Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for today's message. And if you'd
like to follow along in your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians
2. I'll begin at verse 6. I preached
on this last week in the message entitled, A True
Christian Worldview. And that was part one, this is
part two. We're gonna go through this chapter.
And what I'm talking about here is how a true believer, a sinner
saved by grace, views the world. What is our world view? How do
we view the world? How do we view ourselves in relationship
to the world if we're true Christians? And we're talking about the Apostle
Paul's writings here as he wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
He said in verse six of 1 Corinthians 2, how be it we speak wisdom
among them that are perfect, the wisdom that he's talking
about there is the gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of God to his people, wherein Christ is revealed, the Lord
Jesus Christ is revealed in his person as God in human flesh
without sin, the God-man, the savior of his people, who came
to this earth obeyed the law, went to the cross, and died as
the substitute, the surety and substitute of his people, God's
elect, his sheep, his church, and satisfied the justice of
God in order to justify the people of God. To be justified means
to be not guilty. It means to be righteous. And
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the wisdom of God
in establishing righteousness for his people. And this is the
wisdom of God among them that are perfect. Remember last week
I mentioned this, the word perfect there doesn't refer to any moral,
sinless perfection in us, in a believer. It refers to the
completeness of a believer in Christ based on his righteousness
imputed. And we went to Colossians chapter
2 and verse 9 and 10. For in Christ dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. That is, in the person of Christ
as God-man, we see the fullness, the glory, the completeness of
the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
revealed. And verse 10 says, And you are complete in Him. And that's what he's talking
about. The perfect here means they are complete, they are fully
saved unto glory. And he says in verse six, yet
not the wisdom of this world nor the princes of this world
that come to nothing. This message of grace, salvation
by grace, did not come from any human being, any fallen sinful
human being. Not even the best of human beings,
the princes of this world, the religious elite, the philosophical
elite, the economical elite, didn't come from them. Didn't
come from any human think tank of intellectualism. It's a revelation
from God. Paul wrote about that in Galatians. He said, the gospel that I believe,
the gospel that I preach is not of man. It's not of this world.
It's of God. And that establishes the worldview
of a true Christian. There's one way of salvation.
Christ said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. There's one way of forgiveness.
That's by the blood of Jesus Christ. That means His death.
There's one way of righteousness. That's Jesus Christ crucified,
buried, and risen from the dead. And I have no righteousness before
God except what I have in Christ, imputed, charged, accounted,
reckoned to me. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. Romans 1, 16 and 17. That's Christ
in the merits of his obedience unto death, imputed, charged,
accounted, reckoned to his people. There's no righteousness in me.
I have the Holy Spirit who dwells in me by the Spirit. Christ indwells
me by the Spirit and by the Word. But I'm still a sinner saved
by grace. And I won't be perfect, sinlessly perfect in myself until
I leave this world and go to be with Him. So you understand
that. Now, that kind of wisdom doesn't
come from man. It comes from God. Look at verse
7 of 1 Corinthians 2. He says, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory." Now he's talking to the believers
here. And he says we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. What
does that mean? Mystery. You know, man by nature
is drawn to mysticism. Maybe you've heard of mysticism.
Mystical religions. That's not what's being taught
here in the Bible. A mystery in the Bible is something
that man in his fallen state cannot find out. He cannot know. You might think of a mystery
as like a mystery movie or a mystery book, you know, where you get
certain clues and you put all the clues together and you figure
out what, who did it or whatever. That's not what a mystery is
in the Bible. The mystery that he's speaking of and a mystery
in the Bible is something that if you find it, if you know it,
God must uncover it. God must reveal it. You understand
that? The gospel is by revelation.
Paul wrote, I quoted part of it earlier, in Romans 1 16, for
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. To everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. And what Paul's point here is,
and this is how the worldview of a Christian is established.
He's pointing out here that this truth, this wisdom, this power
of God did not come from man. It's the hidden wisdom. Man could
not know it, but God ordained before the world under our glory.
This wisdom, this way of salvation, the gospel, in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ was established before the world
began. Paul spoke of that in 2 Timothy
when he talked about the salvation which was given us, that is God's
chosen people, the church, believers, those who come to faith in Christ,
given us before the foundation of the world. So man had nothing
to do with concocting this message. Man has nothing to do with authoring
this message. It didn't come from man. It come
from God alone. This is a message of God. And
how do you know it? Because it's a mystery. No human
religion, no human philosophy has ever come up with anything
that comes close to this. And this is what he says in verse
8. Look at 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 8. He says, which none
of the princes of this world knew. For had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Now think
about that. Man by nature does not know or
see who Christ is and why he even came to earth. Man by nature. Now that's the natural man over
there in 1 Corinthians 2.14. We'll get to that later on. If man knew who Christ really
was, we wouldn't have crucified him. I'm talking about fallen
humanity there. It's not just a group of people
in history. The ones who actually were instrumental
in the crucifixion of Christ, they were representative of all
of fallen humanity, including us. That's the way we have to
look at the Bible. That's, again, that worldview. Now, the crucifixion of Christ
was ordained from the beginning, before the foundation of the
world. Peter preached that in Acts chapter two. But when Christ
came, man didn't know who he was. Man by nature didn't look
and say, well, here comes the Lord of glory. Well, we wouldn't
have crucified the Lord of glory. What does the Bible say that
how would we, how does man by nature, before the revelation
of the mystery. Look at Jesus Christ. Well, look
at Isaiah chapter 53. And this is a prophecy of Christ. And Isaiah starts out in verse
one of Isaiah 53. Who hath believed our report?
