Man's Knowledge vs God's Wisdom

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

3 views

0 comments

00:00
Well, let's remain standing and open our Bibles and we're going to turn to the 2nd chapter of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2, beginning at verse 6.
00:21
We're going to read down to verse 13, but I'll let you know we're probably only going to in our exposition get through verses 6-9, but we're going to read down just to ensure that we understand the context and the flow of Paul's thought.
00:43
1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6 says, Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
01:06
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
01:11
But as it is written, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.
01:22
These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
01:28
For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
01:37
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
01:46
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
01:59
Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
02:02
And as I seek now to preach Your Word, I pray that You would keep me from error.
02:08
For I know, O God, that I am a fallible man.
02:11
I am capable of preaching error, and I do not want to for the sake of my conscience and for the sake of the hearts and minds of those who are listening.
02:20
And I pray, God, that today as Your Word is preached, that Your Spirit would be present with us, that He would be the teacher, and that He would apply the truths to the hearts of the hearers.
02:33
For as this very text teaches us, Lord, it is the work of the Spirit alone who can teach us the Word of God.
02:41
And You use the means of preaching to proclaim the truth, and the means of the Spirit that that proclaimed truth might be received.
02:54
So we know that without the Holy Spirit, all preaching is in vain.
02:59
So we welcome Him, we call upon Him, and we ask Him to be with us now as we study in Christ's name.
03:07
Amen.
03:08
Amen.
03:09
You may be seated.
03:21
Outside of the Bible, there have been few other books that have made such an impact on Christianity as a whole and the Christian worldview as a whole as a book written by John Bunyan called The Pilgrim's Progress.
03:43
Next to the Bible, according to Charles Spurgeon, he said, Next to the Bible, the book I value most is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
03:50
He says, I believe that I've read it at least a hundred times.
03:53
It is a volume which I never seem to tire, and the secret of its freshness is that it is so largely compiled from the Scriptures.
04:04
I don't want to ask by show of hands how many of you have read The Pilgrim's Progress, but I know that last year we had a donation of copies of The Pilgrim's Progress.
04:13
So if you've never read it, I would encourage you to read it, and if you don't have a copy, we still have some left of the ones that were donated last year.
04:21
But I bring up The Pilgrim's Progress because of this.
04:24
If you're unfamiliar with it, it's written as an allegory.
04:29
And every person and every place in the story of The Pilgrim's Progress is given a name that is somehow associated with that person's personality trait or that particular location's worldview or trait.
04:45
And so the person that the story is focused on is named Christian.
04:49
And Christian is on his journey to the Celestial City.
04:54
And on his journey to the Celestial City, he encounters various types of people, and each of the people are given names.
05:03
One is called Faithful, one is called Hopeful, Obstinate, Atheist, Money Love, that's pretty straightforward, Mistrust, Formalist, there's all these different names, and each one has a different meaning, of course.
05:16
And there's different places he goes to, the Interpreter's House, the Palace Beautiful, the Delectable Mountains, or the Valley of Humiliation.
05:24
He encounters many dangers, the Slow of Despond, the Vanity Fair, the Hill Difficult.
05:32
And Christian experiences times of mortal danger, he experiences times of refreshment and blessing, and all throughout the book it's an allegory of the Christian life, the things that we go through as Christians.
05:42
Times of great victory, times of great defeat, but all going toward that one end goal, that Celestial City of God.
05:51
And the allegory is, again, designed to help the reader visualize the Christian walk.
06:01
And the reason why I bring up this book this morning is because one of the men whom Christian encounters on his journey is called Worldly Wise Man, Worldly Wise Man, and you can imagine by that name just what kind of person Worldly Wise Man was.
06:21
He was presenting to Christian a worldly perspective.
06:25
You see, Christian has a burden that he's trying to have lifted, and so as he comes upon the Worldly Wise Man, the wise man says, would you mind if I gave you some advice? And Christian says, if your counsel be good, then I'll take it.
06:43
And so, as it reads in the story, he says, I would advise thee, this is the Worldly Wise Man speaking, he says, I would advise thee that thou, with all thy speed, get rid of thy burden, for thou will never be settled in thy mind till then, nor canst thou enjoy the benefits of the blessing which God hath bestowed upon thee until then.
07:04
So Worldly Wise Man was like, you've got to get rid of your burden.
07:06
You've got to get it off your shoulders, you've got to get that away from you.
07:11
And so Christian responds, and he said, that's what I seek for, to get rid of this burden.
