Nullifying The Gospel’s Saving Power

Transcript

GR 1297
06-05-05 Nullifying the Gospel's Saving Power
1 Cor.1:18-21
Gil Rugh


We're going to 1 Corinthians 1 in your Bibles, and we are working our way through the details of this opening part of Paul's letter.  And through the first four chapters after he completes his introduction he is focusing on the matter of divisions which had occurred in the church at Corinth.  These divisions were not brought about by doctrinal differences, but rather they were over personalities, not issues related to what the church is really about.  And it is interesting as Paul deals with the matter of divisions in the church at Corinth, he moves into a very extensive and clear explanation of how God accomplishes His work of salvation in the world today.  Because divisions in the body of Christ are brought about either by doctrinal conflicts, such as happened in the churches at Galatia where false teachers infiltrated the church with false doctrine, or divisions are caused by secondary things such as people dividing over key personalities in the church or other non-essential matters.  Personalities seem to be the issue in the church at Corinth, and that easily happens.  If someone leads you to Christ and then baptizes you as a follower of Christ, you have a natural attachment to that person.  And that's not wrong.  Paul will later tell the Corinthians that they ought to follow him, they don't have many fathers in the faith.  They have a lot of teachers, but not many fathers, those who have been used to lead them to Christ.  So there is a right sense of that attachment, and there it was a protection for them against those who would lead them astray.

However, that attachment to individuals has its negative side, and that's what Paul is dealing with in the first part of 1 Corinthians.  It brings division.  This is my favorite person; I think he's the most spiritual; he's been the most helpful.  And pretty soon there are quarrels and divisions that have developed in the body of Christ.

Paul has emphasized, we can appreciate how God uses different people, but nothing can be allowed to take our focus off Jesus Christ and the centrality of His work on the cross.  Paul used himself as an example in verse 13, has Christ been divided?  Paul was not crucified for you, was he?  Were you baptized in the name of Paul?  I mean, I didn't die for you; you weren't baptized as my follower.  You are baptized in the name of Christ.  You are identified with Him.  You are His follower, not mine.  In fact Paul said God didn't send me to baptize, to help keep the issue clear.  He sent me to preach the gospel.  And in saying that as we noted, spent some time looking into the matter of baptism, He sent me to preach the gospel, not to baptize.  That's a clear indication that baptism is not part of the gospel.  And the gospel according to Romans 1:16 is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  And that clearly indicated that baptism is not part of God's work of salvation.  Baptism has a place, but it is not part of our salvation.  Baptism is an act of obedience on the part of those who have trusted Christ as their Savior.

Verse 17 Paul said, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.  We're in a very crucial area here, not only for the church at Corinth, but for what is going on in the evangelical world today in the church.  Paul said it was possible to preach the gospel in such a way that you nullified any saving effect in the gospel.  Now remember the problem at Corinth is not a corrupting of the gospel message, such as happened in the churches at Galatia.  Rather, at Corinth they preached the gospel correctly but they attempted to dress it up with man's wisdom to make it more effective, more appealing, more attractive.  We get this kind of idea today when people say we don't change the message, we change the method, where to give the same message we're just going to dress it up differently for our society, our day and our culture.  And naturally there are things that are changing over time,.  We live at this point in history, we don't live 2000 years ago or 500 years ago.  But basically down through the 2000 years of the church's history, the message has not changed in God's purposes and God's plans.  And Paul says in the middle of verse 17 he was sent to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, literally, not in words of wisdom.  Cleverness of speech gives you the idea, remember word of wisdom is important here for a contrast that will occur in a moment.  So that the cross of Christ would not be made void.  Paul says, if I preach the gospel using man's wisdom, I would nullify the impact of the gospel, I would cancel its effectiveness.  That can be very deceptive to us as believers, because we will often hear someone preaching or teaching and they present the gospel.  I'm not sure about the rest of what they said, but we'll go away and say, at least he presented the gospel.  But what Paul said in verse 17, it is possible to present the gospel accurately and yet do it in such a way that you nullify any saving power in the gospel, because if you add man's wisdom in an attempt to make the gospel more attractive, more appealing, less offensive, you cancel out the effect of the message of the cross.
The reason people would do this is verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  There is a contrast here.  In verse 17, the expression cleverness of speech translates the Greek, wisdom of word.  Then you have in verse 18, the word of the cross.  The contrast is between the two kind of words—the word characterized with man's wisdom and the words that focus on the cross of Christ.  And you cannot mix the two; they are contradictory to one another.  So you could take the pure gospel, dress it up in man's wisdom and you have nullified the gospel.  You have rendered it void, as Paul said at the end of verse 17.  The reason people try to do that is, the simple message of the cross is foolishness.  This is the word we get the English word moron from.  It's stupid, it's dumb, it's foolish, no intelligent person would believe that.  To those who are perishing, those who are in the process of perishing.  Very important matter, I will elaborate on that in a moment.

