First Corinthians. We've been
looking at these first two chapters for a couple of weeks here. I think that it's absolutely
necessary that you see the import of the first two
chapters of this book in order that you might have any understanding
at all of the rest of it. And this is indeed the very heart
of Paul's message to all of the churches that he ministered to,
is that there is no good thing in the flesh and there is no
understanding of the things of God apart from the grace of God. being applied to a man to show
him that truth. Now this is the thing that he
begins this book with, and of course he begins it against the
backdrop of those who some said, well, you know, we're following
this great teacher, and another said, well, no, we like this
teacher, and this, that, and the other. He said, all of that
doesn't make any difference. You know, Paul or Apollos, or
even those that say they're of Christ, He said, there is only
one message that we have and it is this, and that is that
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. Now if you want to make somebody
mad, you tell them that. That there is no way under the
sun that they can know God. Now everybody out there by nature
believes they can know God, don't they? Why, you don't tell me
who God is. You know, don't you get around
to telling me anything. I already know. Cane, you didn't. He said, well, I'm going to grub
up some sweet potatoes here and get this stuff. And my God just
got to be happy with this. I mean, look what I did. I mean,
wouldn't God be happy with what I did? I mean, you know, people
It's a hard thing. I mean, it's hard for people
that believe in the grace of God and know and understand these
things. It's hard to believe that there
is not one thing on earth that a man can do that will recommend
him in the eyes of God. Not a thing in the world. There
is no action of man, there is no way of man or anything else
that can gain him one speck of respect with God. And you know
why? Because God knows that we are
dust. He formed and fashioned us right
out of the ground, and He knew exactly what He was making when
He made man. He made him just exactly like
He wanted him to be. Now, I know that that is, you
know, there's a lot of people who tell you, you know, things
didn't work out. Right. No things worked out.
Dear brethren, everything's working out. I mean, just like Brother
Al was bringing to us this morning that study about Isaac and Jacob and Esau. Listen, there was never any doubt
how that was going to come about. I mean, every jot and tittle
of the actions that took place by those people happened just
exactly according to the way God ordained it to occur. Now, that doesn't change the
fact that Jacob was a deceiver. In fact, it magnifies the fact
that he was. It shows what men are. See, when
we read these things, It will humble us in the dust because
what we see in that is just a revelation of what we are by nature. When
you see a guy take a semi-truck and drive down through a crowd
of people and kill Now our natural reaction is,
oh, but we just need to kill people like that and all that
kind of stuff. Well, I'm not saying they don't need to be
people. I'm not going there. But what
I'm saying is the first thought that ought to really come to
our mind is, Lord, if it wasn't for the grace of God, I'd have
been in that truck. That'd be me. When the Lord shows you what
you are by nature, then you don't have any place to glory. And
you can't start looking at what all you've done and what you
didn't do. Because you know that apart from
the grace of God, you'd perish. There's just no other avenue
of wherein to stand or to approach unto God. And so it is. 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 believed." In the wisdom of God,
He ordained it so that men would not know Him. Why? Because He is unknowable. Who
hath known the mind of the Lord, Paul said, or who hath been His
counselor? I mean, the way of God's path
is finding out. Just when you think you know
a little bit, you'll find out you don't know anything. And
so it is. And so we come to chapter 2 and
we look at some of these verses and we'll go through quickly.
Brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of
speech or wisdom, declaring you the testimony of God, not necessary. Man's wisdom is not necessary.
to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying
sinner is not necessary. Now, the Lord does sometimes
use men in that endeavor, but He does not need to. And it is
certainly not the persuasive ability of men that causes men
to believe. He said he had one message, I
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's the message that we have,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's not about all these things
that other people will tell you perhaps that it is. And I was
with you in much fear, in weakness and fear and in much trembling,
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God." Now, if your faith does not stand in the power of
God, then it is of no use whatsoever. Now, how does a man's faith stand
in the power of God except that it's given to him by the power
of God? See, that's what faith is. It
is the demonstration of the power of God in men, many times in
a fashion in which they don't even know it. Now, the Scriptures
are speaking about Isaac and how he blessed Isaac. He blessed Esau and Jacob, it
says, in faith. Now, does that mean that he sat
back and he said, now, Lord, I'm going to do a great work
today? No. But you see, he was in faith.
Now, did he put himself in faith? No. He didn't put himself in
faith. The Lord included him. Read that
11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. Read about those people that
are included there. Samson. Jephthah. Do you remember who Jephthah
was? He was the guy that said, the
first thing that comes out the gate, I'm going to offer it to
the Lord. And guess what was the first person that came out
of the gate? His daughter. Now some have opined that He
offered her as a burnt offering in the sense that He built a
fire and burned her up. I don't believe that's what it
has reference to. But nonetheless, He in one sense
made a foolish vow as men would say it. But you see, God uses
the foolishness of men. In fact, the Scripture says that
the wrath of man shall praise Him. And guess what? The remainder
of wrath he'll restrain. Do you realize that that man
plowing those people over in Paris, or where was it? Nice, over there in France. Do
you realize, now whether you like to think about this or not,
that was to the praise of God's glory. The wrath of man shall
praise him. Now, it was a wicked thing. It
was an awful thing. It was a terrible thing. And
the man got just exactly what he deserved when they shot him
down. I mean, there's no doubt about
all that. And the remainder of wrath, God
restrained. Just think about when God's restraints are removed.
