1 Corinthians 1. And today we'll read verses 18 through 25. 1 Corinthians 1 verses 18 through 25. Let's again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the day. We thank you for the time that we have, that we can come together, Lord, to approach under your throne, Lord, in prayer and to open up your word in preaching and to be able to sing praises to you, Lord. This time of worship that we have, that we have to be able to assemble ourselves together. Lord, I pray that you'll bless our time together. Lord, I pray that you'll be with those who were mentioned on the prayer list. Some who are here, some who are not here, some who are part of our number, some who are, some who are not, but Lord, friends and family, we just pray for each one. Lord, I ask that you'll be with the preaching of your Word. Now, as we open up our text here in 1 Corinthians, Lord, that you'll apply the words that you'd have for us to our hearts and our minds. Lord, use us for thy name's own glory. Help us, our father, so that we may be a light and a testimony to you in this world that we live in. And forgive us where we failed you. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 1 Corinthians chapter one, today we'll read verses 18 through 25 as our text. 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 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, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, 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. This is the word of God, the text for the day, for the sermon. Today's message is on the subject of the foolishness of the world's wisdom, the foolishness of the world's wisdom. The city of Corinth was a city that was surrounded, full of pagans. It was a, it was a city where the culture was much different than Christianity. And in that culture, in that city, the preaching of the cross was foolishness. They, the The citizens of that place were a bunch of heathen, idolatrous pagans. As I thought about that and considered, I thought about the fact that here we are, we live in America. We're separated by thousands of miles. We're separated from them by about 2,000 years. The message that we have today is no different than the message that they had in that time. But is there a difference in the culture that we live in? We're told that there is. We're told that this is America. We're told in some circles that this is a Christian nation. And by some accounts, there should be a difference. We have lots more churches in our country than what they did in the Roman Empire. We have access to the Bible much more freely than what they did. There are many more preachers We have radio programs in which it's broadcasted the things of God. We have access to the internet where you can go on and you can look at the things of God very, very easily. We have books, commentaries, and study helps besides the Bible that are readily available here in our country. There are schools. that at least on their signs say that they are Christian schools and seminaries. But as we look around and we see what's going on in our culture, indeed, as we look at the country at large, we see that it's not much different than what was going on in Corinth. People don't readily receive the message of the cross. The buildings, the church buildings, not only this one, but others where the Bible is preached, Christ is preached, they're not full. There are not people storming to get in. They're not streaming issues online where preachers are preaching the truth of Christ. There's not excitement built when the missionary comes into town to tell of the work that's being done in other places. all over this land. So it is, and so it is repeated all over Europe and Africa and Australia and all over the world. What Paul is writing here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit resonates to Christians Everywhere. Ultimately, there are and always have been two groups of people in this world. That is, no matter which way you break down this world, it all comes down to this. There are only the elect and the reprobate. That's all there is. That's all there is. There are people who are on their way to heaven, and there are people who are on their way to hell. And Paul contrasts that here with those who are perishing and those who are saved. In fact, it's interesting. As you read this, you know that the people who are here, they're alive. Those who perish, we know they're not perished yet. They're on their way to that end. And so it is with us. In the Greek, there's present participles used in both of these expressions. They denote those who are being lost, those who are being perished, those who are, on one hand, on their way to hell, and on the other hand, those who are being saved, those who are on their way to heaven. bringing out these two groups who have two different final destinations. Understand something. There are, when we think of salvation, there are three tenses of salvation. And when we look at the world, it's very easy for us to say, all right, well, this person who may very well be a reprobate, we don't know for sure, but they're perishing, and one day they will be perished if they don't believe in Christ. But understand something, for those of us who are saved, there are three tenses of our salvation. And so let's understand something here that we have been saved, and T.P. Simmons, by the way, if you have his book, Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine, he brings this up very, very well in