 And with that said, let's look at our passage before us, 1 Corinthians chapter one. I'll begin reading here in 1 Corinthians chapter one at verse 10. We're going to be going to verse 25 today. And this particular installment of our study is simply referred to as the wisdom of God. You'll see that in a few minutes, why I chose to refer to this particular installment as the wisdom of God. You'll see that later on. But let's begin at verse 10. 1 Corinthians chapter one verses 10 through 13. Paul writes, now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now, I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul or I am of Apollos or I am of Cephas or I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? And so Paul has written a letter. He's written a letter to a church in Corinth, Greece. And as we saw when we looked at the introduction in chapter one verses one through nine, he had begun this particular letter with words of encouragement. He had actually made it very clear and we saw this last time we were together that he's writing to a church that is made up of genuinely saved people. And these people, these Corinthians are actually what we would call abiding fruit of his ministry. One of the marks of their salvation was their eager expectation of being with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason that they would have this eager expectation of being with the Lord Jesus is because they have a genuine love for him. They're looking forward to being with him. It's like they're aware of what Jesus said in John 14 when Jesus in verses one through three there said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me and my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. And they've grabbed hold of that. They've grabbed hold of that promise that Jesus said that he would come and receive them unto himself and it has done something in their life. It has caused them to actually embrace him with the depth of faith and love. And he's been speaking about that and said that they had that eager expectation to be with Jesus Christ. Philippians 3.20 says our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul was encouraging them. He encouraged them by telling them that God would confirm them to the end, that God would establish them firmly, that he would keep on working in them. And the reason that God will keep on working in them is because God is faithful to his promises. It's one of the things that we as believers need to hold fast to. We have to hold fast to the promises of God and God has given us promises and we can trust him. Like it says in the Old Testament book of Numbers 2319, God is not a man that he should lie and neither the son of man that he should repent. Has he said and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken? Shall he not make it good? So you can trust God because God is good to his word and these people are holding on to the word of God. And the word of God has been to them faithful, even as he says in verse nine, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. And so he began in the first portion of his letter to give them words of encouragement. And that lasted nine verses. Now he's about to give them words of correction which are basically going to last the rest of the book, 16 chapters of it. And he's gonna be sharing with them concerning their need to live as those who are united in faith in Jesus Christ. Now it's interesting as he begins to deal with the problems of the Corinthian church that the root of the problem is simply put division. There's divisions that have cropped up and the heart of their division is that they have preferences. They have preferences of certain teachers. And that's why he begins in verse 10 by saying, Now I plead with you, brother, and by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. So he says, I don't want there to be any divisions. The word division split or tear. I don't want the body of Christ torn. I don't want there to be splits amongst you. He's saying I don't want these divisions to continue. The reason I'm writing is that these divisions may not continue because they have been. See, like he says, the divisions that are occurring are over the teachers but there's also division that's occurring over immorality or going to the law before heathens. There are divisions that are related to marriages or meets offered to idols, the conduct of women in church, Lord's upper spiritual gifts, the resurrection. There's a disunity on the essential things so Paul has to write to correct all of these things because of the error. So as we look at this and as we begin Paul's pleading for unity, division is destroying the Corinthian church and the division is rooted in self-righteousness and religious appearances. It's interesting that unity is a very important thing to the Lord as a matter of fact, when Jesus in John 17 is praying what has been called his high priestly prayer. Remember with me what he says in John 17 versus 20 and 21 when he says my prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. May they be united, may they be one that the world may be one is what Jesus was praying. And so as believers we need a unified and united effort to overcome the works of the enemy. Satan is the great divider and Satan sows discord in the body of Christ. In order that he might create division and undermine the work of God. In Mark chapter three versus 24 and 25 Jesus said if a kingdom is divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself that house cannot stand. And when