Sermon
The World Doesn't Get It...But You Can! | July 23, 2025
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
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us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
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Would you turn in your Bibles please to 1st Corinthians
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chapter #2 First Corinthians chapter #2 Once you've done
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that, mark it and get to not Galatians Genesis chapter. #3
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because we'll go there in just a moment as well.
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We'll start in First Corinthians chapter 2, but then we will go
1 Corinthians 2 chapter mention
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over to Genesis chapter #3. How does a person get wise?
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You know, it's an age-old question, isn't it?
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How does a person become wise? And I know we've talked a lot
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about wisdom over the last few weeks from First Corinthians
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chapter #1 but it does come upon us here in our text here tonight
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as well. How does a person get wise?
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Is it because they have a college education?
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Is it because they have a high IQ?
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Is it because they have lots and lots of books in their library?
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Is it because they watch an endless stream of lectures or
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Ted talks on YouTube? Is it by memorizing an
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encyclopedia? How does a person get wise?
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Well, I will say this, and you could probably attest to this
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with people you have met in your own life.
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Some of the wisest people that I have ever met are people that
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maybe never graduated from high school and some of the most
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ignorant. And frankly, I don't know what I
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want to say here. We'll just stick with ignorant.
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How about that? Some of the most ignorant people
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that I've ever met have their last names end with PhD.
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You know, it's not necessarily about how much education you
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have with how wise you are. So what makes the difference
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when it comes to wisdom? Well, I would attest to you this
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evening that the Bible talks much about this.
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We go to Proverbs chapter 2 verses one through 6, where it
Proverbs 2 chapter mention
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says, My son, if thou will receive my words, and he hide my
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commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto
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wisdom, and apply thy heart unto understanding.
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Yeah, if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy
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voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and
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searchest for her As for hid treasures, then shalt thou
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understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
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For the Lord giveth wisdom. Hear me.
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The Lord giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh
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knowledge and understanding. Now, Paul talks about this very
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issue tonight as he continues his conversation about what real
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wisdom is all about. But the bottom line when it
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comes to wisdom, and really it's the place we've been getting to
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the last few weeks we've been looking at it, is that when it
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comes to wisdom, the world just doesn't get it.
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When it comes to wisdom, the world just doesn't get it.
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But the good news is. That you can and I can.
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And that's a blessing because it doesn't come down to the amount
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of books that you have or the education you have or the IQ
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that you may think that you have, whether you're a Mensa
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candidate or not, that it really comes down to this.
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If you are a child of God, the wisdom of the universe is
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available. To you and.
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That's an amazing prospect that we have.
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Well, let's go ahead and read First Corinthians chapter #2 and
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we'll read verses 6 through 10 this evening.
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Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not
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the wisdom of this world, nor of the Princess of this world that
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come to not. But we speak the wisdom of God
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in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
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the world unto our glory, which none of the Princess of this
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world knew. For had they known it, they
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would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
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But as is written, I have not seen nor are heard, neither have
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entered into the heart of man, the things which God has
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prepared for them that love Him. But God revealed them unto us by
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a spirit. For the Spirit searches all
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things, yeah, the deep things of God.
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And while the five verses that we just made read may seem a
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little bit like a repeat or retread of what we've looked at
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over the last few weeks, I believe that it just takes us
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even deeper into this issue of wisdom and the fact that if you
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are a child of God, wisdom is available.
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To you at the ready now. Wisdom has always been.
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A battleground between two distinct thought processes.
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In fact, consider this. The issue of wisdom was probably
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the very first battleground in human history.
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That's why I want to go to Genesis chapter #3.
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So why don't you turn there quickly?
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Save your spot here in First Corinthians chapter 2, but go to
1 Corinthians 2 chapter mention
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Genesis chapter #3 and you know that in Genesis chapter 3 we see
Genesis 3 chapter mention
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the fall of mankind. And so here in Genesis chapter
Genesis 3 chapter mention
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3, let's start in verse #1 we'll get right into it, because you
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have your place already. And it says, Now the serpent was
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more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
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made. And he said unto the woman, Yay
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hath. God said, Ye shall not eat of
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every tree of the garden. What is Satan's first way of
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trying to get mankind's heart away from God?
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He says Yay hath God says, listen, when the word of God is
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questioned, it's in a bad place. Now I'm not talking about you
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questioning someone who preaches the word of God, the Bereans, It
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says in the book of Acts, we're always searching the Scriptures
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to see whether the things that Paul said were so no, we're
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talking about questioning God and questioning his word about
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whether he is real, about whether he is valid, about
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whether he is true. Yeah, hath God said, and Eve
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says, it says in verse 2, under the serpent, we may eat of the
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fruit of the trees of the garden.
