To be His person when we die,
We all should cry His name. I have not seen no real return, Lord, and the heart can speak. God bless thee, Lord, Lord, every
day. To Him, the Lord, be praise. All right, go back to 1 Corinthians
2 now, the title of this message, and it probably caught your attention,
how many times it's written, the things of God. Did that catch
your attention? We're going to read the things
of God, things, things, things. The things of God, eight or nine
times. All right, let's jump right in. Paul says, I, brethren,
when I came to you, that is, when he visited Corinth. Remember,
Corinth is a big modern, was a big modern city, full of politics
and science and all that a modern city is. And he said, I came
to you not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. Several times down through here
he says what he did not want to do, and did not want to say,
and what he did not I do. Verse 4, it says, My speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. Over in chapter 1, look at verse
17, he said, Christ sent me not to baptize, or that is for the
purpose of seeing how many people I could baptize, but to preach
the gospel, but not with the wisdom, with wisdom of word,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. So he said,
I didn't come, and I'm not attempting to speak eloquently. Eloquently. Fancy speech, high
speech. Someone said, Jonathan Edwards,
I believe it was, We want to be understood, not admired. That is the true preaching. Because
Paul said in 2 Corinthians, he said, seeing we have such hope,
we use great plainness of speech. And we saw last week, or whenever
we studied this latter, that the Lord, who could have spoken
in a language which no human being could understand, The Lord
who made man's tongue in all languages could have spoken in
words, yet an infinite vocabulary that no one would understand
and impress people. But no, it says the common people,
the strict people, the uneducated people heard him laugh. They loved what he said, they
could understand what he said. And so that's what we strive
for. Plain food, let me ask you, is not plain food better than
real fancy food? Everybody in here is at least
from Virginia or Kentucky or somewhere, West Virginia, somewhere
pretty ordinary. And he grew up on meat and taters. You ask him, what kind of taters?
Po' taters. Meat and taters. And that's what
you feel like, basically. Isn't that great? Fancy food
may impress you. But it's just not as good as
plain, ordinary food, because all those things you add to the
food covers the flavor of that food. It masks it. It disguises
it. Right? It obscures the flavor
of it. My dad, to this day, just will
not... If you invite him to dinner,
do not fix some casserole. He may attempt it out of being
polite to you, but he's not going to like it. So, fix meat and potatoes. Potatoes. Plain food is better than fancy,
and plainer, you preach the gospel better, so the children can understand. Children need to understand that.
Now, he said there in chapter 1, the cross, he said we don't
use fancy language preaching the cross for the horror of what
happened there would be. lost. The purpose of what happened
next would be lost. It would be too flowery. You
don't make that to be something beautiful when it was something
hearty. And that's what modern religion
has done. Verse 5 in chapter 2, he says
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. You don't want to be just persuaded by some eloquent
man. You don't want to be just convinced
by some man who's smarter than you. You want the Spirit of God
to take the Word of God and write it on your crown, so that you
know. You know. And flowery words may
impress the head, but they don't do anything. Right? They just don't do anything for
y'all. You may go away impressed with the man and his ability
to speak. That's not what you need. What
you need is to go away with a broken heart over your sin and a thankful
heart for Christ. So, Paul says... Now Saul was
through this as well. Saul of Tarsus. Darnell, he's
arguably one of the smartest men ever. Without a doubt, the Lord gave
Paul, the apostle who was Saul, more knowledge than any man has
ever known. You just read his... Well, God
used him to write how many letters, how many books. And you read
his writings, the book of Romans, there's some things Peter said,
things hard to understand, but things necessary. Paul, or formerly Saul, was a
well-traveled, educated man. A cultured man. He knew a great
deal about everything. He really did. Yet, he said,
in verse 2, I'm determined. He said, I've set my mind to
it, by God's grace. I've set my heart to it. And
this is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm determined not to
know anything about it. I'm not going to pursue anything,
I'm not going to give myself to studying anything, but one
thing. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And we could stay right there all night, but we're going to
go on through this. But he doesn't just say Jesus,
does he? That's his humanity. We do study
the man Jesus, his humanity. But he's Jesus, the Christ. He came to be the Christ, not
just to be a man, as our example. And for us to feel sorry for
him because he died. No, no. He came to be the Christ. Christ means covenant head. If
you stay here all night, covenant head, it means surety. It means
