I've taken the Christ is series
and moved it here on Sunday for Sunday school. Also a quick note,
I'll be starting a whole new series tonight on the Song of
Solomon. If you can't make it, tune in. It's a wonderful book. It's called
the Song of Songs. And it is such a joy to study
it. I'm so excited about preaching
this book and studying this book because there's so many types
and pictures of Christ all through it. And it is the song of songs. It's a love song. And it's all
about Christ. And it's all about His bride
and His love for His bride. So we'll start that tonight. But today we'll be looking at
1 Corinthians. Chapter 1, verses 26 to 31, but
our text will be found in verse 30. But I'd like to read the
context of the verse. The name of the message is Christ
is our wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. First Corinthians
1, 26 to 31. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world, and things which
are despised, hath God chosen yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are. That no flesh should glory
in his presence." There's a wonderful verse. God chooses God chooses
the fullest things of the world, the found, the wise, the weak
things of the world, those who are despised, that no flesh should
glory in His presence. He gets all the preeminence.
He gets it all. But of Him are ye, now look at
the verbiage here. Remember, Paul's writing to the
Corinthian Christians, and also remember, when you read the book
of Corinthians, there's correction going on, but notice, In your
own study, read chapter 1, and I've brought this out before.
Paul is hitting a musical tuning fork with Christ. Before he corrects
them, he's focusing their eyes right on Christ. So read the
first chapter, if you could, on your own time, and you'll
see how many times he mentions Christ. He's getting them focused
on Christ. But look what he's telling them
in this verse. He's telling them, but you are. This is what we
are in Christ. This is what Christ is to us.
Look at this. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. And look at this. Who of God
is made unto us? Wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. And again, that according it
is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. He's
the only one we can glory in. See, we can't glory in ourselves
because we know that we can't save ourselves. We know that
we don't know God unless He reveals Himself to us. And so we glory
in what God has done in us and for us through Christ. Through
Christ. It's all Him. He gets all the
glory that no flesh should glory in His presence. When we're in
heaven, beloved, we're just going to be glorifying God. We're going
to be glorifying Christ for what He's done for us. It's magnificent. And as Brother Jim brought out,
all the saints, remember, are clothed in the same white linen.
We sing the same song. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is
the Lamb. We're all going to sing the same
song. It's all Him. Salvations of the Lord. Now,
often, Scripture often offends the pride of man. Oftentimes
it offends the pride of man. And the believer is taught by
God the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Word and
through the reading of the Word, that Christ is absolutely everything
to us. Everything. And we bow to that,
don't we? There was a time when we didn't.
But now we bow to that. We marvel in what Christ has
done for us. We marvel that we're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. We marvel in what He's done.
And we bow to the precious truth that Christ is Lord. That He's
Lord. Now verse 30 of this wonderful
chapter The Scripture plainly proclaims that Christ has made
unto us wisdom. And look, it is God that has
made Him so to us. It says, but of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. This is a work of God. This is a work of God. But of
Him are ye in Christ Jesus. And that little word in the Greek,
see that little word ye? But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.
See that little word? Do you know what that word means
in the Greek? It means fixed. You're fixed in Christ Jesus.
You're set in Christ Jesus. It's a positional standing for
the believer. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. We're in Christ Jesus because
God put us there. And it's a fixed position, beloved.
It's a fixed position. That means that we can't mess
it up. That means that no man can take
it from us. Isn't that wonderful? We're fixed
in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's why scripture says in
Colossians that we're qualified for heaven. We're made fit, it
means in that, made fit for heaven. This is a fixed position, and
it goes on, it's a fixed position in place, time, or space. Isn't that wonderful? It'll never
change. It'll never change. Praise His
mighty name. We're in a fixed position in
Christ, and God is the one who keeps us there. He's the one
who keeps us there. He's the one who put us there.
