The Spirit Who Surprises, Part 2

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul explained that his vast spiritual knowledge was not coming from his personal brilliance. He explained that his spiritual wisdom was the direct result of the Holy Spirit's power. So how do we interpret Paul's confession? Was it false humility, or was Paul giving us an essential clue on how to draw wisdom? From our spiritual helper, God's Spirit.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll assures us that the answer is definitely the latter. So let's pick up the message that Chuck started on Thursday's program titled, The Spirit Who Surprises. This is the Father's favorite verse in all the Bible. When I come to 1 Corinthians 2, 9, I flash back to times when he talked about this verse.

And now I'm beginning to see why he loved it so. You see, the apostle, when describing these things of God's wisdom hidden in the mystery of the past, and beginning to be revealed to us in the passing of time, he turns back in his mind to Isaiah's words, and he sort of paraphrases them. Probably drawing them from the Septuagint, which was the Bible of Paul's day. Certainly the Old Testament of Paul's day. And verse 9, he says, just as it is written, 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.

What's he saying? He's saying that you cannot sit down and surmise and figure out, no matter how many earned degrees you have in your educational, academic history, you cannot learn from man, you cannot learn from the books, and you cannot learn from your own gray matter, the depths of God's truths. You are dependent upon another to know them. Those truths must come from a member of the Godhead, and the one appointed to that task is the Holy Spirit, the intimate Holy Spirit who lives within every child of God. He lives there not to be dormant, but to be engaged in the active work of revealing God's hidden wisdom, which this earth cannot get from the books.

We cannot learn it from one another, that is from one another's academic accomplishments, because they must come from God. Verse 10, for to us, God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the bathos of God, the depths of God. Why, of course, the Spirit is God.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the one who planned, the one who implemented, the one who empowered. Working together in the Godhead, there is this enormous body of truth, the wisdom of God, and it rests within the heavenly places, and thanks to the Holy Spirit, it is deposited into our minds, minds which do not have within themselves the ability to learn those things, so it must be placed there by the Holy Spirit. That's why James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and does not chide us for our frequent coming.

This is God's hidden wisdom. Now, the Spirit of God is able to search into the deepest parts of the wisdom of God and to lift from the wisdom the truths that are needed in our lives today, and then he is able to bring them to our attention. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of a human being all of those things that God has for us.

What a magnificently important work is going on and how seldom we even think of it. Now, hold your place here and go back a book to the book of Romans chapter 11, saying very much the same thing in sort of a crescendo at the end of this massive doctrinal statement of Romans 9, 10, and 11. Look at Romans 11, 33 down through 36. We spoke of the Spirit of God going to the depths of God, searching out these things. Now, look, oh, the depth of the riches of both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. And then he quotes Isaiah, who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his, God's counselor? The point is no one. And then Job, who has first given to God that it might be paid back to him again?

No one. We are the recipients, not the givers. We are the ones who need, not the ones who provide.

When will we learn that? We are the ones who are dependent, not independent. We are the ones who rely on, not the ones who pour forth. The Lord is the giver of truth, and he is the one who is the source of this wisdom. Now, the point is, verse 36, that we might remember that from him and through him and to him in return are all things. To him, therefore, be the glory forever.

Amen. And he is referring, of course, to these truths about the living God that are to us in many ways mysterious and deep. But essential for living the Christian life. Theology has been called through the centuries the queen of the sciences. To it, all other truth bows. Only those who have a grasp of the wisdom and the magnificent, profound, unfathomable plan of God can fit truth into its proper place in whatever era in which he or she may live. And that is why to truly have an education, and our forefathers knew that. We've long since forgotten it. Some have in our nation. Our forefathers knew that.

That is why, when the earliest schools of higher learning were founded, they were founded for the purpose of establishing a literate ministry that the people might continue to keep the wisdom of God in focus with the needs of human beings. I stood knee deep in the snow in Boston years ago, 1964, as I recall. And 1965 it was. And as a matter of fact, some of the campus was being burned at the time because of a student unrest. And I went down to help out in any area I could. I was ministering up there at the time. And I remember standing by the cornerstone, Harvard University. I don't know if you've ever read the cornerstone, but you owe it to yourself to see it.

I wish I had memorized it or brought the card that I wrote on that day that wrote the words down. But the purpose of establishing the university, Harvard University, named after John Harvard, who died in his 30s, and his library was bequeathed to that university and it became the beginning of that place, this minister of the gospel. And it was established for the purpose of perpetuating a literate ministry that before our churches and the people of our churches lie in the dust, they will have known the wisdom and the truths of God.

I spoke to a Harvard graduate about it a week and a half ago, and he said through the process of time you'd be interested to know that around one of the 1800s, he said a decision was made to change the whole symbol of the university so that we were no longer waiting upon God for his truth. Now it is a man's truth that is significant. We've drifted, we've eroded a long ways, having come to the place where we no longer in our places of higher learning sense the need for the wisdom of God. Back to Corinthians, he is referring to the depths of God, God's hidden wisdom.

