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Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your love and your mercy and your grace. And we thank you for your marvelous love that put you upon the cross for us. Father, I pray as we come here tonight that you will hide us from the distractions around us, from the world and from. From the other things.And let us focus on you tonight. Lord, I pray as we begin this new book that you will teach us and rebuke us, correct us, and guide us to be more like you. I pray that you'll be glorified as we study this book. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
All right, good evening, everyone. Welcome back to church. Last week we finished the book of John, and we are now moving into the book of Corinthians. So we're actually going to do first and second Corinthians together. So as soon as we finish first, we'll move into second.
As we begin this book, I want to take five minutes, and I want to discuss the occasions for the writing. Why did Paul write the book? I also want to break down its sections so we kind of know what to expect, and then we'll jump in. By the way, this really is not the first epistle to the church in Corinth. This is the second and second.
Two Corinthians is the third. There is a first epistle written by Paul that we no longer have access to today. We'll actually talk about that here in a few minutes. So Paul, when he wrote to the Church of Corinth, he wrote to address several different issues.
I want to discuss these first. In chapter one, verse eleven. Shaunie will pull that up here. Paul addresses the first issue in the church. It says, it's been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of close people, Chloe's people, that there is rivalry among you.
So the very first issue brought up that Paul will address, and we'll actually address that tonight. Within the Church of Corinth is division on the second issue, chapter five, verse one. Paul will address another issue. He says it's reported that there is sexual immorality among the you. And the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the gentiles.
A man sleeping with his father's wife. So in other words, a man sleeping with his mom. So there's severe sexual immorality taking place in the church of Corinth that says so immoral that it's not even tolerated among the gentiles. And we know that gentiles were very sexual immoral, sexually immoral people. So lots of stuff here.
In fact, in verse nine of the same chapter, he says, I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. So Paul indicates right here that he has actually written a previous letter, I guess, as it were, the real first corinthians. And in that letter, he already addressed sexual immorality at least once before. So it's an issue that is persisting, and we know that as we go through the book, we're going to see a lot of that. Number four, chapter seven, verse one.
Paul addresses. He addresses another issue, again, relating to sexual immorality. He says, in response to the matters you wrote about, is it good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman? So we actually see here that the church in Corinth is specifically interested in instruction regarding this matter, and so he will write an answer about that. Number five, chapter eleven, verse 18.
Paul will address misconduct. It says, to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And in part, I believe it. So in chapter eleven, verse 18, most of chapter eleven, we know this is the chapter where we partake of communion. He is actually addressing misconduct during the Lord's supper.
And the last and final issue he will address in this book, chapter 15, verse twelve. He says, now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? I. So these are the six issues that specifically prompted the writing of first Corinthians, first Corinthians, eleven. Right.
We see division twice among those, we see sexual immorality twice among those. We see issues regarding the resurrection are coming up.
And so. So, yeah, that's the background behind why the book is written on. So the sections or the outline of this book. As we proceed through the next 20 to 25 weeks in this book, we're going to see the greeting and thanksgiving in chapter one through verse nine. We'll read about that tonight.
Then we're going to begin the wisdom of the cross that begins in verse ten tonight, and we'll go through chapter four, verse 21. Then we're going to see issues of impurity. We'll pick that up in chapter five and run it through chapter seven. We'll see the gospel, the freedom of the gospel that it provides us, as well as expectations of how we should love one another. We'll pick that up in chapter eight and run that through the first verse of chapter eleven.
Then we're going to see what community worship as a church should look like, beginning in eleven two through 14, the 6th issue, resurrection. We'll see that in chapter 15, and then we'll conclude in chapter 16. So with that said, let's actually look at the beginning of this epistle. First Corinthians, chapter one, verses one three. It says, paul called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and sosthenes our brother to the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So something that occurs in 90% of Paul's epistles is this threefold greeting. He will first introduce himself as the author of the letter and frequently others who are writing with him. He will then address the people he is writing to, and then he typically, but not always, will include a blessing in the address. So tonight we open it says, Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will. I want to focus on that for one quick moment.
