1 Corinthians 1. And I want us to begin by looking
at the very last verse of 1 Corinthians 1, and we will backtrack after
that, but our title's found in this verse. That according as
it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. I hope to preach simply every
time I stand. And I hope to declare unto you.
What the Lord has made known is his glory and it is the cross. It's his Christ. And I want to
ask that question tonight and continue to answer it is. What
do we glory in? The only way that we're going
to glory in the Lord's Gospel, the only way that we're going
to glory in the finished work of Christ is if he makes us. he causes
us to, if he gives us the gift to do so, which is his faith.
The gospel stops all questions, doesn't it? It's the end of all
questions. It stops us from asking those
questions, it shuts up the flesh, doesn't it? And I don't mean
in a bad way. The believer rejoices when we
are shut up unto the Lord. Like Job said, I'm gonna put
my hand over my mouth. That's what the Lord does for
every one of his people. It's what his gospel does. His spirit illuminates, opens
our eyes, it reveals God. The Holy Spirit reveals God.
And we just stop talking, don't we? The only thing, if he requires
an answer, we say truth, Lord, but we don't boast of ourself
any longer. We don't glory in our self-righteousness
or our thoughts or our actions. We glory in Christ, glory in
his gospel. His gospel ends all debates,
all controversy. I like what Paul said in 1 Timothy
3.16, without controversy. It's not a controversial subject.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received
up to glory. That's not controversial, is
it? It's just the truth. And that's what the gospel is,
is God's truth. And that's how he saved sinners.
It's the only way. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. We heard that. a couple weeks ago. He said,
for it is the power of God unto salvation. That's the only one,
isn't it? The power. So I hope the Lord will let us
enter into his gospel tonight and give us rest. Now in this,
this is a letter to the Church of Corinth, the Corinthians,
all the, most of the New Testaments are letters. And most of the
letters are to churches. The Church of Philippi is the
Philippians. The Church of Corinth is the
Corinthians. The Church of Galatia is Galatians and so on. And here
he's dealing with the church of Corinth. They're getting mixed
up and I wrote down the word silly nonsense because that's
what it is. It was just silly for them to leave the gospel
that they had heard in the beginning. how they were easily drawn away
just as the Galatians. We're gonna see that in a couple
of weeks. It's all the same. And by the letter's indication,
Paul's babysitting. Paul is showing them the sincere
milk of the word again. Paul's declaring the simplicity
of the gospel again to them and correcting some issues that are
in the church. And it's a lot like babysitting, isn't it? I
mean, if you look at how Paul had to deal with these churches.
But we shouldn't pretend for a moment shouldn't pretend that
we are not just like the church of Corinth and we are not just
like the Israelites if the Lord leaves us to ourselves. All the
things that Israel saw, all the things that the miracles and
things displayed and yet they continue to murmur, they continue
to complain. Here is Corinth the church being
established and hearing the truth of the Gospel, believing the
truth. He tells us clearly that there are believers there to
the Beloved of God in this chapter. And they have left their first
love. They had went away just like
Israel did, going after different ceremonial things, mixing in
idolatry with worship and just all manner of different things,
even making the Lord's table into a feast of drunkenness. Boy, if the Lord leaves us to
ourself, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. Don't ever
take for granted the grace and mercy the Lord's given to us,
because that's exactly what it is, is grace and mercy. It wasn't
merited, it was undeserving in every way. It was demerited,
is what it was. We not only deserve it, we deserved
We deserve eternal separation, eternal hell from Him, and yet
the Lord in mercy wrote us a letter to tell us the truth. He wrote
His gospel to tell us the truth of Christ. We have the fullness
of the truth of God before us. And so easy to take that for
granted, isn't it? There's places in the world that
don't have that. There's countries that don't
allow the Bible. There's not liberty everywhere to worship
like we're doing without being some form of possible persecution
or even death. And yet the Lord's given us this
little oasis to gather and hope that we get another drink of
the fountain of living water. We should never pretend that
we're not just like Corinth or the children of Israel. Every
opportunity Our flesh isn't able to. We always make it about old
number one, don't we? We always do. We always make
it about ourself, what I want, what I think. We reek with pride, brethren.
