If you would turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I'll begin in verse 14. I think all of us at one time
or another have had someone say something to us like, I've read
the Bible and I just don't understand it. if you had anyone say that
to you. I read it, but it just doesn't
make sense. I don't know what it means. I don't know what it's
talking about. We've all heard folks say something along those
lines. And I got to thinking about it.
And my question is, why should we be surprised? First of all,
the Bible is not only hard to understand, but it's impossible
to understand apart from knowing who the author is. You can't
understand the Bible without understanding something about
the one who wrote it. You can't understand the Bible
apart from the divine revelation of the Holy Spirit, who by divine
inspiration penned this glorious word. The mysteries, the message,
Redemptive glory of the Lord Jesus can't be understood unless
God, the Holy Spirit, reveals those things to you. It's by
divine revelation. And folks often say, Preacher,
where do you come up with that? Well, from the Bible. And in
our text here in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the Apostle Paul
says, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. The first question might be,
who is the natural man? The man or woman without Christ.
The man or woman that does not believe. That's who a natural
man is. The things of God to a natural
man or a woman are, look at it, still verse 14, they are foolishness
unto him, the natural man, And neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." Now that word discerned here
means judged or understood. God's holy word will do nothing
for you. It cannot be spiritually judged
or understood by you. And you can't judge or understand
God's word without knowing the author and receiving life from
him. Apart from knowing God and receiving
life from Him, you cannot, I repeat, understand nor can you judge
correctly the truth of what God says in this Holy Book. No wonder
folks don't understand. So right off the bat we see once
again that we're shut up to God and His mercy and His grace and
His forgiveness. And if He does not reveal to
us how we can receive these things, we'll never know and we'll perish
in our sin. Now this is not some man's writing
or some man's message. This is God's writing and God's
message. The message of God Almighty.
And I might be able to understand the writings of a man with whom
I have an equal education or some understanding of the interests
that a man and I might have. I might understand that. But
this is the Word of God. And that in itself limits our
understanding. That's why Paul wrote, Oh, the
depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are His judgments. His ways are past finding out. Who can know the mind of God?
Who's been His counselor? Job 11.7 says, Canst thou by
searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? Can you understand in your fallen,
sinful, dead state anything about the holiness, the righteousness,
and the perfection of God? No way. You can't do it. It's as high as heavens. What
canst thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst
thou know? Just this past week, I had a
friend, a fine man, a moral man, a lost man. Say to me, David,
I read the Bible, but I just don't understand it. No wonder. It's higher than the heavens.
It's deeper than hell. His judgments are unsearchable.
His way's past finding out. I simply told my friend all I
knew to say, and that is, ask God to reveal the Scriptures
to you. And if a man asks God to do that,
he's faithful and just to do so. Never has he turned one down
yet that honestly asks that of Him. This is God's Word, friends,
and it requires a divine revelation. It requires a sovereign intervention
from God. Why even believers, even true
disciples of Christ only see and know in part? I remember
Brother Mahan saying in a message one time that he found a little
book on a bookstore shelf, a little old book, 20-30 pages, what many
call a little pocket book, more like a brochure that you can
tuck away in one of your pockets. And he said it was titled, All
About the Bible. Well, that seemed a little ironic,
20 or 30 page brochure telling you all about the Bible. I kind
of doubt it. First of all, no one but God
knows all about the Bible. 20 or 30 pages would be plenty
enough room for me to tell you what I know, but not God. You
see, the world couldn't contain the books it would take to record
and explain God and His Word. Oh, my. John 21 verse 25 tells
us that the world couldn't contain the volume of books it would
take to simply record all the glorious things that Christ Himself
did. I don't suppose that book that
Brother Mahan saw was on Jerusalem's bookshelves for Peter, do you
think? God said to Peter, He said, I have many things to say
to you, but you're not able to bear them yet. How be it when
the Spirit of truth has come, He'll guide you into all truth.
