Greg Robinson - God Hath Made Foolish the Wisdom of this World - Class 2 - The Wisdom of God

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:03

   This is Watt Chan Lake Bible School 2022 Monday, our third session with Brother Greg Robinson. His theme for the week is The Wisdom of God from Thessalonians, from Corinthians and his class today is The Wisdom of God. OK, brother Greg.

2. 0:27

   Thanks, brother Dan, you kind of scared me there for a minute because I don’t have a All right. Good morning, everyone. OK, that’s a lot better. Thank you. I know it’s hot, but good morning. It’s nice to see everybody this morning. Today’s class is entitled The Wisdom of God. You’ll remember, I hope, from last night. Since it was just last night, we looked at the wisdom of man. That was our first class together. And what we saw last night was how the the world of Corinth really lived in a, in a, an environment and the brothers and sisters lived in an environment that was shaped almost completely by man’s thinking and by man’s principles. It was a world that had replaced Yahweh. If there ever was any any input from Yahweh in their world with the many different gods that they worshipped, there was a Pagan world that was a Pagan world of the 1st century. And we talked last night about the fact that our world is quickly getting to be just about the same as it was in Corinth, and in many ways probably worse.

3. 1:31

   Now we’ve tried to sum up what the purpose of life would be in the next slide that I’m going to show you, the purpose of life for people whose lives weren’t centered around Yahweh. So this would be the purpose of life for most of mankind. And this would be the kind of things that would make what people would be thinking about, what would get them to get up every morning of their day of their life.

4. 1:53

   And that is a couple of things here. Mankind’s search for the purpose in life. First of all, they would search to satisfy their own desires. So that would be the purpose of life for for most of mankind. Secondly, they would work to elevate themselves, elevating themselves by their accomplishment or by riches. Now, can you think of a Bible verse that sums up these two and actually expands it out into three things that really are the motivation for people in the world, the different name that’s given for it. How about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life?

5. 2:32

   So this is what people are living for that don’t know God. This is if we were to sum up with the wisdom of. Of. Man is this is what we would have and this is what is the motivation in in most people’s lives. This is what the world has has come up with, these things that we have on the screen.

6. 2:51

   Well, our second class gives us an alternative, and Paul brings out the alternative to this, to the brothers and sisters to solve the problems that the ecclesia was facing. And so Paul brings out then the wisdom of God as a much superior alternative, and he puts God’s wisdom up against man’s wisdom. So Paul says, let’s turn instead, brothers and sisters, to the wisdom of God. And that’s really the answer to the question and the problems. That were happening in Corinth.

7. 3:24

   It’s, it’s really a masterful strategy, I think as, as you’ll see, to compare the one with the other, because the thinking of man was what was motivating people in the city of Corinth and it was what was pushing into the ecclesia of Corinth at the same time. Let’s look at our summary slide that we had last night just for a second to help bring this into perspective for us. So what Paul did is he had first presented to them what the ecclesia should look like, what the refuge of the ecclesia should be like.

8. 3:57

   Because the ecclesia does give us the power to withstand the thinking of man. It does give us the alternative. And so we had there we have Jesus Christ as its Lord. But brother Simon really filled that out for us this morning. We have the ecclesia set apart for God’s work. We have the ecclesia being part of Christ’s family, made rich by Christ’s word, made blameless at Christ’s return, and in partnership with Christ. That’s what it should have looked like for the brothers and sisters of Corinth.

9. 4:32

   However, we had something else that was taking place in the ecclesia. Instead of that, instead of having Christ as the Lord, there were others that had set themselves up as leaders in the ecclesia. And these leaders were really following the traditions that the cults had in the city of Corinth. They were following that same process where there would be a leader of, of a cult. I almost said a leader of a church because there’s a, there’s a similarity to the churches in many cases that are around us, isn’t there?

10. 5:02

    And each of those factions that had a leader would have followers that were a part of that faction and that followed those leaders and actually took pride in what those leaders were saying. The result was divisions. The result was contentions that came into the ecclesia. When that happened, all of a sudden the ecclesia was wide open to all of the influences, the direct influences of the world. We had envying and strife and division. We had pride and arrogance.

11. 5:34

    We had fornication that was permitted to continue in the ecclesia. We had people suing each other in the ecclesia because they couldn’t suffer themselves to be defrauded. We have the questions about the resurrection and is there really a resurrection that we expect? We have the turning of the Lord’s Supper into feasting and to drinking. We had the spirit gifts being misused for, for glorification and not for for glorifying God.

