THE LIVING WORD TRANSCRIPT

Program Air Date – 6-5-11

LESSON TITLE: “HE WHO OVERCOMES THE WORLD: THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD”

WELCOME

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 beginning, we read, “Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks!” Isn’t prayer a wonderful privilege as a Christian? What a great opportunity we have to talk to God anytime we need to.

Well, it is before God that we assemble this day! And let me welcome you to the Living Word program on this wondrous Lord’s Day morning! Thank you for joining us today as we commit this time to the things of God. Together we will have the privilege to study from God’s Holy Word and to sing praises to His wonderful name. Let’s each do our part this morning in making this time of offering acceptable in His sight. Will you go to God in prayer with me at this time?

(PRAYER)

Our first song of the morning reminds us of just how much God loves each of us, for He is always there to help us with the burdens of life. So at this time won’t you join in with the congregation as we sing together, “Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary?”

(SONG # 1)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

Growing up, we all have someone who watched over us. Usually it is parents, grandparents and relatives who really take care of us and make us what we are today! What a wonderful feeling it was to always know that someone was there who cared for us, loved us, and listened to us and our needs.

As we get older, we often forget that we are still not alone in this world of trials and problems. In fact, as Christians, we have the promise that God himself is always there. The Psalmist David put it in these words, “The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, or the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore,” Psalm 121:5-8. Notice here that the Lord Himself is our protector, keeper and friend. He is there all day and night, from today and forever more!

What a wonderful encouragement this is to know that truly God Himself is the one who is with us and who will never leave us. The Hebrew writer had a similar thought in chapter 13, and verse 5, of his book, where he said, “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Again, we have confirmed for us that God can be depended on by those who strive to do His Will.

Also, let me help you to notice the great strength and courage we receive from this knowledge about God always being there. In the same text, the writer went on to say, “So we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me,’” Hebrews 13:6? With God, His promises and the confidence we can have in Him - there is nothing we should fear or hesitate in doing, in connection to His Will! Why? Because He is always there with us, helping us and watching over us in all we do!

Do you have this type of confidence in God? If not, why not? Are you a follower of His, a true Christian, a child of God? Choose today to begin your Christian walk, and allow God to watch over you and help you in every aspect of your life. Learn to have faith in your creator today!

This morning, we are happy to have brother Jerry Sullins with us as our guest speaker. Once again brother Jerry is the Director of the Bible Institute of Missouri here in Springfield, Missouri. We thank brother Sullins for being with us today and we look forward to him guiding our minds through God’s Word in just a few minutes.

In our main discussion of the morning, we will be considering a lesson together centered around our theme, “He Who Overcomes the World.” Our specific lesson of the morning is entitled, “The Wisdom of the World!” So please continue with us today and after our next song together, brother Sullins will help us focus on God’s Word. Now, won’t you join in with the congregation, as we sing our second song of the morning - the name of this song is, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds.”

(SONG # 2)

LESSON

By Jerry Sullins

I would like to welcome you again to “The Living Word” broadcast. We are so thankful for those of you who come to our program every Sunday morning and view this program on a regular basis and we hear from you all of the time and we are so thankful that you use this program every Sunday morning as a tool in understanding God’s Word. It is so important that we know what God’s Will is for us and for the past few weeks we’ve been discussing how we overcome this world. We know that indeed our faith is that which causes us to overcome this world and as Paul the writer said in the book of Romans chapter 17, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” There could be no faith unless we hear what God’s message is for us, and so every Sunday morning we come to you via this television program trying to do the best that we can to impart into you an understanding of God’s Holy Word which hopefully will cause us all to be better prepared for that day when Jesus comes again.

We’ve been considering, as we said, for the past few weeks overcoming this world. It is very difficult for us to consider how we can overcome this world unless we understand at least one more aspect of it and that is: How does the wisdom of this world relate to our salvation or does it relate to our salvation at all? There’s a lot said in the scripture concerning the wisdom of this world. I call your attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 beginning with verse 18 where it says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God.” It goes on to say in verse 21, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believed.” Well this is a confusing statement for some people because they do not understand the wisdom of God verses the wisdom of man.

