1 Corinthians chapter 2. My message and my text for you
this morning sets forth a very basic doctrinal truth. It's a
very straightforward word. There's nothing hard to understand
about it. It's impossible to believe apart from divine revelation,
but there's nothing hard to understand about it. It's impossible to
submit and bow to it apart from divine intervention, but it's
not hard to understand. God's word was never meant to
be hard to understand. Paul said, never let your minds
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. The doctrine
of substitution is very easy to understand. We by nature understand
something about substitution. We watch sports. We see players
substituted for other players. We have the basic concept. But
in the gospel, what makes the doctrine of substitution so glorious
is that God substituted himself in my place and worked out a
perfect righteousness for me, taking my sin upon himself and
giving me his perfect righteousness. Now that's a substitution that
I'm interested in. How about you? How about you? There will be some who in the
end will forever perish, but it won't be because they didn't
understand the plain truth of the scriptures. It'll be because
they hated Christ. and they hated his gospel of
substitution. And there's no greater proof
of man's natural hatred of the gospel than his attempt with
pride to promote his own personal righteousness as a means of salvation. The downfall of the devil and
his demons, the downfall of Adam and his wife, The downfall of
kings and emperors and monarchs have been found in their determination
to have their own way through their own work, determined by
their own will. How thou art fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, O day star, sun of the morning! How art thou cast
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou
hast said in thine heart, now listen to this, this is what
he said, he said, I will. I will ascend into heaven. I
will exalt my throne above the stars. I will sit upon the mount
of the congregation. I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds. I will be like the Most High."
What did God say to Lucifer? He said, yet thou shalt be brought
down to hell, to the sides of the pit. He said, all will look
to thee narrowly. They'll just take a glance at
you. They'll pay you little attention. All will look to you and say,
is this the man? Is this the man who made the
earth to tremble? Is this the man who did shake
kingdoms? And whether that verse speaks
of Satan, Lucifer, or the king of Babylon, some say, that speaks
of him, or mankind in general, I don't know. But this is the
attitude. This is what I want you to see.
This is the attitude that fallen man has of himself. I will. I will. What are they
gonna say who stand before God on the day of judgment? Haven't
we? Haven't we? Look what we've done.
Haven't we done many wonderful works? This is an attitude that
God finds utterly blasphemous. Nebuchadnezzar, you remember
old King Nebuchadnezzar? He said, is this not great Babylon
that I have built by the might of my power for the honor of
my majesty? It was all about him. It was
all about his honor, his glory, his magnificence. What did God
say to Nebuchadnezzar? While the word was yet in the
king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And you
know the rest of the story. God made him like a beast in
the field. He didn't even resemble a man.
And when his understanding returned, he blessed the Most High, and
he praised and he honored him. And what did he say then? He
said, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and he, God, doeth according to his will in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Salvation is not
about our will and what we do for God, it never has been. was
the promise of ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,
that caused our first parents to take the bait and forever
throw us into sin and death. And our Lord told a parable in
Luke chapter 12 about a certain rich man who brought forth plenty. God had blessed him. He'd given
him great increase, so much so that he said, this will I do.
This is what I'm gonna do. I'm going to tear down my barn,
pull down, tear down my barn. I will build greater." And then
he said this, he said, I will say to my soul. That's what we
have today. We have a lot of people talking
to their own soul and their own hearts about what the gospel
is. He said, I'll say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid
up for many years. You see, he thought he was a
self-made man. There is no such thing. All that
we have is given to us by the mercy and grace of God, whether
we know it or acknowledge it. No such thing as a self-made
man. He said to his soul, take thine ease. Eat, drink, and be
merry. And that's what he said unto
himself. You see, that was his inward attitude. And that's the
attitude of the natural man. What did God say to this rich
man? Do you remember? He said, Thou fool! This night
thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall these things
be which thou hast provided? I tell you, friends, any more
you preach Christ and Him crucified, nothing more, nothing less, and
nothing else, and some will love it. They'll believe it. They'll
rest in it. They'll make it their hope. And
others will hate it, reject it, and think it to be utter foolishness.
Now I want to attempt this morning to show you why there are some,
and then there are others. Some who believe, others who
don't. Some who love Christ with great
cause, and others who hate him without a cause. Some love him
because he first loved them, That's the cause for their loving
Him. That's the cause of me loving Him. Because He first loved me.
