Proclaiming Christ Crucified

Transcript

GR 1298
06-12-05 Proclaiming Christ Crucified
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gil Rugh


We're going to 1 Corinthians 1 and we have some things that might be considered mundane because they are things that occupy us until we get to glory.  But in light of the glorious destiny we have, these are not mundane things, because this is part of God's plan in preparing His people for glory.  And this is the ministry of the church, to be involved in the proclamation of the cross of Jesus Christ so that God in His grace might call out a people for Himself that will be gathered around His throne of glory through eternity.

Sad to say a church with its high calling, such an exalted position is a church wracked by division and quarrel.  That's the situation in the church at Corinth.  The church of God, the one being in Corinth characterized by divisions and quarrels.  Paul noted that in chapter 1 verses 10-12, divisions among you, quarrels among you.  What a sad testimony.  Here is a church that's a manifestation of God's saving grace, His power to change a life and bring people of all kinds into a relationship of oneness, and they are characterized by divisions and quarrels.  A denial of the power of God and His grace in salvation.

These divisions were not caused by doctrines.  These divisions were caused by personalities.  The church at Corinth was fragmenting around certain gifted or prominent people.  I like this person, I like this person, this person I think has had a greater ministry in my life.  And so the church was losing its focus.  Paul's method under the direction of the Spirit in dealing with these divisions is to refocus the church.  The problem is, you are looking at the wrong people, you are looking at the wrong things.  Your focus must be on Jesus Christ,.  It must be on the cross of Christ.  That's what the church is about.  Individuals that God uses are part of His plan, but they are not to become the focus of the church or of individuals in the church.  The focus of the church is to be Jesus Christ and the truth concerning Him.

So Paul said in verse 17 concerning himself, for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, not in wisdom of word.  So that the cross of Christ would not be made void.  Paul wants to caution them about getting enthralled with human wisdom, man's wisdom, man's intellect, because when you bring man's intellect into the ministry of the Gospel, you are in danger of nullifying the effectiveness of the Gospel in bringing about salvation.  Why would people try to do this?  Verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  We try to adjust the message of the cross, not necessarily changing the Gospel, but we try to dress it up to make it more appealing, more attractive, so it will draw more people.  That sounds like a good motive.  It says those who are perishing view the Gospel as foolishness, stupidity.  We try to make it look more intellectually appealing.  And we often think that.  We get into areas like biblical creation.  We think oh, we have a scientist come and present the facts, if I can get my scientific friend to come that will convince him.  As though the problem was someone with intellectual credibility presenting the scientific evidence, that will bring a person to Christ.  That never is true.  I've never forgotten John Whitcomb who has been here a number of times and spoken, and he's quite knowledgeable in the areas of science, biblical creation and so on.  He would constantly remind us when I was a seminary student, that I present these matters concerning what the Bible says about creation to encourage and help believers to understand the truth, not to appeal to the unbeliever.  For there is no apologetic to reach the unbeliever except the cross of Christ.  That's what Paul is focusing on here.  We need to be careful thinking that we have come up with an idea, now we're going to put the message of the cross in the kind of context that will be attractive to those who are perishing, to the seekers.  They will find it appealing and desirable and want to hear it and thus they will be saved.

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  And right down to today the church wants to dress up the message of the cross.  I read you some material from a secular magazine last week and I want to read you an article that I read to you from time to time.  This goes back into the 19th century, latter part of the 1800s and it's by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  Charles Spurgeon died in 1892 at the conclusion of a 31-year ministry in London.  The article is Feeding the Sheep or Amusing the Goats, and I'll read this article and I may skip some sections just for time, but generally I'll be reading consecutively.  Now remember he died in 1892, because one of the arguments presented is, we have to present the Gospel in a way that it's effective for our culture and our day.  We live in a post-modern society, and these are not people who will simply respond to a presentation of truth, because they have a different concept of truth, and on we go.  But nothing has changed.

