The Holy Spirit Revealer of Divine Mysteries

THE HOLY SPIRIT REVEALER AND SEARCHER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 Corinthians2:9-10 9However, as it is written:
"Whatno eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and
what no human mind has conceived"-the things God
has prepared for those who love him- 10theseare the
things God has revealedto us by his Spirit. The Spirit
searches all things, even the deep things of God.
VERSE 9 MESSAGES AND COMMENTARIES
THE HOLY SPIRIT UNRAVELS MYSTERIES
Daniel answeredand said, Blessedbe the name of God for ever and ever: for
wisdom and might are his…He revealeththe deep and secretthings: he
knowethwhat is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him (Daniel 2:20-
22).
King Nebuchadnezzar once had a dream none of his wise men could interpret.
This got him troubled and distressed, and he threatenedto execute them
unless they told him the dream and the interpretation. In their response, they
said to the king “…There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s
matter:…there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that askedsuchthings at any
magician, or astrologer, orChaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king
requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, exceptthe
gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Daniel 2:10-11).
However, Daniel boldly stepped forward and askedthe king to give him a
chance. He gothis friends togetherto fast and pray, and God showedhim the

king’s dream and its interpretation. When Danielrevealed the king’s dream
and the interpretation, everyone beganto sayof him that he had an excellent
spirit. The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of wisdom, is that excellent spirit.
He’s the one who grants us insight into realities, mysteries and secrets. You
don’t have to walk in darkness orignorance concerning the future. The Holy
Spirit is your light; He guides you through the Word in the path that you
should go. He came to teach you all things, guide you into all truth, and show
you the future (John16:13). The Lord Jesus said in Luke 8:10, “Unto you it is
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” You’re chosenofGod to
know the mysteries of the Kingdom.
The more you acknowledgeand recognize the personand ministry of the Holy
Spirit in your life, the more He illuminates your mind and grants you
extraordinary amplitude to comprehend, discern and interpret all mysteries.
Further Study:
Daniel 6:3; 1
Corinthians 2:7-10
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Surprising Freshnessofthe New Dispensation
R. Tuck
1 Corinthians 2:9
But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor earheard, neither have entered into
the heart of man…

The precise words, as quoted by the apostle, are not found in the Old
Testament. Theyare probably Isaiah 64:4, given from memory and modified
by the thought of phrases found in other parts of Isaiah. Only an
unreasonable sentiment concerning verbal inspiration would make difficulty
about the inexactness ofquotations given from memory. The sense ofa
passagemay be preciselyindicated when the words are set in a different order
and form. This text has often been used as the basis of elaborate descriptions
of heaven, but such treatment is only possible when ver. 9 is separatedfrom
ver. 10. The apostle is plainly dealing with some glory which has been revealed
and is now realized, lie conceivedofthe Divine dealings with men as having
been arrangedin "ages,"or"dispensations." We may thus distinguish the
Adamic, Patriarchal, Mosaic, Davidic, Exilic, and post-Exilic. In the passage
before us St. Paul shows, notmerely that the Christian is another and a
succeeding dispensation, but also that, in important respects, itdiffers from
others, and is superior to others. Previous dispensations have given only faint
suggestionsofthe surpassing glory of this one, just as Solomon's magnificent
temple did but hint the exceeding glory of that later and spiritual temple,
Christ's Church. We may dwell on some of those points in which the Christian
revelation seems so new, so surprisingly fresh, so utterly beyond what human
imagination could have conceivedor human experience suggested.
I. RELIGION IS NOT A CEREMONIAL, BUT A LIFE. To a Jew this was so
fresh a conceptionas to be even bewildering. A less thoughtful Jew would be
in peril of cherishing the sentiment that religion was only a ceremonial, a
round of ordinances, festivals, and sacrifices. And this view of religion had
become the generaland prevailing notion in the time of our Lord. A more
thoughtful and pious Jew would connectpersonalgodliness with outward
ceremonial, and strive to culture an inner life of trust, obedience, and
communion with the outward observance ofrites and ceremonies.But the new
thing revealedin Christianity is, that religion is, essentiallyand only, the
soul's life, and that all ceremonialis mere expressionand agencyin the work
of culture. The relations are manifestly reversed. Formerly there must be
ceremonial, and there ought to be life . now there must be life, and there may

be ceremonial. On fully maintaining these later relations, the health and
vigour of Christianity must ever depend.
II. SALVATION BY A SUFFERING AND DYING SAVIOUR. This is indeed
a fresh and surprising thing. Triumph is to lie in defeat. Glory is to blossom
out of shame. A sublime mission is to be accomplishedby a seeming failure.
Life for men is to come forth out of death for Christ. It is the introduction of a
new force, a moral force. Christ lifted up is to draw men. The story of the
crucified One is to melt men into penitence, win their faith, and ensure such a
love as shall make even self sacrifice for Christ possible. Men knew before of
love that would work for those it loved, and love that would fight for those it
loved, and love that would bear for those it loved; but it was new that love
should die such a death, not for the loved only, but for the ungodly and
enemies by wickedworks. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
III. SANCTIFICATION BYTHE PRESENT POWER OF HIM WHO DIED.
This is altogethernew. Christ, as the exalted One, by his Spirit, is now
carrying out his redeeming purpose in all hearts and lives that are open to
him by faith. We do not struggle for righteousness by unaided personal
efforts. Unseen, indeed, still the Living Christ is ever with us. Untraced,
indeed, the mighty Spirit of Christ is ever working within us, sanctifying us
wholly. And so, in face of all difficulties, perplexities, frailties, or hindrances
to spiritual progress, we may calmly say, "If God be for us, who canbe
againstus?" "Greateris he who is with us than all who can be againstus."
IV. MAN THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT.
This is also new; for hitherto the common sentiment had been that God dwelt
in places, on the mountain's crown, at the altar, in shining pillar clouds, in
tabernacle or in temple. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the God man, shows us
that God candwell in man and make man's body his temple. He caneven
dwell in us; and an apostle may plead with his people, saying, "Know ye not

that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" Surely such
an honour for us is beyond all that "eye has seen, earheard, or heart
conceived." Illustrate that agedSimeonloved God and knew something of
him, but he never could have dreamed what God had in store for him - even to
hold the world's Babe Saviour in his own trembling arms. What could
Abraham, who saw Christ's day; or Moses,who spoke of the greatprophet to
come;or David, who sang of his Lord making his foes his footstool, - have
really known of the Christian glories, the spiritual mysteries of the revelation
in Christ? These spiritual things broke more and more clearly on the minds of
Peterand John and Paul, until, in utter ravishment and wonder, they
exclaimed, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways pastfinding out!" -
R T.
The RevelationOf Things UnseenAnd Unheard
1 Corinthians 2:9, 10
J.R. Thomson
It may perhaps have been complained, though unreasonablyenough, that
Paul's compositions were lacking in logic, and his language in eloquence.
There was in the substance of his teaching enough to compensate any
deficiencies ofsuch kinds. No sage communicatedsuchwisdom, no poet such
wonders, as he. Deepthings, drawn by the Spirit from the oceanofGod's
unfathomable nature, were brought up, and were by him presented to the
Church of Christ - to all who possessthe spiritual capacity to recognize their
meaning and to appreciate their worth.
I. CONSIDERWHAT THESE REVELATIONS WERE. In the original
prophecy the reference was to marvellous and Divine deliverances wrought
for Israel;the apostle "accommodates"the prophet's language to his own
purpose, to express the display of Divine wisdom and power evinced in the
gospel, in which Christ is made unto his people wisdom and righteousness,

sanctificationand redemption. The privileges of the Christian calling enjoyed
in the present are an earnestof the higher joys of the eternal future. The
gospelmanifests the favour and fellowshipof God, assures ofsonship and of
heirship. It reveals Divine truth, and it imparts Divine grace.
II. OBSERVE HOW INACCESSIBLE THESE BLESSINGS WERETO THE
ORDINARYPOWERS OF MEN. The eye can range over the surface of this
beautiful earth, and can explore the glories of the majestic firmament. The ear
has receptivity for the manifold sounds of nature and for the intricacies and
the charms of music. The heart speaks oftenand profoundly: "A man's mind
is sometimes wont to tell him more than sevenwatchmenthat sit in a tower."
But the revelations here alluded to are not like the features of nature, which
are recognizable by sense, orlike the inspirations of practicalsagacity. The
eye cansee the works of God, but not the Artificer; the ear can hear the voice
of God, but knows not the Speaker;the heart can echo the appeals of God, but
these appeals must reachit from above.
III. REMARK THAT THESE REVELATIONS ARE MADE BY THE
SPIRIT OF GOD HIMSELF, We possessa spiritual nature susceptible of
Divine impressionand appeal, and with this nature, createdafter his own
likeness, the Father of spirits is in direct communication. Not that truth is
miraculously conveyed; the Spirit takes the revealedfacts and applies them to
the mind, quickening and illumining the powers so that they receive and
rejoice in the truth of God.
IV. PONDER THE CONDITION OF RECEIVING THIS KNOWLEDGE.
The revelations are for those who love God. Not the great, or the wise, or the
outwardly righteous are the recipients of Heaven's best blessing;but those
who possessthis moral and spiritual qualification. They who "waitfor God,"
as Isaiah puts it; they who "love God," as it is phrased by Paul, - are the
enlightened and the enriched. The spirit that is filled with gratitude and with
love is thereby prepared to understand and appreciate the mysteries of Divine
grace. The true love, which puts on the form of obedience, is the path to
spiritual perfection. Love grows, and with it knowledge;and heaven is
attractive because it is at once the abode of perfect love and the sphere of
perfect knowledge.- T.

