Have you ever said, oh, if only so-and-so would be a Christian.
Oh, if we could only win so-and-so. There are not many wise, there are not many mighty, and there are not many noble. Most of us are just plain old common folk.
And you know what? God did that purposely to stand as a rebuke for all time against human wisdom. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. These days it seems that people trust in science to answer the ultimate questions of life. Or they hope that politics will end all the suffering in the world. Or they see education as the path to ultimate fulfillment. Or they even look inward, believing that some inner voice is the best guide in life. That to say, human wisdom is elevated, and God's wisdom is largely ignored, even considered foolish.
So how do you stand up for the truth in a world that is enamored with error? John MacArthur answers that question today as he continues his study called, Is the Bible Reliable? And 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. 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. From verse 19 through chapter 2 verse 8, Paul gives five reasons why he considers God's wisdom superior to man's.
Now these are really good. Five reasons why Paul considers God's wisdom to be superior to man's wisdom. Reason number one, God's wisdom is permanent. It's permanence, verses 19 and 20.
Now this is most interesting. Here Paul uses an Old Testament passage to show that man's wisdom will be swept away, that it is very temporary. Look at verse 19, and Paul quotes Isaiah 29, 14. For it is written, and it is in Isaiah 29, 14, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Now that's Isaiah 29, 14. Now let me hasten to help you to interpret that.
That can have a very general element of fulfillment. There is coming a day when all of the philosophies of man will be swept away, right? Christ will reign as King of Kings. When all of man's wisdom comes ashes.
The tribulation period as we study it in the book of Revelation is the disintegration of all of man's wisdom. But it has more than just a future fulfillment. It had a very interesting meaning at the time that it was given.
Like so many prophecies, it has an immediate fulfillment and a future fulfillment. This is what was going on when Isaiah said that. There was a king. His name was Sennacherib.
And you may have heard of him. He was a very mighty king. And he was king over a nation called Assyria. And they wanted to conquer Judah, the land of Israel. And so they decided to attack Judah. God through the prophet Isaiah says to Judah, Don't worry.
Deliverance will come. Sennacherib will fail in his conquering. But, God said, it won't be because of your wise men. It won't be the strategy of the political advisors to King Hezekiah, who was the king of Israel at the time, or the king of Judah. It won't be because of the political cunning and the secret trickery of these wise advisors.
Nope. You're not going to escape the hand of the Assyrians because of your wisdom. God says, I will do it myself because I want to demonstrate to you the impotence and the impermanence of human wisdom.
When all of your wisdom is run the gamut, I'll just destroy it all, I'll put it down to nothing, and by myself, I will do what all your wisdom couldn't do. Wow. That's quite a promise. Sennacherib had a huge army. Say, if God's going to deal with Sennacherib, boy, he's going to really have to get it together. He did. You know what he did? He just called over one angel.
Fright. One angel. You say, what happened? I'll read it to you. What happened? All those wise people in Israel, all those political advisors had all the strategy.
So smart. All the hosts of the army of Israel. God says, say, come here, angel. The angel of the Lord went forth.
That's him, by himself. And he smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. One angel slew 185,000. And then this is kind of interesting. He says, and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were dead.
Terrific. They woke up and found out they were dead. No.
Some arose and found 185,000 were dead. Now listen, you know what that says about angels? I think you do. Don't mess with them. What all of the political advisors of Israel couldn't do, what all of the wisdom and knowledge and acumen of the best of the people couldn't come up with, God did with one angel. And he says, I'll just wipe your wisdom out.
I don't need it. God always did tell Israel, I'll fight for you. You know, we have the wrong idea. You know, we want to solve everything by our own ingenuity rather than let God do it. So Paul uses that passage.
And it's a fantastic thing. Oh, by the way, not only that, but later on Sennacherib went back and dwelled at Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria. And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisrock, his god, that at Dramelech and Cheriezer, his son, smote him with a sword, escaped into the land of Ararat and Esarhaddon, his son reigned in his stead. So even he was killed by his own children. You see, God didn't need any of the wisdom of Israel.
And that's the point. Now, now you go back to 1 Corinthians 1, 19. Paul says, look, you know the passage in Isaiah. God never did need human wisdom.
God never did need human understanding. Proverbs puts it this way in 1412, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death. You know, there's always people who want to give their opinion.