By God's will. The reason this is important is twofold. One, this is important to understand that Paul is not an apostle because he wanted to be. He did not wake up one day and say, I'm ready to stop persecuting the church and I want to be an apostle for Christ. That did not happen.
He's not an apostle because some men wanted him to be or called him to be, but most importantly, because some men called on him to be or approved of him to be. And by that, when I talk to certain individuals today, they'll ask me, where does your authority as a pastor come from? Where does your authority to baptize come from? Where does your authority to teach come from? And these people come from institutions where that authority is given by man to man.
And they actually record it very well. They can go back and say, well, I got it from this person who got it from this person who it's recorded. But it's important to understand that authority does not come from man. In Matthew 28, Jesus tells us, he says, all authority on heaven and on earth is mine. So authority belongs to Jesus and comes from Jesus.
It does not come from man, and it actually does not require a man's acceptance of it calls somebody into a particular role. That is God's decision alone. And then secondly, in this verse, he tells us that sosthenes, our brother, is also co writing this epistle. For those in our Wednesday night Bible study were studying first and second Thessalonians, and we saw that first Thessalonians was written by three people. It's written by Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy.
And we always attribute these epistles to Paul and overlook that there are other people involved in these writings. So we do not know anything about sosthenes. He is unknown to us, but he is apparently known to the church in Corinth. We do know or speculate he might be the same guy. If you go and read acts 1817, you'll notice there's a sosthenes there who is being persecuted, and there's speculation it might be the same guy.
And even if it is, we still know virtually nothing about him. Now. He's right into the church of God at Corinth, right to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, to those who are called to be saints. So he is being very specific with who he's writing to. He's writing in to a church and a geographic location.
And this will be. This is going to be important as we get into tonight's message even more. He said the church in Corinth. And the reason that's important, as we get into verse ten through 17, you're going to see there's division, where there's multiple factions or multiple leaders. Paul ignores that altogether.
They are the church in Corinth, and he ignores it. And that's important to understand that, for example, here in Milford, our church and the other baptist church here, we're not separate divisions. We are together the church of God in Milford. And Paul recognizes that in his address. And then he says, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours, what Paul recognizes here, and rather needs them to recognize, is that all people in all nations, city states who call upon the name of the Lord are the holy people of God.
It doesn't matter where they are. They are the holy people of God. If they call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and then he extends a blessing to them, grace to you, and peace from God our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read verses the next section here. It's going to be verses four through nine.
Paul will continue to write. He says, I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in him in every way, in all speech and all knowledge. In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you do not lack any spiritual gift. As you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, he will also strengthen you to the end so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful.
You were called by him into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
So I always give thanks to my God for you. This is a common phrase of Paul. If you read his epistle to the church in Philippi, he says, I always get thanks for you. He gives thanks because of their faith. He gives thanks because of the encouragement they have.
And he writes letters of encouragement to them. If you read one Thessalonians, he always gives thanks for the church in Thessalonica because of the love they have one toward another. In Romans, he says, he always gives thanks because their faith is so known around the world. And then in one corinthians, he takes a different tone, right? In Philippi, Thessalonians, Ephesus, Thessalonica, he's given thanks for the good things.
You know, they make him happy. But Corinth does not make Paul happy. So look at the tone of what he's writing. I give thanks because of the grace of God given to you. He says, I give thanks because God's grace is enough for you.
Right? We see already a massive amount of stuff in the opening of this message going on, sexual immorality, divisions, their high and mighty thoughts, misteachings about the resurrection, all sorts of stuff. And Paul says, despite all of that, God's grace is extended to you, and I get thanks for that. So Paul teaches us two things here. One, he teaches us that we should not only give thanks for the believers in churches who encourage us and who bring joy to us us, but we should also give thanks for those who bring pain and suffering and sorrow to us.
We should, if they are God's people, we should get things. And we should give. If at the very least, that God's grace covers them, we should be thankful for that. But second, he teaches us this. If you look at what's going on in Corinth, we in today's world, especially as legalistic as we get to be we would look at them today and say, you are not christian.
