I Corinthians 1 tonight. I hope you found your place. Look at verse 17. Paul said, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and it will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer, the debater of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a son, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ." I like that, don't you? Crucified. "...and to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." What a passage of Scripture. Job, somebody asked the question, where do you find wisdom? Job asked that very question. Back in the book of Job chapter 28, we won't turn there, and he said, but where shall wisdom be found? He went on a search for it. When you read the verses of chapter 28 beginning verse 12 all the way to the end, he's searching for wisdom. He went into the deep caves of the earth with its gold and its silver and its precious gems, and wisdom wasn't there. He went into the depths of the ocean with all the beauties of the ocean and all the riches and all of that in search of wisdom, and he didn't find it. He comes to the end of the chapter, and here's what Job said. He said, The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. Matter of fact, you're going to find two places or two kinds. I probably should have put it that way in your notes by introduction tonight. And I went past the title and I'm in the introduction, guys, so you guys can catch up with me there. And I don't know what's in your notes because Christian does that. I saw it today and approved it, but I can't remember it in my mind. So there's really two kinds of wisdom. There is a worldly wisdom. Now you say, preacher, you read about the cross. Why are you talking about wisdom? Because that's where really true wisdom is found. You see, verse number 17 is transitional. It's a bridge. It's a bridge that takes us to where the real division was. And you'll see that, the root cause of it. And he's going to transition from dealing with the divisions in the opening chapter, the factions there within the church, the chaos. And then he talks about how that he's not to baptize, preach the gospel, because they had divided up, and I'll talk about that in a minute, not with the wisdom of words. And so there's a change, there's a move, and he starts talking about wisdom. And James talks to us about the characteristics of wisdom. There is a worldly wisdom. He said that it descendeth not from above. There is a wisdom that does not come from God. And it is earthly, it is sensual, it is devilish. You say, preacher, what in the world is going on that our legislators, godly legislators, have to fight in Raleigh? It is a wisdom that does not come from above. It is earthly, it is sensual, it is devilish. But then there's also a heavenly wisdom. That's what Job was talking about. True wisdom. The fear of the Lord. That is wisdom. And James says this way in James 3 verse 17, The wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable. Can I tell you the church at Corinth was anything but peaceable. It was filled with chaos and division and carnality. It was a sick church. It was diseased. He went on to say, it's gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Boy, that sure doesn't sound like Corinth, does it? Because the real problem in Corinth was the fact that they were glorying in the wrong thing. You'll find as we work our way through the end of chapter number 1, Paul's going to tell them where they're to glory. They were following men's wisdom rather than God's wisdom. The Greeks were lovers of wisdom. And they spent their time telling and hearing some new philosophy, dividing up into little groups, following this philosopher and that philosopher and these debater and that debater. And that's exactly what they were doing in the church. They just carried it over into their Christian life. I'm of Paul. I'm of Cephas. I'm of Apollos. They're following men rather than God. And Paul's asking, where did your worldly wisdom get you? Can I tell you that there's all kinds of prognosticators? All kinds of debaters and philosophers in our day. And let me just say something. Worldly wisdom can ask the questions of life, but it has no answers. There's no answers. They can raise the questions, but they never give an answer. And you say, why is that? Look at verse number 21. Would you look there? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. And one writer said, They were so enamored by men, and their intellectual attainments, that they were in danger of obscuring the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so James told us the characteristics of wisdom, but when you come to I Corinthians chapter 1, Paul gives us the content of wisdom. If you were to say, Paul, where do you find wisdom? I believe he'd take you by the hand and lead you to Calvary. Christ and His cross was the heart of Paul's message. He's going to say over in chapter 2 verse 2, and he's going to carry this theme over into chapter number 2 and on through chapter number 3. And here's what he's going to say. He's going to say, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Can I say