The Folly Of Mr. Worldly Wiseman Series

Corinthians Series (Part Three): The folly of Mr. Worldly Wiseman

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16, Romans 5:6-8

OPEN WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

(Give background reading from Pilgrim's Progress)

We are continuing on with our study in 1st Corinthians this morning. And I hope the Lord is using this study to bless you and equip you, and strengthen your faith, and your convictions.

This morning, we’re in 1 Corinthians, and we’re going to back up a little bit and look at a part of what we looked at last week, and then go on into chapter two – all the way to verse 16. So 1 Corinthians 1:18 is where we’ll start, and again, we’ll be reading all the way to chapter two, verse 16. (READ 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16).

So Paul starts off here by saying the “Word of the Cross, is folly to those who are perishing.” R.C. Sproul, - great theologian and man of God, who we lost in 2017, once said, “The culture in general has settled for what is quick and cheap; junk music, junk art, junk thinking. Our culture is far too easily satisfied and entertained. Excellence, truth, and real beauty are the great triad of virtues that are now replaced with ‘funny’, ‘cool’, and ‘cute’. We get mediocrity because we want it.”

C.S. Lewis, a terrific apologist and writer, who passed away in 1963 said it like this, “It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with foolish things, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

And I myself, can’t help but look back at church history, especially since the Reformation, and see the great pastors and teachers of God. Men who would preach and lives would be changed, and souls saved, and entire cultures would be changed. I’m talking about men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and you go down a bit further into history and see men like Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield and John Wesley… a bit further down and you’ll see Charles Spurgeon, and D.L. Moody. And you know what, none of those great pastors, and evangelists, and theologians, and revivalists – none of them relied upon gimmicks. None of them were into the latest “church growth” trends. They trusted that the Word of God was sufficient. That God’s Word was enough, and then they faithfully proclaimed it and preached it, and taught it.

Paul the Apostle starts off this passage that we just read by saying, “The Message of the Cross is foolish to those who are perishing.” What he doesn’t say, and what he never says is: “Make it seem not so foolish. Make it seem not so offensive. Make it acceptable to people who are enslaved by sin.” He never says, “Make it fit within the world’s paradigm.” No… Paul never says such things.

Instead he says, “We preach Christ crucified.”

It’s the same thing he says in Romans 5:6-8, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows His love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And so; in this whole section of Scripture that we’ve just read here, Paul is contrasting wisdom with foolishness… specifically the wisdom of God, which seems foolish to the world, and worldly wisdom, which is actual foolishness when compared to the wisdom of God. What God’s Word says and teaches, seems foolish to the unbelieving world. What we as Christians do and say, and how we live our lives, seems foolish to the unbelieving world. And when I say foolish… what I mean is that the unbelieving world, thinks the demands of the Gospel are unreasonable… They think that living for Christ, rather than living for themselves is unreasonable…

Think about from their perspective for just a second. If there is no God, why not just satisfy all the desires and longings of your sinful heart? Why deny yourself anything? From their perspective, if there is no God, then Jesus was just a man, who died a criminal’s death, about 2000 years ago outside of the city of Jerusalem. And to devote your life to that man, would be foolish.

That’s the view of those who are perishing. But to us – Christ crucified, is the very wisdom and power of God. Christ crucified makes forgiveness of our sins possible. Christ crucified makes reconciliation with God possible. Christ crucified makes justification a reality. It makes redemption a reality. It makes eternal life a reality.