Alright, turn in your Bibles if you would please tonight to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of 1 Corinthians at the rate we're going. It's like Psalms, we'll never get done. But that's okay. We're going to try to get as much out of it as we possibly can. And find as much sweet, sweet truth as we can find. Look, if you would, please, verse number 26. Verse number 26. I Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26. Paul says, for you see. You know what he's asking them to do? He said, I want you to look around. He said, I want you to survey the congregation. That's what he's asking them to do. It's the idea of considering. He said, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. There wasn't a lot of wise after the flesh, wasn't a lot of mighty, and there wasn't a lot of noble in that church membership. But people of nobility. Look at verse 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. We're continuing the theme that Paul began up in verse number 17 as it dealt with wisdom. We realize that there was a problem in Corinth. The church was fractured. It was divided. It was sick. It was unhealthy. They had divided up into little groups, little cliques, and the problem was they were glorying in the wrong thing and they were following the wrong wisdom. They were following the wisdom of the world. But we already know that that doesn't come from above, James said. He said that worldly wisdom is earthly, it's sensual, it's devilish. You never find God in worldly wisdom. You never do. All of the sages and the philosophers of history and all the great thinkers, you never find God in those places. You don't think God up. No, we learn of God and know God through divine, not human reason, but divine revelation. They needed heavenly wisdom. James said that the wisdom from above is first pure. They weren't a pure church. Then peaceable. There was anything but peaceable there. They weren't gentle with one another. As you begin to read, there was a schism. There was carnality. There was corruption. and easy to be entreated, full of mercy. There wasn't shown a lot of mercy and good fruits without partiality. You're going to find you get over in chapter number 11, there was division between the wealthier members and the poorer members, and it was connected to the Lord's Supper, and God's chastening was on this church because of their abuse for the Lord's Supper. You're going to see that when we get to chapter number 11. Without hypocrisy. My, are you talking about people leaving the church at Corinth and saying there's not anything up there but a bunch of hypocrites? Well, they were right. They were right. They were anything but spiritual and godly and Christ-honoring. But God loved them. And God loves you and God loves me. They were less than what they should be, but how often are you and I less than what we ought to be as the children of God? He reminds them that they've been called to be saints, but they weren't living very saintly. And they were following the wisdom of men. And we've learned that the wisdom of God, if we were to say, Paul, where do you find true wisdom? He would take us by the hand and He'd lead us to Calvary. Because it's there, the wisdom of the cross that's the heart of Paul's message. He's going to tell them in chapter 2 verse 2, For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You remember our bridge verse, verse 17 of chapter 1? Look what he says, verse 17, For Christ sent me not to baptize. Remember, they were probably dividing up over who baptized them. And I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Peter, and then the other people. We were baptized in the name of Jesus, we're of Christ. And Paul said, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you except a few. He said, Christ didn't send me to baptize you, but to preach the gospel. But look what he says, verse 17, not with wisdom of words. not with some kind of eloquent flowery speech, some kind of philosophical thought and human reason, why lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. And then He begins for the next several chapters to show us where true wisdom is found. And it begins in the cross. Look at verse 18. For the preaching, the word, the message of the cross, Not the method of preaching, but the message of preaching. The message of the cross is to them that perish, to the world that are perishing. It's nothing but foolishness. But to us which are saved, it's the power of God. I believe He sang Hallelujah for the cross, wouldn't you? And we're going to look at that and finish up our thought this week. Lord, take Your Word tonight and Lord, apply it to our hearts and minds. Teach us, Lord, and help us to learn from the church at Corinth, Lord. I believe there's things to emulate here. There are some good things about this church, but Lord, there's much to be avoided. And I pray, Lord, that we would grow in our grace and that we as saints would reflect Christ not only to the world, Lord, but to one another. And Lord, that there would be the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace at Calvary Baptist Church. And Lord, that we would show forth