Why You Are Wise - 1 Corinthians 2:6-9

Alright, we're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 2 6 through 9.

As we think about this text, who among us wants to be wise?

I'm not necessarily talking about becoming educated.

It's easy to be educated.

Well, it takes discipline to be educated, but that's the easy part.

Wisdom is not necessarily education, not necessarily intellectual skills or how much IQ, what your IQ score is.

A lot of the top minds of the world are fools.

Wisdom is not just education and just the acquiring of knowledge.

It's not even simply the acquiring of biblical knowledge.

There are people who know or a confession of faith and know the catechism and know orthodoxy and know theology better than we do.

Scholars, intellectual scholars, professors, if you would, that taught the Bible the whole like and they don't know the Lord.

So knowledge is not all that we want.

Now you can't have wisdom without knowledge.

Wisdom requires knowledge, but it's not simply knowledge.

Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge.

It's when the knowledge affects your life and changes you.

You can know that there's a God and know that Jesus died for you and that doesn't move you.

It doesn't lead you to fear God.

It doesn't lead you to repent.

It doesn't lead you to seek Him.

You can know Him intellectually, but not know Him in your heart.

Wisdom is when that knowledge is applied by the Holy Spirit into your heart.

And then you see God.

You see the truth.

And that knowledge of the truth, the vision of God changes your behavior.

It produces faith and that produces love.

Wisdom always leads to humility and love.

And who wants to be wise?

We all want to be wise, do we not?

Well in this text in verse 6 through 9, he's entering into his fourth argument of why the Corinthians had a false conception of wisdom.

They were divided among themselves who were the better preacher Paul and they thought his preaching was unskilled in his teaching elementary.

And they apparently liked the Paulist who was a more polished speaker and they were impressed with philosophy or the wisdom of this age, the wisdom of this world.

And Paul didn't seem to integrate the wisdom of this world into his teaching and preaching.

And so they devalued his preaching.

And Paul is giving various arguments about realigning our thinking, what true wisdom is.

And so we're on his fifth argument about true wisdom.

And we learn in this passage that wisdom, true wisdom or God's wisdom comes from above.

That it's not from man.

It's not something you can get at school.

It's not something you can get from reading philosophers.

To get true wisdom, it comes from above.

It comes as a gift from God.

God must give it to you.

We're all on the same playing field.

It doesn't matter intelligence.

Some of the unintelligent ones among us can be wiser than us.

It's not even just how much Bible you know or how much scriptures you've memorized.

It's not a matter of how doctrinally sound you are, though all those things are important.

Wisdom is something God gives you.

And we become very dependent when we realize that wisdom is from above and is given as a gift.

But who does God give wisdom to?

Who does he bestow wisdom to?

I want to be among those who God blesses with wisdom.

God grants wisdom to, imparts wisdom to.

I want to be among those who he makes wise.

I want to be wise.

And if God is the giver of wisdom, then who does he give it to?

What makes one person wise and another a fool?

Why can one person hear the gospel and bow down and by faith accept it and be saved?

Another person hears the gospel and say, I know that's to be true.

And this is the hardest one for me for you who are here.

And I've talked to some of you.

You know the gospel.

You'll check the box.

I believe it's true.

You'll say the Bible is true.

You say Jesus died.

You say he rose from the dead.

That is true.

You know it's true, but you're still lost.

Why is that?

Why?

Why can you not apply the truth to yourself?

How come you're not seeing it and living off of it?

Why is the truth not changing your behavior and making you wise unto godliness and producing true humility and meekness in your life, transforming you from the inside out?

Well in this text we see there are four people whom he gives wisdom to.

Let's read it starting at verse six.

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom.

Although it's not a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, but God has prepared for those who love him.

So in this we see four people groups, if you would, the same group.

But who God gives wisdom to.

First of all we see he gives wisdom to the spiritually mature.

Look at verse six.

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom.

Now remember in context the Corinthians were going I don't really see much weight in Paul's preaching.

He's not skilled preacher.

And he says I'm not preaching the wisdom of this world.

I came and determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.

That's my message.

It might not be impressive to you.

You might not find that to be all that stimulating, but yet it is the power of God into salvation.

But though I don't preach the wisdom of this world, I do preach wisdom.

I do impart wisdom.

I am preaching things that will make you wise.

But I'm preaching it to the mature.

You see the Corinthians were immature.

We learned in chapter three, he says I would I brothers could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not solid food for you were not ready for it.