this, friend? The answer to the world's problems is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is not a problem in our world that the gospel can't solve. can't fix. To Him, the cross was the supreme expression of God's love and power and wisdom. I believe if I was to entitle Paul's words, it would be this. Hallelujah for the cross. Thank God for the cross of Calvary. Amen? Let's pray together, could we? Lord, thank You for Your Word tonight. Teach us something, Lord, about the wisdom that's found in the cross of Christ. Lord, help us as Your people to glory in the right thing. Lord, if we're not careful, we become glory seekers. But yet Lord, we're to be glory givers. And that glory belongs to You. And Father, I pray that You would unite us tonight through Your cross. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Hallelujah for the cross. Why? Because that's where wisdom's found. Godly wisdom. God's wisdom is found in the cross. First of all, in the priority of the cross. The priority of the cross. Look at verse 17 again. You remember, Paul, they were probably dividing up over who baptized them. And Paul said, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you, but a few. And he said, "...for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." Paul is not minimizing baptism. We preached on baptism on Sunday night, the importance of it in the life of a new believer. But what he is doing is showing the supreme importance of the cross. Paul is going to refer to Calvary some fourteen times in this letter, and he brings the cross of Christ to bear upon the Corinthian conceit and carnality and chaos and division and corruption because the Corinthians were glorying in their wisdom when they should have been glorying in the cross. By the way, you can bypass the baptistry and make it to heaven, but you can't bypass the cross. If you want to go to heaven, you have to go by way of the cross. You see, man's wisdom says this. Man's wisdom is this, that we're the master of our own fate. That we have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Friend, can I tell you, man's wisdom always leads to futile failure. Man's wisdom says you have to do something in order to be saved. God's wisdom says it's already been done. By the way, if baptism were part of the Gospel, then Paul would have said that Christ sent me to baptize and to preach the Gospel, and he didn't say that, did he? No, he said, he sent me to preach the gospel. Because baptism follows the gospel. It's the gospel that saves. Can I just say something tonight, church? If there had been no cross, there would have been no sacrifice. Hey, there'd be no Easter. I think I'm safe in here. We had people leave our church one time because a preacher preached on the Easter bunny. Some people got mad and left. I'd just come here and I thought the pastor did a really good job. I got upset. And I'm not against bunnies and dying eggs and having family. I'm not against any of that, but you understand that's not Easter. Easter is the fact that He's alive. That's what Easter is. We have a risen Savior. And if there had been no cross, there would have been no sacrifice, no pardon, no peace, no reconciliation, no justification, no sanctification, no remission, no redemption, no forgiveness, no experience of salvation, no blessed hope, no message to tell. I just want to say, church, tonight, thank God, hallelujah, for the cross tonight. Do you realize this? Listen, it's not that you go to the cross to be saved and that's the end of it. No, every blessing and every benefit that you and I enjoy as Christians flows out from the cross of Christ. God said, He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Everything flows out from the cross. It's where God's wisdom is found. It's the priority. But then notice, secondly, the power of the cross. Look at verse 18. Now, I want you to stay with me for just a moment because he's going to delve into wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world. Notice what he says, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is the power of God. Now, let me just help us to understand something with this particular word, preaching. That word does not mean what I'm doing right now. Okay? It's not the method. The Word here, preaching here, is the message preached, not the actual method of preaching. That's going to come later. This is the message, the Word of the cross, what is preached. Not the act, but the message. that is being preached. And He's dealing with the wisdom of that. And to the world, the message, the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. And can I remind us that what man in his wisdom cannot do, Christ through His cross can and does do. The wisdom can't change lives. Man's wisdom can't change lives, but God's wisdom can through the cross. He's dealing with the Word, the message itself. It's a simple message. Paul said, I'm not going to preach at verse 17 with wisdom of words, with clever speech and persuasive words and flowery eloquence. Different preachers have different styles. They have different deliveries. Some men never move