But I wanted to share with you a current example, what I think illustrates what is happening in the evangelical church.  The evangelical church as this article would define it, they noted the word evangelical has become very broad.  They say generally it is taken to refer to those who accept the Bible as the literal Word of God.  This comes from Business Week, May 23, 2005, an issue or so ago.  It was the cover story, this is just a copy, the cover story obviously is in color and everything.  Evangelical America: Big Business, Explosive Politics.  And it's about evangelical churches experiencing explosive growth.  And it's interesting, this is found in Business Week magazine that deals with business matters, maybe not in the most conservative way here.  It starts out, there is no shortage of churches in the particular town they're going to talk about, they're talking about Houston, deep in the heart of the Bible Belt.  But there's a church in that city that is the largest church in the country—30,000 people attend five services on Sunday.  They are in the process of spending $90 million to renovate a building for their new auditorium.  Quite a large work.  The pastor, these people, 30,000 people, come every weekend to hear the pastor deliver upbeat messages of hope.  He reassures the thousands who show up at each of his five weekend services that God has a great future in store for you. Now already we haven't finished the first paragraph, but there should be yellowish-red lights going off.  Something's wrong.  He delivers upbeat messages of hope.  He wants everybody who comes to know God has a great future in store for you.  And his services are rousing affairs that often include his wife and his mother contributing in various ways.  This is a fast growing church.  It has quadrupled in attendance in the last six years, since 1999.  In addition 7  million people watch his broadcasts each week.  Some of you see it on television here, Joel Osteen from Lakewood Church.  To keep them coming back Lakewood offers free financial counseling, low cost bulk food, even a fidelity group for men with sexual addictions.  You know some things turn up everywhere in the evangelical world.  Men are really having trouble these days with sexual addiction, pornography addiction, I guess they have groups for lying addictions, and stealing addictions, and you name it.  All of a sudden we have the worldly wisdom.  What is an addiction?  What are recovery groups for people struggling with addictions?  It's like having a Buddhist Christ-centered prayer wheel.  You say a Buddhist Christ-centered prayer wheel?  People have pornography addiction Christ-based recovery groups.  What in the world?  That's an oxymoron if there ever was one, two contradictory things.

Demand is brisk for the self-help sessions.  The church brought in $55 million last year.  If you are impressed by finances, that's impressive.  One of the boxes here—Managing the Mega Church.  Just a general note.  A new class of entrepreneurial evangelicals is using commercial methods to win new members.  Now is that really how we want to be known as evangelical?  A new class of entrepreneurial evangelicals is using commercial methods to win new members.  What did Paul say, if you took the wisdom of men and joined it together with the message of Christ, what happens to the power of the gospel?  It's made void.  Osteen is one of the new generation of evangelical entrepreneurs transforming their branch of Protestantism.  Their runaway success is modeled unabashedly on business.  They borrow tools ranging from niche marketing to NBA hiring to life to increase their share of US churchgoers.  That's what we're all about?  Market share?  To reach these untapped masses savvy leaders are creating Sunday Schools that look like Disney World and church cafes with the appeal of Starbucks.  You'd be interested to know that one of these growing churches took in more money last year in their church cafes than we took in in our whole budget--$2.5 million in the church cafes.  We're thinking about selling our coffee.  They tailor a panoply of services to meet all kinds of consumer needs.  Like Osteen, many offer an upbeat message intertwined with a religious one.  It's interesting--this business magazine sees what you're doing.  They're offering an upbeat message, and then you mix it in with a religious message.  Every time I hear Osteen's program he's talking about his upbeat message, self-help, self-motivational kind of talks, but at the end he always says, we like to give you who are watching us a chance to trust Christ as your Savior.  Then he presents the gospel.  Now tacking the gospel on at the end of a self-help message--what does it do?  You have nullified, canceled the power and impact of the gospel.

