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Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians chapter two verse two, for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now Paul had just come from Athens. He had stood on the Aeropagus, delivered a philosophically sophisticated address and watched most of his audience walk away. This is recorded for us in the Book of Acts, chapter 17. When Paul arrived in Corinth, something had crystallized in him. It must be, because he would not try to out argue the culture. He would not dazzle them with rhetoric. He came, as he puts it, in weakness and fear and with much trembling. Now this is a startling admission from the greatest Christian theologian who ever lived. But Paul is not apologizing here, he's making a theological point that runs straight through the heart of this entire letter. And that is the foolishness, that is the true and ultimate wisdom in Christ. You see, Corinth was a city in love with eloquence. The first century Corinth. Traveling sophists were celebrities. Um these are intellectuals. These were people uh who spoke eloquently, and the general public paid to hear these brilliant speeches the way we might pay for say a concert. Now into that world, Paul walked in with just one thing, and that it was a crucified Messiah. Now from the vantage point of Corinth, this was absurd. And yet Paul says, verses four and five, My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power. Now this is not anti-intellectualism. Paul is one of history's most brilliant minds. He is making a point about source and foundation. Now if the Cor Corinthians came to faith because Paul had out debated them, their faith would stand on Paul's cleverness. But faith grounded in the Spirit's conviction faith that has encountered the risen Christ through the proclaimed cross stands on something no argument can dismantle. John Stott once described uh this situation as a triple weakness. Triple weakness. A weak messenger, uh weak message and a weak audience. The weak message was in the first century anyway, the maybe even now, the Messiah crucified. And it was proclaimed by weak preachers such as Paul, full of fear and trembling, and it was received by weak hearers, they were socially despised by the world. And yet it was through this triple weakness that God demonstrated his almighty power. So beginning in verse six, Paul opens something breathtaking. In verse 7, he says, We speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for uh for our glory before time began. We speak of God's secret wisdom. Now we need to stop on that phrase. Destined for our glory before time began? The cross was not a plan B, in other words. The Messiah dying on the cross was the sovereign plan of God from the beginning of time. Before the ages were set in motion, God had already decreed that his glory would be revealed in the weakness of a cross and that his people would be brought to glory through it. And this is why the rulers of this age could not see it. Verse 8. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas. These most powerful men in the ancient world uh drove the nails, and in doing so, they accomplished the eternal purpose of God, which was the cross, is not the defeat of Christ, it is the victory through which all other victories will flow. So even though it's translated as secret, the Greek word is better rendered as mystery. Well, Paul is speaking here is not a secret, an information that should be kept from people, but rather so profound as such that this is a long hidden plan of God, only unveiled at last in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Now, but why do some people understand it, see it, while others don't? Have you ever wondered? Why do some people respond to the gospel preaching? And why do and and some people don't? Well, Paul answers it directly in verse 14. The person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. Only through the Spirit. You see, the problem runs deeper than intellect or moral effort. What we call the natural person, meaning these are people who are born into this world apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. This natural person is simply unable to perceive the things of God. Not merely unwilling, says Paul. Unable. Unable. Incapable. You see, without the illumination of the Spirit, the human mind cannot perceive the truth of God. It's not because the evidence is insufficient, but because the faculty of spiritual perception is dead. The spirit does not add more information, the spirit simply restores the capacity to see. So verse twelve becomes deeply personal. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us. If Christ crucified is not foolishness to you, but glory, then the explanation is not that you were spiritually perceptive. No, it is only by God. By His Spirit opened the eyes that were once closed. That is not a reason for pride, but no it is a reason for worship. So Paul closes with an astonishing claim in verse 16. Paul says, We the Christians, we the saints, we have the mind of Christ. Mind of Christ. He's not saying Christians have all the answers, no. He's saying something far more radical. Through the indwelling spirit, the people of God have been given access to the perspective of the living Christ Himself. We can begin to understand dimly, initially, partially throughout and but really what God has prepared for those who love him. Tim Keller often made this point that the gospel consistently upends human categories of power and wisdom. The cross does not meet our standards. No, it redefines them. Don't you see? What looks like failure, according to this world standards, is actually the very engine of salvation. That's what the cross is. What looks like weakness is omnipotence choosing to stoop to humble himself. And when the Spirit opens that to us, everything changes. Not just our theology, but our posture toward suffering, failure, and the unanswered questions of our lives. Well, that's it. Thanks for joining us once again. And to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love, may God's amazing grace and love abound in you this day for and forevermore. Amen.