And others do not love Christ, God's beloved Son. Okay, your
turn, 1 Corinthians 2. I've been thinking a great deal
about how there are some whom God loved, chose, and called
and saved. And there are others whom the
scripture says are born condemned in sin because they believed
not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. See, salvation has
something to do with, no, salvation has everything. to do with Christ,
believing and trusting in Him. This is the condemnation that
light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Paul said in Ephesians
2 verse 3, he said, we all had our conversation in times past
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind. And then Paul said this, he said,
and we were by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. Our
conversation, that meaning our way of life, is the way of evil. We live according to the lust
of our flesh. We fulfill those lustful desires
of the flesh, and we fulfill the lustful thoughts that our
minds have conjured up. And we are, or were by nature,
how? By nature, the children of wrath,
even as others. I made this statement Wednesday
night that there's basically one class of people, sinners,
and two types of sinners, lost and saved sinners. And that's
what Paul's talking about here. Actually, he's talking about
two classes of men and women in this chapter of 1 Corinthians
2. He talks about the natural, and
he talks about the spiritual. Now, there's a natural existence
referred to as in the flesh, and there is a spiritual existence
referred to as in the spirit. But just two classes, the men
and women. All other distinctions of mankind
are extinguished, done away with. That's why Paul wrote, neither
Jew nor Greek. There's neither barbarian or
Scythian, bond nor free, male nor female. Christ is either
all to you. Now listen, Christ is either
all to you and you are spiritual or Christ is nothing to you and
you are natural. You're either saved or you're
lost. You're either alive or you're dead. Sinners are not
divided into categories because of their symptoms. We don't put
lepers over here and put impotent folks over there and divide the
blind into one category and the lame and the deaf in another.
Just two categories. Natural man who is dead without
Christ and spiritual man who is alive and in Christ. Do we
have that? Okay, that's pretty simple. The
problem is not with understanding it. The problem is with believing
it. And there's a reason for it.
Let's see if we can find out why that is. Let's read a few
verses here, beginning in verse one. And I, brethren, when I
came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. Now the word enticing here in
verse four means persuading. Paul said, I didn't come persuading
you by some knowledge of man's wisdom. That word also means
to call someone to do something. Paul said, I didn't come to you
with great oratory skills. I didn't come trying to impress
you. I didn't come to you with some
new profound truth that nobody's ever heard before. He said, I
came to you a plain spoken man. Not with enticing words. I came to you with a straight
forward message. I came to you as a redeemed sinner
declaring the testimony of God. That's what preaching is. It's
the testimony of God. Telling folks how God saves sinners. And did you know that the word
testimony in this verse means evidence? It means proof. It means a witness. Paul said,
I've come to you with evidence of what I'm telling you, so.
I've come to you with proof. I've come to you with a witness
that what I say is so. You know, folks say things like,
did you know that so-and-so stole this or that? Well, do you have
any evidence? That's what testimony here means.
People claim that he or she said this and said that. Do you have
any proof? Do you have any witnesses? Is
there anyone who can give testimony to that? Paul said, I came to
you with one simple message. I come to you this morning, friends,
with one simple message. And that message is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Substitution. That's what that
verse is talking about. It's the only way a sinner can
be saved. God doing for the sinner what
He cannot do for Himself. Christ is going to have to die
for you to pay your sin debt. God the Son is going to have
to provide a perfect righteousness for you because God requires
perfect righteousness from you. The wrath and judgment of God
that you deserve, He suffered. Christ and Him crucified. That's
what that's telling us. Christ is gonna have to satisfy
divine justice on your behalf. And the only way he can do it
is to die on the cross in your place. That's the message. Jesus Christ and him crucified. And in verse four, Paul said,
I didn't come to you with persuasive words of man's wisdom. Now, anytime
the word man is used in these verses, it's speaking of the
natural man. Anytime it speaks of man's wisdom,
it's speaking of natural, worldly, fleshly wisdom. Paul said, I
didn't come to you with natural wisdom. I didn't come to you
with fleshly advice. We've got a lot of men and women
standing in pulpits today giving folks fleshly, worldly advice. That's not going to help you.
That's not going to help you in this matter of salvation.
Folks want to stand and tell people how to live when they
can't live the way God requires them to, and that's perfectly.
Why would I want to try to tell you how to live when I can't
live that way myself? My, my. Paul said, I came to
you in demonstration. That word means manifestation
of the Spirit. I came to you in manifestation
of the Spirit. When I came to you, God manifested
His Spirit in power. That's what it's gonna take.
