It is now time for the reading of God's Word. Please ask you to stand with me and turn with me into the Old Testament book, Ecclesiastes chapter 1, as we read together verses 1 through 11. Ecclesiastes is a little bit difficult to find. You can find it after Psalms and then Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes. So Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. This morning we're going to be reading chapter 1, verses 1 through 11. Beginning in verse 1 of chapter 1. The words of the preacher, the son of David, King of Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes towards the south and turns around to the north. The wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. to the place from which the river comes, there they return again, and all things are full of labor. Men cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. There is any, is there anything of which it may be said, see, this is new. It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no such, there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come, but those who will come after." May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. And now would you turn with me in the New Testament to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. We'll read together verses 1 through 11. Acts 18 verses 1 through 11. Beginning in verse 1. After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And he came to them. So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked. For by occupation, they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justice, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Then Cephas, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision. Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. All flesh is like grass, and all of its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And all of God's people said, Amen. Please be seated. Will you pray with me once more? Our God in heaven, we humbly, we, your people, we humbly come before you now We ask, O God, that you would help us to look upon your word, that we might sit at your feet and learn from you. And we pray, God, that you would minister to our minds and our intellect and our hearts. And I pray, Heavenly Father, that we would walk out of this place differently than the way that we came. And I pray that it would be for your glory. Lord, help us to be teachable. Help us to hear from You, and help us to respond to You by faith. For it is in Your precious name we pray. Amen. I'd like to invite you to turn with me and your Bible to 1 Corinthians, as we examine chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. I have entitled this sermon, The Foolishness of God. I say that carefully, but the foolishness of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. Would you follow along with me as I read our passage? Beginning in verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being 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 age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." For Jews request the sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than man." Again, may God add a blessing in the reading of His word. One day, one friend decides to invite another friend to his home to watch a movie they both enjoy watching. One friend who invites the other one has a teeny, 13-inch television, but the other friend decides to accompany him. They get together, the guy comes over, and as guys typically do, they raided the cupboards and the fridge. They get snacks and they get drinks. They make their way out into the living room. They find their spot on the couch. They grab pillows and they make themselves at home. and they begin to watch this film. But about halfway through, when a commercial comes on, the one friend who's been invited says to the other one, I want to thank you for inviting me into your home. He said, but, you know, I'm practically straining my eyes looking at this 13-inch TV. He said, I'm going home to my 40-inch and I'm going to watch it there. greet, or not greet, they say goodbye to one another and the one friend leaves and the other one gets back down in his seat. This television that he's got, it's a larger TV, it's got a much bigger screen, the sound is crisper, the colors are clearer and more vibrant. But he begins looking for this movie that he was just watching at his friend's home and he can't find it. He's got a handy dandy fancy pants remote and he spends the next 10 minutes scrolling channel after channel after channel looking for this movie. He's assured that because he's got this fancy television, he's got this fancy remote, that he's going to enjoy this movie more than his friend who's watching the 13-inch television that none of us can even imagine. Thirteen inches. He keeps flipping and he can't find it. Ironically, his friend who has a smaller television, it isn't as fancy, the color isn't as crisp, the sound isn't as high quality, has something that this friend who's got this big 40-inch television doesn't have, allowing him to watch this and other films at his disposal, a little thing I like to call cable. The cable that connects from his handy-dandy 13-inch TV to whatever in the wall that connects him to whatever allows him to watch his assorted movies and programs and such. So even though this friend has this fancy-dancy television screen that sounds better, it looks better, it's more appealing to the eye because it's bigger, can't give him what he's looking for. The point is simply this, that in the world someone might be able to get an extremely high-quality education. You may memorize and understand