Even now you're not ready for you are still of the flesh.

See the biggest hindrance in your life to grow in maturity and grow in wisdom.

The reason sometimes when you open the Bible and you're not getting much out of it or when you come to the services and you don't get much out of the preaching or you're not growing much of might not be the problem in the word of God.

In fact, we know it's not the problem is in the word of God.

The word of God is not deficient and it might not even be the problem is in the preaching.

Of course, it could be, but it might not be even the preaching.

I hope not.

The problem might be carnality that you're still immature and the spiritual immaturity hinders us.

It hinders all of us from grasping the word of God and appreciating the word of God.

This is evident by the Corinthians.

They were their carnal because they were divided over who's the better preacher and they're judging the preacher based upon his preaching style.

They're judging him upon carnal evaluation methods.

They have the wrong rubric if you would to judge preachers by and so they're not actually listening for the gold.

They're not getting the gold out of the message.

They're focused on the superficial things.

It's hindering them and thus it led to us all kinds of carnal behavior.

They were fighting and feuding and dividing over this which prove that they were truly carnal in nature.

They were not spiritual.

They were not mature and I think we see this today in social media.

It baffles me how much arguing and debating we see online over theological issues.

I mean godliness is going to be demonstrated in meekness and humility.

The wisdom from above doesn't lead us to be angry towards one another and subtweeting and putting people down.

It's going to lead to humility and kindness.

It leads to a demeanor in our personality.

It changes us within but what you see a lot of times among so-called internet theologians is nothing but the carnality and fleshliness.

That hinders all you may learn something or may know something but you're not necessarily wise or mature.

You see it's one thing to learn theology.

It's another thing to be wise.

However the more we are matured by the word the more we can receive from the word.

Paul addresses this if he's the author of Hebrews which I think he is in chapter 5 verse 11 he says about this we have much to say and it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

By this time you are to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child but solid food is for the mature.

See if you want to go deeper into the word of God if you want to gain more wisdom and become more efficient in your understanding of scriptures it takes maturity because the deeper things are reserved for the mature in the faith.

You see maturity comes through those who have practiced the skill of discernment in Hebrews five or ten he says but solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment train by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

That is the more we apply the word of God the more discernment we have the more we can take the word of God and apply it to our lives we're not just living based upon fleshly instincts that's how the world lives.

You know you've got this impulse I'm going to do this I want to do that I buy this I'll sell this and we're just operating in the flesh what is self gratifying but the wisdom of God would lead us to say what brings God glory in the situation.

It's not a matter of do I win this argument but how do I argue at what best demonstrates Christ to people.

See it takes discernment it takes wisdom and the more you become wise the more the word of God becomes open to you the more you're skilled at applying the word of God to your lives so the wise become wiser and the fools become more foolish.