I don't suppose the Apostle Paul had in his possession that little
book all about the Bible. He said concerning himself and
us, we know in part, We preach in part, we see through a glass
darkly. And if you have a marginal Bible,
you may notice that that says in a riddle. We see darkly, as
though it was a riddle. But when that which is perfect
has come, he said, I'm going to know even as I am known. Boy,
I'm looking forward to that. I don't think some little book
written by a puny brain sinner could tell me much about the
Bible in 20 or 30 pages. Mark Twain once said, my problem
is not with the parts of the Bible that I don't understand. He said, my problem is with the
parts of the Bible that I do understand. And so are mine.
And I might add men and women understand enough of what this
book says that God can justly and will justly hold them responsible
for their disobedience of it. I know that much. The problem
is men and women don't want to understand it. The problem is
men and women by nature hate what this book teaches. And without
excuse, they will be. We can all look out at the stars
at night and the moon. We can all see the sun in the
daytime and see how all things work together in perfect order
to provide the seasons and the changes of life. You can't look
at those things and not see that there is a God that there is
one mighty and sovereign and in control, and God says they're
without excuse. And we are. Romans 1.20, For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Oh, I hate to tell you, but you're
without excuse. God's eternal power in Godhead
is behind all that you see in this world, except our sin. So let's remember that in order
to understand anything about this book, it requires a divine
revelation. It requires being taught of God.
All God's people are taught of God. Aren't you glad? Aren't
you glad God teaches you? First thing we need to realize
is this, we in our natural condition cannot receive the things of
the Spirit of God. Spiritual things are foolishness
to men and women that don't know God. Turn back a page, you may
not have to, but 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at verse 18 if
you would. For the preaching of the cross,
That's the preaching of substitution. That's the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. It's to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved?
What is it? What is it to us who are saved?
It's the power of God. Look at verse 21. For 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. Now
it is very, very important to understand that the world by
their wisdom, earthly wisdom, man's wisdom, even the wisdom
of false religion, knew not God. That's what he said, very plain.
Man's wisdom won't reveal to you who God is. It doesn't matter
how smart you are. It doesn't matter how intelligent
you are. It doesn't matter how high your IQ is. The world through
its wisdom knew not God. The world's wisdom thinks your
gospel is foolish. The world's wisdom thinks your
Christ is defeated. The world's wisdom thinks that
man is altogether one such as God Himself. The world's wisdom
ain't too wise. Have you figured that out yet?
The world's wisdom thinks that it can, by the work of its own
hands, bring forth a righteousness perfect enough for God to accept. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, the very thing that believers adore. I adore
preaching, don't you? I love to hear true preaching. And God uses what the world calls
foolishness, that which we adore to save them that believe. Isn't
that what it says? God has made foolish the wisdom
of this world, verse 20. Look at verse 22. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we, Speaking
of believers, speaking of the elect of God, He says we preach
Christ crucified. We preach the message of substitution,
Christ doing for us what we could not and would not do for ourselves. Isn't that what the Gospel is?
Isn't that what substitution is? Sure it is. And who and what
we preach is unto the Jews. It's a stumbling block. That
word means something that causes difficulty or hesitation. And
unto the Greeks, it's foolishness, meaning a lack of good sense
or judgment. To the Greeks, the gospel of
substitution, Christ to Him crucified, was just stupidity. Matter of
fact, you look the Greek word up, and that's one of the definitions,
stupidity. And the gospel today is to many
still a stumbling block. something that causes difficulty,
something that causes hesitation to believe and to trust in Christ
alone. The gospel and those who believe
it are still, to the wise of the world, ones who lack good
sense or judgment, thought to be stupid. I had a man tell me
one time, he said, I thought you were smarter than that. Don't
you pay them any mind. Do you hear me? Don't you listen
to them. You keep trusting in Christ.
