Gaining Spiritual Wisdom

An exposition of 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, October 17, 2010.

Introduction
To study communications or information sharing today is an overwhelming thing.  It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information will be generated this year.  That is more than the previous 5,000 years!  Add to that the fact that the amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. In addition two billion videos are viewed each day on YouTube along with hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded daily.  The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet.  Tweets have increased from 35 million a day in February of this year to 90 million by July.  There are more than 31 billion searches on Google every month.  NTT of Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber.  That is equivalent to 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second.  It is staggering the amount of information that is at our fingertips.  Yet despite this information overload, despite this vast storehouse of knowledge there is appalling shortage of wisdom.  Knowledge is the storing of facts while wisdom is the ability to interpret and apply knowledge.  Wisdom is putting the knowledge to good use.  Wisdom is the art and skill of living.

When writing to the philosophy-loving Greeks in Corinth Paul speaks of the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man.  He said that the wisdom of God is consider foolishness by the Greeks.  It makes no sense to them.  But to those who believe it is the power of God unto salvation.  Now you might be tempted to think, based on Paul’s emphasis in chapter 1 and then the opening verses of chapter 2 that he was anti-wisdom.  That he was somehow opposed to understanding but an honest look at the balance of the second chapter reveals just the opposite.  Our text this evening is found in 1 Corinthians the second chapter.

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

1 Corinthians 2:3-4 – sounds anti-wisdom
But what is clear in the balance of the chapter is that…

Thesis: God, out of His great love and compassion, desires to impart spiritual wisdom to each of His children.

The question is how is this wisdom obtained?
How does one achieve this wisdom?
How does one gain the art of living?

Two things are clear:

  1. Spiritual wisdom cannot be obtained through intellectual pursuits.  (2:6-9, 14)
  2. Spiritual wisdom can only be obtained through God’s self-revelation.  (2:10-13, 15-16)

Conclusion:
Wisdom is God’s gift to His children.  It is not gain through intellectual pursuit it is obtained through God’s self-revelation.  The result is the faithful application of God’s truth to your life making you a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.

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