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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Would you turn in your Bibles please to 1st Corinthians
chapter #2 First Corinthians chapter #2 Once you've done
that, mark it and get to not Galatians Genesis chapter. #3
because we'll go there in just a moment as well.
We'll start in First Corinthians chapter 2, but then we will go
over to Genesis chapter #3. How does a person get wise?
You know, it's an age-old question, isn't it?
How does a person become wise? And I know we've talked a lot
about wisdom over the last few weeks from First Corinthians
chapter #1 but it does come upon us here in our text here tonight
as well. How does a person get wise?
Is it because they have a college education?
Is it because they have a high IQ?
Is it because they have lots and lots of books in their library?
Is it because they watch an endless stream of lectures or
Ted talks on YouTube? Is it by memorizing an
encyclopedia? How does a person get wise?
Well, I will say this, and you could probably attest to this
with people you have met in your own life.
Some of the wisest people that I have ever met are people that
maybe never graduated from high school and some of the most
ignorant. And frankly, I don't know what I
want to say here. We'll just stick with ignorant.
How about that? Some of the most ignorant people
that I've ever met have their last names end with PhD.
You know, it's not necessarily about how much education you
have with how wise you are. So what makes the difference
when it comes to wisdom? Well, I would attest to you this
evening that the Bible talks much about this.
We go to Proverbs chapter 2 verses one through 6, where it
says, My son, if thou will receive my words, and he hide my
commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto
wisdom, and apply thy heart unto understanding.
Yeah, if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy
voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and
searchest for her As for hid treasures, then shalt thou
understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord giveth wisdom. Hear me.
The Lord giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh
knowledge and understanding. Now, Paul talks about this very
issue tonight as he continues his conversation about what real
wisdom is all about. But the bottom line when it
comes to wisdom, and really it's the place we've been getting to
the last few weeks we've been looking at it, is that when it
comes to wisdom, the world just doesn't get it.
When it comes to wisdom, the world just doesn't get it.
But the good news is. That you can and I can.
And that's a blessing because it doesn't come down to the amount
of books that you have or the education you have or the IQ
that you may think that you have, whether you're a Mensa
candidate or not, that it really comes down to this.
If you are a child of God, the wisdom of the universe is
available. To you and.
That's an amazing prospect that we have.
Well, let's go ahead and read First Corinthians chapter #2 and
we'll read verses 6 through 10 this evening.
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not
the wisdom of this world, nor of the Princess of this world that
come to not. But 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 Princess of this
world knew. For had they known it, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as is written, I have not seen nor are heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for them that love Him. But God revealed them unto us by
a spirit. For the Spirit searches all
things, yeah, the deep things of God.
And while the five verses that we just made read may seem a
little bit like a repeat or retread of what we've looked at
over the last few weeks, I believe that it just takes us
even deeper into this issue of wisdom and the fact that if you
are a child of God, wisdom is available.
To you at the ready now. Wisdom has always been.
A battleground between two distinct thought processes.
In fact, consider this. The issue of wisdom was probably
the very first battleground in human history.
That's why I want to go to Genesis chapter #3.
So why don't you turn there quickly?
Save your spot here in First Corinthians chapter 2, but go to
Genesis chapter #3 and you know that in Genesis chapter 3 we see
the fall of mankind. And so here in Genesis chapter
3, let's start in verse #1 we'll get right into it, because you
have your place already. And it says, Now the serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he said unto the woman, Yay
hath. God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden. What is Satan's first way of
trying to get mankind's heart away from God?
He says Yay hath God says, listen, when the word of God is
questioned, it's in a bad place. Now I'm not talking about you
questioning someone who preaches the word of God, the Bereans, It
says in the book of Acts, we're always searching the Scriptures
to see whether the things that Paul said were so no, we're
talking about questioning God and questioning his word about
whether he is real, about whether he is valid, about
whether he is true. Yeah, hath God said, and Eve
says, it says in verse 2, under the serpent, we may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden.
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and he
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
So what does the Bible tell us here?
