The Wisdom of the World and the Wisdom of God

The fact that God is alive – that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive today, is the reason you’re sitting here today. The breath you’re breathing, it’s because He is upholding your life. If you find it difficult to breathe, you realise the preciousness of life. Miracles occur today because God is alive.

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There’s a great difference between life and death, between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world results in death,. The wisdom of God results in life. On the one side you have the world, the flesh and the devil, and death. And on the other you have God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and life.

I want to look at scriptures which highlight the difference.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20

Galatians 5 talks about the world, the flesh and the devil.

Galatians 5:19-21

Quite a list! We’re coming up to Christmas, when it’s the works “do” and there’s no one from the church is with you. Our stance is the wisdom of God. It’s what God has done inside us.

We need to value what God has done in us, but more, we need to value who He is.

What’s it like for you at a works do? Do you cave in? You don’t want to appear different? The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

One night I was coming home late at night on the train. There was vomit all over the floor. Why is the world’s wisdom, the fleeting moment, the importance of getting paralytic so you can share your experience the next morning with someone else – if you can remember it?

Romans 1:28-33 outlines anyone without God.

Without God in this world, there’s an attempt, through the wisdom of this world, to fill the vacuum with something. But only God is the answer for the need within the depths of a person.

Paul said to the Corinthians that it doesn’t matter what goes on in the world ...

1 Corinthians 3:18-20

This world’s wisdom involves people who scheme, who pursue money, fame, position. It’s automatic because without God that’s the nature of man. I want to help each one of us realise that it is ok to be a fool for Christ. It does actually mean you have a backbone if you make a stand for Christ. I’d far rather be a fool for Christ, than be heralded in the fleeting wisdom of this world. What could be more foolish that Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross? In the eyes of the world, what was that about? He was dying. Yet there was something deeper going on.

1 Corinthians 3:19

Job 5:8-14

When you are a Christian, God protects you, in that no matter what man tries in order to do you down, no matter what people say against you because of your stand, God knows what is occurring.

1 Corinthians 3:20

Psalms 94:3-11

What is Paul referring to Job or Psalms for? He is saying that as a Christian, you are from a different life source. The source of your life is from heaven, from God. The world, the flesh and the devil ... the result of that is inevitably death. Paul is saying he doesn’t want the Corinthians to glory in anything other than what God had done and who He is.

The Corinthians were getting into factions as to who had heard whom preach. And Paul had to point out it was God they were involved with. Who’s your life involved with? It’s God.

“Do you mean you go to that church? Why?” “Because what God has done for me is eternal. He’s changed me on the inside. He did it in me. And that’s why I live my life going His way. In fact He lives inside me. It’s the life of Christ inside. He’s broken the power of sin in my life.”

Jeremiah 9:23-25

What do we want for our children? We want them to understand and know God, to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, as Lord of their lives. We educate in every way possible to maximise the potential of each child. But underlying it all, we want them to understand and know who God is and the life of Christ inside.

1 Corinthians 3:21-24

What does Paul mean? He could just have told people not to get involved in factionalism. He was saying that, but he went on to say is that the key thing is that the word of life came to you – not the person through whom it came.

What I want in all we do is to lift up His name.

“Anything in this world, people of Corinth, everything is worked out because God is in control, and you are Christ’s and Christ is in God.” Or in other words, all things work together for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. God moves heaven and earth that you might know Him.

Once again, let me remind you if you’ve lost your job, or face uncertainty, that you have a loving heavenly Father and you have the life of Christ inside you, and all things are yours and He has heard your prayer and will provide for you. The world can throw anything it likes at you. The enemy can taunt you with the thought of death. But I am in Christ and Christ is in God. Everything is involved in my good because God loves me. He is the God of love.

Does that mean I live any old way? No – we’ve covered that. That’s the world’s wisdom. The agenda of the world is different. For a Christian, the agenda has only one item – to please Him, the one who has given me everything, life itself.

Titus 3:3-8

That’s not a vague hope – it’s the certain hope that one day you will meet Him face to face. In the interim, it’s like heaven on earth, because by His Holy Spirit it’s His life inside you. You can’t conceive of the good things He has prepared for you because of the love He has put in your heart for Him.

I want you to open your heart, listen to the words the choir sing, and let those words confirm to you the life of God inside you.

The Lord’s Supper

As we come to the Lord’s Supper, we need to come worthily, mindful of the things He purchased for us on Calvary.