division is sewn into the body of Christ when churches begin to have and experience division then it undermines the work of God because the church of God is to be united in our effort to reach an unsaved world. But when you have people who are petty and are divided over a variety of things as we'll see here it causes us not to be effective. And so the first thing Paul begins to speak about is division. And his desire according to verse 10 is that they'd be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. Now when he speaks that he may be perfectly joined together that word perfectly is used for mending torn nets. It's also used as a word to describe a surgeon mending a joint. He's saying I want your factions to be repaired. May your state of mind and opinions and sentiments be repaired. Now as he's speaking about this division I want you to see what happened verse 11. It's been declared to me concerning you my brethren by those of Chloe's household that there are contensions among you. How interesting is that? He named the people who reported the problem. In our day a lot of people wouldn't even go so far as to share that there's a problem let alone expect their names to be repeated. It's interesting for the last 2000 years Chloe's household has been named as the one Chloe has been named as the one who basically reported the division. We know who reported it. A woman by the name of Chloe and she's saying listen there's a problem in the Corinthian church Paul that has to be dealt with. There's a disunity there. And she tells him what's taking place. Verse 12, each of you says I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollos or I'm of Cephas or I'm of Christ. And what's happening is you're having people who are dividing over teachers. And he speaks and gives the name. Some felt that they were loyal to Paul. I'm of Paul. They preferred the apostle Paul. Now this is interesting we can make this practical because the church can do that and does do that to this day. Of course it does. We don't need to say I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollos or I'm of Cephas or I'm of Christ. All we need to do is put in the name of our favorite teacher. You know I'm of Chuck. I'm of Raul. No, no. Um, you know I'm of Greg. People do that. I'm of. And what happens when you begin to unite behind a man is you begin to have your favorites and you begin to divide the body of Christ. We'll see that in some detail. But some had a special love and loyalty and preference for Paul. Paul's ministry was one of teaching and preaching. But you'll see that there are accusations that have been lodged against Paul that he's boring and difficult to listen to. He mentions that in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10 where some accusations were made against him and this is what they said. His letters say they are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. This guy's kind of like an odd looking guy who can't speak. And so there were some would say no, wait a minute. Paul is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a great teacher. He's a great evangelist. This is a courageous warrior and they began to line up behind Paul. Some were lining up behind a young man by the name of Apollos. Apollos was a great speaker. He was a very intelligent and eloquent, charismatic communicator. And that's what scripture says concerning him. Acts 1824 says Apollos was born in Alexandria and was an eloquent man and mighty in scriptures. And so there are those who say, man, nobody can preach like Apollos. I mean, you listen to Paul and he's so boring, he puts you to sleep. I mean, you have an occasion in the book of Acts where a young man named Utikus is there listening to Paul preach and preach for a long time to the point where he climbed into a window sill and was trying to keep himself awake and he fell out of the window and landed on the ground and died. He was bored to death. I mean, that's what happened to Utikus and Paul had to go down out there and actually God used him to perform a miracle and raised him from the dead and then made him listen to him as he preached for some more time. But you have Apollos, on the other hand, who's young and charismatic and eloquent and I'm certain he had an incredible personality. So compared to aged Paul, you have this young guy who's just so full of energy and eloquence and so people are drawn to this guy. So they say, I'm of Apollos. Then you have Cephas who's also known as the Apostle Peter and there are those who say, no, I like to hang with the older guys because he was one of the original 12. And so it may be that some of the Corinthians had been influenced for Christ or even saved under the ministry of the Apostle Peter. And so in their mind, he's one of the old timers and everybody else just doesn't do it right. Even Paul just doesn't do it right because Paul wasn't part of the original 12. So if I'm gonna go back, I might as well go with the one that was there and so I'm gonna listen to the Apostle Peter. And then you have some were saying, and this is one of the more interesting ones. Well, I'm of Christ. Now, what's interesting about that when they say, I'm of Christ is they're claiming to follow and only follow as well as just listen to Jesus. One of the commentators I use as I study was pointing out that it's probable that they were saying, I really don't need to be part of any physical group of people called the church. I can follow God on my own. I don't need to be in the church. I don't have to go to church to