Verse 24, But unto them which are called, to them that are
justified, saved by sovereign grace, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ is the power of God, and Christ is the wisdom of God,
because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness
of God is stronger than man. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, speaking of those of this world, not many of them
are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things, the foolish things of the world, or that would probably
be better translated, the fools of the world. That's talking
about believers, those whom God chose before the foundation of
the world and called in time to those who the world considers
to be fools. And He did so to confound the
wise, the so-called wise of the world, and God had chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
the so-called mighty of the world. and base things of the world,
meaning Christ and His cross, meaning wretched sinners, the
filth of this world according to the man's wisdom, referring
to those who trust in Christ alone, and things which are despised,
the gospel of God. I'm telling you, this world despises
this gospel, the true gospel. There's an offense to the cross
of Christ, and men are offended by it. Hath God chosen, God chose
the things that are despised. And yea, the things which are
not to bring to naught things that are. God chose those things
that the world calls foolishness to put the so-called wise of
the world to shame. And God deliberately, on purpose,
God does everything on purpose, Chris, everything. He chose sinners
branded with contempt. Those looked upon as nothing
that He might bring to nothing. Those that think that they're
something. What a God! What a God! Why would God do
such a thing? Look at verse 29. That no flesh
should glory in His presence. God's not going to share His
glory with another. God abandoned forever any glory
in the flesh so that no man, no woman, no sinner, nobody can
attribute their salvation to anything at all in themselves
or by the work of their own hands, but wholly to the sovereign grace
and mercy and pleasure of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is how God's people were saved. Verse 30, but of him. How are you saved, David, but
of Him? Of God. Are you in Christ Jesus? Who of God is made unto us? You know, that sounds to me like
salvations of the Lord. But of Him. Speaking of God.
Because of Him. Speaking of the Almighty. Who
of God Christ is made to us. Did you hear that? He's made
to us. Sounds to me like God does the
same. It was God that put you in Christ.
Isn't that what it says? You didn't put yourself there.
Who of God means God did it. Aren't you glad God did it? You
couldn't and you wouldn't. You neither had the ability nor
the will and neither do I. And I don't preach a defeated
Savior. No sir. I preach a victorious Savior.
But God saves defeated sinners. You and I are the ones defeated,
and sin has defeated us. God the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit are on their throne, friends, and they do whatsoever
they please. God says who He wants to. He
has mercy on whom He'll have mercy. He has compassion on whom
He'll have compassion, and whom He will, He heartens. Who of
God is made unto us? What a glorious statement. Do
you know what God makes Jesus Christ to us? every single thing
that we need, and every single thing that God requires. Here
we have a four-fold treasure in Christ our Lord. First, verse
30, Jesus Christ has made unto us wisdom. Not the wisdom of
the world that Paul talked about earlier in the chapter. That
so-called wisdom was set up in opposition to the cross of Christ.
How many today still feel as though wisdom comes to them as
a result of the exercise of their own thoughts and the thoughts
of other men? Oh, we think we're pretty smart. We think we've
got God figured out. But can there be true godly wisdom
that can arise out of the fallen dead to God human mind and human
heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked?
No, sir. God made foolish the wisdom of
the world. And in one simple word of Christ,
there's more wisdom than all my thoughts spanning all my life. We're never to look to ourselves
for wisdom. We better look to Him. For if
a man think himself to be something, the scripture says, when he's
nothing, he deceiveth himself. Don't think you're something
special. You're not. Mr. Spurgeon once said, man is neither
the creator of truth or the revealer of it. Our wisdom is finite. The Lord's wisdom is infinite.
