Understanding God’s Wisdom Series

I. Introduction

A. As you may recall, one of the main issues with the church in Corinth was an issue of unity

-They were not sure who their allegiance was to.

-Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:12)

-They were not even sure if they should follow the teachings of the leaders in the church or the philosophers of their day.

-Wisdom of God or the wisdom of men.

B. Paul attempts to clear up both of these issues.

-First, a Christian’s allegiance is to be toward Jesus Christ and Him alone.

-Secondly, we are to ultimately seek God’s wisdom.

-We are to disregard man’s wisdom when it contradicts the word of God.

C. The attainment of God’s wisdom is what Paul addresses next.

PRAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

II. There are two types of wisdom in this world. (powerpoint)

1. Human wisdom

2. God’s wisdom

A. Human wisdom

-Human wisdom is limited:

-Albert Einstein remarked in 1932 that “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.” (powerpoint)

-Thomas Edison thought alternating current would be a waste of time.

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt once predicted, when he was Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy, that airplanes would never be useful in battle against a fleet of ships.

-There's nothing like the passage of time to make the world's smartest people look like complete idiots. So let's look at a few more.

-In 1883 Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society and no poor scientist himself, predicted that “X rays will prove to be a hoax.” (powerpoint)

-When Gary Cooper turned down the Rhett Butler role in Gone With The Wind, he is said to have remarked, “I'm just glad it will be Clark Gable who's falling flat on his face and not Gary Cooper.” (powerpoint)

-“Everything that can be invented, has been invented” announced Charles H. Duell, commissioner of the U.S. Patents Office - in 1899." (powerpoint)

-At the same time, human wisdom is ever expanding

1. Every three years the knowledge base doubles.

2. Every day, seven thousand scientific and technical articles are written.

3. Satellites orbiting the globe send enough data to fill nineteen million volumes in the Library of Congress…..every two weeks.

4. Today’s high school graduates have been exposed to more information than their grandparents were in their entire lifetime.

5. There will be as much change in the next three decades as there was in the last three centuries.

-Yet no matter how much information mankind can gather.

-No matter how many things we invent.

-No matter how intelligent we are or will become.

-There is one thing we will never have….

-The mind of God.

-Therefore we will never have the wisdom of God.

-Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your

thoughts.” (powerpoint)

B. God’s wisdom

-How do we describe something we do not know?

-That we cannot even imagine?

-Job 12:13 – “With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. (powerpoint)

***** -Col 2:1-3

-Romans 11:33 – “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”

(powerpoint)

-God’s wisdom and knowledge are all encompassing.

-There is nothing He does not know.

-There is nothing He has not figured out.

-God’s wisdom is incomprehensible to our mortal minds.

-Don’t waste time trying to figure it out.

-Just trust Him.

III. God’s Mode of Communication

A. How does an all-knowing, all-powerful God give us His wisdom, which we so desperately need, without dumbing it down?

-How does He make it so we can understand it?

-This wisdom is not available to all mankind in their natural state.

***** -1 Corinthians 1:18a

***** - 1 Corinthians 1:23

***** -1 Corinthians 2:14

-It is, however, available to all those who have been saved.

-1 Corinthians 2:10 – “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” (powerpoint)

-The Spirit of God in the life of the believer.

-God’s Holy Spirit dwells within each born-again believer.

-Equipping and enabling us to live the life that God wants us to live.

-How and what this means we will get to in more detail later in the study of 1 Corinthians.

-Scripture does tell us that the Spirit dwells, or lives, within each person who has placed his/her faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

-Romans 8:9-11 – “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, //// but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (2 powerpoints)