We murmur and complain because we have it all figured out. And
then in mercy, we fall flat on our face. We have to cry out,
Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, save me again. Lord, I
see that I'm the problem, I'm the man, I'm the cause of all
this. It's my sin, it's my sin. Lord, have mercy upon me. Everything
that we do. is based upon what we think we
know. Everything that we do is based upon what we think we know. Only God's gospel reveals the
truth. You know what that truth is? We don't know anything. Not
compared to him. He knows everything. We have
no wisdom at all. Not compared to him. That's why
Christ must be made our wisdom. That's why Christ must be made
our knowledge. And who's gonna do the making?
God does. God does for his people. And
when he does, we cry out, Lord, teach me. Lord, show me. Lord, save me. That's never a
one-time thing, is it? We don't grow past that, do we? I mean, ask the oldest believer
you know, and they'll tell you they're still crying, Lord, save
me. And if anything, it becomes more constant. You become more
aware of your sin. I know I'm young, but the older
I get, in studying, I see my sin more predominant, not getting
better, and it's more of crying out for mercy. We don't boast
in what we know. We boast in who we know. We glory
in the Lord. No confidence in this flesh whatsoever. We're gonna read that. Let's
look here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. We'll read a few verses. 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 I 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, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. 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
is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. I like Paul's words, you know there's no foolishness
with God, and yet he uses that terminology, the foolishness
of God. The foolishness of God is wiser
than men. There's no weakness in God, but he said the weakness
of God is stronger than men. What is he doing? He's saying
God's absolute compared to us. We're full of weakness, aren't
we? We're full of foolishness, not him. No, he's altogether
sovereign. He's altogether glorious, all-powerful,
all-knowing. So what do we glory in? The Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. That's what
they gloried in, their wisdom and the signs that they saw.
What do we glory in? Well, what is God's sign? And
what is God's wisdom? That's what I want to look at
tonight briefly. These are truly the two things most in religion
that men get hung up on, if I can use that term, that men are deceived
by. That's what I mean by getting hung up on. Men believe this
lie that That they can have wisdom by learning, or they can have
a sign by doing, and it's not true. No, we don't look for physical
things for assurance of our salvation, do we? What does the scripture
say? Looking unto Jesus, that's not
something we do with these natural eyes. That's something he makes
us do. Men look to things that causes
them to glory in self one way or another. That's what all men
do by nature. They look to something to give glory to self in some
way, shape, or form. Most base their salvation off
of one of these or both of these, either a sign or wisdom. Simply put, what is seen naturally
and what is known physically. That's what they look to, what
is seen naturally and what is known physically. not spiritual
things, but the physical. I've been around people that
believe what I'm talking about in the sense of signs and in
the sense of wisdom, and they are very close to the truth.
But no matter of learning, no matter of studying, no matter
of reading the scripture, no matter how much a man does, We
can never attain to the knowledge of the truth by what we know. It's who we know. And the only one that can make
us know Christ is his spirit. He's the one that must reveal
Christ is Lord and Christ. If he doesn't, we're lost. If
he doesn't, we have no wisdom before God. If he doesn't, we
have no righteousness before God. Aren't you glad God who
is rich in mercy, we're in his great love where he loved us?
What did he do? He sent Christ to be the propitiation
for his people and in time he does reveal his son to his people. No matter how close we get to the
truth, the truth must be revealed. Christ said these words, no man
comes to the father but by me. What did he mean by that? That
means it's his doing, whether a man comes to God or not, he
sends his spirit. The Lord Jesus, that's his spirit.
Don't miss that. That's the Lord Jesus Christ's
spirit. He sends it to whosoever he will
and calls. No man come to the father, but
by his spirit. It is his gospel. It is his spirit. It is his doing. This is what
Paul is declaring. to the men and the women here
at Corinth. This is what he's correcting in them. He says,
it's not what you see. It's not a sign. It's not what
you see. It's who you see. He's saying,
it's not what we know. It's who we know. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. You know these verses by heart,
I'm sure. But he said, I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I committed. What does the Lord's people commit
to him? We commit all our sin to Him. We commit all of our
glory to Him, don't we? We commit everything to Him.
