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Well, special music prepares our hearts to hear from God's Word as our King Jesus speaks from His Word. Today, I'd like to talk to you about bragging, boasting. You were born to brag. Some people say, why do I exist?
Why am I on this planet? Do I have a purpose in life? Here is your purpose. You are here to boast. You are here to brag. You ever wonder to yourself, why are people so good at bragging and boasting? They're good at it because God has made people to boast and to brag.
The bad news is the fall has happened and it's turned the right kind of bragging with the right motives, with the right object of your bragging, it's turned that and tweaked it and twisted it and contorted it.
It's like a limb that's been dislocated, the limb's still there but it's just not right. So instead of boasting in Christ Jesus, instead of saying I won't boast in money, I won't boast in power, I won't boast in riches, I won't boast in large churches, I won't boast in who I am and what I've done, I'll boast in the work of another, sin turns everything around and turns it in on itself and then it becomes self-bragging, self-promotion.
When we were kids, we'd go to school and you could bring a little object and we would call that show and tell but we really knew it was bring and brag. And I remember the one that I did, I don't know how my mom ever let me do this, we lived in the city in Nebraska, the big city, Omaha I think had 500 ,000 people but my mom gave me a couple chicken feet, cut off of the chicken to bring to school to talk about, some kind of anatomy class and I quickly realized that if you pulled the tendon, the chicken foot did that and you could go up to girls and do that kind of thing in third grade.
Look at me, look what I've got, wow, look at what my mom gave me. I think that's the only time I got in so much trouble I had to stay after school in elementary school because I took the chicken foot and did something to Alice Police, don't mess with the police but you see and you can tell exactly where I'm going.
We are to boast in the Lord, we're created to speak well of another, to say wonderful things about who someone is and what they've done and what they will do and so let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and look today at verses 26 through 31 as we continue our verse by verse study through this excellent book called 1 Corinthians.
Paul writes 29 chapters to the church of Corinth between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, 29 inspired chapters on correcting their problems and the church of Corinth had a boasting problem. They were boasting in the wrong things, they would boast in a certain kind of wisdom, they would boast in leaders that would teach a certain kind of wisdom, they would say I like this teacher and I like that teacher, they teach this way, they have this kind of art and rhetoric to their persuasion, they would boast and Paul says no, you need to realize that Jeremiah chapter 9, 22, 23, 24 is right that you've got to boast with the right motives, the glory of God and you've got to boast about the right person.
So today if I've got a message in this brief message this morning, the message is this, I want to make sure through the word of God that you see your boasting must go towards the right person Christ Jesus with the right attitude, His exaltation not ours.
Like John the Baptist says of Jesus, he must increase and I must decrease and all of us need this reminder, we are born boasters, we will even boast in how many baptisms we have, how big the church is, how the church is on the radio now, we can boast in all kinds of things, Christians boast, religious groups boast, we call it nickels and noses, counting money, counting people, the ABCs of Christianity, attendance, buildings and cash, look at our church, look at our pastor, look at this, look at that, when we've got the wrong person we're boasting about.
I have a resignation that I'd like to give you this morning, as of this morning effective immediately I am resigning from the pastorate of Bethlehem Bible Church, because I'm not the pastor, Jesus is your pastor.
When somebody asks you down the street or at the gym, by the way I was glad nobody just clapped when I said that, yes. When somebody asks you who's your pastor, I hope you say Jesus Christ is my pastor, he's my shepherd, oh we have some under shepherds, we have some sinners saved by the grace of God who are called by God and given gifts in our leaders, but I have a pastor, a shepherd, his name is Jesus Christ and he's a wonderful shepherd, he's a wonderful pastor and even though I've sinned my whole life, he's forgiven my sins, he's given me a new life, I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus, he's redeemed me from the slave pit of sin, he's been raised from the dead and he's coming back for me and I'm going to follow him.
So today I want to talk to you about boasting, Corinth had a problem but I'm sure we've got a problem as well, you've got a problem with boasting or else we wouldn't have to look at the text that will help realign our minds, I'm after your minds, I'm after you to think properly, when we don't think properly we just need repentance to think the right way.
And so Paul comes along in 1 Corinthians and he says, in the middle of the church splits, the church division in chapter 1, 2 and 3, the division in the church is found because they're following different people and following different philosophies of wisdom and so if you've got 5 groups in the church following 5 different leaders, you're all going to go your own way.