12. 6:03

    And then we had the questions about head coverings and the and the people saying are head coverings really necessary? So these are the issues that they were facing and these attacks were were able to move into the ecclesia because the the brothers and sisters in the ecclesia couldn’t get together to agree on how to deal with the issues.

13. 6:21

    And so the problems of the world took root in the ecclesia. Now I told you the first night when we were talking that this was a great study for me because all of a sudden problems that I was having at work, OK, not CHS work, but work, work, right? All those problems that we’re having at work all of a sudden were very, very visible to me. And what I, I realized is that because of the factions that we had at work, that we were unable to solve the problems that we had.

14. 6:53

    And people in our work would disagree with each other, not because they disagreed, but just for the sake of disagreeing and being opponents to what other people thought. So let me give you an idea what it was like. So the accounting department would refuse to open accounts for the sales department because they didn’t like the sales department. IT would only build reports for certain departments because they didn’t like all of the other departments in the company. Operations would refuse to to live up to the rules of the accounting department.

15. 7:25

    And they’d extend credit without permission from the accounting department. And HR would only hire people for certain locations because they didn’t like some of the managers. Of the other locations. So it was crazy, but everybody had what they thought was a legitimate reason for the position that they had. But there was this animosity and this unhealthy competition that was going on. And so we couldn’t progress with the business. It’s a same kind of thing that was happening in the Ecclesia of Corinth.

16. 7:54

    Now, you may have heard the term silos. Has anybody heard that term silos where different departments don’t communicate with each other? They, they become almost a business in themselves. That’s what was happening in Corinth as well. One department would blame another department for problems and you’d spend hours, we would spend hours trying to figure out what was the real cause of the problems.

17. 8:16

    And then we’d have different departments that were actually looking for problems so that they could discredit other departments. Maybe you’ve, maybe you’ve worked in a place like this. Well, we were able to fix most of these things, but reading through this, I began to understand what was happening and the study actually gives us a solution as to what can be done to solve that.

18. 8:37

    So the lights went on for me about this point in time is looking at this, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, because the Ecclesia had those same kind of problems. They were competitive leaders. They were eloquent teachers, as we’ll see as we go through this chapter today, and they were competitive followers. Now that’s an important component because you see how Paul presents it here.

19. 9:00

    He says that the problem was that some people were saying, I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos, I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. So it’s not only the leaders that were the problem. It were people which actually took pride in belonging to a certain faction. In belonging to that. These leaders were popular because of their ability to speak.

20. 9:25

    In many cases, Paul talks about that or, or some other achievement that they had had, and the followers then were followers because they were proud of the accomplishments of the leaders and they would go around and they would brag about belonging to this faction or that factions. Now, what’s the equivalent for us today?

21. 9:46

    I don’t think we have that that goes on in the ecclesia. But sometimes we might say, I belong to this ecclesia, and we might say it in a way that says. Hey I belong to. This ecclesia or that ecclesia, and we might have that same kind of what’s the right word, I don’t know, that feeling that somehow that was a good thing, or maybe even a better thing that I belong to this ecclesia or that ecclesia.

22. 10:13

    So that’s the kind of situation that they had in the city of. Corinth. And of course, Paul is going to deal with that. He’s going to deal with this competitive spirit that the leaders had with each other and the competitive spirit that the followers had with each other. So verse 13, verse 13 says, is Christ divided?

23. 10:34

    Was Christ sorry, was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? So what’s he doing? How’s he handling the problem? Because this is the answer that he now gets to. He says, all right, I want everybody to go back and I want everybody to recognize that Christ is not divided. Christ is one, His ecclesia is.

24. 10:58

    1. There is one purpose. We cannot be divided in this way. We cannot have these factions. This is the fellowship of Christ. This is the partnership of. Christ. And then he says, and this really I think talks a lot about what Brother Simon was talking about this morning. He says, was Paul crucified for you? So if you have another leader, if you have somebody else that you you are following, were they crucified for you? Do they have the authority to be the Lord in the ecclesia? Do they actually have the same kind of authority that Christ has?

25. 11:36

    You see, our mission is to glorify God, and the one who was able to do that was the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who gave his life to do that was the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one else has been able to conquer. Sin like Christ did. And so as Brother Simon said, he was given dominion, he was given that position, Paul says.

