So if you turn in your Bibles to chapter 1 and then we look at verse 10, this is where he addressed that first problem. The first problem was division. And he said, "Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you may be complete in the same mind and same judgment." Right?

So he began with that exhortation. And the next section in verse 18, he said, "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." Okay? And I made the case to you last week that Apostle Paul is presenting an argument saying the gospel that we have is superior, it's greater, it's profound.

Right? And in so doing, you realize he is exhorting them to be united because the gospel already has done a dividing work. Okay? The gospel has already divided all of mankind into two categories, those who are perishing and those who are being saved. And so we are those who are being saved, bound together by this gospel truth, this wisdom of God.

Right? So he's saying we need to be united. We can't have this kind of division amongst us. And in so doing, he started to mention that perhaps you guys are divided, and this is the case I made last time was, you guys are divided because underneath this, "Hey, I'm of Paulus, I'm of Paul, I'm of Jesus only," that kind of thing, underneath all this is worldly thinking.

Underneath all this is worldly wisdom. So he desires to attack and challenge their worldview, their scheme of how they value what they value. Okay? So in review of last time, the very first, I guess, section that I want to read is verse 19 and 20. So after he says this, "For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of 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?" And I made the first point, which is, the wisdom of God is permanent. Right? From that verse, you recognize he's saying, "Where are all these wise people? They're gone, they're dead.

All the ancient philosophers, guess what? They're in the grave." But God's wisdom is permanent. And so that's why God's wisdom is superior. Number two, in the next section, I'm not going to read it for us, but Apostle Paul says, "God's wisdom is powerful." As a matter of fact, I used the adjective limitless.

Right? It's powerful without limit. And the flip side of that is, those who are of worldly philosophy, those who are of worldly wisdom, they are powerless to save. They are powerless to have knowledge of God. They are powerless in the wisdom that they offer. Because their wisdom truly, it's contradictory.

Their wisdom is passing by fads. Their wisdom is sometimes disconnected all of its own. And so he says, "The cross, the gospel of Jesus, overcomes all human wisdom." Now, the train of thought that I wanted to rehearse with you in going through this was simply that train of thought.

These people are fighting. They're fighting obviously because they're trying to one up each other in pride. "Oh, you're of a Paulist? Well, I learned under Paul. And Paul taught a Paulist, so there." "Oh, you're of Paul? Well, I'm just Jesus only, so there." They're trying to one up each other with their pride and arrogance, and that always causes division.

Right? And in so thinking, Paul presents the gospel and says, "You need to be gospel-minded. You need to be having the worldview that God wants you to have in addressing this situation." But in so doing, the connection between the previous verses that we're reading and then the connection between the passage that we just read and you guys talked about is this.

Apostle Paul uses the church as an example of God's wisdom, and he uses the example of God's calling, God's salvation calling of them. So let's read it again, because I always benefit in reading something multiple times. In verse 26 through 31, it says, "For consider your calling, brethren, 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, but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness, sanctification and redemption, so that just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" Okay.

So as we begin this section, I would like for us to start jotting down some of the things that we observe. He calls the church to consider their calling, and really if you think about their calling, it's their calling as his general salvation, the call of God, you know?

And as he asks them to think about it, he doesn't necessarily ask them just to think about the calling itself, he's gonna ask them to think about that a little later. He asks them to think about themselves, when they were called, their personal circumstance. So let's jot that in.

So letter A is just consider yourself when you were called, and this is also for us in our Bible study, consider yourself when you were called, right? Letter B, what's the first description that you see? What's the first description of them? Consider yourself when you were called. The first thing I noticed was, not wise.

Sorry, I laughed 'cause I heard, "Stupid, stupid." Not wise, okay? That they were not wise, and he is talking about actual education. Education was not like today where, yeah, if you wanna get a job, you get educated, so everybody who wants a job is gonna get educated. No, that's not the way it worked back then.

Education was for the privileged, you know? To have a mentor, to have a disciple, to have a educator above you, that must have meant you were already rich. What's the second thing? Powerful? Is that what it said? Yeah, not powerful, okay? Some translations say, "You're not mighty." You're not mighty, you're not powerful.

