I'm already glad I came. Thank the Lord for the wonderful truth that we have, uh, we've just heard. Let's keep our Bibles open in, uh, first Corinthians chapter one. And let us, uh, let us look to the Lord in prayer again. Father, we praise you, we bless you for the rich truths that we've just heard. We beg you that you would cause these truths and the ones that we will hear throughout this weekend. Lord, please press them in upon our hearts. Let them take good root there and bear fruit for your glory. Bless our time now, both for this speaker and the hearers. In Jesus' name, amen. So my text is verse four of chapter, I'm sorry, verse five of chapter one. that says that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge. that in everything ye are, Corinthian church and believers here tonight, enriched by him. The word enriched means to make wealthy, that we are made wealthy by the grace of God. I was just thinking as brother Bradley was finishing up there, and as he said, that's lots of grace. And we're all made to chuckle and say, that's so true. That's lots of grace. We easily forget how rich and how wealthy that God has made us to be because of what he's done for us and in us. So he says here that you're enriched by him. He specifically mentions to the Corinthian saints in all utterance and in all knowledge. The Corinthian church, as you probably know, had some gifts that we don't typically have today. But nevertheless, the principle remains true that we are enriched in the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are enriched in the word of God that he's given to us. And for my task tonight is to point out to us how rich that God has made us, how he has enriched us by giving us the eyes of faith to see his beautiful wisdom. And so we want to read several sections in chapter one and chapter two. So let's read in chapter one, verse 18, starting out. And these verses will be no doubt hit on again throughout this weekend. So one preacher won't exhaust it all. For the preaching of the cross, verse 18, the word of the cross literally is to them that perish foolishness. But to us, which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And then in chapter two, verse six, Paul elaborating even further on this of this wisdom of God says, how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, that are made perfect in Christ, that are made mature by the grace of God giving them this wisdom. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that comes to naught or is coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, say the spirit of a man which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. So tonight, the thrust of this message is to show us, again, that God has enriched his people. to see his perfect wisdom. And this wisdom is found, this wisdom is associated with the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This cross of Christ, which is the power of God and is the wisdom of God. But in this passage, as you can see, Paul is doing a contrast between two wisdoms, the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God. And so I want to go through and just list several characteristics of the wisdom of the world, the bad stuff, so that we can really, really appreciate the good stuff, so that we can see how rich that God has made us to be. And you know, it's true. I don't know who all is here tonight. Every person here, I hope every one of you is a lover of Christ and fully believes in him. But whoever you are and wherever you are tonight, everybody here and everybody in this world believes something. Everybody's operating on some way through which they see life. through some how of who human beings are and how we are to function and how we relate to God and how that we should live. Everybody is living by some wisdom and every wisdom that is not the cross of Christ is a flawed wisdom, it's a wisdom of this world. There's only one true wisdom and that is what God has given to us in the cross of Jesus Christ. Everybody should embrace it, as the passage says, but only those who God brings to faith, gives eyes to see, opens their eyes up to see this wonderful wisdom. So let's look and see some of these characteristics of the wisdom of the world. First of all, One characteristic of the wisdom of the world is this, is that God is going to destroy it. In verse 19, he says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. He calls it the wisdom of the wise. The wisdom of the world, people don't think they're foolish. They think they've got it together. They think they can see and interpret life well. They're confident in their view of things. But God says, the wisdom of the world, I'm going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where's the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? In chapter 2, verse 6, he speaks of the wisdom of the world that is coming to naught, that's coming to nothing. There are lots of ideas. There's lots of popular opinion. In fact, in popular culture here is what happens all the time, but we can see it very clearly in our day. There's some thought, there's some philosophy, there's some idea, whether it be the LGBT philosophy that we see so prominent today, whether it be that there's many roads to God philosophy, whether it be you can't judge me, you can't tell me what to do, I'm my own boss, I'll live. All these philosophies, all these ideas, and here's how it typically works in the wisdom of the world. It's like a snowball, the