That as Satan questions the woman about her relationship
with God, and about this fruit that is there, he says this.
He says, For God doth know that in the day He eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and He shall be, as God's knowing
good and evil. And here I believe we find
perhaps Satan's greatest lie of all, perhaps his most
foundational lie of all, which is this is that we can be
independently wise apart from God.
They had all wisdom. They had God, a relationship
with him. They walk with him in the cool
of the garden. The Bible says, but here is
Satan and says this, He's holding back from you.
He's withholding what you really deserve.
Do you want to really be wise? Do you want to really know
what's happening and what's going on?
Here's what you need to do. Get a hold of that fruit.
And he's withholding his very best from you.
And his very first tactic, if you will, was this is that
there's no need for God, no need for his revelation, that you can
be wise of yourself. And by the way, there's a lot of
people that think that way even today, don't they?
That wisdom can be found apart from God.
And the fact of the matter is, although people can be wise even
if they don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior in certain
aspects of their life, but when they are that way and they have
knowledge and they have wisdom, it still comes from God because
all wisdom and all knowledge flows from God and God alone.
And so it says right here, here's the battleground.
He says you can be independently wise.
And listen, you can't be wise apart from God.
We can be wise in our own conceits.
We can be wise in our own thought processes.
We can be wise in our own way of living.
But there's no true biblical wisdom apart from God.
Now go back to or go down to rather verse #15 and look at
verse #15 very quickly with me, it says, and I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, in between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise its heel.
Now this verse that we see right here in Genesis 36, let's try
that again in Genesis 315. A great mystery has been
revealed. At least this mystery has been
presented. Maybe would be a better way of
saying it. It's sometimes called the proto
V, Proto V. That's proto vangelium.
All right. It's right here phonetically in
my notes, and I still can't get it right here.
It's the first mention of the gospel in the Bible.
That's why we just say it that way instead of what am I doing,
Joe? All right.
And so it's the first mention of the gospel in the Bible.
But when you read that, it really, it's hard to maybe
recognize that it's the gospel, isn't it?
I mean, maybe the first time you read that you said.
You know that. Doesn't really sound like the
gospel to me, and I don't have time this evening to go into why
is the gospel. I've explained it before here at
the church, but I would tell you this, it's the very first
mention of it, and it's a mention that is still quite
mysterious, isn't it? There's a whole lot of more
information that we don't know about.
Do we know the name of Jesus Christ?
Do we know that He is going to be Incarnate?
Do we know there's going to be a cross?
Do we know that He's going to shed His blood?
We don't know that. What we know is a mystery has
been presented to us here and throughout the Bible, and
particularly that the Old Testament.
This mystery is revealed a little bit more and a little bit
more as we see prophecies are made.
We find out that the Savior is going to be born in Bethlehem.
We find out that He is going to live and that he is going to
die, and Proverbs or rather Psalms chapter 22 talks about
the smitten Savior and even give some of the words that were on
the cross and that not a bone would be broken while he was on
the cross. And so this mystery starts
gradually being revealed until we find that Jesus himself is
revealed as the one who was the actual revelation of that
mystery. Romans 16 verse 25 and 26 Now to
him that is of power to establish you according to my
gospel. And the preaching of Jesus
Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which
was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest
and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith. So what this is saying is there
was a time in the Old Testament when there was a mystery that
was unclear necessarily everything was going to happen.
That's why people took it by faith in the Old Testament that
there was going to be a Savior to come.
But then Jesus Christ comes and he reveals himself.
Now Can you imagine the day that He comes in that triumphal
entry, the day that He's on that donkey, the day that they're
taking palm branches and laying it down, The day that people are
saying hosanna, hosanna, Lord save us all is taking place.
And it's all because of a prophecy that was made in
Zechariah Chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly.
O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold,
thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation
and lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the full of an
ass. Now you say, OK pastor,
everything you just said is true.
I understand what you're saying, but what on earth does this have
to do with First Corinthians chapter #2 And that's a fair
question. But we're going to see in just a
moment that this mystery is spoken of in the text that we
just spoke, that we just read in First Corinthians.
