While I was listening to that
hymn, there were three things I was thinking about. More love
to thee, O Christ. I was thinking, I love the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I want to love him more. And I love people who love him
and want to love him more. I've entitled this message, The wisdom of God in a mystery. The wisdom of God in a mystery. In verses one and two of First
Corinthians chapter two, Paul stated, and I brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
declaring unto you the testimony of God? For I determined, I made
this my resolve, not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified." Now there is the key to understanding
the Bible in that statement. Paul said, I made this my resolve
not to know, not to esteem, not to view anything as important
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what every scripture means.
You have to keep the scripture right there. If it doesn't lead
me to this, I've misunderstood it. This tells me who God is, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. This tells me who man is, the crucifixion of Christ and
the wickedness of man to perform that act. This gives me what
the law really does, it condemns. Even when sin is found on God's
Son, God condemns him. This is the gospel. Jesus Christ
and him crucified. This is the gospel. And only in this message, Jesus
Christ and him crucified, only believing this message, Do I
want to serve God? Like we just heard in that song,
more love to the old Christ. Not out of trying to earn his
favor, but because I have his favor in Christ crucified. And then Paul said in verses
three through five, and I was with you in weakness and in fear. and in much trembling. I hope I know a little bit more
about that than I ever have before. I don't want to misrepresent
the Lord. I want to give what this book actually teaches. And it scares me to think of
not doing it, to be giving my own thoughts and my own opinions.
What I think, here's what I think, I don't want to do that. And
it scares me. Fear, not fear of men, fear of
God. Conscious of my own weakness. Trembling as I'm somebody that
sent myself and not someone God has sent. I do not want to do
that. He says in verse four in my speech,
And my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. Back in verse 17 of chapter one,
he said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel,
not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect. Now that's manipulation. That's what it is. It's trying
to market the gospel. Package the gospel, make it more
appealing to the flesh and less offensive. May God deliver me
and you from ever doing that, trying to make our message pleasing
to men. Paul said, if I please men, I
wouldn't be the servant of Christ. In Galatians chapter one, he
said, my speech, verse four, and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in 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, Paul says, I preach the
truth. And I wait on God the Holy Spirit
to bless it. I'm not trying to manipulate
you. I want you to believe. I want to be persuasive. But
I preach the truth and wait on God the Holy Spirit to reveal
himself, the gospel to you. And here's why, that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power and
the omnipotence of God. Don't you want your faith to
be the product of the power of God, where He worked it in you,
He gave it to you? That's the kind of faith I want.
Not something I come up with, but something He gives me. Verse six. How be it? We speak wisdom among them that
are perfect. And that describes every single
believer. This is not talking about spiritual
maturity here. This is talking about what every
believer is in Christ Jesus. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever. Them that are sanctified. If
I'm in Christ, I'm perfect before God. God sees no sin because
there is no sin. Christ put it away. Bathe in
that as the Lord enables you. When he looks at you, He sees
someone without sin. Somebody says, but I know I have
committed sin. Christ put it away and made it
not to be. And in God's sight, every believer
is perfect. Perfect in Christ Jesus. How be it 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. Now, the
wisdom that I'm talking about is not the wisdom of this world.
Now, when Paul is speaking of not using the wisdom of this
world, he's not talking about the wisdom of arts and sciences
and the wisdom that the Lord has given some people to make
medical advances and ways to feed more people and technology
that helps the world. I'm thankful for those things.
And he's not diminishing that kind of wisdom. It's his gift.
You know, when I was thinking about this, I thought, Lynn,
you just had a liver kidney transplant. What wisdom God gave those doctors
to be able to do that. And I'm thankful for that. That's
a gift of God. We're not diminishing the wisdom
that is found in men that God gives them, but he's talking
about worldly wisdom. The wisdom of the world that
doesn't know and doesn't love God. Paul said the world by wisdom
knew not God. That's where that wisdom got
us. The world by its own wisdom knew not God. Look in verse 19 of chapter one,
for it's written. I'd be interested to know how
many times Paul says that in his epistles. It's written. That answers it. It's written. I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? The wisdom employed by preachers
to market the gospel to make it less offensive and more attractive
to the natural man. God does not use that wisdom. May God deliver us from ever
seeking to remove the offense from the cross to keep some son
of Adam happy. Verse seven, but. While we don't use the wisdom
of this world, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. Now, Paul says we speak. We speak. David said, I believed. Therefore, have I spoken? What we believe is what we publicly
confess. What we speak, not just in private. I love it. When they asked the
Lord of his doctrine, he said, why are you asking me? Asked
him that heard me. We speak. If somebody wants to know what
I believe, don't ask me, ask the people who hear me preach.