Everything. And what did He do with those
sins? He took them out of the way, nailing them to His cross. Scripture talks about commit
thy way unto the Lord. I remember in religion, men would
say, you better commit your way better. That's seeking for a
sign. Do we see that? That's what that
is. It's not what the Lord's talking about at all. No, we
commit to him because he first loved us. It's the love that
we have. We love him because he first
loved us. And in everything, we glorify him. That's what his
people do. Now the first thing Paul says
here is the Jews require a sign. Why did the Jews require a sign? Well I would remind us going
all the way back to the book of Exodus that the children of
Israel were in Egyptian captivity. And all the signs that they saw
when God said, here's a prophet, Moses came. They confirmed, Moses
confirmed, God confirmed that Moses was a prophet by all the
signs and all the wonders that took place in Egypt. And so everything
that they believed in was about signs. But I would remind us,
they saw the Red Sea parted. And yet just a few, not even
a few chapters later, they go and they're worshiping a golden
calf. They just saw the Red Sea parted. They saw manna fall from
the sky. They saw water come out of the
rock. In a desert, water came out of the rock. Why did they
need another sign? They didn't believe the ones
to begin with, did they? What about the sign of the serpent
on the pole, the brazing serpent, everyone that was bitten by the
serpents that went out in the judgment of God? Picture of sin,
isn't it? Picture of everyone being bitten
and whosoever looked upon the serpent lived. Those that did
not, did not live. What does the scripture show
us in that? If you have a sickness, if the
Lord reveals that we have sin, if we've been bitten, We're going
to look to the serpent on the pole. We're going to look to
the Lord Jesus Christ because at the same time he gives us
faith to do so. We look to him. Now they needed confirmation
of God's prophets. If a man said, I'm a prophet
of God, they said, prove it, prove it, show us. And the prophet
would say, well, this is what God said. If you don't change
your ways, judgment's going to come. They said, stop talking
that way. Tell us another truth. We don't want to hear that truth.
We went through the whole entire Old Testament, didn't we? I mean, each book.
And we heard that how many times? Over and over. They didn't want
the truth. They didn't want the truth. They
wanted a sign. They continued to fail to believe. They failed to look to God. Why?
They didn't have the faith to do so. They didn't have the faith
that the Lord gives to his people. Yes, I know Israel was God's
chosen people, but not every single Israelite was ordained
to eternal life. No, it was children of faith,
Abraham's faith. The children of promise was of
faith, not of circumcision of the flesh, but of the heart. No matter what we see, no matter
what we see, It is not enough to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, no matter what these eyes see, no matter the trials
or tribulations we go through, no matter what diseases we face,
no matter the heartache, we feel the things that we see around
us. It is not enough to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is the gift of God. He has to do that. He has to
do that. I remember, some of you might
remember this, but the movie came out, Passion of the Christ. You remember that movie where
it was supposed to be about Jesus and his life on the earth and
a man portrayed Christ and talked the Bible verses and they acted
out the whole, it was just an act, it was a movie. After that
took place, we were walking, I might have told you this before,
we were walking in the theater, Bobby and I, I didn't go see
it. letting you know that, but even in false religion, that
felt funny, but we went, me and her was on a date, we were walking
out, there's people kneeling down all over the place, they
were having revival outside the theater, that's not faith, that
was all by emotion, it's all sight. No, we don't have plays,
do we? Why? Because it's sight, it doesn't
give God any glory, it draws attention to the flesh. No, we
don't have trinkets and things that we hang on to because it
gives glory to the flesh. We have a savior that we look
to through the eyes of faith. And that's how we glorify him
is looking unto Jesus. It's not. It's not doing some
great thing, no, we glorify him in the heart, worships in the
heart, we don't. I've seen, I've told you, I've
seen men run over the pews on the top. I've seen people shouting
so much you couldn't even hear what the man in the pulpit was
saying. None of that's worship. That's not true. People clapping
and dancing, that's not worship. Worship's done in the heart.
And it's done with the eyes of faith that he gives his people.
We don't look for a sign. We're not looking for some great
sign in Revelation saying, okay, well now the Lord's gonna come
back here because this happened and this happened. No, it's the
revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what revelation, it's
the revelation of Jesus Christ, not the revelation of current
events, no. I saw on a billboard recently,
it said, come join us for our study of Revelation. And as I
was driving by, and I don't know, it was a Saturday, I guess it
was, I don't know why they would have a meeting on Saturday, but
the parking lot was packed. Everybody wants to know what's
gonna happen in the future. I can tell you the future, every knee's
gonna bow and every toe's gonna confess, Jesus Christ is Lord,
period. To the glory of God the Father,
that's the end. God's gonna finish. In the end,
God's gonna get all the glory. God's gonna get all the glory. God's made this to be all by
his doing if we find ourself believing. Think about all the
miracles that people saw when Christ was upon the face of the
earth. Can you imagine seeing Christ literally call Lazarus
forth from the grave? Can you imagine literally seeing
the lame walk and the dumb speak and the lepers healed and all
the things that they physically witnessed? They physically saw
those things and yet, Yet they did not believe. There were some
that believed. They were given faith to do so,
but not what we see makes us believe. And you remember the
rich man that died and Lazarus that died, Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom, the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torment in
hell. And he begins begging Abraham, and he says, well, send Lazarus
back. Surely if one comes back from the dead, they'll believe.
