Sermon

The World Doesn't Get It...But You Can! | July 23, 2025

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. Would you turn in your Bibles please to 1st Corinthians

  8. chapter #2 First Corinthians chapter #2 Once you've done

  9. that, mark it and get to not Galatians Genesis chapter. #3

  10. because we'll go there in just a moment as well.

  11. We'll start in First Corinthians chapter 2, but then we will go

    1 Corinthians 2 chapter mention

  12. over to Genesis chapter #3. How does a person get wise?

  13. You know, it's an age-old question, isn't it?

  14. How does a person become wise? And I know we've talked a lot

  15. about wisdom over the last few weeks from First Corinthians

  16. chapter #1 but it does come upon us here in our text here tonight

  17. as well. How does a person get wise?

  18. Is it because they have a college education?

  19. Is it because they have a high IQ?

  20. Is it because they have lots and lots of books in their library?

  21. Is it because they watch an endless stream of lectures or

  22. Ted talks on YouTube? Is it by memorizing an

  23. encyclopedia? How does a person get wise?

  24. Well, I will say this, and you could probably attest to this

  25. with people you have met in your own life.

  26. Some of the wisest people that I have ever met are people that

  27. maybe never graduated from high school and some of the most

  28. ignorant. And frankly, I don't know what I

  29. want to say here. We'll just stick with ignorant.

  30. How about that? Some of the most ignorant people

  31. that I've ever met have their last names end with PhD.

  32. You know, it's not necessarily about how much education you

  33. have with how wise you are. So what makes the difference

  34. when it comes to wisdom? Well, I would attest to you this

  35. evening that the Bible talks much about this.

  36. We go to Proverbs chapter 2 verses one through 6, where it

    Proverbs 2 chapter mention

  37. says, My son, if thou will receive my words, and he hide my

  38. commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto

  39. wisdom, and apply thy heart unto understanding.

  40. Yeah, if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy

  41. voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and

  42. searchest for her As for hid treasures, then shalt thou

  43. understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

  44. For the Lord giveth wisdom. Hear me.

  45. The Lord giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh

  46. knowledge and understanding. Now, Paul talks about this very

  47. issue tonight as he continues his conversation about what real

  48. wisdom is all about. But the bottom line when it

  49. comes to wisdom, and really it's the place we've been getting to

  50. the last few weeks we've been looking at it, is that when it

  51. comes to wisdom, the world just doesn't get it.

  52. When it comes to wisdom, the world just doesn't get it.

  53. But the good news is. That you can and I can.

  54. And that's a blessing because it doesn't come down to the amount

  55. of books that you have or the education you have or the IQ

  56. that you may think that you have, whether you're a Mensa

  57. candidate or not, that it really comes down to this.

  58. If you are a child of God, the wisdom of the universe is

  59. available. To you and.

  60. That's an amazing prospect that we have.

  61. Well, let's go ahead and read First Corinthians chapter #2 and

  62. we'll read verses 6 through 10 this evening.

  63. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not

  64. the wisdom of this world, nor of the Princess of this world that

  65. come to not. But we speak the wisdom of God

  66. in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before

  67. the world unto our glory, which none of the Princess of this

  68. world knew. For had they known it, they

  69. would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

  70. But as is written, I have not seen nor are heard, neither have

  71. entered into the heart of man, the things which God has

  72. prepared for them that love Him. But God revealed them unto us by

  73. a spirit. For the Spirit searches all

  74. things, yeah, the deep things of God.

  75. And while the five verses that we just made read may seem a

  76. little bit like a repeat or retread of what we've looked at

  77. over the last few weeks, I believe that it just takes us

  78. even deeper into this issue of wisdom and the fact that if you

  79. are a child of God, wisdom is available.

  80. To you at the ready now. Wisdom has always been.

  81. A battleground between two distinct thought processes.

  82. In fact, consider this. The issue of wisdom was probably

  83. the very first battleground in human history.

  84. That's why I want to go to Genesis chapter #3.

  85. So why don't you turn there quickly?

  86. Save your spot here in First Corinthians chapter 2, but go to

    1 Corinthians 2 chapter mention

  87. Genesis chapter #3 and you know that in Genesis chapter 3 we see

    Genesis 3 chapter mention

  88. the fall of mankind. And so here in Genesis chapter

    Genesis 3 chapter mention

  89. 3, let's start in verse #1 we'll get right into it, because you

  90. have your place already. And it says, Now the serpent was

  91. more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had

  92. made. And he said unto the woman, Yay

  93. hath. God said, Ye shall not eat of

  94. every tree of the garden. What is Satan's first way of

  95. trying to get mankind's heart away from God?

  96. He says Yay hath God says, listen, when the word of God is

  97. questioned, it's in a bad place. Now I'm not talking about you

  98. questioning someone who preaches the word of God, the Bereans, It

  99. says in the book of Acts, we're always searching the Scriptures

  100. to see whether the things that Paul said were so no, we're

  101. talking about questioning God and questioning his word about

  102. whether he is real, about whether he is valid, about

  103. whether he is true. Yeah, hath God said, and Eve

  104. says, it says in verse 2, under the serpent, we may eat of the

  105. fruit of the trees of the garden.

