So, I invite you, as you're taking your seats, to turn to 1 Corinthians 1, and tonight we're continuing our reflections in the Heidelberg Catechism, and we're in Lord's Day 11, which is just two question and answers, so we'll start there. If you're able to turn there, I'll ask the question of Lord's Day 11 and 29 and 30, and then have you please respond with the answer so in lord's day 11 they're printed for you question 29 why is the son of god called jesus meaning savior because he saves us from our sins and because salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else do those who look for their salvation and security and saints and themselves or elsewhere really believe in the only savior jesus No, although they boast of being his, by their actions, they deny the only Savior, Jesus. Neither Jesus is not a perfect Savior, or those who in true faith accept this Savior have in him all they need for their salvation. And beginning tonight, that's in front of you from 1 Corinthians 1, We're going to be reading verses 18 through 31. This is the word of the Lord. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will for. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preached to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. And there ends the reading tonight of God's word. Well, tonight we have one of the most basic and simple truths that is set before us and what we believe and what we confess, that we believe and confess Jesus' name, right? Notice there, in his name, his name means he's a savior and that he saves us from our sins. And the summary of both of these two statements tonight is that really because of that truth, we shouldn't put our trust in anything else in this life. We shouldn't look anywhere else. We shouldn't trust anywhere else. And I think we might be able to say tonight, easy. Well, maybe not. Maybe not. But I think this is the kind of stuff that we say, it's so basic. What really do we need to talk about? I mean, haven't we heard this over and over? Haven't we said this over and over? Haven't we continued to preach this over and over? Is there any sort of fresh way to say it? And tonight we want to look at this from the perspective a little bit differently than we usually look at it. When we read the Catechism, you'll notice that it says certain things here that may immediately, when we read it, think, yeah, that sounds a little archaic or something that we really don't do anymore. I really don't pray to St. Christopher. I don't pray to the saints. I don't hold little rabbit's foots. I don't do those things. I don't hold a rosary. I don't look at images. I don't bow down to these things. These are not things that I'm doing in the course of life. And so this particular question and answer and this particular one may seem very easy. And that's where I say, well, let's go a little deeper into it tonight and think a little bit more about what this can look like in a little more practical way for our way and our time as the church. What are the real issues in our day for the church? I think oftentimes, and rightly so, we approach these question and answers very individualistically, and I think that's a good way to do it, to ask about individual salvation and our personal salvation and those sort of things. But at times it's helpful to stop and ask these same questions and these same things more corporately. That's why I thought it would be a little bit different way to look at this tonight. That's why Corinth is helpful, because Corinth as a church committed the error that is described for you here in Lord's Day 11. That they really did fall into looking to other ways, and to other things, and to other deliverers. And that was a real danger that Paul was exposing for the church in Corinth. I mean, years ago we went through this study and it was one of my most enjoyable studies to preach through. I find the Church of Corinth, the church in California, it is just an amazing book to continue to set before us and remember the big overarching theme of God's wisdom as opposed to the world's wisdom. But I noticed that Jesus was constantly doing this. Think of the churches in Revelation that he had to address corporately for certain things. And that's what I want to do tonight, particularly in looking at Corinth's struggle in Lord's Day 11, and how Paul here really does help them through this great truth that we've confessed, that Jesus alone is the Savior, our Savior, and he alone saves us from our sins. There's no other name given by which we can be saved, and that we have to be careful to not look elsewhere for any salvation. And that's what I want to rehearse with you briefly tonight here, is the problem that they faced in Corinth in the ministry. And the priority that the apostle comes along and helps them with, and then to encourage the church with the real power that is theirs in the ministry. This is something we constantly have to be reminded of and encouraged because I can say clearly as a pastor, I forget even these things. And it's helpful tonight to look at this again. Corinth, you might say, fell into all the pressures that we wouldn't expect a first century church to fall into. Everything that we would say today and discussed about the church and frustration with the church and what they've fallen into and they shouldn't have done, we can look at Corinth and say they did it. They tried it. They fell into all of it, which gives us some good perspective on how to help the church and think with the church for the church and help churches through this and how to evaluate the church and have a goal in reforming the church. They had adopted the world's wisdom for doing ministry. They had adopted the world's wisdom for doing ministry. And Paul is saying one great thing to them at the beginning of the book, he's already dealt with the problem of putting too much trust in the pastor and everyone