Well, Christchurch, if you could please turn with me in your copy of God's Word to the book of 1 Corinthians. We will spend some time this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, starting in verse 26 and going through chapter 2 and verse 5. I'd ask you to please stand with me as we read God's holy word. Hear now the word of the Lord. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. And I, 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 implausible 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. Indeed, let us pray. We thank you, O God, for your mighty word. We thank you that you have promised that as your word goes forth, it does not return to you void. We pray, O God, that you would illumine our hearts and minds as we study this passage of scripture, that we might see Jesus Christ clearly. May your spirit, like a spotlight, Shine upon Jesus Christ. May we see him with the eyes of faith today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Well, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the author J.R.R. Tolkien uses his fantastic, no pun intended, writing skills and otherworldly imagination to give his readers all kinds of recognizable and interesting characters all throughout the books. You don't need to have read the books or even seen the movies to know the names Frodo or Gandalf or Aragorn. You might not know who they are, but you've certainly heard their names. These characters, among many others, go through all kinds of ordeals throughout the series that shape them and change them in lots of ways. But I'd argue that one of the most fascinating characters in this series has to be the wizard Saruman. Saruman, you may remember, was the leader of the wizards, sent to Middle Earth to do all kinds of things, but to aid the people there. At one time, Saruman was an advisor to Gandalf the Grey. In the Fellowship of the Ring, the first book of the trilogy, we see Gandalf consulting Saruman, asking his advice on what to do with the ring of power that Gandalf thinks he has found and thinks should also be destroyed. In a shocking twist, Saruman turns on Gandalf and imprisons him for a time. We later come to find out that Saruman was not who he said he was. For years he had been corrupted bit by bit by the dark Lord Sauron, the main antagonist in the Lord of the Rings. Many years before the story of the Lord of the Rings begins, Saruman found this device that would allow him to see what Sauron was doing. And he used it in a way as to spy on the enemy. But that device was, unbeknownst to Saruman, controlled by Sauron. And Sauron had no hope of overpowering the enemy with his own devices. What eventually ended up happening was that the enemy used this device to turn Sauron's allegiances. In the end, he served Sauron while keeping up appearances that he was still allied with the good guys. In his effort to defeat Sauron, Saruman thought he could use the tools of the enemy to defeat the enemy, but he only ended up corrupted, turning on his former friends and defeated in the end by his greed and his hubris. Throughout the book of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul corrects the very many issues that were plaguing the Corinthian Christians. One major problem that is discussed in these first few chapters is the Corinthians' cultural accommodation. What you and I see in these chapters is that the temptation to adapt our message to make it more palatable to the world is not a 21st century issue. It's one that Christians have been dealing with since the church was founded. The church in Corinth was divided because they were elevating their human leaders to positions of greater status, whether because of their worldly power or their great gifts of wisdom or knowledge or rhetoric in their speeches. These Christians were then dividing themselves into groups, aligning themselves with human leaders over against other Christians because they placed their hope, their identity even, in those human leaders rather than in Christ alone. They would say things like, I am of Paul. I'm a Paul guy. Or I am of Apollos. I am of Peter. Paul is reminding them here that we all must say, I am of Christ and Christ alone. Like Saruman, the Corinthians thought they could use a little bit of the world's power and wisdom to make themselves look better in the eyes of the world. Or so that their message would be more compelling to those on the outside. But in the end, that ploy only made the Corinthians more worldly, not more godly. Paul is, in these chapters, calling the Corinthians back to Christ. He's reminding them that they've forgotten the basics of the gospel. As we'll see this morning, the gospel that Paul proclaimed to them when he planted their church was filled with nothing but Christ and Him crucified. But the Corinthians were ashamed of this gospel because it looks foolish to the watching world. And Paul agrees with them throughout 1 Corinthians 1. He says, what we preach is foolishness to the world, but that doesn't mean that it isn't the power and the wisdom of God. Paul reminds these first century Christians, and he's speaking to you and to me in the 21st century as well, he's reminding all of us that Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God, that in Christ and Christ alone will we find true and lasting salvation. Worldly