Faithfully Foolish in an Age of Folly

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1 Corinthians 1:17-31

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Maybe I should have preached one of the passages in the gospel narratives where Jesus preached out of a boat.
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You know, they moved the boat up to the shoreline and He stood in it and preached. And I kind of feel like that's the kind of setting we have tonight.
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Except you all have, you know, very nice lawn chairs that I'm not sure first century folks would have had.
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So we can't quite replicate that. But 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I want to talk tonight to you about,
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I want to preach from the text tonight about being faithfully foolish in an age of folly.
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Faithfully foolish in an age of folly. The church is called to do foolish things.
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Well, hold on just a second. Doesn't Proverbs talk to us about being wise? What do you mean tonight you're telling us that we should be foolish?
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Well, I mean that in the eyes of the world, when it comes to worldly wisdom, when it comes to the assessment from the world, the world should look at a faithful church and the world's description of that church should simply be this.
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Foolish. How do you know if you're being faithful to God in these days?
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Well, the world, if you are being faithful to God, the world will think you foolish. Now, that doesn't mean that every church that's actually foolish, or any church that's actually foolish from godly wisdom is right.
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But in terms from the world, we want to be considered foolish. And this is right from our text.
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So now that I've let you get comfortable sitting down, you stand back up, if you will, as we honor the reading of God's Word.
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I'm going to start in verse 17 and read through the end of the passage. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 17.
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For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
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For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.
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Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not
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God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know
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God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
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For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.
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But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
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For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.
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Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
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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.
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So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Let's pray. Father, would
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You bless the preaching of Your Word. It's crazy what we're doing out here tonight. Gathering out here to sing, to pray, to preach.
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Lord, we do it because we believe Your Bible. We believe who You are. We want to love
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You and serve You well. So help us in this sense to be faithfully foolish in an age of folly.
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We pray, God, that You'd bless our church and our efforts. Be with those who couldn't make it tonight. We pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen. You may be seated. Paul, you know Corinth. He writes to a troubled church, a divided church.
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It had mature believers, weak believers, even in the midst, unbelievers claiming to be believers.
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And it was a church surrounded by a godless age, an age that thought it was wise. So here's the first point tonight.
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I want to talk about the folly of a perishing age. So in verse 20, it says,
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Verse 17, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
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For the word of cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise?
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Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
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There are so many things that I could mention in this point.
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I'll just try to be quickly here. But if you remember, in first century culture here that Paul is talking to, the
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Greeks were notorious for their philosophies and their continued quest of wisdom. Some Greeks even used wisdom to try to philosophize back to God, and it just doesn't work.
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All of their wisdom, the text is saying, was folly. And the irony is, in the midst of their folly came the wisdom of God, which they rejected as folly.
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Verse 18, the word of the cross is folly. They rejected the wisdom of God as folly.
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And this is an age, Paul says, that is perishing. And all the great wisdom that the first century culture had, they were perishing.
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Their wisdom could not save them from the wrath of God. Of course, we're going to draw a line from their day to our day.
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Two things still exist today that existed then. Number one, the suppression of the truth of God.
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And number two, the exaltation of self. So when Paul went to Athens, remember the
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Greeks there, Athens was full of idols. America today is still full of idols.
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And this provoked Paul, and it should provoke the church today. But let me just mention a few things about the wisdom of our age.
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And the point here is the folly of a perishing age. Our age is inundated with knowledge.
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We've got knowledge. Well, here you go. You want to know anything? I've got knowledge at my fingertips, right?
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I can learn how to gut a deer. I can learn how to install a microwave or whatever.
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I can learn how to wire a house or build this or do this technology. We're constantly inundated with knowledge.
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We are a culture and age that seems to be so wise. You know, let me give you four areas that we're quite foolish in.
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Number one, I'll mention the error of evolution. Evolution, naturalistic evolution, is a pre -commitment to naturalism.
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This evolutionary worldview that exists in our day, that people just put together as facts, it's held together by glue, even less than glue.
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For example, evolution in its own system. Evolution cannot give an account for consciousness.
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It can't give an account for morality or logic. In and of itself, it's a system that defeats itself, is what
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I'm saying. Life, for example, cannot come from non -life. Simple cells cannot.