Jesus said it this way to those who do not have what they have I will take away but those who have the more I will give them the implication is this if you have some truth you best live off that truth and if you live on what on what you already know if you don't compromise truth that are that you know is true I'm going to live off that then God says I can trust you with more truth but if you compromise what you know to be true if you know some thing to be real and you know what to do but you don't do it God says I will take away that wisdom I have given you I'll take what you thought you do and take it away you see he gives wisdom to the mature so how do we become wise we seek to grow in maturity we seek to sharpen our skills of discernment so we can no longer be babes and infants and immature where we just have to hear the basic teachings that we can grow up into the more mature teachings and otherwise we need to practice what we know take what you do know and you already know enough to implement it so I want to grow in wisdom we'll start being faithful with little first thing you need to do if you're unconverted is bow the knee to Christ because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord it starts there with fear of God you won't move on to love for God you won't move on to seeking to give God glory in all areas of life and let to get the realization of who God is and the realization that God is God changes your life and the problem that we have is that we know God but that doesn't affect us it doesn't move us we've seen God we have some knowledge of God that he is the creator he's the governor he's the Lord he is the Almighty he is holy but what does that mean to us to say that God is holy and we are not affected by the holiness of God that it doesn't change the way we pray and the way we behave but if we could just see God and know God it will utterly change our lives and that change of life produces maturity and growth in our lives this is who wisdom is reserved for it this is the wisdom that Paul preached it's for the mature so first of all first point is God gives wisdom to the mature second point is God gives wisdom to those who are enlightened or spiritually enlightened by God it goes on to say in verse 6 you know among the mature we do impart wisdom although it's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God so first of all he says here that God does not give wisdom to the so-called wise men and powerful men of this world it's not the wisdom of the age or the wisdom of the rulers of this age you would think the wise one among us would be the powerful among us it would be our leaders it would be our governors it would be our kings our presidents it would be men in power they are the wise ones we would think but God says no that is not who I give wisdom to that's not who I have imparted wisdom to wisdom is not found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle you can look at the lives read the biographies of these Greek philosophers they weren't godly men they weren't men to learn from they were educated obviously they were smart but they're not wise Paul already said where is the wise man where is the scribe where is the philosopher of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world they're not among us that's not who God is saving it's not the intellectuals among us that are the truly wise ones we see verse 6 their wisdom not just their wisdom but they the rulers of the age the wise men of the world they're doomed to pass away where is Plato now where is the great men of this world now they're they're dead and they're not just dead they're in hell everything about their lives is passed away is it well their philosophy and their teachings their writings still present today you'll one day that's going to pass away to it's all going to burn all of it's going to not have any eternal effect imagine you give your life to study something and you study it in studying to become the master of that topic and then know that you gave your life to nothing because it's all doom to pass away to come to nothing this is the leaders of the world they think they have power they have they might think they have wisdom but it's nothing but uselessness you see such wisdom does not and has not led them to fear God it hasn't led them to bow the knee it hasn't led them to humility and godliness you see the so-called wise men of this world are fools in the eyes of God 1st 3 19 for the wisdom of this world is all with God the problem with the wise men of this world and the powerful of this age is that they have not been enlightened by God worldly wisdom leads to pride and contention James tells us the wisdom from beloved leads to humility and maintenance but the wisdom from below the wisdom that you can achieve through your own intellectual abilities leads to contention and pride and division hostility you know this is why Paul warns us that knowledge in of itself just puffs up some of us were smart and we were puffed up with how many Bible verses we know we're puffed up with all the theology you know we're orthodox but we're just not humble and that's not wisdom at all that's not the proper application of what we know but God gives wisdom to those whom he reveals himself to you see wisdom of from above you can't obtain it through intellectual skills it's not a argument that you can deduce and derive to you can't obtain wisdom on your own wisdom is a gift from God and for you to have wisdom God must open your eyes he must reveal it to you he must open up your heart and give you spiritual illumination we see this in verse seven but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God it's not that the wisdom remains secret it is revealed but it was secret or hidden until it became revealed and this is the very meaning of the word revelation the word revelation means to be to be made known or that which reveals or brings to light that which would otherwise remain hidden or secretive so there are truths that you can't comprehend and understand rightly until it is opened up to you and what I mean by understand is when that the word you can intellectually comprehend it like I know what you're saying that's true Jesus died on the cross I believe that's a historical fact I don't doubt that reality you can know it in your head but you really don't believe something or understand it until it becomes real in your life and that has to be opened up to you that puts you in a position that you need to be humble you're not sufficient you go well I'll turn to the Lord when I want to I'll I can grow in wisdom if I want to know you can't it has to be illuminated to you it has to be made open to you it has to be revealed to you if you see it comes to us by divine revelation where the Spirit takes the truth and applies it to our heart to becomes so real in our life John 16 Jesus says I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now when the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you he'll open you up to these truths he will reveal them in time but right now you can't see them you can't bear them they're