26. 12:02

    Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? We’ve actually been baptized into the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re partakers with him in denying our own will. We’ve committed to doing that, haven’t we? We’re committed to following the will of God. And that means US taking up our cross as well. So back in verse 9, you’ll remember what Paul says. Paul says we were called by God into a partnership of his Son, and he says Jesus Christ.

27. 12:41

    Our Lord. We’re actually going to go to the same verse that that one of the same verses that Brother Simon went to Matthew Chapter 7. So open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 7. I’d like to just spend a minute on this and to, to, to help us to see what was actually going on with these leaders. Why were they setting themselves up in a position which Paul says in chapter 4 was actually like ruling over their brothers and sisters?

28. 13:11

    Because Paul is telling us something here that’s really important. It’s one of the keys to the solution of how we solve this problem. It’s, it’s very easy for us to call Jesus Christ our Lord and for that to be just a title, for that to be just the way that we address him. But he is our Lord, He is our Master. He is the supreme authority and we are his servants because we work for him.

29. 13:40

    So Matthew Chapter 7, the words of Christ here. And Jesus talks to the people about the thought that they were sorry. He talks to people that thought that they were working for him, but actually they were not working for him. He was not their Lord. So Matthew 7 verse 21 says not everyone that Seth unto me.

30. 14:03

    Lord, Lord. It’s not enough to call. Jesus our Lord, he says. He must actually be our Lord. And he says, not everyone that said to me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but he that do with the will of my Father, which. Is in heaven. So if Jesus is our Lord, if he is actually our supreme authority, then we will do the will of God.

31. 14:30

    And you’ll notice that the distinction there, He is doing the will of God and he’s called us to do the will of God as well. So Jesus goes on to say that there will actually be many people at the judgment seat who will be found to have not been working for God. Verse 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord.

32. 14:51

    So they call him Lord, and they’ll say, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful, wonderful works, Many people who will be convinced that Jesus was their Lord, that they were doing this work for Jesus, that they were working for God. But Jesus says to them in verse 23, I’ll profess unto them, I never knew you.

33. 15:21

    What does he mean? He says you actually weren’t my servant. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you because you weren’t my servant. Depart from me. Ye that work in equity. You weren’t working for me. You were working for something completely different. What were they working? For what would you think? What do you think was the motivation for those people? And I say those people, but we can easily be those people, can’t we?

34. 15:49

    Where we’re doing it for not to serve God, not to follow the example of Christ, not for the mission that he set out for us.

35. 15:59

    They were doing it for their own glory, weren’t they? That’s the problem. That was that was that was happening in the Ecclesia Corinth. That’s what Christ is talking about. They were doing it for their own recognition. And it’s possible for, from what Jesus is saying here, it’s possible for us to do that for a whole lifetime, to spend a lifetime doing what we do in the truth for our own recognition and not for the recognition of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. So Jesus says to them, I never knew you. You weren’t part of my team.

36. 16:32

    And all of this happens at the judgment seat. And all along they thought that they were doing it for God. So what he’s telling us here, what Jesus is telling us what was happening in in the ecclesia here is that we’ve got to be a part of Christ’s team. We’ve got to work for him and we’ve got to work towards his mission.

37. 16:51

    So a couple of points there that might be helpful for you. It’s not enough to call Jesus our Lord. He’s actually, he actually must be our Lord. If Jesus is our Lord, then he will be. We will do the will of God. Many people will think that Jesus was the Lord. And then finally he’ll say I was not your Lord because you worked iniquity, you were working for yourself, you were working for your own glory.

38. 17:22

    So there’s some non negotiable requirements for servants of Christ. Non negotiable. First is we work for our Lord Jesus Christ. And secondly, our mission is to. Glorify God and not to glorify ourselves. Whatever we’re doing, it must fit with the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be putting God’s will above our own will.

39. 17:50

    Christ said nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. That was the message of Christ on the cross. And if we’re doing what we’re doing in the truth is for our own recognition, then really we’re not the servants of Christ, because that was the exact opposite. Of what Christ did. That was the exact opposite or that would be the exact opposite of the cross.

40. 18:16

    So when Paul says, was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized into the name of Paul? We understand completely what he’s talking about, don’t we? We understand is, is our motivation, right? Then we start to see a very clear picture of what was happening in Corinth. The leaders in the factions were looking for their own glory.

41. 18:36

    They wanted followers, maybe not even consciously did they want this, but they were looking for their own recognition. And Paul says Christ is not divided. His mission is not divided. His mission is to glorify God and not for us to glorify ourselves. Now Paul talks about the fact in the next couple of verses in verses 14 and 15 about the fact that he rarely baptized anyone, which I think is really interesting for him to insert here. Why do you think he would then insert this conversation about about not baptizing here?

