The scripture reading this morning is from Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 21, beginning in the first verse, the triumphal entry of Christ. Matthew 21, beginning in verse one. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, Then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. That is the word of the Lord. And of course, things don't quite develop the way that the crowds wanted. The first thing Jesus did was go in after he made a scourge and cleaned out the temple of all of those who were desecrating it with their merchandise. Well, we come again to 1 Corinthians 1 this morning. We're specifically going to be looking at verses 17 and 18. But let's ask the Lord's blessing first then upon the ministry of his word. Father, this is your word spoken. We hold it right here in our hands and we're going to read more of it and hear it, and we pray, Father, that your spirit would use it powerfully to teach us, to sanctify us, to work out your salvation in us. We pray that you would help us to understand your word, that our faith would be strengthened, and that we would be made wiser in regard to the conspiracies and schemes of the devil, our enemy, as he would have us be drawn aside into various detours and away from Christ. And so, Father, we pray for this wisdom, which is from you, and that you will enable us to be ready to be fools for Christ in a world that thinks itself to be wise and despises your wisdom. But we thank you for this wisdom, Father, and pray that you would give us more of it now. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, here is the Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, seated on a colt. And the Old Testament backdrop of that, we saw there in verse 5 that Matthew quoted it, is found in Zechariah chapter 9. Let's read that, it's in your handout here, Zechariah chapter nine, beginning in verse nine. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem. And the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore to you double. For I have bent Judah as my bow. I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword. Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts will protect them and they shall devour and tread down the sling stones and they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine and be full like a bowl drenched like the corners of the altar. On that day, the Lord their God will save them as the flock of his people for like the jewels of a crown, They shall shine on his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty. Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine with the young women. Now, this is all very strange. Because Zechariah, as we see also here in Matthew chapter 21, but Zechariah is describing the arrival of a king. And he comes humble, mounted on a colt, on a donkey. And yet, then Zechariah leaps into this. He's going to conquer every enemy. He's going to set his people free. He's going to set up his eternal kingdom. And it'll be, of course, the new heavens and the new earth. But this is a rather shocking and surprising statement then. This king doesn't come on some white stallion. That will come later if you read. In utter humility, mounted on a donkey, not with any great pageantry and blowing a trumpet. So there'll be trumpets then when he comes again now. But when he came the first time, there's all this humility and weakness. And how is this a king? How is this the Messiah? How is this somebody who's going to reign over the whole world? How's that going to happen? The Corinthians hadn't figured this out. Not only had the Jews not figured it out, The church at Corinth hadn't figured it out. They hadn't gotten a grasp yet on a king who is humble and lowly. A king who comes in what the world would call then foolishness. And that's what we see here. 1 Corinthians 1 beginning at verse 18. For the word of the cross is folly. It just means it's a joke. to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who's wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, The world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, as we've been seeing in the first part of this letter of 1 Corinthians to the church at Corinth, there was this temptation to, and even participating in, this terrible sin of pride. And you're going to be able to see this all through the whole letter, and even into 2 Corinthians. It's this pride of man. I think it probably could be said that pride is the root of sin. It's man glorifying himself and regarding himself as wise, and it has to be destroyed, this pride, else everything else is wrong. And we'll see, you'll be able to trace back to every one of the problems in the church at Corinth that Paul is going to have to address, you'll be able to trace it all back to this sin, then, of pride. Paul is telling us this, the Lord will not share his glory with another. He will never empower any message, any so-called gospel, that leaves room for man to boast, that allows man to brag about and to take even partial credit for gaining a right standing before God. God will not bless that kind of ministry, that kind of gospel, which is a false gospel, no gospel then at all. and every one of us need to be on guard against this sinful pride that results in boasting, and specifically boasting before God. It sneaks up on you, and