the philosophical writings of history's best thinkers. You may perhaps spend thousands of dollars on the best psychological doctors or plastic surgeons. You might have the latest innovations. You might have the smart house. You might have a smart phone. You might have a smart television and smart cars and so on and so forth. You may have the highest paid position in the company, but the truth of the matter is that apart from Jesus Christ, the wisdom that comes from all of this collected thinking and innovation is for naught. Why does the author of Ecclesiastes write that all is vanity in chapter 1, verses 1 through 11 and through the rest of the book? It's very simple. Apart from God in Christ, the stuff that we pursue that isn't for the glory of Christ, that doesn't draw us closer to Christ, amounts to nothing. That in this world there is no self-glorification, there is no salvation apart from Christ, there is no wisdom apart from Christ. That isn't, however, to say that you can't enjoy the things that this world produces, that you can't in some form or fashion learn from them, meaning we funnel the world's truth through the lens of the gospel. It is, however, to say that the wholeness and hope that the world hopes to produce in us through its various stuff cannot, in the end, deliver on its promises to make you whole and happy and to feel good. It cannot. Why? Because rest and peace does not come based upon how you feel. Think about it. Why is so much money spent to build people's self esteems? or the healing of mental health, quote-unquote, issues, plastic surgery, trips to fancy destinations. It is because the world promises that through these various things, you will receive healing and happiness, a greater sense of self-esteem, all come from the world's established wisdom. The Christian, biblical Christian, in reality knows that wholeness and healing, the forgiveness of our sins, the cleansing of our iniquity is not found in what the world has to offer us. It is found in Christ alone, by faith alone, according to God's Word alone, for the glory of God alone. See, what Paul is going to mount up in this text, and actually it goes all the way through chapter 2, is a comparison between the world and its wisdom leading to nothing but vanity, as it were, as opposed to true, biblical, God-honoring wisdom that we find through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The issue of the believer who has been regenerated by the Spirit constantly feeling this pulling and the tugging of our hearts to go back into what the world calls wisdom and help for wholeness and health and safety and so on and so forth, whereas in reality what the Christian needs to do is to humbly go back to the word of the Lord in prayer that he might heal us and he might deliver us for his glory. What Paul goes into here is why God's wisdom is superior to the world's in both permanence and power. As we examine this, the issue for you and I, practically, is to come to the conclusion that we need to think less about the options in this world and more about how God's Word supplies you with all that you need to walk this walk of faith. We begin this morning, verses 18 through 20, the permanence of God's wisdom, the permanence of God's wisdom. Would you follow along with me as I read our text? Beginning in verse 18, Paul writes, Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Paul writes here, verse 18, simply that the message of the cross, he says, is foolishness to those who are perishing. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. The message, as it's translated here in the New King James Version, the message, other translations have the word translated word, for the word of the cross is foolishness. comes from a Greek word I'm sure many of us have heard called logos. It literally means speech. The idea of the word is not in the act of speaking words as in public speaking or making a speech. Rather, it is a reference to the content of the message that is being spoken. The gospel. What is the gospel? It is an English term, the gospel that is, from the Greek word euangelion, literally meaning the good news. The good news, amongst other places, can be summarized in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verses 14 through 15. Mark writes, Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. If gospel means literally good news, how is a message calling people to repent of their sin good and encouraging news? The good news of the gospel is not only the calling from God to acknowledge that we are as God says we are, made in His image, yet sinful and living in rebellion to Him, but when we repent of our sin, in other words, we do what we are called to do, We willingly turn from that wickedness. We are now willing to admit to sin. God, through Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, not only forgives us of our sins, but he cleanses us in our hearts and our consciences from that sin, and we're given Christ's righteousness as our own. The good news As you've heard it the first time, perhaps, it's difficult to hear. Yet by it, we have the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. The good news is that our faith, or our confession of our faith, does not occur unless the Lord our God sovereignly transforms our hearts through regeneration. The issue is that if God does not open our mind to a person to believe, they will not only not believe, but will consequently believe that this gospel message is foolishness in comparison to the wisdom of the world. In Acts 17, a chapter before the one we read earlier, when Paul goes to the Areopagus, and he's walking amongst them, and the philosophers there give him an opportunity to tell what it is he wants to tell, and he begins to share the gospel message to these philosophers and men who have gathered there. What we're told, verse 32, is that some wanted to hear more about what he had to say, but some, verse 32, mocked him for what he had said. Why? Because they deemed it to be the foolishness of our God. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, Paul writes, In fact, This word foolishness, what they deem the gospel message to be, comes from a Greek word Maria, and it literally means stupid, or moronic, or nonsense. In fact, our word moron comes from this Greek word Maria. The issue here is that as the world compares what it believes it knows to what God's Word tells us is true, what the world believes is true is actually foolishness, and what God tells us is true is actual wisdom. What Paul writes here in chapter 2, verse 14, is that they cannot on their own discern it, deeming it to be foolish. Notice what he says here in chapter 1 verse 19. He says, "...for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Do you know that this is a quote from Isaiah chapter 29 verse 14? That prophecy that Isaiah prophesied there in chapter 29 verse 14 refers to 2 Kings chapter 17, The people of Judah are on the verge of being conquered, or rather attacked, by Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. He's looking at a far less militarily dominating group of men, and he's concluded in his heart and in his flesh that he's going to march into Judah, take it over, and take that land. But the Lord tells Isaiah something very interesting. He tells Isaiah to tell the people not to fear, because the king, Sennacherib's plan is going to fail. He promises him. God tells them specifically that the failure of Assyria is not going to occur because of the strength of Judah's army or because of the strategy of Judah's army, but because the Lord our God, who is covenantally faithful, will guide and protect them. The next thing you see is Sennacherib and his military coming into Judah. In fact, one of the things that Judah was called upon to do as this war ensues was to create a choir of sorts and to worship God as the battle is continuing on. Did you know that? Again, the problem is in trusting the Lord and not looking to the wisdom of the world, because God has made a promise that irregardless of the way it looks to you, I'm going to fight your fight for you. According to my wisdom, in my way, you are simply to trust and obey. Do you know 185,000 Assyrian men died that day at the hand of one angel sent by God? and had Israel decided that they were going to take the wisdom of the world, they would have died in a matter of hours. But they put their faith upon the word of the Lord and they were delivered. Paul, however, is using this text to point us to the same lesson The idea here, and he's emphasizing this, is that the wisdom of men, that is, of the world, is going to be destroyed by God. In other words, the ultimate purpose of this prophecy was to highlight that although men's wisdom seems wise, it will in the end be proven to be worthless, because Christ will come and reign over all of His creation and people, and He will do so unopposed and unobstructed. that no one will be able to do anything about it. Verse 20, he writes, Paul here writes several rhetorical questions that almost seem sarcastic. But what he's essentially asking are where are those who you consider to be wise? And the idea is who amongst us in the created world has the ability to look at the wisdom of God and conclude that I know something that he does not? Where is the one who can argue against the merits of what God has done? In fact, find the word disputer in verse 20. Yes, where is the disputer of the age? The disputer is someone or the Greek word translated, disputer, is someone who has been trained to listen to arguments and to retort them. It's someone who the world has deemed wise because they have the ability to learn and to argue in a matter of seconds. Well, where are they up against the wisdom of God according to the gospel of Jesus Christ? The point is that humanity might find itself to be brilliant with all of its innovations and supposed solutions to life's problems, but it will in the end be proven to be nonsense. Those that believe the gospel who have been deemed foolish will be the ones who are found to be wise. We need to understand what Paul is saying right off the beginning of his argument here. But although you might look at secular psychologists or the wisdom of this age, I hear, and I'm sure you do, many arguments about people who are transgendered and how obvious it seems to be that when a little child who doesn't understand any of the notions that they're referring to starts to talk about how they feel as a little boy, like a little girl, worldly wisdom says that we need to automatically take them to a doctor who can prescribe them a medication and a surgery and change them and grow them as if they were a little girl, that would seem wise if our source of wisdom is the world. It would seem wise that humanity would be unloving if it had deemed the homosexual to be in sin because they just want to be loved like everyone else. They want to be able to do what everybody else is able to do in this world. It would seem wise that the Christian who is loving needs to accept them, because when they read the Word, what they hear is God is loving and would bend over backwards to accept them for however they say they are. And yet the Word of the Lord calls the believer to the