  106. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the

  107. garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye

  108. touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the

  109. woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the

  110. day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and he

  111. shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

  112. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it

  113. was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one

  114. wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave

  115. also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

  116. So what does the Bible tell us here?

  117. That as Satan questions the woman about her relationship

  118. with God, and about this fruit that is there, he says this.

  119. He says, For God doth know that in the day He eat thereof, then

  120. your eyes shall be opened, and He shall be, as God's knowing

  121. good and evil. And here I believe we find

  122. perhaps Satan's greatest lie of all, perhaps his most

  123. foundational lie of all, which is this is that we can be

  124. independently wise apart from God.

  125. They had all wisdom. They had God, a relationship

  126. with him. They walk with him in the cool

  127. of the garden. The Bible says, but here is

  128. Satan and says this, He's holding back from you.

  129. He's withholding what you really deserve.

  130. Do you want to really be wise? Do you want to really know

  131. what's happening and what's going on?

  132. Here's what you need to do. Get a hold of that fruit.

  133. And he's withholding his very best from you.

  134. And his very first tactic, if you will, was this is that

  135. there's no need for God, no need for his revelation, that you can

  136. be wise of yourself. And by the way, there's a lot of

  137. people that think that way even today, don't they?

  138. That wisdom can be found apart from God.

  139. And the fact of the matter is, although people can be wise even

  140. if they don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior in certain

  141. aspects of their life, but when they are that way and they have

  142. knowledge and they have wisdom, it still comes from God because

  143. all wisdom and all knowledge flows from God and God alone.

  144. And so it says right here, here's the battleground.

  145. He says you can be independently wise.

  146. And listen, you can't be wise apart from God.

  147. We can be wise in our own conceits.

  148. We can be wise in our own thought processes.

  149. We can be wise in our own way of living.

  150. But there's no true biblical wisdom apart from God.

  151. Now go back to or go down to rather verse #15 and look at

  152. verse #15 very quickly with me, it says, and I will put enmity

  153. between thee and the woman, in between thy seed and her seed.

  154. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise its heel.

  155. Now this verse that we see right here in Genesis 36, let's try

  156. that again in Genesis 315. A great mystery has been

  157. revealed. At least this mystery has been

  158. presented. Maybe would be a better way of

  159. saying it. It's sometimes called the proto

  160. V, Proto V. That's proto vangelium.

  161. All right. It's right here phonetically in

  162. my notes, and I still can't get it right here.

  163. It's the first mention of the gospel in the Bible.

  164. That's why we just say it that way instead of what am I doing,

  165. Joe? All right.

  166. And so it's the first mention of the gospel in the Bible.

  167. But when you read that, it really, it's hard to maybe

  168. recognize that it's the gospel, isn't it?

  169. I mean, maybe the first time you read that you said.

  170. You know that. Doesn't really sound like the

  171. gospel to me, and I don't have time this evening to go into why

  172. is the gospel. I've explained it before here at

  173. the church, but I would tell you this, it's the very first

  174. mention of it, and it's a mention that is still quite

  175. mysterious, isn't it? There's a whole lot of more

  176. information that we don't know about.

  177. Do we know the name of Jesus Christ?

  178. Do we know that He is going to be Incarnate?

  179. Do we know there's going to be a cross?

  180. Do we know that He's going to shed His blood?

  181. We don't know that. What we know is a mystery has

  182. been presented to us here and throughout the Bible, and

  183. particularly that the Old Testament.

  184. This mystery is revealed a little bit more and a little bit

  185. more as we see prophecies are made.

  186. We find out that the Savior is going to be born in Bethlehem.

  187. We find out that He is going to live and that he is going to

  188. die, and Proverbs or rather Psalms chapter 22 talks about

    Psalms 22 chapter mention

  189. the smitten Savior and even give some of the words that were on

  190. the cross and that not a bone would be broken while he was on

  191. the cross. And so this mystery starts

  192. gradually being revealed until we find that Jesus himself is

  193. revealed as the one who was the actual revelation of that

  194. mystery. Romans 16 verse 25 and 26 Now to

    Romans 16:25

  195. him that is of power to establish you according to my

  196. gospel. And the preaching of Jesus

  197. Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which

  198. was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest

  199. and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the

  200. commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations

  201. for the obedience of faith. So what this is saying is there

  202. was a time in the Old Testament when there was a mystery that

  203. was unclear necessarily everything was going to happen.

  204. That's why people took it by faith in the Old Testament that

  205. there was going to be a Savior to come.

  206. But then Jesus Christ comes and he reveals himself.

  207. Now Can you imagine the day that He comes in that triumphal

  208. entry, the day that He's on that donkey, the day that they're

  209. taking palm branches and laying it down, The day that people are

  210. saying hosanna, hosanna, Lord save us all is taking place.