wisdom, Paul says, is utter idiocy. Worldly strength is but a puff of wind when compared to Christ. One thing that studying the book of 1 Corinthians does is that it reminds you and me that the Corinthian church, which was planted by the Apostle Paul, we remember it from Acts chapter 18, that most of the members of this church were converted under the ministry of Paul himself when he spent 18 months there in Corinth ministering to the people. But that church that has as their founding pastor the Apostle Paul himself was not immune to basic error on issues like cultural accommodation. It took a different form for them than it does for us certainly. But these chapters in this error in the Corinthian church should show you and me that we will not be immune to the dangers of worldly thinking infiltrating the church. We are not immune to the problem of allowing worldly thinking and worldly ways to affect the things that we do and say. So it's in that way, and in many others, that the book of 1 Corinthians is incredibly relevant to us today. In these first few chapters, the Apostle Paul could be talking to many churches that are around us. He could be talking to us, and is indeed talking to us. You and I would do very well to listen to his words, particularly because of the immediate application that we can make of them. There's something of this Corinthianism, this Corinthian error that they were propagating in every church in one way or another. In our text this morning, the Apostle Paul elaborates on his overall argument by specifically turning the Corinthians logic around on them. He says that you're acting as though you are obsessed with this worldly power and wisdom, but look at yourselves. Trust me, Paul says, you're nothing special. And before coming to Christ, you were nothing to write home about. All that you have, Paul says, is a gift from God. It is all God's choice, and therefore, you have nothing to brag about. None of what you have came from you. Beloved, this passage is a humbling one. Here, the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, is bringing us to our knees in awe and humility before our great God, who has done everything for us in and through Jesus Christ. All is of God. All is from God. All is through God. All is of grace. That's what we see here in 1 Corinthians 26-28. Throughout this, or excuse me, 1 Corinthians 1-26-2-5. All throughout this passage in front of us this morning, Paul spends a lot of time making contrasts. He's drawing distinctions. He's saying, the world around us is saying one thing, but you must not do that. You must live in this way. What Paul is doing here isn't unlike what later Christians would do in defending the Christian faith, particularly the Protestant scholastics, those who wrote in the era immediately after the Reformation. These scholastics are often misunderstood and therefore mischaracterized as being far too academic to be of any practical use. But more often than not, These men proved insightful and godly and very beneficial to the church. But these Protestant scholastics would write entire theological treatises giving, for example, Roman Catholic views on different topics and then refuting them with the words, we distinguish. The Catholics say this, but we distinguish. It's vital that we, like the Protestant scholastics, like the Apostle Paul here, make distinctions, that we make ourselves clear, particularly when it comes to cultural issues. Christians must say, we have to think this way, not like that. We have to behave like this, not like that. We have to do this, not that. The church is not the world. we as Christians should not look like the world. The world says all kinds of things, but Christians are called to stand up to all of that and say, we distinguish, we disagree. The Corinthians were tempted, they were very tempted to draw people to the church by their own learning, by using the compelling rhetoric that was so popular in their day. The very things that worldly leaders were doing to convince the masses to follow them, the church was looking at those things and saying, well, what if we just did it like that? Yeah, yeah, sure, we'll keep the gospel, we'll keep Christ, and we'll talk about him, but what if we do it in a way that is appealing to all these people over here? Wouldn't we then just draw more people into our church? Wouldn't that be a great thing? Our issues today in the church look much different, but that mentality, those attempts to bring the world's thinking through the doors of the church is still here with us. It's the very air we breathe. So there are churches all around us, even here in Charleston, preaching a therapeutic gospel, or a consumeristic gospel, a sociological gospel, a political gospel, a health and wealth gospel, thinking that those things, that changing the gospel message of Christ and Him crucified into these other things, or adding to Christ and Him crucified all these other things, will then draw more people in, will then have more people in our churches, winning more souls for Christ. But this is foolish thinking. The Christians must not adopt the world's ways of doing things and let that affect the pure and undiluted preaching of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Paul will go on later in chapter 2, after those verses from