Why We Believe While Others Reject (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16)

It was about 25 years ago in my life that I was asked to write a little book, and the original title of that little book was Focus on the Facts. You've probably never seen it; It didn't last long. It came out in another edition with another title a couple of years later, and that title was Why I Trust the Bible. It was 1983. And as I was preparing to write that book about why I trust the Bible, which is actually what the first one was also about, I had to answer the question of why I trusted the Bible.

What was it about the truth of Scripture that made it credible to me? Was I smarter than

others

? Had I been presented with a more powerful set of evidence about Scripture? And certainly this can be presented. Why did he have so much confidence in the Bible? I can remember, in my college days, when very little attracted me more than a sporting event, when I found my greatest joy on a football field, that even then I had complete confidence in the Word of God. In fact, I couldn't wait to get to the seminar. And when I decided I would give up an athletic career and opportunity at the professional level to go to seminary, some of my athletes, athletic friends, and coaches couldn't understand why.

And it really wasn't that I had an impulse to preach or an impulse to teach. He had this compelling desire to delve deeper into God's Word and understand what it meant because he was unequivocally committed to its truthfulness. Where did that come from? Why was he so convinced of the truth of the Scriptures? I had not studied apologetics or defenses of Scripture. I hadn't read much of that. There was simply a total commitment to the Word of God in my heart. And when I sat down to think about why I trusted the Bible, I looked at some scriptures that came into play.

I remembered that Jesus had said to Peter in Matthew 16, "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." And that the reason Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, was because of divine revelation, divine revelation. And then I looked at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in verse 3 which says, "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God." It is reasonable for me to say that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is reasonable for me to say that Jesus is Lord.

But no one can say that, no matter how reasonable it seems to me now, unless the Father reveals it and the Spirit reveals it. I was also drawn to John chapter 6, where Jesus was speaking and many of his disciples, he says, "went away." And to those who remained he said: "Will you also go away?" And from Peter's mouth, on behalf of the

others

, came these words: "To whom shall we go? You and you alone have the words of eternal life." Another massive affirmation that what the Lord Jesus Christ says, what God says is true. He had been, again, Jesus says he was given to him by the Father.

Jesus even says in that passage, "Have I not chosen you?" And then I remembered... and I might ask you to look at this passage... from Romans chapter 8. In very clear terms we read this in verse 5. "To those who are after the flesh -" that is, separated from God, separated from spiritual life, spiritually dead, blind, ruined - "those who are according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit." You have two mutually exclusive dimensions. The mind set on the flesh, verse 6, is death.

The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Verse 7: "The mind set on the flesh is the enemy of God." And then this: "He is not subject to the Law of God because he cannot even do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God." If you are in the flesh, you cannot please God. God would like you to

believe

the Bible. In fact, that would be at the top of God's list of things that please Him. It would please God if you

believe

d in the gospel. That would also be at the top of the list of things he would like.

It would please God if you affirmed the deity and salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That would please God. Those three things would top the list of things that please God. And the fact of the matter is that if you are in the flesh, you cannot please God. You can't please him at the lowest level, let alone the pinnacle. So how did I come to have such confidence in the Scriptures? I was reminded again of Ephesians chapter 4, which says, essentially, what Romans 8 says in a different way. Verse 17 of Ephesians 4, “Therefore I say and affirm with the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the emptyness of their minds, having their minds darkened, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance. that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." Now, that litany of descriptions is intended to give you the idea that this is an absolutely unavoidable place for the unregenerate, apart from divine intervention.

And then I came to the conclusion that by the normal means of human perception and understanding, I could not have come to this confidence in the Scriptures. That the only way I could come to this confidence in the Scriptures is because God had given them to me as a gift. , that God in His sovereignty had given me the will to believe in the gospel, to believe in Christ and to embrace the authenticity, authority and truthfulness of the Scriptures And so, in 1983, when I published the second edition of the little book called Why. I trust the Bible, this is what I wrote. "Unbelievers cannot accept legitimate evidence because they are blind to it.

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned - " 1 Corinthians 2:14 - "Only when the Holy Spirit does his regenerating work by opening the mind, tearing off the scales from blindness, give life and plant understanding of God's revelation, only then do people believe that the Bible is the Word of God and trust it. "I know the Bible is true because the Spirit of God has convinced me of it. I wrote that over 25 years ago. In light of this, I said in the next paragraph... and you know you're in trouble when you keep quoting yourself "In light of this, I suggest a change in our approach.