Listen to what Spurgeon wrote over 100 years ago.  An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence that the most short sighted can hardly fail to notice it.  During the past few years that it's developed at an abnormal rate even for evil, it has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments.  The devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the church that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them.  From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked and excused the frivolities of the day.  Then she tolerated them in her borders, now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.  And it's the same thing being promoted today.  We want to reach the unchurched, the unchurched tarries and marries, the seekers, and so here is what we are going to do.  My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the scriptures as a function of the church.  If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it?  He went and said, go and baptize, make disciples of all nations and baptize them and teach them.  That is clear enough, so it would have been if He had added, and provide amusement for those who do not relish the Gospel.  No such words, however, are to be found.  It did not seem to occur to Him.  Then again He gave some apostle, some prophets, some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry.  Where do entertainers come in?  The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them.  Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused?  Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles.  What was the attitude to the world of believers?  You are the salt, not the sugar candy, something the world will spit out and not swallow.  Short and sharp was the utterance, let the dead bury their dead.  He was in awful earnestness.  Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission He would have been more popular when they went back because of the searching nature of His teaching.

Listen to how he goes on.  I do not hear Him say, run after these people, Peter, and tell them, we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching.  We will have a pleasant evening for the people.  Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it.  Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow.  Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them.  In vain will the epistles be searched to find any trace of the Gospel of amusement.  Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence.  They have boundless confidence in the Gospel and employed no other weapon.  After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting.  But they did not pray, Lord, grant unto your servants that by lies and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are.  If they cease not from preaching Christ, they have no time for arranging entertainments.  Scattered by persecution they went everywhere preaching the Gospel.  They turned the world upside down.  That is the only difference.  Lord, clear the church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to apostolic methods.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the desired end.  It doesn't produce converts, he goes on to talk about.  There are no converts.  The mission of amusement produces no converts.  The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root.  The need is biblical doctrine so understood and felt that it sets men on fire.
We are reminded, 2000 years ago the Spirit directed the Apostle Paul to write to the church at Corinth.  Down through the history of the church the battles have remained the same.  Different periods of time, different settings, same battles—battle for purity of the doctrine of God's Word, the battle to remain faithful to the simplicity of a ministry that is proclaiming God's Word.  We live in a day when the evangelical church has been affected by this idea that to reach the masses we have to do something that will be popular with them, that they will find attractive, that they will be drawn to.  And if you believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, if you believe that 1 Corinthians 1 is part of that inspired Word, then you know that that concept is a lie from hell.  It is the work of the devil, as Spurgeon said, to infiltrate the church with false doctrine.  Because the whole argument that Paul is developing in 1 Corinthians 1 is what is summarized in verse 18, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  It doesn't say the word of the cross will not be foolishness if you make the message of the cross appealing and attractive.  The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.  Now if I'm going to try to make my preaching appealing to the perishing, I'm going to have to do something with the message of the cross, because those who are perishing find it to be foolishness.  So the church thinks that it has found a way to be popular and attractive and pack the building by using wisdom of men. 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.  There is a stark contrast.  There are those who by God's grace come to see and understand that the message of the crucified Christ is the way of salvation.  Those are the ones believing that message.
Listen to what one modern day writer has said regarding this section of Corinthians.  The message of these sections from 1 Corinthians must be learned afresh by every generation of Christians, or the Gospel will be sidelined by assorted fads.  Western evangelicalism tends to run through cycles of fads.  At the moment books are pouring off the presses, telling us how to plan for success, how vision consists in clearly articulated ministry goals, how the knowledge of detailed profiles of our communities constitutes the key to successful outreach.  Ever so subtly we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the Gospel.  Barnam becomes more important than the Bible.  We depend on plans, programs, vision statements, but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning.  I fear that the cross without ever being disowned is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight.

God's plan, look at the end of verse 21, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  Now understand that it is God's sovereign plan that salvation occurs through the proclamation of the message of the cross.  And all the seminars and all the books and all the plans that are telling us how we can build seeker services to make the church more attractive and draw in the unbeliever are in conflict with the Word of God and are part of the devil's plan to delude the church and turn it away from the purity of devotion to Christ, as Paul will later address the Corinthians.  God's plan is the preaching of the Word.

