The Foolishness of God’s Wisdom

Introduction

Now, I’ll confess I’m kind of enamored with history, and I try to read a lot about history. Right now I’ve been reading some books on WW2. Both my grandpas fought in that war. In fact, one of my grandpas—my dad’s dad—was stationed at Hickom Airfield right by Pearl Harbor and was there when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941.

So WW2 is a bit of an interest to me right now. Now, if you look at the screen here, you see this photo of two armored vehicles. Now, just looking at that photo, who wants to take a guess at what kind of vehicles these are?

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Well, the devil is in the details. Yes, you’re right, the vehicle on the left is indeed a tank. A Sherman tank—America’s primary medium battle tank during the war. But the one on the right—that’s not a tank. That’s a balloon…

Do you see it now? Let’s look at another photo. Here’s a couple of guys lifting the turret section onto the base of another balloon tank. Just two of them.

Here’s a third photo. Here’s four guys lifting up an entire “tank” so they can move it into position.

Before a couple of years ago, I had never heard of America’s “Ghost Army” before. Actually, up until 1996 no one outside of very close circles had ever heard of it either. It was a classified operation for 50 years.

The “Ghost Army” is the name of a special unit that existed during WW2—it’s official name was the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. It was an elite unit. Very secretive. In total, there were only about 1,100 men who were part of this unit. In fact, one of these men—Gilbert Seltzer—just died about a year and a half ago at the age of 106. Now, there’s just a small, dwindling number of these guys left who were part of this unit.

The mission of this unit was simple: tactical deception. Their job was to thwart enemy activity, attacks, defenses, and counterassaults. But they didn’t use guns or armor or artillery. Instead, they used inflatable tanks; trucks with massive speakers and amplifiers loaded on the back from which they played recordings of armored and infantry units. They used fake radio transmissions. They constructed dummy airfields. They set up decoy artillery batteries and tank formations and motor pools.

All this for the purpose of deceiving the enemy into thinking allied forces were doing things they really weren’t.

Now, try for a minute to put yourself in the place of these 1,100 men. Think about their perspective for a second. America has just been attacked at Pearl Harbor. There is a massive war going on encompassing two continents. To the west, Imperial Japan is expanding its empire. To the east, Nazi Germany has conquered the entire European continent.

Your country is at war. You want to help. I remember a sense of that feeling. I was on Spring Break down in Mexico with my roommate from college and we were walking down a street in Puerto Vallarta looking for someplace to eat and we saw a bunch of TVs behind the window of an electronic shop and we stopped and just watched the news because we were finding out right then and there that we were at war with Iraq.

But even that’s not really comparable to what guys back in 1941 were going through when they were answering the call to go to war. There was a genuine patriotism back then that is really unparalleled to today.

Now, imagine you’re one of these guys. You enlist in the Army. There’s a lot of different places you can go and units you can fight in. You see guys joining the Paratroopers. Other guys are going into the tank corps. Other guys are going into the Air Corps like my grandpa in Pearl Harbor.

But you…you’re going to fight the Nazi war machine with an inflatable tank. You’re going to play loud sounds over a giant boom box on the back of a halftrack. That’s what you’re going to do for WW2.

If I was one of those guys, I’d got to be thinking, “What in the world am I doing here? How can this possibly do any good?” Here, these guys are going into battle with M1’s and B.A.R’s and bazookas. They’re going to be landing on the beaches of Normandy with guns and bullets and tanks. And what do I have? A bunch of pool toys! How is this ever going to work? I feel impotent here. I feel powerless and like I have nothing to contribute.

Yet the story of America’s Ghost Army is the exact opposite of that. It was anything but impotent and ineffective. In fact, it turned out to be one of the most effective units in the American military history—so effective that Smithsonian magazine estimated that upwards to 30,000 American lives were saved by the tactics of this unit.

They were integral to cracking the Atlantic wall on D-Day by fooling the Germans into believing the Allied landings were going to be somewhere other than in Normandy.

