Study human philosophy for a few minutes and you know you'll find that every religion that man has ever developed, and he's developed all of them except Christianity, is complex. That appeals to his brain, to his ego.
It's elaborate. Man won't crush his ego to come down to the level of the simplicity of the cross and the fact that he recognizes that it doesn't matter what he thinks and it doesn't matter how smart he is, but that you're saved not through your intellect but through faith. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. An actor says people need to love each other more. A writer says education can solve society's problems.
A politician says more government spending can put an end to society's ills. That's the kind of wisdom the world offers, and people chase after that so-called wisdom as the solution to mankind's greatest problems. Now, it's one thing for the secular world to bank on human wisdom. Today, though, human wisdom has crept into many churches, staining pure doctrine, and that means many people are being led to trust things that cannot be trusted. In stark contrast is the Word of God. Take a close look at why you can trust it as John MacArthur continues his series Is the Bible Reliable? And now with today's lesson, here's John.
If you will take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The book of 1 Corinthians is divided basically into Paul's discussion of the various problems that existed in the Corinthian church. The entire book beginning in verse 10 of chapter 1 and going into chapter 16 deals with the areas of problems in the assembly. But the first problem that confronted the apostle, as he wrote, was the problem of division. The church was divided into factions and parties. They were fighting against each other, quarreling.
They had split, and this was a very, very grave problem. And so the apostle writes, chapter 1, verse 10, clear to the end of chapter 3 to deal with the problem of division in the church. Three chapters, or parts of three chapters dealing with the problem of division. Now as we come to chapter 1, verse 18, Paul is continuing to deal with this problem of division in the church. We're going to be looking at chapter 1, verse 18 through chapter 2, verse 8 as a unit. This, I think, is one of the greatest sections in all of scripture because it gives a contrast.
Now mark this. It gives a contrast between the foolishness of men, which they think is wisdom, and the wisdom of God, which they think is foolishness. It contrasts human wisdom with divine wisdom. Now you say, but John, how does that relate to the subject of division in the church?
Well, let me tell you how. Now we all know that the Greeks were in love with philosophy. I remember in college taking a course in Greek philosophy, and just about every philosophy of modern times goes back to a Greek origination. The Greeks were the great philosophers. They would go around spouting various and sundry philosophies and attracting people to them, and so the whole of Greek culture was philosophically divided into little groups.
Now we have in America, and have had for some years, a political system that fairly well divides itself between the Republicans and the Democrats. Well in Greece, if you can imagine this, there may have been 50 dominating philosophies that divided the populace among those 50 different philosophies, and so they were all factioned into groups that held varying philosophies, watch, regarding man's meaning and destiny. The word philosophy simply means man's wisdom.
The word literally means in Greek the love of wisdom, sophia and phileo, to love wisdom. There were people who loved human wisdom, and they developed little systems, and people gravitated to those systems. So there were factions of philosophy adherents in Corinth. Now when the church was born, and all of these people were saved, and they came together, strange as it may seem, even though they were united in Christ, and even though they identified commonly with the cross, they still held on to the varying philosophies that they originally had held to, so that the church also became split up into little groups, each holding various philosophical viewpoints. So the point that Paul is making here is, look, since you become Christians, and you're united around God's revelation as it peaks out in the cross, forget the former philosophies. All they are doing is splitting you up into little groups. This shouldn't be. There are churches that are divided over philosophical viewpoints today. Did you know that? There are churches that are split over politics, economics, philosophies, education.
It's very easy to happen. Now Paul is speaking here against divisions. In verses 10 to 17, look at it, he spoke against the divisions that occurred around personalities. I'm of Paul, verse 12 says, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ.
But he's still talking about division. This time, however, it has to do with philosophy. And the typical Greek admiration for philosophy and rhetoric had caused some of the Corinthians to set too high a value on human philosophy, so high that they were actually, even though other people were Christians, they wouldn't cooperate with other people because they held a different worldview.