I'm not using him, he's just the one in the article.  Evangelicals' eager embrace of corporate style growth strategies is giving them a tremendous advantage in the battle for religious market share.  Is that what we are about?  Can you imagine Paul coming to Corinth and saying, there are a lot of religious views here, there is a lot of religious activity, I'm here to get our market share of the religious market in Corinth.  Evangelicalism's theological flexibility gives it the freedom to adapt to contemporary culture.  Is that what we have?  Evangelicalism has a flexible theology to make it adaptable?

And then they give examples.  One church hired an MBA, Master's of Business Administration, from Stanford to run part of the church's ministry, an MBA from Harvard to run its other ministries.  They had 110,000 people come to their conferences last year.  That's not their church services, that's 110,000 people that came paying money to attend conferences they put on to teach you how to have a growing church, how to do church.  They have 427 staff at their church, you think we have too many.  This church's methods have even been lauded in a Harvard business school case study.  Like Osteen, Bill Heibels packages self-help programs with a positive message intended to make people feel good about themselves.  Here's what one member said, when I walk out of a service, I feel completely relieved of any stress I walked in with.  Is that what church is?  You came to get your stress relieved?  So adept at the cell are some evangelicals that it can be difficult to distinguish between their religious aims and the secular style they mimic.  This magazine says, it becomes hard to tell the church from a business.  Now I'm not against using good, responsible management for a church.  Obviously there are decisions that have to be made.  What time will the services be?  How will we handle the parking?  And on it goes.  I'm not against that..  I'm not even against having a coffee shop at church that even charges for a cup of coffee.  To me those are not the issues.  But this has become what the church is identified with—big business.  There's only one thing mentioned in the whole article—evaluating growing evangelical churches.  No talking about a message of the cross of Christ.  Positive message, upbeat.  Osteen, they have a printed interview with him.  He says, I believe in all that about judgment and heaven and hell, I just don't think we need to talk about things like that.  People are beat down all week long, I think they want to hear something upbeat and positive when they come to church.

Now I'm sharing that with you because come to 1 Corinthians 1:17, Christ sent me to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words, not in the wisdom of men and of this world.  So that the cross of Christ would not be made empty.  This is infiltrating at speeds we cannot believe in the evangelical world.  It is present in the evangelical church in our city.  We need to be aware of it.  We read Corinthians and say, my, that's too bad that was going on in Corinth.  And the evangelical world can't get enough of this because it works.  Who doesn't want to have thousands of people pouring in the door, millions of dollars coming in?  But it's a tremendous price.

Because verse 18 still stands true, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  Present participle.  This is their present state, they are in the process of perishing.  They are on their way to hell.  That is where they will end up.  They are the perishing.  We redefine it.  They are the seekers.  Now takes the negative off it.  They're not the perishing; they're not the enemies of God; they are those who have a good desire; they want to know about God.  They just haven't had the message presented in the kind of context, in the kind of way that will be appealing to them as baby boomers or busters or bangers or whatever the boomers are.  You know what?  Paul didn't get into that.  Well it's a different day.  But the message is unchanged.

