Two kinds of wisdom

Now I'd like to read a couple of verses with you in 1st Corinthians chapter 1. 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and we'll start reading, well we could start at verse 18. 1st Corinthians 1 and 18 for the preaching or the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent where is the wise where is the scribe where is a disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God that pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe now that's all I need to read and we know that God will bless the reading of his precious Word I wonder if you were asked if you were given an opportunity to request something for your life I wonder what you would request likely if we asked that question in the world we would get a lot of different answers some would like to win the lottery and do a lot of things like that or travel around the world but what really would be would your request be in Job 6 and 8 is it Job said oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for he was suffering and I think he was really longing for death but there was another man a young man a way back also in the Old Testament and God asked him what he wanted and what do you suppose Solomon asked for he said I would like to have wisdom I know some maybe we've already heard some come to a conference to find a wife that's good but I think you need wisdom to find the right one and no matter what you're going to be occupied with I think the first thing we need is wisdom now we have read in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 of two kinds of wisdom there are two kinds of wisdom in the world and maybe there are two kinds of wisdom in Christendom as well I hope there aren't two kinds of wisdom in God's assembly because one of those wisdoms is the wisdom of God and the other wisdom is the wisdom of men and as we go through 1st Corinthians I'm going to go through quite a bit of it and rely on your good memories and just contrast what we have here in this book about the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God for instance in chapter 1 there were contentions in Corinth in a local assembly they were in contentions why because they were following men that's a very dangerous thing to do even in God's assembly some of us maybe have our favorite preachers but a lot of times it's not the favorite one that gives us a word that we need we need all the gifts in God's assembly and we need all the men that's why I think it's good not to close the platform I'm not saying trying to tell you what to do that's up to the local assembly but I think it's a good thing to control a platform even if you don't close it control it and you wouldn't want people that would be just wasting time and I better keep going I don't want to be doing that either so they're following men that was man's wisdom some said I'm of Paul I'm of Apollos I'm of Cephas and I'm of Christ we're not told exactly what those men were like but we know maybe we can apply it this way Paul was a man that taught Christian liberty and there are some maybe they thought we like to hear about our Christian liberty of course a lot of times that turns into license doesn't it and then you have Peter he was the apostle of the circumcision and there's some they say well I like the preacher that really lays down the law and it tells you what to do then if it doesn't work you can always blame the preacher but that's not the way it should go some say I'm of Apollos he was an eloquent man and I don't know of any preachers maybe there are some but we'd all like to be more eloquent wouldn't we when we preach but that's not the answer not to put one up just because he can put words together we'd all like to be able to do that and some are masters at it and we'd love to listen to them but but we don't do that the exclusion of others some said I'm of Christ and I'm not sure if they were right I think maybe they said we're not going to listen to any man we're just going to listen to the Lord and then there's a goes a step further and Christendom and you find that there are many places where they'll just get the one preacher and then everybody will come and just not have to worry about taking part or preaching and there's no time for somebody to worship audibly and so on you see that's man's wisdom and while there are good men out there in the world pastor this whatever they call themselves and they might be good and the exposition of the Word of God but you know that they don't really impress me all that much because I I just wonder how come they never found the local assembly if they know so much it seems to be very plain to us I know this maybe we could say it's a revelation but it's a revelation to those that really want to see it there's no place like God's assembly and that's what that's what man's wisdom said what what does God's wisdom say God's wisdom says there are gifts and a lot of times the man with the gifts could be sitting in the congregation and the man and even today there women they have in pulpits and they don't have the gift and they're supposed to be helping God's people so we want to go according to the Word of God and whether we're young or whether we're old we're not I don't have to just say this to the young we all need wisdom of course we get it from getting into the Word of God that's what we've been encouraged to do from the outside of the conference get into the Word of God and get into God's presence that's where we get wisdom in the presence of God we get it from the Lord and we get it from his Word now when you come into chapter 2 and you read a little bit about what Paul preached he said we preach Christ and Christ crucified of course he didn't preach that Christ was still on the cross wasn't a dead Christ but it was the abiding effect of the work of the cross man's wisdom said preach it in enticing words of man's wisdom you know the gospel is a very important message and I think anybody young or old when we're going to preach the gospel we should ask wisdom from God how to preach the gospel there's a danger today that maybe wasn't so much in my age but young men are better educated than some of us not all of us but then some of us and I have heard young men lecturing the gospel and you couldn't say they said anything wrong but you know old mr. Stewart Archie Stewart used to talk