God's revelation of heaven
F. W. Robertson, M. A.
Note —
I. THE INABILITY OF THE LOWER PARTS OF HUMAN NATURE — the
natural man — TO APPREHEND THE HIGHER TRUTHS.
1. Eternal truth is not perceived through sensationorscience. "Eye hath not
seen."(1)There is a life of mere sensation.(a)The highestpleasure of sensation
comes through the eye. The Corinthians could appreciate this. Theirs was the
land of beauty. They read the apostle's letter, surrounded by the purest
conceptions ofArt. Let us not depreciate what God has given. There is a joy in
contemplating the manifold forms in which the All Beautiful has concealed
His essence.It is a pure delight to see.(b)But the eye can only reachthe finite
beautiful. It does not scan"the King in His beauty, nor the land that is very
far off." And the visible is perishable beauty — not the eternal loveliness for
which our spirits pant. Therefore Christ came not in the glory of form; "He
had no form nor comeliness,"&c.;"there was no beauty that they should
desire Him." The eye did not behold, even in Christ, the things which God had
prepared.(c) This is an eternal truth. This verse is quoted as if "the things
prepared" meant heaven. But the world of which Paul speaks Godhath
revealed, only not to eye nor ear. In heaven this shall be as true as now. The
pure in heart will see God, but never with the eye; only in the same way, but
in a different degree, that they see Him now.(2)Again, no scientific analysis
can discoverthe truths of God. Science proceeds upon observation.
Experiment is the testof truth. Now, you cannot, by searching, find out the
Almighty to perfection, nor a single one of the blessedtruths He has to
communicate.
1. It is in vain that we ransack the world for probable evidences of God, and
idle to look into the materialism of man for the revelationof his immortality;
or to examine the morbid anatomy of the body to find the rule of right. If a

man go to the eternal world with convictions of eternity, the resurrection,
God, alreadyin his spirit, he will find abundant corroborations of that which
he already believes. But if God's existence be not thrilling every fibre of his
heart, if the immortal be not already in him as the proof of the resurrection, if
the law of duty be not stamped upon his soul as an eternaltruth, science will
never reveal these, the physician comes awayfrom the laboratoryan infidel.
Eye hath not seenthe truths which are clearenough to love and to the spirit.
2. Eternal truth is not reachedby hearsay — "Earhath not heard."(1)No
revelation canbe adequatelygiven by the address of man to man. For all such
revelation must be made through words, the mere coins of intellectual
exchange. There is as little resemblance betweenthe coinand the bread it
purchases, as betweenthe word and the thing it stands for. Looking at the
coin, the form of the loaf does not suggestitself. Listening to the word, you do
not perceive the idea for which it stands, unless you are already in possession
of it. Speak of ice to an inhabitant of the torrid zone, the word does not give
him an idea, or if it does, it must be a false one. Talk of blueness to one who
cannot distinguish colours, whatcan your most eloquent description present
to him resembling the truth of your sensation? Similarly in matters spiritual,
no verbal revelationcan give a single simple idea. For instance, what means
justice to the unjust, or purity to the licentious? What does infinitude mean to
a being who has never stirred beyond a cell? Talk of God to a thousand ears,
eachhas his own different conception. The sensualman hears of God, and
understands one thing. The pure man hears and conceivesanotherthing.(2)
See what a hearsayreligion is. There are men who believe on authority. Their
minister believes all this Christianity true; therefore so do they. He calls this
doctrine essential;they echo it. They have heard with the hearing of the ear
that God is love, that the ways of holiness are ways of pleasantness.But the
Corinthian philosophers heard Paul; the Pharisees heardChrist. How much
did the ear convey? He alone believes truth who feels it. He alone has a
religion whose soulknows by experience that to serve God and know Him is
the richesttreasure.
3. Truth is not discoverable by the heart — "neither have enteredinto the
heart of man— the powerof imagining, and the powerof loving.(1)It is a
grand thing when thought bursts into flame, or when a great law of the

universe reveals itself to the mind of genius, or when the truths of human
nature shape themselves forth in the creative fancies ofthe poet. But the most
etherealcreations offancy were shapedby a mind that could read the life of
Christ, and then blaspheme the Adorable. Some of the truest and deepest
utterances ever spokencame from one whose life was from first to last selfish.
The highest astronomerof this age refused to recognise the Cause of causes.
The mighty heart of genius had failed to reachthe things which God imparts
to a humble spirit.(2) The heart of man has the power of affection. The highest
moment known on earth by the merely natural, is that in which the
mysterious union of heart with heart is felt. Yet this attains not to the things
prepared by God. Human love is but the faint type of that surpassing
blessednesswhichbelongs to those who love God.
II. THE NATURE AND LAWS OF REVELATION.
1. Revelationis made by a Spirit to a spirit. Christ is the voice of God without
the man — the Spirit is the voice of God within. The highestrevelation is not
made by Christ, for He said, "The Spirit shall take of Mine and shall show it
unto you." And therefore it is written here — "The Spirit searchesallthings,
yea, the deep things of God." Now the Spirit of God lies touching, as it were,
the soulof man. They mingle. The spiritual in man, by which he might become
a recipient of God, may be dulled, deadened, by a life of sense, but in this
world never lost. All that is wanted is to become consciousofthe nearness of
God. God has placed men here to feelafter Him if haply they may find Him,
albeit He be not far from any one of them.
2. The condition upon which this revelation is made to men is love. These
things are "prepared for them that love Him," or revealedto those who have
the mind of Christ.(1) Love to man may mean love to his person, or it may
mean simply pity. Love to God canonly mean love to His character:e.g., God
is purity. And to be pure in thought and look is to love God. God is love —
and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy
which embraces all, is to love God. God is truth. To be true — to hate every
form of falsehood— to live a brave, true, real life — that is to love God. God
is infinite — and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, and
rising upwards everto see the ideal still above us, aiming insatiably to be

perfect even as the Father is perfect — that is love to God.(2) This love is
manifested in obedience.(a)"He that hath My commandments and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth Me," &c. We remember the Roman commander who
forbade an engagementwith the enemy, and the transgressorwas his own son.
He acceptedthe challenge of the leader of the other host, slew, spoiled him,
and then in triumph carried the spoils to his father's tent. But the Roman
father refused to recognise the instinct which prompted this as deserving of
the name of love — disobedience contradictedit and deserveddeath: weak
sentiment, what was it worth? So with God — strong feelings, warm
expressions, variedinternal experience coexisting with disobedience, God
counts not as love.(b) To love, adoring and obedient, God reveals His truth. As
in the natural, so in the spiritual world. By compliance with the laws of the
universe we put ourselves in possessionof its blessings. Obeythe laws of
health and you obtain health. Arm yourselves with the laws of nature, and you
may call down the lightning from the sky. In the same way there are laws in
the world of Spirit, by compliance with which God's Spirit comes into the soul
with all its revelations. "The secretofthe Lord is with them that fearHim."
"No man hath seenGod at any time." "If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us." "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine."(c)These
laws are universal and invariable. There is no favourite child of nature who
may hold the fire-ball in the hollow of his hand and trifle with it without being
burnt; there is no selectedchild of grace who canlive an irregular life without
unrest; or be proud, and at the same time have peace;or indolent, and receive
fresh inspiration; or remain unloving and cold, and yet see and hear and feel
the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him. And if obedience
were entire and love were perfect, then would the revelation of the Spirit to
the soulof man be perfect too.
(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Heaven
C. H. Spurgeon.

Every prophet who has stoodupon the borders of a new dispensationmight
have uttered these words. Abraham might have lookedforwardto the Mosaic
dispensation, &c., and have turned to his brethren who lived in the
patriarchal age, and said, "Eye hath not seen," &c. At the close of the
Levitical dispensationthe prophets might have thus spokenof the coming
glories. And now we stand on the borders of a new era. But persons are
curious to know what kind of dispensationthe millennial one is to be. Will the
temple be erectedin Jerusalem? Will the Jews be positively restoredto their
own land? &c. We cannot answer. "Eye hath not seen," &c. And this brings
us to make the application of the subject to heaven itself.
I. WHAT HEAVES IS NOT.
1. It is not a heavenof the senses.(1)"Eye hath not seenit." What glorious
things the eye hath seen!Have we not seenthe gaudy pageantryof pomp
crowding the gay streets? We hearof the magnificence of the old Persian
princes, of palaces coveredwith gold and silver, and floors inlaid with jewels;
but we cannot thence gather a thought of heaven, for "eye hath not seen" it.
We have thought, however, when we have come to the works ofGod, surely
we can get some glimpse of what heaven is here. By night we have turned our
eye up to the stars, and we have said, "If this earth has such a glorious
covering, what must that of heaven be?" At another time we have seensome
glorious landscape, and said, "Surelythese grandeurs must be something like
heaven." It was all a mistake — "Eye hath not seen" it.(2) "The ear hath not
heard" it. Have we not sometimes heard the sweetvoice of the messengerof
God when he has by the Spirit spokento our souls!We knew something of
heaven then, we thought. We have heard music, whether poured from the
lungs of man — that noblestinstrument in the world — or from some
manufacture of harmony, and we have thought, "This is what John meant by
the voice like many waters, and the voice of harpers harping with their
harps." But we made a mistake. "Earhath not heard" it.(3) Others look upon
it as a place where they shall be free from bodily pain, and where they will eat
to the full and be satisfied. What a mistake!We can get no conceptions of
heaven through the senses;they must always come through the Spirit.

2. It is not a heavenof the imagination. Poets lettheir imaginations fly with
loosenedwings, orthe preacherweaves the filigree work of fancy, and you
say, "It is sweetto hear that man speak;he made me think I was there." But
imagination, when it is most sublime, and freestfrom the dust of earth, and
kept steadyby the most extreme caution, cannot picture heaven. "It hath not
entered the heart of man," &c. Your imaginary heavenyou will find by and
by to be all a mistake.
3. It is not a heavenof the intellect. Men describe heavenas a place where we
shall know all things, and their grandestidea is that they shall discoverall
secrets there. But "It hath not entered into the heart of man."
II. "HE HATH REVEALED IT UNTO US BY HIS SPIRIT." This means that
it was revealedunto the apostles by the Spirit, so that they wrote something of
it in the Holy Word. We think also that it means that every believer has
glimpses of heaven by the influence of the Spirit. A Christian gets a gaze of
what heaven is —
1. When in the midst of trials and troubles he is able to castall his care upon
the Lord, because He carethfor him. Heaven is something like that — a place
of holy calm and trust.
2. In the seasonofquiet contemplation, for the joys of heaven are akin to the
joys of contemplation.
3. At. the Lord's table. You getso near the Cross there that your sight
becomes clearer, andthe air brighter, and you see more of heaven there than
anywhere else.
4. When we assemble in our meetings for prayer.
5. In extraordinary closetseasons.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Heaven
T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.