mediator, intercessor, and so forth, high priest. And he says,
it's Jesus Christ in him crucified. He came to die. That's what Christ said. He said,
for this cause I came to this earth, to die. To die. It all depends on his cross word. So, verse 3, he says, I was with
you. So Paul, the learned, said, I'm
determined not to get into any political debates and this and
that and the other and pursue all this other stuff. That's
all it is, stuff. But Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Verse 3, and I was with you, he says, in weakness. Bear with
me to 2 Corinthians 11, OK? 2 Corinthians 11. He said, I was with you in a
weakness. Now, you know you can't relate to someone whom you feel
doesn't know what you're going through. Can you? You can't relate. For the life of me, I don't understand
why people want these preachers who were so-called preachers
who were kept in a monastery or a seminary. all that time,
sheltered from the world, who's never been out in the world and
don't know, don't have a clue of what we're going through. I don't know why people go to
hear those fellows and seek out their advice. They don't know
what you're going through. Fellows who never really worked
a day in their life. How can they enter into what
you're feeling and going through? Huh? They've been sheltered from
all this? Well, Paul said this, 2 Corinthians
11. I was with you in Wheaton. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 29. He
said, who is Wheaton? And I'm not Wheaton. Weak. Do you feel weak? Weak
in faith? Weak in whatever? Unable to pray
as you'd like? Unable to do what you'd like
to do? Unable to rise above some things? Unable to deal with your own... Do you feel weak? Paul says,
who's weak at heart? I'm weak too, he says. Who is offended? Do you get offended? Things bother you, things trouble
you, things hurt you, things disappoint you, huh? Paul says,
let me do it. So this is a man you can relate
to, a man of like passion. James said that, didn't Elijah?
He was a man of like passion. But even a better illustration,
a better example, Paul said, we have a high priest. who's
touched for the feeling of our eternity. And that he himself was weak,
it says. Christ limited himself. He took
upon himself the form of flesh. He knew. He knew. He was here.
He was here. He felt. Impermanence means felt
weakness, limitations. So who is weak? Paul says, and
I'm not weak. Now this is a man who can relate
to it. Go back to the text, verse 3. He says, and I was with you in
fear. I was with you in fear. Fear
of God, number one. Fear of misrepresenting God.
Fear of taking God's word in his mouth and trying to deal
with it, trying to divide it. A failure. Do you ever have a
fear of failure? Do you ever think you're going
to succeed at all? Fear of failure. Anybody in here
have that? That has any kind of responsibility?
You have a fear of failure? Paul says, I was with you in
fear. Fear of failure. Yes, fear of failure. Fear of falling. Anybody in here
feel a fear that you might fall away? Am I in that law someday? Anybody? We all are. And trembling, he said. I was
with you in much trembling. That's nervous. Am I ever getting
nervous? No? Come here. You ever seen somebody stand
up with their speech or something? Try it. Don't feel sorry for them. Trembling, nervous apprehension.
Don't want to do this. Don't want to be here. But necessity
might come. This is a man you can listen
to. He knows what you're feeling. Where did he get this from? It
was Christ's life. Not that our Lord is nervous
or anything like that, but he is touched. He knows. He was
a man. Verse 4. He said, In my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing or persuasible words of man's
wisdom. But it was in this demonstration
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, of His hand on me and those who
preach in power, not in word only, that your faith, read on, verse
5, that your faith should not stand or be in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God. In another place, over in chapter
4, the second letter, he says, we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. We have this gospel, we have
this wisdom, this excellency, excellent wisdom, and heavenly
things, in earthen vessels. So that is, there's this precious
liquid in a clay pot. There's this hurdle of great
price in a breakable vessel, an earthen vessel. We have this
gospel that's delivered through mere men. And when it's delivered in the
Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit lays hold of just an ordinary
fellow, and does it with power, I mean, to where your heart is
moving, and even given a heart, life, then you know this is of
God and not man. This is of God. The case of the
prophets, it's the same. The prophets were farmers, shepherds,
Moses, shepherd. Yet when God sent him, he said,
we're going to see it in chapter 7, verse 1, it says, God said
to Moses, now Moses was a shepherd, and yet God said to Moses, I've
made you a god, Pharaoh. Pharaoh had never heard anybody
talk like him. Pharaoh never had anybody talk
to him like he did. That's the reason Pharaoh was
sitting up and paying attention, the reason Pharaoh listened to
this common, ordinary shepherd who came. shepherds, farmers, elisha, plowing
with twelve yoke of oxen, grub, grub, farmer, breast and, you
know. And the Lord used him for it. The apostles were fishermen.