One more section before we move into Corinthians.  Back up to Romans 10.  Paul wrote on the same theme to the Romans, a letter that will be written a little bit later than the letter we are looking at.  Chapter 10 covers the same information.  We'll break into the thought, just to save some time.  Verse 11 tells us, for the scripture says, whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed, not put to shame.  In other words, there will be no failures.  When you hear and believe the message of Christ you will be saved.  There is no possibility, what if I turn from my sin and place my faith in Christ and I'm not saved.  There is no disappointment, no shame brought about by failure when you believe in Christ.  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him.  For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Now note this pattern.  How then will they call on Him whom they have not believed?  How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?  How will they hear without a preacher?  How will they preach unless they are sent?  See the pattern.  God gives His Word, that messenger takes the Word and goes and gives it out.  That word translated preacher at the end of verse 14, talked about the karuse, the herald.  And it's a form of this word, same basic word that is used in 1 Corinthians 1 of preaching the message.  That herald takes.  He doesn't go and add to it, he goes as the representative, for example, of the king.  He arrives at a town, he unfolds his scroll and he announces the message of the king.  He doesn't say, first I have to do something to make this more attractive.  The power of the message is that it is a message from the king.  His role is simple to go and announce it every place.  So that's what we are to do.  God entrusts His Word to a vessel of clay, we go and we give it out.  We are sent by God.  They proclaim the message as heralds.  People hear it and believe it.  They express that faith in the message of the cross by calling upon God as their Savior.  That's the pattern.  We're constantly trying to come up with what should we do, how can we reach the city, how can we reach the country, how can we reach the world.  Go tell them the Gospel.  Jesus told the disciples of His day, the fields are ripe to harvest.  The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers.  Oh my, how can we reach the city?  Why don't we turn lose 1000 people and everybody is going to go out of here today and share the message of the cross with 10 people, 10,000 people will hear the message of Jesus Christ in one day.  If we do 10 more tomorrow that will be 20,000 people.  That means 70,000 people could hear the Gospel in one week if each of us shared the Gospel with 10 people a day, one week 70,000 people, three weeks everybody in the city of Lincoln would have heard the Gospel.  Then we start again, take a week to get our breath, the next three weeks we do it, then we take another breath.  We keep going, sharing the Gospel, carrying the Gospel.  It's not very difficult, we just come up with a different plan because of the reason Paul is talking about.

We come back to 1 Corinthians 1.  What he's going to do, we're picking up with verse 22, we're in the midst of a paragraph.  I want you to realize I understand the paragraph markings in the Bible, too.  We break in the middle of a paragraph, but you know me, I just break wherever we are and we pick up wherever we left off, so we'll get it all in eventually.  We're in the middle of a paragraph here, really it's developing from verse 18, 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 verse 22, he's going to elaborate on the first group that is perishing.  You can divide all humanity into two groups—the perishing and the being saved.  Now you can divide the perishing into two groups—Jews and non-Jews.  Then those who are perishing, on their way to hell, there are Jews and there are non-Jews.  Paul is going to talk about both groups, then he will talk about those who are being saved.  Now keep in mind God has revealed His sovereign plan is that salvation will occur through what the world views as the foolishness of the message of the cross being given out.  The message of the death of Christ to pay the penalty for sin is what brings salvation.

We'll pick up with verse 22, for indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom.  The Jews ask for signs.  He talks about signs, they are always looking for God to prove Himself by doing some kind of miracle, some kind of visible demonstration of His power that will satisfy their requirements.  Now you'll note what they are doing--they are setting themselves up as the place of judges.  And God is welcome to compete in the arena, and offer His evidences.  And then if they are satisfied they will accept what He says.  Now you know God is not going to step from His throne to submit to those kind of demands.  But they were relentless.  During the earthly ministry of Christ the Jews constantly wanted Him to do miracles, signs.  They are called signs because these would be miracles that would indicate that what He said was true.

Back up to Matthew 12.  And keep in mind during Christ's earthly ministry He is doing many miracles, mighty demonstrations of His power as the Messiah of Israel.  In Mathew 12:22, then a demon possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus.  He healed him so that the mute man spoke and saw.  What a demonstration of power, healing a man who was unable to speak, who was blind.  He speaks the word and he is healed, and the Jewish leaders fall on their knees, believing.  Look at verse 24, when the Pharisees heard this they said, this Man casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.  This work of power just demonstrates He's demon possessed.  So you come down to verse 38, then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, teacher, we want to see a sign from you.  We need more miracles, do something else, that one just made us think that the devil is working in you.  Do something else and do something else.  How many miracles has Jesus done up to this time?  Just read through the first 12 chapters of Matthew, you get a sampling.  He answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign.  Why?  Because there are people who are saying the Word of God is not enough, I will not take God at His Word, He will have to prove it to me.  And if he doesn't prove it to me, then I don't believe Him.  Jesus said, there will be one culminating sign, the sign of Jonah, for the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  Then there will be resurrection. You know what Luke 16 says?  If they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe even if one is raised from the dead.  Did the resurrection of Jesus Christ cause the nation Israel to fall on their face in faith?  No, not at all, because the problem is not signs.

