What a privilege we have to be able to come together once again and open up the infallible, inspired, inerrant, all-sufficient, authoritative word of God. So will you take your bibles and turn to First Corinthians, chapter one. If you've not been with us, we are going verse by verse, through First Corinthians, and we find ourselves this morning in verses 18 and 19, which will be the first part of a two-part series, maybe a three-part series, I'm not sure yet on "Wisdom - God's versus Man's Wisdom."

Let me give you some context here to remind you of where we are, so that we can begin to put this amazing passage together in a way that makes perfect sense, and we can apply it to our lives. Remember that Paul has just finished exhorting the saints at Corinth to grow up spiritually and to disband the personality cults that had developed in the church. They were basically little groups that caused great disunity in the church, because we're all one -we're all one in him, we're all one in the body of Christ. And so there's no place for this type of childish bickering that goes on among the saints.

And by the way, he is going to continue this theme throughout First Corinthians. And the very basis for unity is summed up in verses nine and 10. He says, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship," in other words, into oneness, into common life; koinonia - "...you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment."

Now, as we know from other passages concerning this issue, as we look in First Corinthians and even in Second Corinthians, we know that the source of these factious sectarianism, shall we say, was really their own hearts. There was arrogance and pride. They were self-willed and self-promoting; something we all have to deal with. But there was also a cultural factor that we need to understand, something that was fueling the fire, if you will, as is often the case in most churches, the culture has a great impact. You see, the Greeks prided themselves in philosophical reasoning. Now, bear in mind, they did not have televisions. They did not have computers and all these screens to entertain them. They didn't have all of the sports arenas, like we had to do those types of things. They had some of that, but nothing like we have. And so what they had for entertainment was what was called "philosophia," which means the love of wisdom. And obviously this refers to man's wisdom; and this wisdom was presented by skilled orators, or philosophers, that prided themselves and their ability to persuade people with their rhetoric. So these people, these skilled orators, were, shall we say, the rock stars of that day. They were the the Hollywood celebrities.

Now with no standard of absolute truth, they sought to make sense out of life through human reasoning. They tried to explain questions like, the origin of man. Where did we come from? Why are we here? What is human? Where is humanity going? What happens when we die? Are there gods and how do we relate to them? How should we function in society and so soon. Now, naturally, opinions varied widely, so people aligned themselves with the philosophy and the philosophers that made the most sense to them, the ones they liked the most.

So factions developed, like our political parties or like religious denominations. And it is estimated that approximately 50 of these kinds of, shall we say, philosophical denominations, existed during this period of history - in the first century - and each one of them competed with the other ones to gain the most influence and to attract the largest following in the culture. Now, like every political or religious movement, success depended largely on two things, and that would be number one: the popularity of the message, and then secondly: the popularity of the messenger. And the popularity of the messenger depended largely on his oratory skills, on his ability to move a crowd.

Now we've witnessed this as long as I've been alive, I've seen this in politicians who are able to use powerful oratory and lofty rhetoric, even if it's based on flawed logic, to sell the masses policies even like socialism that has never worked anywhere, at any time and never will. And yet people will follow this. And of course, those people know that that those things don't really work, but it sells well. It gains votes, it attracts a crowd, and that was much of what was going on in that day in the first century. So people would align themselves with their favorite philosopher, personality cults would begin to develop, and you would have kind of a religious fervor for the message and the messenger. And so it became like a cult.

So it should be no surprise that all of this entered into the church as these people came to Christ. That was their mindset. And so you have new, worldly, immature believers that are used to this kind of sectarianism, this kind of factiousness, and so they naturally gravitated towards their favorite preacher, and they would become hostile then, to other groups that didn't quite line up with their preferences. Some of them even lined up under men that baptized them. And so we read that some of them were saying, "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas." Well, "I am of Christ" and all of this type of stuff. And as we studied the last time, Paul would have none of this. We get a hint of this in verse 17, he said, "But Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech..." In other words, not in the soaring rhetoric like you're used to with these Greek philosophers. He didn't want to do that, "...so that he says the cross of Christ would not be made void." In other words, I don't want to rob the gospel of its inherent power by using manipulative rhetoric and techniques to move a crowd.