They'll tell you what I believe. If somebody says, do you believe
this? I might say yes, I might say
no. But the people who know what I believe are those who hear.
And it's the same way in our conversation. We speak. We speak. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. Now, there's only one time in
the scriptures where the Lord has said to rejoice in spirit. I'm sure he did many other times,
but as far as what we have recorded in the scriptures, there's one
time where the Lord Jesus Christ was said to rejoice in spirit.
It's found in Matthew 11 and in Luke chapter 10, where at
that time, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise, and the prudent. Those who are in
their own eyes are wise and prudent, and has revealed them. These things you've hid from
the wise and prudent, you've revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Now, if it's good in his sight,
can you rejoice in spirit? He's good. Whatever he does is
good. Even the hidden wisdom which
God hath ordained before the foundation of the world. Now,
the Lord said to his disciples, unto you it's given to know the
mysteries of the kingdom. But to them it is not given. If you know the mysteries of
the kingdom, it's because He has revealed the mysteries of
the kingdom to you. And someone that does not know
the mysteries of the kingdom, He has hid it from them. Wherefore God shall send them
strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That's scripture. Second Thessalonians
chapter two, verse 10. God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Now Paul calls this wisdom in verse 7, we speak the wisdom
of God and in mystery even the hidden wisdom, God's the one
who hid it. And look what he says next about
this wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. This wisdom is as old as God.
It doesn't have a beginning. It'll never have an end. It's
the eternal truth, the eternal mystery of God. Paul spoke in
Romans 16, 25 of the revelation, the uncovering, the apocalypse
of the mystery, which was kept secret, kept secret. since the world began but is
now made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets. Paul asked the
church at Ephesus to pray for him that I might open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, that I might speak
it boldly as I ought to speak. And he asked the church at Colossae
to pray that God would open a door of utterance to preach the mystery
of Christ. Now, understand this, and you will if God teaches you,
and I will if God teaches me. I can say understand this, that
doesn't mean you will. If God teaches us, we will. But understand
this, the way we use the word mystery is not the way the Bible
uses it when we speak of a mystery. When we think of mystery, have
you ever said to somebody, it's a mystery to me? You know what
you mean by that? I don't know. I don't know the
answer. It's a mystery to me. That's
what we mean when we use the word mystery, but that's not
what the scripture means. It doesn't mean I don't know.
It's not truth concealed. That's not what the Bible means.
It's truth revealed. Truth that would never have been
known Had not God made it known. Now that is the mystery of scripture.
When we're talking of the mystery of scripture, we're not saying,
I don't know. We're proclaiming the mystery of scripture. We're
saying this about the mystery of scripture. It's something
we could have never known. We wouldn't have even suspected
it had not God made it known. Oh, the mystery of the gospel. I love that. Canst thou by searching find
out God? No. No. A mystery cannot be understood. You can use all the powers of
your reason, you're not gonna understand it. A mystery cannot
be understood, only believed. It can't be explained, only proclaimed. That is the mystery of the gospel. Mysterious, it comes from God. We speak, we preach the wisdom
of God in a mystery, and in true preaching, there's mystery. The
mystery of scripture, it's so awesome, it's so above my understanding,
I believe it. I can proclaim it, but as far
as being able to... I'm gonna explain to you the
Trinity. Oh, will you now? We believe the Trinity. We believe
God is one God in three distinct persons, because the scripture
teaches that. But this is not something I understand, and really,
I've even heard people try to illustrate the Trinity. Well,
it's like water. You know, water's, it can be
frozen, or it can be liquid, or it can be vapor. That illustrates
the Trinity. No, it doesn't. Not even close. That's some silly human, this
is not to be, it's to be believed. It's to be bowed to. You hear
this and you just, you worship God for who He is. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There is mystery. Now, mystery
is not mysticism. Have you ever heard that term
mysticism? Mysticism means truth revealed without the use of means,
without the word. A mystic has God revealing some
kind of truth to him. Well, how do you know it's truth
if you don't have the word to verify it? That's foolishness is what it
is, nothing more. Only the Word of God tells us
the truth. So when we're talking about the mystery of the gospel,
we're not talking about mysticism, mystic religion, where God just
directly reveals something to you and then you know it. Well,
how do I know God revealed it to you? How do I know it's even
true? Do you have the Word of God to prove that it's true? We're not talking about mysticism,
but we are talking about the mystery of You know, the first
mystery is the Bible. What a mystery. The Bible claims
inspiration. And because the Bible claims
inspiration, it's up to you to prove it's not inspired. And