you start thinking that somehow or other we have contributed to our own salvation. Man's sinful pride was always at work to raise man up and bring God down, lower God, exalt man. Romans 10, Paul said the same thing. Here's the same lesson. But the righteousness based on faith says, and in other words, the gospel, this righteousness that comes through faith alone in Christ alone, says, don't say in your heart, now don't be telling yourself something like this. Who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. What is he saying here? He's saying, now don't start thinking like this. Don't start thinking about about how you somehow have to work to bring Christ, the Savior, down, or somehow contribute to him going up into the presence of God, saying, well, who's gonna do this? Who's gonna ascend? Who's gonna descend? Don't do that. But what does the gospel, what does it say? The word is near you. In your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The ascending and descending, that's all God's work. That's already been done. Now we simply believe. That's the gospel, you see. There's no room for boasting. There's no room for man's pride. Salvation is entirely of the Lord. And that's why Zechariah, in an earlier chapter, in chapter 4, said this. Then he said to me, the Lord, through Zechariah, said this. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. You know, they were trying to rebuild the temple and so forth, returning after the captivity. And things were pretty discouraging. And so the Lord sends Zechariah to King to Zerubbabel, and he says, don't fret. Don't fret. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of Hosts. That's how this thing's going to be done. I'm going to do it. I've been reading, as I told you, for a second time through the biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones by Ian Murray. two-volume, big two-volume set. Read that carefully. Read it carefully. You'll know more biblical doctrine and biblical philosophy of ministry than most pastors do, all right? It's a very, very excellent resource. But Lloyd-Jones understood the foolishness of the cross, and he understood You don't mess with the gospel. You don't change the gospel so that somehow you attract people. Well, we've got this gospel. This thing's kind of repugnant to people. We've got to dress it up a little bit here, you see. It's all motivated by sinful pride. Here's an excerpt from that book. Lloyd-Jones said, we seem to have a real horror of being different. He means us Christians, people, right? Hence, all of our attempts and endeavors to popularize the church and make it appeal to people. I think he was preaching this in his first church back in late 1920s. Nothing new under the sun, right? We seem to be trying to tell people that they're joining a church. It won't make them so very different after all. We're no longer Puritans, we say. We believe that the Puritans overdid things and made Christianity too difficult for people. They frightened people with their strictness and their unnecessarily high standards, but we are not so foolish as to do that. Instead, however, we provide so-called sporting parsons, men of whom the world can say that they are good sports, whatever that may mean. And what it does so often mean is they are men. He's talking about pastors now. They are men who believe that you can get men to come to church by playing football and other games with them. I shall fraternize with these men, says such a minister. I will get them to like me and to see that I am not so different from them after all. And then they will come to listen to my sermons. By the way, that was the philosophy of the first home missions agency that Verla and I were with when we went to our first church. And it never sat right with me. It never sat right with me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. They emphasized, you've got to get out there and cut firewood with these people. And once they get to know you, then they'll come to church. That's exactly what he's talking about here. In fact, I can remember the director of the mission once. And this was like a theologically conservative mission. But I can remember him at a conference telling us once, you guys think too highly of your preaching. You know, you've got to just shorten those sermons. You need to get out there and visit the people and so forth. That is exactly what Lloyd-Jones is telling us is so wrong. And because that's what God's word says, it's wrong. He said, well, I'm not so different after all. Then they'll come and listen to my sermons. And so he tries it. But thank God, he almost invariably fails as he richly deserves. Now, he might fail to accomplish anything significant. But maybe some guys, by their personality, they can get all kinds of people coming to church. But that kind of a person also won't be faithfully preaching the gospel, preaching God's word, when they do come. So no one's truly saved. The man who only comes to church because he likes the minister as a man is of no value at all. And the minister who attempts to get men there by means of that subterfuge is for the time being guilty of lowering the standard of truth which he claims to believe. Now, it's not only pastors that can fall into that. Entire churches can fall into that, you see. The Corinthians error