That's what it's gonna take for any of us to believe, for any
of us to see. This was a spiritual revelation
that Paul claims that they had received. It certainly wasn't
a natural one. God sent His Spirit and power for a reason. Look
at verse five. That your faith, that your believing
should not stand in the wisdom of man, not in the natural wisdom
of man, not the way you would naturally think, but in the power
of God. Did you see that? Salvation comes
by an undeniable, powerful, spiritual intervention That's what it's
going to take for a sinner to be made alive, an intervention
by God. God intruding in the sinner's
life, in his heart, giving him new life. God in sovereign love,
power, and grace is going to, in time, intervene in his people's
life and make that sinner's hope Christ and Him crucified. I'm
telling you, that's the only hope that I have, that Jesus
Christ died and put away my sin. I am trusting my soul upon that
one truth. And there's a lot that I don't
know in this book, but I'm telling you that's something that God
has revealed to me, and that's all I have to know. He's my Savior. He's my life. He's done for me
what God requires and what I couldn't do. Verse 6, howbeit we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world.
nor of the princes of this world. that come to naught. Now this
is what Paul's saying here. He's saying the only people who
are gonna believe the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified
is those who have been made spiritually alive. We saw this morning in
the first hour how the Lord Jesus in talking to Nicodemus said
very plainly, except ye be born again, you cannot see the kingdom
of God. And then just a moment later,
he said, you must be born again. If a man's not born again, he
can't enter into the kingdom of God. We've got to have new
life given to us from above, friends, and that can only be
given by God. Now, we speak this wisdom, Paul
said, to them that are perfect. That Greek word is teleos, and
it means complete. It means whole, it means to be
sanctified, it means to be set apart. Only those who are perfect,
those who are sanctified, those who are set apart by God, only
then will be saved. How be it we speak wisdom, verse
six, among them that are perfect. Yet not the wisdom of the world,
not natural wisdom, not worldly wisdom, not man's wisdom, not
fleshly wisdom, not natural wisdom, nor the wisdom of the princes
of this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world unto our glory. God ordained, that word means
predestinated, predetermined. before the foundation of the
world to save a people unto glory. Do you believe that? That's what
the Bible says. He's going to conform His people
to the image of His Son. He's going to one day give them
a glorified body. Verse 8, which none of the princes
of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. Herod didn't know this. Pilate,
he didn't know this. The Jewish leaders, they didn't
know. The scribes and the Pharisees, they didn't know it. The high
priest, they didn't know it. For if they had, they would not
have crucified the Lord of Glory. Why didn't they know it? It wasn't
revealed to them. It was a mystery. It was a secret.
It was the hidden wisdom which God had determined to reveal
to His elect before. the foundation of the world.
Look at verse 9. But as it is written, I hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Now isn't that a glorious verse? Natural eye hadn't seen it. The
eye of the natural man doesn't see these things. The ear of
the natural man doesn't hear these things. The heart of the
natural man doesn't believe these things. Who believes them? Look at verse 10. But God hath
revealed them unto some. Says us, don't it? I'm glad it
says us. God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. How does God reveal spiritual
things unto His people? By His Spirit. For His Spirit
searches all things. His Spirit searches the deep
things of God and reveals them unto babe. The Lord Jesus said,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things,
I thank thee that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent of this world, the natural men and women of the
world, and hast revealed them unto babes, those who are born
by your Spirit. those who have been made spiritually
minded. And then he said, even so, Father,
it seemed good in your sight. That's why God does it. Because
He wants to. It pleased Him to do so. For
no reason outside of Himself, God showed mercy to some, and
others He let go their way. Oh, I'm telling you, that should
be reason for us to cry unto Him for mercy. Oh, do you see
your condition before God? Do you see your state before
God? You're dead in trespasses and sin, and you've got to have
life. Verse 11, for what man knoweth
the things of a man except the spirit of a man, which is in
him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God. Now I know some things about
being a man because I am a man. The spirit of man is in me. There are a lot of things that
my wife don't understand about me. Sometimes she'll say, I don't
understand how you could wear that. Your wife ever told you
that, Chris? Well, I've heard her say a time
or two, I just don't understand how you could think like that.
I don't understand how you could feel that way. And most of the
time, she doesn't understand because she's not a man. Trust
me, there are some things about you ladies that we don't understand
either. Paul here is talking to believers. He's talking to the chosen people
of God. He's speaking to those who have
received sight. He's referring to those who have
a spiritual understanding. Those whom God said, let there
be light, and there was light. He's referring to those who have
been given spiritual eyesight. Those who have been born again
who can now see the kingdom of God. That's who he's talking
to. He's talking to those that have received divine illumination. And in verse 12, we read now,
we have received not the spirit of the world, Not natural understanding,
not worldly understanding, but the Spirit, which is of God,
that we might know the things that are, what? Freely given
to us. When God opens your spiritual
eyes, you're gonna see some things differently. You are. When God gives you a new heart,
you're gonna believe differently about some things than the way
you once believed. When God gives you the mind of
Christ, you're going to know some things that are freely given
to us by God. What's freely given to us? Well,
really everything. But love, mercy, grace, they're
unmerited. Forgiveness. Did I deserve forgiveness? No. Perfect holiness. perfect righteousness, all these
things are freely given to us by God. And what gifts they are. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Not by works,
lest any man should boast. Oh, He that spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, all believers, all those
who I'm speaking of, how shall He not with Him, with Christ,
freely give us all things, Romans 8, 32. These things that are
freely given to us are the very things that we preach to others.
