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May I pride.
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Dial Zero 135 10-4 31.
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Would the brethren be happy to consider?
First Corinthians, chapter 2.
I've had it on my heart for the last couple of days. It's a chapter that brings before us.
The Spirit of God as the antidote to the mind of man and the things of God. And it seems to me that it is something that particularly characterizes the day in which we live. That is the ascendancy of the mind of man, not only in natural things, which is legitimate, but sad to say, also in spiritual things.
00:05:20
What would my brethren think of that suggestion?
OK. I commend itself, Rob. I like the suggestion.
That's good.
First Corinthians, 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 faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 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 nought. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordains 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 hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searcheth all things, yeah, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spear of a 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 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, their 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 judge of no man, for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him.
But we have the mind of Christ.
Perhaps just a little bit of background as to this chapter. We know, of course, that the Corinthians were a worldly people, naturally, and also a sinful people.
The name of Corinth has long been associated with immorality and sinful living. But they were also a very proud people, well educated, proud of the use of their minds, and sad to say, all that kind of thing tended to come into and spoil their Christianity. So Paul has to write to them and bring before them some of these things in order to correct all of that, and he begins right in the first chapter by.
Pointing out the divisions that is not full blown divisions perhaps?
The better word is schism. That is, they hadn't really divided uh apart from one another, but there were schools of opinion and.
Men's persons before them within the assembly. And so Paul deals, you might say in the first chapter with the pride of man in the flesh that wanted to intrude into the things of God. But here in the second chapter, it's perhaps more of a focus on the mind of man and.
Human wisdom that tends to intrude into the things of the Lord. And of course, the emphasis Paul puts on, uh, the antidote to it here is the power of the Spirit of God to minister Christ to our souls. And, uh, it seems to me that it's very apropos in the world in which we live because man's mind, of course, always has been at work in the things of God. It started very early in the Christian testimony with what is known as Gnosticism.
That is man presuming to have something that he had gotten apart from the revelation that God gives and that spoiled things very early on in the Christian testimony. The apostle John has to speak of it in his epistles.
00:10:00
But in the world of today, we see it perhaps even more full blown and, uh, it has really spoiled much of the precious things of Christ, especially in evangelical circles in North America. So it's a very important chapter, I feel for us today and one to which we could well pay attention.
The end of chapter one the apostle brings out the gospel on how that in the gospel there.
It says in in verse 21 after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching. I think it should be to save them that believe it's the preaching of the gospel and it's really the whole thought of what we have in verse 23, Christ crucified. It's a stumbling block to the world.
And so that was the subject in the end of chapter one, is gospel as being something which man's wisdom is no help in at all. And those of us who are safe, we get that point. We understand that it's only by faith, but we're very tempted, aren't we, having been saved to go on and think that we can bring human wisdom into the things of God? And so in chapter 2, the apostle takes up with the Corinthians having then saved, the human wisdom was of no use to them either. Instead, it's divine wisdom by the spirit of fraud that is required for every part of our life.
As Christians? Hmm.
Mention speech here and in the 24th chapter of Acts we see the Apostle Paul before Felix and in the first verse.
The high priest descended with the elders, and he brought along with him an orator, and for the benefit of the younger ones, an orator is one that can speak well. He can speak clearly and usually distinctly.
And often they're very persuasive. So here an orator was brought and he brings an accusation against the apostle Paul and he speaks very smoothly. He butters up Felix, so to speak, in order to get the conviction of that was needed or that he wanted. But later on, we see that the apostle Paul desires to speak more or I do more the more.
Cheerfully answer for myself in verse 10 and we see that the words that the apostle Paul spoke exercised at least and measure Felix and it says he trembled while we would like to think that he believed everything but this is the spirit of this world. You put on a show you bring on an orator and a story comes to mind that I heard some years ago some place I believe it was in England that.
They had a speech contest and the subject that they had to recite was the 23rd saw.
And a well known orator got up. He pronounced every syllable correctly. He was very distinct. Then he sat down and there was one person left. He was an old farmer. And.
He didn't have to read the words that were on the paper in front of him. He recited it by heart. Then it came time for the announce announcement as to who the winner of the contest would be, and the judge said it was apparent that the first speaker spoke more distinctly. He used the proper voice inflections. But there was one thing notable.
The first person.
Read the 23rd Psalm. But the last person knew the shepherd. So let's keep those things in mind as as we read this chapter.
And that's why the apostle Paul, when he went to a place like Corinth.
It says he was in weakness in verse three and in fear and in much trembling.
Why was Paul not an educated man? Indeed he was. Could he not speak well if he so chose? I'm sure he could. But in every way he was afraid. He trembled lest something of himself would spoil the message that he had. And so God allows that the content of the message, the vessel that is Paul, whom he used to proclaim it, and the way he proclaimed it, all of them did not in any way impressed the natural man.