So Paul says, why don't you follow Jesus alone and you'll all be along the same path and there won't be any church splits, church disunity or anything else. And Paul comes across like he always does in scripture with a counter intuitive fashion, something that's just not quite right to what we normally would think, common sense seems to go out the window with Paul and he says in chapter 1 verse 18 and following through verse 25, this is the symbol of your religion, a cross where they hang and torture naked criminals.
This is the object of Christ's salvation, it doesn't make sense, it's counter intuitive but in God's economy and God's mind, that is where holiness and grace meets and God saves sinners at Calvary, crucified Savior, accursed Savior.
It's counter intuitive, it's strange and now we move to verse 26 -31, Paul's not done being strange or counter intuitive. Not only does God pick a foolish thing for salvation, the cross, he picks foolish people to carry out his work, he picks foolish people to carry out his work.
Now there's some debate in preaching, what kind of illustrations you should use, sermonillustrator .com, pull up things, how often you talk about your own kids, etc. What about illustrations? I don't have to go to illustration .com today at all because in a counter intuitive way, God says this is the cross that saves and these are the foolish people that I use and my illustration today for how great God is for using foolish people to do his work.
How wonderful God is to get his kingdom work done by using weak people, frail people, sinful people for his kingdom. My sermon illustration for today is you. You are the sermon illustration today. That God uses the cross to save, that's counter intuitive but we'll see today that God uses people like us to do his kingdom work.
If I was God, I would pick a lot better group of people than this and I say that half with joking and half deadly seriousness. I used to play basketball back in the University of Nebraska, pickup games.
If you lost a game, you would wait three more hours to play on that court again. So when you called the next game, I got next. I saved my four spots because I brought the four killer guys in and we would play until we were done.
We'd win every game and then leave and I would always pick the best guys. That's how I pick. I want strong. I want guys that can dunk and block and do things. If you're going to build a business, I don't think you build a business by picking the people that are in $30 ,000 credit card debt.
There's just ways that we go about things. This isn't always true but it's a good majority of the time true. If you want to think how God thinks, just think the opposite of the way you think. Just go, you know what, I think this way.
And you go, well, God probably thinks the opposite way. So today we come to 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26 -31 to continue the counter intuitive choice of God. God chooses the cross as the instrument of salvation for sinners and God uses sinful people, foolish people, yes redeemed but for his kingdom.
He confounds the wise by choosing people who aren't wise. Today I don't think we're going to get very far but I want to give you three considerations designed to make you conclude that God alone must receive the glory so that you will biblically boast in him.
Juries are sequestered to deliberate true or false, guilty not guilty. They think and talk and ponder, that's exactly what I want you to do with this idea, to think and deliberate, ponder, is this true?
And if it's true that God saves people alone and then God uses losers alone, at the end of the day when we see his kingdom grow we say it's through the cross because no other person could believe anything else unless God caused them to believe and when God does something great in the kingdom it's obviously not because of his people because they are sinners as well.
Let's read the passage and see if you can see the highlights kind of jump out, those kind of stereograms or stereo kind of books, I don't know what they're called, where you stare at it long enough the images come out.
Let me read for you these verses and see if you can see the themes come out of these verses as I read them. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 -31. For consider your calling brethren 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 the things which are strong.
The base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man 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.
It's one thing to boast before God and it's another thing to boast in God. We live in a culture that boasts in and of themselves, they glorify self, they slight God, they ignore God, they don't attribute anything to God.
Paul says when it comes to you Corinth you're not the same kind of people you used to be, put your boast in God and God alone. Consideration number one, if you consider God's choice of people you'll never boast in those people, you'll only boast in God.
Number one, if you consider God's choice of people you'll never boast in those people, you'll boast in God alone. Let's take a look at it as we just walk through the text. The text is our message. Verse 26, for consider your calling brethren that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
People build associations and cooperatives and business by picking the best and here it seems like God is doing that the opposite way. He's doing it the exact opposite way that I would do it. And here's what Paul says, Corinth take a good long look at yourself.
Church of Corinth, walk up to the mirror and say we're the kind of people that God uses. Ex homosexual, ex fornicator, ex adulterer, ex idolater, ex covetous, we are these kind of people that God uses.
So why would we brag in ourselves, brag about ourselves? He said consider your calling. Consider, remember that word called? How could we forget after the five part series on it? Consider your calling.
It wasn't you who called yourself, it was God who called you. It wasn't God who called you because you were pretty. God called you because you were sinful and he wanted to, God called you because it was of his grace but he called you while you were sinful because he wanted to show his riches poured out in Christ Jesus freely and sovereignly.