You're not Christians, you're sinners, you're filthy, you're vile. And I actually, I find this verse comforting, that as we struggle, right, as we struggle with sin, as we struggle to remove from ourselves addictions and other things, unpleasing to the Lord, that his grace still covers us, his grace is sufficient for a sin that's given to us in Christ Jesus, in that he died and was buried and rose again and offers it to all who call upon his name. Then he says, you were enriched in every way because of him. So even despite the things that are going on, they have been enriched. They have been blessed.
They have. They have been giving gifts from God in Jesus. And then it says specifically in speech and knowledge. Now, these gifts here, Paul is recognizing that they are spiritual gifts. God gave this group of people speech and knowledge.
But the speech and knowledge we will read in a few minutes is also their downfall. They misused it, misplaced it, and are misguided with it. But because of the speech and knowledge, the testimony about Christ, the truth of who Christ is, was confirmed among them. Paul says, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. All saints, all christians, we do not lack in anything, right?
God has provided all spiritual needs for us, and we do not lack, as we await the return of Christ. And Christ will strengthen you to the end. Just as Paul wrote to Corinth that Christ would strengthen them, we have that same blessed hope and promise today that he will strengthen us, that he will help us to endure, and he will keep us until the day of his coming. He says, God is faithful. That is to mean that we can trust him.
We can rely on him. We can believe that his promises are sure that his blessings will not be revoked from us. We can believe, because he is faithful, that what he has promised us to come will come, that salvation will come. And we are called into fellowship with this son. We're called into fellowship.
We need to understand what that means. If we call ourselves by the name of Christ, we do not simply say, okay, I'm a Christian, and go about our lives. We are called into a relationship with him. Right? In the morning service today, we actually, we talked about that.
We read the story of the prodigal son and how he wanted everything that his father had and nothing to do with his father. And he went off into a faraway country, it says, and squandered his wealth.
We are called into a relationship with God, that's a two way street we're going to pick up here in verse ten and read through verse 17. It says, now, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say. That there be no divisions among you and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction. For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of Chloe's people, that there is rivalry among you. What I am saying is, one of you says, I belong to Paul, or, I belong to apollos, or, I belong to cephas, or I belong to Christ.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul's name? I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius. And that no one can say you were baptized in my name. I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanus.
Beyond that, I don't recall if I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.
This is. I try to emphasize this when I read it. I try to put boldness in my voice, because this is a bold section of writing. We're only 1010 verses. We're less than 200 words into the letter.
And Paul is cutting to the point. He's being bold. He says, I urge you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's calling upon the authority of Jesus Christ. He says that you agree on what you say, and there are no divisions among you, notwithstanding the divisions in corruption.
Let us think about the divisions today here in Milford, if church of the Bible and Mountain view Baptist are divided, if we are fighting, if there is no unity within us, can we be effective for the kingdom of God? In Milford, in Cedar city, if there is a group, we are having problems within Cedar city. If we are divided and cannot be unified, can we be effective for the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ? And the answer is no, we cannot be effective. But the outside world, both religious and non religious, they are looking at christians for reasons and excuses to call them out on, to blame them for.
To not join what it is that we proclaim. They're waiting for us to sin, to fall, to lie, to steal, to commit adultery. So they can say, I knew you didn't believe it, you hypocrite. They're waiting for us to fight and bicker so that they can say, why should we join Christianity? If Christianity is divided, other religious institutions that may or may not claim, because there are many that don't claim to be christian, like Islam, but many other institutions that do or do not claim to be christian, they like to point out that there's so many divisions within the body of Christ.
So we are urged then that there should be no divisions among us. We should be unified. We should be unified in Christ Jesus. We should be unified in his death, burial, and resurrection, and we should be unified in his message.
He says in verse eleven that it's been reported to me by members of Chloe's people that there is rivalry among you. So we have no idea. This is the only mention of Chloe in the New Testament. No idea who Chloe is, but apparently known by the church in Corinth, and the mention of her name as his source, it's there to give him legitimacy in bringing this up. It's to legitimize the concern.