00:15:09
Because Paul said, I want your faith to stand not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. And I would just suggest that that is a very practical comment for you and me today.
Yes, there is a place for Christian apologetics, and by that I mean the ability to put to silence those who raise arguments against the word of God. Yes, the proverb says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest to be wise in his own conceit. There is a place for pointing out to a man where his wisdom, man's wisdom, is actually foolishness, but in the long run.
What is it that convicts a soul? What is it that brings Christ before them, as Bruce has pointed out, What was it that made Felix tremble? It was the Word of God. And so you and I perhaps don't find ourselves in many cases, a match for the orators of this world, a match for those who have good ability in arguing about scriptural things. But there's no substitute for the Word of God.
Spoken in the power of the Spirit of God.
I've quoted it before, but it bears repeating, comes from one of our well known writers and others will recognize the author of whom I'm speaking. He said the word of God is a sword. And if a man argued with me when I had a natural sword in my hand or a good sharp knife, if he argued with me that that sword was a fake or that knife wasn't real, he said as a believer I wouldn't do it.
But there would be a very practical way of demonstrating to him that it was real. Use it on him. And that's what we should do with the Word of God when we get into arguments and difficulties with men.
The Lord Jesus had the same experience with Satan when he was tempted of the devil.
And he simply quoted to him the word of God, and Satan was defeated. But it has to be the sword of the Spirit, wielded in the power of the Spirit of God, not to bring glory to me, but to bring glory to the Lord.
That's what Paul sought to do.
The Apostle Paul's weakness.
Was not something that was changed.
He said he was in weakness. That's a fact. He was in weakness and trembling in uh, Ephesians chapter 6.
I I don't know about others. When I was younger I always pictured the Apostle Paul as this kind of fearless.
Fearless preacher. But that's not the way he describes himself. And I don't think he's just putting words out there. I think he was genuine, genuinely in fear and trembling. And he asked the Ephesians in chapter 6.
In verse 19, he asked them to pray for him.
That he would have utterance so he'd be able to articulate the burden that the Lord had laid on his heart.
And that he would open his mouth boldly.
Naturally for him to do that, then why would he ask to be prayed for? But he was genuinely uh.
Recognized his weakness and, uh, was asking for prayer that he would speak boldly because he says that's the way he ought to speak. Verse 20. Because of his message.
Well, that should encourage all of us. If we feel like we have a burden from the Lord, but we're shaking and trembling and it ought not to stop us, we ought to speak in faith as He did. This was not the vessel that you and I would have chosen to reveal the highest truth.
Because the Corinthians said that his speech is contemptible. That is referring to the way he spoke. So this guy, he's not a very good speaker.
And you and I probably would not have chosen him, but he understood the principle as laid out in the verses prior to our chapter.
God doesn't choose the way we choose because then the man with glory.
He uses the things that are not to bring to, not to things that are. That's the principle.
One way that, uh, many of the crew identify with our subjects is that, uh, this world is trying to teach us how to bring up our children. And so we have here in our chapter the wisdom of men. And so they try to teach us how we should raise our children. And so, uh, Dan and I were at a prenatal class, uh, a few months ago and they taught us a lot of good things and a lot of ways to bring up their children and how to change the diapers or feed the child or whatever it may be.
00:20:18
But, uh, they also went further than that and they started teaching us how to raise our children. And at that point I said, oh, oh, oh, that's, that's not, that's not their place to teach us how to raise our child and screw in with the wisdom of men of how to take care of your children is also this instruction of how to raise your child. And, uh, that's just something that a lot of us need to be careful of both, uh, fathers and mothers as we read these things to help to.
Figure out how to bring up our children that we don't also swallow the wisdom of men in the way of raising our children, umm, when we should uh, be reading the word of God instead. There's a good verse in, uh, first Peter says connectionless, uh, actually second Peter chapter one.
Word 3 second Peter one and verse three according as his divine power.
Have given on to us all things that pertain us to life and costing it through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory and virtue. So from the word of God, we can learn how to raise our children just, uh, that one thing just to bring it right down to.
The level of the day-to-day, you know, you're up at 3:00 AM and you're trying to figure out what to do with this child and you know, they're, they're giving you advice on how to raise that. And so, uh, just a caution for those of us who are parents, so.
That's excellent, Howard, and I thank you very much. And coming from someone in your position that carries more weight because you've obviously heard it fairly recently.
An old brother now with the Lord under whose ministry I sat for many years, well, I shouldn't say many, but a number of years used to tell us, and it's very true, He said God's wisdom is not an improvement on man's wisdom. It is the exact opposite of it. God's wisdom is not simply an improvement on man's wisdom, it's the exact opposite of it. And uh, we will find that invariably in this world because.
Satan is the God and Prince of this world, and when he introduces the wisdom of man.
It will be the direct opposite of what God's wisdom is. God's wisdom is found in Christ and ultimately, of course, connected and found in the Word of God too.