07:20
But get it off myself, I cannot, nor is there any man in the country who can take it off my shoulders, therefore am I going this way as I told you that I might get rid of my burden.
07:30
And Worldly Wise Man asks, well who told you to go this way? Who made you go this direction? And Christian said, well the one who told me to go that way was Evangelist.
07:42
Evangelist has pointed me this way, and so this is the way I go, and listen to the Worldly Wise Man's response, and I read it as best I can in this ancient English as it is written, but I want to read it as written.
07:55
This is how he responds.
07:56
Worldly Wise Man says, avoid him for his counsel, there is not a more dangerous and troublesome way in the world than is that unto which he hath directed thee.
08:07
And that thou shalt find, if thou wilt be ruled by his counsel, thou hast met with something as I perceive already, for I see the dirt of the slew of despond upon thee.
08:17
But that slew is only the beginning of the sorrows that do attest these that go on in that way.
08:23
Hear me, I am older than you, thou art likely to meet in the way which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and in a word death and what not.
08:37
These things are certainly true, having been confirmed by many testimonies, and why should a man so carelessly cast away himself by giving heed to such a stranger? Now if that was a little hard to follow, this is basically what he said.
08:52
He said the Evangelist has pointed you in a direction, and I'm telling you that direction is hard, that direction is going to make you go through some trials and difficulties.
09:00
Why would you listen to him? You don't even know him, you don't even know that man, he's a stranger, and he's pointed you in the most difficult way possible.
09:08
Why would you trust a man like that, who's pointing you in the way that's going to be the most harsh? In fact, the language that he uses in the old version of the book is the word beshrew.
09:26
That's not a term we use very much in our modern English.
09:30
I've never used the word beshrew in a conversation, but what it means is to curse it.
09:39
To beshrew something is to wish a curse upon it, and that's what the worldly wise man says of the counsel of the Evangelist.
09:48
Curse that counsel! Curse it! May a curse be upon it! And in this way, Bunyan was mirroring much of what we see in the world around us.
10:05
You see, we stand in a world where we proclaim the message of the gospel, we call men to be reconciled to God through one way, and that is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
10:18
Be reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Jesus.
10:23
And while the wise of this world hear our message, they respond with haughty derision.
10:32
They respond as the same way that the worldly wise man did in the Pilgrim's Progress.
10:39
Curse that! Curse that as the answer! And this is what Paul is addressing in our passage for the study today.
10:51
You see, Paul is addressing the issue of the world's wisdom versus God's wisdom.
10:58
The world's knowledge versus God's infinite understanding.
11:05
Going all the way back to chapter 1, verse 18, he's already said the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
11:12
He's already made that statement, and that statement is sort of the thesis that follows through the rest of this argument.
11:17
He says, to the world, the word of the cross, to the world, the message of Jesus is foolishness.
11:26
And they're going to say, curse it, leave it alone, abandon it.
11:30
That is foolishness.
11:34
And so in the beginning of chapter 2, Paul indicates, he said, I came to you not with elegance of speech and not with worldly words of wisdom, but I came to you with a simple message, it was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
11:51
And in doing so, he proved to the Corinthians that the message that he gave them wasn't based in worldly wisdom, but it was based in the wisdom of God.
12:01
And at that point, someone might say, why does Paul hate wisdom so much? Somebody might say, you know, Paul said, I came to you without wise words, I came to you without a message of eloquent speech, I came to you with a simple message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
12:22
And somebody might say, he says right here, I did not come to you proclaiming the lofty speech or wisdom.
12:30
Somebody might say, well, what's wrong with wisdom? In fact, doesn't the Bible say we should want wisdom? In fact, doesn't the Bible say that if you lack wisdom, sell everything and buy it? If you can, it says that wisdom is more valuable than gold, right? So what's Paul got against wisdom? If the Bible tells us that wisdom is good and Paul tells the Corinthians, I came to you not with words of wisdom, what's the problem, Paul? Why would you not come with wisdom? The Bible says wisdom is a good thing.
13:15
Well, this is where we get in verse 6.
13:18
That's all of that to be said, takes us to verse 6.
13:22
Because look at what he says.
13:27
He says, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom.
13:34
You see, from chapter 1 verse 18 down to chapter 2 verse 5, he's been decrying a certain type of wisdom.
13:41
And he's been talking about the fact that when he came, he didn't come with that type of wisdom.
13:45
But now he's going to say something that's so important for us to understand, and we cannot miss this.
