The Wisdom of Our Foolish Gospel: Voddie Baucham (Transcript)

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Then he comes back to that issue again in chapter 3 verses 1 to 23, dealing with divisions in the church.

In the middle of that, in 1st Corinthians 1:18 through 2:16, he talks about the proclamation of the crucified Christ. Framed between this discussion about divisions in the church. And divisions among Christians often come down to two issues. Number one, the people whom we like. So we divide according to who we like. “I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas. I am of Paul.” I like this person. I follow this person. I align with this person.

The World’s Approval

But sometimes we divide, not necessarily over who we like, but over who we think makes the world like us. This is why we just get so out of sorts if we find out that some famous actor or musician or athlete is a Christian. Have you heard that so-and-so is a believer? Wow, it’s as though we think that the people who don’t like God will find out that whatever famous actor or athlete or musician is a Christian and we will come to them and we will say, “Really? You like that? You like how you did that? You like how she did that? Christian.”

And they’ll say, “Wait a minute. I take back every negative thing I’ve ever said about Jesus because…” No, it doesn’t work that way. If anything, they’ll take away being a fan of that person.

The Power of the Gospel

Rather than change what they believe about God. We want to be liked, sometimes to a fault. But the frame around this discussion looks like this.

In 1:17 Paul says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” In other words, he says he was careful, even with the way that he presented the gospel, because he did not want the way he presented the gospel to interfere with the power of the cross.

And at the end of the frame, in 3:18, we read, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.”

“For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness.’ And again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours, and you’re Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

The Christian’s Priority

You see, the point is not that we don’t want to be liked. The point is that as followers of Christ, there is something that we value more. There is something that we desire more, not to the extent that we become sociopaths, but to the extent that we are willing to endure the displeasure and disappointment of men.

Because of that something that is more important. That something that is more significant, that something that is more weighty for us. And that something is the wisdom of our foolish gospel.

Join me in looking at our text today. First Corinthians chapter one, beginning at verse 18. First Corinthians one. Beginning at verse 18.

The Wisdom of Our Foolish Gospel

It reads, “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.”

The Gospel’s Exclusivity

The wisdom of our foolish gospel. Those of us who represent the gospel, those of us who believe the gospel, those of us who proclaim the gospel are very familiar with the fact that the world at large, that the vast majority of humanity believes that the gospel is foolishness. But maybe they’ll pat us on the head and they’ll say how cute it is that we are such faithful people.

But beyond that, they think that what we believe is sheer nonsense. And to them, that is exactly what it is. Why is it? Well, first of all, because the wisdom of the gospel is not equally available to all. Let me say that again. The wisdom of the gospel is not equally available to all.

Now, that’s one of those statements that makes people think that I don’t want to be liked. Because it is rather offensive, is it not, to say that the wisdom of the gospel is not equally available to all, especially when I claim to know and understand the wisdom of the gospel.

Understanding the Gospel’s Wisdom

It’s almost like I’m saying that I believe I’m better than other people, but that’s because you don’t understand the wisdom of the gospel. If you understood the wisdom of the gospel, you would know I’m saying nothing of the sort. But the fact of the matter is, the wisdom of the gospel is not equally available to all.

Look at 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.” Two groups of people here, those who are perishing and us who are being saved.

To those who are perishing, the gospel is folly. To us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It is not equally available to all. There are two groups in this passage. At one point, Paul talks about those who are perishing and us who are being saved. At another point, he talks about Jews and Gentiles or Jews and Greeks.

The Divine Selection

But essentially, what he’s referring to is two groups of people. One group of people that understand the gospel and view the gospel as the power of God, and another group of people who don’t understand the gospel and because of that, view the gospel as folly. There’s something at work here.

And it’s not what we think it is. It’s not demographic. It’s not about socioeconomics. It’s not about ethnicity or race. It’s not about nationality. It’s not about education. There is no chart or graph that we could come up with to explain the distinction or the difference between people who believe the gospel and see it as the power of God and those who see the gospel as folly because God calls people from every nation and tribe and kindred and tongue, from every walk of life. And because of that, we can’t say that everyone, if they would do X, that everyone, if they had this level of intelligence, that everyone, if they had this level of desire, that everyone, if they had this level of education. No, it is not equally accessible to all.

The Fairness of God’s Grace

And for those of you who are thinking it, let me go ahead and expose the elephant in the room. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. The Bible doesn’t claim that it is fair. Fair would be that all of us die and go to hell. Amen? That would be fair. So no, it’s not fair that God saves people at all. That’s not fairness. That’s mercy.