42. 19:13

    In verse 17, he says for Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel. Now, if I had been setting this up in Greg’s wisdom, which is not particularly reliable, right? If I had been setting this up, I would have set it up and I would have had Paul go in, I would have had him teach, and then I would have had him baptized.

43. 19:34

    And the job would have been done. But here we have Christ saying that’s not how it was set up. Christ set it up so that Paul would do the preaching and somebody else would do the baptizing. Why do you think that was the case? Anybody have an idea? Why would you do that?

44. 19:49

    Yep. OK, that OK, So that’s pretty efficient. I think that’s absolutely right. Can you think of another reason? What was the danger? So no one could say is. Baptizing to call. Yeah, so Paul might get this this ego going. He might get to a place where he actually thought that that he was something special or the people thought that he was special and that would all of a sudden totally.

45. 20:10

    Unwind the message of the cross, wouldn’t it? Because it’s about glorifying God. It’s not about glorifying us. That’s the problem. That that, that, that was was so prevalent. We’re just also so prone to our own pride. And I think about it from from God’s perspective, or I try to think about it from God’s perspective.

46. 20:29

    We think about God having us as the tools that he uses to spread his word. And if we are successful in spreading his word, that means people will come to listen to what we have to say. And if they come to listen to what we say, all of a sudden what happens to our ego?

47. 20:48

    It starts to to expand, doesn’t it? And all of a sudden we become completely, well, not completely useless, but we become less useful to God in the work that we’re doing. We have cases like that throughout the Scriptures where people were given the opportunity to to teach, were given the opportunity to lead, and they ended up becoming egotistical about it and they lost the ability to do the work successfully.

48. 21:13

    So Paul takes this a step further here. He says that his job was to preach the gospel, but he was to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words.

49. 21:25

    What does he mean by that? Wisdom of words? This is becomes an important, important part of what’s happening. Yeah. Caleb. Yeah. OK, excellent. So. So. Eloquence. So he was sent to preach the gospel. He was said to speak it, but he wasn’t sent to speak it with eloquence. He was spent to speak it in a simple, clear way. It wasn’t something that was embellished by human arguments. It was a very simple message.

50. 21:58

    So Paul says my job was preaching the gospel and, and we know Paul is not known for his eloquence. Don’t we? We know that wasn’t something that that was his strong suit. We know that Apollos was was very good at that and Paul was not. Why was that? Why do all of us have different capabilities? And all of those capabilities need to be put together to get to get God’s work done well.

51. 22:25

    It’s it’s to help counter this feeling that we somehow might be part of the glory, that we should deserve the glory. It’s to help us to stay away from that thinking that God separates this out. And so Paul, in dealing with the brothers and sisters in Corinth, goes directly to these key points because those leaders in Corinth.

52. 22:45

    We, we. We. Deduce. I guess we’re very eloquent teachers and because of their eloquence they were able to get followers. To come behind them and to to listen to what they had to say. Now we might think, well, wouldn’t it be great if we could have it both ways? What if we could have the great message of the cross and have an eloquent teacher at the same time?

53. 23:10

    Yeah, that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t it? Right. That’s the one that we follow. That’s the one that we serve. And God in his wisdom, uses us in different ways to keep us away from that problem. So Paul says, if I had had spoken with this eloquence, with the gospel, with his eloquence, or with his wisdom of words, he says that didn’t happen lest the cross of Christ.

54. 23:36

    Should be made of none effect. So the cross here is the symbol of Christ’s submission to God. It’s a symbol of the glorification of God. And if Paul had been able to speak, or if Paul had gotten up and spoken with eloquence, if he’d had human arguments and he’d been able to really pour it on, then the message of the cross would have been lost.

55. 24:03

    It wouldn’t be about the glory of God anymore. It would be about Paul’s eloquence. Let’s take a second then to just kind of recap some of the the pieces that we have here. So in Corinth there were some that taught the wisdom of words. There were some people that that because of their eloquence, because of their reasoning, were able to teach and to get people to stand up and to follow them appealed to many of the brothers and sisters the things that they were teaching. So they gained disciples of their own because of their teaching.