13:52
He's saying, but we do impart wisdom, but it's not the wisdom of the world.
14:02
In fact, he calls it, he says, we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away.
14:15
If you look back at verse 5, you'll see that he says, your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
14:22
The wisdom of the men in verse 5 is the wisdom of this age in verse 6.
14:27
It's essentially worldly wisdom.
14:30
That's the context, and that's the meaning of that phrase.
14:34
When he says, we do impart wisdom, but not the wisdom of this age, what he's saying is we do impart wisdom, but not worldly wisdom.
14:47
Now, what is that? What is the wisdom of this age? What is worldly wisdom? Well, I want to be honest.
14:54
When I was thinking about this week, I was trying to think, how can I get this across? How can I get people to understand what Paul means here when he says worldly wisdom? Because I think oftentimes we do tend to allow there to be a bleeding over between God's wisdom and man's wisdom, and oftentimes I think we put man's wisdom above God's wisdom.
15:16
Because we'll read something in the Bible that tells us one thing, and we'll find something else to believe that's different, and we'll say, well, that just seems more wise to me.
15:26
I mean, there are so many things in the Bible that tend to go against our nature because we're human, and we're sinful, and we have that nature that we don't like it when the Bible tells us to turn the other cheek.
15:38
We want to throw the other fist.
15:40
You know, we don't like it when the Bible says if a person asks you to go one mile, you go an extra mile.
15:45
We don't like that type of wisdom, and so we find ways around it.
15:49
We find ways out of it.
15:51
We find ways to change it.
15:53
We find ways to make it fit us rather than making us fit it, and therein lies the problem.
16:02
But like I said, I want to talk about something here because this is important.
16:05
When Paul says that he's not imparting a wisdom of this age, he's not saying, and this is key, he's not saying that men know nothing because, to be honest with you, and Paul would agree, and I think anyone would agree, men do know a lot.
16:30
In fact, we're made in the image of God, and we have a grand capacity for knowledge.
16:35
In fact, if you, John MacArthur made this point, he said, you know, Paul is not repudiating knowledge here, and men have amassed a lot of knowledge, and he points out the fact that we're not looking at men's wisdom, but that doesn't mean men don't know anything.
16:55
I want to give you an example.
16:56
If I was looking for a mechanic, I might try to find a Christian mechanic, but my first concern would be I find a good mechanic, a mechanic who knows something about working on cars.
17:08
Now, if he was a Christian, that'd be all the better, but I want to first know that he's a good mechanic, and so I say that only to say this, men do know things.
17:17
In fact, we have so much knowledge now, it's incredible.
17:21
We know so much.
17:23
I was thinking about this as I studied.
17:25
I thought about the fact that when I was a kid, we used to play a game, and maybe some of you did.
17:31
I don't know, I grew up in the 80s, so this was kind of a new thing, I think, but there was movie quotes were starting to become very popular, and people were quoting all these very famous, John Hughes and all these other movies were out, and people would start quoting movies, and we would play a game where you'd quote a movie, and the other person had to guess what the movie was.
17:51
You know that game's obsolete anymore, because all you got to do is type it into Google.
17:55
Everybody knows everything now.
17:57
Knowledge is at your fingertips.
18:00
Knowledge is everywhere.
18:01
We carry around devices in our pockets that are computers that would, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, would have filled a room this size with the amount of information that's right now in my pocket.
18:12
And by the way, I did have somebody ask the other day, are you checking text messages? Never.
18:16
What I'm doing is I'm recording the sermon, and that's why this is in my pocket.
18:20
And every once in a while, I can't help but to look just to make sure it didn't get shut off, because I move my hands around.
18:25
So forgive me, but know this, I've never checked the text message while I was preaching.
18:30
Somebody asked, and I said, no, I would never do that.
18:33
My phone is off, except for to record.
18:36
But I mention this about the knowledge thing, because we have so much knowledge now, but let me ask you a question.
18:41
Has our knowledge made us more wise? In the grand scheme of life, have men become more wise? I would say no.
18:51
I would say, in fact, we finally reached a ridiculous point where we know more than we understand, and we're to the point where our knowledge has surpassed even our ability to communicate with one another.
19:12
Yesterday, I was having a conversation about gun control, because of the recent shootings, and this person was spouting off all these things, and I had to stop the conversation.
19:21
I said, let me ask you a question.
19:22
Do you know the difference between an AR-15 and a .30-06? And they said no.
19:25
I said, you really don't need to be in this conversation.
