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Moving fire.
Again.
So holy.
Lord.
On the.
Ground.
Well, John the 12Th of John.
Verse 21 or verse 20.
And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Basilia of Galilee.
And desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Let's pray together.
The mind and heart to fill I I was thinking, as those were called.
May be a good portion, and I leave it with the brethren would be First Corinthians chapter 2.
Because we could start really with chapter one if it's all right. We'll see with Converse.
41St 27 to the end, Chapter One.
Because that brings in.
Wisdom of God and our standing in verse 30, which is so important to get ahold of and then two Paul starts with really the simplicity that is of Christ verse two you know I determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and him crucified and then we end up in that chapter 2 getting to a realm we can not achieve to but.
God would have us more and more take it in what we have in Christ. It's beyond.
A description of course, but then if we had time, will we end up 16? We have the mind of Christ. I mean that's everything and we then if we have time, we could go into three because that shows you what hinders us from enjoying.
The blessings that God would have us take in and enjoy. And it's not a dull mind like the Hebrew, but it's a carnal mind because it's brought out. In 14 there's a natural man, and in 15 there's a spiritual man. Then in 33 there's a carnal man. Carnal man could be both the lost and the saved, you know. And so it brings out very much whatever the brothers think. I think that would bring Christ to us.
First Corinthians, chapter one, verse 27.
00:05:04
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.
And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen. Yeah, and things which are not to bring to not things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom.
And righteousness. And sanctification. And redemption.
That according as it is written, he that glorious, let him glory in the Lord.
Chapter 2.
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 not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
That your face should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
How be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the Princess of this world that comes 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 it is written, I have not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, yeah, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.
That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches.
But which the Holy Ghost teaches.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
Think like God thinks.
Man by his thoughts.
Never take him into God's realm, never can do it. And so God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound wisdom of man. And that's really what happened. The cross is foolishness to them that perish, but it's God's wisdom to us that are saved. But it's so different that it must be the Spirit or we can't enter into the things of God.
Corinth was on the Greek peninsula and was part of the center of Greek wisdom and philosophy and knowledge at that time. And his proper really helps to see in this first few chapters how he deals with the question of human wisdom, because when we're dealing with the Assembly of God and its order, that is taken up in First Corinthians.
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It's important to know that it is not in the wisdom of God. In the wisdom of men, it's in the wisdom of God.
And the wisdom of God is something so far beyond any wisdom that man may have. We need to understand that when we deal with this subject. Going back a few verses in the chapter.
Look at verse 22. The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. Jews were used to signs of power in all their history God gave them, but the thing that the Greeks sought after was wisdom. And so he says, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block. And so the Lord Jesus was a stumbling stone when he came.
They thought the Messiah would come in power and glory and set up his Kingdom, and there he lets himself be crucified. What is this? It was a stumbling stone. And does it seem like that's the way of wisdom to be crucified? It was, to the Greeks, foolishness.
But there is the contrast in verse 24 unto them, which are called both Jews and Greeks. This is beautiful, brethren, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God. That's quite an expression.
Is wiser than men and the weakness of God.
Is stronger than men.
Oh wonderful to get a hold of what God has done in the gospel, the very foundation of where we stand.
As believers in the Lord, Jesus is not in the wisdom of man. Man wants to interject his wisdom into the Church of God. How important to understand that it's completely different groundwork that we're dealing with when it comes to the assembly.
To bring to their level.
Like bringing His word down to their level. But God will never be brought down to man's level. He will bring man up to his level and He does it by new birth. He does it by the Spirit of God. And we do have, as it says, in the end, the mind of Christ. We have the unction of the Holy One.
First, John 220 We know all things. That puzzles many people, you know, might as well shut the Bible. We know it all well. It means this with the teacher within you, the Holy Spirit, and God's Word before you, there isn't anything a believer need know to have a happy prosperous life to the glory of God that he cannot know. So we know all things.
It's just that we let our own mind and reasoning get in the way and it never works.
I've often tried to tell the young people, don't wrestle with this at all. Don't wrestle with a verse. Don't try to figure it out. You'll be wrong. If you can't understand it, leave it alone and ask the father to make it clear and he will. I don't know how, but he'll do it. Maybe at a conference like this.
Maybe at your reading meeting, in your assembly, maybe talking to a brother or sister, but God will make it clear. And then thank you. But don't reason again on the word of God. You're wrong every time.
Fall reason from the Scriptures, didn't he, in the synagogues of the Jews? And that is the groundwork where we have to start and all our thinking. It has to be the Word of God. It's not that God has given us reason and we are to use it, but only on the basis of what God says in His Word. But your warning about is reasonings that comes in from human wisdom. I think that's what you mean, isn't it?
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As a plaything, it doesn't matter if you're a believer or not.
He'll use it mix up a lot. That's what I meant.
Spoke of stumbling or a rock of effect.
And puts an offense before man.
And to bar him from pursuing a certain course.
And I don't think we often consider that fact when we read the gospel. But it is like, you know, sometimes somebody may put a stumbling, a child may leave a tricycle on the sidewalk and you trip over and there was a stumbling stone. And we may stumble one another by carelessly leaving things where they don't belong. But another time, somebody may paint the stairs in the front porch and they put a lawn chair in front of it so that people won't walk up. And there's a there's a rock of it. There's an offense there. And a person may put a rock at the end of a driveway for to keep somebody from going down that course.
And the Lord was a rock of offense because man would like to pursue.