The city of Corinth has been called the Paris of antiquity. Indeed, for
splendour, the world holds no such wonder to-day. The commerce ofall
nations passedthrough her ports; the mirth of all people sported in her
Isthmian games, and the beauty of all lands walkedher porticos, and threw
itself on the altar of her stupendous dissipations. Column and statue and
temple bewilderedthe beholder. And the best music from the best instruments
in the world resounded in her theatres. It was not to rustics who had never
seenor heard anything grand that Paul uttered this text, and it was a bold
thing for him to stand there amid all that and say, "All this is nothing; eye
hath not seen," &c. We canin this world get no idea of —
I. THE HEALTH OF HEAVEN. When you were a child you had never felt
sorrow or sickness. Perhaps lateryou felt a glow in your cheek, and a spring
in your step, and an exuberance of spirits, and a clearness ofeye, that made
you thank God you were permitted to live. You thought that you knew what it
was to be well, but the most elastic and robust health of earth, compared with
that of heaven, is nothing but sicknessand emaciation. Look at that soul
standing before the throne. On earth she was a life-long invalid. See her step
now, and hear her voice now. Health in all the pulses! Health of vision; health
of spirits; immortal health. No racking cough, no consuming fevers, no
exhausting pains, no hospitals of wounded men. That child that died in the
agonies ofcroup, hear her voice now ringing in the anthem. That old man that
went bowed down with the infirmities of age, see him walk now with the step
of an immortal athlete — for ever young again. To have neither ache, nor
pain, nor weakness, norfatigue. "Eye hath not seenit — ear hath not heard
it."
II. THE SPLENDOUR OF HEAVEN. John tries to describe it, and as we look
through his telescope we see a blaze of jewellery, a mountain of light, a
cataractofcolour, a sea of glass, and a city like the sun. John bids us look
again, and we see thrones; thrones of the prophets, patriarchs, angels,
apostles, martyrs, throne of Jesus — throne of God. John bids us look again,
and we see the greatprocessionofthe redeemedpassing. "Eye hath not seen
it, earhath not heard it." Skim from the summer waters the brightest
sparkles, and you will get no idea of the sheenof the everlasting sea. Pile up
the splendours of earthly cities and they would not make a stepping-stone by

which you might mount to the city of God. Every house is a palace. Every step
a triumph. Every meal is a banquet. Every day is a jubilee, every hour a
rapture, and every moment an ecstasy.
III. THE RE-UNIONS OF HEAVEN. If you have ever been across the seas,
and met a friend in some strange city, you remember how your blood thrilled,
and how glad you were to see him. What then will be our joy to meet in the
bright city of the sun those from whom we have long been separated. In this
world we only meet to part. It is good-bye, good-bye. But not so in heaven.
Welcomes in the air, at the gates, atthe house of many mansions — but no
good-bye.
IV. THE SONG OF HEAVEN. There is nothing more inspiriting to me than a
whole congregationlifted up on the wave of holy melody. But, my friends, if
music on earth is so sweetwhat will it be in heaven! They all know the tune
there. All the best singers of all the ages willjoin it — choirs of white-robed
children! choirs of patriarchs! choirs of apostles!Harpers with their harps.
David of the harp will be there. Gabriel of the trumpet will be there.
(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
The things which God has prepared
J. Lyth, D. D.
I. THEIR NATURE.
1. The mysteries of the gospelsalvation.
2. Extending into the eternalfuture.
II. THEIR TRANSCENDENTVALUE.
1. Worthy of God.
2. Surpassing all human comprehension.
III. THEIR PARTICIPATION — depends on love to God.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)
The things prepared and their enjoyment
J. P. Chown.
I. THE THINGS PREPARED.Suggesting —
1. The Divine forethought, and the infinite fulness and carefulness ofGod's
love for His children. Remember:(1) How the world was prepared before man
came upon it.(2) How God prepared a body in which Christ should be one
with us, die to be our Saviour, and ascendto hold the sceptre of the
universe.(3) How Christ reminded His disciples that the dignities of the
kingdom were only for those for whom it is prepared of the Father.(4)How
He went to prepare a place for us, and sent the Spirit to prepare us for the
place.
2. The Divine treasury. The figure suggestsa vast building over whose portals
we read, "Ask and it shall be given," &c. — a building divided into so many
stores of Divine love. Let us open their doors.(1)One contains the "purposes"
of the Divine love, delivering mercy, sustaining grace — purposes that no need
can exhaust, no oppositionthwart, no eternity unfold.(2) Another "promises"
Divinely —
(a)Simple, little children can understand them.
(b)Profound, angels cannotfathom them.
(c)Certain, for "heavenand earth shall pass away," &c.
(d)Sweetand rich, "sweeterthan a honeycomb," and "more precious than
gold."(3)Divine "provisions— the mercy-seatwhere we obtain grace to help;
the Cross, its cleansing fount, infinite ransom, Divine righteousness;the
Lord's Table.(4)The "fulness" that is treasuredup in Christ — fulness of
grace to pardon, of merit to atone, of strength to sustain, of glory to
reward.(5)Things prepared in the ministry of the Holy Spirit — regeneration,
comfort, sanctification.(6)Glories thatawaitus hereafter — the "crown" of

triumph, the "harp" of praise, the "mansion" of repose and blessing, the
"living fountain" of joy.
II. THE REVELATION OF THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THESE THINGS ARE
MADE MANIFEST TO US.
1. Striking thought! God takes men into His confidence about matters that
human reasoncould never fathom. It was so with Abraham. "Shall I hide,"
&c. Amos declares thatthe Lord will hide nothing, but will revealHis secret
unto His servants. In proportion to our intimacy with Godthe Divine
purposes will be made plain to us. "The secretof the Lord is with them that
fear Him." The disciples pleaded with John, who reclined on his Master's
bosom, to ask Him a secretwhich they did not venture to ask themselves. He
lived so much nearerto Christ, and therefore had more of His secret. We
deprive ourselves ofunspeakable blessings in regard to God's dealings in
providence from our failure to recognise God's hand in every gift. And God's
children should feelthat in regard to the mysteries of the world around they
shall have light resting on their path, and truth revealedby the indwelling
Spirit which enables them to trust where others cannot. The man that is
nearestthe sun will have most of light, and the man who lives nearestthe
throne will have deeper draughts of the waterof life that proceeds therefrom.
2. As to the revelationby the Spirit of Divine things, take the case ofSimeon,
unto whom it had been revealedby the Holy Ghost that he should not die until
he had seenthe Christ. How long he waited for the consolationofIsrael!But
at last it came. So God may have revealedto you in His Word and by His
Spirit truths that have yet to come in their Divine significance and power.
Wait patiently; God's time is always the best. Take the case ofPeter who,
when all were dumb before "Whom say ye that I am?" receivedat once a
revelation that Jesus was the Christ, &c. You may say "We are not Simeons
or Peters." No;but remember how Christ thanked God that the things
withheld from the wise and prudent were revealedunto babes, i.e., babes in
spiritual experience. But even to your children, who shall say at how early an
age God, by His Spirit, shall reveal the truth? Remember Samuel.

III. THE CONDITION ESSENTIALTO THE RECEPTIONOF THE
BLESSING. "Beholdwhatmanner of love the Father hath bestowedon us—
there is the origin of all Christian love." The love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost— that is the next step. Then we are the children of
God, and the Spirit beareth witness with our spirits, &c. Then the circle is
complete. And the Divine love thus enjoyed must manifest itself in self-
sacrificing love to men.
(J. P. Chown.)
The things prepared for a prepared people
Richard Newton, D. D.
The apostle here is quoting from Isaiah64:4, and only intends to give the
generalsense ofthe passage. Bothpassagesare .generallyusedas referring to
the heavenly state, but we canonly apply them thus by accommodation. Yet
this is a legitimate application. For if the text is true of our imperfect
condition of privilege in this life, much more will it be true as applied to that
perfection of bliss that awaits us in the life to come. You cannotjudge of the
real merits of a story till you see how it ends. You cannotdecide about the
value of a caskettill it is openedand you see the jewels which it enshrines. You
cannot pronounce on a campaigntill you see what fruits result from its hard-
fought battlefields. And so, in estimating the real worth of redemption, we can
only form an approximate judgment of it in this life. There are three points of
view from which we may contemplate our portion for the future, as setbefore
us in the text.
I. THE PLAIN AND POSITIVE VIEW. "Things prepared."
1. "Things" plural — not one element of joy, but many. It is a caricature of
heaven when psalm-singing is representedas its chief occupation. A wonderful
variety marks the imagery of the Bible as to the heavenly state — "a city that
hath foundations," "the marriage supper of the Lamb," being "presentwith
Christ, and beholding His glory," is being made "like Him," &c. These varied
expressions suggestthat our heaven will be a condition of being in which the

mind, with its large desires, its deathless cravings, and the soul, with all the
warmth of its affections and sympathies, will find the fullest scope for their
development. As the vine puts forth its tendrils, and finds something to cling
to for its support and growth; so, doubtless, will all the innocent tastes and
longings of our renewednature find in the heavenly state that which answers
to their wants, "prepared," as a trellis, to which they may cling, and in
clinging to which they will find their delight.
2. And these are not things thrown togetherat haphazard. They are
"prepared things." How eloquent all nature is as to the teachings ofthis word!
Note the wonderful care with which God has "prepared" for the wants of
every tree, animal, bird, and fish; yea, for every worm; just that which will
best meet its wants and minister to its comfort. Then, when we think of the
souls God has redeemedat the price of His Son's death, to whom His love has
flowed out in a deeper channel than to any other of His creatures, whomHe
deigns to saythat they are to be His portion; when we think of "the things
prepared" for them in their final home, what shall we say? How shall we put
limits to the extent to which His power, wisdom, and goodness willgo in
seeking to promote their happiness?
II. A NEGATIVE OR COMPARATIVE VIEW. Heaven's happiness is such as
"eye hath not seen," &c., orto which all the eye hath seen, &c., bears no
proportion.
1. It is clearly the inferential teaching of the text, that "the things prepared"
exceedin glory all that we are familiar with in this outer creation.(1)And the
eye sees wondrous beauty as it ranges through the world of nature. But there
is no comparisonbetweenwhat the eye sees here and "the things prepared"
for God's people in the future.(2) And then the earopens an avenue to another
world of enjoyment peculiarly its own. Yet the highest rapture of the most
gifted musician through the organ of hearing bears no comparisonto the joy
the redeemedwill experience in "the things which God has prepared for
them."(3) And then the imagination has a wondrous powerto call into
existence worlds of beauty and loveliness all its own. But when you put these
things together— all that the eye can see, &c., ofthat which is beautiful or

grand — they will be infinitely surpassedby "the things prepared" by God as
the future portion of His people.
2. And there is something very sweetin the thought of this instituted
connection, betweenthese glories spreadover the face of nature and that
blessedhome which Jesus is preparing for us. It shows how God means that
the one should remind us of the other. The JewishRabbis inform us "that
when Josephhad gatheredmuch corn in Egypt he threw the chaff into the
Nile, that so flowing down to the neighbouring cities, and nations more
remote, it might bear witness to them of the store of goodthings garnered up
in the treasure cities of Egypt." And so God, to make us know what glory
there is in heaven, has thrown some husks to us here, that we might draw out
our inferences. If we find so much of glory spread over earthly things, what
may we expect to find in those that are heavenly? If He give us so much in the
land of our pilgrimage, what will He not give us in our own country? If He can
lavish so much on His enemies what will He not reserve for His friends?
III. THE PERSONALVIEW. "Forthem that love Him." These things are
designedfor a "prepared" people. The preparation on the one side is just as
necessaryas that on the other. What is the use of preparing a feastunless you
know that the guests those who are to be admitted to it can see;of preparing a
grand concertunless will have appetites; of arranging the paintings of a
splendid gallery unless the audience can hear? The glorious things of the
future are prepared for a people who love God. The planting of this love in the
heart is the greatpersonalpreparation for heaven that we need. The necessity
for this is absolute. "Excepta man be born again, He., he cannotsee the
kingdom of God." These two things — love to God, and a new birth — always
go together.
(Richard Newton, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES ON VERSE 9

