How God's Power And Wisdom Equip Us With Confidence To Live Faithfully For The Sake Of Jesus And His Gospel.
How God's Power And Wisdom Equip Us With Confidence To Live Faithfully For The Sake Of Jesus And His Gospel.
Well, good morning. If you're new here, I'm Stephen Clark. I'm a retired pastor. Last stop was in Miami.
Speaker 1:If you're not new here, you shouldn't know me, because I've been here 14 times before. But if you can't remember me, that's okay, because usually memorable speakers are either very boring or very long-winded. So I'll take being not remembered before. Thank you, lord, that by your Holy Spirit you're here with us this morning. Please bless us now as we hear your word in Christ's name. Amen. All of our texts this morning, which is from 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 6 to 16, will come up on the screen as we're going through it and it will all come up. But if you want to follow in your Bible or if you have an app on your phone, that's fine, as long as you promise not to do any texting otherwise.
Speaker 1:Three stories with three questions. The first one is this I was invited to a party at my friend's house and when I went there, a lady, discovering that I was a pastor, immediately accosted me and she started telling me the story about how she had been remarkably healed. But the longer she kept at it and she kept at it for some time it's the more I began to back off. I think she asked but if she didn't, this is what I heard her asking is did you ever get healed like me? And of course I couldn't say I had. And the thing that was unsaid but which I was hearing very clearly is you know, I am spiritual, I've been healed, but are you spiritual? Why is it that spiritual people have a way of turning us off? And then I saw her son later in the week and I said to him hey, that's quite a remarkable story your mom told me, and he was not impressed at all. I don't know that he was saying it didn't happen, but what he did say is that ever since it happened, she stopped going to church. She just stays at home, she and God, and she doesn't fellowship or worship with anyone. What does it mean to be spiritual?
Speaker 1:The second story has more agony to it than that one. It's of a friend in Miami who would always just come knocking on my office door and walk right in and he was just always encouraging me. You know it was what a friend should be and needs to be. And then I moved over here to safety harbor and we kept in touch him. Then one day he said I've got to come and see you and he drove the four and a half hours each way to come and see me and he shared with me that his wife, who came from a long distance away, would often say hey, I want to go visit my parents. And he said, of course. I said you can. And he said but her parents called me up and said she's having an affair here. And then he told me on the second visit. He said I'm trying to live out the book of Hosea. You know, hosea in the Bible was a prophet whose wife became unfaithful to him and he forgave her and he won her back and he said look, christ forgave me. I want to be like Hosea, I want to forgive her and I want to win her back. But with time she didn't come back and her mom and dad, who were Christians, called him and said she's not coming back, she's gone. She had left him, deserted him, along with her children. How do you make it through something like that? And then we've remained in touch. I got the most beautiful Christmas card picture of his family.
Speaker 1:A lady started coming to church who also went through exactly the same thing that he did. They've got married and they have a blended family now and the Lord is helping them. But how do you get through something like that? If you're going through something like that, if your mom or your dad has deserted you, or your husband or your wife, or if there's something deep inside of you that's very, very difficult, or circumstances that are beyond bearing, how do you get through?
Speaker 1:And the last story is of a wonderful character. I wish I could tell you stories about him so that you could get a feel for who he is. He started coming to church and after the third time he came to church he came up to me and in his dramatic New Jersey Italian accent was he ever a wonderful character? He said, pastor, I've been coming to church because I love my wife, but I don't get this religion stuff. She tries to explain it to me, but I don't get it. I want you to explain it to me. So I said no problem, and I explained the gospel to him and he looked me straight in the face and he said I still don't get it. I said, well, just keep coming with your wife and we'll see what happens. The first few Sundays he stood there. He sat there looking as perplexed as ever. Then the perplexion wasn't there anymore. And then, I think, I saw a little light in his eyes and before you knew it, he was grinning from ear to ear. He had got it. How come? What caused that? How come what brought about that change?
Speaker 1:So on Sunday morning, along with your other two pastors, we're gonna be working through first Corinthians, and we've done it under the caption witnesses in a watching world, how God's wisdom and power give us confidence to live faithfully for the sake of Jesus and his gospel. Can we live confidently, despite all we may be going through? Can we live confidently? Can we have wisdom? Can we have power? Can we live courageously? Can we make a difference? Are we making a difference and how do we make a difference?
