Date: February 13/16, 2020

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:6-13

Is there anyone that doesn’t like to have things their way? It is part of our society. We want exactly what we want and we are going to get it. Think about how this can easily be displayed. We will seek out whatever product we want and we will want it to be exactly right. In my family, when we were kids, we would always roll our eyes at our mom when we went to restaurants. She could never, ever order anything off a menu without changing something. She always had to remove a certain ingredient or add something else. It would always add extra time to our order. It didn’t matter if we were at a fast food restaurant or a really nice restaurant, she would change something. That is pretty normal in our society. To want something in exactly the way we want it. Today as we look at God’s Wisdom, we see that it is not about the way we want it. God’s Wisdom is about the way God has planned our salvation. Today we want to Seek God’s Wisdom.

Part 1: Deny your wrong ideas

If people are left to themselves, they are not going to seek God’s Wisdom. At best, people might gain an understanding of right and wrong but they won’t know how to solve the problem. They might think that there is a Creator God but they won’t see a Savior God. We are born with our natural knowledge of God but this natural knowledge doesn’t give us the complete picture. We can see the beauty of nature and this can make us think that there is a Creator God. However, some people misinterpret those truths and end up far away from the truth with something like Evolution. Even if they don’t travel down that false path, they still won’t see the plan of salvation.

Our natural knowledge of God also includes our consciences. This voice gives us a picture of what is right and wrong. However, there are many people who ignore that voice and drift far away from the truth of what God says is right and wrong. Best case scenario, the conscience tells what is right according to God but it doesn’t tell us what to do about it. It might make us think we have to do good to make up for sin but it doesn’t tell us about Jesus. This is the problem that verses 9 and 10 are talking about. On our own we don’t see the gospel. “‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love him – these things are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

Think about it like this: If a dashboard light in your car tells you that there is a problem with the brakes, that is very helpful information. However, the light doesn’t tell you how to fix the problem. The same is true with our conscience. It tells us there is a problem with sin but it doesn’t tell us the solution. It doesn’t tell us how we are saved. There is really only one place to find that message. We can’t find the message of salvation way up on the highest mountain or way down on the ocean floor. It is not something that the greatest scientific minds in the world have discovered through experiments. The only place to find this message of salvation is in the Bible.

Because of our sinful natures, our human wisdom is flawed. We need to remember to not rely too much on ourselves. Proverbs 3:5 gives this encouragement. It says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.” This is a difficult truth to grasp. Our sinful nature wants to chime in over and over that we know what is best. Look at all the ways we can take care of ourselves. Look at the skills we have. Look at the credentials we have earned. Look at the vast knowledge that we have gained and how it has benefited us over the years. Certainly we know what is best.

But is that really the case? Our knowledge is imperfect. Our knowledge has been contaminated by sin. We can’t even accurately predict what is going to happen tomorrow. We endure suffering. Problems mount up against us. We wonder why these things are happening. After all, aren’t we the good ones who came to church today. Why isn’t God taking away all of our problems and giving us peace on Earth. Again, watch out for your sinful way of thinking. God hasn’t told us all of the details of the plan. We don’t need to know all of his wisdom. We need to trust in the salvation worked out for us in Christ.

Part of the life of faith is denying ourselves and our way of doing things. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). A huge part of our faith is denying ourselves. As we follow after Christ, life is not going to be easy. We are going to face many problems. Some of those things will be persecutions from a sinful world. Sometimes we will have to give up the pleasures that others enjoy because we know the importance of resisting temptation. Other times we will have to wrestle with those questions about why God allows this or that to happen. Unbelievers have given up caring about such questions but we wrestle with it.

We deny ourselves. We deny the idea that we can contribute in any way to our salvation. We deny the idea that our good works can win us forgiveness. We deny the idea that we can bring ourselves to faith through our own choices. We deny some of the materialist pleasures that we see others enjoying so that we can give back to our God. We deny much of the power and success of the world because we don’t want anything to take over the number one place in our hearts. We deny ourselves and we focus on Christ.

Part 2: Submit to God’s Plan

We can deny all these things because we have a faith which knows God’s Wisdom. We know that the Bible isn’t just a human book like other books. The Bible is the very Word of God. Verses 12 and 13 talk about this. “What we have received is not the spirt of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words” (1 Corinthians 2:12-13). The Holy Spirit gave the authors of the Bible the message that they wrote down.

This is what we call Verbal Inspiration. The very words of scripture were inspired by God. This is a concept that is difficult to understand. The authors were not mindless robots who just went into a trance and started writing the books. We know that God had them use their own individual styles. You can see this when you look at the various books and the forms of literature. And yet, we see one cohesive message through all 66 books of the Bible. They all tell of the plan of salvation through Christ.

This is a powerful message that converts people to faith. We even see that the Biblical authors are able to take the false thinking of others and change it with God’s Wisdom. The apostle Paul did this exceptionally well. The people in Athens had many false gods because they could see from nature and conscience that there must be some kind of god. They even wanted to cover all their bases so they made a statue to what they called “the unknown god.” Paul used this as a starting point. He said that he could tell them about the unknown God.

He used that as an opportunity to tell them about the true God. He told them about the plan of salvation through Jesus. He revealed God’s wisdom to them and many people came to faith. God’s wisdom has the power to overcome human wisdom. It happens all the time. Those who think they are wise in this world end up seeing that they were wrong. That is the topic of our adult Bible Study. Lee Strobel was a man who was wise in the eyes of the world. He tried to do all kinds of research to disprove the Bible. In the end, he acknowledged that the Bible had to be true. He became a believer.

The gospel is powerful. It doesn’t always seem wise in the eyes of the world. At times it appears too easy because there is nothing we have to do. Human wisdom seeks after any other idea. Human wisdom wants to be strong and independent. We want to do everything on our own. We want to accomplish all of our victories through our own power. But that is not the gospel God’s plan of salvation is that he takes care of our sin. We could never make up for any of our sins. We deserve eternal death because of our sin. Jesus took care of that problem. God’s eternal wisdom sent his Son to die on the cross for us and win us eternal life.

Conclusion

Our consumer mentality struggles with the truths of the gospel. We want things to happen our way. But that is not what God does. God reminds us that our way can never work. Our way is never good enough. We will always fall short of his glory. That is why Jesus took care of it for us. He has won the victory. He was more than good enough. He was and is perfect. Now we are blessed with his perfect robe of righteousness. Because of God’s wisdom shown to us in the plan of salvation, we have forgiveness and eternal life.