As the Lord will enable me this evening in seeking your prayerful attention, I'll seek to direct you to a verse you'll find in the portion we read, the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 1, and reading again at verse 21. The first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 1, reading together at verse 21. 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 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. Paul was here, right into the church at Corinth. Corinth, the capital of Achaia, the capital of Greece, the centre of wisdom and learning. And yet, amongst those Greeks, there were those that were separated unto Christ. The church in Corinth. But, oh friends, the church in Corinth is a picture of many churches today. It was a divided church. A divided church. They had those that said, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas and I am of Christ. But Paul had to ask them, is Christ divided? Is Christ divided? Paul, in the opening of this epistle in the chapter we read, he preaches the only gospel that will do sinners good. He preaches the only gospel that will solve the problem of a divided church. And that is the person of Christ. That's the preaching that Paul came unto Corinth with. He preached unto them the finished work of Christ Jesus. It's perhaps summed up best by what the dear hymn writer says, when if it Christians all agree, and let distinctions form, when nothing in themselves they see, and Christ is all in all. This is what Paul was pressing here home upon the church at Corinth. There was only one gospel that he had to preach. The only one gospel he could preach. We preach Christ crucified. Yes, that which was unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which had called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. That's the gospel that Paul came to preach unto these Corinthians. Well, friends, what was the cause of the divisions that were found there? These people, this church, had been found taking their eyes, as it were, off Christ. They'd been found looking unto their own wisdom. And when we take our eyes off Christ and we're found looking to anything other than Christ, we're found looking to our own strength, we're found looking to our own wisdom, these are the things that cause us to be divided. These are the things that cause us, as it were, to lose that bond between the brethren and to be found looking to our own works. But as you've sung together, cease from your own works bad and good. Wash your garments, it is blood. Oh, this is the gospel that Paul came to preach here. Well, come into the text, friends. We find the wisdom of man lay to one side. 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. And this evening, as the Lord may enable me, I want to notice a few things out of this verse. Firstly, the state of the world. The state of the world that this Gospel was sent into. The world, by wisdom, knew not God. This is a description the Apostle gives of the world unto which this Gospel is sent. Secondly, the means provided by God of sending this Gospel forth unto the world. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. The foolishness of preaching. And then what is the ends of that foolishness of preaching? To save them that believe. And finally, in conclusion, I'd like to notice that this means that the Lord has provided, it's not only according to his wisdom, but it is according to his good pleasure. It's in the wisdom of God that the world by wisdom knew not God, but that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So firstly, friends, we come to examine the state of the world as described by our text, by wisdom new, not God. Oh, we have to prove that mankind has many notions of what God is. We see many false religions gone forth into the world, all conceptions of what God is, all conceptions of what God wants and how God wants people to live and how God wants them to please him. But, oh, the Lord's people have to come to prove that by searching we cannot find out God. We'll never know God as we are left to ourselves by nature. We have all the manners that the world has been given to us in the world, as the Apostle tells us in those opening chapters of Romans. The natural laws, the things that occur within the world, they declare unto the natural world the existence of God. But, oh, man cannot receive that truth. Man cannot see God. Man cannot see God. The works of nature alone are never sufficient to bring a soul into that relationship with God through believing. They never work that faith. Faith comes by the hearing of the Word of God. But man was found as he was created in that relationship with his Creator. He had that wisdom. Adam had evident wisdom given unto him. God brought those creatures unto him and he named them. He knew his Creator. He knew that God had created the world. He knew that which poor fallen man cannot enter into. We read that by faith we believe the world was created. By faith we believe the world was created. And that's why we see so many today sunk, as it were, in the belief of evolution. These things have to be spiritually discerned. They have to be spiritually discerned. But Adam was created with that wisdom. He was created with that knowledge of God, of God as his Creator, as God Almighty. But Adam fell. But Adam fell. His heart, his will, his mind, they were turned aside. And the understanding was darkened. He could no longer perceive those things. And we have to prove that we being the children of Adam, we're brought forth in the same ignorance, we're brought forth in our understanding darkened. Our understanding is as described elsewhere in the Word of God, or the analogy can be used, we read of it, a deceitful bow. That bow which never fires straight, as it were, but whenever you put an arrow in it and you pull the string back, because perhaps there's some bend in the wood, the arrow always goes off the mark. It always misses a point. And that's an apt description, as it were, of the natural understanding of man. It's deceitful. The Prophet Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And who can know it? That's what man has been brought to through Adamfall. And as we were found in Adam and as he fell, and as he lost that which he had in that state of innocence, as he lost his understanding, as his mind became darkened by the effects of sin, we also being born the progeny of Adam, we're born ignorant, we're born foolish. And what is the effect of that foolishness? We