  211. And it's all because of a prophecy that was made in

  212. Zechariah Chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly.

    Zechariah 9:9

  213. O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold,

  214. thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation

  215. and lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the full of an

  216. ass. Now you say, OK pastor,

  217. everything you just said is true.

  218. I understand what you're saying, but what on earth does this have

  219. to do with First Corinthians chapter #2 And that's a fair

  220. question. But we're going to see in just a

  221. moment that this mystery is spoken of in the text that we

  222. just spoke, that we just read in First Corinthians.

  223. And the fact of the matter was, is that at that time there were

  224. two different responses on that day, wasn't there?

  225. There were people who believed Jesus was who he said he was,

  226. and there were people who said he's a fraud, he's an imposter,

  227. he's not God, he should die. There were two responses.

  228. May I submit to you that today there's still 2 responses to

  229. Jesus Christ. There's faith and there's

  230. unbelief, and from that there is wisdom and wisdom withheld or

  231. wisdom and wisdom avoided, or wisdom that doesn't want to be

  232. assimilated in the heart of the unbelievers.

  233. I want us to look at this here at our text as we see number

  234. one, that wisdom is a mystery. Number one, wisdom, there it is,

  235. is a mystery. Go back to First Corinthians

  236. chapter #2 there is some mystery that is associated with this

  237. issue of wisdom. Well, how could that be?

  238. Well, letter A, it's because wisdom is hidden from the world.

  239. Look at verse #8 it says which none of the Princess of this

  240. world knew. For had they known it, they

  241. would not have crucified the. Lord of glory.

  242. The wisdom of who Jesus was was hidden from the world.

  243. It was hidden from those who refused to open their hearts to

  244. the Spirit. Look at verse #14 But the

  245. natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for

  246. they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because

  247. they are spiritually discerned. Romans 1 verses 18 through 20

    Romans 1:18–20

  248. say. For the wrath of God is revealed

  249. from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

  250. of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that

  251. which may be known of God as manifest in them, for God has

  252. showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him

  253. from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being

  254. understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power

  255. and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

  256. What is being said here is not that God hid wisdom from someone

  257. in the sense that we don't want God said, I don't want you to

  258. see what salvation is about. I don't want you to know what

  259. the gospel is about. You can't know the gospel,

  260. remember that veers into Calvinistic teaching where some

  261. people are saved and some people are damned and God's the one

  262. that decides and free will is an illusion.

  263. No, no, this is not what's being said here, but that God reveals

  264. himself to all men and that there is a group of people that

  265. don't want to know God, that willfully do this.

  266. They don't want to hear, they don't want to know that they,

  267. they, they looked Jesus in the face when he was going into the

  268. triumphal entry and they wanted nothing to do with him.

  269. I can't fathom that. I'd like to think that if I saw

  270. Jesus during his earthly ministry that immediately I

  271. would have recognized who he was, That immediately I would

  272. have realized, wow, this is a man that I need to follow for

  273. the rest of my life and into eternity.

  274. There were those who looked at him in the eye and said I want

  275. nothing to do with him. There were people who wanted

  276. nothing to do with him where they saw him raise Lazarus from

  277. the dead. And the Bible says that some

  278. rejoiced and believed and others said we need to kill Jesus and

  279. Lazarus. I don't understand that other

  280. than there are people who are willfully ignorant, that they

  281. don't want to know God and they don't want to know the wisdom of

  282. God and it says they would have crucified the Lord.

  283. Of glory. That's a reference to.

  284. Psalm chapter 24 when it says who is this king of glory?

    Psalms 24 chapter mention

  285. And Psalm chapter 24 is a triumphal Psalm, much like Psalm

    Psalms 24 chapter mention Psalms 22 chapter mention

  286. chapter 22 is a Psalm of crucifixion and Psalm 20. 3 is a

  287. Psalm of the shepherd. Psalm 24 is a triumphal song of

  288. the the King, the sovereign being crowned, that king being

  289. Jesus, who is this king of glory?

  290. They looked at the King of glory and they said this, let's

  291. crucify him. That is the opposite of wisdom.

  292. That is the exact opposite of anything that could resemble

  293. wisdom. But you want something that

  294. makes your head spin the night you say, oh, pastor, nothing

  295. would make me happier on a Wednesday night after working

  296. all day to have something that would make my head spin and make

  297. me feel like I'm going underwater.

  298. So, you know, let's go for it anyway.

  299. All right, think about this for a second.

  300. God knowing that these worldly authorities that are mentioned.

  301. Here these Princess of the world, knowing that they would

  302. reject him, knowing that they would reject the mystery, he

  303. still used them to be able to fulfill his purposes.

