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  (1 CORINTHIANS) THE HUMBLING OF THE WORLD
  by Brian Brodersen
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Summary: Brian Brodersen's sermon emphasizes God's choice of the foolish
and weak to confound the wise, highlighting the gospel's relevance to
the marginalized and the need for the church to return to its roots.

Duration: 49:06 Topics: "Pride And Humility", "Gods Sovereignty"
Scripture References: Jeremiah 9:23-24, Matthew 6:33, James 2:1-5

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In this sermon, the speaker addresses the issue of pride and the desire
for recognition and reputation among the believers. He rebukes the idea
of reinterpreting the gospel as a philosophy and setting up apostles as
competing philosophers. The speaker emphasizes that the gospel of Jesus
Christ is not a philosophy but a revelation. He gives examples from the
Bible, such as the story of the Israelites marching around the city of
Jericho and the liberation of the Israelites by Gideon, to illustrate
how God's strategies often defy human logic and reasoning.

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CONTENT
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Verse 26, chapter one of the first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul
says, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according
to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has
chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God
has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are
despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to
nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God,
and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, that as it is
written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

Many of the believers in Corinth had begun to want the approval of the
society around them. They wanted to be seen as wise and in fashion. They
wanted to be seen as intelligent and sophisticated in their quest to
obtain this kind of reputation.

They reinterpreted the gospel as a philosophy and set up some of the
apostles as competing philosophers. The first four chapters of this
epistle are a lengthy rebuke of that pride that had caused them to
compromise the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a philosophy,
but rather a revelation.

A philosophy is something that allows for speculation, debate,
modification, expansion. But revelation, on the other hand, is something
to be declared, believed and obeyed. The apostles were not philosophers
peddling their own opinions, but heralds proclaiming the message
entrusted to them.

Now, in the verses before us, Paul reminds the Corinthians of God's
obvious contempt. For all that man prides himself in. As demonstrated in
his passing over the important people of the world and choosing instead
those whom the world considers nothing like to give you a quote from
Charles Spurgeon, he said, It is clear to everyone who will observe
either scripture fact that God never did intend to make his gospel
fashionable.

That the very last thing that was ever in his thoughts was to select the
elite of mankind and gather dignity for his truth from the gaudy
trappings of rank and station. On the contrary, God has thrown down the
gauntlet against all the pride of manhood. He had dashed mire into the
face of all human excellency.

And with the battle of his strength, he has dashed the shield of man's
glory into. Spurgeon had such a way with words as we look at our text.
The first thing that we notice is that God's ways are much different
than our ways.

Notice what it says. God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base, the
despised and the things that are not. This has always been God's way of
doing things.

As you look at. Biblical history, you find that this is the way God has
worked, he's always chosen to do things almost completely the opposite
of how man would have done them. Think for a moment about.

The people of Israel themselves, God chose this people to become his
people, he chose this nation and he reminded them that his choosing of
them was not because they were. The largest nation, it wasn't because
they were the most brilliant nation, it wasn't because they were the
most righteous nation, it wasn't because they were the most powerful
nation. God said, quite the contrary.

You were the smallest of the nations. So God chose this people to be his
people that would have never been chosen if man was the one doing the
choosing. When God sent his people Israel into conquer the land of
Canaan.

The first city they encountered was a city of Jericho, the method that
God used to conquer Jericho again illustrates this principle. As the
people are going to conquer this walled city, God gives them instruction
on how it's to be accomplished. And it wasn't anything like they would
have thought there was no great military strategy in a sense.

What God said to them was simply this. You're to go and you are to march
around the city silently for six days. And on the seventh day, you're to
march around the city seven times.

And once you've completed the seventh time around, you're to blow the
trumpet. Long and hard, and when you blow the trumpet, the walls of the
city will fall down. How unlike man.

What kind of a strategy is that march around the city silently? But that
is exactly what God told them to do. And we see there once again, that
principle illustrated God doing things completely the opposite of way of
the way that men would do them. Think a little bit further in the
history of Israel.

We come to the Israelites being in the land, but now being under the
dominion of the Midianites. And so God is going to liberate them. And he
appears to a man named Gideon.