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(9) As it is written.—Where do the words which follow occur? They are not to
be found as here given anywhere in the Old Testament. It has therefore been
suggested(Origen) that they are from some apocryphal book, or some book
which has been lost, as is supposedmany have been. Chrysostomalso suggests
that it may be a reference, not to a writing, but to historical facts, as in
Matthew 2:23. None of these explanations would justify the use of that phrase,
“it is written,” with which these words are introduced, and which in the
apostolic writings is confined to quotations from the Old Testament
scriptures. It is not used where the words are takenfrom other sources (see,
e.g., Jude 1:9; Jude 1:14). Although the words given here are not to be found
in the same sequence in any passagein the Old Testament, still there are
phrases scatteredthrough the writings of Isaiah(see Isaiah 64:4; Isaiah65:17;
see also Isa 62:15 in the LXX.), which would easily be joined togetherin
memory and resemble even verbally the passageas written here by the
Apostle. This is not the only place in which St. Paul would seemto thus refer
to the Old Testamentscriptures (see 1Corinthians 1:19-20)when he is not
basing any argument upon a particular sentence in the Scriptures, but merely
availing himself of some thoughts or words in the Old Testamentas an
illustration of some truth which he is enforcing.
BensonCommentary
1 Corinthians 2:9-11. But — This ignorance fulfils what is written concerning
the blessings ofthe Messiah’skingdom; eye hath not seen, &c. — No merely
natural or unenlightened man hath either seen, heard, or known; the things
which God hath prepared, saith the prophet, for them that love him — “These
words do not immediately respectthe blessings ofanother world, but are
spokenby the prophet of the gospelstate, and the blessings then to be enjoyed
by them that should love God, Romans 8:28. For all the prophets, saythe
Jews, prophesiedonly of the days of the Messiah.” — Whitby. Indeed, as he
adds, both the context and the opposition of these words to the revelationof
these things by the Spirit, show the primary intent of the apostle to be, that no

human wisdom, by any thing that may be seen, heard of, or conceivedby us,
can acquaint us with the things taught by the Holy Spirit, without a
supernatural illumination. But God hath revealed — Yea, and freely given, 1
Corinthians 2:12, them to us by his Spirit — Who intimately and fully knows
them; for the Spirit searcheth — Knows and enables us to searchand find
out; all things — Which it concerns us, and would be for our profit, to be
acquainted with; even the deep things of God — Be they ever so hidden and
mysterious; the depths both of his nature and attributes, and of his kingdom
of providence and grace. Or, these deep things of God “are the various parts
of that grand plan which the wisdom of Godhath formed for the salvation of
mankind, their relation to and dependance on eachother, and operationand
effectupon the system of the universe, the dignity of the person by whom that
plan had been executed, and the final issue thereof in the salvationof
believers;with many other particulars, which we shall not know till the light
of the other world break in upon us.” — Macknight. Forwhat man knoweth
the things of a man — What individual of the human race could know the
things belonging to human nature; save the spirit of man which is in him —
Unless he were possessedof a human spirit? Surely the spirit of a creature
inferior to man, canneither discern nor comprehend the things peculiar to the
human nature. Even so the things of God — Things that belong to the divine
nature; knowethno man — No mere man; no man devoid of divine teaching;
the teaching of the Spirit of God. In other words, as soonmight brute
creatures, by the help of the faculties peculiar to them, understand human
things, as a man, only possessedof human faculties, could, merely by the aid
of them, understand divine things; and indeed much sooner;for God is
infinitely more elevatedabove man, than man is above the brutes.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
2:6-9 Those who receive the doctrine of Christ as Divine, and, having been
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, have lookedwellinto it, see not only the plain
history of Christ, and him crucified, but the deep and admirable designs of
Divine wisdomtherein. It is the mystery made manifest to the saints, Col1:26,
though formerly hid from the heathen world; it was only shown in dark types
and distant prophecies, but now is revealedand made knownby the Spirit of
God. Jesus Christis the Lord of glory; a title much too great for any creature.

There are many things which people would not do, if they knew the wisdomof
God in the greatwork of redemption. There are things God hath prepared for
those that love him, and wait for him, which sense cannotdiscover, no
teaching can conveyto our ears, nor canit yet enter our hearts. We must take
them as they stand in the Scriptures, as God hath been pleasedto revealthem
to us.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
But as it is written - This passageis quoted from Isaiah64:4. It is not quoted
literally; but the sense only is given. The words are found in the apocryphal
books of Elijah; and Origen and Jerome supposedthat Paulquoted from
those books. But it is evident that Paul had in his eye the passage in Isaiah;
and intended to apply it to his present purpose. These words are often applied
by commentators and others to the future life, and are supposed by them to be
descriptive of the state of the blessedthere. But againstthe supposition that
they refer directly to the future state, there are insuperable objections:
(1) The first is, that the passage inIsaiah has no such reference. In that place
it is designedclearly to describe the blessednessofthose who were admitted to
the divine favor; who had communion with God; and to whom God
manifested himself as their friend. That blessednessis said to be superior to
all that people elsewhere enjoy;to be such as could be found no where else but
in God. See Isaiah64:1, Isaiah 64:4-5, Isaiah 64:8. It is used there, as Paul
uses it, to denote the happiness which results from the communication of the
divine favor to the soul.
(2) the objectof the apostle is not to describe the future state of the redeemed.
It is to prove that those who are Christians have true wisdom 1 Corinthians
2:6-7; or that they have views of truth, and of the excellence ofthe plan of
salvationwhich the world has not, and which those who crucified the Lord
Jesus did not possess.The thing which he is describing here, is not merely the
happiness of Christians, but their views of the wisdom of the plan of salvation.
They have views of that which the eyes of other people have not seen;a view
of wisdom, and fitness, and beauty which canbe found in no other plan. It is

true that this view is attended with a high degree ofcomfort; but the comfort
is not the immediate thing in the eye of the apostle.
(3) the declarationin 1 Corinthians 2:10, is conclusive proof that Paul does
not refer to the happiness of heaven. He there says that God has revealed
these things to Christians by his Spirit. But if already revealed, assuredlyit
does not refer to that which is yet to come. But although this does not refer
directly to heaven, there may be an application of the passageto a future state
in an indirect manner, which is not improper. If there are such manifestations
of wisdom in the plan here; if Christians see so much of its beauty here on
earth; and if their views so far surpass all that the world sees and enjoys, how
much greaterand purer will be the manifestations of wisdom and goodnessin
the world of glory.
Eye hath not seen- This is the same as saying, that no one had ever fully
perceivedand understood the value and beauty of those things which God has
prepared for his people. All the world had been strangers to this until God
made a revelation to his people by his Spirit. The blessednesswhichthe
apostle referred to had been unknown alike to the Jews and the Gentiles.
Nor earheard - We learn the existence and quality of objects by the external
senses;and those sensesare used to denote any acquisition of knowledge. To
say that the eye had not seen, nor the ear heard, was, therefore, the same as
saying that it was not knownat all. All people had been ignorant of it.
Neither have entered into the heart of man - No man has conceivedit; or
understood it. It is new; and is above all that man has seen, and felt, and
known.
The things which God hath prepared - The things which God "has held in
reserve" (Bloomfield); that is, what God has appointed in the gospelfor his
people. The thing to which the apostle here refers particularly, is the wisdom
which was revealedin the gospel;but he also intends, doubtless, to include all
the provisions of mercy and happiness which the gospelmakes knownto the
people of God. Those things relate to the pardon of sin; to the atonement, and
to justification by faith; to the peace and joy which religion imparts; to the
complete and final redemption from sin and death which the gospelis suited

to produce, and which it will ultimately effect. In all these respects, the
blessings which the gospelconfers, surpass the full comprehensionof people;
and are infinitely beyond all that man could know or experience without the
religion of Christ. And if on earth the gospelconfers such blessings onits
friends, how much higher and purer shall be the joys which it shalt bestow in
heaven!
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
9. But—(it has happened) as it is written.
Eye hath not seen, &c.—Alford translates, "The things which eye saw not …
the things which God prepared … to us Godrevealed through His Spirit."
Thus, however, the "but" of 1Co 2:10 is ignored. Rather construe, as Estius,
"('We speak,'supplied from 1Co 2:8), things which eye saw not (heretofore),
… things which God prepared … But Godrevealed them to us," &c. The
quotation is not a verbatim one, but an inspired exposition of the "wisdom"
(1Co 2:6, from Isa 64:4). The exceptive words, "O God, beside (that is, except)
Thee," are not quoted directly, but are virtually expressedin the exposition of
them (1Co 2:10), "None but thou, O God, seestthese mysteries, and Godhath
revealedthem to us by His Spirit."
entered—literally, "come up into the heart." A Hebraism (compare, Jer3:16,
Margin). In Isa 64:4 it is "Prepared(literally, 'will do') for him that waiteth
for Him"; here, "for them that love Him." For Isaiahspake to them who
waited for Messiah's appearanceas future; Paul, to them who love Him as
having actually appeared(1Jo 4:19); compare 1Co 2:12, "the things that are
freely given to us of God"
Matthew Poole's Commentary
The place where this is written is by all agreedto be Isaiah 64:4, where the
words are, Forsince the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor
perceivedby the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he
hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. It is so usual with the penmen of
holy writ to quote the sense oftexts in the Old Testament, not tying themselves
to letters and syllables, that it is mightily vain for any to objectagainstthis

quotation, as no where written in the Old Testament, but takenout of some
apocryphal writings. The sense of what is written, Isaiah 64:4, is plainly the
same with what he speakethin this place;the greatestdifference is, the apostle
saith,
them that love him; the prophet, him that waitethfor him (which is the
certain product and effect of love). The whole 64th chapter of Isaiah, {Isaiah
64:1-12}and some chapters following, treat concerning Christ; so doth this
text. Christ and his benefits are to be understood here, by
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; which are setout
as things not obvious to sense, nor to be comprehended by reason. It could
never have entered into the heart of men to conceive, that God should give his
only begottenSon out of his own bosom, to take upon him our nature, and to
die upon the cross;or, that Christ should so far humble himself, and become
obedient unto death.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
But as it is written,.... Not in an apocryphal book, calledthe Apocalypse of
Elijah the prophet, as some have thought, but in Isaiah64:4 with some
variation; and is brought to prove that the Gospelis mysterious and hidden
wisdom, unknown to the princes of this world, and ordained before the world
was, for the glory of the saints: for the following words are not to be
understood of the glories and happiness of the future state;though they are
indeed invisible, unheard of, and inconceivable as to the excellencyand fulness
of them, and are what God has prepared from all eternity, for all those on
whom he bestows his grace here; but of the doctrines of grace, andmysteries
of the Gospel, as the context and the reasonof their citation abundantly show;
and are what
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard: which could never have been seento be read
by the eye of man, nor the sound thereof ever heard by the ear of man, had
not God been pleasedto make a revelationof them; and though they are to be