Now I don't think that's too different from us. If you say that the Greeks had a problem with the love of philosophy and rhetoric, you've got to say the Americans do, too. I mean, if there's anything, anything that America has gone bananas on, it's philosophy. You know what philosophy means? Human opinion, human wisdom.
And there's no end to it. You listen to the news, you turn it on, somebody says, so and so and so and so said, bloop, end quote, as if that means anything. Or when you don't really have a strong point, you quote somebody else, even though they may be wrong too, at least they have some credibility. And we quote people.
Or there's talk radio where anybody gets to offer any opinion. There is no end to the massive verbiage regarding human philosophy, philosophy of life, meaning of life, destiny of life, what life is all about, how we are to live, what we're for, what we're to do, where we're going, where we came from, it's on and on. And we've made a God out of education and a God out of human opinion. So we're really not any different than the Greeks at all. And I want you to notice that Paul here attacks this problem in Corinth, beginning in verse 17.
If you look at it, you'll see that. For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel. Now the gospel is the good news.
And what is the good news? The good news is this book right here, the revelation of God that winds up in the redemptive act of Christ on the cross, the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be rendered void or null and void or made of no effect. Now here Paul introduces the basic contrast that's going to dominate his thinking to the end of chapter 3. He sets human wisdom against the cross. I came to preach the gospel, not...not...sophia legu in the Greek, which means word wisdom or wisdom doctrine, human wisdom. I came to preach the gospel, not human wisdom. The doctrines of human wisdom are opposite the truth of God.
They are opposite the gospel. So Paul is saying to the Corinthians, look, don't split over human philosophy. The gospel, the revelation of God is all that is necessary. All the truth that God intends you to have is here. You do not need a human philosopher. The Word of God stands alone.
It needs no additions of worldly wisdom. So Paul sets human wisdom against the gospel. Now that's his subject.
In fact, through the rest of chapter 1, he uses the word sophia 16 times. So this is what he's talking about. Now let me tell you, just to give you another angle on this. Philosophy, mark this, has always been a threat to revelation. Philosophy has always been a threat to revelation. Philosophy has never helped God's revelation. You do not need to add human opinion to divine word.
You understand that? You do not need to say, and God said, said, said, and I would like to add, personally, no. When God has said it, it is done, when God has said it, it is done being said.
There are no, in addition to what God has said, I would like to add, no, no. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this, the whole drift toward modernism that has blighted the church of God and nearly destroyed its living gospel may be traced to an hour when men began to turn from revelation to philosophy. Now you may not know much about the history of doctrine or the history of the church, but that is a very accurate statement.
Let me tell you something else. Whenever philosophy gets mixed with revelation, revelation loses. And we call that modernism, but it isn't. It's antiqueism.
Nothing modern about it. Let me give you a couple illustrations of how philosophy messes up revelation. Now the Bible teaches a simple thing. The Bible teaches that the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were written by one man.
Who was that man? Moses. They are in fact called by the Jews the law of Moses, the Pentateuch, which means five. The Pentateuch, the law of Moses. Along came a group of men about a hundred years ago or more and they said, well, we are the rationalists. And their criterion for truth was this. Our philosophy is that only that which is rational to the human intellect is true. If something cannot fit into our minds and be conceived by us to be true, it is not true. And so they looked at the Old Testament. They said, oh, oh, several things here we just can't understand. One is we do not agree that Moses wrote the first five books.
Why? Why Moses could not have known that much information that early. You see, law didn't get developed. The evolution of law came a lot later. He could never have written the Ten Commandments that early.
Oh, no, no. So they said then Moses did not write that. Who did? And they came along and said J, E, P, and D did.
Say, who's that? They said every time the word Jehovah is there, that's the Jehovah writer. Then there's the Elohim. When that's there, it's the Elohim writer. Then there's the P for the priestly writer. And then there's the Deuteronomist who wrote Deuteronomy. The only problem is sometimes you get the J, E, P, and D thing in the same verse, then they got problems.
And then they say there were a lot of redactors who came along, and they edited it all, and that's who really wrote it. It isn't really written by Moses at all. Now, notice, human philosophy was imposed on revelation and which lost.
