Understand the gospel. In your word in jesus name we pray amen
So we're going to be looking in. 1 Corinthians 2.
1 Corinthians chapter 2. And last week, we studied, we talked about the foolishness of the cross.
Being wiser than the wisdom of this world. I think verse 29.
Sums up everything that the chapter says that no flesh, it says, should glory in his presence.
But of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
That as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. And that brings us to chapter 2.
I'm going to read through the whole chapter. And then we'll go through it verse by verse and see how far we get. I might not go through the whole… chapter, but we'll read through it tonight.
So chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom.
Declaring to the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom.
But in demonstration of the spirit. And of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men.
But in the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age.
Nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages For our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known they would have not crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard.
Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
But God has revealed them. To us through his spirit.
For the scripture For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak Not in words which man's wisdom teaches.
But which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual But the natural man does not receive The things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness.
To him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged.
By no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ. All right, so we'll go back to the beginning of the chapter.
Verse 1. It says, and I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or with wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
Paul did not rely on his education to get his message across.
You know, Paul could have been… relying on it. He could have relied on his education. Let's turn to Philippians 3.
Chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3, and we're going to read verses 2. To 11. So Philippians 3 verses 2 to 11.
It says, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation, for we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit.
Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I have more.
Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews concerning the law, a Pharisee.
Concerning zeal persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness Which is in the law blameless.
But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed.
I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
And count them as rubbish that I may gain And be found in him, not having my own righteousness.
Which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death If by any means I may attain to the resurrection.
From the dead. So Paul had many things he could have boasted about.
And we read other places that he Well, here it says he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and we read that he was taught under Gamaliel He had an excellent education, and yet what did he rely on?
It says, you know, to win people over. He relied on the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel, didn't he? Remember, when Jesus was here, who did he choose?
He chose the 12 disciples and they were for the most part They were uneducated men, weren't they? Fishermen by trade.
And that's why so many people were amazed at their speech. Remember in Acts when Peter and John As unlearned, ignorant men were speaking the wonders of God.
People took note that they had been with Jesus. You know, the IQ of a person does not give an advantage in the spiritual realm.
I always remember my mom. To teach special education and she had this one student that she would do not only teach him education like the English and the math and things like that.
But she also had a chance to give him the word of God. And I remember him I don't know how old I was, but I just remember listening in on him. And he would tell my mom, he says, all these
Other things like the math and English, I have such a hard time, but he says, this all just makes so much sense. And that just shows that he had a cognitive disability and yet even though he's struggled academically.
He understood the things of the word of God because he was a believer and the Holy Spirit was making it understandable. And that is just, that always stuck with me.
So the IQ of a person does not give an advantage in the spiritual realm. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that is able to reach people's hearts.
So back in our chapter. Of Corinthians. Wait a minute.
1 Corinthians. Okay.
So… So he did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring the testimony of God.
Verse 2, for I determined not to know anything among you except what?
Jesus Christ and him crucified. You know, the message that we need to be sharing with people is Jesus Christ in him crucified. That's the message. The first thing an unbeliever needs is is not a discussion about revelation or about some
Difficult portion of Scripture, we need to start with the gospel. Keep it simple.
And that's where the power is. The gospel is God's power into salvation to everyone who believes.
That's where the power is. Then in verse Three, Paul says, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
You know, he did not rely on his educational expertise. He could have. He was very educated.
If he did rely on his education, he wouldn't have been with him in fear and trembling, would he? He would have been really… confidence, right? But instead, Paul demonstrated the spirit and power.
The power of the Holy Spirit. Paul preached the gospel and let the Holy Spirit do his work, making it understandable to the people.
Last week, we read in chapter 1 verse 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.
Some of the most intelligent minds of the world. Are considered fools in God's sight.
And why is that? What does the scripture say? The fool hath said in his heart what?
There is no God. There is no God. Jeremiah said… Cursed is the man. I'm going to read a few… You don't have to turn there. But Jeremiah said, cursed is the man who trusts in man, who makes his flesh his strength.
Whose heart turns away from the Lord. In Psalm 118, it says it's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes Isaiah said the same thing when he said, stop trusting in man.
Who is but breath. Of what account is he?
Psalm 62 says, men of low degree are of vapor. Men of high degree are a lie.