The word of the cross, the message of the cross of Christ is foolishness to those who are perishing.  So the only thing you can do is try to make it look different, dress it up differently, make it more appealing, more attractive.  Let's speak their language.  Well this is pretty clear language—you are a sinner and God says that you are on your way to an eternal hell because of your sin.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross to pay the penalty for your sin.  I know as a wise and smart person that seems like a stupid way to do it.  But there is no other way for you to be saved.  That's the message.  Doesn't matter if you are a university professor or a resident at the city mission, doesn't matter whether you dropped out of school after kindergarten or you have four doctorate degrees.  This is it.  But to the perishing it is foolishness.  We don't like that, we want to be viewed as intelligent.  You know what happens if I preach a message that the world views as foolishness?  You know what that makes me?  A fool.  Who wants to be a fool?  And besides, don't we want to reach people?  I mean what good is it for us to stand here and preach the gospel when no unbelievers will come and hear it?  So we decide we will help God out of His irresolvable dilemma.  God, the message you gave is okay, but we're going to have to dress it up.  We won't change the message, but we have to do some things to make it more attractive, to make it more appealing, to make people want to respond.  And then Lord, we'll give you the credit for what you've done.  Aren't we gracious?  The problem is, God doesn't work that way.  That's the wisdom of men.  The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, another present participle.  You can divide all humanity into two groups—those who are perishing, those who are being saved.  This church auditorium has both groups.  There are people here who are perishing because they have never entered in to God's salvation by faith in the cross of Christ.  There are people who are being saved.  You say, wait a minute, I thought I was saved, now you're telling me it's a process.  It is both—past, present and future.  Remember, I have been saved from the penalty of sin.  I am being saved from the power of sin.  I will be saved from the presence of sin.  We sometimes call it justification, declared righteous by God through faith in Christ.  Sanctification, God's ongoing work of preparing me for glorification.  So we are those characterized by salvation.  The only other group are those characterized by perishing.

To those who are being saved, it is the power of God.  Now note here, verse 18, to those who are perishing.  They are not perishing because they regard the cross as foolishness.  They regard the cross as foolishness because they are perishing.  That is their condition, and so they respond to the cross as foolishness.  Hard for us to appreciate the impact of the message of the cross in our day.  Two thousand years have gone by and we've romanticized the cross.  You look at the vilest rock stars and they'll have a chain around their neck and they have a cross on it.  Makes you want to go up and ask them, you have a cross, what does that mean to you?  You understand that cross says you are perishing, you are on your way to an eternal hell?  But that cross declares that it is possible for you to experience the power of God in salvation, if you'll turn from your sin and place your faith in the Son of God who died on the cross.  One commentator wrote this, the cross, it was not yet the old rugged cross sentimentalized in hymns, embalmed in stained glass windows, perched on marble altars or fashioned into gold charms.  In biblical times, New Testament times the cross was the most repulsive item you could have.  Listen to what Cicero, the great Roman orator and politician, wrote.  Cicero died in 43 B.C., so he was before New Testament times, but this attitude was characteristic of the times of Paul.  He wrote, the very word cross should be far removed, not only from the person of a Roman citizen (they should never for any reason face crucifixion) but from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears.  A Roman citizen should never have to see a cross, hear about a cross or even have the word cross go through his mind.  That's how repulsive and disgusting the cross was to the people of Paul's day.  And now Paul comes to Corinth, the city of wisdom and intellectual might and so on, and he says, I come to preach the message of the cross.  But Paul, you'll never reach anybody.  The very mention of a cross will drive your hearers away.  It's something repulsive.  They don't want to hear it, they don't want the word coming to their ears.  Preach the resurrection, Paul, preach something upbeat.  I come to preach you a resurrected Savior, one who has died but is alive.  You don't have to deny the cross, but you don't have to bring it up.  I mean we can talk about the death of Christ and focus on the resurrection.  That's something that gives hope.  That's something positive.  Paul says, let's talk about the word of the cross.  It's the cross.  You can't present the gospel without the cross, that's the issue, the very thing that Paul's listeners would find so repulsive, that a Roman trained person sitting there would think, I have to get out of here, I can't hear that word of the cross.  That shouldn't even come on my ears, shouldn't even put that thought in my mind.  Now here Paul is coming to say, I want to teach you about the cross.  I want to proclaim to you the cross.  That's what we have—the cross.

Okay, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.  Now I want you to note this.  The message about the cross is not a message about God's power.  It is God's power.  In a supernatural, marvelous way the message of the cross of Christ is God's power for salvation.  But Paul, this whole context of the cross, would write to the Romans, wants to come to Rome.  Why?  Because I am not ashamed of the cross of Christ, what we've said about the cross. I'm going to go to the heart of the Roman Empire, to Rome itself, and I'm going to preach about the cross because I am not ashamed of the cross.  For it is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes.  God's Word is God's power.  Now we think we have to help God's Word out.  All you have to do is give it out.  Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that the Word of God was like a lion, you don't have to defend it, you don't have to protect it.  Just turn it loose, it will do its own work.  And that's the way it is, the Word of God.

