If you would, open your Bibles
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. My text this morning will begin
with verse 6. And this carries on to the end
of the chapter, but I doubt that I'll get all the way through
this chapter in one message, so I've decided to take my last
point and make it a message in and
of itself. And I'll tell you why. We're
going to be talking about our need for God's wisdom. And the things that I'm speaking
of today, human wisdom will do us absolutely no good. We need
God's wisdom. And I thought about this as so
appropriate to begin the new year with. That's what we ought to be about,
and just like that beautiful, poetic way of stating it that
Brother Randy read in Proverbs 8, which is the personification
of wisdom in Christ, who is the very wisdom of God. And that's
what we're gonna start with. I've got four points that will
cover the rest of these verses. The first one, is this, number
one, the wisdom of God can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that may sound simple, and
I'll tell you what, it's too simple for unbelievers. Something
like what the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 called the simplicity
that's in Christ, but that's it. The wisdom of God that we
need can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the
second point is this. The wisdom of God comes to His
people by revelation. It must be revealed to us by
God. We're not going to get it just
by doing research or trying to figure out or climbing a mountain
to see an old wise sage. It's got to be revealed. And
then thirdly, the wisdom of God is received by God-given faith. That's how it's received, by
God-given faith. It's revealed and then received. And then the last point, which
I'm really going to deal with next week, has to do with this. The wisdom of God brings spiritual
discernment. And I wanna talk a little bit
about that because one of the last things that is said, well,
the very last thing that is said here in 1 Corinthians 2, look
at verse 16, the very last sentence is a startling statement. And
it says, but we, now who's the we there? That's believers, sinners
saved by grace, people who know the Lord and know the gospel.
People who know Christ, to whom God has revealed His wisdom,
who've received it by God-given faith. We have the mind of Christ. That takes some explanation.
How can I honestly say, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, even us who
are saved, we're sinners saved by grace. How can we say we have
the mind of Christ? Is that to say we think like
Him? Well, we're gonna look at that. Let's go back here. First of all, let me say this.
I wanna read a passage of scripture to you from 2 Timothy chapter
three. And again, I won't ask you to
turn to all these scriptures, but I'll read them to you and
you can mark them down if you wanna go back and look at them.
But this is 2 Timothy three in verse 14, where Paul was writing
to Timothy. Paul, an old, seasoned apostle,
preacher of the gospel, to Timothy, a young evangelist, who was under
Paul's tutelage. And here's what he told Timothy.
He says, Timothy, continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned them. He mentions Timothy's mother
and grandmother as teaching him, but it was God who taught him,
ultimately. And verse 15 says, and that from
a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. Now whenever you
see that scripture, it means written, that's the Bible. At
this time, they had the Old Testament, or most of it. Some of the New
Testament was being written, Paul right here, writing by inspiration
of the Spirit. But he's talking about the Bible,
and that's how we would apply it to us today. From a child
thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, and listen to this, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. Now that's a summation of all
those points that I just read, stated to you. The need for God's wisdom. And
so one of the first things that I would try to impress upon us
is that this book, from Genesis to Revelation, contains that
wisdom of God that we need for salvation. This book contains
it. And one way we can say we have
the mind of Christ is we have his word. If you want to know
what he's thinking, what's on his mind, read his word. That's
what it's about. But let's go back to 1 Corinthians
2. Point one, the wisdom of God
can only be found in Christ. Now that was made clear in the
first chapter. In the first chapter, he speaks
of the worldly wise as contrasted with the spiritually wise. He
says in verse 19, he quotes here from the Old Testament, And he
says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. You're going to destroy wisdom?
Now you need to understand what he's talking about. He's talking
about the wisdom of God revealed in the God of all grace, the
God of salvation. He's speaking of things that
pertain to who God is and how God saves sinners by His grace. And what he's saying is in that
subject, worldly wisdom will do you absolutely no good. Man's way will not help you. In fact, it will make you worse.