So to expand on that a little bit, Bill, and if you need to qualify some of the things I say, feel free. But in verse two, it says I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And when you're talking about the exact opposite, Satan's objective is to minimize the Lord Jesus Christ, make him disappear out of our lives. And that's the sense in which it's opposite. His objective is to elevate men and himself into the position of God.
And it's in that moral sense that it's the exact opposite. Some of the things that I'm sure Howard heard in the course that he was taking are practical and wise things. And you'll find those same things in the Word of God, and you should listen to them.
But it is when it starts to go contrary to the Word of God. And I'm glad that Brother Howard has identified that some of the advice he would have been given with respect to rearing his children may be contrary to what the Word of God says. And it takes incredible wisdom in our day and age where there's so much in our society set against Christ and against the wisdom of God to know how to live our lives. The wisdom, as the Lord Jesus said, as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.
But, uh, where I'm coming to is that that I believe is the essence of the contrast that you're mentioning, that this world seeks to exalt man, and they do that by the assumption that man is innately good. And what do we learn in the scripture?
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none good. No, not one. That you don't hear from the world, That you don't hear from Satan. What do we hear instead in the Word of God? We hear what we have in verse 2.
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so that I believe is essential to understand that it is diametrically opposed to Christ and his right to God and what is morally right. And that's what we're seeing in the society around this is a drive towards everything that man does and everything that man wants without any constraints to the effect of lawlessness. And that's where the wisdom of man takes you to.
00:25:09
And it's a it's a apart from destruction.
It's already, it's been alluded to. I think it should be repeated because it kind of set the tone for what's before us is that man's wisdom and practical things here on the earth might have a place, but the biggest danger is when man's wisdom and intellect interferes with the word of God. And, uh, I believe brother Bill brought that before us. And, uh, that's what the Corinthians, they may take the gospel and.
The word of God and we're.
Using it in a sense, to exalt man's wisdom. And, uh, and it can be used that way.
But notice here the verse that Robert brought out is he was determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ. It doesn't stop there, he says, and him crucified.
That moment when the Lord was on the cross was the most shameful.
Time of all, the Lord's time here on the earth.
That was not something anyone would boast about. There's a man hanging on a cross. And so the apostle Paul brings it right down. This is what I want to know among you. The proud is this point, not only the Lord, but the Lord on the cross.
And that does away with boasting with pride with.
That's who we serve, that rejected 1 despise rejected, and he brings out not only the Lord Jesus Christ, but the the point in time when it was the most shameful.
Time and when you could have no pride in that.
And cross is also what brings out the judgment of this world, how opposed it is to Christ, and at the same time how that, uh, there's nothing in it to honor God in the world system that Satan has established through men here on earth. So I'd like to, uh, just take a moment and apply it in this sense, in terms of our Christian experience. And that is that sometimes we ask the question to ourselves. And I think in a sense it's a legitimate question to ask. We have to be careful about the answer.
How effective is our Christianity?
Are we getting people out? Are people getting saved? And the way that the tendency to measure that is a head count. How fast are the assembly is growing? How big is the work? I is, are things coming along? Another way to to measure that that people tend to do is how big is the revenue stream? How how big are the collections and, and what are we doing with resources? What's the return on investment? Now what I'm talking about is taking human wisdom and applying it to the domain of the Church of God. And it's a very natural thing to do.
But I believe it's contrary to the wisdom of God. So the natural thing to do when you see a church situation is you bring in an expert, a guy that's really good at marketing, and you get a lot of splash into the newspapers and you start drawing attention to your organization and you make sure you've got what appeals to people.
So what happens is you set aside the cross of Christ, the preaching of the.
The depravity of man and you start preaching perhaps prosperity and then you take out anything that would, uh, condemn anybody and you don't preach that. And you let all kinds of people, uh, just come in. And it becomes, if I can put it this way, a very happy kind of a social club. And I know that in Canada, probably more so in the United States, there's great concern in a lot of churches because there's only old people going to them and they're working on how to attract youth. And so you get the entertainment that is a, is presented there as the attraction to bring people.
And.
What ends up resulting Worst case, there's a church in Toronto.
Where they have amalgamated in the United Church of Canada and one particular church there has got a minister.
The minister is a publicly avowed atheist in a Christian Church, and this is allowed to continue. So that's the result of the wisdom of man. Yeah, you can do all kinds of things that would naturally appeal to people. But what you really need to do and what you really need to evaluate is, according to this chapter, is it a real work of the Spirit of God, like exists existed in the time of the Acts?
Are we recognizing that it's a day of small things and maybe that growth comes out of the Sunday school and maybe it's a 20 year project and not a six month project? And then how does God judge things later on in this book, in the next chapter, the chapter after it gives some of the ways that God measures success and God's looking at the quality and what's actually happening. So I, I just like to put that in front of you for your consideration because it's a temptation to look and look at the results, look at the head count, look at the revenue stream, look at the buildings and go, this isn't very impressive.