  304. And he knew the free will decisions that they were going

  305. to make before the foundation of the world and used them to be

  306. able to secure salvation for you and me because that's how he

  307. went to the cross. He said, whoa pastor, could you

  308. repeat that on Sunday, maybe after I've had a few days of

  309. rest. Do you understand that God took

  310. the unbelief, God took the foolishness of the unbeliever

  311. before the foundation of the world, as the vessel of which he

  312. would go to the cross? He knew they would put the nails

  313. in his hands. He knew they would shout crucify

  314. him. He knew that they would spit at

  315. him and mock him and curse him and buff at him and put the

  316. crown of thorns upon his head. And God used them.

  317. Any way to fulfill his purpose? You want to talk about wisdom?

  318. That's a wise God. I can't handle myself.

  319. I can't figure myself out. Let alone a church, let alone a

  320. state, let alone a country, let alone a continent, let alone a

  321. world of 8 billion people and all the people who ever lived in

  322. God is. Over it all, that's the kind of

  323. wisdom I need. It's not the kind of wisdom that

  324. says, oh, God's not real. Oh, Jesus, he's, you know, he's

  325. nobody. You know, it seems very clear

  326. here that they have rejected the Lord of glory, and with that

  327. they have rejected wisdom itself.

  328. So these people, wisdom has been closed off.

  329. Sure, they can stumble upon wisdom here and there because

  330. all truth is God's truth, but they cannot truly know wisdom,

  331. no matter how much education, knowledge, books, or accolades

  332. they possess. However, there is good news for

  333. us tonight because I believe, you know, we know Jesus Christ

  334. our saved this evening. If you do, there's some very

  335. good news for you. And that's this, that wisdom is

  336. revealed to the believer. So while the unsaved have closed

  337. them off from true wisdom because they know not Christ,

  338. wisdom is revealed to you. And I look at verse #6 how be it

  339. we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom

  340. of this world or the Princess of this world that come to not?

  341. So Paul was talking about, remember speaking because we saw

  342. in verses one through 5 a couple weeks ago, the last time I

  343. preached from here, that he was talking about his manner of

  344. preaching, his manner of speaking, the way he spoke to

  345. the people at Corinth and when he went to other churches as

  346. well. But He says, howbeit we speak

  347. wisdom among them that are perfect.

  348. While wisdom is not truly available to the unbeliever, it

  349. is available for those of us who are believers.

  350. This is the good news that you don't need any of those things.

  351. I mentioned the beginning of the message that you need the Lord

  352. to be able to truly get wisdom. Colossians 126 through 28.

  353. Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from

  354. generations. Remember the mystery, That

  355. mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations,

  356. is now made manifest to His Saints, mystery solved, to whom

  357. God would make known. What is the riches of the glory

  358. of this mystery among the Gentiles?

  359. Which is Christ in you? The hope of glory whom we

  360. preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all

  361. wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in.

  362. Christ Jesus to those of us who were saved.

  363. It's mystery solved. Now we know who Jesus Christ is.

  364. We've trusted Him in our Savior, and because of that, now true

  365. wisdom can be accessible where it was not accessible to us

  366. before. Remember, true wisdom before was

  367. foolishness to us. That's chapter one.

  368. It was foolishness. But now that we know who He is,

  369. it's like, wow, this makes sense.

  370. That's why you can read your Bible after you get saved.

  371. You say, wow, this makes sense and you read it before you got

  372. saved. You said this is a bunch of of

  373. gobbledygook. I don't know what's going on.

  374. I don't understand it. I'm reading the words, but it

  375. doesn't connect to my heart. And now it does because you're

  376. saved and you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

  377. But there is a caveat here when it says that he speaks wisdom

  378. among them that are perfect. Now, if you're like me, you

  379. think of that word perfect. Do you think, well, I'm not

  380. going to be perfect until I get to heaven, right?

  381. Until we get to be with the Lord, we're not going to be

  382. perfect. But the way the word perfect is

  383. used here in the Greek is the word teleos, which means mature,

  384. complete or fully developed to be a mature believer, that

  385. that's what it's Speaking of here when it's talking about

  386. this type of perfection, not our ultimate perfection when we

  387. reach glory. So why is this important?

  388. If the mystery has been revealed to us, then we have to make sure

  389. to receive it that we are perfect or spiritually mature.

  390. Listen, the day you got saved, were you wise in all things?

  391. No. I mean, are we wise in all

  392. things now? No, I think the answer to that

  393. is pretty clear. Even for the believer, maturity

  394. is necessary because if we are not mature and we are not humble

  395. in the way we approach the Christian life, then we're not

  396. able to receive the wisdom that we need.

  397. Listen. If you think you know

  398. everything, then you have no need of wisdom.

  399. But in the Christian life, we have to get to the place where

  400. we're constantly learning, where we're constantly listening,

  401. where we're constantly saying, Lord, what do you want to teach

  402. me today? What do I need to know today?