worship. I can worship him in my own heart, in my own place at any of the time. I'm a follower, a true follower of Jesus. I've encountered followers of Jesus who think like that, who claim to be followers of Jesus and in reality what they're saying is, oh well, I've heard it, they've said it. I can go out into the hills. I can go into the mountains. I can be out there in the wilderness, in the desert. I can be out there by the ocean. And I hear the waves crashing and I think of how powerful God is. And I think, why don't you climb in the water and stay under it for a while? I mean, you guys can wake up. I mean, are you kidding me? What they're trying to say is I don't need the physical entity called the body of Christ because I've got my own thing going with God. And that's just, it doesn't work that way. You see, true spirituality produces humility. And true spirituality is earmarked by unity. False spirituality produces strife and division. What happens is it becomes my church against your church. On Monday, I encountered somebody who introduced himself to me by saying, hi, my name is so-and-so. I'm from your competition. And he was speaking of a church. I'm from your competition. And I was wondering if he's from the church of Satan because I'm not in competition. He didn't mean it that way, but that's what he said. I'm from the church that is your competition. Now, one of the marks of true spirituality is unity and a rejection of division. We're one in Jesus Christ. False spirituality produces strife, produces division. It does become my church against your church. And so Paul asks a question in verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? When he asks, was Paul crucified for you, were you baptized into me? He's simply saying, am I your savior? Am I your Messiah? Did I give up my life to save you? You see, no man should get the glory that belongs only to Jesus Christ. One of my favorite scriptures is found in John 3, verse 30. It's a simple scripture. He must increase and I must decrease. That's the mentality of the apostle Paul. It's all about Jesus Christ and it's not about Paul. It's not about Apollos. It's not about Cephas and it's deeper than someone just claiming to know Jesus Christ. And so he's saying, there's only one who should get all the glory and that's Jesus himself. And so he says, verse 14, I thank God that I baptized none of you except these two individuals, Christmas and Gaius. Let's anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Staphonus. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. Now, when he says, I thank God that I baptized none of you except Christmas and Gaius. At that time, Greeks would be seated under a teacher and they would identify their teacher as what was called the discoverer of truth. Now, Paul is what you would call a proclamer of the gospel, but he was not the originator of the gospel. Some people might look at him as if he originated the gospel, but Paul is not one who originated, he received it. When I was in a class in secular college many years ago, one of the books that I was reading for our comparative religions class was a book that said that the apostle Paul originated the gospel, which is error because Paul makes it very clear that he received from the Lord Jesus Christ this message called the gospel. He didn't originate it and he didn't create it. And so he's making it very clear that he is a proclamer of a message that he received. And so he's saying, I didn't originate the gospel message. What I am is it's messenger. In other words, I'm not trying to draw souls to myself through giving them my message and then baptizing them and making them my followers. What I'm doing is I'm teaching them the truth and encouraging them to follow Jesus Christ. Turn to chapter three please for just a moment and look at verses five through seven with me. In chapter three here he says, who then is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one. And I planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase so then neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters but God who gives the increase. In chapter four he continues that thought in verses one and two, let a man so consider us as servants of Christ, stewards of the mysteries of God. And moreover it's required in stewards that one be found faithful. So I didn't originate this message. I'm a steward of the message and my responsibility is to remain faithful to the one who gave me this message. And so I didn't baptize anybody other than Christmas and Gaius. Yes, I in verse 16 back in chapter one I did have something to do in the ministry in my ministry by baptizing Stephanus but to be honest with you, I didn't keep records of it. I don't know if I baptized anyone else. But verse 17 is a powerful scripture and I've underlined it in my Bible and it's been underlined for many years. Christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. I've been sent to preach. That's what he's saying. I've been sent to preach, to preach the gospel. It is a responsibility, Paul is saying, that God has given to me that is of the highest import. In chapter nine verse 16 he says it like this, when I preach the gospel I cannot boast for I am compelled to preach, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. My job he's saying, my calling is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, when he wrote to the Romans he said it's, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and all who believe to the Jew first and then also he says to the