He said, no, we have the laws. They have the laws and the prophets.
If they're gonna believe, they're gonna have to believe through
them. That's what points to Christ, isn't it? It's the law saying
that we have no righteousness in and of ourself, that we're
utterly desolate, we're utterly sinful before God, and yet what
did the prophets prophesy? There's coming one. There's coming
one that's gonna put away the sin of his people. There's one
that's going to redeem you back. And in that day, the Lord said,
in your sins and your iniquities, I will remember no more. Christ
satisfied the law, didn't he? He satisfied the father. He redeemed
all those for whom he died. Well, men still seek signs. They still seek and need affirmation. They look at church membership.
Every time I get a call from somebody that's asking about,
one of the first things they say is, how many people do you
have that go there? What difference does it make? What difference
does it make? I mean, we have to have people.
Don't misunderstand. I'm thankful for every one of
you. I'm not downplaying that, but I'm implying whether it's
100 or whether it's 10, what difference does it make? We're
here to worship the Lord. We're not here to count. I don't
think I've ever counted how many people. Maybe I did one time,
but I thought, well, I don't want to be like David and number
the people, and then the Lord Lord has to chasten me over that.
I don't want to have to deal with that, but, um, no, we don't
look at physical things. We don't look at health, wealth,
and prosperity. We don't look at, I'll tell you
what the sneakiest one is. The sneakiest one men looks at
and what we're guilty of in our flesh. Looking for evidence of
salvation in our life. Looking for evidence in what
we're doing. Well, how many times has our adversary whispered,
well, if you were a believer, you wouldn't do that. You ever
heard that before? Well, I have. All the time, actually,
I hear that. Well, what does that do? Does
that make me, okay, I need to clean up my life. I need to have
a better moral. I need to have moral reformation.
That's what I need. Do you have revival? That's what
we need to have right now. No, save me, Lord. No, my adversary's
right. If left to myself, I am false
and full of sin. But Lord, if I'm in you, he's
falsely accusing me. Think about that. If you're in
Christ, every time Satan accuses the brethren of sin, he's a liar. He's a liar. All he can do is
lie. He says, no, you're guilty of this. You're guilty of that.
And the Lord said, I don't see any sin. Christ Jesus put them
away. They're gone. They're gone. No, we don't look for evidence
of salvation. We don't try to physically see good in the lifestyle
we have. There's no such thing as there.
There's no good in our lifestyle. Now I'm not telling us to, uh,
I don't have to tell us how to live. The Lord teaches people
how to live. There's no reason for me to even bring that up.
But I'll tell you what I heard one time that was a great encouragement
to me. Live like you want to. Look to
Christ. Look to Christ. Because if you're
His, He'll keep you. Okay, it's not my job to keep
you. I can't keep any, I can't even keep myself. How's a pastor
supposed to keep a member? It's impossible, isn't it? We
can't keep ourself. We're just left empty all the
time saying, Lord, you're gonna have to fill me. I'm a broken
sister and I'm losing water fast. You got to fill me back up again.
Now there's no seeing good in lifestyle. All that does is lead
to self-righteousness and pride. So what is God's sign that he
gives to his people to look to? Well, turn with me to Matthew
chapter 12. Hold your place here, we're gonna come right back. Matthew 12, verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and
of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee. But he answered and said unto
them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
And there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet
Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation. and shall
condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas. And
behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Queen of the South shall
rise up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon
is here." What is he saying? He's saying a greater than Jonas
is here and a greater than Solomon here and you can't see him. You
can't see him. He was right in front of them
and they couldn't see him. Now, we have this one sign given to
us of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was in the whale's belly
three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in
the heart of the earth three days and three nights. That's the
only sign that you will find in the scripture in the New Testament
that the Lord said, there's your sign. Now what does it represent? The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That's what we look to through the eyes of faith. No man can
believe that Christ was raised from the dead unless the Lord
gives faith to do so. This is the evidence of Christ
being who he said he was, the resurrection. He said, I am Christ. I am come to do the will of the
Father. I'm come to save those which the Father hath given me.
