WWUTT 1432 Not Many Are Wise (1 Corinthians 1:26)

There's a lot of people that listen to this podcast that probably come from different social classes, different lifestyles, different cultures.

But it's not because you are special that you came to know Christ. It's because God had mercy on you.

When we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily

Bible study in the word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher,

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 1 Corinthians chapter one.

I'm going to pick up in the next section. So start reading here in verse 26 and we'll go through verse 31.

This is in the Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame things which are strong.

And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not so that he may abolish the things that are so that no flesh may boast before God.

But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the

Lord. Now I'm really not ready to move on from verses 18 through 25, but if you've been with me the last few weeks we've been in that particular section, then you'll know that what we just read here sounds a lot like what we just read in 18 through 25.

It's continuing the same thought. We could spend, we could spend all year in First Corinthians chapter one.

And I'm just, you know, I'm occasionally asking myself, why not? Why not just spend all the rest of the year in First Corinthians chapter one?

There's just such good things here. When you start taking it apart word by word and still looking at it in context, you do it like the

Martin Lloyd -Jones method. How many years was it that he was in Romans?

And I think that Conrad Mbewe at Kibwata Baptist Church in Zambia, Africa, I think he just outdid

Martin Lloyd -Jones by like several years, was in Romans for longer than Lloyd -Jones was in Romans.

Anyway, so you go with the, let's call it the Conrad Mbewe method. We just spend several years in this book.

You can, you can start to see the depth and the richness of the scriptures when you spend that much time in it.

We're not losing the context at all. Still keeping everything in context, looking at it exactly as God meant for us to see it.

But this is the God who made the cosmos, right? Created the entire universe, the far reaches of which we can barely understand, barely.

Like we haven't even come to the nth percentage of understanding what the end of the universe looks like.

You could spend lifetimes trying to study the universe, and yet there's also a universe that is so microscopic, we've not come down to the smallest particles of that either, have we?

We keep inventing microscopes and things that can see down to this quantum level, this sub quantum level, and tinier and tinier it goes.

We cannot even fathom the tiniest, let alone the largest. And so it's the same with studying the scriptures.

There's a broad picture here that it's difficult for us to come to even the far reaches of.

And then when you're looking at it to the nth degree, when we're studying it on its tiniest levels, we can barely fathom that either.

That's just the richness and the depth of the word of God. It's almost as if God gave us the universe to show us you can't fathom the universe, nor can you even fathom my word.

We can understand it. It's not that the word of God is so deep that we can't understand it.

We can. We're reading it. We're understanding it as we're going through it here. Same with the universe. It's so big that we can't understand it, yet we live in it, and you're able to function in it.

You have responsibilities as an adult that you've got to do, and you know you've got to do them.

If I don't do this, here's going to be the consequences for doing it. But how can we fathom the far reaches of space?

It's insurmountable. And we won't understand all of these things perfectly until we reach glory.

In fact, that's a point that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 13, in this letter coming up in chapter 13, he says, now we see as though through a glass dimly, but soon we'll see face to face.

In fact, I should probably read that in the legacy standard version here. So in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 12, it says, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.

As you read later on in 1 John 3, it says that we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

Now those things are rather mysterious to us. There are things we're going to study, we're going to examine, we're going to explore in a quest for knowledge for the rest of our lives, but never fully understand.

It's not until we get to the other side that we will see it fully. We will see him as he is meant to be seen because we will be made to be like him.

And then those things that we see that are kind of mysterious to us now, we will even know fully just as we are fully known.

God can see the fully sanctified, our fully sanctified selves, what we will be like when we join him in glory.

God knows exactly what that is going to look like. We don't see it yet. We continue to explore it and it won't be that day until we step into the other side that we will be perfect as he is perfect.

Paul says to the Philippians, not that I am already perfect, but I desire to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

So we explore these things because we are Christ's and we desire to know our savior.

Anyway, did all of that make sense? That was kind of rambling, but desiring to know to the tiniest degree, we could delve into the text and dissect it all letter by letter, or we can look at the broad picture, which we should do both.

There's really no limit to how much time or how little time we spend in 1

Corinthians chapter 1, or the whole letter in general. Anyway, so let's come back to verse 26 here, still in context with what we've read in verses 18 through 25, for consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

We just got done reading that the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men, right?

And now Paul directs it at the reader, at the hearer. Consider your calling.

How did we start this letter? 1 Corinthians 1, 1, Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother.

That's how Paul introduces himself, Sosthenes, who is writing with him and then who he's writing to, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints with all who in every place call on the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. So we started by talking about calling three times.