Gentile. The gospel is the power of God. One of the biggest mistakes I see in the church today is people are not teaching and preaching the full gospel of Jesus Christ. Many churches are caught up preaching messages that really are more of man's encouragement to other men but not necessarily messages that are actually well just going verse by verse scripture. I was listening to somebody just today as I was after church and I was eating my lunch and I turned on a program to hear somebody speaking and the absence of the word of God is what really impressed me about that entire ministry. I watched it for 25 minutes and there were three scriptures that were quoted and the rest were his opinions on how God gives you a path and a plan and how God wants to work in your life and but there was no substance there. Some churches have gotten caught up with entertainment, others have gotten caught up with being built on music you know and they have some fantastic songs I must admit but when you're witnessing to somebody pull out a tambourine and sing the gospel to them and sing a song to them and see how effective that is. When you have a Jehovah's Witness knock on your door open it up and say our God is an awesome God and see if you can lead him to Christ that way. I mean singing is wonderful, we love it, I love to worship the Lord in song but you worship in spirit and truth you need the word of God and Paul made it very very clear that his ministry was to preach the gospel. Why? Because he says in verse 18 the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It is the power of God. The cross is foolish, the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, the message of what Jesus did by dying on that cross is to the unbeliever of foolish message, that word foolish interestingly enough literally original Greek is moronic. It's where you get the word moron from. So to the individual who was unsaved it's moronic to them, this gospel message is foolishness, it's moronic and he says it the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Now we preach the gospel in a day when preaching is looked at as being impolite and even offensive to some. Because that gospel message contains in it a call. A call to change your mind. When you read your New Testament very often the word that is translated repent the Greek word is metanoia. The word metanoia speaks of a change of mind. And so when you're preaching repentance the message is actually calling people to change their mind. You change your mind by being confronted with God's mind. God's mind is declared to us in his word. So he speaks his word to us and we compare the way we think with what he says. Now he's not saying I'm willing to negotiate with you you can keep some of what you believe about me and I'll keep the other that I think is true. No, he says no, you're wrong and I'm right. Now that sounds arrogant. And when you stand up and you say thus saith the Lord unless a man is born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have people get so upset. This John 3.16 controversy with Tim Tebow where people are so upset over that. Why are they so upset? I'll tell you why my opinion, if you don't mind is because they've seen plenty of actions of people making touchdowns. That's been going on a long time. It's been going on a long time. I've watched football for a long time and I can tell you guys who have these celebrations in the end zone and all of that that's been going on for a while and there have been for years people who hit their knee and looked down. I mean, you see that in high school football. You see that in college football. You see that all the time. Anybody who watches sports will see that. You don't see it on the basketball court. There was one, a pitcher, Oral Hersheiser who did that and became famous for it when he won a game for the Dodgers and everybody ought to thank God when the Dodgers win at least one game. But when Oral did that, you know I've been a fan of the Dodgers since 1959. It's a long time, guys. I went to the Coliseum to watch Duke Snyder play. That's how old I am. Some of you know it. Yes, sir. And so my dad took me there to watch him. So I've been watching the Dodgers for a long time and this'll hurt some of you and the Yankees before that. I was wearing a Yankee sweatshirt up here the other day and one of my brothers said, What is that, man? What's that? That's a Yankees, man. Best team money can buy. But celebrations. They've gone on for a long time and moments of thanking God for giving me the strength to perform a task, it's pretty common to Christians. So what's the problem with Tebow? Why is everybody mocking? Why so many people mock him? Because Tebow's sincere. And many of the other ones, they're, yeah, yeah, thank you, Jesus. And then they're down in the champagne later on and so the world loves hypocrisy. But somebody who actually really believes that he's thanking God. Now that's something else. And the world sees the difference between sincerity and hypocrisy. The world loves the hypocrite because it makes the world look better. But when there's somebody who's sincere saying thank you, Jesus, for the strength you gave me to be able to do this, they have a real problem with that. Which I found very unusual, but it's very true. And so what you have is you have a message that calls people to have a relationship with God and when it is really preached, when you actually say, in order to know God, you need to repent, mm-mm, that's impolite. How can you actually say that to me? And there are