WWUTT 1446 Mystery Revealed (1 Corinthians 2:7-9)

There is a plan that God has predestined. He didn't just take circumstances and use them to the best of his ability to make a good situation come out of it.

Everything that has taken place, he ordained when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, studying

God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians 2.

Once again, I'm going to begin by reading verses 1 through 9 in the Legacy Standard Bible.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with superiority of word or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the witness of God.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

And my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the

Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are being abolished.

But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which

God predestined before the ages to our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood.

For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

Last week we finished with verse 6, yet we do speak wisdom, Paul says, it's not a wisdom that comes from man, it is not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are being abolished.

In other words, it's not from the teachers of the world, whether they're standing in the synagogue or in the marketplace spouting off their

Greek philosophies, or in our present day, whether they're at the universities or standing at the political podium, or they're typing out their nonsense on social media, wherever these worldly philosophers might be.

These are coming to destruction. They are being abolished. This knowledge will not carry on and it will not endure.

We speak God's wisdom, Paul says. This is verse 7. We speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which

God predestined before the ages to our glory. Now where Paul says we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, he's not saying we're speaking these things very mysteriously, very metaphorically, kind of almost in a poetic sort of a way.

So you can't even understand what we're talking about. You have to use your imagination to know what we're saying. That's not what

Paul means. God's wisdom, rather, was in a mystery. It was not known until it happened.

And now what we proclaim as the gospel is something that has taken place. It's not something that happened by chance.

It wasn't random. It wasn't something that God did not foresee or it was just a circumstance that took place and it was like God's going, oh boy,

I just did not expect that my son was going to die. Let's see what I can do with this here and I'll make the best of this situation.

This is something that was predestined before the ages, including the present evil age to our glory.

This was part of God's plan. He is working it out for our salvation and ultimately to his glory that we would be glorified with Christ, with him forever in glory.

This wisdom of God was mysterious and has since been revealed. And we have come to believe it and understand it through the preaching of the gospel.

Paul says we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. The wisdom of God was hidden.

Now it has been made known. This reference to mystery comes throughout the scriptures. Most recently, as we were going through Romans, we finished up the book with Paul in his final doxology talking about the mystery of God in the gospel.

So in Romans 16, verse 25, it says now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal

God to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ.

Amen. That's how Paul finishes Romans. And the interesting thing about that is, you know, what

Paul talked about there over the course of Romans was some really, really deep theology, things that were not understood or known until Christ gave it to his apostles to make it known.

Well, until Christ spoke it and then did it first and then opened the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures that's in Luke 24, right before Jesus ascends into heaven.

And then he commissions the apostles, his disciples to go out and preach to the nations to reveal to the nations that which was a mystery kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings been made known to all nations.

That's what we have in the gospel. Everything that was foreshadowed in the old Testament has been fulfilled in Christ.

And this gospel proclamation that he who is the son of God, who took on flesh, who died on the cross, who rose again from the grave, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

All who believe in him will reign with him forever. This wonderful gospel message has now been revealed and proclaimed through the apostles as Jesus commissioned them to do.

In John 14, he promises the helper, the Holy Spirit, who will come to them. And he says, this is

John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

And he goes on to say later on in verse 25, these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

So on the on the Friday edition of the broadcast where I answered that question about the book of Enoch, and I said that the book of Enoch was not divinely inspired.

It was not by the Holy Spirit of God that this particular work was written. It's a pseudepigraphal work, meaning fake name.

It was not written by Enoch. It was written by somebody else, but it gave it the name Enoch to give the book some credibility.

But it is it is not actually inspired by the Holy Spirit because the

Holy Spirit would not have led somebody to lie and put a name on there that that this work did not come to.

When Jude quotes Enoch in his letter, he's not quoting the book of Enoch. That book is a lie.

He's saying something that the Holy Spirit gave to him. And then I quoted from Second Peter, chapter one, where it says that all prophecy has been given to us by God.

It came not from the will of man, but from God, who led the writers to write what they wrote as the

Holy Spirit guided them to write it. So what the apostle Paul is proclaiming to the Corinthians, what he first came to them proclaiming was not a wisdom that came from the world.

It is the wisdom of God that was previously mysterious and has since been revealed. And Paul comes to them not speaking words of eloquent wisdom or superiority of knowledge as he talked about at the beginning of the chapter.

But he did this in weakness. He proclaimed to them in weakness that their faith would be according to the power of God and not because they were impressed by the words of of some intellectual man.

Their trust is not in man, but in God and the wisdom that was hidden.

God predestined. So it was it was hidden. We didn't know what it was until it happened.

But even when it happened, the disciples didn't really understand what had happened. Hence why when they're talking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, they don't even recognize him.

Jesus has to open their minds to see him and to understand the scriptures. This mystery revealed not just that it was spoken about or that it was prophesied, but that we would understand what the prophecy meant and that it all pointed to Christ.

And he is the fulfillment of all of these things. This is all by the power of God that we have come to this particular knowledge or to this wisdom.

But it's not so even though it's something that has happened and then the meaning of it has since been revealed.

It doesn't mean that God was using circumstances and kind of messing with them to ultimately bring about something good.

He predestined this. All of this has occurred exactly as he had decreed it would from before the foundation of the world.

God predestined before the ages to our glory. Consider what the apostles prayed in Acts chapter four.

I'm going to begin right at the start of their prayer. Acts four, starting in verse 24, sovereign

Lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father,

David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit. Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant,

Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the

Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant,

Jesus. There's, there's this prayer that the apostles pray asking for boldness from God in Acts chapter four, verses 24 through 30.