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But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
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garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
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touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
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woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
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day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and he
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shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
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And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it
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was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
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wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
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also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
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So what does the Bible tell us here?
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That as Satan questions the woman about her relationship
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with God, and about this fruit that is there, he says this.
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He says, For God doth know that in the day He eat thereof, then
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your eyes shall be opened, and He shall be, as God's knowing
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good and evil. And here I believe we find
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perhaps Satan's greatest lie of all, perhaps his most
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foundational lie of all, which is this is that we can be
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independently wise apart from God.
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They had all wisdom. They had God, a relationship
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with him. They walk with him in the cool
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of the garden. The Bible says, but here is
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Satan and says this, He's holding back from you.
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He's withholding what you really deserve.
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Do you want to really be wise? Do you want to really know
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what's happening and what's going on?
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Here's what you need to do. Get a hold of that fruit.
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And he's withholding his very best from you.
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And his very first tactic, if you will, was this is that
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there's no need for God, no need for his revelation, that you can
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be wise of yourself. And by the way, there's a lot of
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people that think that way even today, don't they?
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That wisdom can be found apart from God.
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And the fact of the matter is, although people can be wise even
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if they don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior in certain
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aspects of their life, but when they are that way and they have
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knowledge and they have wisdom, it still comes from God because
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all wisdom and all knowledge flows from God and God alone.
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And so it says right here, here's the battleground.
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He says you can be independently wise.
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And listen, you can't be wise apart from God.
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We can be wise in our own conceits.
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We can be wise in our own thought processes.
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We can be wise in our own way of living.
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But there's no true biblical wisdom apart from God.
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Now go back to or go down to rather verse #15 and look at
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verse #15 very quickly with me, it says, and I will put enmity
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between thee and the woman, in between thy seed and her seed.
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It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise its heel.
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Now this verse that we see right here in Genesis 36, let's try
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that again in Genesis 315. A great mystery has been
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revealed. At least this mystery has been
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presented. Maybe would be a better way of
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saying it. It's sometimes called the proto
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V, Proto V. That's proto vangelium.
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All right. It's right here phonetically in
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my notes, and I still can't get it right here.
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It's the first mention of the gospel in the Bible.
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That's why we just say it that way instead of what am I doing,
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Joe? All right.
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And so it's the first mention of the gospel in the Bible.
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But when you read that, it really, it's hard to maybe
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recognize that it's the gospel, isn't it?
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I mean, maybe the first time you read that you said.
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You know that. Doesn't really sound like the
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gospel to me, and I don't have time this evening to go into why
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is the gospel. I've explained it before here at
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the church, but I would tell you this, it's the very first
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mention of it, and it's a mention that is still quite
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mysterious, isn't it? There's a whole lot of more
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information that we don't know about.
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Do we know the name of Jesus Christ?
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Do we know that He is going to be Incarnate?
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Do we know there's going to be a cross?
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Do we know that He's going to shed His blood?
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We don't know that. What we know is a mystery has
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been presented to us here and throughout the Bible, and
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particularly that the Old Testament.
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This mystery is revealed a little bit more and a little bit
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more as we see prophecies are made.
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We find out that the Savior is going to be born in Bethlehem.
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We find out that He is going to live and that he is going to
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die, and Proverbs or rather Psalms chapter 22 talks about
Psalms 22 chapter mention
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the smitten Savior and even give some of the words that were on
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the cross and that not a bone would be broken while he was on
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the cross. And so this mystery starts
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gradually being revealed until we find that Jesus himself is
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revealed as the one who was the actual revelation of that
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mystery. Romans 16 verse 25 and 26 Now to
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him that is of power to establish you according to my
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gospel. And the preaching of Jesus
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Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which
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was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest
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and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the
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commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
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for the obedience of faith. So what this is saying is there
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was a time in the Old Testament when there was a mystery that
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was unclear necessarily everything was going to happen.
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That's why people took it by faith in the Old Testament that
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there was going to be a Savior to come.
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But then Jesus Christ comes and he reveals himself.
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Now Can you imagine the day that He comes in that triumphal
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entry, the day that He's on that donkey, the day that they're
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taking palm branches and laying it down, The day that people are
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saying hosanna, hosanna, Lord save us all is taking place.
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And it's all because of a prophecy that was made in
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Zechariah Chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly.
