1st Corinthians 2 13 which things
also we speak Not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth But
which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with
spiritual But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know
them because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But
we have the mind of Christ. The things which we speak, which
things we speak, he says in verse 13 there. The things we speak
are the things that God has revealed unto us, verses nine and 10.
Look back at those verses with me. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,
but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. You can't
perceive with your eyes, your ears, or your heart. the things
of God, but God reveals them to his people, his elect, by
his Spirit. And that is what Paul is referring
to in verse 13. Which things? We speak. We tell. When God reveals something
to us, we tell it. We herald it. We preach. what
we know by the grace of God. What I observe with my eyes can't
be trusted. Well, this has been my experience.
Well, that might be interesting, but it's not the word God. What
I reason in my mind cannot be trusted. Or a preacher's real
clever. Well, that's great, but that's
not the gospel. My opinions can't be trusted.
What Mama used to say can't be trusted unless it's what God
said. And she didn't say what God said
unless God revealed it to her. Now, not only is God's word alone
the truth, nothing else can be trusted. But what God has revealed
to us in his word are the words of eternal life. Not only are they the only reliable
source of truth, they're necessary. You can only trust what God said
and you must trust what God said. Only God can reveal what you
are. For example, as long as you lean
on the understanding of the flesh, you may acknowledge that you've
done some bad things. Most people I've known that have,
I guess, critiqued themselves or judged themselves would say
that they've done a lot of bad things, but their good outweighs
the bad. Well, that's a perfect example
of the fact that unless God reveals to you in his word what you are,
you don't understand that you don't have any good. much less
enough to outweigh anything else. And you're not gonna bow to that
now. You might be forced to acknowledge it. There is none good, no, not
one. There is none that seek after
God. In my flesh, Paul said, dwelleth no good thing. Doctrinally, you might be forced
to acknowledge that, but you're not gonna embrace that in your
heart without God revealing it to you. in you. As long as we lean on the flesh,
we're going to admit, you know, yeah, I've done some bad things,
but God's got to show you that you're a spiritual leper. You
can't do anything about it. And when you see that, how horrible
you are in the sight of God and how that you can't do anything
about it, you'll cry out to the Savior. But not until then. And that's why he shows you that,
so that you'll cry out to the Savior. You won't know who he
is. You won't know who God is. You
won't know what he did. Most people say, well, that was
the Lord just showing how much God loves us when he died on
Calvary. If that was it, we're in trouble. He stretched out
his arms and said, I love you this much. If that was it, we're
in trouble. He poured out his precious blood,
a sin offering for the sins of his people, and redeemed them
with it. That's what he accomplished on
Calvary. God's got to reveal these things. And only the Spirit of God, as
our text says so plainly, can know and reveal who God is and
what he's done. Verses 11 and 12, let's read
them together again because they bear very heavily upon our text
tonight. Verses 11 and 12. For what man
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? This is an example that Paul
gives, an illustration, if you will, of what he means by God
teaching us by his spirit in us. It's more than just the spirit
is a better teacher than man, which is obviously true, that's
an understatement. But he dwells in us. He's part
of us. We understand because we have
his spirit. That's more than just being taught
externally by God, which is also vital. But we bear witness with
our spirit that we're the sons of God by the spirit that dwelleth
in us. For what man knoweth the things
of the man, verse 11, say the spirit of man which is in him,
even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. We can't know what God has done
for sinners. unless God dwells in us and bears
witness with our spirit. And I want you to notice something
in particular now about that in verses 11 and 12. When God
reveals to you himself in the salvation of your soul, notice
the way that that's characterized in verses nine and 12. But as
it is written, verse nine, I hath not seen nor heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. God hath prepared for you. Verse 12, now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. What God teaches us, He does
so for no reason in us. Not only do we have no way of
knowing anything without Him, but us knowing anything by Him,
because of Him dwelling in us, happens because of Him. I hope
that makes sense. We not only can't know anything
until he does something for us. But until he gives us his spirit,
we don't even know we don't know anything. A worship service to this world.