Revelation loses out. Let me give you another illustration. The Bible teaches a simple thing. Incidentally, Moses did write those books.
And those people who said they couldn't have had law had a real blow not too many years ago when somebody discovered the Code of Hammurabi, which was a very sophisticated legal system that predates Moses. So take that. Second point.
Second point. Take, for example, the Bible teaches that God created things, right? You read Genesis 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. On the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day, God created.
The seventh day, God rested. Now, the Bible is very explicit that God created things. Human philosophy says, no, actually, the only explanation for the existence of things is evolution. Does the Bible say anything about evolution? Does the word evolution appear in the Bible?
It does not. The Bible doesn't talk about evolution, but human philosophy does. It all began from a primeval puddle. And in the primeval puddle was a one-celled thing who really was very, very distressed about being a one-celled thing, wanted company so split and became two.
And then, of course, everything went wild and here we are. And that in a nutshell and a very, well, limited scientific explanation is evolution. I mean, I'll agree. All right, so you have the Bible which says God did it in six days. You have evolution which says it came out of a primeval puddle and took millions of years.
And somebody comes along and says, well, of course, the Bible did emanate from God somehow. I do believe that. But I also believe in evolution. I know we'll come up with a theistic evolution.
That is, we'll have a conglomerate of both. God made the puddle. Then the thing evolved and when it got to the place of man, this is what's called progressive creationism, it got to the place of man, God zapped man with a soul so that God started it and God interjected the soul and the rest was an evolutionary process. And you get progressive creationism or theistic evolution.
You know what happens again? Whenever philosophy is imposed on revelation, revelation gets confused and is the loser. We do not need evolution. God doesn't need it. Another illustration.
And this gets a little more practical. We have today a science so-called that is anything but under the title of psychology. Now the Bible tells a lot about how to live, doesn't it? The Bible tells an awful lot about how to get rid of guilt, confess your sin.
I don't know of a better way. I never knew any therapy that could do as much as confession could do. I never knew of any psychiatrist who could deliver anybody from sin, but I know Christ can.
The Bible says a lot about that. It says a lot about counseling and exhortation. But what happens is that some people take the Bible and then they go off to the university and get 14 years of Freudian education and they impose the two and guess which loses?
The Bible. The patterns of life in the Scripture do not need Freud to help them along. God did not need Freud. Freud needed God. There was a guy who came along in Germany. His name was Rudolf Bultmann. Now Bultmann said, my philosophy is the philosophy of demythologizing.
You say, what's that? That means that we must take all the myths out of the Bible. You say, what's a myth? Anything that I don't believe, said Rudolf, who then proceeded to wipe out the whole Bible. Bultmann's philosophy imposed upon revelation and revelation lost. Listen people, revelation doesn't need philosophy. You don't need human wisdom.
You don't need human philosophy. You need the Word of God. If you know the Word of God and you understand the Word of God, you know the reason for everything.
You understand what you need to know and you have solutions to your problems. You see, there are only two views of anything, man's and God's. And this is how man's goes. Indulgent, shallow, short-sighted, unrealistic, pandering to the flesh, elevating desire, supporting pride, advocating independence, makes man the sinner.
And who wants it? Listen, all God wants is that we accept revelation, not that we get split up into philosophical factions. You add human wisdom to divine truth and all you do is render, look at the end of verse 17, you render the cross null and void. And so Paul with verse 17 launches into a lengthy contrast between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of men. Notice verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.
Now notice this verse carefully. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, that is to those who are without God, those who are dying in sin, those who will spend eternity in hell, those who do not know God, for whom God's heart is grieved and ours as well. But to them the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. The reason it's foolishness to them is because they have elevated their own philosophy and the cross looks so stupid to them, so foolish.
They have such complex philosophies that to come along and say I want to give you a simple message. God in human flesh died on a cross, paid the penalty for your sin by faith in that act and his resurrection you can be saved and your eternal destiny is secured in heaven forever and they said oh ridiculous. How stupid that a death of one man on one hill, on one piece of wood at one moment in history is the determining factor of destiny for every man who ever lived ridiculous.