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They're unable to evolve from less complex cells. And we could talk about that more and more and more.
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But the point is, some of the things that are touted as great wisdom in this age are actually foolish.
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Or you want to talk about gender. That's another area we could talk about. You want to talk about people that say, trust the science, trust the science, trust the science.
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But then they come out and they say, well, we don't know what a boy really is. We don't know what a woman really is, right?
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You ask one of the ladies who is, or she is, Supreme Court Justice now, what is a woman?
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I'm not a biologist. We don't know. We live in a culture that claims to be so wise and so in love with science, but we can't even define the basic understanding of a man and a woman.
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We're foolish. Even many churches are failing to understand the different roles that God gives men and women.
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Or thirdly, I'll mention, I don't want to spend too long on this point. What about abortion? We're so wise, and yet abortion's rampant in our land.
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Abortion, we call in our land health care, or we call it birth control.
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We think that we're so wise in how we're able to be little gods ourselves and have the right overtaking of human life.
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All of this is suppression of God and the exaltation of self. The root of this is folly.
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And then fourthly, I'll just mention this, the problem of man. Words of eloquent wisdom were the words of Greek philosophers.
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Paul says in verse 17, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not, to preach the gospel not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be empty of its power.
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So these Greek philosophers would use all these lofty words of eloquent wisdom. And Paul says,
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I ain't doing that. And so the problem of man in our day, our age thinks that it can fix it, right?
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So you have the problem with man today is their upbringing, or their background, or their ancestry, or their being oppressed, or their economic situation.
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And so we've decided, hey, we can fix. Are you listening to the presidential debates? I mean, we've had two,
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I guess, technically, two different Democratic candidates in those. But you hear some of the things that are coming out in these presidential debates.
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Hey, we're going to fix the problem of America. And what is everything focused on? It's focused on the external.
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This really isn't a political statement, but you want to know the number one problem in America that needs to be fixed?
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It's the heart of American citizens. We need to be born again.
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Believers need to return to our first love. We need to see revival. Outward things are not going to ultimately fix man's problem.
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Therapy, or social justice, or better medicine, or better education, whatever the case may be, it's folly to think that these things will fix the condition of man.
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I'm just saying in this point that the wisdom of man is ultimately folly, and it's folly to God.
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And I just wanted to bring out the folly of a perishing age. Secondly, number two, let me speak to you about the foolishness of a perfect God.
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Now let me say this. If Paul didn't say it this way, we would be treading on very serious ground here to call anything
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God does foolish. But listen to Paul's argument and the way he says it.
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Verse 25, For the foolishness of God, that's a hyperbolic thought here, the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man.
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So this is the point. What God has done in Christ is seen as folly to a dying world.
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Consider, just flip over one chapter to chapter two, verse 14. The natural person does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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So when mankind looks at the cross, when they look at what God has done to bring salvation to sinners, they see foolishness.
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It's folly to a lost and dying world. Particularly, there's a reference to the gospel here.
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For the word of the cross, I'm back in chapter one, verse 18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.
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The cross, so hear me church, the cross is not attractive to the world.
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By design. By design, it is unattractive to the world.
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The wisdom of this age, pragmatism, will not get you to God, and that is by God's design.
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Okay, look at verse 28 through 31. Well, just read verse 28. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.
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Why is this, verse 31? So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the
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Lord. By design. But if I can just really explain the cross to people, if I can just really get the gospel articulated well to people, if I can just really preach it well, explain it well, sit over a cup of coffee, and teach it well to someone, they'll see that it's beautiful.
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No, in and of themselves, it's folly. I want to use the
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S -T -U -P -I -D word, but some people find that offensive, so I won't use that word. But they see it as an absolutely foolish way for God to work.
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But here's the message of the gospel. God has entered into our reality. God has entered into our suffering.
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God, the infinite, all -powerful God, took on human flesh in the person of His Son. He was born in a manger, not to become some earthly ruler, not in the sense that we think of rulers anyway.
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God the Son humbled Himself to redeem fallen humanity. He fulfilled all righteousness.
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And He goes to the cross. That's the focal point of this folly. Again in verse 18. For the word of the cross is folly.
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Or chapter 2, verse 1. 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.