Perhaps their most effective and complex mission happened in March 1945. Two divisions of the U.S. 9th Army were trying to cross the Rhine River into Germany itself. So the Ghost Army set up about 10 miles south of these divisions and their objective was to simulate a backup of those divisions so that the German forces would be drawn away from the actual river crossings.

The 23rd set up inflated tanks, cannons, planes, and trucks. They sent out fake radio messages about American troop movements. They used loudspeakers to simulate the sound of soldiers constructing pontoon boats to cross the river.

And the Germans fell for it! They started firing on the 23rd’s fake divisions while the actual 9th Army forces made their way across the river with virtually no resistance.

America’s Ghost Army is a perfect example of a plan that seems to defy human expectations. For a group of soldiers going into war without weapons and ammunition, they sure did an amazing job of beating the Germans. And I’m sure guys like Gilbert Seltzer felt silly at times fighting the Nazi war machine with inflatable tanks and loudspeakers. But it worked.

Principle

Why do I bring this up right now? Well, there’s an important spiritual principle that this illustrates: God has always operated outside the norm of human expectations. Let me put it another way: God is in the business of doing the impossible.

Now, before you think this is just another message about faith and how anything can happen if you just believe, stop there. I’m not talking about that. I’m not talking about that at all.

School Theme

This year’s school theme is what? “Here I am. Send Me.” Right? Isaiah 6:8. Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord on his throne. He’s undone. He cries out, “Woe is me! I’m undone! Because I’m a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes of have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” And then one of the Lord’s seraphim flies down and takes a burning hot coal from the altar of incense and touches Isaiah’s lips with it and cleanses him.

And then the Lord asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” And Isaiah knows he’s been prepared for this task, and so he volunteers: “Here am I. Send me!”

That’s a great theme for this year. I have just one question for you: Send me to do what? What are you volunteering to do? What’s your mission?

Now, if your answer is, “To preach the gospel,” then you’re absolutely right. That’s your mission. That’s what you’re called to do.

So then, I have another question for you: What’s your expectation? What do you expect to happen? I’m not sure very many of you have probably thought about that yet. But you should.

I’m going to give you one of the most important insights you’re ever going to have about your mission: The gospel is not easy to believe. The gospel is hard to believe.

I’m not just saying that to be shocking. I’m saying that because it comes straight from the text of Scripture. The gospel is hard to believe.

Let me show you this. Turn in your Bibles, if you have them, to the book of 1 Corinthians. And I’m going to read for you a portion of this book, beginning in chapter 1, verse 18, and then we’ll talk about it a little bit.

Read passage

1 Corinthians 1:18–25 “18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased, through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Now stop right there. The key to this passage is the opening verse: “The word of the cross—the gospel—is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Paul’s whole thesis is laid out in this one verse.

Two Groups

We find here two groups of people: on the one hand, there are “those who are perishing.” This is another way of talking about the unbeliever. This is the Christ-rejector. This is the person who belongs to this world, who thinks like this world, and who loves this world. They’re called the perishing because you can’t be a friend of this world and a friend of God. That’s impossible. “Friendship with the world,” James 4:4 says, “is enmity with God.” And so if you belong to this world, then you’re on what Jesus calls “the broad road that leads to destruction” (Matt. 7:13). You’re in the process of perishing in your sin because you’ve rejected “the word of the cross.”

On the other hand, there’s another group of people in this verse: “those who are being saved.” This is talking about believers. This is the person who has responded to the gospel message in faith. They’ve had their sins forgiven because they’ve trusted completely in Christ’s death on the cross as the only way to reconcile them to God.

Two Views of the Gospel

But notice that these two groups have two completely different views of the gospel. To the unbeliever—the one who is perishing—the gospel message is “foolishness.” Moros in the Greek. That’s where we get the word “moronic.” The gospel is moronic. It’s stupid. It’s nonsense. You couldn’t pay me enough to believe that message.