Just fishermen. And yet when these fishermen
were sent out by the Lord to preach, doctors Lawyers, the
most noted scholars of the day, sat and listened to them in awe. They didn't like what they were
saying, but they had to sit and listen with awe, and they said
things like this, From whence come these men's wisdom, having
never learned language? They don't have a D.D. and a
M.A. and a M.D. and a B.A. and a B.S. A lot of B.S. like we do behind
their name. Where'd they get this wisdom?
Huh? I love that verse where it says
that the people heard the Lord. Now the Lord didn't go to graduate
school. He didn't go... it doesn't appear
He went to any school. Is it? There's no record. He
went to school at all. He worked at his dad's carpentry shop. So, supposedly, like his dad. And yet, he went out preaching,
and the people heard him, and they said, by this man's speech,
with absolute clarity, not like scribes. Not like scribes. You ever heard a scribe preach?
Turn to the fourth chapter, or the third, or the fifth, or the
fourth, or the third, or the fifth, or the fourth, or the
fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or
the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the
fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the
fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or
the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth,
or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the
fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or
the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth,
or the fifth, or the fifth, or the fifth, or Proud, trying to impress people,
but no, this man's full of power. Power. And even now, even now,
God uses, God uses butchers, I mean meat cutters, former meat
cutters. You all know who that is. Coal
miners. Coal miners, former coal miners. Mechanics. Brother Tom Hardy
was a diesel mechanic. I say it from Kentucky and on
and on. Why? Because when God gets ahold
of a man like that, and he preaches with power, the Holy Spirit,
and you're moved by a man who's not eloquent, with no education
to speak of, you know who did it. You know who it is. Give you
an illustration. I was listening to a tape one
time of a man who I know well. An uneducated man. High school
education, about as far as he went. And I know him well. And he was not an eloquent man. And I heard him speak in private
on numerous occasions, and he's not one who's in private conversation
is very quick, you know, and knowledgeable of all things and
this and that and the other. And yet I was listening to him
preach. Scripture and Scripture and Scripture
come rolling off his tongue. No want of thoughts, all thoughts
coming together in a whole message, one cohesive message flowing
together. And I thought to myself, I know
that God is in heaven. And I know that. You know who the man was? Me. I was listening to one of my
tapes one time. I didn't do that. I'm not going
to do that. I know me. So this preaching
of the cross is not an exercise in intellect and all that. Not at all. Verses 6 through
8. He said, how did it? We speak
wisdom. What we're preaching is wisdom. Oh, is it wisdom?
into the question. Wise things, yet these things
are only wise to those who account themselves foolish. You know
that? These things are only wise to
those who think they're foolish. These are high things, but only
to those who feel like they're lowly. Wisdom in the mystery. You see that? Now read on. A
hidden wisdom, these things are hidden, which God ordained before
the world under our glory, which none of the princes or leaders
of this world knew. Had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. High things, wise things,
infinitely glorious things for our glory. Things are hidden
from us. Read on. Verse 9, he says, "...as
it is written," this is Isaiah 64, "...as it is written, I that
not sing, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
As it is written. Nobody has seen. No one has really
heard. No one has really felt. These
things have not entered into the heart, the infection, as they should, for them that love him. Those
things which God had prepared, and these are the things we're
going to talk about the rest of the time. Now, these are things for them
that love God, you notice that? These things were given to and
revealed to those people that love God. as God. These are things revealed to
those that love God to be God. I mean, they... This is a heart
matter. This is not a head thing. It's
not, oh, I agree that God is sovereign, but... No, no, no.
This is from the heart. This is for those who believe
from the heart and love from the heart that God is indeed
God. Not trying to be, not wanting
to be, but God is indeed in control of all things. Especially my
salvation. And they love that. I don't disagree
with it, but they love God to be God. Those that love Christ
to be their Christ, to be their salvation. Those that love the truth as
the truth because it's God's truth. Not because they understand
it, but because God said it. They love it because God said
it. Now, that really narrows it down to, oh, I love God, Richard,
but I don't agree with Romans. Then you don't love God. Those
that love the truth, why? Because it is true. Because it's
God's truth. These are things prepared, revealed
unto those that love God. And why do they love God? You
ask everyone. Why do they love God? Because
He first loved them. All right. Now, these things,
he says, are hidden things. Hidden things. Our Lord, one
time was walking along and just stopped and looked toward heaven
and said, I thank thee, O Father, heaven and earth, that thou hast
hid these things from the wise and the foolish and revealed
them unto me. So he rejoiced. That is, he smiled
and he laughed. He rejoiced in spirit. I thank
you, Father, that you hid yourself from the wise and the prudent
and revealed unto them these things. You often wonder, everyone
in here who knows the truth, I mean the true gospel, you often
wonder why people can look at the very same things that you
look at in the other way. plain, obvious truth, and they
don't see it. Don't you? You wonder. You talk
to them, and you look at the Scripture, and they read the
very same thing, and it's as plain as the nose on your face,
and yet they say, I don't see it that way. Or, if they're honest, they'll
just say, I don't believe that. You often wonder, don't you,
why don't they sing that? Don't you, darn it? Like God's
sovereign election of the people. Twenty-seven times the word election,
a form of it, is in the New Testament alone, not counting all the times
it says choose or chosen. And yet people say, I don't believe
that election. What? What? What's wrong with
you? And look right at it. That right? That's what I did. Twenty nine. I was going to have
you turn, but let me just read it to you. I was there. Twenty
nine. The Lord said he had given them a spirit of deep sleep. The Lord hath closed your eyes,
the prophets, your seers, your preachers and all that, and the
vision, listen, the vision of all is become unto you as words
of a book that is sealed, and you deliver it to somebody that's
learning. Scholar, Bible scholar, you say, read this, he says,
I can't read this. Why is that? Why? Why are
these things hidden from me? Why does God have this thing?