And Gideon is threshing grain and he's hiding for fear of the
Midianites. And the Lord appears to him and he says, Go, you mighty man
of valor, go in your strength and deliver Israel. And Gideon's response
is something like this.

You must have the wrong address. I'm I'm not a mighty man of valor. But
the Lord said, No, go, I will be with you.

And Gideon, of course. Is doubtful about all of this, so he goes through
a couple of means of testing whether or not God is really leading. But
when he finally becomes convinced that God is calling him to do this, he
gathers an army together.

And as he gathers this army together, the Lord speaks to him and says,
Gideon, there are too many men with you. Now they were going up against
an army of probably close to five hundred thousand. But the Lord speaks
to Gideon and he says there are too many with you.

If I were to give victory to Israel. With this many men, they would
somehow attribute it to their own strength. So he said, tell the people
this.

If there's anyone that's afraid. If there's anyone that's recently
married, if there's anyone who has intended to their business at home,
if there's anyone that for any reason at all doesn't really want to go
to battle, tell them that they're free to go home. So that day, twenty
two thousand men.

Left. And ten thousand remained. So they're going up against
approximately five hundred thousand.

They've got an army of ten thousand and the Lord once again appears and
says, Gideon, the men that are with you are too many. Now take him down
to the brook and God gave them a little test by which he was going to
thin the crowd out once again. And when it all was finished, Gideon was
left with three hundred men.

And the Lord said, now. Now you're ready to go to battle, but when you
go into battle, don't bother to take weapons. Instead, this is what I
want you to do.

So the Lord instructs them to take these ceramic pots and these torches
and things, and they're basically to go out against the Midianites and
make a lot of noise. And as they make this noise, God is going to use
this noise to frighten the Midianites. And they're going to become so
confused, they're actually going to end up fighting with each other.

And the Israelites are never even going to have to fight. The Midianites
are going to slay one another. But what kind of a battle plan is that?
That's a little more absurd than even marching around the city of
Jericho.

But again, we see that principle God doing things so much differently
than man would do them when it comes to the choosing of a king for the
nation. God says to the prophet Samuel, go down to the house of Jesse,
the Bethlehemite, for I have chosen from among his sons one to be king.
So Samuel makes preparation, he goes to Bethlehem, he gathers Jesse and
his family together, and Jesse's eldest son is brought before him first.

And as Samuel sees him, he says, surely this is the Lord's anointed
Eliab. He was a strong, handsome, kingly looking young man. And and
Samuel's excited about the prospect of a new king.

Surely this is the Lord's anointed. And the Lord speaks to him and says,
this is not the man that I've chosen. And then he said to Samuel, he
said, for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the
heart.

And so he goes through the list of sons, seven sons in total. And yet
there's no king. Finally, Samuel says to Jesse, do you have any other
children? And Jesse said, oh, yes, well, my youngest son is out tending
the sheep.

There he is out there. But surely he couldn't be the one that you're
interested in. But yet Samuel said, call him in.

And as David walked in this young boy, the shepherd boy, the Lord spoke
to Samuel and said, this is the one anoint him. But you see, he was the
one that would not have been chosen if it was up to man, but he was the
one that God chose. Now, when Jesus came into the world, this is where
we see.

This principle demonstrated in its fullest sense. Think about this. When
Jesus Christ came into the world, the son of God, the king of kings, the
heir of the universe.

He's not born in a palace in Rome, which was the capital of the world at
that time, nor was he even born in Jerusalem, which was the religious
capital of the world. But rather, he was born in Bethlehem. A fairly
insignificant place, and then he was brought up in a city of Nazareth,
which was not only insignificant, but in many ways contemptible.

He was brought up as a carpenter, not as a prince in a palace. We see
this demonstrated so clearly in the life of Jesus, this this principle
of God choosing the foolish things of the world to bring to shame the
things that are wise, God choosing the weak things of the world to
confound the mighty. And then, of course, when Jesus was making his
choice for those who would be his disciples, those that he would pass
the task of spreading his message to the world on to.