If they are weighed on the scales, they are altogether lighter than vapor.
You think of when we're out… outside in the cold and you blow out I remember when I was a little boy, we used to pretend like we were smoking, blow out in the cold air, and you'd see your vapor.
But it just disappears like that And that says… Men of low degree are Men of high degree are alive. Their weight on the scales, they are altogether lighter than vapor.
That's what we are without the Lord Jesus. James continues with this thought. He says, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
You know, it's just it's gone. Think for a moment, what is your greatest… weakness in your life.
Oftentimes God will use us in our area of weakness, not in our area of strength. Do you ever find that to be the truth?
He uses us in our weakness before our area of strength. Oftentimes.
We want to be used in our area of strength, maybe, right?
But then sometimes we become like a resounding gong. Look at me.
Remember the gong show? You might think you have a wonderful performance and then Gong.
Wasn't too good. But God uses us in our weakness, so we rely on his strength and then he gets the glory.
But often we want to be using our strength. Look at me, look at my giftedness.
But then the Lord doesn't use it because it is for our glory instead of his.
But then another time we might minister to someone that we feel And we might feel like a total failure when we're talking to them.
I don't know if you've experienced this, but then it's at that time that God uses what we've said to reach them.
And it's always amazing to me that When I feel like I've done the worst.
That's when he uses it, when I feel like, oh, this is really good, but I said and doesn't have any impact.
But whether we are here today and we feel real smart or maybe we're real smart Like a stupid person, doesn't matter. We all need to rely on the Holy Spirit to reach those around us.
So verse 4 continues, and my speech And my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom.
But with a demonstration of the spirit and of power. And why was that?
Verse 5 tells us that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men.
But in the power of God. I like the principle of John the Baptist. What did he say? He must, about Jesus, he must increase And I must decrease We want people to be followers of Jesus.
And not followers of us and so That's why we want to be relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not wrong to have education. I hope we all want to be educated.
But we don't rely on that as to reach people's hearts. We always need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit working through the word We need to be in prayer when we're sharing the gospel. We should do it in fear and trembling. We're giving a message that has eternal consequences.
When a person hears it has eternal consequences and we So, like Paul, we do it in fear and trembling.
So we preach Christ and him crucified, and then verse 6 says.
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.
Paul talks of hidden wisdom among the mature.
Now, the mature are those, not the mature maybe that the world thinks is mature, but in God's eyes.
Mature. In contrast to the wisdom of this age. You know, all the rulers of this age are coming to nothing. And all the wisdom of this world You know, there's so many books, it's all coming to nothing.
The only title we take away with us is our status of being in Christ.
Being a child of God. Everything we have All our titles.
Whatever we have in this life, we leave behind. We have just what we have in Christ.
Or blessings that can never be And those blessings are the best. They can never perish, spoil, or fade.
Captain Heaven, reserved in heaven for us. So verse 7 says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory. And what is this mystery that was hidden?
Let's turn to a few passages that talk about this mystery. First turn to Colossians chapter 1.
Verse 26… to 27.
Colossians chapter 1 verses 26 and 27. It says the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to his saints To them God willed to make known what are the riches.
Of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Which is Christ in you.
The hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is amazing.
Mystery that was hidden, the fact, first of all, the fact that Jews and Gentiles would be united together In the body of Christ as the church And also the fact that the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God.
Which was in the tabernacle and was also in the Holy of Holies in the temple You know, that very presence of God is in us as believers. That's amazing. Christ in you, the hope of glory. You know, that was a mystery in the Old Testament.
Now turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3.
We're going to read verses 1 through 12.
Okay, Ephesians chapter 3 verses 1 through 12. For this reason, I paul The prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God.
Which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery.
As I have briefly written already, by which When you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men.
As it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets.
That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body. There it is, the body of Christ.
Jew and Gentile together. And partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel.
Of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. Verse 8.
To me who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.
To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places According to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus.
Our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access. With confidence through faith in him.
So this mystery is not only being revealed to us.
But it says it's revealed through us. You know, the Lord God making known It says his manifold wisdom even to the principal and powers in the heavenly places.
Now, this is… Some deep stuff, isn't it?
It really is. Even the angelic realm is learning from what's going on in the church. Now, I don't totally understand it.