Look over in Mark 8.  The first 9 verses record the feeding of the 4000.  This is similar to another miracle, the feeding of the 5000.  We'll look at that in a moment, but it's a different miracle, but similar kind of event.  There are 4000 people in the middle of nowhere, it's time to eat and all they have is a little lunch.  So Jesus takes the lunch, divides it up and feeds 4000 people.  What a miracle.  Look down in verse 11, the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him.  Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit.  Why does this generation seek for a sign?  The signs had been there but you realize the problem is not lack of evidence, the problem is an unbelieving heart.  You see you don't create faith by multiplying the miracles, because the problem is they won't believe the Word of God, and so adding miracles does not bring one more person to faith.

One more passage, then we have to move on—John 6.  This chapter opens up, the first 14 verses talk about the feeding of the 5000, where again on this occasion there are 5000 people out in the middle of nowhere, time to eat.  Jesus takes someone's lunch, divides it up and feeds all 5000.  Look down in verse 30, so they said to Him, what then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you?  What work do you perform?  It's never enough, never done, because the problem is not lack of evidence.  The problem is an unwillingness to believe what God has said.  They understand that.  If we would start off every service here as a miracle service and we'd say every Sunday at the start of our service I'm going to heal three desperately ill people with the kind of physical affliction that there is no human explanation for.  I will heal them, just three, every Sunday, because then we have to get on and preach the Word.  Do you know, we could probably pack this auditorium out multiple times, especially if I'd do three at the beginning of every service.  We wouldn't be able to get the people in.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?  You know the Bible says, not one additional person would get saved than gets saved when all you have is the preaching of the cross.  The attracting of all those people that came to see the miracles would not result in one additional conversion.  That's Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 1.  Now we'd say, okay, but at heart the church doesn't believe that.  Even the evangelical church that believes the Bible is the Word of God has this idea that if we can attract big enough crowds more people will get saved.  It is a failure to understand the biblical doctrine of salvation, that salvation is a work of God done contrary to the works and methods of man, in fact, using a method that the world views as foolishness, because the message that is to be given out is viewed as foolishness.  And you cannot improve on it, because this is God's only way of working.

Back in 1 Corinthians 1.  Okay the Jews are always looking for signs, some kind of demonstration of power, a miracle that will settle the issue.  And stop and think about it. If I told you and you could take my word for it, it would be a lie if I told you I could do it, but if I said God revealed to me last night that He's going to enable me to heal three people at the beginning of the service tomorrow.  Would you think, I have to get my unbelieving friends here, because if that's really going to happen I have to get all the unbelieving friends I have to come because that will be the proof they need.  You understand that any of those unbelieving friends that will not respond to your presentation of the cross of Christ by believing to be saved will not respond as a result of seeing the three miracles that would be done.  The plan that God has won't change.

But Paul has a problem, the Jews seek for a sign in verse 22, and the Greeks search for wisdom.  The Greeks wanted to be impressed with wisdom, with the rationality of the claim.  They wanted to be impressed that this man's arguments defeat all the other arguments.  This is truly the plan that is most consistent with intellectual thinking and credibility.  Again, man sets himself up as the standard.  Let God present His arguments and I will decide if His plan demonstrates more intellectual wisdom and capability than the other plan.  Again, man wants to be in the position of deciding.  God doesn't operate that way.  One person put it this way, what the world finds impressive and irresistible are sensory spectacles or demonstrations of irrefutable proof.  That is not what God offers in the cross.  If we had someone here, a scientist or someone of renowned intellect, again you'd say a good time to invite your unbelieving friends.  Why?  They will be impressed with his intellectual capabilities, I mean you just can't stand in the face of his arguments.  But that's not what God uses to save people.  In fact we won't get there today, but before Paul is finished you know what he's going to say?  Look around in the church at Corinth, we have a bunch of stupid nobodies.  That tells you how God works.  Just contrary to everything we see.  And even when we're saved we find ourselves fighting not to drift into that kind of thinking, because it's the way of the world around us.