You're not a Christian because of you were good and you decided and you accepted Jesus in your heart. You're a Christian because God said in spite of who you are, I will cause you to be a Christian. 1 Peter 1 verse 3.
So when you pause and ponder and kind of reflect, consider, that's what the word is consider. Take a look at verse 26, for consider. It's present and it's imperative. Keep on thinking. Take a good long look.
Take a picture, it lasts longer. And it's an imperative. Consider. It's so easy for us not to stop and think, not to consider just who we are. So Paul says, take a good look. You don't become the church by just luck.
Wow, look at that church that just popped out of that goo randomly. Look at that. No, God by choice says, I'm going to pick the sinners and I'm going to call them and this is the church. He says, I want you to meditate upon that, contemplate, reflect.
This is biblical meditation and by the way, biblical meditation is not this, yum, kind of Tai Chi thing or I don't know what, who does that. Some kind of yoga nonsense. But to think and to muse and to ponder and to rehearse over and over because we forget.
We need the gospel preached to ourselves every day. We forget about who we are, who called us and what he called us to be. So he says, I want you to stop and think about it. I guess since I used one illustration from Nebraska, I'll use another one.
Ever watch a cow chew some grass? Ever watch a cow chew the cud? Over and over and over. Chewing, letting that kind of juice from the alfalfa or whatever they eat come down and go to one of the different four stomachs that it has.
Just chewing and grinding and you can kind of just see that thing. Your faces are doing what I'm doing right now. Pondering over and over and over. That's the idea because Paul knows if you really think who you are, you'll become more humble, less prideful because God is not in the business of choosing people because they're lovely.
Right time Christ, the just died for the unjust. The godly one died for the ungodly. We need this pride killer. I know I need this pride killer. Paul says you want empirical evidence on how God does things in a counter intuitive way?
You are the empirical evidence. He's nice about it. Do you see the text for consider your calling brethren? And of course there are some people who are movers and shakers in churches. You see the text.
There were not many. At least it doesn't say there are not any. There are not any wise according to flesh. No, there are probably a few wise. Not any mighty. There was a few mighty. Not any noble. There's a few noble.
Lady Huntington heard Whitfield preach a lot and the Wesley's preach a lot. And she said she was a rich high born lady, wealthy. And she said, I was saved by an M. I've been saved by an M. The letter M.
Because if this verse had not placed the letter M before the any, she never could have been redeemed. So there's some rich people. There's some powerful people. But typically when God chooses people for his church, he smashes the logic.
He defies the normal thinking that people have. Not many wise. Not many mighty. Not many noble. It's interesting if you take a look at the passage, not many wise according to the flesh. What does that mean?
Not many wise according to the world's standards of wisdom. The world looks at the church and goes, oh, there's not too many smart people there. I have a question for you. If that's what the world does, they look at the church and they go, weak, frail, effeminate, not very smart, not highly educated, not very powerful, not really political.
And they look at us and they go, not impressive. Because that's the way God has intended it. Why is the church clamoring to try to be accepted by the world? People somehow exchanging this high calling that we have of God for some kind of watered down gruel of the world.
Frankly, I'm glad that the world doesn't like us or doesn't even understand us. If the world intelligentsia ever came walking in here, I don't know why they'd come to West Boilston, but if they ever did, I hope they wouldn't write some glowing review.
Well-mannered people, nice people, smart people, powerful people. I hope they say this. They seem to love Jesus and sing about him, but they're a bunch of crazy loons. They're not wise. They're stupid.
They're wasting their time on a lie. But somehow, we've got this idea all wrong. Let's make the world like us. Because if we make the world like us, we can be more effective. And by the way, I know what we need to save people.
We need to have people who are celebrities get saved and then we're set. If only Tom Brady and Madonna could become Christians, there'd be a revival. I hope they do become Christians, because they're both tragically lost.
But God just does the opposite to punctuate his ways are different. His ways are higher. His ways are different and higher because when the kingdom grows, when the word of God advances, we don't say it's because a celebrity preached the gospel.
Because we've got the brains. We've got the brawn. We've got the bucks. There's no way to describe that you could take a church and persecute it in Acts chapter 2 and have it explode throughout the world except for God.
Who gets the glory? The Lord gets the glory. Church of Corinth didn't understand that. The way society was back in those days, the movers and the shakers determined the world. Sounds kind of like America today.
The Carnegies and the Rockefellers and the Kennedys. I look around. Where are the Kennedys? Where are the Rockefellers here? How could we ever make a difference for the kingdom of God without the blue bloods?