Now, it does not say that Chloe told him that there's issues, but members of Chloe's household has reported divisions among them. And look what he says. He says, this is what I'm saying. Some of you say I belong to Paul. Some of you say I belong to Apollos.
Some of you say I belong to Cephas. And some say I belong to Christ. Let me make this a little easier and put it to today. Some of you say I belong to Matt, Pastor Matt. Some of you say I belong to Pastor Shane.
Some of you say I belong to Pastor Mike. And some say I belong to Christ. Right? That division. Look at what they're doing.
They are labeling themselves by people.
That's a problem. I have long said that if I were. If a new pastor were to replace me here and I were to leave, if you guys would leave because of my absence, because I left and you were to follow me, I did my job wrong because you follow Matt, not Christ. I have long said that. People have asked me, why are you non denominational?
There's a pastor in Cedar, the new pastor, a first Baptist. He asked me, why are you non denominational? This right here is why. Well, back then, denominations didn't exist yet, right? So back then it was, I belong to Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Christ.
Today it's, I'm Baptist or I'm Pentecostal, or I'm Lutheran, or I'm Calvinist or I'm Armenian. See what's happening? That's the division right there. When you put the name on your building, whether it's Baptist or Pentecost, or Lutheran or whatever, when that becomes your identity, your identity is not Christ. And that is why I am non denominational, because I refuse to put the identity of some institution before my identity in Christ.
And he says, this is Christ divided, but Christ is not divided. And look, it doesn't matter if you're a Pentecostal or Lutheran or Baptist. Yeah, we all have slightly different interpretations of the scripture. None of that matters. What matters is that you belong to Jesus Christ, that you proclaim that he is the creator God, that he is the only means by which he could receive salvation.
That's what matters right there. To drive his point home, he says, was Paul crucified for you? So speaking to those who say, well, I belong to Paul, Paul says, was I crucified for you? No, Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Matt or Mike or Shane was crucified for you. Only Christ.
And so we don't belong to Matt or Mike or Shane or Cephas. We belong to Christ. He says, or were you baptized in Paul's name? Look, what Paul says, he's. And this teaches us two things.
First, he says, I thank God that I didn't baptize any of you, right? He does list three, three people or helmets here that he did baptize. But he says, I praise God that I baptized none of you, so that you cannot say you were baptized in my name.
So this teaches us a few things. First, it teaches us that pride, element of I have to be the one to baptize you. We don't need to hold on to that. You go to some churches, and there are some churches that I've asked if I could use their baptismal font to baptize a member of my church, because we don't have one. And they're like, no, because only the pastor can baptize here.
Only our pastor can baptize. When you latch onto that, you're taking something that's not yours to latch onto, and it's not that important. Look at Paul. We know that Paul. Paul went to the.
He went to Corinth. He founded. He began the church ministry there. We know that he went to Ephesus. We know that he went to Philippi.
And he says, I thank God that I did not baptize you. So we don't see that we have to guard that authority so tightly to baptize. But second, we see that baptism, not in particularly, it's not necessary. And now, I'm not saying we're not commanded to be baptized. Christ most certainly commands that we are baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
But we can see it's not necessary for salvation. Salvation can come without baptism.
Two weeks ago, or really a week, and like two or three days ago in Cedar, we actually did what I call the baptism hammer. We went through the whole book of acts, and we looked at every single person who was baptized in the book of acts, and every single one of them was baptized after salvation. Right. We see in some cases, they received the Holy Spirit before they were baptized. So in every case, they were baptized after salvation.
And in all but two cases, we do not even know who performed the baptism. It's an interesting study for anyone who wants to do that. Now look what he says. He says, Christ did not send me to baptize. Baptism is not what's important in the grand scheme of things.
Salvation is important, not baptism. Baptism follows salvation. It's an act of obedience. But that's only important after the fact.
Salvation is more important. So he says, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
And then look what he says. Not with eloquent wisdom. Not with eloquent wisdom. If you look back to where we began in verse five, he says that the spiritual gifts that God gave them were speech and knowledge. Right.
