How Can You Have the Wisdom of God? by Eddie Foster

Read First Corinthians 2 as background for the message.

God’s ways are way above ours. We can’t have his mind, but we can have the wisdom of God.  Our faith is not to stand in the wisdom of man. It’s not wrong to have confidence in people. This isn’t what Paul is saying. We can’t trust the wisdom of man for salvation. God alone has the power to save. Many people have confidence in the preacher, but if he falls….they fall.  They had “preacher religion”.  Be a God follower, not a preacher follower. Even when I preach, study the Word yourself.  Divine wisdom comes from receiving Christ and then growing in him. 

Verse 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.  Are we perfect?  No.  This speaks of the believer who has matured in Jesus Christ and is still growing. Carnal, complacent Christians won’t grow.  Verse 14 says:  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. Divine wisdom can’t be received if you’re carnal and complacent.  We’ve not “arrived.”  We still need to grow. People act like they do because they lack divine wisdom. In Acts 3, Peter told the people that they crucified Jesus through ignorance. If they had known who he was, they wouldn’t have done it.  We’re accountable for what’s in the Bible whether we choose to read it or not. While the world thinks Christians are crazy, it’s really the other way around. 

Divine wisdom helps me curb my anger. There are things going on that make me angry. Isn’t anger a sin. It can be. The Bible says to be angry and sin not. I understand why some do what they do:  they sincerely think they’re right. Wisdom can’t be learned in a classroom. Some things are just plain common sense.  James 1:5 says If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. The wisdom of First Corinthians 2 is only for growing Christians. The good common sense of James is for everyone.

Verse 7 says: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. This means it wasn’t known in the past; it was hidden. But now it’s revealed.  Now we know.

The work of the Holy Spirit is found here as well.  We believe in electricity because we see what it can do. You can believe in the Holy Spirit because you can see what he does in a person’s life. We see the addict and the drunk saved, delivered from it. Under the inspiration of the Spirit men wrote the Bible. The original record is inspired, not the translation.  The most common translation is the King James Version, but Paul and Moses and the others didn’t write in English. I caution you to watch what version you use. Make sure it comes from the original and is not just a translation of a translation. Some people think the Bible “contains” the Word of God.  No.  All scripture is inspired by God.  The Bible is our final authority, our final truth.  The Holy Spirit is our teacher.  John 14:26 says: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. The teacher is the Lord. We bear the imprint of the Holy Spirit. Dig into the Word of God and be willing to line up with what the Word teaches.  The Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible, so he’s the best teacher of it. He convicts people of sin by piercing the conscience. When he does we need to respond and repent.

What are the results of conviction?  Salvation. A person is made aware of his/her sinful condition and gets saved. If that person doesn’t get saved, conviction hardens the heart and eventual death comes. Remember Pharaoh. He hardened his heart time after time. His life ended in the Red Sea when God delivered Israel but destroyed the Egyptians. In the book of Acts we read about Agrippa and Felix trembling at the words of Paul. One even said he was almost persuaded to become a Christian. Yet neither did and we don’t have anything in the Bible that tells us they ever did. The blind men in Jericho ignored the warnings to be quiet and called for Jesus to have mercy on them. They cried out. Jesus responded and they received him. This was the last time Jesus came through Jericho; it was their last time to meet Jesus.

Today might be your last time to receive Jesus.  Let this be the day to make things right with God. Start growing in the Lord and you can have the wisdom of God for yourself.