It's interesting that Jesus did not go to the doctors of the day. He did
not go to the universities and find the most educated. As a matter of
fact, I think if we could just visualize it for a moment, Jesus
literally bypassed those people.

And instead, he went to the fishermen. He went to a man who was a tax
collector. He went to a man who was a patriot.

A revolutionary. He went to the ordinary people of the day, and it was
from that group that he called out those who would follow him and those
who would eventually spread his message throughout the world. And in
doing so, again, he was showing his contempt for all that the world
prides itself in.

You see, when Jesus came. Those who deem themselves important. They
thought they they thought, surely, if he's the Messiah, he's going to
acknowledge us because we are the people.

We are the important people. And the fact that Jesus bypassed them, will
it cause them to conclude that he can't be the Messiah? Because if he
were, he would acknowledge our greatness. If he were really the Messiah,
he would commend us.

He would be looking from among our lot for someone to follow him. And
and they held him in contempt because he passed them by, and instead he
went to the common man, he went to the the working class of the day, if
you will. Jesus is the true champion of the working class.

And it's such a distortion of reality to. Say anything contrary to that,
Jesus is the true champion of the working class. Listen to the words of
Jesus.

He said, The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Jesus came into the world to
reach out primarily to the oppressed, to those who were overlooked, to
those who were thought as insignificant.

The term the apostle uses here when he speaks of that that group of men
who were not. And God has chosen the things that were not to bring to
nothing, the things that are. That is a term that speaks of absolute
insignificance.

So, in other words, God has chosen the people whom the world considers
absolutely insignificant. Those are the ones that God has chosen to do
his work among. Listen again to what Jesus said.

He said this in response to a question that was presented to him about
whether or not he was the Messiah. And the question had come from John
the Baptist, who was a bit concerned at this point because he had an
idea of what the Messiah was going to do, but it wasn't accurate and
therefore he was thinking that perhaps he had made a mistake. Because
John, like so many others, was thinking that the Messiah was going to
bring liberation from the Roman oppression, but Jesus spoke to John's
disciples and he said, Go tell John the things you have seen and heard
that the blind see the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf
here, the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

And blessed is he who is not offended in me. Listen also to what James
said in his epistle. He said, My brethren do not hold the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, with partiality, for if there
should come into your assembly, a man with gold rings and fine apparel,
and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes and you pay
attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit
here in a good place and say to the poor man, you stand over there or
sit here at my footstool.

Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with
evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren, has not God chosen the poor
of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he
promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do
not the rich oppress you and drag you into courts? Do they not blaspheme
that noble name by which you are called? You see, all throughout the
scriptures, we have this picture being presented that Jesus came
primarily to the poor of this world. Those who are oppressed, those who
are neglected, those who are despised, those who are considered nothing.

Karl Marx, he used the term proletariat to refer to the working class.
He and those who followed his philosophy set themselves up as the
champions of the proletariat. That word proletariat originally referred
to the lowest class in Roman society.

I think that's interesting, referred to the lowest class in Roman
society. That was the very society that Jesus came to. That was the very
society that the apostles went out and ministered to.

Our text is describing the proletariat, and it says these are the ones
that God has chosen. See, Jesus is really the working man's hero, and
it's so absurd when you take into consideration that he has been
virtually moved out of the picture by certain philosophers as having any
relevance to the working man. But you see, if you look at what the
scriptures say, if you base your conclusions on the biblical revelation,
it's clear that Jesus is the working man's hero and that the gospel is a
message primarily to the working class.

And it's time for the gospel to be put back into the hands of the common
man. It was a sad day in the history of the church when it became a
center of prestige and power. A very sad and pathetic day when position
in the church went to the highest bidder and the rich and famous were
given preferential treatment.

When the pulpit was reserved for the academic, all of this kind of thing
is in direct opposition to the clear teaching of scripture and is
actually a capitulation to the very same things that Paul was warning
the Corinthians about. You see what Paul warned the Corinthians about so
long ago. This desire to be seen as fashionable, this desire to be seen
as sophisticated, intelligent, wise, important, this desire for power.

