need to
see something real. You might argue with it all you
like but should God take this word and preach to your soul
and show you what you are before him and show you your need of
a saviour Should God convince you that you are not just a collection
of atoms, that you are not just a collection of chemicals, but
that you are a living person with a living soul which will
continue after your death? Should God convict you of your
sin and your rebellion before him? and of your unbelief that
rejects his word and rejects his testimony that you are a
created being created by him when he spake you came into being
because he speaks he sustains you should he show you the reality
of that and show you the reality of your rebellion against him
and show you the desperate state of your soul, and show you your
need of a Saviour to cleanse you and to wash you clean, to
make you new, to renew your mind, to change your thinking, to put
a new heart within you, and to clothe you with righteousness. Should God do that for you by
His Gospel, then you will find this Gospel to be no stumbling
block, no foolishness, no message to be disputed and torn apart. But you will find this gospel
to be the power of God, the wisdom of God, because it's that and
that alone which makes known unto you the Lord Jesus Christ. and makes Him known unto you
as your Saviour. That alone which takes off Christ
and shows Him to be crucified not just for sinners but for
you. Should you hear this Gospel in
power you will know of a Saviour who came into this world for
you, who lived for you, who took the rejection of all men for
you. who was scorned and despised
and rejected for you, a Saviour whom the Pharisees and the scribes,
the religious, hated, a Saviour who was put to death for you,
a Saviour who was nailed to a cross for you. If this power of this
gospel is made known unto you, you will know that He came for
you, that He suffered upon that cross for you, that He was made
sin for you, that He bore your sins for you, that He bore the
judgment, the outpouring of God's wrath for you, that He laid down
His life for you, and that He did it because He chose you. and chose to set his love upon
you. And though you shut your ears
to him, and though you closed your eyes to him, and though
you turned your heart away from him, he loved you. And though
you hated him and rejected him, he loved you. And though you
put his word in the scriptures upon a shelf and despised it
and went another way, he loved you. And He came for you in His
Gospel and He sent a preacher to where you are. And He sent
the Spirit of God with His words to where you are. To declare
unto you what He has done out of love for your soul. Because
He chose you. And you were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world, before you were born, before
this world was made. God said, I will save you. Despite all you are, and all
you have done, and all you continue to do, I will save you. I will send my Son. He will be
your ransom. He will pay your redemption price. He will set you free. He will bear your sins. He will
drink my wrath against your sins, that you might go free. He will
make you to be the righteousness of God because he loves you,
because I've chosen you, because you're mine. And he will send
forth his gospel in time that he should call you. Though a
fool, though weak, though base, though nothing, he will call
you. by his gospel, by grace unto
salvation. Has he called you? Has he come
your way with his gospel? Has he given you ears to hear?
There are many who hear the words. There are many who from time
to time pick up the book and read here and there who know
the words and know the names and know the letter and know
what they should be and what they should do but it's all just
words and it rolls over them like water pouring down off your
head like rain descending and pouring off you it washes over
them and it never enters in You may have heard, you may know
of Jesus Christ, you may know he died, you may know he was
crucified for sinners, but it's just words. What is it for you? Is it just
words? Is it something with which you
dispute? Is it foolishness? Do you actually
live as though he's not real? Though you may pay him lip service,
though you may pick up the Bible, though you may go to a place
of worship and hear the gospel preached, is it just lip service
you pay? When in reality you live as though
God isn't there and as though Christ isn't real and as though
his gospel does not matter. In reality you live as though
you're just here on this world, you can pick and choose what
you do and where you go and that's all that's really real to you.
Do you live, do you wake up every morning and all that's real is
what you do, you get dressed, you eat your breakfast, you go
out to work or school, you meet these people, you hear these
things and that's reality. And God is at a distance and
Christ is at a distance, he's merely enshrined in a book. You
go to a place on a Sunday and pick up a book and read, and
there is Christ in words on a page, but he's never real for you.
As you journey through this world, as you go about your business,
is he in your thoughts? Is he in your mind? Is what he
thinks important to you? Does it matter? Does it matter
to you what he thinks? How he feels? Or is it all at a distance? You can hear and not hear. You
can hear the letter and it's never the power of God or the
wisdom of God to your soul. Because you're too full of yourself.
You live full of your own pride, full of your own wisdom, shutting
out the things of God. And in reality, your heart says,
your heart says, there is no God. Oh, you can say with the
lips there's a God. You've been taught there's a
God. You'll own it to please other people. You'll say to those
that you know believe in this God, you'll say, oh I believe
in God. But your heart says there is no God. The reality of your
life, the walk of your life, everything you do, everything
you're seeking after, what your heart desires, what your heart
loves, what moves you and motivates you, says there is no God. The fool, I've said in his heart,
there is no God. There is no God. What is your
heart saying? Are you a fool? Or has God made
you wise unto salvation? Well, these people at Corinth
were fools. Children of wrath even as others. Idolaters. blind, evil. They lived for their selves and
their own glory. And yet God chose them. And he brought the gospel to
these fools, to these weak, to these base, to these nothings.