read in the Psalms, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. There is no God. And many, we see that as proof within our own day and generation. Many, they think themselves to be wise, but they declare themselves to be fools by the fact that they say there is no God. The Lord's people themselves, left to themselves, may also come into those solemn states, where they also are found, as they were, fools by nature, and they, for a time as it were, may doubt the existence of God. Oh, blessed be God, they cannot be left there. But the world says, the fool says in his heart, the world says there is no God. Oh friends, if you've been bought this evening to have any realisation of the existence of God, not just as it were a notion in the head, but if you've been bought face to face with the fact, there is a God in Israel still, lives and reigns and works his will. It's not by your own natural wisdom. It's not by your seeking out after these things. Job says, can any man by seeking find out God? No, it's impossible, friends. It's impossible, and it's impossible because of the truth that's set before us in our texts this evening, that because in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. And so the carnal mind cannot find out God, cannot understand God, cannot believe in God, cannot understand the way in which he works with his people. And we see a further proof of it, we read in the Proverbs, that he that trusts in his own heart, he is a fool, He's a fool. He's lost that wisdom. And oh, we see so many in this day and generation, they look to their own heart. They look to what their heart tells them to do. They look to what their head tells them to do. Oh, but it constantly leads them astray. It leads them astray because their natural wisdom has been spoiled. They have no understanding. Their understanding being darkened. They're found wandering and far off from God. Oh, friends, what a solemn place this is. What a solemn place it is to be, be in such a place. Oh, but we see so many, as it were, in this day and generation, they seek after wisdom. They seek after learning. They try to better themselves. They may, as it were, go on in some way. But, oh, what is the wisdom they're looking for? It's not the wisdom that's described within our text. It's the wisdom that's described in the following verse. The Greeks seek after wisdom. The Greeks were a rational crew. They wanted those proofs that it were from first principles. They desired everything to be worked out on paper. Every theorem, as it were, to be watertight. But, oh, the Lord's people have to prove their natural understanding. Oh, the ways of God are beyond natural understanding. We cannot understand the way in which He works. We cannot always see how He's working. Oh, we prove that God is above all things. Who can understand the way in which He works? Who can search out his workings? But that's what poor natural man is it were in trying to find out wisdom. He always comes short of the mark. He will never understand God. He will never understand God. He will never understand the way God works. And so we see so many, as it were, in our day and generation, going astray. Oh, that word already quoted. It is by faith we understand the world's afraid. So many friends in science. Calvin said that the only true scientist could be one of the Lord's people. because he said it was only when you had the mind regenerated by the spirit, only when you had the mind as it were renewed, only when you came by faith to understand the principle of the universe, God at its centre, God as the creator of all natural laws, the source of every good, that you could truly understand the things you were looking at. And, old friends, there is some truth in that. But we see not only man by science trying to find things out, we see man also by natural wisdom, by natural knowledge, as it were, trying to prove the existence of God. But oh, there's a school of thoughts in apologetics that says that you can never, as it were, argue with the unrenewed mind from first principles concerning God. because the unrenewed mind would always go astray. We're brought forth because we're foolish, because we have not this wisdom. We'll never understand as it were those things. We'll never come, and by natural knowledge, to a knowledge of God. No, these things have to be spiritually discerned. These things have to be spiritually discerned. Oh, what a solemn place we're found in by nature, friends. What a solemn place we're found in, foolish and ignorant. Yes, that's where we're found. Oh, we come into that state of which the Apostle writes unto the Romans, the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Have you come to realise by the sovereign operations of the Holy Spirit within your heart, that your heart, your mind is indeed enmity against God? There are many, many that know not these things. And oh, if you've been brought to realise them, it's a painful experience unto the Lord's people. A painful experience to come to realise that your soul is separated from God. That left to yourselves you cannot approach unto Him. That you cannot know Him, that you cannot understand Him. And that effect is the effect of sin within your heart. Your own sin, as well as your original sin in Adam. Oh friends, this is a painful experience to the Lord's people. I've often thought of those words, blessed is the man who now chooses and causes to approach unto them. But oh, what are the means that the Lord causes to come into the hearts and lives of his people to cause them to approach unto him? Well, one of those things is bringing them to that realisation that their heart, their mind is enmity against God. And friends, that's a painful experience unto the Lord's people. But, oh, if you'd been brought into that state to realise it, that verse is true, blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee. Oh, when we're brought to realise something of our own ignorance, there'll be painful experience unto us. When we're brought to realise that of ourselves we have no strength, that we are found without God, without hope in the world, yes, painful experience unto old nature, a painful experience unto our old heart. But, oh, what a blessed grace that is, worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, bringing us to an end of self, that we may be made as those that are found looking unto Christ, for our only hope of salvation. Oh, this is the world, friends, that's found before us here. It receives not God. It receives not God. No, it's found afar off from God. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Oh, this is a further description, as it were, of these who, through the wisdom of God, are confined, as it were, into that ignorant state, through the fall. After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Knew not God. A world that knows not God. Our hearts that know not God by nature. Oh, this is a state that we're born into. This is a state we will be in but for free and sovereign grace. This is a state of so many that are found surrounding this place this evening, having no desire to enter it. By wisdom they know not God, and by wisdom they never will know God. But, oh, blessed be God, He hasn't left us to perish in our ignorance. He hasn't left us to perish as fools and far off from Him. But, no, in His wisdom He has prepared this way, whereby salvation might be declared unto us. And so, in the second place, I would like to notice that way that He has provided, the means that He has provided, whereby our ignorance may be turned around, whereby salvation might be declared unto us. Here, please, God, by the foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of preaching. What, friends, is this foolishness of preaching? Well, I'm not really a Greek scholar, but I understand when you look at this verse, there is some disagreement between Greek scholars as to exactly what is meant by the foolishness of preaching. whether it refers unto the act of preaching, the proclamation of the word, or whether it refers unto the subject of that which is preached and that which is proclaimed. But friends, I believe it can be taken in both ways. I believe it can be taken in both senses. We could say here that God is a pleased God, that by the preaching of foolishness, He is designed to save them that believe. As well as by the fact that by the foolishness of preaching, He's designed to save them that believe. What do I mean? What is the difference? Well, friends, I'll deal first with the fact. The preaching of foolishness. What is the preaching of foolishness? It's the preaching of the cross. 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. O friends, who can search out the wisdom of God in the means that he has provided for the salvation of sinners? This is foolishness unto the natural man. The gospel, you see, cannot be received by the natural man. He sees it only as foolishness. Oh, he says, who, how would a loving God send his own dear son into the world that he should die on behalf of sinners? And friends, to us it is foolishness. To us, by the carnal mind, it must be foolishness. We see our own children. We see those that we love. Oh, friends, it's true that for a righteous man, some would almost dare to die. But Christ, while we were yet sinners, while we were yet ungodly, while we were yet without strength, Christ died for us. Friends, these things that were are to us foolishness. Why did it please the Father that he should look upon sinners, upon poor fallen mankind in Adam? Why was he made willing? Why was he pleased that he should send his own dear son into the world, that poor sinners might have hope through his death? Well, friends, this is the wisdom of God. This is the wisdom of God. And who can say unto God, what doest thou? O friends, it was undoubtedly for his honour and for his glory. But we cannot prize the world into those eternal counsels of Jehovah. They are his ways of past finding out. But, O friends, does it bring any hope to you this evening? Does this truth bring any hope? This foolishness, which the world counts as foolishness, has it come unto you as the word of life? Has it come unto you as the word of grace? Is it that which has brought life and light into your soul and given you a hope of immortality to come, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? This is a gospel that found foolishness unto so many people. Oh, how many looked upon that poor babe at Bethlehem. They saw nothing there but a babe, nothing there but man. They could not see that he was given for the rising and the falling of those words, I believe, of Simeon, concerning the work that the Lord had been sent. Yes, a few of them saw that work, but many of them saw it not. a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. That was what Simeon saw in that babe. But oh, how many were ignorantly passed by him, all those years of his life when he was hidden from men, when they saw him not, those thirty years in which he was found, living life quietly as we might live it. They saw not that he was the saviour of the world. They hastened not unto him. They desired when he started preaching not to hear his preaching. They saw nothing as it were but a man. No, those Pharisees, they looked for one that would arise, one that would restore unto them naturally Israel. They looked for one that would come with a strong arm, and instead they found that it were a poor, weak man. A poor, weak man. A man who could be bound, a man who could be taken to the cross. A man who they saw suffering and dying. And old friends, even the disciples, when their dear Lord had been crucified and laid in the ground, where were their hopes? Where were their hopes? Their hopes were dead. Oh, they realized not the salvation that had been accomplished before their very eyes. Those two on the way to Emmaus, what did they say? They talked to one another of the things that had come to pass, and uh... They said, concerning these things, we trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Oh, to their unenlightened eyes, before the outpouring of the Spirit upon them, these things appeared but foolishness. And friends, they'll appear but foolishness to you. And there it will remain to appear foolishness to you, until the Holy Spirit reveals in the person of here the sacrifice which He has provided, in the person of His own dear Son, God made flesh dwelling among us, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that One of whom He was pleased to say unto Joseph, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Oh, to the unenlightened mind, that man will just appear in history, Yes, it is to the Greeks who seek after wisdom foolishness. And it's foolishness to many in our day and generation. But, oh, mark out, friends, the uniqueness of it. There's no other religion in the world in which the Son of God was made flesh and was made willing to suffer and to die on behalf of sinners. There's no other religion in the world by