All the Father given me shall come to me. And this was his
confirmation. This is our confirmation. This
is our affirmation that he is who he said he was because the
Father resurrected him. That lets us know, that confirms
to us that everything that he was doing, he was successful
and the Father was satisfied with him. The Father was pleased
with him. This is the sign we look to, to Christ's life, his
death, his burial and his resurrection. His burial and resurrection.
We believe because he says, believe. He gives us the faith to do so.
This was the only sign given to them. They wanted a sign,
he told them a sign. He said, I've already given you
one. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet no man can come
to the Father, except the Father which sent me draw him, Christ
told us. Even today, they're still over
in the Middle East requiring a sign. They thought that David
would be born reincarnate, if I can put it that way, and he
would set up on an earthly throne. And that wasn't the purpose of
the Lord to come and set up an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly
kingdom, wasn't it? That was his purpose. They're
still looking for the first coming of Christ. Do you know why that is? Because
I are believing it's a work of grace in the heart. It has nothing
to do with what we've seen with these natural eyes. No, we look
to Christ. We look to Christ's resurrection.
We look to Christ's death as the successful means whereby
God redeemed his people. That's what we look to, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith says, satisfied with Jesus
Christ. That's what faith says. Faith
looks to Christ as that perfectly satisfied. Doesn't look to anything
else ever. Doesn't deviate from looking
to him, looking on him, looking for him in all things. Faith
looks to Christ. No amount of doing can produce
life. No amount of moral living can
regenerate. Me and act like that if they live a good life, God
will be pleased with them and reward them with salvation or
reward them a crown. Oh, I'm looking for one crown.
I know. I know you are too. That's the crown of righteousness.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's that's what I want to
be crowned with. Faith just looks to Christ. Believes. believes that the Lord Jesus
Christ, and I don't mean like we believe in a fairy tale. No,
it really, faith really believes on the Lord Jesus Christ that
he was resurrected and everything that he said he was, he is. And everything he did, he was
successful in doing. Now the Lord tells a parable
that describes what I just said in a couple of the, three more
verses here. So look in verse 43. When the
unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry
places. The unclean spirit walketh through dry places and seeketh
rest and findeth none. Then he said, I will return into
my house from whence I came out. And when he has come, he findeth
it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with
himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they
enter and dwell there. And the last state of the man
is worse than the first, even so shall it be also unto this
wicked generation." He told them the same thing when he told them,
you're white at sepulchers, but inside you're full of dead men's
bones. It's the same thing. He's saying this unclean spirit
has left this man. Now, whether it was by this man's
morality or whatever it may have been, we know that this is just
an example of him cleaning up his life. The unclean spirit
says, I'm going to go back to the house that I was in. That's
that man that he goes back to. And he found it all swept and
tidied up and clean. What is that a picture of? That's
a picture of free will works religion that believes it's doing
something to please God. But it was never the strong man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that cast out this unclean spirit. So he
brings a total of seven the next time. What is that? Men think
they have a perfection with God. That's what the number seven
is. You remember the number of completion. They think they're complete with
the with the sweeping of the house that they've done and cleaning
up their life that they've done and God's pleased with them.
No, no. What does he say? The end of
this man is he tells us clearly. The last state of that man is
worse than the first. The last state of that man is
worse than the first. He's deceived himself into thinking that he's
because he can see good things in his life that God is pleased
with him. It's the most wretched of all
delusions, brethren. It's adding to the finished work
of Christ. It's cleaning up your life to please God. Faith never
says, look at me. Faith never says, look at me.
If you're looking at Christ, if it is true faith, it never
says, look at me. It says, behold, the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. Look to Christ. That's what faith does. That's
what faith does. Always looks to Him. This man
mentioned he found religion, didn't he? He found false religion.
He signed up as the deacon at the First Baptist Church on the
corner. He's the best guy in the whole congregation. Everybody
looked up to him. Until one day, he was weighed
in the balance and he was found wanted on Judgment Day. And he
said, but I've done all this in your name. I've cast out demons.
I've spoken tongues, I've done all these things. Lord, I was
a missionary to the darkest part of Africa. Lord said, I don't
know you. I've never knew you. Depart from me. No, we must have
a righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees.