00:30:24
But what I I challenge you to do, as we consider this chapter, think about what is happening for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it a work of the Spirit of God that's happening, or is it something else? And what is really valuable to God is that work of the Spirit of God?
I was just thinking of how important this principle is and uh, I'd rather have been saying this over and over again about the fact that the things of God, the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world is directly opposed so much that the Lord said in Luke chapter 16, He said that the, that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination of the in the sight of the Lord. But we don't naturally think that way. And it's really important that we get a hold of what is said here.
And that we see this from the word of God itself, and that we accept it by faith because our natural minds don't agree with what's being said here. Mine doesn't. But the Word of God says this. And actually the conclusion of this whole section, I think lays it out very clearly. If you just skip over to chapter 3 and verse 18, it says let no man deceive himself if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world.
Let him become a fool, that he may be wise, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So there it is directly stated in the Scriptures that this principle that has been stated here this morning is true.
And we need to accept that by faith. Do we think we have some wisdom that we can bring from our natural experience or things we've learned in this world that we can introduce in the things of God that are somehow going to be an improvement to it? It's not going to work is somehow.
We're finding that we're not making real progress in learning the Scriptures, or maybe it's because we haven't become a fool like it says in these verses. We need to delay that aside. We need to take up the word of God and see what it says and.
Our hearts and obedience to it and just seek, simply seek to do it. MMM.
Yes, man's wisdom will always exalt man, and every false doctrine, without any exception whatsoever, exalts man to some extent and takes away from the glory of Christ.
And that, of course, is why false teaching is so popular. That's why if someone has said it goes around the world, well, the truth is still getting its boots on. It's just very, very popular because it exalts man. And, and we are finding that. And again, we don't want to spend all the time on negative things. There's plenty positive in this chapter, but sometimes a warning is needed and it was needed in Paul's day for the Corinthians. Uh, I would just add one comment because sometimes this expression.
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Has been taken out of context to try and prove that there's no need to go beyond the knowledge of salvation, no need to enjoy the higher truths of Christianity. Uh, all you need to know is just the fact that you're saved and you know Christ is your savior and that he died for you. You don't need to get into anything else. That is not what those verses or those words mean. Paul was the vessel chosen of God to receive the precious truth of the assembly. He was the one who gave us.
All the counsel of God as we get in the 20th of Acts. And so in no way is he trying to rundown the enjoyment of higher truth. In fact, later on in the chapter, it's more the emphasis on how he communicated that truth.
In the beginning of the chapter, it's how he preached the gospel. Toward the end of the chapter, it's how he ministered the truth.
And he ministered both in the same way. But it is not meant to, uh, cast any negative view on those higher truths that he would give to believers. Oh, no, Sad to say, of course he had to tell the Corinthians, I can't, I can't give you strong meat yet You're, you're carnal, you are worldly Christians. You're not ready for it. You haven't matured yet. You're not ready for that strong meat. But he wanted to give it to them if they were in a right state to receive it.
00:35:06
And there is power in the Spirit of God.
Our brother said it's a day of small things, and indeed it is.
Indeed it is, and we have to recognize that in the last days we are not going to restore things to the way they were in the Apostle Paul's day. We can't pretend to the power of Pentecost, and it's a mistake to do so.
In Revelation chapter 3, John says to Philadelphia, Thou hast a little strength.
But the emphasis is on keeping his word and not denying his name.
But it's not necessarily a day of small things everywhere in the world. Is that right, Tim? There's blessing in some places. In some parts of the world where some of us have visited, there are those who preach the gospel. And there has been, on the average, a new assembly started every year. And they're building meeting rooms, not having to wonder what they're going to do with an empty one. And so the Lord is working, and there's tremendous blessing in some parts of the world.
And I say it on the one hand with joy and on the other hand with sadness, that there are areas of the world where some of those dear brethren, I believe, are taking the crown that could belong to those.
In Western countries who have had the truth at their disposal for many years and are giving it up and those dear brethren are taking hold of it or it's taking hold of them would be more accurate. And so I just, I only suggest, recognize that it's a day of small things, but don't think small. God never tells us to think small. And our brethren of past generations would say when the ruin of the church is recognized.
On the other side, there is no limit to what the blessed Spirit can do when He has the liberty to do so. Only it needs to be done with the recognition that we're living in the days of the ruin of the church, and so don't think small in the things of the Lord.
But recognize that it often is a day of small things.
I believe what Howard brought before us before eventually, uh, advice that the world can give to young parents.
It was excellent and I think it not only applies to that, but also to many other areas, marriage counseling and, and, uh, how to run a business and, and all kinds of aspects of life.
And often there are. There's been many books threatened to even.
By Christians, but when you take a look at those at those books, if you just peruse through.
