I would like you to turn with me to the second chapter that we read together, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and the text you'll find in verses 9 and 10. That as it is written, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

So we looked at this morning the providential way by which the Lord Jesus Christ led his apostles across the sea and as they got to the middle there was that great storm and the Lord Jesus Christ came to them walking upon the water. They were there because he had commanded them to be there They were there acting in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ and yet in their obedience they suffered a great storm in their pathway.

And this shows us something of the mysterious pathway of the people of God. They walk in obedience and yet they suffer times of great hardship, times of great difficulty and times of great mysterious and mysterious things take place in their lives. And we saw this morning and last week that Christ Jesus came to them walking upon the storm. As we saw in the Old Testament, the Lord, high and lifted up, seated upon the circuit of the earth, he is over all the things, in control of all events that take place in this life, in this world, both actively or passively, he causes or he allows things to take place and as we saw Christ Jesus manifesting himself as the Son of God, God in the flesh walking upon the waters to his apostles to bring them to the other side so that he would enter into that place of Gennesaret and be able to heal all those people that came to him. Those who were brought to him and who touched the hem of his garment, they were healed.

we know as we have read together this evening that no person can see anything in the Lord Jesus Christ by nature. The natural man cannot receive the things of God for they are foolishness to him. And as people witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ there were those who believed and trusted in him, there were those who were able to press through the crowd and lay hold of his garment and were healed, there were those who sought to be round about him to witness the miracles that he did, there were those that were just there for the entertainment They had no real love to the word, they had no real love to the Lord Jesus Christ but they just wanted to witness the things that he did to have some material benefit from his work and from his ministry.

But there were those who were touched in their hearts that they saw something in Christ Jesus that the other people didn't see. And that is, as the scripture tells us, that is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God takes away the hardness of the heart, takes away the spiritual blindness, takes away the spiritual deadness and enables somebody to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to reach out to him in faith and to trust him with their salvation, to trust him with their soul. They're able to look to him by faith, they're able to hear his words and they're able to live.

And this is what the Apostle Paul is seeking to lay out to these Corinthians. that he came to them not with the excellency of speech, he didn't come to them preaching man's wisdom, he didn't come preaching another man-made religion, but he came to them preaching the simple gospel of God. He came preaching under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit and it was the Holy Spirit who brought these Corinthians from their idol worship, from their pagan religion, to come and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. as we saw recently even in this early church, even in this church that had such evidence of the spiritual work of God in them there was still that church trouble, there were still those who were struggling to walk in the Christian pathway and there were those divisions that took place as some said I'm after Paul and I'm after Apollos and I'm after Peter and some said I'm after Christ and so he writes this letter seeking to iron out all those problems, to set out who it is that they are to be looking to and to that person only.

And so we see right at the beginning constantly labouring the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been called an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ who called Paul from the darkness to the light, who shone his spirit within him and set him aside for the ministry of the gospel. It is Jesus Christ that he preached. It is Jesus Christ who was preached at Corinth and he greets them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So there are things outside of Christ or still in the kingdom of darkness that cannot be understood by the natural man. It is a spiritual work that has to take place in the life of somebody before they're able to truly grasp their need of the Lord Jesus Christ and truly grasp that desire to follow him. and it is a mystery and it's described as the wisdom of God. The proverbs tell us by wisdom the world was framed, that the Lord made the world by his wisdom and we read in the book of John that all things were made by and through the Lord Jesus Christ and so Christ is set before us as the wisdom of God. that his salvation is the perfect way of salvation, the manifestation of his wisdom, yet it is a mystery. verse 7 it says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. So this mystery, the hidden things of God had been hidden from the foundation of the world. The Bible tells us that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. That we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Yet this mystery of salvation was hidden. until the fullness of time came, till God sent his son into the world.

And so what we see in the Old Testament are just types and shadows of the hidden will of God, the shadow of the things that were to come. It was already there in God's plan that Christ would come. And so he slowly unveils his wisdom of salvation through the ceremonial worship and sacrificial system in the Old Testament from the foundation of the world. And what we know today about God and about his wisdom and about his unveiling is what he has revealed to us about himself. It is what he has made known to us through his word. Otherwise God would remain a complete mystery.