Big, big difference. When we read that Christ has
made unto us wisdom, let us simply consider what wisdom is. Have
you ever thought about that? What is wisdom? Well, wisdom
is the right use of knowledge. To simply know something is not
to be wise. Many know a great deal, and they're
fools for what they know. J.C. Rowe, I believe it was,
said, there's no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. I had to read that two or three
times, and then I scratched my head, and I said, I guess that's
right. No fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know
how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. All you want to know of God,
of sin, of life, of death, of eternity, predestination. All
you want to know about man's responsibility, God's mercy and
God's grace in Christ. Christ has personally, by His
Spirit, taught you. That's the wisdom of God. Anything
we find out for ourselves, anything over and above the revelation
of God is pretty much nothing but folly. But whatever He's
taught us, oh, that's wisdom, true wisdom. And the things of
God will not be dry and dead doctrine. There's spirit in their
life. Jesus Christ is our wisdom, friends,
revealing to us the mysteries of godliness and the spirit and
of truth. Secondly, Jesus Christ, who of
God has made unto us His people righteousness. Oh, that'll mean
something to you if you see that you are unrighteous. That'll
mean something to you if you see that you have no righteousness. That your righteousness is as
filthy rags. That'll mean something to you
when you learn that God will only accept perfection. It must
be perfect to be accepted. Perfect righteousness we must
have to be accepted of God. Friends, Jesus Christ has made
unto us righteousness. That very righteousness that
God will accept. Have you ever heard any better
news than that? Christ is our righteousness,
making us upright. putting us in right standing
with God. And I would have you notice that
the second thing here, righteousness, and the third thing, sanctification,
always go together. They must. Now, they're two different
things, but they go hand in hand. You see, our sanctification is
all in Christ. We're set apart by the Divine
Spirit to be the Lord's peculiar people. Anybody called you peculiar
lately? Well, the next time they do,
thank them. The election of God is the basis of sanctification.
It's the power of God which comes to us entirely by virtue of our
union with Christ. The old nature, the old man,
whatever you choose to call it, they're one and the same. Never
changes into a holy thing. I don't know what makes people
think that. The carnal mind is never reconciled to God, neither
indeed can it be. The old man is not sent to the
hospital to be healed, he's sent to the cross to be crucified.
The old man is not transformed and improved. He's doomed to
die and to be buried. You can't look to Christ alone
for pardon and justification and then run to the law of Moses
when you desire sanctification. I heard someone in preaching
once say that the believer, the Christian, is to be holy because
if he be not holy, he'll fall from grace and perish. For all
I could hear in that was the crack of the old whip of the
law. What is that but bondage? To
be sanctified is to be made holy and unblameable in God's sight.
There's nothing you can do to attain it and therefore you can
do nothing to lose it. Jesus Christ is our sanctification. He set us apart unto God. He
took our sin, being made sin, removing our guilt. He gave us
perfect righteousness in return. We're made the righteousness
of God in Him. And we're sanctified in Christ
Jesus. And you can't have righteousness
without sanctification. And you can't be sanctified without
the perfect righteousness of Christ. And then the fourth thing,
the last treasure in our bounty of Christ is redemption. Oh, what a glorious word. Redemption
is gaining possession of something in exchange for payment or clearing
a debt. It's certainly not earned. It's
certainly not merited. And it's certainly not deserved
by the sinner. It would cease to be grace and mercy if it were. We owed a debt we couldn't pay.
A thousand years in hell would not pay for our first sin. Christ
paid a debt that He didn't owe. And all that was the sin debt
of His elect. He paid for all the sins of all
the elect throughout all time. You've heard it. It's true. Believe
it. It's true. The holy law and justice
of God had claim on you. And it had claim on me. The wages
of sin is death. The soul that sins, it dies.
God's justice has the right to be paid. And it'll be paid. Because He will by no means clear
the guilty. And we're all guilty. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, as we saw last
time. And the debt that you and I owe
is death. Oh, this is serious business.
We're not just playing church, folks. Eternal death. Spiritual death. They're one
and the same. Somebody once asked a preacher
friend of mine, says, is that talking about eternal death or
spiritual death? He said, they're the same thing.
They're one and the same. Hold your place here in 1 Corinthians
and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. I want to show you this. Hebrews chapter 9. By the appointment of God before
the foundation of the world, God purposed to save a people. And in the fullness of time,
look at verse 12, Christ our substitute is said to have entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained what? Eternal
redemption for us. We see in verse 14 that Christ
shed His own blood and offered Himself without spot to God to
purge your conscience, the conscience of God's people, from dead works
to serve the living God. Verse 15, and for this cause
He, Christ, is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means
of death, His death, Christ's death, for the redemption of
the transgressions." That's for the redemption of the transgressions
or the sins of God's elect. That's who Christ died for. It
says that we're under the First Testament. Now that's speaking
of the Old Testament Law of Works. It says, "...they which are called
might receive the promise of..." what? "...eternal inheritance."