from the pulpit. Some men speak softly. Some men are loud. Some men have antics and they're all over the place preaching up and down the aisle. And can I tell you, there's no power in any of that. It's not the delivery. It's the message. Some have more dynamic deliveries than others. Listen, the message is no less powerful because it's not the preacher, it's what he preaches that makes the difference. Paul said, I didn't come to you in philosophical words and language and clever arguments and prowess of mind. He said, it's not my words, but His cross that's powerful in the lives of those that believe. Can I help us understand? The gospel tonight, church, is not a hard message. It is a simple message. It's not difficult. God has put the cookies on the bottom shelf so that everyone can get to them. So that a five-year-old can get to them. Let me tell you, if a five-year-old can get to the cookie, surely you and I can. You see, that's why the world sees the gospel as foolish. It's beneath them. It's not sophisticated. But yet it's the simple message of the cross that makes the difference in our lives. But it's not just a simple message. Could I say tonight it's a saving message. Now Paul's going to divide the world. Here's where the real division is. The division shouldn't be in the church. That's what Paul's letting them know. That's not where the division should be. It shouldn't be that you're following Apollos and you're following Peter and some of you are trying to follow me and others are saying that you're following Christ in a little pious, pharisaical mindset. It's almost a word of sarcasm there because they really weren't following Christ. They were just trying to be more spiritual than everybody else. and they were all divided up. And Paul said, let me tell you something. This is not where the division's at. The division shouldn't be in the house of God. The division is out in the world between those who hear the cross and receive it and those who hear the cross and reject it. That's where the division's at. Look what he says again. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. To the world it is a silly message. That's it. It's a silly message. I'm not sure what's next. Go ahead and hit the button. There you go. Look at that. That fills in the blanks. I think I said those, but I probably said them at a different time and in a different way. And so these guys, they're just doing the best they can to keep up with a preacher that doesn't follow his notes exactly like he wrote them. How about that? And to the world, it's a silly message. That word foolishness means moronic. Moronish. They see the cross of Christ as a moronish, foolish, simple, silly message. I mean, who would put their trust in a dead man on a cross? To a Roman, to die on a cross was the worst form of execution for the worst form of insurrectionists. It was a symbol of the power and the domination of Rome. Why in the world would I want to put my trust in a man that was crucified? To the Greeks with their sophistication, how in the world can a dead man on a cross make any difference in my life? That was the thought. There's no sophistication there. I'm glad he's not dead on a cross though, aren't you? I'm glad he's alive. I'm reminded of the atheist Ted Turner. He's sort of falling off the scene. You don't hear much from him anymore. He's gotten old, I'm sure, and sort of no longer out saying things. But he was the humanist of the year more than one time and was given trophies for his atheism. He said, I don't want anybody dying for me. He said, I don't want anything about a cross and blood and weird stuff. It was just foolishness. He was above that. It was beneath him. Beneath him. Can I say sometimes that's why we're ashamed of the message? Not because we think it's beneath us, but we feel belittled by the world because we believe it. They make us feel foolish and silly. But yet to those who are saved, it's a saving message. Isn't that right? Look what he says, verse 18. But to us which are saved, it is the power of God. It's dynamic. It is life transforming. Let me give you some little bullets underneath that. The world rehabilitates. Christ regenerates. You see the difference? The world conforms. Christ transforms. I've been preaching the Gospel for nearly 35 years. I've watched it repair broken lives. I've watched it restore broken homes. I've watched it replace broken hopes and dreams. I just want to tell you, the greatest message this world has ever known or ever will know, the greatest message that you and I can ever share. Do we have a message for King and Pinnacle and Pilate Mountain and Winston-Salem and Shaw? Yes, it's the cross of Christ. That's it. That's the message. Because there's where the power's at. There's where the wisdom's at. That's what changes lives. Isn't that right? Now we get to the preaching. Now we get to the preaching. The preaching, that's the word, that's the message in verse 18. Let me just sort of work through these next verses for a moment. Now he's going to deal with the actual proclamation of the message. Look at verse 19. He said, for it