And reason bring God down to his level, as our brother was saying, and God puts a rock of a fence right there, just like the rock at the end of a driveway to say, don't drive down there. And so you'll often find that in the gospel that man will come to the Lord and they go away because they're looking for a sign or they're looking for something and the Lord does not accommodate them.
The Scriptures say, Take heed how you hear the word, because to him that hath shall more be given, to him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he seemeth to have. And if I wrestle with a scripture and somebody reasons not, as you were saying from the scriptures, but just intellectually convinces me of creation, or proves something to me by my human written nature, so I can say, yes, I can agree with God, and I have not received it in a right way.
And I'm going to lose what I seem to have. I don't really have it.
And so it's very important that we receive the truth of God by faith, because if we receive it simply by reason, and we say, well this is logical, I've proved creation because I've read these books and so on, then my faith really rests upon my reason and not upon the revelation of God.
So He did so many miracles before them, yet they believe not on his name. It will not be the miracles, brethren. They can help teach us, they can help instruct us, but unless we see Christ who He is, we can't be saved. Not by miracles, no.
I suppose that is why it is so important to have these things clearly before us in these last days, because the wisdom of man has been made much of, hasn't it? And unhappily, the wisdom of man has over and over again been introduced into the things of God. And it seems that's what the Corinthians were doing.
They believe the gospel, they were truly saved. But then they were thinking that somehow the wisdom of man had to be added to.
What Christ had given or what God had given in Christ we should say. And that's the danger, isn't it? And it has impressed my own soul that true Christianity makes everything of Christ and nothing of man. And that's why it is ultimately unpopular to the natural man, because there's nothing to glory of naturally in Christianity, in man. It's only as Christ is exalted and we are in Christ.
That there is anything to be gloried of. And so here we find that God doesn't necessarily pick up as we get in this 27th verse, those that are naturally wise, naturally prominent in this world. He picks up, as it says here, the foolish things and the weak things. Well, that doesn't speak very well for some of us as we consider where we fit into that category. But what does all that do? It magnifies the grace of God, doesn't it?
It magnifies the glory of Christ in picking up those things that naturally don't amount to much in this world.
And yet God says in my wisdom, I am going to pick up those things that don't amount to much and use them to bring to not the things which on the surface do amount to quite a bit in this world. And so there God gets the glory, doesn't he? If God were to pick up those in this world that were prominent and educated and who had positions in this world, then there would be some glory for man. And we're thankful that God doesn't.
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Entirely leave them out. It says not many wise, not many noble. It doesn't say not.
Because the grace of God flows out to all, but in a general way, the grace of God is magnified and Christ is glorified by those things that don't amount to much, being the objects of the grace of God and ultimately showing forth the wisdom of God.
What did God use to draw Nehemiah to his prophet?
A little maid captive.
I mean Naoman might have said, well, who is she? You know when she said I know if my Lord Naiman were before the prophet in the was it Israel or Judah anyway Israel he would be healed. That's a little made with great faith and that's how God works. You know, sometimes out of the mouth of babes, He accomplishes his work, not like man would expect. Of course, name and still wasn't brought in in the right spirit that way.
Was brought and he stood before the door, proud with all his gifts.
Well, it's nice to see the examples, isn't it?
Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, Him?
Whom do men say?
Well, we have all kinds of.
Of opinions about the Lord Jesus Christ in the world, do we not? Brethren? Whom do men say that? I the Son of man, M.
Well, they answered, and they this is Matthew 16. Some said that our Jeremiah's Elias are one of the prophets. But whom say ye that I am?
And Peter answers most prominently, Thou art the Christ, the Son of a living God.
And Jesus said, Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father.
Which is in heaven.
Beloved Saints, as we sit here around the Lord Jesus, how wonderful to know it is only by divine revelation and the emphasis today all around us is human wisdom and philosophy and feelings and opinions of men. Young people are inundated with this in school today. Learn to think for yourself. Question everything.
But this isn't the mind of God for us when we come to the Word. He has magnified His Word, above all His name. The Word of God is that which will judge man in the coming day. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But it is the word it says in John 12 That He spoke to them that will judge them in the last day. He has magnified His word above all His name. So human wisdom, what is it, brethren? And when we begin to think in those channels, we become.
Confused, we align ourselves with the thinking of the world. But what? What is this blessed book to us but a divine revelation, A revelation by the Spirit of God to our hearts? And we think of our brother mentioned grace.
It is grace that has revealed this to our hearts. Where would we be today? I know, I think where I would be today except this divine revelation by His grace to display that wondrous love and grace and wisdom to me by the Spirit.
So that wonderful confession of Peter was made by what scripture says were unlearned and ignorant men.
Could we add to what you were saying, Brother Dave, because some may ask here, well then why is it that in a practical way we don't always see believers confounding the things which are mighty, as it says at the end of verse 27? Why don't we always see the power of God bringing to not things that are Well, the answer is just what we have here.
That, sad to say, sometimes believers walk in the wisdom of man instead of Indiana, the power of God.
And then, as you say, these questions are raised and perhaps there are no answers for them, and perhaps there isn't the power of the Spirit of God to meet them. And so the problem is with us, isn't it, If we'll say I am found among those things which don't amount to much in this world.
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If I walk in the power of the Spirit of God and walk in the light of God's Word, there is the power to.
Meet the difficulties and questions that this world raises. But I remember when I went to college, sometimes questions were raised and.
Sometimes dear believers felt totally powerless to answer those questions. Well, there are answers in the Word of God for any question on any moral and spiritual subject, but we need to be living and walking in the good of it in order to have that power available to us.
Maybe I can take a moment and tell a story that I.