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O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold,
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thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation
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and lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the full of an
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ass. Now you say, OK pastor,
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everything you just said is true.
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I understand what you're saying, but what on earth does this have
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to do with First Corinthians chapter #2 And that's a fair
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question. But we're going to see in just a
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moment that this mystery is spoken of in the text that we
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just spoke, that we just read in First Corinthians.
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And the fact of the matter was, is that at that time there were
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two different responses on that day, wasn't there?
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There were people who believed Jesus was who he said he was,
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and there were people who said he's a fraud, he's an imposter,
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he's not God, he should die. There were two responses.
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May I submit to you that today there's still 2 responses to
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Jesus Christ. There's faith and there's
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unbelief, and from that there is wisdom and wisdom withheld or
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wisdom and wisdom avoided, or wisdom that doesn't want to be
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assimilated in the heart of the unbelievers.
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I want us to look at this here at our text as we see number
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one, that wisdom is a mystery. Number one, wisdom, there it is,
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is a mystery. Go back to First Corinthians
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chapter #2 there is some mystery that is associated with this
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issue of wisdom. Well, how could that be?
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Well, letter A, it's because wisdom is hidden from the world.
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Look at verse #8 it says which none of the Princess of this
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world knew. For had they known it, they
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would not have crucified the. Lord of glory.
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The wisdom of who Jesus was was hidden from the world.
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It was hidden from those who refused to open their hearts to
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the Spirit. Look at verse #14 But the
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natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for
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they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because
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they are spiritually discerned. Romans 1 verses 18 through 20
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say. For the wrath of God is revealed
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from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
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of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that
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which may be known of God as manifest in them, for God has
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showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him
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from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
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understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power
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and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
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What is being said here is not that God hid wisdom from someone
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in the sense that we don't want God said, I don't want you to
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see what salvation is about. I don't want you to know what
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the gospel is about. You can't know the gospel,
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remember that veers into Calvinistic teaching where some
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people are saved and some people are damned and God's the one
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that decides and free will is an illusion.
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No, no, this is not what's being said here, but that God reveals
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himself to all men and that there is a group of people that
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don't want to know God, that willfully do this.
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They don't want to hear, they don't want to know that they,
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they, they looked Jesus in the face when he was going into the
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triumphal entry and they wanted nothing to do with him.
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I can't fathom that. I'd like to think that if I saw
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Jesus during his earthly ministry that immediately I
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would have recognized who he was, That immediately I would
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have realized, wow, this is a man that I need to follow for
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the rest of my life and into eternity.
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There were those who looked at him in the eye and said I want
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nothing to do with him. There were people who wanted
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nothing to do with him where they saw him raise Lazarus from
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the dead. And the Bible says that some
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rejoiced and believed and others said we need to kill Jesus and
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Lazarus. I don't understand that other
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than there are people who are willfully ignorant, that they
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don't want to know God and they don't want to know the wisdom of
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God and it says they would have crucified the Lord.
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Of glory. That's a reference to.
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Psalm chapter 24 when it says who is this king of glory?
Psalms 24 chapter mention
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chapter 22 is a Psalm of crucifixion and Psalm 20. 3 is a
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Psalm of the shepherd. Psalm 24 is a triumphal song of
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the the King, the sovereign being crowned, that king being
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Jesus, who is this king of glory?
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They looked at the King of glory and they said this, let's
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crucify him. That is the opposite of wisdom.
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That is the exact opposite of anything that could resemble
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wisdom. But you want something that
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makes your head spin the night you say, oh, pastor, nothing
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would make me happier on a Wednesday night after working
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all day to have something that would make my head spin and make
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me feel like I'm going underwater.
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So, you know, let's go for it anyway.
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All right, think about this for a second.
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God knowing that these worldly authorities that are mentioned.
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Here these Princess of the world, knowing that they would
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reject him, knowing that they would reject the mystery, he
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still used them to be able to fulfill his purposes.
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And he knew the free will decisions that they were going
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to make before the foundation of the world and used them to be
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able to secure salvation for you and me because that's how he
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went to the cross. He said, whoa pastor, could you
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repeat that on Sunday, maybe after I've had a few days of
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rest. Do you understand that God took
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the unbelief, God took the foolishness of the unbeliever
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before the foundation of the world, as the vessel of which he
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would go to the cross? He knew they would put the nails
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in his hands. He knew they would shout crucify
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him. He knew that they would spit at
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him and mock him and curse him and buff at him and put the
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crown of thorns upon his head. And God used them.
