The Wisdom of the Word Versus The Wisdom of the World

Transcript

Good morning, family. Before we begin our time this morning, I just wanted to say a few things briefly. Our good friends at Crossway sent me a box of 50 books, Jen Wilkins’ new book, Women of the Word. I mean, this is providential, right? We’re going through a series on the word of God, and the women get hooked up. So out in the foyer area, there’s a box, there’s 50 of these, so take them as you like. It’s a great book, great book, and use it to do Bible studies together or just be encouraged. But yeah, this is a great resource, and so they freely gave it to us, we are freely giving it to you, so feel free to take one as you leave. Secondly, two weeks ago, I was in Alabama last week, and I missed you. I was able to preach to a congregation out there,

and they were a wonderful group of folks, but when I was preaching there, I was thinking about the last sermon that I preached here, and I said something that has just been kind of not sitting well with me. I was mentioning about the importance of meaningful membership, and I kind of was off my manuscript, and I said that if you were looking for a church,

in the Pacific Northwest, I know of about 15 churches. And what I meant to say, brothers and sisters, was if you’re in Portland, and you’re looking for a church, I know of about 15 churches that practice meaningful membership, meaning folks engage with the church, and they commit to the church, they’re committed to one anothering. That was not to say that there are only 15 gospel-centered churches in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t, I did not mean to say that. There are so many churches in the Pacific Northwest that faithfully preach the gospel, but that just kind of came out, and for that, I’m sorry. What I meant to say was that there’s 15 churches where I know the pastors, specifically in Portland, that practice meaningful membership, okay? So just to kind of get that off my chest, it’s been kind of sitting in my mind, so.

The Word of God

Well, this morning, we continue our sermon series on the word of God and the people of God, and I think this will be the last sermon on Scripture, though I’m not quite convinced yet. Might be one more, we’ll see. But in case you’ve missed any of it, all of these sermons are available on the website, so when you have some extra time, feel free to go back and listen to those sermons. Those sermons are aimed to be kind of stackable. Imagine Legos, you kind of stack them on top of each other. They all help support one another in terms of those sermons, so. But in case you missed any of those, I just wanna kind of catch us up to speed as to where we are right now, okay? Our sermon series so far, we’ve looked at Hebrews 1, verses one and two, to see that our God

is a God who speaks. He not only spoke creation into existence, but He actually speaks through the creation order and through creation itself to speak to us. He spoke through the prophets, and in these last days, He’s spoken to us predominantly by His Son, Jesus Christ, through His word. Okay? So then we unpacked what is often referenced as the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. We looked at 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, where we saw that God breathed out, or better, He exhaled every single word of Scripture for the purpose of growing us as Christians into spiritual maturity. Last week, Greg preached. I was able to check out his sermon on a flight. He preached on the transformative power of Scripture, and he did a great job. Greg, I’m very thankful for your preaching ministry, brother, thank you. He preached on Psalm 19, verses 7 through 11,

where we saw how the word of God brings the truth of God to the people of God to offer power and the promise to transform us into godly living. And this morning, friends, we’re gonna spend our time dealing specifically with the wisdom of God’s word, okay? And I really hope that what I’m really aiming to do is to showcase how the wisdom of God’s word is greater than the wisdom of the world. And we’ll attempt to do that by looking closely at one particular aspect of the word, and that is the message of the cross. We’ll do that by looking at 1 Corinthians 1, verses 18 through 31, okay? So I’ll read the passage, I’ll pray, and then we will kind of unpack this text. So if you’d be so kind as to stand with me as we read God’s word. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 18 through 31.