you can't do that. Second Timothy 3, 16, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. God breathed, literally God exhaled
every word in the Bible, spoken just as God would have it said,
inspired by God. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. How mysterious. This book is
the word of God. The first mystery is the Bible
itself. The Lord said, sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth. We read in Colossians chapter
2, verse 3, of the mystery of God and the Father and Christ. Now, God has made known his character
in this book, and we would never have known his character without
this book. What if you were totally dependent
upon me to know God? You wouldn't know him. That's
the fact of the matter. you wouldn't know him. But God
has made known his character in this book, the revelation
of the mystery of his character. I've already touched on this,
the mystery of the Trinity. Can I understand that? No. Do
I believe it with all my heart? And I think of the Trinity in
salvation, God being one God in three distinct persons. In
the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, the same was in the beginning with God, a distinct
person, yet God, the Word was God. He was with God as a distinct
person, and he was God. Now in the Trinity, I need God
to choose me to be saved. freely as an act of His grace. That is God the Father's work
in election. And this is not just a doctrine
I fight for. I won't be saved without this.
And let me also say this, you can't preach the gospel without
this. It's impossible to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and
not preach election, the work of God the Father. the work of
God the Son in redemption. I need Him to put away my sin. I can't put
it away. I can't make it to not be gone.
I need Him to give me His righteousness. This is more than something I
just give assent to. This is something I need. The
work of the Son in redemption. I need Him to die for me. I need
Him to represent me. I need Him to save me. I need. I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me life. I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me a new heart. I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me faith. I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me repentance. I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me love to Jesus Christ the Lord. I need, and can I explain,
the Trinity? Of course not. Do I need the
Trinity in all the persons of The Godhead in salvation, yes,
I do. This is a whole lot more than
doctrine I'm gonna argue for and strive for. I need God to
be who he is. We read in Ephesians 1.9 where
it says this, having made known to us the mystery of his will. He made known to us, and he wrote
it down in this book, the mystery of his will. Now when he's talking
about the mystery of his will, he's not talking about, I'm trying
to find God's will for my life. I need to find out where I need
to live, and what job I need to do, and who I need to marry,
and where I need to be. I'm not saying those things aren't
important, and I'm not saying that there's not a will of God
in all those things. But when he's talking about the
mystery of his will, he's talking about what the Lord was talking
about in John chapter six, verse 38, when he said, I came down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. That of all which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day, and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
that seeth the Son and believeth on him should not perish, but
have eternal life, and I'll raise him up at the last day." That's
God's will, his will of redemption. You remember when he came to
Paul, Ananias came to Paul, and he said to Paul, the God of our
fathers hath chosen thee. You reckon Paul was surprised
when he heard that? And this is true with regard to every
believer. The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldst
know his will. His will of redemption, his will
in salvation. And see that just one, and hear
the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness
to all men. of what you've seen and what
you've heard. The mystery of His will. By the witch will. By God's will. This is the mystery of His will.
By the witch will, by God's will, we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. God willed
every believer to be sanctified perfectly through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. And this is talking about the
will of God. We would never have known. Had not God made it known
the mystery of his will, he doeth according to his will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And you know, our prayer is from
our heart, thy will be done. Is that your prayer? Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. 1 Timothy 3 and 9 speaks
of the mystery of the faith. Everything we believe comes under
the mystery of the faith. Faith itself is a mystery. Would
you have ever figured out that salvation is by faith and not
by works? You wouldn't have even suspected
it. I think of that scripture, to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly.
Would you have figured that out? No. Don't you love this? One thing you can't do at the
same time is work and believe. To him that worketh not, but
believeth. If you believe, you know you
can't be saved by your works. If you're working, you can't
believe. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
We read of the great mystery of godliness in verse Timothy
3, 16. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. What a great mystery that is.
