I Corinthians 2:1-16
Preached Sunday February 7, 2010
Introduction:
When an emergency medical technician arrives at the scene of an accident, he knows he may have only a few minutes to save a victim’s life. He will waste none of those minutes in combing the patient’s hair, brushing his clothes, or checking for marks of identification. He will move as swiftly as he can to the most critical wound and treat it with all of his skill. Something similar is demanded of the minister in the pulpit. He has 20 to 30 minutes to bring life to someone within his hearing, or in which to let him remain spiritually dead.
As we continue through our series on I Corinthians, “The Problem Church”, we find the apostle Paul continuing to teach the church at Corinth why there should not be divisions along lines of personality. It is so ridiculous to side with a man based on perceived abilities when God obviously does not use the same standard of measurement as we do.
We are impressed with degrees and pedigrees. We marvel when someone speaks and it is over our heads. Too often, we fundamentalist are surrendering our Bible-based convictions and trading God’s wisdom for that of professional students.
Today let us see the difference between man’s intellectual theories and God’s power demonstrated!
I. Don’t build on an intellectual prowess alone
A. The church is not built on human skill
1 Corinthians 2:1
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1. Oration
2. Philosophical argument
B. The church is built on God’s testimony – definition = evidence given/experience based on fact
C. We must be careful not to get in the way
1 Corinthians 2:2-4
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1. Paul felt inadequate
a. Weak
b. Fear
c. Trembling
2. Paul did not wait to feel able!
3. Paul avoided enticing words = well constructed arguments
4. Cults use those… you have something greater!
5. Paul had God’s power demonstrated
D. Everyone must know that the foundation is the power of God
1 Corinthians 2:5
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1. In His revealed Word
2. In changed lives
3. In answered prayer
4. This will help to curb your pride.
John Hall says: “Settle in your mind that no sermon is worth much in which the Lord is not the principal speaker. There may be poetry, refinement, historic truth, moral truth, pathos, and all the charms of rhetoric; but all will be lost, for the purposes of preaching, if the Word of the Lord is not the staple of the discourse.”
II. God’s wisdom is flawless
A. Worldly princes could not grasp it
1 Corinthians 2:6-8
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1. A hidden mystery
2. They would not have crucified Jesus
3. Do not be tempted to change the message in order for the princes to be able to understand. This is a spiritual matter.
B. Man on his own cannot plumb the depth of the wonders of God’s grace
1 Corinthians 2:9 – But as it is written, Eye 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.
1. By eye
2. By ear
3. By thought yet…
III. God’s wisdom can be spiritually understood
A. Inner secrets
1 Corinthians 2:10-11
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1. Man keeps secret in his inner being = his spirit.
2. God keeps His secrets in His Spirit
3. The only way to know the intimacies of God is to know the Spirit of God.
4. Born Again Christians have God’s Spirit!
1 Corinthians 2:12
12 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.
B. Words spoken, then, are not crafted by man, but moved by the Spirit
1 Corinthians 2:13
13 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.
1. The Spirit teaches
2. The Spirit compares spiritual (experience) with spiritual (God’s Word)
C. Unsaved man cannot comprehend God’s truth
1 Corinthians 2:14-16
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
1. God’s truth must be spiritually discerned
2. The spiritual has discernment to judge
3. Born Again Christians have the mind of Christ inside them!