was very much the same as what Lloyd-Jones is describing. They wanted to be popular with their world. They wanted a gospel that would be regarded as wise according to the standards of the world in which they live. Greek philosophical culture, and so on. They were far too much like that culture, which it valued man's wisdom, his oratorical skills, and his philosophical systems. And that same pressure is being put upon us today, isn't it? Come on. We're being more effective. We're not popular. We've got to do something to make ourselves popular and liked and so forth. As soon as we do that, we are embracing a false gospel and we are also embracing a false method of preaching the message. You know, I can remember in my earlier days, years ago, I think probably before I came, even maybe in my earliest years of being a pastor, You might be, maybe in the community where you are, there would be some little small church without many people going to it. And the people that went to it were senior, senior citizens. I've just described us, right? But in those days, I would look, hmm, well, there's a dying church. Something must be wrong there. Now, conceivably, There could have been something wrong. There could have been maybe a false gospel and maybe liberalism or so forth. But boy, my views have changed on that one. And now when I see, when I drive by somewhere and I see a really big building and cars and people flocking in there, now I think something's wrong there. Something is wrong there. God doesn't work that way. He doesn't work according to the world's thinking. I mean, here he is, almighty God, omnipotent. He, the one who, he just speaks his word, and in that word there is creative power. He speaks and the thing is. This God, he chooses to work his power through a king who comes humbly mounted on a little burrow, and even more so, and more shocking, through a king that's hanging on a Roman cross. We become rather familiar with those facts, but they don't impact us like they should. You see the irony of it, even here in this triumphal entry Zacharias' prophecy, this king, he's hanging on a cross. 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved is the power of God. Same thing, Romans 1, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed for faith as it's written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. You see it. It's in, this is how God chooses to work. In the word of the cross, in his gospel, as it is proclaimed, that's the word that he promises to bless with his power to salvation. But it's the only gospel. That's why Paul says, he opens his letter to the churches of Galatia, if any man's preaching another gospel, which is no other gospel, but if he's preaching another gospel, let him be anathema, set apart for God's destruction. You notice here that in verse 17, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, that Paul uses the word gospel. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. So here he calls this message the gospel. But in the very next sentence, verse 18, listen to it again, he uses a term which is synonymous to the gospel. He says, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. What is the gospel? The gospel is a word. It's the word, and what's it a word about? It's a word of the cross. It's the message of Christ, the son of God, coming into this world and going to the cross, becoming a curse for us, for our sins, and it is that message through the preaching of that message that God unleashes his power upon his people who hear it, all right? And his power is effectual then for their salvation. So here is this king that's crucified, and it looks like an ultimate defeat. But it's not. This whole business, the whole thing, this whole Christian thing, the gospel, is foolishness. It's stupidity to the world. And if you're one of those, you're a fool. You are stupid. Well, that's how the world regarded Christ, you see. And not only did they regard him that way, they hated him. And so following Christ will result in the same thing then for us. How does the world, according to the world's wisdom, what is a king? Well, a king is a person, surely this Messiah, he should have blown into town with great pageantry and trumpets sounding, and he's on this powerful stallion, and a bunch of prisoners that he'd conquered. He's leading them. That's how he should have. That's how he should have come, you see. But that's not how he came. Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt. the foal of a beast of burden." And so here's all the people, and they're throwing their coats and cloaks and garments down on the road before him. They're throwing down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. And they're all shouting out this Hosanna, Lord save us thing. Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And other people are hearing about it. The whole town is stirred up. What's going on? Who is this? And people are saying, well, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Now, I might be speculating a bit here, but it seems to me Like there's some, what do we want to say, cognitive dissonance going on here in these crowds. And what I mean by that, cognitive, that has to do with your thinking. Dissonance means two opposite things smashing together. So here they are, these crowds, they're throwing down their cloaks in front of him like for a king. The word's getting around, here he comes, and they're throwing down these, tree branches, and so forth, to garnish his way in. And they're shouting out, Hosanna, Hosanna, Lord, save us. This is the big thing. And then, now just imagine he's clear off in the distance still. And they're doing all this. And there's just all this fervor going on. And then here he comes. And he's humble. And he's on a burrow. Apparently, they kept putting the branches down, and they kept shouting their hosannas. But don't you think they had to be denying the obvious? I mean, the obvious here was God is going to effect his salvation through his son, who is utterly humbled. And he comes with this utter humility, and that it's like, Wait a minute, wait a minute. Apparently, God's way is not my way. This is very different than I had imagined. This is not the kind of king that I figured we're going to see when the Messiah comes in. So you've got these things, this supposed greatness, their idea of a king that they wanted, and then what God presents them here as a king. And then they're just kind of like, oh, well, I just won't think about that right now. And they keep throwing the branches down. And of course, pretty soon, they're going to crucify him, not long then after. Well, this just demonstrates ignorance of God's way of salvation, ignorance of the word of the cross, of the gospel. And if we This is dangerous stuff because our enemy is subtle and he's crafty, and he's always at work trying to insert these false notions and ideas about God and about how God saves us so that we will tweak the message, we'll alter the message, and we'll start boasting then ourselves. If we start thinking about the gospel as some message that allows for us to boast, to take even some little tiny piece of credit for our salvation, we will be on a path not only of embracing a false gospel, we'll be opening the doors to our churches to a wolf. And here's how this works. I put a quotation here that describes it. The wolf knows how powerful he is, how he can be, right, in the pulpit. You understand this. Now, this is how the enemy works. He craves to creep into the church and particularly to be in position in the church. So the wolf knows how powerful he is in the pulpit and is not afraid to let everyone know it. It's possible that the congregation does not realize just how narcissistic such a minister is. But they all boast that he's unlike all others, right? So they're boasting here. Oh, he may not have a great deal of empathy, but he does possess an irrefutable skill as an orator. His sermons touch the souls, that is, the emotions of his followers. And he's frequently praised as being an effective tool for saving sinner souls. He may be overly dramatic at times, but when the congregation hears his rich, sonorous voice, they acknowledge that their pastor is superior to others, and they feel lucky to have him. This is a narcissist's dream, dream position. That is, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Do you see the connection? The connection is, if you start thinking falsely about the gospel, about the word of the cross, if you start thinking falsely about how God saves sinners, and you inject into your thinking on this, your doctrine, that allows for man to contribute to his salvation, that's what Arminianism is, by the way, then, immediately then, you're going to be opening yourselves up to be receptive to a false gospel that allows for man's boasting. Where is the word of the cross really found? I mean, what does a real minister of Christ look like? Or for that matter, what does a real Christian look like, you see? What do the true people of Christ look like? What does a true church look like? Here's the Apostle Paul, and he's reminding these boastful Corinthians, he is reminding them of the example that he set when he came to them. This comes from the first part of chapter two. And I, when I came to you brothers, and it's like he's saying, now just hold on a minute. You guys are infected with pride and worldly thinking. You're about ready to embrace a false gospel. You think back to what I did when I came to you. He says, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. It's my opinion, and my opinion is right, that most local churches today consist of people whose faith rests upon the wisdom of men and not upon the gospel, which is the word of the cross. What's the content of the word of the cross? Well, listen to it again. This is verses 21 through 24. of 1 Corinthians 1. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, through worldly wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Now, what does this mean? Among other things, it means if we are going to be saved, if we are going to follow Christ, we have to be ready and willing to be regarded by the world as fools. Now, if you want a good tool to examine yourself as to, you know, am I really saved? Am I born again? Well, are you ready to be regarded as a fool? Or do you still seek popularity with the world, with those around you, you see? Christian, remember Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, he left the city of destruction. And what happened almost immediately, even from his family, he was regarded as a fool, as stupid. If you're a Christian, if you're really born again, you are a fool to the world, to your unsaved family, to your coworkers, to your neighbors. You'll even be regarded as a bigot because you say Christ is the only way, then, to God. Now, by way of encouragement here, I've experienced this, Verla's experienced it, and most of you have experienced it. You need to recognize, that if you are being regarded as a fool by family and friends and even some people that claim to be Christians, but you can tell, they regard you as a fool. Oh, yeah, that guy, too extreme there in this religion thing. And you can pick up in their tone that they virtually hold you with Contempt, and sometimes that contempt and derision isn't hidden very well then at all. And when you experience that, you can start wearing some false shame. You can start thinking, if you don't understand what's going on, you can start thinking, man, have I done something wrong here? Have I? And it keeps happening to me. It keeps happening to me. People, family members, and whoever, things seem to be going along. And then it's like things change. And they don't even want to be around. What's going on there is that you are being regarded as a fool. Now, don't purposely be a fool. That's stupid stuff. But follow Christ, you will be regarded as a fool. And it gets kind of lonely sometimes. But there it is. That's what it means to follow Christ. Because the wisdom of God, the word of the cross, his way of salvation, is foolishness to the world. It itself is ultimate wisdom, because it's the wisdom of God. That's why Jesus said, look. If you're going to follow me, you're going to have to die to yourself. You're going to have to take up your cross and follow me. You're going to have to be willing to lose everything because the world, if it gets a chance, will take everything then from me. You know, we haven't sung that hymn for a while. The title is simply everything. Remember it? What will it cost me to follow the Lord? Everything. including reputation then. But in living out that gospel, you're also preaching the gospel, which is the message that God is going to use powerfully to save others that he's calling to himself. You know, in the end, we see it here in this text. You distill all of humanity down from the very beginning till now. Take everybody that's ever lived, Boil it down to the fundamentals. It's only two classes of people. There's only two. You have it here in verse 18. Those who are perishing and those who are being saved. There's no third category. That's it. Those who are perishing, those who are being saved. Everybody here, everybody listening online right now, everybody in the world is in one of those two places. And notice the present tense there. Right now, you're either perishing or you're being saved. Now, the Bible will use different titles for those two categories, but there's only two categories. So for example, there are those that are outside the ark, perishing in judgment. And there are those inside the ark, being saved through faith in God's word. Or you might put it this way. There are those who are under law, and therefore under condemnation, and there are those who are under grace in Christ. There are those who are in Adam, and there are those who are in Christ. It's simple. It's simple. There's only two, you see, and we are in one or the other. Now, a lot of times, people who, especially those that would claim to be Christians, they want to have their cake and eat it too. They fancy it this way. That's just too black and white. It's too black and white. I remember telling a professor in seminary this one time. I mean, I still hadn't gotten things sorted out completely, but he had been telling us in the class, some things that were kind of confusing to me, and afterwards I said to him, uh, yeah, but, you know, John in 1 John, he's like pretty black and white. If you say you love God, but you hate your brother, you don't love God. All right, that's, that's how it is. You either are or you aren't. And his answer, his answer was, uh, well, you know, John was the apostle of that more black and white approach. But that's the characteristic of John. That guy later dumped his wife and kids for another woman, you see, down there. But at any rate, look it. You're either in the city of destruction, or you're out of it, and you've gone out of it like Christian did. You see, it's one or the other. So here's the question, then. Pretty vital question. How do I know which category I'm in? How do I know I'm being saved or whether I'm perishing? Which one is it? Pretty important question. Am I under God's wrath or under grace? There's another couple of titles for the same thing. Under God's wrath and condemnation or under grace and justified. You've got the answer right here in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18. Here's the answer. This is how you can know which category you're in. For the word of the cross is folly, foolishness, to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. Now look, this calls for ruthless honesty and self-examination. The height of foolishness is for a person to live their life in this world and willfully deceiving themselves and believing a lie. I mean, look it. If you're the one of the ones that are perishing, don't you think you probably need to figure that out and get right before God