having their own pastor and everyone thinking that pastor is my hero and therefore because that pastor is my hero, that guy over there is not as good. He's already dealt with that mentality. Now he zeroes in and he wants them to understand something about the message itself in the ministry and the danger that he knew they had fallen into, the trap of thinking that the results were theirs. That the success of the ministry, however they defined it, was theirs. And that it was brought about with their own creativity, their own human innovation, their own human wisdom. It was all very human. This is part of the problem. It was all as we've been looking at in John, very earthly. And this was a huge problem for the church in Corinth. They thought through their wisdom and their techniques and everything that they did, they would make the ministry attractive to people. Now, I hope this morning helped a little bit with that basic point, that you could do everything you could possibly do to try to make this attractive to people. And unless the human heart is changed, as he says here, we'll say to the church in Corinth, listen, the natural man just doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God. Unless the human heart is changed, no matter how powerful, no matter how attractive we make it, it will never have the genuine effect it should have. So this is a big point that the Apostle's making here. And I want you to notice how he begins this in verse 18 to move to the issue of the message and the importance of the message by saying in verse 18, And four, the word of the cross, notice this, is foolishness, is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Well, that's kind of the thesis of 1 Corinthians. It's really a great verse for the book. It's the verse that summarizes, really, all the struggle of the book and what he's trying to correct and help the church with in Corinth. Essentially what Paul said, what is crucial, what is central to Christianity, what makes Christianity Christian is a message. That's not first and foremost what people go after today. The first and foremost thing people want to talk about is the behavior modification and fixing behavior. Paul is saying don't start there. That's important. That's vastly important. You can't read the New Testament without seeing how important sanctification is. and we need to give just as much attention in holiness for the Lord gives a lot of attention to it in the Bible. But notice the priorities here and how Paul's dealing with this here, this problem and this perspective here that's happened in Corinth. That here, what Paul essentially said is what is central to Christianity always has to be to make it Christian is the message. A message that has to be believed that will affect your behavior. But it's not just any message, this is what Paul's saying. To the world, it's an absurd message. It's a pretty crazy message. It's a message that is not readily accepted. It's a message, notice the word he chose, that some translations use foolishness, folly, you get the same sense. It's absolutely to the world stupid. It doesn't make, why would you ever believe something like this? He's laying this in front of them tonight. Notice how Paul says it. It's the word of the cross. The crucifixion was so feared on the cross, it was one of the greatest deterrents to crime. Now, we don't have that effect in society anymore. We've lost people saying, well, if I do this, then this is going to happen. So that's why crime is out of control. And that's what happens in lawless societies. As these societies become more lawless, this is what happened. If you lived in first century Rome, let me tell you, you feared the cross. You didn't met, the cross said by the Romans, don't mess with us. We'll put you there. So that was the effect in the Roman culture. So notice here that this was, for the Romans, the most shameful death possible in God's providence in the Jewish scriptures. He had even said that death on the tree was accursed. on a cross was accursed. So this was throughout history the worst kind of death, the most accursed death that could be given to anyone. And you didn't want to end up there. Now it's hard enough, but add into the equation who we believe was put there. This is a remarkable message that we have. The difficulty here is we believe we penned god's son there the eternal son of god became truly human taking on a human nature think of the difficulty here think of the the difficulty of trying to explain this message in the roman culture i don't know if we've appreciated that enough they had to be really thoughtful that what what they were nobody wore golden crosses nobody the cross was not something that people carried around and said this is pretty this was bloody this was bad and we have to declare that god's son because of our sin was put there humanly speaking that's not going to work now again think of ministry success think of popularity think of how are we going to make this relevant to people this is a real challenge isn't it and what god is telling us in this first section is god chose it to be that way he chose it to be foolish he chose it to be something that the world would would look at and say that is absolute craziness um to say that god think of how they built statues for their gods. We still have those standing in some places over there today. Did you ever see a weak god portrayed on a statue? They're muscular. They're strong men. They're powerful men. To put them on a cross? That doesn't work. You Christians are crazy. Now let me pause and apply the catechism here just for a minute. That of mine, listen to Lord's Day 11. Why is the Son of God, Jesus, that is Savior? Why is, notice that, why is he called Jesus, that is Savior? Because he saves us from our sins and because salvation is not to be sought or found anywhere else or in anyone else. The apostles understood