What is that righteousness? Christ Jesus. That's the righteousness
of his people. That's who we desire to see.
That's who we desire to glorify. He's worthy of all glory, isn't
he? This is who we glorify, the Lord
Jesus Christ. This man became a self-righteous
Pharisee. That's all that religion can
produce. Actually, the law, it produces two things. Well, by
man preaching the law, let me say it that way. Preaching the
law produces two things, and only two things, either a rebel
or a Pharisee, that's it. Can't bring a man back to life,
but it'll either make a rebel or a Pharisee, and this time
it made a Pharisee. This man cleaned up his life, didn't he?
Only God's gospel, by faith, doesn't say do. It doesn't say,
doesn't look for a wow factor like men and women want today.
It just looks to Christ. The Lord's faith just looks to
him, rests in him. Brethren, we're seeking the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ and to all upon
them that believe Romans 322. We are seeking the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Christ. That's what we do.
We're not cleaning up our lifestyle. I'm not preaching moral reformation.
No, the Lord. Our life must be hid with God
in Christ. There's our hope. If it's not,
we have no hope. No, we would have no hope. We'd be of all men most miserable,
wouldn't we? We glory in him. We glory in
him alone. Now turn with me back to first
Corinthians. We glory in him looking to his life, his sign
of his resurrection. That's our hope. He was resurrected. How do we look? We look through
faith. 1 Corinthians 1, and let's read the second issue that Paul
deals with here in verse 22. 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. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
The Jews sought after a sign. Now this isn't God's wisdom.
This isn't coming to him through the eyes of faith, begging for
Christ, our wisdom. And we're going to read the rest
of this here in a minute. And it's going to tell us that God hath made
into us Christ, who is our wisdom. And he just told us here that,
uh, and to them, which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and the wisdom of God, that's who God makes
Christ into his people. That's not what these Greeks
were doing. They were, Trying to find an explanation or a reason
or a cause for things. I can go ahead and tell us that
God's the first cause of all things. You can take that as
far as you want to take that. God is the first cause of all
things. If you don't know the cause,
God is. God is. God's ways are past finding out.
We're no longer looking to our ways and to our knowledge and
to our learning like the Greeks are trying to do here. We have
one resolve, Christ is our wisdom before God. Christ is all we
desire to know. When you start seeking after
wisdom of men, you're gonna find that men love to debate. Men
love to be right. Men love to declare what they
know. And what is that doing? That's self-promotion, isn't
it? Look at me, look at me. We don't debate, do we? As soon
as service is over, we don't get in one or each other's face
and start debating the truth of the Lord. We just believe
it. We just believe God's truth. We can't help it. We do believe
it with every bit of the faith the Lord's given us. Men love
to be right, just to boast in themselves to glory in what they
know. Only God's people are made to know Jesus Christ, made to
believe Him. made to look to Him, made to
glory in Him. See, no physical amount of knowledge
can ever make us believe. No matter what we learn, what
the scriptures tell us, I think I've quoted this the last couple
times I've stood, but the verse is, ever learning and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what we are by
nature. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth. I was talking to my daughters, Just yesterday,
I believe it was, and I said, you can ask some of the elders
at church, when's the last time you learned something? And you
probably would be able to agree that we learn something about
every day, every day. And more than just once, you
learn not to do something or how to do something. When it
comes to God, His ways are past finding out. It's more than just
learning a little bit more and more about Him. No. No, either
we see Christ and know God and believe Him through faith, or
we have no part with Him. We've got to have His faith.
Men spend their entire life searching the Scripture. That's why I told
them, search the Scripture. The same Pharisees we were just
talking about. Search the Scripture. For in them you think. And that's
the problem, isn't it? We think. Lord, don't lead me
to my thinking. Don't let me think that I have
eternal life. Cause me to see Christ. Our eternal
life is hid in him. He mentioned something here.
They seek after wisdom because to the flesh, the gospel is foolishness. And do you know why it's foolishness
to the flesh? It removes the fresh flesh from
the equation. It's not God plus our works plus
the blood of Christ. It's just Christ is all. And
men say, well, that's too simple. That's foolishness. No, no, it's
gotta be something much more extravagant than that. No, it's
simple. God's gospel is not complicated. God did the electing. Christ
did the redeeming. And the spirit does the regenerating.