By the way, I despise this kind of thing, and we see it all the time. You can turn on the television almost any time, and you're going to see this. I especially despise the preacher talk. You've heard that; a guy gets in the pulpit and all of a sudden, his voice gets quivering, and he goes up and he goes down, and then he starts walking around. He starts walking around amongst the people, and he's trying to get people all worked up. And before you know it, people are hooting and hollering, and he's a sweating and carrying on. I mean, folks, that's just ridiculous. And they use, typically, the 123 method of preaching. They've got one verse, two jokes and three tear jerking stories, and, oh, they start to cry, like Jimmy Swaggart, and here we go. I mean, that's the type of stuff that was going on in the first century. So it's nothing new. Paul is not going to have any part of that, because the power is not in the messenger, it is in the message of the gospel; a message that the world considers to be utter folly, because they reject the authority of divine revelation.

Now with that background, here's what he says as he continues to address these issues, beginning in verse 18, and I'm going to read down through verse 25 so you get the flow of it. He says,

"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.

For it is written,

'I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF I THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.'

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?

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.

For indeed, Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom;

but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

but to those who are the called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God,

because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

I want to explain and apply these passages over the next several weeks, beginning today, under two primary categories. Number one: we're going to look at the power of God's presumed foolishness, and secondly: the limits of man's presumed wisdom.

Now may I just say from the outset that Paul's inspired argument here is both profound and practical, addressing the very issues that we all deal with today as believers. So under the heading of "The power of God's presumed foolishness," notice verse 18. He says, "For the word of the cross is foolishness." In Greek, it's "mōria.". We get our word moron from that. It's moronic to those who are perishing, he says, "...but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."

Verse 19, "for it is written, and here he quotes Isaiah 29:14, "It is written, 'I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.'"

Now, what is the word of the cross? What is meant by that? What he's referring to here is the straightforward, unembellished message of the gospel in its totality. It's not merely the doctrine about the cross, although it certainly includes that, but it's more than that. He's referring here to the simple, unadorned, unashamed proclamation of the gospel that targets the human heart with the good news of redemptive love. That's the word of the cross. It is the truth of this Word, God's revelation to man, that centers on the cross, that is so foolish to those who are perishing.

So what we have here are two kinds of people. In fact, the entirety of the world can be divided into these two groups. In fact, there are those of you here today, whoever's here today is in one of these two groups. Group A - it's those who are perishing. The Greek is very precise here; it is a present middle participle for you Greek students; it's very precise. And what it's referring to here - those who are perishing - it speaks of a continuous process of disintegration and separation from God that will never end. So for some people, they are perishing, and it's going to continue on through eternity, unless they come to in faith to Christ, as we're going to see.

The second group are those who are being saved; and this is speaking of a process that will be completed eventually, when we receive our glorified bodies. And then also in this group a, not only are those who are perishing in this continuous process, but we notice that they believe that what Christ did on the cross is foolishness. In other words, it has no bearing on their life, no bearing on their eternity. It's just kind of silly stuff. And group B, for those who are being saved, find it to be the power of God.

And what's interesting here is he quotes Isaiah in verse 19, and this provides some very important context that will really help us see more of where he's going with all of this. So let me give you the context here of this reference in Isaiah chapter 29. If I were to take you back to that era in Judah, in the eighth century BC Judah, what you would see if you observed the Jews were some very, very religious people. On the outside they looked very religious. They were fastidious in keeping the law; they observed all of the rituals; they participated in all the feasts and convocations. They made their sacrifices, but their religion was basically a sham. It was phony. They were hypocrites. They only wanted to hear what they wanted to hear, which was man's wisdom. And there were false prophets that were readily available to tell them things that would tickle their ears.