It really impressed me. It took place a good many years ago. And it has to do with Harry Ironside, who was preaching the gospel in the open air in one of the cities in the United States and in front of a big crowd of people that were listening. And Agnostic walked up to him after the preaching and handed him a piece of paper. And so Harry Ironside read it out loud. I challenge you to debate with me in the Science Hall tomorrow at 2:00 PM.
Agnosticism versus Christianity. Well, what could he do? He couldn't duck the question. He couldn't run away. He had to give an answer. There it was.
Well, to everyone's surprise, he didn't dodge the challenge, he said. I accept that I'm very interested in this debate and with all my heart, I accept.
But then the Spirit of God gave him what I felt was an unusual answer, he said, but because I was challenged, I reserved the right to impose a condition which was quite reasonable. He said if a man is going to promote something as if it had value, he ought to be able to offer some evidence. So he said to the man, Sir, tomorrow you will bring to the Science Hall two people who were down in the dregs of society said, I don't care whether they were drunkards or whether they were thieves or whatever kind of problems they had, but somebody, two people.
That have been absolutely down and out and whom agnosticism is lifted up, given them a right start in life and promoted them to live as good citizens of the community. And then he looked around at the crowd and he said for Christianity, I think we could bring 100, couldn't we? I'll come, I'll come, I'll come. Well, what did the agnostic do?
Walked away. What was that? That was what we have here.
That was bringing to not things that are, that was the power of the Spirit of God bringing to bear on a situation that which made the man look utterly foolish because.
He had no, he had no example. Well, but we need to be living in the power.
Of an ungrieved spirit and living before God in the light of God's Word, in order to have that sword ready to use when the occasion arises, not for our glory, but for His glory.
Four things here that God has chosen, brethren. Foolish things. Verse 27.
The end of verse 27. The weak things.
The third is verse 28, the base things.
The 4th The things which are not He spoke of the foolish things, and in fact in verse 18 of this chapter.
The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
If you talk to a religious man in the world of the cross, and he will scoff and scorn because he bases his acceptance to God before God on the basis of his good standing in the community or before God.
But the weak things, He was crucified in weakness.
The base things of low birth or no reputation. That was Jesus. He made himself of no reputation, took upon himself a form of a servant made in the likeness of men.
And the things which are not, beloved brethren, they got rid of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The wisdom of this world, and not only the wisdom of this world, but of the religious.
Greatest religious society in the world got rid of him, they say. We, they said.
Away with this man, we will not have him to reign over us.
Those four things show the wisdom in a nutshell of this world. How blessed to have the wisdom of God in Christ as we have in the next verse.
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It says your God is the foolish.
Of the world confound the wise. We got to talking about evolution and I said I believe in creation. And he said to me, why not? Preposterous.
Couldn't have, couldn't have happened. And I said, well, it said so in Genesis.
We were talking and I said, you know, it's interesting that you believe in this.
This theory when it goes against every scientific law that's ever been developed, because what do you mean? And I go up against the scientific law that life does not arise from non life. That's a scientific fact. And I said evolution goes against the second law of thermodynamics that systems need energy to maintain and and to continue.
And.
And he just he just didn't see that. He just couldn't believe that and and especially the dear young people here. God has chosen the foolish things of the world and found the wise if we if we just as we've been talking about if we begin to try and reason things out to try and.
Try and figure out how things couldn't could have been instead of just accepting what God has given us.
Then you start to as this evolution man, evolutionary believer, he started to believe all these things that that are are wrong as he went down this pathway. So if we can just hold to the word of God and this belief just take God in his word.
They created.
That he sustained and we can just rest in that. What a blessing it will be.
That's important. We cannot take up these questions on the basis of reason to reason.
If it's a matter of my mind against an infidels mind, maybe the infidel has greater reasoning powers than my mind, so if I attack it on that level, it may be that he will completely smash me. But if we simply stand on the wisdom of God, here's a God who knows everything, absolutely everything, and he has spoken to us in his word.
If we stand simply on the ground that God has spoken, simply on that ground of faith, we are on a ground that cannot be touched by the infidel. And I think that's important point for our young people to understand, to simply take what Genesis says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the wisdom of God. It isn't a science book. It doesn't tell all the details, it doesn't tell how God did it, but.
The God who has always spoken and what he has said is true.
And Mars Hill, where he was at the height of learning, made this observation. I perceive that thou art altogether too superstitious. And then he went on to declare something that they could not know except by revelation is what was on the other side of the grave.
And he spoke of resurrection and they mocked at it. And I've seen this in the last year. I've been to four funerals where resurrection has been spoken at the grave. And I've seen the reaction of those that have heard the truth of resurrection. But we only know it. And we know it as certainly as we're sitting here in this chair. We know that we're going to see each other in the glory. We know that by faith, but it's by revelation.
And so God, when we opened God's book, it tells things that man could not know by reason. There's a lot of things we could discover about each other by reason if we pride or investigated and so on. But there's some things we can only know that we tell each other about ourselves. But God, what we find in the word of God, we would only know by the revelation of God.
And the wisdom of this world is that man is basically good, and that if you put him under good conditions, you'll bring out the good that is in him.
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And I think some of the world leaders are going to find a sorrow that that's not true. They're going to liberate people and try to put them under better conditions, and it's not going to bring the good out in them at all.
And what do we find in the gospel? Do you find in Paul's life? You put him under absolutely the worst conditions, most unfair conditions. And what did you find in Paul? You saw Christ.
There he was in chains left there by the Jews want the the ruler wanting a bribe, they forgot about him. He's finally released under very unjust circumstances, and he stands before the king. And he said, I perceive that thou art altogether as I were. Yet without these chains he was in a place of superiority, and what shone out was Christ.
