Well, I would like to say to you that tonight
is going to be one of those moments that if you
miss, you will hear about the regular week or
next week, and I wish I had gone. It has been
very, very special. And especially for those
old timers amongst us, like myself, who enjoy
the music that came out of the 1940s, 50s, 60s
era. Tonight will be indeed familiar. LBD Services.
You'll have an opportunity like some of the rest
of us in our contemporary courses. You'll have
an opportunity to learn some real music tonight
at 6 o 'clock. So we'll see you then. I'm going
to open our Bibles together now to the book of
1 Corinthians as we continue studying about God's
wisdom. Today, understanding God's wisdom is
planned for redemption. After inviting his leaders
of his ministry, among them several years in
the past, how he all had done his part in God's
work of establishing the Church in the midst,
Paul now proceeds to tell them more about the
amazing divine wisdom that had saved them. This
wisdom would be cured to the divisiveness that
was very real to them. reflected in the fine
drama this morning. If they would heed God's
wisdom, the divisiveness would end. The fractures
in their fellowship would heal. But first they
would have to change their way of thinking and
their way of living. Unity would be restored
when they put aside their human -centered way
of looking at life and return to God's It's a
simple message. It's Christ. He says, yes, it
is foolishness with respect to its humble recipients.
Chapter 1, verses 16 to 31. For its recipients
are not the high and the mighty, but the lowly
and the noblest. He says, yes, I agree it's foolishness
with respect to its weak deliverer. It's all
right if you want to call it foolishness. I agree
with you, it's foolishness in both respects.
But now we've turned a corner. In fact, however,
what I have said to you, what I have preached
to you is... Now that we're not of this age,
nor the rulers of this age, who are passing away,
but we speak God's wisdom in a history, the hidden
wisdom which God predestined before the ages
to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers
of this age has understood, or they have understood
if they would not have crucified the Lord of
Glory. But just as this lessons things which...
I have not seen and here has not heard, and which
have not been, and into the heart of man. All
that God has prepared for those who look in.
For to us God revealed them, who are the spirit.
Who the spirit searcheth all things, even the
depths of God. For who among men knoweth the
thoughts of a man, except the spirit of the man
which is in him. Even so the thoughts of... of
God no one knows except the Spirit of God, which
things we also seek, not words taught by human
wisdom, but those taught by the Spirit. Combining
spiritual thought with spiritual words, but a
natural man does not accept the things of the
Spirit of God, for that's what we should see.
And he cannot understand them because they are
spiritually It is a higher wisdom than them.
What is being discovered by man in the usual
way? The answer to that is technically no. God's
wisdom comes to that in a unique way. A way that
rational, philanthropic men, a way that scientific
modern men go with. My basic point today is that
God's wisdom cannot be discovered. God's wisdom
can only be weaved. Both those office pieces
close to the photographs we looked at. This proves
that I have been stated to you as hard for man
to handle. Because man likes to think in his
own ego that he can discover wisdom. That he
can... that they can understand God. But what
this text says to us today is that God's wisdom
cannot be discovered by man at all. That God's
wisdom can only be received. John verses 6 through
8, we're going to look at the how Paul spelled
out the facing to a fight, saying the explanation
of God's wisdom. He tells us here even more.
or about Dr. Winston that he said in the past.
He tells us in the first place that it is distinctive.
Dr. Winston is distinctive if origin is not in
this page or from the rulers of this page. By
this page, do I need to get another microphone?
I will take it. Pardon me. Okay, all right. He
tells us that... is a distinctive wisdom that
origin is not found in this age or from the rulers
of this age. By this age, Paul seems to mean
here the entire period of human form. Not merely
this age of grace, as he sometimes says to the
devil, Paul is talking here about this entire
age. From the beginning, one day, I had a spell
in this day and it's a - of the world in this
age cannot claim God's wisdom, they cannot even
grasp upon their own these rulers that he says
in fact are themselves coming to nothing. We
find our ending in futility. This wisdom of God
is apparent to those who are matured, sir Paul.
And we often hear that word Lord, we think of
a full -grown Christian, one who has grown up
spiritually, but Paul thinks he is here to do
it in a different sense. The one who turned out
to be full and complete, it also means one who
is fully initiated. That is another way that
was used in that day. But so dear Paul seems
to mean that God's worth is apparent to those
who are the tour and that they are truly saved.
who are genuinely Christians, they seem to be
the same ones that he talks about in verse 9.
Those who love God. It is a distinctive wisdom.