seenand read in the sacredwritings, and to be heard either read or
expounded, with the outward hearing of the ear; yet are neither to be seennor
heard intellectually, spiritually, and savingly, unless, God gives eyes to see,
and ears to hear; the exterior sensesofseeing and hearing are not sufficient to
come at and discoverthe sense ofthem; flesh and blood, human nature cannot
searchthem out, nor revealthem, no nor the internal senses, the intellectual
capacityof men:
neither have entered into the heart of man; this clause is not in the original
text; but is a phrase often used by the Jews, for that which never came into a
man's mind, was never thought of by him, or he ever had any conceptions, or
the leastnotion and idea of; so the elders of the city, at the beheading of the
heifer, are representednot only as saying, "our hands have not shed this
blood, neither have our eyes seenit"; but also neither , "hath it entered into
our hearts", that the sanhedrim hath shed blood (y); and elsewhere (z) it is
said, this matter is like to a king, , "into whose heart it entered", to plant in
his garden, &c.
The things which God hath prepared for them that love him; in the original
text it is, "forhim that waiteth for him"; the sense is the same, for such as
hope in the Lord and wait for him, are lovers of him; and the meaning is, that
God has prepared and laid up in his own breast, in his counsels and covenant,
in the types, shadows, andsacrifices ofthe old law, in the promises and
prophecies of the Old Testament, such doctrines and mysteries of grace as
were not so seen, heard, known, and understood by the Old Testament
prophets and saints; and has reservedfor his people under the Gospel
dispensation, the times of the Messiah, a more cleardiscovery of them: so the
Jews themselves ownthat these words belong to the world to come (a), which
with them commonly signifies the days of the Messiah;though here they think
fit to distinguish them, and interpret the phrase, "eye hath not seen", ofthe
eye of the prophets: their words are these (b);
"all prophesied not, but of the days of the Messiah;but as to the world to
come, eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee.''
The gloss onit is,

"the eye of the prophets hath not been able to see it.''
Indeed, the mysteries of the Gospelare more clearly discernednow, than by
the prophets formerly.
(y) T. Bab. Sota, fol. 46. 2.((z) Sepher Bahir in Zohar in Gen. fol. 31. 1.((a)
Zohar in Exod. fol. 64. 4. & 67. 2.((b) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 34. 2. Sabbat, fol,
63. 1. Sanhedrin, fol. 99. 1. Maimon. in Misn. Sanhed. c. 11. sect. 1. & Hilch.
Teshuva, c. 8. sect. 7. & Jarchi in Isaiah 64.4.
Geneva Study Bible
{8} But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the {i} heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him.
(8) Another objection:but how could it be that those intelligent men could not
perceive this wisdom? Paul answers:because we preachthose things which
surpass all man's understanding.
(i) Man cannot so much as think of them, much less conceive them with his
senses.
Meyer's NT Commentary
1 Corinthians 2:9. Ἀλλά] but, antithesis to ἣν οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀρχόντωντ. αἰ. τ.
ἔγνωκεν.
The passageofScripture, which Paul now adduces, is to be translated:“What
an eye hath not seen, nor an ear heard, and (what) hath not risen into the
heart of a man, (namely:) all that God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
In the connectionof our passagethese words are still dependent upon
λαλοῦμεν. Paul, that is to say, instead of affirming something further of the
wisdom itself, and so continuing with another ἥν (which none of the rulers
have known, but which), describes now the mysterious contents of this
wisdom, and expresses himselfaccordingly in the neuter form (by ἅ), to which
he was induced in the flow of his discourse by the similar form of the language

of Scripture which floated before his mind. The construction therefore is not
anacoluthic (Rückerthesitatingly; de Wette and Osiander, both of whom hold
that it loses itselfin the conceptionof the mysteries referred to); neither is it to
be supplemented by γέγονε (Theophylact, Grotius). The connectionwith 1
Corinthians 2:10, adopted by Lachmann (in his ed. min[373]), and in my first
and secondeditions, and againresortedto by Hofmann: what no eye has seen,
etc., God, on the other hand (δέ, see on 1 Corinthians 1:23), has revealed to us,
etc., is not sufficiently simple, mars the symmetry of the discourse, andis
finally setaside by the considerationthat, since the quotation manifestly does
not go beyond ἀγαπῶσιναὐτόν, καθὼς γέγραπται logicallywould need to
stand, not before, but after ἅ, because in reality this Ἅ, and not the ΚΑΘῺς
ΓΈΓΡΑΠΤΑΙ, would introduce the object of ἈΠΕΚΆΛΥΨΕΝ.
ΚΑΘῺς ΓΈΓΡ.]Chrysostomand Theophylact are in doubt as to what
passageis meant, whether a lost prophecy (so Theodoret), or Isaiah52:15.
Origen, again, and other Fathers (Fabricius, a[374]Cod. Apocr. N. T. p. 342;
Pseudepigr. N. T. I. p. 1072;Lücke, Einleit. z. Offenb. I. p. 235), with whom
Schraderand Ewald agree, assume, amidst vehement opposition on the part
of Jerome, that the citation is from the Revelationof Elias, in which Zacharias
of Chrysopolis avers (Harmonia Evang. p. 343)that he himself had actually
read the words. Grotius regards them as “e scriptis Rabbinorum, qui ea
habuerunt ex traditione vetere.” Mostinterpreters, however, including
Osianderand Hofmann, agree with Jerome (on Isaiah64 and a[375]
Pammach. epist. ci.) in finding here a free quotation from Isaiah 64:4 (some
holding that there is, besides, a reference to Isaiah52:15, Isaiah65:17); see
especiallySurenhusius, ΚΑΤΑΛΛ. p. 526 ff., also Riggenbachin the Stud. u.
Krit. 1855, p. 596 f. But the difference in sense—notto be gotover by forced
and artificial interpretation of the passage in Isaiah(see especially
Hofmann)—and the dissimilarity in expressionare too great, hardly
presenting even faint resemblances;which is never elsewhere the case with
Paul, howeverfreely he may make his quotations. There seems, therefore, to
remain no other escape from the difficulty than to give credit to the
assertion—howevermuch repugnance may have been shownto it in a
dogmatic interest from Jerome downwards—made by Origenand others, that

the words were from the Apocalypsis Eliae. So, too, Bleek in the Stud. u. Krit.
1853, p. 330. But since it is only passagesfrom the canonicalScriptures that
are evercited by Paul with καθὼς γέγρ., we must at the same time assume
that he intended to do so here also, but by some confusionof memory took the
apocryphal saying for a canonicalpassage possiblyfrom the prophecies, to
which the passagesofkindred sound in Isaiahmight easilygive occasion.
Comp also Weiss, biblische Theol. p. 298.
ἃ ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ εἶδε Κ.Τ.Λ[377]]Forsimilar designations in the classics and
Rabbins of what cannot be apprehended by the senses orintellect, see
Wetsteinand Lightfoot, Horae, p. 162. Comp Empedocles in Plutarch, Mor. p.
17 E: οὔτʼἐπιδερκτὰ τάδʼ ἀνδράσιν, οὔτʼ ἐπακουστὰ,οὔτε νόῳ περιληπτά.
With respectto ἀναβ. ἐπὶ καρδ., ‫ע‬ָ‫ל‬ ‫ל‬‫ע‬ ‫ל‬‫ל‬‫,ע‬ to rise up to the heart, that is,
become a consciouslyapprehendedobject of feeling and thought, so that the
thing enters as a conceptioninto the sphere of activity of the inner life, comp
on Acts 7:23.
ΤΟῖς ἈΓΑΠ. ΑὐΤΌΝ]i.e. in the apostle’s view:for the true Christians.[380]
See on Romans 8:28. What God has prepared for them is the salvationof the
Messianic kingdom. Comp Matthew 25:34. Constitt. Apost. vii. 32. 2 : οἱ δὲ
δίκαιοι πορεύσονται εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιονκληρονομοῦντες ἐκεῖνα, ἃ ὀφθαλμὸς
οὐκ εἶδε Κ.Τ.Λ[382]
[373]in. codices minusculi, manuscripts in cursive writing. Where these are
individually quoted, they are marked by the usual Arabic numerals, as 33, 89.
[374]d refers to the note of the commentatoror editor named on the
particular passage.

[375]d refers to the note of the commentatoror editor named on the
particular passage.
[377].τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.
[380]Clement, ad Cor. I. 34, in quoting this same passage (withhis usual
formula for scriptural quotations, λέγει γάρ), has here τοῖς ὑπομένουσιν
αὐτόν, remembering perhaps Isaiah 64:4 in the LXX. Clement also, there can
be no doubt, held the passage to be canonical, whichis explained, however, by
the factof his being acquainted with our Epistle. The Constitt. apost. too, vii.
32. 2, have τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιναὐτόν. The so-calledsecondEpistle of Clement,
chap. 11, has the passageonly as far as ἀνέβη.
[382].τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.
Expositor's Greek Testament
1 Corinthians 2:9 confirms by the language ofScripture (καθὼς γέγραπται)
what has just been said. The verse is open to three different constructions:(1)
It seems bestto treat the relatives, ἅ, ὅσα, as in apposition to the foregoing ἣν
clauses of1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (the form of the pronoun being dictated by the
LXX original), and thus supplying a further obj[356]to the emphatically
repeatedλαλοῦμεν of 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 : “but (we speak), as it is written,
things which eye,” etc. (so Er[357], Mr[358], Hn[359], Al[360], Ed[361],
El[362], Bt[363]). (2) Hf[364], Ev[365], after Lachmann, prefix the whole
sentence to ἀπεκάλυψενof 1 Corinthians 2:10; but this subordination requires
the doubtful reading δέ (for γάρ) in 1 Corinthians 2:10, to which it improperly
extends the ref[366]of the formula καθὼς γέγραπται, while it breaks the
continuity betweenthe quotation and the foregoing assertions(cf. 1
Corinthians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 1:31). (3) Bg[367], D.W[368], Gd[369],
Lt[370], and others, see an anacoluthon here, and supply ἐστίν, factum est, or
the like, as a peg for the ver. to hang upon, as in Romans 15:3—“But, as it is