56. 24:38

    And these teachers became popular teachers and their messages were popular. Their followers said I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of the different leaders that were part of the ecclesia. And by doing that, the people followed them and they had pride. Being the followers of those leaders, they felt pride in that

57. 25:04

    and as a result they made the cross of Christ of none effect. They were actually departing from the mission that the Lord had given to them. So in the next verse then Paul begins to make the connection between the cross and the wisdom of God and he shows that that is the basis of the wisdom of God.

58. 25:27

    In verse 18. He says for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish. Foolishness following the will of God and not our own is what the preaching of the cross is. And he says to them that perish, this is foolishness. Then the perish. You could probably just sum that up and say that those people are the unbelievers.

59. 25:54

    So unbelievers look at the preaching of the cross and they think that it’s absolutely foolish. We hear that all the time. Don’t we have yet? Have you ever told somebody about the cross of Christ, about the sacrifice of Christ, explained it to them, Somebody who knows nothing about the truth and explain to them about the Kingdom. And you got that look from them like, wow, do you really buy that?

60. 26:22

    Have you ever got that look from somebody? Yeah, I’ve got that quite a few times when you we sit down with somebody and you, you explained it all to them and you’ve got all this energy and enthusiasm and they just kind of look at you with that blank look because to them it’s foolishness.

61. 26:36

    They think this is this is ridiculous. There’s nothing behind us. There’s nothing to this. You’d be crazy to give your whole life, all of those Sundays to this work that you do. But he says, But unto us, which are saved, it is the power of God. So to us, it’s something completely different.

62. 26:54

    It’s God’s. Power, it’s enlightening to us, it educates us, it changes our character, doesn’t it, this power of the word and ultimately God says if you, if you, if you follow. That I’ll change your nature as well. And we could literally feel the power. Working in our. Lives. And what about the wisdom of man? He says.

63. 27:17

    For, it is written, I’ll destroy the wisdom. Of the wise and I’ll bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Paul’s quoting Isaiah chapter 29 here he’s saying what he’s saying is it makes no sense to pursue the wisdom of man because the wisdom of. Man has proven to be exactly. Useless, and it’s going to continue to be that way in verse 20. Paul says let’s look at the wise people of the world. He says, where is the wise?

64. 27:53

    Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer? Of the world. Where are all these people that have been like these leaders that you have? Where of all these people, where are all the they now? Well, they’ve come to absolutely nothing.

65. 28:08

    Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? How did God do that? How did God go about making foolish the wisdom? Of this world. He gave us an alternative, didn’t he? He gave us something so much better than what this world has to offer that he made. Choosing the world absolutely foolish for us. Where’s the wise?

66. 28:37

    Where’s the scribe? Where’s the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? So here’s what the world has to offer us if we were to sum it up. Man’s wisdom, the purpose of life for most of mankind. Satisfy your desires. Spend a lifetime doing that. And what do you find about the desires that you have?

67. 29:01

    As you, as you satisfy them, what happens to them? Don’t they become unsatisfying? Each, each time that you satisfy them, they become less and less satisfying. The other thing is to elevate ourselves. Right here’s our here’s the list. We started out with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And what does the result?

68. 29:23

    What is the result of choosing this? The result is, is death. That’s the only thing that’s out there if we choose this path. And So what Paul is saying here is there’s an alternative. Now after the resurrection of Christ, there’s a alternative to choosing this path because God has made foolish this path. It is no longer the choice.

69. 29:50

    There’s another one, God’s wisdom. The purpose of life for only a few that find this way is to choose God’s will over our own. Don’t satisfy the flesh. Don’t satisfy your your own pleasures. Satisfy God’s desires. Glorify God and God will give you. Life simple, isn’t it? God has made foolish the wisdom of this world.

70. 30:23

    In a nutshell. There it is. And Paul presents it just like that to the brothers and sisters. What are you going to choose? He says. If you’re actually trying to ride the the train of your own glory to being leaders in the ecclesia, to having that recognition in the ecclesia, don’t bother because God has made that foolish.

71. 30:44

    The the whole message of the crisis is to is to go against that thinking. But the message of the Christ, the cross, the message of Christ is eternal life, isn’t it? This is God’s wisdom. There is a purpose to it. There is value. To what God has offered to us,

72. 31:06

    He says in verse 20, Where is the wise? So where’s the wise men? Did any of the wise men of the world come up with this understanding? Where’s the scribe? The Jews, right? They’d look to the rabbi’s, the teachers of the law. But they didn’t understand the purpose of life either, did they? When Christ came, most of them had completely lost that. Where’s the disputer of this world? He says.