So what happens is that God gave them up judicially to the hardness of their hearts, and so they became, according to chapter 29 and verse nine, "blind and drunk." They were unable to comprehend Isaiah's message about trusting God instead of trusting in Egypt, frankly. So they trusted in the wisdom of man, not God, who through Isaiah, warned them not to trust in foreign kings. Don't trust in foreign gods. Don't trust in yourself, trust in Yahweh, to defend you. Ah, but they knew better, and the false teachers were telling them different things, and the culture was so strong that they trusted in other gods. In fact, Isaiah says in chapter two that they were full of superstitions. It says that their land was full of idols, that they bowed down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

So you have these very religious Jewish people who are also, according to chapter eight and verse 19, consulting with demonic spirits - with spirits - if you can imagine that. Says there in that text, "When men tell you to consult mediums and spirits, you whisper and mutter. 'Should not a people inquire of their God?'" Isaiah, asked, "Why consult the dead, on behalf of the living?" And in chapter 27 we see that their land was full of altar poles and incense altars and on and on it goes. So their worship of Yahweh, the one true God, was a sham. Their religion was mechanical. It was just empty ritualism. And so in Isaiah 29 beginning in verse 13, we read this.

"Then the Lord said, 'Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote...'" Now let me stop there before he gets into the "therefore." What he's going to do, like many today, shall we say, they would sing the hymns, and they would hear the sermon, maybe even get involved in the church, but it was all sizzle and no steak, all sizzle and no steak in their hearts; they loved the world more than God. Church was merely a social club. Christianity was just kind of a religious idea that they thought felt nice to them, so to speak, no genuine love for God. They would speak spiritually, you know that God talk that you read on Facebook, for example. You see all of that type of stuff. But they honor him with their lips, but their heart is far from me, "'Therefore,'" verse 14, "'behold,'" - look at this; be astonished at what I'm going to do - "'I will, once again, deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous.'" By the way, the Hebrew here is different than what you might think in the English. He's talking about how he is going to pour out unparalleled, marvelous, shall we say, vengeance on their hypocrisy. "'And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.'" It will be hidden, in other words; it will be proven to be false; it will be worthless. All the wisdom of the wise is going to be futile.

And then he pronounces a woe, a curse on them. Verse 15, "'Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, and whose deeds are done in dark place. And they say, "Who sees us?" "Who knows us?"'" See, the amazing thing about hypocrisy, it's a masquerade where you don't think God sees what's going on. And the sad thing is, we know from other passages in Scripture, you begin to believe your own lies.

Verse 16, he goes on with the accusation, "'You turn things around!'" The idea is you've twisted things in your own favor. You have inverted your relationship with God, making out like he is supporting your position. And then he says, "'Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay that what is made would say to its maker, "How did you make me?'" Or, "'He did not make me,'" Excuse me. "'Or what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He has no understanding'?'"Imean, can you imagine a clay coffee cup, for example, even speaking? Much less making accusations. I mean, that's absurd. And so what he's saying here is, do you really think that you can quarrel with the sovereign Almighty God? Do you really think you can conduct yourself in this way and even condemn him and ignore him or twist his words to accommodate your thinking?

So folks, that's the background here. Now as we come to First Corinthians, you see why Paul would say that, "...the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it's the power of God." Now, and here's why, "For it is written, 'I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.’” In other words, you factious, arrogant Corinthians. Yes, you may know Christ, but you're still in love with man's wisdom. Can't you see the folly of all of this? Don't you remember what has happened historically, you're behaving like those who are perishing, like those fools who we see all of the time walk around with a smirk on their face, and they shake their heads in contempt at anybody who believes the gospel of Jesus Christ. So he's saying, really, do you want to join the ranks of those who are perishing? I mean, that's how you're acting. So Paul warns them, like the Jews of ancient Judah, "'I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.’” Now, obviously the context of First Corinthians here relates to the perceived foolishness of God and the perceived wisdom of man, and all of that is proven by the rejection of the gospel, because, see, the unsaved cannot see the divine wisdom of the gospel, whereby God has provided a way for sinful man to be forgiven and to receive the righteousness of Christ rather than experiencing his wrath; a wrath that he poured out on his son, the Lamb of God. People think that's ridiculous. They think it's barbaric. They see it as bizarre. It is laughably absurd. But we must also see in Paul's quotation that like the apostasy that took place right in the ranks of Judaism, so too this perceived wisdom is going to take place right in the ranks of the church, and that's what we see going on in Corinth, and that's what we see going on in churches down through the church age. We see this all of the time, where the gospel is terribly distorted, and Jesus warned about ravenous wolves that would come in amongst the sheep and do this kind of thing, and it's very popular today. It's popular for many pulpits to reject the infinite holiness of God. They reject the idea of man's innate depravity, his sinfulness. They reject all of that so that they can attract unbelievers and fill up their churches. God is portrayed as being so loving that that he just kind of winks at sin like a benevolent grandfather sitting next to the fireplace in his rocking chair and he sees his naughty little grandson; come here, son, it's no big deal. That's how they see God. That's how he is portrayed. And therefore, without seeing sin as it really is, who needs a savior, right? That's where this thing goes. And they reason that, well, you know, since God is love, this priority of his righteousness and his wrath against sin, well, all of that's utterly preposterous.