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. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 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. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men,

and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. 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. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being may boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

Two Cities, Same Struggle

I’d like for you to imagine a city, a city known by its outsiders, primarily for its openness to all things, its sexual expressions, and its religious variety, a city filled with philosophers, free thinkers, and entrepreneurs, a city known by its worship of love and beauty, a culturally diverse cosmopolitan city with more worldviews than you can count, a city with a reputation of being among the educated elite and the intellectually enlightened, a city known as the epicenter of human wisdom. This city, as you might have guessed, is Portland, Oregon, a city like no other city except one. First century Corinth. Now, you probably never thought about the similarities between these two cities. Despite over 2,000 years and 6,000 miles separating them, these two cities look strikingly similar. Although Portland is a bit more new school in terms of technology, social identities, and what you would call expressive individualism,

these two cities, when observed side by side, have some very strange similarities. Both cities very secular and irreligious. Both cities filled with intellectuals and philosophers. Both cities in their perspective, time, and place referenced as the greatest in terms of modern thought and progressive wisdom. Both cities exceedingly dark and godless. But despite the similarities in godlessness and darkness, there was both in Corinth and in Portland a remnant of Christians, Christians who then sought to and Christians who now seek to bring the light of God’s gospel into the darkness of the city, Christians who unashamedly proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of all, folks who aim to convert people from the influence and culture of progressive wisdom into the community of Christians who live by and live under the wisdom of the scriptures. Now, we in Portland know very well the climate of our city, because as Christians we sit in the tension

of living in a city that stands in complete contrast to the word of God. But we might not be familiar with Corinth, both with the city and the Christians living in that city. So let me just help you to better see the city of Corinth by setting some context for our passage. The apostle Paul, who was the first Christian missionary to Corinth, who is the author of this letter, he planted the church in Corinth and after a few years, he moved on to another city to do more ministry. Paul pens this letter only five years after he moved to another city to do ministry, okay? And he writes this letter to address some very particular issues that had been going on in his absence. So I’ll just name a few of these. The Corinthians had some huge issues with arrogance and pride. They were egotistical, self-absorbed,

and motivated by self-interest. They were focusing primarily on external methods, like the art of rhetoric, to measure their maturity. They were ranking themselves according to their spiritual gifts. They had all kinds of messed up views pertaining to worship and the Lord’s table. Christians were actually suing other Christians and there was just a whole lot of sexual immorality going on. The reality is that the report given to Paul about the Christians in Corinth revealed that the church was in a mess and it was completely divided. And so Paul, who established the church, who loved them very much, needed to address their issues. He knew the people and the culture of Corinth very well. And so he saw right to the heart of the issue. He knew that their problems existed primarily because they were placing more stock in the wisdom of the world than in the wisdom of God’s word.

They were leaning on and trusting in various different philosophies of the culture rather than the scriptures. And these philosophies had begun to creep into the church. Philosophies concerning meaning, purpose, sexuality, ethics, and the ultimate destination of believers. So before Paul begins to address all of their issues systematically in his letter, which he does, he begins first by addressing the issue of wisdom, which was the primary cause of all their problems. He starts with wisdom because it’s obvious that the Corinthian Christians had a gross misunderstanding of wisdom. The origin of wisdom, the application of wisdom, the blessing of wisdom, the safeguard of wisdom, and most importantly, the wisdom of the cross. Wisdom or the lack of God’s wisdom was why divisions in the church were happening so often. Now, listen, it’s important first to understand that in this passage, Paul is not attacking wisdom in general, okay?

Paul is not like an anti-intellectual or just kind of disengaged from the wisdom of the world. Paul is attacking their perception of wisdom or their source of wisdom. Now, before you check out, because I’m talking about Christians 2000 years ago, I want to remind you of the similarities of these two cities. We in Portland, Oregon, and really in the greater Pacific Northwest are susceptible to the same issues concerning wisdom. Christians, for whatever reason, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, can sometimes believe that conventional wisdom is better or more relevant than God’s word. In fact, this is why liberalism and progressive Christianity is so prevalent within the churches in the Pacific Northwest. God’s wisdom, as expressed in his word, can sometimes feel outdated and ineffective or exclusive in our modern and inclusive world. What a lot of Christians functionally believe is that the things that are just and fair and right

is not so much determined by the Bible, but by the culture, particularly those with the loudest and seemingly most sensible voices in our culture. I mean, listen, this is a very sad reality, but there are churches right around the corner from us who have embraced same-sex marriage because in their mind and because of the voices in our culture, they believe that is fair and just and right. There are churches in the surrounding Portland area that have embraced universalism, which is really this idea that all people are the children of God whether or not they reject him because they believe, from a human perspective, that’s fair. There was an article written some years back in PDX Monthly about the new face of Christianity in Portland called Jesus’s Favorite City. Dr. Marcus Borg, teacher of religious studies for over 41 years, makes this statement. At OSU, around 50% of my students