Without the well-borns? Blue bloods, by the way, it was a Spanish term that Azul Sangria or something. I don't know what it was. You look and you go, they're so polished and beautified that you can see their veins come out because they've been pampered so much.
I do have one in here. Sangria Azul. There you go. I pronounce everything that's a different language with a Spanish accent because that's just the way it should be done. Sprechen Sie Deutsch. You know, I was over in Europe.
The noble, the eugenics, the well-born, the well-bred, the well-raised, blue bloods. And again, there are a few movers and shakers that God has called, but not many. And you shouldn't be surprised that the world thinks you're crazy.
Celsus said this in 178. Let no cultured person draw near. He's talking about Christianity. None wise, none sensible, for all that kind of thing we count evil. But if any man is ignorant, if any man is wanting incense and culture, if any is a fool, let him come to Christianity boldly.
If you're an idiot, that's a good religion for you. Because looking back again, you take a look at the cross, that a man could be crucified on a cross, slowly tortured naked for three hours, have the wrath of God poured out on him.
And the way you view that substitutionary atonement will determine your eternal destiny is pretty dumb for most people. Celsus goes on to say, we see them in their houses, wool dresses, cobblers and fullers, the most uneducated and vulgar persons.
Here's what he says, Celsus, about Christians back in those days, they're like swarms of bats, ants creeping out of their nests, our frogs holding a symposium around a swamp, our worms in the corner of mud.
That's just part of Christianity. Why do we hanker for something else to sell our birthright to be accepted? We want more influence. Well, you want more influence? Live a holy life. Preach the gospel.
God purposely picks the opposite, purposely nullifies. Hope we can just get in high places. If Obama gets saved, President Obama gets saved, America is going to turn into a Christian nation. Oh really?
If Obama gets saved, President Obama, I'll tell you what will happen, they'll kick him out. I, along with John MacArthur, wish the President would become a Christian one day and then stand up and say, forget the health care, we have one message for you, you're a sinner unless you repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone, you're going to hell today.
You want to talk about impeachment? We've got our business plans. The world's got a good business plan, corporate strategy, let's bring that into the church. Management by objections, objections, objectives.
I have a question to ask you. Does the gospel depend on perfect people who preach it? No. I'm glad for that. Can God use you in evangelism even if you're not Cornelius Vantill or R .C. Sproul? You say, I don't know who those people are.
Okay, Ravi Zacharias and Josh McDowell. If God is the one doing the work, then your weakness and then your frailty shouldn't matter. You know, God regularly, I hope you read the Old Testament too, God regularly uses the worst kind of people that I would never pick.
Listen to this. Look at God's greatness through these people and their problems. Can weak people be used by God? Moses had a speech impediment. David couldn't fit into his armor. John Mark rejected by Paul.
Timothy had stomach problems. Hosea's wife was a prostitute. Jacob was a deceiver. David had an affair. Solomon was too rich. David was too young. Abraham was too old. Peter was afraid. Naomi was a widow.
Paul was a murderer. Moses was a murderer. Jonah ran from God. Miriam was a gossip. Thomas doubted. Gideon doubted. Elijah was burned out. Noah got drunk. My second favorite one, Samson had long hair.
Didn't he have a lot more problems than that? But my all-time favorite when I consider God can use weak people for his kingdom and by the way, he's on purpose, accidentally on purpose picked the weakest so his kingdom explodes and everybody says, what a mighty savior they have.
My all-time favorite in God using people when they're weak, not just Moses stuttered, not just Timothy had stomach problem, but my all-time favorite is Lazarus was dead. Who would pick such a motley crew?
Who would pick such a cast of characters that I'm looking at right now? And you say, well, yeah, you should see you. I know. The gifted, the wealthy, the hot shots, the articulate, the movers and shakers, we don't have.
I'm encouraged to know that God uses ordinary, regular, sinful Christians. He purposely has done that and when you look at the text, all this God has chosen stuff, God does choose in election to salvation, but this kind of choosing in these verses has nothing to do with election.
It's how God chooses people who are foolish in the eyes of the world on purpose. Human weakness prevents no barrier for God's kingdom work. That's why he says in this next book, 2 Corinthians, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
So I ask you again, I'll ask you the first time, how is your boasting? Every time you have that desire to brag and to boast and to say things, I challenge you is through the grit of the word of God and the power of the spirit of God, just turn it into speaking well about Christ, a great savior that you have, the wonderful God by his divine initiative that has called you to salvation and called you to service.