19:28
You don't know enough about what you're talking about to even be having this conversation.
19:33
But that's the thing.
19:35
There's just so much knowledge and so much ignorance intermingled.
19:43
And let me tell you something.
19:44
I heard a pastor say this this week.
19:45
He said, all the knowledge we've amassed has not made us any wiser, it has not made us any more moral, and it's not made our art any more beautiful.
19:53
And that last one may sound like it's simple, but let me tell you something.
19:57
Art does imitate life, and our art has become ugly, because we've stopped trying to imitate the Creator and make that which is beautiful, and now we throw dung on a canvas and we call that art.
20:13
It's not art.
20:15
And it's not wisdom.
20:17
It's not moral.
20:19
It's not beautiful.
20:21
And we've given up the beautiful.
20:24
We've given up the search for the wise.
20:27
There used to be a time when we looked at our ancestors as being wise and worthy of laud and appreciation.
20:39
Now, what does the modern generation say? They were so ignorant because they didn't have an iPad.
20:44
They were so ignorant because they couldn't look stuff up on Google.
20:47
They were so ignorant because they didn't know that the earth was not the center of the universe.
20:56
This is the first generation that I'm aware of that looks at its ancestors as being stupider than them.
21:02
Used to, we looked at our ancestors as being wiser than us.
21:07
And so I say all this.
21:08
This is what I'm talking about.
21:09
When Paul talks about man's knowledge versus God's wisdom, he's saying all of the knowledge that man can amass, all of the things that men can accomplish, all that men can create with all of their knowledge doesn't bring them wisdom.
21:24
Not the wisdom of God.
21:26
Not the wisdom of God.
21:28
The wisdom of God is imparted through his word.
21:35
And that's what he says here.
21:36
He says, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom.
21:40
Now, who's the we? Because notice Paul switches here.
21:43
He switches to him as part of a group in the conversation.
21:46
Who is the we that's imparting the wisdom? I'm going to give you my answer, and this is a answer what I believe.
21:55
I can't necessarily prove it exegetically, but I think in context, Paul is referring to himself and the apostles.
22:03
But more specifically, I think he's referring to himself and the writers of Scripture.
22:09
Because know that Scripture is being written right now.
22:12
And later in this same passage, he's going to talk about imparting knowledge, words.
22:18
And those words are the words that are written.
22:21
It's the words that we still have.
22:23
We have knowledge, and it's right here.
22:27
This book has been given to us by God, and this is wisdom from God.
22:33
Written down by men of God under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
22:38
That's what this book is.
22:40
This book is written to the mature.
22:45
Now, who's the mature? Now, don't be looking around saying, well, I know he's not.
22:50
No, don't do that.
22:51
That's ugly.
22:55
The word mature here, I do not believe Paul is talking about a special class of Christian.
23:04
Some people might argue, well, in chapter 3, he's going to talk about those who deal with the flesh, and those who are spiritual, and those who are carnal.
23:10
I don't think that's the context here.
23:13
I think the context of the word mature, which can also be translated perfect, I think the context here is the context of the believer.
23:22
Because if you read it like this, and Paul says, but to the believer, we do impart wisdom.
23:27
Because this is the person that God has changed from being a lost person to a saved person.
23:34
From an unregenerate person to a regenerate person.
23:37
And to that person, we do give wisdom.
23:40
To that person, we do impart wisdom.
23:43
Because God has made them able to receive it.
23:46
You see, next week, when we get further in the verse, he's going to tell us this.
23:50
The natural man receives not the things of the spirit.
23:53
You see, there's a problem with us.
23:55
We can't receive these things until God changes our hearts.
23:59
But when God changes our hearts, we become mature.
24:04
Not mature in the sense of perfectly sanctified, because guess what, none of us are there.
24:08
You could be a Christian for 5 minutes, you could be a Christian for 50 years, and you're never going to be perfectly sanctified until you die and go and be with Jesus.
24:15
Your perfect sanctification hasn't come yet.
24:17
But your maturity, your perfection in Christ has come.
24:20
It comes at the moment you believe in Christ.
24:22
It comes at the moment you're born again.
24:24
You are in Him, you are given the Holy Spirit of God, and your eyes are open to the truth, and you can now understand the spiritual things that before were absolutely repugnant to you.
24:37
Now, do you understand them perfectly? No, I don't.
24:41
And you don't either.
24:42
And we do grow.
24:45
We do become more mature.