Worse yet, when they hear that God poured out his wrath on his son, that there was a human sacrifice for sinners, I've literally seen this, they will get up and walk out of a room. In fact, in liberal circles, they call this cosmic child abuse. Perhaps you've heard of that. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And folks, many of them, fill pulpits every Sunday. They teach in seminaries. They teach in Bible schools. They sell best-selling books. They pack vast auditoriums. And yet the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, the idea that one person bears the penalty for someone else's sins, all of that is at the very heart of the gospel. We read, for example, in First Corinthians 15, verse three, "...Christ died for our sins." In other words, an atonement for sin was made. Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures we read in First John four and verse 10, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation...." the satisfaction, the placation, the appeasement, "...for our sins."

You see, the Old Testament system pictured the ultimate and final propitiation, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the golden lid that I read about earlier in Hebrews nine, the golden lid on top of the ark of the covenant that was called the mercy seat. And the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament translates that term. It was the "hilasterion," because the "hilasmas" means the propitiation. It was the place of propitiation. It was upon that mercy seat that the just wrath of God was symbolically propitiated. His fury was temporarily appeased. His vengeance upon sinners was placated once a year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, when the high priest would go in and sprinkle the blood and remember that the very word atonement means that there must be a moral or a legal repayment for a fault or an injury. An atonement always included two things, it included satisfaction and substitution. There had to be a satisfaction of the offended holiness of God accomplished only by a substitute for the guilty party. That's what atonement is. And so to say that Christ's sacrifice on the cross is cosmic child abuse is blasphemy. Romans five and verse six, we read "...Christ died for the ungodly." Verse eight, "...while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Hebrews 9:28, that we read earlier, "Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many." First Peter 2:24, "He bore our sins in his own body on the tree." First John 4:10, that I read earlier, "God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Romans, five, six, we see that this is the message of the cross, but it's foolishness to those who are perishing. Ah, says the wise man who is perishing. But there are other explanations for all of this, other explanations for what happened on the cross; explanations that are much more appealing to the masses; explanations that are, shall we say, politically correct. I mean, after all, the church will never win the admiration of the world with such theology. So we must stay in fashion if we are to be quote, "missional."

We will never reach young people, for example, unless we learn to engage the culture in bloody sacrifices, especially a human sacrifice on a Roman cross. It's just too macabre. It's too ghoulish for the sophisticated sensitivities of modern progressives. We can't have that kind of thing, that's just too offensive to them. You mean those who don't have any problem with killing unborn infants? That group, okay? Well, let me show you how this thing works, because some of you may not be aware of what happens outside of, shall we say, our reformed circles. I want to show you how many who are ostensibly evangelical, use the wisdom of man to somehow mitigate and indeed eviscerate what really happened on the cross. Those who consider the word of the cross to be foolishness. There are various theories that are out there. Let me give some of them to you and explain them.

