When Folly is Wise – Pt. 3

Would God’s people please read?
Let’s take it this morning from 20 through 31 once again. Where is the wise man? 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 through its wisdom did
not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness
of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed,
Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block,
and to Gentiles, foolishness, but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. 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, not many noble, 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 so that he may nullify
the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.
But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us
wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
so that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in
the Lord. Now, if you pardon my repeated
metaphor from weeks past, we’re delving back into this cave.
It’s a cave that the world has titled foolishness, but we have
found it to bear priceless treasure. We’ve already mined out two precious
jewels, the humiliation brought about by divine wisdom and the
power of divine wisdom. But before we handle this third
jewel from this very productive cave, I need to warn you. This
is a jewel that some people, just at the identification of
it, find offensive. That offensiveness is unintentionally
obscured by the label that I’ve given it, the proof of divine
wisdom. That’s what we find in 26 through
29, the proof of divine wisdom. But we have to acknowledge up
front that the proof about which Paul speaks here is no less than
this uncomfortable word, election, divine election. It has always surprised me that
Christians of all people are bothered by this word, by this
doctrine. In times past, I playfully said,
Everyone believes in election. Some people just describe it in such
a way that it no longer resembles the biblical doctrine. They say
that God looked through down into the annals of time and saw
those who would believe and choose him and therefore he chose them. That’s just silly. Anyone approaching
the Bible honestly would have to come away with a belief that
yes, the word is used in Scripture, whatever it means, and it does
seem to refer to some action initiated in the secret councils
of God. But again, They immediately set
about to explain it away so as to strip away all its real significance. But the idea of divine election
is thoroughly biblical and so we must submit ourselves to scripture
and at least inquire what it is that the Bible means by this
term, by this concept. The doctrine resides under two
biblical terms, predestination and election. Those words highlight
the same truth, that God in eternity past chose certain individuals
for salvation. And in time, he called them and
graced them for that purpose. This is not new activity for
the God of scripture. God is said to elect, or choose,
or predestine, or foreordain many things, or people, or beings. For instance, God is said to
choose his angels. They are elect angels. First
Timothy 5.21, among others, speaks of his chosen angels. Secondly, God chooses individuals
to service. This is divine prerogative at
work here. Moses was chosen by God. The tribe of Levi was hand-selected
by God himself. King David was of God’s choosing. The prophets were of God’s choosing
and sending. The apostles likewise. God’s
sovereign exercise of selection was a pattern established in
the Old Testament, so it is in the New Testament regarding salvation. It’s a pure act of God’s sovereignty. Thirdly, God chooses his particular
people. He chose his particular people,
Israel. Exodus 6, I will take you for my people. I will be
your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brought
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And it wasn’t,
as we need to be corrected so often, it wasn’t because God
saw in them something so wonderful, something so pleasant that I
have to have them. That corrects our arrogant thinking,
doesn’t it? God didn’t see anything in us
that was so stupendous that He purposed that He must set about
to do everything to get him or her on board. In fact, He told
the Israelites, Deuteronomy 7, the Lord did not set His love
on you or choose you because you were more in number than
any of the peoples. For you are the fewest of all
peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which
he swore to your forefathers.” God chooses angels. God chooses individuals. God
chooses nations. And so it should come as no surprise
that, fourthly, God chooses individuals to salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2, among others,
13 and 14. We should always give thanks
to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has
chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification
by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And just as with the Israelites,
it has nothing to do with us, nothing to do with our good merits
that God should choose us. One pastor put it this way, it
is neither by chance nor by our own desserts or efforts that
we and not others have been so highly favored. It has been brought
about according to the purpose and efficiency of God, Charles
Hodge. Nevertheless, people, including
a lot of Christian people don’t much care for this doctrine.
Spurgeon himself portrayed it perfectly when he said that most
people turn this doctrine into a theological football only to
give it a swift kick. That’s enough, though. I’ve warned
you. We’re going to interact with the doctrine of divine election,
and I already know that some people won’t care much for this
discussion. I just beg you to listen carefully
because this is good news. This is good news for the Christian.
This is glorious, wonderful, encouraging news. This is not
a doctrine that we need to hide in embarrassment. This is not
a teaching that we have to keep under wraps as if it is in any
way inappropriate. Well, that’s where we’re going.