which salvation is provided freely. There's no other religion in the world that has a call Come unto me, everyone that thirsteth. Come by without money and without price, that water provided in the gospel. No, friends, this is the gospel which is under the carnal mind foolishness. Why is it every man-made religion in the world says, work, work, do, do? Because that's what the natural mind receives. That's what wisdom receives as being the way of salvation. Good is rewarded, evil is punished. But oh, when God was pleased to mete out upon the person of his own dear son the punishment due unto his people, when he was pleased that by his own dear son suffering and dying upon the cross, that he should receive in atonement for the sins of his people, that that sacrifice should render his people again propitious unto him, that the breach should be made up, that God and sinners should be reconciled, that there should be that mediatorial work, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This, friends, is foolishness to the carnal mind. It's foolishness to the sinner, a sunken sin. But, oh, when renewed again by, when the mind is renewed again by the Holy Spirit, oh, he sees the perfections in the work of Christ. I love, friends, our article of faith concerning growth in grace, in which it states that growth in grace consists chiefly in a daily increasing knowledge of ourselves as sinners, and of our hopelessness and our undone-ness, and our utter inability to save ourselves, but set over against that an increasing knowledge of the perfections of the salvation which is provided in the person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, freely dying for sinners, Oh, friends, this is when we're granted wisdom, wisdom by the Spirit of God. That's the effect of that wisdom within our hearts and lives. Oh, we value this preaching of foolishness. The subject of preaching is no longer foolishness unto us. No, it's life. Oh, it's life, it's understanding. It's that which we ardently desire, it's that which we ardently seek after. Oh, to hear the things of Jesus. Give me Christ or else I die. That's the cry of the enlightened mind. That's the cry of one which is brought under this foolishness of preaching to find some hope within the gospel and to prove it all their salvation and all their desire. You see, friends, the world sees a saviour that died. They can see not the resurrection. They understand not the virgin birth. They cover, as it were, the central points of our most holy faith. But oh, unto the Lord's people, the least part of the record set before us in the Word of God, the least jot and titter, as it were, concerning the Gospel, we see set forth within the Gospel a complete salvation, a salvation that is worked out in perfection from beginning to end. Oh, we needed a Saviour that should be brought forth in our own flesh and blood, brought forth in the womb of a woman, that he should be made in all points like unto his brethren, yet without sin. Salvation must be wrought out by one that is found in the same covenant relationships of God as the poor sinner that stands condemned under the law. And so we find that he was born under the law, that he kept the law through the days of his life upon this earth, perfect, separate from sin as he was. Sin never tainted his understanding, never tainted his actions. No, he kept the law, went to the end of the law for righteousness. And then he gave his life, our sacrifice upon the cross, shed his blood. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sin. He that hangeth upon a person is he that hangeth upon a tree. Oh, we see how all the types, how all the prophecies concerning the Saviour were fulfilled in the person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Such is the perfection of that offering. Not one thing failed about it. Not one thing failed to come to pass. No, it's perfect in every sense. And, oh, the perfection of the one that was offered. Oh, you see the poor Israelite going out to prepare for the Passover, looking through his sheep, and he looks first at this one and that one, and they appear perfect on the outside. But, oh, perhaps when he turns them over, he finds some lameness, he finds some imperfection. And solemn thing, friends, that we come, as it were, to examine all our hopes, and we have to prove one after another our hope is dashed. But, oh, in this perfect Lamb, this Lamb which the Father provided, there was utter perfection, utter perfection. Yes, to the Lord's people, to those who are brought to prize this Gospel, to those who are brought to see their only hope in a once crucified, now risen again Slaver. Oh, this Gospel is not foolishness. These perfections are not foolishness. No, every one of them is seen as a vital necessity. and they have to praise the God that provided them, and the Father that sent his Son so willingly into the world, and the Son that so willingly came and died, and they have to praise the work of the Spirit within their own heart, because he's revealed unto them the things of Jesus, because he's taken away the veil that is upon their eyes, because he's removed that sin which has darkened their understanding, that now as it were brought near unto Christ, Oh, they see the perfections of that gospel that is provided. This gospel is no longer a stumbling block. It's no longer foolishness. Oh, we have to prove that, yes, we oftentimes, when we're found far off, we dream up, as it were, what the gospel is. We're found as these Jews, we're requiring a sign. We're found as the Greeks, we're seeking after wisdom. But oh, when the Holy Spirit comes and reveals unto us Christ, that when Christ is preached unto us from the Word, when our hearts are opened as the dear heart of Lydia was, and she received the gospel, Oh, we see there the perfections of this salvation Christ has provided. This, friends, is what is preached. This is the foolishness which is given unto us that is sent forth to minister the word. And oh, what a burden it is. Oh, how far short we come. If there's one thing I've regretted so far in my ministry, friends, is when I've sat down, particularly when I've been speaking concerning the work and the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And I just feel to have come so far short of declaring the blessedness of this salvation that has been provided on behalf of sinners, the loveliness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Oh, what a solemnity it is that the servants of the Gospel