So if He put us there, He's gonna keep us there, isn't He? And
Christ said, I'll not lose one of my sheep. No man will pluck
them out of my hand. God's the one who gave us to
Him. Isn't that wonderful? And we didn't even know. We didn't
even know. My goodness. What security the
believer has in Christ. What security the believer...
And we know that this is written to believers because look at
verse 2 of this chapter. Unto the church of God which
is at Corinth. This is who the letter is written
to. It's written to believers. Unto the church of God which
is at Corinth. To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Made
holy in Christ Jesus. The unholy are made holy. That's
a marvel. That's a marvel. Called to be
saints. God's people are saints. No man
makes us saints. God makes us saints. Isn't that
wonderful? Called to be saints. With all
that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord. Both theirs and ours. Christ is Lord over all his people. All his people are called by
God to flee to Christ. It's an effectual, invincible
call. It's irresistible. It's irresistible. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.
Again, this speaks of God's elect, all the blood-bought, purchased
saints. And what joy and peace this gives
the believer. Again, notice the scripture declares,
who of God is made unto us. Salvation, this is saying salvation's
the work of God. It's the work of God. We're born
dead in trespasses and sins. We're sinners by birth, nature,
and practice. But here it says, who of God is made unto us. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. See, by nature, we don't want
Christ. By nature, we don't even want
to hear the things of the Bible. But when God regenerates a sinner,
everything changes. Now we love the Bible. We love
the God of the Bible. We love our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything's changed. You're
a new creature in Christ's blood. And it's God who made it so. It's God who made it so. It's
wonderful. It's a work of God. Salvation
is, just like Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. It's God's work. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, translated from the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of His dear Son. It's His work. And the believer
says, praise His mighty name. Oh, Lord, You get all the glory.
You get all the honor, and You get all the praise. He purchased
and redeemed His people on Calvary's cross, and the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ to those He died for. Those he died for, he purchased. He purchased them with his own
blood, because salvation is 100% of the Lord. It's 100% of the Lord. It's Christ
plus nothing. That's what salvation is. Christ
plus nothing. See, man in religion says, well,
it's Christ plus what I do. No, it's not. If it is, you don't
have salvation. Salvation's either, as Spurgeon
said, salvation's either all of grace, or it's not salvation
at all. You put a pinprick of works in,
it's no longer grace. And not only is our salvation
all of the Lord, but when God the Holy Spirit
regenerates us, he teaches us the truth of this scripture here.
He teaches us that Christ is all our wisdom. He teaches us
that Christ is all our righteousness. He teaches us that Christ is
all our sanctification. And He teaches us that Christ
is all our redemption. He teaches us these things. We
don't know these things by birth. We have no idea. You ever hear
someone say they've been a Christian all their life? They're lying.
They have no clue who God is. No clue. No clue. And unfortunately,
there's a lot of people who say that. but they're deceived and
pray God will have mercy on them. Pray God will reveal himself
to them if it's his will. So let us consider how Jesus
Christ is made of God wisdom to all believers and how we may understand this.
So he alone is the object in which all true wisdom is found. He alone is the object in which all true wisdom is found. Scripture declares this in Colossians
2, verse 3. In whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. In whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. It's all in Christ. All in Christ. And remember,
His wisdom is divine wisdom. It's divine wisdom. Because He's
God incarnated in the flesh. Our wisdom is human wisdom. His
wisdom is so far above ours. It's divine wisdom. Divine wisdom. And again, wisdom is either divine
or human. Wisdom in Christ is the wisdom
of God. As a matter of fact, He's called
wisdom in Proverbs. Turn if you would to Proverbs
chapter 3. And I'll read I'll read just a little further up
from our text in 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 24 he's called the
wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1.22-24 it says
this, For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
so unto the believer, unto the believer them which are called
by God, both Jews and Greeks, that's the universal church,
right? Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. So he's our wisdom. Now over
in Proverbs chapter three, we will see Christ spoken of is
wisdom. But let us think on this first.