If we go to places on this earth where they have no Bible, in the jungles of this world, they have a knowledge of a God. and they may worship the trees and they may worship the things that God has made but they have no knowledge of the true creator. The heavens and the earth speak of the glory of God. They declare his handiwork. They show that there is a higher power, a divine being but they can't show us who God actually is. They cannot show us His salvation. And that must come from the Word of God. And the Word of God reveals to us what we must know about God and what we must know about ourselves. Anything that comes outside of the Scriptures, it can be brought down to our vain imagination. The thoughts that we have about God must be grounded and founded upon His truth. It is a, God is a mystery, but he's revealed to us through the word.

Ephesians chapter three. Verse one, for this cause I pull the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you, ward, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in a few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. the gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel.

And so here he says that this mystery, the mystery of God, the mystery of Christ Jesus has been made known unto the apostle Paul. But on that day when he was going to persecute the church, believing that he was doing the Lord's work, the Lord revealed himself to him and made known to him the mystery that had been hidden from the beginning of time. that the mystery of Christ that it was not known unto the sons of men but is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in Colossians also. It speaks to us there of this mystery.

Verse 26, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints to whom God would make known what is the riches of his glory and the mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you. the hope of glory whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus

and so there again as he writes to the Colossians he explains that this is a mystery but this mystery has been revealed in Christ Jesus and though for ages it has been hidden yet in the fullness of time It has appeared in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that this mystery is then made known to individuals by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today, this mystery of the Gospel is made known. It is clear. It is proclaimed in many, many areas of this world. Yet how is it that many don't believe? How is it that you can go into the street and proclaim that this mystery that has been hidden from the foundation of time has been made known in Christ Jesus? And as we come to Christmas and and we speak of the Lord Jesus Christ being born into this world and how is it that multitudes are not coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus? How is it that they know about Jesus Christ, they sing about Jesus Christ, they hear about the Lord Jesus Christ yet has no effect upon them?

It's because they're still held in darkness. They're still held in unbelief. They're unable to comprehend the mystery of the gospel. They're unable to see their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do I need God to come and to die for me? I'm not a sinner. I'm good enough to go to heaven. I'm good enough to face a holy God. I can give him the reasons why he should let me into heaven.

because they can't comprehend this mystery that they have sinned against the Holy God and that they need a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the spiritual work of God that accompanies the preaching of the Word. As the Word was preached to these Corinthians it came with the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. And he opened their eyes and ears and enabled them to grasp this mystery. It was no longer a mystery to them. It was no longer a shadow to them. They saw it with clarity. They saw their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they believed upon him. Just like those this morning who were brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. They had a need. Their need was that they were unwell, they were diseased, they were sick. But they had to stretch out their hand in faith to touch the hem of his garment. And when they touched, they were made whole. There was that connection, their need and the object of their faith, Christ Jesus.

The natural man. cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto them. And so it is the Holy Spirit who is the agent that God uses as the means to reveal. As Jesus says to Nicodemus, marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wants. You hear the sound thereof. And so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

The day of Pentecost when Peter and the others began to preach it was not because of the eloquence of the words of the apostle that people were saved. It was not that he preached a perfect sermon but that he was under the influence of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God moved on that occasion and brought people to see their need of Christ. brought them to repentance to cry out what must I do to be saved? Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ was the answer and today it would be the same but as the Spirit of God goes forth to bring people to a knowledge of their sin that they cry out what must I do? They're pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Stretch forth your hand in faith and lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Touch the hem of his garment and you will be saved.

Who is it that has given you that desire? Who is it that has shown you yourself? It's the Holy Spirit of God. He has caused you to be born again, to be regenerated, to have a soft heart, to have ears open, to have eyes that see. It is him, the agent of revelation.

The Apostle tells us, the Apostle Peter, that the Word of God was written by those who were moved along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter chapter 1 from verse 16 says, For we have not followed cunning, devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice of him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And so he's speaking of his eyewitness account of when he saw Christ Jesus rise up out of the water and Christ testified, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

But then he goes on again for his second witness, that he was there when Christ was transfigured upon the mountain and he heard the voice again. and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount we all have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto ye do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place unto the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, that the prophets were not just able to write what they thought or the feelings that they had, but they wrote what God told them to write, that they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. For their prophecy came not of old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit is the one who is the author of the scripture. Though he used the human means, the human hand to write the words, he carried those men along. And we can see the different characters of those men laid out in the scriptures. These men were under the influence of the Spirit of God.