that in the heart of the mission they were given, they understood so much the importance of this that they received revelation from the Lord telling them, there will be a woe on you. You will be cursed if you don't make the heart of your message this. Remember Jesus at the resurrection in Emmaus preached from all the scriptures, him from the Old Testament, Preaching that the Son of Man must suffer and die and rise again on the third day. It was the heart of what Jesus was training his apostles. This is what I'm sending you with to the ends of the earth. And that's why Paul would say, woe is me. Remember when Isaiah saw the grumps of the glory of God and he cried out, woe is me. I'm breaking up. This was a curse. He was calling down curse on him. if in the ministry he didn't make this message central and the goal of what he was trying to communicate to people. Woe is me if I do not preach Christ and him what? Crucified. Crucified. That's what makes the Christian faith distinctive. We proclaim a crucified Messiah. Now again, that's maybe a little easier for us in the United States. This was not easy in the first century. And Paul is here beginning with this great point that he's making that God had purposely chosen something that he knew would be foolish to the world. That's really hard. It's not just, I said this morning, it's not just hard to be reformed in the world. What makes reform being hard in the world is difficult because what we're trying to do is be intensely biblical. That's what makes being Reformed hard, is to be intensely biblical. To be committed to the scriptures, to be committed to the message, and to stay unwavering in that through all the pressures is what makes it to be difficult in this world and in the ministry. And you're coming, and I'm coming with an exclusive message. I mean, that's what we've been looking at in John. That's what we've been preaching from John, exclusive message. Jesus is the only name given by which we may be saved. He's the only way. He's going to say that. I'm the only way, truth, and life. No man can come to the Father, John 14, except through me. That's exclusive. So do you feel the challenge of that? I feel it all the time. The pressures and the responses of opposition begin to cause doubts in your minds, and then we're all used to wanting great results, and we want them in the areas and in the age groups and in the places where we want to see it most. And when we don't see that, we begin to struggle and we begin to doubt. And we begin to think, well, maybe there's something better. Maybe there's a better way. Maybe there's a better method. Maybe there's a better means. Maybe there's something. This was just this morning, wasn't it? They were never quite satisfied with what Jesus was saying. Now, when you have everyone in the first century running around calling you crazy, when you have everyone in the first century saying, listen, you guys partake of that supper and you believe that unless you eat his body and drink his blood, you'll not have eternal life, you guys are a bunch of crazy cannibals. How do you think you're going to feel? It's not very popular. We like to be popular. The last thing we want is anyone thinking that we're better than anyone else. I know. And when they preached, anyone from the outside heard it, or when they walked down the street and they were involved in their businesses in the world, and hey, they go to that crazy church. They're with those crazy people who believe these crazy things about a crucified God. Ha, ha, ha, ha, right? Look at these fools. Look at these fools. I guess this is an encouragement for a minute to the young adults and the young people and the children when you're mocked for your faith and laughed at. I was listening, I was reading a pastor this week who said, You know, when I talk to, when my children talk to young adults sometimes in the world and they say, well, we can't do this because we're Christians. People in the world who have no idea of the faith will say, well, we respect that sometimes. Sometimes even among the Christians, they'll say, ah, that's too strict. That's too strict. You're being weird. This is part of it. This is part of the challenge of following Jesus. He got labeled everything under the sun. Well, in this particular moment, as they're being called wackos and being called everything under the sun, think of the challenge now to ministry. What do you think are the pressures church faces? What do you think are pressures Christians face at this time? Well, if we're looking at it more corporately, I think the Lord's Day really does help that way. It's just a different way to look at it. Look at the second question and answer. do those who seek their salvation or well-being in saints themselves or anywhere else also believe in the only savior jesus no although they boast of him in their words they in fact deny the only savior jesus for one of two things must be true either jesus is not a complete savior or those who by true faith accept this savior must find in him all that is necessary for their salvation notice it says seeking our salvation and well-being does the church struggle with that it's well-being in the message how many battles have we fought how many tests how many struggles how many battles over discontentment and frustration test moment here i think um One of the things that's lost, I've often thought to myself, what have I done as a pastor that's not been clear to make this clear of what worship is? Where have I failed? And I thought about that a lot this week. Do you know that in God's eyes, what would be, if I asked you, what is the greatest act of your worship? How would you answer that? It'd be interesting the different answers that we'd get today. Do people know what the greatest act of worship is? What if I said to simply sit reverently with minds and hearts focused and receive the bread