his book. If you've got that, I recommend looking at that for a fuller look at this, but understand You and I who are saved, we've been saved from the penalty of sin. So for instance, you can hold your place here and go to Ephesians chapter two, very familiar passage here. Ephesians chapter two. Verses, well let's just read verse eight for time's sake. He says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. You and I are saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Past tense, saved from the penalty of sin. Titus chapter three. And verse five is another passage that we look at here for this. Titus chapter three and verse five. not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. As Simmons says here, these passages and others like them, they speak of salvation as a work finished in the past. This tense of salvation is coincident with the believer's past sanctification as considered in the former chapter. It has to do with the soul, the remission of sin's penalty, the removal of guilt, even the removal of sin's presence from the soul. In this sense, he says, the salvation of the believer is complete. It's an act and not a process. It occurs at the very moment the individual believes. It emits of no degrees nor stages. But there's also the present tense of salvation. And that's what is brought up there in the text that we read there in 1 Corinthians 1. The Greek participle here is in the present tense and denotes those being saved, the progress not completed. In Philippians 2, we read it a little bit more clear in the English here. Philippians 2, in verse 12, Look at what he says here. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So he says, work out your own salvation. The meaning of this passage is that the Philippian believers were to make effective in their lives the new life that God had implanted in their hearts. In this tense of salvation, the present tense, believers are being saved through the work of the indwelling spirit from the power of sin to hinder the new life. So in other words, we're saved from the penalty of sin, that's past tense of salvation, but the present tense is we're being saved from the power of sin. the power of sin, we're being saved from this. And so, this is the equivalent to progressive sanctification. We're being saved from the power of sin in our life. But then there's a future sense of salvation. Because, praise God, he's not done working with us yet. And that's when we'll be saved from the presence of sin. And so look at this, and we all long for this, if you're saved, if you're a child of God, look here in Romans chapter five, verses nine and 10. He says, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved. You see that? We shall be saved. This is future tense. We shall be saved from wrath through him, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Over in 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter chapter one, verses three through five. Peter gives this, and I love this passage. He says, blessed, begin in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Ready to be revealed in the last time. And there's other passages that we could look at there, but I just want to bring all this up to say this, that there are these two groups of people in this world. And when we talk about salvation, whether we talk about past, present, or future, as Simmons says, we have this beautiful harmony that exists between all passages that touch on the subject of salvation. There is no conflict between these passages because they refer to different phases of salvation. Now Simmons says it is absurd and heretical for any man to take one set out of the three, no matter which set he takes, and seek to deny or nullify one or the other or both of the remaining sets. The way of truth is to take all of them rightly divided. And then he says this, and I love this. He says, let it be remarked in closing that salvation in all its tenses and phases is of the Lord. Paul gives us God's method of work in salvation from beginning to end in Philippians 1.6 and 2.13. He begins the work of salvation. He carries it on to its consummation. In other words, He doesn't save you and then leave you to work it out all by yourself. He doesn't save you and then say, all right, let's see if you can keep saved. Let's see if you'll make it to the end. No, no, it's all of God. All along the line, He works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. In Romans 1, in verse 17, Romans 1, in verse 17, For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. It's all of grace through faith, every bit of it, every bit of it. And so when we look at this text here in 1 Corinthians, we see these two groups of individuals. One is on the road to death and destruction. Those who are perishing. They're on their way to an eternal hell. They're dead in their trespasses and sins and on their way to an eternal death. Then you have another group. Another group who are alive in Christ. They're saved, they're being saved, and they shall be saved. You see what I'm saying? They're alive and they're going to live forever. This is the separation that Paul is bringing out. The reprobate on one side and the elect on the other. And he says, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the cross, oh beloved, as we journey through this world, it doesn't matter if you're a first century church We're here in 2024. We preach Christ. We preach Christ. We preach the cross. But to the world, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. To the world, it is foolishness. And here's why after 2,000 years of preaching, after 2,000 years of church history, this is why it's the same battle. It's because every generation that has come and gone they fall into the same trap, the trap of intellectualism, that philosophy which is the consuming devotion to the exercise of one's intellect to the ultimate height of discovery and the route to the purest knowledge. When we think of America in the Western world, there is very much a conflict that is going on. Yes, there's much influence that's being poured into this country from this church and from other churches and from God's people of all sorts. You can call it the Jerusalem influence being poured in to America. But there is another influence that's come in. That is the Athenian, the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire type influence. And that's why we can relate so much to this because that's the same kind of conflict that was going on there. To the intellectualist, the apex of all learning is attained by means of his own observation, experimentation, scholarship, and his own discoveries. And while it's true that there were many discoveries and many things that we can be thankful for coming from the Greek and the Roman empires, mathematical advances, and so on and so forth, The problem is that when an individual elevates his own thoughts and thinking and puts them on a capacity, either equal with God or above God, he has fallen into intellectualism. And this is what Paul says is the foolishness of the world's wisdom. And some folks think that intellectualism can only be found among those who attend seminaries, colleges, and universities. However, this is not the case. Intellectualism can be found even among those who are quote unquote self-taught. Education in and of itself is no sin. In fact, the person ought to be educated. A proper education can be of great help in your Christian walk. The more educated you are, the better you, well, for instance, we all have different levels of education here, but let's think of the very most basic level of education, reading. reading. If all education were a sin, none of us could read the very Word of God that he has given to us. And so not all education is a sin, but where it becomes sinful, where it becomes foolishness is when we take that education and instead of submitting it to the word of God, we instead try to elevate it above the word of God or try to put it on par with the word of God. And it cannot be so. When we become a Christian, we don't check our brains at the door, but rather we should desire to learn and to grow as Christians. But whether we learn and grow from a book, from a professor, from our peers, from the elderly, from a YouTube channel, from our parents or wherever we may find information. It is foolishness when it does not line up with God's word. And so we've got to be careful about that. And so the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. but not to us which are saved, it is the power of God. And as he goes on, he says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. It is written, he's quoting from Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 14. And you can turn there if you want. I've got it written down here in my notes. It says, therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. The cleverness of the clever, the understanding of those who have their own understanding. God will set it aside. 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, 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 under the Jews, a stumbling block, and under the Greeks' foolishness. The wisdom of this world is in opposition to God. And he says, where then is the wise and the scribe? You know, men are saved through the preaching of Christ crucified. Men are saved through the preaching of the gospel. The wisdom of this world is all going to burn up. We see that happening in the examples of the Old Testament. We see the Egyptians, you know, Tried to do what they did. And when the children of Israel, Pharaoh thought he was something. Where's his empire at? The bottom of the water. Where's the Roman Empire at? It's gone. They thought they were something. They win. I mean, before then was the Greek empire, right? And all these things, I mean, they're gone. America, beware, right? The wisdom of this world is in opposition to God. Where then is the wise? Where then is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? The wise men, the great men, the debaters, where are they? And God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. It will all perish. In fact, if you go all the way to the back of the book, you'll find out God wins at the end. He alone is the one who's left standing, victorious over all. Babylon and all of it, destroyed. Through wisdom, the world did not come to know God. You see, some scientific discoveries were made and all that sort of thing, but through wisdom, through worldly wisdom, there was no progress made. In fact, the world kind of fell backwards, didn't they? Go back and you read of the great things that have happened and civilizations and so on and so forth. Well, even you don't have to read too much of history. Look at our country. The world's wisdom, look at where it's taken us. Who would have thought? Who would have thought that Daily Wire, Mount Wash would have to make a movie asking professors and doctors and well-educated people what a woman