A statement is made in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 19 and it says this, “The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.” Now how is the wisdom of the world foolishness with God? Because it is not that which is God’s. There is that which is man’s wisdom and there is God’s wisdom and unfortunately in this world today men are seeking to follow in their own pathway. As early as the book of Joshua and in fact even before that and especially in the book of Judges we see the children of Israel were only interested in doing those things which were right in their own eyes. They were not seeking the wisdom of God, although God had imparted that wisdom through the Law of Moses in the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. We know that very clearly and more specifically or specifically in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So His Will had been made known to the children of Israel but they sought to know only their own wisdom and to follow in their own pathway and so they sought to do only that which was right in their own eyes. And do you know what happened to those folks? They began to worship all kinds of idols, marry foreign wives who were given unto idolatry. They transgressed the Will of God to such a degree that God wanted to destroy all of them, but yet because of His great promise through Jesus Christ certainly He did not do that because He wanted Jesus to come to this earth, to die upon the cross for our sins.

Now let me show you just a few examples of how the wisdom of man works versus the wisdom of God. There are many people today and even in the Christian world who find it very difficult to call anything that is a transgression of God’s Law sin. Have you ever noticed that before? No one wants to admit that they, much less anyone else, has done anything that could be construed as wrong. But as John said, “Sin is a transgression of God’s Law.” And just as in the days of Moses, and even before that the days of Noah, so as in our days today, there are those people who do such things which are not in tune with God’s Will and therefore they sin or transgress God’s Law. Man doesn’t want to call man sinners. They say, “Oh well, I really couldn’t help what I did. I was carried away in what I did. Really can we call it a sin? They like to call lies “little white lies” or they like to call them “stories” or things like that, whereas they are not the truth and so therefore the scripture says they are lies and those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Revelation 21:8).

You see people are trying to go by their own wisdom, but the Bible tells us in Romans 3 verse 23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” And then in Romans 6 verse 23, there Paul, the apostle Paul, said through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So you see, my friends, this morning, the world wants to say, “Oh what is sin really? Let’s not think that people sin and do that which is wrong.” And they try in every way to justify any evil thing that they might do and any evil thing that anybody else might do, blaming it on heredity or something other than just the fact that those people have transgressed God’s Law. But God’s Law is not the same. You see that’s the difference in the wisdom of man, who will tell you that there is no such thing as sin, and the wisdom of God where God is trying to point out to us all that we have a problem that we need to deal with.

What was the foolishness of the cross that was spoken of here in 1 Corinthians? It says, “The foolishness of the preaching of the cross…” Well what was that? Well that simply was to point out that God had a plan to save man from His sins. God has a plan. Now I want to emphasize that God has a plan! Now man can make up a lot of plans, but God has made His own plan. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” Jesus said in John 8:32. Isn’t that right? Yes it’s in the book! Jesus shall set you free from your sins. God has a plan. Jesus died upon the cross for that plan, to shed His blood for the sins of all mankind. “For this is My blood of the New Testament which was shed for many for the remission of sins,” Matthew chapter 26. That was that blood, that fruit of the vine which represented the blood that Jesus shed upon the cross at Calvary. Now man would say, “That’s foolishness. How could that be?” Because God said it! In the wisdom of God and in His own words, He said that Jesus would die upon the cross. He made a plan. Why? Because man could not save himself. Now man has done a lot of unbelievable things. When I look at the computer worlds today, when I look at the means of travel that we have, the means of communication, and all these wonderful things that are at our disposal to make this life as good a life as it can be, I am amazed at what capabilities man has been given, and I emphasize “Man has been given!” Man did not have these things. God gave man the ability to do all of these things. But man cannot save himself.