24:46
We do move from the milk to the meat, as Paul's going to talk about in chapter 3.
24:52
But I think when he talks about the mature here, I just really believe he's talking about believers.
24:56
Because he goes on to say, Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it's not a wisdom of this age, or the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away.
25:03
And he goes on to say, in the very next verse, But we impart a secret wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
25:15
Who is that? Who is he talking about? He's talking about us.
25:18
He's talking about believers.
25:20
It's been decreed for us.
25:23
This knowledge has been decreed for the believer.
25:26
And it's a secret and hidden wisdom of God.
25:30
Now that verse, pardon me, that verse has been misunderstood.
25:37
And I think by some, even misused.
25:41
Because when they see the word secret and hidden, they think in some way the gospel is a mystery.
25:50
In fact, that's the underlying word for secret here.
25:53
In fact, some of your Bibles say mystery.
25:55
The underlying word here for that is the Greek mysterion.
25:59
And it means something that's concealed.
26:02
Some people think of that sort of like it's a detective type thing.
26:09
Almost like a whodunit.
26:11
You know, it's sort of like it was Professor Plum in the conservatory with the candlestick kind of thing.
26:17
And what happens is people start to read into the Bible like codes.
26:23
See, how many of you ever stayed up late at night and you'll see the commercial for the guy, order now and we'll send you a DVD of the secret Bible code.
26:33
And if you add up 66 and you divide it by 39 and you times it times 27 and then count all the letters starting at chapter 1 of verse 2, you'll find out what the real meaning of the Bible is.
26:48
Let me tell you very quickly, that's not the way the Bible is written.
26:51
And that's not what Paul means when he talks about the mystery that was hidden.
26:56
What Paul's talking about when he says here that we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory, what he's talking about is the gospel.
27:07
Because, let me explain this to you, and this is so, so important.
27:11
Even though the Old Testament points to Jesus, and even though the Old Testament saints had an idea that there was a Messiah coming, and that's why when Jesus came people said He's the Messiah.
27:24
They didn't understand everything that was going to happen.
27:27
In fact, I would say they understood very little of all that would happen with the incarnation, with the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, all of these things were hidden in the prophecies of the Old Testament.
27:42
They were concealed in those prophecies and now they've been revealed.
27:46
That's what mystery means.
27:48
It means something that was concealed and God shed the light on it.
27:52
God lifted the veil so that we could see.
27:56
I believe Abraham believed God and that's why he was saved.
28:00
But I don't know that he knew for certain that a man named Jesus was going to come 2,000 years after him and that Jesus was going to die on a cross.
28:08
Now I know he believed in God and he trusted the promises of God and the promise to God of Abraham was simply this, through your seed all the nations of the world will be blessed.
28:17
That was the promise and Paul tells us in Galatians that's the gospel.
28:22
He said that little statement was the gospel that Abraham believed.
28:26
So Abraham did believe the gospel but he didn't know all about Jesus.
28:30
He didn't know all that was going to happen.
28:32
In fact, I've said this before, some people get offended by this.
28:34
I say we know more about God than Abraham did.
28:38
Now I don't mean that we know God better because Abraham was called the friend of God.
28:42
But we know more about God because the revelation is more.
28:48
So we know more about the Trinity.
28:50
We know more about the nature of Christ.
28:53
We know so much more because that which was hidden was revealed in the Savior.
29:01
The Bible tells us when Jesus came he exegeted God.
29:06
That's what the word means in John 1.18.
29:09
It says that no one has seen God but the only begotten God who is from the bosom of the Father.
29:15
He has made him known.
29:17
And that word made him known means he has exegeted him.
29:21
He's explained him.
29:23
That's the mystery Paul's talking about.
29:26
There was things about the coming Christ that was unknown to the Old Testament writers even in what they were writing.
29:35
And yet when he came all of those things came to light.
29:40
Now when we look back at Isaiah 53 you know how we look at Isaiah 53? Through the eyes of the gospel.
29:47
Through the lens of the gospel.
29:48
When we look back at Psalm 22 we look at it through the lens of the gospel.
29:52
When we look back at Genesis 3.15 and it tells us that there's coming one who is going to crush the head of the serpent.
29:59
Who is that? It's Jesus.
30:01
And we look through the lens of the gospel of Jesus.
30:05
This is the mystery Paul's talking about.
30:07
And that's the wisdom that has been imparted to us.
30:11
And let me tell you something.
30:13
That's better than being able to work on a car.
30:16
That's better than anything.
