Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 2. We will read verses 1 through 13.
1 Corinthians 2:1-13
And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.Howbeit we speak wisdom among the full-grown: yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nought:
but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory:
which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory:
but as it is written,Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,
And which entered not into the heart of man,
Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God.
But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth, combining spiritual things with spiritual words.
Let us bow our heads and pray.
Our Father, our Lord, our God, we read about Your Word. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will make Your Word real to us, so that we may understand what is in Your heart through Your Word.
Deliver us from all the limitations of our hearts. Help us to come into the fullness of You. Unless Your Holy Spirit is doing His work, the word of man is in vain.
So we look to You with one accord. We pray that tonight You will give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we may truly know You. We give all the glory to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The theme of this conference is Christ crucified and the church. This is the thought of 1 Corinthians, as presented by the Apostle Paul.
Paul went to Corinth to preach the gospel. He was determined in his heart that, when he ministered to the Corinthians, he would know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Because Christ and Him crucified are the center of the gospel. We know that Christ is the center of God’s purpose. He is the center of all things. The cross is the means by which God accomplishes that purpose.
Therefore, Jesus Christ and Him crucified must be preached to all nations, because this is the foundation of the gospel.
But Paul also says, “We speak wisdom among the full-grown.”
Jesus Christ is the foundation of the gospel. Yet after the foundation has been laid, God desires to build the superstructure upon that foundation. This is why Paul says, “Among the full-grown we speak wisdom.”
The wisdom Paul mentions here refers to the church, because the church is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If there is no foundation, there can be no superstructure.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified must be preached to all nations. But the church is not something that can be preached to all people in the same way, because many people do not yet have the foundation.
Paul did not preach the church to all people. He did not preach this wisdom even to those who were babes in Christ. He spoke it only among the mature, because those who are babes in Christ cannot comprehend it. They may even consider it foolishness, for they lack spiritual discernment.
Thus, when Paul was among the Corinthians, he said, “Among the full-grown we speak wisdom.” Yet this wisdom is not the wisdom of the world. It is the wisdom that was hidden in God and foreordained before the foundation of the world unto our glory.
However, Paul did not directly identify this wisdom as the church when writing to the Corinthians, because they were babes in Christ. They could not see that the church is the wisdom of God, nor could they appreciate the glorious wisdom of God.
If you reveal the church to those who are babes in Christ too early, while they are still living in the flesh, they may begin to make something with their own hands. But what they make is not the church according to God’s purpose. It may look like the church, but in reality it is not.
Therefore, Paul did not directly mention the hidden mystery of God to the Corinthians. He described it, but he did not point out exactly what that mystery was. Of course, we know that the mystery Paul mentions refers to the church.
Who are those who are full-grown? The word perfect does not mean sinless perfection. There is only One who is sinless and perfect—our Lord Jesus Christ. Other than Him, there is no one perfect.
In the Bible, the word perfect often refers to maturity. In other words, it refers to those in whom the foundation has been laid—those who know Christ and the cross. Because they know Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they have a foundation in their hearts. Therefore, they can comprehend the mystery of God’s wisdom.
That is why, in Ephesians, Paul can clearly point out the mystery of this wisdom. Why did Paul not directly mention the name of this mystery in 1 Corinthians? Because this mystery was so precious to him.
This is the most precious treasure. Paul longed to share this treasure, this revelation, with the children of God. He longed to share it with the Corinthian believers. However, their condition restricted him from telling them directly.
When we read 1 Corinthians 2, we see that Paul speaks wisdom among the mature. He longs to tell them this wisdom, but he cannot show it directly to babes in Christ, because it would be in vain and might even create problems.
Yet his heart burned to share this treasure. So he used descriptions to speak of this mystery, hoping that the hearts of the Corinthians might be moved and that they would long for it, pursue spirituality, grow, and receive this treasure.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17:
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void.
Then, in 1 Corinthians 1:19, he says:
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought.
In 1 Corinthians 1:25, Paul says:
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Then, in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, he says:
And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Paul speaks in the first chapter about the wisdom of men, and he sets it aside. He considers it to stand in the way of God’s work and to hinder the gospel of God. Therefore, he puts this wisdom aside absolutely.
On the other hand, Paul also speaks of the wisdom that is spoken among the mature. Therefore, we see two kinds of wisdom: the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God.
We see this contrast also in James 3:15:
This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Man’s wisdom is not from above. It belongs to the earth, to the natural man, and to the devil. Where this wisdom is, there are jealousy, faction, disorder, and every evil thing.
But there is another kind of wisdom—the wisdom from above. James 3:17 describes it:
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
We can see that this wisdom is totally different from man’s wisdom. What, then, is the wisdom of God? What is the content of this wisdom?
As we read the Bible, we know that this mystery is the church. The church is the wisdom of God. The church is not the wisdom of men.
In other words, it is impossible to produce the church by using man’s wisdom. In man’s mind there is no concept of the church. In man’s mind there are many concepts of religion.