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Think about what Paul is depending on. Paul is depending, when he comes to the church at Corinth, not on gathering, or when he comes to the city of Corinth, not on gathering an audience that would be acceptable, accepting of his message.
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He comes and he says, you know what, this age that thinks it's so wise, here's what I'm going to come and split this town open with.
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I'm coming and I'm bringing nothing. But the cross. The cross is folly.
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And so we see responses to the cross. Let me just mention two of those. One is it causes man to rage against God.
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They hear about the cross and they're just angry because it confronts us with our sin.
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Or two, it causes man, there's a third response I'll get to in a minute. Two, it causes man to laugh at God.
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You Christians are dumb. But Jesus is God in the flesh and He came to die.
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And He came to rise again. And so some would respond to that by saying, that's not how I would save people.
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But this is how God saves. And it's by the cross, He says, the ways of your humanity, the works of your hands, the wisdom of your head, the will of your heart, it will not get you to heaven.
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Jesus is shamed on the cross, but in His shame on the cross, He reveals our shame.
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And the message of the cross really at its center is this, that you are so wicked and hopeless in and of yourself, that the only way for you to be reconciled to a holy
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God is for God to put His Son to death. And Jesus wasn't put to death so that we could be wealthy or healthy or famous.
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He was crucified because we're sinners and because of what you and I deserve, that is the wrath of God.
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But on the cross, God pours wrath upon His Son. In our stead, He dies the death of sinners and He raises again to life.
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This is the message that we preach. That those who turn from their sin and believe this message will be saved.
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And there's that third response to the cross. Some men rage, some men laugh, but the text says others believe.
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So verse 18, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
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Or verse 21, For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased
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God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
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For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.
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So those who believe the cross don't believe they're wiser. They don't believe they're better.
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They believe by grace alone through God's call. You see down there in verse 27,
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God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
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God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.
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Christ is a substitute for sinners. He took the punishment we deserve so that we might have life.
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And the only way that we can have life is through the preaching of the Gospel as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to let us see that this message, even though the world calls it foolish, is actually the wisdom of God.
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And because of Him, verse 30, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us. Who's the us? Those who believe this message.
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Wisdom from God. Righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The world may call the cross folly, but for those who believe the cross, for those who are saved, for those who are born again, we see
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Jesus as the very wisdom of God. The cross puts all humanity on the same footing.
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It condemns all sinners while simultaneously showing us the love of God and offering us hope if we turn away from sin and self and turn to Christ.
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So, you know I have three points, right? You're in the rhythm. The folly of a perishing age, the foolishness of a perfect God.
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Now let me speak to you. Let's put this together for our church. The faithfulness of a preaching church.
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So in verse 21, I'll revisit. Paul says, For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know
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God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
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You need to notice that in your Bible tonight. And you need to believe, you need to at least understand tonight that preaching, even among those who should know better, preaching the
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Gospel has fallen on difficult times. And we believe today that we can come up with a wiser way to get people saved than preaching the
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Gospel of Christ. Notice back in verse 17. Did you get that? For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to what?
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Not to have conversations. Not to pass out tracts. By the way, I'm not against having conversations.
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We should have conversations about the Gospel. And you guys know, in my wallet right now,
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I just refilled it the other day. In my wallet right now, I've got Gospel tracts from Providence Baptist Church.
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I pass them out to people as I go throughout my day. So I believe in passing out tracts. I believe in developing relationships.
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I believe in having conversations. But please hear me tonight. Paul says that he was called to preach the
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Gospel. And friends, an evangelical culture that dismisses the power of God and diminishes the problem of man is ultimately going to try to rely on the wisdom of this age as the way to do its ministry.
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And this we have going on in many churches today. That is, we're going to extend a peace treaty to the culture.
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We're going to create an environment where you come and see instead of us going and telling. Yeah, but if we go and tell, they'll think we're just angry.
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Or if we go and tell, they'll think we're just foolish. Now listen, don't be a jerk. Don't be sinfully angry.
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None of these things should be true. But a church that prizes the Gospel and prizes God's Word must be a preaching church.
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And I'm not just talking about out here on the dock, although this is kind of crazy, right? Out here on the dock in a fall evening, it's a little bit warm, right?
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I'm talking about preaching inside the walls of the church and preaching outside the walls of the church.
