The Wisdom of God (4)

[Speaker 1] The church at the fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God will always have a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness on Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] We thank our God again for another time in his presence. We give him glory, we give him honor, we give him adoration. We appreciate God again for another Monday. And interestingly, the first day in the month of December, the last month of the year 2025. Honestly, we cannot but bless the name of the Lord. Wherever you are, just thank God. Just thank God wherever you are. Just thank the Lord, thank the Lord for January, for February, for March, for April, for May, for June, for July, for August, for September, October, November, and now we are in December. Let's appreciate the name of the Lord. Let's thank him. Let's give him all the praise, let's give him all the glory, let's give him all the honor in the name of Jesus. All the glory must be to the Lord. For he is worthy of our praise. No man on earth should give glory to himself. All the glory must be to the Lord. To the Lord, all the glory must be to the Lord. For he is worthy of our praise. No man on earth should give glory to himself. All the glory must be to the Lord. Our Father, indeed, we are very, very grateful. We thank you, our God. We give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise. We appreciate you for your mercy. We thank you for all who you are. We thank you for all that you are. Lord, we commit ourselves into your hand again, this first day in the month of December. Lord, we pray into the month that you will crown the year for us with your goodness in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, as we come into your presence, Lord, we pray, speak to our hearts. Grant us instruction, grant us direction. Lord our God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Father, we look up unto you that wherever we are this evening, Lord, meet with each and every one of us in that particular area where we need you most. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, we want to go straight to where we left the matter last week. First Corinthians chapter 1. We have been able to journey through till around verse 25, 26 thereabout. First Corinthians 1, we started our discussion from verse 18, talking about the message of the cross. And last week, we got to verse 23. It says, "But we preach Christ crucified," as the wisdom of God and as the power of God. "We preach Christ and him crucified, both as the wisdom of God and as the power of God." That's verse 23: "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God." That was where we stopped last week. That actually, it is important for you to know that God's wisdom is Christ. I really don't know how to expand that thing further, but I believe that the statement I just made further, that Christ is the wisdom of God and that Christ is the power of God. But I believe that as we continue in this Bible study on the wisdom of God, what a proper understanding of Christ as the wisdom of God and that Christ is the power of God will dawn on every heart in the name of Jesus Christ. So the Bible says Christ is both the wisdom of God and Christ is the power of God. The Jews who seek sign, Christ is a stumbling block. The Gentiles who are philosophers, what you preach about Christ is foolishness. And I made a good example last week about talking with the gray messengers who said that, "Look, don't you see how foolish you are? How can somebody sin and you say all have sinned? It is the person who sinned that God will punish. God cannot be punishing everybody for a sin that they did not sin." And it is because the person is not realizing the wisdom of God. That what God said is also what God is doing. God said that in Adam we all died, and in Christ we all lived. So in Adam, even though it was Adam who sinned, Adam became a federal head, a representative head for all human beings that is to be born, such that in Adam all sinned. That is actually a mystery. Common sense cannot explain it. There's no way you can use human sagacity to explain that. Human beings will be thinking that no, if somebody has done what is wrong, it is that person that is wrong. Everybody cannot be wrong through that person. But that is the wisdom of God, that everybody became sinner by Adam. That is the wisdom of God. And what the Bible is saying now again is that anybody who is to come to God can only come to God again through that one person, that is Christ. So Christ is the wisdom of God. Christ is the salvation that God provided in a way that man logic cannot carry. That is why Christ is the wisdom of God. I take that again. Christ is the salvation of God that is provided for man in a way that man's logical reasoning cannot comprehend it. Rather it is through—it is God's wisdom that made it so. So God in his wisdom made it that the salvation he provided cannot be comprehended by the sagacity of human beings. So that is why it is God's wisdom. And when you look at it, I want to quickly say something to properly wrap up that area. That was where we stopped last week. So in properly wrapping it up so that we can move today to verse 24 to the end, we want to conclude First Corinthians chapter 1. When we conclude it, then we will now take our journey to Genesis. We will now see then from Genesis, we will come to Proverbs. Then we will now come back again to this First and Second Corinthians, First Corinthians chapter 1 and 2. We will now relate the two together and that will take us to James, so that we can properly apprehend what is impossible to find God by human wisdom. You will now see why it is impossible for any man by his wisdom to be wise. It is just impossible. You will now see how the whole thing worked together. But for now, I want to take my journey to conclude this thing, First Corinthians chapter 1, before we begin to come to the origin of human wisdom and the source of God's wisdom. Now let's look at what we are reading. I want to proceed to verse 24, but I said I want to say something to properly wrap up last week. Now, look at something, brethren. God was bringing Jesus to be the savior, to be