This morning I'm going to finish this series on wisdom. I want us to look at the Depth of wisdom today. Ist Corinthians 2:6-12, "However , we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained befor the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God".
Father, this morning we thank you that you're here now. May we decrease and may your word have its perfect effect in us. Lord, we thank you again for your strong presence that is here today. Let this word be rooted deeply in us and spring up into a life of righteousness. In Jesus name, amen.
We're going to conclude today with the 5th part of the series on wisdom. The title is the "Depth of Wisdom". Wisdom is important to us as believers.
It is essential to what God is doing in our life. Wisdom is beneficial and I have also found that wisdom is very exciting. The more you follow God, the more you get to know his word, the more that you delve into the riches of all that God has for us, the more that it has a marvelous effect in our lives. The truth is that we all need wisdom.
There is depth to God's wisdom. There is more that God has for us that you or I have even begun to touch. One of the things that I find, the more that I serve Jesus, the more that I find that there is, the more exciting it gets for me. I remember when we first went cave exploring up in Pittsburgh. We went into this one cave and everywhere we went there was another tunnel. Some of them you had to crawl through and others were marvelous rooms and even with 8 or 10 flashlights you barely could discover everything that was there. But I found that the deeper I went into the cave, the more I wanted to see and the more interesting it got. As a matter of fact I realized pretty quickly that I needed to obey what the guide said, after 4 hours you had to turn around and come out or you were going to be stuck for a long time. How many know that when you start to get to know Jesus, it is really that exciting. The more you get to know Jesus, the more there is to find out and know and the more wonderful he becomes. It's a wonderful thing.
Wisdom is more than intellectual knowledge. There are many places and many people even in our churches that talk about having the wisdom of God and the emphasis is on education and attainment. The truth is this, wisdom is spiritual truth and the ability to use it after you have learned it. So far in this series we've only touched the surface of what God wants to offer and I'd like to catch a little bit of the deeper things today.
In Luke 2:52, a verse that I love and I go back to very often, it says "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men". How many in this room believe that we are to be like Jesus? The truth is that we should always be growing. If Jesus, the son of God, who came to earth had to grow in wisdom and in stature, then all of us are going to have to do the same thing. We need to grow. Jesus grew physically but he also grew spiritually.
Wisdom is progressive. It is something that you don't just reach a point and all of a sudden you've got it. Wisdom is something that you are constantly gaining from God. It is something that you learn and something that over time reveals itself. Wisdom is gained as you spend time in the word, as you spend time in prayer with God as you get to know him. How many of you have found that there are days that you get with Jesus in your prayer time and you feel like you went from 1st grade to 5th grade. Isn't it a wonderful thing?
Wisdom is gained through our experience of living and walking with God, watching how his word works and how God works and getting to know his voice and getting to know him. Jesus also grew in favor. We need to understand that wisdom brings the favor of God and the favor of man into our lives. I want to challenge you, Christian, if there is something that you are longing for from the Lord, then you need to grow into that and begin to learn it, begin to pursue it and seek it in Christ and allow that to grow inside of us.
Proverbs 8:35 says, "For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord". Is there anyone in this room who desires the favor of God today? Is there anyone who'd like to live in the curses of God? I'd so much rather live in his favor anyday. I want you to notice something in that verse, "For whoever finds me". It's interesting when you read the word of God that you find out that wisdom speaks. Wisdom again is not just an attainment. Wisdom is a person. The Bible says wisdom speaks to us, "whoever finds me finds life". I think it's important that we understand that because wisdom comes out of relationship. It comes out of growing in the knowledge of God. God gives us the wisdom to take us deeper into him.
Verse 10 of our opening scripture says this, "But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes the deep things of God". We used to sing a song when I was growing up, "Take me deeper, deeper than I've ever been before. Lord I want to go with you, I want to know you more". The truth is that since I can't even conceive the greatness of God and the things that he has, then I must get to a place where he can begin to convince me of it and show it to me and let me see it.
Verse 9 says, "But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him". Many times we look at that scripture and say "I can't wait to get to heaven because God has prepared that place for me and it is going to be more beautiful than it ever could be". I want to tell you, I believe that's true. But that verse doesn't apply to heaven only, God has prepared some things for us in this life that we haven't yet seen or heard or even conceived of yet but there is that part of us as we grow into God that we begin to see those deeper things that he has for us.
The word deep means profound, to have depth, to have substance. The word wisdom implies in its very nature that there is something deeper than just what we see on the surface. Most people who learn to swim learn to swim in the shallows because you can walk there, stand there and control some things there. I'm a swimmer, I love to swim and probably since the time I was about 5 years old after I started swimming that I really didn't enjoy the shallows a whole lot. I wanted to start to get out into the deep. Some people stay in the shallows.
