The Foolishness of God is Wiser Than Men

Galatians 4:16, Am I therefore become your enemy because I
tell you the truth?
You're listening to Truth Time Radio with Trey Searcy.
One of you said to me recently that we shouldn't rock the boat, but ladies and gentlemen, I
want to tell you that I am a boat rocker.
It's Truth Time, coming in like Balboa, the underdog, the minority, the outcast, a part
of the remnant that's often scoffed at.
Yeah, we're a little rough around the edges and have no intentions of smoothing things
out.
We deal with the hard facts minus the fluff.
Religion will deal with you on the basis of your feelings and your emotions.
Trafficking in opinions and commentaries, Sunday school quarterlies, motivational speakers,
rumors, and misinformation.
Hey, when this sort of thinking takes prevalence over the facts, well it's time to make a
change.
You need to look beyond your perceptions to find the truth.
This man-made theory being taught today, a theory that claims that, well, your perception is reality, hey, that's a scam.
Don't fall for that deception.
Perception is not reality.
Let me say that again.
Perception is not reality.
I don't care what the gurus tell you.
Perception's not reality.
Reality is reality.
How you might perceive something to be, well, it's just that.
It's your perception.
It's not the basis by which you should judge reality.
It's limited.
It's not absolute truth.
It's simply your perception of what truth is.
Having perception is not bad.
It's just not where you stop.
You should continue your investigation to make sure that your perception is correct, to make sure that it lines up with the truth.
And listen, this book, this Bible, now, it's absolute truth.
In this book, the truth has been revealed in its entirety.
In Matthew chapter 13 verse 11, there's where Jesus told the disciples that the secrets of the kingdom is given unto you to know, but to them it is not given.
You see, Christ purposely hid things from the multitudes during his earthly ministry.
Things he only revealed to his disciples.
And these disciples were hated for their understanding.
Remember that next time you're met with opposition for opening up your mouth and standing for the truth.
These disciples, these future rulers of the world, were despised, ridiculed, and laughed at for what they knew and taught.
Today, there are also multitudes that just don't understand Paul's gospel.
However, while Jesus purposely hid things from Israel concerning their gospel, he revealed our gospel.
Our gospel, it's been revealed in its entirety through the apostle Paul.
Nothing hid, no more secrets.
Same thing happened in the day of Noah.
He was given secret information concerning a worldwide flood.
Information that no one else had ever heard.
They knew nothing about it.
And what did Noah become?
A joke.
If you as much as mentioned the name of Noah back then, you could bring down the house with laughter.
I guess all the Gentile comedy clubs were using flood material for laughs.
What did Noah do?
Well, just like Paul did, he preached it.
And just like most do Paul's gospel today, they too ignored it.
A destructive, disastrous, worldwide flood to them sounded just as crazy as Paul's dispensation of the grace of God.
Just as crazy as that sounds to most today.
They mocked Noah when he began to preach his gospel.
They mocked Jesus when he preached his gospel.
And later, Paul was also mocked for preaching his gospel.
It's the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, Romans 16:25.
And even though the mystery has already been revealed, it's still a mystery to many today.
They just can't get it.
Why not?
Well, Paul answers this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3.
Here he says, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
What are we to take from this?
Well, if you're speaking to someone that doesn't understand, and therefore haven't believed Paul's gospel, you're speaking to a lost person.
You see, the natural man can't get this.
No, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
For their foolishness unto him, he can't understand it because they're spiritually discerned.
First Corinthians 2:14.
Remember in Matthew, what was it?
Chapter 16, there when Jesus asked his disciples, he said, Who do men say that I am?
And they said, Well, some say you're John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
And Jesus said, well, who do you think I am?
And Peter said, The Christ, the son of the living God.
And Jesus right then and there called Peter blessed, for he knew that flesh and blood had not revealed that to Peter.
That information came from the Father in heaven.
So now, now, now think about it.
It took an act of God to reveal to Peter just who Christ was.
All the scribes and Pharisees couldn't do it.
All the educated professors and theologians of that day couldn't do it.
Ask yourself this question.
If Christ were here today, would he call me blessed?
