God's Message of Wisdom and the Spirit PT 1

Has anyone here this morning ever been scuba diving? I have never done so but I always enjoy looking at pictures or videos of people who dove deep into the waters and observed some really beautiful and fantastic and sometimes strange things. Calvin Miller, an author I like to read, tells the story of his family going to the great barrier reef. He described how odd it was to be seventy miles out into the ocean and be standing in ankle deep water. He went with his wife and his son - he and his wife, Barbara, spent the day snorkeling - sun-burning their backs as they looked at the beauty of the reef while they snorkeled, but his son had went scuba diving. While they never went very far from the surface, their son had probed the depths... Listen to how he describes it, “What amazes me most is what we reported upon returning from the Great Barrier Reef. Ask me if I’ve been there, and I will hastily answer yes. So will my son. However, the truth is that the content of our experience was greatly different. We will both spend the rest of our lives talking about the experience and our enthusiasm will always be exuberant. But only our son knew the reef; only he understood the issue of depth.” (Miller, Into the Depths of God, Pg. 16). Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God” and this morning we are given a glimpse into those secret things. We are given God’s perspective on wisdom and it is deep and mysterious and profound. This morning we have come to a difficult passage, a passage that confronts us with some deep things of God, so we need to become scuba divers this morning, moving slowly and carefully and intentionally so we can absorb as much of the wonder and depth of God’s wisdom. My goal is at the end of the sermon for you and I to have a much deeper appreciation of the Gospel, a much deeper appreciation of the wisdom of God, embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, a greater understanding of why we never move on from the cross of Christ – only into a more profound understanding of the cross.

Verse seven begins with a strong adversative, NO, we do not speak a message of wisdom like that just explained in verse 6, and expounded earlier in 1:18-2:5. We speak of God’s wisdom, which he immediately qualifies in three ways: Mystery, Hidden, determined,

Is Mystery

First, Paul says we speak of God’s secret wisdom. If you have the KJV or NASB in front of you, it has translated this phrase more accurately with “mystery.” It literally reads in the Greek, “but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery.” Now we all like a good mystery don’t we. I enjoy watching the TV show “Monk.” He is a detective who uncovers clues in the most unlikely of ways and solves the murder mystery. But that is not the kind of “mystery” we are talking about here. We are not talking about a secret which one tries to uncover but which they have either failed or succeeded in understanding. I also enjoy a good puzzle that makes you stop and think. I can remember for the longest time as a kid trying to figure out how to do those confounded Rubric cubes! But that is not the meaning of this word either, it is not a puzzle that is difficult to solve. Notice the text says “we speak” this mystery. Does that mean when we talk we speak in a mysterious way with secret words and codes? No! (though some may wonder at this because often it seems like we Christians speak “Christianese” that no one else could ever understand unless they grew up in the church). This is not to be understood as though God’s wisdom is imparted in cryptic, obscure, impenetrable words that only an elite few can grasp and is thus kept hidden from the immature. We cannot bring any of these understandings to the table when we read of this word “mystery” or of “secret.” So what are we to make of such a word? How is God’s wisdom a mystery? The Greek word here employed for mystery means “to reveal,” and is thus “a truth or fact which human understanding cannot discover by itself but which one can adequately understand once God has revealed it.” It is the private, unmanifested counsel of God which is hidden from all human wisdom and understanding and awaits revelation to those for whom it is intended. In short, mystery here speaks of revelation, the revealing of truths hitherto unknown and impossible to conceive. It is that which was not known before but has now been revealed at least to some persons. Now hold that thought in your mind as we move to the second thing about God’s wisdom.

Is Hidden

Second, Paul says we speak a wisdom “that has been hidden.” This is a closely related thought to mystery and speaks to God’s causing something to remain unknown, with the implication of concealment and inaccessibility. So Paul and others speak a wisdom that has hitherto been unknown and impossible to conceive and it has been so because God has kept it hidden! This wisdom has been hidden in God from eternity until such a time as he was ready to reveal it. Only when God so chooses to reveal it, will it no longer be a mystery and hidden.

Having considered the first two aspects of God’s wisdom, I want to pause and reflect for a moment on two important truths we can glean from this. First, a clear teaching from these two qualities, that God’s wisdom is mystery and hidden, is that mere man cannot penetrate this wisdom. We are wholly unable with all of our human might and wisdom and riches to penetrate this wisdom. It is impossible. You can be the wisest person in all of the world, you can have the greatest IQ of all time, you can be the richest person in the world but you will not and cannot discover this wisdom. It is no wonder then that for us who have it, it is far more valuable than gold. Truly God has “destroyed the wisdom of the wise and frustrated the intelligence of the intelligent.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Haven’t you figured it out yet? Don’t you get it? No, because they can’t! Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Paul further says this explains why Christ was crucified, none of the rulers (that is to say, the best the world has to offer), understood this, because if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory and indeed they could not have grasped it unless God had so revealed it to them! How desperate then is the human condition! Here in verse seven we are told God hides this wisdom, in 2 Corinthians 4:4 we are told we are blinded by the god of this age, and in Romans 1 we are told we willingly suppress the truth of God and in verse 8 of 1 cor. 2 we are told humanities wisdom at its best misunderstood! Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?” What a desperate condition we are in! We are in need of divine help! We need God’s help! We need his wisdom! We are helpless and powerless without it! We need to turn to it and listen and be delivered from our bondage to sin. This biblical teaching of our need for divine help, our inability to remedy our desperate condition is to put it bluntly, unpopular and wholly considered misguided and dangerous to the population at large. Sam Harris, a noted Atheist wrote an article entitled, “God’s Dupes” calls religion and God “self-deception set to music.” Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins suggests that the idea of God is a virus, and we need to find software to eradicate it. Somehow, if we can expunge the virus that led us to think this way, we will be purified and rid of this bedeviled notion of God, good, and evil. Christopher Hitchens and few others are calling for the banishment of all religious belief. “Away with this nonsense!” is their battle cry. In return, they promise a world of new hope and unlimited horizons once we have shed this delusion of God. Sound familiar? Paul has just expounded on such in chapter one:18, “for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” Chapter one v. 22-23, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” So I suppose we should just give up then huh? I suppose with such a desperate condition we are in, and with such blatant disregard for God and his truth we should just throw in the towel. What hope is there? No, we never from on from the cross, just a more profound understanding of the cross. We resolve, just like Paul, to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He is the world’s only hope.

