Why the Cross Is Foolishness to the World — 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, let's go right back where we left off in our last program. That would be in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll come back at verse 17 for just a moment and then hopefully move ahead from there. Again, we'd like to remind our audience of the videos that are available. The videos have been transcribed into the little booklets. And you call us on the 800 number or write to us and we'll give you the information for getting them. My, those little books are catching on. We had a tremendous experience the other day. A young lady says she tries to go to a home where there's a relatively young housewife. And she knocks on the door and she says, I shake like a leaf. She said, I'm scared to death. But she said, when someone comes to the door, I just introduce myself, tell them who I am, and then I'm not associated with anyone. But she said, if they want to check me out, they can call my local church and talk to the pastor so they know that I'm all for real. And she said, I just hand them your little number one book and ask them to just read it. And that I'll be back in a week. And that if they would like to just have a home Bible study with me one -on-one, I'd be glad to do that. Well, she's tried six ladies and she's got six students. And she said, it's just so thrilling. And so there's all kinds of possibilities. And I do have to be amazed that that tape one and book one has gotten the attention of a lot of people who thought they had no spiritual interest. So never, never deviate from testing all the possibilities. Try whatever you think you might be able to do to get the word across. All right, now back in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17 again, where Paul is admonishing the Corinthians to forget about their divisions concerning who they're following. But remember that the central theme for all of us, whether we're rich or poor or Jew or Gentile, black or white, makes no difference. We are all subject of God's grace, which brings us then to the gospel, not to a baptism, but to the gospel. Which he says, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now you remember when John the Baptist was commissioned to Israel, what was he commissioned to do? Well, to baptize. And so the scripture is so plain on that, that John baptized with the baptism of repentance. That was his mission. But Paul refutes that now and he says, God didn't send me to baptize, but instead to preach the gospel. And then the next part of that verse, which I did not cover in the last program, that's why I came back to it now for a moment, is he said, not with the wisdom of words. See, you can talk yourself blue in the face. That's not going to get anybody. I can talk myself until I'm blue in the face. That's not going to get anybody. But it's when the Holy Spirit opens the heart. You remember I so often go back to Paul when he first met Lydia up there in Philippi. And again, I think that's back in probably Acts 16 or 17. And you remember that the scripture makes it so plain that the Lord opened Lydia's heart, so that she attended to the things spoken of by Paul. All right, this is what he's saying right here. He didn't come with the wisdom of human mentality. He did not come with intellectual degrees behind his name. He came with the simplicity of the gospel into this pagan, ungodly city. And it was the gospel, you see, that transformed those Corinthian people. All right, so he didn't come with the wisdom of words or high intellectualism. Now, you know that that was part and parcel of the Greek culture. And you remember Corinth was in Greek. Corinth is just about, what, 30, 40 miles from Athens? It was a Greek culture. And the Greeks were all hung up on philosophy. You remember when Paul confronted them on Mars Hill, what he ran into that all those philosophers did day in and day out was to dream up some new thing that they could philosophize? But Paul says, I didn't come with a philosophy. I didn't come with some new thing. I came with the gospel, which is the cross of Christ. Now, verse 18 is one of those choice verses that is so appropriate for today. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Now, do you see what that says? To the lost world all around us. And again, I go back to the hustle and bustle of the freeways and the highways. To that lost mass of hustling and bustling humanity, the cross of Christ is so much foolishness. Remember, I've used the example so often. A gentleman, he used to be on the program until he realized that we were getting enough numbers from the Tulsa area. He no longer drives all the way up here. But he'll know who I'm talking about. And I'll never forget, he came to my place one evening. And I always like to use the illustration. I'd been baling hay all day, and it was late at night, about 10 o'clock. And I came home from the hay field, and there he is waiting for me. And so I took him into the kitchen, and we put on a pot of coffee. And the first thing I asked him, I said, Well, where are you coming from? What's on your mind? And I'll never forget. And I wish to God that more people would ask the same question. He says, Who in the world is Jesus Christ? A good question. A good question. Because, see, that gave me the wide-open opportunity to not only tell him who Christ was, but to show him from the Scripture all that had been accomplished because of who he was. A lady told me just the other night, and this just shakes us to our toenails. She said, Les, I was in church all my life. And she