So now we know, the Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom.  Now I read you an article in our previous study about people who plant churches and they go and first take a survey in the community and find out what people want about a church, what they don't want; what they like about churches, what they don't like.  And then they make the adjustments.  Well now Paul knows what the Jews like and don't like.  The Jews want signs.  Paul was an apostle with an ability to perform miracles, so if we're going to reach Jews when we get to Corinth, first thing we're going to do is we're going to do some miracles.  That will get their attention, that will draw them, they'll invite their friends then.  And with all my training at the feet of Gamaliel and my ability to interact with some of the major philosophies of the day, I will demonstrate to the Greeks the credibility of Christianity, and that will attract the Greeks to hear me.  But that's not what Paul did.

Verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified.  Paul's message and ministry were not determined by what men liked, by what men wanted, what seemed on the human level would be attractive to them.  The desires of the Jews, the desires of the Greeks do not enter into the decision of what Paul would do when he came to Corinth.  I know what the Jews want, I know what the Greeks want, here's what I'm going to do—I'm going to preach the cross.  You know what that does?  That is an offense to everybody, that means I'll have no audience.  We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block.  The Greek word is scandalon.  We recognize it, we bring it over into English, scandalize, scandal.  The definition of this word is something so offensive that it arouses opposition.  We say, somebody guilty of molesting children gets arrested and sent to prison.  We all look at that, that is so offensive that people rise up against that person.  In fact when they send them to prison they have to give them special protection, because even those who are in prison are so offended by such an action that they want to do them harm.  Scandalous, they understand.  To preach a crucified Messiah to the Jews was the ultimate oxymoron, conflict of terms.  We talk about the Messiah, we're talking about the one of ultimate power and glory who will subdue all His enemies and rule with a rod of iron.  You talk about crucifixion, you're talking about the lowliest kind of death.  For Jews they recognize because of their law, cursed is everyone who has hung on a tree.  A crucified Messiah, that is so offensive that you would even mention it to me.  Makes me want to rise up in opposition to you. Paul experienced that, he'd go and preach the message of the cross to the Jews and they'd want to stone him.  And they can't take it.  This is scandalous.  How in the world are you going to reach Jews when God tells you to go and tell them something that is so offensive to them that they're going to want to rise up and do you bodily harm.  We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block.
Deuteronomy 21:23 said, in the Jewish law, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.  That means they were accursed of God, they were in the vilest, worst condition.  We saw that the Romans thought that Romans should not have to look at crucifixion, hear about crucifixion, or even have the thought of crucifixion enter his mind.  For the Jews it was even worse, because they viewed it in light of what Deuteronomy said, as the curse of God on that person.  That's what Paul wrote to the Galatians in Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.  Because it is written in Deuteronomy 21:23, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

Well, I guess we're not going to reach many Jews, are we.  What about the Gentiles.  We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.  A word here that means stupidity, also related to our English word madness. A maniac comes from the root of this word, foolish, madness, crazy, dumb.  So here is how the non-Jews view the preaching of the cross, that I as a Gentile would have to hear a message that I am a sinner, guilty before God, I'm perishing, I'm condemned.  But the Messiah of Israel suffered and died on a cross and I must in humility bow before Him, turning from my sin and trusting in His death to pay the penalty for my sin.  That's madness.  In Rome, I should not even have to hear the word cross, let alone you tell me I have to become the follower of an itinerant Jewish teacher who was a nobody in the perspective of the Roman world, rarely left the confines of Palestine itself.  And after a short ministry of about three years His own people confined Him to the worst of deaths, a death that their own God said made Him a curse.  And you want me as a Gentile to bow before this person and believe that His death on the cross was paying the penalty for my sin?  Get real, you're some kind of crazy.  Isn't that amazing?  We're spending all this time putting on seminars and writing books to talk about how we can make our ministry more appealing to the seeker, to the perishing, how it can be more attractive, how we can get them to come and want to come back.  And here God unfolds His plan in black and white and says, I'll tell you what My plan is—to scandalize the Jews and make the Gentiles think you're crazy.  Now you go preach that message, the cross.