of eternal life, a message that is made known to you concerning God's Son, and to take that in and believe it with all your heart, that that is the greatest act of your worship. What would you say to me? Has the church believed that? Has the church accepted that? What are we always talking about? What are we always wanting? Remember when Martha and Mary were standing there and one of them sat down to listen to Jesus' teaching? Martha comes back and complains. I'm doing all this work. I'm doing all this serving, and they're not helping enough, and I'm mad. She needs to get up. She needs to do more. Remember what Jesus said? She's chosen the good part. Sit at my feet. Listen to my word. Be fed with me. That's beautiful worship. It's wonderful worship. And Jesus said it wouldn't be taken from her. Have we been clear about that, do you think? I'd love to talk to you. I don't know if we have. Because that's not where I hear people wanting all the time. It's always a battle. What starts happening in all of this? Well, you can do as Galatia did, and you can say, well, they got tired of the message in a different way. They said, we need to return back to our works for our right standing before God. And Paul says, you foolish Galatians. Who's bewitched you to turn away from the gospel? You could be like Ephesus, I suppose, and forget the gospel and then become lukewarm in all your works and forget what this is all about and need to return to what is true heart, devotion, and worship to the Lord. Here in Corinth, I don't think that was the problem. They had the problem, not of trusting in works. I don't find that really much in the book. They had a hard time finding satisfaction in the message, in the way, in the means that it was being given to them. So sure, I'm not trusting in saints. I'm not bowing down the little statues. I don't do that. You don't do that. I'm not putting my trust in other things. Well, wait, are we? Might we be in ways that are surprising to us? And I think that's what's what's what we can say here in in in Corinth, that there was a bitter dissatisfaction with the way that God worked and the timing he worked with this message that they were being criticized for. For Corinth, you know, preaching Jesus is not really going to win anyone the way we're doing it, you know, preaching a crucified Jew from a deadbeat town in the back part of the empire. sent as God's divine son and nailed to a cross, who in the world is that ever going to win? And in what environment has that won anyone? What in the world? So they said, we're turning to the world's methods. That's just Lord's Day 11. Holiness is not just personal, you know. We like to talk about personal holiness. And if I said tonight you should put away certain things in your life, we would love to hear that. But the church needs to do that too. and that's important holiness in the church matters and and so remember in this culture that they were bringing in all the the techniques of the world to try to do this ministry so you had the sophists and you had they read cicero and they knew everything that the great order cicero said about how to win people and what to do and they would get up and they would prance and they would do all this and they'd, you guys listening? I mean it. He'd learned how to stomp the foot and then he wouldn't be clear with the message. Say something. What'd he say? Ooh, that was powerful. Nobody knew what he said. Nobody knew what he said. That was the point. So you were drawn in and you were drawn by the theatrics and you were drawn by the power of persuasion, the art of persuasion, you were drawn by all the techniques of the day, and you could work the audience, they could work the audience. Corinth was saying, this is how it's done. And Paul's coming along and saying, we preach a simple message, stop that. And we're not embarrassed about it. I refuse to be embarrassed about this. This saved me. This message saves us. Remember when Peter was preaching in Acts? Let it be known to all of you, all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the chief cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved. See that? There it is. There's Lord's Day 11. They were so committed to that. And they saw results. Because the results were the spirits. In preaching the foolishness of the message, God is going to show power. That's the message here. And it's a message that overtakes the heart. And there's no real human wisdom in this. He can give effectiveness in the ministry. And there's nothing wrong with effectiveness. There should be an effective ministry. should never be boring but but the point is is that it's it's god's work and that will have the opposite effect in those who are perishing it will have the because it is foolishness to them it is foolishness and that's where the test comes that's where the test comes that's what he's saying to us but when we became christians we are committed to a message we're committed to conscious choice on our part to something that was antithetical to the world antithetical to its methods and the things that it chose and the realms can't be joined together. That's why Paul keeps saying in this book, you can't, you have to be a separate people. You can't join yourself with somebody else. Come out and be separate, my people. I think this is what the Catechism is saying to us. How easy it is to put confidence in other ways, in other means, in a message that we're not totally satisfied with. That's the divide. And I think Paul uses this two groups to make the point. The Jews, he says, request a sign. Haven't you seen that in John? They always want to show. They always want something to entertain them. They always want to see power, then we'll believe. And the Greeks want wisdom. They want to sound heady. They want to sound smart. They want to sound knowledgeable. They don't want to be disrespected. They want to