It is the work of the intimate spirit to reveal the deepest things of God. Again, don't be afraid of that. Let it happen. Let it take place in your mind. Now, a part of the spirit's work is revealing God's deep thoughts, verses 11 and 12. So we're carrying on. It's going to sound almost like a tongue twister.

It isn't that. It'll make sense as you ponder it. Listen to verse 11. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? If I could look deeply into your eyes and study you for a few moments, are you with me? I would still not be able to know what was on your mind. I could not know what is in your mind, what is in your spirit, nor you, me. Each one of us knows that in himself. Who among men knows the thoughts of another person except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God.

Get that part clear in your mind first. Within the person of God, within the mind of God, there is this vast, unfathomable treasure house of truth, wisdom. And it's all known by the living God. And the spirit of God, being deity, knows all of that wisdom within the Godhead, all of that mysterious, hidden, magnificent wisdom that is just essential for living, just portions of it essential for surviving the times in which we live. Now, God knows those things in verse 12. Now, he says, now we believers have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God.

Why? Why has he become resident within us? That we might know the things freely given to us by God. Is that marvelous or what? You at the moment of salvation were given the spirit of God. You were identified with the body of Christ.

You were made a part of the family. And part of the package deal included the presence of the Holy Spirit within your being. And he comes to live within you, think of it, having all of the wisdom of God and ready to reveal, having searched the deep things of God, ready to reveal those things to you and make them known when you need them. You're facing an impasse. The spirit of God is there to assist you through the impasse. You're going through grief and loss. The spirit of God is there to give you wisdom and insight in the midst of the grief and the loss. You're facing the unknown.

The surprise factor is very real in the week ahead. The spirit of God lives within you to assist you from being intimidated when facing the surprises of the immediate moment of this week. He lives within you to reveal to you, to teach you, to show you. These are thoughts that are so beyond human thoughts. Other individuals would wonder, where in the world did you get such thoughts? I was reading this in my study and I thought of Isaiah 55.

You've read it. My thoughts are not your thoughts, says the Lord, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways.

High meaning profound, deeper, outside the dimension of our five senses. He has thoughts, he has wisdom, he has truth that is beyond our ability to conjure up, to work up. So we live our lives dependent upon our God to show us truth to live by. Let me go a step further. This may very well explain how you and I can have inner confidence and assurance in a certain matter that others may not have.

Have you ever had that happen? You have poured over something in prayer, you have waited on God, you have searched his truths in the book and you come to a settled conviction. This is what I ought to do or this is what I ought not to do. Others don't agree with you. Others around you can't see the logic of it. And it is as though you are bound in the Spirit to carry that out because you know that is what God would have you do. That's the work of the Spirit.

I'm going to show you an example. Acts chapter 20 verse 22, it happened among the leaders in Ephesus as Paul was saying goodbye. He has gotten the elders together to say farewell for the last time.

They are about to put their arms around him and he them and to fall together in weeping in the sadness of their not seeing each other again. But he tells them before that, 2022 of Acts, and now bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. Wait, bound in spirit.

Don't miss those words. It is as if I am captured in my mind by the Spirit. It should be a capital S. I think it's the Holy Spirit, not his own personal spirit. I think it is the work of the Holy Spirit. And I say that because of the next verse. I am going bound in the Spirit to the city of Jerusalem and I don't know what's in front of me. Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me. Look at that.

Did you ever see that before? The Holy Spirit is testifying to Paul. And what's he saying? He is saying that in every city bonds and afflictions await me. You see, it is not the work of the Spirit to always lead you into a place of comfort. Sometimes it is the plan of God to lead you into a difficult place to serve him and to be his representative. Paul is an example. I am going to Jerusalem and I know before I get there.

And that's exactly what happened. You study the rest of Acts, you will see a man cast on God for survival. And he knew ahead of time the Spirit of God testified to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him.

And verse 24 tells you why he could go. He says, I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself. See, that's what you call having the long view of life. If I were only looking at today, I'd be very protective of myself. But I'm looking at life in light of eternity, past and future.

I don't consider my life as of any account as dear to myself in order that I might finish my course. I'm a part of the plan. I'm not the whole picture. I want to finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will see my face no more.

I'm on my way. And I know what's ahead of me. Because somehow in the revealing, the searching, the teaching ministry of the Spirit, I have gotten this insight. And today we may call it a premonition.

Could it be that a premonition is more often than not a movement of the Holy Spirit within us? You see, it's so iffy. It's so difficult to nail it down. It's hard to describe it in exact terms. It's like nailing a poached egg to a tree. You just can't get it there.