According to those religious concepts, people can make something. But in man’s concept there is no church, because this wisdom is from God.
We must remember this: the church has come out of the wisdom of God. It is totally irrelevant to man’s wisdom.
Let me illustrate this. In the Old Testament, God gave Israel the tabernacle because He desired to dwell among His people. Later, when they came into the Holy Land, God gave them the temple. This was the product of God’s wisdom.
But after the Jews were carried away into captivity in Babylon, the temple was destroyed. During the captivity, idolatry was removed from among God’s people. They wanted to worship God, but there was no temple available, and there was no way for them to return to Jerusalem.
As a result, out of religious thought, they asked, “Since we cannot go back to Jerusalem to worship God in the temple, what method can we adopt?”
They invented the system of the synagogue. So long as there were at least ten Jewish men, they could organize a synagogue. They could read the Pentateuch, read the prophetic books, sing songs, pray, and teach the Word of God to the people.
In such an atmosphere, it was very convenient to worship. They did not need to travel very far. If they had a different opinion, they could simply form another synagogue, as long as there were another ten men.
It was convenient, but it was the product of man’s wisdom. It was not the product of God.
Today, among Christendom, we have something very similar to the synagogue. It is a product of man’s wisdom. It cannot be from the wisdom of God.
Today in Christianity, man’s wisdom has substituted for God’s wisdom. The question is: where is God’s true wisdom? The church comes out of the wisdom of God.
This is the mystery of God’s wisdom. What is a mystery? A mystery is not merely something too mysterious for us to understand. A mystery is something hidden in God.
Before God reveals what is hidden, no one can know it. We may call it the secret of God. God had a secret, and no one knew it.
In the Old Testament, we can find many clues pointing toward this mystery. God was trying to reveal it, but it still remained concealed because the mystery had not yet been revealed. It was hidden from the ages.
After Christ had completed redemption on the cross, God revealed this mystery to the apostles and prophets in the New Testament. What was the secret He revealed? It was the church.
The church was something secret in God’s heart, and it is a truth revealed to us through the apostles and prophets.
When we speak about the church, do we think of it as a secret? Do we think of it as a mystery that God must reveal to us? If we do not think this way, we cannot touch it or apprehend it.
When you walk down the street and see a magnificent building with a cross on it, you may say, “Here is the church.” But is there any mystery there? Even babes in Christ may say, “Here is the church.” Yet they do not see any secret there.
The church is the mystery of God. Without revelation, there is no knowledge. We know it only because it is the mystery of God revealed to us.
This mystery was foreordained by God before the ages unto our glory.
Why does Paul say that it was foreordained before the ages, before the foundation of the world? If we want to know the church, we cannot view it merely from a historical viewpoint.
We have to see the church prehistorically. We cannot look only at the church of the past two thousand years. The church is not a product of history. The church began before the foundation of the world. Before the world was created, the church was in God.
The church is before time. This is the church.
Sometimes people say that, when we read the New Testament and the book of Acts, we see the church in its earliest stage. From that time until now, nearly two thousand years have passed.
People say that during those two thousand years the church has been evolving. They say that the church in the apostolic period was in its beginning stage, and that through the centuries it has developed into what we see today.
They view the church in the period of Acts as a small seed and the church today as a large tree. They call this the improvement or development of the church. But this is the wrong way to see it.
If we really want to know the church, we need to go before time. We need to come to God. We need to enter into God’s mystery. Otherwise, we will never see the church.
This mystery was foreordained before the ages unto our glory. What is glory? Glory is very difficult to describe. Glory is the pinnacle of everything. It is the fullness and expression of God.
Here we see what the church is in God’s wisdom. What God has foreordained for us is glory.
Today, we may think that if we can escape hell, we should be very satisfied. We may think that this is good enough for us. But it is far below God’s purpose.
If God merely delivered us from hell and sent us to heaven, that would not correspond to His nature and purpose. God wants to work in us until His glory is manifested.
We may be satisfied merely to have our sins forgiven, but God is not satisfied with that. He wants to do the work to the point that He will be glorified.
God’s purpose for the church is glory. Not merely that every Christian should have glory, but that the whole church should be glorious.
God has foreordained that we may be conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He justified, He also glorified. One day He will lead many sons into glory.
Today He is working in us for His glory. We are being transformed from glory unto glory, continually being formed into the image of His Son.
Yet God’s purpose is corporate. He wants to receive a glorious church. He loves the church and gave Himself for it. He washes the church through the Word so that He may present the church to Himself as a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle.
God has designed glory for the church. The glory of God is to be manifested through the church. The fullness of the Lord is to be manifested through the church.
Is the church we know today a glorious church? Where is God’s church?
Paul says:
Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,
And which entered not into the heart of man,
Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.
What God has prepared for those who love Him is beyond what man’s eyes can see, what his ears can hear, and what his heart can comprehend.