First of all, there's what's called the ransom theory of the atonement of the cross. And this was really the first major heretical theory of the atonement that became popular in the early church in the post- apostolic period. It was made popular, primarily, by a man named Origen. And I might also add that this, this particular theory, is popular today in the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Protestant word faith movement - that extreme charismatic movement that you're probably aware of. Now, this theory teaches that the death of Christ was a ransom sacrifice paid to Satan for the souls of the faithful. In other words, they teach that Satan held humanity captive to sin. So in order to rescue humanity, God had to give him a ransom, and he gave him the ransom of his son, he delivered Jesus over to him in exchange for the souls that were being held captive. And proponents of the ransom theory often appeal to Jesus statement in Matthew 20:28 that He gave His life "a ransom for many." Now, naturally, Satan loves this theory, not only because it is totally false and Satan is a liar, but also because it gives him so much power. I mean, think about it, he can make demands on God. That's the idea. And what these false teachers fail to realize that it is God who is sovereign, not Satan. He has no power, and it is the holiness of God that requires a just penalty to be paid for sin. You see Christ's death on the cross, according to Ephesians five, two was quote, "an offering and a sacrifice." Get this "to God," not to Satan. Jesus paid the price of the cross in order to ransom sinners from the just punishment of God's holy wrath, Romans five, nine.

Let me give you another concocted theory that trivializes the atonement. It's the moral influence theory. They would say that Christ's death wasn't a substitutionary payment for sins, but rather a profound example of self-sacrificing love that can bring positive moral change to humanity. This was popular among German theologians in the 18th century, that's when it's really began, and especially under the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, and it is still very popular today in Liberal Protestantism, for example, in the Anglican Church, the Methodist Church, Lutheran churches, liberal Presbyterian churches and so forth. In fact, this was the basic mess message behind the movie, "The Passion of the Christ." Did you see that in 2004 the Mel Gibson movie? In fact, the director, Mel Gibson, described his rationale for doing the movie this way. Quote, "I went to the wounds of Christ to cure my wounds. My wounds were healed by his wounds. I had to tell the story of those wounds, etc." I was reading a Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University, John Thatamanil, and he said this quote, "Jesus is a model of non-violent resistance. The cross a symbol of dying to self," end quote. And so the idea here is that Christ's death on the cross would win over the hearts of impenitent sinners and somehow woo them to live a moral life as Jesus did. Hence the name, the designation, "moral influence theory."

Now, folks, I might add that while it's certainly true that Jesus' self-sacrificing love is something that we should emulate, but to reduce the atonement to be nothing more than that eviscerates the very heart of the gospel. You see Christ objectively, specifically and sufficiently paid for the sins of all whom the Father had given him. He appeased the holy wrath of an infinitely holy God who has been deeply offended and who has been made the mortal enemy of sinners. SoChrist died to remove our guilt and our alienation, not to merely influence us to be moral. Beloved, this is what happens when those who are perishing reject the word of the cross in favor of their perceived wisdom, they do not, they cannot understand the word of the cross, the nature of the atonement or of the gospel, and they'll never be able to do so apart from regenerating grace.

Let me give you a third example of this. It's called the "moral government theory." This was first proposed by a guy named Hugo Grotius, a Dutch legal expert from the early 17th century. And it was later adopted by the heretic Charles Finney, who really came up with the anxious bench and the altar call and people coming forward and making decisions for Christ and all of that stuff. And other leading New England theologians of the 18th and 19th centuries also adopted this position, along with many modern day Arminians who draw heavily from the works of Hugo Grotius, who, by the way, was a student of Jacobus Arminius. And the moral government theory teaches that Christ did not die as any one substitute, but rather he died as a token suffering for sins in general. So proponents of this view hold that God's justice did not demand a payment for sin, and therefore, by accepting Christ's token suffering, God just set aside, he relaxed his law since he is liable to no law, they will say. So God chose to punish Christ in order to maintain the moral order and government of the universe. Christ's punishment also acts as a deterrent from sin, they would say, evoking fear and those who would disobey God. And yet scripture is so clear, Christ did pay the penalty for sinners. First Corinthians15, three. "Christ died for our sins." Hebrews 2:17, "He made propitiation for the sins of the people." You see, folks, God's justice is meticulous. He provided sufficiently and specifically a payment for sin. Were that not so God's absolute justice would not be satisfied, and we would have no hope.