Well, I think such and such. Well, I think that one of the reasons that a lot of people won't come to the Bible or they won't come to church or they won't study Christianity is because their own philosophy is so shaky anyway that they just don't think it could stand another blow. No, they'd rather mask themselves, put their head in the sand, and just be buried, keeping their eternal fingers crossed. Listen to Jeremiah 8, 9. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken.
Now listen to this. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them? Listen, if you reject revelation, what wisdom is left?
There isn't any. God is set against worldly wisdom. He is set against worldly philosophy, even the philosophy of Israel, Judah.
He destroys it. Man's wisdom is defined, I think, as well as anywhere in the Bible in James 3, 15, in most apt terms. It says this, and maybe you never thought of this definition. Listen to this. This wisdom descends not from above. All right, we know which wisdom it is, right? It's not God's wisdom, it's man's. It doesn't come from above. It's just plain old man's wisdom.
Now listen. It is earthly, sensual, and demonic. Human wisdom is one, earthly.
That is, it never gets beyond the earth. It never really understands supernatural reality. It's earthly. Two, sensual. It is based upon human desire and lust.
Three, demonic, its source of Satan. That's human wisdom. Now that, friends, is set against the wisdom of God.
Wouldn't you agree? That's James 3, 15. So, he says, it's written.
It's impermanent. God's wisdom is permanent. Verse 20, he asks some questions.
Really, it's one question with three parts. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Where are all the smart people going to solve all the problems? Aren't we all yelling about that now? You know, we've talked so much about how great education is and how we've educated ourselves into problems that we can't solve. Of course, we never could solve them. You know, human wisdom never solved anything.
All of our education never really solved anything. You say, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We used to be living in the boondocks out there in the bush and now we're in cities and homes.
That's right. And we're just as rotten here as we were there. And we haven't changed, we're just more comfortable. You know, our immorality isn't committed out in the woods, it's committed in fancy hotels.
It's any different. We just made our sinning a little more accommodated. Human wisdom throughout a history, the history of man, has never solved any real problem. Never. It just makes us more comfortable with our problems.
That's all. And so God says, where are the wise people? Where are all these wise people? And He quotes here Isaiah 19, 12. And it's the most interesting because in Isaiah 19, God was talking to Egypt and He says, Egypt, you've had it.
You've gone after false gods and you've worshiped false gods and you've denied My truth and you're going to be judged. And remember that great prophecy against Egypt that the rivers would dry up and the sea wouldn't give them water anymore and all the reeds would be broken and Memphis would be destroyed, a great city, the capital and all these things? And when that was all done, then Isaiah says, now where are your wise men? Who's going to offer the solution to the destruction of God? The answer is there aren't any left. And you know what Egypt did?
It says in Isaiah 19, they went after the soothsayers and the mediums and the wizards. You know what answers they had? Zilch. None. There aren't any answers. Now where are the wise?
And then He says the second question. Where is the scribe? Where is the scribe?
This is the writer. And in fact, it's Isaiah 33 18 where you find that statement. And it had to do with the Assyrians again. The Assyrians, when they sent their army down, sent scribes along. You know what the scribes were to do? They were to write out all of the things that they took when they took Israel. They were to list all the booty and they were to record all of the tribute that was to be exacted. They were to write down everything that was taken in the victory.
You know what happened? They didn't take a victory. And the scribes had nothing to write. And so Isaiah says, where are the scribes?
There aren't any. Then he says, where is the disputer of this age? And this I don't think has an Old Testament counterpart. The word disputer here is the very Greek word used for arguing about philosophy. Where are your philosophical arguments now? Look, where are the people versed in philosophy? Where are the people versed in literature, the scribes? Where are the people versed in rhetoric? Where are they when you need them? All their wisdom is folly. You know, I get that feeling in the world today, don't you? Who knows any answer?
Any of them. So to make clear the futility and fatality of human wisdom, Paul sarcastically says, where's the wise, where's the scribe, where's the disputer of this age? You tell me, what has human philosophy ever contributed to man? What has it ever done to make him nobler, to make him a better man in his heart?
What has it ever done to lift him up? Nothing. Nothing.
Nothing ever. The wisdom of the world is stupidity when it tries to redeem men, when it tries to transform sinners. It can't do it.
It can't do it. And so, hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? God just made it look foolish. And I'm not knocking ethics, and I'm not knocking kindness and love. I'm just saying, none of these human philosophies, no matter how good they appear on the surface, ever get to the real issue.