And the fact of the matter was, is that at that time there were
two different responses on that day, wasn't there?
There were people who believed Jesus was who he said he was,
and there were people who said he's a fraud, he's an imposter,
he's not God, he should die. There were two responses.
May I submit to you that today there's still 2 responses to
Jesus Christ. There's faith and there's
unbelief, and from that there is wisdom and wisdom withheld or
wisdom and wisdom avoided, or wisdom that doesn't want to be
assimilated in the heart of the unbelievers.
I want us to look at this here at our text as we see number
one, that wisdom is a mystery. Number one, wisdom, there it is,
is a mystery. Go back to First Corinthians
chapter #2 there is some mystery that is associated with this
issue of wisdom. Well, how could that be?
Well, letter A, it's because wisdom is hidden from the world.
Look at verse #8 it says which none of the Princess of this
world knew. For had they known it, they
would not have crucified the. Lord of glory.
The wisdom of who Jesus was was hidden from the world.
It was hidden from those who refused to open their hearts to
the Spirit. Look at verse #14 But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. Romans 1 verses 18 through 20
say. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God as manifest in them, for God has
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power
and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
What is being said here is not that God hid wisdom from someone
in the sense that we don't want God said, I don't want you to
see what salvation is about. I don't want you to know what
the gospel is about. You can't know the gospel,
remember that veers into Calvinistic teaching where some
people are saved and some people are damned and God's the one
that decides and free will is an illusion.
No, no, this is not what's being said here, but that God reveals
himself to all men and that there is a group of people that
don't want to know God, that willfully do this.
They don't want to hear, they don't want to know that they,
they, they looked Jesus in the face when he was going into the
triumphal entry and they wanted nothing to do with him.
I can't fathom that. I'd like to think that if I saw
Jesus during his earthly ministry that immediately I
would have recognized who he was, That immediately I would
have realized, wow, this is a man that I need to follow for
the rest of my life and into eternity.
There were those who looked at him in the eye and said I want
nothing to do with him. There were people who wanted
nothing to do with him where they saw him raise Lazarus from
the dead. And the Bible says that some
rejoiced and believed and others said we need to kill Jesus and
Lazarus. I don't understand that other
than there are people who are willfully ignorant, that they
don't want to know God and they don't want to know the wisdom of
God and it says they would have crucified the Lord.
Of glory. That's a reference to.
Psalm chapter 24 when it says who is this king of glory?
And Psalm chapter 24 is a triumphal Psalm, much like Psalm
chapter 22 is a Psalm of crucifixion and Psalm 20. 3 is a
Psalm of the shepherd. Psalm 24 is a triumphal song of
the the King, the sovereign being crowned, that king being
Jesus, who is this king of glory?
They looked at the King of glory and they said this, let's
crucify him. That is the opposite of wisdom.
That is the exact opposite of anything that could resemble
wisdom. But you want something that
makes your head spin the night you say, oh, pastor, nothing
would make me happier on a Wednesday night after working
all day to have something that would make my head spin and make
me feel like I'm going underwater.
So, you know, let's go for it anyway.
All right, think about this for a second.
God knowing that these worldly authorities that are mentioned.
Here these Princess of the world, knowing that they would
reject him, knowing that they would reject the mystery, he
still used them to be able to fulfill his purposes.
And he knew the free will decisions that they were going
to make before the foundation of the world and used them to be
able to secure salvation for you and me because that's how he
went to the cross. He said, whoa pastor, could you
repeat that on Sunday, maybe after I've had a few days of
rest. Do you understand that God took
the unbelief, God took the foolishness of the unbeliever
before the foundation of the world, as the vessel of which he
would go to the cross? He knew they would put the nails
in his hands. He knew they would shout crucify
him. He knew that they would spit at
him and mock him and curse him and buff at him and put the
crown of thorns upon his head. And God used them.
Any way to fulfill his purpose? You want to talk about wisdom?
That's a wise God. I can't handle myself.