reality that the wisdom of this world is foolishness. according to the word of the Lord, because his wisdom is a permanent, it is a eternal wisdom to the glory of God our Father. But secondly, verses 21 through 25 talk about the power of God's wisdom. If you again follow along with me as I read, beginning in verse 21, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who 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." The issue here at a heart level is that as much as people desire to solve their own issues, to make themselves happy, to build up their own self-esteems, to get stuff they hope will make them happy, to get drunk or high, to use sexual fornication to find some sense of satisfaction, to fight so that they feel vindicated, all going after their selfish ambition, all in an effort to make themselves happy, will in the end lead them to more trouble. The more man looks to himself and depends upon himself, the worse his situation becomes and his dependence on his wisdom increases, so will his problems. How do we know that's true? Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 20, Paul writes, because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." The key to what Paul writes here is what he says, the suppression of the truth. The suppression of the truth. That is the ignoring of the gospel truth, the willful disobeying of the truth, and replacing the truth, the Lord our God, with ourselves as the creator of wisdom, the sustainer of our own lives. Human wisdom is therefore not merely ignorant of God's wisdom, but is scornful of it. It is in rebellion to God's wisdom. So what does he do about this? Verse 21, it says, For since the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. In other words, God delightfully chose not only His Son to come into the world, who the world deemed as the most unlikeliest of saviors, to die in the most unlikeliest of ways, the weakest of ways, which the world scoffs at. And God the Father delightfully chose the proclamation of the Son and His work to save His own, again, a message that the world scoffs at. In other words, God delights, and they're deeming His act and His sovereign decision to send His Son who willingly comes, they scoff at it. They make fun of it. Notice here verse 21, he writes, This phrase, the message preached, verse 21, is the same Greek word as message in verse 18. The implication is that this message of Christ as the sinless Son of God, coming into the world, putting on human flesh to suffer and die, that His own will live eternally and be forgiven of their sins. that although is seen as dumb and foolish in the world, the uncomplicated truth of the cross of Jesus Christ, a message that does not allow for man's wisdom or man's work, will prove to do what man's wisdom cannot do." Do you understand what's being said? That although the world looks at the wisdom of God as foolishness, It is accomplishing something in God's own that the wisdom of the world cannot, to the glory of God. And God, who sent His Son and called men to preach the Word, laughs at the conclusion that His work and His Word and His way is foolishness. He laughs. He scoffs. is pleased, you understand, he's pleased to take what he knew would seem ridiculous to the world to do what they and all their understanding cannot do. Verses 22 to 24, Paul writes, "...for Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man." It says something very interesting here. Jews request a sign. That is literally that if talking to Jesus or one of His apostles, if what you say is correct, that you are from God, that your message is from God, then prove it to us by performing a miracle. The Greeks who are looking for supposed wisdom, that is to say that they're looking for such an argument that cannot be refuted with. then they'll believe. And yet we see repeatedly in the New Testament that neither group ever believed unless God was sovereignly working in them and drawing them to himself. But the idea here is to see a contrast in the thinking of the believer over against the world. The world sees the gospel as foolishness because they suppress the truth. The truth is that all have been made in the image of God, that we were made to honor God and glorify God, and although they work diligently to forget Him and live in rebellion to Him, one day they will stand before Him and give an account for every thought and deed or intention of their hearts that they've ever had in their entire life. For those who aren't covered by the blood of the Lamb, their judgment is sealed. And to them, truth of God's Word is foolishness. Can you imagine the hardness of heart that needs to go into fighting a fight that says, what God calls me to do, that I have been made in His image, that I am not made to pursue the sins of the flesh, I am made to honor Him, but the hardness of heart that says, I know better than you if you're even real. And then referring to what God has called them to do as foolishness. Notice something very interesting here, verse 24. Find this word here, verse 24, power. The power of God and the wisdom of God. Word power. I'm sure you've heard of this one as well, is the Greek word deutymis. It's actually the word that we get the word dynamite from. It is power. It is the mighty work or the strength or the might. The idea here, very simply, he says, he says, but those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. That is the power that God has to transform the mind and the heart of those whom he is calling to himself. The power to change what a person thinks. The power to change what a person believes. to go from worldly thinking to looking to soak and find our satisfaction in the Word of the Lord. It is the power of God and His power alone working in us. The power of God utilizing to perform the miracle of transforming the mind and the heart of a sinner to having the mind of Christ through the work of regeneration. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. And you he made alive according to that power. He says, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the counsel or the course of this world. according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others." What Paul is saying here is that when you've been made alive by the wonder-working power of the gospel, according to His covenant of grace. What the world says concerning the things of God no longer matters." Amen. It's interesting, you get to know people, find out that there are sins that upon faith in Jesus Christ will easily be overcome. God draws you to Himself, and seem like an instant, and suddenly you're no longer struggling with something that you used to struggle with so much. You know, people over the years who have struggled with anger their entire life, God brings them to Himself in the faith, trusting Jesus Christ, and suddenly they're able to do something that they weren't able to do even days before, and that is forgive people who have devastated and hurt them. Then you meet people who have trusted in the Lord. God sovereignly allows them to struggle with sins that they may very well be fighting until the day He returns, or until He calls them home. The point that Paul is making, however, is not that the world has its solutions or its wisdom and we have ours, and sometimes it's okay to utilize their wisdom It's why you would look to anything outside of the very power that is transforming you or has transformed you to heal those places within your heart that so desperately hurt. Why would the Christian look to solve issues of the heart in any other place but the gospel of Christ, the very thing that is transforming you Am I making the argument that it's wrong for the Christian to seek medical help? No, that is crazy. What I'm saying is that if we have hurt in our hearts, if we have anger in our hearts, struggles that we've had for many, many years, what I'm saying, what Paul is actually arguing, I don't matter, what Paul is arguing is that we need to reassess where we're looking to get our help from. Amen? Think about people who have betrayed you and challenges that you didn't expect to see. You struggle with loneliness, a diagnosis that we didn't see coming. The solution is not in modern psychology. The solution is not in blaming people who have hurt you. It isn't in our pretending to be a victim. And it's certainly not in your working harder to make everything better in your life or pretending that everything that's wrong is somehow your fault. It's not even in positive affirmations. The gospel and it alone heals the heart of the sinner who acknowledges their sin and need before a holy God. The point here is that we can rest assured that He's going to complete the work that He's begun in you, because Paul tells us so in Philippians 1, verse 6, See, that needs to be good news. Because the point here isn't go home and work harder. The point is to humble yourself before the Lord enough to recognize that there are things going on in my mind that I'm believing that I shouldn't, or things that I'm feeling in my heart that I shouldn't. And frankly, every day that I have looked to fight this fight on my own strength or with worldly wisdom has left me feeling the very way I did at the beginning. And therefore, something must change. And if He is working in you to believe, and He's making you more like Christ, and we know that He's going to finish this work, why aren't we humbling ourselves and coming before Him all the more? Why are we under the impression that even though there are things that I just cannot deal with, That maybe I'm not the one in charge of dealing with them. That maybe what I need to do is repent of my self-preservation and humble myself before Him, acknowledging that I need Your help, O God. Because that's where our help is found. And there's no shame in our needing it. Amen? Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard? Don't we get tired? I can do it! Can you? Don't we get tired? Let's pray. Lord God in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. We ask, Heavenly Father, that we, Your people, might delight all of who we are in Your Word. That we would find ourselves being all the more comfortable with our humbling ourselves beneath Your mighty hand because we know that You are covenantally faithful to Your people. not because of something we've done, or something we've prayed, or something we've thought, but because by Your grace and Your mercy You have worked in us. And I pray that the more we walk this walk of faith by Your grace and Your mercy, the more comfortable we would become with needing that strength. Your Word tells us is in full supply should we cry out to You. because we're not looking to the world's ways of dealing with hurt and pain and struggle, but we're looking to the wisdom of our eternal Father in heaven. We pray, Lord, that it would be for your glory. We pray that you would forgive us of our sins and cleanse us thoroughly from our iniquity. We pray that we would rejoice in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper because we're reminded yet again of what you have done for us that we could not do. We pray that we would remember and be spiritually fed by you for your glory. For it is in your precious name we pray. Amen.