Speaker 1:And we began in first Corinthians, chapter one, in the very first section, where the first thing that Paul told us three times is he said to us you're in Christ, you're in Christ and you are in him and you've been enriched in every way because you are in Christ. And we use the illustration as not a perfect one, okay, but it's the best I can do. We use the illustration of living in a land, in a territory which is Christ's land, christ's territory, and when we are in Christ, all his blessings are given to us. And to explain it we said look, we live in America. All the possibilities, all the resources of America are ours. We live in America and so when we live in Christ, you need to be confident that all of his resources are ours. But we also said it's entirely possible to live in a way that's not consistent with who you are, to almost deny who you are, because you know the pressures of the world out there are causing us to think differently and to think wrongly.
Speaker 1:My oldest son moved to Miami before we did and he would come to church every Sunday and afterwards we would have lunch together. He was still single at the time and he was looking very perplexed one Sunday morning and I said to him what's troubling you? And he said Dad, I got a speeding ticket coming to church this morning and before I could rebuke him you know, that's what fathers are supposed to do, right? He says to me. And the officer came up to me and I said to him don't you have anything better to do than to park your car behind some bushes to catch somebody driving to church on a Sunday morning? I thought of telling him you can't speak to an officer that way but instead, not being very spiritual, I said I hope you didn't tell him what church you were going to. It's possible to drive to church and be inconsistent with even the church that you're going to. It's possible to be in Christ and to think inconsistently with what it means to live in this territory called in Christ.
Speaker 1:And Paul takes on two things. He started on them last week and the first one is what he calls wisdom. And we don't truly know for sure what this wisdom was that they were into. But they were into wisdom and the best illustration I can come up with is it's a bit like you know the woke stuff that's going around now. I'm not commenting on the woke stuff, I'm just saying you know, everybody's talking about it right now. And if you were in Corinth in this time, everybody was talking about wisdom and this secret wisdom that you could have. And some of the Corinthians were saying to Paul, despite the fact that he started the church, paul, you're not woke enough, you're not into wisdom enough, you're not very wise.
Speaker 1:And the second thing they were into was eloquence. In the Acts of the Apostles we're introduced to a man called Apollos, who turns up in our text as well. He had been a blessing to them in Corinth, in the Acts of the Apostles. He's spoken with quite some respect and we're told he was an eloquent man who was remarkably able to apply the scriptures to Jesus Christ. We're not talking about trying to do your best to explain the gospel to people. It's more like this A comedian is coming to town and you think he's really funny, and so you go to the club to hear this comedian and halfway through you hear some things you wish you hadn't heard.
Speaker 1:But occasionally he would tell a joke that has a real point to it. You know, sometimes they can tell a joke and stick the knife in, so to speak, but you don't go to the club to hear the point that he sometimes makes. You go to the club because he's funny. And in Corinth, these eloquent people, you went to hear them and you admired them, not because they occasionally had a point to make, but because they were not funny but they were eloquent, they were mesmerizing.
Speaker 1:And they said to Paul some of these Corinthians, the problem with you, paul, is you're not eloquent. And actually last week, if you remember, he said you're right, I'm very playing in my style of speaking. So here they are and they're bringing them these two things that they think that he needs to understand if he's going to make a difference. And so the first thing I want to say to you is what makes a difference? And here's Paul comes right out and he tells us what makes a difference. He says yet, among the mature, we do impart wisdom, although it's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. He said among the mature and he's not talking about those of you who are really spiritual and could quote a lot of Bible verses. He said look, those of you who've been around for a while, those of you who have seen life and experienced it, you know, you know, it's you that I'm talking to you know by now that the wisdom of this age passes away. All the stuff that you're told you must have, you must do, this is how you must think if you're going to be successful and make a difference. All of those things, the wisdom of this world, is passing away. They come and they go and then they're gone.
Speaker 1:In the 1970s and now I'm not making fun on science, because good science is simply following what God wrote into nature. But in the 1970s the thing everybody was talking about was global cooling and I said to my wife we got to keep moving further south. We're from Jamaica, it's too cold up here in Massachusetts. Some things, bad science and again, I'm not trying to comment on anything politically, for heaven's sakes, the pulp, it's more important than that. But things come and go and pass away. You don't want to buy into them.
Speaker 1:And he said it belongs to the rulers of this age who crucified the Lord of glory. The rulers of this age, the politicians, the religious leaders in Jesus' time. But in our times, the power brokers, the celebrities, the influencers, the people who are really in power, and there's some little hint and there's some kind of spiritual powers going behind all of this. Okay, they, if they had known who Jesus, the Lord of glory, truly was, they would not have crucified him. But they did. This is not just back for back then. The power brokers of today, the influencers, the celebrities, generally speaking, they don't know who the Lord of glory is and they're not gonna follow them. And if you're going to look out to them, you're really going to miss it. Okay, and then he comes out and he says to them, but we impart a secret and a hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for your glory.