proverbial snowball rolling down the hill. As it rolls down the hill, what happens? It gets faster and faster and bigger and bigger and more snow. In this case, people jump on the bandwagon. Maybe there's some powerful corporation, and they don't really believe what's being said, but they don't want to lose their power and their clout, so they jump on. And then there's an athlete, and he jumps on. He endorses whatever this philosophy or idea is. And then a Hollywood star, some popular person jumps on. And then a politician, he doesn't really care. He just wants to keep his vote. So he jumps on. And the snowball, and it takes millions, it takes so many. People are saying, yes, this must be the way to think. This must be the new idea, new freedom. And if we're not careful, it'll jump us too, won't it? But let's remember what God says about the wisdom of the world. It's like the snowball. As it goes down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger, and it's rolling faster and faster until, It hits a huge rock at the bottom of the hill. And what happens? That huge snowball is now a billion bits of snow, just snow powder. God is going to bring to nothing the wisdom of this world. Somebody likened it one time to like a cruise ship, that everybody on the fancy cruise ship is having a wonderful time. There's lights, there's music, there's dancing, there's great food. Everybody's having a great time. What's wrong with that cruise ship? Only one problem, it has a small leak and the ship is slowly sinking and it's going to be submerged. Listen, the wisdom of this world, it can be popular, it can have all the lights, it can have all the glitz and glamour. My brothers and sisters, it's going to end in eternal destruction. We have to see that. We have to understand what he's saying here so that we will see how blessed, how privileged we are that God has opened our eyes to true wisdom. We see this wisdom of the world is coming to nothing. God is going to destroy it. What else? God's going to destroy this wisdom. Well, also the wisdom of the world, it is a blinding wisdom. It's blinding. This is amazing, in chapter two, when he says in verse six, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that's coming to nothing. He speaks in verse eight, he says, which none of the princes of this world knew, they didn't know God's wisdom, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. So he's speaking here about the elites of Jesus' day. So, and perhaps, no doubt, the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders, who knew the law, who had the position, and they had the respect of the people, and they had the titles and the clout. In our Bible study Wednesday night at church, we were studying 1 Samuel, they're like the sons of Eli. They were priests. but it says they knew not the Lord. So these priests are going, they can know about God, they know God's name. They know he doesn't like sin, he requires sacrifices for it. They know all the outward stuff, but they don't know the Lord. And so these same individuals here, these princes of this world are maybe referring also to the Romans who were literally on top of the world. They had conquered and they had the command of the respect and admiration of so many. but the wisdom of this world is blinding so that even these elites could stand right in the presence of who the text calls the Lord of Glory. the Lord of glory, who spoke words of wisdom. He said, remember, the greater than Solomon is here, Solomon's the wise one. Well, the greater than Solomon is here, the wise one, the Lord of glory, and yet they're so blinded by the wisdom of this world. Not an ignorant, not an innocent ignorance, culpable ignorance, but they're blinded to the point that they destroy the Lord of glory. The wisdom of this world, God's gonna destroy it, It is blinding, and then verse 14 of chapter two, it tells us this, that this wisdom of the world is embraced by those who spiritually are incapacitated. Verse 14, the natural man, the man who doesn't have the spirit, the man who does not have eyes to see, he does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So it's not just that the natural man can't spiritually add two plus two. There are some, they just can't get the concept. But it's not just that, because there are some who can be like Eli's sons, they can know the concepts, God's holy, he requires sacrifices, he doesn't like sin, he has to have an atonement. There's people who don't know the Lord who just have the wisdom of this world who can mentally grasp aspects of the gospel. But the word receive here is also, it's not just the idea of an intellectual reception, it's also the idea, it's the word used of how you'd welcome a guest into your home. So those who don't have the wisdom of God, they don't want the wisdom of God. They have an appetite that's biased to the wisdom of God. And so they were to say to the cross of Christ, we don't want that. We don't desire that. We don't want to be led by this wisdom. That's foolishness to them. They can't know them. They can't know and love the wisdom of God because it is spiritually discerned. Darkness, they're bound by the love of sin and darkness. Think about that for a moment. Think about the low condition that it is. Those who have only the wisdom of this world, they can have great minds. I'm watching a documentary right now called The Men Who Built America, fascinating about Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and