written, (there have come to pass)things which eye,” etc. This, however, seems
needless afterthe prominent λαλοῦμεν, and weakens the concatenationof 1
Corinthians 2:6-9. The ἀλλὰ follows on the οὐδεὶς of 1 Corinthians 2:8, as
ἀλλὰ in 1 Corinthians 2:7 (see note) on the οὐ of 1 Corinthians 2:6.
The words cited do not appear, connectedly, in the O.T. Of the four clauses,
the 1James , 2 nd, and 4th recallIsaiah 64:4 f. (Hebrews , Isaiah 64:3 f.)—
after the Hebrew text; the 3rd occurs in a similar strain in Isaiah65:17 (LXX,
16); see otherparls. In thought, as Hf[371]and Bt[372] point out, this passage
corresponds to Isaiah 64 : in P. God does, as in Isaiah He is besought to do,
things unlooked for by the world, to the confusion of its unbelief; in eachcase
these things are done for fit persons—Isaiah’s “him that waiteth for Him,”
etc., being translated into Paul’s “those that love Him”; ἐποίησεν is changed
to ἡτοίμασεν, in conformity with προώρισεν (1 Corinthians 2:7). A further
analogyappears betweenthe “terrible things in righteousness” whichthe
prophet foreseesin the coming theophany, and the καταργεῖνthat P.
announces for “the rulers of this world”. Clement of Rome (ad Cor[373],
xxxiv. 8) cites the text briefly as a Christian saying, but reverts from Paul’s τ.
ἀγαπῶσινto the Isaianic τ. ὑπομένουσιναὐτόν, manifestly identifying the O.
and N.T. sayings.
[371]J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te
Auflage, 1874).
[372]J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).
[373]Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
Or[374]wrote (on Matthew 27:9), “In nullo regulari libro hoc positum
invenitur, nisi in Secretis Eliæ prophetæ”—a lostApocryphum; Jerome found
the words both in the Ascensionof Isaiahand the Apocalypse of Elias, but

denies Paul’s indebtedness to these sources;and Lt[375]makes out (see note,
ad loc[376])that these books were laterthan Paul. Origen’s suggestionhas
been adopted by many expositors, but is really needless;this is only an
extreme example of the Apostle’s freedom in adopting and combining O.T.
sayings whose substance he desires to use. The Gnostics quoted the passage in
favour of their method of esoteric teaching.
[374]Origen.
[375]J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).
[376]ad locum, on this passage.
ὅσα, of the last clause, is a climax to ἃ of the first—“so many things as God
prepared for those that love Him”: cf. a Cor. 1 Corinthians 1:20, Php 4:8, for
the pronominal idiom.—In ἡτοίμασενκ.τ.λ. Paulis not thinking so much of
the heavenly glory (see note on δόξα, 1 Corinthians 2:7), as of the
magnificence of blessing, undreamed of in former ages, whichcomes already
to believers in Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:5-7).—τ. ἀγαπ. αὐτὸνaffirms the
moral precondition for this full blessedness(cf. John 14:23)—a further
designationof the ἅγιοι, πιστεύοντες, κλητοί, ἐκλεκτοὶ ofchap. 1.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
9. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen]There has been much discussion
whence these words are derived, but they are quite sufficiently near to the
passagein Isaiah 64:4 to be regardedas a quotation from thence. It is
unreasonable to require greaterliteral accuracyin the citation of words from
the O. T. than is customary in a modern preacher, who is frequently content
with giving the generaldrift of the passage he quotes. Such a practice was
even more likely to exist in days when the cumbrous nature of books

prevented them from being so readily at hand as at present We can hardly
suppose, with some modern divines, that the passage is a quotation from the
liturgy of the Apostolic Church, for Origen, Chrysostom, and Jerome, are
alike ignorant of the fact.
Bengel's Gnomen
1 Corinthians 2:9. Ἀλλὰ, but) viz. it has happened, comp. Romans 15:3;
Romans 15:21, and 1 Corinthians 1:31.—καθὼς,as)He shows that the princes
of the world knew not wisdom.—ἃ ὀφθαλμὸς)Isaiah64:4, in the LXX., ἀπὸ
τοῦ αἰῶνος οὐκ ἠκούσαμεν, οὐδε οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἡμῶνεἰδον Θεὸν πλήν σου, καὶ
τὰ ἔργα σου, ἃ ποιήσεις τοῖς ὑπομενοῦσινἔλεος. “Since the beginning we have
not heard, nor have our eyes seenany godbesides Thee and Thy works, which
Thou wilt do to them that waitfor mercy.”—ἃ, which) what eye hath not seen
are those things, which God hath prepared.—ὀφθαλμὸς, οὖς, the eye, the ear)
of man.—οὐκ ἀνέβη) neither have ascended[entered], that is, have not come
into the mind.—ἡτοίμασεν, prepared) Hebr. ‫,לשעי‬ he will do; what was future
in the time of Isaiah, had been actually accomplishedin the time of Paul.
Hence the one was speaking to them that were waiting for Him [Isaiah 64:4],
the other to men that love [Him, who has appeared, 1 John 4:19]: comp.
things that are freely given, 1 Corinthians 2:12, by the grace ofthe New
Testament, the fruits of which are perfected in eternity.—[Romans 8:28; Jam
2:5.]
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 9. - But as it is written. The whole sentence in the Greek is unfinished.
The thought seems to be, "But God has revealedto us things which eye hath
not seen, etc., though the princes of this world were ignorant of them."
Scriptural quotations are often thus introduced, apart from the general
grammar of the sentence, as in the Greek of 1 Corinthians 1:31. Eye hath not
seen, etc. The RevisedVersionis here more literal and accurate. The
quotation as it stands is not found in the Old Testament. It most resembles
Isaiah64:4, but also vaguelyresembles Isaiah53:15; 65:17. It may be another
instance of a loose generalreminiscence (comp. 1 Corinthians 14:21;Romans
9:33). "Nonverbum e verbo expressit," says St. Jerome, "sedπαραφραστικῶς

ευνδεμ σενσυμ aliis sermonibus indicavit." St. Chrysostomregards the words
as part of a lost prophecy. Origen, Zacharias of Chrysopolis, and others say
that the words occurredin an apocryphal book, the 'Apocalypse of Elias,'but
if so the apocryphal writer must have had the passageofIsaiahin his mind.
Some regard the words as a fragment of some ancient liturgy. Origen thought
that they came from the 'Revelationof Elijah.' They were also to be found in
the 'Ascensionof Isaiah'(Jerome on Isaiah64:4). and they occurin the
Talmud (Sanhedr. 99 a). In a curious fragment of Hegesippus (circ. A.D. 150)
preservedin Photius (Cod. 232.), that old writer indignantly repudiates this
passage, saying that it is futile and "utterly belies (καταψεύδεσθαι)the Holy
Scriptures and the Lord, who says, 'Blessedare your eyes which see, and your
ears which hear.'" Photius cannot understand why (ὅτι καὶ παθὼν)
Hegesippus should speak thus. Routh ('Rel. Sacr.,'253)hardly knows how to
excuse him; but perhaps if we had the context of the fragment we should see
that he is attacking, not the words themselves, but some perversion of them by
heretics, like the Docetae. The phrase, "As it is written," decisively marks an
intention to refer to Scripture. Neither have enteredinto the heart of man;
literally, things which have not set footupon the heart. The generalthought is
that God's revelations (for the immediate reference is to these, and not to
future bliss) pass all understanding. The quotation of these words as referring
to heaven is one of the numberless instances of texts inaccuratelyapplied.
Vincent's Word Studies
Eye hath not seen, etc.
From Isaiah 64:4, freely rendered by Septuagint. The Hebrew reads: "From
of old men have not heard, not perceivedwith the ear, eye has not seena God
beside Thee who does (gloriously) for him who waits on Him." Septuagint,
"From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seena God beside Thee,
and Thy works whichThou wilt do for those who wait for mercy." Paul takes
only the generalidea from the Old-Testamentpassage. The words are not to
be limited to future blessings in heaven. They are true of the present.
Have entered (ἀνέβη)
Lit., went up. See on Acts 7:23. Compare Daniel2:29, Sept.

Heart (καρδίαν)
See on Romans 1:21
PRECEPTAUSTIN ON VERSE 9
THE SPIRIT OPENS THE TREASURES OF GOD
Dr. W. A. Criswell
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
11-08-81 10:50 a.m.
You are listening to the service of the First Baptist Church in Dallas. This is
the pastorbringing the messageentitled The Holy Spirit Opens the Treasures
of God. It is one in a series ofdoctrinal sermons on pneumatology, on the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And the messagetodayis an expositionof the
secondchapterof 1 Corinthians. And if you would like to turn in your Bible
to this passage, youcan follow the messageeasily. FirstCorinthians, chapter
2, beginning at verse 5: “Thatyour faith should not stand in the wisdomof
men, but in the powerof God. For we speak wisdom among you that are
teleios,” mature;not babbling babes, to whom the messageandrevelation
would mean nothing but to you, who are teleios, translatedhere “perfect” [1
Corinthians 2:5-6], you who are mature.
Yet not the wisdom of this world . . . for we speak the wisdom of God in a
mustērion—
a secretwisdomthat is known to us only by the revelation of God—
Even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our
glory. . .

As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor earheard, nor have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
But God hath revealedthem unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth
and knowethand understandeth all the deep things of God…
And He, the Spirit, has made knownunto us these things that are freely given
to us of God.
Which things we speak—
we are preaching of them this morning—
not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit
teacheth.
[1 Corinthians 2:6-13]
“Forthe psuchikos man,” Translatedhere “the natural man,” the psuchikos
man—the Greek wordfor the sentient being of man is psychē, in Greek
psuchē, and the adjectivalform of it is psuchikos—forthe sentient man, the
natural man, the material man, the five-senses man, “receivethnot the things
of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned[1 Corinthians 2:14]. But the
pneumatikos man,” translated here “he that is spiritual”—pneuma, the word
for spirit, in the adjectival form pneumatikos—“the spiritual man anakrinō,”
discerns, “allthings” [1 Corinthians 2:15]; to him there is revealedthe
mustērion of God.
Now our basic text: “Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of a man, what God has prepared for us who love Him”
[1 Corinthians 2:9]. Now I have quoted that verse endless numbers of times,
as everybody else has, but always misquote it. I always quote that verse as
though it referred to the other world that is yet to come. I quote it world
without end at funeral services:“Eye has not seen, earhas not heard, heart
has not imagined what God has prepared for us who love the Lord” [1
Corinthians 2:9]. Now there is nothing wrong with that. It is spiritually true.