Let me give you a fourth one. It's called "The Christus victory theory." And this has gained popularity over the last 25 years, especially in what's called New Model theologians, the position that was taken by the now defunct emergent church group. And this is kind of a hybrid of the ransom theory, and it's a typical perversion of the atonement. And this theory asserts that Christ's death and resurrection signified nothing more than his victory over all of the foes of humanity, things like sin and death, the devil, especially the law of God. And they emphatically deny that Christ offered himself to God on the cross. And by the way, we can see variations of this heretical theory in what's called Open theism. I want to introduce these things; some of you, this may be old hat, but for a lot of you, it may be new, and you need to be aware of these things. This is a movement that's gaining traction. It's presented by theologians like Clark Pinnock and Greg Boyd and maybe you've read some of John Eldredge, some of his books, the author of "The Sacred Romance," "Wild at Heart,” I think he's got one out called "Epic."

And open theism denies the sovereignty, the foreknowledge, the immutability and the omniscience of God. Proponents of this particular position believe that the future is unknown even to God, and thus open to practically any kind of eventuality. And the idea here is he's as surprised as we are when things happen and he reacts to things, he responds. They teach that God is always learning. He's always reacting. They even teach that God makes mistakes because he can only react according to limited information, and later, when he gets more information, he can change his mind, especially when he has made mistakes. I mean, all of this is just heresy. But a part of open theism emphatically denies the propitiation and the penal substitution - the necessary aspect of Christ's atoning work. They define sin as merely bad behavior. It's not a violation of the law of an infinitely Holy God that must be punished. Instead, they believe in a kinder, gentler, loving God who would never demand any payment for sin as a condition for forgiveness. So to them, Christ's death was not an atonement for sinners. It was not a ransom paid. There was no guilt imputed to Christ, nor did God punish Christ as a substitute for sinners. But rather, they say Christ merely, quote, "absorbed our sin and its consequences." In other words, they say that he merely became a partaker with us in the human problem of pain and suffering. So for them, his death was nothing more than a public display of the terrible consequences of sin. It was not an offering of his blood to satisfy holy justice. For them, the cross merely demonstrated that Christ was willing to die and suffer alongside the sinner, rather than in the sinner's stead. You see the difference?

By the way, this heresy is nothing new. Satan's been promoting this for many, many years. It was a lie that first came into being. In Poland in the 16th and the 17th centuries. It began with the teaching of a heretic by the name of Faustus Socinus. The Latin is Faustus Socinus and his view of the atonement became known as Socinianism . Maybe you familiar with that, and like modern open theism, he wanted a kindler, a more gentler God whose love essentially overpowers and annuls his hatred for sin. So God is perfectly free in his mind to forgive sin without demanding any kind of payment. In fact, in Socinianism, what you have is demanding a payment would literally nullify the idea of forgiveness, and so sin can either be forgiven or it must be paid for. You can't have both in his mind. If a legal price is demanded, then forgiveness is simply a legal transaction. It's not a gracious gift, as the heresy goes.

But what they don't understand - people that hold this view - is that God's grace, it is God's grace that caused himself, in the person of Christ, to make the payment that was owed. Second Corinthians 5:21, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And again, First John four, beginning in verse nine. "By this, the love of God was manifested in us. That God has sent His only begotten Son into the world." Why? "So that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

You see, open theism promotes the liberal lie that's been around for years, and that is that Christ was merely a martyr. He was not the Lamb of God. He was a victim of evil men. The Word of God says that He was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Acts chapter two and verse 23. They don't believe that he became a curse for us, Galatians 3:13. They don't believe that he was offered once to bear the sins of many, Hebrews 9:28. They don't believe that He bore our sins in his body on the tree, First Peter 2:19. They don't believe that he suffered the full wrath of God on behalf of sinners, according to Isaiah 53, beginning in verse four, where we read "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes, we are healed."

Now you might ask, why are you giving us all these theories of the atonement, and folks, I'll tell you why, because if you're wrong on the atonement, you're wrong on the gospel, and if you're wrong on the gospel, if you're wrong on what Christ did on the cross and why he did it, you simply cannot be saved, because these truths are essential to saving faith in the glory of God, and this is why Paul is bringing it up here in First Corinthians, one beginning in verse 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." Have you seen those internet advertisements, things like five popular Foods You Should Never Eat? And sometimes I'm a sucker, and I'll go on them, I'm trying to figure out, what am I eating, you know that I shouldn't be eating? I know none of you probably do that, but every now and then I confess I will do that, and usually at some long... they put this screen up and they want you to listen forever to and they're trying to sell you something. But anyway, folks, I have just given you five theories on the atonement, that you should never eat. If you go to a church, you go to a Bible school, you'll go to a seminary. If they hold to any of these things, run, don't walk, to get out of there because they're teaching heresy. I don't know how much clearer I can be on this. Galatians one and verse nine, "If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed." And beloved, every believer should say, amen to that apostolic malediction; to pervert the gospel by these kinds of obscurations is blasphemy. This is why Paul says in Second Corinthians 11, verse four, to be aware if someone "...preaches another Jesu whom we have not preached or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted..."

Beloved, we must understand and proclaim every aspect of the gospel truth with precision and with clarity. These are, as Paul said in First Corinthians 15, three matters of first importance. Paul succinctly summarized the gospel, including the purpose of the atonement in First Corinthians 15 the first four verses, he said this, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received in, which also you stand, by which also you were saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received." And here it is, "...that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and then he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures." In 1857 archeologists discovered some graffiti carved into plaster on the wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome. You go on the internet, and you can see this. And in the kind of stick figures of the graffiti, you will see a man who is looking up at another man who is hanging on a cross. The one on the cross has his arms outstretched. He's clearly pinned to a cross bar, and his feet are planted on a platform. He's wearing some kind of garment that covers his body. You can see that. But what distinguishes him from any other crucified criminal of that day is that this body of a man has the head of a donkey, and the inscription underneath the picture is "Alexamenos cebethetheon," which means Alexamenos , the name of a man worships his God. In other words, the graffiti was to picture what a fool this man was for worshiping a donkey that was hanging on a cross. They estimate that this was probably done about 150 ad one of the earliest, probably, I think, the earliest pictures of the crucifixion that archeologists have found.

And folks, I leave you with that to remind you that, indeed, the word of the cross has been foolishness to those who are perishing ever since it happened, and it will continue to be. My friends, you may believe the historical facts of the crucifixion, maybe even the resurrection, yet you still may be perishing. What you must believe is not just those historical facts, but you must believe that you are a sinful person, a rebel to the Most High God, and your only hope of forgiveness, your only hope of reconciliation, is to place your faith in what God has done through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who hung on that tree as a substitute for sinners. You see, it's not enough to merely believe in what Jesus did. You must believe in what Jesus did for you personally, as an undeserved sinner who is among the perishing. Folks, he will hear your cry and he will forgive you. He will give you the righteousness of Christ and life eternal. And he will cause you to delight in the cross and cause you to pick up your cross and follow him daily. And I plead with you, if you've not done that, to do that today.

And finally, for those of us who know, who love Christ, who by His grace, are among those who are being saved, may I challenge you to pensively reflect upon these great truths. Take some time this week and just think through those passages that speak of what Christ did on our behalf, and let those truths sink deep within your soul. Let them cause you to marvel and to worship and to praise him, and maybe to loosen your tongue to sing, "Oh for 1000 tongues to sing, my great Redeemers praise, The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace." Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that speak so directly to our hearts. And I pray especially for those who may be within the sound of my voice that really know nothing of what it means to be in relationship with the living god through faith in Christ. Perhaps they think the cross is foolishness. Perhaps their foolishness, the way they would define it, is that it really has no bearing on my life. But Lord, if that's the case, I pray that you would cause them to see clearly the reality of the cross as it relates to them personally, that Jesus died for their sin. And for those of us that know and love you, Lord, I pray that the realities of your grace will animate our hearts to even further praise and dedication to your service as we wait for your return and Lord Jesus, we pray that you will come quickly. Come quickly. We pray Amen.