had a tremendously negative view of Christianity. For them, Christians were, and I’ll use their five favorite adjectives, literalistic, anti-intellectual, self-righteous, bigoted, and judgmental. That’s the public face of Christianity. Because of this negative perception, Borg suggests a new, more modern Christianity, a movement where progressive theology means that the Bible is read solely as a historical, metaphorical document, a movement that affirms religious pluralism, a movement that sees no fundamental conflict between Christianity and conventional wisdom. Brothers and sisters, human wisdom, worldly wisdom, has become the new paradigm among professing Christians in the Pacific Northwest. It seems to me that just like Corinth in the first century, there is a war of wisdom going on. The wisdom of God’s word versus the wisdom of the world. So in this war of wisdom, the question we need to ask ourselves, the question that always needs to be on the forefront of our mind,

The War of Wisdom

is how can we trust that the wisdom contained in God’s word is greater than the conventional wisdom of our postmodern, anti-Orthodox, and progressive city? Well, this morning, we get but one example of how God’s word is profoundly wiser than the world. And Paul does this by examining what might possibly be, from the world’s perspective, the most foolish thing about God’s word, and that is the cross. In this passage, the apostle Paul gives us six things to appeal to, to build our trust and confidence that the wisdom of God’s word is greater than the wisdom of the world. And the first thing the apostle Paul appeals to, surprisingly, is personal experience. Experience, and this is really fascinating, especially for us because we live in such a post-truth world. It seems rather odd to me that the apostle Paul, Paul the apologist, would appeal to experience, but that’s what he does.

He says, in verse 18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. With this verse, essentially, Paul puts the entirety of humanity into two groups, those who reject the message of the cross, meaning the world, and those who receive it, meaning the Christians, who have experienced its power. For those who reject the message of the cross, or the gospel, they are currently perishing under the full effects of the fall. And so what they perceive to be wise or wisdom from a human standpoint is actually foolish. Because of the path that they are on, this perishing path, they are incapable of knowing or discerning what is true wisdom. They can’t know it. However, for those who have embraced the message of the cross, well, they know it firsthand,

not only about the cross, in terms of what the cross actually means, but also its power. They have experienced it. Listen, brothers and sisters, you have felt this power of God when he first opened up your eyes and your mind to know him and his wisdom. You felt the power of God when he revealed to you the foolishness of conventional wisdom. You felt the power of God when he freed you from the grip of sin. You felt the power of God when he brought you from death to life. Prior to the Holy Spirit bringing illumination, helping you to see the depths and significance of the cross and what that accomplished for you, friends, you were just as foolish.

Because the cross represented everything contrary to human wisdom. You know, the cross in the first century was primarily seen by Roman citizens as a symbol of shame, humiliation, and criminal punishment. The cross was used by Roman authorities as an instrument of execution. It was typically reserved for those who were considered to be the lowest members of society, people not smart enough to work well in civilization, but thieves, criminals, and rebels. In fact, there is this piece of ancient graffiti found in Rome that depicts Jesus on a cross with the head of a donkey with an inscription that reads, Alexemenos worships his God. Apparently, someone thought that Alexemenos was a fool for worshiping a crucified Jesus. And was publicly mocked for doing it. And the depiction of Jesus is really how the first century would have perceived this Jesus who hung on his cross. You can see the image there,

head of a donkey sitting on a cross. That was the public perception. Listen, today, things aren’t that much different. The cross in our day is a symbol typically seen as something unintelligent. It represents a people group who are considered unintelligent science deniers, bigoted fools who take their cues from a pretend God in the sky with an outdated book of morals established by the patriarch. The cross in our culture is a symbol associated primarily with oppression, colonialism, imperialism, and religious violence. Many view the cross as the most negative and intolerant force in modern society. In other words, the cross is a symbol of foolishness to the world. And listen, we understand this because at one time, we too thought it was foolish to varying degrees. If left to human wisdom, we could not know, we could not see, we could not hear or comprehend the message of the cross.

