The right stuff

I Corinthians 1 says, [30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.“

Jordan explains, “You know where everything you have is? Verse 30. God gave it to you in Christ. There isn’t anything you’ve got—you want wisdom where you going to get it? In Him. There isn’t anything you have that’s worth having except what God gave you in Christ. So when you boast, brag on the Lord. I used to have a message I preached on the street called, ‘Why I like to brag about Jesus.’

"I Corinthians 3 says, 18] Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
[19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
[20] And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.’

“Do what Tallmadge said one time, ‘Since I found Jesus Christ as my Savior the heroes of this world have just become common place.’

“You see the great enemy at Corinth was human wisdom. They had bright ideas about how they were going to do it for God. Chapter 4:7 he says, ‘For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?’

“You ought to meditate on that passage awhile. I mean, that stuff you’re trying to strut and make out like it’s something, He says, ‘Who gave you that anyway?! Didn’t God give you that?’ ‘Well, yeah.’ ‘Well how come you acting like you did it?’ That’s a rebuke, you know that?!

“Go to gal 6:12: ‘As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.’ We’re talking about the boast—it’s gone. There isn’t any boast in the gospel. Human wisdom won’t get it. It isn’t your idea. Get in that Book and find out what God’s doing and go do that.

“The work of the ministry is taking that Book and the truth out of it for today and getting it out to people! It isn’t all this other stuff out there!

“It isn’t making a living. I mean, if you got to nail nails or paint buildings or kick cats around to preach, go pay your bills so you can preach. Lord knows Paul made tents. You any better than him? I painted houses for a living for many years. You any better than I am?”

*****

I Thessalonians 2:13 says, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

Jordan says, “To me one the greatest titles of God in all of the Bible is in Daniel 2:47. King Nebby said, ‘Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.’

“Daniel had told him that back in verse 29. Daniel had said to him, ‘As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.’

“You know, you couldn’t find God out by searching, but you didn’t have to because God revealed Himself.

“Isaiah 22:14 says, ‘And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.’ At camp we were discussing some of these guys that talk about God talking to them. You know what they say, you’ve heard it—‘God spoke to me but not with an audible voice. He just spoke.’ How did He speak to you without an audible voice?

“You know how he spoke to Isaiah? It was, ‘HEY Isaiah!’ It was an audible voice and Isaiah heard Him with his ears. Now God isn’t going to talk to you like that today. I Corinthians 2:9. You got something better than Jesus Christ appearing to you at the end of the bed and talking to you. You’ve got something that doesn’t disappear; something that doesn’t just rely on your memory of what was said. You’ve got something written down on a page that doesn’t change and it’s always there and it’s always reliable.

“When people talk about translating the Bible, the great translation problem had been taken care of long before anybody had to worry about English. If you can translate deity thoughts and deity words into human words, now that’s the translation product!

“People talk about language limitation--there’s the language limitation! If you could take the thoughts of the godhead and put them in Hebrew and Greek, anything else taken from one language to another is a snap. God revealed it, made it known. He translated His thinking into our thinking.

“Isaiah 30:8 says, ‘Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:’

“He takes the revelation and commits it to written form, putting words on the page in a book. He writes that revelation down and we call that inspiration.”