This desire to be looked favorably upon. This is the very thing that the
church at a point in history capitulated to. And this is what has
caused.

So many to despise the church of Jesus Christ and without having
accurate information, assume that this is what the Bible teaches. I
mean, isn't it always assumed that the Bible teaches more of a
conservative point of view in the sense of, you know, the Bible is in
support of capitalism. The Bible is against socialism, things of this
nature.

Well, those are distortions. The Bible doesn't really address either one
of those things. The Bible certainly talks about justice.

The Bible talks about equity. The Bible talks about deliverance for the
poor. The Bible also talks about human responsibility.

The Bible talks about a person being responsible for themselves and so
forth. But but the you know, so often the scriptures are cast in the
light of, you know, Christianity is for the upper classes. There's no
compassion among church people for the lower classes and so forth.

Well, the problem is people are interpreting Christianity from what
they've seen in a church that's departed from the scriptures rather than
from what's revealed in the scriptures themselves. That's why I always
emphasize we have to get back to what the Bible says. And you see, when
you start talking about the Bible presenting the gospel as the answer to
the problems of the poor man, when you start talking about Jesus being
the champion of the working class and things like that, people will say,
oh, but what about what the church did in such and such a place? And in
many ways, it is true that Lennon and people like that were seeking to
liberate people from the oppression of the church.

But we have to understand this. Whatever the church wasn't doing or
whatever the church was doing, it wasn't what the Bible said the church
ought to do. And that's where the distinction needs to be made between
what the church has done and what the Bible actually teaches.

Whenever the church is oppressed people, whenever position in the church
has been sold to the highest bidder. Whenever the church is held a
position of power or prestige in the society and oppressed and dominated
people, you can know this for sure, that church has nothing to do with
Christianity, regardless of what they might say about themselves. That's
why we have to always interpret Christianity from what the Bible says.

Now, people always want to refer to church history. And my answer to
that is why bother? I'm not interested in church history. I am to some
degree, but I'm not in another sense.

In the sense that, well, the church did this or or did that, whatever
they were doing back then, if it was right and good, well, we might want
to emulate that to some degree. But if it was wrong. Well, then we must
admit, yes, it was wrong, but it wasn't wrong because that's what the
Bible taught them to do.

It was wrong because they themselves ignored the scriptures. And went
off in another direction. Now, as I said a moment ago, I believe that
God wants to do something.

Once again, among the common people, and it's interesting when you look
at the history of true revival, you find that generally speaking,
revival impacts the common man. What God does is he takes his truth and
just as he's always done, he brings it right down to the people that he
intended it to be for primarily. And he raises up men who can reach the
common man.

When you look at the history of revival in this country, that's what
happens so often. Those who were even being oppressed by the church to
some degree or neglected or ignored, God would send his servants to
minister to them. And then he would actually raise up a whole new work
out of that common class of people.

The Methodist revival under Wesleyan Whitfield did that very thing.
These were men who had a position in the church and yet at the same
time. Saw the need for the common man to be ministered to, and as they
went out and preached the gospel to the poor, they ended up being
rejected by their own church and subsequently a new movement was
developed where the common man was involved.

There was a place for the laborer. To also possibly even become a
preacher, a pastor, a teacher of the word and things like that, and as
you look at the various revivals in the history of the church, you find
that that is essentially what's happened, and that's what happened when
Jesus came. There was that segregation at the time of Jesus.

There was that spiritual elite. Demonstrated in the life of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, but what does it say in the gospel? It says
that the common people heard Jesus gladly. And I personally believe that
there are multitudes of people in this country that if they simply knew
the gospel.

In its truest form and saw it being demonstrated. In the lives of the
common people, I believe that there are many people that would respond,
and I think that a lack of interest in the gospel has to do with the
misrepresentation that's been given of the gospel by so much of the
church. And so I am of the conviction that God wants to raise up a new
generation of men to reach the common man.

Men who are common, men who are like their neighbor, men from from that
working class now. I come from that sort of a background in that sort of
a history. And this is the very thing that we witnessed God doing in
this.

Group of churches that were involved in the churches called Calvary
Chapel. What we saw God begin to do was take. Just.