In fact, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 tells us that one of the effects of the fall is this corruption of the mind. Ephesians 4, verses 17 through 18 says,

now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility, the foolishness of the minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart

— Ephesians 4

(ESV)

. Our minds were darkened because our hearts were hardened. But God intervened and he replaced our heart of stone and gave us a heart of flesh, meaning our hearts became soft and alive. You see, only an intervention from God can bring you revelation about God and move you from the path of rejecting God and his word to the path of receiving God and his word.

In other words, those who are lost and without intervention from God think that the message of Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense. But we who have been saved see it and know it experientially as the power of God. Paul reminds us of the power that we experienced personally when God radically opened up your eyes to hear and to see. Do you remember what that moment was like for you?

When all of a sudden things just finally clicked for you? I remember that moment in my own life. I remember that moment in my wife’s life when it just made sense. Paul is saying, remember that power. You see, conventional wisdom, friends, can’t do that. That doesn’t happen when you listen to a TED Talk or Joe Rogan or Barry Weiss or Fox News or CNN.

Conventional wisdom might inspire you or convict you, but it can’t save you. It can’t give illumination. It can’t cultivate repentance. It can’t create sanctification. It can’t give you true peace or lasting hope. To do that requires power, supernatural divine power. Paul is saying, remember what you experienced when you encountered the power of God through his word. Paul knows that personal experience is not enough and can sometimes be subjective. And so the second thing he appeals to is the scripture. For the Christian to flourish and to grow in wisdom, he must have both experience and truth, the power of God and the word of God. So we need to experience God, but the word of God must inform our personal experiences. And what’s interesting is that Paul appeals to the word of God to help us trust in the wisdom of the word of God. And what’s even more fascinating to me

is that he actually uses a negative example from the word of God to drive his point about the wisdom of the word. So Paul makes his point in verse 19 by quoting from Isaiah. He says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Now, just to help set some context for why Paul references this Old Testament passage here in Corinthians. This quote was taken from Isaiah 29, verses 13 and 14. I’m just gonna read it for you. It says, because this people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people with wonder upon wonder. Just a heads up, that wonder is judgment.

We can often get confused with that. And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden. So this here is actually a prophecy of judgment against the people of Israel for their hypocrisy and spiritual corruption. This prophecy came during the.. We’ll dive deep here just for a second. This prophecy came during the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, who was a weak and ungodly king. During this time, the Assyrian army, this powerful nation was moving its way and conquering everyone in its path. And so rather than Israel and this king trusting that God would protect them, would protect Israel from the Assyrians, King Ahaz decided it would be wise. It would be on the better side of wisdom to build an alliance with Egypt, which was another powerful nation, okay? But this alliance with Egypt led Israel into idolatry and spiritual decay

because it required King Ahaz to adopt Egyptian religious practices. So Isaiah in his prophecy spoke out against Ahaz’s policies and called for Israel’s repentance and for them to return to worship the one true God. Essentially, Isaiah was saying to the people of God and to this King Ahaz, that you’ve become hypocritical and superficial in your worship. Though you pay lip service to God, your hearts are far from him. Though you honor God with your words, your actions are contrary to his will and to his word. And you see, friends, at the center of all this hypocrisy and spiritual decline was because they were relying on conventional wisdom rather than God’s wisdom. They were trusting in the power of men for protection rather than the power of God for protection. They failed to trust what God said in his word concerning the protection of his people.

Things like Exodus 14, 14, the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. Psalm 121, seven and eight, the Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Deuteronomy 31, six, be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them. For the Lord, your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. These folks had no need to align themselves with the ungodliness of Egypt for protection. God was with them. And part of God’s judgment for Israel, relying on worldly wisdom and human power for protection was for God to let their worldly wisdom play itself out to the furthest extent. Their wise plan for protection backfired, backfired. The very invasion they sought to avoid