73. 31:33

    The Greeks with their philosophers, they didn’t understand the meaning of life for the purpose of life, but God had made all of that foolishness, and people were given the opportunity to choose something that was far superior. Instead, verse 21 says. For after that. In the wisdom of God. The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

74. 32:06

    It’s a bit of a confusing verse, I think. For us, so I’ve. Paraphrased it here on the screen for you for in God’s wise plan, people in their wisdom did not come to know God, So what God had decided was that it wouldn’t be through the wisdom of. Man, that people would come to know him.

75. 32:26

    It wouldn’t be through man’s intellectual prowess, man’s eloquence, and those things. It wasn’t going to be that way. Instead, it would be through the preaching of the cross, which people thought was foolishness, that people were saved. So it would be through this thinking of the cross, which is really the wisdom of God, that people would be saved.

76. 32:51

    But most of the world doesn’t understand that, and most of the world gets that wrong. They completely miss the point. But God had decided that those are the kind of people that He wanted. He wanted those people that would humble themselves to His mission, rather than those people that would try to raise themselves up for their own mission. Now, you can imagine, I think, what would the Kingdom be like if He’d chosen it the other way around? What would the Kingdom be like if it was all of these people that had glorified themselves in this life and had been successful or felt they were successful? In this life, it would be, it would be chaos, wouldn’t it? It would not be the Kingdom that we all look forward to. Verse 22, he says for the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, after wisdom.

77. 33:43

    Paul says of the Jews, the Jews in their wisdom that they were always looking for a sign, weren’t they? Christ says that they’re always looking for a sign. And the reason they were always looking for a sign about Christ was because they couldn’t accept what Christ was. They couldn’t accept that he was not the Messiah that was going to deliver them from Rome, that was going to raise Israel.

78. 34:05

    Back to its its its original glory right then and there. They couldn’t accept that. They couldn’t accept that he wasn’t. He wasn’t going to exert assert himself as king. They couldn’t accept that he was submitting himself to God, that ultimately he would be sacrificed. They couldn’t get their minds wrapped around that because they didn’t understand that wisdom.

79. 34:26

    They didn’t understand that concept. And so Jesus said to them, no sign will be given to you. But what what did he say? What was the sign, the sign of the prophet Jonah, right. What was the sign of the prophet Jonah? So Jonah was let’s go over to Matthew chapter 12. Jew says we don’t accept the mission that you have of the cross.

80. 34:57

    We don’t accept that part because we’re expecting something completely different. And Jesus says, OK, well then I’m going to give you a sign you’re. Going to have to go back and you’re going to have to look at Jonah for what that sign was. He says Matthew chapter 12 verse 39. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and they’ll be no sign given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was.

81. 35:24

    Three days and three nights in the whales belly. So shall the son of man be. 3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 3 days and three nights in the grave. The sign. Was the cross the sign? Was the cross and the resurrection? So if the Jews had had thought about that sign, they would recognize that they were missing the whole point and not understanding the need for Christ to be sacrificed, the need for Christ to conquer sin. He says the Jews seek after wisdom. So the Greeks were seeking after wisdom. They were, they were looking for some high level of understanding.

82. 36:09

    That’s what they were always looking for us for some new thing. But Paul came to Athens. He says you’ll never find the glory of God in the glory of. Man because the glory of God is all about humbling ourselves. Instead, verse 23 he says, but we preach Christ crucified.

83. 36:37

    That’s how Jesus glorified his Father unto the Jews, a stumbling block. The Jews were looking for a Messiah to defeat Rome and unto the Greeks foolishness. The Greeks wondered how a crucified man was of any use to anyone. You see the the the wisdom of man was completely incompatible with the wisdom of God.

84. 37:08

    And so he says, But unto them which are called both Jews. And Greeks, so there are some. Jews. And there are some Greeks who’ve been called out of the world. He says unto them, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because Christ’s resurrection showed without a doubt the power of God. But it also.

85. 37:38

    Shows the wisdom of God because Christ chose God’s will and showed to us in his life, in his death, the wisdom of God. So, brothers and sisters, if if we follow the example of Christ, we’ll find that the Christ, the example of Christ will be a powerful force in our lives too. But the most people, Christ on the cross was foolishness, because the cross represents giving up our own will. And using our lives to glorify God. And so he says in verse 25, because the foolishness of God, and I bet it bit of a parentheses in here to help identify what’s happening here, he says, but the foolishness of God or what men consider to be foolish is wiser than men. And the weakness of God, that is what men consider weakness is stronger than men.