I can't figure myself out. Let alone a church, let alone a
state, let alone a country, let alone a continent, let alone a
world of 8 billion people and all the people who ever lived in
God is. Over it all, that's the kind of
wisdom I need. It's not the kind of wisdom that
says, oh, God's not real. Oh, Jesus, he's, you know, he's
nobody. You know, it seems very clear
here that they have rejected the Lord of glory, and with that
they have rejected wisdom itself.
So these people, wisdom has been closed off.
Sure, they can stumble upon wisdom here and there because
all truth is God's truth, but they cannot truly know wisdom,
no matter how much education, knowledge, books, or accolades
they possess. However, there is good news for
us tonight because I believe, you know, we know Jesus Christ
our saved this evening. If you do, there's some very
good news for you. And that's this, that wisdom is
revealed to the believer. So while the unsaved have closed
them off from true wisdom because they know not Christ,
wisdom is revealed to you. And I look at verse #6 how be it
we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom
of this world or the Princess of this world that come to not?
So Paul was talking about, remember speaking because we saw
in verses one through 5 a couple weeks ago, the last time I
preached from here, that he was talking about his manner of
preaching, his manner of speaking, the way he spoke to
the people at Corinth and when he went to other churches as
well. But He says, howbeit we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect.
While wisdom is not truly available to the unbeliever, it
is available for those of us who are believers.
This is the good news that you don't need any of those things.
I mentioned the beginning of the message that you need the Lord
to be able to truly get wisdom. Colossians 126 through 28.
Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from
generations. Remember the mystery, That
mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations,
is now made manifest to His Saints, mystery solved, to whom
God would make known. What is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles?
Which is Christ in you? The hope of glory whom we
preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in.
Christ Jesus to those of us who were saved.
It's mystery solved. Now we know who Jesus Christ is.
We've trusted Him in our Savior, and because of that, now true
wisdom can be accessible where it was not accessible to us
before. Remember, true wisdom before was
foolishness to us. That's chapter one.
It was foolishness. But now that we know who He is,
it's like, wow, this makes sense.
That's why you can read your Bible after you get saved.
You say, wow, this makes sense and you read it before you got
saved. You said this is a bunch of of
gobbledygook. I don't know what's going on.
I don't understand it. I'm reading the words, but it
doesn't connect to my heart. And now it does because you're
saved and you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
But there is a caveat here when it says that he speaks wisdom
among them that are perfect. Now, if you're like me, you
think of that word perfect. Do you think, well, I'm not
going to be perfect until I get to heaven, right?
Until we get to be with the Lord, we're not going to be
perfect. But the way the word perfect is
used here in the Greek is the word teleos, which means mature,
complete or fully developed to be a mature believer, that
that's what it's Speaking of here when it's talking about
this type of perfection, not our ultimate perfection when we
reach glory. So why is this important?
If the mystery has been revealed to us, then we have to make sure
to receive it that we are perfect or spiritually mature.
Listen, the day you got saved, were you wise in all things?
No. I mean, are we wise in all
things now? No, I think the answer to that
is pretty clear. Even for the believer, maturity
is necessary because if we are not mature and we are not humble
in the way we approach the Christian life, then we're not
able to receive the wisdom that we need.
Listen. If you think you know
everything, then you have no need of wisdom.
But in the Christian life, we have to get to the place where
we're constantly learning, where we're constantly listening,
where we're constantly saying, Lord, what do you want to teach
me today? What do I need to know today?
And the Lord can help us with that.
Proverbs 11 verse 2, when pride cometh, then with shame, but
with the lowly is wisdom. James 313 who is a wise man and
endued with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good
conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Humility and wisdom have to go together.
And if you want wisdom, if you want to have that wisdom as a
believer, you, you're going to only be able to truly receive
it, to truly absorb it if you are humble.
Now I found this to be true. I am not old, but I'm older that
people keep telling me how young I am.
I don't feel as young as people keep telling me that I am, but I
do know this. The older you get, the more
resistant you are to receive wisdom.