But the believer has a completely different view. It’s like they’re living in a completely different world. It’s the same message for both groups. The same words. The same ideas. But while the unbeliever hears it and thinks, “This is moronic,” the believer hears it and sees in it the power of God.

How does that happen? How can two people hear the same message and come to two completely different conclusions about it? How can one person hear of Jesus Christ crucified for sin and think, “That’s moronic,” while another person hears it and cries out to God, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

The Wisdom of the World

Well, the answer really lies in understanding the way the world thinks. The world is a system: cosmosin the Greek. We get our English word “cosmetic” from it. It’s the idea of something ordered or arranged. And eventually that word became the term most frequently used in the Bible to talk about the order or system that is arranged against God and is hostile to God. It’s the world vs God. And you’re on one side or the other.

And the world has a distinct way of thinking. It’s very man-centered. Paul calls it “the wisdom of the world” in our text. It’s the way the world thinks. It’s the way the world analyzes things. It’s a conglomeration of the world’s values, the world’s logic, and the world’s methods. We might call it “human wisdom.”

Let’s dive into that a little bit more for a second. What are the world’s values?

Beauty

Power

Popularity

Possessions

Pride and self-esteem

Autonomy

And those values lead to a kind of worldly logic. It’s a logic that puts man at the center of everything.

Doing what feels good is the most important thing

You decide who you really are – you’re the creator

Various world religions – all share the common theme of man’s inherent goodness and ability to please God

Secular humanism – man doesn’t need God and there is no God

Marxism – man is either a victim or an oppressor

And then we might talk about the world’s methods. How do these values and logic get packed and presented?

The elite

The powerful

The well-educated

The well-articulate

All of that and more is all encapsulated in this overarching concept that Paul calls “the wisdom of the world.” It’s the very best that the world has to offer in terms of human achievement and human ingenuity, and it does not lead them to God.

Jews and Gentiles

Paul actually gives a couple examples of this kind of human wisdom that would have been around in his day and what the Corinthians would have been familiar with. He says in verse 22, “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom.”

Jews and Greeks. These would have been the two most common categories of people at that time. They both had their own particular values and thinking. Jews, he says, seek signs. They want to see miracles. They want to see big things happen.

Greeks, on the other hand, prize wisdom. They like anything complex and mysterious. Basically, they gravitate toward anything that sounds the most sophisticated and philosophical—always after something new.

And on the surface, there doesn’t seem to be much that links these two groups of people together except for one thing: both are horribly offended by the message of the cross. He says in the second part of verse 22, “But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.”

Jews: For the Jews, it’s offensive to their religion. The thought that God would become a man is blasphemous enough, but to say that God would die by crucifixion was perhaps the most offensive thing you could say to a Jew.

Greeks: For Greeks, the offense was of a different level. They were offended intellectually. The cross was an affront to their intelligence. It’s too simple. There’s not enough philosophy. It’s not something up for debate, which is something the Greeks loved to do. It’s just a plain message that man is a sinner who must repent and place his trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. It’s not complicated enough.

And so Jew and Gentile, for two completely different reasons, utterly reject the gospel.

Hard to Believe

So I go back to the point I made earlier: the gospel is not easy to believe. It’s actually hard to believe. Why? Because the gospel goes against everything the world values. It affronts the world’s logic. It undermines the world’s methods.

World = man is basically good

Gospel = Man is inherently evil, dead in trespasses and sins and on his way to hell (Eph 2:1-3).

World = feel good about yourself.

Gospel = feel terrible about yourself.

World = If you feel bad it’s because you don’t love yourself enough.

Gospel = You love yourself too much, and he who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal (John 12:25).

World = Do what feels good. If it feels good, it must be right.

Gospel = “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Christ” (Matt. 16:24).

World = You’re the author of your own identity, and anyone who challenges your identity hates you and is denying your very existence.

Gospel = God is the one who gives you identity and meaning, and that the most loving thing anyone could do for you is to warn you that you’re on the wrong path.