They couldn't buy it. Foolish. The word foolishness, simple word, it's the word moron in which we get the word moron.
It's moronic, stupid, silly. Now you'll notice the word preaching there. It's not really the word preaching in the Greek. It's the word.
It's the word lagas. For the word of the cross. Now watch this. For the word of the cross. Now look at back in verse 17. And here you have not the word of the cross but the word of wisdom, human wisdom, and there's the contrast. He contrasts the word of wisdom with the word of the cross. Human wisdom is set against the cross. Now I want to mention one thing. The word of the cross here means all that is involved in the cross.
The lagas is the total revelation. You say well John, what is the word of the cross? Do you know that everything before the cross pointed to it and everything after the cross explains the cross? This is the word of the cross, revelation. Revelation of God then which pinnacles and peaks in the cross is set against the wisdom of men. Paul says these two things are at each other.
They are opposites. And so the people who hold to worldly wisdom think the cross is moronic. But we who are saved know it to be the power of God. And that's what he said in Romans 1.
I am not ashamed even though the world thinks I'm stupid. And even though the philosophers think that I must have a small brain, that I'm uneducated, I still am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It may be moronic to them but it is the power of God to them who believe. So the word of the cross which looks like foolishness to men is really the power of God. You see men because of their rationalism, because the elevation of the human ego, because they want their own philosophies, can't stoop to something as simple as that. And it is simple. Believe me I mean Jesus himself said unless you become as a little child you can't enter the kingdom.
It is simple. It is not a complex philosophy. Paul arrives in Corinth. He arrives in a maelstrom of philosophies. A melee of words flying all over Corinth. What's you gonna do?
Just offer another philosophy and get caught in the whirlwind? You know what he does when he gets there? Look at chapter 2 verse 2. When I arrived in Corinth in verse 1 he says I didn't come in excellency of speech and wisdom of words but I came and this is what he said. I determined to know nothing among you except Christ and what?
Crucify. You know why he said that? Because there was already enough verbiage flying around. He wasn't about to offer them another philosophy.
It just would have been another thing to hang on the wall. He wanted to give them something that would pound home. Something very opposite to what they held. Something very simple, not complex. Something very historical, not ethereal. Something very concrete and objective, not subjective and foggy and he gave them the cross and he kept it up and kept it up and kept it up in Corinth for at least 18 months.
That's how long he stayed there. You know you study the human religions but don't study them too long because you got other things to do like mow the lawn and things like that. But study human philosophy for a few minutes and you know you'll find that every religion that man has ever developed and he's developed all of them except Christianity is complex. That appeals to his brain, to his ego.
It's elaborate. Man won't crush his ego to come down to the level of the simplicity of the cross and the fact that he recognizes that it doesn't matter what he thinks and it doesn't matter how smart he is but that you're saved not through your intellect but through faith. He doesn't like to come to that place. He doesn't like the cross because if you come to the cross you have to admit that you're a sinner and he doesn't like that either and that's the problem. The cross is still the issue. God's revelation peaks in the cross but you know human philosophy doesn't understand it. To give you the illustration you know Peter didn't even understand it. Peter had a philosophy.
The word philosophy we could use the word opinion. Peter had an opinion. He thought the Messiah would come and set up his kingdom.
Everything would be just rosy. Jesus said one day in Matthew 16, um, I'm going to die. You remember how Peter reacted to that? No, Lord.
You're not going to die. Well, is that right? One thing revelation doesn't need is Peter's opinion but you see Peter's philosophy was at variance with the truth and so Jesus said to him, get thee behind me, Satan.
You got a satanic philosophy. Then they got in the garden and the soldiers came to capture Christ in John 18. Peter took a sword out and tried to cut him up and Jesus said, will you put that thing away?
Haven't you gotten the message yet? Finally after the cross he understood. In Acts 3 he's preaching there and he says, these things which God had before shown by the mouth of the prophets that Christ must suffer he has so fulfilled.