It is not from this age that God comes to the
woman of this age. It comes from God. But only
a certain people can perceive God's wisdom. Those
who are mature. That is, those who love God,
those who are the... Secondly, he says this mystery,
this wisdom of the mystery. He doesn't say it's
mysterious, that it's hard to understand all
of our parts of the physical planets to comprehend.
But he means it's a mystery of a specific sense,
that is that it was concealed. It was hidden
without any reveal and exposed to men. It was
ordained by God before the creation, before the
ages, and there's no afterthought at all. This
wisdom is God's intent to glorify man, that is
to lift up all of man, to present all of man
to himself. Every being and complete and glorified
in this time is a mystery. The third way that
he explains God's wisdom is by saying that it
is truly the gospel. It is the message that God
sent his the Lord of Glory to show God's love
for us and to bring to us the knowledge of God.
But it's also the story that man rejected God's
Son. God's Son was not what they expected or
wanted in the Messiah. Man did not understand
the Son because his heart was hard and vice -
And so he crucified the Lord of Glory. But that
very crucifixion, that rejection by man of the
Son was the means by which God showed his wisdom.
When man rejected the Son, he played life into
the sovereign purpose of God. For it is through
the rejection of man that the Lord of Glory and
accomplish man's redemption. And that, friends,
that is the heart of the wisdom of God. That
is the plan, that is the purpose of God. And
he might reveal himself to us, and even though
we would reject that revelation, through that
very rejection, Paul here explains God's wisdom.
Because I'm going to talk about the revelation
of God's wisdom in verses 9 to 13. We do not
comprehend God's revelation by natural means.
Man is not able to acquire an understanding of
God or if it's against his plan. that all paraphrases
in verse 9 are some thoughts from the Old Testament,
probably Isaiah 64 -4 and Isaiah 65 -17. He doesn't
quote these verses verbatim, he seems to analyze
their meaning here. But what he is saying is
this, that God's wisdom cannot be seen with the
eye. It cannot be heard with the ears. It cannot
be wheezed with the mind or the heart of man.
I know about you, but I've heard you say this
quote many, many times in reference to heaven.
Have you? I have not seen, heard, or heard, or
heard, or heard, or heard, or heard, or heard,
or heard, or heard, or heard, or heard, or heard,
or heard, or heard, And I will be able to talk
about that. But all I'm saying is man can't see,
man can't hear, man can't discover, he himself
doesn't exist. Man is primarily in this empiricism
and rationalism that comes with his discoveries.
But what he says here is that science and philosophy
cannot discover God. Observation. and logic will
never lead man to God's wisdom. Man cannot discover
God. Science and philosophy are irrelevant when
it comes to the wisdom of God. They're also unnecessary.
They're unnecessary because God is already taking
initiative to give us His wisdom. We don't have
to go out and search for it. The knowledge of
God comes by only one means, and that is by revelation.
That's what verse 10 says. We cannot discover
God's wisdom, but God has revealed his thoughts,
his wisdom to us, he says, through the Spirit.
Not the ones God has revealed to nobody, to the
poor, to those who love God. So this wisdom was
given directly to the apostles of God. it on
to us in the writing of Scripture. What I'm saying
here is that the proof -of -fiction of Jesus
Christ lasted up to a few hours. We can't go
see that demonstration of God's wisdom today.
It happened at a point in history, and then it
was done, how it worked for the continent. But
the message of Christ's proof Through the lifted
revelation of God's Word, the Apostle said that
God has revealed His wisdom to us by His Spirit.
What he is saying here is that the Holy Spirit
is the agent who carried out this revelation
of God's wisdom. In verse 11, he says, I don't
know what you're thinking about right now. But
when you're in danger, when you're tracking along,
when you're thinking about where you're going
to have to do this afternoon, I can't tell that.
Because only you know what you're thinking at
this point. That's the only... And so the thoughts
of God, no one knows except the spirit of God.
I can observe you. I can listen to your silence.
I can try to figure out in my mind what you're
thinking. But I can't. Only you can tell me that.
God has revealed His plan. And that's why I'm
so focused on Christ crucified. The work of the
Holy Spirit is involved in the lighting of God's
thoughts. You can't hear these things that God
has revealed. We speak God's thoughts, not the
words of human wisdom. No, not that. But those
that are taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual
thoughts and spiritual words, what the saying
is, that the Holy Spirit is guiding you. of the
other writers of this rigid record that God's
written. So that all one way roads with their
own personality, out of their own cultural situations,
and using their own vocabulary, the Holy Spirit
is helping them so that as they do that they're
really writing down the thoughts of God in their
own... in the words that He helps to form and
to shape in them and within ourselves. He has
explained to us here how God's wisdom comes to
us. We can't, though, observe Christ's crucifixion.