Trust me. You don’t want God to deal with you on the basis of what’s fair. If God deals with you on the basis of what’s fair, there are things you thought, said, and did on yesterday for what you should have been put to death in your sleep last night. It’s not fair that you stole that last breath from God. I would say you borrowed it, but you’re never going to give it back.

The Supernatural Work of God

So no, it’s not fair. But this is not about fairness. Listen to this in John chapter 12, verse 36 to 40.

“While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus said these things, He departed and hid Himself from them. Though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe Him so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” That phrase is key.

To whom has it been revealed? Not who was smart enough to figure it out, but to whom has it been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe for again, Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.”

The Divine Revelation

This something that is at work is actually supernatural. It is the supernatural work of God that opens blind eyes. It is nothing that is found in us. Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 3, very famous and familiar passage. “You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.”

Dead in our sin. Children of wrath, know the wisdom of our foolish gospel is not equally available to all. One of the reasons it’s not equally available to all is because the wisdom of our gospel is not accessed by human effort.

God’s Sovereignty in Salvation

It’s not accessed by human effort. Look at verses 19 and 20. “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning, I will thwart.'” Just pause there for a moment.

And note the difference between this picture and the way we like to present God in relationship to sinners. The way we like to present God in relationship to sinners is as though, you know, if God were watching this service right now, that God would be there just hoping and pining. And there are people here who perhaps are not Christians and that God is there and He’s just, you know, just hoping that, you know, maybe today, maybe today, maybe one more, maybe, oh, just, oh my, me, maybe just.

Look at the text again. “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?”

God will make Himself known on His own terms. God is not available to those who are intelligent enough to find God. God is not available to those who are of the right status to find God. God is not available to those who are of the right nationality to find God. That is not the way it works. No man earns his way to God, which is why there is absolutely no boasting. None.

The Wisdom of God vs. Human Wisdom

Paul is citing Isaiah 29 here. Listen to Isaiah 29:13-14: “And the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their mouth 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; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.'”

Why? Because they are looking to their wisdom and their discernment and not to God Himself. They are looking to something that they can achieve in and of themselves and not becoming utterly dependent and reliant upon God. In other words, they are looking to become their own saviors and God looks upon that kind of wisdom and says, “I will thwart that. I will hide Myself from that. I will not be found by that because He is a debtor to no man.”

It is the arrogance of man that’s being thwarted here. The arrogance of men who believe that they can figure God out. The arrogance of men who have the audacity of pointing their finger at God and saying God’s not fair because God does not exist as God the way they think God ought to exist in their finite minds. And God responds to that with a holy ‘who do you think you are’?

God’s Chosen People

After this section that we’ve looked at, Paul points out something else beginning in verse 26 of 1st Corinthians 1: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 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 might boast in the presence of God.”

You didn’t figure this out. You weren’t smart enough. He will thwart your wisdom. And you know, whenever I think about this, I think about Lee Strobel‘s story in his book, “The Case for Christ,” where he talks about how his wife came to faith.

Lee Strobel’s Journey

They were both atheists. First, his wife comes to faith. God used an extraordinary event in their life where their child almost died and was saved by a nurse who was there. This nurse turned out to be a Christian. This nurse befriended Mrs. Strobel and shared the gospel with her, invited her to church. Mrs. Strobel comes to faith in Christ.

Lee Strobel is an avid atheist at this point. He is an investigative reporter with the Chicago Tribune and he loses it when his wife buys into this “Christian mythology stuff.” Goes ballistic. But eventually, on the advice of a friend and co-worker, he decides to take another route to rescue his wife from this foolishness.

The Power of Evidence

He puts on his investigative reporter hat and goes to try to debunk Christianity. He speaks to archaeologists and anthropologists and forensic pathologists and historians and theologians and linguists and all sorts of people in order to gather together information that he can present to his wife to awaken her from her stupor and get her back to the intelligent position of atheism. Until he’s overwhelmed by the tsunami of evidence.

And the tsunami of evidence didn’t save him. The tsunami of evidence just showed him that his wisdom could not thwart the wisdom of God. That he could not disprove the things that he was attempting to disprove. And Lee Strobel came to faith. Not only did he come to faith, he eventually became a pastor. He is now a theology professor. Now you hear that and you may think, well doesn’t that prove that it is actually the wisdom of men?

God’s Revelation to Man

Then why does life come through a different path? The point of this is that there is no way for men in and of themselves to find God. There are only ways that God reveals Himself to men. We don’t access the wisdom of God through our human effort. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be about human effort, amen? But not trusting in that human effort as an end in itself.

If human wisdom is insufficient, the question is what hope do we have? Well, I’m glad you asked. Verses 21 to 23. We see here that the wisdom of the gospel is really unveiled through the folly of preaching.