That's our teaching, our doctrine. And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord is a human
way of referring to God's power. So what we're talking about here
is the wisdom and power of God in Christ. Verse two of Isaiah
53. For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground. He hath
no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we
hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised, and we
esteemed him not." Now that's how the natural man views the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you something.
That's how I viewed the Lord Jesus Christ, even in my religion,
thinking I was a Christian when I wasn't. Now that's so. The true Christ of the Bible
as revealed. Now go back to 1 Corinthians
2. He says in verse nine, now listen
to this. He says, 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 let me ask you a question.
Do you love God? Do I love God? Not your idea
of God. You know, so many people today
who claim to love God, they in reality love themselves, not
God. Because they reject the truth
of God as He is revealed and identified and distinguished
in the Bible. And they bring God down on their
own level and they make a God like themselves and so in reality,
they love themselves. For example, let me give you
an example of this. You know, when we talk about
the Christian worldview, what does that involve? Well, it involves
who God is. Now listen to me, who God is,
as he says he is in this book, from Genesis to Revelation. And
then it involves who I am. as I am exposed in this book
from Genesis to Revelation. And then thirdly, it involves
how God saves sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is
Jesus Christ? What did he do? Why did he do
it? Where is he now? All of those
things establish the Christian worldview. For example, if I
were to tell you That God is absolutely sovereign in all things. That he is the determiner of
all things. That he works all things after
the counsel of his own will. He saves whom he will. That's
what he says. That's what this book says. He
chose a people before the foundation of the world and gave them to
Christ. Conditioned all of their salvation
on Christ, his son. and send his son into the world
to fulfill those conditions and secure their salvation. That's
who God is. He's holy. He's just. He's righteous. You say, well, I don't believe
in that kind of God. Well, whatever God you believe
in and love is not the God of the Bible then. You're reasoning
from your own natural way of thinking rather than the revelation
of God. And what you really love is yourself.
What does the Bible say about man by nature? It says that we
are dead. We fell in Adam, ruined by the
fall, and we are born spiritually dead. And even in that state,
we can rise to great heights of religion and charity, but
we cannot and will not choose the right way of salvation to
the praise of the glory of God's grace in Christ. What does the
Bible say about the way of salvation? It's all of grace. There's not
one blessing of salvation that we can earn or deserve. It's
freely given of God. Now let me show you that. He
says, this has not even entered into the heart of man, the natural
heart. Jeremiah said it over here in
Jeremiah 17. Let's just look at that. Jeremiah
17 and verse nine, listen to this. The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now,
is that talking about somebody else or talking about all of
us by nature? It's talking about all of us
by nature. The natural heart. Now, the natural heart, the mind,
the affections, the will, the conscience can, again, rise to
great heights of religious sincerity and dedication and charity, but
the natural heart, will always deceive us when it comes to God's
way of salvation. That's what deceived Cain. That's
what deceived multitudes who insist on salvation conditioned
on themselves in some way, at some stage, to some degree. And
that's why he says in verse 10 of Jeremiah 17, I the Lord search
the heart, I test the reins, even to give every man according
to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. Now,
how does that apply to the world? Well, what are the fruit of the
world's doings? Any individual who's seeking
salvation by their works, what's the fruit of that? It's fruit
unto death, the scripture says. But look back at 1 Corinthians
2. He's talking about those who prepared for them, what God has
prepared for them that love him. Now, any sinner who truly loves
God knows this. He's a sinner saved by grace.
God has saved him based upon the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has shed abroad
within his heart, the new heart, the scripture says, the love
of God. And he knows this, he loves God,
but they don't love him perfectly. That's right. Salvation is not
based on my love for God, it's based on his love for me in Christ. And secondly, he knows this,
he knows that that love is the product, the fruit of God's grace,
it's not natural. So look at verse 10 of 1 Corinthians
2. but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. In other words, any sinner who
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, any sinner who loves God, truly
loves God, That's the product of God's grace in Christ by the
Spirit in Revelation. In the new birth, when he regenerates,
converts a sinner, gives him a new heart, a new spirit, a
new mind, new affections. That's what the scripture teaches.