Come back to the Old Testament, this has always been God's plan and it is always in conflict with man's plan.  Go to Jeremiah 23.  Listen to what God says to Jeremiah in verse 28, the prophet who has a dream may relate his dream.  Now note this now, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth.  What does straw have in common with grain?  When I give you My word, you speak My word.  Because His word is the only truth.  Now note the next statement.  Is not My word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters rock?  Just give out My word.  It does its work, it's like fire.  It's like a hammer shattering a rock.  Somehow even “the evangelical church” gets the idea that the Word of God itself just won't get the job done.  Well if you're looking for worldly success, you are right.  If you're looking for God's work to be done, there is only one way.  God's work gets done through God's word.

Back up a few chapters to Jeremiah 20.  How did this all affect Jeremiah?  Jeremiah 20:7, oh Lord you have deceived me and I was deceived.  You have overcome me and prevailed.  What's the problem?  I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me.  Jeremiah is the fool.  Why?  Each time I speak I cry aloud, I proclaim violence and destruction, because for me the Word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long.  The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  Jeremiah says, God, you tricked me.  I thought when you gave me your Word and I went out and preached your Word people would respond positively.  They would turn from their sin, and the opposite is happening.  I've become a laughingstock, they mock me, I'm a fool.  The Word of God has resulted in reproach and derision all day long.  Nothing has changed.  So Jeremiah has to come up with another plan.  No.  He says, but if I say I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name, since it only brings heartache to me, since people only mock me, I just won't give them the Word of God.  Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in, I cannot endure it.  I have the Word of God and even though I know it's going to make my life more difficult, I have to give it out.  It's the passion of the prophet.  And the Word accomplishes God's purposes.  Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, the joints and marrow.  And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The danger for the church is to say I believe all that, but to really be effective today.....  Why do 110,000 pastors and church leaders go to attend a church conference to learn about how you build a big church, the kind of messages that will appeal to the seeker, in other words the perishing.  Keep in mind there are not three categories of people, there are only two—those who are being saved, and they see it as the power of God, and those who are perishing, they see it as foolish.  So how can I learn to make the cross of Christ anything other than foolishness to the perishing?  So what we end up doing is toning down the message of the cross and putting it in the context of man's wisdom, because man's wisdom is appealing to those who are perishing.  The church ends up with positive messages on self-motivation and how to be a success, and how God wants you to be happy, and how to do better in life, and how to have a better marriage.  And somewhere along the line we'll tack the cross on.  The problem is, there is no power left when you do that, in the message of the cross.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1.  Paul supports what he says by a quote from the Old Testament in verse 19, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.  There is no bringing the wisdom of man together with the wisdom of God to do the work of God.  God has already declared Himself on the subject, this is not new material.  The quote is from Isaiah 29:14, you don't need to go back there because I'll just give you the overall picture because it encompasses several chapters.  Israel was confronting an overwhelming enemy—the Assyrians.  And they were moving to conquer more territory, and they would be coming to Israel.  The counselors of the king of Israel told him, you need to go and align yourself with Egypt and get Egypt's armies to come help you.  Now let's face it, Egypt knows if Assyria conquers Israel, they're on their way to Egypt.  So get Egypt for your help.  That's not God's way.  Isaiah tells the king, don't go to Egypt, don't look for help from Egypt.  That's not God's plan.  It seems the best part of wisdom.  I mean, what would you do?  If you're sitting there in Israel, relatively small area.  Here come the hordes of the Assyrian army. You get word they're marching your direction.  We've got to get help.  They can either go to the Egyptians or they can just take God at His word.  The Egyptians don't come to be a help to the Jews.  You know what happens?  The Assyrians come up and encamp against Hezekiah who was the king at that time, against Israel.  The Assyrian army goes to sleep one night and they wake up in the morning, and 180,000 of them don't wake up, they died in their sleep that night.  So much for the Assyrian army.