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Any way to fulfill his purpose? You want to talk about wisdom?
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That's a wise God. I can't handle myself.
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I can't figure myself out. Let alone a church, let alone a
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state, let alone a country, let alone a continent, let alone a
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world of 8 billion people and all the people who ever lived in
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God is. Over it all, that's the kind of
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wisdom I need. It's not the kind of wisdom that
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says, oh, God's not real. Oh, Jesus, he's, you know, he's
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nobody. You know, it seems very clear
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here that they have rejected the Lord of glory, and with that
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they have rejected wisdom itself.
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So these people, wisdom has been closed off.
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Sure, they can stumble upon wisdom here and there because
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all truth is God's truth, but they cannot truly know wisdom,
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no matter how much education, knowledge, books, or accolades
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they possess. However, there is good news for
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us tonight because I believe, you know, we know Jesus Christ
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our saved this evening. If you do, there's some very
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good news for you. And that's this, that wisdom is
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revealed to the believer. So while the unsaved have closed
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them off from true wisdom because they know not Christ,
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wisdom is revealed to you. And I look at verse #6 how be it
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we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom
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of this world or the Princess of this world that come to not?
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So Paul was talking about, remember speaking because we saw
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in verses one through 5 a couple weeks ago, the last time I
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preached from here, that he was talking about his manner of
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preaching, his manner of speaking, the way he spoke to
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the people at Corinth and when he went to other churches as
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well. But He says, howbeit we speak
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wisdom among them that are perfect.
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While wisdom is not truly available to the unbeliever, it
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is available for those of us who are believers.
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This is the good news that you don't need any of those things.
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I mentioned the beginning of the message that you need the Lord
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to be able to truly get wisdom. Colossians 126 through 28.
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Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from
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generations. Remember the mystery, That
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mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations,
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is now made manifest to His Saints, mystery solved, to whom
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God would make known. What is the riches of the glory
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of this mystery among the Gentiles?
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Which is Christ in you? The hope of glory whom we
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preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
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wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in.
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Christ Jesus to those of us who were saved.
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It's mystery solved. Now we know who Jesus Christ is.
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We've trusted Him in our Savior, and because of that, now true
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wisdom can be accessible where it was not accessible to us
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before. Remember, true wisdom before was
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foolishness to us. That's chapter one.
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It was foolishness. But now that we know who He is,
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it's like, wow, this makes sense.
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That's why you can read your Bible after you get saved.
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You say, wow, this makes sense and you read it before you got
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saved. You said this is a bunch of of
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gobbledygook. I don't know what's going on.
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I don't understand it. I'm reading the words, but it
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doesn't connect to my heart. And now it does because you're
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saved and you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
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But there is a caveat here when it says that he speaks wisdom
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among them that are perfect. Now, if you're like me, you
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think of that word perfect. Do you think, well, I'm not
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going to be perfect until I get to heaven, right?
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Until we get to be with the Lord, we're not going to be
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perfect. But the way the word perfect is
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used here in the Greek is the word teleos, which means mature,
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complete or fully developed to be a mature believer, that
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that's what it's Speaking of here when it's talking about
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this type of perfection, not our ultimate perfection when we
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reach glory. So why is this important?
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If the mystery has been revealed to us, then we have to make sure
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to receive it that we are perfect or spiritually mature.
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Listen, the day you got saved, were you wise in all things?
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No. I mean, are we wise in all
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things now? No, I think the answer to that
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is pretty clear. Even for the believer, maturity
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is necessary because if we are not mature and we are not humble
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in the way we approach the Christian life, then we're not
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able to receive the wisdom that we need.
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Listen. If you think you know
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everything, then you have no need of wisdom.
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But in the Christian life, we have to get to the place where
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we're constantly learning, where we're constantly listening,
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where we're constantly saying, Lord, what do you want to teach
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me today? What do I need to know today?
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And the Lord can help us with that.
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Proverbs 11 verse 2, when pride cometh, then with shame, but
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with the lowly is wisdom. James 313 who is a wise man and
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endued with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good
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conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
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Humility and wisdom have to go together.
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And if you want wisdom, if you want to have that wisdom as a
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believer, you, you're going to only be able to truly receive
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it, to truly absorb it if you are humble.
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Now I found this to be true. I am not old, but I'm older that
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people keep telling me how young I am.
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I don't feel as young as people keep telling me that I am, but I
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do know this. The older you get, the more
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resistant you are to receive wisdom.
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You know why. You've heard the sermons before.
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You've read the Bible passages before.