Any wonder that the Corinthians were trying to find some wiggle room here, dress it up.  And what did it do?  It leads to division because now we become a follower of this wise person.  He just is so ingenious, he presents his presentation and he puts the cross in such a context that even the unbelievers like to hear it.  And he knows how to put those intellectual philosophers in their place because when he is done arguing with them you know that Christianity has the upper hand.  I mean, just not the way it goes.  When Paul came to Corinth, he preached Christ crucified.  We preach Christ crucified.  Difficult message, a crucified Christ, an offense to the Jews, madness to the Gentiles.

But, verse 24, this is crucial, to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  You know the problem, I can never make the message of the cross appealing to the perishing.  It will never happen.  And if the unbeliever delights to come and hear me preach, it's an indication that somewhere along the line my faithfulness to the truth of God has broken down.  He does not say, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, a presentation of signs and wisdom does have a positive impact.  What makes the difference in the presentation of the message of the cross?  Not adding miracles and works of power, not adding man's wisdom.  God's sovereignty, God's sovereignty.  To those that are the called, whether Jews or Greeks.  They come to recognize because God has sovereignly called them.  This is His electing work that is going to come out more fully as we move on in this chapter.  They recognize in Christ that is the demonstration of God's power for salvation.  That is the manifestation of God's wisdom in providing salvation for sinful human beings.  So I present the message of the cross, wherever you go, you present the message of the cross, it makes the difference.  Those who are the called of God by God's grace respond in faith and believe it.  We go away and say, if I were more prepared to handle some of their intellectual arguments, I think they might have responded.  Forget it.  Did you present the message of the cross clearly?  That's the issue.  That's why Paul will write to Timothy and say, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they might come to the salvation which is found in Christ Jesus.  Because of the sinfulness of man, no one turns in faith to Jesus Christ on their own, no one is turned to faith in Christ by our actions or works, but simply presenting the truth that has been entrusted to us.  Faith comes by hearing, we read in Romans 10, and hearing by the word of Christ.  That's all I can do—present the message of Christ, present the truth of the Gospel, the truth of the cross.  But don't you think it would help if we did the kinds of things that the unbeliever would find attractive?  No, I don't think it would help because God says it won't.  And even if I did think it would help, I believe what God says.  He says it won't.  He says to those who are the called.  Remember, in Paul's writings, the called are always those who are effectually called by God to salvation.  And it's the sovereign work of God in election.  He chooses them and then calls them on the basis of His electing choice.  So I don't like that doctrine. I don't either.  But then again, God does not submit Himself to my evaluations.  It's just what God says.  That's why I periodically tell you, I know that I cannot preach the Word of God in such a way that I will not attract the elect.  And I also know if I am faithfully preaching the Word of God I will not offend the elect.  I cannot avoid offending the non-elect, and the Word of God is not offensive to the elect.  Now sometimes the elect, if they're in sin, they resist the Word of God.  It does not surprise me.

We were talking, after my first hour, someone came and was sharing that at one of our concerts some time back, they had brought someone from work.  And after the concert they said, you know the concert was great until that guy got up and talked about what he talked about.  And there were times people would talk to me and say, maybe it would be better if we didn't present the Gospel like that at concerts.  Why?  Well the unbeliever comes and likes the music, but they don't like to hear that they're sinners, that if they don't believe in Christ they're going to hell.  Do we have to tell them that then?  Well, what did we bring them for?  Doesn't surprise me they don't want to come back.  People think, if Gil hadn't been doing chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians when I brought my unsaved friend, they'd have probably come back.  I wish you'd do something interesting.  Why didn't he talk about raising teenagers?  I could get my unbelieving friends to come for that.  Well I don't have any desire to fill this place with unbelieving people.  If that's our goal, there are a lot of things we could do to fill it with unbelieving people.  But you understand, only the called will see in the message of the cross God's power and God's wisdom, that this is the way of salvation.  It depends on God's call, not man's work.  That's why we have the simplest job on the face of the earth, but the most intimidating.  God has said, here is the message of My Son, the Gospel, the truth of the cross.  Go tell them.  Why is the Corinthian church fudging on this?  Why is the evangelical church fudging?  Who wants to be locked in to doing what the Jews are going to find scandalous and the non-Jews are going to find crazy?  How are we going to build a church?  How are we going to reach our city?  Oh, yeah, that's the church and they go around offending people and acting like crazies.  I really want to go there.  All I can do is turn loose the Gospel,. All I can do is give out the message of the cross.  Do I really believe that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes?  Oh, of course.  Then why don't I turn it loose?  If I tell them, they're probably going to be offended, if I tell them they're going to think I'm nuts.  Probably, unless they happen to be one of the called, and then God is using you as the instrument through whom He is going to reach out to bring them to salvation in His Son.