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If we try to repackage the Gospel, if we try to give it eloquent speech, if we try to impress the masses, if we try to please culture, then we empty it of its power.
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That's not me making this up. That's what Paul says. For Christ did not send me, verse 17, to baptize, but to preach the
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Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
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You see, the cross of Christ comes to a man who might be walking down the street, or comes to a man who might be going to this or that activity, and they hear about the
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Gospel of Christ, and what happens is, you think, that person will never believe on Christ. And yet,
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God saves that person. Why? To the glory of the preacher? No. To the glory of Christ in demonstrating the power of the
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Gospel. Now listen, this is true in passing out tracts. It's true of conversations. I'm not against those things.
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We should, I hope, that all of us kind of have that evangelistic mentality. But I just want you to see in the text, the focus on preaching.
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Verse 18, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.
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This word for word in verse 18 is the word logos. So remember this, church. Our message is one of words.
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The word of the cross. The word of the cross. Now, I'm very emphatic that we should be a holy church, and we should live holy lives.
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But you can't live a holy life in front of a person and expect them to come to a saving knowledge of Christ apart from what?
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Words. You have to use words. So some of you think, well, I've just been trying to be real nice to my co -worker.
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I've bought him gifts. I've given him money. I've told him I would pray for them. All of those things are wonderful things.
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I'm glad you've done those things. But don't forget this. There must be a point, if you hope for them to be saved, there must be a point where the gospel is communicated to them.
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We have to use words. The word. Word, I says
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Logos. Truthful words. You see, the world is not offended today by Christian charity.
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The world is not offended by Christian kindness. The world is offended when
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Christians are silent and maintain their own little holy huddle. We're going to go over here and not offended when
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Christians do that. So we're going to go over here and we're going to do our own thing. The world doesn't care about that. Keep the gospel.
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In fact, you hear this in politics today. Keep the gospel in your home, in your little home.
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Keep the gospel in your little church. Don't bring it to bear in the public square. So as long as you don't bring the gospel outside the church, you hold on to it inside the church, you don't speak it, you don't preach it, the world's not going to be upset with you.
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The world's not going to think you're crazy. But when you release the Word of the cross, verse 18, whenever we preach the saving power of the cross and the wisdom of God in saving sinners, that's when the world is going to be upset.
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How wise is the cross? Only God could do it. It is the perfect solution to how a holy
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God can reconcile unholy sinners to Himself. I told you this morning, in the cross, in the gospel,
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God is not lowering His standard. God is not saying, oh, these guys couldn't make it, I'll come up with a different way.
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No, He's meeting His standard in Christ. Christ fulfilled all righteousness and then
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He dies to death for lawbreakers and He rises again. And the message that we must proclaim is this, while calling sinners to repent of sin and believe the gospel, but people don't want to hear this.
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Especially when the message of the cross says turn away from sin and come to Christ.
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The cross shows us how wicked sin is to God. It shows us God will not show mercy to those who just decide to persist in sin and refuse
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His kindness. His mercy is for those who look to Christ in faith. And that's the beauty of the cross.
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The cross, friends, I'm preaching to you tonight about a cross that really and truly and actually saves.
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Not from just past sin, not just from future hell, but even a present sin.
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Not that Christians don't still sin. Of course we do. But the power of the cross sets us free. You don't have to be who you thought you were.
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You don't have to be whatever adjectives you want to be. You don't have to be a drunkard. You don't have to be a homosexual.
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You don't have to be an adulterer. You don't have to be a glutton. You don't have to be a thief. Why? Because the cross is powerful enough to set you free from these things.
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And it will set you free. So we preach. The cross beckons all sinners to come and to believe on Christ.
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And this is the glory of the cross. Many people want a gospel today that doesn't mess with your life and it just punches a ticket to heaven.
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But that's not Paul's message. The cross is foolish to the world.
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And the cross offends the world. But for those who believe, Paul says in verse 33, that Jesus' wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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So what I want to get back to is this. And we're going to close with this in just a couple more minutes.
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I'm trying to give you a message tonight to explain to you this is why we do what we do today.
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I want our church to understand that this passage, it's not the only passage, but this is one of many passages where Paul is sent not for conversations.
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Paul is sent not for building wells or whatever. Paul is sent not to do a food ministry.
