Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Our passage of Scripture this morning so embodies our day and age. The Gospel is viewed by those who embrace it as powerful, comforting, and life changing. But the Gospel is an offense and it is narrow minded unto those who say it is foolishness. To such folks Jesus Christ is offensive and narrow minded. We mess up in the Church today when we try to market the Gospel without the shame and pain of the cross of Christ. We must not apologize for our Gospel. The world has its clubs and entertainment and organizations, but it doesn’t have a saving Gospel. As believers we must keep the purity of the only soul saving message God gave to the world. And we must keep the institution (the local church) which proclaims that message pure and protected from the spoils of the world.
Down through time the Gospel has been viewed by two opposing groups of people. There are those who say it is foolish and those who say it is powerful. According to the Scriptures the ones who say the Gospel is foolish, are said to be lost, and those who have accepted its message; a message that proclaims salvation is in none other than the Son of God, Jesus Christ, these are said to be saved. To the saved the Gospel is powerful. The good news that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross; that we are going to heaven when we die, that God’s indwelling Spirit living in us empowers us to live a righteous life, this is good news. This Gospel is powerful.
I Cor.1:19-20 - There will always be those who want to match wits against the Gospel. There will always be those who feel their particular brand of wisdom is superior to that of God.
Philosophers and sages down through the centuries have scoffed at the simplicity of faith in Christ. Scientist have for centuries disputed the existence of God because they cannot reconcile the existence and force of something they cannot test. Faith as viewed by such men is seen as a crutch for the weak of mind. But the Bible says faith is the avenue to reality. As believers there are times when we do not understand why many things are the way they are, and yet we believe.
This world’s wisdom cannot explain God because the world’s wisdom cannot comprehend God. Trying to figure God out is pointless. It would be like trying to put the ocean in a cup, or like putting a mountain in a jar. All of God cannot fit into our minds, or our hearts, or our imaginations. So the little that he does reveal to us is a gift, and to know more of him we must be spiritually born again. The Gospel tells us of that free gift, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I Cor.2:11-14 - To those who are perishing the things of God are foolishness. They can play the sin game all week, and on Sunday ignore God, even scoff at the church goers, though not all church goers are saved. The scoffers still see church going as foolishness, and a waste of time. They see no benefit in going to church. Paul says this is because the things of God are foolishness to them.
They are spiritually dead. They live just one level above an animal. As a matter of fact many think of themselves only as higher evolved animals. This would certainly account for many of their habits. And yet God made mankind higher than the animals. He made us to reflect his image, though tarnished by sin, God made a way for mankind to come back to him in spiritual union. This is why it is said in Isa.1:18 “Come now let us reason together saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
But, this coming back requires an act of personal faith in his declared word, the word which says for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God, the word which says the wages of sin is death.
To those who are lost, and skeptical, who are the disputers of this age this preaching is nonsense, it is foolishness.
Years of developing a callused soul toward the Gospel is evident when we speak the Gospel to such folk.
On the one hand there are those who have tried to figure God out, but to no avail, and these have turned a deaf ear to the Gospel.
On the other hand there are those who have tried to out do God by being moral, or doing a number of good deeds, or by becoming a religious person, and yet both parties have rejected the simplicity of the Gospel. To the one the Gospel is foolish. The whole idea of mankind being accountable to an unseen deity is absurd. To the other the idea that a simple act of accepting Jesus Christ as Savior for the forgiveness of all of our sins, and the promise of eternal life in heaven when we die, is too simple. This group, who are just as lost as the skeptics, does not deny the existence of God, but they deny the record that God has given of his Son, Jesus Christ, as the only suitable means by which one can be redeemed. Thus this second group rejects the free offer of salvation by grace through faith alone. They go about trying to establish their own righteousness, and they too will be condemned, Rom.2:3-5 read.
You see, the first group denies the existence of God even though general revelation found in the creation of the universe along with their conscience substantiates the existence of God, Rom.1:19-22. And the second group, though accepting the existence of God, is still lost and sees the Gospel as foolishness because they deny the record given by God.
One group denies God existence, and the other denies God’s record. Both groups are lost. The latter group has a zeal for God, but it is not according to the knowledge of the word of God, and thus they go about as the Apostle Paul said, establishing their own brand of worthless righteousness, Rom.10:2-3. To God, our personal attempts at being righteousness are useless. These attempts are as a filthy rag, they are unclean and unacceptable to him.
Mankind needs not do but one thing; and that is to humbly admit our lost condition, and confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We need to stop ignoring our need to come to the cross for forgiveness and eternal life.
This should be done without delay, for none of us knows when we will get another opportunity, or when we will draw our last breath. Satan and the old sin nature will always tell you, that you have another day, until it is too late.
I trust that you have not thought that this message was foolish, but that it is true.
Heb.11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must first believe that God is who he says he is, and that if you do he will reward your faith. If you will believe in Jesus Christ by faith, God will open your eyes to spiritual things you once laughed at, things you once thought was foolish.
Let the Spirit of God remove the scales of unbelief from the eyes of your soul and God will show you mighty things. Simply believe on Jesus Christ; the crucified, resurrected Savior for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will be saved for all eternity. Amen