1 Corinthians 1:21. For after that 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.
We shall concentrate mainly on the second half of the text, “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe”. In verse 17, Paul says, “Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel”. He says, as it were, My main work is to preach the gospel. But what exactly was his purpose in preaching the gospel? It was, of course, that sinners would be saved. The saving of sinners, as the great objective in preaching the gospel, is what our text speaks of: “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe”.
There are two points which we wish to enlarge on, the Lord helping us, as we find these in our text: (1.) There is the salvation of certain people: “to save them that believe”; (2.) There is the preaching by which they are saved: “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
1. The saving of certain people.
We shall look at some fundamental points so that we may bear them in mind as we proceed. The first is that absolutely everyone needs to be saved (when we say “saved”, we mean saved from his or her sins). We know this solemn fact, but have we really laid it to heart? Without exception, each of us by nature needs to be saved because, as the Bible says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). When we say, “All have sinned”, we mean that all have sinned in Adam, our representative in the Garden of Eden. When he sinned, we sinned; when he fell, we fell. We have the guilt of Adam’s first sin upon us, and that is a very serious matter indeed. So all of us are born as sinners; that “innocent” infant in the cradle needs to be saved.
Because we are born as sinners, the natural bent of our being is towards sin. Our natural inclination is to sin because we have been not only born as sinners but born in a state of spiritual death, and therefore are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). Not only were we born in sin but we also add sin to sin and thus are increasing our guilt. The solemn reality is that we are treasuring up wrath to ourselves against the day of wrath. We are also in the grip of sin; sin has dominion over us. It is one thing for someone to leave off committing a certain sin but it is another matter to free himself altogether
1The sermon preached at the induction of Rev A W MacColl to the pastorate of the Dingwall and Beauly congregation on Friday, 9 August 2019.
from the slavery of sin. In fact, it is impossible for him to do so, apart from grace. Truly, as sinners, we are in an awful plight!
Scripture also teaches that we are morally and spiritually impure, that the filth of sin cleaves to us; in other words, that we are totally depraved. There are many who will put up their hands in horror at such an idea but this is what the Bible clearly shows us. The fact that we are totally depraved does not mean that we are as great sinners as is possible, but it does mean that we are sinners through and through, that sin has adversely affected every part of our souls – our will, our understanding, our conscience and our affections. Also the members of our bodies – whether it is our eyes, or ears, or hands, or feet – are given to the service of sin; we are, as to our bodies as well as our souls, the servants of sin. When we try to think of the totality of our sin, we cannot conceive how great it is, but we know enough from the Word of God to realise that we need to be saved.
Furthermore, we need to be saved because we are facing the ultimate consequence of our sins. God said to our first parent Adam, “In the day that thou eatest thereof [of the forbidden fruit] thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17). Because we fell in Adam, death came upon us – not only spiritual death but also physical death, and beyond physical death we are exposed to the due reward of our sin, which is eternal death. O how unspeakably dreadful it will be for a sinner to be consigned to the place of eternal death! In that place of woe, there will be no annihilation, as some think; existence will continue, but what a terrible existence! “There will not be the cessation of being,” one minister has said, “but the cessation of wellbeing.” The Saviour said about that place of outer darkness, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 8:12). O may you believe that you are in urgent need of being saved, if you are not already saved.
However, when we turn to the Scriptures, we discover that we are utterly unable to save ourselves. We cannot atone for even one of our sins; we cannot do away with our spiritual death and bring ourselves into a state of spiritual life. So what hope is there for us? The wonderful good news is that God Himself purposed from all eternity to save sinners. Whom did He purpose to save? Those whom He sovereignly elected in eternity past to be saved here in time, a multitude that no man can number. Many quarrel with the doctrine of election but, if God had not made such a choice, there would be no hope whatever for anyone.
In purposing to save sinners, God also provided a Saviour. This is the answer to our fearful plight as sinners in need of being saved: a Saviour has been provided by God the Father. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). Christ came into the world to save sinners, having undertaken to be the substitute of those whom God the Father chose and gave to Him to be saved. Not only did Christ undertake to take their place before divine justice, but He also undertook to pay, on their behalf, what they were utterly unable to pay: the infinite debt they owed to the justice of God. Thus Christ became both their substitute and surety.
This in turn means that He undertook to atone for their sins, which He did by His inexpressibly awful sufferings and death at Calvary. He “endured the cross” (Heb 12:2). Upon the cross He offered Himself without spot unto God as the sacrifice of atonement for the sins of His people. There, upon that tree, He bore the sins of His own people in His body and rendered full satisfaction on their behalf to divine justice. Then He cried, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). The work given Him by the Father, to redeem His people from the curse of the law, was now accomplished. Thus He obtained salvation for His people.
What a marvel this is! It ought to fill us with great amazement. We read of “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Pet 1:11), the glory especially of sinners being saved from the wrath which is to come. Little wonder then that this salvation is called “so great salvation” (Heb 2:3).