Have you been following after flesh and blood, or are you allowing the Spirit of God by his written truth to lead and guide you into all understanding?
Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:15 to rightly divide the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
And in verse seven, he said that if we'll consider what he says, the Lord will give us understanding in all things.
This is truth time radio and it's truth that will set you free.
Flesh and blood won't do a thing for you.
It'll lead you down a path of confusion.
It'll always do its best to oppose the truth.
Saints, we got to get our eyes off the physical and start focusing on the spiritual.
There are those who will quote Matthew 7:1.
Judge not, judge not, judge not, judge not.
Hey, don't, don't fall for that nonsense.
You're a saint of the most high God, an ambassador, a minister of reconciliation who's been baptized
by the Spirit into the body, and you're not to judge.
We make judgments every day.
Why would we not make judgments concerning doctrine?
Jesus Christ commands you, 1 Corinthians 14:37, to judge all things, 1 Corinthians 2:15.
He's not suggesting that you do anything.
It's a command, plain and simple.
It's nothing more than vanity for anyone to want you to follow them.
That's, that's man's flesh.
That's his pride.
Only a man in his own wisdom would teach you to follow after flesh and blood.
They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:5.
The fact that God today is dealing with you in the spiritual and not in the physical is foolishness to most.
But you see, it's the silliness of God that is wiser than the wisdom of men.
The natural man can't get this.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness unto him.
He can't know them because they're spiritually discerned.
God is not trying to look smart.
God is not trying to look smart.
He's done many things that mankind will look at and call ridiculous.
And he did them on purpose.
That's why people don't believe him.
That's why he's made fun of.
1 Corinthians 1:25.
The foolishness of God is wiser than men.
Was God trying to look smart when he decided to instruct a man to build an oversized boat and put all the animals on it?
God had a man's donkey to talk to him.
Or how about this?
I'm going to have a virgin to give birth to the Savior of all humanity in a barn where animals are.
Yeah, surely mankind will, well, they'll see just how smart I am when they read about this, won't they?
They'll certainly believe that story.
Or better yet, let's have the Savior of humanity die naked hanging on a tree.
Does that sound like God showing off his intelligence to you?
No, we could not even deal with God if he was showing off his intelligence.
God was not trying to look smart.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul reminds us that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness.
But unto us which are saved, the preaching of the cross is the power of God.
Aha!
Again, we see the foolishness of God is wiser than men.
So, just why is it that you're trying to fit in?
You don't.
You don't fit in.
Members of the body of Christ don't fit in and we're not called to.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness to them.
But by contrast, Paul says, But unto us, unto us which are saved, it, the preaching of the cross, is the power of God.
You don't fit in and you're not supposed to.
You're opposite to the "them" that Paul refers to.
Your thinking is different.
1 Corinthians 1:19, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Answer this question, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of the world?
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1:20.
These stories in the Bible that sound absurd for centuries have confounded the wise.
Like Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of beans.
And I wonder just how strange God's victory plan of taking Jericho sounded to Joshua and his army.
They were certainly not the ordinary methods of warfare.
Remember, Joshua's army went mute for seven days.
They didn't say a single word until the shout that brought the walls down.
How about that for the foolishness of God?
Think about it.
When most armies would be strategizing and making crucial plans before going into battle, God tells these men to shut up and don't speak a single word for seven days.
Most of us can't even go seven minutes without speaking, unless we're asleep.
This certainly speaks of how much faith these men had in the Lord, and how disciplined they were.
It would also account for why their shout was so powerful.
They would have had a lot built up after being silent for a week.
Again, the foolishness of God is wiser than men.
And what about the time the Lord, at the request of Joshua, forbid the sun to set?
Remember that in Joshua chapter 10?
He commanded it to sit still and shine for almost a whole extra day until Israel was
through giving the Amorites a good old-fashioned beatdown.
And then there's the time the Lord told the prophet Elijah, the Tishbite, to go into Zarephath.
Well Elijah went and came upon a widow who was literally starving to death.
Elijah said to bring him some bread, but she said, I've only got a handful of meal and a little oil, and that's for me and my son.
