When it says kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief, that actually fits really well with what I'm going to be talking about today. Can you guys hear me? Is it loud enough? Okay. Somebody said it wasn't loud enough last week and I just remembered that. Maybe a little bit more, may? So it says, kneeling in deep contrition, help my unbelief. We often do that. We get so caught up in things, our own sinfulness, trying to find a certain depth of understanding where we forget how simple the gospel really is. The title of the sermon today is The Deep Things of God, and it's kind of a tongue-in-cheek title because it's Mentioned multiple times in scripture is the depth, the deep things of God. But it's also shown to us that is the deep things of God are as simple as of Christ and him crucified. And that's why it says constantly look to him because of the simplicity of that. If we look into ourselves and look into the depth of our sin and look for deeper understanding in a natural way, we will only end up in worse places. And that's where it ends up. It says, look at my deep contrition, help my unbelief. That's where it brings you. But if you look to Christ and the simplicity of who he is and what he's done is very clear. And that's why it says look to Him in all circumstances. You will not end up in a place of unbelief because it's simple. You're a sinner. You needed saving. He's the perfect Savior who has finished that work for you. Believe on Him and that's it. That's it. That's all you need. Anything more than that is looking past what the scriptures is actually trying to show you. Henry Mahan said all the time, search the scriptures, and when you find Christ, stop. Take out your hymnals once again, and we'll turn to number 681. No, sorry, 453. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. 453, and we'll stand as we sing. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus Unmeasured, boundless, free Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward, to thy glorious rest above. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread his praise from shore He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore. How he watches o'er his loved ones, died to call them all his own. how for them he intercedeth, watcheth for them from the throne. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of heaven, Tis an ocean vast of blessing, tis a haven sweet of rest. Love of Jesus, tis a hymn of thanks to Thee, and it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee. You can be seated. You can take out your Bibles and turn them to 1 Corinthians. I'll be reading from 1 Corinthians chapter two, starting in verse nine. Let's pray together first. Our Father, we come to you with joy in our hearts because you've given us another opportunity to gather together with people of like faith, with your people. And what a blessing that is. And what a blessing it is that you've promised us that when we gather in your name, you will be here among us, which is exactly why we do it. Without you here, Lord, we are wasting our time. But with you here, Lord, it is our opportunity to have our hearts strengthened by grace once again. And that's what we ask, Lord. We ask that we can worship you, but we ask, Lord, also that you strengthen our hearts. Comfort our hearts. Give us rest in what you've done. All of those things are contrary to who we are. The only way we can truly do those things is through you. So we come to you, Lord, and we ask for those things exactly. We ask for the ability to rest in the finished work of Christ, to be able to hear about what he has done for us, and to be able to walk away uplifted, with less heavy hearts, carried by the wonderful news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Give us that blessing this morning, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. So, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and I will read from verse 9 through verse 12. It says, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, who knows the thoughts of God except for the Spirit of God? We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us. It seems way back in the beginning of creation, that no sooner when God created the Garden of Eden and put Adam and Eve in it, that Satan showed up. and he enters the picture to corrupt the mind of Eve. He distracts her from the simplicity of their existence, which is they are within the presence and the relationship with Christ, the simplicity of Jesus Christ. That's what Satan came to do in the garden that day, was to distract them from that. And he talks her into adding the tree of knowledge of good and evil to her diet. And in the same way, no sooner does the gospel go into the world in its fullness than Satan is at hand to corrupt the minds of believers from the simplicity of Christ. And to persuade them to add something from the thinking of man to the message from the pulpit or what is taught. The two main, and this happened right away, I mean, shortly after Christ died, these things happened immediately. People were attempting to add to the gospel of Christ, and it's been happening since. Happens right now. But the two main doctrinal heresies that happened in the first century church were Jewish legalism and Gentile Gnosticism. Jewish legalists tried to combine the righteousness of man with the righteousness of Christ. Still going on today. You see it everywhere. We talk about it all the time. It's in our hearts. Gentile philosophers tried to combine the wisdom of man with the wisdom of God. In chapter one, Paul dismissed both of these heresies by teaching that Christ is our wisdom, He is our righteousness, He is our holiness, and He is our redemption. We have nothing to offer. Christ is all of those things for us. And one of the ways that the Gnostics would introduce their heresy was to speak of the deep things of God. And this still goes on today as well. They claimed that there was some deeper understanding of the truth beyond what was learned through simple gospel preaching. Like there was a deeper level to reach. There was something deeper which could be gained only by the elite among believers who somehow had a special access to what was back then kind of a mystical knowledge. And this spirit, like I said, has not gone from the world today. It exists in our day. There are still those who are seeking a deeper knowledge than what the actual gospel gives. It is not always that they have this mystical quality like they did back then from the Gnostics, but it was this idea that there is some level of spiritual knowledge or understanding of God that is deeper