You don't see much reference to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to the things that we have been talking about. Uh.
Last since the beginning of this meeting.
It's a lot of human wisdom even on the part of Christmas. And I believe that that somebody has already said, I think it was Robert Peyton wants to take the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the even in the lives of human, we cannot take away our salvation like.
His face are are focused from focus being on the Lord Jesus move it away to into that human wisdom human and it sounds very good.
But he's removing our focus from the Lord Jesus on the human wisdom.
I'd like to just add a little bit to that and expand on it a little bit in this sense that.
It's important to recognize that the wisdom of the world is opposed to the Lord Jesus and to God, but it's also important that we pay attention to the wisdom of God that's in the Word of God. It's not good for us to be ignorant and unwise. God has given us His book so that we can learn from it. So in verse two, we've been talking about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Just taking that as an example, what can I learn about marriage from Jesus Christ and him crucified?
So Ephesians chapter 5 teaches us as husbands.
To love our wives as Christ loved the church.
And that's he was willing to go and die for the bride, his church. And it is a hard thing for a husband to be willing to die daily for the sake of his wife.
00:40:04
For me to be willing to give up my aspirations, what I wanted to do today for the sake of something my wife might need or want.
Now let's take the other side. That's me. And we kind of think of that as love. We think of that as the husband's role. And if he does that, everything's going to be wonderful in marriage. Not so.
Because not every wife is naturally responsive or godly or whatever. She she has things to learn from the word of God too. What does she learn from this second verse with respect to her marriage, Jesus Christ and Him crucified? What does that mean? What's that talking about is submission.
God wanted Christ to go to the cross, and he submitted to that desire. He said not my will, but thine be done.
As a wife, how willing are you to submit to a fairly unreasonable hustle and.
Are you willing to do it for the sake of Christ? And so that's where the wisdom of God comes into it. We need to understand how to apply these things in our own lives because the wisdom of God brings happiness and joy and obedience. And, and one of the things that we can have, if we pay attention to the word of God and we obey it, we can have absolutely wonderful relationships, husband and wife. And we've been talking about children. That's a great foundation for bringing up children to have that joy in our relationship. And then your children will want the same thing.
And if you grew up in a family where that wasn't modeled, you don't know it.
The way to and the place to learn it is in the Word of God. How do I apply this verse to my role as a husband?
Do I learn from? So it's one thing to say, yeah, we don't want the wisdom of the world. There's snares and it's going to turn us away from God. Yes, But are we paying attention to how to apply the word of God, how to put Christ into practice in my own life?
In the power of the Spirit.
That's just excellent, Rob, Very, very good. And we should always be careful not to allow what we witness against to eclipse what we witnessed for.
So Paul says in verse.
Six we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.
It's been mentioned before, but it's good to repeat it that the word perfect here has the sense of being mature or full grown. Now every believer is an instantly full grown, but it should be something that we as believers aspire to. Does that mean that I know everything about the truth of God in order to be full grown? No, no, that isn't the thought. The thought of being mature is to have an understanding of what God is doing.
In that particular dispensation in which our time is put.
I could say it in Old English in the time in which our lot is cast, but we don't talk that way anymore.
Uh, so Abraham could be told walk before me and be thou perfect. Did he know anything about the church? Did he know anything about Paul's ministry? No. But in the day in which he lived, God expected there to be an understanding of what God was doing and for Abraham's walk to be in keeping with it. That's what being.
Mature or full grown means I believe for you and me, and so do I understand that I'm living in a day when God has chosen to call His church out of every nation, every race, every ethnic group, and so on. For what? For heavenly blessings, For heavenly glory. That we are to be separate from this world. We're not to be conformed to it. That the church has a heavenly calling. That was what Paul sought to minister to.
To minister that precious truth, and that's why he could say to.
More than one assembly to whom he wrote, he could say, be followers of me. Why? Because he never made any mistakes? No, but because his life was patterned after a risen Christ in glory.
And here he was, walking in this world, following a rejected Christ and having his eye on coming glory.
Those who have that attitude are in a position to receive and live out the wisdom of God. And that's, I believe, what Howard was referring to. Yes, I can learn much when I go to school how to do math.
I can learn history, I can learn computer science, I can learn many different things, but when it comes to moral and spiritual subjects, this is where the wisdom is, isn't it? And in Christ.
Just say an application of this verse 2.
00:45:02
In verse six we speak with him among them that are full grown as you said.
If back in verse, umm, excuse me, it was speaking about the time when the apostle preached the gospel to them, Now he's speaking about what he taught them now as Saints. And I'm saying this because there are some who say our only role on earth is Christians is to go out and preach the gospel. But we don't find that in the word of God either. It's just a thought that some have. It's really important that we are together.
At times like this, our assembly readings, our times when we can just be together discussing the Word of God as Christians because there is much we need to learn as Christians. All the Christian life isn't about giving the gospel to the lost.