It's as if we are on display. Angels are very interested In the gospel. Remember, they rejoice in heaven.
When a sinner repents. Peter says in his epistle that the gospel was preached to the pilgrims of the dispersion by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
Things, even angels desire to look into.
You know, we as believers in the church age have been given so much privilege.
We really have. The fact that the body of every believer in the church age would be the temple of the Holy Spirit was unheard of in the in ages past.
You know, Gentiles, even in Jesus state, what were they called?
Docs. I don't know about you, but that's not nice to be called a dog, but… I don't know if anyone as Jews, but we would all been different types of dogs.
We're all from different countries. Albanian dogs.
German dogs, Irish dogs, Irish setters, yeah. We're all different countries.
Indian dogs. We're all… But… The privilege we have as believers in Jesus Christ during the church age is amazing. We should never take it for granted.
We should never take it for granted that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit that we have direct access to the throne of grace.
In the Old Testament, just the, what is it, the high priest?
He could go there. And how many times a year? Was it once a year?
We can go 24 hours a day if we want to.
We can pray without ceasing. We're commanded to pray without ceasing. That means that we have ability to go.
All the time. And it's a privilege.
We're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We can walk by means of the Spirit. We can have fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
We're in Christ, we're in fellowship with him. That's our position.
God ordained this before the ages for our glory. It says we live in privileged times.
The Jews were God's privileged racial family or physical family. With both… They also had physical promises and blessings.
But as the body of Christ, both Jew and Gentile in this church age.
We are, what are we, a royal priesthood. A holy nation, people belonging to God. He's called us out of darkness into his light.
So back in our text 1 Corinthians.
Chapter 2. Verse 8 says, which none of the rulers of this age knew for had they known they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
The Romans Gentiles had no idea when the Jews handed over Jesus that they were crucifying The Lord of glory.
They were crucifying their creator. They were crucifying the only one that could save them could give me eternal life.
If they knew who they were crucifying, I don't think they would have done it.
If the rulers of the power of the darkness of this age, you know, that Satan and his demons knew everything. I don't think they would. I don't know what they would have done.
I think they were surprised by all this. You know, we know the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is but we still see him by faith.
1 Peter 1.18 says, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
You know, the people who crucified the Lord of glory would not have done so if they… knew what we know now.
But what we know is not as much as we will know. And this leads us back To verse 9 in our text.
It says, but as it is written, I has not seen.
Nor has nor ear heard. Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
I don't know about you, but I can imagine a lot of wonderful things.
As a kid, I had a great, I just… had a wild imagination, just imagining all kinds of things.
But God has prepared But the things that God has prepared for those who love him are beyond what our eyes have seen in this world.
Beyond. We might have seen a lot of, gone on a lot of beautiful vacations and seen beautiful things in this world.
But it's beyond what our eyes have seen, beyond what our ears have heard in this world.
And beyond what has entered into our hearts In other words, beyond our imagination.
But verse 10 says, but God has revealed them to us through his spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
You know, the Lord gives us glimpses, doesn't He, sometimes, of eternity.
Just as we're in the word… All of a sudden we understand something.
We get glimpses of it, but… When we see him… face to face, that's going to be a wonderful day.
And there's nothing that's going to compare to it. God has revealed them to us through his spirit. Before we were saved, we had no ability to understand the scripture, did we?
But when we were saved, God, the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us, makes all things understandable.
When I first was a young believer.
I just remember, you know, I heard the gospel The Holy Spirit made it understandable to me and I believed, trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation.
And then the scriptures just seem to start opening up. Do you have the same experience, things that you might have read and even memorized as a child I memorize things as a child and had them in my head.
But I just never really, it just had a new meaning for me.
And all the things that I had learned started making sense to me and that's When we are evangelizing, we need to start with the gospel.
People need to hear the gospel first. Because they're not going to understand all the other stuff.
The Holy Spirit knows what people need. And what do they need? They need to hear the gospel.
It's God's power into salvation to everyone that believes. It's powerful.
The message of the cross is a powerful message. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
For it, what is the it? The gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
You know, the Holy Spirit knows that that's what the unbeliever needs to get saved. They need the power of the gospel message.
And we're the ones who share it, aren't we? We have the privilege of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment, and then makes the gospel.