But that is in nowise even approaching the meaning of the apostle. He is not
talking about a future world, anotherinheritance. He is talking about this
world, here and now: “Eye has not seen, earhas not heard, the heart has not
imagined, but God hath,” God has already, “revealedthem unto us by His
Spirit” [1 Corinthians 2:9-10], here and now, in this presentworld, at this
moment.
The distinction that the apostle is drawing in this passageis the distinction
betweenman’s wisdom, the wisdomof the world, and God’s wisdom [1
Corinthians 2:11]; the difference betweentruth apprehended by the five
senses ofthe sentient man and the truth that is revealed, the mustērion that is
made known to us by the Spirit of God. The distinction he is drawing here in
this passageis betweena world that is apprehended by our sight and sense,
our sensitivity, betweena world that we cansee and feeland touch and taste
and smell, betweenthat world and a world that is revealedto us only by the
Spirit of God[1 Corinthians 2:11].
The distinction the apostle is drawing here is the difference betweenthe
psuchikos man and the pneumatikos man. The psuchikos man: the man of
materiality, the physical man, the man of the five senses,and he is avowing
that the psuchikos man, the man who is sentient, who has five senses,cannot
know revelation. He cannot, by himself, in his sentientbeing, discoverGod.
The earcannot hear Him, the eye cannotsee Him, the heart cannot conceive
of Him; the visible, audible, imaginable truth of God is only in the revelation
of the Holy Spirit [1 Corinthians 2:9-10]. But he says the pneumatikos man,
the man of the Spirit, this man taught of God is able to receive the deep
mustērion, the mysteries, the secrettruth of the revelationof God [1
Corinthians 2:11-13].
Now that is the meaning of the apostle in the passage. So let’s look at it: he
says here, “Eye hath not seen” [1 Corinthians 2:9]. That is, spiritual, eternal
truth cannot be discoveredor discerned by observationby the human eye; it
cannot be seen. Whatthe eye sees is temporal and transitory and passing,
even its form and its symmetry and its beauty brings a certain sadness to our
hearts. For it is ephemeral, it is for the moment. It is not eternal.

The people to whom Paul is writing this letter lived in Corinth, one of the
greatbeautiful cities of the ancient world. It was a city of form and beauty
and culture. The Corinthian column, the Corinthian column is the most
ornate and beautiful of all of the architecturalcolumns ever imagined. When
Mummius, the Roman generaldestroyed, plundered Corinth in 146 BC after
which Julius Caesarrebuilt it; but when Mummius plundered it, when he was
given a Roman triumph through the cities of the city of Rome, there were
wagonloadsand wagonloadsand wagonloads ofart and sculpture, and
beautiful masterpieces createdby those paganGreeks. Butwhat the eye can
see is bounded; it is measured in inches or feetor yards, and eventhough it is
made out of marble, it is perishing. And as I say, there is a sadness about
looking upon it. There is a melancholy that accompaniesit. The sunset, or
the rainbow, or the very stars themselves fade awayand certainly human and
natural beauty. That is why once in a while, we read of a Hollywoodactress
who commits suicide. She cannotbear the hurt of seeing her lovely form
vanish through the years. It is only the eternal loveliness that endures, only
the King in His beauty. It is the land that we scanfrom afar, it is the beautiful
and wonderful city of God that endures [Hebrews 11:10].
What the eye can see, whatthe man, the psuchikos man canobserve, is just
outward, it is never inward. It is peripheral; it is never central or dynamic.
The five senses, the eye cannever bring a revelation, never. By searching, a
man can never find God. What the eye can see and what the man is capable
of observing is just the outward, ephemeral, transitory aspectof reality, of
things, of being. For example, the eye canuse a telescopeora microscope or a
test tube, or use compounds and comprehensions to look at all the world of
creationaround us, but its meaning and its purpose is hid, you could never
know it by just looking, by just observation. Forexample, an anatomist can
look at the anatomicalorganizationof the body. He canprobe into the
cerebralspheres, and he caneven measure the nerve impulses, but he can’t
find thought or discoverit. Or look again, the anatomist can examine the
brain, the cerebellum, and the nerve endings and all of the dendrites and
fibers of our sentient system, but he can never discoverthe mind. Where is it?
What is it? Look again, the anatomist canhandle, and weigh, and measure,
and probe, and observe the organs of the body—the lungs, the viscera—buthe

can never discoverconscience! Or again, the anatomistcan examine and
measure the skeletonandthe muscles and the tendons and the fibers, but he
could never discoverthe soul and the spirit; they are hidden from observation
from the eye! You can probe and study the human anatomy foreverand
never discoverduty, or dedication, or love, or hope, or faith, or immortality,
or resurrection. That’s why the student of anatomy will turn away, an infidel!
And the physician will turn away, an unbeliever! Observation: the probing of
the eye cannot see into the greatmustērion, the secretmystery of God. It has
to be revealedto the pneumatikos man, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard . . .”
[1 Corinthians 2:9]. Greatspiritual, eternal truth is not discerned, it is not
discoveredby the hearing of the—and just name it: the philosophies, the
lectures, the metaphysics, the speculations, allof the discussions ofmen,
never! Not by the eardo we hear the deep things, the mustērion of God [1
Corinthians 2:9].
What you hear in the earis just the sound of a cymbal of something else, and
it is meaningless unless you have the idea already. There is no relationship
between, say, a dollar bill and the loaf of bread that it will buy. Nor is there
any relationship betweenthe sound of a word and the idea that it conveys. If
a man doesn’t have the idea, if it is not revealedto him already, the word is
meaningless. Youcould stand in the heart of hot, tropical, jungle, Congo
Africa and talk to one of those black natives about ice, and about snow—he’d
have no idea what you meant. You could talk to a blind man about color;blue
and gold and orange—he’dhave no idea what you meant. You can talk to a
man who all his life had been in a cell, about infinitude—he’d have no
conceptionof an idea what you meant. The idea has to be revealedto the man
before the word, the hearing of the ear means anything at all. Thus it is in the
revelation of the musterion of God: except the man is taught, his heart is
opened by the Spirit of God, the words are meaningless. The Phariseesand
the Sadducees heardJesus, but they hated Him! [Matthew 12:14;Luke 22:2].
And they encompassedHis death, they crucified Him [Acts 7:52].
On Mars Hill, before the Areopagus—the supreme court, the Athenian Stoics
and the Epicureans, philosophers heard the apostle Paul [Acts 17:18]. But the
Epicureans, when they heard his message, laughedout loud; they scoffedat its
foolishness! And the Stoics where somewhatmore gracious and gentle, they

bowed out with a smile and saying, “We will hear you againon the matter,”
and left [Acts 17:31-32]. It’s only when the Spirit teaches the man, and opens
his heart to the meaning, that the messagehas any repercussionin his life [1
Corinthians 2:10-11]. The man can hear, and he hears, and he hears, and he
hears, and then one day he hears, and he is wonderfully saved. Otherwise, the
messageis foolishness as it was to the Epicureans, as it was to the Stoics [Acts
17:31-32], orit is bitterly opposedas by the Phariseesand the Sadducees [Acts
23:1-15]. It isn’t by hearing by the earthat we come to discern and to
discoverthe marvelous, infinite grace and love of God [1 Corinthians 2:9-10].
Do you notice he adds another? It is not by the sight of the eye, it’s not by
human observation. It’s not by the hearing of the ear, neither is it by the
creative, imaginative faculty of the heart, of the mind [1 Corinthians 2:9]. I
think that one of the sublimest, creative realities in this world is the faculty
that God has given to a man to create, to imagine, to think. When noble
thought bursts into flame; when the human genious inspired, expressesitself
in moving music, or in poetry or in drama or in literature, it is an
incomparable gift of God. But in itself, it is not able to discoverthe musterion
of the Lord. The great musician, or the tremendously gifted dramatist, or the
marvelous author is as likely to be an infidel as not. And what he writes in his
play or in his novel may be as likely blasphemous as it is God-honoring. You
don’t discoverGod in the imaginative, creative faculty of man; neither does
the heart conceive ofit [1 Corinthians 2:9].
Sometimes I think of Plato. He lived among the people who rose higher in
human thought and human achievementthan any other nation or race of
people who ever lived. We have never begun to touch the hem of the garment
of the glory of Greek poetry, philosophy, art, architecture, literature,
philosophy. In Oxford, there were four hundred different courses on the
philosopher Aristotle alone. We have never had a nation of people who ever
rose to such heights of intellectual, philosophical, artistic achievement, like
those ancient Greeks. And yet, Plato said in one of the most pathetic, one of
the saddestof all the passagesin his beautiful writing, Plato said, “Oh, that
there were some sure word, some revelation from God upon which we might
castour souls as we cross this boundless sea to some further unknown shore.”
The genius, the creative, imaginative faculty of the human man cannot

discoverGod. It is a mustērion, hidden in the heart of the Almighty, unknown
until He reveals it [Colossians 1:26].
Our eyes cannotsee it, our ears cannot hear it, our imaginative, creative
faculty cannotreach it. Then the apostle avows a marvelous avowal, “What
eye cannotsee and what eardoes not hear,” and what the creative,
imaginative faculty of man is not able to reach, “Godhath revealedit unto us
by His Spirit” [1 Corinthians 2:9-10]. And we have been made to know the
things that are freely given to us of God, the greatmustērion, the hidden
wisdom of God, which He ordained before the world unto our glory, our
salvation, our exaltation[Colossians1:26].
Well, that is a remarkable thing the apostle is avowing. He is saying that we
have another sense besides these five sentient senses. We have another sense.
We have another faculty. The apostle would avow the animals, the
anthropoids, have the five senses we possess, but we possess one no animal
possesses,no anthropoid, no simian, no ape, no other creature. We have an
endowment from God that no other creature has, and that is we have the
sense ofthe presence ofGod [Romans 1:19]. And we have the ability to
receive the mustērion, the wisdom of God—not the wisdom of the world, the
sentient wisdom that we can learn ourselves—buta wisdom that is revealedto
us by the Holy Spirit of God.
And Paul describes in 1 Timothy 3:16 that mustērion, that hidden wisdom,
and it goes like this: “And without controversygreatis the mustērion of
godliness:namely, God was manifest in the flesh.” No human philosophy, or
deduction, or speculationwould ever reacha revelation like that. This
Babe—bornof a virgin Jewishgirl, poor, in a stable, laid in a manger [Luke
2:7-16]—this Babe is God Almighty, incarnate![Matthew 1:23]. The Spirit of
God must revealthat truth to a man; otherwise it is foolishness to him [1
Corinthians 2:14]. In Christ we have all of God. To love Jesus is to love God;
to bow before the Lord Jesus is to bow before God, to sit at the feet of Jesus is
to sit at the feet of God. To receive the Lord Jesus is to receive God. To serve
the Lord Jesus is to serve God. The great mustērion revealedto us by the
Spirit of God: He was manifest in the flesh” [1 Timothy 3:16], He was
preachedto the people, and believed on in the world [1 Timothy 3:16]. That is