30:17
That's better than any wisdom that any of us know.
30:20
It's better than knowing anything about any other subject in the world.
30:23
And if you know everything about everything and you don't know Jesus then you don't know enough.
30:28
Because you can be the smartest, wisest human being according to worldly standards and still be lost as a goose without Christ.
30:39
And that's why Paul tells us.
30:41
He says there was a secret, hidden wisdom of God.
30:45
And God decreed from before the ages for our glory.
30:50
The glory of the church.
30:52
You see the church carries this wisdom.
30:55
This secret, hidden wisdom that was secret and hidden is now wide and available through the church.
31:02
And it is ours.
31:06
Not that we would be uplifted and held on a pedestal.
31:10
That's not the glory he's talking about.
31:12
It's our glory in that we glory in the fact that God loved us so much that he gave it to us.
31:20
What did Paul say? I glory in nothing but in Jesus Christ.
31:25
That's what we glory in too.
31:27
And he says this and this is key.
31:30
Verse 8.
31:31
He said none of the rulers of this age understood this.
31:35
For if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
31:38
None of the rulers of this age understood this.
31:40
Because if they had they wouldn't have crucified Jesus.
31:44
Isn't that simple a thing? Think about the Pharisees for a second.
31:47
You think if the Pharisees knew who Jesus was that they would have hung him on a Roman cross? Now some of you are saying well maybe because they were some pretty bad guys.
32:00
If their hearts had been changed by the gospel there was at least one who was.
32:04
His name was Nicodemus, remember? And Nicodemus did not consent to Jesus' crucifixion.
32:09
And he did not consent to what was happening with him even though he was one of them.
32:14
Right? So we know that God did impart wisdom to some of those men.
32:21
But the majority of the rulers, whether it was the rulers of the Jews who didn't see him as the Messiah.
32:27
Or the rulers of the Gentiles, the Romans who saw him only as a political upstart.
32:32
No matter what they didn't see him for who he was.
32:34
They were devoid of the wisdom necessary to see him for who he was.
32:38
And as a result instead of praising him they murdered him.
32:43
And Paul is simply saying here if they had that wisdom they wouldn't have done that.
32:49
If they knew who he was they wouldn't have killed him.
32:53
But they did.
32:55
And let me tell you something.
32:56
There was no better theologian in the time of Jesus than the Pharisee according to worldly standards.
33:06
And there was no better philosopher than the Romans and the Greeks according to worldly standards in the times of Jesus.
33:12
But all of their theology and all of their wisdom and all of their philosophy did not tell them to not crucify Jesus.
33:21
In fact it called for his crucifixion.
33:26
And that's why man's wisdom will always be deficient when compared to the wisdom of God.
33:35
Now as I said we're not going to get in because verses 9 through 16 are going to deal with the deficiency of man.
33:42
And we're going to deal with this more next week about the fact of why can't man see it? Why does God have to do something miraculous for us to be able to see it? Because that's an important question.
33:53
It's a question that sort of deals some with reformed theology but just theology in general.
33:58
Why is it that you believe and your relative doesn't? Why is it that you came to Christ and they didn't? And you sat in church for the same amount of time as a child.
34:07
You listened to the same sermons.
34:09
You sang the same songs.
34:10
And they went to the right and you went to the left or vice versa.
34:15
But we're going to deal with that next week because Paul's going to talk about that.
34:18
Paul's going to talk about the fact that the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.
34:24
And the reason why you're here today is because God was gracious and saved you and opened your heart to believe.
34:30
And it's a work of God and not of you.
34:33
But before we get there I want to just finish today with a short outline of a few applications to draw from what we've learned about man's knowledge versus God's wisdom.
34:43
Remember man's knowledge is the focus in the wisdom of this world versus the wisdom of God.
34:49
So let's quickly just, I'm going to give you a few things.
34:51
If you want to write them down that's fine.
34:56
These are points of application from the text.
34:59
Number one, the wisdom of this world is always going to be at odds with the wisdom of God.
35:07
Hear that again.
35:08
The wisdom of this world will always be at odds with the wisdom of God.
35:16
Think for just a second.
35:18
Just for a second think about how the wisdom of this world is defined.
35:22
What are the most important questions that we have? What is our purpose? Where did we come from? How do we know right from wrong? Those are some of the most important epistemological or world view questions that we have.
35:38
Where did we come from? What is our purpose? How do we know right from wrong? What does the world say? What's the world's answer? Where did we come from? Darwinism says we came from a single celled organism that was birthed out of a primordial soup 4.5 billion years ago.