in the Gospel will feel that it is given unto them that they should preach this foolishness. Oh, that we should be left to utter anything that is error about it. that we should be left truly to utter foolishness. Oh, it's a solemn weight to have to preach foolishness, to preach this foolishness, the gospel, the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ unto poor dying men. And all we have to desire is Richard Baxter, that we might be found as dying men preaching unto dying men. Oh, friends, that's as urgent as it were preaching the gospel. It gives an urgency, it gives life. And oh, friends, what a precious subject we have to come forth with. But this is a means that God in his wisdom has been pleased to be the means that salvation should be brought unto sinners by the preaching of foolishness. But then, friends, I said that these words also could be taken in that second sense. the sense, by the word order which our translators have translated it, by the foolishness of preaching, as it were the act of preaching. Yes, friends, the means God has provided appears unto the carnal mind as foolishness. And we see so many friends in our day and generation turning aside to other means. They're giving up the preaching. The pulpit's moved to one side of the church. You go into our national church, you see the centre of their religion is no longer, as it were, the preacher of the word. It's the ministering of the sacraments. You go into many other churches, the pulpit's gone to one side, for the drum kits and for the bands, for the larger overhead projectors, for the films that may be shown within the sanctuary. But, oh, friends, here we have set forth in our text the primacy of preaching, the means that it's pleased the Father to give. No other means will do. Oh, friends, may we be found sticking by the preaching of the gospel. Yes, it's foolishness. The preaching is foolishness. And oh, friends, it often feels to me to be foolishness. Sabbath by Sabbath we come to have to preach the Word. And oh, we feel that we can only go, as it were, with the same thing. Nothing new to bring forth. Nothing new to bring forth. We seem to utter the same things over and over again. Yes, to our minds, the preaching of the Gospel is foolishness. Preaching is foolishness. Why did God not ordain some other way? Oh, surely if we say sometimes fondly if we'd been there when Jesus was upon this earth, if we'd seen his miracles, we would have believed. Why have miracles ceased? Why have those gifts of the Spirit ceased? Oh, surely if the Holy Spirit came upon us and we all spoke forth in tongues, would that not be some tangible evidence that this God is still working, that what he says is true? But friends, that's not the means that God has appointed, whereby He should convince the world of unrighteousness, of their sin, whereby the gospel should be preached unto them, whereby Jesus should be set before them as the only means of salvation. No, the means God has appointed is by preaching and by preaching alone. Oh, we see this as it were, friends, perhaps I would not stretch the text, but typified in that the way in which God appeared unto Elijah. He was not in the earthquake, in the wind and the fire, not in the things that we might have expected him to be, but he came in that still small voice. And the Lord's people have to prove so often. The Lord is not in other means that they look unto, but he's pleased still to bless the faithful preaching of the word. He comes as it were, that still small voice, over that the voice of his servants, and he's pleased to bless the word that they preach, to the salvation of sins. Why is he still pleased to bless it? Because it was his wisdom to be ordained, and it was his good pleasure to give it. That's what this text sets forth to us. that by the foolishness of preaching it was God's good pleasure to save them, to save them that believe on Him. Oh friends, we have to pray that we will be kept from fancying these things and that as our churches have been kept as it were faithful to the preaching of the Word that we might ever hold this Word for. But, friends, it's coming to a realisation that God's means of blessing his people is by the continued, as it were, repetition of the Gospel. Oh, we have to prove it, don't we, time and time again. Yes, the carnal mind looks for something new. It looks for some fancy, it desires to come up that the minister might bring forth some obscure point of doctrine, that he might bring forth, as it were, some wonder out of the original tongue. But, oh, what is it that the hungry soul desires after? What is it to one that's had to prove during another week a fresh breaking out of sin? What is it to one that's come up fearing himself to be a Pharaoh, fearing himself to be as one that follows a Pharaoh, that finds himself to be filled with doubting and with unbelief again? It's to come up and find that the same gospel that was made an encouragement to him in times past is still the same gospel. And do you not have to find, friends, that when the preaching's been made a blessing unto you, it is in the preaching of the gospel. It's not in some fancy. No, it's in the preaching of the gospel. This is the means the Lord has been pleased to provide, as it were. Here's quite a small voice speaking unto us week by week, that those things should be driven home upon our hearts by the operations of the Holy Spirit. Oh, friends, this is the foolishness of preaching. This is a gift God has given unto his church. foolishness unto the world in the subject that's preached, and in the manner that God has given, whereby it should be declared. But O unto the Lord's people, this is a most precious gift, this is a most precious blessing, that he's been pleased to give the Church, and O what a commission, what a blessing it is, what a promise it is, that comes with that commission. O what a blessing, what an encouragement it is to his servants as they go forth with the Word, that the commission was to those first apostles, but it descends unto every minister of the gospel unto the end of time. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And friends, he's still with his ministers today. He's still in the midst of Zion, and he's still pleased by his presence with us by his Spirit. to bless the foolishness of preaching unto the salvation of never-dying souls. Well, friends, in the third place we'd notice the end of this preaching. Why was God pleased, as it were, to send forth preachers? Why was He pleased to give the foolishness of preaching? Why was He pleased to send forth His Son into the world, that He might be the subject of that preaching, as the only hope and the only salvation for souls from their sin? It was to save them that believed. That's the end of gospel preaching, the salvation of sins. And old Paul said, woe be I if I preach not the gospel. I fear sometimes, if it were, we can get very easily turned aside in the ministry of God's house, taken up with lesser things. But, oh, Paul's woe was if he preached not the gospel, if he preached not this foolishness which had been delivered unto him to preach. Nothing less, nothing more would do. Oh, may we not be taken up when we're found within God's house with secondary matters. But may that be the one important thing, the preaching of the gospel. Paul desired to know not anything among them save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That was the subject of the preaching that he came with. But we preach Christ crucified. Why was that his urgent desire that he should only know that gospel? Why did he not desire to preach anything else among them? Why? Because the preaching is bound up within this. That the end of preaching should be the salvation of never-dying souls. That it should be that it might save them, that belief. The Apostle, as it were, gives a commentary on this subject in that epistle to the Romans. When we read, the whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good news. O friends, this is a means the Lord has provided. Faith cometh by hearing. Yes, the Lord is pleased that souls should be raised to a hope in the Gospel, that they should be brought to a knowledge of themselves as sinners, that they should be brought to see the perfections of the salvation that has been provided for them in the person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as set before us in the Gospel, as our ears are opened to hear the Word. You see, friends, this is a point that many are missing out day and generation. They see not this important word, faith cometh by hearing. But it's true, friends, faith cometh by hearing the word of God. God is pleased that he's primarily ordained, and we should not limit God, and I would not limit God here this evening. The Lord has been pleased indeed in various and diverse ways to call souls from nature's darkness into everlasting life. But mark it, friends, that in the end, sooner or later, even if through some miraculous event that's come upon them, even if by the works of nature that surround them, they've been convinced of the existence of God, as it were, yet their religion can't stop there. It must come to the word of God. Yes, a man's religion, the work of grace, it were, some may trace it to a means that is without the preaching of the word, without even the hearing or the reading of the word of God. But friends, it is true religion, it can't rest without that. No, it must come to centre on the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as he's revealed to us, and only revealed to us, in his word of truth. Faith cometh by hearing. This, friends, is why the preaching of the Word is so important. It's given to the end of the salvation of sinners. And except there be the preaching, except there be the hearing, there is no, as it were, salvation. This is why, friends, it's so important, as it were, that we should be found gathered together on the first day of the week for the preaching of the Word. And, oh, if you're found gathered here this evening, If you're found gathered with a need, if you're found coming, pleading that you might find salvation for your souls, don't look anywhere else, friends, even if you should go home this evening, disappointed. Oh, I plead that the Lord might not disappoint you, but if you should go down disappointed with my poor ministry, oh, friends, I earnestly urge you, come again when the means of grace is open, look not to any other means. No, this is through the foolishness of preaching. The Lord is pleased to give salvation unto his people. Faith cometh by healing. And what is the end of this preaching? Well, it convinces us first of our foolishness. You see, friends, that affected preaching set before us so beautifully in that 73rd Psalm. Esau says, as for me, My feet were almost gone, my steps had well and I slipped. He was envious because of the foolish, the prosperity that he saw within the world. But oh, he went into the sanctuary of God. Perhaps, friends, I extrapolate beyond the word. But the sanctuary of God is inseparably joined with the preaching of the Word, with the setting forth in the types and shadows in the Old Testament church of this same preaching of the Gospel, setting before them the hope of Israel which was to come. Or he went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end, and what did it bring him to? So foolish was I in ignorance, I was as a beast before them. This is the first effect, friends, that this preaching of foolishness will have in the hearts of the Lord's people. It will bring them to confess that they are fools before God. It will spoil them of their own wisdom. They will have to be made weary as it were to be made foolish for the sake of the Gospel. It will bring them to an end of their own righteousness, an end of their own strength. It will bring us to a realisation that outside of Christ there is no hope for us. There is no help. that there is no gospel other than that which is set before us in the world. It will bring us to confess that everything else we were seeking after, all other means we were looking unto, all that we thought in our wisdom we could search out and could find out, we have to confess that we were fools, that those things led us only astray. This is the effect, friends, first of this preaching of the gospel. We find that it brought the psalmist to confession in that 69th Psalm also. When he opens the psalm, saying, O God, for the waters have come into my soul, and he says, O God, thou knowest my foolishness, my sins are not hid from thee. There is that realisation brought about through the preaching of the gospel in the souls of the Lord's people, that they are sinners, that they have sinned against God, and that there can be no hope for them, except through this subject, this foolishness which is preached week by week in the sanctuary of God. the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And so, friends, it's by the working of the Spirit, as this Gospel is preached