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Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him

  Good morning. In Isaiah: Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. That sounds encouraging. Man can think of many wonderful things; but they are all temporal. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. That would mean that you cannot know anything about them unless you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. That would mean that there would be no way that we could know about these things unless the Spirit of God revealed them to us. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. The spirit of the world seeks for things of the world; but the Spirit of God seeks for h...
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We speak God‘s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

  Good morning. So Paul did not preach in persuasive words of wisdom: yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature (it’s kind of like in math in that I cannot talk about calculus to those who are in Intermediate Algebra); a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God‘s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. It was a mystery in that people did not understand it; it was not a mystery because God did not hint about it in the Scriptures - for He did. God had to hide it or Jesus would never have been crucified, and we would not have salvation today. The Jewish religious leaders certainly would not have turned Him over to Pilate (they saw the messiah as the conquering king, not as the suffering servant), and the devil would have tried to preven...
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My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God

  Good morning. So Paul says that he didn’t come with an arrogant attitude but: I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God. When you read Paul’s words in all of his letters, he doesn’t sound like he was in fear and in much trembling; and he even mentions that fact specifically later. He didn’t just have a bunch of pretty words; but he had words ignited by the Holy Spirit that produced salvation in the listeners, confirmed with power. My Bible says that the Greek word translated demonstration is used of producing proofs in an argument in court. I guess you could say that Paul was the Perry Mason of the gospel. Father help us to have Your words and not ours when we speak to others about salvation. Go with your people during the coming storm. Move and control it so tha...
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By His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption

  Good morning. So it is not by our greatness or achievement; but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “let him who boasts, boast in the Lord“. It is all because of God’s doing, not ours. Some people use these verses to say that we have the wisdom of God through Jesus. But remember I said we would revisit an earlier verse which said “Christ the power of God and the wisdom (His dying on the cross) of God”. We do obtain God‘s righteousness and sanctification and redemption through Jesus. We have nothing to boast about. Then Paul says to the Corinthians: and when I came to you, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom (unlike some evangelists today) , proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Others tried to wow the Corinthians with their oratory; but Paul preached the sim...
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God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise

  Good morning. For consider your calling that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. That’s easy for you to say, Paul. If man were going to devise a system of religion, he would set it up so that the people that were involved in it would be intelligent, strong, rich - the cream of the crop. Then man could say that he did it; that it was his vision that created the salvation. But God says like Lee Corso on College GameDay, “not so fast“. It cannot have anything to do with you; it has to be strictly My doing. He did the impossible thing with improbable people. Now no one can boast in himself; it strictly depends on God ...
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But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.

  Good morning. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom. And so if God chooses to reveal Himself in a way different from these, then they will not believe it. But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness. To the Jews, the Messiah was supposed to remain forever (in the book of John you even had the public saying that to Jesus); and so saying that the Messiah was crucified was heresy. The whole thing sounded ridiculous to the intellectuals. Surely you had to seek God in some philosophical way, and by using your great intellect find Him. But to those who are the called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (we will refer to this last phrase again at the end of the chapter). The Jews wanted signs - Jesus rose from the dead. The Greeks wanted wisdom - God‘s wisdom had the perfect way to bring about salvation, so that it depended on Him and not man. Because the foolishness of God (simply believing in what Jesus did for ...
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For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

  Good morning. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It does sound foolish in the natural. How can someone dying on the cross save me, and all that is required of me is to believe that it will? Shouldn’t I have to do something to obtain salvation? “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside“. People today are trying to show off their “wisdom“ by saying they have figured out how salvation should come about. And of course it is not the way that God says it is to come about. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Mankind through its various philosophies has concluded that it has found another way to God; in fact there are many ways. In all of these various supposed ways to God, they all depend on man’s beliefs or actions instead of solely on God’s. For since in the wi...
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