Think about this. A worship service to this world
is a get-together of religious people in the hopes that sinners
will do something for God, that sinners will make a decision
for God, that somebody will dedicate their lives to God. That's what
all they're preaching is. It's enticing. It's persuasive. in order to make these things
happen. Somebody needs to dedicate their life to God tonight. Somebody
needs to commit themselves to the service of God. Does anybody
want to surrender to preach or whatever they call it now? It's
all about doing something, anything. Somebody do something for God.
I was in it for a long time. I know what it's about. The problem
with that is that God doesn't need you. You need Him. It's completely reversed. You
need Him to do something for you. You need Him to show you
what's true, to reveal to you, to give you an understanding
of what's true, and He does that sovereignly. You need to know
God, and the only way you can know God is if God reveals Himself
to you. So we come here and we come preach
the gospel because we know that this is how God has chosen to
do something for sinners. That's our hope tonight. That's
our prayer. We're not in the same business
religion is in. Somebody contacted me one time
wanting to get together, you know, and work together and It
was by email, so I looked him up online and his website said
he was in, they were in the business of making Jesus famous. And I,
so I emailed him back, I said, we're not in the same business.
I don't see any point in us getting together. You know, if I was
a forklift, I used to be a forklift, so somebody called me up and
said, hey, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a contractor, you know, let's
get together and talk business. Well, let's I can rent you or
sell you a forklift. There's nothing we can talk about.
You're not in the same business. We got nothing to talk about. And that's just true of us now
in this world. We don't we're not we're not
doing what they're doing. We're not interested in what
they did. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's the business
we're in. When the Lord walked this earth,
everybody hated him. You think that's going to change
now? We're going to make him popular now? And that's the previous chapter,
that verse I just quoted. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them. I believe that's in chapter one,
verse 21. So you see what Paul is dealing
with here in this entire chapter and the vital nature of it. It's
gonna dictate everything that we do here in this place, in
the ministry of our Lord. Everybody in religion is always
saying, well, I just want to serve God. Do you have any idea
what he's doing? If not, how are you going to
serve him? You're not trying to get sinners
to do things for him. That's not what he's doing. If
you think that is right, then it's going to be hard for you
to serve him. And by the way, he doesn't take
a lot of volunteers anyway, does he? One man said, I'll follow
you. I'm going to follow you from
now on. He said, I don't even have a
place to lay my head at night. You have no idea what you're
talking about. Send him away. And then the Lord
went to somebody else and said, you're going to follow me. And
the man says, well, I've got things to do. I've got to bury
my father. My father, once everything is, you know, with my Earthly
responsibilities is taken care of that. I'll come follow you.
What's it? Let the dead bury their dead You follow me So this is what Paul is talking
about here it's what God it's how God saves a sinner Most people
Most so-called preachers. This is I'm sure an understatement
and you know it as well as I do. I They'll bloviate for hour upon
end and tell stories, heart-wrenching stories about so-and-so's son
that died in a car wreck and how mama prayed for him every
night and all this kind of stuff. And they'll sit there for year
after year and nobody is ever told how God saves a sinner. If I'm a sinner and I go there,
I need to know how to be saved. I need to know if there's any
hope for me, for a wretch like me. You're not gonna find out
until you know to somebody, God reveals to somebody how he saves
sinners. All of this religious world,
needs to quit trying to get sinners to do something and start preaching
the gospel of the victorious, successful savior of sinners,
almighty, the almighty savior who saves sinners freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in him. That's what needs
to happen. Why won't they do that? Because
they don't know that gospel. It's a mystery. It hasn't been
revealed. To you it is given, he said to
his disciples, to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. To them,
it is not given. They can't preach what they don't
know. They can't preach who they don't
know. It's a mystery that God has not
revealed to them, and so that's why they don't know it. But we
do. We do. By the grace of God, Paul said,
we get it. God has revealed to us who he
is and what he's done for sinners and how he saves sinners. Who
is sufficient for that? Do you realize what a great I
hate to use the word responsibility because it's an honor and a privilege,
but what a great burden it is. I guess it's what the prophets
used to call it, the burden of the Lord. When you had a message
from God that you had to deliver to sinners. The gospel we preach is the saver
of life and death. That's what happens here. Are
you in on that? Don't put your feelings above
that. Don't put your pride above that. Don't let your flesh ruin
that. And I'm talking to myself. God
will discard us like the filthy rags we are, and he'll be right
to do it. God help us to honor him in all,
to be stewards of his grace, By His grace, we know. We know
who He is. We know how He saves sinners.