People go out here and these false preachers and false churches
and false gospels, they try to rope people into their church
and they do just what the Pharisees do. They make them two-fold more
the child of hell than they are with a false gospel. And that's
why he says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. A prudent person
is one who's intelligent. Now there's a lot of wisdom in
a lot of areas that I don't have having to do with things of this
world. But when it comes to salvation, how does God save sinners? How is God, how can God be just
and justify the ungodly? Man's wisdom will not help you.
I don't care how smart they are, how moral they are in the eyes
of men, how religious they are. He says in verse 20 of chapter
one, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? The scribe
was a interpreter of the law. Where is the disputer of this
world? Those who debate and argue and
promote their religion. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? It's all foolish! Proverbs says,
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ways are
the ways of death. And so he says in verse 20, For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. Human wisdom, worldly wisdom,
religious wisdom, human religion, will not get you any closer to
God. will not bring you to a knowledge
of God. He says it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching. This is what the world calls
foolishness now, not what God does. The preaching of foolishness
to save them that believe. He says the Jews require sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom. The Jews were religious, they
were seeking signs and wonders. Christ said, An evil and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign. The Greeks, they were trying
to reason from the ground up to make themselves so knowledgeable
in the ways of man that it would bring them unto God. But it won't
work. He says, but we preach Christ crucified. Now there's
wisdom. The wisdom of God can only be
found in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's a stumbling
block to the Jews. They trip over that. It's foolishness
under the Greeks, but under them which are called, called by the
Spirit to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest in His
blood for the salvation from sin, to rest in His righteousness
imputed for our justification. Those who are called to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ is the power of God, Paul had spoken of that, that your
faith might be in the power of God and not in yourselves. And
Christ, the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men. What men and women by nature
call foolishness, that's ultimate wisdom from God. Well, Paul wrote in verse two
of chapter two, he said, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What's he talking about? The
wisdom of God can only be found in the glorious person and in
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the
substitute, the redeemer, the preserver of His people. Who
is Jesus Christ? He's Emmanuel, God with us. He's the one who shall save His
people from their sins. Think about it this way. He says
back up in verse 30 of chapter 1, But of Him, of God, are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. That's the wisdom of God. And
I thought about this, you know, to preach a message like this,
we could spend days going through the scripture, just Proverbs
itself. Get wisdom. Seek wisdom. Not human wisdom,
but godly wisdom in his word through Christ. And I thought
about, is there a scripture that could kind of summarize this
thing? And I want you to turn to John
chapter 16. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
as he sent from Christ to come to each and every one of God's
chosen people, the elect, bring them under the preaching of the
gospel, reveal Christ, reveal the wisdom of God unto them,
and convince them of certain issues of wisdom and knowledge. For example, the old sage said
this, know thyself. Do you really know yourself?
A wise man is one who really knows himself. A wise woman is
one who knows herself, knows her frame. And here's the issue,
look at John chapter 16, look at verse seven, Christ speaking
to his disciples. He says, nevertheless, I tell
you the truth, it is expedient or necessary for you, for his
disciples, that I go away. He's going away. Where's He going? Is He going on vacation? Is He
going on a trip? He's going to the cross. That's
what He's telling them. He's going to die. The death
of a substitute. Having their sins imputed to
Him. He's going to die under the just
law of God, His Father. And He's going to drink damnation
dry. That's what the scripture says.
This is the wisdom of God. He says, for if I go not away,
if I don't do this work, the Comforter will not come unto
you. Now the Comforter here is the Holy Spirit. But if I depart,
if I go and do my work, if I finish that work, you remember he said
it's finished on the cross. Sin put away, righteousness established. He said I'll send him unto you.
