A Model Chuck Swindoll Sermon 1B: The Exposition

5:57 Let me tell you something, folks. When you get the cross in the right perspective, everything comes together. Everything comes together. When you get Christ in the clear focus, it is amazing how you know which one is the right goal line. It's amazing how you know how to walk and how to run the race set before us. David Jackman, a British expositor, writes this, In the spiritual context, we must never remain content with childishness.

6:39 To be so is, for Paul, synonymous with worldliness, that is, the flesh. It is to drift back to the old way of living, to the world's outlook and value systems. behaving only in a human way, in other words, like a natural man.

7:01 The indisputable evidence of this is their elevation of favorite teachers to the position of party leaders and a consequent lining up behind them as rival parties. That is behaving only in a human way, adopting the worlds. lifestyle.

7:26 Paul's point is that this worldliness, this fleshly driven lifestyle, illustrates they have not yet come to grips with the message of the cross. I hope you never forget that. When you operate in the flesh, as that man writes, You have not come to grips with the message of the cross. It's still all about you.

8:00 It's just all about people. It's all horizontal. It's all so human. All about impressing. All about holding to this person over all the others. And that's the only one you'll listen to. That's the only CD you'll own. That's the only time you'll tune in. That's the only one you respect. That's a mark of adolescence, even worse, childishness. When we act like that without realizing it, we wound the body of Christ and our adversary dances with glee. Wrong way, Christians.

8:52 have not come to terms with the message of the cross. you will not drift from the truth if the cross remains your focus. By that I mean all that the cross represents, all that it symbolizes. It will reduce your pride to zilch, to nothing. And it will lift up the person of the Savior, and your whole way of life will be transformed. and you will again run in the right direction. Truth be told, some of you are just now discovering the right way to run. You've never been taught it before. Because religion will send you to the wrong goal line every time.

9:49 From that lengthy bit of high-level application, he turns back to explanation. Now look. Verse 18 begins a series of statements this apostle makes regarding the message of the cross, which we proclaim. Which he proclaimed. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Stop right there. See the word foolishness? The Greek term is moria. Guess what word we get from it in English. To the people who are perishing, the cross is moronic. I mean, how stupid can you get? You cut off your head when you come to know this Jesus? When you start believing some cross message? How moronic. That's the word of the lost person. That's the person running in the wrong direction.

10:44 In fact, Paul describes this conflicting opinion as those who see the cross as foolishness. And then he says, but to us who are being saved, why, it is the very power of God. Then he quotes from Isaiah 29 in the verse that follows, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the cleverness of the clever. I will set aside. That was hundreds of years earlier and we still haven't learned the message. It's thousands of years from our time and we still haven't learned Isaiah's warnings. I will destroy the cleverness of the clever. I have no place for it among my teachers, my spokesmen and women, among those who communicate the truth. The wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever. And then he asks, look at the different desires that emerge. Verse 20, where is the wise man?

11:41 Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Pinpoint each of the three subjects. Let's let the wise represent the unsaved Gentile intellectual. Where is that individual? What does he believe? Where is the scribe? That would be the learned Jewish scholar who is lost.

12:10 Where is the debater of this age? The debater of this age would be the Greek philosophers. Experts in debate and disputes and dialectical skills. Oh, they love to argue. Love it. From explanation to a brief illustration. I've said for years, philosophers are the people who talk about things they don't understand making it sound like it's your fault. That's a pretty good definition of a philosopher. And they love to talk about questions because questions lead to more questions and questions need to lead to additional questions and there's more questions and additional questions and all of it kind of piles up and it becomes a series of questions, questions, questions. vows, debates, deliberations. Their desire is to appear brilliant and impress you with things like vocabulary or way of thinking. Ooh, listen to that vocabulary. Whoa. Wonder where he studied. Look at those letters after his name. Whoa. That guy is unreal. Look at that. Now from that illustration, back to explanation.

13:24 But read further. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? One man writes, it is impossible to exaggerate the almost fantastic mastery that the silver-tongued rhetorician held in Greece. Plutarch says they made their voices sweet with musical cadences and modulations of tones and echoed resonances. They thought not of what they were saying, but how they were saying it. So impressed with their own stuff. So proud.

14:21 Why? God looks on that and brings them back to reality. God's desire is to use the declaration of God's truth to save those who believe. Simple as that. One man wrote it this way. It was Paul's claim that he set before men the cross of Christ in its simplest terms. to decorate the story of the cross with rhetoric and cleverness would have been to make people think more of the language than of the facts more of the speaker than of the message it was Paul's aim to set before others not himself but Christ in all his grandeur.

15:19 I love that statement. Look here. 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. Don't think preaching is foolishness. It's just a method that seems foolish to the world system. Why on earth would intelligent people come and sit and listen to somebody preaching?

15:49 I mean, how moronic can you get? I like the way Eugene Peterson renders this section. Listen. Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God, in His wisdom, took delight in using what the world considered dumb, preaching of all things, to bring those who trust Him into the way of salvation. Well, then what does the lost person want? Well, read on. Verse 22, the Jews ask for miracles. The word signs is the idea of miracles. Show us a miracle. Prove it with a miracle and we'll believe it. Do what you cannot do in natural ways. And who will be impressed? We're looking for signs.

16:42 And the Greeks search for wisdom. We're looking for those rhetorical comments, those eloquent words, the things that impress. But I love this. Verse 23, Paul says, But we, who, by the way, was an incredible intellectual, studied under Gamaliel, Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was the up-and-coming chief Pharisee, brilliant Jewish mind.