the Messiah. Christ was before the beginning of the world. He was with God and it was through him that all things were made. Now, when the world was to be incarnate, the world became incarnate, that is, he put on flesh through Mary. The eternal word of God, there was no intercourse as to be able to say whether there was egg fertilization. So there was no spermatozoa or human egg. What Gabriel told Mary, Luke chapter 1, look at that scripture. What Gabriel told Mary in Luke chapter 1, from around verse 26 thereabout, where the story started. It said, "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.' But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.'" Now still talking about that Son, he said, "He shall be great and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" So Mary was in of the normal process of conceiving and bringing forth a child. So Mary was told something quite different. And that is why nobody can be claiming fatherhood and motherhood of Jesus, it is just sheer ignorance. It is sheer not giving attention to scriptures. It is willing to be ignorant, they become ignorant of the truth. Mary was thinking, Mary was asking, "Okay, if I'm to give birth to a child, there is a way it is done. I've not slept with a man." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" So for anybody to be the mother of anybody, there must be a man involved, a man must donate a spermatozoa. And then the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." So he's telling you that it is fully the life of God that is producing God. So he's the Son of God, there's nothing like the son of—it's nothing like that. It's fully God incarnate. But the point I really want to bring out of this was that I'm talking about the wisdom of God. God was to be incarnate. God became incarnate in Mary, that is, God took of flesh in Mary. So that is why the Bible says, "Unto us a child is born, but actually unto us a son is given." A child is that which is a child, but a son is a grown-up child. That's why you will see things like Akobor and sons, you don't see and child. Son talk about maturity, a full-grown person. So unto us a child is born, but please don't think it's a child, actually a son was given. He's fully grown. It is God incarnate. And that's why they were asking him, "Where do you learn all these things? Is he not the son of the carpenter?" A child was born but a son was given. God became incarnate in Mary. Now the point I want to bring about is this. God want to be incarnate. Please, if Tinubu is even too plenty, let's remove Tinubu. Let's use Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the governor of Ondo State. If Ondo State governor want to visit Ilere, please, will people know that the governor is coming? Please, how will they know? What are the things that will make you know that it's like this person coming? It's not an ordinary person. What are the things you are likely to see? [Voices] Banners, decorations, lighting, sound. [Speaker 2] Tared roads. Now when he is coming, will anything go before him? Will there be anything going before him? What will be going before him? Different types of escort, police, all kinds of [makes siren noise]. In fact, as he is going, some are going before, one will be beside, another will be beside in case of stray bullet from beside, then some will be behind, all kinds of—then when he comes down, he will be surrounded by—is it impossible not to know who the governor is? Okay, God was coming to the earth to visit the earth. And when God was coming, God went through a carpenter, not through a king. He wasn't born in the palace. He was born by one somebody of no reputation. Then when you want to give birth to him, there's not even a place. It was God coming down, the owner of the universe was coming down into the universe. And then there was no even bed to give birth to him, a space in a bed. It was where [mimics sheep bleat] the shepherds are, they give birth to the child there. And then when he was coming, ordinarily, the whole city, if God was to visit the earth, what should have gone before him? All manners of angels singing [imitates horns sounding]. Heaven would just open [makes loud noise], fire, lighting, you know when God came down on Mount Sinai. What did Elijah say? They said, "Please, you go and listen to God, we, we will..." But look at how he came. Then you now come to tell me that that is my savior. Are you understanding me? What I'm trying to make you see is that if you see the way he came, he already came in a way that there is nothing in him to admire him. There is nothing in him to appreciate him. He has no form nor comeliness. There is no aura, no, you understand? Something to make us say [shouts "Baba o" repeatedly]. Nothing like that. Then even when he was here, he was not priest. Then look at the way he died. Then some fishermen were now crying around. That is the savior. [Laughs] Some tax collectors, some [local slang for fraudster], people who were 419 before. They were now going around. "Hey! That is the Son of God!" Is that how God should have come to make us believe? You see that God came in a way that you will say, "Ah ah, even if God want to come, tell me the truth, let us think logically. The person who holds the universe is coming. There is no dispatch rider, there is no siren, there is no angel. They were not sounding, they were not shouting. One carpenter gave birth to one son, and then that son... some fishermen, some 419, then began to preach. You now say he's the savior, he died for me. You must be stupid." That is how it sound. What I'm trying to make us see is that God deliberately made the preaching of the cross foolishness. It was a deliberate intention of God. It was something that God did deliberately. It was God who planned everything the way it will come. It could have been planned in a way that when you see the way it came alone, you will just bow. Whether people you just see the thing coming, maybe you just see a child coming from heaven, and two million angels were just carrying the thing, "Oh come let us adore him." And he was coming like that. Fire, people following him and he just landed and said, "This is the Messiah." Please, who will not