those, of course, who are offended by it. But to those who have embraced that message, the message reveals the power of transformation. It reveals the power of forgiveness. That man or that woman who was living that life that people knew was so in the world. That one who loved to drink and looked for occasions to drink and couldn't find an occasion, created one. So he could drink, now is saved, and doesn't drink anymore. And people say, what is that all about now? It's the power of God unto salvation. It's that holy spirit who indwells you and transforms you from the inside out. It is that power, it's not those rules on the outside that you tack up on a wall and you read them every morning. I'm gonna do this today. I'm gonna think positive thoughts today. No, it's that relying on the word of God and the power of God resident within you. It's the knowledge that God with his finger has written his word on the tablet of your heart and has changed you from the inside, transformed you, took away those things that you used to do, took away that anger that you used to have, that lust that you used to fight with, and took away the hunger and that appetite for the drugs and the alcohol and everything else. It's the power of God unto salvation. Water baptism doesn't save you. It symbolizes the salvation you've experienced in Jesus Christ. It didn't save me. I got baptized in December of 1950. December of 1950, I was four months old. That didn't save me. I sinned for 20 years. When I got big enough to walk, I started to sin. When I got able to speak, I started to sin. I learned to lie and I learned to do all those things that you do over the course of years. The water baptism didn't save me. It was a clean conscience in Jesus Christ. It was the power of the Holy Spirit resident within that changed my life and made me radically different and also gave me appetite for things that were righteous, whereas before I didn't have a desire to read the word of God. I didn't have a desire to really pray unless I needed something. I didn't have Christian friends. I certainly wouldn't go out and talk about Jesus with anybody. Are you kidding me? But when you get saved, before you know it, I desire your word more than my daily food. When you get saved, you start having an embrace of fellowship with those who love Jesus Christ so you can speak about him. When you get saved, you have conversations with God that aren't just words you memorized from some book or were taught by some teacher in some class. You now have heart to heart conversations with God. You say, this is where I'm at. This is what's going on. I need your help, Lord. I need your strength. And you read the word and God says, I'm near. I'm with you and I won't leave you and I won't forsake you and I will empower you. And you say, Lord, in my own strength, I can't make it, but you and I together, with you and me, all things are possible. And then you tell other people about that. Hey, you know what? I was blind. Now I see. Now I hear. I was literally dead and now I'm alive. What are you talking about? Well, you know what? I've been reading the word of God and Jesus Christ said that he would give life to the dead. And I was spiritually dead. And you know what? He's made me alive. The power of God into salvation. It's the power of God that brings light to the darkened conscience. It's the power of God that gives life to the spiritually dead. It's the power of God that softens a hardened heart. It's the power of God that brings peace now and gives hope for your future. And that's the gospel of Jesus Christ. So to those who are perishing, those who are spiritually dead, it's moronic. But to those who are being saved, it's the power of God revealed. And it reveals his ability to save any who come to him in repentant faith. Well, in verse 19 going on, it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Man's wisdom cannot save anybody. The mystery of God with man revealing grace and mercy through the cross is beyond man. The essence of the gospel isn't simply a wise way to live. The essence of the gospel is the revelation of salvation. And those who are perishing do not have the fear of the Lord. And therefore, they are not wise. Proverbs 12.15 says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. So God says, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise because man's wisdom can't save anybody. The gospel does. So he asks the question in verse 20, where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Where's the wise? When he says, where's the wise, that's in reference to the intellectual, both the Jewish and the Gentile. He says, where is the scribe? That word scribe refers to the Jewish doctors of the law. He says, where is the disputer of this age? That would speak of the Gentile philosophers. And what he's saying is Christianity is triumphing over the empty, depressing philosophies of man. The gospel triumphs. It's an interesting, scripture is found in Acts chapter 17, verse six. The people were upset at what was taking place through the ministry of the gospel. And it says, when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren to the rulers of the city. And this is what they said. They cried out saying, these who have turned the world upside down have come here also. Those who turned the world upside down were really turning the world right side up. And that was taking place through the preaching of the gospel. But it's interesting, so early in the history of the church that there were people already saying they're