Calling is mentioned in those first two verses. And here we have Paul directing it to the hearer, to the reader, once again, to consider your calling, brothers, consider your calling.

That there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

So it's the wisdom according to what the world would say is wise. If the world is looking at you, if the people of Corinth who are worldly minded are looking inside the church at Corinth and they're trying to evaluate the value, the instrumental value of every person that is there in the

Corinthian church, what would they see? They would see that there's not many there who are wise. We're not going to be hiring all of you guys to come out to the city square here in Corinth and express to us your wisdom, that we may bask in the depth of your knowledge.

That's not what you see among the people there, the church in Corinth. So there's not many among them who are very wise.

There's not many who are mighty. They're not even going to come to this church and say, hey, you guys need to lead us into battle because we've seen how strong and buff you guys are here in the church in Corinth.

So you need to lead us in war. You need to lead us in political matters. You need to lead us in economic affairs.

Nobody is looking at the people of the church in Corinth there and seeing many who are mighty. So there's not many who are mighty.

There's not many who are noble. In other words, there's not many there who come from a valued lineage, that they have a high name in the culture or a high class society.

Most of the people there in Corinth would not be considered, or most of the people there in that church would not be considered such by the rest of Corinth.

And you need to kind of consider that about the church as well. I remember when I was a kid,

I thought, you know, if I make enough money and if I gain enough social standing, a highly credible enough social standing, then

I can say whatever I want to about Jesus and the culture won't hate me for it because I'm just too rich and I'm too powerful.

So it was almost as if in my infantile mind, spiritually infant,

I was thinking to myself, if I could gain enough clout that I can beat the whole persecution thing, and then

I won't be persecuted for my faith because as a kid, I was reading passages that that were saying, like Paul said to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

And I thought to myself, but but what if I'm not? Look at Billy Graham. He's on the

Johnny Carson show. He goes to Korea and he's got tens of thousands of people that want to come listen to him speak.

He goes over to Africa. He has these massive crusades in America. This guy has enough social standing.

He's welcomed on the most popular talk show in America and he's not being persecuted for his faith.

He goes on Larry King and Larry King asks him questions, asks his expertise on things.

So surely I can get to that kind of a place where everybody will be asking me for my expertise.

And this is where I was in my in my childlike mind. You know, the musical

Fiddler on the Roof, right? OK, one of the most popular songs that comes from that musical is If I Were a

Rich Man, where the main character, Tevye, is asking God, couldn't you have made me a rich man?

If I were a rich man, I could do all of these things. And one of the lines or one of the verses in the song, he says, if I were a rich man, the most important men in town would come to fawn on me.

They would ask me to advise them like Solomon the Wise. If you please,

Rebbe Tevye, pardon me, Rebbe Tevye, posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes.

I think we all kind of daydream about that to some degree, right? Even if you don't want public standing like Billy Graham had, you don't want to appear on talk shows.

Just the idea of that terrifies you. But to some degree, we all want our friends to look at us as somebody they can go to for counsel, right?

So and so knows the answer. I can always go to them and ask. We we want that. We want that kind of prestige among our friends.

And if we can gain that, we can we can get over that persecution hurdle.

Right. We're above persecution now because I just I've gained enough. We can call it social capital among my friends, in my community, in the culture, in society that nobody's going to persecute me for my faith.

They want to know from me. I would never want to lose such a valuable member of society.

It's extremely prideful for us to think that way. And we would be mocking scripture, which says that we will be persecuted for our faith.

And as I read to you yesterday from 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul saying, I will rejoice all the more in my weaknesses, in my calamities, in my persecutions and my hardships.

For where I am weak, there he is strong. It's almost like you're saying, I don't really need

Christ. If I could just get this in the culture, then what would I need Christ for? You're taking away the wonderful opportunity that you have to praise

Christ in your weakness, to recognize his strength where you have none. And so Paul is even drawing the

Corinthians attention to that here at the beginning of this letter, that that I quoted to you from that was from 2nd

Corinthians, chapter 12. That's at the end of the next letter here at the beginning of this letter. He's pointing out to them to consider their calling.

Consider what Christ has called you to. You did not get here. Once again, you did not get here because of anything that you had done or you had accomplished.

Back to verse 21, since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know

God. You in whatever standing that you had in the culture did not come to know

God. That's not how you came to know God. Every one of us has become a Christian through a

Damascus road experience. Do you understand what I mean by that? So Paul, how did he come to know

Christ? He was on the Damascus road. He was on the road to Damascus to round up Christians and persecute them.

He was an enemy of God on his way to Damascus. Christ appeared to him, literally knocked him to the ground.