chapter 2 that we read, to talk about the fact that Christians are to have the mind of Christ. Their minds have been transformed, renewed by grace through faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. He says in chapter two verses 14 and 15 that natural people do not understand the things of God because they do not have the spirit of God. Why then, Paul says, would we change our message or our methods of ministering so that we might cater to natural people who wouldn't understand the gospel anyway? Why adapt our message to match the culture's? Friends, they can do it a lot better than we can. The culture is much better at doing the things the culture does than the church is. Look at the Christian movie industry and you'll see that immediately. Christians often do not have the talent or the resources to compete with the world on the world's stage and by the world's rubric. We cannot and must not use their standards or their methods when proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. All those who are in Christ, Paul tells us later in chapter two, have been given new minds in Christ. And our message of a crucified Savior only makes sense to those who have also had their minds renewed by Christ. All of this is done in Christ by the power of the Spirit for the will and the glory of God the Father. We have a two-year-old at home, and he has, like most children, has one of those toys that's a big box, and it's a shape-sorter. It's a wooden shape-sorter, and it has these blocks with different holes, and the idea is that he figures out which block goes in which hole. He's not very good at it. And that's a bit of an understatement. He'll usually just pick up a block and try to shove it in whichever hole is right there in front of him. There's no point in trying any of the others because it's not gonna go in those, Dad. I don't know where you're trying to get me to put it in this one. But there are some times when he does get it right. It matches up perfectly. He's got the square block and it's going right into that square hole. Good, good job. But that is very rare. No matter how hard he tries, he will never fit that square block into a round hole, never. You'd have to sand off the edges of that block and still force it through. Beloved, you and I must not. We cannot sand off the edges of the gospel, never. Our only hope in this life or the next is Christ and Him crucified. And if we were to try to change that message to fit the world's standards, we are grievously sinning against our God and against our neighbor. The gospel must be the pure and undiluted gospel of Christ and Him crucified, must be the focus of our ministry and our mission as Christians. Paul, in these first few verses, brings up the Corinthians past, particularly in verse 26. He says, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. He's reminding them of the way that they were before they came to Christ. And he's telling them that before you came to Christ, you lacked the very things that you're now putting all of your faith and hope and trust in. But instead of rejecting them because they didn't have these things, this worldly success, God chose them. The Corinthians would likely have rejected themselves and said, no, no, no, we aren't going to be won by the preaching of the gospel. We need all of these other things. But God, Paul is telling us, intentionally chose the foolish and weak, the low and despised to show forth His mercy and grace, to show His mighty power. The very things that the Corinthians lacked in themselves, the wisdom and the power and the noble birth or the status are all things that God graciously provided. Look at verse 27. God chose what is foolish. You, Corinthians, Paul says, were not wise according to worldly standards, but God chose what is foolish to shame the wise. You, Corinthians, were not powerful, but God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. You, Corinthians, were not of noble birth, but God chose what is low and despised. Even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. Over and over again. All throughout scripture and church history, we see the truth of Paul's words here. God uses the foolish and the weak to shame the strong. He uses the lowly and despised to show forth his power. We can think, for example, of David. David was Jesse's youngest son, and when the prophet Samuel came to Jesse's house to see which of his sons would be king, David wasn't even in the running. He was off tending the sheep. He was so insignificant in the eyes of his family, and even in the eyes of Samuel, that he wasn't even considered until the Lord told Samuel to ask for him. But who did David become? God, Israel's champion against Goliath, that king, eventually, through whose line Christ would come. Or we can go back a little further in Scripture and think of King David's great-grandmother, Ruth. Ruth was a foreigner whose husband had died, leaving her childless, but the Lord chose her. brought her out of Moab into the fold of his people through Naomi and gave her Boaz for a husband and children through him. And again, in the line of succession that leads to Jesus Christ. How relevant are these words from the Apostle Paul for us today? and this reminder to not do things according to the world's standards. I would argue that this is particularly