turning the world upside down. And they did that without the internet. They did that without television. They did that without radio. They did that through the preaching of the gospel. They did that through believers who left Jerusalem and went through Judea, Samaria, and then began to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Taking this message out. Turning the world upside down for Jesus Christ. He says in verse 21, since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. And the gospel is much too deep to be grasped through unaided human understanding. People don't understand. I mean, you can speak to people and try to explain to them and they're not gonna understand. Without the spirit, you'll never understand. Here's something for you. This will illustrate what I'm trying to say. Without the spirit, you'll never understand. I wonder who here can describe to a blind man who has never seen the color blue. Can you do that? Is that possible? Somebody who has never tasted a strawberry. Can you describe taste to them so that he would perfectly understand what a strawberry tastes like? Somebody who's never heard and can't hear. Can you, through sign language, describe to them the sound of music and what a certain melody is? You can't. Why? Because it's not possible for them to grasp those things because they don't have the capacity to do that. It's beyond their ability. So don't get so frustrated when you're sharing with people about the love of God and that person you're talking to looks at you like, are you kidding me? They don't get it. Unless the Holy Spirit grabs hold of their heart, they don't get it. That's why they argue with you. That's why they say, oh, you got your religion. I got mine. That's why they say it's good for you, but it's not good for me. It's because they don't get it. They're blind. So you can't get angry at a blind man for not understanding blue. You can't get mad at a deaf person for not enjoying certain music. You can't get angry at somebody who's never tasted something they've never tasted. They don't have the capacity to do that. Well, at the same time, guys, unless the Holy Spirit takes God's word and grabs hold of somebody's heart and impresses them concerning the reality, it's called conviction, the reality of this, that person remains blind to it. They can't see it. These things are spiritually discerned. And that's how you come to know through the Holy Spirit. It's just too deep to be grasped through unaided human understanding. So that's why when you have a sense that the Spirit of God is speaking to you, that's why it's so wise for you to respond. That will give you some insight into why when I give invitations, I always wait for others. I always wait. Why? Because sometimes the Holy Spirit is still speaking to somebody and they're still fighting him. Have you ever been in the situation where you know God is telling you something and you're fighting him? You're just fighting him? I have. I was at a church service many years ago with my cousin Ray. The invitation was given. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, a very obvious word when the pastor said, if you wanna receive Christ come forward, the Holy Spirit said to my heart, tell Ray you'll go up there with him. And I prayed back and talked to the Spirit and said, no, seriously, I said no. I said no, I can't do that. Because if I go up, they're gonna think I'm getting saved and I've been saved for three years already. Holy Spirit said take Ray up there. And I said, no, it's gotta be indigestion, that's not the Spirit. So I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. We went home, he was living at our house, my cousin was living at our house at that time. We're sitting at the kitchen table after church. He was sitting right across from me and I'll never forget what my cousin Ray said to me. He said, hey, David, you know when that pastor said, if you wanna get saved to come up? I said, yeah. He said, I was waiting for you to touch me and to tell me you would go with me so I could go give my heart to Jesus Christ. Oh, I hate that. It's happened more than once, by the way. You ever have anything like that happen? I have. The Holy Spirit is saying, move. That's why I wait. That's why at invitations, I wait. Because Jesus is speaking to somebody else and that person's fighting him right now. Sometimes they are, so you wait. And then Jesus has a way of winning and you see this person with their back, their hand behind their back coming up and Jesus is bringing them up. He has a way of winning. The gospel is deep. And so the Lord is the one who brings it to you. Who could have invented a God so good that he would send his own son? Who could have invented a message like that? You see, for those who are unsaved, salvation is always an act on their part. They always earn it somehow. But the gospel of grace is beyond human understanding. Notice he says in verse 21, it, please God through the foolishness of the message. This message is simple and therefore requires an innocent childlike faith in order to embrace it and be saved. In Mark chapter 10, verses 13 through 15, it says people were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them when Jesus saw this. He was indignant. He said to them, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. See to come up and say, God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. And to actually believe that by opening your heart and answering a call is gonna lead to a completely transformed life. For most people