Eloquence and wisdom. And he says that God sent me to preach the gospel, not with eloquent wisdom. Wisdom is great. Eloquence is great, but it's not the way of the gospel. He says, so that the cross of Christ, or not, be emptied of its full effect or of its effect.
The cross is a simple message. It's not an eloquent one. The cross is not something that we need to build up, but it speaks for itself. And when you begin to add eloquence and wisdom, you know, you try to, you try to devise ways. How can I make the sound more appealing?
How can I make this sound smarter? What it does is it says that you are ashamed of the message you were given.
We don't need to be ashamed of the message that we are given. We don't need to pretty it up. We don't need to try and do that. Look what he says. Let's start in verse 18.
He says, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the intelligence.
And set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish?
For since in God's wisdom the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. For the Jews asked for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called both Jew and Greek, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. I love this passage.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. If you don't understand what that means, go out and start talking to your neighbors about the cross. Start telling every atheist you can find about the cross. You will see what it means, that it's foolishness to them. When you start preaching that salvation is the cross, burial and death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It's foolishness to those who are not saved or who are not going to believe. They say, well, that doesn't make sense. Why did he have to die for me to live? Or isn't that human sacrifice? Or isn't that this?
Or isn't that they stumble over it, right? That they believe. It's foolish to believe that the cross is the means, the mechanism by which we are saved.
There are christian denominations, or so called christian denominations that will not have pictures of the cross or wear the cross or put the cross up in their buildings because it's foolishness to them. They say, we don't preach a Christ crucified. We preach a Christ resurrected. Growing up, that's the religious institution I grew up in, taught that as I grew up as a Mormon, we didn't wear crosses. And the reason we didn't wear crosses was because we said, we preach a resurrected Christ, and there is indeed a resurrected Christ.
You will not find him on the cross today. You will not find him in the grave today, but you will find him resurrected very much alive. But it is Christ crucified that saves us. It is Christ crucified that pays for the penalty of our sin that redeems us. It is Christ crucified which is the power of God to those who are saved.
And it's foolishness to anyone else. They say, well, that's foolish.
But look here, it says the power of God to us who are being saved. If you go back to verse 17. It says here that he says, I was sent to preach, not with eloquent wisdom. The eloquent wisdom and power of God here are connected, the church and Corinth. They started coming up with all these bizarre teachings, all these bizarre and eloquent ways, right?
Nice and fancy ways to preach. And they believed that the power was in their words. The power was in what they were saying. So Paul is here. He's bringing that down.
He says, it is the cross that is the power of God. The cross and the cross alone, or rather, Jesus on the cross is alone. The payment of our sins, the resurrection of Christ is the receipt of that payment. The fact that he rose from the grave is the evidence, the receipt, the proof that his payment has been received. Then God says here, Paul.
Paul is quoting an Old Testament citation from the prophets where God says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. If you look at the most wise, smart, brilliant people of our world, almost all of them are atheist, almost everyone. And then they say, well, we believe in science, or we believe in this. First, where do you think science came from? Did you know that science is a christian institution?
The very. The principles by which science operates was formed under christian guidance. Science is not an enemy to Christianity. It's a friend. But they abuse it and twist it, and they say, well, I stand behind science.
You know, the big bang, background radiation, evolution.
He says, I will remove the intelligence of the intelligence. I think we can see that done. For there is no intelligence in saying, I believe we came from a fish that somehow grew lungs and legs and crawled upon the ground and morphed into a monkey. Don't you see how stupid that sounds? Just saying it?
It sounds stupid. But the most brilliant men of the world, that's what they're pushing. That's what schools are teaching. It's what our children are growing up being told and have been for a couple decades now, right? God says, I will remove the intelligence from the intelligence.
And we see it. He says, I will remove the wisdom of the wise. Right? He says this. He says, he says in verse 21, in God's wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, right?