If you knew me before I would get saved, you would say that's exactly the kind of people that God has called and we have a pastor who has been called out of what? This is not some kind of my testimony and my bragging or anything like that, but I do want to say that if I could not even stand up and talk in front of people, that I was too vainly prideful of even talking in front of people, too selfish to even care to talk to people, I know if God can use me, he can use you.
He is using you and when the world says, what's going on? Our response needs to be to God alone be the glory, not to us God, but to you be the glory. So Paul says boast, boast away, I send you with these marching orders today, go boast, go brag, go show and tell, go tell people that God has chosen you, that God grants forgiveness and God uses somebody like you.
When God does do something, they won't say it's through them, they'll say it has to be God. One last comment, I think. People say, well I don't really, I like Jesus but I don't like the people that call themselves Christians.
Nietzsche, for instance, you know, these whole, if they'd act more like their savior, I might believe them. There's some truth to the fact that some Christians really act foolishly, sinfully, but that unbelievers think we're a motley crew, I could care less because that's what God has determined to be the case.
An unbeliever looks at a believer and the cross and just says, it's moronic, it's stupid. So why do I want to try to convince the world that I'm really cool? You know, these churches that preach the gospel that says, let's really look cool and then people will be attracted to cool and then come.
I hate that. I despise that. Let's look really cool and draw the cool people in. And by the way, you're a successful business person, you come to Jesus Christ, you can still be a successful business person and now influence all the successful business people.
Well God may allow that. Or God might say, your business is over. Is it worth your business to have forgiveness of sins? Well if it is, you might just lose it. You better be willing to lose mother, wife, business, everything else.
There's nothing cool about Jesus on the cross, naked, dying for sinners. Not one cool thing. And the world looks at us and thinks the same thing. We're not so cool. And I'm glad. I never want to have, this is the cool church.
We're not even Christians, but we want to be cool and come to BBC. I've been trying to preach the last three or four weeks, so much so that you say, this is a church that is going to preach the grace of God, the love of God, the demands of God, to the extent that if I'm not a full, bore out Christian, wide open throttle Christian, then I feel very, very uncomfortable.
And this might not be the church for me. You're listening. Because Jesus demands you're all. He demands you to pick up your cross and follow Him. And that uncomfortable feeling can either be, God forgive me, give me the heart to follow you fully, or the response could be, I better go to that cool church down the street and they've got good lattes there.
I love Jesus because it's all or nothing. I also love Jesus because if you've been one of those nothing kind of people, there's hope for you. Forgiveness. Today's the day. God, forgive me for following myself, boasting in myself.
I've always thought it's really stupid when somebody says, okay, I'll use me for an illustration so I don't have to continue to talk about the Red Sox and the Celtics and the Patriots. Talking about the Lakers like they were my team.
We really gave it to the Celtics last year. We did this and we did that. And I go, we? Your name's not on the roster. We did this, you know, it's my team, you know, this is my team and my sport. And I'm going, you know what?
This proves my point. That you'll boast in anything and including yourself with the team when you're nothing. You couldn't even be a water boy if you begged Him and gave Him a million dollars. It's your team.
And there's a spiritual component to that too where you think, I am on the team for Christ Jesus because He's called me. And now in a real way, but not because I did anything, He's my Lord. This is my church.
This is my fellowship. This is our fellowship. Thank you Father for our time today in the Word. Thank you that you've chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. Thank you that you've chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.
Thank you for choosing us. Thank you for choosing us for salvation. And thank you for building this church here in little West Boylston out in the middle of nowhere. That you'd give us a ministry to affect all kinds of people.
And Lord, the reason why it's happening, it's not because of our building. It's not because of our elders. It's not because of our pastor. It's not because of some radio show or some kind of education.
Lord, we are sinners. And you're growing our kingdom. You're growing your kingdom. You're growing our influence. And it's all for you. What have we received that you have not given us? So I pray for these dear people at Bethlehem Bible Church.
Make them boasters. Make them rejoice in bragging about you, about you're a greater sinner than we are greater sinners. And I pray for those who are on the fence and who are just living their life from one sporting activity to the next and one family thing to the next and one music thing to the next, one education thing to the next, one movie to the next.
Father, I pray, as we certainly have time for recreation, I pray that you'd give the dads a single-minded focus, that they and their family are on this earth to worship Christ Jesus because you are the one who deserves the praise and the honor and the worship.
So Lord, do that work in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.