We know what it took. We know what we are. We have
the mind of Christ. We discern all things, Paul said,
everything that's worth knowing. If you know Christ, you know
everything worth knowing. Lord, give us an understanding
of the gravity of what this is. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. Very, very few places do, or
people. Remember what Paul said to Timothy
in 1 Timothy 1.11. Listen to this passage. According
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed
to my trust, And I thank Christ Jesus our
Lord who hath enabled me. Who is sufficient for these things?
Christ Jesus our Lord hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful
putting me into the ministry. Are you in on this ministry?
That's of the Lord too. His preachers are enabled So
are his people. To be in on this ministry, do we even know what that means? These are questions to answer
in our hearts. And notice we speak these things
a certain way. Deliberately not in the words
of the wisdom that this world teaches. Now Paul has already
elaborated on that, but he mentions it again in the context here
of what I was saying a while ago, how that not only do you
need to know things that you can't know, the only way you're
gonna know them is by a means that you can't bring to pass,
you can't manipulate, you can't control. You can't know it and
you can't make it happen. But remember these five or six
things about the manner of our preaching. We looked at these
things before, but not from this aspect, necessarily. The manner of our preaching,
which is, by the way, consistent with the message we preach. What
you preach will determine how you preach it. Paul said, first
of all, in verse one, I've got to stay out of the way of the
message. I've got to stay out of the way.
If my preaching ability impresses you, and that's what you take
home with you from here, I have failed. Verse one, God doesn't speak
to sinners by impressing them with human wisdom or talent.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels. And there's no reason
whatsoever, in fact there's every reason, not to try to pretend
otherwise. As I've said to you before, I
don't have a message for you tonight because I'm smart. I
don't have a message for you tonight because I thought real
hard about things. I have a message for you tonight
because God has shown me some things by his spirit that dwell
in me. And that same spirit dwells in
you, so when you hear it, you're gonna say, that's right, that's
right. And we're gonna rejoice together
in the truth of God. Secondly, in verse two, our manner
of preaching is nothing but. It's very important for me to
preach nothing Nothing else, nothing but. If it's not Christ, it's not
just a waste of time. It's a lot worse than that. We
have one message and we preach a person. We're not preaching
a philosophy. We're not preaching a set of
doctrines. If I tell you that I used to
drive, when I was a teenager, I drove a Plymouth Duster. I
know you're sad for me. That's beside the point. I drove
a Plymouth Duster. It was a real beaut. It was brown. When I was a teenager, I grew
up and I went to school in Deer Park, Texas. And I like, probably
my favorite thing to eat is probably seafood gumbo. I love seafood
gumbo. When I tell you those things,
I'm not teaching you about cars or geography or food. I'm telling
you about me. It all has to do with me. And
whether from the scriptures, we're talking about heaven or
hell or works or forgiveness, We're talking about Christ. We're
preaching Him because it all has to do with Him. When we preach
Him, all these other things and matters come up in the conversation
because all of it concerns God's Son. Thirdly, we preach as those who
can do nothing. Verse three in our text. There's a lot of things I would
love to see happen as a result of my preaching. I can't make any of them happen.
I have no ability to cause those things. That's what Paul's saying. I came to you in weakness. That
word means inability. It means lacking strength, lacking
the requisite capacity. I'm out of my depth, I'm impotent. I want you to be comforted tonight.
I can't comfort you. I want you to be taught of God
and not me. I can't see to that. I want you
to be saved. I want you to prioritize the
things of God and not the things of the flesh, tomorrow and every
day after that. I want you to glorify Christ
in all of your life. I want you to reckon that if
he died for us, that we might live, that we ought to not live
to ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. I want you to live every moment
like that. I can do nothing about it. Nothing. In those results, I am where
verse three says I am. Lacking strength, lacking the
requisite capacity, I can't get it done. I can't even make it
happen in my own heart, much less yours. We utterly depend
upon Christ. That's why we stand in fear and
trembling. I tremble before God knowing
something of the magnitude of what this is. I'm not scared of you. Preachers
aren't scared of sinners. Paul wasn't trembling because
he was nervous about speaking in front of people. When you
stand in the sight of God and speak for him, and the consequences are life
and death eternal. If you're not trembling, then
you're dead. This religious world doesn't
preach in weakness and trembling. They preach, and what they're
doing is getting people saved. They don't stand impotent and
helpless. They're trying to make things
happen, and they think they're making things happen. And they're
gonna answer to God for it. And then Paul said in verse four
that even if I had the power to get you to do something for
God, It wouldn't save you. It wouldn't save you. God doesn't
save sinners that way. To entice, that word enticing,
it means to induce one by persuasion to do something. That's religion
all day long. It's not what we're doing here.
