Sunday Morning Service

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I Corinthians 2 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"How Do They Not See This?"  •  9.9.12  •  Sunday Morning Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- God's church in Corinth had sidetracked themselves, having become impressed with human philiosophies couched in clever addresses.

- In the market place of ideas, their gospel was just too simple. Consequently, there was a movement in the church to dress it up in order to compete.

- However, by their supposed elevation of the gospel to the level of human philosophy, they were in fact, emptying the gospel of it's effectiveness!

- What made the gospel so different from worldly wisdom and philosophy and since it is so great, why is it that the world does not embrace it? Paul answers these questions here. God's wisdom

I. Opposed To Worldly Wisdom (v.1-5)

II. Originates In Eternity (v.6-10)

III. Only Available By The Holy Spirit (v.11-16)

Text

I. Opposed To Worldly Wisdom (v.1-5)

• I Corinthians 2:1,2 : "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." : Paul arrived in Corinth with the following conviction: I'm not going to bring elevated speech or the conventions of sophistry.

- If you were to review his message at the Aereopagus, you would see his obvious capabilty.

- Paul had the knowledge and skill to compete with any public speaker of the day, but that was not his aim. He wanted simply to testify, to witness to God!

- He stood before them as "exhibit A" with a testimony to the reality of God. I imagine Paul speaking passionately, but never in a way that compromised the message.

- The testimony of God is that His Christ, His Annointed One is the sole vehicle by which humanity can experience His salvation!

- Paul's firm and final determination was to focus himself on the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified! "Forget about everything else! I want to share about Jesus!"

- His was a conscious, determined course of action, acting as an ambassador, not as a salesman! He simply had a message to deliver. He did not need to "sell it."

- That was what the Corinthians needed and what we need to decide as well.

- Too many people are sidetracking themselves and others with secondary issues!

- The issue before the world, the issue that will change a life and determine a destiny revolves around Jesus Christ!

- This is opposed to all that the World wants to make salvation about, but God has made it the issue! He is THE issue and we would do well to join Paul in his resolve!

• I Corinthians 2:3-5 : "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." : Far from being an impressive man, Paul entered Corinth in weakness, physically! Additionally, he was in fear or dread.

- Paul observed the wickedness of the city of Corinth and surmised that there was pending danger. Before Athens, he had been violently expelled for the gospel by the Thessalonicans.

- The infirmity and fear may have stemmed from not being fully healed from the last beating!

- According to Acts 18:9,10, Paul was so seized with fear that Jesus had to pay him a visit in the night. His fear led to trembling, the word speaking of quaking. Paul was shaken up!

- This should encourage each of us. The Apostle Paul was not immune to human fear.

- On the contrary, Paul was afflicted with much or many kinds of fears. Whatever fear one could have related to life, Paul experienced that.

- Additionally, Corinth was one of the only places that he went alone to.

- Never underestimate the power and the provision of God in the fellowship of fellow believers!

- You and I really need one another! I need the strength of your prayers and the wisdom that has been gained by your experience in Christ!

- It was during that time of fear, in that state, that he took the high road and chose not to endear himself to his hearers by choosing popular methods!

- If he had just acclimatized himself to the current trends, he might have gained popularity and potentially a larger following. He could've made a name for himself!

- There is always a temptation to bend to the current trends. Thankfully, Paul did not do this, even if to alleviate his stress. Why not?

- He explains that he did not come with enticing words filled with emotional impact. In that day, as in ours, speakers are prone to use words and phrases that are loaded with manipulation.

- Paul knew that if he used such method, he would get an immediate response, but not reap lasting results! Therefore, he left the church of God in Corinth with a demonstration of God's power.

- Paul relied upon the Holy Spirit's power to touch. He wanted a genuine work of God that transcended style points. He wanted God's Spirit to speak to hearts through the simple message.

- Do you see how this goes against the grain of the world's wisdom? "Let's convince them!"

- "Let's focus on positive aspects of Christianity. Let's aim to be a social institution."

- He wanted them to experience the conviction and the power of God's Holy Spirit changing them, bringing them to a proper realization of the depth of God's greatness.

- Why? So that they would put their faith in the reality of God's power!

- He wanted them to develop a taste for the authentic goods, so that they would be spoiled for anything else! Many today would rather have the fake, the temporary, the flashy.

- Paul would not think of giving the Corinthians that choice! He wanted them to have what endured and what would sustain them through every storm.

II. Originates In Eternity (v.6-10)

• I Corinthians 2:6-8 : "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." : The method of the world revolved around slick presentations. It sounded wise to the uninitiated. That was not who Paul was addressing. He addressed those who were mature.

- Those who are complete, fully grown in Christ would understand that Paul's words were wisdom that had come from God, not that which had come from this age or this period of time.

- Paul's words resonated with those who knew God. That knowledge grew in them unlike the wisdom of this age, which was coming to nothing, literally being rendered useless!

- The world's wisdom comes to nothing, in that it leads to no moral change and that it changes with every new discovery!

- The Apostles brought the wisdom that had not been considered before: Jesus!

- The rulers of this age did not conceive of the wisdom that was before them in the person of Christ. They could not have known because it was hidden in God, ordained before the ages!

- God had hidden it away before this world was ever created, before man even existed!

- Christ was and is the reversal of all that men could think of. Had men of that time known what God's wisdom was, they would have made Jesus their King!

- Instead, because they were ignorant, they crucified the Lord of glory! Their wisdom excluded Jesus, marginalizing and abusing Him just as the world does today.

- "He was a great moral teacher" or "An amazing example," anything but the "Lord of glory!"