Divine power and divine wisdom were never so manifested And
anything that He ever did is when Christ redeemed His people
on the cross. So look, that's the greatest
manifestation of love, and that's also the greatest manifestation
of wisdom. The greatest manifestation of
mercy. What He did at the cross magnified
His attributes so much. So much. Who He is. And all His works are made in
wisdom. Psalm 104, 23-25. I'll read this and then we'll
go to Proverbs 3. Psalm 104, 23-25 says this, Man
goeth forth unto his work, and to his labor until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom Thou hast made
them all. The earth is full of Thy riches.
His works are works of wisdom. Works of wisdom. So is this great
and wide sea, wherein are things creeping, innumerable, both small
and great beasts. Now John, you were in the Navy
and you were on that ocean. One of the oceans. And I used
to go to the Pacific Ocean when I lived out west. It takes your
breath away. And especially you get out there.
I remember being out with my father-in-law one time out in
his charter fishing boat. And he said, look over there.
And this massive blue whale came out of the water. Huge. But here
we are, this little speck on the ocean. And here's this great
creature coming out of the water and breathing and going back.
It took the breath away. But how many innumerable creatures
are in that ocean? Five. And he feeds them all. and cares for them all, just
manifests His wisdom and His works, beloved. My brother Tim,
you went to the Grand Canyon, you see that, and it just magnifies
His work, His wisdom is manifested right before our eyes, beloved,
in creation. Now look at, look at Over here
in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 13 to 21. Wisdom in Proverbs 3 speaks of
Christ. Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. If God has given
you an understanding of who He is, you'll be happy. You'll be
happy. He didn't leave you where you
were. And notice, who getteth understanding. Happy is the man
that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
God must teach us. For the merchandise of it is
better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof
than fine gold. God's people are richer than
the richest people in the world. God's people are the richest
people in this world, and even into eternity. And some of God's
saints are the poorest people that have ever lived. But they're
so rich in Christ. And all of us, all we who believe,
are rich in Christ. And that's what we want. That's
what we hope that God will do. That He'll reveal Christ to His
lost sheep. Oh, and that they can rejoice
in the precious truths that we rejoice in. That we rejoice in. She is more precious than rubies.
Think of the finest jewels. Christ is more precious. More
precious. And all the things the alchemists
desire. are not to be compared unto her.
Think of the thing that you desire the most. It's nothing compared
to Christ. Absolutely nothing compared to who Christ is. Compared
to who He is. Length of days is in her right
hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways
of pleasantness, and her paths are peace. She is a tree of life
to them. Is not Christ a tree of life
to us, beloved? Is He not our life? Is eternal life not in Him? It's
only in Christ. He's a tree of life to His people.
To them that lay hold upon her, oh, and happy is everyone that
retaineth her. God's people are joyous people.
Now we go through trials and tribulations. I love what Brother
Scott Richardson said. The believer's either going into
trouble, in trouble, or coming out of trouble. And that's true.
That's absolutely true. We're always something going
on in our lives, isn't it? Always. But we're happy. We're
joyous even through those times. Because we have Christ. Because
we have Christ. The Lord by wisdom hath founded
the earth. We know who founded the earth.
It was Christ. By wisdom. He's the wisdom of
God. By understanding hath he established
the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are
broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let them
not depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.
So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then
shalt thou walk in thy safety, and thy foot shall not stumble. Why won't your foot stumble and
why won't you walk? Or why will you walk in safety?
Because remember, you're fixed in Christ. You're fixed in Christ. He keeps us left to ourselves. We'd be in a heap of trouble.
Right. But in Christ. Oh, the eternal
one holds us in his hands. The eternal one keeps us. The
Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior. My. He governs the world in wisdom.
Psalm 139.14 says this, I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. He created all His creatures.