Man says if you just get somebody into a better situation and then you'll bring out the good in them. But that's not what we find in the Word of God. You say man takes his place as a guilty Sinner before God, and then God will open up his heart to him.
Every child of God here in Christ was chosen in Christ by God before the foundation of this world, the universe. Let's remember that. And we were all in his purposes. He had these purposes and plans for his Son before anything was made that is made. And of course, how was it created? You know, Jehovah spoke and it was.
He commanded in His good path. I mean, that's it. We don't have to get into detail that satisfies me, but what marvels me is I personally was in God's purposes and plans before He started anything, and so were you. It's a marvelous truth. And the ghost beyond that, even he lets us know his purposes, the mystery of God, which was his until Paul.
For us to enjoy. And that mystery is beyond comprehension. It's so wonderful. So this brings out wisdom of God. It's beyond us, but all you have to do is believe it. You don't have to understand it, just believe it. Enjoy it, you'll grow.
God is for His own glory, brethren, and He must maintain and He will maintain His own glory. And what we are seeing in our world today around us where we're passing through is a culture that is humanistic or centered in what man is. It's all.
It permeates.
The country we live in, it's in the advertising, it's in the media, it's everywhere. And I think it's important for us to realize that that is the case and realize too, that oftentimes we are affected in our thinking by that culture through which we're passing through.
So that we can judge it brethren, and realize that God is the one that's going to have the glory. No flesh shall glory in his presence. Verse 31 it says he that glorious, let him glory in the Lord.
Oh, and we consider the greatness of our God, brethren, the wisdom, the power.
We look into creation and we see the tremendous power of God displayed in creation. Tremendously vast universe we can look up and the glory of God is seen in the firmament of his power. But there is other realms of power that are displayed in resurrection as well. The power of God tremendous.
And man thinks that he's powerful. Oh, brethren, may the Lord help us to focus on that glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ. God manifests in the flesh. Think of it as he walked through this world, a man, a real, living man, and yet in every sense of the word, God manifest in the flesh.
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In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Can you grasp that? It's something that is beautiful to meditate on. Brethren will never exhaust that. How can you and I strive for a position of glory in this world in comparison with that person that we're talking about? God will not allow it.
Remember on the amount of transfiguration where Jesus was transfigured before those 3 disciples?
And there in glory he was talking with Moses and Elijah.
And Peter gets talking. Sometimes we get talking before.
We really know what we're talking about. It says he didn't know what to say and so he just said something. We do that don't we brethren? And we get ourselves in trouble. And Peter says let's make 3 tabernacles, one for thee. Put the Lord first.
But one for Moses and Elijah, and in his thinking he put the Lord at the same level of those other two.
Mighty servants of God they were in the Old Testament, but how can they have any place of comparison in comparison with the Christ of God? And immediately they disappear. Immediately they disappear. And a voice comes out of that Shekinah cloud and says, This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. There is one supreme brother.
In any measure that we exalt, people or people exalt themselves.
God is not glorified and those kind of persons.
We are setting them up if we do that, brethren, and I fear that there is a tendency sometimes to set up brethren to a place of prominence. May the Lord help us not to do that, brother. But if we do, what's going to happen? God, in His faithfulness, will allow those to disappear, so that Christ, and Christ alone may be glorified. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
He that glorious, let him glory in the Lord. Oh what a glorious God.
And Savior we have been brought to know in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we ever turn and start glorying in what we are. It shows, brethren, when that happens, how much we are affected by the culture we're passing through this humanistic culture. Lord, help us to challenge our thinking, to challenge the way we speak that that would not be the case, but that.
He that glory, let him.
Glory in the Lord.
29th 1St Paul put man in his place. That's over. Nothing left of man. Sinful man, carnal man.
No man will ever glory in the presence of God. But then comes 30 and 30. He tells the believer what his standing is, and that never changes. And everyone here is really in 30 if they are in Christ.
But first of all, it brings out the wisdom. It says in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, Wisdom. We have the wisdom of God in this world by the Holy Spirit. This is all our standing and redemption is last. Why it isn't complete yet? We have the redemption of our bodies ahead, but that's why it's last, because it's not complete.
But all these things are in Christ, if any man be in Christ.
He's a new creature and I think it's so beautiful to take away everything from man and then give us a standing like that.
Thou hast not received. What do we have, beloved brethren, that we have not received by his grace?
What do we?
Nothing.
Of His fullness have we all received in grace upon grace. Beautiful verse. In John chapter one. They beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace.
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And truth if through these meetings and the rest of our days.
Till the Lord comes. We were filled with that fullness like a brother brought before us in the reading of the Scriptures. The river. It's not a trickle or a stream, beloved brethren, that we drink from. It is the riches of Christ, the river of His love in goodness and kindness that we drink from. If we did, there would be some overflow. In fact, in John seven it says out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. There would be refreshment for others if we drank of that stream.
Of his fullness.
And we wouldn't have to make rules and regulations for our lives when they go out in the world and not only the young people have problems with temptations of course we all do if we're honest there would be such a fullness in our hearts of Christ by the spirit that we would not want this world it we would be repulsed at doing something that would dishonor him if we had that fullness of Christ within our hearts.
I might just say one other thing our brother Neil mentioned about.
Being in the right, right environment. Would the flesh change well when Jesus was here?
Were people in a good environment when Christ was here in this world? Could there ever have been a better environment with the Lord of glory as it says who they crucified in verse 8, the Creator of the universe? Did it create a difference in man? No, it only brought out the enmity and hatred that was in the heart of man towards their Creator and soon to be their Redeemer.