What would that be? I mean, tomorrow if God just
took the restraints off of people and everybody just acted according
to the basis, thoughts and intents of their hearts, we wouldn't
last. The human race would kill itself off in just a matter of
days. It might not even take days.
I don't know how long it would take, but it wouldn't take long
until everybody had killed everybody else. I mean, it would just be
a terrible thing. And I don't even know how I got
off on that. But anyway, the faith that anybody that has been
set forth in the Scripture is not a badge of honor placed upon
them. When the Lord said to this woman that came asking him to help
her daughter that was possessed of a demon. And he said of her,
ìI have not found so great faith in all Israel.î Now was he patting
her on the head like a little pup and saying, ìYouíve really
done a good job. Now go home.î No. ordained and gave the woman faith
to demonstrate to these unbelieving Jews what faith was. And so he wouldn't pat her on
the head because she stood out in the crowd, but he manifested
and blessed her. Now, don't ever mistake the fact
that where faith is, is a great blessing. I mean, where God is
pleased to give men faith, there is also a great blessing that
comes along with that in spite of them. Because in
spite of our unbelief, yet if the Lord has granted to show
us faith, the blessing is still ours, is it not? Absolutely. And so that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now,
that goes contrary to most of what you hear today, because
most of what you hear today is preachers trying to stir up people
to have faith. You need to have faith. And when
you get enough faith, you need to send me some money. I mean,
that's really the culmination of knowing whether or not you
really have the faith is if you're willing to send me the money.
That's when we'll know, if you do. Brethren, that's in the wisdom
of men. That's stuff that's thought up
in the minds of men. Our faith doesn't stand there.
It stands in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor
of the princes of this world, that come to naught. And we talked
about this last week. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. What we're talking about is mysterious. How God would give men faith. I don't understand it. But it
is a mysterious thing. And why the Lord gives it to
some and not to others, that's His business. Even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world for our glory, because
it pleased Him to ordain His Son unto the cross. And if the men of this world
had been given the knowledge that those who have been given
faith now have, they would have never crucified the Lord of glory. That's what it says right there,
isn't it? They'd have never done it. I mean, if the Lord had been
pleased to give, hadn't hid this thing from the Jews, the Jews
would have fallen down and worshipped Him, would they not? I mean,
if He had given them faith, wouldn't they have worshipped Him and
said, Here's the Messiah? I mean, He was the Messiah. He
was the one they said they were looking for. But the Lord hid
it from them because it pleased Him. Why? Because these things
were ordained for our glory. For whose glory? For those to
whom He is pleased to give faith. That's what it is there, brethren.
Because they wouldn't have done these things if they'd have known.
You wouldn't have done it. You wouldn't have been in the
crowd saying, crucify Him, if the Lord had brought you to know
who He is, would you? Of course not. You'd have been
doing everything you could to keep it from happening. But you
see, if you'd have been successful, we'd have had no redemption.
So the redemption is ordained. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
Now some read that as to say this, God prepared a bunch of
stuff over here, and if you love Him, He'll give it to you. That's
all it takes. You start loving Him. But you
see, we love Him because He First love does. We have faith because
He gave it to us. Because it begins and ends with
Him. And these things which God has
prepared for them that love Him are not, this is not speaking
about things in the future, although future things are included, but
it's not A lot of times, you know, you'll hear this read at
funerals and stuff, and we don't know what it is, but we know
that God prepared these things. Well, that's not what it's talking
about. It's talking about the manifestation of faith, that
is, the giving of understanding of the things of God. It has
not entered into the heart of man the things which God has
prepared for them that love Him. That is, man didn't figure it
out. He didn't think it up. But God
gave it to him. God prepared it. But God hath
revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. How would we know anything
about the things of God unless the Spirit of God taught us?
For the Spirit searcheth out these things. He knows these
things. He sees these things. For what
man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which
is in him? And this is kind of rhetorical
reasoning here. He said, now, a man knows what's
going on in a man. I mean, you know how the things
of the world work. You know that if you go stick
your ignition key in the car and everything's working right,
that when you turn it, it'll crank up. I mean, you know that.
How do you know that? It's just natural thinking. It's
just of the earth. You know that if you pick an
ax and chop at the bottom of a tree enough times, it will
fall over. You know that. I mean, those
are things that the Spirit of the Man, I mean, He just knows
things that are of the earth. We know those things. We know
food. Some foods are good to eat and
some are not. Those are things we know. So
what man knoweth the things of a man, say the spirit of a man
which is in him. That's just of the man. Even
so, in the same way, just like a man is the only one that can
know that, do dogs know how to put the key in the car and crank
it up? No, they don't know why, because
they don't have the spirit of a man in them. They don't have
an understanding of how things work. Even so, in the same way, the
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Just like
a dog or a cat can't know something about what a man knows, nobody
can. No other creature, even the angels,
can't know what it is to be a man. In the same way, no man can know
what it is to be God. except the Spirit of God. You
can't know the things of God. It's impossible. The only way
it could ever be shown to you is if God is pleased to show
it to you, because a man cannot by searching find out God. Neither can he in his own power
lift himself up to hear and know those things. Well, we've run out of time. You know, this is the heart,
really, I believe, of the gospel. I don't think that a man can
really grasp what it is that the gospel is about unless he
has some understanding of the fact that he can't know these
things except the Lord chose them.