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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Epistle reading, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. You may be seated.
So what is it about you or about me that makes us so cocksure of ourselves when we compare ourselves with previous generations? Hmm. As if we’re one better than our parents. That makes us twice as good as our grandparents. Three times as our great-grandparents. Is there something flawed with that kind of logic or understanding or wisdom? If it is true that history repeats itself, then we cannot be more enlightened than our parents.
So our grandparents, are they before us? Oh, there are various areas in our lives that are different than theirs because maybe we understand something now in this generation, but it does not equate that every facet of our life is definitely a cut better than our parents or grandparents and those before us. There was never, ever a golden age. That is Satan’s fallacy. There has always been sin. There has always been a Savior. The people and their faces change, but the sin remains the same. In fact, if we don’t learn certain important scriptural truths from our parents, then we are bound to repeat them and bound to damn our children and grandchildren repeating them as well.
Why did St. Paul write these words? “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher or the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” The reason that Paul wrote that is because they, 2,000 years ago, just like we today, judge ourselves always thinking that we’re different and better than our previous generation. And that’s false wisdom.
Why else would he say, “Where are those who consider themselves enlightened or wise or teachers or debaters?” Because that same question, “Who is God and who are we as His creatures?” is the question that each generation wishes to put their stamp of imprimatur upon to show that they have been more enlightened than the previous one, when all it is, is a regurgitation of someone else at some other time in history. There is nothing new under the sun. Solomon made it very clear in his book of Ecclesiastes.
False wisdom is a very sticky substance. And it is passed on through generation to generation. Our fleshly aspect of ourselves loves to have it adhere to it. It somewhat comforts us because we feel like we have understanding of the rules of this world. The rules that say… How do you know God really loves you? What is it that you point to to define that you’re beloved of God?
You pick up a book in a Christian bookstore. You read articles in Guidepost or some other not-too-strongly scriptural text, and you will find that they will point to, “because this event happened in my life, that’s how I know God loves me.” Hmm. That won’t give you confidence as you lay dying in your deathbed because death still comes no matter what happens to you in this life. Lazarus, who was miraculously raised from the dead, do you know what Lazarus had to do still? He still had to die, didn’t he? In fact, he had to die a second time. Wow, not so much fun.
Our fleshly understanding of what is wisdom and what God says is wisdom are two different things. God’s wisdom, in order for it to replace the false sticky wisdom that sticks to our flesh so well, He has to literally rip it apart from us. And none of us like to have anything ripped from us. So because we do not like to have things ripped violently from us, God does it to us. He either allows us to fall flat on our face or run square into a door so that we see our wisdom is not all that wise.
And so that we see that there is wisdom, but it’s not within us. It is outside of us. And it has to be done to us by God. It’s got to crash into our world so that we can see what we think of God and what God reveals to us are two different things. What we think about ourselves and what God reveals to us about ourselves, are two different things.
That’s why we are so cocksure of ourselves. Every generation is. As if we now are enlightened, more aware of ourselves and of God, and not so much. In fact, God has to show you and me how truly foolish we are before His Holy Spirit can work in our hearts and make us wise unto salvation.
And in fact, your and my struggle all throughout our life is a worse understanding of ourselves, from our perspective, a better understanding of ourselves than what God has revealed. Because what God has revealed is that we ought not to think so highly of ourselves. Right? And it’s not as if, well, all we need to do is to contemplate more diligently, and then we’ll figure it out.
Job contemplated God’s hand in his life a long time. It made no sense until God revealed it to him. Noah, in his building of the ark and in witnessing the destruction of all the people he had seen pass by him as he built that ark… Did not make sense to him during that over-a-year-long lockdown in that ark. It was God’s revelation outside of Noah that brought Noah understanding and wisdom. It did not come from contemplation.
The only contemplation you and I can have is what Paul talks about. Paul said, “Consider your calling.” He does not say, “Consider the lost tribe of the pygmies in Africa.” He does not say, “Consider the aborigines of Australia.” He says, “Consider your calling.” Now last week we talked about your calling, remember? This week Paul is exhorting us to consider it. And how so? He goes on.
“Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.” Oh, we would love to say, “Yeah, but we’re at least wiser than…” Satan’s great fallacy. “Not many were powerful.” I have power over my children. Yeah, how’s that working for you when they grow up? They still do what they want to do. And sometimes they smile at you when they do it. “Not many of you were of noble birth.”