And when he has come, he will reprove or convict or convince
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And look at
verse nine. Now here's the first one. In
Christ, we come to know ourselves. In Christ, we come to know our
condition. Why do we need Christ? Why do
we need a substitute? Why do we need forgiveness? Why do we need a righteousness
we cannot produce? We'll look at verse nine. Of
sin, because they believe not on me. And what's he telling
us there? Without Christ, we can't know
the reality of who we are and what our condition is. Oh, we
can all know we're not perfect. We can know we're not, we're
sinners. Most people will say they're sinners. But here's what
he's saying here. That unless I have Christ as
my surety, unless I have Christ as my substitute and my redeemer,
Unless I'm washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness,
everything I am and everything I do is sin. That's who I am. Now most people don't know that. Why? Jeremiah 17, nine. The heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? The psalmist wrote in Psalm 139
and verse 23, he said this, search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me, test me, know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. What does the Bible say about
me? Well, it says, that if I'm one
of His, God chose me before the foundation of the world in Christ. You see, without Christ, without
Him, it's all sin. It tells me that before the world
began, before God created this world that we live in, God chose
me and gave me to Christ, made Christ my surety. He would stand for me, brought
him into the world, became my substitute, and redeemed me from
my sins. The Bible tells me this, God's
wisdom tells me this, that when Adam fell in the garden, I fell
in Adam. Fallen sinner. By one man's disobedience,
the many were made sinners. The Bible tells me that when
I was born into this world, I was born spiritually dead, physically
alive, but spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. The Bible
tells me that without Christ, I have nothing and am nothing
in God's sight. I have no power, no will, no
righteousness. That's what the Bible tells me.
There's none good, no goodness without Christ. The Bible talks
of total depravity. Those words aren't used, but
that's what it means. It means not only am I in a state
of sin and death, I have no desire, no heart, no yearning, For the
true and living God, oh I can desire religion, I can yearn
after religion, but without Christ it's all sin. And that word sin
is the most common word for sin in the New Testament, it means
I come short. Which means this, here's the wisdom of God showing
me myself that no matter how good I try to be, I will always come short. I will
always fall short of the mark. And what is the mark? The righteousness
of Christ. The perfect righteousness of
Christ. And then look at verse 10 of John 16. The Holy Spirit
will convict me of righteousness because I go to my Father and
you see me no more. convicts God's people of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ because Christ went to his father.
Now he told his disciples, he said, I'm going away. Where's
he going to? To the cross. to die, to be buried,
to be raised again the third day. And then he would ascend
to the father as the one who finished the work, the one who
put away the sins of his people, his sheep, the one who brought
forth a perfect righteousness, which God has imputed to every
one of his people. He says, I go to my father and
you see me no more. That's the wisdom of God. How a holy God can be both a
just God and a savior so as to secure and ensure the eternal
salvation of all his people based upon the merits of the blood
of Christ, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the wisdom of God. How can he do it? He can do it
in Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh. who's my wisdom,
my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. In Christ,
we see this. You wanna know God? In Christ,
you see how every individual attribute and characteristic
of God is revealed and honored and magnified working consistently
together in the salvation of a sinner by the grace of God. And so Jesus Christ himself is
wisdom. That's what that Proverbs chapter
eight passage is about. That's the personification of
wisdom, which finds its fulfillment in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he said this, he said, before
the heavens were made, before the earth was made, I was there
with my father. The Bible speaks of salvation,
which was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began. And then
look at verse 11. The Holy Spirit will convict
us of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. You see, in Christ, we see the
wisdom and the reality of God in judgment. What judgment is
he talking about? We'll look at it again. Verse
11, of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Now who's the prince of this world? You know, that's talking
about Satan. Over in John chapter 12, he tells us when the prince
of this world was judged, or cast out, as it were. And it's
in John chapter 12, beginning at verse 31. He's telling his
disciples that it's his hour to come and die on the cross
has come. He says in verse 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all unto me. This, he says, signifying what
death he should die. So what's he talking about? He's
talking about the wisdom of God's judgment for His people in the
person and work of Christ. You see, people think, you know,
you wanna be wise when you come to the final judgment. Think
about that. Preachers will tell you, you
gotta prepare for the judgment. Well, how am I gonna prepare
for the judgment? Well, most people say, well, I've gotta
do good works, I've gotta be the best person I can be. Is
that wisdom? Now listen to me. We all want to be the best people
we can be. There's nothing wrong with that.
But if we think that's wisdom that will get us by in God's
judgment, the final judgment, that's foolishness. What's Christ talking about here?