No science class, no math class, no history class, none of that introduced God to us. We do not come to know God through wisdom, but we come to know God through him moving and working in our lives. We come to know God by the creation. By looking out there when you see a painting on the wall here in where I'm at. I've got, you know, we've got a paint or a picture back there.
We've got something over there. We've got, I've got photographs of a graduation on a whiteboard in my office. My calendar has pictures of fields in it. When we see these things, how do we know that there's a painter or a photographer or an artist behind it? Because it's there, right?
No one looks at that picture on the wall and says, oh, wow. Some random air and pollen and other molecules smashed together and form that beautiful painting. We know there's a painter because the paintings on the wall. How do you know there's a builder? Right?
There's a house. I live in a house. It's been here for 120 years. The person who built this house is long, long dead. But how do I know there was a person who built my house?
Because it's here. Someone built it. Trees did not just fall down and saw themselves into lumber and hammer their own nails together to build my home. The very presence of my house says there's a builder. So how do we know there's a creator God who created all things?
And when I say, all right, some institutions believe that God took organized matter already and then made this world out of it. How do we know that there's a creator God who made all things? Because it's here. The very presence of the earth, the sun, the stars, the trees, the moon, dirt, water, rivers, birds, mammals, the very presence of them indicates that someone created them.
So God says through his wisdom, we don't come to believe in him through wisdom. Right. The wisdom of the world will lead us away. But it's the simplicity of looking out there and seeing that there's a creator. It's the act of the creator working in our hearts and our lives and doing great changes the fact that he comes to us.
We read that in John. He says that no one comes to the father but through the son, and no one comes to the son unless God first came to him. So through the wisdom of God, we do not know God through wisdom, but instead we come to know God and believe in him through the foolishness of what is preached. And what is preached. Christ crucified.
That's what he says. Verse 23. He says, we preach Christ crucified.
Look at this. God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. So in whatever thing we might, I don't believe God's foolish at all. But in whatever thing we might look and be like, wasn't that foolish? Remember this.
His foolishness is wiser than all of our wisdom combined. God operates on a level beyond our comprehension. He operates, seeing the whole picture. He sits outside of creation and time and looks over it, beginning to end. And he operates with that knowledge, knowledge that we don't have.
His weakness. Peace is stronger than human strength.
However weak God might be, he is stronger than we will ever be.
Let's. Let's finish this chapter beginning with verse 26. Brothers and sisters, consider your calling. Not many were wise from a human perspective. Not many powerful noreenen of noble birth.
Instead, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. And God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world. What is viewed as nothing, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something. So that no.
1 may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus who became wisdom for us, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption in order that as it is written that the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord. Okay, so he begins here. Consider your calling. This is, at least in the CSB, a weird way of saying it.
Properly translated, he says, verse 26 says this, brothers and sisters, consider where you came from. From. Right. So we are here now we know who God is. We follow God.
We rejoice in God. But he says, remember where you came from. The world called you stupid. Right? He says, not many of you were wise from a human perspective.
They called you stupid. He says, none of you were powerful. You didn't lead armies or nations or cities. You weren't noble. He says, God took the foolish.
If you look at who brought the gospel to us, if you look, God chose the foolish and stupid people of the world to bring the gospel to the Jews. Peter, right? Simon Peter was a fishermande he knew nothing about religion. He knew nothing about the scriptures. He wasn't training.
He was a fisherman. That's who God chose to bring the gospel of his salvation to the people who held the word of God. He chose that which is foolish and what not. To shame the wise, the strong, to shame the weak. Look at this.
Deuteronomy, chapter seven, verse seven.
This is what God through Moses, tells Israel about why he chose them. He says, the Lord has his heart set on you and chose you not because you were more numerous than all people, but because you were the fewest of all people. God chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to become the nation of Israel, to father that great nation not because they were powerful, not because they were wise, not because they were numerous, but because they were tiny and insignificant, he specifically chose them for that reason, so that he could demonstrate to the world what he can do with our weakness, with our insignificance, with what we call foolishness. It says that he brought. Look at this.
He says, God is what is viewed as nothing to bring to nothing what is viewed as something. Christianity is viewed by the world as nothing.