The church that eyes can see, ears can hear, and the natural heart can comprehend is not the church in God’s mind. The church is something that eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, and the heart of man cannot understand.
Only when you love Him will you be able to see, hear, and understand.
Brothers and sisters, if we do not truly love God, we cannot see the church. We cannot discern it, and we cannot understand it in our hearts.
In 1 Corinthians 2:10, Paul says:
But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
The mystery of God must be revealed by the Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God can comprehend the deep things of God.
The church is not something superficial. The church is a mystery within God. This mystery must be revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Anything we know without the revelation of the Holy Spirit is not the church. We know that the Holy Spirit has revealed these things in the Word, but we still need the Holy Spirit to reveal them again in our hearts.
Otherwise, we touch only the letter. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Therefore, we require the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word of God again in us, so that we may know the church.
Anything that does not require revelation is not the church. Not only the church, but all spiritual things require the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
We thank God that He willingly reveals His Son.
But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.
We particularly need to pay attention to the word freely. This is pure grace from beginning to end.
What is grace? Grace is something freely given to us. Grace is what God does. If something requires our doing, then it is not grace. That is wages.
Grace means that God has finished everything and freely given it to us. Brothers and sisters, the church is pure grace. It is something accomplished by God.
The Lord Jesus said:
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Abraham looked for the city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. If there is any need for man to help God produce something, that is not the church.
If God needs us to help Him so that something can be accomplished, then it is not grace, and it is not the church.
Paul says:
Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth, combining spiritual things with spiritual words.
This wisdom needs to be revealed by the Holy Spirit, and the mystery requires the Holy Spirit to explain it. Paul asked for utterance so that he might make known the mystery of God in the gospel.
If we do not have spiritual utterance, we cannot explain the mystery of God.
All these points describe the church in God’s mind. If we view the church in the light of these descriptions, rather than simply by what we see today, we may discern whether what we see is the church God has in mind.
What is the church that God has in mind? Where can we find this church? How can we live a church life? How can we be part of it? These are serious questions.
God needs a bride for His Son. He needs to prepare that bride for His beloved Son. How great and precious this is! It is not something without importance.
When we see the church today, can we say that it is the church as revealed by the Word of God? We need to be part of that church. Where can we find it?
There is a theory among Christians that there are two churches: one visible and one invisible. According to this theory, the visible church contains the invisible church.
This is a very clever way to justify the present condition of the church. The church we see today is often unlike the church God has in mind, so people comfort themselves by saying that the visible church contains an invisible church.
But there is only one church, not two churches. There is not one visible church and another invisible church. There is only one church, both visible and invisible.
As far as the work of the Holy Spirit within us is concerned, it is invisible, because the Holy Spirit works secretly inside us. But as far as our testimony is concerned, it becomes visible.
What the Holy Spirit works in His people is revealed and testified through them. Therefore, the invisible becomes visible. The visible testifies to the invisible.
There is only one church.
From this principle, we see the universal nature of the church. There is only one church. The church is universal; it covers all the earth. From the first century until now, the universal church is there.
Yet we cannot see it in its entirety, because we are too small and the universal church is too great. But we know that it is there.
How do we know that it is there? Because in every locality there is a local church. Believers gather together in each locality and practice the spiritual principles. The local church puts into practice the reality of the universal church.
This is what becomes visible.
On the one hand, the universal church is too great for us to see. Yet we love all the brothers and sisters. We love Peter. We love Martin Luther. We love Wesley. We love brothers and sisters who have not yet been born. This is the universal fellowship of the church.
But we must practice this brotherly love locally, with the brothers and sisters gathered together in our own locality. If I say that I love the believers in Jerusalem but do not love the brothers in my own locality, that only proves there is no real love.
The invisible fellowship must be manifested in the visible. This does not mean that there are two churches. There is only one church.
This one church is practiced in every place. One day we will all be together before the Lord. Then there will be no limitation of space. In Christ, we will practice everything according to the spiritual principles.
Today I would like only to lay a foundation.
I hope that the brothers and sisters will go back to the Lord and find out whether we truly know the church. Perhaps what we know is not the church.
Then we should seek what the church truly is. If what we understand is limited, mixed, or merely according to man’s concept, we need God’s light to bring us out and carry us into the church according to God’s heart.
This is what we need to pursue before the Lord, because our Lord is coming soon.
He will come and present to Himself a glorious church. May God have mercy. Amen.
Let us bow our heads and pray.
Our Lord, our God, we bow our heads before You. You have prepared for those who love You things beyond what we can comprehend.
But You have prepared this according to Your glory. It is compatible with Your true nature. O Lord, we pray that You will open the eyes of our spirits so that we may discern what is from You and what is not.
Grant that we may live in reality and not in vanity. Lord, the day of Your coming is approaching. We cannot waste our time on this earth any longer.
We need to walk in the center of Your will. We want to do things according to Your heart, so that we may hasten Your coming.
Lord, do Your work among Your people. May Your Holy Spirit do the work in our hearts and remove every hindrance.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.