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You've lived life, you've seen things, and I will say that when
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you're younger in the faith, it's very easy to absorb.
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The wisdom of the word of God, because there's a humility of
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saying I know what I was and I know what I am now.
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I'm barely saved. I barely know Jesus Christ as my
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savior. And the whole world is new,
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like, like everything is being unfolded to me.
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I'm seeing the life in a whole new way.
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And it's easy to just accept that wisdom.
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But then we get a little bit more professional.
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We've been to some church services.
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We know a few things. Maybe we've taught some lessons
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ourselves. Maybe we've been in a pulpit and
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preached. Maybe you've been in a classroom
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and taught. Maybe you've been considered
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some level of authority within a church.
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And all of a sudden it gets a little bit harder to be humble,
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to receive wisdom. But I do know this.
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God uses pastors preaching. Passages other people.
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God uses all of these things as vessels to make sure that we
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receive wisdom as believers and to make sure that we are humble
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in those things. Let me tell you, there's nothing
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more humbling than receiving wisdom from somebody that has
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known the Lord a lot less time than you have, but yet speaks.
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Truth or sometimes even out of the mouth of a child to be able
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to say something and to make you realize.
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I've been resistant to some wisdom that God wants to place
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in my life. The older we get, we should be
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more willing to receive wisdom, but I feel like the older we
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get, the more resistant we are to receive wisdom because we
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perceive ourselves to be wiser. We may never articulate that, we
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may never say that, but we carry ourselves in that manner.
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But we need to be able to hear from the Lord.
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I remember Ahab and Josephat, they were looking to see if they
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were to go down to battle together.
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And Ahab had all of these homemade preachers that he had,
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all of his prophets of Baal. All they wanted to do was tell
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Ahab whatever he wanted to hear. And Jehoshaphat, who probably
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should have been with Ahab in the 1st place, but he was there
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anyway and he was yoking up with him to be able to go down the
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battle. And Jehoshaphat even had the
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presence of mind to say, isn't there anyone here that'll speak
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for God? I just need to hear from God.
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And we have to be in the place in our life as believed every
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day when we get into our Bible. God, I want to hear from you
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that every time we get into church that we say, God, I want
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to hear from you because that's the key to wisdom.
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The unsaved close themselves off from that because they know not
-
God. They have created their own gods
-
and their own minds. But you and I who know Jesus
-
Christ our Savior, we have to be on that road to perfection and
-
there has to be some humility within us to be able to say,
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yes, Lord, I see wisdom in your word.
-
Yes, Lord, I see wisdom from the Holy Spirit applied to my heart.
-
Yes, Lord, I your wisdom in the preaching and in the teaching
-
and through my relationships and my friendships with other godly
-
believers. Lord, help me to accept it so I
-
can be better. Listen, we're just all in the
-
progression of our sanctification, of getting
-
closer to God until we get to glory.
-
I don't care if you've been on this, on this earth for nine
-
years or 90 years, no one's arrived.
-
Until we meet Jesus Christ, and there's more to learn.
-
So what do we see? We see that wisdom is hidden
-
from the world, but it is revealed to the believer #2 how
-
do we receive this wisdom? How do we receive it?
-
Well, the Spirit's the key. The Spirit is the key.
-
If wisdom is a locked door, then the Holy Spirit is the key in
-
which the treasures behind the door are accessible and the
-
Spirit brings 2 gifts to the believer in regards to wisdom.
-
And first of all it's this that the the believer, you see the
-
believers enlightenment. Look at verse #10 it says, But
-
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
-
For the Spirit searcheth all things, yeah, the deep things of
-
God. Now I know we've mentioned this
-
before, but it bears repeating here from verse #10 how can a
-
person know God without God revealing himself to us?
-
There's no way that you can research God independently on
-
your own. Apart from Him.
-
You can't hike high enough. You.
-
Can't fly high enough, you can't journey long enough, you can't
-
dig deep enough, that there is no way to research God
-
independently without Him revealing some of Himself to us.
-
And He's revealed Himself through creation again, Psalm
-
19, the heavens have declared the glory of God and the
-
firmament show with His handiwork.
-
And He's revealed Himself in these days through His Word,
-
where we have 66 books that teach us all about Him.
-
And He brings us enlightenment. They're called here in this text
-
in verse #10 the deep things of God.
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And listen, you don't have to be a shallow believer that God has
-
given you everything that you need to be able to learn more of
-
Him. He's given you His Word.
-
He's given you his Spirit if you're saved, and you can learn
-
a little bit more about Him every single day.