Ordinary people and put his hand upon them and begin to use them in a
powerful way, much to the dismay of organized religion. And. We've had
our fair share of criticism.

From the established church and many years ago, when Pastor Chuck Smith
was being led by God to make some some real changes and real adjustments
in his approach to the ministry, he received all kinds of flack from the
existing religious hierarchy, even from people within his own church
when he decided to open the door to the hippies at that time. Those
young people who were disillusioned with. Society.

They had turned their backs on materialism and they were many of them
living on the streets and involved in all kinds of sexual promiscuity
and drug activity and so forth, and many of them living on the streets
were filthy and all. But yet God began to work and he began to move upon
their hearts. And of course, they needed to be ministered to.

They needed to be taught the word. And as they were invited and started
coming to the church, there were a few people in the establishment who
said, oh, no, no, we can't allow them in here unless they're willing to
take a bath and put on some shoes. And some of the people actually
protested and said, oh, they're going to ruin the new carpet.

And this is where Chuck. I think made one of the most strategic moves in
church history when he said this, he said, then we'll pull the carpet
out because they're coming in. And that opened the floodgate.

There were many in the established church who would not open the door to
people like that in those days. And I think, unfortunately, that has
been repeated over and over again, historically, even to this very day,
there are churches that will not open the door to certain people,
certain people will not feel welcomed. But yet I believe that God wants
to do something about all of that, and I believe that God wants to raise
up.

A new generation and one of the things that the Lord showed me is that.
Well, of course, there's a famine for his word, but another thing the
Lord showed me is that there is not a generation, a new generation of
young men to take his word to the people. And as I've been able to have
some experience over the past year, meet people and go to different
places and so forth, what I've seen is that there are people still in
the church in this country who are committed to the Bible, committed to
the authority of the word and capable of communicating God's truths and
so forth.

But yet, for the most part. Those who are like that are from a previous
generation and many of them are even ready for retirement. And what we
find is that there aren't a whole lot of men waiting in the ranks to
step up and.

Take the work and to carry it on, and even among those who are capable
and committed to Bible exposition and so forth, so often you find that
even they themselves are trapped in certain traditional types of
environments where the average person might not feel that they could
even approach to such a place. Now, as I look at that, that to me is
confirmation that God wants to do. Something.

In that he wants to touch lives, he wants to raise people up, he wants
to bring up a new generation of preachers who can reach out to the
common man because they come from that group themselves. There are so
many people. Who? I think again, our disillusion with Christianity.

Not because of what Christianity is, but because of their interpretation
of it. Because of what they've seen. They dislike it, they disapprove of
it, but they haven't seen an accurate representation of it.

I was talking to a man some time ago and we were just having a
conversation and. And in the course of the conversation, I was telling
him a bit about myself, telling him a bit about my background. And, you
know, I mentioned that, you know, I am a pastor and I've been in the
ministry now for several years, but prior prior to that, I was involved
in, you know, all kinds of different types of employment.

And one of the things that I did for the most part was in the field of
construction, and actually I was. A plumber. And, you know, as we were
talking about this, and I'm just having a conversation with this fellow
and suddenly says, you know, I've never met a clergyman.

Who had ever done any common type of labor, and he said, I've never met
a clergyman who'd ever worked with his hands before. And you actually
used to build houses and dig ditches and things like that. And so, yeah,
yeah, I did do that.

And he was absolutely amazed at that. Because it was something that he
had never come into contact. Now he was, you know, a working class man.

And I could see as we talked that there was some sort of a bond that was
developing. You know, the funny thing, how this even got going was we
were over at some friend's house and we were we were out in the back
garden and we were tossing around an American football. He had been a
rugby player and I used to play American football, so we were tossing
the ball around.

And the funniest things that God will use the fact that I could throw a
football well, really impressed this guy. It's like now. Now, wait a
minute.

This guy's a preacher, but he can throw that football really. I can't
make the connection. You know, in his mind, it was like, no, preachers
don't do things like this.