relevant for us here in Charleston. It's far too easy to think that the good-looking and wealthy among us are best suited for the spotlight. But that's the way Hollywood thinks. It's not the way the Lord thinks. We tend to think that because someone has an appealing appearance, they're therefore qualified and gifted to lead. The same attitude then leads us to neglect others because we're not initially impressed by them for one reason or another. These are often the ones that the Lord chooses to use in remarkable ways, like David and like Ruth. Paul is bringing us to the end of ourselves here, showing us that there is nothing within us for which we should boast. Each and every one of us, Paul says, is nothing until we are called by God. And this is true, according to John Calvin, even if we seem to count for something in the eyes of men. The only reason we are or have anything at all is because of God's sovereign choice. Verses 27 and 28, God chose, God chose, God chose. Therefore we have nothing in ourselves about which to boast. And this is exactly where Paul goes next in verses 29 through 30. Here he writes, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, because of God, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Paul, throughout these verses, is setting up this contrast between the Corinthians' lack of wisdom and power and honor and Christ's own righteousness and holiness and redemption. You did not have these things, he says to the Corinthians, but because of God, in Christ, you now have all of these things and more. Paul is saying that we must look to him. boast in him alone, and all of our selfish boasting will fall away. One of the core principles of theology, especially as we consider theology proper, that is the study of God in himself, when we begin to dive deep into the Christian tradition that has been handed down to us as it talks about the way that we understand who God is, One thing that jumps out is the humbling fact that God doesn't need anyone or anything. God is God. And as he says through Isaiah the prophet, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. God is not moved by, changed by, or passionate about anything. If you have questions about what that means, talk to me later. God is utterly immovable, immutable, and impassable, that is, without passions. God does not need you. He does not need me. And we say thanks be to God for that. God is utterly sufficient in and of himself. And before anything else existed, God was. And he was perfect. He created not because of his need for companionship, but because of his great love. You and I are often tempted to think that God needs us, aren't we? Oh, well, God, if I don't do it, no one else will. God in His grace chooses to use weak, frail, imperfect human beings to accomplish His perfect goals, but that does not mean that He needs to use us. God can surely do all He wills and can accomplish His will with a mere word, a simple thought. But instead, our omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient creator, that creator of the universe and all that is within us, all that is within it, chooses to use you and me to fulfill his purposes. Friends, this thought should humble us in the dust. Who am I, oh Lord, that you should choose to use me? And this is precisely what Paul is getting at here. The Corinthians are boasting in their own power, their own money, their societal status, all those things that the world holds dear. But they were downplaying the power and the glory of the cross. And Paul is here humbling them, reminding them that they only have those things because of God's grace. He's saying you only have life and breath and everything you have because of God. Without God and His sovereign guidance, you would have nothing and you would be nothing, literally. If God did not exist, neither would you. So what are you boasting about? your meager efforts, your inconsistent and imperfect power, your fleeting money that's gone in an instant, your ever-changing status in the eyes of men. These are the things you're boasting about? Who cares? All that is nothing, Paul says, compared to God. And all you're boasting is just puffs of wind. This principle is applied by Paul here in verse 30 to our salvation. It is only by God's sovereign choice that any of us are in Christ. He says, because of him, that is because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. Because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. When we truly understand that salvation is a gift that comes to us from God, all of our boasting in ourselves and our own accomplishments and even the things that the Lord has done in and through us are taken away. We have nothing in ourselves worthy of commendation or glory. It is all of grace. Therefore, all praise and glory and honor belong to God alone." You see, think of the opposite. If we were in part responsible for our salvation, even if I was responsible for the faith which lays hold of Christ, I would be worthy of receiving glory and honor for my salvation. Blasphemous. That is blasphemous. God alone is the author of salvation. He alone is the perfecter of our salvation. And if I have any part in it, then it's not perfect. And it's not lasting. And it falls away, just like everything else I have. And this is what Paul is saying. You