• I Corinthians 2:9 : "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" : Paul is quoting from the Septuagint version of Isaiah 64:4. This wonderful hidden wisdom was always in the plan of God, but was never approached by men!

- By mere sensory perception, it was impossible for men to put it together. People saw miracles, heard teaching, but their hearts were unmoved! Those that loved Him, saw and heard!

- After the 70 had returned from their mission with a glowing report of God's activity, Jesus rejoiced and gave thanks that the Father had revealed this to babes and not the wise. (Lk. 10:21)

- What wonderful things God had prepared for us! This word "prepared" was used of the King's work force, who would level the roads prior to his visit.

- Our redemption, our justification, our sanctification, our union with Christ and ultimately our glorification! He paved the way and made it so!

• I Corinthians 2:10 : "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.'" : Here is an exceptionally important verse for us to consider. Men's wisdom had not conceived of God's eternal wisdom.

- Truthfully, we would, with our natural mind, never have seen it either! Rather, we receive it because God has revealed, unvelied it through the agency of the Holy Spirit!

- The Holy Spirit reveals the hidden things of God because He searches all things. He closely examines all things, having all access, even to the extreme depths of God's wisdom.

- He shows to us God's deep secrets! What a privilege that we have, to open the Word of God, knowing that with the Spirit's help, we are mining the very mind and heart of God!

III. Only Available By The Holy Spirit (v.11-16)

• I Corinthians 2:11,12 : "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." :  The NLT helps us to undertand the flow of thought in verse 11: "No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit."

- Everybody is a mystery to everyone, save the person to himself! Only you truly and wholly know yourself! Your spouse may know you intimately, but never wholly and completely.

- In the same way as our human spirits know who we are, God's Spirit knows God and the Christian community has been given the Spirit of God!

- God's wisdom is a mystery still hidden to the World, but the Christian world is filled with the knowledge of it, transmitted to us by the Spirit of God, through the Word of God!

- Corinthians, you may be impressed with the World's wisdom, but it is the wisdom from God that you should be impressed with! God has given us His Spirit that we might know.

- He wants us to have assurance. He wants His people to know what He desires for them.

- He wants us to know His favor toward us! The Holy Spirit works in us to reveal that to us!

• I Corinthians 2:13 : "These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." : Paul claims nothing less than divine revelation here. You did not have a human teacher. Your teacher is the Holy Spirit! I might be the one speaking, but it is the Holy Spirit teaching!

- What you hold in your hand is the inspired word of God, captured by the Apostles, given to the church so that they might compare spiritual concepts with spiritual words.

- God is granting us spiritual experience and has given us something spiritual to test it by!

- The believer receives words of wisdom from the Lord, direction from the Holy Spirit, who can then turn to God's Word and find a corollary.

- "How does this advice match with God's Word?" "How does this feeling match what has been revealed?" The Holy Spirit will never direct in a way that causes contradiction!

• I Corinthians 2:14 : "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." : The Corinthians needed to understand that there was a reason why Christianity was so peculiar and why it didn't fit in the world's philosophy.

- They had been trying to fit it all together for some time, but the natural man, the unregenerate person, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God! He does not have a receiver!

- An unconverted man has no way of converting the signals that are sent and even if he begins to get an idea, the enemy comes and snatches them away!

- He does not receive or hold a hospitable view toward the things of God's Spirit. He does not welcome them as they are! Why?

- Because the Holy Spirit points to Jesus and the necessity of believing upon Him, repenting from sin and giving oneself wholly to God's use!

- The natural man chafes against such notions. They are foolish to him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.

- He cannot arrive at them. He cannot know them intimately. The truths that God holds out for believers are scrutinized through spiritual lenses.

- His Holy Spirit dwells in you and is the One who mines the truths of God, leading us into all truth, giving us the discernment to understand.

- Someone without God's Spirit reads the Bible and understands nothing redeeming. They know the words and can appreciate the style of literature, but the Bible's premise is lost on them!

- If you have ever wondered why it is that your unsaved relatives don't understand the Bible you gave them for Christmas, this is why! "But it's so clear if they just read it!?" No, it isn't!

• I Corinthians 2:15,16 : "But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For 'who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ." : God's word and wisdom are spiritually discerned. A person who is spiritual can evaluate all things that God has revealed.

- You are able to look at the world around you and understand things through the eyes of God's perspective. You can assess the philosopher's doctrines and see the errors clearly.

- When that philosopher turns to do the same thing to you, he cannot rightly make the same assessment! You make no sense to him! He cannot reconcile what he sees!

- Paul quotes again from Isaiah 40:14. It's interesting because the section deals with God's inapproachability. Who can instruct Him? Who can tell Him what to do?

- What human philosopher or instructor without God's aid, can lead you to better live your life before God? How can they lead you in a righteous way?

- They cannot because they know less than you do! Corinthians, you've been listening to the world and you are impressed by their seeming sophistication, but you have the mind of Christ!

- We think like Him because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, constantly, freely unloading on us that which the world cannot begin to understand! You have the mind of Christ.

- It could as well be written, "You are in present and final possession of the mind of Christ."

Conclusion

- What is Paul's point? Don't look for the world to endorse the wisdom that has saved you and will save others!

- God's wisdom is opposed to theirs, it originates in heaven and is only available through the Holy Spirit! Don't marvel that they cannot see it and don't make the mistake of trying to fit Jesus in.

- He does not fit in. He destroys earthly philosophies and religious ideas which exalt men for their performance! God's wisdom exalts Jesus for His performance alone.

- That is the gospel we speak, we believe and we trust to bring souls into the Kingdom!