And it tells us here in the chapter that we read together, for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him. So he uses an argument. He says you know yourself. You know what goes on within your own self and there are things that you can hold back and not tell people. You know your own spirit and you only reveal certain things that you want other people to know. And so our spirits know us personally. I know we know ourselves.

But then he says, save the spirit of a man that is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. And so he emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the Trinity. That the Spirit knows the mind of the Father and that the Father and the Spirit they are one with Christ. And that these holy men of God who were moved and carried along by the Spirit of God wrote the mind of God.

And so here in the scriptures we have the truth. The truth of the word. Thy word is truth. We have a revelation of God. We have a revelation of God's will. We have a revelation of God's salvation. We have a revelation of the church. We have a revelation of the way by which believers are to walk in the pathway of life. It's all written for us. This mystery has been made clear in the Gospel. The full canon and counsel of God has been made known to us in the Word.

And so the Spirit of God knows the mind of God. And so this mystery has been revealed unto us. And so we have in the Word. what God has chosen to reveal about himself. The deep things of God. There are things about God which he has chosen not to reveal. There are things about God that we don't know. There are things about our own individual pathways which God has not made clear to us and he doesn't have to. He didn't tell the apostles you're going to go out three miles into the sea and there's going to be a storm. He knew that there was going to be a storm and he sent them out there because he was going to test them and to prove them.

was a mystery to them as they entered into that storm, why these things were taking place. But it was then revealed to them as Christ met with them. And so it is with our own lives. There are mysterious things that take place in our lives that we can't comprehend. And that the Lord does not have to reveal to us why he does things. we know that through the revealed will of God, the reasons why under that umbrella, why he does things for our testing, for our good, for our growth so that we may be conformed into the likeness of his son and so he brings these things, these mysterious things into our pathway, these deep things these unsearchable things, these depths.

If we think about it, how can a man fully understand God? The Bible tells us that the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man. If there is anything that is foolish in God, which is not, the foolish things that God could do are still far greater than the wisdom that man has to offer. Because the wisest man upon this earth has been given that wisdom by God himself. Even the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. The pinnacle of God's wisdom is his masterpiece of salvation as he's able to bring sinners from the depths of sin into a relationship with himself. And this is that great mystery which the world cannot comprehend.

By the world's wisdom they reject the Lord Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of God. So these are deep and unsearchable and great depths by which the people of God walk through. But the Holy Spirit of God who has been given to each individual believer helps us to understand these deep truths and that the love that God has towards us in Christ Jesus.

In Ephesians again Chapter 3, verse 16. He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you may be rooted and grounded in love, and may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

And so it is the Spirit of God who seeks to help us to comprehend the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of the love of God in Christ Jesus. The natural man cannot comprehend these spiritual truths. So God in his mercy has given us the comfort of the Holy Spirit to enable us to grasp the wisdom of God found in his son the Lord Jesus Christ and to seek to plumb the depths of his love that he has bestowed upon us that even while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

How hard it is for us as individual people to love our enemies. How hard it is for us to love those who may have wronged us in some way. Yet Christ, while we were in the kingdom of darkness, while we hated and despised him, while we were walking in sin and uncleanness and in rebellion, his love was bestowed upon us. And the Spirit of God helps us to grasp in a small measure that love. The breadth, the length, the depth and height. And to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

So we need the Spirit of God. to help us to see and perceive and to live a life that walks in awe of the love that Christ has for us. It passes our knowledge. Sometimes you may think, well, I know why Jesus loved me. I'm such a nice person or I go to the right church or I do the right things. Well as soon as you begin to think like that you've failed to see who you really are.

As soon as you begin to say I am worthy of the love of Christ you've lost sight of the gospel. You've lost sight of the grace of God. nobody is worthy to receive the love of God in Christ Jesus it is uncomprehendable we cannot grasp this love because it's so beyond human understanding that there was nothing in us worthy of Christ's love yet he chose to love us before the foundation of the world and then to make us to love him He has to give us his Holy Spirit, break our hard hearts, make us see, make us hear, cause us to be born again. And it's all done by himself.