That's a man's eternal soul. So God in wisdom allowed learned men of the world to seek by their worldly wisdom the solution to man's misery, to seek by their worldly wisdom the solution to man's suffering. And they saw it. And they had philosophies and more philosophies and more philosophies.
And you know what? They never ever came to uncover the secret. They never really got to the end of all human wisdom. They were left without the one thing they needed most, and that was the knowledge of God. They never knew God, because it was only in God that these things could be found.
Peace, joy, forgiveness, freedom from guilt, meaning to life, eternal hope. And all of human philosophy never met God. That's what Paul says. It all just came out moronic. They thought the cross was stupid.
It was their philosophy that was stupid. So God moves in to do what human wisdom could never do, and that takes us to the second point. And we'll just look at the first verse of the second point. Paul says, God's wisdom is superior to men's because of its permanence and secondly its power.
It is able to do what man's wisdom never did. Look at verse 21. For since, the word is since, for since in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Now notice this. He says, the world with all of its wisdom never knew God. It never reached the ultimate goal of man, to know God. And so since man's wisdom couldn't do it, God did it through the cross. The world of men with all our wisdom.
Just think of it. We have had philosophers and sages for ages. And what do they know?
And what have they offered? Wars increase. Crime increases. Injustice increases. Hate, cruelty, problems, mental breakdowns, drugs, alcohol, problems, problems, problems, problems never ever change.
We haven't solved any problems. Not with human philosophy. Because men cannot attain salvation, they cannot have a transformed nature, they cannot know God by their own wisdom. Even religion doesn't make it. All the philosophy of the world comes up bankrupt. Now God says, it shall please me to do with something as basic and silly and stupid and moronic in their sight as the death on the cross to accomplish what they couldn't accomplish with the complexities of their philosophies throughout the ages. Isn't that beautiful?
Simple. Chapter 3, verse 18 says the same thing, let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this age, you think you really got your philosophy, let him become a fool that he may be wise.
You better come down to the level of the cross. You better really come off your high horse that you may truly be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. He takes the wise in their own craftiness. The next verse says the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise.
They are vanity. Now you'll notice an interesting phrase at the beginning of verse 21. What does it say? Since in the wisdom of God, the world. In other words, that this is the wise plan of God, that He allowed the world to go on in its own wisdom. In the wisdom of God, He permitted the world to follow its own path. Man exists surrounded by the wisdom of God, and in the midst of the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom what?
Knew not God. Here we are surrounded by God's wisdom and ignorant of it. To me, that's Romans 1. That which may be known of God is in them, right?
And it's around them. The invisible things of God can be seen by the creation. But man did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
They turned from God, turned His truth into a lie, worshiped the creature more than the Creator, began to worship images. Here is man surrounded by the wisdom of God. Every time he looks at a mountain, every time he looks at his hand, he sees the wisdom of God at the stars, at the intricacies of nature. He sees God's wisdom. And he applies his own wisdom, rejects God's wisdom, and never knows God.
You think about it. The astronomer looks through his telescope and sees stars, but no God. The natural scientist studies his biology and his botany and whatever else, and he comes up with evolution without a source.
Religion creates a God who is no God and then bows to the no God. You know, it's like the Greeks. Just sum it up. The Greek philosophy was centered in one great city. What was that city? Athens. The pinnacle of Athens was the Areopagus. Great Mars Hill. Paul walks up the Mars Hill where all the Greek philosophers gathered. There was a great altar there.
He walked up to it. This is what it said. To the unknown God.
Isn't that interesting? With everything that they knew, the one thing they didn't know was the one thing that was the most obvious. God. In the midst of the wisdom of God, verse 21, the world by its own wisdom did not know God.
They applied the wrong thing. Instead of accepting revelation, they took their own wisdom and they didn't know God. Human wisdom doesn't make it.
Oh, I love this part. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. You see, God really, God just, that to me is the greatest possible blow against all the complexity of human wisdom. God just did something so simple and by the very simplest thing that God did, he accomplished what all of the philosophers and wise men of the ages never could do.
That puts it in perspective, doesn't it? The wisest of the wise men are stupid compared to the simplest of a wise God. The foolishness of preaching, the stupidity of kurugmatos. Now notice the word preaching.
That's a poor translation. It isn't the word euangelidzo to preach the gospel in the Greek. It isn't the word keruso to proclaim.