86. 38:49

    That’s the truth, isn’t it? It’s stronger, it’s wiser than anything else that we have to offer. And yet the world considers it to be foolishness.

87. 39:02

    That’s what Paul is trying to show them in verse 26. He says, For ye see your calling, brethren, how not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called the wise. Men, he’s talking here about the philosopher, the scribes, the mighty, those people that that were in authority. And the noble?

88. 39:30

    Those that were highborn, those people of high society, he says. There aren’t many people in the ecclesia who are wise or powerful by the world standards. Those aren’t the people that are called because that’s not what God is looking. For it’d be hard for, for the wise of the world to put aside man’s wisdom to humble themselves.

89. 39:57

    And if we do find these type of people in the ecclesia, what have they done? They have humbled themselves, haven’t they? And they’ve put that, that wisdom of the world aside and they’ve accepted the far greater wisdom, which is the wisdom of God. It’s it’s a wonderful situation that God has set up for us, a wonderful way. That God has shown us what He’s looking for with the cross of Christ.

90. 40:24

    In verse 27 it says, But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. So God has chosen. Hold it just one second here. God has chosen the simple like us, to put to shame the wise and the powerful. Can you think of a time in the in the Bible when there was one that was simple and yet who was able to amaze absolutely everyone with his understanding? Think of of Christ right when.

91. 41:00

    He went to the temple when he was 12 years old. His parents found him in the in the midst of the teachers of Israel, and the teachers of Israel were astonished at his understanding. God does that. So that the world can see it’s not about the glory of man, it’s about the glory of God, the verse continues.

92. 41:22

    It says, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world. God is purposely chosen people that the world sees as weak. Another one is David, David, and Goliath. David, the world saw him as weak, but he wasn’t weak, was he? Why wasn’t he weak?

93. 41:45

    He wasn’t weak because he got his strength from God, and he chose people like that to confound or to put to shame the things which are mighty. And he put to shame Goliath.

94. 41:59

    God has chosen the simple like us to put to shame the wise and the powerful. It’s, I think, a really amazing principle that in God’s plan of salvation, none of the credit goes to man. Because the glory. Of man is what we’re trying to get rid of and the glory of God is what we’re trying to reflect down in verse 28 then it says in the base things of the world and the things which are despised God hath chosen yeah and the things which are not to bring to not the things which are so he talks here about the base things of the world the word base means those which are of no account or of no fame at all so the base things of the world the things that are of no account to anyone and those things are despised.

95. 42:59

    Those are the things that God hath chosen, and the things which. Are not to bring the not to not the things that are so. God has chosen the things that the world counts as nothing. And he’s going to use those to abolish the things that the world counts as valuable. Christ and the Saints ultimately are going to get rid of the world. And the glory of man stands in the way of God’s purpose. The glory of man stands directly in opposition to this purpose. Verse 29 says that no flesh should glory in His presence. I think about the contradiction.

96. 43:47

    If flesh could glory in the presence of God, Can you imagine it would be like Nebuchadnezzar? Turn with me to Daniel chapter 4. Here’s one of the great men of human history. With great, great accomplishments. Think of God if God had chosen someone like him to be a part of His Kingdom.

97. 44:24

    Daniel chapter 4 and we’re going to go into verse 30, a little ways into the verse. Here’s the words of Nebuchadnezzar. He says, is not this great Babylon that I have built? For the house. Of the Kingdom, by the might of my power. How many times did he pat himself on the back in that sentence? And for the honor of my majesty, he says. And while the world word was in the King’s mouth. There fell a voice.

98. 44:57

    From heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, The Kingdom is departed from thee. Can you imagine Christ claiming the glory for himself on the cross? Can you imagine him instead of going through with the crucifixion? Can you imagine him coming down from the cross and saying, look, I have have decided to now be your king to the people?

99. 45:24

    Can you imagine David instead of saying I come in the name of Yahweh of hosts? Can you imagine saying to Goliath and everyone watching, saying Goliath, I’m going to take you down with my strength and my skill? You see, the cross is about crucifying. The flesh, it’s about getting rid of that. And that’s why God has chosen people that crucify the cross that have chose that choose the cross people that glorify him to be a part of his Kingdom. Now, I think it’s a good place right here to to maybe stop for just a second and and recap the problem that the brothers and sisters in Corinth were having.

