Sermon Tone Analysis

When Harvard University was founded, its motto was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae —“Truth for Christ and the Church.”

Its crest showed three books, one face down to symbolize the limitation of human knowledge.

But in recent decades that book has been turned face up to represent the unlimited capacity of the human mind.

And the motto has been changed to Veritas—“Truth.”

The pursuit of knowledge is praiseworthy, yet learning can quickly lead to pride and a refusal to acknowledge any limits on our mental abilities.

When that happens, biblical truth is ignored.

What, then, is the truth about truth?

A wise king wrote centuries ago,

We must recognize the relationship between God and truth.

Without the help of God’s Spirit and the instruction of God’s Word, man will be:

When we acknowledge and obey His truth, however, we will be set free from spiritual ignorance and error.

That’s why it says in John 8.

That’s why we must be diligent in studying the Bible (2 Timothy 2: 15).

“Study to show thyself approved” It is the only book that tells us the truth about truth.

Introduction: Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians and begins the letter with a reminder to them about the limits of human wisdom.

You’re not going to figure it all out.

Faith is a great mystery.

Can you imagine that Paul had to remind them nearly 2,000 years ago that they didn’t know everything, didn’t understand everything, and weren’t going to have it all figured out?

Look at how much more we know today than they did then!

Look at the advances in our technology and understanding.

Galileo was imprisoned and later died under house arrest for suggesting the earth rotated around the sun.

Everyone thought the sun rotated around the earth.

We still say “the sun comes up – the sun goes down” even though most of us know the sun doesn’t move.

Everyone thought the earth was flat and that if you sailed far enough out on the ocean that you would fall off the end.

In the Bible, they thought rain came from heaven, we know now how rain forms, well, you and I might not, but meteorologists can explain it.

And if you fly in a plane, you’ll go above the rain clouds.

We have become so self-sufficient and smart as a society that many people think that they’ve outgrown God.

The irony is that we only know what God allows us to know.

“There is a difficulty about disagreeing with God.

He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and Him be wrong any more than a stream could rise higher than its own source.

When you argue against Him, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all.” - CS Lewis on ‘Arguing with God’

What, then, is the truth about truth?

The Cross – Power of God

Paul makes it clear that there are only two categories of people: the “perishing” and the “saved.”

Ultimately, all must fall into one of these two classes; there is no other.

Paul writes that those who are perishing consider the word of the cross “foolishness.”

Five times in eight verses, Paul will use a form of the word “foolishness.”

Now it will help you to know the basic Greek word for folly is moria.

In 1: 25 it appears as an adjective—moros.

I probably don’t have to tell you that we get the English word “moron” from this Greek word.

It has the idea of something that is ridiculous, ignorant, stupid, and contemptible.

If someone were to say, “You moron!” you would be insulted, and properly so.

But that is the very word that Paul uses here—and not just once, but five times.

What Paul is saying is this: Most people consider the cross to be moronic!

Now there are countless reasons for this, but at the top of the list has to be that the cross offends our pride.

The word of the cross is that salvation is freely granted by God’s grace, not human merit or intellect.

Furthermore, salvation is extended to all people.

This levels the ground at the foot of the cross.

Everyone comes to God through faith, based upon the work of Jesus Christ.

This offends man’s pride.

I want to put verse 18 back up for a moment

While the unbeliever considers the cross utter nonsense, the Christian sees it as “the power of God.” Please read 1: 18b carefully.

The word of the cross is not simply good advice or helpful information … it is the power of God!

In other words, our victory in salvation and life can only be attained through the cross.

The cross is everything to the Christian.

John Stott shares this brilliant thought: “I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross.

In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

I turn to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness.

That is the God for me.

He set aside his immunity to pain.

He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.”

These words provide one of the best arguments for both the existence of God and the power of the cross.

Wisdom of Man – Foolishness to God

Paul is speaking of the philosopher, the religious scholar, and the debater.

What do these three categories of persons have in common?

They are all perceived as professional experts.

God has not simply disregarded the wisdom of the world or shown it to be foolish.

He has “made foolish the wisdom of the world.”

Just think about this: None of us would have ever come up with the plan of salvation that God did.

In our “wisdom” we would have made it much more confusing, complex, and inequitable.

Earn your way to heaven.

We would have devised a “lay-away” salvation plan.

But God designed a salvation free for all, available to all, by sending His Son to die for our sins.

In the death of Christ, God displayed His own sheer genius in masterminding a plan of salvation whereby He remained both just and the justifier (Romans 3: 26).

If we had a million lifetimes to think and create a means by which a holy God would accept sinful man, we could never come up with the cross.

Only the inscrutable wisdom of God could have thought of it.

God designed His plan of salvation in such a way that sinful man could not come to know Him by human wisdom, which could only exalt man.

So God purposed to save lost sinners through a means that seemed utter nonsense to a “wise” world—the cross.

In the cross, we see the wisdom of God most fully revealed.

In His infinite wisdom, God designed a plan that in no way compromised His holiness or left His righteousness unfulfilled.

God’s wrath has been poured out on man’s sin; all the while, His righteous demands have been met, and He is now free to receive sinners into His holy presence.

This ought to blow our minds.

God “fools” us to show Himself wise and powerful.

Now, please understand, Paul is not against knowledge.

God created us to be inquisitive, to investigate, and to gather knowledge.

The problem with fallen humanity apart from Jesus is that we still don’t have a clue with the knowledge we obtain.

The problem isn’t with knowledge but with the wisdom that interprets and applies the knowledge to concerns and struggles.

We need to recognize that our knowledge is limited.

But God knows everything that can be known or could be known.

We need to entrust ourselves to Him and recognize that He loves to cut the wise and powerful down to size.

Illustration: A number of years ago I had the opportunity to take a trip to new york city.

I will never forget the magnitude of so many huge skyscrapers.

While I was there I had the chance to look at the Empire State Building.

Not only did I get to go up to the observation deck, I took the time to take a picture from the street level straight up looking at the top.

It is a wonderful look at perspective.

From farther away it isn’t as big it doesn’t look as grand, butfrom the street looking up, it’s amazing!

That is what drawing close to something awesome will do.

It will make you feel smaller and smaller by comparison.

This is precisely the dynamic that occurs in our own hearts when we draw near to the starkest, most awesome display of God’s glory—the cross of Jesus Christ.

Christ Crucified – Power & Wisdom of God