and be saved? But if somebody is dying of cancer or they have cancer and there's a remedy, it's probably a pretty good thing to find out about that and to pursue some kind of healing. We need to know. Those to whom the word of the cross is foolishness and those to whom the word of the cross is the power of God to salvation. There are people that it's easy to tell, all right, even if they deny it. The kind of person who, when they hear the gospel, when they hear about Christ, when they hear the word of the cross and their need of a savior and their sin and so forth, they just openly mock it. disdain the gospel and disdain Christ. It's all foolishness to him and repugnant, this business of needing to be rescued from hell. They'll mock that message and the messenger that preaches it. Those kind are evident. Obviously, those people are the ones that are perishing, okay? They're under God's wrath and condemnation. But as we said earlier, our enemy is cunning. He is subtle, and he's crafty, and we can be deceived in this matter. Many, many, many people who would be highly offended and angry if somebody suggested, you know, are you sure you're saved? Are you really sure of that? Do you belong to those who are being saved category, you see? And yet, you know, They profess to be Christians, maybe they're a member of a church, and so on. But in reality, down in the depths of their thinking, maybe they've even deceived themselves, they think that the word of the cross is foolishness. And it turns out then, they are those who are perishing. Well, how can we tell? Is the word of the cross foolishness to you? What do we mean by the word of the cross? We mean the gospel in its entirety. It means everything, everything that the Bible includes under the heading of gospel. Now, this gets easier to discern. If we look at the whole gospel, all right? The gospel is good news. The word of the cross is good news, but it begins with bad news. If the good news doesn't begin with bad news, it's not the gospel. So how can I tell if I, I mean, basically, I want to examine myself. How can I tell if the gospel is foolishness to me? How can I tell that? Well, begin with where the gospel begins. begin with where Paul begins in Romans, right? Where does he begin? Where does he set out? For the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unthankfulness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And on he goes. And then he goes and he particularly zeroes in on the Jew in chapter 2. And then he gets into it here in Romans chapter 3. What then? Are we, and that should be Christians, are we any better off than everybody else? No, not at all. We've already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it's written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they've become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And Paul's not through yet. This is, look it, this is where the gospel begins. And to examine yourself, you look at that and you say, do I think that's foolishness? Do I disagree with that? But he goes on, verse 13. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of aspen is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Who is that talking about? It's talking about me. It's talking about you, about every human being that's ever been born into this world. That is the natural man. That is the sinner. And so we examine ourselves. Well, what do I think about that? What do I have to say about that? This is the beginning of the gospel. It's the real test here. And we need to face the thing. Truthfully, let's put it this way, all right? Let me put it this way. How do I respond to this description, this terrible description of man and his sin, of me in my sin apart from Christ as I came into this world? How do I respond to it? Well, Paul gives us another way to test ourselves. Is your mouth closed when you read this, when you hear this? Close. Has your mouth been shut by this description so that all of your excuses are done away with? You stop arguing with God so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God, you see. There it is. Habakkuk 2, verse 20. The Lord is in his holy temple. He is holy, holy, holy. Let all the earth keep silence before him. It's like, Lord, I'm convicted. Your description of me in sin is absolutely accurate. I have nothing to say. I have no excuses. No ifs, ands, or buts. I remember when I was a teenager, our family attended a Baptist church, and it was a liberal one, American Baptist Convention, still liberal today. And in fact, Verla and I were married there, fortunately by another pastor, by her pastor, who was a genuine Christian. But that church had all the trappings. I drove by it recently, and they added on to it and so on. But it had this beautiful sanctuary. And it had a big organ. It had a good-sized choir. The choir was led by my high school physics teacher. And the pastor's wife had this almost an operatic voice and presentation, which she was very proud of. You could tell she and the pastor later divorced one another. Somebody ran off with somebody or whatever. But every Sunday in that church, you had the pastoral prayer. And it was rather flowery and so forth. And the whole thing was scripted, because as soon as the pastor said amen, that was the cue for the choir to break out in Habakkuk chapter 