Speaker 1:Yes, he says there is a certain mystery to what wisdom really is. It's like reading a mystery novel, you know you're getting the clues all the way through and then the solution is given to you by the author and you go. Okay, I get it. And that's what Paul is sort of evoking here. He's saying God decreed and the word decreed there is actually a very, very strong word. Before history even began, god determined, god decreed, that there would be a mystery that would be revealed. The prophets, you know, dropped hints and clues all the way along. The angels.
Speaker 1:Peter tells us long to get how the mystery was going to be solved. But he says in these last days, the mystery, the secret, has been revealed and the secret has been given to you and it is for your glory. And so what Paul is saying now is this if you're living in this land called in Christ and in Christ, in this land, it's just a picture that we're living in. There's a high mountain and on top of it there is a cross, and that cross towers over everything. All it's a Statue of Liberty for us. See, it is our very constitution. And there is that cross which is towering over us all and he's saying if you want wisdom, you got to look to the cross. And when you look to the cross you will be given wisdom. You will see there, you mightn't be given the answer right now, but you will see there that there is one who loved you. You'll see there that there is one who's forgiven you. You will see there one who has suffered for you and he's saying I promise you, when you look at the cross, all that you are going through out there and all that you're going through inside of here, all of that changes, because there you will see the true wisdom.
Speaker 1:You remember how Paul put it elsewhere in the book of Romans. He said this he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also graciously give us all things who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, dangerous sword, know, in all these things we will be more than conquerors, through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ. That's where true wisdom lies. That's why my friend kept talking about Hosea forgiving and being forgiven and going to the cross. That's where true wisdom lies.
Speaker 1:Famous German theologian at the end of World War II was asked how can you believe in God after seeing the Holocaust? And he said this because I have seen his Son on the cross. When you back against the wall west down, when you and I have our backs against the wall, we look to the cross and the wisdom is given to us because not necessarily to solve the problem, so yeah, get it now, but the wisdom is given to us of how to live, to live at the foot of the cross, to live looking at the cross, to live delighting in the forgiveness that comes from the cross, and to live knowing that when we look at the cross we see the love of God turn towards us. Or, as Paul says here in verse 9, what know I have seen, nor heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. There's more to come, folks. There's great things prepared for us, because when we look at the cross, we know that for sure. And so if you've been healed of something remarkable, if you've experienced God's mercy and grace in wonderful ways and I can testify at least to that much share it with us, share it with each other, but share it, understanding that we're talking not about oh, spiritual I am, look what happened to me but share it, understanding the verse from last week which said let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord. And when we boast in the cross, and when we boast about how weak we were and how we had to fall flat on our face before the cross, then true wisdom begins to enter into our lives. So that's what makes the difference, the cross. Now, who makes the difference? And here comes Paul at us. Now, these things God revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows the person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts 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 understand the things freely given us by God.
Speaker 1:Paul's argument is this we really can't understand everything about each other. I mean, there are depths inside of us that only our Spirit understands. You know that your Spirit feels certain things coming from our histories and from our fears and from our sources of joy or whatever inside of us, and you can only understand that about someone else if that person reveals it to you. And if you think the human Spirit and what goes on inside of us is complicated, talk about God. The depths, the mysteries, the grandeurs of God are so deep that only his Spirit can explain it to us and therefore he gives us his Holy Spirit so that we can understand him. He is the one who makes the difference and so what he is saying.
Speaker 1:To go back to our little illustration, imperfect as it is, if you are living in this land, this territory which is called in Christ, and if you understand that at the heart of it is this mountain on the top of which is the cross, which you must keep looking to and under whose shadow we live our lives, then you also need to understand that in this land in which we are in Christ, we are also in the Spirit. We live and breathe the Spirit. We don't even because it's like the wind says Jesus. You can't see it, you don't know where it's coming from, you don't know where it's going, but that's the Spirit of God, it's the air. If I may be polite and respectful, he's the air that we breathe when we are in Christ, even when we don't know it. Sometimes we can feel him blowing upon us and we set our sails and we become full at the picture of the sails opening up and the wind taking the sails. Sometimes we feel the wind blowing and we can set our sails. Sometimes it's still out there and we don't feel the wind blowing and it's hot, but we're still breathing in and out in the Spirit because, you see, when we are in Christ, we are in the Spirit, and what the Spirit does is not only bring us into the land that is in Christ, but it puts Christ inside of us.