is written. Here he's quoting, if you want to write down in your notes, he's quoting Isaiah 29.14. Now when you go look up Isaiah 29.14, let me tell you what's happening there. Assyria, the Assyrian empire is invading Judah. And the king has called his wise men and his counselors and his generals together. And he is sort of like putting your war cabinet together and he's asking them what they think that he should do. How should I respond to this Assyrian threat? And not one of them said, well, let's go to God. Not one of them said, let's pray. Not one of them said, let's fast. Not one of them said, let's call a solemn assembly and bring the nation together and ask God to deliver us. They said, let's go to Egypt. Egypt in the Bible is always a picture of the world. Let's go to the world and let them help us. And God said, there's no help in Egypt. I've already told you that. And He said, I'm going to destroy the wisdom of the wise. All these war generals and all of these statesmen that claim they have the wisdom and the answer, King, I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to bring their wisdom to nothing because I've already told you where the answer's at. It's in Me. And you've rejected that. And Paul is bringing that over to the Corinthian church into this matter of the cross. And he's saying, listen, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. You see, friend, here's the thing. The world thinks it's so wise, but they don't have any answers. But yet, a simple preacher can come with the message of the Gospel and lives can be transformed. It can do what the world cannot do. Look at verse 20. He said, where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Now when he talks about the wise, that's the wisest of the Greeks. The scribe would be considered the wisest of the Jews. Where's the disputer, the debater of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? The world with all of its sophistication, with all of its flowery speech. But yet the world isn't getting better. Is the world getting better? No. My friend, when the Gospel is preached, it can revolutionize a home, a family, a life, a community, a nation. Isn't that amazing? Notice he goes on to say in verse 21, look there if you would. For after then in the wisdom of God, God made a choice that in His wisdom He's chosen that the world by wisdom cannot know Him. You're not going to know God and find God through your own reasoning and sophistication and ideas. No, that's not where you find God. You don't find Him through human reason, but divine revelation. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching." Here is the proclamation of the message to save them that believe. You know, I was saved because of a man of God that preached the gospel. Changed my life. Is that how your life was changed? Sure. Either directly or indirectly. God's calling out the wise. And the truth is when we combine all the wisdom of men and all their scientific achievements through 4,000 years of recorded history, they can't save one soul or change one human life. Isn't that interesting? The world with all of its learning thinks it has the answers and God's made it foolish. He talks about the fallacy of man's wisdom that it can't save, it can't change. Where is it at? I've made it foolish, the futility of it, the world by wisdom knew not God." They can't find God. Think about it. The unbelieving astronomer peers through a telescope into the galaxies of space and he wows himself at all the beauties of the universe, but yet he cannot find the God who created it. An unbelieving scientist looks through a microscope at a DNA strand of a human being and stands in awe, but he cannot find the God who made it through his own wisdom. Look at verse 21. It pleased God though that by the foolishness of preaching. How do you find God, preacher, through His Word? Look at verse 22, for the Jews require a sign. They're chasing signs. Remember what they said to Jesus? Give us a sign. Give us a sign. And every sign they wanted another sign and they wanted another sign. Do another miracle. Do another miracle. Prove to us. Prove to us. And finally the Lord said, I'm not going to give you any sign but the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah's three days and three nights hard at the earth, so the Son of Man's going to be three days and three nights. As He was in the belly of the whale, the Son of Man will be three days, three nights and hard at the earth. Let me tell you what the sign is. It's my cross and my resurrection, and that's all you need. That's what He's saying. Jews today, show us a sign. Show us a sign. Greeks pursuing wisdom, ever learning and ever able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what he's saying. Can I help us understand something? That's why the world can't find God. They're either sign seekers or wisdom chasers. And a simple message of the cross is just too foolish to believe. That's it. That's why you don't find this message in the great cathedrals and large churches with all their floweriness and worship and ritual. You don't find God there. Because