And to me, you know, I mean, to somebody else, that might not have been
significant at all, but to me, as I listened to what he said, I could
see that he was stumbled by a church that had failed to communicate the
New Testament message. And it also showed me that there are multitudes
of people just like that, that God wants to reach. God wants to touch
people through your lives.

God isn't calling everyone here to become a preacher, to go out and
plant a church or something like that. But eventually he might call some
of you to do that. That you might go and reach the people that.

Can identify with you, God uses those kinds of things now. Again, going
back to what I was saying previously about Calvary Chapel, this is the
work that God has done, and I'm not here to toot the horn for Calvary
Chapel. I think the genius of Calvary Chapel is simply this.

God led one man to take people back to the Bible. It's as simple as
that. Some people ask, well, what's the great secret behind the growth
of Calvary Chapel? And in the States or churches are very large and so
forth.

And what's the great secret? Well, there's no secret to it really at
all. One man just took a generation of people back to the Bible and they
understand Christianity from the biblical point of view, which is really
the only real Christianity. And we're just doing what the Bible says to
do, being normal, everyday, ordinary people, but trusting that God wants
to use us and work through our lives.

And God is doing a work. And I believe God wants to do the same thing.
As I look at what I experienced, how just a handful of my own peers, we
all grew up together.

We weren't Christians. We weren't thinking about God. We were living for
ourselves, serving ourselves.

But one day the spirit of God swept through our lives and saved a number
of us and established us in the faith and called us. And I can think of
many people I know who are doing what I'm doing today all over the
world. And and yet it was something that God just did in our lives.

And as I look at that and see what God did, my conviction is that what
God did there, he can do anywhere in the world. And I don't know why he
wouldn't want to do it right here. I think there are thousands of young
men just like I was that God wants to lay hold of and use to reach the
common man.

Therefore, we will pursue that and trust God with that conviction to do
that work in us and through us. Now, moving on from there, a quick word
on verse 26. Notice not many wise, according to the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble.

The Countess of Huntington, her name was Selina. She became an avid
supporter of George Whitfield in his ministry. She was from the
aristocracy.

And when she looked at this particular verse, she said, thank God that
it doesn't say where you see your calling, brethren, that not any wise,
not any mighty or any noble. And and we need to clarify that as well.
There have certainly been people who have been great in the world's eyes
who have become Christians.

There have been kings and prime ministers and presidents and great
military leaders. And there have been great men of learning, great men,
scientifically and of course, Christians have come from every walk of
life. But quite honestly, the vast majority of Christians have been
common people.

And that's the point that the apostles making now, not that God doesn't
love everyone. He certainly does. He loves the rich and the mighty and
the famous.

He loves them equally. But yet the problem is not with God's love or the
availability of salvation. The problem is with man.

And of course, those who see themselves wise, according to the flesh,
those who see themselves mighty, those who see themselves as noble
generally do not see that they have any need for God. You see, their
attitude is is something like this. Well, if there is a God and I'm
rather doubtful about that, but if there is a God, he certainly will
respect me because look how brilliant I am.

Or look how mighty I am or look at my pedigree. Look at my heritage. If
there is a God, certainly he will acknowledge me.

See, that's why there are so few from that realm. It's because of human
pride. Now, why has God done things this way? Well, Paul answers that
for us.

Why has God done things that way? Well, let me ask you a question. Do
you like a boaster? Do you like a person who snubs you? Do you enjoy
being around the arrogant, those who look down their nose at you and
say, oh, poor plebeian, too bad you weren't born into upper society? Or,
oh, it's so sad that you're so ignorant, uneducated. I don't think
there's anyone that really does like a boaster or an arrogant person.

Neither does God. The Bible says God resists the proud and he gives
grace to the humble. God has done things the way he's done them for this
reason, to humble the world.

To humble the world and to show man that all that he deems important,
all that he puts his stock in, all that he values is all wrong and it's
all contrary to the heart and the mind of God. God has done things this
way to humble the world, to put man in his place. Oh, I know for sure
that you can identify with this.

We all long to see a boaster put in his place. I remember the first
fight between Tyson and Holyfield and all the boasting that was coming
from Tyson's camp and all the talk about Holyfield. Oh, he's washed up
and, you know, he's old and he never was really a great champion anyway.