said, Until I came to your class, she said, I never knew why Christ died. Now think about that. She's not alone. We've got millions out there sitting in the pews. They have a mental comprehension that, Yes, Jesus of the Bible was crucified. Well, yeah, I can go along that my creed says that he was raised from the dead. But they really don't know why. They have no affinity to the fact that when he died, he died for them. And that's what this lady said. And when she said, I suddenly realized that he died for me, that made all the difference in the world. Of course it does. And so that's the preaching of the cross. And the world out there wants nothing to do with it. It's foolishness to them. That somebody died 2,000 years ago? My land, thousands and thousands of people were crucified by the Romans. That wasn't a singular event. But it was a singular individual whose crucifixion did make a difference, has impacted the world ever since. And so, verse 18 again, the preaching of the cross. Most people don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole anymore. They'd rather help people over their problems. They'd rather help people to have a better family life. They try to spend all their time bringing husbands and wives into a better and a closer relationship. Well, that's all well and good as far as it goes, but that's not the preaching of the cross. And when you preach the cross, then all these other things fall in place. Yeah, got head nodding all over. Absolutely, that's what makes the difference. All right, verse 19 now then. For it is written, I, now this is Old Testament when it says it is written. And so the Old Testament says, speaking from God's own basis, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Now, of course, that's looking toward the end time when Christ is going to return and He's going to set everything straight. And it won't be based upon the intellectuals. It's not going to be based upon academia. It's not going to be based on scientific achievement. It's going to be based on His absolute righteous rule. And so all these things will come to their end. And then verse 20, see, He's smacking these Greek philosophers right head on. Where is the wise, see? Where is this philosophical wise man? What's he got to stand on? Nothing. Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Oh, now let's go back to Romans a minute. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, verse 21 and 22. Romans chapter 1, verses 21 and 22. Now, of course, I think Paul is reflecting all the way back to the Tower of Babel when all of the false religions of this world began, when all the pagan idolatry began and the mythologies began. And so he says in verse 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. Now you got the picture? What are they beginning to do? They're beginning to philosophize, see? They're beginning to generate thoughts, higher thinking. And they were not thankful, but became vain, and their foolish heart was darkened. And verse 22 is the verse I had in mind. Professing themselves to be wise, they became what? Fools in God's eyes, see? I have no right to call them a fool. I have to admire their accomplishments, but God does. And so he says when they begin to elevate all of their philosophies and their thinking and everything that we know that these type of people do, he said it's just so much foolishness. They become fools. All right, come back then to 1 Corinthians. Verse 21. Oh, this is a good one too. See, this is why I'm taking these verse by verse. I won't all the way through Corinthians. I'm going to skim now and then. But these first verses are just too good to pass off. Verse 21. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom. In other words, I'd like to put in the pronoun i-t-s. The world by its wisdom, see? Knew not God. Now look at most university. I said most, not all. Look at most university professors today. They teach evolution. And when you can teach and believe evolution, then you see you force God out of everything. That's the pitfall of evolution. If evolution is true, then there's no need for a creator. There's no need for God. There's no one to account to. And of course, that's the basis of most of our problems. But this is exactly what they have done, see? They have by their own thinking brought about all of these so-called theories that leaves God out of the picture. And so he says by the world's wisdom, naturally it knew not God. They've pushed God out. Evolution and secular humanism has no room for God. And that's the core of our problem. All right? But it pleased God instead of bringing out a bunch of philosophers and high thinkers and people with a real high IQ to bring all this together, God brings about something as foolish as what? Preaching. But what kind of preaching? The preaching of the cross, see? Read it again. For after in the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom knew not God. It pushed him out of their existence. But it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. And remember what Paul is talking about when he says preaching. He's going back to verse 18, the preaching of the cross. But it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that earn their degrees. No way. To save them that what? Repent and are baptized? He doesn't say that. But to them that what, Larry? Believe, see? And don't ever accuse me of just teaching an easy believism. I've already given you an example. This lady sat in her church all her life and no doubt believed what she was hearing. But she never believed that Christ died for her, the person, until she heard