Because, verse 25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  Remarkable.  What the world views as foolishness, that's wiser than man because man in all his wisdom cannot bring salvation to himself or to others.  It has to be what the world views as foolishness—God's message of the cross.  What the world views as weakness—a message of a Messiah rejected by His own people, crucified on a cross, to be viewed by Jew and Gentile as scum, vile.  Now I realize, that's not weakness, that's strength.  Why?  Because that's the way of salvation, and there is no way you can come to the cross with your pride.  It's a humbling thing.  I mean, this is what it comes to.  Perishing or being saved on whether I've let go of all my pride, all my wisdom, all my self-confidence, all my standards for what I would require and accept simply what God says, that I am a sinner?  And His Son died on a cross to pay the penalty for my sin, His resurrection demonstrates the truth of that.  Matter closed.  There is nothing else.  You either believe it and be saved, or you will refuse to believe it and continue to perish in hell.  That's it.

There is no way to dress it up.  I was visiting with someone not too long ago and we started out talking about churches, what church do you go to?  He goes to a very liberal church and in our conversation it became clear he is not a believer.  Finally I had to turn the discussion after a few minutes and say, you know, it really doesn't matter what church you go to in this discussion.  You could come to hear me preach every Sunday, I could baptize you, you could become one of our best givers, and die and go to an eternal hell.  Because the only issue we have to settle here is that God says you are a sinner and the only hope for your salvation is to recognize the fact that the Son of God came to this earth, the Messiah of Israel, and He suffered and died on a cross, crucified as a vile criminal.  But it was God's plan that He would die to pay the penalty for your sin, and your only hope is to turn from your sin, place your faith in Him.  To this point he has not been saved.  I don't know what God will do.  Some plant seeds, some water, some harvest.  I don't know.  What's our role?  I want to talk to him about church and I don't want to offend him, so maybe over the next few times I see him we'll just talk about generalities, we'll build a relationship.  Paul came storming into Corinth and said, let's talk about the cross.  What's this church about?  The cross.  Your best hope, invite your friends to come, if by the grace of God they come once don't hope they'll come back twice, unless they're the called.  That doesn't mean they get saved the first Sunday, but why would an unbeliever come back to hear the message of the truth of God?  They won't unless God is sovereignly drawing them in His grace to salvation.

What an exciting message.  Isn't it sad that the church gets fractured by divisions because our attention gets off Jesus Christ and off the focus on we are here about the cross.  We are to hear and proclaim the message of Jesus Christ.  Doesn't mean we don't have beautiful music, doesn't mean we don't have nice facilities, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other things going on, but that's not what our church is.  And those things aren't issues, are they?   I want you to know what our church is about.  Our church is about Jesus Christ.  It's about telling people that Jesus Christ is the Savior because He died on a cross to pay the penalty for sin.  If you believe in Him, you'll be saved, if you don't believe in Him, there is no hope.  Praise God by His grace we have heard and believed and now have been entrusted to share that message with others.

Let's pray together.  Thank You, Lord, for Your grace.  Thank You for the power of the Gospel to bring salvation to any and all who believe. Lord, I pray for those who are gathered here today, here by Your grace.  Undoubtedly some of them are perishing.  Lord, some of them may come regularly, they have deluded themselves into thinking they are saved.  But Lord in their hearts they know better.  I pray that Your Spirit will convict them, by Your grace their eyes might be opened to believe in Jesus Christ and experience the power of His salvation.  And Lord, may we as Your people and as Your church not be ashamed, not be embarrassed with the message of the cross, but to count it an honor to preach that which is scandalous, that which people view as foolishness and crazy.  Because we know it is the demonstration of Your power and Your wisdom, and because of Your grace and Your call we have entered into that salvation by faith.  We praise You in Christ's name, amen.