What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh.
It wasn't anything wrong with the law, the 10 commandments, but what the law could not do in that it was weak.
Through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. What did he do? Yes, He bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and so that we are free from the penalty and the ******* of sin, that is for all eternity.
But he delivered us from the power of sin.
Delivered us, it condemned sin in the flesh. We're really condemned. The flesh is condemned. Our brother brought out verse 29 that no flesh should glory in his presence and there never will be any glorying in the flesh because it came to an end at the cross. Beloved brethren, it came to an end at Calvary. There is where we met our end. It is of no use to God and can't be used in His service at all. Just one more thing. A writer said this about Job.
He said job really his basic problem was that he did not know Grace.
He was occupied with righteousness, his own righteousness primarily, and he was a righteous man. Behold, my servant Job, there is none like him in all the earth, The Lord said to Satan.
But he went through the rigors of testings that brought out that there was really nothing in him, especially, as her brother Bob mentioned, with the glory of God was brought before him. It reduced him to nothing when he beheld the glory of God in creation. Where was thou? When the heavens and the earth were created, where was thou? And then we read those wonderful verses that follow. Well, in the end, Job said.
I've heard by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see it. And beloved Saints, if my eye was so fixed upon him, the glory of God in Christ, and see the glory, that radiant glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ, what effect would it have in my life? It would perhaps be like John the Baptist said he must increase, but I must decrease. And so Job said, I abhor myself.
And repent in dust and ashes. And he didn't know the half of what we know, Beloved brethren.
Double after a kidney and I this verse 30 here if we could just get on to it a little bit see what we are made in Christ. What a distinction from not glaring in his presence. I was I was thinking as Bob was speaking about the amount of transfiguration and how Peter I think Peter expresses what is commented our human nature there and his reaction.
As he viewed that glory, he considered making dwellings there and the relationship there would be of in those dwellings, but he didn't get it near good enough of what God's thoughts were. In this book of Corinthians we get unfolded what God's thoughts were when Christ entered in that glory. What is that? That is to have his bride there, the Church of God.
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As one body with him now is that better than dwelling together or spectator there? Yes it is. How is that so well in Christ? It's interesting how that amount of transfiguration scene ends up. It says they saw no man save Jesus only I believe.
That's this is this is verse 30 Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom.
Sanctification, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. In Christ we are ever We have everything.
This is the cure to humanism. Humanism aspire, mind, of man aspiring to be something. We don't need to aspire to be anything we've already had what the man, what the end of that was, and the foolishness of God did away with all that. Now we can occupy with what we are made, what God's thoughts are of uniting us together in him. And So what a wonderful portion.
In chapter 3 verse 22, notice I start with 21 of three. Therefore let no man gory in men, for all things are yours. This is what he was bringing out.
God didn't withhold one thing from a Sinner once he's in Christ. That's a beautiful thing. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death. Is that ours? Well, of course it's a vehicle directly, instantly to Christ our Lord. Death is ours, or things present, or things that come. All are yours.
And ye are Christ, and Christ is God. That's a good summation of that. God didn't withhold one thing. Everything he has belongs to his Son, and we're joint heirs. It's a most marvelous we can't really take it in with our infinite minds. We can't do that.
But we can enjoy it.
You were referring to law, brother Dave, and that's really is the difference between law and grace. Law is God acting towards me based on what I am.
And it's acting towards each other based on what we are and what we deserve.
And that's why the law was, the weakness was not in the law, but it was in me because.
All it could do was condemn me, but grace is God acting towards me according to what is in His own heart.
And so you find in this book that Paul takes up the word of God, and 10 times he says some do ye not know?
And he brings forth principles that they ought to have known from the law.
He brings them back to the word of God. Do you not know You're not to muzzle the ox that treads out the corn, not know that a little 1111 is a whole lump? He brings them right back to simple, basic principles, because now he's going to reveal what is in the heart of God, because here there were some very serious problems in this assembly, and how are they going to deal with them? What's the wisdom of the world to deal with a drunkard or a fornicator, an incestuous man?
We know what the world says. Get them counseling, courage them, help them. What does Paul say? Deliver such a one on to Satan.
For the destruction of the flesh.
And so it's completely contrary to the wisdom of this world. There's a wisdom of God.
What does he say? Come out from among them and be separate and I will receive you. That's not the world's teaching at all.
The world say you've got to mix, you've got to mingle. And so we get a completely different wisdom and the glory of God is manifest. And how is it manifest? Because here was a man.
Just one example in Corinth was in a ruinous situation to himself and to his family and to the assembly. And what do you see? The result is brought as we see Christ in his life, we see fruit for glory.
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And that's how God is going to accomplish it. But it's by faith. It's coming back to believing what God has said. But the wisdom of man always intrudes into these things, and the glory of God has never seen.
And where do you see the glory of God? As their brother was speaking, as Harry Ironside was speaking, Where do you see the glory of God?
Man takes this place as a guilty Sinner before God, and he's delivered from his sin.
Man, it's foolish that's the man to say that somebody's going to be nailed to a cross of wood and believing on that, that he died on a cross. That I'm going to be delivered from the ******* of sin from which psychiatrists and counselors and a multitude of help can't deliver me.
There was a lady in Canada. She was a drug addict and the Children's Aid Society wanted to force her into drug rehabilitation. And the Civil Liberties Union went to the Supreme Court to argue that she shouldn't be forced to do that to preserve her unborn child. And a year later, a famous journalist phoned her and asked her how's she doing? She said we're doing fine, She said. My boyfriend and I, we got saved. We're married, she said. We have our good days and our bad days.