  403. And the Lord can help us with that.

  404. Proverbs 11 verse 2, when pride cometh, then with shame, but

    Proverbs 11:2

  405. with the lowly is wisdom. James 313 who is a wise man and

  406. endued with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good

  407. conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

  408. Humility and wisdom have to go together.

  409. And if you want wisdom, if you want to have that wisdom as a

  410. believer, you, you're going to only be able to truly receive

  411. it, to truly absorb it if you are humble.

  412. Now I found this to be true. I am not old, but I'm older that

  413. people keep telling me how young I am.

  414. I don't feel as young as people keep telling me that I am, but I

  415. do know this. The older you get, the more

  416. resistant you are to receive wisdom.

  417. You know why. You've heard the sermons before.

  418. You've read the Bible passages before.

  419. You've lived life, you've seen things, and I will say that when

  420. you're younger in the faith, it's very easy to absorb.

  421. The wisdom of the word of God, because there's a humility of

  422. saying I know what I was and I know what I am now.

  423. I'm barely saved. I barely know Jesus Christ as my

  424. savior. And the whole world is new,

  425. like, like everything is being unfolded to me.

  426. I'm seeing the life in a whole new way.

  427. And it's easy to just accept that wisdom.

  428. But then we get a little bit more professional.

  429. We've been to some church services.

  430. We know a few things. Maybe we've taught some lessons

  431. ourselves. Maybe we've been in a pulpit and

  432. preached. Maybe you've been in a classroom

  433. and taught. Maybe you've been considered

  434. some level of authority within a church.

  435. And all of a sudden it gets a little bit harder to be humble,

  436. to receive wisdom. But I do know this.

  437. God uses pastors preaching. Passages other people.

  438. God uses all of these things as vessels to make sure that we

  439. receive wisdom as believers and to make sure that we are humble

  440. in those things. Let me tell you, there's nothing

  441. more humbling than receiving wisdom from somebody that has

  442. known the Lord a lot less time than you have, but yet speaks.

  443. Truth or sometimes even out of the mouth of a child to be able

  444. to say something and to make you realize.

  445. I've been resistant to some wisdom that God wants to place

  446. in my life. The older we get, we should be

  447. more willing to receive wisdom, but I feel like the older we

  448. get, the more resistant we are to receive wisdom because we

  449. perceive ourselves to be wiser. We may never articulate that, we

  450. may never say that, but we carry ourselves in that manner.

  451. But we need to be able to hear from the Lord.

  452. I remember Ahab and Josephat, they were looking to see if they

  453. were to go down to battle together.

  454. And Ahab had all of these homemade preachers that he had,

  455. all of his prophets of Baal. All they wanted to do was tell

  456. Ahab whatever he wanted to hear. And Jehoshaphat, who probably

  457. should have been with Ahab in the 1st place, but he was there

  458. anyway and he was yoking up with him to be able to go down the

  459. battle. And Jehoshaphat even had the

  460. presence of mind to say, isn't there anyone here that'll speak

  461. for God? I just need to hear from God.

  462. And we have to be in the place in our life as believed every

  463. day when we get into our Bible. God, I want to hear from you

  464. that every time we get into church that we say, God, I want

  465. to hear from you because that's the key to wisdom.

  466. The unsaved close themselves off from that because they know not

  467. God. They have created their own gods

  468. and their own minds. But you and I who know Jesus

  469. Christ our Savior, we have to be on that road to perfection and

  470. there has to be some humility within us to be able to say,

  471. yes, Lord, I see wisdom in your word.

  472. Yes, Lord, I see wisdom from the Holy Spirit applied to my heart.

  473. Yes, Lord, I your wisdom in the preaching and in the teaching

  474. and through my relationships and my friendships with other godly

  475. believers. Lord, help me to accept it so I

  476. can be better. Listen, we're just all in the

  477. progression of our sanctification, of getting

  478. closer to God until we get to glory.

  479. I don't care if you've been on this, on this earth for nine

  480. years or 90 years, no one's arrived.

  481. Until we meet Jesus Christ, and there's more to learn.

  482. So what do we see? We see that wisdom is hidden

  483. from the world, but it is revealed to the believer #2 how

  484. do we receive this wisdom? How do we receive it?

  485. Well, the Spirit's the key. The Spirit is the key.

  486. If wisdom is a locked door, then the Holy Spirit is the key in

  487. which the treasures behind the door are accessible and the

  488. Spirit brings 2 gifts to the believer in regards to wisdom.

  489. And first of all it's this that the the believer, you see the

  490. believers enlightenment. Look at verse #10 it says, But

  491. God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

  492. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yeah, the deep things of

  493. God. Now I know we've mentioned this

  494. before, but it bears repeating here from verse #10 how can a

  495. person know God without God revealing himself to us?

  496. There's no way that you can research God independently on

  497. your own. Apart from Him.

  498. You can't hike high enough. You.

  499. Can't fly high enough, you can't journey long enough, you can't

  500. dig deep enough, that there is no way to research God

  501. independently without Him revealing some of Himself to us.

