"By the Foolishness of Preaching"

1Co_1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.


1Co_1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.(Those that believe the preaching of the Cross.)



• If you stand saved today in this place, you stand saved by the foolishness of preaching!

• Paul said, It pleased God to use preaching as the means to save the lost!

• You and I are not smart enough to know God! Man doesn't by his own knowledge have it in him to know God!

• In God's wisdom, God said: "It pleases Me, the Almighty God! Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them! It pleases Me to save the lost by the foolishness of preaching!

• God says to this world: "You'll know Me by the foolishness of preaching!

• The greatest thing that you'll ever do on this earth is to preach the Gospel of the Cross of Christ!



1Co 1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;

1Co 1:15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.

1Co 1:16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.



I've heard Dr. DumbBell's sermon with man's wisdom and the Spirit of God is no where to be found!

• Nobody is saved!

• Nobody is delivered!

• Nobody is healed!



But I've also heard the person that's been to the Cross and has died there, only to be raised from the dead by the grace and power of God! With a message from God!



And hearts were turned to the Lord and directed to that same Cross of death where from that death __God raises the dead!



And the world takes knowledge from them because they have been with Jesus! The foolishness of preaching! The power of God to those that believe! Hallelujah!





1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

1Co 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

1Co 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1Co 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.



"How do I know God?" Go to the Cross and die!



Did you know?



"There's a Crazy Man Preaching out there somewhere today!"



• He's in a wilderness somewhere!

• He's saying, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! (It is near!)

• He's a voice, crying in that wilderness that he is in!

• He's saying, prepare the way for the Lord to come!

• He's saying, make the paths straight!

• They say: "He's crazy!" But God has him "By the Foolishness of Preaching" calling a people to find their way to God!



Mat 3:1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

Mat 3:2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat 3:3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Mat 3:4 And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Mat 3:5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

Mat 3:6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.



"Why did they come? And what caused them to repent of their sin?"

• They came because John preached!

• Because it was God's prescribed way of saving the lost.



Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Mat 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Mat 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.



"John did not soften the message from God to please men."

The message God gave him to preach was no respector of persons! Only one way for all!! To fall before the Lord Jesus!



That message that every mountain would be brought low! Every knee should bow! Every tongue should confess before the Lord!





Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Mat 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.





Just as John was preparing the way for the Lord to come, we a preparing the way for the Lord to come.







Mat 3:13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.

Mat 3:14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

Mat 3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Mat 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Mat 3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.







Paul said: "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.!



"Let me tell you something about this cross that we are to preach!"



There's no way around it! There's no way over it! There's no way under!

• This Cross that we are to preach has only one purpose! To make something die!

• If you and I surrender our life to the Cross of Christ, we are saying to God and this world: I choose to lay down my life!

• That Cross is an instrument of death where flesh can no longer live for it's own glory!

• At the Cross Jesus said: Woman, behold thy son! Behold thy mother!

• At the Cross Jesus said:"I thirst."

• At the Cross Jesus said: "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me!"

• At the Cross Jesus said: "Forgive them, they know not what they do.
At the Cross Jesus said: "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise."

• At the Cross Jesus said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"

• At the Cross Jesus said: "It is finished!"



"At the end of the Cross the climax is death!"



When we go to the Cross willingly, we have said goodbye to family, goodbye to friends, to our careers, to all of our hobbies and interests.











Gal 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,



"Saul became a road-kill on the way to Damascus!"

• He went to the Cross and Saul died!

• But God raised him up to be the great apostle Paul!

• God gave a message to preach!

• Those messages became what we have now as most of the New Testament! The Bible! The Word of God!





Gal 1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: ( That I might preach with might!)

Gal 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

Gal 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

Gal 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

Gal 1:20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

Gal 1:21 Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

Gal 1:22 And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:

Gal 1:23 But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

Gal 1:24 And they glorified God in me.



"When Paul went to the Cross, he died and Christ lived through him!"



• The people heard the foolish preaching how God killed a man on the Cross that was on his way to kill God's children.

• Then raised him up to give life to the very same ones that he once destroyed!

• That's the wisdom of God! The foolishness of preaching is the power of God to us that believe!

• The power to save!

• The power to heal the sick!

• The power to set the captives free!

• The power of the Cross where all must die!

• The power where God raises the dead!



"By the Foolishness of Preaching!"