-
The Spirit wants to teach you the things of God and the
-
treasures are at the ready. Every morning when you wake up,
-
there's new treasure for you to be able to dig out.
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Every night when you go to bed, there's some new treasure that's
-
waiting for you to be able to mine out before you go to sleep
-
on your break time, there's some ability to be able to mine out
-
the treasure of the Word of God. On Sundays we ought to come with
-
our pickaxes ready to be able to get the wisdom of God and put it
-
in our pails to be able to take it home with us.
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The believers have this ability to be enlightened through the
-
Holy Spirit. I've told you before that I've
-
gone many times to the Boston Public Library, and I like
-
studying there, but I'm always intrigued by the Reading Room.
-
And the Reading Room is so incredible.
-
You know, the Boston Public Library is the oldest Public
-
Library in the United States, but the Reading Room is a
-
tourist venue all of its own. If people want to go do tourist
-
things without spending money, one of the places they go is the
-
Boston Public Library. And honestly, it's a great place
-
to go. But it's always interesting to
-
me to be sitting in a room with all these books.
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There's 10s of thousands of books.
-
The ceiling is probably 40 feet high.
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They have all of these lamps and all these wooden tables.
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And it's ornate and it's beautiful.
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And there are people that are just walking around doing this.
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They're taking pictures, everything.
-
They're taking selfies of themselves with the books.
-
You know what nobody does in that room?
-
Read the books. Nobody reads the books.
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No, a bit. I don't think I read the books
-
either. I just sit in there and use the
-
Wi-Fi. But anyway, the point being that
-
all of that record is around and nobody's checking it out.
-
All that records around, everybody wants to be around it,
-
but nobody wants to utilize it. Now, how much more so for us as
-
the believers that God has given us a treasure trove in His Word.
-
That God has given us 66 books from cover to cover, truth from
-
beginning to end, and God wants you to learn more of Him.
-
But often times all we do is we put it under our arm, we take it
-
to church, we could use it as a prop.
-
We have it on the table and we take it with us here or there or
-
everywhere, but do we really get in deep and learn the lessons
-
that God wants us to learn through the power of the Holy
-
Spirit? Because that's what he wants to
-
teach us, the deeper things of God.
-
Do you want to know God? He wants you to know him.
-
He's not a God far off that says, well, you'll never get to
-
know me. He says come the wall.
-
Partition's been broken down. The Old Testament.
-
Believers can't even understand we're going to see on Sunday, by
-
God's grace, as David attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant
-
back to the Tabernacle and a breach was made.
-
They didn't. Follow the prescribed rules for.
-
Handling the ark of the covenant and because the ark of the
-
covenant was just touched, a man died.
-
But here in the New Testament era that we live in, God beckons
-
us to come. Why would we just fool around
-
with these wisdom, with the wisdom that we have around us,
-
like taking selfies of ourselves and not just get in and be
-
enlightened. This is what God wants from us.
-
The Spirit is the key to the believers enlightenment.
-
But also let her be the believers wonderment.
-
I love this look at verse #9. As is written, I have not seen,
-
nor ear heard, neither have it entered into the heart of man
-
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
-
Now what am I going to say about verse #9 the first words right
-
there, But as it is written. What does that mean?
-
It's been written somewhere else.
-
This is a call back to a verse that is found somewhere else in
-
Scriptures. In this case, it's Isaiah
Isaiah 64 chapter mention
-
chapter 64. Verse #4 and verse #9
-
underscores the transcendence of God's wisdom, the fact that
-
God's wisdom is far above anything else that we can
-
imagine. It's far above the human
-
perception of the eyes, of the ears, of the heart.
-
Anything that you can sense, God's wisdom is far above it.
-
And this contrasts with the Princess of the world in verse
-
8, whose willful ignorance stem from relying on their worldly
-
wisdom rather than on God's revelation.
-
Those Princess in verse #8 they were relying on what they could
-
hear, what they could see, whatever passed the smell test.
-
And because they were relying on their own wisdom, they rejected
-
Christ. But when we.
-
Use the wisdom that God has given us.
-
Listen and we submit ourselves to you.
-
Can't even imagine. Of what God can do in your life.
-
One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 3 verse 20 and 21.
-
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly.
-
Above all that we ask or think according to the power that
-
worketh in US, unto Him be the glory in the Church by Christ
-
Jesus throughout all ages world. Without end.
-
Amen. He's able to do exceeding
-
abundantly above all that we ask or think I had not seen.