And that's really talking about the idea of influential, like you have no sway on people. You have no power in the sense that you have no control over anybody. What's the next thing that you see? You're not noble, okay? Noble. And that one, he's talking about birth order, actually.

There is a sense in which, obviously, in our day and age, here and now, we don't have this kind of culture, but if you've seen any of the TV shows or movies from the past, a vast majority of history functioned where you were born into a certain class. As a matter of fact, if you're Korean, and you know of the Korean culture, even back 50 years ago, there were the noblemen and then there were your peasant people.

And those two never crossed. Their kids didn't play with each other. They dressed differently. They could never cross this barrier, right? A bunch of history was like that. And so, Paul's looking at them, saying, "So, how many of you guys are like, noblemen?" I don't see very many. There were some people who were higher class, so to speak, or more powerful.

Remember, I talked about there was a gentleman who got saved earlier on, Stephanus? He's the one who was kind of leader of the synagogue in Corinth, okay? So there were people who were reputable, people who were powerful, but the vast majority, he says, "You guys really weren't that impressive." Now, I ask this question, "Would you have been offended by this?" And the reason why I ask this question is because, did you notice how earlier, he was talking about doctrinally, how important the gospel is?

But as soon as we begin this section, what changes? He's not talking about the unimpressedness of the gospel. He's talking about the unimpressedness of the people. So what you find is, he's getting personal. What you find is, he's actually having them think about themselves in light of the gospel, but more specifically, when God called them, when God drew them, what was their condition?

If they are, as we began, in this battle to see who can outdo one another in honor, reputation, respect, if they can outdo each other in kind of the accolades, or even just the name dropping of the association that they have, he's getting a bit personal and says, "Look at you.

Look at you, real good for a moment." Right? And Apostle Paul does that, and there's a sense in which, I guess, if you were reading this, you could potentially get really offended. It's like, "What the? Just call me, like he's a stupid, you know, weak, and just all around unimpressive." And I want, you know, we have to think about that for a little bit, because there's a sense in which, let's say some of us in here are not that, as in, you're really smart, and you have a lot of power because maybe you're like a higher up in your company, and you have a lot of possessions, and people just find you quite noble and respectable, and everybody kind of lifts you up.

The fact of the matter is, as a Christian, you either recognize that you're in that position before, or you know very well that as a Christian, as you're adopted into Christ's household, that's how you're going to look to the rest of the world. So it's not just the doctrines that are unimpressive to the world, it's the people, right?

And that's something we have to recognize. Moving forward, though, in the next section, he gives a contrast, and he says, "So you guys think you are like this, because you guys obviously are trying to fight for positions, or fight for reputation, but the fact of the matter is," he says in verse 27, "that 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." Okay?

What I'd like you guys to do for a moment is, there on your papers, please try to underline as many purpose statements that you can find. I count four, or actually I wrote it in there, sorry. Please underline the four purpose statements in verses 27 through 29. And if you're done with that, please circle the descriptions of the kinds of people he has chosen.

Okay? Take time to do that for a moment. Yes? Okay, great. So purpose statement, purpose statement is stuff when you see like, "so that," "in order to," sometimes they leave out the "in order" and you find just the preposition "to" do something, right? So you find, "this is what he did," and you ask why, and he reveals to you what he was aiming at, and there you have your purpose statement.

Okay? And there's a specific reason why I ask first why, before having you identify what. Okay? Okay. All right. Okay, so table to my left with Isaac, John, and John. First purpose statement is, "to shame the wise." This table here with Andy and... Second one is, "shame the strong," right in front of me with Chris and Andy.

The third one is, "to nullify the things that are," and the third one, this table here with Dr. Mobley and Dr. Payne. Great, so that no one would boast. Okay? So you see what he's doing, and sometimes stuff like this really is kind of surprising to me, I guess, because you know, we typically have a notion of God as like, he's always wanting to relent, which is true, but then you realize he's doing things, this is the way he functions, like this is the way he operates as God.

He is shaming people, he is nullifying the things that are, and he's making sure people never boast. And remember, at the very beginning of this study, I said, I found it really kind of shocking and a bit like, again, enlightening, when God said from the Old Testament, ever since then, that he is not only going to, you know, not regard the wisdom of man, but what was he going to do to it?