17:14 And then came the road to Damascus where he was converted. And as a result, he started running in the right direction. And as a result, verse 23, he preaches Christ crucified. We're back to the cross. To the Jews, why, it's a stumbling block.

17:35 To the Gentiles, here's our word again, moronic. All of that was explanation. Now he moves to an illustration. Now, if you question that, next time you find yourself in a sophisticated group, bring up the cross. Just bring it up as a topic of conversation. Hey, by the way, folks, I've been studying a great deal about Jesus and his death on the cross. Boom, hang on.

18:02 Not a soul in the group will go, good for you. What a great study. They'll go, what? What? You believe what? That's a whole point of this section of scripture. but God honors the proclamation of the cross to change lives. Roy Regals was absolutely positive he was running in the right direction and along came his buddy said, wait, I'm going to tackle you. He said, what do you think? Get out, this is my touchdown. You look back, you go, oh, Roy, please, please, please, wrong direction. But to him, it was the right way to run. Now that's what it did in this week. until he was tackled and somebody said, hey man, that's their goal of life.

18:57 From illustration, back to explanation. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. Why? Because 25 says the foolishness of God is wiser than men. the weakness of God stronger than men now I love it when we get to verse 26 I have to believe that Paul had tongue in cheek for just a moment just a little touch of apostolic humor here we're talking about sophisticates those who were noble blue bloods those who were really slick He says, consider your calling, brethren. We want to look at an opposite group.

19:50 Look around. There were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. He didn't say any, he said not many. Meaning what? Well, let's put it this way. This congregation is not made up of the brightest and the best in the world's eyes. I got the idea that it would be helpful for us to realize that we represent in the world's eyes that which is foolish, that which is weak, that which is base, and that which is despised. Those aren't my words. They're all found in 27 and 28. And I thought, well, let's look around. So why don't you do that? Look around. Just take a look. You haven't noticed yet. You shook their hands, but maybe you haven't taken a real good look. Look around. Just whisper, are you blue blood?

20:53 You got really, really great roots. Now he's moving from explanation to illustration. I also took note of some places people could come from. I just pulled down an atlas and started looking. Booger Holler, Arkansas is one of those. Booger Holler, not bogey, Booger Holler. Lizard Lick, my son-in-law told me about Lizard Lick, North Carolina. and Spivey's Corner. Now, maybe you heard of Spivey's Corner. They have the hollering contest there. Hollering contest. And Spivey's Corner. If you're from Spivey's Corner, don't tell anybody. Just leave it. How about Pratsville, Arkansas? How about Pee Wee, West Virginia?

21:43 Dime Box, Texas. And I'll tell you, my favorite one for creativity, Nameless, Tennessee. What shall we name our town? I don't know. Let's go with nameless. Good idea! Let's call it nameless. From illustration to application. Folks, in case you've been sitting around a room full of mirrors, in case you, like Narcissus, have been staring in the pool a little too long, focused on your image, look a little deeper, and you will not see a lacy, slick little rainbow trout. trout what you will see is a wide mouth bottom feeding catfish you don't like that that's part of your problem because you've forgotten your pit you've forgotten your depravity you see all ground is level at the foot of the cross there is no captain or colonel or general there is no sergeant or corporal There is no CEO. Remember that the next time you're in a church where the top guys call CEO off base. There is no president. There is no cabinet. Not in the family of God. All the ground at the foot of the cross level.

23:05 level. I love the way Jim Elliot wrote it in his journal shortly before being martyred. We're all a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt the somebody. Praise God. You start there, you'll run the right direction. From application to explanation. And here he's just reading the text. Look at it. 27, God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. Who would have ever thunk it? And the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong. The base things of the world, the despised. things that are not to nullify things that are. From explanation to illustration. You know, there's a lady in our congregation from a town that no longer exists. No longer exists.

24:02 Picture Oklahoma. Picture. Where are you from? Zero. Ain't even there anymore. Me, I'm from the great metropolis of El Campo. Woo! Great white way. Hmm. Right down the road from Rosenberg, Bay City, Wharton. You go further south, plashes. Plashes you can smell before you get there. Shrimp, great spot. Port Lavaca. It's B-Boy. Isn't this crazy? You know why I'll get there?

24:58 That cross. That's not how I'm going to get there. I got nothing else to give. I just got the cross. I just had the Savior. He does all these things, verse 29, so that no one may boast before God. From illustration to application. When you're running the wrong direction, you're all impressed with all the human stuff. You love, you love all that pedigree. You love all that accent. You love all that special stuff. All that smell good stuff.

25:41 But when you're impressed with the cross, you see everybody at the same level at the foot of that cross Whether it's the little kid in Harlem not knowing what tomorrow will bring. or someone on Wall Street thinking about jumping from the 22nd story. Doesn't matter. The cross levels all of us. Not many culture, not many mighty, by that it means powerful and prestigious and impressive, not many noble.

26:24 You run in the wrong direction when you boast. if you want to toot your own horn, blow a trumpet for God. Nobody else cares. Get off your high horse. You're just folks. You're just wrapped up in the cross.

26:48 And when you focus on that, it is remarkable what a filter system it'll give you in how to read current events, how to see life as it really is. you'll be so unimpressed because you don't hang around people to be impressed. You hang around folks with the hope of communicating and living out the truth. And the truth sets us free from all that other pizzazz. From application back to explanation. How about Paul? Since we've been going on and on about how important this is, how about Paul? Let's ask him. Give us your testimony. All right. verse 1 chapter 2. Here's my testimony. Here's the honest truth coming from the man. who was running in the right direction.