be up there in Athens with the guys to be accepted. And this is the challenge, Paul says in verse 27. The God who has called you wants you to know that in your own callings, he made that choice with you. It's a really powerful point, I think, at this point he makes. That when he decided to bring you into his kingdom, he didn't run to Hollywood. Well, that's a good thing he didn't run to Hollywood, didn't he? Isn't it? Not that he wouldn't, but that he first started in the back parts of the empire. Jesus came from Nazareth. Jesus came from a lowly place, and he came after the people who, according to the world, are foolish. And look at your callings that way. I look out at a people whom he called, and the world doesn't take notice of. And the world sees what we're doing as foolish. And he says, be thankful for that. because your own callings and God's own choice in bringing you into the kingdom ran on this principle. God loved you. And by choosing you to believe this message and to take it in with your heart, you're actually putting the world to shame. If your own calling demonstrates this, then don't press back on him to use the world's wisdom for somebody else to bring them in. right if your own calling demonstrates this why are you pushing that on him to try to win people with its own wisdom and the section makes the call i think it makes a beautiful statement did you notice that in verse um 30 um and because of him you are in christ jesus what a beautiful statement because of him you are in christ jesus look at him born in a manger hated his old life hated his whole life nowhere to lay his head despise and rejected the men when the time came he stepped forward to the cross and was nailed to it and what seemed to be the greatest defeat ever was it a defeat wasn't a defeat it was the greatest victory the world's ever known god's son crucified through that god announced a victory as he rose from the dead and you are in him i want to encourage you to close this message with this thought i was thinking of the end of our belgic confession article 37 you are the victors in this world not them the future and who's deciding the future is your god not them and one day you're going to be vindicated and everyone's going to see that the cause you were involved with was the right one. Gives us chills, doesn't it? Listen to this. On the contrary, the faithful and the elect shall be crowned with glory and honor. And the Son of God, this is on that day when he comes in all of his glory. All that you believe is going to be realized. The Son of God will confess their names before God his Father and his elect angels. All tears shall be white from their eyes. It's been hard, hasn't it? This has been hard. And their cause, which is now condemned by many judge and magistrates as heretical and impious, will then be known to be the cause of the Son of God. And for a gracious reward, the Lord will cause them to possess such a glory as never entered into the heart of man to conceive. Therefore, we expect that great day with the most ardent desire to the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So, Jesus is the name given. He has the name there in Lord's Day 11. Why is the Son of God called Jesus, meaning Savior? Because he saves us from our sins. Salvation is not to be found in anyone else or sought in anyone else. So don't look to anyone else and don't look to anything other than what he's put in place for you to receive him. I think we need that recovered today. It was always God's wisdom in closing. And Gideon started to go out. Gideon started to go out to battle against the Midianites. 32,000 men stood up. God said, no, send 22,000 home. I'm sure Gideon was like, are you kidding me? then he says i'll tell you what take the rest to the water and whoever laps like a dog set them apart 300 are going to fight this battle give them trumpets not ars jars torches they're going to go out they're going to stand around the camp of the enemy and they're going to yell and they're going to break glass and they're going to blow trumpets and they're going to win. That's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. The Lord routed them. The Lord scared them. It was a great defeat that day. And God told Gideon, this battle will never be Israel's. Salvation will never be ours that's the theme today salvation is always of the lord jonah had to learn that at the bottom of the ocean in a big fish salvation belongs to the lord it's his battle and the encouragement is when the his son is preached the holy spirit works in great power and that's why i believe i see a whole church that loves to come hear that message when the holy spirit works in power in people's lives they believe it and it changes them forever and they are justified by faith set free in this glorious message of salvation through Jesus's name this is what we have we have everything the victory's ours take delight in it then be satisfied with it the whole book of revelation as we preached it said Jesus is going to win he's won so let's make him known with great confidence and never be embarrassed of the cross. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for so wonderful a word to us from 1 Corinthians to we constantly need reminders of of the confidence that we need in the person and the work of Jesus alone to save us from our sins. And may we be consistent in the way that we bring him to the world and to one another. Let great joy fill our lives and to realize that the power and the change of the heart and the effect of this in people's lives belongs to you. Thank you for giving us a ministry in this time. And we confess and know that if we're still here, you're still saving. And that gives us every reason to get up every morning. For your glory we live. And thank you, O Lord, for another Sabbath day of rest and enjoyment in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.