is. And yet, that's where we are as a society. Being tanked. Sadly, some so-called churches are falling in along with that garbage. in order to get along and be along. Foolishness, foolishness. He says, he says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Please God, by the foolishness of preaching, save them that believe. What does the world need? You realize that the people who don't know what a woman is think it's foolish for us to preach Christ? That the ones who are out there thinking that a society is going to go on being successful, with men marrying men and pedophilia and all of those sorts of things. They think that it's foolish for us to preach Christ. Salvation will only come through the preaching of Christ, but it's foolishness to them. He says, He pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. He didn't say foolish preaching. There's enough of that that goes on these days. But what's foolish about it to the world? Not the preaching itself. We know that because even at this very hour, there are people who are getting up, men, women, and individuals who are confused about what they are. They have pronoun choices and all that sort of thing. They're getting up behind a pulpit in a place that looks very similar to this. They're getting up and they're giving speeches and telling stories and all that sort of thing, and they're not preaching God's word. Why? because it's not preaching, it's not speeches, it's not getting up in front of people that bothers them, it's the preaching of the cross that bothers them. That's why when all of these groups, they say that they're opposed to separation of church and state and all that, they don't mind it. if it's a Muslim in the Congress giving a prayer, or a Buddhist, or whatever, but when somebody prays in the name of Jesus, they lose their minds. What the church at Corinth was dealing with is the same kind of thing that you and I are dealing with. And let me tell you something, while I'm glad that Kamala Harris wasn't elected, the reality is that a Christless conservativism is not going to last. It's not the savior of this country. We may have a little bit of a reprieve, and hopefully they can clean up some of the mess that's in the White House and in our government, but that's not gonna get us very far in the long term. There needs to be, and we need to be praying hard that somewhere in all of these cabinet picks and these advisors and stuff, that there's someone who will be preaching Christ and him crucified in our government. The foolishness to the world. is not someone standing up in a pulpit. The foolishness to the world is the message of the cross, which is at odds with man. They don't want to hear him. They don't want to hear about him. The Jews demanded signs, the Greeks sought after wisdom, but where to preach Christ? Isn't it something that even though their culture was surrounded by people who wanted something else, The Jews wanted signs, the Greeks wanted wisdom, but Paul reminds them, as he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so he's reminding them and he's reminding us, we don't change our message based on the people that are around us. It's not popular to preach Christ, but that's the message that we preach. Let me tell you something. In our world, you might lose some friends. In our world, you might get laughed at, mocked, made fun of for being a Christian. But in their world, it actually meant something. to identify as a Christian. It meant something for you to be baptized and to be a member of a church. It meant something to actually preach Christ. It meant something to preach the cross. It meant maybe your property, meant your freedom, possibly meant your life. I don't know if we'll ever get there in this country, but it's possible. It's possible. Regardless of whether you lose your friends, your popularity, your freedom, or your life, the message cannot change. Paul told Timothy over in 2 Timothy chapter four, 2 Timothy chapter four. Beginning of verse one and going down to verse four. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead, his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, shall be turned unto fables. As he wrote this to Timothy, he says, you're to preach the word. Preaching the Word, preaching Christ is the same thing. You can't preach the Word without preaching Christ, and you can't preach Christ without the Word. And when he says to them, the time will come when they'll turn away their ears from the truth and be turned to the fables, I don't believe he was prophesying of some faraway time. Each generation deals with this. There were those in Timothy's day, just like there's some in our day, who put their, fingers in their ears, they won't hear it. They would rather go to fables to have their ears tickled, rather to hear fables than to hear the truth. And do we not see it in our society? So I don't wanna hear about Jesus, but then they'll go off and they'll, spend hours upon hours on YouTube and listen to things about aliens and other weird stories. And say, I don't believe the Bible is true, but then they'll go and just science falsely so-called and chase those rabbits. Get into those storybooks. Timothy was like the Church of Corinth, preach, even though there'd be some who did not want to hear it. Our job is to preach the word, and by preaching the word, we better be preaching Christ. And we miss the whole thing if we're tickling ears or sending out a survey to the community to preach what people