Turn to Romans 1, real quick, Romans chapter 1. This is why,
Romans chapter 1, very quickly, okay? I want to get through this.
I know it's warm, but I hope your heart's warm. Boy, if you sit down in Mexico,
you'd think this is frigid. All right, Romans 1. Why does
God hide these things from most folk? Well, verses 18 and following,
the wrath of God is revealed. Not the love of God, but the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven. You hear anybody preach
about wrath anymore? No. They don't believe it. They
don't even see it in God's Word. They don't even see it in God's
Word. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, chiefly
being their wickedness. That which God says is the most
wicked thing, ungodly and unrighteous, is this. They hold the truth
and unrighteousness. They got this right here, God's
Word, and they're doing it for money. They're doing it for the
name. They're doing it to appease people. They're doing it for
evil motives and purposes. They're holding the truth in
unrighteousness. And they're the most wicked people
on earth. They're more wicked than... Our Lord said, the harlots
and the peasants will get in heaven before you do. He said,
it would be more tolerable for a humble sexual from Sodom, in
the judgment, than preaching. That's what Jesus Christ said.
Why? Because they're evil men and
seducers, watching worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Doing it to the people for money, filthy loot. For their namesake. It's Jerry Falwell's ministries,
so-and-so's ministries, Benny Hinn's ministries. They're a
bunch of liars and false prophets, everyone of them. And hell, his brother Don Bell,
or old brother Don from Tennessee, and his old Tennessee bros said,
hell ain't half hot enough for these preachers. That's so. Hold the truth for unrighteous
persons. Read on here in Romans 1 and
verse 19. That which may be known of God
is manifest in them. They've got a Bible like we do.
They've got Romans 9. They've got Isaiah 40. They've
got Isaiah 46, don't they? Just like we do. Why don't they
preach it? Because they're evil. Because they're out to save their
skin. Because they want a big hearing.
And you won't get a big hearing by telling people what dogs they
are. You won't get a big hearing by telling everybody God doesn't
need you. By telling everybody that you better be begging God
for mercy. God doesn't have to give us anything. You won't get a hearing like that.
But buddy, that's what this book says, and that's what God demands
that His preachers have. And Christ said, you will get
a hearing. He said, my sheep will hear my voice. And that's
all we're looking for anyway. My pastor preached years ago
a message I'll never forget, called On the Trail of His Sheep. We're looking for God's sheep.
And if you run into a goat, yeah, but, but, but, but, leave him
alone, Christ said. Leave him alone. You're not after
him. You're not trying to convince the goats. You're looking for
sheep. And you'll find a Mary Magdalene. You'll find a Zacchaeus
up a tree. You'll find a forlorn woman at
a well. And buddy, they'll hear about
this prophecy. They'll love the sound of this
gospel. They'll love the sound of the word of grace. And they'll
be so thankful God is indeed God. And salvation by grace. Yes, they will. And they'll be
thankful for the rest of their lives. But not the salvation. Read on. He says, verse 20, the
invisible things of God are clearly seen. Verse 21, but when they
did not, they knew God, that is, the things of God, they glorified
Him not as God. God's not getting the glory of
people. You know it's so. All this bogus, all these bogus
miracles that these so-called preachers are doing in the name
of Jesus. Now you tell me who's getting the glory for that. Come
on now. You tell me who's getting the glory. Standing up there
and everybody's just watching these idiots do all this fake
stuff, you know, and then he says something like, give Jesus
a name. And not give God a name. God's
not giving a name. A man by the name of John
the Baptist came along and asked him his credential and he said,
don't have it. What's your name? Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And he said
a few bunch of snakes and a few crickets. Boy. Hidden. They're hidden. Why is
God hidden? Now you know. They don't like God to be God's servant.