Now look closely at this, verse 16. For where a testament is,
there must also of necessity be the death of a testator. For a testament is a force or
an effect after men are dead. Otherwise it is of no strength
at all while the testator liveth. Now in these verses here in Hebrews
chapter 9, the gospel is considered as a testament, the new and the
last will and testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now stay with me. A testament is a voluntary act,
it's a deed of a single person executed and witnessed, giving
all that a person has to those whom they have chosen to give
it to. My mom and dad had a last will and testament. And I being
their only child, received everything that they had. They left it all
for me. It didn't benefit me in any way
until they died. It didn't take effect until they
died. That's what I'm trying to say.
And it's the same with the last will and testament of our Lord
Jesus. It only takes effect upon the
death of the testator. And in order for you and I to
be redeemed, that's what we're talking about, redemption. In
order for us to be redeemed from our transgressions and our sin
committed against the law or the first testament, it was necessary
that Christ must die in order for His last will and testament
to be made effectual. Now are you following me? It's
called here the necessity by the death of the testator. And
all of us, according to our sin, are guilty before God, and all
of us have forfeited our inheritance into the hands of divine justice.
But God, willing to show the greatness of His mercy, proclaimed
a covenant of grace, and under the law, the bulls and goats
whose blood was shed in the Old Testament, simplifying the blood
of Christ, covered sin for a season. But that was it. It had to be
done all over again, and the reminder of sin came every year,
year after year. It's not possible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sin, friends. And Jesus Christ,
by His own blood, He did so and obtained eternal redemption for
us. Verse 12. There it is. So, my question to you, is are
you trusting in Christ as your only hope of wisdom? As your
only hope of righteousness? As your only hope of sanctification
and redemption? If you are, do you know what
that means? That means that everything's
alright with you and God. Everything's alright. Now back
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 31 and I'll finish up. Let me
leave you with this. God gets all the glory in everything,
especially the salvation of His people. Look at verse 31. That
according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. You know what I'm glorying in
this morning? The Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glorifying
in Him. I'm glorifying in what He's done
for me. He's given His beloved Son to
be my everything. He's my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my sanctification and redemption. It's the gospel. Oh, I hope and
pray that I have not become your enemy for telling you the truth.
You see, it's not that we don't understand. It's not that you
don't understand, dear lost one. It's that you don't believe.
Oh, may God enable you to believe. Oh, we find something that goes
against the grain of our will and we say, I don't believe that
now. I don't believe that. We read a scripture like God
is love and oh, we like that. Oh, I like that. God's love,
I like that. God loves everybody? Yes sir,
I like that. And then you open the Bible in
another place and read God's angry with the wicked every day.
Oh, I don't like that. And it's then that folks say,
I don't understand that. No, I think you understand it.
I don't think you believe it. People say, I don't understand
how God can be love and yet be angry with the wicked every day.
That's because you've got to know something about God and
His holiness. God's love is in Christ alone,
nowhere else. Outside of Christ, God's angry
with you. Every day. All day, every day. But these things come to us by
revelation, don't they? Friends, don't subject God's
Word to your thoughts, because your thoughts are wrong. You
think God to be altogether such a one as yourself, and so did
I. Believe me when I tell you that He's not. Subject your thoughts
to God's Word. I'm telling you, it's then that
God may be pleased to reveal Christ to you and in you. We
take sides with God against ourselves, don't we? That's right. That's
what we do. That's what we're going to have
to do. If you're seeking God and His Word, if you're seeking
the truth about sin and about salvation, seek it in this book. And if you do, I'd say that God's
already been pleased to do a work of grace in you. That's right. May God be pleased to reveal
Himself to you today, right now, if He hasn't already.