And by the word of Christ that was proclaimed to him, Paul was transformed.

The Holy Spirit quickening his heart that he may understand the gospel of Jesus Christ that was proclaimed to him by revelation.

Now that's certainly not how we come to Christ is that Jesus does not literally appear to us and speak to us.

But it is by the word of Christ that you've come to salvation. Somebody shared with you the gospel. And just like Paul, you've been knocked off of your spiritual feet.

Your heart has been changed. You were an enemy of God until God intervened and changed your heart into one who desires

God rather than one who is opposed to God. All of us have been transformed by God.

It has been a miraculous working in our hearts, just as it was for Paul. So it is for each and every one of us.

We've all been transformed from an enemy of God to a child of God, from one who was a child of wrath to now a child who is in his love, from one who was a follower of Satan to one who was a follower of Jesus Christ.

We've all had this transformation happen in our hearts by the miraculous power of God.

It was not by anything that you did. It's because of what God did. So take my statement about we've all had a

Damascus Road experience in that sense. Not that we've all had Jesus appear to us.

There was an appointment that Paul had as an apostle that you and I do not have.

But we've all been transformed from the inside out by the power of the word of God. All of us have had that.

And we're continuing to be changed by the power of that word because it's by that word that we are sanctified.

Paul himself was being sanctified by that word. Again, what he said to the Philippians in Philippians chapter three, where he says,

I'm not perfect, but I desire to be perfect and I seek to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.

Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

So we're going to have that work being done in us until the day of Christ. As we continue to read the word of God and be transformed by the word of God.

Now, anytime that we preach the word of God, okay, whether I'm doing it here on this podcast or I'm teaching a class at the church or I'm preaching a sermon, whenever I teach the word of God, more often than not, you're going to hear a pastor give application to it, right?

Okay, now what are the practical implications of this? How does this apply? How do we see this in our present day context and things like that?

All of that is well and good. But I also believe that the Bible is self applicable. That if you believe it, that if you have the power of the

Holy Spirit within you, you will apply it. It will apply to everything in your life. You will be transformed by it.

And the desire for Christ and his holiness will affect every single thing that you say and do.

Now, sometimes in our ignorance, we need a little bit of help with, okay, this thing that you're trying to do on your own, you need to stop.

You need to submit to Christ in this, in this way. And that's how sanctification becomes a community project where we're doing that for one another.

Our blind spots, we need help with in those kinds of things. But all things considered, the word of God has power to transform your mind and your thinking in every area, whether your pastor specifically mentions how this particularly applies to your life or not.

We don't need every single avenue of our lives spelled out for us to know how this applies. By the power of the spirit that is within us, we will be convicted by this word and it will apply to our lives.

It's self -applicable so that it transforms us that we might be servants of Christ in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, holding fast to the word of life.

So Paul says, consider your calling. You were called by the power of God to believe.

He goes on to say in verse 30, by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus. By what

God has done, you are followers of Christ. So consider your calling. You've been called by the power of God.

And it wasn't because many of you were wise. It wasn't because many of you were mighty.

It wasn't because many of you were noble. As people of the flesh would know these things. But and as we'll go on to read tomorrow in verse 27, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world.

Those things that people of the flesh call foolish. He's chosen those things to shame the wise, to humble you and everyone else.

God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.

So like I said, we'll come back. We'll look at that verse a little more intently tomorrow. But being reminded here that that the power of God in us is not because of us.

It's not even because of our social standing. It's not because of the worldly wisdom that we possess.

It's not because of the lineage that we are born into or or how pedigree people might look at us and think that we are.

We have come to Christ because God had mercy on us. Because he loves us.

Because he gave his son to die on the cross for our sins that whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God, but we will have everlasting life and we become fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

Now we have pedigree and it's not because of who we are in this world.

It's because of who we are in Christ. It's because Christ is preeminent that we have been made heirs, fellow heirs of the kingdom of God being given something far greater than anything we could ever attain in this world.

No matter the the wise standing, the mighty standing, the noble standing we could achieve in this world, we have something greater than that in Christ.

Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for showing us this good word, being reminded of the children of God that we have become by faith in Christ Jesus.

And may we consider this calling that we've been called to this to be children of God. What does it mean to be a child of God?

How do we walk in this world as servants of Christ, resisting the temptations that are around us and instead walking in holiness and in righteousness?

May we understand today how these things are applicable. For I speak to many people who are listening to this podcast that live in various different social classes and various different cultures and environments.

There are so many different ways that this word can apply. So teach us and guide us in that in your

Holy Spirit, that we may live upright and holy lives before you, blameless until the day of Christ.

Grow us in these things in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the

Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.