You can't get it to stick. I want to make it so clear, but I can't. You have to experience the revealing work of the Spirit where he testifies to you, this is what I want you to do, and you do it. And it's as you should live your life. That's why we walk by faith and not by sight.

I care about these things. Verse 13, the last part of this message, where we see the teaching of God's profound insights. Having mentioned those things which are freely given to us of God, he says, verse 13, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit.

Isn't that great? I'll make this clear. We have this truth of God, and in order to get it communicated, we are limited to words. Words. If you could see my thoughts, you'd learn so much more. I just can't put all those thoughts into words, but I do my best, and you do your best when you teach and communicate with words. And so it is the Spirit of God who takes the things of God, and apart from the human wisdom, it's not human wisdom, it is divine wisdom, having taught us these truths by the Spirit, we combine spiritual thoughts with spiritual words, and that becomes the direction God is leading us.

Spiritual thoughts mixed with spiritual words, all of that coming from the Spirit, and you know what happens when that occurs? Last part of verse 16, we have the mind of Christ. We have the very mind of Christ, meaning we can walk in that kind of obedience. We can have that clearer direction. We can have those firm convictions that even if they put us to the stake, we won't deny. We won't recant.

We won't turn back. We will have the mind of Christ when we operate mixing spiritual thoughts with spiritual words that come from the Spirit of God. This has not been a shallow and simple study. The next time I want to look at the anointing of the Spirit, the next time we get together, I want to talk about those words in 1 John 2 which speak of the unction or the anointing of the Spirit. I don't think I've ever heard anybody, certainly in my circles, address how this anointing of the Spirit impacts our lives. Somehow we have learned in the process of these last few minutes that we have a helper, one called alongside. In place of weakness, he brings power. In place of ignorance, he brings knowledge. In place of human knowledge, he brings divine wisdom. In place of a superficial arrangement of things, he brings the depths of God's plan. And in place of good ideas, he brings profound insights. That's all the work of the intimate Spirit.

And he continues to do that. Let me encourage you as a child of God to seek the mind of the Lord. His book is the major source, really the only source of inspired truth, and it is the major source of significant revelation. And as you learn more of his word, you will discover more of his mind. You will discover that you're able to live, though you're on this earth, you're able to live on a plane that is above it.

Not that you're better than it, but you see past it. It is a transcending wisdom that keeps you from being so riveted to the cares and the needs and the aches and pains of today. It will give you an enormous sense of relief as the Spirit of God teaches these things to you. Let's bow together. Lord God, I want to thank you for enabling us to grasp what is so terribly important for life. We want to thank you, Spirit of God, for your ministry in and among us, especially within us. Lord, forgive us for operating as though we belong to ourselves and we really are not in that great a dependence upon you when the contrary is true, Lord.

Without you, we are not even able to breathe. Our hearts would not beat another time. Our spirits would be heavy. Our emotions would be out of control. Our eyes would be blind to real living.

We'd miss the mark because we are by choice, by birth, and by nature sinful people. Thank you for choosing to live within us. Thank you for taking from the depths of yourself and revealing some of those things to us, how meaningful they are becoming to us. And we recommit ourselves to you and to living for your glory, Father. In the dear name of Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen. With a few minutes remaining, I want to remind you that Insight for Living offers a wide variety of Bible study tools so you can dig deeper on your own. For instance, you'll be glad to learn that every sermon Chuck delivers in this series is paired with an in-depth Searching the Scriptures study. Each one guides you through key verses from the corresponding message.

You can print it out or you can type your notes directly into the interactive document. All the details are at insight.org slash studies. And then over the years, Chuck has become known for his winsome approach, a good sense of humor, and the laughter that so easily erupts when you're around him. And if you've been unsatisfied with what's become a ho-hum existence, if you're longing to break free from the legalism that describes your past, then you'll truly appreciate Chuck's deep dive into God's amazing grace. The book called The Grace Awakening has been a life changer for readers all across the world.

To purchase a copy right now, go to insight.org slash store. Or if you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Here at Insight for Living, we know the price of fuel has impacted consumers all across the world combined with alarming inflation. The cost of operating a nonprofit ministry has escalated too.

But we're trusting God for his faithfulness through people like you. Thanks for remaining consistent in your voluntary donations because you're truly making a difference for those who hear Chuck's daily Bible teaching. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888.

Or you can go online to insight.org. You've heard him teach about the Holy Land using word pictures to make us feel like we're actually strolling through the old city. Learning about Jerusalem is fascinating for sure, but seeing the land of Israel with your own eyes is life changing.

In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 5th through the 16th, 2023. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's Word. We'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes and share the Lord's Table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and taught. To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444.

Just imagine walking along those sacred sites and seeing the Bible come to life before your very eyes. Mark your calendar for March 5th through the 16th, 2023. And make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444. Or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll's study called Flying Closer to the Flame continues on Monday here on Insight for Living. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.