doesn't make any sense, but everyone in this room would argue otherwise. My wife Marie was telling me just a couple of days ago how amazed she is at what God has done in our life. And if you'd have told us when we were freshly married, what God had planned for us, mm-mm, we would have never believed it. I was talking to my mom just today and my mom once again was saying to me, she said something like this, David, she said, she said, when you got saved, our family changed, she started talking about how my dad was changed and what a joy it was for her to have my dad. My dad whom my mom in the past has said for the first 25 years of their marriage, they had a good marriage. But when they got saved, they had a great marriage. And that's what happens guys. But see, you could have never told my family that that crazy little brother was gonna have radical transformation and one day be sitting up like I am right now talking about God. Nobody in my family would have believed that, none of them. And to have the honor of being at the deathbed of an uncle and praying for him as he's about to die and then perform in a funeral where 200 of my cousins whom I didn't know, I've got hundreds of cousins I don't know, hundreds that I don't know, my grandmother had over a hundred great grandchildren. I have hundreds of cousins on one side, that's just one side. I've got hundreds on the other too. I think my relatives are California. I mean, I've got a lot of them, a lot of relatives. So to go and do a funeral with 200 cousins that you don't even know and to share the gospel with all of these people who are my relatives who don't even know me and to bring a message that my uncle had gotten saved and my aunt is saved, who would have ever believed those things would take place? And it all happened because of a simple message where God said, you're a sinner, I can forgive you and I can change you. So radically, you will be what I call a new creature. Old things will pass away. Behold, all things will become new. That's the gospel. And that doesn't come through man's philosophy. That came from God himself. And so he preaches the gospel. In verse 22, Jews request a sign. Greeks seek after wisdom. We preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. To the Greeks, foolishness. To those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. Now when he says that the Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, it's the habit of Jews and Gentiles. It's kind of one of those cultural things about their societies. Jews, he said, request a sign. Which you see that actually in scripture, Matthew 12, 38, some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you. So Jews had a way of asking for signs. You see that through the scriptures. But the Greeks seek after wisdom. You see that again in Acts 17 where it speaks about them taking Paul and bringing him to a meeting at the Eropagus where they said to him, may we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears. We want to know what they mean. And then we read all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. And so Paul is just speaking about what they do. He said, Jews look for signs, Greeks look after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Though the Jewish people may want outside signs and the Greeks may long for human wisdom. In reality, Jesus is the ultimate sign and ultimate wisdom of God. And the ultimate wisdom of God is revealed in the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. Because his message reveals a way of salvation and therefore must never be tainted with man's philosophy. Man's philosophy empties the gospel of its power to save. It's been said to attempt to make the gospel intellectually stimulating or sociologically and philosophically appealing without sharing its actual message makes it void of power. That's absolutely true. You empty it of its power when you try to make it something that is palatable, something that people want to hear, something that's easily digested. All you need to do is just let the line out of the cage. Just say, this is what the Bible says. Oh, I didn't invent the message. I simply deliver it. I didn't make it up. It was an originating with me. Paul said that. This comes from God. This is the message of Jesus Christ, what he has done and what he can do. Jesus said either you're for me or you are against me. Either you're gathering with me or you're scattering abroad. There is no conscientious objector in this warfare that is cosmic. So you choose who you're gonna serve. Either it's God or it's a rejection of God but you make that choice yourself. The gospel gives to us the choice, the ability. It says choose life. Jesus will set you free. Or you can remain in bondage. That's your choice. And so Paul as he's speaking forth the truth is simply making it very clear. I didn't invent this message. I proclaim it. And the message I give to you didn't originate with me. So you're not following Paul. You're not following Apollos. You're not following Cephas. And you're not creating some new group that you say oh we're just followers of Jesus when in reality you're not following him. What you're doing is you're listening to a message given by God through Paul and others that simply says come to Christ and your life will be changed. Jesus is the wisdom of God and Jesus is the power of God. And the power of God unto salvation comes through embracing what Jesus can do in your life. So it isn't a religious activity. It is a relational reality that God gives to us through Jesus.