35:57
The Bible says God created us in his image, first man then woman, to bear his image and to glorify him.
36:05
They're incompatible.
36:07
Absolutely incompatible.
36:10
What is our purpose? The world gives us hedonism.
36:15
Do what makes you happy.
36:18
That's your purpose.
36:19
In fact yesterday having that conversation with that person, one of the things they said, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in the Bible, I just believe we should try to be happy and be nice to others.
36:29
Why? What if being nice to others doesn't make me happy? What if being a jerk is how I like to be? You see, it's not.
36:42
Maybe some of you disagree, but I hope not.
36:44
But the reality is that's the point.
36:50
You see, God gave us a conscience.
36:53
And even in the midst of that person saying to us, saying to me and my wife, Oh yeah, you just need to be a kind and nice person.
37:00
They're demonstrating that God gave them a conscience.
37:04
Because niceness and kindness doesn't build out of nowhere.
37:08
It comes out of a conscience that God's placed inside of us.
37:12
The world gives us hedonism, God gave us a conscience.
37:16
That said, you know what, sometimes what makes you happy isn't what you should do, because what makes you happy isn't what's best.
37:24
What about the question of right and wrong? The wisdom of men gives us relativism.
37:32
It says what's right for you can be right for you, and it might be wrong for me, and what's wrong for me might be right for you, and it doesn't matter, it's all relative.
37:39
If anybody ever tells you that there is no such thing as right and wrong, it's all relative, take their wallet and see how long it lasts.
37:48
That was R.C.
37:48
Sproul's recommendation.
37:49
He said, if they tell you that sin doesn't exist, steal their wallet.
37:54
Not for real, but he said, take their wallet and see how fast they say, no, that's wrong.
38:02
See, God doesn't give us relativism.
38:04
He gives us a word, and He gives us a law.
38:07
He gives us a moral standard by which to live.
38:10
And the world will always be opposed to that, because worldly wisdom will always be opposed to God's wisdom.
38:18
Just look at the most famous philosophers and sages and wise men of our day.
38:24
Who are the wisest men? Who are the men that are lauded for their intelligence? Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, considered by many to be one of the smartest men on the planet, second only to maybe someone like Stephen Hawking or someone like that.
38:42
Neil deGrasse Tyson has become famous for his intellect, and yet when asked about intelligent design, does the world bear marks of having been designed by an intelligent creator, he said, such a thing is absurd.
39:01
Bill Nye, famous television personality, degree in mechanical engineering, not a stupid person, but spends his life promoting things like atheism, transgenderism, climate change and everything else that's social and political, and the world eats it up.
39:23
Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist.
39:26
In his right, a brilliant man from the sense of worldly wisdom.
39:31
He compares God to a flying spaghetti monster, who is himself a moral monster.
39:38
According to him, one of the worst characters of historical fiction.
39:42
That's the God of the Bible.
39:43
This is how he describes the God of the Bible in his books.
39:48
You see now why I say that when we talk about the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God, they're incompatible? Because this is the best the world has to offer.
39:55
These are the highest, most erudite, most uplifted, wise men of the world, and God's word is absolutely opposed to them.
40:06
Number two, he said the wisdom of this world is at odds with the wisdom of God.
40:09
Number two, the wisdom of this world is appealing to the natural mind.
40:14
The wisdom of this world is appealing, always appealing to the natural mind.
40:19
People gravitate towards ideas that seem to uplift them.
40:23
They gravitate towards ideas that elevate themselves.
40:27
As a result, when they hear the wisdom of the world, they want that because they want to be elevated.
40:32
No one wants to be thought as a fool.
40:34
In fact, I had a guy recently tell me, he said, you know, you have to be careful what you're teaching because you don't want to be thought of as a fool.
40:44
And I said, I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
40:47
They already think I'm a fool.
40:50
I believe Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that he lived 33 years of a sinless, perfect life, and that when he went to the cross, he died for my sins, and he rose again on the third day, and he resurrected, and he ascended to be with the Father 40 days later.
41:03
Everybody who is a wise person of this world standards thinks I'm a fool already.
41:12
The wisdom of this world is appealing to natural men, and natural men want to be accepted.
41:18
They want to be appreciated.
41:20
They want to be uplifted.
41:21
And so, don't be surprised when your children go to college and they come back mesmerized by the philosopher who's behind the podium.