I want to talk about aspects of Holy Communion. When Jesus Christ comes into a person’s life to change them, there is a complete and utter transformation. It’s the difference between death and life.

God takes note of different things ...

Malachi 3:16

Jesus referred to something that has a bearing on each one of us.

Luke 10:17 – 20

There is a recording which is eternal. For those who are Christians, your name is written in Heaven.

Revelation 20:12

God is establishing His purposes, outworked by the recording of our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, solely as a result of what Jesus Christ has done for each one of us.

Hebrews 10:9 – 17

“Their sins will I remember no more.” What He is remembering is that He has recorded your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. On the other hand, things are actively being forgotten. God is active in not remembering our sin. He chooses not to remember. Some people are concerned about their past, and keep replaying things they have done wrong. The enemy delights in that. Whereas God in Christ has said, “Their sins will I remember no more.” Sometimes we dredge up things which someone else may have done, and we regard ourselves as superior. God has forgiven them, but sometimes we take part in conversations where the whole thrust is to pull someone else down. That’s not what we’re about as we partake of the bread and wine. The Psalms tell us how beneficial it is when the people dwell together in unity.

Previously I talked about how the Passover was a memorial of the angel of death passing over the houses of those who had eaten of the lamb and had the blood sprinkled on the door post. We saw how the Passover lamb became Jesus – behold the Lamb of God. And 1 Peter talks about the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

When Jesus spoke of His body being eaten, He instituted something we were to do to remember Him until He came again. Taking the bread and wine helps us remember what He has done for us until He comes again.

The Corinthian letters were very practical. There were four and we have two left.

1 Corinthians 5:6 - 8

You need to be sincere and conduct yourself in truth – no malice or wickedness.

1 Corinthians 10:16 - 21

You can’t serve God and mammon – there’s a difference between being a Christian and not being a Christian. And when you take the bread and wine, you are identifying with Christ and saying, “You have given me life. You are my life. I’ve forgotten those things which went before. I’m identifying with who You are and what You’re doing in me.”

In the Corinthian church, there were people supposedly going God’s way and people going the world’s way. Impossible! Here, we are identifying with what God has done in us.

In the Corinthian church, people were coming together, not having eaten at home, and making the most of it as a meal.

1 Corinthians 11:22 - 23

Luke 22:19 – 20

1 Corinthians 11:23 - 27

It’s possible to come unworthily. People were treating this like any old meal. Think about what it means to take things unworthily. It wouldn’t be a good idea to take part if you don’t have a clue what Christianity is all about, or if you aren’t a Christian. That can be remedied, though. What is the situation with you and God? You know all about Him, and maybe today God is saying, “What I did on the Cross was done for you and it doesn’t matter if there was no one here apart from you”. You were on Jesus’ mind when He went to the Cross and died for you. He didn’t want you to be bound in sin, to have those habits you can’t overcome because there is a power of sin which hasn’t been broken. He wants you to live clean, because He wants to give His life inside you, to take the power and penalty of sin. He wants to give you His life.

1 Corinthians 11:28 - 30

If we sorted ourselves out and got things right, we’d be ok.

1 Corinthians 11:32 - 34

We are taking part in something instituted by Jesus Christ – “This do in remembrance of me.” How frequently should we do this? It doesn’t say. But periodically, we need to do it, to remind ourselves of what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross, and how He rose from the dead to break the power of sin. When I eat, I thank God for what He has done for me.

He loves you. He’s concerned about you. He wants you to be secure. He wants you to know that what He has started in you by giving you His life, He will complete, until that time when He meets you.

I know what God instituted by taking the bread and wine. It was a tangible thing so we would remember who He is and what He did until He comes again. And the love He expressed on Calvary for each one of us isn’t just a quick phrase in the Bible – God is love, and He didn’t want you to live your life on an impossible pathway which doesn’t work. He wanted you to live your life to fulfil His purposes, which are the best for you and will bring glory to His name.

The church is the Bride of Christ, and is fulfilling the purposes God has for His people. And there are lots of other people who will become Christ-ones through what God will do. He is acting throughout the world, and we are part of the church worldwide. It’s not my church – its God’s church. It’s all to do with an expression of God’s love for mankind. “Behold how they love one another.” You need to examine yourself right now. But as we identify with what Christ did, so it is that we are one body, one faith, one baptism.