We're going to eat it.
We're going to eat this last meal and then die.
And Elijah said, don't worry about it.
Go do what I told you to do.
So she did what the prophet told her.
And if you'll remember, not only was she able to give him some bread, but that handful of meal and a small portion of oil ended up lasting her and her son for many days.
And then what about the time Christ told Ananias that there's a blind murderer that just arrived in town and he's hanging out down on Straight Street.
I want you to go there and heal this man and then baptize him.
Yeah, I'm going to take this serial killer who's hunting down and killing members of the Jewish church at Jerusalem and threatening to slaughter my disciples.
I'm going to take this serial saint killer and have him to represent me.
He'll represent me before the Gentiles and kings and even the children of Israel.
Think about it.
Out of all the people God could have chosen, God wanted Paul.
He even called him his quote, Chosen vessel.
Just more foolishness you can find in God's word.
The kind of foolishness that continues to confound the wise even today.
But you see, God's foolishness is wiser than men.
God does things that the quote, Smart people of the world write off as just being plain stupid.
But there are those today that have too much of man's wisdom to have the faith of Ananias.
First Corinthians 1:27, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.
And look up at verse 22, For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
Yet, here we are preaching the crucified naked Christ who hung on a tree for the sins of all humanity.
So is it any wonder that we're considered fools?
That simply sounds foolish to today's religious man who insists that we must do things to have our sins forgiven.
Some today who can't see past their nose are teaching that you must first believe before your sins can be forgiven.
What a slap in the face of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And then some say you must ask for your sins to be forgiven before God can forgive them.
You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones he died on the cross for, yeah.
Others will say, yes, both of those that Trey just mentioned, plus.
And then they proceed by giving you a list of other things you must do for salvation.
They'll be happy to make you out a real complex formula of various things to do to be saved.
I pick up tracts all the time that are supposed to be salvation tracts and well, they won't save anyone.
Not one person.
They dare to use the word grace when they don't even know what it means and it's evident by what they wrote.
Paul said the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
And guess what?
Many today are just like those biblical Jews.
They want to see you do something to be saved.
And then others today are just like those Greeks.
They want an Einstein or an Isaac Newton type that will draft up a long detailed list of how you've got to work through before achieving salvation.
It's appealing to their ego.
Just give me something that I can do so that I can have some of the credit.
Well, guess what?
You don't deserve it.
These Bible truths will begin to jump off the page and become clear once you begin to compare scripture with scripture and simply use a little empirical reasoning.
There are certain methods that we must use when analyzing data if we want to come away with a proper understanding and a correct conclusion.
Let's not limit our capacity to see and understand simple truths by allowing ourselves to be dumbed down by someone else's confinements.
Know ye not that you're the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
Listen, God has anointed us and made us stable in Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:21.
Use your intellect, a little hard work, and dedication.
Apply some basic study principles.
You have a recipe for success.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:13.
You've heard the phrase, to take it at face value.
Well, instead of taking something at face value, you might want to do some independent investigation.
To take it at face value is to take something as it appears.
You better be careful with that.
Don't forget, Satan himself can appear as an angel of light.
I've learned to instead of just instantly jumping to a conclusion when someone gives a summary, to dig in and inquire further.
Paul said, 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.
We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.
The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
It wasn't until Paul received the dispensation of the grace of God that we see a change in the program, a change of instructions.
And it's through his epistles that we learn that there is no longer distinction between Jew and Gentile, no distinction between male nor female.
Now we're all one in Christ.
Galatians 3:28.
Not so before Paul receiving the revelation of the mystery.
You see, you gotta remember that Satan, the God of this world, is the master of the 180.
He flips lies, making them appear to be truth.
Okay, I'm going to leave you with a song from Gordon Moat titled, All Things New.
This song accurately describes the war Satan is waging for souls.
While listening, you'll be taken from the cross to the battle Satan is orchestrating today, filled with pain, bondage, and bad news on every hand.
But understand that the battle was won at Calvary, and there's no doubt that victory still resounds according to the dispensation of the grace of God.
I'm Trey Searcy and now you know the truth.