We have been saying that prophecy has been fulfilled, that the Bible is scientifically accurate, that eyewitness miracles were performed, that the biblical message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ results in revolutionary change in the lives of people who they believe. Because of all this evidence, we reason that the Bible is the Word of God." And then I wrote: "Instead, I propose that we declare that the Bible is the Word of God, therefore, the prophecy has been fulfilled, it is miracles have been produced, scientific statements are accurate, and lives have been transformed." Trust in the Scriptures begins with the work of the Spirit.

I believe that the Bible was written by the God of the universe to reveal Himself to humanity. I believe that the Bible It is the only authoritative and absolutely reliable revelation from God regarding the origin of man, his liberation, his salvation, the moral and spiritual standards by which he must live, and his final destiny. I also believe that the Bible is true in every detail, including. in the very words of the original manuscripts. God was the author. And I concluded with this: "The Spirit has led me to this sustainable confidence." to some of the writings of a well-known theologian named John Calvin.

And being curious to know what he believed regarding this same topic, I began to discover very interesting things. Listen to John Calvin. "The Scriptures alone exist as the means by which God has been pleased to consign his truth to perpetual memory. The full authority which they obtain with the faithful arises from no other consideration than that they are persuaded that, the words of the Scriptures, proceeded from heaven as if God had been heard giving them expression." He says this in his Institutes. He further says: "The Scriptures themselves clearly manifest that God is the speaker. We are never established in the faith of this doctrine until we are undoubtedly persuaded that God is the author.

Being, therefore, enlightened by Him - "i.e. Holy Spirit - "We no longer believe, either by our own judgment or by that of others, that the Scripture is from God, but in a way that surpasses human judgment we are perfectly assured that it has come to us through the ministry from men, from the very mouth of God. We feel the firmest conviction that we possess an invincible truth, this through the Holy Spirit." Well, Calvin did well. We're not surprised, right? William Niesel said that Calvin considers the word of the Bible, quote: "As something dead and ineffective for us if it is not divinely quickened - "it gives life - "and as soon as it is separated from Him - "that is, Christ - "it is becomes a corpse of soulless letters.” He understood that the Scriptures are only believed when the Spirit of God gives us that faith and trust.

Confident reliance on God's Word and Scripture is then not the result of rational argument or the work of human intellect, reason, or emotion. It is the work of the Spirit in the heart. Calvin further says: "For as God alone is a sufficient testimony of himself in his own Word, so the Word will never gain credit in the hearts of men until it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. It is necessary, therefore so much so, that the same Spirit who spoke through the mouth of the prophets may penetrate our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully delivered what had been divinely entrusted to them." Therefore he says, "Let it remain a fixed truth that those whom the Spirit inwardly teaches firmly assent to the Scriptures." Our trust in the Word of God comes from the Spirit of God.

It is a component of the sovereign gift of regeneration. The traditional approaches have been to try to prove the Bible to unregenerate people by accumulating all kinds of evidence that they can process through their fallen intellects into the futility of their mental function and the ignorance in them and the darkness of their mind and hardness. of his heart and the insensitivity and sensuality of his soul. We can accumulate all the prophetic evidence, scientific evidence, miraculous evidence, historical archaeological evidence, evidence of transformed lives. And in the end,

while

certainly all of them are reasonable and a true representation of the Scriptures, they cannot remove the scales from blind eyes;

They cannot give life to the dead soul. Scripture tells us how this works in one of the great texts of Scripture. Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. There is too much here to say in one message. And since I'm not going to be here to say it in two, I'm going to give you the condensed version of this. I do well to cover one verse, much less two chapters or parts of two chapters. But I do want you to look, starting in chapter 1, verse 18 and continuing through chapter 2. And we'll touch lightly on these truths

while

keeping the flow of thought and the main point.