by aligning themselves with Egypt triggered the Assyrian nation, which created this conflict. And God, in his loving correction to Israel, he brings them to the end of themselves and their worldly wisdom before finally rescuing them to show them human wisdom will not save you. Aligning yourself with ungodliness will not save you. God will save you. And this isn’t altogether uncommon for us. We do these kinds of things all the time. We are just like Israel. When challenging circumstances or difficult decisions come our way, we often deploy strategies that come not from God’s word, from the wisdom that he’s provided, but from the world’s wisdom. We sometimes make choices that we think, well, this will fix my situation before seeking God’s word and his wisdom to guide our path. And that’s when things fall apart. When we do that, when we seek the wisdom of the world,

we often make things worse for us and more complicated. And listen, in some cases, the cost of some of those unwise and ungodly decisions force us to make a compromise with what we believe, what we know to be true, how we live, and most importantly, how we worship and honor God with our lives. Paul is making the point here that God will always put worldly wisdom to shame by allowing it to fail us. While on the other hand, God’s wisdom will always prevail when it comes from his word, which is the deep well of wisdom. And friends, this wisdom is found all throughout the pages of scripture. Everything we need for every situation is found in God’s breathed out, exhaled word to us. Psalm 119, 105 says, your word is the lamp to my feet and the light to my path. Brothers and sisters, we must, as Christians,

Six Appeals to Trust

make this word illuminate your ways, inform your experiences. We need to build a habit that trusts that his wisdom is better for you. Then Paul continues to make his case by appealing to human history. You see this in verses 20 and 21. He says, 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? 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. Paul draws our attention to human history and asks us to consider all the people we regard, humanly speaking, as the most intelligent. And then he goes through his list. Where are the PhDs? Where are the professors of religious studies? Now, I know we have professors here, praise be to God.

This is not a dig on you. But he says, where’s the scholars? Where are the thought leaders? Where are the influencers, the debaters, the counselors? Norm. The creatives, the network news anchors. Where are the Twitter personalities? Have these people not been made foolish by God? Throughout human history, as smart as people are, as smart as they claim to be, they will never be able to address or speak with any insight or authority about the most significant questions concerning life. Is there a God? Why am I here? Is there life beyond the grave? And if so, are there consequences for my decisions on this side of life that would impact the afterlife? History has proven that these significant questions can never be answered apart from divine revelation of God. So philosophers can come together and talk about it, think about it, pontificate about it. Religious people can offer their opinions,

but in the end, they can only speculate. As smart as we claim to be, we are completely incapable of knowing God and understanding the gospel in our own wisdom. So God has decided to use the foolishness of preaching, the word, to save those who believe. Now, listen, just for clarity’s sake, it’s not that the message is foolish. But rather that God in his great wisdom uses foolish people to preach what the world deems as a foolish message. That a crucified savior can somehow bring salvation. Look at the history of humanity and see how they always fall short. See their inadequacies, see the insufficiency of human wisdom to comprehend the message of the cross. The wisest people in our world fall infinitely short when it comes to the wisdom we need, not only to flourish as humans, but for our sin. I mean, the evidence is all around us.

Just look at our world. Look at what the wisdom of man has done with the world that God has created. What have they done with this world? It’s completely broken and it’s completely falling apart. God gave us this perfect world and man in his foolishness broke it and continues to break it. Paul says, pick your best and wisest men, wisest women, and look at how foolish they are compared to the wisdom of God. Fourth, the apostle Paul appeals to his own ministry, verses 22 through 24. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul once again divides the world into two groups, Jews and Greeks, or basically religious people and irreligious people.

The first place Paul would go when he arrived in a city to do ministry was to the synagogues. Paul would preach first to the Jewish leaders. He did this for a long time, so he knew what they wanted, signs, powerful, convincing evidence. We know from the gospels that the Jewish leaders constantly asked Jesus to perform signs, but Jesus refused because he knew they would not believe him unless they saw him perform miracles. The Jews were God’s chosen people, the ones whom God made a covenant with, the ones who were given the law and the promises. They were the ones entrusted with the Old Testament, which testifies of Christ. But even when Jesus shows up on the scene, they still would not believe unless he demonstrated signs. They had the scriptures right before their faces.