He sounds like a real expert. It wasn't till after the cross that he understood the cross. Later on when he wrote his letter, 1 Peter 2 24, he says, who in his own self bore our sins and his own body on the tree. You see, Peter learned the meaning of the cross but at the beginning his philosophy was at odds with the cross. He couldn't see it, couldn't understand it. You see, he was like any other Jew. To him, look at it in verse 23, Christ crucified is under the Jews a what?
A stumbling block. But under the Gentiles or the Greeks it's foolishness. It doesn't fit into human reason. They can't rationalize it as if the intellect was ultimate. So the contrast is established then in verses 17 and 18. The cross is the power of God to salvation, does save us, but to the world steeped in human wisdom it is moronic.
Moronic. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson here on Grace to You Weekend is from John's current study titled, Is the Bible Reliable? Well, it's always a joy to hear how the Lord is using grace to you to reach people right where they are.
Turning the cars they travel in or the offices they work in or the homes where they live into places of learning and growing in God's truth. A recent letter we received from a woman named Taylor is one example of that. And John, if you would read her letter now.
Yeah, it's certainly worth reading. She says, Dear Pastor MacArthur and the Grace to You staff, I want to tell you how much the Grace to You podcasts and radio have meant to me. In 2013 when I became a mother I quit my job to be a full-time homemaker. As a 21 year old the transition left me somewhat lonely and restless. I felt strong temptation to waste my time watching television and scrolling through the internet.
My husband was working long hours and I was able to enjoy time with him only during a short window of the day. By the grace of God I discovered that Grace to You made hundreds of sermons available for free. I dove right into your teaching on the book of Revelation. That portion of scripture which before seemed impossible for me to comprehend was made clear and understandable.
I was thankful for how much I was able to learn while caring for my newborn son and my home. In the 11 years since then I have continued to listen to messages from Grace to You daily. We now have three sons, congratulations, to share our Bible knowledge and love for scripture with. What a blessing.
Thank you for providing safe, helpful, and free resources for people like me. May God richly bless each of you. And she signs her name Taylor and may God bless you Taylor.
You didn't waste any time adding to that one little life, two more. Grace to You is connecting with people all the time, all over the world, just like Taylor. And the stories are very much like hers because the Word of God changes lives. It is transformative.
It is life-changing. These daily broadcasts which are really at the heart and soul of our ministry, sort of the launch point, the initial point of contact initial point of contact for many people around the world, are very, very important. And as well, television and podcasts, and then even deeper into our resources sermon app and the YouTube channel, commentary, study guides, topical books, and of course the MacArthur Study Bible, which we have in multiple formats and languages, as well as free books and booklets that we distribute monthly by mail, and many more resources. All of this is made possible by your support of Grace to You. We are so blessed to be able to give away so much material.
And just as a footnote, we give away hundreds of thousands of volumes to prisoners all across this country, and that ministry is having an amazing impact. With your support, and we're continuing to do this, we're going to see the Lord use His Word to change lives like Taylor's and her husband, as well as her children. So thank you for bringing us before the Lord and supporting us with a gift as you're led and able. Yes, friend, thank you for your part in spreading verse-by-verse teaching to people like Taylor around the globe. To express your support, get in touch with us today. Call us at 855-GRACE, or you can make a donation at our website, gty.org. Thanks for all you do to support Bible teaching in your community and in communities like yours around the world. And thanks also for remembering to pray for us. That really is your most important ministry to us. And if the Bible teaching you hear on this broadcast is helping you understand God's Word, if this ministry has equipped you to explain the gospel to unsaved family and friends, or perhaps someone you know has come to faith in Christ after hearing this broadcast, we would love to hear about that. You'll encourage us more than you know, so get in touch by email at letters at gty.org. That's our email address. One more time, letters at gty.org, or you can send a letter to Grace To You, P.O.
Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Be here tomorrow as John shows you the difference between wisdom and foolishness. The answer might surprise you. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.