In what way is it great? Surely it is great when it cost the death of the Son of God in our nature; He gave “His life a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). It is great because it saves a sinner from sin, the greatest of evils; and it is great because the whole person is saved, soul and body – the soul, worth more than the whole world, is then safe for ever; and the members of the body, which are servants of sin, become servants of righteousness. It is great also because it is an “everlasting salvation” (Is 45:17). When someone is saved from a deadly disease, that deliverance does not go on for ever, the disease may strike again and certainly death will come finally, but this is an everlasting salvation, the sinner being saved now and for ever.
Also it is wonderfully great because each of the persons of the Godhead is involved in it; God the Father has purposed salvation, God the Son in our nature has purchased salvation, and God the Holy Spirit applies salvation to poor sinners. Truly, “salvation is of the Lord” (Jon 2:9). The redeemed in glory have salvation as the theme of their song: “Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb” (Rev 7:10). All glory be to Him for procuring this great salvation!
Well, what does this salvation mean to ourselves this evening? Are you neglecting the great salvation? O take heed to the solemn warning, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” It is imperative for us to attend to the salvation of our souls, especially that we would believe, for we cannot be saved unless we believe – as our text says, “To save them that believe”. Of course, the believing that is spoken of here is believing in Christ the Saviour. This believing is more than a historical belief (we all believe that there was such a historical person as Jesus Christ); it is believing in the sense of trusting in Christ. So The Shorter Catechism teaches, “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel”. It is absolutely necessary for us to have this faith, which is the gift of God. We read in Scripture, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord”. Blessed indeed is the person – man or woman, boy or girl – who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Ethiopian eunuch, for example, was blessed with this great blessing of faith. He was in his chariot reading in the prophecy of Isaiah about the sufferings of the Saviour, but he did not understand what he was reading. His question to Philip the Evangelist was, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or some other man?” (Acts 8:34). Philip responded by preaching to him Jesus, using content from that wonderful part of Isaiah’s prophecy: “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Is 53:7). The preaching of Philip was blessed to the man; the truth about the blessed Messiah was applied to his soul by the Holy Ghost, and he believed. “Here is water”, he said; “what doth hinder me to be baptised? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:36-37). What a great blessing came to the Ethiopian that day when he was brought to believe!
The Philippian jailor was similarly enabled to believe. How dreadful was the apprehension he had of the condemnation of God; therefore his urgent question was, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31). Paul preached “the word of the Lord” to him and his household, and the truth was blessed to him and them. They believed, became true Christians and were baptized.
In the same chapter, we see that Lydia too was blessed with faith. The Lord opened her heart, she drank in the preaching of Paul and she believed. After she was baptized, she said to Paul and his companions: “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house” (Acts 16:15). In other words, Since you have judged me to be a believer and have shown it by baptizing me, come into my house. They did not demur; she was indeed reckoned a believer. So we find again and again in the Bible that the one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is truly blessed; all is well with that person for time and eternity.
2. The preaching by which people are saved.
How may we attain to this believing in Christ? One answer is that we are to make use of the preaching of the gospel, the means which God has appointed so that we would have faith and be saved. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). Our text emphatically states the fact that “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe”. This fact is confirmed by the cases of the Ethiopian eunuch (to whom Philip preached Jesus), Lydia (“who attended to the things spoken of Paul”), and the Philippian jailor (to whom Paul and his companions spoke “the word of the Lord”).
To preach is simply to proclaim as a herald. Usually when a proclamation is made, the matter proclaimed is of importance. Certainly that is so with this great proclamation; the all-important matter proclaimed is the gospel (the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, by believing in Him). “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). True preaching of the gospel necessarily includes showing the sinner his need of being saved, which in turn means preaching about sin. Alas, the subject of sin is absent from much preaching today. Those who are sent by the Lord to preach the gospel know that they must preach “repentance toward God” and must obey the Scripture injunction, “Show My people their transgression” (Is 58:1). Otherwise sinners will be ignorant of their need of salvation.
We see also from the Bible that the preaching of the gospel of salvation includes explaining, for example, the beginning of the salvation of a poor sinner. That wonderful beginning is found in this precious statement: “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). The completion of salvation is also to be included. Salvation is not only begun but also completed, as is shown by the verse, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mt 24:13) – that is, his salvation shall be gloriously completed. A sinner saved by grace is made perfect in holiness at the moment of death and he, as to his soul, immediately enters into the glory of Immanuel’s land.
The essence of the gospel is the cross; therefore the cross is to be the main content of the preaching of the gospel. We read about “the preaching of the cross” in verse 18. Also in verse 23 Paul asserts, “We preach Christ crucified,” and in the second verse of the next chapter he adds, “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” The matter to be principally preached is that Christ Jesus, having come into the world to save lost sinners, had to die an unspeakably dreadful death, a shameful death, a painful death, and that in dying on the cross he pacified God’s wrath against His people. O how astonishing that He willingly and lovingly “endured the cross, despising the shame”!