However, these first century Jews could not comprehend a crucified Messiah. This was like an oxymoron to them. A king who would come to serve? A Lord who would lay down his life? That didn’t make any sense in the mind of a first century Jew. Furthermore, from a Jewish perspective, anyone who was crucified on a cross was considered to be cursed by God. So rather than embracing the cornerstone who would be the foundation of their faith, Christ became a stumbling block to them. The scriptures that they took so much pride in knowing became the very thing they tripped over. But then there were the Greeks, the citizens of Corinth, influenced by Greek philosophy and culture. These Greek philosophers, they were deep thinkers, always contemplating the meaning of life. They were very inquisitive, but they were very skeptical. They were the intellectuals, the enlightened ones who probed the depths of human wisdom.

And from their vantage point, they found the message of the cross to be illogical and irrational. You see, the Jews and the Greeks, although two totally different types of people, religious and irreligious, shared the same issue, insufficient wisdom. A crucified Messiah defied all Jewish understanding, and the Greeks dismissed the message of the cross as absurd. In doing so, they both rejected the peace and the enlightenment they had professed to know and seek. Human wisdom was not sufficient. However, within these two groups of religious and intellectually enlightened people, God has effectually called some to believe the message of Christ crucified. The Jews wanted a sign. God revealed to some that Christ is the power of God, and he demonstrated it in his resurrection. The Greeks wanted wisdom. God revealed to some that Christ is the wisdom of God, demonstrating in the redemption of his people. And we see that in verse 25.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. This means that what man ascribes as foolish proves to be infinitely greater than what man has comprehended. And what man ascribes as weakness proves to be infinitely more powerful than what man understands. God as a man, a crucified king, who was pierced for our sin, who brought victory in death, who was raised from the grave. Friends, this is literally unbelievable.

Unless God causes you to believe. Paul is saying that though his ministry, through his ministry and the people he’s ministered to, God has shown how superficial conventional wisdom is and how great the wisdom of God is. And then he actually appeals to our calling. Verse 26 and 29. For consider your calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth, 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. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being may boast in the presence of God.

Paul in these verses is asking us to take an honest evaluation of ourself, to take an inventory of our intellectual abilities and our shortcomings while deeply reflecting. And when we do this honestly and sincerely, there we will find that we were nothing. We were not wise. We had nothing to offer. Insignificant, foolish, weak, lowly, and despised.

And in our heart of hearts, we all know this to be true. When we examine our calling, we see clearly that our conventional methods of wisdom were bankrupt. We know the limitations of our mind intimately. And we only know these things because God has opened our mind. Listen, I’m a fool, comparatively speaking.

Just like you’re a fool, comparatively speaking. But God demonstrated his wisdom by choosing those who are not wise, not influential, and insignificant to shame conventional wisdom and strength. Therefore, we have nothing to brag about. And our calling, God calling us, should cause us to humbly submit to the wisdom of God. Because we weren’t smart enough on our own to figure it out. First Corinthians 1, verses 30 through 31, Paul gives us his final appeal, which is the sufficiency of Christ. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. If you are in Christ Jesus, if you are called by God, that is, if you’ve been saved by Jesus, then you understand the weight of this wisdom. Because you are in Christ, you can understand

that the greatest expression of God’s wisdom is found at the cross. There we find our righteousness. There at the cross, we find our holiness and our redemption. What the world views as foolish, God demonstrates as the greatest act of wisdom. Our sin in a legal sense, when judged perfectly, deserves death. Because God in his holiness cannot engage with that which is unholy. We were by nature slaves to sin and unrighteousness. We needed help. We needed rescuing. So in the wisdom of God, Christ Jesus endured the cross. He satisfied the legal demands for our sin by giving his perfect life in exchange for our horrible sin, giving us vicarious righteousness. It’s what’s known as the great exchange. We who were unholy now have access to God because his sacrifice makes us holy. And we who were in bondage to sin get emancipated from the slavery of our sin

Living by God’s Wisdom

because we’ve been redeemed. Man sees the cross as weak and foolish, but for those who are in Christ Jesus, we see it as the power of God and the wisdom of God. And again, Paul quotes from the Old Testament, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Brothers and sisters, we should never, ever boast in our wisdom or look down on the culture with pride and arrogance. I see this happening all the time, all the time. Christians berating the world because of their lack of wisdom.