The Folly of Preaching

Listen to this: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom.” Let’s just pause there for a moment. Sometimes we read and don’t read. I want you to read what we read so that you can read it and not read it and don’t read.

So, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom.” In the wisdom of God, God determined that the way to God would not be through human wisdom. But which, by the way, is merciful because there are people who do not possess much human wisdom.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine if you had to have a certain IQ in order to be able to understand the gospel? A certain level of educational attainment in order to understand the gospel? You had to be, you know, from a culture that was of a certain level of wealth and status in order to be able to understand the gospel.

God’s Wisdom vs. Human Demands

But no, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. That’s what that means. “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, not through wisdom, but through the folly of what we preach. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”

Now, in order to understand what he’s saying here, he’s not talking about just their ethnicities here because when you talk about Jews and Gentiles or Jews and Greeks, you’re talking about the whole world, the Jewish world and the non-Jewish world. So all of the other peoples and all of the other ethnicities out there, the point that he’s making here is he’s talking about people who are overtly religious, who believe that they know God through their religious pursuits and people who are covertly or dishonestly religious, who believe that they don’t need to know God.

The Offensiveness of the Gospel

Think about this division of the world, think about the people who are overtly religious and how offensive the gospel is to them. We can read this another way, for Jews demand signs or overtly religious people demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but God gave neither what they wanted.

These people were saying, “Yes, we’ll believe in You if You fit this criteria” and these people are saying, “We’ll believe in You if You fit this criteria” and God is saying, “No.” In fact, not only does God refuse to give them what they demand, He actually gives them the opposite. Jews demand signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. The stumbling block, you want a sign. Instead of a sign, you get a stumbling block. And folly, you want wisdom. Instead of wisdom, you get folly. But why? Why? Why is the gospel a stumbling block to our overtly religious friends, to our friends who are people of faith?

The Gospel’s Challenge to Faith

Here’s why. Because to people of faith, whatever that faith is, whether they’re Muslims or Jews or Hindus or, but you fill in the blank. To people of faith, what the gospel says to them is, “I don’t care how pious you are, you’re wrong.” That’s a stumbling block, folks.

To people of faith who say, “I belong to the group that has access to God through our particular rituals and lifestyle,” and you say to them, “It’s nothing. It’s meaningless, it’s emptiness. Your God, in fact, is not God at all. And the one true and living God is not at all impressed with your practices.” That’s a stumbling block.

The Challenge to Secular Wisdom

And then on the other side of it, we have the people who outwardly reject religion, even though they’re incredibly religious people. I mean, the Greeks. I mean, they got a whole Greek mythology. They got gods airwhere. Not everywhere, airwhere. That’s beyond everywhere, right?

I’m a Los Angelino by birth, but I’m a Texan by choice. And so to these people who believe that they don’t need God or that God is just mythology, we come and we say, “You’re not as smart as you think you are. Repent and believe.” And they find it offensive. And they look down their noses at us.

Like the modern atheists. The new atheists are fascinating people. The reason that they’re fascinating is because the old atheists were the people who wanted to argue with us on facts and evidence and these sorts of things. The new atheists are the ones who say, “There is no God and we hate Him.”

The Challenge of Preaching the Gospel

The atheist is the one who looks down his nose at us and says, “You simple-minded people. Here we are with science on our side and you want to come to us as people who believe that your sky Father built the world and created the world in six days out of nothing. You want to bring that nonsense to me when I’m a scientific person who knows better than that. I know that the world came into being because nothing exploded.” You have your faith, I have mine.

Those are the two sides of the world that are offended by the folly of the gospel that we preach. If you understand that, you get what Paul is saying here. Second Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. This sort of crescendo in Second Timothy where Paul is giving this admonition to his protege Timothy.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

He says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Why? Why is he urging Timothy so passionately to hold on to the gospel? Next verse, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

The Challenge of False Teachers

Timothy, there’s going to come a time when people will gather at the feet of false teachers. There’s going to come a time, people ask me all the time, you know, why is it? Why is it that these heretics and false teachers have such vast ministries and such far reaches? Because the Bible’s true.

Timothy, there’s going to come a time when people are going to run to heretics and run to false teachers who are going to scratch their itching ears and in that time you must have a commitment to the gospel because if you don’t you’ll start shaving off the edges. People don’t like to hear about repentance, so you don’t talk about that. People don’t like to hear about the emptiness of their pursuits, so you don’t talk about that.

The Danger of Watering Down the Gospel

You just sort of present, you present the gospel like this, right? “How happy are you? Are you happy? You’re not happy enough. I’m incredibly happy and if you come to Jesus, you can be more happy too. Are you healthy? You’re not healthy enough. If you come to Jesus, you can be more healthy too” and so Jesus becomes a means to an end.