Speaker 1:And so the Spirit says Paul is really the key to understand this. And he says this then and we impart these in words not taught by human wisdom You're not going to get it by the influencers on TikTok, you're not going to get it from the big shots in the Ivy League schools, you're not going to get it from the celebrities. We impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Now you say that's where my problem is, pastor. I'm not spiritual. If you know what's still going on inside of me, if you understand the ways in which I still fall short, if you know how anxious I am that my business is going under, if you know how far I'm struggling because my mom's left the family and I'm a teenager, I'm just utterly disillusioned. If you know how much I'm struggling, then you would know that I'm not spiritual. Okay, or I'd be just flying right through it.
Speaker 1:Well, let's go back to our illustrations. You're living in this territory. Let's say you're well, we're living here in America. All the opportunities and all the possibilities of living in America are yours because you are an American. But if you're struggling with living in America right now, your business is not doing well, you're really upset with the politics or whatever it is, I don't know. But if you're struggling living in America right now, does that mean you are not an American? Of course you are. You live in America.
Speaker 1:So, in the same way, if we live in Christ and if it was the Holy Spirit who opened our eyes and brought us into this land called in Christ. And if we live and breathe in the Holy Spirit, that's what makes us spiritual. Not that we're still struggling, but because the Spirit is there. And my friend and his children going through all that they went through, they were looking to the cross, but who was making the difference in their lives? Who was holding them up? Who was bringing them through? Who will bring us through? The Holy Spirit? Because, you see, we are Spirit. You know we are in the land in Christ and we are indeed in the Holy Spirit. And so don't let any well, we'll talk a little bit more about this, but don't let anyone put anything about you, about why you are not spiritual, and please don't try to prove to us that you are spiritual, because that just means you're into yourself and your own righteousness and that's a total denial of the cross, which is at the center of everything. But understand that if you have bowed your knee at the cross and if you look to Christ to be your wisdom, you are Spirit to well, because God has given his Spirit to you.
Speaker 1:Here is how Paul puts it the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, they're fall to Him. You know, if you're just an ordinary person, a natural person, the Holy Spirit hasn't been given to you, or yet anyway, all this thing about going to church, like my friend said, tagging along with his wife, it doesn't make any sense. In fact, you're not even here. You're playing golf this morning, because it's stupid to go to church on a Sunday morning when you could be out on the water. But the natural person doesn't get this. It's stupid to him or to her. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Speaker 1:Being spiritual is not for the elite. Being spiritual is to have the Holy Spirit who has opened your eyes to seeing the centrality of Christ. And so here is what this means. Here's where he's gonna be coming to his closure. The spiritual person judges all things. That is because the Spirit has been given to you. However much you're struggling, you're still looking to the cross. However much you're wondering, westtown, we're still here in worship, singing and praising Him together, that you've been given a level of discernment, that at the cross I'm forgiven and by the Holy Spirit he will carry me all the way through to the end, guiltless, as he said in the opening chapter, but here is the second part.
Speaker 1:But is Himself to be judged by no one. Don't judge me, says Paul, because I don't fit in with your wisdom categories. Don't judge me, says Paul, because I'm not eloquent like those people that you go to and listen to and marvel at. Don't judge me, you can't judge me, because I am in Christ and when you're in Christ and he's given you His Spirit, you have everything already that you will ever need. And if you judge me where you're better than I am, or if I judge you where I think I'm better than you are, then I'm not at the foot of the cross. I'm totally lacking wisdom because I'm not looking to Christ and the centrality of who he is and all that he means to us. And so this morning he says for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ, he says listen, when you realize that Christ is everything, then you have the mind of Christ and you are right where you need to be this morning.
Speaker 1:This coming week there'll be some tough times. Remember who is with you the Holy Spirit, breathing Him in and out. Okay, in this coming week there will be times when you will look back and you'll go wow, what happened? I sailed through that and you realize that the wind, the Spirit, caught your sails and brought you through this morning. Just like we are in this territory called in Christ, so we are in this territory in which we are in the Spirit, and therefore Paul tells us walk in the Spirit, just walk with Him, just rely on Him, just trust Him. Keep in step with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Stop buying into all that cultural nonsense and all those things that are supposed to make you spiritual. Look to the cross, rely on the Holy Spirit and you are spiritual, and he has given you everything that you could ever need. Just one second, because I didn't do justice to my friend in the third story. Why did the perplexion go away and the light come on His eyes and then the smile on His face? Because who was working in His life? The Holy Spirit. You have someone in your life and you long to see your husband or your wife or your child or your mom or your dad come to Jesus Christ and this morning don't batter them to death. This week, please just share the gospel very simply, like Paul used to do it, and then pray and love, because it's the work of the Holy Spirit and he answers any hearer's heart prayers.