us teach it. And the same way with, I think, many that are coming under our teaching. They're suddenly realizing that it's an act of God that opens the understanding that the one who died 2,000 years ago was the answer to the sin problem. He is the one who can impart eternal life. And that's what he's talking about here. That through the foolishness of preaching, the preaching of the cross, preaching the gospel, that it will literally transform those who believe. Nothing else. Faith plus nothing. Now verse 22. For the Jews, he says, require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Now here you basically have the two major categories of the human race, isn't it? Jew and Gentile. We've got them all covered. Now then, he says, the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, I guess I should go into the next verse and then we'll come back. But, now most of you know what that word means. The flip side. The flip side. Even up in Minnesota, they know that now. That the B-U-T in Scripture is the flip side. Yes, Jews and Gentiles have their quirks. The Jews want signs. The Gentiles say, give me highly educated philosophers. But, Paul says, we don't pay attention to either one of those. We preach Christ. Oh, not the Jesus of Nazareth walking the highways of Palestine. Not the Jesus who's walking on the water. Not the Jesus who fed the 5,000. Not the Jesus who raised Lazarus. But the Jesus who was what? Crucified. And that's where it all begins. For us today, this is where it all begins. That this Jesus, yes, the same one who walked the streets and highways of Palestine. The one who performed the miracles. The one who had power over nature and life and death. Absolutely, it's the same one. But, it's by virtue of his having gone to the cross and being raised from the dead that now we come into the picture. And so, he says, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block. Oh, indeed, he was. Because they were still looking for more signs. You know, that almost makes me smile and it should make you smile. How many more signs did they need? Didn't he give them all kinds of them? Sure, he did. Sign after sign and miracle after miracle. And still, they couldn't believe. All right, and the Greeks? What do they want? It's foolishness to them. You remember what they called Paul on Mars Hill? What did they call him? A babbler. A babbler. Now, imagine. Here comes this man that had already seen multitudes saved out of Hagan idolatry. Had established these little churches all throughout Asia Minor. Now, coming down the coast of Greece and he comes to Athens. And by now, I'm sure the man is just pumped up and he's primed with the power of God. And I think Paul spoke at Athens probably as strongly as any place he'd ever been. And those stupid philosophers called him a babbler. You get the picture? You get the picture? They call him a babbler. But, now come back up to verse 22. Why does he make this kind of a statement? Well, like I said earlier. We know that since there were those who were adhering to Peter here in Corinth, there must have been a Jewish element. Now, you go all the way back to the onset of God's dealing with the nation of Israel. How does he always prove to those people that he is in whatever is taking place? Signs. Absolutely. And I'm always reminding people. I have to do it on the phone almost every day. When Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh, and in order to get his attention, what did they do? Hey, they threw the shepherd's rod on the ground and what happened? It became a serpent. You all know the account. But, here's where we have to wake up and be careful. What did Pharaoh's magicians do? Same thing. And through the power of Satan, their shepherd's rods became serpents. But the comforting thing is what happened next. The serpent that Moses and Aaron had gobbled up all the others, showing that God was still supreme. But all right, now all you have to do is just follow Israel throughout all her hundreds of years of history. Over and over, God did the supernatural. The one that comes to mind first, you remember Elijah up there on Mount Carmel? And he was confronting the prophets of Baal, and Israel was at a crossroads. And so he puts up the altar, lays out the sacrifices, instructs them to carry water up, no doubt from the Mediterranean, that's where Carmel is. And so they soaked the sacrifices, they filled the little ditch around the altar, and the prophets of Baal yelled and screamed and Paul taunted them, you know, and he said, well maybe they're sleeping. Yell a little louder, you know the account. And then what did Elijah do? Oh, he called down fire from heaven and it licked up the water, and it licked up the sacrifices. What was it? Supernatural. In that instance, Israel had an awakening. But over and over, God performed signs and miracles for the benefit of the Jew. And then when he came in his earthly ministry, that was the sole reason for his performing the signs and miracles over and over, to convince Israel of who he was. All right, now Paul is bringing that into the New Testament account for us to understand that the Jew mentality was still show me a sign, and maybe I'll believe. The Greeks, on the other hand, they're not hung up on signs, they're hung up on intellectual philosophy. And Paul says, I don't adhere to either one of them. I'm not going to come showing signs and wonders and miracles. I'm not going to come here and philosophize, but I'm going to preach Christ crucified. See how simple it is? And that's all it takes. That's all it takes. Again, just the other night, we just