He created all of creation. He spoke the stars into existence
and the universe into existence all by His wisdom, all by His
divine decree. And He governs the world in wisdom,
wisely ordering all events To the great end of His own glory. To the great end of His own glory.
And we saw what that end is on Wednesday night, didn't we? We're
going to be in glory. Praising our wonderful, merciful
Savior. And we'll all be singing the
same song, praise be to God. Think of this, one commentator
said, when we murmur, we charge God with folly. Beloved, let
us rest and trust in God's sovereignty. Let us rest and trust in God's
sovereignty. What wisdom we have before us
in our redemption. Think of that, what wisdom we
have right before us in our redemption. God in his wisdom has found a
way where righteousness and peace meet together. Where they meet
together. where mercy is glorified, where
His justice is satisfied, and this is all found in the One
who is our wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know this from
Scripture. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
85. Now, we're going to read a little
portion, and when did this portion occur? Beloved at Calvary's cross,
the One who is called Wisdom. The wisdom of God gave Himself
for our sins. For the sins of all His people
on Calvary's cross. Look at Psalm 85, verses 10 and
11. Mercy and truth are met together. Where did they meet together?
At Calvary. At Calvary. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where did they meet? Where did
they kiss? At Calvary. At Calvary. When our blessed
Savior gave Himself for our sins. Truth shall spring out of the
earth. He's the way the truth and the life and righteousness
shall look down from heaven my This wonderful plan of redemption
is called the manifold wisdom of God turn if you would do Ephesians
chapter 1 it's called the manifold wisdom of God and You know even
the angels Actually Ephesians chapter 3. I'm sorry. I said
1 Ephesians chapter. Do you know that even the angels
are in awe of? are in awe at redemption's plan,
are in awe over our salvation in Christ. Look at Ephesians 3, verses 10
and 11. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers
and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed
in Christ Jesus our Lord. The manifold wisdom of God is
manifested at Calvary's cross. At Calvary's cross. True wisdom
is to know Christ. To know Christ. And to have Him
revealed to you. Because we are blind by birth.
We are blind by birth. Dead. Dead when we come into
this world. You must be born again. How do
we have the knowledge? Christ who is the wisdom of God?
How do we have the knowledge beloved? We have been taught
by the Holy Spirit of God And remember that God is the author
and he's the finisher of our salvation Therefore all knowledge
we have of him comes from him See, that's why we can't glory
in anything That's why we can't glory anything. It's the Holy
Spirit working in us salvation Salvation from beginning to end
is of the Lord And all our growing in grace and being conformed
to the image of Christ is all a work of God. See, natural man
hates that. They don't like to hear that
because they want to do something. But God's people say, Amen. Amen. We know what we are. Again, look
at our text again. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Now notice, God has made Christ
unto us wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
When did this happen? Did God go to plan B when Adam
fell on the garden? Like some people say, no beloved.
God has made Christ wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption for his people from eternity. From eternity. From eternity. It is by eternal
appointment and decree as the Father from everlasting. Now
let us just ponder on this. From everlasting ordained, decreed,
and purposed that His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of
God, should be the head of His people. He decreed that. He ordained
that with an everlasting, everlasting decree. And that He would be
the fountain In which we would wash all our sins by His blood. It's all by Him. It's all by
Him. That we would be washed clean
from all our sins by His precious blood. And that He should redeem
all whom the Father gave Him from eternity. And it's been
decreed and ordained by God in eternity. That He would be our
surety. Our redeemer. That He would be
our wisdom. That He would be our righteousness.
That He would be our sanctification. and that he would be our savior.
God ordained all of this, all of this, in eternity. He is the
head, and the head is the seed of all wisdom. He's the head,
and the head is the seed of all wisdom. Or the body. Or the body. And remember, he is infinite
wisdom. Infinite wisdom. Divine wisdom, because he's God. And if Christ has made unto us
wisdom, then we've been taught and we are convinced of our foolishness
in trying to save ourselves. Which everyone here, we all nod
our head, hey. Yeah, because we know. We know
it was utter foolishness for us to try to save ourselves.