You know why. You've heard the sermons before.
You've read the Bible passages before.
You've lived life, you've seen things, and I will say that when
you're younger in the faith, it's very easy to absorb.
The wisdom of the word of God, because there's a humility of
saying I know what I was and I know what I am now.
I'm barely saved. I barely know Jesus Christ as my
savior. And the whole world is new,
like, like everything is being unfolded to me.
I'm seeing the life in a whole new way.
And it's easy to just accept that wisdom.
But then we get a little bit more professional.
We've been to some church services.
We know a few things. Maybe we've taught some lessons
ourselves. Maybe we've been in a pulpit and
preached. Maybe you've been in a classroom
and taught. Maybe you've been considered
some level of authority within a church.
And all of a sudden it gets a little bit harder to be humble,
to receive wisdom. But I do know this.
God uses pastors preaching. Passages other people.
God uses all of these things as vessels to make sure that we
receive wisdom as believers and to make sure that we are humble
in those things. Let me tell you, there's nothing
more humbling than receiving wisdom from somebody that has
known the Lord a lot less time than you have, but yet speaks.
Truth or sometimes even out of the mouth of a child to be able
to say something and to make you realize.
I've been resistant to some wisdom that God wants to place
in my life. The older we get, we should be
more willing to receive wisdom, but I feel like the older we
get, the more resistant we are to receive wisdom because we
perceive ourselves to be wiser. We may never articulate that, we
may never say that, but we carry ourselves in that manner.
But we need to be able to hear from the Lord.
I remember Ahab and Josephat, they were looking to see if they
were to go down to battle together.
And Ahab had all of these homemade preachers that he had,
all of his prophets of Baal. All they wanted to do was tell
Ahab whatever he wanted to hear. And Jehoshaphat, who probably
should have been with Ahab in the 1st place, but he was there
anyway and he was yoking up with him to be able to go down the
battle. And Jehoshaphat even had the
presence of mind to say, isn't there anyone here that'll speak
for God? I just need to hear from God.
And we have to be in the place in our life as believed every
day when we get into our Bible. God, I want to hear from you
that every time we get into church that we say, God, I want
to hear from you because that's the key to wisdom.
The unsaved close themselves off from that because they know not
God. They have created their own gods
and their own minds. But you and I who know Jesus
Christ our Savior, we have to be on that road to perfection and
there has to be some humility within us to be able to say,
yes, Lord, I see wisdom in your word.
Yes, Lord, I see wisdom from the Holy Spirit applied to my heart.
Yes, Lord, I your wisdom in the preaching and in the teaching
and through my relationships and my friendships with other godly
believers. Lord, help me to accept it so I
can be better. Listen, we're just all in the
progression of our sanctification, of getting
closer to God until we get to glory.
I don't care if you've been on this, on this earth for nine
years or 90 years, no one's arrived.
Until we meet Jesus Christ, and there's more to learn.
So what do we see? We see that wisdom is hidden
from the world, but it is revealed to the believer #2 how
do we receive this wisdom? How do we receive it?
Well, the Spirit's the key. The Spirit is the key.
If wisdom is a locked door, then the Holy Spirit is the key in
which the treasures behind the door are accessible and the
Spirit brings 2 gifts to the believer in regards to wisdom.
And first of all it's this that the the believer, you see the
believers enlightenment. Look at verse #10 it says, But
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
For the Spirit searcheth all things, yeah, the deep things of
God. Now I know we've mentioned this
before, but it bears repeating here from verse #10 how can a
person know God without God revealing himself to us?
There's no way that you can research God independently on
your own. Apart from Him.
You can't hike high enough. You.
Can't fly high enough, you can't journey long enough, you can't
dig deep enough, that there is no way to research God
independently without Him revealing some of Himself to us.
And He's revealed Himself through creation again, Psalm
19, the heavens have declared the glory of God and the
firmament show with His handiwork.
And He's revealed Himself in these days through His Word,
where we have 66 books that teach us all about Him.
And He brings us enlightenment. They're called here in this text
in verse #10 the deep things of God.