We have nothing to boast in. We did nothing to earn it. So parading this free gift of God as if it were not a free gift is contrary to the gospel. God is the one who gives wisdom. So he alone deserves praise. Friends, in this war of wisdom, conventional wisdom will always fail us. It will infinitely fall short of God’s wisdom. You can know this to be true by simply looking to your personal experience, the testimony of scripture throughout human history, the example of Paul’s ministry, the humility of your own calling and through the all sufficiency of Christ. God’s wisdom always proves to be greater than conventional wisdom. And when you genuinely believe this, when you really take this in, you never have to feel afraid or insecure when people mock you or chastise you for what you believe or become self-conscious when people call you literalistic,

bigoted or anti-intellectual. And when it comes to evangelism, you never have to worry about being smart enough because the truth is you’re not. We’re not. It’s not our wisdom or your answers or the eloquence of your speech that convinces people or persuades people. You can rest in the certainty that the persuading and the converting rests solely on the power of God. Therefore, you never have to add or remove anything from his word to make it more palatable or relevant. Be free from the anxiety and stress of feeling like salvation depends on the quality of your presentation. It doesn’t. Be free to proclaim it with patience and humility, trusting in the sufficiency and power of God to do the work. When God, when God’s people, when people reject God’s word and his wisdom, instead of being proud and taking it personal, it would be better to have compassion on them

the same way God has had compassion on you. Listen, I gotta say that to myself all the time. When I look at the brokenness of our city and our world, it’s so quick for me to be like, look what they’re doing. Don’t they get it? How stupid, how foolish. When my posture should be compassion and prayer, God, would you please open up their hearts and their minds? They don’t know any better. Listen, if you’re here this morning and you are trusting in the wisdom of men to lead you, to comfort you, to satisfy you or to save you, I wanna tell you this morning, you’re looking in the wrong place. You’re being misguided. The Bible says that there is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death. You need the wisdom of God that is sourced in the word of God.

You need to embrace the message of the gospel. It is the only thing that can give you life and save you. Listen, the wisdom of the word says that Jesus paid it all. The wisdom of the world says, keep working and you’ll eventually be right with God, karma.

The wisdom of the word says that Jesus has done everything necessary to bring you into a right relationship with God. The wisdom of the world says, you gotta earn your salvation. You gotta earn your keep through religious deeds. If you’re here this morning and you want Jesus, ask him to open up your eyes, to see the beauty of the cross as displayed in the wonder of his marvelous word. As foolish as that may sound to you, friend, it would be the wisest decision you will ever make. And brothers and sisters, we need to be a people marked by the wisdom of the word. We need to be a people that speaks the wisdom of the word to one another. You ever wonder why the scripture says to meditate on God’s word? So that we could be people who have so taken in the wisdom of God

that we can navigate this world. So you need to speak this wisdom to one another. You need to find your peers in this congregation who are leaning on and trusting in conventional wisdom and bring God’s word to bear on their life and say, brother, you’re walking down the wrong path. Parents, you need to teach your children what is the source of wisdom. You need to be showing them that the wisdom they need is contained in the word of God. You need to get yourself a children’s storybook Bible and walk them through so that they can be well acquainted with the wisdom of God’s word. Our only hope, our only hope to navigate this dark world is the light that illuminates our path. And we need to be that kind of people who not only speaks of it, but lives under it and submits ourselves to it.

Amen. Let us be that kind of people. Let’s pray. Our father and our God, we thank you that you’ve not left us on our own to figure out this crazy upside down and broken world, but you have given us wisdom. Wisdom that is personified in the person in work of Jesus. You tell us in your word, father, that if any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask for it as if we’ve already received it. Father, we beg you, give us wisdom.

Give us understanding. Give us aid when we read your word so that we might know you and love you and delight in you and encourage one another. You’ve given us your word and this wisdom so that we might serve your people and love you deeply. We pray that we would be a people marked by your word. The word that you breathed out, the word that we’ve taken in, the word that has transformed us, and the word that is the well of all wisdom. Help us, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.