Life In The Spirit-part 13
Speaking Foolishness!
Have you ever had a friend turn around and look at you and say, “You know, I’ve been listening to you and what you believe and it is time for you to get your act together. You don’t know what you’re talking about. That stuff is absolute foolishness. It’s gonna make you crazy.” What do you do when they say something like that? Do you regress? Do you retreat? No, Beloved, you don’t. You have the mind of Christ. It’s them that has the problem.
Do you know what the problem is today? So many Christians are intimidated by the intellectualism of the world; not that Christians should not be intellectual, but what Christians, many times don’t realize is that God says that the world’s wisdom is absolute foolishness. In other words, if the world is going to leave God out of the equation, and that’s where America is right now; I mean America doesn’t want any Christian influence in politics, in the culture, in the morals, not in any part of our life. We should keep our
Christianity to ourselves. We should go off in a corner, just go in the church, do what you wanna do, lock the doors. And when you come out of the church, please don’t spew all those moral values on us. We don’t want to hear them.
That is not right. Listen, it is in our job description. But the problem is, is sometimes we cower back because we don’t understand life in the Spirit. We don’t understand what the Spirit of God gives us when we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, as Paul writes to the church at Corinth, he’s been to Corinth. He’s taken the gospel. A number of people have been saved. And you talk about needing to be saved; they needed to be saved. The Corinthians had a reputation of Corinthianizing. And Corinthianizing was a way to say hey, they are just out having sex all over the place, no restraints, no license, doesn’t matter, homosexual, heterosexual, pedophile, cross-dressers; it really doesn’t matter; that was to Corinthianize. And that term was picked up and coined to describe the morals in Corinth.
But not only were they immoral, but they were in a sense, amoral; they were without morals in their thinking, because their thinking it was like mixing up a big stew and throwing everything in the pot from all the different philosophies in the people that came through Corinth. Corinth was on an isthmus which is a narrow part of Greece and at the end of Greece is what they call the Peloponnesus.
And what would happen is when they would navigate a ship around the Peloponnesus they would have trouble navigating. It was very dangerous waters. So instead, they would dock their cargo ships. They would take the cargo off and then they would transport that cargo across that isthmus to the other side where it would be picked up by another ship there near the Aegean Sea and it would be taken to wherever it was going in the world. Well as a result, you had a lot of sailors and you had a lot of people coming in from all parts of the world. It was kind of like a New York City or a Miami Beach. I mean they were coming in from all over and they were bringing their dialects, they were bringing their wares, they were bringing their religions, they were bringing their philosophies.
I mean this is a very intellectual day and there are men and philosophers that like to sit there and discuss all of life. It’s human wisdom. So as Paul writes to the church at Corinth, he wants them to make sure that they are not enamored by the wisdom of the world. So this is what he says; 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 17: “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech …,” not with all these fancy words, not taking my words and, “… manipulating them and managing them in order to persuade …,” He says, “… that the cross of Christ should be made void.”
In other words, coming to know Christ is not a matter of the intellect; it is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of understanding that you have a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked, and you need a heart transplant. And the only way that you can get that is through the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s the only way that you can get it.
And so he says I didn’t come in cleverness of speech. I came with the message of the cross. He said, “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing, foolishness.” So if anybody looks at you and they begin to criticize your beliefs and say that’s stupid or grow up or shut your mouth, when they say that, you ought to be grieved in your heart, not because of what they said to you, but because what they said shows that they are perishing. It shows that they are going to die. If they were to die that moment, they would spend eternity, “… eternity in the lake of fire where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.” They would be ever, forever separated, not only from God, but also from man.
I’ve had people tell me when I’ve witnessed to them, listen, I’m gonna go to hell and I’m going to have fun with all my buddies. And I do say unh, unh, unh, unh, you’re gonna go to hell, but you’re not gonna to have any buddies. Oh, they’ll be there, but hell is separation. And that’s one of the things that make it hell, because God didn’t intend for us to be alone and God didn’t intend for us to be separated. God intended for us to be into the family.