Let’s head back into the cave. I want to look this morning at
the particulars of divine election. And in order to do that, before
I give you the particulars, I just want you to look at the first
portion of the sentence there in verse 26, where Paul says,
for consider your calling, brethren. This is Paul’s justification
really for his argument in the verses 22 through 25. And he basically says this, take
a look around, beginning with yourself, not at everyone’s physical
appearance. Take a look around and verify
my argument that God’s wisdom has not only exceeded worldly
wisdom, it has destroyed it by means of the people that he has
saved. He says, look around, consider
your calling. This word calling is from that
same root word that we’ve seen and met with already three times
already in this epistle. Three times, the first three
all used as an adjective. Paul speaking about his own calling
as an apostle, verse one. He uses it to refer to Christians
in Corinth to whom he’s writing, saints. by calling, by God’s
calling. He uses it again to refer to
those who believe in the message of a crucified Savior, what the
world calls foolishness, 1 Corinthians 1.24. To those who are the called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. And so he uses the noun form here in verse 26, consider
your calling. And I would have you know that
this is a command that Paul is issuing. It’s an imperative. Look, he says, consider. And he’s not urging them here
to consider their respective life callings, perhaps as an
accountant or a fireman or a plumber or a call to ministry. He urges
them to ponder the context of their call to faith in Christ. He says, look at the circumstances
of your life. Think back with regard to that
context, you’re becoming a Christian. Think about who you were prior
to Christ and how you came to know and to love Christ. And
so Paul isn’t dealing rigidly here with the effectual call,
he’s dealing with the whole person in the midst of that work of
salvation. Paul is going to take them through
an inventory of their lives. But he wants first to take them
back to that moment. To that season of their salvation. And so I think he says to us.
Take a moment. Take a moment to think about
it. To remember who you were. To remember what you were like.
What were your affections? What were your inclinations?
Remember that which you were pursuing. Remember by what means
you came to hear of Christ. Remember the amazing, miraculous
process by which God began to work in your lives. And given the context. that Paul
is detailing God’s rebuke for of man’s wisdom. He effectively
says here that this rebuke was not a general rebuke. It was
very specific. Down to the very persons he chose
to save, it was a rebuke to the world. The salvation of people,
particular people, was a rebuke to the wisdom of the world because
God did not cherry pick. God did not cherry pick the best
and the brightest, the most popular, the most beautiful, those of
power and influence. No, instead, his salvation did
not fit the world’s mold at all, did it? And now that Paul has them in
the palm of his hand, now that Paul has us back in that season
leading up to our repentance, He wishes to detail God’s track
record in the salvation of sinners. What was their demographic? Did
it fit the world’s predictable pattern? No. Look first at the denied of God’s
election. Those whom God did not choose. does not choose for salvation.
We find them in the remainder of this verse, verse 26. For
consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise
according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. There
is just no other way to understand this verse except that these
indicate the types of people whom God does not generally choose
for salvation. Paul has asked his readers, including
us, to recall the context of their salvation, and he will
proceed to articulate the types of individuals whom God did choose
for salvation. But there’s no other way to take
this verse than that these are those who are denied God’s election
to salvation. And I would have you note this,
that this rejection by God is not absolute. It’s not that every
wise man or man pursuing wisdom is set aside. Not every mighty
man is left behind. Not every noble man is disregarded
by God. Look at verse 26, if you would.
Paul says, not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble. But he doesn’t say not any. A woman named Selina Hastings bore
the official royal title of Countess of Huntington. Sounds impressive,
doesn’t it? She was of royal blood and had
a royal title. But in time, she actually came
to Christ. She became a believer. And sometime
later, she says that I owe my salvation to the letter M. Harkening
back to this very verse, not many noble. Generally speaking, though, these are not those who come
to salvation. These are not those generally
whom God chooses. And so let’s ponder these three
types of individuals. And the first thing that I would
have you observe is that these sentences are elliptical. If you’re not familiar with that
sentence structure, that’s okay, I can get you there in no time,
watch this. An elliptical sentence is one that provides parts of
a completed sentence and allows your mind to fill in the rest,
words or clauses or phrases. They are assumed to be equally
applicable in the remainder of the passage. Glance down if you
would. at verse 26, when he says that
there were not many wise according to the flesh, you can supply
those on those other two phrases. There were not many mighty according
to the flesh. There were not many noble according
to the flesh. And so the parts supplied there
provide a complete understanding of that passage. Paul here points
out the nature of those people, in their social position overall,
in the character who, again, are generally not called into
God’s kingdom. In fact, you know this. Jesus
cites this principle as almost proverbial in the Gospels, that
it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. It’s not impossible,
but it’s very rare. Consider the common elements
of these three statements. First, the repeating element,
there were not many. There were not many wise, not
many noble, not many mighty. Of course, there were exceptions
to that general statement. There were a few, but not many
who were wise or powerful or noble and saved. And the second
recurring element, which admittedly is supplied there in the second
and third statements, is the phrase according to the flesh. They were wise and mighty and
noble according to the flesh. And Paul here is just pointing
out that their benefits, whatever these benefits were for these
particular characteristics, were only according to the flesh.