And listen, you don't have to be a shallow believer that God has
given you everything that you need to be able to learn more of
Him. He's given you His Word.
He's given you his Spirit if you're saved, and you can learn
a little bit more about Him every single day.
The Spirit wants to teach you the things of God and the
treasures are at the ready. Every morning when you wake up,
there's new treasure for you to be able to dig out.
Every night when you go to bed, there's some new treasure that's
waiting for you to be able to mine out before you go to sleep
on your break time, there's some ability to be able to mine out
the treasure of the Word of God. On Sundays we ought to come with
our pickaxes ready to be able to get the wisdom of God and put it
in our pails to be able to take it home with us.
The believers have this ability to be enlightened through the
Holy Spirit. I've told you before that I've
gone many times to the Boston Public Library, and I like
studying there, but I'm always intrigued by the Reading Room.
And the Reading Room is so incredible.
You know, the Boston Public Library is the oldest Public
Library in the United States, but the Reading Room is a
tourist venue all of its own. If people want to go do tourist
things without spending money, one of the places they go is the
Boston Public Library. And honestly, it's a great place
to go. But it's always interesting to
me to be sitting in a room with all these books.
There's 10s of thousands of books.
The ceiling is probably 40 feet high.
They have all of these lamps and all these wooden tables.
And it's ornate and it's beautiful.
And there are people that are just walking around doing this.
They're taking pictures, everything.
They're taking selfies of themselves with the books.
You know what nobody does in that room?
Read the books. Nobody reads the books.
No, a bit. I don't think I read the books
either. I just sit in there and use the
Wi-Fi. But anyway, the point being that
all of that record is around and nobody's checking it out.
All that records around, everybody wants to be around it,
but nobody wants to utilize it. Now, how much more so for us as
the believers that God has given us a treasure trove in His Word.
That God has given us 66 books from cover to cover, truth from
beginning to end, and God wants you to learn more of Him.
But often times all we do is we put it under our arm, we take it
to church, we could use it as a prop.
We have it on the table and we take it with us here or there or
everywhere, but do we really get in deep and learn the lessons
that God wants us to learn through the power of the Holy
Spirit? Because that's what he wants to
teach us, the deeper things of God.
Do you want to know God? He wants you to know him.
He's not a God far off that says, well, you'll never get to
know me. He says come the wall.
Partition's been broken down. The Old Testament.
Believers can't even understand we're going to see on Sunday, by
God's grace, as David attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant
back to the Tabernacle and a breach was made.
They didn't. Follow the prescribed rules for.
Handling the ark of the covenant and because the ark of the
covenant was just touched, a man died.
But here in the New Testament era that we live in, God beckons
us to come. Why would we just fool around
with these wisdom, with the wisdom that we have around us,
like taking selfies of ourselves and not just get in and be
enlightened. This is what God wants from us.
The Spirit is the key to the believers enlightenment.
But also let her be the believers wonderment.
I love this look at verse #9. As is written, I have not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have it entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Now what am I going to say about verse #9 the first words right
there, But as it is written. What does that mean?
It's been written somewhere else.
This is a call back to a verse that is found somewhere else in
Scriptures. In this case, it's Isaiah
chapter 64. Verse #4 and verse #9
underscores the transcendence of God's wisdom, the fact that
God's wisdom is far above anything else that we can
imagine. It's far above the human
perception of the eyes, of the ears, of the heart.
Anything that you can sense, God's wisdom is far above it.
And this contrasts with the Princess of the world in verse
8, whose willful ignorance stem from relying on their worldly
wisdom rather than on God's revelation.
Those Princess in verse #8 they were relying on what they could
hear, what they could see, whatever passed the smell test.
And because they were relying on their own wisdom, they rejected
Christ. But when we.
Use the wisdom that God has given us.
Listen and we submit ourselves to you.
Can't even imagine. Of what God can do in your life.
One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 3 verse 20 and 21.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly.
