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1 Corinthians 1:20-22
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can download our service on iTunes or tune in for “The Good Word” M-W-F-Sa at 8:04 a.m. and Tu-Th at 7:41 a.m. on WSAL 1230 AM, or at 8:02 a.m. Monday-Saturday on Hoosier Country 103.7 FM. When I am talking with someone going through trials, I often ask, “What is the ultimate goal or outcome you desire?” Once you come to the point you know what you really want, then everything you do must be a step that moves you toward that goal or outcome. God’s ultimate goal for us as His adopted children is to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Everything God does in our lives is designed to move us toward that goal. Such information is important for us, because our all wise God knows exactly when and how to move us toward the goal. Let’s consider
- GOD IS ALL-WISE! Wayne Grudem says “God’s wisdom means that He always chooses the best goal and the best means to those goals.” (Systematic Theology, p. 193). Read Job 9:2-4; Ps. 104:24; and Rom. 11:33-36. Dr. Norman Giesler offers a great outline on this study. He says, 1=God’s word are wise. In Ps. 18:30 we learn they are a foundation for certain confidence in God. In Jer. 8:8, 9 you have to wonder if Paul is remembering Jeremiah’s words when Paul tells us man’s wisdom is foolishness next to God’s! 2= God’s acts are wise. Read Ps. 104:24-30 and Prov. 3:13-20. These verses tell us God is always leading and prompting us to do those things that move us toward Christlikeness! 3= God is the Source of all wisdom. Read Prov. 2:6. As Christians we must not follow the wisdom of the world because it always leads us away from God pointing us to ourselves. Consider
- GOD’S WISDOM IN REDEMPTION. Wisdom in early Greek literature “always denoted a quality, never an action.” Socrates said, “One is not wise by nature; wisdom comes from learning.” In the OT God’s wisdom is presented as cleverness, or knowledge in the books of history; in the prophets it is seen as human ability in general, but always in an eschatological perspective; in the wisdom literature, God’s wisdom is “rules of daily living and behavior”. In the NT God’s wisdom is always Jesus Christ! When considered in a Biblical context there is no way a sin-scared heart or depraved mind could ever devise any system for life and living that has any meaning or merit to it. Such a warped system would always misrepresent God and find excuses that would accept and allow man’s sin. From a Biblical viewpoint, wisdom is a character quality seen in a Christian’s life as a result of the Living Word of God changing the motives and intents of a redeemed heart! We all know when God is prompting us to repent of our foolishness in sin and apply His wisdom to our daily lives. We often, and stubbornly, refuse those promptings because we fear what other people may think of us more than we fear what God may think or do to us. We need to remember the only “role” in life we need to get right is the one we live in front of God! If we get that one right, our role in front of all other people will be right also. Read Prov. 12:1, 2; 8:1, 32-36; and 9:6, 10.
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