than what is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. To them, the gospel is almost like the start, like it's rudimentary knowledge. Like, oh, you understand that, but have you dug into this? Have you dug deeper into this aspect of the scriptures? A rudimentary knowledge of the things of God is what they considered the gospel, and once they have come to know that, then they must move on to deeper issues. Sometimes these issues are matters of prophecy. You hear about that sometimes. Others look to ancient history thinking that the believers of pre-flood days had some understanding that we do not. Some think the Bible has secret information for certain people. Secret information even on silly things like financial matters or health issues. Often these are just used to set people apart. to set that group above other Christians. We have a special, deeper understanding beyond the gospel of Christ. But Paul teaches us that through the knowledge of Christ, we have all we need for life and godliness. There is nothing more than Christ to be learned. There is no deeper truth than the gospel. The gospel is the deep things of God. And I'll explain that a little bit more in depth as we go. When Paul wrote in Romans, and we can turn there, this is what Oliver read earlier, Romans 11 33 and 34 it says, oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable his judgments and his paths are beyond tracing out? Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? When Paul wrote this he was taught not talking about deep things of understanding he was talking about nothing other than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and That is the deep wisdom of God. Turn to Jeremiah. I'll give you a second, it's kind of a hard one to find. Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. This is what the Lord says. Let not the wise men boast of his wisdom. or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." Kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. So he says, don't trust in your own strengths. whether it's your wisdom or your strength or your money, none of it means anything. If you're going to boast, boast in that you know me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness. Think about that. The only time in the history of the world when kindness, judgment, and righteousness were exercised on earth at one time is on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the writer here is saying, don't worry about your wisdom, don't worry about your strength, don't worry about your riches. Boast in the fact that you know me and the fact that Christ was crucified and was risen and now sits at the right hand of God. There, at that moment on the cross, unimaginable mercy was given, as Christ was justly condemned and punished for the sins that He was bearing, that He bore. There and there alone was God the just judge, even as He justified the ungodly. And to understand that, Simple truth is to understand the deep things of God. Paul's argument, back in 1 Corinthians, says no one knows what is in the heart of man except for the man himself, who knows, and we know this to be true, no one knows what's in my heart except for me, and I'm very glad for that. Do you want people to know what's in your heart? I don't. you'd never talk to me again. And that's the truth for all of us. And people know about us only what we reveal. And likewise, no one knows God other than the spirit of God. No one knows the heart of God besides the spirit of God. And therefore we know about God only those things that God has been pleased to show us through the spirit of God. So what then has God revealed to us? What is important? What is the important message that God, out of all of his depth, has chosen? This is what the Spirit of God will reveal to my people. What is that message? What deep, deep understanding is the one message that is so important that God chose, this is what the Spirit of God is going to present to my people. Very simply this, and it says this in 1 Corinthians, that we may understand what God has freely given us. That's it. That is the message. That is the heart of God that's being revealed through the Spirit to God's people, that we may understand what has been freely given to us. That constitutes the Spirit's revelation, revealing of the deep things of God. There's nothing more for us to know. It says it right here, we may understand what God has freely given us. That's it. To look for any other knowledge, to leave the depths of God and search the shallows of human understanding, that's what we'll be doing. If we leave that point, God says to us again in 1 Corinthians, We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. That's what we have been shown. If you stop there and move on, you are leaving the deep things of God, again, to search the shallows of human understanding. At that point, you're just trying to find more. You're just trying to set yourself apart. God has revealed nothing else to us. Let us take note of these important things that are shown to us in the scripture in 1 Corinthians. It says, the things of God cannot be perceived by natural reason. I've read this scripture a bunch of times. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared those who love him. And it also says, in other versions, it says, the heart of man has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. Many people miss the meaning of this passage. I did for a long time. They think that it simply means that we can't comprehend it because we're such lower beings. We can't understand. Our eyes, we just can't understand it. It's far above us. But that's not what Paul's point is. Rather, he is teaching that the truth of God's goodness was never and can never be discovered in natural ways. You cannot find the truth of the gospel by studying a book. It has to happen spiritually. Rather, his teaching, like I said, the truth of God's goodness was never and can never be discovered by natural investigation, nor was it ever thought up by natural understanding. And the reason is clear. The things that God has prepared for those who love him are not natural. The blessings, the true blessings, the things that God has prepared for his people are spiritual. They're beyond this world. So you cannot discover them in a natural way. It can only be a spiritual way. Secondly, they're free. Now, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given to us. This understanding of the things freely given to us is one of the things freely given to us. We don't get that understanding by earning it. God has chosen people to give that understanding to. It's