The theme of the section that begins in chapter 1 and verse 18 and goes to the end of chapter 2 is divine wisdom, divine wisdom. The word "wise" or "wisdom" appears here about 20 times, in contrast to "foolishness," which appears about half a dozen times. It is about divine wisdom. And the whole section explains why people

reject

God's wisdom and why other people accept God's wisdom; why people

reject

the Scriptures, the gospel, the cross and other people accept the Scriptures, the gospel and the cross. In fact, there are some phrases here, “the wisdom of God,” “the word of the cross,” and even “the testimony of God.” But whether you are talking about the wisdom of God, the word of the cross, or the testimony of God, you are talking about divine revelation that is written.

This is the topic. Now, the easiest way to break this down is to split it into two sections that overlap, recycle, and reframe things. But, nevertheless, two sections can be discerned. Section number one, why non-Christians reject the Bible. Section number two, why Christians accept the Bible. Why non-Christians reject the Bible and why Christians accept the Bible. And I will tell you from the beginning that nothing is said about evidence, nothing is said about human reason, nothing is said about how to manipulate people's will or how to move their emotions. It's not about evidence. It's not about reason.

It's not about emotion. It's about condition. It is about the condition of a non-Christian and the condition of a Christian. Let's look at why non-Christians don't believe in the Bible in the first place. And I will give you five reasons, which are set out in the opening section. First of all, the message is not reasonable. That is the first cause for them not to believe. It's not reasonable. Verse 18, "The Word of the cross -" or the testimony of God, or the Word of the wisdom of God. That is, God's written revelation—"is for those who are perishing—" that is the condition of it—"foolishness." It is foolish." In a somewhat sarcastic way, that idea is repeated in verse 21: "God was pleased with the foolishness of the message." Verse 23 says to the Gentiles: "It is foolish." And then in another sarcastic tone in verse 25, "The foolishness of God is actually wiser than men." And then, clearly, there is this idea that the revelation ofAs His anointing teaches you all things and is true and not a lie, and just as He has taught you, you abide in Him." That is just a deep topic that we must understand.

When you were saved you came to trust in the Word of God and that is where You stay. That's where you stay. And the people who stay around for a while and leave, give evidence of the fact that they never really belonged and that they never had the Spirit of God. I believe in the Bible because God gave it to me. the gift of faith in His Son, faith in His gospel and faith in His Word I continue... that for my justification I believe in the Bible for my sanctification, because the Spirit of God that dwells in me continues to guide me to. the truth and away from error.

That's why I believe in the Bible. Now, I understand, as verse 6 says, that this is different from the wisdom of this age, the wisdom of the rulers of this age, the superior minds. All of that. It is katargeō. All of it is becoming ineffective. All this leads nowhere. All this is really nonsense, real nonsense. But I believe and you believe because God predestined before the ages that we should believe for glory. And we believe in a wisdom, says verse 8, “that none of the rulers of this age has understood; If they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” and they would not continue to reject. the Lord of glory who was crucified.

He sums it up in verse 9 by saying this, a very familiar verse indeed, taken from a couple of passages alluded to here and in Isaiah. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him." We know everything God has for us. We know. We know this by divine revelation. You can't know any other way. The eyes cannot see it and the ears cannot hear it. And the mind that is visible in the heart cannot conceive it. God's truth regarding salvation, God's truth regarding spiritual and eternal life is unheard of, invisible and unthought of.

It cannot be known by empiricism; it cannot be known by rationalism. It can only be known by divine revelation. In John 8 Jesus said this, and he is speaking to the recalcitrant Pharisees. Jesus told them in verse 42, John 8, "If you...if God were your Father, you would love me." Wow! "But since God is not your Father, you do not love me, because I proceeded and come from God." I have not even come on my own initiative, but He has sent me. Listen to this: "Why don't you understand what I'm saying?" Why don't people understand? "It is because you cannot hear My word because you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning, he does not abide in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks by his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies; but because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." You can not. And He sums it up in verse 47, well, verse 46. “If I say the truth, why don't you believe me?” Why don't people believe in the truth? "He who is from God hears the words of God. That is why you do not hear them, because you are not from God." Pretty clear, right?

Who believes in the Bible? Those who are from God. It is a divine work. Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and we'll conclude it in verse 10 with some comments. 1 Corinthians 2:10. “For us…” Oh, this is a great summary point. "Because God revealed them to us." Them? What do you mean? "The things that God has prepared for those who love him, the things related to salvation, to spiritual and eternal life, to the Kingdom." That is to say all the wisdom of God, all the word of the cross, all the word of God's testimony, all that truth that is inscribed.