But we're we're doing fine.
Have you ever heard 1,000,000 watts of silence? The man didn't know what to say.
And so the glory of God was manifested by simply believing.
In the truth of the gospel and we this encroaches into the assembly that the way of deliverance of danger. Skinner. We don't know whether that man in first Corinthians five was a St. or Sinner, but it encroaches itself into the assembly, the wisdom of this world, and it just turns everything up on its ear.
And so Paul is laying a solid foundation for the assembly to go on for God, that they simply believe the revelation of God. And what a wonderful thing it is to come apart in this way, because we're going to go into the world. And more and more we, some of us who are older grew up in a world where things were apparently Christian and there were Christian values.
But more and more we're seeing that everything is upside down and backwards, and what a wonderful thing it is to come together and open up God's Word and justice to see what God's point of view is on things. And it's absolutely contrary, 100% opposite to the way the world thinks.
See how it starts is interesting brethren of him are ye in Christ Jesus has already been stated that this is the place the position that you and I occupy as believers in the Lord Jesus every true believer. This is the position he occupies in Christ. Wonderful to get a hold of that's your position if you have simply.
Trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may not understand very much about it, but it is true just the same. Who of us understand very much really? But it says then in the following phrase, Who of God is made unto us? So not only are we in Christ, but that person in whom we are in by God of God.
He is made unto us wisdom.
Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, all these things.
It's not that I make them good in my life, no, it's God who has made Christ these things to me. I think it's beautiful to get a hold of it that so often we understand so little.
But still it's the truth, brethren of God, concerning every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ of God. Christ has been made unto us Wisdom.
Sanctification, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Wonderful things to get ahold of.
That you're standing. God never called for a Sinner, a Sinner again. Once he's in Christ, He feeds him only in the perfection and beauty of His Son. Otherwise we could not come boldly to the Lord's table. But we should come boldly, not with any hesitation or wondering if we have a right to be there because God.
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Sees us in sun. The truth of the one body is so beautiful. And we have the right to offer up his son, as are all to him at that moment. And so we should be there. There's room at the Lord's table for every believer in the world. They disqualify themselves, but there's room. It's a large upper room.
There's plenty of room and I had been introduced by Jezu Bach and I mentioned this a couple times on this trip, but I don't think it matters. He introduced me to his lawyer. He quite a prominent lawyer who helps him without charge. He's a Christian, but he's still a Catholic and he thinks he can do more in Catholicism than if he was like Jezebel in India, Madras.
So he took me. He takes everybody to meet him.
So we went up to the third floor in this bank building, his window, looked onto the Supreme Court. He's quite a man, educated in Arbor and tall, handsome man. So he was sitting at his desk and Jezu Block and said, I want you to meet my brother, Bob Bauman. He worships like I do. He just looked at me, had a very crucial look, you know, and he said.
You people are much too exclusive. That's my introduction to this lawyer. So I said, I don't think you realize how exclusive we are.
If you get a little mad, now you know, and I said there's room for you.
Well, you know what he did? He changed his expression. He got up, came around the desk and hugged me, wanted me to talk to his family, who were still Hindus.
So we are not exclusive. There's room at the Lord's Table for every believer, and it's just by grace we're there, and it's by grace we'll be there when he comes. But it's a wonderful truth that we're not exclusive at all.
So it's important to realize, isn't it, that there is nothing in the Word of God that is contrary to sound reason?
But there are many things that are beyond reason.
And unhappily, when the mind of man encounters that in the things of God, which are beyond His reason.
The natural man says. I'm going to reduce that to something that I can understand.
Because I have to understand it.
I was talking to a man about a month ago who has heard the gospel for, I suppose, more than 40 years.
And I believe the Lord is working there with him. But he said to me, I still don't understand how.
Believing on a man who died on a cross can save my soul.
Well, I said to him, I don't understand that either, but I believe what God says about his beloved Son and about what he did on Calvary Cross and I'm happy as a result of it. Well, the wisdom of man will puzzle my mind. It will frustrate me. It will take me in all kinds of directions as to do with moral and spiritual subjects, but it never makes me happy, does it? It never answers my questions because ultimately these things in verse 30, wisdom, righteousness.
Holiness or sanctification and redemption, they're all beyond man's reason, aren't they? But man says I can't accept something that I don't understand. But his brother Bob was saying we have those things in Christ and every blessing, everything that we have in Christianity is in Christ and has to be enjoyed in communion with him. We can't understand these things. And you can't read the word of God very long before.
You find that you're out of your depth, which is necessarily the case because it is God's wisdom. It's a book of God.
It brings before us truth, which comes from God, and as such it's infinite. And so the mind of man can't begin to understand the things of God, but we accept them by divine revelation, and we can live and walk in the good of them in Christ. That's so important because as we said a moment ago, all around us we see. And unhappily it occurs among Christians too, where the things of God are taken and they are explained and reduced and altered in such a way.
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That the mind of man can get around them. But then it always introduces error, doesn't it? It always brings in that which.
Falsifies the truth of God and makes it wrong. And so the apostle reminds them here in Corinth that everything they had was in Christ, and that it had to be enjoyed and lived out in communion with the Lord, even though the mind of man couldn't understand it.
The last word in the verse, verse 30. Redemption has been brought out many times, has perhaps four different thoughts associated with it.
Redemption.
Some of us here and most of us know what that means in a certain sense, to be delivered from the wrath to come because of the work of Christ, the finished work of Christ on the cross.
But someone brought it out this way that there are really four things involved and the first thing is the price that has been paid.