They were wise, humanly speaking, powerful, noble, humanly speaking. And so when Paul speaks of these
things, he’s not talking about earthly wisdom. Pardon me, he
is talking about earthly wisdom, not spiritual wisdom. He’s talking
about earthly power, not spiritual power. Earthly nobility, not
spiritual nobility. The verse that is almost certainly
in Paul’s mind, which he quotes in part at the very end of this
section, verse 31. That verse is Jeremiah 9, 23.
You know it. Some of you probably know it
by heart. There are a number of verbal parallels that make
it almost certain that Paul at least had this in his mind as
he’s writing. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24, thus says
the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not
the mighty man boast of his might, nor let a rich man boast of his
riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands
and knows me. So let’s look at these three
types of individuals. There were not many wise according
to the flesh. There are a few, very few of
these kinds of people, Paul says, who ever come to Christ. Because
for all their so-called wisdom, they never acknowledge their
sin and their need of atonement for it. Sinful men cannot reason
themselves to God by their earthly wisdom. We’ve established that
point. There were not many mighty, according
to the flesh. This refers to the ones in power. They’re the ones with authority.
They are the powerful, influential people. These are the people
that are seen as insiders. They’re in the know. They’re
in control, in power. They’re the movers and shakers
of society. They know people. They get things
done. They make things happen. Well,
everything that is except their own salvation, regardless of
how mighty they are, they cannot affect their own salvation or
anyone else’s for that matter. But it doesn’t say any. There
were some who were saved that had a relative measure of earthly
power and authority. Erastus was one of them. Paul
records in Romans 16.23 that he was the city treasurer, whatever
kind of power you might have there. And then there’s the royal official.
Remember in John 4, we don’t even know his title. He was a
royal official and his son was sick. Sick unto death he feared
and he pleaded with Christ And when Christ healed him, he believed
with his whole household. Crispus, you remember him, Crispus
was the leader of the synagogue. And in God’s good providence,
got himself saved. There were not many, mighty,
not many. And there were not many noble. The word here in
the Greek is literally well-born. These are those who are aristocrats. They are better, superior. By nature, they believe in their
own minds than other people. They’re called bluebloods, royalty,
nobility. They are those of rank and station. And this nobility often leads
to power and wealth and occasionally even earthly wisdom. but it does not lead to salvation.
And still there were exceptions. Well, these are those denied
by God’s choosing, God’s sovereign election. Who then are the saved? Who are those favored by his
choice? We find them in the remainder
of verse 27 and 28, where three times God says that He has chosen. And here we come face to face
with that word that gives so many people such trouble, election,
or as it is translated here, choose or chosen. And he uses
it here three times in rapid succession, making this no random
matter. It’s not a matter of chance.
God deliberately made a choice of these things as opposed to
those things which he rejected. God has chosen the foolish things,
the weak things, the base, the despised things, and then the
overarching category, the things that are not. God has chosen
those. Well, we’ve already reviewed
that election is God’s exercised choice of individuals for salvation,
but he carefully applies that here to three types of people. just as he did with God’s rejection
of types of individuals. Look at the first. God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And you already
know this is an echo really of Paul’s entire argument from verse
18. Verse 18 says, speaks of the
foolishness of the cross. Verse 21, the foolishness of
the message preached. Verse 23, Christ crucified his
foolishness. What the world deemed as foolishness,
God chose for the purpose of putting to shame the so-called
wise men of the world. But it includes as well. Those
who believed in the crucified Christ, they too are considered
fools and foolish. In order to shame those who sought
their own brand of wisdom, God sent forth a message that they
deemed as foolish, that some who were also deemed as foolish
believed, and yet in their salvation shamed the world. There’s a second
class of people whom God chooses. God has not only chosen the foolish
things of the world, God has chosen the weak things of the
world to shame the things which are strong. God has also set his love upon
those who are weak from a human, earthly, worldly perspective. The word, pardon me, the world
trusts in themselves. They trust in their wealth. They
trust in their influence, in their status, in their position,
in their weaponry, in their connections, in their creativity. And yet
God overwhelmed and conquered their worldly strength. It was
nothing before him. He died, pardon me, he did so
by a savior that they believed was weak. God did so by saving
people who were believed to be weak. And in so doing, God shamed
the very ones who were proud in their own might. Their pride
brought this shame upon themselves. This is a prominently echoed
exhortation in scripture, you know it. Luke records that Jesus
twice uttered this simple warning. Luke 14, remember it, everyone
who exalts himself will himself be humbled. And
he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 14.11, Luke 18.14,
Matthew actually records a third and has to be a separate such
warning. And likewise, both James and
Peter cite this principle, as you know, this truly then is
an important life principle that pride elicits a shaming, a humbling
by God himself. While quiet humility reaps his
favor. And just as Paul has learned
himself when we are weak. When we are at the end of our
own resources, when we come to lean on God for our strength,
then we really come to know. Then we really are strong. There’s yet another class of
people whom God chooses. We find them in verse 28, the
base things of the world and the despised God has chosen. Paul here counters the pride
of the world in their nobility. It’s not as if there is any validity
to the argument, or even at the opposite end of
the spectrum, low birth. But some are completely convinced
that they are inherently better than others. And because of this,
they despise the lowly. That second word, despised, means
to be treated with contempt, hated without cause, disrespected
and treated as if you were nothing. And I trust that we’re ready,
little church, because we’re there. Like never before in my
lifetime. Christianity is now at a low
point in the world’s eyes, especially here in elitist America. The world hates almost everything
for which we stand, including God. But these are those who
are favored by God, chosen Instead of the royalty of the world,
those who actually believe that they are of a better stock than
other people, God sets his love on the lowly people of the world
who know that they are less than nothing. God is not impressed or inclined
or obligated in any way to those with a high opinion of themselves.