That's the context of that quote, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.  Don't think we need to help God out.  We take His Word and we do it.  That's blasphemy to think we have to help God out and we really are being effective.  We have all these clever ideas and we've learned all these schemes, and we even get the recognition of the world and we can train other people, look, here is what you do.  Now you don't deny anything.  You don't deny the Gospel.  This is the Word of God, but you have to preach the wisdom of men if you're going to attract the perishing, called the seekers in that context.  The problem is, that message is the antidote to the power of the Gospel.  It makes it void.  It empties it of its power.  God does not work in man's ways.  That's why the world from their vantage point views the cross and the message of the cross as stupidity.  No intelligent person would believe that, but it's God's wisdom.

God's Word always accomplishes its purpose.  Just jot down Isaiah 55:11, so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth.  It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire, without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.  I never teach God's Word, that God's purposes are not accomplished.  I sometimes have to remind myself of that.  Quite frankly there are times when things are not going the way I would like them to go.  I back up and sit down in my study and say, Lord, I have to refocus.  Why did you call me here?  What is my responsibility as your servant?  It always comes back, preach the Word.  But I don't know that that's working.  Shut up, preach the Word.  My Word is always working.  It may not be doing what you think it ought to do, but it's doing what I want it to do.  How does the church get confused?  The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth, and we're running around from conference to conference to conference, reading all the books we can because we're not sure what the church is to do.  It's the pillar and support of the truth.  That's what Paul is clarifying for the Corinthians.  What are all these divisions and conflicts over?  Let's get back to the central person of the church, Jesus Christ; the central work of the central Person, the cross of Christ.  That's what you're all about, now what are you dividing over?  Well, I like this person, I like these programs, I like .....  What's that got to do with the church?  It's about Jesus Christ.  It's about the message of the cross.  It's about giving out the truth of God.  And we don't do it with man's wisdom.

Verse 20, where is the wise man?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  One person asks the question, what do all three categories mentioned here have in common—the wise man, the scribe, the debater or philosopher of this age?  They all derive their status from their expertise.  These are the wise and learned.  But God has canceled them out.  God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.  Now I want to note something here in case I forget to say it later.  I'm not saying there is not a place for human wisdom.  Human wisdom, generally speaking, has done many wonderful things.  We're here enjoying electricity.  Wasn't necessarily developed by a believer.  We have buildings that are comfortable and heated and air conditioned and structurally sound.  I appreciate all of that wisdom.  Some of you take medications and it has helped to keep you alive.  We appreciate that wisdom.  But when it comes to knowing God and knowing the salvation of God, that is a matter of revelation from God, not man's wisdom.  And that's what he's talking about here.  How can you know God?  How can you be saved?  That's the issue.  Wise men don't have that knowledge.  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  He's made moronic, stupid, foolish the wisdom of the world because the wisdom of the world can't accomplish what it would need to accomplish—bring salvation to fallen human beings.

Verse 21 is the explanation.  For in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God.  Since in the wisdom of God the world and its wisdom did not come to know God.  There's our issue.  That's how God made foolish the wisdom of the world.  He determined that man on his own, with his own brilliance, his own thinking, his own wisdom would not be able to come to know God or devise a plan of true salvation.  How does salvation occur?  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.  That's it, hasn't changed.  You hear the Word that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross and the only way for you to move from the perishing to the being saved is to believe in Him. Faith comes by hearing.  You hear the truth of the Gospel and you believe it.  Even that will be a work of God.