about some in private he didn't do it in public he said that man couldn't warm the heart of a mosquito you see we need to get the heart don't we give me that we've been heard about the heart and these things I'm gonna be pulling a few of these things together that we've already heard we need to have a heart and we need to have a love for those that people are on the way to hell it's not a time to lecture we have to be clear wasn't mr. Ironsides told a young man he said when you when your researcher your subject get the first mention in the last mention and so on he said then he said don't try to be clever with it just try to be clear and you know I have said this before but it bears repeating I had the great privilege of preaching with mr. Harold Paisley and I preached with him in a place and I went back but five years later and I met a man that had gone to those tent meetings in Lakeshore Ontario and that man far as I know he never ever did get saved he asked me how's mr. Paisley I said well he was fine the last time I knew him he's not doing so well now by the way but he said you know what I liked about him and about his preaching and I said I don't know but I'd really like to know he said you could tell when he preached to you that he loved you and I thought there's no greater commendation than that for a man to love God's people it's the same with the ministry of the word we're here because we have a love for God's people not to show how much we know or how much we don't know sometimes but we're here because we have a love for God's people and Paul said I'm preaching Christ and Christ crucified that was the end of the person crucified I'm crucified with Christ that was the end of them in their own wisdom but they were going on in that and he said no we want to preach a clear a clear simple gospel we preach Christ and Christ crucified and that's why he preached it to these people that had so much of the carnality about him he was teaching that God couldn't mend me so he ended me and now I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus now what about chapter 3 we like to preach from that chapter it's about very clearly about the local assembly I only want to say this about it there were three kinds of people that are mentioned there there's a natural and the carnal and the spiritual the natural man couldn't understand the things of God because he wasn't saved but sad to say there were those that were carnal they were believers but what were they doing well just to get to the point they were building into the assembly things that they shouldn't have been building in wood hay stubble things that look so great things that are so large but you see they wouldn't abide the fire that he speaks about in the end of the chapter but he said there are others and they were preaching they were building into the assembly gold and silver and precious stones those were things that were going to last they weren't really very big compared to the wood hay and stubble but you see man's wisdom sometimes they go in for the big thing and and and that's all you need to do let's make it look like it's great and make it look like it's large but what does God say God says I'm not looking for quantity Christians I'm looking for quality Christians what kind of a Christian would you really want to be quantity doing a lot of things and our service can outrun our communion with the Lord and I think we have to be careful that that doesn't take place we can become so busy all of us and myself included but you know we need to stay in communion with God and we need to be quality Christians and we want our assembly whatever assembly we're associated with we want to be a help there we wanted to be a quality assembly it's not just a matter of recruiting and getting a whole lot of numbers in to make it look good that doesn't work there's not going to last we want to go in for what is real God is a God of reality and we need wisdom in these things so that we're building and speaking really of those that are ministering the Word of God building things concerning the Lord he's the foundation and the superstructure must answer to the foundation so what do we minister no matter where we minister from no matter where we preach the gospel from don't forget to get to Calvary get to Christ that's the important thing now we've gone through the book a little bit more we go to chapter 5 and I'll call it corruption in the assembly there's sin among God's people isn't that sad what does man say today and I'm not talking so much maybe about assemblies but in Christendom as a whole Christian circles oh he said you need to be a little liberal don't be too hard anybody could sin what does God say says purity not liberality there must be purity in God's assembly and and we need men of wisdom in God's assembly to guide God's people that's something that's absolutely necessary ask wisdom and and pray to God for the elders in your assembly that they might have wisdom and know how to act and some of these situations and when discipline does take place we know it's very it's important to point out why you're disciplining somebody point out the sin that they have committed because they could accuse you and you know people sometimes that are disciplined they can become very discontent maybe it's a word and they could even take it to court and say well I was disciplined for drunkenness but they didn't mention it all they read about was fornication and everything else so we need to be very clear but the important thing is God's wisdom said the assembly should be pure we don't lower the standards there might be a progression in some things and then the truth in God's Word but we don't lower the standards we don't let things slip once they start slipping they seem to go faster and faster and we need to be very careful that we're using man's wisdom in these things what about taking a person to court in chapter 6 is there not a wise man among you sometimes I have to ask myself that when situations arise among God's people and a little group will go and they'll take off and they'll go somewhere else and they'll start another little group up and then I think is there not a wise man among you can you not just sit down and work things out according to the Word of God when Solomon asked for wisdom he wasn't a wise man then and maybe he didn't