  502. And He's revealed Himself through creation again, Psalm

  503. 19, the heavens have declared the glory of God and the

  504. firmament show with His handiwork.

  505. And He's revealed Himself in these days through His Word,

  506. where we have 66 books that teach us all about Him.

  507. And He brings us enlightenment. They're called here in this text

  508. in verse #10 the deep things of God.

  509. And listen, you don't have to be a shallow believer that God has

  510. given you everything that you need to be able to learn more of

  511. Him. He's given you His Word.

  512. He's given you his Spirit if you're saved, and you can learn

  513. a little bit more about Him every single day.

  514. The Spirit wants to teach you the things of God and the

  515. treasures are at the ready. Every morning when you wake up,

  516. there's new treasure for you to be able to dig out.

  517. Every night when you go to bed, there's some new treasure that's

  518. waiting for you to be able to mine out before you go to sleep

  519. on your break time, there's some ability to be able to mine out

  520. the treasure of the Word of God. On Sundays we ought to come with

  521. our pickaxes ready to be able to get the wisdom of God and put it

  522. in our pails to be able to take it home with us.

  523. The believers have this ability to be enlightened through the

  524. Holy Spirit. I've told you before that I've

  525. gone many times to the Boston Public Library, and I like

  526. studying there, but I'm always intrigued by the Reading Room.

  527. And the Reading Room is so incredible.

  528. You know, the Boston Public Library is the oldest Public

  529. Library in the United States, but the Reading Room is a

  530. tourist venue all of its own. If people want to go do tourist

  531. things without spending money, one of the places they go is the

  532. Boston Public Library. And honestly, it's a great place

  533. to go. But it's always interesting to

  534. me to be sitting in a room with all these books.

  535. There's 10s of thousands of books.

  536. The ceiling is probably 40 feet high.

  537. They have all of these lamps and all these wooden tables.

  538. And it's ornate and it's beautiful.

  539. And there are people that are just walking around doing this.

  540. They're taking pictures, everything.

  541. They're taking selfies of themselves with the books.

  542. You know what nobody does in that room?

  543. Read the books. Nobody reads the books.

  544. No, a bit. I don't think I read the books

  545. either. I just sit in there and use the

  546. Wi-Fi. But anyway, the point being that

  547. all of that record is around and nobody's checking it out.

  548. All that records around, everybody wants to be around it,

  549. but nobody wants to utilize it. Now, how much more so for us as

  550. the believers that God has given us a treasure trove in His Word.

  551. That God has given us 66 books from cover to cover, truth from

  552. beginning to end, and God wants you to learn more of Him.

  553. But often times all we do is we put it under our arm, we take it

  554. to church, we could use it as a prop.

  555. We have it on the table and we take it with us here or there or

  556. everywhere, but do we really get in deep and learn the lessons

  557. that God wants us to learn through the power of the Holy

  558. Spirit? Because that's what he wants to

  559. teach us, the deeper things of God.

  560. Do you want to know God? He wants you to know him.

  561. He's not a God far off that says, well, you'll never get to

  562. know me. He says come the wall.

  563. Partition's been broken down. The Old Testament.

  564. Believers can't even understand we're going to see on Sunday, by

  565. God's grace, as David attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant

  566. back to the Tabernacle and a breach was made.

  567. They didn't. Follow the prescribed rules for.

  568. Handling the ark of the covenant and because the ark of the

  569. covenant was just touched, a man died.

  570. But here in the New Testament era that we live in, God beckons

  571. us to come. Why would we just fool around

  572. with these wisdom, with the wisdom that we have around us,

  573. like taking selfies of ourselves and not just get in and be

  574. enlightened. This is what God wants from us.

  575. The Spirit is the key to the believers enlightenment.

  576. But also let her be the believers wonderment.

  577. I love this look at verse #9. As is written, I have not seen,

  578. nor ear heard, neither have it entered into the heart of man

  579. the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

  580. Now what am I going to say about verse #9 the first words right

  581. there, But as it is written. What does that mean?

  582. It's been written somewhere else.

  583. This is a call back to a verse that is found somewhere else in

  584. Scriptures. In this case, it's Isaiah

    Isaiah 64 chapter mention

  585. chapter 64. Verse #4 and verse #9

  586. underscores the transcendence of God's wisdom, the fact that

  587. God's wisdom is far above anything else that we can

  588. imagine. It's far above the human

  589. perception of the eyes, of the ears, of the heart.

  590. Anything that you can sense, God's wisdom is far above it.

  591. And this contrasts with the Princess of the world in verse

  592. 8, whose willful ignorance stem from relying on their worldly

  593. wisdom rather than on God's revelation.

  594. Those Princess in verse #8 they were relying on what they could

  595. hear, what they could see, whatever passed the smell test.

  596. And because they were relying on their own wisdom, they rejected

  597. Christ. But when we.

  598. Use the wisdom that God has given us.

  599. Listen and we submit ourselves to you.

  600. Can't even imagine. Of what God can do in your life.

  601. One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 3 verse 20 and 21.

    Ephesians 3:20

  602. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly.