Why was he manifest in the flesh? Well, that leads us to the great
mystery of the covenant of grace, how before time began, Christ
agreed to bear full responsibility for every one of his elect. And
he came in the flesh to do that. God was manifest in the flesh
to save his people from their sins. The word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. This comes out of the great mystery
of Christ and his eternal unity with his people, the union between
Christ and every one of his people, both he that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified are all of one. Don't you love it when Paul's
talking about marriage in Ephesians chapter five, beginning in verse
22. And when he gets down to verse 31, he says, this is a great mystery. But
I speak concerning Christ and the church. The two shall be
one flesh, eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you're talking about
union with Christ, you have to also think about our union with
Adam. The mystery of our fallen Adam, Adam was a representative
man. What he did, the entire race did. When he fell, you fell. When he sinned, you sinned. Somebody
says, I did not. Yeah, you did. Because scripture
says you do. Romans chapter 5, verse 12, by
one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin. So death passed
upon all men, and that all sinned. All sinned. When he sinned, you
sinned. Somebody says, I don't want to
be held responsible for somebody else's sin. You're not. You did
it. You did it. And this is true
as well. When Christ kept the law, I did
too. just as truly as I sinned in
Adam. When Christ kept the law, I kept
the law too. Wherefore, it becometh us to
fulfill all righteousness. In Christ shall all be made alive. Now, these are mysteries that
we would never have even thought of. I love what Charles Spurgeon
said in a message with regard to justification. He said if
a group of the highest archangels would have been asked, how can
God be just and justify the ungodly? He said they'd be scratching
their heads up to this day. No one could come up with anything
like that. But God, that's the great mystery of the gospel.
God made this way to be just and justify the ungodly. What about the mystery of God
in the cross? The cross of Jesus Christ, the
most glorious thing to ever take place, the most wicked thing
to ever take place, the most diabolical thing to ever take
place, the greatest sin to ever be committed, and yet the most
glorious thing to ever take place. How God saved his people, manifested
who he is through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wisdom
shown in making this way for God to be just and justify the
ungodly and the power to execute it. He was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification. Paul spoke
in Colossians 127 of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ
in you. The hope of glory. I love it
when Paul said in Galatians 1, when it please God,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. Now, if all He did was reveal
Him to me, I'd forget. That would be enough. But He
revealed His Son in us. Being born of God, being a new
creature in Christ Jesus, having a holy nature that does not sin.
Mystery. Mystery. The mystery of Predestination
being realized that I will be perfectly conformed to the image
of His Son. Mystery. We speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery. We don't try to explain it away.
We don't try to put it in human terms to make it understandable.
You know, that's what most of these other versions of the scripture
are. They're not really, they're not translations, they're interpretations. Here's what I think it means.
And you can get these weird, so different from, say, what
our King James says. Now, I love the King James Version. I don't want anything else. Somebody
says, well, that language is archaic. You can understand it.
as easy as you can to anything else. That's just men's objections. No, I realize it's a translation
and only the original Greek Hebrew, Aramaic is actually inspired
by God. I realize that, but I believe
this to be the best translation because these other translations
try to give their interpretation of the Bible. I think the biggest
example would be only in the King James Version do we read
we're justified by the faith of Christ. Every other version
says we're justified by faith in Christ. Well, it's not my
faith in Christ that justifies me. It's the faith of Christ
that justifies me. I believe that. Somebody says
that's nitpicking. No, it's not. No, it's not. There's nothing nitpicky about
that at all. It's the difference between Christ doing it all or
man cooperating in this thing of salvation. We preach, we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery Even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew, not one of them, not one of them. For had they
known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. You see, they
would have known who he is. He is, don't you love this name,
the Lord of glory. May God take the mystery of the
gospel and reveal himself through that to our hearts. Let's pray. Lord, as we Think of the mysteries of your
word that you've been pleased to give it to us to know the
mysteries of the gospel. Lord, we know it's only because
you've made yourself known and our response is who am I that
you do this for me, to me, I'm so thankful. Lord, enable us
to preach the mysteries of the kingdom. Deliver us from the
wisdom of words, man's attempts to make the gospel more palatable
to the natural man. Lord, deliver us from that. Enable
us to preach the mystery of the gospel and wait on your Spirit
to make yourself known to those who are hearing. And Lord, as
we Prepare to observe the table in remembrance of you. Lord,
enable us to truly remember that all of our salvation, all of
our salvation is in the shed blood and broken body of thy
dear son. Lord, enable us to do this with
joy, with faith, thinking of the glory of the broken body
and the precious blood of our Lord, what it accomplished in
our behalf. In Christ's name we pray, amen.