Above all that we ask or think according to the power that
worketh in US, unto Him be the glory in the Church by Christ
Jesus throughout all ages world. Without end.
Amen. He's able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think I had not seen.
Ear is not heard nor that entered in the heart of man.
It's incredible promises. They bring hope.
No matter how foolish the world may think we are.
And remember chapter one, they think we're foolish for
believing these things. Listen, no matter how foolish
the world thinks you are for being a Christian.
No matter how foolish the world thinks you are for sharing your
faith at work. No matter how foolish the world
thinks you are for going to church 3 * a week.
No matter how world foolish the world thinks you are for giving
tithes to the church. No matter how foolish the world
thinks, listen, in the eyes of God, you can't even imagine what
He has prepared for you. So you submit yourself to that
wisdom and be in wonderment at what He can do.
I remember when I was praying very intently about whether
Diane and I would get married. And it was just, you know, we
had progressed to a place in our relationship where we didn't
want to go much further without really knowing the Lord's mind
in these things. And I remember hearing the
preaching of the word of God and just feeling that it was the
Lord saying, this is what I want for your life.
And, and me submitting to that and Diane actually in the same
message independently submitting to that is an unbelievable
story. I've told it before here a
couple of times. But I do remember going back to
my dorm that afternoon. It was funny because in the
morning I was in too much of a hurry.
I think I woke up late probably, if I'm being honest, before
church, and I didn't get to read my Bible that day.
And so I just decided, well, I'll read my Bible when I get
home that afternoon because I had a couple hours in between
morning service and evening service.
I went back to the dorm and I remember reading First
Corinthians chapter #2 and I remember thinking about, I think
Diane and I are getting married. I think this is what the Lord
wants for our life. And I remember reading verse 9,
but as it is written I have not seen.
Nor ear heard. Sort of entered into the heart
of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love
them. I thought, God, you did this for
me. You know, in that moment I
imagined in my mind, I understood it all.
God put us together. Life's going to be great.
It's amazing. And by the way, that's all true.
But I couldn't see it all. I didn't know that we'd have
four children. I couldn't have imagined the
fact of seeing 1 married and I got to perform the ceremony and
to have another married and I get to perform that ceremony and
that had to have I'd have to have two son in laws, I guess.
But I couldn't have imagined. And you know what, I look at it
now at the age of 42, I think I see it all and I realize I still
don't see it all be grandkids and very young daughter that you
know in 30 years is going to get married because I'm married out
at this point. You know what I'm saying?
Yes, you can raise your hand. We see you bait.
You know where you are. OK, I can't say it, but in God's
graciousness, but you know, you Kick It Out even further.
And let's say that God allows me to be 70 years old and Jesus
hasn't come back yet. I still won't understand it all
until we get to glory and see all of the things that he's done
through our life. The people whose testimonies or
the people who had testimonies, Maybe they came to salvation
because of a track we gave and we didn't even know.
We just laid a track somewhere and we didn't realize that
someone picked it up and got saved and their lives changed
forever and their families changed for.
Do you realize that if you submit yourself to God and his
plan and His wisdom? You can't even imagine how God
can use your life. You can't even imagine how you
can. Transform your family.
You can't even imagine how we could transform a a family
history that was bleak or that wasn't good, and to be able to
turn it around and to turn it into something that's a goodly
heritage. You can't even imagine.
You can't even imagine how God could take the tragedy of your
life and turn into something beautiful.
You can't even imagine how God could take the fact that you
walked away from God for a long period of time, but then you
came back and that he used that and to his honor and to his
glory. You can't even imagine.
You know what the world says to that?
That's crazy. You know what I say to that?
I stand in wonder of the God that we serve, that we submit
ourselves to His wisdom, that He can do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. You know, In the darkest days of
World War 2, Corey, 10 Boom, a Dutch Christian watchmaker, and
her family hid Jews from the Nazis.
Driven by their love for God and their fellow man, she was
arrested in 1944 and Corey and her sister Betsy were sent to
the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp.
In the midst of this horror, Corey and Betsy clung to their
faith. One night, cramped in a flea
infested barracks, Betsy read from a small smuggled Bible.