And Jesus paid it in full with his own blood.
Jesus paid it all.
All to him I owe.
Sin had left a Crimson stain. He washed it quite as snow. And the second thought is the application of it, the fact that it has been paid. And now I believe after having believed it says in in Ephesians 113. After having believed he were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. You come into the joy and the good of forgiveness through the blood of Christ.
And the third thing is.
New ownership, that is, we have, through the work of Christ and believing in it, beloved Saints.
A new master.
I am set free from the old. Do I go back to the old claims of the One who ran my life before I came into the joy and the good of all of the blessing of redemption?
Sad to say.
Sometimes we do, brethren. No man can serve 2 Masters. Matthew 16.
The last one is and has already been mentioned. Here is Romans chapter 8. We are waiting, beloved brethren.
For the redemption of our bodies, it might happen today.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand when we will be changed into His likeness and have His very likeness upon us. How wonderful the thought that may happen anymore at any moment.
Like to speak a little bit about the word righteousness too.
Christ is made unto us righteousness.
Christ is our righteousness.
Where do you stand before God? Look up into the glory of God.
There, at God's right hand, is a man.
That man.
Once hung on a cry.
On him were laid my sins.
And all God's judgment fell on those sins that were on him.
And he cried at the end. It is finished.
Raised him from the dead.
And God set him at his own right hand.
Now, what is the basis of my being right before God?
Him, brethren, him, not anything I can do or have done.
Or am in my person. It's his glorious person and I'd like to make.
A distinction that perhaps sounds difficult that it is. Rejoiced my heart to understand it, brethren.
It's sometimes you hear the expression that the believer.
Has the righteousness of Christ?
That expression is not really found in Scripture. We are clothed with the righteousness of God in Christ because if you say the righteousness of Christ, the thought immediately goes back to His righteous life down here in this world, and He was completely righteous.
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But the thought that is erroneously given is that that righteousness that he had under the law because he came in that position is transferred to the believer. That is not the truth of God. The truth of God is that we have a righteousness that is not by the law, it is by the faith of Christ.
And so the moment you put your faith in the Lord Jesus, you are clothed in all the righteousness of God in Christ. That's the truth. Christ himself, his glorious person, is our righteousness. And if there's ever a question before God, or before men too, as to my standing before God, I can point to that man.
At God's right hand, he of God is made unto us righteous. What a wonderful thing to get ahold of in the soul.
Say a little bit about sanctification then, too.
I was thinking of in the 6th chapter of One Corinthians. Just turn over there a little bit to example in the Corinthians themselves.
Inverse is.
Nine, beginning with verse 9.
Know ye not that the unrighteous?
Shall not inherit the Kingdom of God be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor abusers of themselves with mankind NE, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And by the Spirit of our God.
We get here what the Corinthians were, what they came out of before they were saved. And it is, it is a pitiful thing to be associated with that kind of a life. Those are defiling things. They are evil. And sometimes our souls have difficulty getting rid of that thought and that mindset to be sanctified, set apart, cleanse from that kind of a thing.
All of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have been.
Delivered from that defilement and in Christ and were set apart. This to me is a wonderful thing to get ahold of. And maybe it comes home to our souls when we've had a fall. And when you really realize after a fall how you have been defiled or how you are unclean, you're unholy to God, you have a hard time getting over that.
This is the answer, Christ.
Let me make an illustration. Suppose that there was an Arab here on in and we were sitting here on September 11, and you were associated with the people that had a bad name.
How would you disassociate? Disassociate yourself from that that you knew was wrong and evil, but you would look for any means. You might even change your name. You might even want to change the color of your face or whatever to disassociate yourself from something. Well, how do we as believers disassociate from defilement?
Right, He sets us apart and makes us holy and so.
Before God were seen sanctified wonderful things.
There is absolute sanctification. That's a minute. The Spirit indwells you. He set you apart from this world, for God never changes. But there's a practical sanctification that has a lot to do with walk and what you are here as a Christian. And that practical sanctification is most important now. It'll mean not much or anything when we get home.
But here it's really testimony to the glory of God. We are walking epistles, known and read of all men. And you have to ask yourself after a day, what did they read today? Probably you're the only word they read. You're the epistle of Christ. And so there's practical sanctification, very important.
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An hour to walk in practical sanctification is to enjoy in your soul the truth that.
Positionally, we occupy a place of complete holiness before God. The word holiness and sanctification is really the same root word rather than it's not really different. It's the same thought being set apart and a believer that God has saved, He is.
Set apart completely for God's purposes. Sometimes, given the illustration, going to a grocery store, get a grocery cart. You go down the aisle, you pick off a box of cereal. You have set that cereal apart that you have a specific purpose in mind for. You haven't paid for it yet. You're going to pay for it when you go out to the store before you go out the store, but.
That has been set apart completely for you and to realize that your young people, us who are older too, to realize that God, when he saved us, set us apart for His own purpose. Not that I have some purpose in life that I'm going to do. No, to understand God's purpose in having set me apart. Then there will be the power, like you were saying, Brother Bowen, to walk in sanctification of life practically too.
I think that's important. Sanctification is not something we have to strive to obtain.
We are, we have it in here in verse 30, Christ is made.
Holiness unto us now walk in it practically.
Like to say another thing too here before we get to the end of our meeting brethren in verse.
31 That word glory, we've got it in verse 29, it's been mentioned, I think in chapter 3 we read it too.
New translation says boast, but there's a word that is often used in the world around us today that I think is the result of our humanistic culture, and that is the word pride.
And.
Pride is condemned in the book of.