41:31
When they're mesmerized by the philosopher that's standing in front of the whiteboard with the grease pen, and he's writing all these things.
41:38
Don't be surprised when your children come home enamored by that, because that's what the wisdom of the world does.
41:47
It appeals to the natural mind.
41:51
That's what we do.
41:52
We combat that.
41:54
We battle against that, but we have to know it does happen.
42:01
The way children often turn off whatever they've been taught as kids when they get to college is dramatic.
42:08
We see it all the time.
42:10
Books are written about it.
42:11
And I encourage, if you're a child here and you're looking to go to college, you need to go to college with your mind ready to combat falsehood.
42:21
Not to drink it like it's water from a fountain.
42:25
Because I'm going to tell you, this is true.
42:27
I've sat in many college classes.
42:28
I have several degrees.
42:30
I've sat in many places where the guy who was standing up there, he was so ignorant and so confident in his ignorance, so proud of what he thought he knew.
42:46
Beloved, it's appealing to be appreciated by the intellectually elite, but if you're a Christian, you're probably not going to get there, because we believe things that the world thinks are foolishness.
43:12
Third and finally, and I'll draw to a close, the wisdom of this world cannot save the soul.
43:20
Now that's obvious, and to many of you that's rudimentary, but I just wanted to make sure you understand this.
43:26
The wisdom of this world is at odds with the wisdom of God.
43:28
The wisdom of this world is appealing to the natural man, but the worst thing about the wisdom of this world is it's deficient to save the soul.
43:38
I'm going to ask you this truly.
43:40
Children, teenagers, young adults, adults, senior adults, I don't care who you are, what does it matter if you know everything this world can teach and you don't know Jesus? In fact, the Bible asks that question, what does it gain a man if he should possess the whole world and yet lose his soul? Biology, calculus, psychology, all intellectual pursuits can have value, and I am not discounting the value of a good education, and I'm proud of those who seek to learn and seek to grow in their knowledge.
44:30
So please know I would never discount a good education, but know this, all of those pursuits in and of themselves are insufficient to save the soul.
44:39
And if you're here today and you're enamored with this world's wisdom, I want you to hear me, the wisest men of this world may teach you something, but apart from Christ they will never teach you the most important thing.
44:56
And here's the thing, sometimes what we have to be wise enough to know is not the difference between good and bad, or right and wrong, but right and almost right.
45:10
Good and okay.
45:14
It's not always right and wrong, it's not always good and bad, sometimes it's right and almost right.
45:18
And when you're almost right about Jesus, you're 100% wrong.
45:21
You can't be almost right about Him.
45:27
When Christian came into the path of worldly wise men, worldly wise men said, take that message and curse it and put it away from you.
45:40
My friends, if many of the world's wise men heard my message today, they would say the same thing to you.
45:46
Take that message, curse it, and throw it away from you.
45:52
But can I say to you that such thinking is not only foolish, but the very heart of evil.
46:00
God has provided a Son who is a Savior.
46:04
He's provided in Him all that we will ever need for life and for godliness, not just here, but in the hereafter.
46:14
And to have all the wisdom in the world, but to reject the wisdom of God, which is found only in Jesus Christ, is the very height of foolishness.
46:25
It will appear wise in men's eyes, and it will impress the intellectually elite.
46:32
But let me tell you this, you're not going to be judged by the eyes of men.
46:36
The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die, and then comes judgment.
46:41
And the eyes upon which you will be judged will not be the eyes of men, but will be the eyes of God.
46:49
Let's pray.
46:52
Father, I thank you for your word, I thank you for the truth, and I thank you for the wisdom of the gospel.
46:59
Paul tells us he didn't come with Greek wisdom, he didn't come with philosophy, but he came with wisdom, and it was the wisdom of the gospel.
47:08
Father, may we be enamored, not with the world's wisdom, but with your wisdom.
47:16
May we be moved, not with the wisdom of this age, but the wisdom of the age to come.
47:24
Father, I pray for everybody under the sound of my voice.
47:27
Lord, for the believers, I pray that they would be more enamored every day with your wisdom.
47:33
And Lord, for those who are here who have not come to faith, who have not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, who have not yet come into a saving relationship with your Son, I pray that today, that their scales would fall from their eyes, that the plugs would fall out of their ears, that they would see Christ as beautiful, that they would hear the gospel as wonderful, and that they would come to Him in faith.
47:57
Be made mature, be made perfect, be made whole through the gospel.
48:07
And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
48:10
Amen.
48:11
Let's stand together.