So I don't help God out.  Well, Lord, I know, but I have to get a crowd here for.........  I let God do His work and I want to concentrate on mine.  That cuts down the divisions in the church, folks.  If we're all focused on Jesus Christ, and we're all focused on the message that God has entrusted to us as a church, what's the church going to divide over?  If false doctrine enters the church, we'll have to deal with that and remove the false teachers.  There is nothing else.  Going to divide over your favorite teacher?  No, our commitment is to Jesus Christ and the truth concerning Him.  We appreciate one another and our loyalty is to Christ.  We're going to divide over what?  You name it.  I am afraid to give examples or some will think I'm picking out something.  You name it.  What could a church divide over?  What do you have strong feelings about?  What do I have strong feelings about?  You know I have strong feelings about things that we don't do the way my strong feelings would like them done here.  I'm the preacher, everybody ought to follow me and I ought to get my way.  Is that the way it is?  I mean, just doesn't matter, does it?  If we focus on Jesus Christ and the truth concerning Him, it takes care of the divisions, doesn't it.  That's why he's talking about this in addressing divisions in the church at Corinth.  Get your focus back, get it off the individuals and who they are and how much you like them.  Again, it doesn't cancel out appreciation.  Get your eyes off the extraneous things that aren't what the church is about.  I don't care if the piano sits on this side or this side, somebody has to decide.  It's decided, well, I like it better there or I prefer it here.  So what?  Are we going to have a division over that, and I'll start a new church—the church of the piano on the left side.  They are all that silly.  We make them bigger.  We think oh, this is important to me.  Well I'm sorry, this church is not about what's important to you, it's not about what's important to me.  It's about what is important to God.  Remember, this is the church of God, the One being in this place.  You can have your strong convictions.  You don't have to change those strong convictions.  You just can't divide the church over your strong convictions, I can't divide the church over my strong convictions.  If that means there'll be decisions made in the church that I strongly disagree with. It doesn't matter.  It's not my church.  I have to sort out and say, is there something clearly unbiblical being done here?  If not, I'll continue with my convictions and keep them to myself.  Doesn't mean I can't express them to someone, I can't talk about them, I can't say I think it would be better if the piano were over here for these reasons.  That's fine.  Somebody decided to move it over there, maybe it was me.  Does it matter?  Some of the musicians said, we'd like to flatten the platform.  I like my steps over here this way, why would I want it all the way out there?  Does it matter?  I don't care.  I'd just as soon come in and have it done, then I don't have to think about it.

But I go in and close my door and say, Gil, remember what the church is, remember what your responsibility is, remember what the focus is.  It's about Jesus Christ and His truth.  Some of you are thinking and you're getting distracted and you find yourself getting upset.  Say, I have to sit down, Lord.  What is the church?  It's your body, the body of Christ.  Who is the central person?  Your Son, Jesus Christ.  What's the central issue?  The message of the cross, the truth you've entrusted to the church.  Lord, why am I so upset about ......you name it.  I've lost my focus.  That's what happened at the church at Corinth.  That's why we're talking about the cross.  Understand this is not a theological treatise like he wrote to Rome. This is dealing with division in the church.  And it all is a matter of get your focus back where it needs to be and see things as they are.

Verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased.  That expression, God was well pleased, is always used to refer to God's sovereign decree on something.  This is something that comes out of Himself that He determined to do.  It was pleasing to Him to do it, so His sovereign decree and determination. God sovereignly determines, gives you the idea.

Through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  That's a powerful message.  This is God's plan, this is what He has ordained would happen.  No one will ever get saved in any other way.  He will use the foolishness of the message preached.  Foolishness, because that's how the world sees it.  What the world would look at as stupid, foolish, lacking wisdom and intelligence.  God is going to use that.  The foolishness of the message preached.  That word translated message preached is one word in Greek, it is translated message preached, two words in English—karuchs is the root word.  Comes from the word meaning a herald.  We talk about the message that the herald preaches.  Let me read you about this word from a person who has done extensive studies in the world of the Greeks and the Romans and oratory.  He says, the role of the karuchs, the herald, was not to discover the persuasive probabilities inherent in his subject.  Note this.  The role of the herald was not to discover the persuasive probabilities inherent in his subject or to search the topic for arguments that will carry weight with his listeners, much less to package the whole so that the message will be irresistible.  That sort of thing belongs to the persuader.  The Greek and Roman orators thought this was their prime goal—to persuade people, to win them over to their view, to their position.  The herald's task is not to create a persuasive message at all, but to convey effectively the already articulated message of another.  My role in preparing the message here for Sunday morning is not to try to figure out how could I make this more persuasive, how could I win people over to the view that I hold that I believe is correct.  That is not my responsibility.  That was the role that the secular speakers in Corinth, the orators would have thought they should do.  Win the argument by being most persuasive.  The role of the herald is simply to take the message that was entrusted to him and give it out, then God does His supernatural work.  That's the amazing thing.  It's not dependent on my powers of persuasion, my ability to be interesting and attractive in preaching.  It's the responsibility to proclaim the message and its truth.