Corinthians are proud in your own eyes, but you must be humbled before the Lord. Habakkuk 2 20 The prophet says the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him That's that is our that is the calling of the Christian is to be silent before God No human being can boast in the presence of God because everything that you and I have comes from God. In Him we live and move and have our being. From Him, Paul says, we receive life and breath and everything. So this majesty of God humbles us and removes from us any sort of praise or acclaim for the things that we have, but particularly for any boasting we might do in our salvation. This is what Paul is telling us here. We cannot boast in the presence of God because it's only by God that we are in the presence of God. It's only by God that we are in Christ Jesus. Our great God is both the cause of our salvation as well as the source of that salvation. He is the one who has enacted salvation, but he is also the only one who can give it. It's only because of God that any of us is in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all of our pride should melt away in the light of Jesus Christ as it shines forth in the gospel. Well, Paul then says that Christ, in verse 30, became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In Christ, you and I receive all these wondrous blessings of salvation. We are unrighteous, but in Christ we are made righteous because Christ has taken upon himself our sin and gives to us the great gift of righteousness because of his Father's love for us. You and I are unholy, but through Christ we receive holiness and sanctification. You and I are lost, trapped in our bondage to sin, but in Christ we are found. We are redeemed from slavery to sin. Christ, Paul says, is our righteousness, but he is also our sanctification. John Calvin, in his commentary on this verse, says this about Christ being our sanctification. He says, quote, from this we also gather that we cannot be justified freely by faith alone if we do not at the same time live in holiness. For those gifts of grace go together as if tied by an inseparable bond. so that if anyone tries to separate them, he is, in a sense, tearing Christ to pieces. We must not, cannot have Christ for our justification, for our righteousness, without also having him for our sanctification, our holiness. Christ, we understand, is not some sort of substance or benefit to be added on top of the gifts that we receive in salvation. Christ is not the hot fudge and sprinkles on top of the ice cream sundae of righteousness and wisdom and holiness. He's not some added bonus. but is himself, again, according to Calvin, Christ is the complete fulfillment of them all. The complete fulfillment of our righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. Friends, you and I must not separate the benefits and gifts we receive from Christ by God's grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit from the giver of those great gifts. The greatest benefit that you and I receive through Christ is Christ, full stop. Redemption and wisdom, sanctification and righteousness are all wondrous blessings of being united to Christ, but they are, frankly, small potatoes compared to Christ himself. Christ is our only hope in life and in death. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the one from whom and through whom and for whom and to whom are all things. Beloved, lay hold of Christ. Walk by faith in Christ and all of these wonderful things will be yours. Christ Jesus paid for your sin and mine in his body on the cross. And all of those, every single person who cries out in repentance of their sin and faith in Jesus Christ will surely receive him. As the apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter two and verse two, Christ crucified is the center of our message and must be the focus of all we do as believers. 19th century old Princeton professor Charles Hodge says that whatever obscures the cross deprives the gospel of its power. Whatever obscures the cross deprives the gospel of its power. Anything that we place in front of the cross of Christ will rob him of the glory, honor, and majesty, and power that are due to him alone. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 1 through 5, cites himself as an example of what it looks like to live this way. He tells them that when he was among them, he didn't use lofty speech or great wisdom, but simply preached the unadorned gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Dear believer, may you, like the apostle Paul, know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Do not trust in the wisdom of men, because that is not where your faith rests. Your faith must be in your crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, who is himself wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and power. Let us pray. We praise you, O God, for Jesus Christ, our Savior. We thank you that the Apostle Paul made it his goal to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. May we as well. Walk in that same way, with that same focus. May we trust not in the things of men, the worldly success we might get from following the ways of the world. May we trust only in Christ. Lay hold of him by faith and walk in newness of life. Pray all of this in Jesus' precious name.