When you go to many different religious groups today, in fact almost all, they will say, “Here is the way that we believe and the things that you need to do to be saved.” But what does God say? Man’s wisdom will say that, “You can be saved this way.” God says, “You are saved this way.” Now which way will you choose? Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” I am going to choose that way, by the way! Jesus said, “Except you repent you will perish.” Jesus said, “Unless you confess Me before men, I will not confess you before My Father who is in Heaven.” So whose way will you choose? Man’s wisdom says you can be saved this way. In fact, one lady one day, I asked her to turn over to a verse of scripture, Mark 16:16, and I said, “Madam, will you please read that scripture?” She looked for it and she looked for it, and she said, “I tore that out of my Bible.” I said, “Why?” She said, “Because Jesus said, ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,’ and my pastor says there is no reason for me to be baptized. I can be saved without baptism.” Well I will tell you what; I will choose what Jesus said! Do I want the wisdom of God or do I want the wisdom of man? Yes it is foolish for some people to say, “Why do I need to be baptized? To be put under water? Why do I need to do that?” Well Paul told us in Romans 6:4-5, “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into His death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should also be raised to walk in newness of life. We are buried in the likeness of His death and we shall be raised in the likeness of His resurrection.”

One person said one time, “If you can prove to me in the scripture that baptism saves then I will believe it.” I told him to turn to 1 Peter 3:21. It says, “There is an antitype which now saves us. It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.” Now the wisdom of man will tell you it has nothing to do with your salvation, but what did Jesus Himself say that one who died upon the cross and shed His blood for our sins.

Now man’s wisdom will tell you that really God wants you to be saved in a way, but is there really a God? Or they say God is within all of us and we are gods. That’s humanistic secular humanism. Some people will say there are many gods. That’s what even the Israelites were saying at one time as many of them died for refusing to recognize that God was the true and living God and transgressing His Will.

Well does God really want us to be saved? “He commended His love toward us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans chapter 5. Yes, He desires that we be saved!

“God so loved the world,” as you well know this verse, “that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

“He’s not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance,” 2 Peter 3 verse 9.

And it says that, “At these times of ignorance God winked at, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”

“He’s not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance.”

And yes, Satan is around and what he is trying to do is he is trying to get us to listen to the wisdom of man rather than the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 1-2 read with me right quickly, Paul said, “And I, brethren, when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God because I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And he spoke as he later on said here, “Not in the wisdom of this age, but that the wisdom that God gave him through the Holy Spirit.”

So what are we going to accept in this life today? It amazes me that some people are willing to follow some man and what he says when they have the scripture right before them that says what they need to do, what they need to believe, what they need to understand. The scripture is easy for us to understand. It’s not that difficult if we study to show ourselves approved unto God as Paul told Timothy to do. And you, my friend, can know the Truth. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

Our appeal this morning is to not know what we present to you as our wisdom but to look into the pages of God’s Word and to understand that the wisdom that we need to gain is found within the Holy pages of God’s Word. Indeed as we have looked in this way this morning and as we conclude the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God and hopefully we will come to the very same conclusion. And we ask you to have a good day and we pray that you will have one and we pray that this lesson will be something that will encourage you to understand and to know God’s Will. May God richly bless you as you strive to do His Will.

(SONG # 3 - “Count Your Blessings.”)

CLOSING COMMENTS

Again, let me thank you for putting God first and choosing to give this time to Him. It is always a pleasure to have you with us. We invite you to join us every Sunday morning at 7:30, as we commit ourselves this worship to God!

Now, let me ask you if you have any questions or comments about today’s lesson? Maybe, you would like a free transcript or cassette tape of this program? Possibly, we could assist you with free Bible materials or correspondence courses? No matter what your need is, please contact us at the following address:

The Living Word 2540 N. Kansas Expressway Springfield, Mo. 65803

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What type of wisdom are you focused on this day? The wisdom of this world which fades away or the true wisdom that comes from your Creator, Jesus Christ. Won’t you give God your best today?

(Program closing)