too much for you as you grow God will continue by his grace to open up the word to you we've learned in our own chapter chapter 2 of 1st Corinthians these things God has revealed to us through his Spirit for the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God for we know a person's thoughts accept the Spirit of that person which is in him so also no one can comprehend the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God now we receive not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given to us by God we import this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual you see God Spirit knows the Spirit he is he is God now how do I reveal to you me you can know all about me but I got feelings and I got thoughts and I got worries I got concerns I got things about my life that I don't know how to communicate to you but my spirit knows them there's things about God there's no way we can know about God but the Holy Spirit is God he's the Spirit of God and that Spirit illuminates these very truths to us and only the Spirit can do such a thing you see to know God you have to it has God has to reveal himself to you by his Spirit he has to open it up to you why do some believe and others don't believe and they hear the same message think about Jesus Christ he walked and preached to so many people but there was only a few converts many of them departed from Christ yeah he asked his disciples others say I'm John the Baptist some say I'm a logist some say I'm a prophet but who do you say that I am who am I Jesus asked Peter says well you're the son of the living God I know who you are Jesus looked at Peter says blessed are you Peter Simon Peter flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you you didn't learn this in school but my father in heaven has revealed it to you if you know God in a real way and the knowledge of God has impacted your life in any substantial way it's only by divine revelation God has opened up your heart he has given you ears to hear so he reveals wisdom to the enlightened he gives it to the mature first and second he gives it to those he enlightens thirdly God gives wisdom to the elect we see this at the end of verse seven what distinguishes you from folks is it your education your intelligence is it your human will you made a better decision to follow the Lord what distinguishes you from unbelievers why are you a Christian why have you bow the knee to the gospel when others in this very room are not why we see it at the end of verse seven which God decreed before the ages for our glory you see the only reason we believe that we understand only reason we have any wisdom at all is because we are among God's chosen people look it uses the word decreed this this very Greek word is used six times in the New Testament it can be translated as for ordained predetermined but most often especially the ESV is translated as predestined it's the very word used in Romans 8 30 those whom he predestined he also called it's used in Ephesians 1 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will Ephesians 1 11 is used again in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the course the counsel of his own will you see he is predetermined are predestined these truths to be opened up to your mind he's determined predetermined when after he saw something in you know he said before the ages before the foundation of the world God says I'm going to show you something I'm going to reveal myself to you I'm going to impart wisdom to you the only reason that you see and others do not the only reason you bow down to Christ and others have not is because God has preordained for you to see something that he has not revealed to them it's unconditional wisdom is a gift you didn't earn it you're wise not because you're smart you should recognize that you need to be humble in your wisdom why do you see when others do not Jesus said in Matthew 11 I thank you Father Lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them to babes even so father for it so seemed good in your sight all things have been delivered to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him you have hidden this from the prudent and the wise but you have chosen to reveal it to babes disciples ask Christ why do you speak in parables why don't you speak plainly to us and Jesus responded to his disciples because it's been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been given notice our text says it does not say he decreed it to us because of our glory because of something in us because we're glorious or we have good works or because we are smart it says no he decreed it for us or to us for our glory the only reason we're not fools is because of the grace of God you see why did the rulers of the age crucified Christ look at verse 8 none of the rulers of the age of this age understood this for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory why did they crucify Christ I mean it wasn't because they didn't see the miracles why would anyone after seeing the miracles and the works of Christ want to kill him boy did he sin did he do anything wrong did he commit a crime why did they crucify him it doesn't make sense there's no logical reason for the rulers of this age to put Christ to death Paul says if they would have known if they would have understood they would have done it now think about this if you truly understood the grace of God the love of Christ the tortures of hell if those realities were real there's no way you wouldn't believe there's you could not not believe could you just it's impossible to say I'm going to crucify Christ but every time you reject Jesus Christ you're essentially crucifying him why do you do that it doesn't make sense there's no reason for you to turn Christ away I don't want you especially if you know that he's God intellectually you know that he's the son of God he lived and died he's a God of love and he's giving you an offer that's so wonderful there's no reason that for you to keep hanging on to the things that you can't keep the silly things of this world you love sports you love this you love that and these mean so much to you that you're going to forfeit your soul it doesn't make sense why would you kill priced the answer is not because you don't intellectually know it's the fact that you don't understand it's not real to you it's hidden it's it's it's some form of some form of dictionary knowledge that means nothing to you the Bible tells us the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned there's something that hips you from believing it's just you have no Spirit of God in you it hasn't been revealed to you if God showed himself to us today I don't care what dignity we would have if God showed up right now and you saw him by faith you saw him I mean truly understood God in his glory you would all all of us meet who we'd all bow down on our knees right now it would change us and if one of you is standing up and walking around and say I'll just go to the bathroom I don't care and I you just put it's because you don't see you just don't see but listen God is here and the