Sure with your worldly wisdom you may gain the whole world, but what will that profit you if you lose your soul?

This leads me to the second truth we can glean from these first two qualities of God’s wisdom, that God has in his love unlocked it to those who humble themselves before him. To many it remains hidden and a mystery, but to many others it is no longer hidden or a mystery but it has been revealed to us by the Spirit (v. 10). God has in his loving-kindness and grace chosen to reveal it to those who believe, to those whom he has called, to those who love him. So to us who believe, Christ is not foolishness or a stumbling block, but Christ is the embodiment of God’s wisdom and power! To whom God has graciously supplied such wisdom, the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. This then answers the question why do some believe and others do not believe? Why do some understand and others do not? Simple, God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. It is no longer a mystery and secret to us.

Is destined

The third quality of divine wisdom is that it is destined, Paul writes in the last half of verse seven that “God destined [such wisdom] for our glory before time began.” God’s mysterious wisdom, long hidden – and still hidden to those without the spirit – was destined by God himself for our glory before time began. Just stop and let that thought flow over you. There are deep, rich thought’s here for you to sink your heart, mind, and soul’s in. “Destined” means “to come to a decision beforehand, to determine ahead of time.” It is the expression of God’s prior will and stresses the plan of God and the sovereignty of God. This thought is intensified with the phrase “before time began.” In other words, the gospel, the wisdom of God in Christ, salvation through faith in Christ alone, is no afterthought. Here we are told in the clearest and boldest of terms that God determined before there was time a course of events that before you or I or anything else for that matter even existed.

So the first truth to sink our teeth into here is that God has determined a course of events that will and must happen. God has not said, “I think this is what will happen” or “I hope this is what will happen.” What God has planned, determined to do, is display his wisdom and power in Christ alone. He determined to display his grace in the activity of Christ, whereby through the crucifixion he determined eternal salvation for his people. God determined that it is going to be this way and it can be no other way! The crucifixion of the Lord of glory was no mistake. It was no “oops, I didn’t see that coming” or “Sorry, I couldn’t do anything about it.” God does not have a plan B, C, D. God is not in the heavens wringing his hands, head and heart full of anxiety ,thinking to himself, “Gee, I really hope my plan works out.” It will happen his way! His way will be so! It can be no other way. It is intentional.

The second truth to sink our teeth into is that the wisdom God has displayed and determined in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, is for our glory. That is, God has done this for our good. God has expressed his intentional good will to us. Consider with me some of the benefits! “Our Glory” refers to our resurrection from the dead, our victory over death and the grave through Christ Jesus for we read in 1 Corinthians 15:41-44, “The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory….” “Our Glory” also refers to our participation in God’s end-time salvation for we read in Colossians 3:4, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” 1 Peter 1:3-5 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” God has determined this to be! He has determined we will be saved! He has determined it all for our glory and his! God’s glory and our good are inextricably bound together. Read Romans 8:28-35. I know this all sounds to good to be true but I am not making it up. Our glory and God’s glory are bound together according to God’s good purpose and plan! There is no “if,” “maybe,” or “might” is there? God has destined his people for glory, not shame.

The third truth to sink our teeth into is that this wisdom determined by God gives us an eternal perspective. Glory refers to the end of the ages when we will reign with Christ in eternity, so in this verse Paul gives us a perspective from eternity to eternity! He gives us a perspective that begins before there was time to the end of time, as we know it! Paul sweeps across the range of God’s plan for human redemption through Christ, moving from before the ages to the end of ages! As Prior puts it, “In brief, Paul is saying that in his wisdom God decided on Jesus Christ and him crucified as the way of salvation long before time and space began, long before he created us in his image. More than that, from eternity he planned to bring all his saints to share his glory” (Prior, 51).What a view! I’ve seen some pretty spectacular settings of the sun, some pretty spectacular views of the heavens. (Google Space) but oh how they pale in comparison to this perspective from eternity to eternity! Though in this world you will face trials, tribulations, suffering, pain, weakness, mocking, hardships, hatred, abuse these are momentary and light afflictions compared to the eternal weight of glory before us, prepared for those who love him. I pray that each of us would catch a glimpse of this view and be built up and strengthened in the glorious, ineffable, glorious, wisdom of God, our crucified Messiah, Jesus Christ! Oh how I pray that we would keep our eyes focused on the inexpressible glory that is ours in Christ Jesus! What different lives we would lead!

Considering all of these glorious, life changing, life-fulfilling truths can cause you to explode with confidence and strength and cause you to explode in praise to such a Mighty and Wise God and this is exactly what Paul does, he exclaims with praise, and one can almost feel the joy bursting forth as he wrote “No eye can see, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him!”