  603. Above all that we ask or think according to the power that

  604. worketh in US, unto Him be the glory in the Church by Christ

  605. Jesus throughout all ages world. Without end.

  606. Amen. He's able to do exceeding

  607. abundantly above all that we ask or think I had not seen.

  608. Ear is not heard nor that entered in the heart of man.

  609. It's incredible promises. They bring hope.

  610. No matter how foolish the world may think we are.

  611. And remember chapter one, they think we're foolish for

  612. believing these things. Listen, no matter how foolish

  613. the world thinks you are for being a Christian.

  614. No matter how foolish the world thinks you are for sharing your

  615. faith at work. No matter how foolish the world

  616. thinks you are for going to church 3 * a week.

  617. No matter how world foolish the world thinks you are for giving

  618. tithes to the church. No matter how foolish the world

  619. thinks, listen, in the eyes of God, you can't even imagine what

  620. He has prepared for you. So you submit yourself to that

  621. wisdom and be in wonderment at what He can do.

  622. I remember when I was praying very intently about whether

  623. Diane and I would get married. And it was just, you know, we

  624. had progressed to a place in our relationship where we didn't

  625. want to go much further without really knowing the Lord's mind

  626. in these things. And I remember hearing the

  627. preaching of the word of God and just feeling that it was the

  628. Lord saying, this is what I want for your life.

  629. And, and me submitting to that and Diane actually in the same

  630. message independently submitting to that is an unbelievable

  631. story. I've told it before here a

  632. couple of times. But I do remember going back to

  633. my dorm that afternoon. It was funny because in the

  634. morning I was in too much of a hurry.

  635. I think I woke up late probably, if I'm being honest, before

  636. church, and I didn't get to read my Bible that day.

  637. And so I just decided, well, I'll read my Bible when I get

  638. home that afternoon because I had a couple hours in between

  639. morning service and evening service.

  640. I went back to the dorm and I remember reading First

  641. Corinthians chapter #2 and I remember thinking about, I think

  642. Diane and I are getting married. I think this is what the Lord

  643. wants for our life. And I remember reading verse 9,

  644. but as it is written I have not seen.

  645. Nor ear heard. Sort of entered into the heart

  646. of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love

  647. them. I thought, God, you did this for

  648. me. You know, in that moment I

  649. imagined in my mind, I understood it all.

  650. God put us together. Life's going to be great.

  651. It's amazing. And by the way, that's all true.

  652. But I couldn't see it all. I didn't know that we'd have

  653. four children. I couldn't have imagined the

  654. fact of seeing 1 married and I got to perform the ceremony and

  655. to have another married and I get to perform that ceremony and

  656. that had to have I'd have to have two son in laws, I guess.

  657. But I couldn't have imagined. And you know what, I look at it

  658. now at the age of 42, I think I see it all and I realize I still

  659. don't see it all be grandkids and very young daughter that you

  660. know in 30 years is going to get married because I'm married out

  661. at this point. You know what I'm saying?

  662. Yes, you can raise your hand. We see you bait.

  663. You know where you are. OK, I can't say it, but in God's

  664. graciousness, but you know, you Kick It Out even further.

  665. And let's say that God allows me to be 70 years old and Jesus

  666. hasn't come back yet. I still won't understand it all

  667. until we get to glory and see all of the things that he's done

  668. through our life. The people whose testimonies or

  669. the people who had testimonies, Maybe they came to salvation

  670. because of a track we gave and we didn't even know.

  671. We just laid a track somewhere and we didn't realize that

  672. someone picked it up and got saved and their lives changed

  673. forever and their families changed for.

  674. Do you realize that if you submit yourself to God and his

  675. plan and His wisdom? You can't even imagine how God

  676. can use your life. You can't even imagine how you

  677. can. Transform your family.

  678. You can't even imagine how we could transform a a family

  679. history that was bleak or that wasn't good, and to be able to

  680. turn it around and to turn it into something that's a goodly

  681. heritage. You can't even imagine.

  682. You can't even imagine how God could take the tragedy of your

  683. life and turn into something beautiful.

  684. You can't even imagine how God could take the fact that you

  685. walked away from God for a long period of time, but then you

  686. came back and that he used that and to his honor and to his

  687. glory. You can't even imagine.

  688. You know what the world says to that?

  689. That's crazy. You know what I say to that?

  690. I stand in wonder of the God that we serve, that we submit

  691. ourselves to His wisdom, that He can do exceeding abundantly

  692. above all that we ask or think. You know, In the darkest days of

  693. World War 2, Corey, 10 Boom, a Dutch Christian watchmaker, and

  694. her family hid Jews from the Nazis.

  695. Driven by their love for God and their fellow man, she was

  696. arrested in 1944 and Corey and her sister Betsy were sent to

  697. the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp.