want. The sign-seeking Jews, to the sign-seeking Jews, if we look back at our text here in 1 Corinthians chapter one, I like this Bible, it's got three ribbons in it, so it kinda helps keep me straight. First Corinthians chapter one, and verse 23, he said, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block. So unto the sign-seeking Jews, the message of the cross was a stumbling block. This word, according to one commentator I read after, said this word denotes a trap stick by which the bird is ensnared. In the New Testament, it's used as a metaphor, one who stumbles and falls into sin. Instead of the sign which they demanded, These Jews saw in Christ crucified a stumbling block, a hindrance to belief. The death of Christ seemed to them to leave him in the hands of the enemies, deserted by God, invalidated his claim in their eyes. So they missed, they missed out. They were looking for the sign and they missed out from what the scripture said and they missed out on the Messiah. And guess what? They're still. Just because someone's a Jew doesn't mean they're going to heaven. Pray for the Jews. They need Christ. They need to hear The message of the cross. To the Greeks, those wisdom-seeking Gentiles, the message of the cross is foolishness. Foolishness is exact opposite of what they seek. The doctrine of Christ's death for the sins of men seems an absurdity. Destroyed their chances with them. What we find here is that the doctrine preached by Christian preachers and teachers in the early churches did not conform to the requirements of human wisdom. That's why I get excited. You know, it doesn't happen very often, but when a preacher, and I know it doesn't happen very often to, it's never happened to me, But I get excited when I see some preacher that gets up on the news, and they try to pin him down, and they ask him, saying, is Jesus the only way? They'll say, well, do you think the Muslims are going to heaven? Do you think the Buddhists are going to heaven? What about the Jews? Are the Jews going to heaven? And I love it when a preacher sticks to the scripture and preaches Christ crucified, the only way to heaven. Christ crucified, buried, and risen again, even though he knows he's in a hostile environment. in a place where the Jews are seeking after a sign and the Greeks seeking after wisdom. And you and I, even though we may not ever end up on national TV and stuff, we do oftentimes find ourselves amongst such groups of people. And we cannot, we must not water down the message. We cannot change the message. Because guess what? Even though it's foolishness to them, it's what they need. It's what they need. There are verses 24 and 25. He says, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men. Listen, the message of the cross. It doesn't belong to one ethnic group alone. It's not the message of the Jews only, and it's not the message of the Greeks only. And to be quite frankly, if we bring it into our culture, this is not the white man's gospel. I've heard that story plenty of times. It's not. It's not the white man's gospel if we're real with it. It wasn't the white man that first had it. In fact, the message isn't primarily about the Jews, the Greeks. It's not primarily about you or me. This is the message of Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. Christ crucified is to the called. Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God, this is This is, as he said, unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. This is, as he says, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It is only subjectively, as they look upon him, that Christ crucified is a stumbling block or foolishness. But he is power and wisdom to believers. And this is a fact. By his actual salvation of them, This verse ought to give us great encouragement as we were encouraged on the day that we were saved. This ought to be a great reminder that the message does not change, that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel or to change things up, that that although churches may seem small, and sometimes it is discouraging that there aren't that many people, the reality is we don't change the message, but rather we take the message out to the people with great zeal, knowing that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men, that let men say what they will, let them laugh, let them mock, let them ridicule. The reality is, Man is a zero and God is the hero. I've heard of missionaries that took the message and preached and preached and preached and preached for years before they saw any fruit. But they didn't give up. They didn't change the message. They just kept being faithful. If God were to be foolish and weak, and this is all man's opinion, you understand that, he would be at his lowest, still wiser and stronger than men. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. You can't improve on God's plan. He came. His son died on the cross, was buried. He rose again. He's alive forevermore. The gospel that we preach is the same gospel that's been preached through the ages. And although I don't know how close we are to his return, I can tell you we're at a late hour. And even at this late hour, the message doesn't change. It may seem foolish. It may seem weak. But this is what we have been given. The world's wisdom is foolish. The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Do you know him today? And if not, will you trust him? May God add the blessing to the preaching of his word.