a mustērion! Paul wrote, in 1 Corinthians: “Forwhen in the wisdom of the
world the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleasedGod by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe” [1 Corinthians 1:21]. This is a miracle of
God, a musterion of the Lord, that in preaching, in presenting the bestthat a
preacherknows how, the wonderful truth of the Lord, the Spirit of God takes
the messageandHe bears it to the heart of a believer.
There are many people, world without end, to whom my best preaching is
foolishness. Theycould listen to me forever and never be moved, never be
stirred, never be won, never be convicted, never come to a saving faith in
Christ. But the mustērion, the marvelous secretofGod, He takes the message,
howeverstammeringly it may be presented. And to some He will bear it on
the wings of the Spirit, and the man listens, and he’ll be convicted, and he’ll
be converted, and he’ll find a new hope, and a new life, and a new vision, a
new prayer, and a new goldentomorrow in Christ. It is a marvelous thing, it
is a wonderful thing, it is a work of the Spirit of God, and without that Spirit
of the Lord opening the man’s heart, it is foolishness to him [1 Corinthians
1:18-24, 2:14].
I want to take liberty if I may with the Scripture here, and I pray the Lord
will understand as I do this. There are, say, two men who are seatedin the
Dallas Music Hall, and they are listening to a symphony, some of the finest
music ever written, and the two men are seatedthere side by side, listening to
the symphony. And one of the men is ecstatic, he is simply lifted out of this
world, and he is in heavenly places as he listens to the marvelous music of that
symphony orchestra. Rightby his side is a man seatedwho is bored to tears,
and he looks at the long, interminable program with a weary and cast-down
eye. You see? And now may the Lord forgive me for taking liberty with His
Holy Scripture. You see? “The earreceivethnot those things, for they are
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are musically
discerned.” And one man in his heart is ecstatic, andthe other man is
wearisomelytortured to sit through the hour. It is musically discerned.
I mustn’t take too much time, but grant me one other. Two men are standing
under the chalice of the blue, starry sky. And one of them looks up, and he
sees the glorious handiwork of God, and he cries, “The heavens declare the

glory of God: and the firmament showethHis lacework, His crochetwork, His
knitting work, His handiwork”—the word means that—“And the firmament
shows the beautiful delicate tracery of God. Dayunto day and night after
night, God uttereth speech!” [Psalm 19:1-2]. That’s one of those men. The
other man across the streetwill look at the brightness of the sky and the
brightness of the moon, and wait in longing for the moon to go down and the
stars to go out in order that he might break into your house and rob you of
your treasures. Foryou see the eye receivethnot these things, “for they are
foolishness unto him: neither canhe know them, for they are spiritually
discerned” [1 Corinthians 2:14]. God has to do something to the heart before
the revelationof God is ever received, ever believed, before it is ever
meaningful. Otherwise it is foolishness, it has no meaning. I must close, our
time is gone.
Greatis the mustērion of God. Not only He was manifest in the flesh, and not
only is He preachedand some believe—the work of the Holy Spirit—but it
says here analambanō, “receivedup”; it’s translated“caughtup, picked up,
carried up into glory” [1 Timothy 3:16]. And the Bible is firm to say that if
we are with Him, we are caughtup with Him—uses those words, “We are
caught up with Him.” We are lifted up with Him. We are raised up with Him.
We are receivedup with Him [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]. He is the Lord of all
creation, and we are His brothers and sisters, to reign with Him forever and
ever [Revelation22:3-5]. And that is the most marvelous, redemptive grace of
God that mind could imagine: that God receives us, and takes us up, and
picks us up, and carries us up with Him into glory.
It is like this: a hunter was standing betweenthe forestand the field, and he
saw in the distance a little fawn, a little deer, being run down by the hounds.
And as the little thing staggeredto die, it turned in terror to face the dogs.
But in turning, the pitiful little thing saw the hunter standing there. And with
one lastburst of energy, the little fawn ran to the hunter and fell prostrate at
his feet. The man was amazed. He pickedup the little thing in his arms,
fought off the dogs, carriedit home, loved it, made a pet of it, and kept it as a
reminder of such sublime and infinite faith.

The hounds of hell run us down! Look over your shoulder, look behind you—
sin, and death, and the grave, and corruption, and judgment—and in our
terror, as we face the inexorable and inevitable foe, we see Jesus. And we fall
at His feet, “Lord, Lord, againstsuch foes, I have no ableness orpower to do
it; a sinner, a dying man, facing the grave and an eternity, for what Lord?
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God, be pitiful to me as I fall at Thy feet. If
I can trust the promises of the Book and if I can trust the sweetexperience of
mother and father, and ten thousand times ten thousand since, Jesus will pick
me up and keepme and save me and present me somedayfaultless before the
greatGlory, receive us into glory” [Jude 24]. This is a revelationof God. Eye
doesn’t discoverit, eardoesn’t discern it, the human creative faculty doesn’t
reachit. It is something God does for us. Oh, bless and praise His wonderful
name! Now, may we stand together?
Our Lord Jesus, how could we ever frame the sentence to sayit? The depths
of our gratitude for the gospelmessagethat came unto us; heard when I was a
boy and the messagefell upon a heart, eagerand open and yielded and
willing. And the Holy Spirit invited to a faith that saves, to a Saviorthat
keeps, to a fellowship in the family of God. O Lord, I praise Thee forever.
Now dear Jesus, may this message fallupon hearts that the Holy Spirit has
opened. May God bear it to the soul that is responsive and sensitive. And
may that other faculty that we have, the faculty that canknow God, may the
Lord speak to us and in a marvelous, miraculous way turn our foolishwisdom
of this world into the infinite, eternal, lovely, beautiful, glorious, spiritual,
soul-saving wisdom of God.
And while our people pray and wait, you, a family you, to respond: tell your
wife, “Wife, let’s go.” Tellyour children, “Let’s go.” A family you to come
forward, a couple you, or just one somebody you, “This day we have decided
for God, and we are coming.” Don’t anybody leave, stay here for this
precious moment of appeal. I will give you opportunity to leave in just a little
bit, after the invitation. I will keepthat promise, but stay here now. Stayand
pray, stay and wait.

And Spirit of Jesus, touch the heart, and the home, and the life, and the soul
of these that all ought to come this morning, and we will love Thee and praise
Thee for the response, in Thy dear name, amen.
Downthat stairway, down one of these aisles, “Here we are, pastor. Here we
stand.” Do it now. Come now. Welcome now, while we wait and pray, and
while we sing.
BIBLEHUB
MESSAGES AND COMMENTARYON VERSE 10
The Holy Spirit As The Revealer
1 Corinthians 2:10-16
H. Bremner
In this sectionthe apostle develops more fully the subject of revelation
through the Spirit of God. The things prepared by God for them that love him
have not been discoveredby human wisdom, nor canthey be apprehended by
natural reason. As they come from God, they are made known to us by God
through the operationof the revealing Spirit.
I. THE COMPETENCE OF THE REVEALING SPIRIT. "Forthe Spirit
searchethall things," etc. He is competent to revealto us the things of God,
because he has a thorough knowledge ofthem. There is nothing in God that is
hid from him, not even the "deep things." The nature, perfections, purposes
of the Almighty are patent to his eye. This is explained by an analogybetween
the spirit of a man and the Spirit of God. "For who among men knoweththe
things of a man," etc.? The depths of my being do not lie open to the eyes of
others. They cannot observe the hidden motive, the secretdesire, and all the
movements that precede the formation of a purpose. They see only what is
without, and from that infer what is within. But to my own spirit all that inner

regionis unveiled. I am immediately conscious ofall that is going on within
me. "Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God." We
can see a little of God's working in tile universe, and from that we cangather
something of his mind; but we cannot by searching find him out. We can only
make dark guessesata few truths regarding him, whilst the matters of his
grace are completely hidden from us. But the Spirit of God knows the things
of God, as the spirit of a man knows the things of the man. He does not know
them by inference. As dwelling in God and himself God, he knows them
immediately, infallibly, and perfectly. The analogyis not to be pressedbeyond
this particular point. The apostle is not speaking of the relation betweenthe
Spirit and the Godhead, exceptin regard to the Spirit's perfectknowledge.
From all this the fitness of the Spirit to be our Instructor in the things of God
is manifest. The argument is not that he is superior to every other teacher, but
that in the nature of things he is the only Teacher. He alone fully knows;he
alone can fully reveal.
II. THE WORK OF THE REVEALING SPIRIT. The all knowing Spirit,
proceeding from God, is imparted to believers. As "the spirit of the world"
works in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), the Spirit of God dwells
and works in the children of faith. tits work appears in two ways.
1. In teaching us to know the things of God. "Thatwe might know," etc. (ver.
12). The things prepared for them that love God arc the free gifts of his grace.
They have been provided at infinite cost, but to us they are given "without
money and without price." These things are taught us by the Spirit, who, as
"the Anointing from the Holy One," gives us to know all things (1 John 2:20).
How greata privilege to have such a Teacher!How far does it raise the
Christian above the wise of this world! How accurate and assuredshould be
our knowledge!And this knowledge is more than the apprehension of certain
doctrines as true, or the persuasionthat the gospelis God's way of salvation.
We know his gracious gifts only in so far as we receive them. Justificationand
sanctificationare verities only to the justified and sanctified. The way to
spiritual knowledge is through faith and personalexperience.
2. In teaching us to speak the things of God. Paul has in view, first of all, his
own case. It was his work as a preacher to declare the glad tidings to men, and

this he did, "not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit
teacheth." He was not left to his own unaided skill in choosing the forms
under which he presented the truth. The Spirit gave him utterance as wellas
knowledge, taughthim the very words he was to employ. This statement
covers both his oral and his written teaching. Apart from theories on the
subject, inspiration must be held to extend to the verbal framework of
apostolic teaching, as wellas to the teaching itself; yet so as to give free play to
the writer's own form of thought and style of expression. He fitted spiritual
truth to words suggestedby the Spirit (this is one probable meaning of
πνευματικοῖς πνευματικὰσυγκρίνοντες, ver. 13), and so interpreted spiritual
things to spiritual men (according to another probable meaning). Does not
this apply in measure to all speakersfor Christ? The apostles had a special
inspiration for their specialwork, but many in the Church at Corinth had a
gift of utterance (1 Corinthians 1:5). May not preachers, teachers, writers,
and all who tell the story of Christ crucified, expectsimilar help?
III. THE NECESSITYFOR THE REVEALING SPIRIT. This appears in the
contrastdrawn betweenthe natural man and the spiritual man (vers. 14-16).
The natural man (ψυχικός)is he who is in the fallen condition into which sin
has brought mankind, and in whom the faculty of' knowing Divine things (the
spirit, πνεῦμα) is dormant. Such a man is not necessarilysensualor brutish,
but he is earthly - all his movements being governedby the lowerpart of his
incoporealnature (ψυχή), and directed to selfishends. The spiritual man
(πνευματικός)is he in whom the spiritual faculty (πνεῦμα), by which we
discern the things of God, has been wakenedinto life and activity by the Spirit
of God. This quickenedspirit, dwelt in by the Holy Spirit, becomes the ruling
part of his nature, to which thought, desire, purpose, passion, are in
subjection (compare the threefold division of human nature in 1
Thessalonians 5:23, which may be illustrated by the threefold division of the
tabernacle - the holy of holies, the holy place, and the outer court). Hence:
1. "The natural man
(1) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him." He fails to understand them, and, not thinking that the fault is in
himself, he rejects them as absurd. They cross his prejudices and overturn his

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