Proverbs quite strongly. Sometimes people think that a certain measure of pride is all right. I really think it is part of the humanism of our culture, brethren. It is to walk in the sense that we are children of God will give us the purpose.
Necessary to walk properly, but as soon as we talk about pride been mentioned that the middle letter of the word pride is I and Brendan. We've already spoken of that God has brought to an end all that we are as men in the flesh. The Lord help us to understand it.
Often see the bumper sticker The proud parents of an honor student.
Well, what does that do? It focuses. Oh, we are something. We had an honor student. There must be something to it. The focus is on man.
It would be good if we could put the thankful parents of an honor student thankful to somebody else wasn't us. It was God who gave it that honor student. But it's just that the whole culture starts even changing the words and the meanings of the word. We need to be challenged.
To rethink our expressions, our thinking, in view of the place that we occupy before God in Christ.
How would you answer the question, Bob? And I've heard this.
If a young person said to you, well, if I didn't have some pride, I wouldn't do my work well and I wouldn't groom myself properly or dress properly or have any proper goal in life or anything unless I had some pride in myself and in my work and so on. How do we answer that? I've heard you answer that very well. I like to hear it. Well, no, I asked the question.
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Whatsoever you do.
Do it mightily under the Lord and not under man. Therefore you'll do your work well. That's what that person Matthew means. So let your light shine before men. Glory is excellence in display. And so man may see a student and say, well, he's got good parents, he had a good upbringing, he's got religion. But when he opens his mouth and he says, I'm saved.
God dealt with me in that way. That's really giving glory to God. It's attributing to God the source of what man see.
And I really believe that that's what it is here in this 31St verse. Let him thy glory, glory in the Lord. You notice the order. You get the same thing in first Peter.
They start with the wisdom of God. When do the counsels of God concerning my salvation begin? Before I was born. When did Christ die for me? Before I was born.
His thoughts had started there. When did God act towards me?
Well, the servant is going to stand up tonight and the next night if the Lord leaves us here to preach the gospel to invite them to come in. But you read in the gospel, when he sends out the servant, he says compel them to come in. We'll turn to first Peter and just look at that. We have to glory and God. It wasn't the will of man at work here, but it's the wisdom of God. It's the righteousness of God. The whole basis of salvation for man today in the world is that God is unrighteous. God's going to overlook sin.
God, somebody said to my brother once, God, be cool, you be cool too. Meaning that God is going to turn a blind eye. No, God is righteous. He's just on the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. And then when was I sanctified by the Spirit? Let's turn to first Peter and see that.
Because it really causes us the glory in God and not in the will of man as you were speaking, Brother Bob.
I was thinking of this.
Verse two of one Peter, one elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
Through sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. And so you see the order here, the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, sanctification and redemption.
Galatians 6 verse 14. It's a beautiful verse that Paul.
Roles, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified under me, and I under the world. Now that verse is brought out more clearly in Jeremiah. I think it's nine Jeremiah 9, verse 23.
Many things Paul used in the New Testament was from the old of course, the word of God.
Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.
Neither let the mighty man in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him let Gloria glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord.
ETC. And you know, that's a beautiful thing. What is?
Eternal life. Well, the Lord tells us in his prayer, John 17 you know this is life eternal, that they know me and that they know the Father. I think God, I'm not sure. And Jesus Christ to me sent, if you know Jesus as your Lord.
And you know God the Father, for you know God is your Father. You have it.
Eternal life. That's not a definition. It's of a essence, what it is.
Proposed and our time is up, but I'd like to hear either Bob or Bill answer that question before we leave.
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I suppose I ought to be honest about it and say that the young man who raised that question with his father was my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe, who raised it to his father, Harry Hayhoe.
And Harry Hayes answer, as I recall, was simply son, if you remember that every time you walk out that door, every time you do anything at school, every time you do a piece of work in the workplace or whatever you present to the eye of the world, that you do it as representing and as a child of God, he said that will take care of your appearance and your work and everything.
But without any pride connected with it. And so there's a dignity without pride that should characterize the Christian, isn't there? It's not that the Christian, shall we say, makes himself a complete doormat in front of the world. It's not that he dresses in a slovenly fashion. It's not that he does his work in a less than proper way. In fact, it should be the very best work that could be done. But that dignity is not for himself, but because he's a man in Christ.
Do you agree with that, Doug? And I was thinking of solemn and servant, you know, because between Sheba came to question Solomon and when she had seen and and part of what she saw was the way they served Solomon, the way they dressed, the way they ascended, the way they acted. They weren't doing that for themselves. They were doing that because of the one they were serving. So there was nothing for them in pride. They were, by their actions and their demeanor, glorifying the one they were serving.
And if we have some sense of who it is that we belong to and our service for him.
And our walk for him, as you say, it won't be pride for ourselves, it'll be dignity.
Because of what we who are connected with, it would be the thoughts of the one we're connected with. But.
I want to emphasize, I'm sorry, brother, now our time is gone, but I want to emphasize that Bill said there's no excuse for sloppiness or laziness or, as you said, slovenliness among those who claim to know Christ as Savior. That's a poor light to shine before this world. We ought to be shining the same spirit of the light that Solomon's servants did, because when the Queen of Sheba watched how they acted and how they dressed, she was occupied with the servants, She was occupied with Solomon, and there was no more spirit in her. That's what we want, brother.
Let's let's live. Really.
And act really in our lives in relation to who it is that that has redeemed us.
And to whom we belong.
We think.
Had a remark to make. Could I ask him to make it before we see the other? The other? Doug already said it better. It's that's great. That's our last verse.