To us, God revealed them through the Spirit. That is the fundamental thing to understand. We believe because God chose, God predestined us to know so that one day we will reach eternal glory. To come to some kind of conclusion that will take hold of your soul, let's simply take that idea that we know because God chose to show us, reveal us, regenerate us, give us life, remove the scales of blindness from us. , to awaken our hearts, to reveal the mystery, to bring to light the truth that was hidden and reveal it to us, take that as a background and read again starting in verse 24. "To those who are called." Whenever you see that term, “the calling” or “called” in the New Testament epistles is the effectual call to salvation.

We are the called, those called from darkness to light, those called from death to life. In verse 26 he says it again: "Consider your calling," the divine calling, quickening, the life-giving calling, regeneration. And why us? Verse 27: "God has chosen, God has chosen." Verse 28: "God has chosen." Verse 30: "But through Him you are in Christ Jesus." Why are you in Christ Jesus? Because you saw how clearly it must be apprehended and believed because you went through the evidence, because your mind ascended to it. You are in Christ Jesus because of his work. He predestined, revealed why he chose, and whoever he chose, he called.

And as Paul says in Romans 8, "Whom he called, he justified, and whom he justified, he glorified." So let's go back to verse 30: "By His work you are in Christ Jesus, by His work you believe, by His work you embrace the Word of God in your justification and your sanctification. By His work you are in Christ Jesus -" listen - "who became for us the wisdom of God. By doing that, we are in Christ. And then Christ became to us, through his presence, his power, his Spirit, and his Word, the wisdom of God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Why did God do it this way? Why did God do it this way? Verse 29, "So that no one..." What? - "boast before God." Verse 31: "Let him who is written glory in the Lord." And that is why we are amazed by the confidence we have in the Word of God. And when someone says, "Where does he come from?" It can be said that it is his work, because he placed us in Christ and Christ became for us the wisdom of God. And it is our love for God through Christ that gives us confidence in His Word, and we believe the truth because we are of God.

Martin Luther put it this way: "Man is like a pillar of salt, like Lot's wife, yes, like a log or a stone, like a lifeless statue that uses neither eyes nor mouth, neither sense nor heart, until he is enlightened and regenerated by the Holy Spirit." So I didn't make this up. They were reading the same Bible that I am reading and the same one that you are reading. You believe in the Bible, dear, and live in the light of its glorious truths, your life is captivated by the wonders of it because God, for his own glory, saw fit to predestinate you, choose you, justify you and sanctify you. through his Word.

And when he gave you Christ, he gave you, in Christ, his wisdom because in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I cannot separate my love for Christ from my love for the Word. At the end, jumping to verse 16, the last statement: "We have the mind of Christ." What statement! What statement! By having confidence in the Word of God, we have access to the mind of Christ. Grab that? It is no mystery to me how God thinks or what he desires. Everything God wants me to know, He has put it here. I have the mind of Christ here, and I know how Christ thinks and what he wants and what he likes and what he loves and what he hates and what he commands and what he forbids.

I understand everything because He has allowed me to understand it. And I live my life embracing the wonder of a grace as deep and inexplicable in my name as this. Let us bow in prayer. Our Father, we know that the power of evangelism for justification is not found in intelligent methods, nor in music, nor in culturally elaborate entertainment, but in the Bible. The power for edification, in sanctification, is also found in the Bible. We must preach the Scripture, the word of the cross, the wisdom of God, the testimony of God. We must present it, proclaim it, defend it, for this is the only hope and the only means by which You will justify and sanctify Your people.

We must always use the Scriptures, not so that the non-Christian can see the reasonableness of it, but so that You can awaken the hearts of Yours by the divine miracle of grace through the Word. We thank you, Father, that a life of effort... of study will demonstrate that the Scriptures are reasonable, attainable, understandable, credible, and withstand all tests. And we know it because you have given us life and understanding. We thank you that you heard the prayer in Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of your law." Lord, that prayer has been answered for us and we praise you and the wonders never cease.

Use us, Lord, as instruments in the proclamation of your truth to awaken sinners and sanctify saints. Thank you for the privilege of being used like this in the name of Christ. Amen.