What a beautiful prayer. And as the apostles had been persecuted for their faith, they put their trust in the sovereignty of God for everything that came upon the son, the very son of God, his persecution and his death.

All of this was predestined to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Even the evil that Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the

Israelites, the evil that they perpetrated, the greatest evil that has ever been committed by man, the crucifixion of the son of God, even this evil, the hand of God had planned and predestined to take place right here for our glory.

Because if we believe in Christ and what he has done and what he has accomplished through the cross, through his resurrection, we are saved.

If Jesus had not died, we would not be saved. We would be cursed. We would be going to our own destruction. That's everybody who came before Christ and everybody who comes after him as well.

The cross is the pivotal point of all of human and cosmic history. It all revolves around what happened at Calvary.

And so our faith in what Christ has done and what he has accomplished, it is by this faith that we have been saved.

By grace, you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no man may boast.

And of course, I'm quoting from Ephesians 2 there. It's in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

He mentions mystery quite a few times. He says in Ephesians chapter 3, so going on right after that, that reference there in chapter 2,

Paul says, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

How the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly.

So Paul did not. He didn't pal around with Christ like the other apostles did.

So those apostles saw and Jesus opened their minds up to understand what they had heard from the prophets and what they had seen with their own eyes.

For Paul, it was revealed to him by by a divine revelation. It was

Jesus appearing to him. It was actual conversations that he had with Jesus by divine revelation.

He goes on in verse four. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

This mystery is Paul goes on in verse six. The mystery is that the

Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Nobody understood how this was going to work until Christ came, died, was resurrected, commissioned his apostles to go out and preach the gospel.

Nobody understood how the Gentiles were going to be reconciled unto God. The Israelites, the Jews, they thought that it was going to be through the nation of Israel.

Whoever blesses Israel will also be blessed. Whoever curses Israel will also be cursed. After all, that was the promise that was made to Abraham.

But it's by faith in Christ that we become covenant children to Abraham. And it is through Christ that we are the true

Israel. The true people of God are those who are in Christ Jesus.

As Paul had said previously in Romans 3 22, there is no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

There's one people of God, not two. There's not one plan that's on hold so God can work out this other plan and then he's going to pick up the first plan later.

This plan that God has predestined before the ages began to our glory is that we would be reconciled to himself through faith in Christ.

Jew and Gentile. That is the only way anybody is ever saved by faith in Christ and what he has done on the cross and through his resurrection of the grave.

Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 2 8 to say, none of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the

Lord of glory. If they knew Jesus was God, they would not have crucified him.

That's a very simply what Paul is saying here. If they knew what the plan was and so then Jesus shows up and they're going, oh, the son of God is here.

Well, then they wouldn't have crucified him, but they didn't know. So they put him to death. Anybody who does not know

Christ does not know the plan, does not have the wisdom of God.

Whoever hates Jesus reveals that they do not have the wisdom of God. If they had known the wisdom of God, they would not hate

Jesus Christ. But those who hate Christ do not know God. In fact, they hate

God. They hate Jesus because they hate God. Jesus said this in John 8, beginning in verse 42.

If God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what

I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

Loving Jesus is more than just saying, I love Jesus, or I'm a

Christian. A lot of people I encounter all the time who claim that they're a Christian, but they have no evidence in their life of that whatsoever.

You show that you are of Christ when you obey what he has commanded. Again, going back to John 14, 15,

Jesus saying to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talking about those who love me will do the will of my father. And we read in Luke 9, 26,

Jesus said, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels.

And my friends, the word of Christ, the words of Christ are not just those that are in red in your

Bible. It's every word that is in black and white. Every word of the

Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is the word of Christ. He commissioned his apostles to go out and speak truth.

We are reading from the apostle, are we not? The apostle Paul proclaiming here, we speak

God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood.

For if they understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it is written, and this is a quotation from Isaiah 64, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

So once again, as we've spoken earlier, going through first Corinthians two here, we would not even come to know this knowledge, this mystery of God that has since been revealed, if not for the

Holy Spirit of God that transforms the heart so that we might know it so that we might obey it.

There are many who will proclaim to be of Christ, but are not truly followers of Christ. Do they follow his word?

That's how you know if a person truly is a Christian. We read in first John chapter two. I'm going to start reading here in verse 15.

This will be my closing passage here. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world.

The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Once again, we talk here about the rulers of this age are being abolished and none of the rulers of this age have understood the wisdom of God.

The world, this age is passing away along with all of its worldly desires, but whoever does the will of God as revealed in his word abides forever.

Let me go on here. Verse 18, children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrist have come, therefore we know it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

But you have been anointed by the holy one and you have all knowledge.

So you have those people that do not think that the Bible is the word of God and they do not do what it says.

Well, they are demonstrating that they are going out from the words that have come through the apostles and prophets that God has appointed to speak his word.

If they knew God, they would listen to his apostles and prophets. But remember what

Jesus said in Luke 16 31. If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this great mystery that has since been revealed to us through your son, through the apostles whom he has sent written down in this word that we might behold the mystery of God, which has been given for our glory, that we might be glorified with him, enthroned with him, worshiping

Jesus for all eternity in that place that has been prepared for us, where there will be no more death, no more evil, no more sin, no more temptation, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more grief for all the former things will have passed away.

There's so much about this that even still seems mysterious to us now, but we hold fast to a promise that has been spoken to us through your word and testified to us by your holy spirit in our hearts.

May we look forward to that day, looking all the more to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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