It is especially the call to come to Christ that must be at the forefront of true preaching. Christ Himself, the unsurpassed preacher, called to sinners: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). So ambassadors of Christ must echo and extend that invitation, and press it on poor sinners: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Is 55:1). It is vitally important, in preaching, that gospel invitations are extended to poor sinners as sinners, and that Christ is freely offered to them.
Our text implies that such preaching is foolishness to some, and verse 18 explicitly states that “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness”. We are specifically informed by the context who those were to whom such preaching was foolishness; for example, the Greeks and especially their philosophers and wise men, the disputers who gloried in showing their brilliance, as they imagined, by their arguments.
Today, there are very many to whom the preaching of the cross is foolishness. We think in particular of those atheists who are clamorous in their protestations against preaching the gospel and teaching the Bible to young people. One sees it also in the scientific world. Yes, there are godly scientists; but how many scientists are deluded by the theory of evolution! The gospel is foolishness to such people; it is absurd to them that anyone will be saved now and for ever by believing in a Man who was crucified some 2000 years ago. Needless to say, such an attitude to the gospel is wicked. Even some professed teachers of Christianity claim that penal substitution – Christ on the cross taking the place of His people and enduring the wrath of God due to them for their sins and thus satisfying divine justice for them – is a fanciful and abhorrent idea.
When we examine the attitudes of those to whom the gospel is foolishness, we find that their mindset is really according to the wisdom of this world. Mere human wisdom is useless when it comes to knowing God, as our text states, “The world by wisdom knew not God”. Yes, there is in the minds of many non-Christians some notion of a supreme being, especially when they consider the glories of creation. But as to knowing God savingly as the God of salvation – the God who is merciful and ready to forgive – they can never attain to that knowledge by mere human wisdom.
Again, we ask the question, What hope is there for fallen mankind; for human beings in their state of sin, in their state of guilt before God and facing eternal judgement? Here is the answer of our text: “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe”. And, of course, immediately before that phrase we have the words, “After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God,” which we understand to mean that God, in His wise governing of the world, gave that revelation of Himself which the wisdom of this world could never attain to. In His Word, He gave a revelation of Himself as, among other things, the God of salvation. While we are therefore to read the Word, it is “especially the preaching of the Word,” as the Shorter Catechism says, which the Spirit of God makes “an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners”. “The Lord gave the word”, we read in Psalm 68:11; “great was the company of those that published [or preached] it.” Here is what our text calls “the foolishness of preaching”.
When it describes preaching as foolishness, it is not suggesting for a moment that preaching itself is foolish, but it is alluding to how those who have only the wisdom of this world, and are wise in their own conceits, regard the preaching of the gospel – it is foolishness to them, especially its content. Yes, they regard the act of preaching itself as foolish, but in this particular verse it is the content of the preaching – that is, “the cross” – which is foolishness to them. On the other hand, to believers the preaching of the cross is the very opposite of foolishness – it is the power of God, as verse 18 says, “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” Then in verse 24 we read, “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God”.
Well, friends, it is a great privilege for us to have the preaching of the cross, which is “the power of God and the wisdom of God”. It is one of the great gifts of the risen Christ, who provided apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. What a priceless privilege is given to a person, a community, a church through the pure preaching of the Word! Only that will effect a transformation in individuals and in the church. We read in Psalm 110 about the Lord sending the rod of His strength, or power, out of Zion – figurative language for ordaining the preaching of the gospel, the rod of His power. This is the powerful means appointed by God for saving sinners.
On the Day of Pentecost, for example, Peter preached to the people about the Saviour: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23-24). Peter preached not only about their sin but also about Christ crucified, and His name as the only name under heaven among men whereby they must be saved. So that day there were added to the Church about 3000 souls.
We see the power of the preaching of the gospel also in the church at Thessalonica. “Our gospel came not unto you in word only,” said Paul, “but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance” (1 Th 1:5), with the result that they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Such is the wonderful power of the preaching of the gospel, although the world calls it foolishness. Again, look at the church in Corinth. Paul had been preaching there for 18 months and the result was a mighty transformation of many individuals. We read in 1 Corinthians 6 that Paul, having listed various kinds of gross sinners, then says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (v 11). Was that not a wonderful instance of the power of the gospel?
The preaching of the gospel is powerful only through the power of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore we should plead with the Lord, who has sent to us the word of salvation and preachers of the Word, that He would also accompany the preaching of the Word with the power of His Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost, there was a wonderful working of the Holy Ghost from heaven, so that thousands were converted under the preaching of the Word. In the case of Lydia, it was the Holy Spirit who opened her heart to receive the truth preached. The ineffectiveness of human power is indicated by the message sent to Zerubbabel: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zec 4:6).
In conclusion, let us be pleading at the throne of grace for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit here and in all our congregations and wherever the Word is truly preached, so that precious souls would be saved and believers sanctified. We are encouraged by the words of Christ to pray for this indispensable gift: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Lk 11:13).