God is God is not impressed with family lineage, great wealth,
high position. It means nothing to him. The objects of God’s affection
have no dignified family tree. They have no birthright. They
have no glorious heritage of which to boast. They don’t have
to be convinced that they are sinners. They know that it is
inherently so. And not only dying daily by degree,
but they know that they are infinitely separated from God without Christ. It is these who know that they
desperately need a physician in whom God begins his great
work. God takes those the world believes
to be inferior. This too is utterly shaming.
to the proud. And then Paul adds almost a capstone
to that whole grouping. And he mentions the things that
are not. We might think of this as Paul’s
catch-all, a summary characteristic. And we’re at the bottom of the
barrel here. He began with foolishness, then weak, then base, then despised,
and in case he missed a single degrading epithet, he calls out
the things that are not. These are those who are overlooked
to the point of being non-existent in society. Compared to the rest
of the crowd, these are considered is practically non-existent in
society. They’re disregarded, ignored,
treated as if they weren’t even there. Do you know that only 100 years
after its founding, the church was mocked as being the religion
of commoners? No nothings. The powerless. Well, this too was Christ, wasn’t
it? Jesus was not only deemed to be foolish and weak and base
and despised, he was treated as nothing. And so the lowly
Christians of this world, so utterly disregarded by the world
and its system, find empathy, an example, and a strong advocate
in their Savior. Jesus reminded his troubled readers
by asking this simple question recorded in James, listen, my
beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised
to those who love him? And so we might even wonder,
we’re thankful, but we might step back and wonder why God
would choose the weak. and the foolish and the base
and the despised. Paul gives us the purposes of
God, the purposes of God’s election in closing. And so we see not
only the denied of God’s election and the favored of God’s election,
but the purposes of God’s election there in verse 28 and 29. What
are God’s purposes? What are God’s reasons for choosing
so lowly a people? God wants to destroy human pride
so that all cause for boasting is eliminated. When Paul speaks
here of the things that are, there at the end of verse 28,
he, of course, is balancing the hateful opinion of the world
towards others. They think that they are. The things that are can perhaps
be better understood as the things that think they are. They really
believe that they are it. Whether their pride has mounted
from their status or their power or any other self elevating cause. And God’s great purpose is to
lay them low. to nullify them in their pride.
This is a word, nullify, that is almost exclusive to Paul in
the New Testament. It takes on various shades of
meaning from, as it’s translated here, to nullify, to abolish,
to render powerless, to fade away, to do away with. God will,
in his might, exalt the weak and nullify the proud. However
much they believe that they are smug and secure in their arrogance
in this life, God will lay them low and make them as next to
nothing. It is the worst kind of foolishness
to attempt to rob God of his glory, and he will defend his
own honor. Anyone who believes that they
have cause to boast will be dishonored. As Paul put it to the Romans
in chapter five, in his epistle to them, the only boast that
a Christian should make is the hope of the glory of God. Boast
in our tribulations and boast in our God. One kind pastor said it this
way, the design of God and thus dealing with men Calling the
ignorant rather than the wise, the lowly instead of the great,
is that no man should boast before him. No one can stand in his
sight and attribute his conversion or salvation to his own wisdom,
birth, or station, or to anything else by which he is favorably
distinguished from his fellow men. This is a humbling passage. You
had nothing to do with God saving you. It had everything to do with
God’s divine election. And in rebuking the wisdom of
the world and the arrogance of men, humble yourself before Almighty
God in prayer, would you? Our merciful God, We do humble
ourselves and we thank you for this sobering passage that has
eternity in view, both eternity past and eternity future. And
we humble ourselves before you expressing profound gratitude that you had mercy on us. Lord, we thank you for our savior,
the Christ of the cross, Because to us, while it may be foolishness
to the world, it is the very power of God to salvation. And
we rejoice in that. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.