It's important if that is, and so we do see in these verses that the apostle did both first he was with them and the weakness in trembling, just presenting Jesus Christ and him crucified. I don't believe, as Brother Bill said, that brings the whole thought of Christian truth in there, but here it is now He's among those who are perfect and he's speaking not the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of God verse heaven and the mystery. And this springs out the whole council of God. There's so much that we need to take in of the wisdom of God through the Scriptures as Christians.
And it's important that we are together to do it, or that we have that time where we can hear what the Lord is going to teach us as believers.
To emphasize what you're saying to him.
It's interesting to observe in First and 2nd Corinthians how the Apostle Paul was willing to change his plans for evangelization in order to have a positive income outcome in the uh, church, in Cor, in the assembly, in corps. He was uh, that was his priority to him was to see them go on in a way that was honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, it's a wonderful thing to have the Spirit of God indwelling us as believers and of course also dwelling collectively among believers as the House of God. This chapter emphasizes that, although.
If we could put it this way, it doesn't really develop it. It's developed more fully in Ephesians, but here it is mentioned the Corinthians weren't ready for its development, but Paul brings it before them, I believe, in order to show what they were missing.
And to encourage them to be mature, to be.
Uh, shall we say perfect believers in that sense, to lay hold of what God was doing, because the Spirit of God dwells within us, wants to minister those things to our souls. My duty, my responsibility is to remove the hindrances so that he can work. I remember our late brother Clarence Lundgren used to use the illustration, he said.
If I have an apple tree in my backyard, I don't have to go and somehow, uh, teach that apple tree how to produce apples. If it has sunshine, if it has good nutrients in the soil, if it has water, that's what it naturally does, but I can deprive it of things that will hinder its producing apples. I could throw a big tarp over the tree if I had, depending on the size of the tree, if I had a big enough tarp, and that would prevent the sunlight from reaching it and it wouldn't do its job.
That is, the tree wouldn't. And so he said with us often there are hindrances, but God has far, far more in Christ for us through the Word of God and through the Spirit of God ministering it to our souls.
Than anything in this world. But of course the wisdom of this world has an appeal to the natural man.
And as we well know, no man having drunk old wine straight, we desireth new. What does he say? For he saith, the old is better.
And that's, I must say, I speak personally to my own heart. How many times I've had to recognize that where I have been drinking, as it were, old wine, and then suddenly the appetite for the new isn't there and I have to go back to the Lord and recognize that I've allowed an appetite for things out there in the world to spoil my appetite for the things of the Lord. But it doesn't change God's desire. It doesn't change the fact that the Spirit is still there waiting to have me judge those things that are hindering His activity.
So that once again I can have the enjoyment of Christ and the wisdom of God as we have here given to me for my pathway.
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The apostle says that directly in chapter 3, the first verses, doesn't it?
I don't know if we'll get that far in these readings, but we'll bring bring it out a little just in case we don't. Well, that was the problem. He puts it in terms of meat and milk, doesn't he? So chapter 3, verse one, he says, I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but it's.
Hunter, carnal, fleshly, even hunter babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with me. No doubt he wanted to give him those deep things of God, the things that we have in Ephesians, but he couldn't yet. And that's what he says here. For hitherto you were not able to bear it either yet or now. Are you able? You are yet carnal. And then he goes into why the strife and everything else that he's taking up in this epistle that was hindering their growth as Christians.
But I think it's very important to recognize that that there are things that come into our lives, things that we allow. The wisdom of man is one of those things. Fleshly things abound that we can allow into our lives that would hinder our growth in spiritual things.
And so where the Lord wants us to have meat from His Word, we're just not able to take it. And that's something we ought to be exercised about. What is that in my own life that is causing the Word of God to be unfruitful there?
I umm, I'll look for your forbearance. I've had trouble hearing. It's not, it's not the sound system. It's my, my own hearing problem. So, umm, but this chapter that we're in in verse.
Five, he speaks the reason why he approached them with the message the way he did. And it was so that their faith would not be in man's wisdom and the power of God. And we're speaking about the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man as if it has to do with what's being said. And, and admittedly it usually does, but I think in the first verse he indicates that he could have brought the same message in a different way.
He brought the message to.
Clearing unto them the testimony of God, but his emphasis is on how he did it right, how he did it, and he didn't bring it in. Uh, as many of us when we were younger, trying to speak to others, trying to convince them of the truth, we were bringing them the right message, but we're trying to use our intellect and, and man's wisdom and enticing words to bring the message. And the apostles saying, I didn't do that. I didn't come to you bringing the message that way. So it had less to do with the message and more with how he was bringing it.
And I would just say especially for the younger ones, but I think to all when it says that their faith should be in the power of God. And he says in verse four, he used the demonstration of the spirit and power. I'll just say this, all real spiritual power comes from submission.