That's it. That's God's gospel. It's simple,
isn't it? No, the problem is, is we can't
believe it unless he makes us by faith, giving us faith that
we can't. He makes us completely dependent
upon him, don't he? You know how he does that? He
abases us. He humbles us. He shows us that
we are the worm that I mentioned in Psalm 22. And yet we see Christ
had to become that worm for his people so that we could be made
the righteousness of God in him. I look at verse 24 again, he
says, but to them which are called. Now before he had said to them
which are saved, I love the wording there, because he's saying you're
saved, and then he says to them that are called. So that's in
time, but the first one was already saved, to them that are saved.
They're them that are thee called according to his purpose. Christ
has become all to them. The ones that are called, Christ
has become all to them. He is all to his people. And,
you know, we desire every bit of the glory that we would have
or we could have to go to him every bit. We don't look to ourself
anymore and vain glory and boast of anything of our wisdom or
boast of anything and what we've seen and what we've done when
it comes to God's salvation. No, we just look to Christ knowing
that he is all he is all. It's amazing that faith rests,
isn't it? That's what it does, it rests
in Christ. It don't move. It's not working. Faith rests
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not looking for a sign.
Nor does it try to understand. Faith doesn't compute. Faith
believes God. Not trying to under, we don't
know. Peace of God surpasseth all understanding. We don't know
the answers. We just believe him. We sung that song, my faith
has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. It is enough
that Jesus died and that he died for me. Christ is enough now,
isn't he? When we were in religion, he
wasn't enough. We had to figure something else out. We had to
go down a different path. We had to get more knowledge
of something we never saw before, have a big wow factor. Somebody
would preach something, be like, man, that was, never thought
of that before. We do that now by the gospel,
but we're just declaring the same thing over and over and
over again. We're not looking for anything new. No, we're looking
for Christ Jesus. Pray that he sends his revelation
to us. Christ is enough now. Now in
closing, let's read the remainder of this chapter, starting with
verse 27. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of this world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are. Here's why, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Now, that verse 30, if you notice
those first few words, it says, but of him are ye in Jesus Christ. See, he did the work. He did
all the work, and then he reveals that Christ is our wisdom. Christ
is our righteousness. Christ is our sanctification.
Christ is our redemption. He does all that so that according
to his will, and as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. God's gospel. is meaningless
to those who are in darkness, but to those that he shined his
glorious light to, it's everything. It's everything. These Jews and
these Greeks represented here, the Pharisees that we read about,
every one of them, even now, men are the same, and they all
despise Christ. It's evident. Think about Christ's
birth, his life, his miracles, the company, the time they spent
with him, the questions. You don't remember when he stood
in the temple and he started reading from the book of Isaiah
and he said, This scripture is fulfilled in your ears. And they
marveled at the glorious words that he said, but yet it doesn't
say they believed. God told them the fulfillment
of the prophecy, and yet they could not believe. What pleasure is it by man's
standard to the flesh pertaining to Christ, what knowledge Can
a baby in a manger bring? Depends on who the baby in the
manger is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God. He can bring
to light our life and immortality to light through his gospel.
That's what he can do. He's the stumbling block to all
deemed as foolishness according to the flesh. But that which
men call foolishness, God calls the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. We glory in his gospel because
it is God's rich manifestation of his wisdom, his power, In
his redemption, in conquering sin, in conquering hell, in conquering
the grave by his blood. You mean it's that simple? It's
that simple. It's all about him and his finished
work for his people. That's what we glory in. His
finished work for his people. He gets all the glory in this
salvation, doesn't he? Human wisdom would say there
must be something I need to do. No. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't lift a muscle. Don't. No. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
By his blood alone, he redeemed his people back to the Father,
put away their sin. God was satisfied. Said when
he had by himself purged our sin, sat down on the right hand
of God. God hath resurrected him from
the dead. That's our sign, isn't it? And what is our wisdom? Christ
is our wisdom. That's our sign and our wisdom.
We believe on his resurrection, and we believe him as all in
salvation. He is our wisdom. He's everything to us. God hath
made Christ all our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification,
and all our redemption. You could just put all at the
end of that, and it'd be just fine. God hath made Christ and
to his people all, period. This wisdom we seek is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The sign that we seek is the
Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious resurrection. It's all about
him. It's all about him. Resurrection implies that he
was successful, he didn't try. Resurrection tells us that God
was pleased and that salvation was accomplished. It declares
it is finished. That's what we glory in, isn't
it? That's what we glory in. That's who we glory in. We glory
in the Lord.