And he transformed them. And he revealed his son unto
them, who was made unto them wisdom. righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. He made the mighty work of Christ
known unto this people. But as time went on, how they showed themselves to
be fools still. In Christ they were chosen and
called of God. in themselves, in their flesh,
they were still nothings. And they lived and showed what
they were, as we do today. Saved or not, the flesh wars
against the spirit and how foolish and weak we are. Here was a church
gathered under the preaching of Paul, one of the finest preachers
that God has sent to this world. And yet it fell into chaos. Oh the disputes and the arguments
and the divisions that arose in this place. Oh the pride of
man. How they fell into a party spirit. One following this preacher another
following that preacher. Another saying I won't follow
any preacher I'll just follow Christ. Oh the pride in the arrogance. Oh the disputing and arguing.
as this bunch of fools forgot that they were nothing before
Almighty God and forgot that all that they had and were was
in Christ alone and how we do that today in the churches We
speak of sovereign grace. We speak of the power of the
Gospel. We say we're nothing. We say our works haven't saved
us. And then when we get to meeting
our brethren and our sisters, how our pride comes to the fore. And how we like to vaunt our
own wisdom and knowledge in the Scriptures. And how we like to
force our opinions one upon the other. And how we like to dispute
and argue. and how we forget that we are
nothing but sinners saved by grace and all that we are has
come from God freely. This people and those in their
midst that continue to indulge the flesh, continue to indulge
in sinful ways. They tolerated those in their
midst and those things done that should never have been tolerated,
that should never be seen amongst the people professing Christ
and how we do the same today. Oh how much of the world there
is in all of us How much of a love of mammon there is in all of
us. How much of a love of the things that we can touch, handle
and feel in this world there remains in all of us. How much
of a love of the pride of life and of having a reputation and
of being thought to be somebody there is in all of us. How when
we get into the churches, though we've been saved, though we know
the gospel, how we love to rise up amongst the people. How the
natural man loves to have a bit of attention, a bit of flattery,
a bit of well done. What a trap this is and how easily
we fall into it. Which is why Paul writes to this
people and us today to remind us that we are nothing. If you've heard the gospel, if
you know Christ, if your sins have been forgiven, if you've
been washed clean by the blood, it's because God chose you, not
you him. It's because God chose and called
you by his grace and he chose and called you as one who is
foolish. as one who is weak, as one who
is base, as one who is not a nothing, that all should be brought to
nothing, that no flesh, that your flesh should never glory
in his presence, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
He's brought this gospel to sinners, perhaps sinners like you, nothings,
to teach us that we're nothing, to teach us that we were nothing,
to teach us that we are nothing, to teach us that we always will
be nothing, apart from what we are made to be in Jesus Christ. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Let him glory in the Lord. Where's
your glorying? Put aside yourself. Be constantly
reminded that you were nothing before you heard the gospel.
And outside of Christ you are nothing. And your brethren and
your sisters in the church are nothing. That if you come across
a fellow believer who testifies of Christ that they, like you,
are nothing. They have nothing that, like
you, they have not received. and look past their faults and
their failings, look past all that you see in the flesh and
look only to Christ as he is made known in them and as they
testify that he looked upon them who once were blind and made
them to see. Are you blind? Are you blind
yet? Are you still kicking against
the gospel? You come, you hear, you come,
you hear, you pick up, you read, you read, you read, and it's
all words and you're still blind. And you still put it off for
another day. Or has God shown you that though
you're nothing, though you're blind, though you're foolish,
though you're weak, though your base, that he is chosen, chosen
in his gospel, such as you. He's chosen the idolaters. He's
chosen the children of wrath. He's chosen the filthy. He's chosen the rebellious. He's
chosen the wayward. He's chosen the weak. He's chosen
the foolish. Because it was of his good pleasure
that he should choose a people. that the father should choose
a people from out of the sons of Adam, he should choose a people
to give unto his son, to be the bride of his son, a people for
his son, who are nothing in themselves, but who in Christ are made to
be the bride of Christ, perfect, without spot, without blemish,
they are made to be Kings, priests in God's kingdom, they're made
to be the righteousness of God. They're made to be sons and daughters
of God. They're made to be filled with
all the fullness of the Godhead. They're made to be united with
Christ, one with Christ, He who has the fullness of the Godhead.
They're made to be one with Him. Having all the riches that are
His, all that the Father gave unto the Son, He gives unto His
own through Him. All freely by grace has He given
it to you. What a wonder! What a wonder
that God should look in this evil world, in this dark rebellious
world, that He should look in the four corners of this world
and seek out people like you and I. foul-mouthed people, evil people,
foolish people. And say unto sinners such as
us, my son came into this world to save sinners like you. My son laid down his life for
those I chose. If you are chosen, if you are
called, if you are one of these fools, these weak, these base,
these nothings, as he said unto you, I have loved you. I have loved you because I chose
you. I chose you and loved you from
the foundation of this world and I gave my son for you. I gave him, he gave himself,
he gave his all. He became as nothing, of no reputation. He became as it were a fool in
the eyes of man. He became weak. to deliver you
who are nothing, to deliver you who is a fool, to deliver you
who is nothing. He became weak that you, a weak
fool, should be strong in Him, as He set His grace and His love
upon you. Oh what wondrous love and grace this is, how we cannot
fathom it, how we cannot measure it, it's immeasurable, it's unfathomable
that God should look upon wretches and give his son and be so long
suffering with us in our rebellion and our folly and in our squabbling
and our pettiness in the churches and in all of our foolish ways
that he should look upon us and still pour out His grace. He's preached and preached this
Gospel from the foundation of this earth. He preached that
His Son would come. He preached and preached and
preached. The children of Israel fought and went astray. He preached
the gospel when his son lived and that people rejected him.
He preached the gospel as the apostles went forth from Jerusalem. He preached the gospel throughout
the ages. He preached the gospel when Rome
corrupted it. He preached the gospel in the
Reformation. He's preached the gospel in Britain
to this day. And he's preaching this gospel
today. He's pouring out his grace. pouring out His grace that the
fools, the base, the weak should hear and be called and that they
should glory in nothing but Him and His grace. Oh, is He pouring
out His grace today. Can you see? Do you know? Have you felt it? Have you felt
this wonderful, abounding grace? unto those that God hath chosen. Amen.