Your grace and Your mercy to others. Help us to know Your wisdom tonight, Lord, that's found in the simple message of the cross. And I'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Paul said if you want to know where wisdom's found, then look at the cross. There is the wisdom of God. And we saw the priority of the cross. We saw that in verse 17 where he's not minimizing baptism. He's not doing that at all. Matter of fact, we know that baptism is the first step of faith for a new believer. It's the confession. A profession of our faith in Christ doesn't save us, but it is the testimony, it's the public testimony that we are saved. But Paul's reminding us that you can bypass the baptistry and make it to heaven, but you can't bypass the cross. And men's wisdom is this, you have to do something to be saved. But God's wisdom says that it's not a matter of what you do, it's what's a matter of it's already been done. And it's through His cross. And the message, the Word of the cross. And then we come, secondly, in our notes tonight, just to give us context where we're going to spend the lion's share of our time. The power of the cross in verse number 18. What man in wisdom cannot do, Christ through His cross has and does do. And the Word of the cross, a simple message, saves them that believe. Isn't that a blessing? And we know that it's a simple message. Aren't you glad the Gospel's not hard? There's those that try to make it hard, but it's not hard. Jesus has already done the hard part. It's a matter of us to receive it. And then we learned it's a saving message. And here's where the true dividing line's at. We learned that the division is not to be in the church. The division is in the world between those who hear the message of the cross and respond to it, and those who hear the message of the cross and reject it. To those who hear it, it's foolishness, it's moronic, it's silly. But to us which are saved, it's the power of God. That's what he's saying. And so the world, it's a silly message, but to the saved, it's a saving message. And then we came, thirdly, to the preaching. Here's the wisdom of God in the preaching of the cross. Remember verse number 19. He's going to destroy the wisdom of the wise, bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Then He calls for the wise and the... the scribe and the debater of this world, and saying, hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" Hey, can I tell you, you can go to all the philosophers, you can go to all the institutions of higher learning, you can go anywhere you want to go, and through man's human reason, you'll never find God. You just won't find God there. It's not there. An astronomer can peer through a telescope into the galaxies and marvel at the galaxies and yet not find God. You find God through His Word and you know Him through His cross. The cross of Christ. Notice God's chosen, verse 21, that after the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Here's the method. The message is in verse 18. The method is in verse number 21, where it pleased God by the foolishness, not foolish preaching. I tell you what, I hear a lot of foolish preaching on the radio. There's plenty of foolish preaching on TV and on the Internet. Can I help you understand? Don't get your preaching off of the internet unless you know who you're listening to. I'm just going to tell you. The worst thing you can do is have a Bible question and Google it. Go to the pastor. Go to one of the pastoral staff. Go somewhere to somebody that knows something rather than going there. Okay? Because I'm amazed at what's there. I'm amazed at what's not there. All you have to do is let anything happen in the world. I don't care what it is. Let something happen in the world and some Bible prophecy just got fulfilled. and they're going to twist the Scriptures. It's crazy. President Trump's going to be the antichrist. It was Biden, now it's Trump. And then if the Lord doesn't come in four years, it'll be them, or it's so-and-so wherever. And the Bible tells you, you're not going to know who He is until after we're in heaven. Just listen to the Bible. Or you go on and you hear what a four-year-old saw when they went to heaven. Can I help you understand something tonight? Listen, I know that feels fuzzy and sweet and kind, but if God wouldn't let Paul tell you what he saw in heaven, why do you think he's going to let a four-year-old do that? I'm not trying to be unkind. I'm just trying to help us to think soberly and wisely. And you're going to find it through the preaching of the cross. Not foolish preaching, but the foolishness that somebody like me would get up here and yell at you for 30 minutes, and you would sit here and listen to it. How about that? Now, I don't yell. I hope I don't. But I am passionate. Okay? And we learn that it's the foolishness of God wiser than men, isn't it? Jews require a sign. Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ. Oh, there's a message there. Crucify. To the Jews, a stumbling block. It's scandalous to the Jews. To the Greeks, it's silly. What sophisticated Greek is going to believe on a peasant Jew who died on a cross? In their mind. That's their thinking. That's beneath us to believe that message. By the way, you go to Harvard and preach that message, that's exactly how they feel. That's unintellectual. That's what they would say. But to them which recall, verse 24, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And then he goes on to say, verse 25, because of the foolishness, what man counts silly, the silliness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. You see, the world sees the cross as a place of suffering and shame, but yet the saved see the cross as a place of victory and hope and overcoming. The world sees the cross as a place of weakness. The saved see the cross as a place of power and strength. The world sees the cross as an instrument of death, but those who are saved recognize it as an instrument of life. You see, what's weak is actually strong. And then he brings us to verse number 26. And then he's going to drive it home. He said, For you see your calling, brethren, have it not many wise men after the flesh. So now he's talking about the people of the cross. The people of the cross. And He said, I want you to consider, I want you to discern, I want you to understand something. While you're lifting yourself up, there's really a problem here. And He said, I want you to look at yourselves. And you're the evidence of the wisdom and the power of the cross. And it's the cross of Christ that's made the difference in your life. And your calling is a heavenly calling. And you'll notice that God turns the world's standards upside down. And He said, here's what I want you to look around. And you don't see a whole lot of wise men after the flesh. There's not a whole lot of sophisticated people. And there's not a whole lot of people of noble, wealthy birth. And there's not a whole lot of mighty, powerful people. There's just a bunch of ordinary people. Did you catch that? He said everything that you're glorying in, you're not. You're glorying in the wrong thing and you're following the wrong wisdom. God turns the world's standards upside down. Have you ever noticed that? The world chooses the wise, the sophisticated, the mighty, the noble, but God has chosen a different criteria. Listen, by the way, if God had chosen based on such criteria the wise, the mighty, and the noble, He would have passed the majority of us by. We would have been left out. But God chooses the ordinary rather than the extraordinary. so that no flesh can glory in His presence. A lady of yesteryear, her name was Lady Huntington. She was a woman of great breeding in the European world. She was led to Christ by an evangelist by the name of Roland Hill. Lady Huntington was from the highest ranks of British nobility. She was a woman of culture, a woman of training, a woman of wealth, a woman of prominence. She had the breeding. She had all of the things that the people at Corinth didn't have. When she gave her testimony, here's what she said. She said, I was saved by one letter. The letter M. She said, I'm glad the Bible says that not many are chosen rather than not any are chosen. That's pretty good, isn't it? Some humility there. Listen, can I help you understand something tonight? It's not that God doesn't call the wise and the mighty and the noble. It's that they don't answer the call. It's not that they don't need to be saved. It's not that God doesn't want them to be saved because He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Christ died for every person. I was listening to a podcast I enjoy listening to. I listen to it actually on a daily basis. The guy's brilliant. I don't believe all of his theology. Now, most of what we believe, we believe. But the guy is a full-blown hyper-Calvinist and he was talking about President Trump's statement out of the White House about Easter, and if you have not read that, you need to read it. It is powerful like it came out of a church's doctrinal statement on the cross and the resurrection and the hope of the gospel. It was amazing. I've never seen anything like it by any president that claimed to be a Christian. It's unbelievable. And he's dissecting it in a good way. And he said, now there's something I don't believe. He said, the gospel is not for all humanity. And I sort of caught myself. And I thought, well, that may be what you believe, but that's not what the Bible says. Because the Bible said that God would have all men to be saved. Aren't you glad God didn't leave anybody out? That anybody that wants to be saved can be saved. But here's the reason the wise, the mighty, and the noble usually do not come to Christ is because they allow their wisdom, and their might, and their standing, and their social status to keep them from being saved or used of God. It's not that God can't save them. It's not that God can't use them. They don't want to be saved. In their minds, they don't think God has something to offer them. They have something to offer God. Let me just tell you something. Get out of your mind that God needs a celebrity to get the gospel out because He doesn't. God doesn't need you. God doesn't need me. God doesn't need a famous celebrity. God doesn't need any. But thank God