Christianity is mocked by the world. We're scoffed. We're despised. We're rejected. But he says he uses that.
He will bring what is viewed as something to nothing. Right? The wisdom of this world, our institutions, our governments, our economy. We just studied not too long ago revelation. We've seen what God does with this world.
We've seen how he not only destroys and judges it, but brings to absolutely nothing the governments, the economy, the religious institutions of the world. He will use what is insignificant, what's despised, what's viewed as nothing by the world to bring everything this world views as something to nothing. And he says, for this, he says so that no. 1 may boast in his presence, we will not get to God when we die, and boast in his presence when we get there. It will not be God.
Look at what I did for you. Look at how many years I pastored. Look at how much I tithed. Look at how much temple worship service I did, or this. And accept me.
For these reasons, we will not get to do that. We will get to bow before him and say, God, your son, did it all.
He paid the penalty. He did what I couldn't do. And that's why you should accept me. He says, it's from God that we are in Christ Jesus, who became our wisdom, right? So the wisdom of the world went away, and Jesus became our wisdom.
He became our righteousness. We were wicked. We were despised. We should have been despised and rejected of God. We were wicked sinners.
But Christ became our righteousness. So it's not what we do, it's what Christ did. It says that here. It says, he became our sanctification. Because of Christ in us, we get better.
Day by day and week by week, month by month, year by year, we get better. We're sanctified because he is in us and our redemption. We are saved through Christ, not through works not of ourself. It's a gift from God. He became our redemption.
He says so that this, he says, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord now, that lies boast there on the fourth word from the end of the chapter is actually a command. So it doesn't just say that the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord is a. If you're going to boast, boast in the Lord. It's actually a command. It is in the greek verb.
It's an imperative verb. And imperative verbs in the Greek are a command to do something. We are told to boast in the Lord. Right? I can't boast in my strength because I'm weak.
I. And I can't boast in my righteousness because I'm a sinner. But I can boast in Jesus Christ because he is the Lord God who came down, lived perfectly, died on the cross and rose again. I can boast in the Lord. As we come to an end tonight, I want to preach Christ crucified to you, to let you know that Jesus did die upon that cross, but he did go to the grave and did rise again that third day.
To let you know that you are a sinner. Don't be offended. Right. Welcome to the club. We're all sinners.
That you are a sinner and that no acts of your own. Nothing that you can do is going to get you into God's kingdom, but that Christ died for you. Right? You, if you can hold on to that, if you can believe that Christ, who is God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose again the third day and trust in that and make him your king, you can have salvation. When I say your king, a lot of people, you ask them, who is Christ?
A lot of people who call themselves to be Christian will say, he's my savior, and I love that Christ the savior. But not many people will say, he is my king, and we are told to make him our king. So if you are realizing tonight that you are one of those who are perishing, but God is calling to you that God is seeking you with his love and his salvation. That begins with admitting that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. Our ways are wrong and God's ways are right with believing that Jesus Christ is the God.
Man who did die, was buried and rose again and confessing him as your God, king and savior. And if you are ready to do those things here in our closing prayer, I'll give you an opportunity to confess that to Jesus. Immediately after our closing prayer, we will partake of the Lord's communion. So for those who would like to participate, please stick around after service ends and we will partake of that. And then I'll see the rest of you on Wednesday night 630 as we continue our study through one Thessalonians let's pray.
Father, I admit that I am a sinner, that I cannot save myself, that my ways are corrupt, that they are contrary to you. But I believe, Lord Jesus, that you are God in the flesh, who came down here, who died for me. And you were buried and resurrected the third day, given victory over sin and death. And I confess you as my God, as my king and savior, and commit to following you all the days of my life. To remove my crown and submit to yours.
I ask you for this free and precious gift, Lord. I ask as we leave here today that we will. That we will learn from this message, that we will be unified in you, that there will be no divisions among us, that we will not boast in and of ourselves, but we will boast in you. And I pray that you will be glorified as we do that in Jesus holy name. Amen.
Okay. I will be right back.