use the wisdom to the best of his ability later on in his life but you know David he said about song he said my son is tender just a tender young man he's going to lead a whole nation what did he need well Solomon he knew what he needed he needed wisdom there's a man that God gave wisdom to have any man like wisdom let him ask of God who give it to all men liberally maybe that's wisdom how to go on in the trial but nevertheless we can ask God for wisdom Lord make me wise give me wisdom in the things of God and there should be brethren that have enough wisdom to be able to get together and and about to be in subjection to the elders in the assembly don't think we know everything I heard of a young man I think he was Irish must have been I heard about it I hope it wasn't true they said the first Sunday he was in fellowship he ministered after the breaking of bread on the qualification of elders well I tell you it's not an easy thing to be an elder among God's people an elder usually it refers to age would be a mature person a man of wide experience that elders also an overseer so it have to be a man with a watchful eye but he's also a shepherd he must be a man with a warm heart that's what we need today and we need to pray for our elders and that young men will be raised up to fill up the ranks and they will be trained as our brother said there was Levites they were numbered right from they were very young six months first of all there was potential for every one of them but they had to learn and I have thought maybe the difference there between the 20 and the 25 was like a little apprenticeship I had to learn and we thank God for older men that taught us and we who are older should try to teach younger men take them under a wing and try and teach them some of the things that we were glad that older men taught us now let's keep going chapter 10 is a wilderness chapter and it's about communion and it speaks of three tables there it speaks of a Jewish table speaks of the idols table and it speaks of the Lord's table and without going into a lot of details and the Lord's table and the Lord's supper I know I believe there is a difference and yet they're very closely allied but let me ask you this what table are you eating at oh there's something that we can we can we don't really need to be separate from the world and from the religious world and and amazing I remember one time preaching in Ireland in the gospel about trumpets I had a nice little lineup of a trumpets I thought it went okay but anyhow a man asked on the way out of the meeting he said I didn't get the label that you put on the last trumpet and I told him what the label was and they had to know what he said he said I know you won't agree with this but I'm going to preach that at the Salvation Army I thought of it knowing I wouldn't have given you the label that I've given you the wrong label maybe I mean I'm not I'm not questioning that the man thought he was doing what was right he needed to be taken aside and maybe taught a little bit he was trying to be a help likely where he where he was going we don't want to be too too hard on a man my brother Stan I wonder if Job really married a foolish woman a man with his intelligence I think when she said bless God and I it could have been that she'd say why didn't you just bless God and die and you'll be out of all this pain and agony anyhow what table am I enjoying I'm not talking so much about what we sometimes call the Lord's table or the Lord's supper but the rest of the week where am I feeding you know what you know that apostle saying you can't feed it all these tables they're not compatible Christianity isn't compatible with Judaism it's not compatible with the with the idols temple so we have a table that we need to be feeding on and we feed on that table that's what God's wisdom said you feed on the table that I provided he provided a table in the wilderness and and I think that men that were never in God's assemblies men like Martin Luther surely they must have God must have fed them somehow I think they were feeding from his table maybe they didn't understand the Lord's supper so what about the controller well what about chapter 11 that our brother was evil he brought before us I agree with everything he said but you know what people are saying in the world today that's man's wisdom that was just a custom in Corinth that doesn't apply to us today and yet at the beginning it said it's a everywhere where they call in the name of the Lord both theirs and ours that's not that's not a custom that's what's written in God's Word are we going to follow it if we don't follow it how do we know which parts to follow in which parts not to follow we want to we want to when this is what God's wisdom is he said I'm teaching the angels angels have an interest in God's assembly maybe a better interest in some of the believers have we all should have a great interest in God's assembly wonder what the angels think about those that aren't there at the assembly well they're being taught and you know I've mentioned this before maybe here there was a little assembly thankfully it's been built up a little bit since then and Cass City Michigan I know brother Stu goes there and I'm not sure whether Larry goes but anyhow for a long time they had four brethren and one sister you know what I told her I said you know this wouldn't be a scriptural assembly without you the angels couldn't learn the truth of headship if you weren't in this assembly so you see the sisters have a very important part in God's assembly don't they well with with the head covering and the long hair that God has given it's a glory to them and people try to twist it and they say well the woman's long hair it says it's given for a covering and we know it's a different word it's given for a mantle so that's all the covering a woman needs is her long hair young man I met a young man in a store I was looking for my wife was my first wife but it would be the same with my second wife and I said I'm looking for a woman with nice long hair oh he said I saw her she went down that aisle there and then we got to talk he said you know what where I go we believe that women should have long hair I said well that's good it's church whatever you call it and I said what about the what about the covering oh well he said you know the hair