So you may laugh about it and that’s what you may say, but listen, you’re wrong. You’re wrong. Oh, well, that’s your opinion. Oh, no, it’s not my opinion; it’s God’s opinion. Just recently, the guy sitting next to me on the plane, I got bumped up to first class. And I’m sitting there and I want to rest, I am tired, I’ve been speaking, but I did say to God: God, now if you want me to witness I will witness.
So this guy was really nice to me and very much a gentleman and then the conversation starts and then he says here I am trying to pick you up and you’re talking to me about Jesus. That’s right. You need Jesus. And I want to tell you my friend, if you don’t get Him; you’re going to perish. You’re going to hell. God is the God of all wisdom. But they think that they’re so smart. So watch what it says. “For the word of the cross is to those that are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved ….” we’re in the process of knowing salvation. Knowing salvation is walking by the Spirit, saved from the power of sin.
When you get saved, you’re saved from the penalty of sin. There’s no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. As you live day by day and you walk by the Spirit and you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, then what is happening is you’re saved from the power of sin. So you are being saved. He says, “… it is, the word of the cross, is to those that are perishing foolishness, but to those who are being saved …,” or in the power of coming, in the process that God is bringing them into His family, “… it is the power …,” vroom, there we go, that word again, “… it is the power of God.” It is the power of God. “For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever, I will set aside.” God is speaking.
So he says, “Where’s the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? You know sometimes, do you get just plain disgusted when you listen to the news, when you listen to them sit almost as God and sit in condemnation of the President, or sit in condemnation of some person, because like, they’re the high and mighty? Have you ever watched any of these guys interview the President of the United States? They have forgotten that they are to be respectful, and they’re not respectful.
And often times what they do is they come in and they think I’m going to be noted for the question that I ask of the President, for the hard spot that I put the President in. And it’s almost like the news media thinks that they are ruling the world and that they have it all together, that it’s the wisdom of the world and God says its foolishness. He says, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God the world, through it’s wisdom did not come to know God.”
In other words, they couldn’t figure out salvation through their own mind. “So then God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Now it’s not a foolish message, but it’s the foolishness of the message preached. In other words, it’s you mean, I just hear that and I just say I believe and I change my mind about it and, and I embrace it and I’m saved? Un huh, (sigh) seems like I need to do something.
No, Precious One, it’s not a matter of doing; it’s a matter of believing truth. So he goes on to say: For indeed, Jews ask for signs. “… Show me a sign and I’ll believe. That’s what they were constantly saying to Jesus when He was hanging on the cross. Come on down off the cross and then we’ll believe.” How do You expect us to believe? You said that You came to save others. You can’t even save Yourself. Get down off the cross.
Well, He doesn’t get down off the cross. It’s the wisdom of the world. And it says, “… the Jews asked for signs, the Greeks or the Gentiles search for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified; to the Jews, a stumbling block, to the Gentiles, (laugh) its foolishness, absolute foolishness.” I mean you just listen very, very carefully to the way that they talk about Christians, to the way that they talk about any official, any Senator or Congressman or President that is open about his faith in Jesus Christ. And they just flip it off because they think its foolishness. And you know what its showing? It’s showing that they are the fool; because it is the fool that has said in his heart there is no God. It is the fool that thinks that his mind is greater than the mind of God. Don’t be a fool. We’ll talk about it more right after this break.
I’m glad you’re back because all I want you to do is see what God says. And then you go to God and you say, God is this true? Now He will answer you if you want to know truth because that’s the business of God. The business of God is redemption; it’s redeeming us from this world, redeeming us from the kingdom of darkness and bringing us into the kingdom of light. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. And that’s what it says, the Word of Christ.
In other words, the message of Jesus Christ. Well let’s go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 because I want you to see that when people put you down because of the way you think or the way that you believe, listen, life in the Spirit says oh no, you don’t have to be put down. You need to understand what life in the Spirit gives you. So let’s look at it.
Well, he says, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men.” Now what’s the foolishness of God? Well, it’s when God was totally, absolutely at His weakest point. And when was that? It was when He was hanging on a cross. That’s when God, in the flesh, was at His weakest point.
So listen to what he says. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty men, not many noble, but God has chosen …,” and I love this. It helps me so much because I’m not naturally intelligent. But, “… God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen. The things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are.”