The natural heart. All right, will not bring a sinner
to love God, to believe in Christ, to walk by faith. Faith is the
gift of God. The new heart's the gift of,
it's all the gift of God. It's by the spirit, the revelation
that comes from God in Jesus Christ. It's a gift of God because
we don't know these things by nature. We can't figure them
out. We can't find them out. It's the spirit of God, the Holy
Spirit, the third person of the blessed Trinity. who applies
this revelation and knowledge, because it's the Spirit that
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Now, what
are these deep things of God? It's the gospel. It's the wisdom
of God. The question was posed in the
book of Job several times. How can a man, a sinful, wretched
man, be just with God? How can God be just and justify
a sinner like me? Man can't figure that out. He
has no idea. In fact, the religions of man
don't even pose the question, let alone have the answer. That's
the deep things of God, how God can be both a just God and a
Savior. You see what I'm saying? God
is holy and righteous and just. And he must remain so. He cannot
deny or ignore or oppose himself. His holiness, his justice, his
righteousness is true. Even when he saves a sinner,
he must remain just. Now God is a merciful God, God
is a loving God, God is a gracious God, but He must be both just
and justifier, a just God and a Savior. When He shows mercy,
that mercy must be based upon a righteous, just ground. That's what, you know, that's
what was pictured in the tabernacle, in the mercy seat, the Ark of
the Covenant, in the mercy seat, and the high priest would bring
the blood of the spotless lamb from off the altar of sacrifice,
and he'd bring it into the Holy of Holies, and he'd sprinkle
the mercy seat with blood. It's a mercy seat, but blood
had to be shed, what? Justice had to be satisfied.
God is a loving God, but He cannot and will not show love to any
sinner, any person, apart from justice satisfied, apart from
Christ. The love of God is in Christ.
I'm telling you this. Here's the God of the Bible.
There is no love for me, for you, for any sinner outside of
Christ. There's only hatred. And God's
hatred is not emotional or sinful. God's hatred is his justice against
sin, his wrath poured out on a righteous, just ground. Jacob have I loved, he said.
Esau have I hated. You say, well, it's not fair
that God hated Esau. Well, too bad. That's what the
Bible says. It is fair. God is not going
to do anything, shall not the judge of all the earth do right,
Abraham asked? And the answer's yes. You say,
well, I don't understand how all that works. You don't have
to, but that's what the revelation of God says. Now, which God are
you going to serve? Which God are you going to worship?
The God of your imagination, who's like you, or the God of
the Bible, who reveals himself in Christ? God is a gracious
God. But Romans 5.21 says, as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness, justice, satisfied unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's the deep things of God
that no person knows apart from God's revelation of Himself by
the Spirit of God. Look at verse 11. He says, for
what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man
which is in him. The natural man cannot rise any
higher than the spirit that's in him, which is the spirit of
sin and death. He can attain great heights of
religion. Think about Saul of Tarsus. How
high he rose in the Jewish religion, which
was an evil religion. It was a religion of unbelief.
They rejected Christ. But Saul of Tarsus rose to great
heights. Think about those who rise to
great heights in the religions of man, okay? But he can't know
the deep things of God, the gospel of salvation by God's grace,
even though He rises to those religious heights, moral heights,
heights of sincerity, because of the Spirit that is in Him,
the life that's in Him. The life that's in Him is not
spiritual life, it's death. That's why we have to be born
again by the Spirit. So he says in verse 11, what
man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which
is in him. Man has breath, that's what that word spirit means.
He has life, but he has no spiritual life. And he says, even so the
things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. It's the
Holy Spirit in the new birth who gives spiritual life. You must be born again. or you
cannot see the kingdom of God. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God. You must be born from above. The new birth is a literal
resurrection from the dead, spiritually speaking. The Holy Spirit gives
life from Christ. You see, what Christ did on the
cross is the ground of a sinner's justification before God. What
the Holy Spirit does in the sinner in the new birth is the fruit
of what Christ accomplished. And so we could even say it this
way, when the Holy Spirit gives life, when sinners are born again,
the Holy Spirit imparts the resurrection life of Christ. And he gives
them knowledge, he gives them a new heart, eyes, spiritual
eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear, Remember the Lord told
the disciples in Matthew 13, blessed are your eyes for they
see, blessed are your ears for they hear. That's what the Bible calls the
circumcised heart, spiritually circumcised. And so it's only
by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, the gospel.
And listen to verse 12, now this is really important. He says,
now we have received, not the spirit of the world. Now, this
goes back to the worldview, a true Christian worldview. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God. In other words, if you're a believer,
if you're born again by the spirit, if you've been redeemed by the
blood, chosen before the foundation of the world, at some point in
time, you will receive Not the spirit of the world, you already
have that by nature, but the spirit which is of God. Now that's
talking about the new birth. How do you know that you've received
the spirit of God, the spirit which is of God, and are not
left in the spirit of the world? Well, look at the next line in
verse 12, 1 Corinthians 2, 12, look at it. That we might know
the things that are what? Freely given to us of God. There
it is. In other words, those who are
true believers, true Christians, who have that Christian worldview,
they know the things that are freely given to them of God. Now that word freely means unconditionally. without a cause. That means whatever
you have that is of God in the way of salvation, in the way
of the wisdom of God, in the power of God, it's free. You didn't earn it and you didn't
deserve it. And we'll pick up there next
time. And I hope you'll join us next week for another message
from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.