That's what Paul says in verse 13. Which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teaches. See, he keeps
hammering this thing home. Not man's natural worldly wisdom,
but those things which the Holy Ghost teaches. Comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. Talking about the things of the
Spirit of God. talking about the spiritual teachings
of the Word of God. These things are a mystery unto
men until God reveals them, until God shines His light on them.
How many times have you read the scriptures after God saved
you and you've read a scripture time and time again and you read
it and you go, I see that. Spiritual illumination, God giving
you eyes to see what a gift that is from God. The things are freely
given to us. Things of the Spirit of God.
The spiritual teachings of God's Word. The truth and the harmony
of the Old and the New Testament. They're in perfect harmony with
one another. The preaching of spiritual words concerning spiritual
truths. We've freely received the Holy
Spirit which teaches God's people the things of the Spirit of God.
You can't know them any other way. You can't. It's the new
spiritual creation within us that allows us to see and understand. The new spiritual man by new
creation is who sees these things. We see that these things are
of grace. We see that these things are
about Christ. Not the natural wisdom of man
that teaches them, it's the Holy Ghost that does. Do you see that
in verse 13? Marvel not, the Lord Jesus said, that I said
unto you that you must. You must. It's imperative. It's
a necessity. You must be born again, as we
saw this morning. The new birth's not an option.
New birth's a necessity. And in verse 14, we see the dilemma
of the natural man. Now we, probably not many messages
that I've preached that I haven't somewhere in it quoted this verse.
But the natural man, that's what we're talking about. We're talking
about the natural man, we're talking about natural things,
and we're talking about the spiritual man, the spiritual things. But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, and neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man doesn't
receive the things of the Spirit of God. Everything about God
is foolishness to a natural man. The natural man doesn't have
the ability to know God. Did you see that? Neither can
he know them. He doesn't have the ability to
know them. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. The
natural man, the fallen man, the physical fleshly man, the
spiritually dead man, the part of a man that's dead and trespasses
in sin, doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God. And people
say ridiculous things like, won't you receive Jesus? No, I won't. The natural man receives not.
Won't you receive Jesus into your heart? I can't. The natural
man receives not. That's the way it is naturally
when it comes to all of us by nature. We don't have the ability
to know God. Let me say that again. We don't
have the ability to know God. We don't have the ability to
come to God. Christ Himself said no man can come. except the Father which sent
me draw him." It doesn't come natural to us.
It's not natural for us to understand His will, His purpose, His providence. Is it? It doesn't come natural. When we see things that we cannot
change, we often say, well, that's just the natural state of things.
When we see things that we don't understand, We say he or she's
just doing what comes natural to them. When it comes to God,
when it comes to the things of the Spirit, the natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God. It doesn't come natural
to him. It doesn't come in a natural
way. It's got to come in a supernatural way. Verse 15, But he that is
spiritual judgeth all things. Yet He Himself has judged them,
no man. Now if you have a reference Bible,
you might notice that the word judgeth here means discerneth. The spiritual man or woman discerns
all things. The spiritual man or woman, that
means they perceive the things of the Spirit of God. The spiritual
man or woman observes all things. The spiritual man or woman distinguishes
all things. Not all things in nature, Not
all natural things, but divine and spiritual things. The things
of the Spirit of God, the glorious teaching of the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, one day I heard that glorious
message and it didn't mean anything to me. And then there was another
time I heard it and it meant everything to me. What made the
difference? No, no, who made the difference? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do you have, child of God, that you did not receive?
And in receiving it, how do we glory in it? Well, we don't. Salvation is in Christ alone,
pardoned by His blood, full justification by His righteousness. And notice
what Paul says here about this saved man or woman. Yet he himself
is judged discerned of no man. The natural man or woman is not
capable of discerning and judging who and what a spiritual man
or woman is. The things of God are spiritually
discerned. They're spiritually hidden. That's
what Paul said all the way through this chapter. They're spiritual
secrets. They're the spiritual secrets
of God. He reveals them to whom He wills. But when it please God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to what? Reveal His Son in me. Has God
revealed His Son in you? Oh, if He has praise and thanking. He didn't have to. It was a gift.
And look at verse 16. I've closed my Bible, but I've
got it written down. For who had known the mind of the Lord
that He may instruct him But we, God's chosen, have the mind
of Christ. What a gospel, what a Savior.
Oh, may God enable us to trust in Him and Him alone and depend
upon Him to reveal these things, glorious things to us.