Destroy it. Okay? And so, one can legitimately ask the question, why would God go to this extent to shame people? To nullify them? And just put them down so that they never, like, you know, is God that kind of fearful God where he's like, don't you dare toot your little horn in front of me, and he gets all angry and he's like, bam, and he always squashes people?

I mean, is that the kind of picture of God we want to have because of these verses? No. So what is he doing? Well, we noticed, as you guys circle, we noticed the people of the world who thought they were first what? Wise, and then strong. They thought they were, that they're something.

And scripture even says it in the almost verbatim, stop thinking you're something when you're really nothing. And then those people who boast. And what I find really interesting about the way God operates is he always gives just desserts. So I ask this question, what is he doing? And letter B, I write, the principle of God on how he works, he gives just desserts.

And this is something that I've noticed from Genesis. You know? This is something that I noticed through the kings, something I noticed through even the New Testament, and something that I noticed even in the end times. Right now it's kind of interesting because I've been studying Genesis and Revelation at the same time and I see this principle working.

God is not a God who irrationally reacts to stuff. Sometimes for us, we go overboard, somebody does something like make fun of a body part on you, people tend to make fun of my hands a lot, and then you overreact. "What'd you say?" Never talking to you again, all that kind of stuff.

Well God is not a God who just overreacts because he's temperamental. God is not a God who says, "Oh no, no, no, don't you dare be proud in front of me," and just squashes it because he's that kind of angry God. God is a God who always gives just desserts.

For example, a lot of the punishment that God gives to people matches their sin. Okay? Matches their sin. I'm going to give some examples. From the very beginning, Eve. You know, Eve, it says that God said that Eve is going to have this desire for her husband as to overtake him.

But then the punishment that he gave Eve right after he says that is what? But your husband is going to? Yeah. He's going to be over you. And even to the man, there's a sense in which both man and woman together, and mankind, wanted to what? Elevate. They wanted to know what God knew.

They wanted to be more than they were. What does God say? "Let me remind you, you're going back to the dust." There's this kind of just desserts that happens throughout scripture all the time. When people are prideful and they want to boast about all they've done, what does God do then?

This passion says he's going to shame them. There are people who think, "I am more than what I really am." They try to make much of who they are. Guess what he says? "I'm going to nullify you." Nullify in the Greek literally means to make nothing. To make nothing.

So the way that that part in the Greek reads is like those that are something are going to become nothing. And so what happens is God is a God who functions in this way where he always gives just desserts. And to the proud, what does he say? He says, "I'm going to shame and bring you down to nothing." So for this, I feel like there's a point for us to take home.

There's something for us to learn. I guess a motivation to fight our pride. Because we realize truly if we are tempted to go toot our horn, if we are tempted more practically and more relevantly to this passage, to compare ourselves with other people in our church and start playing this comparison game.

By playing this, I can outdo you game. Where if you name drop, then I'm going to name drop. If you talk about how much Bible you know, then I'm going to talk about how much Bible I know. Or whatever it may be in the church that we sometimes struggle with.

Realize that the way God operates is he is going to do the opposite of what you're trying to accomplish. Here you are trying to accomplish a name and reputation for yourself. He is going to humiliate you. That's oftentimes how God operates. Still you realize, I mean, when it comes to the issue of pride in our hearts, we truly have to recognize God.

I put that application, we recognize that God operates in this way which challenges and motivates us to tackle our pride. But also we recognize our own hearts. This is where I would like to have you guys just do one of those self-evaluating moments. Are there ways in me where I wish I was something more, when as a matter of fact, God is blessing where I'm already at?

What I mean by that is, there are many times when I think I wish I was more. I think and I daydream and I fantasize that I wish I was more. I've shared this with you guys multiple times, so this is an old example. I so wish that I could read faster.

I was so jealous of Pastor Aaron. Pastor Aaron came over to my house one time and we were reading together. He finished a small book about this size, this typical reading book like that in about an hour and a half. I went, "What the heck?" I was still on chapter one, page 15.