-
Ear is not heard nor that entered in the heart of man.
-
It's incredible promises. They bring hope.
-
No matter how foolish the world may think we are.
-
And remember chapter one, they think we're foolish for
-
believing these things. Listen, no matter how foolish
-
the world thinks you are for being a Christian.
-
No matter how foolish the world thinks you are for sharing your
-
faith at work. No matter how foolish the world
-
thinks you are for going to church 3 * a week.
-
No matter how world foolish the world thinks you are for giving
-
tithes to the church. No matter how foolish the world
-
thinks, listen, in the eyes of God, you can't even imagine what
-
He has prepared for you. So you submit yourself to that
-
wisdom and be in wonderment at what He can do.
-
I remember when I was praying very intently about whether
-
Diane and I would get married. And it was just, you know, we
-
had progressed to a place in our relationship where we didn't
-
want to go much further without really knowing the Lord's mind
-
in these things. And I remember hearing the
-
preaching of the word of God and just feeling that it was the
-
Lord saying, this is what I want for your life.
-
And, and me submitting to that and Diane actually in the same
-
message independently submitting to that is an unbelievable
-
story. I've told it before here a
-
couple of times. But I do remember going back to
-
my dorm that afternoon. It was funny because in the
-
morning I was in too much of a hurry.
-
I think I woke up late probably, if I'm being honest, before
-
church, and I didn't get to read my Bible that day.
-
And so I just decided, well, I'll read my Bible when I get
-
home that afternoon because I had a couple hours in between
-
morning service and evening service.
-
I went back to the dorm and I remember reading First
-
Corinthians chapter #2 and I remember thinking about, I think
-
Diane and I are getting married. I think this is what the Lord
-
wants for our life. And I remember reading verse 9,
-
but as it is written I have not seen.
-
Nor ear heard. Sort of entered into the heart
-
of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love
-
them. I thought, God, you did this for
-
me. You know, in that moment I
-
imagined in my mind, I understood it all.
-
God put us together. Life's going to be great.
-
It's amazing. And by the way, that's all true.
-
But I couldn't see it all. I didn't know that we'd have
-
four children. I couldn't have imagined the
-
fact of seeing 1 married and I got to perform the ceremony and
-
to have another married and I get to perform that ceremony and
-
that had to have I'd have to have two son in laws, I guess.
-
But I couldn't have imagined. And you know what, I look at it
-
now at the age of 42, I think I see it all and I realize I still
-
don't see it all be grandkids and very young daughter that you
-
know in 30 years is going to get married because I'm married out
-
at this point. You know what I'm saying?
-
Yes, you can raise your hand. We see you bait.
-
You know where you are. OK, I can't say it, but in God's
-
graciousness, but you know, you Kick It Out even further.
-
And let's say that God allows me to be 70 years old and Jesus
-
hasn't come back yet. I still won't understand it all
-
until we get to glory and see all of the things that he's done
-
through our life. The people whose testimonies or
-
the people who had testimonies, Maybe they came to salvation
-
because of a track we gave and we didn't even know.
-
We just laid a track somewhere and we didn't realize that
-
someone picked it up and got saved and their lives changed
-
forever and their families changed for.
-
Do you realize that if you submit yourself to God and his
-
plan and His wisdom? You can't even imagine how God
-
can use your life. You can't even imagine how you
-
can. Transform your family.
-
You can't even imagine how we could transform a a family
-
history that was bleak or that wasn't good, and to be able to
-
turn it around and to turn it into something that's a goodly
-
heritage. You can't even imagine.
-
You can't even imagine how God could take the tragedy of your
-
life and turn into something beautiful.
-
You can't even imagine how God could take the fact that you
-
walked away from God for a long period of time, but then you
-
came back and that he used that and to his honor and to his
-
glory. You can't even imagine.
-
You know what the world says to that?
-
That's crazy. You know what I say to that?
-
I stand in wonder of the God that we serve, that we submit
-
ourselves to His wisdom, that He can do exceeding abundantly
-
above all that we ask or think. You know, In the darkest days of
-
World War 2, Corey, 10 Boom, a Dutch Christian watchmaker, and
-
her family hid Jews from the Nazis.
-
Driven by their love for God and their fellow man, she was
-
arrested in 1944 and Corey and her sister Betsy were sent to
-
the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp.
-
In the midst of this horror, Corey and Betsy clung to their
-
faith. One night, cramped in a flea
-
infested barracks, Betsy read from a small smuggled Bible.
-
She read First Corinthians chapter #2 Now listen to this.