Well, we can say, “Well, we’re not like those people in that country with that kind of situation.” Are we really that much more enlightened? Are we really that much more noble because we have been educated in this society? He goes on. “God chose what is foolish in the world.” God doesn’t destroy it. He uses the foolishness that man views in the world to shame the wise, meaning the wise in their own eyes.
“God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” God chose what is low and despised in the world… It says, There are many things in your and my life that we perceive, we try to explain, we make all kinds of reasoning behind it, but there is only one reason why God loves you and why you should be confident of His love. And it’s not because of your parentage. It’s not because you were brought to church faithfully. Because there are a lot of people who were brought to church faithfully, and they’re not in this church anymore. They’re not in any church anymore.
Consider your calling, brothers, he says. And the point of Paul saying that is that he’s trying to get us to see God doesn’t allow us to have confidence in our lineage, confidence in our abilities, confidence in our acumen, confidence in our ability to understand, confidence in our demeanor. None. None. And yet, how do you achieve things in this world? By having a demeanor that is winsome. Salespeople tell you that. How do you make it happen in this world? By learning and educating. How do you make it in this world of trying to figure out how other people do things and why they do things like psychology and psychotherapy?
All of that is important, but all of that doesn’t get you any closer to why God loves you. That is the only thing that draws us closer to why God loves you. And it brings you confidence. It brings you confidence. He brings you confidence.
Think about what God did. When He went out and chose His apostles, He didn’t choose the wise, learned Sadducees or Pharisees. When He first came into this world, He chose shepherds to proclaim His birth. When He began His apostleship and called those twelve, He used mostly fishermen. Uneducated. Street smart, but uneducated. But even street smart doesn’t give you confidence into why God loves you.
And let’s not forget that term that was used over and over about the other people that God called who were not of noble birth and not of wisdom and understanding, but the tax collectors and sinners. Right? And the reason is what Paul said: so that no flesh should glory in the presence of the Lord.
So consider your calling, you who are of the flesh. You were saved by the God who chose to become flesh. He did not choose to redeem you with a wink of His eye or a zap of His power. He chose to become flesh with you to share it.
Consider your calling that He chose to become flesh, and His life was subjected to that which His life ought not to be and was impossible to be because He’s God. He chose to be subjected to that which is your and my curse, death, to redeem you. And He chose to allow His death to be that which we participate in so that we can also participate in His immortality. And the very source of our blessing comes from the one who was cursed, damned for us, Him.
So if there is a place, if there is a concept, if there is a wisdom that God is trying to teach you and me so that we have confidence before God, it is not anywhere inside of our flesh. It is outside of us that He’s revealed to us. It is Christ Jesus crucified and raised from the dead.
Yet what does our flesh always say? “Show us, God, show us that you love us.” That’s exactly what the thief on the cross said, the one who did not believe. “Show us you’re the Son of God by coming down from that cross and saving yourself and us.” That wasn’t what made sense to that man because it doesn’t make sense that God would die for his creatures. That’s a mystery. But you believe it, and you will die in it.
Make your love make sense to us. Because you and I know how love works in this world. Scratch someone’s back, they obviously probably will scratch yours. You’re kind to someone else, they’ll probably be kind to you. And those that aren’t kind to you and those that do not scratch your back, you typically wash your hands of them and move on.
I don’t remember finding that passage in Scripture that says if they don’t wash your back or scratch it, you should move on. So if God’s going to show us and make it make sense, it’ll never happen. Because there is no reason why God would do this for you. Your confidence is not in something that makes sense. If it did, why would we need faith? And why would it be the central article of the Christian church?
That’s why the Lord said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. I will thwart.” It is He who is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, Paul says. And it’s crazy. He says, “So that no one may boast in the presence of the Lord,” and then at the end of it, what does He tell us to do? To boast in the Lord.
Ah, but it’s the right kind of boasting. Not boasting because of our understanding, of our seeing ourselves through the eyes of ourselves, but our seeing ourselves through the eyes of Him who has died for us and rose again for us. Their boasting can be had because all glory doesn’t rest on us. It rests on Him who is the author and perfecter of your and my faith.
In the name of Jesus, Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