God talks about in Jeremiah about this river revival, how someone would just walk in and some would be up to their ankles and some up to their knees and others up to their waist. Then he got in and began to swim. There are so many Christians that will get into the very basic things of God and just stay there. God wants to take us deeper into him, deeper in relationship. Listen, remember we're not talking about mystical things, we're talking about the practical and wonderful things of what God has for each and everyone of us. Most people want more of something good and with God's wisdom there is more.
The Bible tells us that wisdom takes us beyond the elementary things. Jesus grew and so must we. The truth is that anyone who is 40 years old and is still in elementary school is not considered wise. As a matter of fact it's not very normal. Hebrews 6:1-2 talks about those elementary things of Christ that we need to have settled and move beyond. How many of you have learned to read? How many of you started out in elementary school with addition, subtraction and multiplication and division and got those basic things down? The truth is if you didn't have those things down, you weren't going to progress and move on into the other grades.
Hebrews 6:1-2 talks about the elementary things that we learn in the word. "Therefore leaving the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works". How many have come to realize that your old life without Jesus was nothing, dead works? You needed to be saved, you needed to repent and be forgiven of sin. How many understand that is an elementary thing with Jesus? "Of faith towards God on the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of the resurrection from the dead and of eternal judgement". Those are the elementary things.
Alot of us are still stuck on some of those elementary things. We still are discussing whether there is a judgement or not or whether there's a heaven or hell or whether someone needs to born again or not, or whether someone needs to know Christ as their Savior or whether someone needs to be baptized. Those are the elementary things. You don't have to leave all those things behind, just the discussion of them because they're settled. Listen, stop always having to repent of sins that you keep struggling with. "He whom the son sets free is free indeed". If you have given your life to Jesus, leave the old life behind. Quit going back to it. That is an elementary thing.
People say, "Is there such thing as the baptism of the holy ghost?" Listen, I already speak in tongues. You can't tell me it doesn't exist. Why? Because I am filled with the spirit of God. It is an elementary thing. You always want to go and build but you have to have a place where you build from. There comes a point where you need to move on. The reason why many people in the church are not walking in wisdom is because they are still in elementary school. We need to progress on and grow in Christ.
We can pray for the sick. People will argue and tell me that you can't lay hands on the sick and see them made well, it was left with the apostles. Listen, I don't even have the discussion with them. If they're sick, I grab hold of them and whether they believe it or not I start praying for them and let God do the convincing. It's an elementary thing.
Albert Einstein had something inside of him that drove him past the elementary. At a very young age he was done with addition and subtraction and moved on to quantum physics. He saw the possibilities and he needed a challenge. I want to tell you that the more I serve the Lord and the more that I see what there is in him and to do through him and the things that he has for my life, I will build on those elementary things but I want to stop dwelling on them all the time and keep going on.
The reason so many people drop out of school is because they're still trying to master the basics. Many times we have kids that we try to help and if at a certain age they're still still struggling with certain things they will more than likely drop out of high school and get on with other things. That happens many times in churches because instead of moving beyond the elementary things of being saved and getting those basic things settled you'll see many people start to drop out and leave God behind. Everyone of us have seen that.
I want to challenge us to move beyond into the wisdom that God has. I want more and there is more. Deeper is a matter of maturity. Verse 6 says this, "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature". Wisdom is knowledge of the Holy one. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy one is understanding". Immature people don't have very deep relationships. They don't have a mature temperament and they don't have mature behavior. When I first saw my wife I wanted to get to know her better and in order to do that I began to develop a relationship. Then when we got married we started to know each other a whole lot better. Today after almost 20 years of marriage we know each other better today than we ever did. As a matter of fact I find it scary how well my wife knows me. She's a woman, I'm still trying to understand her but I'm getting better at it.
The more I know God, the deeper I want to go. The more time I spend with him, the better I get to know him. That's what we're talking about, being deeper in love, deeper in commitment, deeper in relationship, deeper in understanding. The truth is that when it comes to the Lord I want to go in over my head. I'm tired of just being in the shallows. When I get in over my head with God I'm never going to drown and I'm never going to get tired. He will always keep me. As I go deeper there becomes a mending of our hearts together, there becomes a unity and a bonding of our lives that makes us inseparable and it's a wonderful thing.
In Psalms 42:7, it talks about how deep calls unto deep. "At the noise of your waterfalls all your waves and billows have gone over me". How many of you have ever been in one of those times not only in a worship service but in times of prayer when you've been with the Lord and you can just feel the presence of the Lord sweeping over you? "Deep calls unto deep".
Like calls unto like. What I'm talking about is the will of God to communicate his wisdom to us. Those who have surrendered their everything to God are the ones whom his wisdom is revealed to, the spiritual depth of all that he has.