Understandable to the spiritually dead person. And in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all peoples to myself.
That was Jesus's purpose in coming to draw all peoples to himself.
Jesus also said, I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
You know, God has given to us the message of reconciliation.
And turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. We're going to read a few verses there too.
2 Corinthians chapter 5.
2 Corinthians 5. Reverses 17 through 21.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ.
And has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us The word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf.
Be reconciled to God, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.
That we might become the righteousness of God in him. You know, God has given to each of us who have believed in Christ this ministry of reconciliation. We have the ability to tell people a message that has eternal consequences
And this is a tremendous privileged, but it's also a responsibility.
And the message is for all. Sometimes I run into people that get burned down thinking that Jesus came.
And died for the sins of just a select number. I don't believe that. God so loved the… world that he gave his only begotten son that Whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
All people, when we're when we're… giving the gospel, we have to believe all people are savable.
They're all savable, but not all are saved, are they? Why? Because they refuse the gift.
If someone offers us a gift and we say no. Does it benefit us? We could be homeless on the street and someone offers us a gift.
And we say no, and inside was maybe $100,000. It could be sitting there and we push it away Because we didn't think it was, there was anything in there.
But it would have benefited us. So with the gospel, people can refuse it.
And… In John's gospel, John said concerning jesus He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him.
But he came to his own And his own did not receive him, but as many as received him.
As many as received him and how many is that? As many as received Jesus, to them he gives what? The right to become the children of God. That's who has the right to become a children of God, even to them who believe on his name.
Jesus said in Matthew, come unto me all you. Who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
He gives us rest for our souls, eternal life. So back to our text.
In… 1 Corinthians.
We won't get through all of this.
Verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through his spirit for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
Verse 11, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him?
Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God Now, we have received not the spirit of the world.
But the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
And we have been given the Holy Spirit so that we might know the things that have freely been given to us by God.
Gives us spiritual discernment, does he? Doesn't he? Through his word, through the power of his spirit.
And then verse 13, these things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches.
Not the wisdom of this world, but… which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. You know, we don't speak our own wisdom.
From this world or our own intellect. But what the Holy Spirit teaches. And what does the Holy Spirit do? He compares spiritual things was spiritual. The scripture cannot be broken. It all fits together, doesn't it?
Old, the New Testament. I love it how Scripture interprets scripture, doesn't it?
What does it say? Studied to show thyself, approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
Rightly dividing the word of truth. We need to be in the word And then in verse 14, I think I'll end here. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.
Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man cannot… receive the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him. And that's why we start… And we're preaching.
We preach the what? The gospel. The gospel is the power.
I've got into salvation. The Spirit works through the gospel message. When a person believes, then the Holy Spirit seals the person and the Holy Spirit is our guarantee of our inheritance.
I think we're out of time. I was going to share a few verses, but we'll just do one more thing. We'll close with this because I like this.
Ephesians chapter 1, just two verses, and we'll close with this.
I'll pray. Ephesians chapter 1 verses…
13 and 14.
In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed.
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. I love those verses. Notice the order.
We trust after. We heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and then having believed.
We were sealed. We… We need to overcome our shame of the gospel, right? Because we know it is the power of God into salvation.
And it's the power to… It's the word of truth.
When someone believes, they are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that's a wonderful thing that happened in our lives.
And it's going to happen with those who who in the future who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we have a good message. And that's just a close note of prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that The wisdom that we get from you.
Is wisdom unto eternal life. We thank you for the gospel message.
Of Jesus Christ and him crucified, the one who died. On the cross for our sins was buried and rose again.
We thank you that eternal life is through faith in him.
To whosoever believest on him. We thank you for all the… The spiritual blessings we have in your Son.
That can never perish, spoil, or fade. That we're… secure in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are indoor by the Holy Spirit. We're sealed into the day of redemption. We thank you for all these wonderful truths that give us hope and confidence.
I pray for each of us that we would be in prayer for those around us, that we would take the opportunities when you give them to share this wonderful message.
As ambassadors for Christ, we want to share this message with those around us.
Lord, you know our weakness. We do this in fear and trembling.
And yet, in confidence in your word. We just thank you.
For what we have in Christ Jesus and it's in his name we pray. Amen.