By the grace of God, it's not. The last thing that needs to
happen in the matter of your salvation is for you to do something. What you've done, what you're
doing, and what you will do is what you need to be saved from.
Your sins. Your doing is the problem. You're
not gonna do your way out of this. Every time you do something,
you rack up more sin debt before God. Here's how God says, Hebrews
4.10, for he that is entered into his rest, He also hath ceased from his
own works as God did from his. You remember when the Lord rested?
On the seventh day, on the Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. God rests,
he is content with Christ and what he did. And bless his holy
name, so are we. And you can only know the Lord
Jesus Christ as we've seen in all of this by the revelation
of the Spirit. Look at the last part of verse
13. For which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Here's what that looks like.
Man can teach you doctrine. And when he does, you can talk
about doctrine, which things we speak. Only God can reveal Christ to
you. And then, when he does, you'll
preach him and not doctrine. If you don't know the difference
yet between preaching Christ and preaching doctrine, there
are many that don't. They've told me they don't. They've berated
me for making it be a difference. If you don't know the difference
between preaching Christ and just preaching facts, it's because to you there isn't
a difference. You have to know Christ to know
the difference. We preach a person. Paul said
knowledge, even true knowledge. Though I know all things and
understand all mysteries and have not what? Love. I don't preach to you because
I know stuff. I preach to you by the grace
of God because I love the Lord Jesus Christ. and I love you. He'll always send you a messenger
that loves you, a man after his own heart. Knowledge puffeth up, but love
buildeth up. Love edify, that means build
up. If I know things, even true things,
it will puff me up, but if I love a person, And by God's grace, I can tell
you about him. To know him is to love him. It's
no accident now, it's not a coincidence that the Lord brought these things
up before Simon. Together, he said, Simon, do
you love me? Do you love me? Not how much
do you know, not have you been, you know, studying your doctrine. Do you love me? Lord, you know
everything. You know that I love you. Go tell somebody who I am. Feed
my sheep. Preach. Which things we speak. Why? Because we know so much?
No. Because by God's grace, we love
the Savior. And I love you. I want you to
love the Savior. If you know him, you do. God didn't say I'll send you
pastors as smart as Solomon. But I'll send you pastors after
my own heart. Thank God for that. Thank God
for that. He sent me a pastor. that loved
God and that loved me. That's a big difference now.
That's a big difference between the words of man's wisdom and
the words of the Spirit of God. Man can study facts and learn
them, but the Holy Spirit gives us understanding of the very
heart of God himself. Even as the Spirit of a man Only in here, only I know me. And only God
knows God. And he to whomsoever the son
will reveal. Man cannot teach you that. He can't show you what's in the
heart of God himself. Paul says, we know that. We know
that. Look at verses 11 and 12 again
now. For what man knoweth the things
of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so
the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God, that
we have received that spirit. Not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given unto us of God. Man cannot teach you that. God has got to bear witness in
your very soul concerning who he is and what he's done for
you. This is exactly, exactly what
Paul is saying in Galatians 1.11. Turn over there with me please
if you would. This is scripture shedding light
on scripture right here. What we're talking about, what
we know, man can't teach you that. I can tell you about it
because I know it by God's grace. But God's got to dwell within
you just like he does me or you're not gonna know, you're not gonna
get it. And this is exactly what Paul's saying in Galatians 1.11,
but I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me, or by me, is not after man. For I neither received it
of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now, think about that. That's
exactly what our text is teaching. But look at the context in which
Paul said this. Look at verse eight. Galatians
1, eight. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed. For do I
now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ, the so-called gospel that is of the words that man's
wisdom teacheth. What does it do? It pleases man. It pleases man. It's exactly
what man wants to hear. It glorifies man. It exalts man. It takes away the offense of
the cross. Natural man has itching ears
for such teachers. But that's not our gospel. Our
gospel exalts and glorifies Christ and puts man in the dust. And
man doesn't like it in the dust. It's where we belong, but we
don't like it there. It leaves man hanging upon the mercy of
God and Christ. You're not gonna preach that
gospel until God dwells inside of you. And you're not gonna
understand it unless and until God dwells inside of you. And then let's close looking
at this last phrase, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Now I've always thought that this meant comparing scripture
with scripture because the scripture is spiritual. It's not, this is not of man.