one of the things freely given. There is nothing inherently special about those who have been made to see the things of God. There is no level to reach. There is no elite category of believers who receive access to a deeper truth of God. Paul says it's freely given. You can't earn something that's free. It would no longer be free. Third, the things of God are completely and wholly found in Christ. The Spirit does not reveal things that are curiosities for us or speculations. The Spirit of God reveals Christ. Christ crucified and Christ risen. In Christ, all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In Him are all of those things, all of them, all of the love, all of the wisdom, all of the righteousness, and all the sanctification and redemption you will ever need. All of them are completely found and only found in Jesus Christ. It seems often, no matter what I'm preaching on, I kind of end up coming back to the thief on the cross because he's such a, perfect picture of the salvation of God's people. Fully guilty, completely guilty. Hopeless, in a hopeless position. Clueless. I gotta have a clue. He lived his entire life as a thief, and was in the last moments of his life, he knew nothing about God. And on the brink, of eternal death? And what deep things of God did he discover on that cross? What depth of knowledge did he gain hanging there, dying? Did he have time to study scripture? Did he have time to contemplate the depths of his sin, really get to know him so he could fully repent. Sometimes you hear that. Did he study the scriptures and form a deep understanding of the word of God? Did he reach a level of scriptural and theological understanding to where all of a sudden, oh, I get it now. Did he reach that elite level of deep understanding of the things of God? Did he explore the depths of prayer? Did he repent? Never says he even repented. He didn't have time. He didn't have time to think about it. Did he promise to turn his life around? You hear that too. He had no life to turn. His was about to end. Did he quickly panic because there was no way for him to be baptized before he was gonna die? No. Did he study? No. Did he pray? No. Did he go to church? No. Did he find a mission trip? Did he meditate? Did he meditate on the glories of God? He knew nothing of the scriptures. He knew nothing of the life of Christ. He knew nothing of theology. He knew one thing. He saw and believed one thing. He saw only by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit that Christ was King. That is the only knowledge the thief on the cross had. And it was not a natural knowledge. How could he know that naturally? How could anyone convince him that this man next to him, who was a bloody pulp, dying next to him, was the king of the world? That is not a natural understanding. And that's how it works for every one of us. It's a spiritual gift through the Spirit of God. That's the only way you can see Christ for who he really is. There's only a spiritual explanation for that. What he knew was nothing. But who he knew was everything. And when anyone is given the ability to see Christ for who he is, you will trust him for your needs. Now it's not always going to be a clear path because we have spiritual side and a physical fleshly side that love to fight. But if you are one of God's people you will trust Christ even on the days you feel like you don't. You will come back to him. When anyone is given the ability to see Christ for who he is, they trust him for their needs and your only real need is salvation and that's what the thief on the cross did. Jesus, I have zero reason to know who you are or to believe in anything other than the fact that you're gonna die next to me right now. But because of God and the Holy Spirit, he said, Jesus, remember me today as you come into your kingdom. It's amazing when you really think about it. Christ, while suffering the wrath of his father, said to him, truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. And he was. And he's been there since. still knows nothing of the depths of the scriptures, knows nothing beyond Christ, nothing other than Christ. He only knows Christ. I saw a preacher once, and it was kind of quippy and funny, but it was still, there was truth to it. He said, the guy shows up, and they're like, what do you know about the Old Testament, or what do you know about the New Testament, or what depths do you understand as far as baptism is concerned? He's like, I don't know, I just, I know the guy next to me, and he's the king. That's all he knew. And that's all you need. The deeper things of God are not deep at all. They seem to be deep to the world because man cannot understand them. That's what Paul was saying earlier. In a natural way, you cannot see this truth. There is no one in their natural eyes that saw Christ on the cross that day and said, that is the king of creation. He created this world with a word. Natural eyes will not show you that. Spiritual eyes, opened, softened heart, you will see him for who he is. So that's what they say, that they seem deep because man cannot perceive them. Only through the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God, can the truth be seen. And what are these deep truths that are set aside for God's people? What are the depths that must be reached to be blessed by God, to be loved by God? to see Christ as King, just as the thief on the cross did. The deepest truth of God is the gospel itself. So go there. Go to Him. Call to Him. He is all you need, and He is everything you need. It's normal to have curiosities. You think, man, I just don't understand this enough. I need to dig in some more. You don't. There is no more depth than the fact that Christ is the king of the universe and he died to save his people. Go to him because he is the only one that can save you. Simple truth. He is the Lamb of God. He is the King of all things, the deep things of God. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. So go to Him. Our Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for our Savior. We thank you for who he is. We thank you for the simple truth and the easy truth for us to understand once you've opened our eyes and opened our hearts. You don't make it hard for us to understand. You don't make it, we get to a certain point and we have to continue through a maze of understanding. You have done it all for us. Once you've opened our eyes, we see that it is already completed. We thank you, Jesus, that it is already completed perfectly. We thank you for your love. We thank you for the unending mercy that you show us. And we pray this in your name.