He chooses to use us. Isn't that a blessing? We don't have anything to offer God. That's what he's sharing with them. I'm reminded of a preacher that told a story of what they call the week of champions. And they had these different people that these local pastors got together at a local high school, and they invited great athletes who were Christians to come and give testimonies, and then afterward an evangelist would bring a message. And I don't have a problem with that, but one night was Paul Anderson's night. He was reported in that day to be the strongest man in the world. And Paul Anderson said, someone asked him if he was ever a 98-pound weakling, and he said, yes, when I was four years old. Here was his testimony, if the strongest man in the world needs Jesus, so do you. That was his testimony. There was a young man, a young adult, who made a profession that week. At the end of the week, they were asking people that had made professions of faith what night it was, who gave their testimony, what they said that moved them to come to Christ. And so they talked to this young man that night that was a paraplegic in a wheelchair. A young man who had come to Christ. They asked him, said, what was it that Paul Anderson said that made you come to Jesus? And he said, nothing. It wasn't Paul Anderson. He said that night there was another man there who gave his testimony. He was a paraplegic in a wheelchair. He was injured in a diving accident. And that young man said, I looked at that man in the wheelchair, and I saw the radiance of Jesus on his face, and I saw the victory in his life, and I got to thinking, if Jesus Christ could do that for a man in a wheelchair, maybe Jesus Christ can do something for me. And I want to be saved. The strongest man in the world was in the auditorium that night, but God used a man in a wheelchair. to bring that college student to Christ. You see, it's not the wise, it's not the mighty, it's not the noble that God chooses to use. So there are those that God cannot use, but then He tells us who He can use. Look at verse 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things. of the world confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things, things looked down upon, and things which are despised, treated with contempt. Hath God chosen yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught nothing things that are. The least foolish, that that the world sees as silly, unsophisticated, to confound, to cause the wise and the mighty and the noble to blush with shame. It's amazing that all of the learning may make a man smarter, but it doesn't help him live better, but yet come to a church, sit in a Sunday school class, take a Bible study, learn the Word of God, listen to a preacher or a teacher, share the Word of God, and it can forever change their life, their marriage, their family, their future. Not necessarily great learning, not necessarily great sophistication, but just the simple truth of the Word of God that changes lives, and the world looks at it, and they look on, and they blush with shame. The weak. Those that are without strength. That word, base, in your text means low birth. Low birth. Now, I'm a Broyhill. Okay? I'm going to say that again. I'm a Broyhill. You say, what does that mean? Nothing. You go to my hometown and Broil Hill is on everything. I actually have a park named after Broil Hill in Blowing Rock. It's called Broil Hill Park. When we lived in Lenore, we would go up on the mountain in the summertime because it was usually 10 to 15 degrees cooler. We'd take the kids to the park and I'd say, come on honey, let's go to our park. But I promise it's not named after me. There's the Broyhill Civic Center. There's the Broyhill this. There's the Broyhill that. You go through that town, you think, I own Lenore, North Carolina. And I'm on the poor side. The people asked me, said, are you part of the Broyhill family? I said, absolutely I am. I'm just not on the rich side. But I'd rather have what I have than what they have. And there are those that know the Lord. I have a cousin that we connect on X now. It used to be Twitter. There's times he tunes in, listens to me preach, and he'll make some statements, or I'll notice something. A wealthy young man comes from a good family, loves Jesus, but you know what? The reality of it is, it's not his wealth that makes the difference, it's his relationship with Christ. We're brothers in the Lord. Low birth. You know what Winston Churchill said? He said, God must have loved the common people because He made a lot of them. God doesn't need wise and He doesn't need mighty. He just needs somebody to make themselves available to Him. Things that are not the nobodies. When you study the people that God used in the Bible, you ever notice that none of them really had a great resume? They really didn't. Well, Moses did. Yeah, God had to sit him on the backside of the desert for 40 years to get that out of him. Somebody said in their outline that he spent 40 years in Egypt learning to be a somebody, then God put him on the backside of the desert to teach him for 40 years, teach him how to be a nobody, and then God for