Thinking About God's Wisdom

Thinking About God=s Wisdom.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:16

Sermon Idea: Man=s wisdom comes not from himself, it comes from God.

Sin runs rampant in our society. Daily newspaper and television reports of overcrowding of prisons can attest to that fact. Child abuse, pornography, serial killers, terrorism, anarchy, corrupt politicians, and ruthless warlords. They fill the world with violence, hatred and corruption. Reading, hearing and perhaps even experiencing these situations first hand. We begin to understand the necessity for God=s judgment. We may even find ourselves wishing for vengeance by any means upon the violent offenders. Surely they are beyond redemption! Just suppose that God told you to take His Word to the worst of these offenders, how would you react?

In the Bible Jonah was given this very task. He was told to go to a place called Nineveh. Nineveh was the Capitol of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians had flaunted their power, before God and the rest of the world through countless acts of heartless cruelty. When Jonah received the Word of the Lord to go to Nineveh. He began to run as hard and as fast as his little legs would carry him. In the opposite direction.

His journey took him to the belly of a whale and other points until he decided he would be better off delivering his message. Jonah knew no one, deserved the grace of God less than the dreaded Assyrians. That is not why he did not want to go. He knew even with his weak preaching they would turn away from their sin and worship God. Jonah hated the Assyrians and he wanted vengeance not mercy, to fall on them. He knew the power contained in his message.

Paul did not use a philosophical approach to preaching. Scholars say Paul was not a textual or topical preacher. He was an expositor of the Word of God. Paul did not use pretty words or pretty speech.

Paul did not come with the worlds of wisdom. He came declaring the testimony of God. What is a testimony? It is a declaration or statement made to establish a fact. The fact that Paul preached was that they had crucified Jesus. Something before which they had never preached. In the Old Testament they always alluded to it as shown through prophecy. The revealing of the actual event was something new all together.

Paul did not enter into philosophical debates that cause arguments. He preached the Cross of Christ. A crucified savior. One who died for the sins of the world.

Paul begins to open his heart and allows us to look inside at his innermost thought. He makes it perfectly clear that when he was with the Corinthians he was scared. He came to them Ain weakness and fear, and with much trembling@ (v. 3). It was no wonder that he could say God had chosen the weak things of this world. Paul did not hold himself in very high esteem. He was a man with great intellect and was a great man in many ways, but if you were to ask Paul himself, he would not tell it.

Today we have libraries full of man=s wisdom. There is a great deal of preaching being done but not much else is done Awith a demonstration of the SPIRIT=S POWER@ (v. 4). Many feel that the right method, topic, or style is what they need. In all actuality what they need is the HOLY SPIRIT!

If they win one with the wisdom of man then his faith lies in the wisdom of man. When a man comes to faith in Christ through the power of God. Then his faith lies in the power and wisdom of God. Many lives are proof positive. There are many who think that their salvation lies in proving whether God inspired the scriptures or whether Jonah was actually swallowed up by a whale or if the flood actually happened. We have skeptics within our midst. However, God is beginning to prove these things to the skeptics. The big question is this: What does your faith rest upon? Searching for the answers will point out the Wisdom of God. Our faith must rest upon the power of God.

Paul says that his wisdom does not come from man=s wisdom. He talks about God=s secret wisdom and how it has been hidden. It is a secret and hidden because it is given only to those who believe. It is not the popular or fashionable wisdom of the psychics. When Jesus spoke His parables and He told the disciples that the vast majority of people would not understand them. It is because He was giving them the direction that the Kingdom of Heaven was headed. Jesus revealed all that had been hidden and Jesus can only reveal that in your life.