It is the heart of God's wisdom. Can happen?
because we have as a witness for our fear more
fully explained to us than we have in the writing
of the Word of God, the wisdom of God. Then he
talks about the apprehension of God's wisdom
in verses 14 to 16. He tells us that there are
two kinds of men, the natural man and the spiritual
man. He says there is a kind of man who has only
death, so much. With life on the Polish level,
this is not a low term that describes man after
most regenerative works. But it's a term that
would refer to man as educated, as cultured,
as civilized, as moral, but without God. That's
the kind of man Paul has to be. is an utterly
generic man at his best, a natural man. He says
that this kind of man who lives on the natural
plane does not welcome the things of God. He
can't read the Bible, he can't study the Bible,
but he does not see its meaning. For him, the
Bible is great literature and nothing more. And
he comes to that conclusion because of his poor
judgment. His reason, which he depended upon,
does not perceive that the Bible is supernatural.
With respect to redemption, the Bible is foolishness.
There's no appreciation for what it says beyond
the natural - because the things of the spirit
of God must be discerned or framed by the spirit
of man. to help him understand archaeology's
ability to think. He's studying this for those
kinds of values. The spiritual man is one who
is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and therefore
the spirit in him is alive. That core of his
being that relates to God has come to life because
he is trusted in the Savior. And because he is
spiritually alive, he is able to obtain all things,
he is able to When he reads the Bible, the Spirit
takes that word and instructs him in the knowledge
and the wisdom of God. and just as it has taught
you to abide in it. But John, I think you have
an anointing. That one anointing seems to be
a word you use before the Holy Spirit. And he
says you have this anointing of God, and that
anointing, that spirit which is used before the
Holy Spirit. Something else about this? He baffles
the natural men, who cannot appraise the things
of God or the people of God. Regarding natural
men, not in the course of life, they try to appraise
believers, of course, but they're always wrong.
They may accurately evaluate our faults, shortcomings,
and our weapons, that are inconsistent with our
faith, but they cannot accurately evaluate our
faith. you to evaluate and understand the natural
man he does. He has the mind of Christ. He can
act again in his spiritual wisdom. The truth
of redemption may not be seen in the real place.
These things that are revealed in the inspired
Word of God in which the Spirit of God has taken
the box of God and written this down for us.
think about their condition. In the record of
the assessment, we don't have a search that is
more trouble, that has more problems, that is
more divided than sexism, than the Caribbean
captain. Why is that? Because having to their
culture again, and began to seek out human wisdom
and human experience. They were trying to mix
God's wisdom with man's wisdom. What Paul is
telling us here is that they must disregard their
human - What they needed to do was to reach the
max. Every area of their lives, to Jesus Christ,
could have been crucified. That's what Paul is
taking for. He says, look at your lives. Look
at your church. He was not respecting the will
of the God. I don't think you have to society
yourself over Peter and Paul and Thomas. Just
look at yourself. This is your God. And you need
to get your life connected again to God's wisdom.
You need to bring every area of your life to
God's wisdom. The lightning, the light, destroys
the dark work. The dark work from the truth to
the light. Are you allowing God's wisdom to control
your actions and reactions? Are you allowing
God's wisdom to control your relations? Down
the road, you will begin to see how it is to
see you alive. And how your life is coming apart
to show you successfully. If you don't trust
God's wisdom, turn to me as a person who's dead.
If you don't trust God for the living and rather
turn the man away from any of your relationships,
you're going to find your relationships coming
apart. You're going to find your marriage beginning
to disintegrate. You're going to find your children
and yourself so odd. You're going to find yourself
pulling away from other Christians. You're going
to find yourself judging other Christians, making
yourself better. And so the freedom call would
make to us today, too, is that we reconnect our
lives to God's will. So we don't look at somebody
else and say, oh, let's see how God's power of
humanism affects us. And we look inside first
and say, oh, God, show me where I have grained.
He says the wisdom of Islam is pure, and peaceable,
and gentle, and reasonable, full of rest and
goodness, unwavering, and without a problem.
Is there good food? Is there stability? Is there
the absence of hypocrisy? By those things, characterize
your life generally, then you are always after
a little piece of the pie. So on the other hand,
is this disorder? And this jealousy? And this
selfish ambition? It won't work.