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He even says, you know, in verse 17, something very precious to us as Baptists, right? He says, I wasn't sent to baptize.
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But he's sent for this message. To preach. To proclaim the gospel.
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To proclaim what God has done in Christ to reconcile sinners to Himself. So I'm telling you tonight, church, this is why we do what we do.
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Why we care so much about what's going on in Mexico. Because we care about the proclamation of the gospel and the fidelity and healthiness of local churches.
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So this is why what we do in missions, this is why what we do in our church, gathering weekly and preaching and putting a high priority on preaching and proclaiming the gospel in our sermons, this is why we're serious about a life that is pleasing to God and living holy lives.
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And this is why we're also serious as a church. I know it makes us a little weird, a little unique, but I believe that it's being faithful.
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This is why we're serious as a church about taking the gospel outside our four walls and declaring it, even in our little town, the hope of Christ.
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Preaching the folly of the cross. We preach the gospel which is folly to a lost and dying world.
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Because it's glorifying the Christ. And because we believe that God actually saves.
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Do you believe that tonight? Look at verse 21. Can I just show you that? Don't let me talk you into it. For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know
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God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
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How is God saving sinners today? I'm not discounting tracts.
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You guys know I'm not discounting conversations. I'm not discounting a meeting over coffee. I'm not discounting you going and knocking on your neighbor's door.
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We should be doing all these things. But don't forget that God still saves today through the foolishness of preaching.
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Preaching the gospel of Christ. So right here, friends, is where we plant our flag.
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Right here is where we draw the line. Right here we say this is where we stand.
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We will be a church by God's mercy, by God's grace. We need His favor.
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But we will be a church that will be faithful in foolishness. At least in the world's eyes.
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We will gladly be fools for the sake of Christ. We'll dig in our heels here. We'll have a little
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Baptist stubbornness here. We will not budge here. Let the culture throw at us what it may.
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Let them do their worst. Let them laugh at us and scorn us. And if they need to, let them get angry.
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Let them invent lies or new lies. Let them exhibit more folly. And what will we do in response to that?
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In response to maybe a culture that doesn't want to hear us. Or even from friends who might say, stop doing that.
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What will we do? Our response is this. We will preach. And we won't stop.
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We'll keep preaching. We'll preach Christ. We'll preach Christ and Him crucified. We'll preach
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Christ to young people and old people, to men and women. We'll preach Christ to people who are confused about their sexuality.
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We'll preach Christ to those who say they're homosexual or those who are addicted to drugs. We'll preach
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Christ to all. And we'll be confident in the power of God. We'll know that God saves how and whom
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He will save for His glory through the preaching of the cross. We'll preach the hope of Jesus.
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We'll preach God's perfect wisdom. We'll not soften the message.
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We'll not avoid the issue. We'll not tamper with the Word of God. We'll not attempt to make it more pleasant.
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We'll not compromise. We'll not use gimmicks. But out of a heart that loves Christ and out of a heart that loves our fellow man, by God's grace, this will be a church that will preach
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Christ and Him crucified. We're not interested tonight in new strategies.
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We follow the ancient paths. We're not interested in worldly ideas. We're not interested in adaptation.
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And we're certainly not interested in surrender. You say, yeah, but if you're going to do all that, that seems a bit foolish.
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Well, guess what? The Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach
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Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the
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Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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God will save. I hope you're with me tonight and that we'll resolve again tonight that Providence Baptist Church is a church that seeks to be faithfully foolish in an age of folly.
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And by God's mercy, maybe by the word of the cross, we'll see many of our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones come to know
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Christ in the coming months and years for the glory of His name. But at the end of the day, it is our commitment to be faithful to what the
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Scriptures say. And by God's grace, we will. I'm going to pray and then we have a song request tonight.
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We're going to sing Amazing Grace. So here in a minute, if someone wants to tell me what number that is, I'll lead us in that.
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But let me pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word and help us to be a church that is committed to these truths.
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We pray it's not just a rally, but it's a life. We pray that we'd be committed to the preaching of the cross no matter what, that we would love what
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Your Word has to say, and that we would faithfully follow Christ even if the world says that we're foolish.
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We would be like the song says, no turning back, no turning back. Christ is worthy.