It is the word kurugmatos. It has nothing to do with the act of preaching, but it is the content of the message, the kurigma, the message, the content. What it's saying is this, it pleased God by the stupidity of the gospel, the content of the cross to save them that believe. Preaching isn't the idea that preaching is foolish. Some preaching is foolish, I would agree with that, but that's not the point. The point here is the foolishness of the gospel itself, something so silly, something so low, something so uncomplicated, something so distasteful to the Jews a stumbling block. It's foolish, but it was that foolish thing, that simple thing.
Jesus dying on a cross. You don't have to be smart. You just have to do what? Does it say at the end of verse 21? To save them that are intellects.
Is that what it says? Save them that have a PhD. Save them that are wise. Save them that what? Believe.
I'm so glad, aren't you? Wouldn't it be awful if only smart people got saved? God didn't save us because we were so smart. He made it so simple, it doesn't matter how smart we are, we just need to believe. No, faith appropriates what God has done. That's why you can have a guy who's a college professor, a guy who's a medical doctor, a guy over here who works with his hands, somebody over here who maybe is somewhat retarded mentally, and they're all meeting together and sharing together in the same common life and praying together with the same God and experiencing the same fellowship and the same salvation because it has nothing to do with intellect.
You just need to look at verse 26. You look around you, brethren, how that not many wise men, not many mighty, and not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things. That's us. Really. Have you ever said, oh, if only so-and-so would be a Christian. Oh, if we could only win so-and-so. There are not many wise, there are not many mighty, and there are not many noble.
Most of us are just plain old common folk. And you know what? God did that purposely to stand as a rebuke for all time against human wisdom. God never needed it in the past. He doesn't need it now. All He needs is the cross, and those who believe in the cross are saved.
That's all it takes. That's the message of salvation. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. Pastor, author, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area, John calls his current study, Is the Bible Reliable? Well, John, I've loved this series, and if our listeners take anything away from it, we would want it to be that there really is a strong case for the veracity of Scripture, and its divine authorship, and its singular ability to transform lives. What a person believes about the Bible has massive practical implications.
It does, and Phil, I was just thinking about the fact that over the years, and I mean over years and years and years and years and decades and decades and decades, I have vivid memories of traveling all over the world, virtually on every continent, every segment of this globe. And always, when I first would go to a place, whether it was New Zealand or Australia, or whether it was the Orient or whether it was Russia or Eastern Europe or wherever it was, my commitment was always to start with the authority of Scripture, to lay down the foundation of biblical fidelity, biblical veracity, biblical inerrancy, biblical inspiration, and everything else builds on that. If I could just kind of pull up a sort of standard memory, I see myself very typically in some foreign country, sometimes with a translator, preaching on, say, Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Always it was the Word of God that was in my heart to establish the foundation of truth so that people could then access that truth and it would do its mighty work in their lives. It's been wonderful to have this series on Is the Bible Reliable? Nothing is as important as this. The truth of God is the most important thing in the world. It saves, it sanctifies, it provides everything you need in life and time and eternity. It identifies everything that is important as far as God is concerned and gives you the answer to every compelling question that every human heart asks. The Bible is reliable and you perhaps would like to be able to pass this on to somebody else. In that case, there are 12 messages in this study available for free download, MP3 audio, as well as written transcripts.
You can get them from gty.org. You can trust the Word of God. The Bible is reliable.
This study shows you why that is so. So I encourage you to get the series, review the lessons again at your own pace, including a lot of content that we simply didn't have time to air. The title again, Is the Bible Reliable?
That's right, friend. You would benefit greatly from listening to lessons from this study again. And as John said, this is excellent material for a friend or family member who might be struggling with doubts about the veracity of God's Word. You can download all 12 sermons in this series from our website today.
Our web address, gty.org. There you can download the MP3s and get the transcripts. Both of those formats are free. The title of the series again, Is the Bible Reliable? Of course, the sermons from that series are just a few of the thousands of lessons that are available to you at our website. All 3600 of John's messages, including every new sermon he preaches, you'll find free at gty.org. And another free resource that I would encourage you to take advantage of is our Study Bible app. It includes multiple translations of Scripture and connects you to related, helpful resources right from the passage you're reading. It'll point you to resources including blog articles, devotionals, and much more. And for a reasonable price, you can add the study notes from the MacArthur Study Bible. The Study Bible app is just one of thousands of resources available free of charge at our website, gty.org.
Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace To You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378. And then be here Monday as John looks at the anatomy of a church, showing you what a faithful fellowship looks like and the role God expects you to have in it. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. On Grace To You.