And this young, vicious Tyson is going to just decapitate him in the
first round and all of the boasting and all the bragging that was going
on. And, you know, you just want, oh, is there any hope that something
could be done? And then when Holyfield ends up winning the fight, oh,
great justice has been served. The arrogant has been humbled.

The proud mouth has been stopped. We all delight in seeing the arrogant
humble. Well, you see, God is humbling the world.

In order. That when it's all said and done, there will be no boasting.
Except in the Lord himself, Paul makes reference to Jeremiah.

Nine, twenty three and twenty four, and I want to close by reading the
passage from Jeremiah. Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom.

Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him who glories glory in this that he understands
and knows me that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness. Judgment and
righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, says the Lord. See,
that's what it's all about.

God has humbled the world. And in the end, the only boasting that will
take place is boasting in the Lord. When it's all said and done, we are
all going to simply give praise and glory and honor to God.

Wouldn't heaven be a miserable place if there were a load of boasters
there? You arrive there on the heavenly scene and someone says, now,
what did you do to obtain heaven? Say, well, I did this and that. Oh,
well, you will definitely have a lower position here than I do, because
you know what I did to get here? I wouldn't be a miserable environment
to have to live eternally in. No, when it's all over and we're all there
in heaven.

Whatever we've even done or accomplished for the Lord on the earth, you
know what we're going to say? Praise the Lord. Glory to God. As I think
of myself as a as a man who wants to serve God and as I think of other
people that I know like that and even as I survey the long history of
the church, I look at the men that God has used.

You know what you find in the end? You find that every one of them are
thoroughly human. And that really whatever God does do. At the end of
the day, we'll find that he did it in spite of us, not because of us.

Even God using me. It's not because I am I pray more than anyone else. I
meditate on the Bible.

I'm so loving. I'm so God can't help but use me. No, that that just
isn't true.

My wife can attest to that. There have been times when I've tried to
figure out why God used me and the Lord has spoken to me and said, don't
don't try. You'll be really you'll be really disappointed when you find
out.

It's not because of us. You know, so often even, you know, as Christian
people, we want to exalt a man. We want to put someone up on a pedestal
and say, oh, pastor, so and so, or or this.

Oh, they're such a person of God. And oh, yes, God uses him. Oh, they're
so spiritual and so forth.

Well, no, that really isn't it. It's not my spirituality that causes God
to use me. And I don't think that that is even the case with anybody
ever in the history of the church.

Because on our best day, we're still sinners. And it's the grace of God.
So when it's all said and done, I won't be there in heaven saying, well,
you know, I got this seat right over here, pretty close to Jesus, isn't
it? Because, you know, when I was on Earth, I really prayed and you
guys, you know, I noticed your prayer life was a bit weak.

I studied my Bible when you did. And you know how many people I
witnessed to? Even as Christians, we get caught up in boasting these
kinds of things, don't we? But really, as God uses us, and I know for
myself, as God uses me, you know what it does? It just humbles me. It
just shows me the goodness of God, because I know myself and I know that
if it was based upon my performance, I couldn't be used at all.

It's based upon the grace of God so that at the end, the glory goes back
to God. Thanks be to God for his mercy, for his glory, for his grace.
And let me close with this word of encouragement.

I say that to let you know not to encourage carnality. Of course, we
want to press on. We want to become godly people.

But even on your best day, you're still a sinner and. Here's the good
news, in spite of all that, God loves you and he wants to use you with
all of your imperfections, you might say, well, you know, I'd love to be
used by the Lord, but but he can't use me. Yes, he can.

He uses sinful people. It's not a matter of human perfection, it's a
matter of humbling ourselves before God, recognizing our weaknesses,
crying out to God for mercy and thanking him for his grace that enables
us to be used. And so God has humbled the world.

He's humbled the world. And there are many, many from that group, those
that the world deems foolish, those that the world deems as nothing that
God, even in the future, wants to use to confound man and to turn his
world upside down over and over again.

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/11/SID11459.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/brian-brodersen/1-corinthians-the-humbling-of-the-world/
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