believe? It's so easy to... you see, God, what I'm trying to make you see is that God deliberately did it in a way that ordinarily when you see it, you will call it stupidity. So the point I am pushing to us is this, what we said in chapter 2: that the natural man cannot receive the things of God. They are foolishness to him. Why? Because they are spiritually discerned. He says, "We speak the things that are revealed to us by who? By the Holy Spirit." You know what I'm trying to make you see? God deliberately made it in a way that except by the Spirit, you cannot believe. Hallelujah! Except the Spirit convince you and convince you, there must be something—naturally you cannot take it. Are you seeing the point? Logically, influentially, God did not design it for you to understand it like that. God design it that when you see it naturally, you say, "What is this?" Then the Holy Spirit will now come. He will now work where? He will work it in you. He will work it through you. That is what I'm trying to say, that God deliberately did it that it is by the Holy Spirit that we can know the things that are freely given to us. It is by the Holy Spirit that we can know them. God worked the whole thing out as such. And so it is on the basis of that that the Bible now entered into—look at now verse 24. I believe I've given the background now that will bring me into verse 24. It says—sorry, not 24. But those who are called, both Greeks and Jews, Christ the wisdom of God and power—that was where we stopped last week. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." That's what we stopped last week. That what the Bible is purely saying there is that you cannot put God's wisdom and man's wisdom side by side. It's not saying that God is foolish, no. It's saying that you can't put God's wisdom and man's wisdom side by side. We have discussed that last week. Now with this background that I just spoke about, I want you to enter actually into verse 26. We stopped at 25. I want to enter 26. It says, "For consider your calling, brethren." Consider your calling, brethren. What do you see about your calling? Let me open that in some translations here that I want us to make comparison. Verse 26, it says, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." Are you seeing that? Are you seeing that? Look at another translation: "Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in this world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you." So what is it trying to say? Deliberately, the majority of those that God brought to preach the gospel in the eyes of the world, what are they? Fishermen, former fraudsters, former armed robbers, former ogun worshippers, useless people, plumbers, artisans, traders. Not people of high ranking. It's not as if there were not people that were of high status. He says, but they were what? They were few. The people that God called more, for example even at their own time too, look at it. How many were really, really, really people of high ranking in society? We will take Paul. We will take Luke. Luke was a physician. So there were some highly placed people among them. But generally they were people of low background. That is why a question somebody asked me on the platform that does it mean that when a preacher uses human wisdom, when he has the ability, the talent of oratory power, ability to speak with eloquence, is it that it is a sin? Is it that we cannot use it? No. Paul was an orator. Paul was an articulate because he was a lawyer. He was a pointed person. But you see that when he was coming, he said, "I fear lest I'll be preaching by that wisdom." So it is for us to be careful if we know that oh, I have the natural gift of being a person who is well articulated. I better be careful not to depend on it. Not that because oh, because I can do research and I have my PhD, if I pick the Bible now I will just tear it into pieces. I will just know everything that is in it. Oh, you may know the Bible but you may not know God. So what it's trying to say is that look, if you notice what God deliberately did too, not many highly placed people, not many people of that in the eyes of the world. It said, "Remember, dear brothers, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you." But what did God do? What did God do? Verse 27, it said, "But God has chosen what? The foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." Are you see what God did? "And God chose the what? The base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen. and the things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are." Let me read it for you in NLT. Instead, "God deliberately chose things the world considers to be foolish, in order to shame those who think they are wise. God chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers to be important." So why did God—why was God working like this? Verse 29, please look at your Bible. Why was God working like this? "So that no flesh should glory in his presence." NLT: "So that no one can ever boast in God's presence." Are you seeing something? So what I'm trying to make you see is that because God was concerned about his glory, God deliberately fashioned salvation, God deliberately fashioned the things of the spirit in such a way that human sagacity will be useless. Do you get that? The reason behind it is that God was concerned about his glory. God deliberately fashioned the things of the spirit in such a way that human sagacity will be useless. Do you get that? Because the reason behind it is that God was concerned about his glory. And I will give you a very typical example so that you can understand what is really at stake. You remember if you go to the Old Testament, you will see God did this thing over and over again. Look at when God wanted to capture the Midianites and God was to bring them to naught. God went to Gideon. Gideon was from Manasseh, the least tribe in Israel. Again, he was the youngest in his father's house. Now, when God took him, he first look at himself that he cannot do it. But God said, "Go in this might," that is, go in this thing that I showed you. This thing that I showed you. You can't go in your power. He was still afraid. God began to convince him, convince