Carnegie. Men with ideas and ingenuity and just the ability to take risks. These guys, they were cutthroat, they were awful, morally speaking, but wow, impressive men. They would get up, they had drive, they had ambition, they had passion, they had creativity, they had diligence, willing to make sacrifices, willing to take risks. But they're incapacitated to the wisdom of the cross. The wisdom of the cross to them is foolishness. What? Die to yourself? Victory through death? Victory through suffering? A Jesus who wins by dying? That's foolishness. You win by getting ahead, by being on top. That's the wisdom of this world. That's the wisdom of this world. The cross, not welcome here. Jesus, not welcome here. But that's the wisdom of the world. Look at what Paul says in verse 10. But God hath revealed this wisdom to us by his spirit. And literally in the original language, the words to us come first as emphasis saying, hey, wait a second. They don't see it. They don't embrace it. It's foolishness to them. But then Paul says, wait a second. But to us, the privileged ones, the blessed ones, the favored ones, through no merits or abilities of our own, as Brother Bradley just preached, but to us, God has revealed these things to us by His Spirit. He is saying, look, Corinthian church, at how wealthy you are, that God has shown you the wisdom of the cross. And they needed to see that, because as you read 1 Corinthians, you see the Corinthian church, they were very self-conscious. They desperately wanted, to be impressive in the eyes of the world. They did. And even though most of them weren't, because Paul said in chapter 1, not many of you are wise and noble and mighty and all this. Most of them were not in the upper echelons of society, but they wanted to be seen as wise in the eyes of the world. They wanted to be impressive. And Paul's saying, you don't need that. Why go down that dead end road? You already have all that you need as far as wisdom is concerned in the cross of Christ and what he has given to you. So brothers and sisters, why do I keep saying that? Sisters, bless their hearts. Brother believers, Brother believers who love the Christ of the cross and trust in his cross, you can see by the grace of God what the elites of society in Jesus's day and today cannot see. Not because you put the pieces together, not because you did your due diligence, but because God in love and mercy by his spirit opened your eyes to see this glorious wisdom And this wisdom, again, is connected to the cross, and that'll probably be addressed further in this meeting. Foolishness to the world, but the power of God to those who were saved. See, the wisdom of the cross tells us about the reality of sin. It tells us that this life is not a playground. It tells us that God has authority. It tells us that God is just and righteous. And it tells us that we are lawbreakers. Because it took that, that kind of suffering, that kind of wrath, that kind of judgment to make sinful men right with a holy God. But the wisdom of the cross tells us about what love, what grace, what generous mercy that this holy God, at no obligation to himself outside of himself, would come to earth and take on human flesh and would suffer the penalty of God for His people to bring us to be right with God. This wisdom of the cross shows us what love really is. It shows us the reality of sin and grace and God's goodness. It shows us the ugly fruits of rejecting God's wisdom. And it shows us the precious fruits of what God has done for His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are enriched by him to see this wisdom. Think about this. Take a step back for a minute. In this text, in this whole text, what do we see? We see God the Father who planned and sent his son. As Brother Bradley already quoted verse 30 of chapter 1, but of him But of God the Father are you in Christ Jesus, who of God the Father has made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So God planned it, the Father planned it, and he ordered it, and he sent his Son. So you have the Father on your behalf. And then you have the Son who actually came and was crucified and went to the cross. And then you have the Holy Spirit just showing out in this passage. The Holy Spirit doesn't talk about Himself a whole lot, but here He's talking about Himself. He's telling us about Himself. You have the Spirit who's the teacher, who's the revealer, who's the communicator, who's the one who enlightens us. Brothers, this is amazing. The Father is for us. The Son is for us. And the Spirit is for us. So think about that if you're like me, a father who knows you desperately need wisdom every day to try to raise your children. That'll keep me going. The father's for me, the son is for me, the spirit's for me. Think about that in your marriage. Think about that single young man who's trying to be faithful and pure and dedicate your singlehood to the Lord. As you seek to live this life faithfully and ordered according to God's word, look at the resources. Look at how God's blessed us. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit all for us, all working and have worked and will work on our behalf. So we've seen the holes in the wisdom of the world. God's going to destroy it. It's blinding and it's embraced by those who can't see. They're spiritually incapacitated but look at this text how it highlights the preciousness and I'm excited this is beautiful preciousness of the wisdom that God gives us well first of all it is a wisdom verse 7 that is an ancient wisdom it's an ancient wisdom verse 7 he sees of chapter 2 but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Listen, the wisdom of God in the cross of Jesus Christ, it's not an overnight sensation. You know, there's many things like that. A fad that come and people jump on and then it's over, it's done. But this wisdom has been around from all eternity. which before the world began that God had ordained and laid out this plan of salvation, laid out the wisdom of the cross by which he would make sinful men right with God. It's an ancient wisdom. You know what that tells me? It's stable. It's secure. It's unshakable. That's good. That's good. That's valuable. That's precious to live in a crazy world and know that this wisdom that God has revealed to me, it is ancient. It has eternal origins. It's not going away. It's not fading away. It's not going to lose its value. It will not lose its truth. It came from God's heart. It came from God's mind. It came from God's wisdom. in his plan. Well, what else? So it's a wisdom that has eternal origins, it's ancient. But in that same verse seven, it is a wisdom, my brothers, that will lead us to glory. A wisdom that will lead us to glory. He says that the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. This wisdom, this ancient wisdom that God ordained is gonna take us who were naked, and ashamed, and condemned, and broken, and defiled, and it makes us just, it makes us God's sons, it makes us clean, it makes us strong, and it's gonna take us all the way to glory. Now the wisdom of the world, I assure you, will provide you and I with all the rationalizations for sin that we will take. The wisdom of this world will pump us up and make us think much of ourselves. The wisdom of this world will give us an out from following the Lord anytime that we want, but this wisdom can't, that wisdom of the world, it can't take us to glory. It just leads to ruin. It takes those that go with it, it takes them to perishing. But this wisdom of God and the cross of Christ and the truth of his word is gonna take us all the way to glory. So it's ancient, it's gonna take us to glory, But, as we've already alluded to, but I want to focus on this, this is a wisdom that is revealed by the Holy Spirit. You hear what I said? Underline that one, by the Holy Spirit. as we call him, the third person of the Trinity. He opens our eyes to his gospel, and he teaches us. Isn't that precious? Now I know that I believe the gospel because somebody taught me the gospel. I believe because God used people to teach me, and he uses instruments, and we praise him for that. But listen, without the work of the Spirit, we would not know. We would not embrace. But think about the personal aspect of this. that at some point the Holy Spirit came to little old Timothy, yes, and opened my ears and opened my heart. And you, brother believer, He came to you because He loved you. And He would open your eyes to show you what Christ had done for you and lead you to trust and believe and to embrace. The Spirit taught us these things. Here again, Paul says, Brother Bradley mentioned all those times God and Christ are mentioned in chapter one, I think the Spirit is five times in this section. So he's saying the Spirit has done this. Verse nine, I'm sorry, verse 10, but God hath revealed this wisdom to us by his Spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Paul's saying he's qualified. He's capable. He's able to teach us God's wisdom. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him. You don't know what I think unless I tell you. Only my spirit knows what I'm thinking. He says, in like manner, so the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God. He knows. He's able to teach. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things we speak not with man's wisdom, he says, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, this personal teacher who opens our eyes to the precious wisdom of God in the cross. So again, it's not just, it's not because that we figured out the puzzle pieces, we did our due diligence, we were smart enough, and we come to the conclusion. Yes, there are those who are curious about the faith, and they study, and they search, and they learn, and finally they come to believe. There's glorious testimonies like that. But again, without the work of the Spirit, they won't see, they won't know, they won't embrace, they won't receive, they won't love. I love this word in verse 10, but God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit. The word there, it literally means to uncover or to unveil. So you think about sometimes when there's a great work of art that's done at the gallery, and they're going to have the showing, and all the lights are there, and the guests are there, and the people are there, and they have the covering over the piece of art. or the sculpture, and everybody's ready, and they're waiting, and they pull off the curtain. They have the unveiling, and everybody's like, ooh, ah, wow. That's a neat work of art. That's what the Spirit's done. He's pulled the veil off. He says, look, wow, there's Jesus. There's the Son of God. There's the Lamb of God. There's the Redeemer. There's the Savior. Isn't it good? He's revealed it. He's uncovered it. He's unveiled it for us. Yes, we are enriched. We're enriched by him to see, to know this wonderful wisdom. So what else about this wisdom of God? It's ancient. It