preaching on sin and redemption and the cross and the blood of Christ, that's beneath them. And they don't find God. Notice what he says in verse 23, but we preach Christ. Oh, there's just a message right there, isn't there? Crucified and the Jews a stumbling block. Let me give you the word. That word stumbling block means a scandal. For the Jews, it was a scandal. See, let me help you understand where Paul's coming from. He was one of them. He was a Pharisee. Remember? Pharisee of the Pharisees? He was a Bible scholar. Isn't it amazing? Now watch this. Do you know that you can be a Bible scholar and not know God? Paul was. He was an expert in the Old Testament and he didn't know God. We have seminaries across our land, especially in your Ivy League schools and all of these places, and there are these New Testament scholars and Old Testament scholars and experts in the Bible, but yet they don't know God. By the way, they don't want to know God. But here's why it was a scandal for the Jews. Because to them, the Messiah was a king. And He's going to be coming in on a white charger, and He's coming in splendor, and He's going to throw off the yoke of Rome, and He's going to set up a great kingdom. We don't want a dying Messiah. We want a reigning Messiah. Well, they're going to get one one day, but He had to die first. That's what He was saying. Had to get the cross before you got... Wait, wait, wait. Israel had greater enemies than Rome. It's called death and sin and hell. And Jesus dealt with the worst enemies first because He came to defeat him that had the power of death. That is the devil. Does that make sense to you? To the Greeks, he's going to say it again, that seek after wisdom. And to the Greeks, it's not just a scandalous thing. For the Jews, it was scandalous to have a dead Messiah. Of course, we know He's alive. But if you go to Israel today, they hate Jesus. They seethe at that name. They do. Don't talk to me about that. I don't want to hear it. It's not my Messiah. It's scandalous. But to the Greeks, the wise, the Gentile wise, it's just silly. Education might make you live smarter, but it won't make you live better. We have all kinds of... You know you can go to prison and get a PhD. You can. You can go to college and get a PhD. And they can get that, but you know what? You just got a smarter criminal. That's all you got. Not unless they get saved. Now there's some people that realize that the consequence of their actions and it changes them. Sure, there are those like that, but for many of them, they just learn how to be better criminals from each other. Am I telling the truth, Travis? Yeah. Notice, it's the foolishness of God wiser than men. I need to hurry. It's the weakness of God stronger than men. Look at verses 24 and 25, "...but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Now I want to hone in on something and then I'm going to expound these verses in the remaining part of the chapter next Wednesday night. I want to hone in on the word called for a second. Could I do that? but unto them which are called." There are those who believe in what's called a general call and an effectual call. What they're saying is that God has sent out a general call to all the world, but it's only effectual or powerful in those that are saved, almost like God has two different calls. And if you're not the effectual call, then you don't get it. And I believe that there's a call went out to all the world to be saved. I believe the call is, whosoever will, let him come. And it's up to the person whether or not they come. The call is effective because they believed. Does that make sense? So this word called means those who stand in special relation to God. It doesn't mean that God has made a selection and said, I'm going to choose you and you and you, but I'm not going to choose you. You're called, you're called, you're called, but wait a minute, you're not called. And you're called, but you're not. That's not how God did it. No, God called. And it's up to men to answer. And when we're saved, when we believe, we are the called of God. We have a high calling. It has to do with our relationship, our standing before God. That's what it has to do with. Those that have answered the call, that means they responded to the gospel. Otherwise, you fall into the Calvinistic trap. It'll lead there. There's some selected and some not selected. And can I just promise you this? God didn't determine who's saved and who's lost. He just determined how we could be saved, and it's up to us to respond to the message. And Paul is saying, you're the called. You've responded to the message whether you're a Jew or a Greek because both were in the church at Corinth. Here's what you've learned. That the cross of Christ, it's Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And if I could leave you with anything tonight, dear children of God, when you answered the gospel call, you are the called in Jesus Christ, and you know the power and the wisdom of God, and we don't have anything to be ashamed of. Not one thing. Wouldn't we say amen to that tonight? Hallelujah for the cross.