He's simply saying, here's the wisdom of God in the judgment
of His people. When Christ was judged for my
sins on that cross, my sins charged to Him, that's my judgment. When I stand before God, I'll
stand before God in a righteousness that I didn't produce. It's Christ's
righteousness. There's coming a day he'll judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
and that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he has
raised him from the dead. There's the wisdom of God. What
is God's wisdom in judgment? I must stand before God in Christ. not pleading my own merits, not
pleading my own works, not pleading my own decisions. Can you imagine
the foolishness of standing before God at judgment and say, now,
Lord, I made a profession of faith when I was 12 and I was
baptized. Is that wisdom? No, it's foolishness. Lord, I've
done the best I can do. I stopped smoking, stopped drinking,
I stopped running. Is that wisdom? Does that mean
we shouldn't do those things? No, but that's not wisdom coming
to judgment. God's gonna judge me as I stand
in Christ. That's wisdom. And the judgment for God's people
has already taken place at the cross. When he died, I died. I didn't
die personally, but he is my representative. He died for me.
When he was buried, I was buried. When He arose again, I arose
again. When He ascended unto the Father, I ascended. Christ
as my surety, my substitute, my representative, my redeemer,
my advocate, my mediator. I stand in Him. Paul said, oh,
that I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Christ. That's the reality. Look back
here at 1 Corinthians 2. Let me hurry on this. He says
in verse six, he says, how be it we speak wisdom among them
that are perfect. In other words, it's kind of
like saying I'm only talking to you who are perfect. Well,
I can tell you this, if what most people think about that
perfection, I can tell you he's not talking to me then. Not talking
to any of you. What is the wisdom of God here?
What does God say? What does that perfect mean?
It means those who are complete. It doesn't mean those who are
perfect in themselves as if we have some sort of moral perfection
and that we can't sin. This is not moral perfection.
We're still sinners. Even we who know Christ. Even
we who know the wisdom of God. We're still sinners. Now, we're perfect in this way,
we're perfect in Christ, because in Christ, God cannot and will
not impute or charge sin to us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that does. There's
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
So we're perfect in Him, in His perfection, you might say, in
His righteousness, flawless righteousness, but in ourselves. We're sinners. But we're complete in Christ.
Colossians 2.9 says, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in him. I'm completely saved
in the person and work of Christ. That's what that perfection means.
I'm completely forgiven of all my sins because of the blood
of Christ. That's the wisdom of God. False
religionists tell you, no, you've got to do something to earn that
forgiveness. You've got to pray all night. You've got to confess.
You've got to do this. You've got to do that. You've
got to rededicate. You've got to get baptized. Oh, no, that's
foolishness. But in Christ, I'm completely,
100%, unequivocally, unchanged, forgiven. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And His blood did it completely. In Christ, I am perfectly, completely
righteous in God's sight, based upon His righteousness imputed
to me. That's right. For by one offering,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And you
see, when you look at this, look back here, That's not the wisdom
of this world. Look at verse six, how be it
we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, complete in Christ.
Yet not the wisdom of this world. The world doesn't think like
that. Not the princes of this world that come to know. The
princes there refers to the most noble, the smartest, the wisest
of men and women who people by nature in this world think have
all the answers. And he says, no, they don't.
It comes to nothing. Verse 7, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery. Now what does that mean? That
means it's got to be revealed. Even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, that wisdom that
was set up before the beginning, which none of the princes of
this world do, None of these nobles, none of these geniuses,
none of these scientists, none of these theologians knew this. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Who was it that was more
instrument? Now, there's a sense, and I'm
gonna deal with this next week, there's a sense in which we all
are responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. But who was most instrumental
in that crucifixion than just about anybody else? It was the
most religious people who claimed to know the law. That's who it
was. And he says, but as it is written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man. The things that we're talking about in the wisdom
of God, of salvation, of grace, righteousness imputed, the forgiveness
of sins, those things have not entered into the hearts, the
minds of men, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. Man by nature has no idea. You go, you pick the smartest,
most religious, most dedicated person who ever lived, and without
the wisdom of God, he can do nothing for you. as far as salvation. Nothing at all. That's why we're
in such great need of God's wisdom. We'll conclude there and I'll
pick up on that next week. Let's open our hymnals to hymn
number 393.