Does that sound familiar to anyone? Shaving off the edges of the gospel. But when the culture confronts the gospel and calls good evil and evil good, you’ll have a tendency in order to make people like you to shave off the edges of the gospel. Do we not see that?

Oh yeah, we see it. Imagine this, imagine a pastor is going to preach a sermon on adultery or drunkenness and the pastor stands up and introduces his sermon and he says, “Listen, I want you to know that God loves adulterers. Some of my closest friends are adulterers. I don’t want anybody to hear anything that I’m saying today as me saying that God somehow hates adulterers.”

You see, we chuckle, but that’s exactly how most sermons about homosexuality start off. Because we’re intimidated by the alphabet mafia, most of our sermons die the death of a thousand qualifications because we shave off the edges in order to be liked. As though there’s no middle ground between speaking the truth in love and outright hatred. We’re not speaking the truth in love, we’re speaking the truth, period, in outright hatred.

The Middle Ground

Because speaking the truth in love is that middle ground. It is what we’re called to. It is who we are. There’s a final piece of this puzzle.

The wisdom of the gospel is evident in the folly of the cross. That’s the key. It’s the cross. It’s the message of the cross. That’s the key. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, there it is, remember I told you, he’s not trying to say that this has anything to do with your ethnicity being a limiting factor. He says, “But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Christ: Power and Wisdom

Here’s what’s interesting. Those who seek signs, Christ is the power of God. Those who seek wisdom, Christ is the wisdom of God. In the gospel that we preach, because of the cross. You see, the Jew hears the cross, Paul’s audience, who is Jewish, hears the cross, and immediately their thoughts go to the fact that “cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” We believe in Messiah, we’re waiting for Messiah, but that man was hanged on a tree. He can’t be the Messiah, he’s cursed.

And to the Greeks, they’re looking for the strong man, and he can’t be the strong man that we’re looking for. He can’t be the great philosopher king that we’re looking for, because this man was crucified like a common criminal. And so to both of them, it is, Christ is not enough.

The Power of the Cross

But when you comprehend what God has done in the cross, you recognize that the exact opposite is the truth. That Christ endured the cross, despising its shame, that He died for sinners, that He bore in His body our penalty on the tree. Now you understand that He is both of those things.

Look at Romans chapter 3 with me for a moment, if you will. We’ll finish here. Romans 3, beginning at verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The Universal Need for Christ

That’s where you start. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You can’t get there from here. You owe a debt to a holy and righteous God, a debt that you cannot pay.

Verse 24, “and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation in His blood to be received by faith.” Propitiation means that He satisfies the righteous wrath of God. Only Christ. Nothing you can do. Only Christ.

The Satisfaction of God’s Wrath

At the cross, He satisfies the righteous wrath of God. This was to show God’s righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just in punishing sin and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It’s not until you get that, that it’s Christ, the power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. To the Jew, it says, yes, cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree, absolutely, and He bore your curse, which had to be borne so that God might save you and justify you. Yes, He is the suffering servant.

Christ: The God-Man

And to the Greek, you’re looking for a strong man? How about a man who overcame death, hell, and the grave? Because He’s not just a strong man, He’s the God-man. Power of God, the wisdom of God, and the difference is not human intellect.

The difference is the cross. The difference is the supernatural work of God in the heart of the sinner that allows him to see the beauty and the glory of the cross, to see that that is our only hope.

The Power of Christ’s Blood

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. So to those who are working and straining and wrestling to earn the favor of God, be still and know that He is God. Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

A Call to Repentance

To those of you who think that you’re so wise that you don’t need God, repent. Acknowledge the folly of your dependence on human wisdom and flee to Christ. To all under the sound of my voice, Christ is our only hope. Be found in Him and live.

Let’s pray.

Oh, our great God, we bow before You as a humble and grateful people, acknowledging our weakness and our frailty, acknowledging our desire to please men and our willingness oftentimes to compromise in order to achieve it. Grant by Your grace that our desire to please You would overwhelm our tendency to compromise.

Grant by Your grace that we would find our all in all in the person and work of Christ, that we might glory in the cross, though it is a stumbling block to the Jew and folly to the Greek. Grant by Your grace that we might continue to believe and proclaim the foolishness of the cross, knowing that it is our only hope and the only hope of every lost sinner.

And Father, as we bow before You, every one of us has names and faces on the forefront of our minds right now of individuals whom we plead with You to save, to open the eyes of their hearts, to bring them from darkness to light. And I thank You, Lord, that though we feel helpless and hopeless to do anything about their plight or their condition, You’ve reminded us today that there is hope, because You are our great God and the gospel is sufficient. Save sinners by the power of the cross, to the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray and ask all these things, amen.

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