2. The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before him. And they'd go through that about three times, and then they'd say amen and amen. But I can tell you what. In a church like that, if the pastor would ever preach on Romans 3, verses 9 through 20 of that description and preach it without compromise, the mouths of those people would be anything but shut. I mean, the fangs would come out. the excuses would come across, oh, come on, Paul didn't mean that. Well, that's just Paul's opinion. Or, no, no, no, your interpretation of Paul, Pastor, is just way too harsh. Man, it's not all that bad. Surely, there's many good people in this world. And do you see the gravity and weight of what Paul's saying here? No, there isn't. Not even one. There is none who does good. Did you understand that? Let me say it again. Not even one. And all together, they've all together become useless. Until my mouth is shut in response to those truths about me, and until the objections and excuses cease coming from my mouth, I am not and cannot be a Christian, right? People, think about that. It's very sobering. You can't truly leave Sodom and be saved from God's wrath if you look back longingly for it and the life that you led that was, come on, Sodom wasn't such a, those people weren't all that bad, completely, you see? Surely God can't be telling us that no one is good. That can't mean what he means. But that kind of a person is still, in God, you can put it this way, you're still running off at the mouth. You need to shut up. That's what Paul is saying, that every mouth should be closed because Until we see the depth and gravity of our sin and our hopeless condition before a holy, holy God, there's no point in going on with the good news part of the gospel, because such a person doesn't really see their need of a savior. They contribute themselves. They have some goodness that God will take into account, you see. I don't really need, you know, this whole idea of me being that bad off and needing the Son of God to die a bloody death on the cross for me. I think I'm gonna have to, surely God must have meant something else by the cross than that. Can't be this substitutionary atonement thing. He who knew no sin was made to be sin on my account so that I might become the righteousness of God in him. No, the cross must mean something besides that. I know God, through his son on the cross, was setting a great moral example for us to follow. It's great. Look at how self-sacrificing he was there. And I need to follow in his steps in that regard, you see. And so they will even, such a person will even redefine what the cross is then, you see. The cross is absolute folly. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. There's how you examine yourself. Don't just start off with a gospel that says, well, God loves you. God is love. He loves you. He understands your foibles and so on. He has a great plan for your life. God does not love those who hate him. He loves his people. But his people are people who have come, who have had their mouths shut by the work of the law, convicting them, showing them of their sin, so that they don't even dare look up to heaven with their head bowed. May God be merciful to me, a sinner, because that's my only hope, you see. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. Let me close with this great quote from good old J.C. Ryle. Let's remember, not the least, the enormous injury which we may do to souls if we once allow ourselves to depart in the least degree from the simplicity of the gospel, either in our doctrine or in our worship. Who can estimate the shipwrecks that might occur in a single night and the lives that might be lost if a lighthouse keeper dared to alter just a little the color of his light? Who can estimate the deaths that might take place in a town if the pharmacist took on himself to depart but a little from the doctor's prescriptions? And who can estimate the wholesale misery that might be caused in a war by maps just a little wrong and charts a little incorrect. Who can estimate these things? Then perhaps you may have some idea of the spiritual harm that ministers may do by departing in the slightest degree from the scriptural proportions of the gospel or by trying to catch the world by dressing simple old evangelical religion in new clothes. Listen, we are surrounded by that deception today, surrounded by it. The churches, so many have embraced that. Let's dress up the old gospel, let's put it in new clothes, and then people, surely people will be attracted and be saved. And in doing so, all you do is lure them off to hell. Father, we thank you for these truths from your word. We pray that everyone here, everyone listening, you might enable us to truthfully examine ourselves, that we might not perish in our sins when you call us to depart out of this world. Father, we pray that we would recognize and confess that the description you've given of man in his sin of us In our sin, as we were born into this world in Adam's sin, is true. And if we've been making excuses to make ourselves be more attractive to ourselves and you, then we pray that you would work conviction in us to close our mouths and be done with those excuses and call out to Christ, who alone is our Savior. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen.