God’s Superior Plan

The laver at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has a very important place in the worship of those who come there. The worshipers come to wash. They wash their hands and their feet, they rinse out their mouths, and they wash their faces, but their hearts are untouched. Nothing has happened to their hearts.

Jesus spoke one time of how people are defiled. The Pharisees were concerned because the disciples were coming from the marketplace and had not washed their hands before they ate. So they complained to Jesus about this. Jesus taught a different way. Notice Mark 7:15-23:

There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

You see, Jesus understood that defilement comes from within, not from without. Oh, many people
would like to clean up the outside and make themselves acceptable to God. I want to tell you, friend,
you can’t do it. You cannot make yourself acceptable to God by trying to clean up the outside. The
reason is He is absolutely holy! He understands the inside as nobody else does. In fact, you cannot hide anything from Him. He has a better plan than trying to clean up yourself outside or any other way. His plan is one that meets our need where we cannot meet it.

Paul lists the works of the flesh in his letter to the Galatians, in 5:19-21:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, what can we do? You and I have to confess that we have these problems, we have these situations arising. There must be a way to overcome them somehow. How shall we do it? What can we do? We have to depend upon God’s plan. I wish to show you GOD ’S SUPERIOR PLAN. It is found in I Corinthians 1:26-31:

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are:

29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

God’s plan is superior because it has certain inherent QUALITIES that we so tragically need.
The first quality is:

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

The apostle said, “not many wise,” those who feel self-sufficient by human standards. I have to tell
you that all academic credentials are of no value as far as the salvation of your soul is concerned. As far as God’s plan is concerned, your academic credentials are worthless. “Not many wise,” the apostle says, “not many mighty.”

The powerful have no particular standing before God, no special standing. The fact of the matter is
they sense no need. The powerful feel like, “I can do it myself. I don’t have to depend on anybody
else.” That is what the Humanist Manifesto says. “I don’t need to depend on anybody else. I don’t need anybody outside of myself.” Oh, what a sad situation that is!

But the apostle goes on to say, “not many noble” well born. Some depend upon the family name.
Name is important, some people think. My family is of blue blood, of special breeding. But God says,
“not many noble.” God is no respecter of persons. He does not look on faces. The Bible gives an
example, an experience Jesus had when a man came to Him to find out how to get to heaven. This is
what Jesus told him in Luke 18:18-24:

And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

See, the first quality of God’s plan is that it is exclusive in its calling. Listen to what another man
says about that: In respect to each of these classes, the apostle does not say that there were no men of wealth, power, and birth, but that the mass or body of Christians was not composed of such. They were made up of those who were in humble life. There were a few, indeed, of rank and property, as there are now; but then, as now, the great mass was composed of those who were from the lower conditions of society.

Yes, that is true today. Don’t be discouraged.
The second quality is:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are:

29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

It seems like the apostle began at the bottom and descended. You might be surprised at that, but I want you to notice how he began at the bottom with the word base “and base things of the world.” That means ignoble, of little consequence in the eyes of man. You wouldn’t start there, would you? That is where Paul started. That is where God started with the superior plan, the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, not of any value. You see, we are going down. Base, despised, and then nonexistent, descending the list finally to nothing, at the end of the line. There is no other choice now. It is conclusive.

Those nonentities bring to nothing things that are! Can you imagine that? Look at what the apostle said there. And the “things which are not, to bring to naught things that are.” Nonentities bring to nothing things that are. As the result, no flesh can stand up. Listen to the apostle Paul again. He knew of it and he wrote about it in Philippians 3:7-11.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Amen? All that you can bring together is nothing. To experience God’s Superior Plan, we must come
with nothing and as nothing. Another made this remark:

There is no royal way to the favor of God. No monarch is saved because he is a monarch; no
philosopher because he is a philosopher; no rich man because he is rich; no poor man because he is
poor. All are placed on a level. All are to be saved in the same way. All are to become willing to give
the entire glory to God. All are to acknowledge him as providing the plan, and as furnishing the grace that is needful for salvation. God’s design is to bring down the pride of man and to produce
everywhere a willingness to acknowledge him as the fountain of blessings and the God of all. Yes, Amen!

The third quality is:

30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Oh, stay with me here. “But of him,” coming from Him in contrast to the plans of men. God’s plan
focuses on Christ Jesus. Men’s plans focus on themselves. God’s plan draws from Jesus. So these four wonderful experiences of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption we have in Jesus. The fullness of salvation includes all of these.

It includes wisdom. Human understanding lacks wisdom-sofia. Divine wisdom is abundant.

I quote: “It often happens that obscure and ignorant men, who have been taught in the school of Christ, have more true and real knowledge of that which concerns their welfare, and evince more real practical wisdom than can be learned in all the schools of philosophy and learning on earth.” Amen. That is right. A Christian can see farther on his knees than a philosopher can on his tiptoes.

And then righteousness, right standing with God. We are all by nature alienated from God.
We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We want to get into right standing with God. This is where Jesus Christ comes in. I quote:

Thus he is in fact a pardoned and justified man, and God so reckons and judges. God’s law is honored, and the sinner is pardoned and saved; and it is now as consistent for God to treat him as a righteous man, as it would be if he had never sinned since there is as high honor shown to the law of God, as there would have been had he been personally obedient, or had he personally suffered its penalty. Amen. The righteousness of God!

Then He was made unto us sanctification. That means to be made holy. But only God is holy. By Christ, we are made holy. We give ourselves the members of our bodies to Him, as Paul wrote in Romans 6:18-19:

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

And then redemption completed, fully, wholly, completely redeemed, soul, spirit, and body! Marvelous! Paul’s great chapter on the resurrection is proof positive of how in Christ Jesus we are made redemption.

I quote:

The sense is, “it is by Christ that we are redeemed; by him that an atonement is made; by him that we are pardoned; by him that we are delivered from the dominion of sin, and the power of our enemies; and by him that we shall be rescued from the grave, and raised up to everlasting life. Thus the whole work depends on him; and no part of it is to be ascribed to the philosophy, the talent, or the wisdom of men. He does not merely aid us; he does not complete that which is imperfect; he does not come in to do a part of the work, or to supply our defects but it is all to be traced to him.”

Yes, Amen.

Not to our names, thou only just and true,
Not to our worthless names is glory due;
Thy power and grace, thy truth and justice claim
Immortal honors to thy sovereign name. Amen.

We may rightly glory only in Him. Friend, rejoice in God’s Superior Plan because of:

There is no other way. You cannot figure out your own way to God.