She read First Corinthians chapter #2 Now listen to this.
When they reached verse 9, I have not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man The things which
God had prepared for them, that love them.
They marveled. The Nazi saw only a prison, but
God revealed a hidden treasure, a place of worship.
With love for God and humility before His Word, they turned
their suffering into a sanctuary, praying and singing
hymns. It ended up that the place that
they lived there in the concentration camp, that
building became infested with fleas.
They thank the Lord for the fleas.
You know why they kept all the guards out?
So that they can pray and praise and sing and worship God.
Corey later recounted how the Holy Spirit unlocked this wisdom
for them. In her humility, she trusted
God's plan even when it made no sense to the world.
After Betsy's death, Corey was miraculously released due to a
clerical error just a week before all the women her age
were sent to the gas chambers. She spent the rest of her life
sharing this mystery, God's redemptive power, and suffering
across the globe. Years later, Corey forgave one
of her former guards, an act of love and humility that baffled
the world but reflected the spirits work in her, she wrote.
When he tells us to love our enemies.
He gives along with the command, the love itself.
When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the
command, the love itself. Can I say to you that the world
doesn't understand that? The world couldn't understand
that, but you can. Why?
Because you have the same Holy Spirit that lives within you,
that live within Corey Tenbu. Now we live in different
circumstances, no doubt, but yet through the trials of life that
we have that pale in comparison to what she dealt with, we can
submit. Ourselves to this.
Wisdom and realize that God will give us the strength that we
need to be able to understand. And through the Spirit of God,
we can have this level of wisdom, but it's for those who
humble themselves and also it's to those who love God.
Because if we don't love the Lord as we ought to, we don't
submit ourselves to His plan. It says that right there in
verse #9 God has prepared for them that love Him.
Why? Because those that truly love
Him will humble themselves and submit to the wisdom, and
they'll be able to receive these things.
When you're not constantly bucking and kicking and fighting
against what God is doing, but you submit yourself to Him and
His wisdom, you can have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
I'll, I'll use this and I'll be done just as an example of what
wisdom is like and how we can unlock wisdom.
When I worked at Kay Jewelers, I think I've told you before, I
was a third key manager, which meant I was a manager just
without any extra pay. So it was a way to get them to
get me work more without actually paying me more.
But I learned that when I was a third key, there were some
things that took place with the safe that added extra security
because we had 10s of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in
the safe every night. And there was one key and there
were two codes and one person had the key and different people
had the codes. Nobody could have both the
codes. You could have a key and a code,
but you could not have the key and both codes.
And So what was needed was the key to turn the codes to be able
to be put in one on the top dial, 1 on the bottom dial, and
then you were able to turn the handle.
If you want wisdom, there's only one place to receive it.
The key is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that
speaks to us as our teacher and our guide.
He is the great applier of the Word of God within our hearts.
But I will say that that vault will still not open unless you
turn the dial of humility and the dial of love for God to the
right numbers. So when you have the key of the
Holy Spirit, but you're humble enough to listen to the Holy
Spirit and you love God enough to be able to encourage and
listen to his speaking to you, then the riches that are inside
that safe open up to you. Now, I think of those those
books at the library. The Bible doesn't talk
extensively about matters of life in the sense of birds or
planets or aerodynamics or electronics or the Internet.
It doesn't speak about those things.
The Bible does speak about history, and when it does speak
about history, speaks truly, does speak about science here
and there. When it does, it speaks truly.
But the Bible is not where we look to for those things in the
sense of that if you're wanting to learn more about up, you
know, planets, you would look at a book about planets.
What I'm saying is this. We could do without all of those
books. You could do without a book of
planets. You could do without a book of
of Internet, electricity, birds, insects.
You could do without all those books and you could live a
fairly contented life. You cannot do without this book.
You can't do without this book. The wisdom of life is found
here, and the Holy Spirit is the key.
But we'll be humble, and we love God the way we ought so that we
can learn the lessons that He wants to teach us.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.