  698. In the midst of this horror, Corey and Betsy clung to their

  699. faith. One night, cramped in a flea

  700. infested barracks, Betsy read from a small smuggled Bible.

  701. She read First Corinthians chapter #2 Now listen to this.

  702. When they reached verse 9, I have not seen, nor ear heard,

  703. neither have entered into the heart of man The things which

  704. God had prepared for them, that love them.

  705. They marveled. The Nazi saw only a prison, but

  706. God revealed a hidden treasure, a place of worship.

  707. With love for God and humility before His Word, they turned

  708. their suffering into a sanctuary, praying and singing

  709. hymns. It ended up that the place that

  710. they lived there in the concentration camp, that

  711. building became infested with fleas.

  712. They thank the Lord for the fleas.

  713. You know why they kept all the guards out?

  714. So that they can pray and praise and sing and worship God.

  715. Corey later recounted how the Holy Spirit unlocked this wisdom

  716. for them. In her humility, she trusted

  717. God's plan even when it made no sense to the world.

  718. After Betsy's death, Corey was miraculously released due to a

  719. clerical error just a week before all the women her age

  720. were sent to the gas chambers. She spent the rest of her life

  721. sharing this mystery, God's redemptive power, and suffering

  722. across the globe. Years later, Corey forgave one

  723. of her former guards, an act of love and humility that baffled

  724. the world but reflected the spirits work in her, she wrote.

  725. When he tells us to love our enemies.

  726. He gives along with the command, the love itself.

  727. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the

  728. command, the love itself. Can I say to you that the world

  729. doesn't understand that? The world couldn't understand

  730. that, but you can. Why?

  731. Because you have the same Holy Spirit that lives within you,

  732. that live within Corey Tenbu. Now we live in different

  733. circumstances, no doubt, but yet through the trials of life that

  734. we have that pale in comparison to what she dealt with, we can

  735. submit. Ourselves to this.

  736. Wisdom and realize that God will give us the strength that we

  737. need to be able to understand. And through the Spirit of God,

  738. we can have this level of wisdom, but it's for those who

  739. humble themselves and also it's to those who love God.

  740. Because if we don't love the Lord as we ought to, we don't

  741. submit ourselves to His plan. It says that right there in

  742. verse #9 God has prepared for them that love Him.

  743. Why? Because those that truly love

  744. Him will humble themselves and submit to the wisdom, and

  745. they'll be able to receive these things.

  746. When you're not constantly bucking and kicking and fighting

  747. against what God is doing, but you submit yourself to Him and

  748. His wisdom, you can have joy unspeakable and full of glory.

  749. I'll, I'll use this and I'll be done just as an example of what

  750. wisdom is like and how we can unlock wisdom.

  751. When I worked at Kay Jewelers, I think I've told you before, I

  752. was a third key manager, which meant I was a manager just

  753. without any extra pay. So it was a way to get them to

  754. get me work more without actually paying me more.

  755. But I learned that when I was a third key, there were some

  756. things that took place with the safe that added extra security

  757. because we had 10s of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in

  758. the safe every night. And there was one key and there

  759. were two codes and one person had the key and different people

  760. had the codes. Nobody could have both the

  761. codes. You could have a key and a code,

  762. but you could not have the key and both codes.

  763. And So what was needed was the key to turn the codes to be able

  764. to be put in one on the top dial, 1 on the bottom dial, and

  765. then you were able to turn the handle.

  766. If you want wisdom, there's only one place to receive it.

  767. The key is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that

  768. speaks to us as our teacher and our guide.

  769. He is the great applier of the Word of God within our hearts.

  770. But I will say that that vault will still not open unless you

  771. turn the dial of humility and the dial of love for God to the

  772. right numbers. So when you have the key of the

  773. Holy Spirit, but you're humble enough to listen to the Holy

  774. Spirit and you love God enough to be able to encourage and

  775. listen to his speaking to you, then the riches that are inside

  776. that safe open up to you. Now, I think of those those

  777. books at the library. The Bible doesn't talk

  778. extensively about matters of life in the sense of birds or

  779. planets or aerodynamics or electronics or the Internet.

  780. It doesn't speak about those things.

  781. The Bible does speak about history, and when it does speak

  782. about history, speaks truly, does speak about science here

  783. and there. When it does, it speaks truly.

  784. But the Bible is not where we look to for those things in the

  785. sense of that if you're wanting to learn more about up, you

  786. know, planets, you would look at a book about planets.

  787. What I'm saying is this. We could do without all of those

  788. books. You could do without a book of

  789. planets. You could do without a book of

  790. of Internet, electricity, birds, insects.

  791. You could do without all those books and you could live a

  792. fairly contented life. You cannot do without this book.

  793. You can't do without this book. The wisdom of life is found

  794. here, and the Holy Spirit is the key.

  795. But we'll be humble, and we love God the way we ought so that we

  796. can learn the lessons that He wants to teach us.

  797. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  798. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  799. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  800. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  801. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  802. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  803. grow in His Word.