As I said this morning, faith he gives us to believe. Nothing in ourselves. So the love of God is beyond our understanding. It passes our understanding. But also the spirit of God helps us to understand the strange mysterious pathways of life. Those strange things that we go through. He helps us to focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He helps us to focus upon the promises of God so that we don't plummet into the depths of despair. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the deep providential pathways of life.

in Romans 11 and verse 33 it says, Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. again the depths, the riches of the wisdom of God. There the Spirit of God helps us to grasp that God is all-knowing, that he is abounding in wisdom, but his ways are past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, who hath first first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again for of him and through him and to him are all things and whom to whom be glory for ever and ever.

And so the unsearchable ways of God are able to be seen by faith in the pathway of the believer. The Spirit of God who is the comforter enables us to walk the pathway that we are being led in and able to plumb the depths of the wisdom of God.

You see there are things that happen in our lives that we have no knowledge or no full understanding as to why they take place. When we look back we can see the reasons why. So we look in the scripture and we're able to read of things that have taken place before. The reasons why people had to do certain things. If you think of Joseph and the way by which he was hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit and then left for dead, sold, then ended up in Egypt. And you know he had to walk that out. Yet he was walking out the will of God in a complete mystery to himself. He had no idea that God was in complete control of every single thing, making sure that he went to the right place at the right time to do the right thing, to bring him into that specific place so that he could be placed into Pharaoh's palace, that he could be there to preserve the people of God. He was walking it out day by day unable to see his future yet we just turn a few pages and we're able to see everything.

It was a mystery to him and we see the Lord doing things like that in our own lives. We don't know why he has done something but we may know in years to come or it may be that we die and our children know why the Lord has done a certain thing. Because God's timing is not as ours. He moves knowing that something else is to take place in years to come. He doesn't act spontaneously like you and I or circumstantially. His ways are past finding out. They are planted in the sea. They are ordered. to bring about his eternal purposes. And there is a depth to the providential workings of God that we can't work out.

But the Spirit of God, God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Ultimately this is speaking of the end of time. This particular two verses. Those that love him, God has prepared for them a place. As the Lord Jesus Christ said, I go to prepare a place for you. The spirit of God helps us to believe what will take place beyond time. After we die we will enter into eternity. And the Spirit of God has revealed to us through the Word what will take place the moment that our eyes close in death. We will be taken into the presence of God. that we will be placed into a place of heaven or hell that we will wait there until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ will come again and our spirits will come from the places that they are and they will enter again into our bodies and we will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be separated.

We will be separated as a shepherd divides the goats from the sheep and the sheeps will come to the Lord Jesus Christ and they will dwell with him forever. And it's the Spirit of God that has revealed this truth for us, for our comfort, for our good.

Comfort one another with these words, the scripture says. This world is hard. Our pathways are difficult. There are many, many obstacles and oppositions. Yet the Spirit of God has given us this hope that this world is not it. There is another world that is to come, an eternal world by which we will live with the Lord Jesus Christ forever with no more tears, no more sorrow, no more suffering.

The same Jesus that brought us from the darkness to the light, that placed his spirit within us is going to meet us at the end of the road. As our eyes close in death we will see him as he is and that we'll be with him for ever and ever. And so the Spirit of God prepares us for that day when we will face the Lord Jesus Christ face to face.

And these are deep things. Things that the natural man can't understand. But the Spirit of God reveals them to us. He knows the mind of God himself and he has revealed the mind of God to us through the Word. and he gives us faith to believe it.

May this be then a great comfort to us that our ongoing walk with Christ may deepen, that we may have a deeper understanding of him, a deeper understanding of his word, a closer walk with him, that we may be able to comprehend the deep things and the deep pathways that we go through and gain comfort by his word in our daily lives. Amen.

Let's sing our final hymn, number 1156.

1106. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

In 1106. I am just as sweet as rain, after relief from Jesus' pain. in the world. to save, to save, to save. Rest in his righteous care, Son of God, For us to stand with thee.

And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us now and for evermore. Amen.