him, convince him. Now, eventually when they got to the war, when he got to blow the trumpet and 32,000 soldiers gathered, what did God tell Gideon? He said they are too many. Why are they too many? "So that Israel will not say that their power..." So I'm trying to make you see that actually the matter of God's glory is something that has been from eternity. God knows that man may want to take his glory. And I will show you why. So for you to know that the concern about the stupidity in the wisdom of man is something that God has seen ever from the beginning of time. And I will show you why. Why is man like that? God knows the origin of man's wisdom. That's why we'll soon be going into the origin of man's wisdom. God understands the origin of man's wisdom. And from that origin of man's wisdom, God knows that man will always take his glory. So in bringing man to know God, God deliberately arranged it that only by God can man find God. Do you get it? God deliberately did it that it is only by God that you can know God, so that nobody can take what belongs to God from God. So you begin to see that God's wisdom is founded on what? On God's glory. The wisdom of God is built on God's glory. It is founded on the need for God alone to be glorified. That is why God deliberately so did it that the things of God, when the intelligent sees it, when the scholars, the scribe of this world, men of great wisdom, men of great capacity, when they see it they will despise it. They will not be able to appreciate it. Why? It is because the glory of God is at stake. There is a concern for God's glory. So God don't want anybody to glory. He doesn't want anybody to glory. He says, look at how he concluded, in verse 30, 31. It said, "But of him ye have been called in Christ, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness from God, and sanctification from God, and redemption from God, that as it is written, 'He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'" Are you seeing it? That as it is written, "He who glory should glory—who? You can put it on the chair. He who glory should glory in the Lord." So that God have so arranged it that anybody when—by the time we begin to manifest God, show forth God, we will realize that if we want to glory, we can only glory in who? We can only glory in God. That is why Paul said, "I labor than them all, yet it is not I, but it is the grace of God that is with me." Are you seeing where the glory is going to? Where is it going to? It's going back to the person. God understand the corruption that is in human wisdom. Human wisdom is a corrupt wisdom. There is a corruption in human wisdom. And so God knows the origin. Why is God working like this? We need to go to the beginning. Why is God concerned like this? Why is God working like this? Why is God seeing this kind of—why is God seeing corruption in man and in his wisdom God is seeing corruption in human wisdom and God is using his own wisdom to make sure that he nullify human's wisdom? Why is God working like this? We need to go to the beginning. For now let us pray. Talk to the Lord. God, please make up your mind this evening. God, I will not touch your glory. Can you talk to the Lord this evening? Can you speak to God? Can you tell God something very definite? Can you take a decision in your heart today? Can you do something that can make heaven to say okay, I think we have found a vessel that if we showcase ourselves through him or through her, in our wisdom we can use this one. Yes, we can use this vessel. Can you talk to the Lord? Can you decide something in your heart today? Can you make a decision within? Because in taking the journey next week, I will first show you something in Apostle Paul. I will show you something, I will show you, then we'll travel to Genesis. I will show you, you see, these things are no new things. They are there for us. They are written down for our learning. They are written down for our learning. Please take a decision tonight. Take a decision in your heart. Take a decision about the matter of God's glory. About the matter in which in the wisdom of God, God is saying no, we can't use this vessel yet. We can't use this vessel. Oh no, we can't use this one. Everything about your life, I pray this evening that is making heaven to be saying no, let's set him aside. Let's place her somewhere. We can't use her. May the Lord in his working, in his wisdom, take them away from you. In the name of Jesus Christ. Because when Gideon did not know what to do again, it was by watchfulness that 9,700 were separated from the soldier. Lord, Lord, help our hearts to be watchful. Lord, help us to be vigilant, to watch over our thought. May the meditation of our hearts, the words of our mouth, God, may they be acceptable in your sight in the name of Jesus. Lord help us to be vigilant, to guide our hearts, to guide our thought, to be intentional about our life. Lord, please help us. Lord, please help us. Lord, please help us. There is an adversary that is trying to make us see ourselves instead of seeing you. There is an adversary—oh God, may we trample over the devil. May we trample over his strategies in the name of Jesus. Lord, give us victory over ourselves. Oh God, give us victory. And Lord, as we march through the month of December, which is the last month of the year, Lord we say go before us. Lord we say be with us. Lord we say be our rearward. Lord, grant us pleasant surprises. Crown the year for us with your goodness that we may rejoice in your salvation. Grant us rest on every side. Multiply us so that we are not few. Glorify us so that we are not small in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's share the grace together in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, Equipstex Ministry, involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission head. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; adolescent and singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM. Family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location Life Camp by the first bridge Ilere community opposite the Rejoice filling station along Igede-Ekiti Road, Ado-Ekiti, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.