is the covering well he had a good head of hair this young man so I said when you go to your meeting do you shave all your hair off so your head is uncovered some brethren here wouldn't have any trouble but some of us are still have a few hairs left but I know you see us you see just just be wise God has given us this and and it's a great privilege to be able to show these truths and and and we can't do it without this and the brethren thank God we don't have so much trouble now with long hair that was in for a while but you see what are we going to go in for man's wisdom or God's wisdom just try to push it to the side head coverings are optional it doesn't really matter does it not may not matter to you but it matters to God and the angels aren't going to be taught what God wanted in creation in the order of his own creation if these things aren't carried out so what about the control of gifts well there were gifts to excite and there were gifts to edify and while I hope none of us would try to speak in tongues or anything like that or or heal this sick by laying on of hands or raise the dead or anything like that that's not going to work one man I read off in the newspaper he his mother-in-law died and they put her in cold storage and they froze her and then they brought her up and he was going to raise her from the dead suppose he figured if it didn't work it didn't matter that much I don't know what he thought about his mother-in-law but it didn't work didn't work we want gifts that will edify and we can apply that maybe in a little wider sphere whenever we do minister the word of God it should be to feed God's people and to help God's people mr. T Ernest Wilson that was a mission in Angola for many years and a very godly man he told me when he went to Africa he was sitting on the platform at a conference one of the black brethren the old black brethren said to him whenever you minister the word of God don't forget to feed God's sheep we don't want to give our own ideas or our own thoughts we must go according to the Word of God and thank God that's what we practice we give the Word of God that honored place we should at all our meetings so gifts to edify am I going to build up God's people and be a help to them and then when we come to chapter 13 that's the chapter of charity or love isn't that the motive I've already mentioned that so we won't they don't need to go into it but you know that well so you read about the tinkling cymbals and so on and I've never played in an orchestra I'm not all that musical I like to sing and so on but I think I'd love to play the cymbals why didn't make a great big crash and then draw attention to yourself that's what these people were doing that's not what gift is for it's not to make a great big show or draw attention to oneself it's just to be to help God's people in love to exercise the gifts in love that's the oil that that keeps them going and then I thought maybe when you go to the resurrection chapter 15 has been touched Christ's resurrection what does man's wisdom say they said it's over already that's in the past maybe they were speaking about the few that bodies that rose from the graves of Christ's resurrection and were seen in Jerusalem I don't know what the what but it's not past its future and that should govern our lives the Lord is coming there's going to be a great change that will take place in every one of us you know I would like that change to be a little less and I would be a little less by becoming more like Christ right now wouldn't it's not what God wants really for his people we're going to be like him that's what God says himself wisdom is going to be like him we're going to see him we're going to be like him we shall see him as he is but then there's a little practical part is that we need to purify our lives even as he Christ is pure the resurrections coming marvelous the world doesn't believe it didn't believe it in Paul's day when Paul preached Christ crucified they all believed that wasn't hard to believe that a person could be crucified but it was difficult when he preached from the resurrection of the dead some mocked at Mars Hill some said we'll hear the again of this matter but what does God say Paul said he departed out of the coasts they never had another opportunity but we believe in the resurrection from the dead we believe in the rapture we believe it could take place at any moment but are we living in the good of that if we knew the Lord going to come before midnight what would we be occupied with I think we'd be on the phone with quite a few loved ones and people to try and warn them they probably wouldn't listen some of them anyhow the last chapter what's that about it's about taking up a collection and I'm not saying we should take up a collection when mr. Paisley was preaching in the big tent in Belfast there were a thousand people I think in the tent and a brother that wasn't just too right there's maybe a few of them over there thinking he said too bad we don't believe in the collection he thought they're a big crowd I'm not talking about that or supporting a Lord's workers that's not what's in my mind that collection was for poor Saints and I'm just putting it this way what does what does man's wisdom say every man for himself we can ignore the needs of others there are people in need today wonder are we supporting them people that are out of work what does God's wisdom say he said you lay aside so there would be help for those poor Jerusalem Saints and so on where we want to put it out in a wider sphere man's wisdom take care of yourself I'm number one God's wisdom says care for others and if we had that care and that love for others in God's assembly I think maybe it would cure some of the difficulties that one might have so may the Lord help us as we read the Word of God and as we think of these things and these divine principles ask myself am I doing this am I really sure this this is God's wisdom this is what God wants me to do this is what God wants for his people or is it man's wisdom bringing things up to date could the Bible really believe that whenever we question it we know we're wrong this is what God says may the Lord help us to go in for the wisdom of God and not be like the world that's all around us that go on helplessly and hopelessly because they're using the wisdom of man