the next 40 years made him a somebody. That's what God does. He takes nobodies and makes them somebodies for him. I'm going to tell you something. There's nothing greater you'll do with your life than make a difference for Jesus Christ. Wherever God places you in life... And I understand this. I get this. And I'm not picking on any preachers, because I get it. But you hear a preacher say, well, if I was anything other than a preacher, I'd have to take a step down. And I get that. I do. I get that. But at the same time, Can I help you understand something? What I do for Jesus is no more important than what you do for Jesus. It takes everybody. I can't bring hundreds of people to church on Sunday. I promise you if you go out and say, hey, Kevin Broyhill's preaching on Sunday morning. How about coming and hearing him? That would mean absolutely zilch nothing. But if you go to them and say, hey, you know what? You're my friend, and I'd really love if you'd come to church with me on Easter Sunday. That means something. I can't do that, but you can. I learned this. When I preach on a Sunday morning and somebody gets saved, It's just God chose at that moment to give the increase and we're picking fruit that somebody else has worked to see God ripen and make ready to receive the gospel. It's not me. It's the power of the gospel. Paul's going to tell them that. He said it's not Apollos. It's not Paul. It's not Peter. He said, one plants, one sows, one waters, but God gives the increase. Fanny Crosby, we know that was blinded at six weeks of age because of the maltreatment by a man posing as a doctor. He instructed her family to put a certain substance on her eyes and said it would clear up the infection in her eyes. Instead, it burned her eyes and blinded her. Six weeks of age, but yet God used her to write more than 9,000 hymns. We sing her songs here all the time. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine all the way. My Savior leads me. I am thine, O Lord. Praise Him. Praise Him. Jesus, keep me near the cross. Rescue the perishing. Tell me the... On and on and on it goes. Although she is blind, six presidents. that she was the guest of and a personal friend of President Grover Cleveland. Somebody said, Fannie, wouldn't you like to have your sight? And she said, your eyes have seen, but the first thing my eyes will see is the blessed face of my Savior. that God takes the things that the world looks on as despised and base and nothing and contemptible and unsophisticated and does great things. Why? Notice He said to bring to nothing, to naught, things that are. Why? Look at verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. My, how we're glory seekers. Baptist preachers are the world's worst. It's true. It's just true. You have to battle it all the time. I tell guys on our staff, you have to battle it all the time. You have to battle it all the time. Wanting your name out there. Wanting your name. Looking to see how many likes you get on social media. Looking for this, looking for that. It's there. But wait a minute. You're glory seekers too. Because we all are. We all like to be thought well of and we all like to think higher of ourselves than what we really are. It's called human nature. True. And humility is so fragile that the moment we think we have it, it's gone. As Warren Wearsby said, that humility is not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think or even thinking more lowly of yourself than you ought to think. It's not thinking of yourself at all. That's true humility. And we're all striving to be like Jesus with true humility, aren't we? He exemplified it Palm Sunday when the King of the universe rode in Jerusalem on the fall of a donkey. Not a white charger. Oh, he's going to come on a white charger. But he came as a donkey. Not weak. No, no, not weak. But meek. Oh, to be like Jesus. Right? Here's what Paul's saying. You are what you are by the grace of God. Not one of them had anything to glory in except what God had done in their lives through Christ and His cross. There's no reason to glory in men. You can follow Paul, you can follow Peter, you can follow Cephas, but I didn't die for you. I didn't change your life. It's not anything that Paul did, or Paulus did, or Cephas did, or that you did. No, it's Christ and His cross. There's where the real wisdom is at. No wonder Paul's going to say in Galatians 6, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Could I just give us something tonight and I'm done? The next time you and I are tempted to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, you know what we need to do? We need to look at the cross. That's what we need to do. And I believe that'll recalibrate us, don't you? Our serious theme recalibrated by Christ. And I think that'll recalibrate us. That'll keep our feet on the ground. That'll keep us from thinking more highly of ourselves than what we ought to think. I think we ought to just say with Paul, hallelujah for the cross. Or none of us would be who and what we are today. Isn't that right? And tonight, let's rejoice in Him. And this Easter, let's fall in love with Jesus all over again. Could we?