He leaned over and he was kind of like, he didn't say anything. Then another time I was reading with James Hong and he noticed how slow I was reading and he was kind of like, "You got to move on, brother. You just have to keep going, man." I actually took a reading class where I learned how to use a pen, like a marker thing, and then go underneath the lines and how to maximize your time by holding the page with your finger already by the time you get to the bottom of the page so you can quickly turn and move to the next page and stuff like that.

I've been learning all this stuff, but there are a lot of times when I just sit there and say, "I wish I was smarter. I wish I was smarter." The reason why I share that with you is because the problem isn't the smarts. Being smart, obviously, is not what God requires as a criteria for being a good follower of Christ.

And being dumb necessarily is not what he is saying that he is going to bless. Yes, did he choose the things that are base? Yes, I'm going to make a point of that really quickly. But the fact of the matter is, whether really slow in reading or fast in reading or really, really intellectual or not, they're nothing.

Neither contributes to godliness. You see what I'm saying? But the person who sits there thinking that is going to make him more than he is, there lies your problem. The person who sits there making much of smarts because he thinks that's his answer, there is a problem, right? The person who thinks, "I wish I was a little taller, baller," all that stuff, the person who's making a lot of that, that's the problem.

God is not saying, "Try to be dumb, ignoble, and all that, then I'm going to bless you." God is saying, "The problem is you think those things are the criteria that make you better than the other people in your church." So he rebukes that kind of attitude. And so for us, we're just reminded of this fact.

Ephesians chapter two, we don't have to turn there, but I want to ask you a question. What kind of people did he choose according to Ephesians chapter two? For you were once? In chapter two later he says you were foreigners, you were strangers, completely like exiled from God, far and distant.

Dead. Yeah. Dead. Okay? So even if you think, "Oh, I'm low," you're not thinking low enough. You know what I mean? We have to recognize that. There's a sense in which the people of the time had to empty themselves of their own wisdom and self-worth in order to truly gain the wisdom of God and the worth that God was going to give them.

There had to be a renouncing of their own wisdom, their own accolade and smarts and so forth. And so the passage I have there, this Jeremiah one is really cool and I think we should, if you guys can devote to memorizing that one, that's a good one. Jeremiah chapter nine verse 24, "But let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, declares the Lord." And right before this in Jeremiah he says, "Let not the mighty man boast in his might.

Let not the rich man boast in his riches." Really powerful passage, okay? Let's take a look at verse 30. So he says, this is the way God operates. And he says, "The way God is operating is giving just desserts, but know that God has designed it so no one is going to boast before God.

No one is going to blow his horn in front of God. Every single instrument is going to be for the worship of God. In the presence of the Lord, no man is going to have pride." Okay? And then in verse 30, there's a contrast. "But," okay, so there's a huge contrast here with this word, "but." "By his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Okay.

I have a question for you, interpretive question. And it's because it kind of reads funny. Are you the subject that is in righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? Or she would read this more like, "By his doing, you are in Jesus Christ, who became," and then list the rest. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

And the follow-up question is, does it matter however you translate the two? Think about it. If you guys have different versions, try to read it. If you guys, I think most of you, how many of you guys have NASB? Okay a couple of you guys. How many of you guys have ESV?

Probably the majority of you. Okay? Yeah, that's fine. They actually read pretty different, each translation. So read it a little bit and try to figure that out for a moment. You guys get my question, right? Who is the subject of those descriptions, righteousness, or those nouns, righteousness, sanctification, redemption?

And I think in ESV it says righteousness, holiness, and redemption. So are you in those things, or have Jesus become those things? I'm not sure. OK, so it sounds like you guys are having some real good discussions. This is good. What are some of the things that you guys kind of concluded to?

Again, to tell you honestly, there's like not only those two views, but there's three more views. But I didn't want to confuse you guys with the three more. OK, over here with Eric. Well, after you skipped the ESL, I could be wrong. You always preface that like... But the comma who refers to what's before, so that's Jesus.

OK. surrender, to relinquish our own wisdom. To abandon what we think is right in our own eyes. And to learn and receive the wisdom you have for us. And God, I pray that every single one of us would have deep passion to walk the path you set, and not to blaze our own trail.

Father, we want to thank you. It's in Christ that we pray, amen.