will take us to glory. It's revealed to us by the Spirit himself. But I love this as well in verse 12, that this wisdom reveals God's generosity towards us. Because he says in verse 12, Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things, get this expression, that are freely given to us of God. God wants us to know. I think it's one of the brothers prayed his love that he would save us and then want us to have the assurance of that salvation. that God wants us to know the things He's freely, gratuitously, graciously given to us. So we think about He's given us His Son. He's given us adoption into His family. He's given us justification, made us, declared us to be right. He gives us sanctification where we're set apart. He gives us wisdom through His Word. He equips us with tools to live in godliness and to grow in this process of holiness. He gives us the equipping to serve him and to serve others in his kingdom. And of course, one day he's going to take us to glory. What is it? Again, it's blessing upon blessing and mercy upon mercy that God the Spirit opens our eyes to see. So this wisdom shows to us the generosity of God. But then finally, This wisdom equips us to discern. That's so valuable, isn't it? So important. To be able to think how God would have us to think. To be able to see and assess and value how God would have us to see and assess and value. Look, Proverbs means it when it says there are fools and there are wise people, where there's foolish actions and then there's wise actions. As you go through Proverbs, you see, whoa, this author really means business. This foolishness business is really bad. It's really destructive. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, the companion of fools shall be what? Shall be destroyed. Wow, I need to pay attention. This wisdom is more precious than rubies and diamonds and all the rest that we find there in Proverbs. So this is a monumental blessing that God would give to us the ability spiritually to discern and value and judge and understand. He says that in verse 15. He's contrasting it with 14, the natural man can't discern it, can't see it. But he that's spiritual, one in whom the spirit dwells, he judgeth all things. The word judge, again, means to discern, to apprise, appreciate, to value. So this man, he's spiritual, he can judge all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Paul's telling the Corinthians, don't worry about what the world thinks. They can't judge a spiritual man rightly. Don't worry about that. But you, in Christ, have the ability to discern and understand spiritual things. When he means all things here, he doesn't mean all things universally, that you're an expert in everything. But he's telling us, because there's obviously a need to grow and learn in discernment, but what he's telling us, again in verse 16, he says, but we have the mind of Christ. That is that when God the Spirit invades a sinner's life and brings them to know and love our Lord, he equips that individual with the ability to think and discern and apprise spiritually. Now, some of us are in maybe one and a half grade in that, right? And some may be in 10th grade and farther beyond. But tonight, Sometimes we hear this and we understand this Brother Timothy, I can't I can't think like you can because you're a preacher and you you just you you're on a different track with God than me and I just don't know very much and I the Bible's hard for me and I'm sympathetic to all those things But brother don't sell what the Lord has done in you short. I If the Lord dwells within you, you may not understand everything in this book, but you're gonna get some good stuff. And the more that you apply yourself, and the more that you lean into that wisdom, and you apply yourself to that wisdom, the more that God's gonna open it up to you, and make you richer, and enable you to, through practice, through training, through a process, to be able to discern, and think, and understand more wisely. Is there anything we need more in this world than well, mature, discerning brothers in Christ? And God's equipped us for it. Yes, we're going to miss it sometimes. Yes, we're going to fall short sometimes. But you have, believing brother, what that elite of the world did not have. You have what Carnegie didn't have. He had a lot of money, a lot of steel, but apparently he didn't have this. But brother believer, you got this. And so lean into this wisdom and seek the Lord for more strength and apply yourself that you might grow and learn and be able to discern more of these things that God has freely given to you so that we might live and walk through life under the wisdom of Christ crucified. See, if we could live that way more faithfully, that's where we need to be, living in light of the wisdom of Christ crucified, that the fruit of sin will take me no good place. but Christ's grace and his mercy has cleansed me and washed me and equipped me to live for his glory. So through the gift of faith, through the gift and the work of the Father and the Son and the Spirit of the Lord within you, through all these things, grow in discernment and lean into the scriptures and the word of God, rejoicing in what God has given to you in this marvelous rich gift of wisdom. In everything, he tells the Corinthian saints, you are made wealthy. Brothers, you are made wealthy through the work of God for you. Praise the Lord for this glorious wisdom of the cross. Thank you for your attention.