This is not the wisdom of man written down in a book. The Lord
Jesus Christ said, the words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. And it's true that we do
compare scripture with scripture. Scripture sheds light on scripture,
but that's not what's being said here. And it's important we understand
that, what is being said here. The word comparing here is determining
or judging or discerning. The word comparing, as we normally
understand it, is not completely wrong, because as I said, we
know spiritual truth because we know other spiritual truth,
if that makes sense. We know certain things because
we know other things, and it's all spiritual. If the flesh ever
enters into it, it's a mixture, it's poison, it defiles. The flesh has no say in spiritual
matters. None. But in the context of this chapter,
Paul is saying it takes spiritual understanding to know spiritual
truth. Comparing or discerning spiritual
things with spiritual life. And we don't have time to expound
verse 14 tonight, we won't take the time, but let's look at it,
let's read it, in connection with this verse. And you'll see,
I think it'll make it real clear. Verse 14, but the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. You see what that, When he says
we compare spiritual things, or we discern spiritual things
with spiritual understanding. The natural man can't do that.
So you see the context of it. Because he doesn't have spiritual
understanding. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Now in closing, consider what's
happening here tonight then. Since what we just read is the
truth of God. And we see here that only a man,
this is the illustration that Paul gave us, only a man can
tell you what's in the heart of that man. I can tell you what's
in my mind and in my heart with authority because it's my
heart. But otherwise, you can't know
it. That's how it is with God. A man can't tell me what's in
the heart of God unless he has the heart of God, unless God
has dwelt in him and taught him the things of God. God has given us his spirit or
his mind as it's called here in the context also so that I
can tell you with understanding what's in the very heart of God Obviously we can't, by searching,
find out God in all of his glory. The finite can't understand the
infinite completely and perfectly. I realize that and you do too. But God has given us the mind
of his son, the heart, the understanding, the spirit, that discernment. Just as surely as I can tell
you what's in my heart, I can tell you what's in God's heart
because of God giving me the capacity to do that. And you know it's right because
you have his spirit too. You know it's right. You hear
it, and you say, boy, that's the truth. That's the truth. Why would somebody enjoy hearing
how horrible they are? You ever think about that? Somebody
stands up here and tells me what a terrible wretch I am, and how
disgusting before God. You know why I rejoice in that? Because I have the mind of the
Savior. The truth sets us free, and we love the truth, whatever
it is, then God, he doesn't just reveal
that to us, but he reveals the freeness of his grace, the depth
of his mercy in Christ Jesus. But this is where our joy and
rest come from. This is how we're able to rejoice
together Rest together in Christ because we don't just theoretically
believe that Christ is all We know he is Does that make sense? We know he is just as surely
as we know ourselves we know God as surely as we know ourselves
And again, I'm not saying we even know ourselves perfectly
I can sit here and tell you what's in my heart tonight and miss
a lot of stuff that's in there because I don't want to talk
about it. And most, a lot of it I don't even, I'm not even
aware of how evil it is. But this illustration stands
now. We can speak concerning that we know. And we know what
we know because of God. I don't just tell you that the
Lord is gracious based on various truthful statements. I've tasted
that he's gracious. And so those who have also tasted
that he's gracious can rejoice with me in that grace. Free, sovereign grace of God in Christ. when we both know. We don't know even as we're known
just yet, but we know. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee. Not know about you, not know
facts concerning God and heaven and other things, but that they
might know thee, the only true God. Jesus Christ who died soon And we who have tasted that he's
gracious and not just heard about it Will rejoice together Will rest together in him And
by his grace will worship together you can worship that God Sovereign and almighty to say
Well, that's pretty good.