You get the idea. The gospel—for as simple and straightforward as it is—is complete and utter foolishness to the world. It’s offensive, and an affront to everything the world holds dear.

That’s why the gospel is hard to believe.

The Power of God

So when a person does believe, there’s only one explanation: it is the power of God.

- To open up the sinner’s eyes to see the gospel as wisdom rather than foolishness.

To open up the sinner’s heart to recognize his utter wretchedness and his need for a substitute on the cross.

That’s God at work when a person believes.

God has purposefully and intentionally designed salvation so that the world on its own could not know him so that when a person actually does believe, God gets all the credit and all the glory.

That’s what Paul says at the end of chapter 1: “For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

No one can ever stand before God and say, “I believed because I was smart enough. I figured it out. I was stronger. I was wiser. I had a better education. I had more influence. None of that was a factor in a person’s salvation, because if a person uses those criteria, he’s only come to the conclusion that the gospel is moronic!

Now listen to verse 30: “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

Your Mission

So now let’s go back to this year’s theme: “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” Send me to preach the gospel. Send me to share the message of the cross to people who desperately need to hear it.

You remember what I asked you? What’s your expectation? How do you define success in this mission?

Are you going to define success by how many people come to faith because you shared the gospel with them? If that’s our metric—if that’s how success is determined, then I don’t know what to make of the passage we just studied—because Paul seems to be telling us that we don’t have any control over who believes and who rejects the gospel.

Let me tell you something: the biggest temptation you’re going to face when sharing the gospel is the temptation to soften the message of the cross and to lessen its impact in order to make it more palatable for people.

It’s hard to talk to someone about their sin. It’s hard to look people in the eyes and tell them they’re not a good person like they think they are, that they’re actually a sinner and an enemy of God and at risk of going to hell tomorrow if they happen to not make it through the night.

People don’t want to hear that. That’s offensive to them. That’s affront to everything they believe about themselves.

And because of that, there’s always going to be a nagging pressure just to soften things up. The make it a little kinder, and little gentler, and little easier to swallow. Maybe we just won’t talk about sin. Or maybe hell is just too hard of a subject. Or Jesus being God is just a little bit to hard to believe. So you just fudge it a little bit.

Guess what? You’re thinking like the world again. This is the way the world thinks. This is the reason the gospel is hard to believe. And you take the glory away from God by changing that message and softening that message because you’ve made the gospel appeal to the wisdom of the world.

True Success

You want to know how to define true success in your mission? It’s really simple.

God is looking for four things:

Faithfulness – faithfulness to the message – it’s his message

Humility –be an instrument God uses to change peoples lives…don’t think people come to Christ because of you

Holiness – make sure your life matches your confession – don’t be a hypocrite

Compassion – have compassion on people – Jesus looked out at the crowds and he felt compassion for them because they were lost and sheep without a shepherd – helpless and in need of rescue

KEY: These = mission success.

You can’t measure success by the things you don’t have control over. But you have control over yourself.

Gospel Power

And finally, don’t underestimate the power of the gospel. The gospel is powerful. It’s the only way a person can be saved.

I think we can all feel like Gilbert Seltzer sometimes and the other guys who were part of America’s Ghost Army, feeling pretty silly that all we have to change the world with is a simple message that the world finds moronic and offensive. How are we really going to make a difference with that?

But the gospel isn’t an inflatable tank. We’re not shooting blanks. We have a real weapon of God and we have to remember that in the end, our battle is not against flesh and blood and so we don’t fight with human weapons, we fight with divine weapons.

If they were human weapons, we’d never stand a chance. But they’re not. As Paul told the Corinthians, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of God” (2 Cor 10:3-5).

The gospel is doesn’t need your help to make it powerful. Let God do his work. Be winsome. Be patient with people. Develop relationships with people. Don’t just shove things down people’s throats. But don’t compromise either. Let the message of the gospel do its work so you can stand before God and say, “My only boast is in you.”