For the Glory and Praise of God (1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5)

I preached this sermon at Spring Creek Bible Church in March 2020.

Introduction: Knowing that we are saved is a wonderful thing. It’s great to know that because of what Jesus did, we, through faith in Him, can have the promise of eternal life. But I think that often times Christians don’t have a full understanding of the gospel and the fullness of what God did for us in the gospel, and as a result, they do not have the love and gratitude in their hearts that they should. A proper understanding of the gospel is at the heart of life devoted to God.

Great men of the past like Luther, Spurgeon, and Whitefield testify to the change that God wrought in their life when they came to see the gospel of grace.

Theme: I’d like to look tonight at how the whole gospel is all about removing every ground of pride and creating grateful people who exalt God for His free and sovereign grace. Christians really should be the most grateful people alive.

• The foolishness of the message of the gospel removes pride and exalts the wisdom and power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:17–25 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. 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. ¹⁹ For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” ²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

The first thing we notice from this passage is the lost man’s view of the cross.

The talk about the cross is folly to the lost (18a).

Why is that? Have you ever stopped to think how foolish the Christian message is from a human standpoint?

That salvation is the way it is is no accident. God intentionally chose the cross and the crucified Messiah as the means of salvation in order that no one could to claim to it by His own wisdom (21).

It was part of God’s plan that salvation be the way it is.

Why?

Because God is after the grateful praise of His people. Therefore, salvation is not about our intelligence to figure out how to get saved.

Stop and think if salvation was simply for the smart people in the world.

• Jews stumbled because they expected a triumphant Messiah.
• Greeks wanted some higher way of attaining to God by use of their superior reasoning.

Instead, God gave a crucified Christ.

Notice the drastically different descriptions of how people view the cross:

To the lost	To the saved
folly to those who are perishing (18)	to us who are being saved it is the power of God (18)
stumbling block to Jews (23)	to those who are called, Christ the power of God (24)
folly to Gentiles (23)	the wisdom of God (24)

What is it that bringing this change?

What brings one from one of “those who are perishing” to on of those “who are being saved?”

What brings one from one who regards the cross as a stumbling block and folly to power and wisdom?

Verse 21 makes it clear that this change takes place through faith: “it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” So the way to go from perishing and regarding the cross and a stumbling block and folly to being saved and regarding the cross as power and wisdom is to believe.

But as true as that answer is, it is in a sense not sufficient for a couple reasons:

• It creates a couple logical problems:

• First, how does one exercise faith in what he regards as folly? There must be some kind of internal change of understanding and heart before someone can embrace the crucified Christ as anything other than folly.

Maybe you are thinking that just because all people naturally regard the cross as folly does not mean that they cannot eventually change there mind and choose to believe.

That is a valid response, were it not for what Paul says in just the next chapter: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

In other words, a man must be spiritual to understand and accept spiritual things. So while faith is necessary, it is impossible.

• Second, even if it were simply possible to go from one category to the other by simply choosing to believe, it would seem that, if God’s goal was to take away any opportunity for boasting by making the message of salvation folly to the lost, man would still retain some ground of boasting before God and be able to say that he was saved because he decided to believe. So rather than having men boasting in their wisdom in getting saved, we would have men boasting in their decision to believe. In essence will still end up with the same problem—man has reason to boast before God.

• The text goes on and tells us more.

Look at verses 23–24:

“…but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

So Paul describes this change from regarding the cross as folly and a stumbling block to wisdom and power not only as (1) believing, but also as (2) being called.

These are the two sides to conversion. Belief is what God requires of us, calling is how God accomplishes that in us.

This call is the creative call of God whereby He changes us internally so that we no longer regard the cross as foolishness but as wisdom and power, and we no longer want to rebel but to believe and embrace Christ.

In the final analysis then, the effectual call preserves for God the right to be the only one in whom we can boast about our salvation. It removes from man any opportunity for pride in his wisdom or in his good choice of Christ, because although it is us who believe, it is God who effectually brought us to that faith through His gracious working in us. (See verse 26 and 30)

In the end, all the glory and praise must go to God.

Let us praise God for His wondrous grace to us, because we would have never come to Him on our own.

• The unworthiness of the recipients of the gospel removes pride and exalts the undeserved love and grace of God.

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 ²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Now he goes on to emphasize not only the inability of man to come to God but His unworthiness.

None of us is worthy of God’s grace.

But He has chosen to save unworthy people:

Negatively, “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God”

Positively, “Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

And God preserves this for Himself by election and the effectual call (26, 30)

• The inability of the messenger of the gospel removes pride and exalts the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, ⁴ and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The success of the gospel is not dependent on the messenger.

Conclusion:

The Glory of God in the gospel, manifested in its accomplishment, application, and proclamation.

• The foolishness of the message of the cross exalts the wisdom of God.
• The unworthiness of the recipients exalts the grace of God.
• The inability of the messenger exalts the power of God.

God successfully removes all grounds of boasting except boasting in Him. God removes all ground of boasting from the wise, the worthy, and the rhetorician.

• The message removes and ground of boasting in man.
• The worthiness of the recipients removes any ground of boasting in man.
• The messenger removes and ground of boasting in man.