truth is real but it takes God to show it to us and though he hasn't chosen to give it to the rulers of this age he has chosen to give it to us his people look at verse 9 but as it is written what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love him listen he's quoting Isaiah and he's saying Isaiah said listen I'm going to reveal some glorious truths I'm going to show myself to you in a way that is so remarkable that no way you could have imagined it no way that you could have come up with it on your own this is such glorious realities I'm going to let you know I'm going to show them to you and I've ordained them for you to see and see wherever you are on the spectrum of wisdom and maturity there's still more glory to have there's still more to see we only see through a glass darkly and do we not want to see more and more do we not want a clearer vision of Christ give me more of you and less of this world help me see you clearly dear Lord and when I see you when I see the glories of the gospel the love of God then I know my life will be changed and the reason our lives not changed the reason or not affected by the word of God is we don't see it it's not real to us Oh Lord make it real show me Jesus show me the word of God open it up to my heart that I might believe and I might be changed I might be transformed I might love you I might glorify you I might reshuffle my whole life and I might sell all that I have that I'd give everything I have for the joy of that hidden treasure and I could truly say you can have my life you can have everything I want you can take all my idols those are rubbish those are dung those they mean nothing to me all it matters is I get to see God more of God takes revelation it takes spiritual illumination and it gives those to his chosen people fourth and we come to a conclusion and I know you who know my preaching this is fast God gives wisdom to those who love him look at verse 9 at the end of verse 9 what Noah has seen or ear heard nor heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love him the reason we don't see the truth understand the truth that truth becomes wisdom to us is not an intellectual problem we'll get to this text couple weeks from now where it says the natural man does not comprehend the things of God because they're spiritually discerned that doesn't mean that the word of God is gibberish it doesn't mean it's not intellectually comprehendable again a lot of unbelievers know the Bible better than you and I there's a lot of scholars that are in hell and are on their way to hell that they are orthodox in their theology so it's not just a problem of I have just not smart enough it's not the problem you see man has all the intellectual capacities to understand and believe the problem with man is not his intelligence not a physical inability it's a moral inability think of the panda bear panda bears have all the biological makeup to be able to eat meat they have canine teeth and they have the lining in their stomach to process meat and digest it just like all other bears black bears brown bears they all like meat somehow in some reason the panda turns his or her nose up to meat likes grass bamboo leaves see it's not that the panda bear can't eat meat it's not that the natural man can't understand the Bible the panda bear just doesn't like meat it's a moral problem he doesn't enjoy it natural man can understand he just doesn't like it he doesn't love the truth is lack of love for the word of God a lack of love for God that keeps man from believing is his heart loves sin he loves his idols see it's a moral problem that keeps you from believing Paul says in second Thessalonians two because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this reason God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness see they didn't love the truth because they loved unrighteousness they took pleasure in unrighteousness this is the problem the problem is not intellectual it's not being able to comprehend the word of God the problem is he doesn't like what he hears the problem that today reason you're not saved you just love your sins it's a sin issue your heart is still attached to the world the world and it's only until you can see the glory of God and the glory of the world to come that you can turn your your heart away from this world and grasp the truth and love it and embrace it and apply it to your life see the problem is a 12 inch disconnect from your mind to your heart now ideally the most brilliant theologians among us would be the wisest among us but this is not always the case you may have a poor Christian that doesn't know much theology but is humble and godly and pursues the Lord with all of her might with all of her soul and she'd be wiser than the greatest scholars among us however this is not saying we don't need to know theology because we want to know theology because it leads to wisdom when we grasp it and understand it and apply it so we should all give ourselves to doctrine and to the word of God and to theology because in it we see God in it we see glorious truths in it we're transformed be not conformed to this world we're to be transformed with the renewing of our mind from the word of God but it must be applied to us and we see that love those who love the truth get more of the truth Ephesians 3 14 Paul prays the most beautiful prayer and he says I pray that God will grant you to be strengthened with might fortify your inner man on order that you might be grounded in love and he prays that you're grounded in love so that you may be able to comprehend the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge in other words you say you have to have love to understand love to understand the love of God to keep yourself in the love of God you've got to have love and so here we see wisdom produces love and love produces more wisdom it's kind of like maturity wisdom produces maturity maturity produces more wisdom in the same way law is the result of wisdom but it also gives us the capacity to understand more wisdom we're to grow in love put it this way the in objective of all the word of God the in objective of all theology and doctrine is to love God with all your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself and if you're not pursuing the word of God because you can love God more than you're pursuing it wrongly woe to us especially seminary students that are just seeking to impress others with our skills woe to us if we're ready to debate others so that we can shame them and feel good about what we know our knowledge is not given to us for self exaltation for pride and arrogance knowledge is given to us that we might love God and better love our fellow man and those who love God gifts more to whom has more shall be given and those who have not that what they think they have shall be taken away the key to growing wisdom is to love God open your Bibles to see God to know God to love God so we see here are four four people who God gives wisdom to to the spiritually mature to spiritually enlightened to his elect and to those who love him God bless.

Thank you.