In other words, everything that man esteems great, wisdom and riches and power and might, God says that’s not what I’m choosing. I don’t have to go for that because it’s all found in Me, and so when I come into you, you are complete in Christ. And so being filled with the Spirit, having the Holy Spirit in you, then you lack nothing.
Well let’s look and see what he says. He says God has done this, “He has chosen the base things of the world, the things that are despised God has chosen, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.” In other words, you can’t say hey, God chose me because I am wise, because I am rich, because I am powerful. That’s why God’s chosen me. No, He hasn’t chosen you because of that. He’s chosen you simply because He desired to choose you. And it doesn’t matter what you were, what you had, what you didn’t have because of what God does for us when we experience life in the Spirit.
Listen, he says, “By His doing, you are in Christ Jesus.” The only reason that you’re saved is because God drew you to Him. He says, “… who became to us, Jesus, who became to us wisdom, ha, ha, ha, from God.” So it’s not that you’re a dumb, dumb and he leaves you a dumb, dumb. No, He gives you wisdom. “… Jesus becomes to you wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification.” Sanctification means He’s set you apart, He’s making you holy. And redemption means He buys you out of that slave market of sin, never to be sold again. “Just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast not in yourself, but boast in the Lord.”
Now this is what he’s showing these people at Corinth. This is what he wants them to understand. And He wants you to understand it too, “… so that you are able in the power of the Spirit to hold your own as you go forth sharing the Word of God.” Now let’s go to chapter 2. In chapter 2, and we’re gonna skip down to verse 9. It says, “Just as it is written, eye has not seen and ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” That’s how you understand. That’s how you know what you have. And this is so important. Do you remember when we were in John 14? Remember when Jesus said I’m going to go away, but I’m going to send you a helper...do you remember in that chapter later on He says the Helper, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, and He will lead you and guide you into all truth. And we know from John 17 that God’s word is truth. And so this is where it comes from. And so he goes on to say, “For to us God revealed them to us through the Spirit.” You want to mark the Spirit there. I’m in verse 10. “For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
Remember when we didn’t know how to pray as we ought in Romans, chapter 8. It says that, “… the Spirit helps our weakness because God, who searches the minds and hearts knows the Spirit and the Spirit and God connect.” Well, here again the Spirit of God has connected with God, is part of God and gives us the wisdom of God. “For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man which is in him?”
In other words, how can one man look at another man when a good looking woman walks by and says, don’t go there, because they know that a man is turned on by sight, you know, it’s the man’s eyes. I mean that’s where, that’s where sex begins. It’s in the eyes and in the mind for a man. And they know because they’re a man. A woman, you tell her, look, don’t dress like that. And she says well why? And he says well, what will guys think? And she says well, they’re just dirty old men. No they’re not, they’re men. But a woman can’t understand that because she doesn’t have the spirit of a man, male in her. “For who among men know the thoughts of man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God, no one knows except the Spirit of God.
Now we who have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God …,” when you get saved you have the Spirit who is from God, “… that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man…,” now listen carefully, these people that are sitting, criticizing you, rolling their eyes, looking at you and thinking you don’t know which way’s up and you need to get your intellectual act together, is a natural man. But, “… the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual …,” that’s the person who has the Spirit, “… appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.”
In other words, what’s he saying? He said don’t let unsaved people sit in judgment on your beliefs. Why? Because verse 16: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that we should instruct Him?” And this is it; it is dynamite, “But we have the mind of Christ.”
When God came inside of you and He saved you and the Holy Spirit moved in, He gave you the mind of Christ, so that you can hear the things of God, know the things of God, understand the things of God. The world can’t understand them. And because they cannot understand them, because they do not have the Spirit of God inside of them, don’t let them sit in judgment on you. They don’t know truth. All they know is the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness and which is going to perish. You say, but I don’t feel like I know much about the mind of God. Well, the problem is you’re not in the Word of God. You’re not studying it. God has given you 66 books, Beloved and He expects you to study and read them and know them. That’s a lifetime’s work. So thank you for studying with me His precepts for life
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