All spiritual power that's real comes from submission. Anything else is natural power, even when preaching the Word of God.
It is only when we're in submission to the Spirit of God and practically in submission to our brethren. That is where real power comes from, real spiritual power, and it comes from nothing else.
Yes, and true Christianity makes nothing of man, doesn't it? True Christianity makes nothing of man and everything of Christ. And so if Christ is exalted, man becomes lower and lower. John the Baptist expressed it well when he said he must increase, but I must decrease. And so the more Christ is exalted, the more man is insignificant. And we find that brought out not to go on, but just to mention it that.
Paul answers all the attacks in court later on, and especially in the second epistle. By that very principle. They said, as it were, Paul, you don't amount to much. Your bodily presence is weak, and your speech is contemptible, and there's nothing about you that's very impressive. Paul, as it were, says in so many words, Well, brethren, if that's what it takes to make Christ exalted, that's fine, because I didn't want you to look at me anyway. And so he takes the low place.
Utter dependence on the Lord for His power. Spiritual power, not natural power.
Not natural oratory, not high sounding words.
Brother Harry, whom some of us remember, told us that his mother.
SAT sometimes under the ministry and I don't like to bring out a lot of names, but he told us this in reading meetings. He said my mother had the privilege of sitting under the ministry occasionally of Mr. Darby and she had heard a lot about him and heard about his knowledge of the word, which was more than most. And she went to hear him give an address and she said I came away. At first she said I was a young woman and I was a little disappointed. I was expecting a real.
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Servant. I was expecting something really impressive.
But she said I wasn't at all disappointed in what he said. It was as Ted was bringing out, it was the way he said it that was disappointing, she said. When I read his ministry I had to read it three or four times to grasp what he was getting at. But when I heard him speak it was very simple, easy words, nothing difficult, not high sounding rhetoric. Why? Because he didn't want to attract to himself. And I have no doubt.
As was brought out earlier, that it was not just a conscious saying, no, I'm not going to use that big word or something like that. There was a real fear and a trembling that somehow S would get in the way of Christ and His exaltation. And I believe that was the same way with Paul when he says his Ted was bringing out, he was trembling and in fear. He wasn't just putting that on. It was real. He really felt that there was a danger of his getting in the way.
Of whatever the Spirit of God had to minister, and it had to be said in such a way.
That it didn't attract the Paul, it attracted to Christ.
In the wisdom of God and the power of God, not the wisdom of man. It's interesting you bring that verse out, Bill, what John the Baptist said, because if you look at the context, what John the Baptist was referring to when he said he must increase and I must decrease was his following. Yes.
I know that some have kind of applied that burst of my I must personally decrease and enormous, but what John the Baptist was referring to was his following because his disciples were concerned that people were starting to follow him.
So John the Baptist said, well, he is the bridegroom has the bride. I'm just a friend. I rejoice. He must increase, I must decrease. He was referring to his following.
Good.
It's interesting to consider the power of God. It's easy to read those words, but actually think about what it means.
God said, let there be light.
That's an incredible expression we're just all used to like, ever tried to make light?
We can't even comprehend how to do it.
God spoke, this whole world came into existence. It's incredible. And then we consider things that you can't see.
How did God take all my sins away?
I couldn't undo one of the things I'd done. And yet the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sins. That's the amazing power of God. And then think about what the future holds. In my Father's house are many mansions, but we're not. So I would have told you, the Lord Jesus ascended off this earth, disappeared into the clouds. That's power.
And he's coming again in power and majesty. There will be whole armies destroyed by the word of his mouth, by the word of his power. It's incredible. That's the power of God. And that is what the Spirit of God, through Paul is saying. This is what's available.
And so it's a real challenge to each one of us. To me, what's getting in the way of that power?
Sometimes at, uh, events like this at the conference will show up on the first day and I'll look around the room and who's sitting on the front row and say, wow, this is going to be a good conference and.
And I think those rooms appreciate brothers have gifts and so on. But I think what we see from the 1St.
Full of trying to bring out the 1St chapter. And then this chapter is when it comes down to it, when we're really looking around the room and we're looking at our brothers and saying wow, that he has a real gift and that was his parents. They're not looking for the Lord to bring us out. We're looking to our brothers.
And sometimes we're guilty of that when they pull up for the Lord for everything.
Make one comment too at the end of verse 6.
I suggest that that last clause is sometimes misconstrued. It says, yet not the wisdom of this world. That is, Paul speaks the wisdom of God among them that are perfect. He says, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the Princess of this world that come to not. And then in the end of the eighth verse it says, For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
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Some have thought that that simply means if they'd only understood the results of crucifying the Lord, oh, they wouldn't have. If, if they'd only understood what they were doing and what God was doing, then they wouldn't have done it. No, that's not the thought. The thought is if they had known the consequences of the finished work of Christ, the heart of man was so contrary that it would deliberately and willfully thwarted God's purposes.