unto us, it brings us to that place where we're willing, as it were, to be made fools. The Apostle says in the third chapter of this epistle, Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. O friends, this is where the gospel brings you to. Yes, you're willing to be a fool for Christ's sake. You're brought to that place where you're willing to count all things done and dross for the excellency of the gospel, where your urgent desire is, give me Christ or else I die, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection, fellowship with him in his sufferings, be made conformable unto his death. If by any means you might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, Oh yes, that wasn't the things you looked for, friends, before you heard the preaching of this gospel. No, those things unto you were just as they were unto these Greeks and Jews. They were foolishness, they were stumbling blocks. But now, awakened by sovereign grace, the Holy Spirit revered in something unto you the perfections of this Saviour set before you. Yes, you desire to be identified with Him. You desire fellowship with Him. You desire to be made conformable unto His death. You have that desire, oh friends, the desire which must seem foolishness to so many in the world today. Oh, there's so many in the world today who want a Christless heaven. They want a heaven which continues their life as they have it here below. But, O, when you are brought unto the preaching of this foolishness, to see the perfections of Christ, you have that desire with Paul, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Yes, you now are found looking out unto this wisdom, unto this Christ, unto this Saviour. And, O friends, he is made unto his people, as the Apostle tells us here. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who God has made unto us wisdom. Yes, you prove your wisdom in Him, and He's also made unto you righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And so you glory, you glory in your Lord. O friends, this is the end of this preaching. This is the end of this preaching, that souls might be brought into this place, where they find themselves in need of a Saviour, where that Saviour is set before them in the Gospel, and where faith cometh by preaching, that faith, as it were, putting forth her little hand, Laying her hand upon the head of that sacrifice, confessing her sin, finding her full salvation in Christ, is brought into the hope of the gospel. But, O friends, what a way also is set before those of us that have been in the way, those of us that have to prove that despite the Holy Spirit working within our hearts, left to ourselves, we're still fools, we're still ignorant. Yes, like Asaph, we're still taken up with the things of this world. We're still envious because of the food. Daily, like Paul, we have to wrestle being burdened. Daily, like Paul, we have to prove that the good we would, we do not. The evil that we would not, not that we do. But oh, what does this gospel ministry also set before us? It sets before us that way of holiness. That way of holiness. That the prophet Isaiah speaks of. And a highway shall be there, and a way. And it shall be called the way of holiness. That is the person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The unclean shall not pass over it. But it shall be for those, that wayfaring men, though fools, shall not earn their being. Friends, has that ever ministered comfort unto your souls? Do you have to confess, Lord, save me, I'm a fool? Save me, I'm a fool. But this gospel sets before us that way wherein the wayfaring man, though a fool, yes, oft times prone to start aside, and in our trouble flee from Jesus' wounded side, to trust in self or something base, instead of trust in sovereign grace. But oh, this way that's set before us in the Gospel! Yes, though we may fear oft times that if ever it should come to pass the sheep of Christ should fall astray, my fickle feeble soul at last would fall ten thousand times a day. But, oh, friends, the blessing is that wafer in man, though a fool, yes, though you're bought through the preaching of this gospel to realize yourself as a fool for Christ's sake. Yet, friends, your salvation is secure. Wafer in man, though a fool, cannot earn that end. You shall be bought safe at last. Yes, friends, this is the sum of this gospel. By the foolishness of preaching, it's pleased God to save them that believe. Well, friends, are we amongst them? Are we amongst them? Have we been made women, as it were, to count our own wisdom as foolishness, that we might prove our wisdom set before us in Christ? O friends, this is the blessing of the Gospel. This is the blessing of what Paul had to preach in his Corinthian church, Christ and Him crucified. Do we know these things, or are we found a stranger to them still? Are we still found dead, as it were, in the conceit of our own wisdom, thinking we know all things? But, O friends, if we're left there, We'll have to prove at last all the things that we doubted. We'll have to prove them to be true. And all the things that we've held fast as truth, we'll have to prove them to be the most solemn and grievous ever. Yes, there are many found in the world today that think they have wisdom. But, oh friends, we tremble to think of it, that in that last and great solemn day, they'll have to prove their wisdom is foolishness. Their wisdom is foolishness. And they shall spend an eternity considering that fact. that they have been found fools, fools at last, but are to be found in Christ who has made unto us wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our hope of glory to come. But I wanted friends in the fourth place to just come and notice for a moment that this means that the Lord has provided. It's His wisdom. It's according to His wisdom. And all friends who can question His wisdom, Yes, we poor sinners, when we're left to ourselves, we may question the means the Lord has provided. We may, when left to ourselves, think that we could have devised some other way. But all the Lord's people, when taught by the Holy Spirit, have to come and confess that God's ways are past finding out. And they're especially past finding out, as it were, in the Gospel, this foolishness that is preached unto us. And we have to come to confess that it is God's appointment from beginning to end. Yes, no man. The Lord's people, I'm convinced, have to come to this place where they realise that no man could have devised this work