Some of us were in religion, some of us just didn't care and
were just in the world, right? But we were all the same, right?
We were all the same, trying to save ourselves by our own
works. But when Christ shows us what our righteousness is
in his eyes, in God's eyes, we flee right to Christ. We flee
right to Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians 3, verses
18 and 19. Now a fool thinks himself wise.
And this was the downfall of the Pharisees. And this is the
downfall of religious laws professing The religious loss, they profess
themselves to be wise. But. But it's foolishness because
they think they can save themselves. And everyone has a different
view on God, just ask people, you're you asked 100 different
people, you're almost going to get 100 different answers on
who God is, who they think God is. So you don't ever give your
scripture this morning. We're going to look at who God
is from the scriptures, who he is. And it's not the God that's
being preached out there in goat pens. No. No. Look at 1 Corinthians 3,
18 and 19. Let no man deceive himself. If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in the world, let him
become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of the world
is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh
the wise in their own craftiness. and their own craftiness. And
all man's supposed wisdom flows out of their own self-righteousness.
And all these folks have a warped view of who God is. They'll tell
you who they think God is, but I guarantee you it's a warped
view of who He is. It's not a scripturally based
basis of who the Lord is. Romans 1 says this, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. and change the glory of
the incorruptible God into the image made unto a corruptible
man, and the birds and forfeited beasts and creeping things. But
if Christ is made unto us wisdom, we have been taught, and we see
the excellency of Christ. We see the excellency of Christ. He's the pearl of great price
in our eyes. And we cry out with the psalmist,
whom have I in heaven but thee? Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon the earth that I desire beside Thee. My
flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart.
Is it not so with you? My. My portion forever. Is God your portion? If He is,
He's your portion forever. Forever. Because you're fixed
in Christ. You're fixed in Him. My. If Christ has made unto us wisdom,
then the things of time are not what they used to be to us. And
the things of Christ, the things of eternity, are everything to
us now. So the things that were important to us before are not
important to us anymore. And the things that we didn't
even deem important, Christ and eternity and salvation in Him,
are now everything to us. Now everything to us. Everything's
new. We're new creatures in Christ.
We know that our life is but a vapor. And our thoughts and our pursuits
have been altered now. They've been altered. We think
upon Christ now. My brother Tim made mention a
few weeks ago in his prayer, Lord make us conscious of things
eternal. Of things of eternity and give
us hearts to serve you and desire the things of Christ. Oh may
God make it so for all of us. May He make it so for all of
us. So that with Paul, we can say we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal. Everything we see here is temporal,
everything, including us. We who believe know we got a
destination. We're going to heaven. We're
going to glory. But our lives here are just temporal. It's
like a vapor, scripture says. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal,
eternal. What things are temporal? Riches,
honor, pleasure, in comparison with the things which are eternal,
compared to our blessed Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything's
just temporal. Hebrews says this, by faith,
Moses, when he was come, the years refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures in
Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
Some say he may have been in line to be the next Pharaoh. Turned it all for the reproaches
of Christ. Now how does this wisdom come
to God's people? Only in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has made unto us wisdom, and He is our wisdom. Not only is he our wisdom, but
he's our sanctification, our redemption. He's everything I
ran out of time. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank thee for your mercy and
your goodness towards us. Oh, you are our wisdom and you
are true wisdom, Lord Jesus. Oh, we pray that you would magnify
and Reveal yourself to lost sinners today through the preaching of
your word. And oh, Lord, that you would
build us up. We who believe that we would be built up, that we
would leave rejoicing in who you are. Oh, you're magnificent,
Lord. You are not only our wisdom,
but you're our righteousness. You're our sanctification and
you're our redemption. Oh, Lord, you are all in all.
And we love you and praise you because you first loved us in
Jesus name. Amen.