-
When they reached verse 9, I have not seen, nor ear heard,
-
neither have entered into the heart of man The things which
-
God had prepared for them, that love them.
-
They marveled. The Nazi saw only a prison, but
-
God revealed a hidden treasure, a place of worship.
-
With love for God and humility before His Word, they turned
-
their suffering into a sanctuary, praying and singing
-
hymns. It ended up that the place that
-
they lived there in the concentration camp, that
-
building became infested with fleas.
-
They thank the Lord for the fleas.
-
You know why they kept all the guards out?
-
So that they can pray and praise and sing and worship God.
-
Corey later recounted how the Holy Spirit unlocked this wisdom
-
for them. In her humility, she trusted
-
God's plan even when it made no sense to the world.
-
After Betsy's death, Corey was miraculously released due to a
-
clerical error just a week before all the women her age
-
were sent to the gas chambers. She spent the rest of her life
-
sharing this mystery, God's redemptive power, and suffering
-
across the globe. Years later, Corey forgave one
-
of her former guards, an act of love and humility that baffled
-
the world but reflected the spirits work in her, she wrote.
-
When he tells us to love our enemies.
-
He gives along with the command, the love itself.
-
When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the
-
command, the love itself. Can I say to you that the world
-
doesn't understand that? The world couldn't understand
-
that, but you can. Why?
-
Because you have the same Holy Spirit that lives within you,
-
that live within Corey Tenbu. Now we live in different
-
circumstances, no doubt, but yet through the trials of life that
-
we have that pale in comparison to what she dealt with, we can
-
submit. Ourselves to this.
-
Wisdom and realize that God will give us the strength that we
-
need to be able to understand. And through the Spirit of God,
-
we can have this level of wisdom, but it's for those who
-
humble themselves and also it's to those who love God.
-
Because if we don't love the Lord as we ought to, we don't
-
submit ourselves to His plan. It says that right there in
-
verse #9 God has prepared for them that love Him.
-
Why? Because those that truly love
-
Him will humble themselves and submit to the wisdom, and
-
they'll be able to receive these things.
-
When you're not constantly bucking and kicking and fighting
-
against what God is doing, but you submit yourself to Him and
-
His wisdom, you can have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
-
I'll, I'll use this and I'll be done just as an example of what
-
wisdom is like and how we can unlock wisdom.
-
When I worked at Kay Jewelers, I think I've told you before, I
-
was a third key manager, which meant I was a manager just
-
without any extra pay. So it was a way to get them to
-
get me work more without actually paying me more.
-
But I learned that when I was a third key, there were some
-
things that took place with the safe that added extra security
-
because we had 10s of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in
-
the safe every night. And there was one key and there
-
were two codes and one person had the key and different people
-
had the codes. Nobody could have both the
-
codes. You could have a key and a code,
-
but you could not have the key and both codes.
-
And So what was needed was the key to turn the codes to be able
-
to be put in one on the top dial, 1 on the bottom dial, and
-
then you were able to turn the handle.
-
If you want wisdom, there's only one place to receive it.
-
The key is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that
-
speaks to us as our teacher and our guide.
-
He is the great applier of the Word of God within our hearts.
-
But I will say that that vault will still not open unless you
-
turn the dial of humility and the dial of love for God to the
-
right numbers. So when you have the key of the
-
Holy Spirit, but you're humble enough to listen to the Holy
-
Spirit and you love God enough to be able to encourage and
-
listen to his speaking to you, then the riches that are inside
-
that safe open up to you. Now, I think of those those
-
books at the library. The Bible doesn't talk
-
extensively about matters of life in the sense of birds or
-
planets or aerodynamics or electronics or the Internet.
-
It doesn't speak about those things.
-
The Bible does speak about history, and when it does speak
-
about history, speaks truly, does speak about science here
-
and there. When it does, it speaks truly.
-
But the Bible is not where we look to for those things in the
-
sense of that if you're wanting to learn more about up, you
-
know, planets, you would look at a book about planets.
-
What I'm saying is this. We could do without all of those
-
books. You could do without a book of
-
planets. You could do without a book of
-
of Internet, electricity, birds, insects.
-
You could do without all those books and you could live a
-
fairly contented life. You cannot do without this book.
-
You can't do without this book. The wisdom of life is found
-
here, and the Holy Spirit is the key.
-
But we'll be humble, and we love God the way we ought so that we
-
can learn the lessons that He wants to teach us.
-
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
-
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
-
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
-
know by contacting us at [email protected].
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Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
-
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
-
grow in His Word.