Now that doesn't mean I don't want to present it and present it accurately and properly.  If I stood up here and mumbled and just acted like this you'd say, I don't know if I want to go back there and hear him, I can hardly hear him and his words run together.....  So I can say I can learn to talk more clearly.  But when we talk about the message, I can't dress it up, put it in more attractive garb.  This is it, we're stuck with what we are.  That's why we have to preach the Word in season and out of season as Paul wrote Timothy.  It doesn't change.  We preach the Word when it's in season, when it's not in season, when it's not popular.  When people are opposed to it more openly, then we make the adjustments to make it more attractive.  We don't call them perishing anymore, we call them seekers.  We don't preach the cross so directly, we talk about topics that will be of interest to them, and then through that we'll help them to understand how the Gospel will really give them a better life, help them to be more successful.  Joel Osteen uses an example that is recorded here, it's in his book that I have—I received it free in the mail, I don't know where they're trying to get people to use it—of how they got the big, elegant house they did.  I mean it's just health and wealth.  Another preacher there, he drives two Rolls Royces and flies in his own jet.  Yet he's considered an evangelical because he tacks the cross on to his message.  He says, I want to be an example of how God prospers His people.  I mean it's a sham.

How do we get there? We begin to wonder.  God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who are believing.  Another present participle.  You know saving faith starts at a point, but it doesn't stop.  So the believing are those who are being saved, and as we'll see as we move along, and we won't get there today, they are the called of God.  It is God's sovereign work.

So we are here to what?  Give out the truth of God.  That's it.  Give out the truth of God.  We have a variety of activities, a variety of programs, that doesn't mean we can't do anything that's fun, we can't go have dinner together, we can't have a picnic together, we can't have camps for young people.  But we try to evaluate, in all of our church ministries are we focused on the truth.  And we do things together and relax, but I didn't come here to be the activities director.  Some of you were here when I came.  I told the board, if you're looking for someone to do all these things, I'm not your person.  God has called me to preach the Word.  I'll come and teach you the Word of God.  And I appreciate the church has stood firm on that and has encouraged me in the teaching and supported me, and God has blessed His work.  You're here today, you say, I didn't come to hear this.  But God brought you here.  No, I came on my own.  You came on your own because God moved your own.  But you're here so you could hear the most glorious message there is to hear in all the world—the cross of Christ.  It's not just an object of jewelry or something we put in a church or out in front of a church.  It is a message that the penalty for sin is death and you are perishing because of your sin.  But if you will believe that Jesus Christ died for you, you will be saved.  God is well-pleased, He has determined this is how it will happen—through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  I can't convince you, I don't want to waste any time in trying to prove that the Bible is the Word of God, that it would be smarter for you to believe the Bible than not.  All of that is irrelevant.  The only thing that matters is, this is the message of the cross, it's the only message of salvation, and the only thing that can make a difference in your life is whether you believe the truth of the cross or not.  That's the message we have as a church.  If Christ doesn't come in 50 years, we should still be doing the same thing.  I've had some people recently say, what's going to happen to Indian Hills when you're gone?  Would you quit thinking about that?  Makes me nervous.  Always asking, what's going to happen after you're gone?  I wasn't planning on leaving soon, and after I'm gone, I don't know. Remember whose church it is—it's the church of God, the one being in this place who will do according to His purposes.  I trust we'll be faithful to the truth until God finishes His work in and through us.

Let's pray together.  Thank You, Lord, for Your truth.  Lord, it's good for us to be reminded that Your truth is power, Your Word is like a fire, like a hammer. It's sharper than any two-edged sword.  The Gospel is Your power for salvation to everyone who believes.  God, keep us from being distracted in our ministry as a church family.  Lord, I pray that we would have our proper focus on Jesus Christ, the message of truth entrusted to us as a church, so we would not be like the Corinthians—divided over personalities, divided over issues that are not of significance and importance in the work You are doing in and through the church.  May our testimony be strong because the truth is powerful.  We pray in Christ's name, amen.