In order to prevent the blessing. But they didn't understand it. And So what did they do? Him being the uh, by the determinate counsel of God, delivered by the determinate counsel of God, what ye have crucified and hanged on a tree. Man carried out what was God's plan for the wrong reasons, but if he'd known that he would afford God's plan just to be contrary.
And that just emphasises what we were saying before, that the heart of man, the wisdom of man, is always the opposite of God's wisdom when it comes to moral and spiritual things. And if we recognize that, we won't have any confidence in it.
Sometimes we say I don't understand everything in Scripture. There are many things I can't understand. That is true. And if this is a book of God and it is, and it is conveying truth from an infinite God.
Then it's, if I could use the term, it's not unreasonable that there are things in it that are beyond reason, not contrary to reason, but beyond reason. They have to be accepted by faith. And that's where the wisdom of man comes into the things of God. Because man says I will understand it. I have a good mind. Even as a Christian, I want to wrap my mind around this particular thing. And then that is where the error starts. We'll get to that later on in the chapter.
But I, I just point out that the natural mind of man, the Princess of this world, they had wisdom, but it comes to nothing because man can never rise above himself. If he wants to know anything beyond himself, he's dependent on divine revelation. And that's where we get it, in Christ and in the Word of God.
So I would just suggest in verse 7.
That the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom.
Is not exactly the mystery of Christ in the church, although there is a connection.
Rather, the mystery here, the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, I would suggest, is rather the fact that God was going to bring about the blessing of man and the ultimate removal of sin from this world.
And the defeat of Satan and the exaltation of his beloved son by having that same son come into this world and do what come riding, as it were, on a White Horse, and going forth to conquer. Not right away, no, rather going in, as we've already had, into the most shameful death that the heart of man could devise, and being despised and rejected in this world.
In order to accomplish God's purposes, in order to redeem you and me from the effects of sin, in order to bring us into blessing. That, I believe, is the force of what it says here, the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom.
Yes, that was all thought out, if we could say it reverently in the counsels of God in a past eternity, but it was a wisdom that was not revealed to the heart of the natural man. No going on in the chapter, it says.
Uh, the natural man verse 14 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. You try and tell the things of God to the natural man. He says I don't, I don't believe that. I don't want that. That doesn't commend itself to me. You tell me that I have to be saved by believing on a man that was ultimately mistreated and hung on a cross. You tell me that's the way I have to be saved. No, I don't want that.
No, and sad to say, and brother Rob was bringing it out, Satan has done a good job of reducing Christianity to the level of a worldly religion that appeals to the natural man, even to the point, as you mentioned, Rob, and I had heard that before, not in Canada, but in England, where there is a man, an ordained minister, who was an avowed atheist, and yet here he was a minister and a Christian Church, and that was fine. Nobody complained about that. That was quite OK.
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The authorities who ran that denomination were well aware of it and that that that was OK. And now that's an extreme, I admit. But we just say that once man's mind starts to work in moral, moral and spiritual things, that is ultimately where Satan will take it if if he's allowed to. And so.
Here we have the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom. What does that do? Ultimately, it makes Christianity the mustard seed in this world, not the great tree that it has become. God never intended that it should be the great organizations of this world that are in Christianity. Now, does God work through them? Sometimes? Yes, he does. God uses anything that has to do with himself as long as there's anything of himself left in it.
But that doesn't mean that that is what God intended, Christianity was intended, and properly is the following of a rejected Christ.
And that will never be popular, even among believers.
So we've had, uh, Paul, he was, uh, a natural and a trained orator. And we see some of his speeches as we read through the book of Acts.
But then he had a thorn in the flesh. He was made weak. He talks in our chapter here about he was with you in weakness.
And feared much trembling.
He didn't come to them in his natural.
Abilities, his trained abilities like he did to Festus and Agrippa and so forth. But in Philippians chapter 3.
And verse 7:00 and 8:00.
He says, but what things were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ. He was willing to give up those things that made him important in this world. Verse eight he doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them but down that I may win Christ. If we want to be of use to the Lord, we may, we may be, we may need to be willing to give up.
Some of our natural abilities, some of our trained abilities and so that we can be used for Christ, the Lord Jesus himself. He was the Lord of glory and in chapter 2 of Philippians in verse the end of verse 3.
We see, he says, in loneliness.
Of mine let each esteem other better than themselves. Verse five. Let this mind be in you, which was also.
In Christ Jesus and so the Lord of glory, he was brought low in weakness, brought to the cross, and now we go on following a man, Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's not a a it doesn't make us look important in this world, does it? It's humbling to follow a man who is ridiculed and mocked and crucified the shameful dead and.
If we're going to follow Christ, we may need to give up a little bit of who we are in order to follow Him.
172.
10-4.
Oh 1.
01:10:12
Uh, can I have a compliment to you, please? Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.
MMM.