of salvation. Many look upon this Bible, this book that we hold so dear, as but a work of literature. But oh, when we're enlightened, when our eyes are opened, when we're born to be fools within our own sights, when we realise the wisdom that is embraced by God in the person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. that that fullness might be found there and might reside there for poor needy sinners. I believe the Lord's people come to confess that this book must be the work of the words of God. It can't be any less. Why? Because man's wisdom can never devise down such perfection. No, this work which God has provided, the work of the person of his own dear son in coming into the world to save poor sinners from their sins, We see stamped upon it from beginning to end, the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. Oh, friends, if we've been brought to that place where we see it to be the wisdom of God. Oh, how much we should rejoice in it. How much we should hold it, dear. How precious this gospel should be unto us. But, oh, friends, we read that it's not only His wisdom, not only according to His wisdom, but it's also according to His good pleasure. His good pleasure. Oh friends, it's a mystery to me. It's obviously a mystery to those inspired writers that wrote in the Word of God, that God should have ever taken notice of me, that he should ever have taken notice of poor sins. It was only because of his good pleasure. It was only because of his good pleasure. We read a bit there in that sacred chapter in Proverbs 8, that there the son never with the father. I was by him as one bought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. I said it before recently, I can't remember where it was, but oh, the beauty that's seen in that, the perfections that are found within the Trinity. God is love, the love that's shared between the three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All the perfections as found within God himself, never needed anything outside of himself, was self-existent as it were, had everything within himself that he needed for his existence. Nothing could add to his eternal felicity as God. And yet what do we read? Rejoicing in the abysmal part of the earth, and my delights are with the sons of men. Yes, even then, when there was that perfect felicity between the persons of the Godhead, Yet their pleasure, as it were, ran over freely, and ran over to poor sinners of the earth, that it pleased them. And it pleased them in the councils of Jehovah, the Father in his electing love, the Son in coming and saying, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God, so willingly coming. You know the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Lo, he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. O friends, where else did it bring the psalmist? When he saw the works of creation around, many things it were that God set forth, the beauty and the wonders of God. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above all the heavens. When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou visitest him? O friends, why is it? When our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ declares it unto us, Father, I thank thee, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but hast revealed them unto babes, hast revealed them unto fools. And why? Because, as the poet says, deceived and so, father, because it seemed good in thy sight. This, friends, is the good pleasure of God, that not because he saw any goodness in you, not because he saw that you would trust in him, not because he saw that you would exercise faith, as it were, and be willing to believe in him, No, but He loved you. He loved you, friends, for eternity past. He loved you as a fallen sinner, and He set His love upon you. And thus He sent His own dear Son into the world, to suffer and to bleed and to die on your behalf. At Pentecost, He shed forth the Spirit, the purchase of the work of the Son, upon the Church, that God who in past times in divers manners spake unto us by the prophets, these last days spoken unto us by his Son, now revealing himself continually unto us in the church, in and through the person of the Holy Spirit, that when he was come he should reveal all things unto us, and if granted that means by which these pleas of the Spirit should work, the foolishness of preaching, the word of God within our own tongue, that by these means He might save them that believe. Oh, friends, the good pleasure of God in his provision to Paul's sin. Oh, does it melt your heart? Does it warm your heart this evening? Did it please God that these things should be so? Well, friends, if it does, it will make the preaching of the Word very precious unto you. It will make you want to hold fast unto it. This epistle was written unto a church, a heathen church, a church that was gathered out of heathen nations. It was written unto a people, the Greeks, that desired after wisdom, that spent all their time, as it were, seeking to understand all the mysteries of this lower earth. Friends, it couldn't be more appropriate to us in the day in which we live, a church amongst a growing heathen nation, a church amongst a people that seek after wisdom, a man's wisdom, as it were, daily increasing. yet their knowledge, as it were, of God becoming more and more darkened. But, oh, friends, this was the gospel that Paul came with unto the Corinthian church, and it's the means that he still provided to bless the sinners in our day and generation. And, oh, may we take heart. May we not be found looking to any other means. May we not be found looking on to any other way whereby souls may be converted, whereby the Gospel may be set forth, but may we prize this precious institution of preaching, and may those of us that have to preach the Gospel, may we be encouraged by the fact that we are walking in a divinely ordered path, a divine commission, and that He has said, though I am with you always, in the commission, in the preaching of the Gospel, to the end of time, and so as we gather together, week by week, may we have that hope, And may we prove that He is with us, and that He continues to bless the Gospel unto the salvation of sinners. And may we prove that it is not unto us as foolishness, but it is unto us as the Word of life, the Good News, the Gospel, and that which brings joy and rejoicing unto our heart. Well, 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. May the Lord bless His Word unto us. Amen.