taught simply like I usually do. Didn't make an invitation, didn't even stress the gospel per se. But after we got home that night, we find out that a young lady was saved. And you know, it's not me, but that's the way God works, see? I don't like to give too many stories in this program, you know I don't. But I always have to think of a little anecdote I read years and years ago. These people had an elderly grandfather and father who was so belligerent towards the things spiritual and oh, they could never get him to go to church and he wouldn't listen to anybody witness to him. But finally, one day, he was getting way up in the 90s and they knew that he wasn't going to live too much longer, but they got him to go to church and lo and behold, the preacher preached on the genealogies back in the Old Testament. So and so was born of so and so and he died. So and so was begotten of so and so and he died. You know those. And so and so was begotten by so and so and he died. And all the while they're sitting there, why of all days doesn't our pastor preach salvation instead of Old Testament genealogy? Well, you can understand that. But you know, after they took the old man home the next day, what do you suppose got to him? And he died. And he died. And he died. And then it hit him. He was about to. And so the old fellow asked for the plan of salvation. So you see, we never know what God will use. Something that we would never dream of. But Paul is saying that at the basis of it all is preaching Christ crucified. Alright, verse 24 now. But unto them who are called, now the called of scripture, the elect, the saints, the believers, they're all one and the same, at least in my book. And so here the believers, the called, whether they be Jew or Greek, there's another reason I think we had Jews in the Corinthian church. Jews and Greeks. Christ, the power of God and the what? The wisdom of God. Now, one commentator that I read some time ago on Corinthians said that the main theme of 1 Corinthians is wisdom. The wisdom of God set apart from the wisdom of men. And I can agree to that certain part, especially we get into chapter 2, where Paul stresses that it doesn't matter how much earthly wisdom we have, it's only the wisdom from God that makes us something that God can use. And there's no doubt about it. Alright? Verse 25. Why? Because the foolishness of God. Foolishness of God? In whose eyes? In man's eyes. See? In man's eyes God is being foolish. How can we say that? Well, man thinks God's foolish when he says he can save a person from the most utter, gutter type existence. And can make him a saint. Well, that's foolishness to mankind. But, what does the Scripture say? That foolishness is still wiser than the greatest philosopher. That foolishness is still wiser than the greatest educator. Alright? And the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now we know God isn't actually weak, is he? But some of the ways he does things, the world would call, that's weakness, see? And I imagine it's based on the fact that even in the Old Testament and even in Christ's earthly ministry that if someone misuses you and he strikes you on the cheek, what do you do? Turn the other cheek. Well, that's weakness in the eyes of men. But, in God's way of doing things, that's stronger than men. Alright, now then I guess we've got a couple minutes left. Let's go on down to verse 26 and 27. For he says, you see, your calling, brethren. Now remember, these Corinthians are carnal. They've got a lot of problems. But he says they're brethren and they had a calling. Every believer has a calling. Doesn't mean you have to be a preacher or a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist or a missionary. But there's something that God wants you to do. He has a plan for your life. And I think it's up to each one of us to seek it out. To find it out. And know that God does have something for every one of us. Alright, but now here's the amazing thing. Out of all the multitudes that have been on the planet and are even on today, God doesn't use the ones that we think he should use. Isn't that amazing? Because he says not many wise men after the flesh are called. Ever stop to think about that? How many intellectual, highly educated, highly polished, what we would call really apt and appropriate for proclaiming the gospel. How many are? Very few. If any. If any. Because God doesn't use those kind of people. God can only use that which in the eyes of the world is nothing. Now in the little bit of time we have left, I'm going to take you back to Moses as a prime example. Here Moses had become second man in Egypt, which in those days was the greatest nation in the then known world. Second unto the Pharaoh had all the power and the authority, I think, over the armies, over civilian operations, road building, bridges. Moses was in charge of it all. And Moses thought he could go and lead the children of Israel out. What happened? God had to send him where? To the back side of a desert to be a smelly what? Sheep herder. And sheep in the eyes of an Egyptian was an abomination, see? And yet it was into that place of abomination that God had to put this servant to bring him from his lofty position and bring him down to nothing more than a lowly sheep herder who probably had lost all the skills of communication. He saw no one for the most part. And out of that circumstance of being a nobody, now God says, go to Pharaoh. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. A weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. 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