100. 46:06

     So Paul goes into this, this long dissertation here about contrasting the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God, and he’s shown to us how much superior God’s wisdom is and how that in God’s wisdom, there’s no place for the wisdom of man or for the accomplishments of man. He showed that glorifying men is completely contrary to the mission that God has given us.

101. 46:32

     We’re here to glorify God and ultimately earth, the earth is going to be filled with the glory of God. He’s shown us all of this. Christ has on the cross. But there were some in the ecclesia who strayed from the mission of glorifying God. And instead they found support in the ecclesia and they found that support by their eloquence and by using man’s wisdom to to teach people and to to gain that support. What they were doing is they were no longer participating in the cross of Christ, and instead they were looking for their own glory.

102. 47:13

     They were saying Lord, Lord, but they didn’t know Christ. They didn’t know the cross and Christ didn’t know them. And because of that, the ecclesia was paralyzed and they couldn’t deal with the the. Problems. That were facing the ecclesia from the world around them.

103. 47:35

     Verse 30 says, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Here’s what God has done for us in verse 30, but of him but of God are ye in Christ Jesus. God brought us into Christ to follow his example, to participate in his sacrifice, and we’re working with him to replace man’s wisdom in our own minds and in the world.

104. 48:15

     So God brought us into Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom. So we have God’s wisdom revealed to us in the Word, made flesh in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We have God’s wisdom revealed to us, and the cross gives God the glory. He showed us wisdom in Christ and he showed us righteousness. He says by being in Christ, by choosing God’s wisdom as Christ did, God makes us righteous through faith in him and sanctification.

105. 49:06

     And God makes us holy. He’s making us usable for his purpose and redemption. And God redeems us. We’re all made usable for God’s purpose and the sacrifice of Christ, and God has done all of this for us.

106. 49:31

     Why wouldn’t man’s wisdom play a part in salvation? It becomes obvious, doesn’t it? Man’s wisdom has got to be replaced, and it’s got to be replaced with God’s wisdom. And then Paul quotes Jeremiah Chapter 9. Let’s go over. To Jeremiah Chapter 9 and just look at what he says here because this sums up his argument. This sums up the discussion here very, very well. Jeremiah 9 and in verse 23 it says. Jeremiah 923 Thus at Yahweh, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, there’s no place for man’s glory. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might, there’s no place for man’s strength.

107. 50:31

     Let not the rich man glory in his riches. There’s no place for man’s riches. All of these are completely contrary to the glory of God. But he says, but let him glory him, that glorieth glory in this. So if we’re going to glory in something he says, let him glory in this that he understandeth, and he knoweth me. Let him glory in the fact that he understands God. And let him work towards that.

108. 51:08

     Let him work to understanding the wisdom of God, because it is this wisdom that God is looking for in US. And if we can develop this wisdom, if we can follow the example of Christ, then we will be glorified through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he tells us what his character is like, doesn’t he? He says that I am Yahweh, which exercised loving kindness, judgment and righteousness and the earth. It’s funny because that’s very similar to the list of the things that we’re missing in the ecclesia at Corinth. He says for these things I delight Seth, Yahweh. This is what I’m looking for in my people. This is what I’m looking for from my family. You see, everything is done by God, everything through Christ, by Christ submitting to the cross and glorifying God. We’re called to have exactly the same reward, eternal life. We’re called to the same thing, to the same mission as our Lord Jesus Christ.

109. 52:19

     He says that according as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. What an amazing conclusion in the ecclesia where the leaders were leading groups of brothers and sisters and they were doing it for their own recognition. They were doing it by their own charisma, by their own eloquence, but in doing this they were working directly against the message of the cross.

110. 52:50

     And they were looking to glorify themselves. So Paul strikes right at the core of the situation. He shows that there’s only one Lord, that only Christ has been able to conquer the flesh, and that only Christ is our leader. He shows us that we’re joining Christ in his mission. That we’re following. His example and that if we’re looking. For our own.

111. 53:17

     Recognition that that’s exactly opposite to what God is looking for from us, because that’s glorifying the flesh and not glorifying God. And all of us need to put our focus on the mission, which is the. Cross. God’s will and not our own. You know, in a lot of ways, brothers and sisters, we could stop right there and say there’s the solution to the brothers and sisters problem in the city of Corinth.

112. 53:45

     There it is. Focus on glorifying God instead of glorifying yourself. And maybe that’s the solution to the problems of of our world, of our. Ecclesiastes in 2022. If we could just get our minds focused on glorifying God and have that as our. Mission. Then we can have a place in the Kingdom to come. Thank you.