And over in 1 Thessalonians 2, he said God sends a strong religion.
Because they don't believe the truth, they receive not the love
of the truth, they don't love the truth. Say they do, lip-service. Hearts fire up. They don't love
the truth. So God sent, God sent in some
strong delusion. 2 Thessalonians 2, that's really
good. All right now, verse 10, but
God. You read that in Ephesians 2,
4. But God. Yet we, some of you,
were these, just like these people in religion and so forth. Children of wrath is hating
the truth, hating God, hating those that preach it. But God. But God hath revealed among us by His Spirit, by His Holy Spirit.
God hath revealed these things unto us. These things that God
has said, God hath revealed them unto us by His Holy Spirit. You
see the word revealed? Revealed, what does that mean?
It means it's a revelation. It means somebody has to open
it to your understanding, doesn't it? It means you can't figure
it out on your own. It means something has to be
revealed to you. That means it's hidden until somebody reveals
it to you, right? And anybody that comes to understand
the truth, God, the Holy Spirit, revealed it to them. Revealed it to them, opened it
to their understanding. And he says, the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit, searches all things, that is, understanding and knowing
all things. Yet yea, the deep things of God,
which we're going to talk about in a minute, revealed. You know, the last book in this
Bible is called The Revelation. The Revelation. This whole book is a revelation.
This whole book could be rightly called The Revelations. Could it? The Revelations. Deep things
of God. Of God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, yet
one. On and on. He said, what man, and he's going
to talk about this from the beginning of Revelation, what man knows
the things of a man, say, the spirit of a man which is in him? In other words, he's saying,
you don't know what anybody's thinking, thinking, thinking. I sure need to come with that
in six weeks. You didn't know how I'm thinking, did you? You
don't know what a person is thinking, until they change. Right? Now that's just the main. You
don't have a clue what I'm thinking right now. All right, I'm thinking
of a number between 1 and 488,000. All right, somebody give it a
shot. I wrote it down. Come on. Come on, John, give
it a shot. Just try it. Come on, just try it. You know
it's better. What? That's not it. That's not it. There's 42, but I'm just a man. If you can't figure out, I'm
a man. How much less is God? God's Word. Oh, but man, these, yeah, these
fellas have an endeal. Master of the minute. It's funny, if it wasn't so blasphemous,
it'd be funny. He said, What man knows of things
of man, except the man's heaven? Even so, knoweth no man the things
of God. Verse 11. So the things of God
knoweth no man but the Spirit of God, and that is the Holy
Spirit. And he hides these things from those who think they know.
He hides them from those that think they know, smart creatures. He hides it from them, and reveals
it unto those who still have not known what He teaches them.
Oh, yes, I sure would. I sure would. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't
you tell something to somebody, something that you knew, only
to those that really appreciate it? When you give something to someone,
only those who really would have seen it very highly and be very
thankful that you did. Somebody's real rich, you're
not going to give them $10, $1100 a pound. Boy, now I'm beggar. You're mighty thankful. That's the way to do it. Look at verse 12. He said, We
have received Not the spirit of the world, but that is his
bogus spirit. You hear a lot about spirit,
don't you? He's a small ass. He's a small
ass. But the spirit, that is the heart,
which is of God, it comes through the Holy Spirit. The things of
God, that we might know the things of God that are freely given
to us. Now you notice he said it is
revealed and it's given. Freely given. Given. He said
it is revealed and they're given. A man can receive nothing except
through what? Given him from above. Given. Especially this wisdom. This wisdom. All right. Now. Verse 13 says, now, which
things we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but
which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual things. Turn with me to 1 John 2. Very
quick. 1 John, chapter 2. Now, these
things, these things of God, let me first tell you what they're
not. All right? He said they're spiritual
things. spiritual things. Are you with
me? Spiritual things. Come on, take a deep breath.
Need some water? Want a drink of water? We're getting into a real good
bar here. It has some meat and tater. Here's the dessert, good pie. Now, the word says this, God's
word says, if you'd be risen with Christ, so that is if you've
been born again, seek those things which are above. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ stood, on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above. not things on the earth. Now, we're all human. Every one
of us are human. And we like things. I'm not going
to stand up here and tell you I don't like things. And if you
said that, you'd be lying too. We're human. Now, God, the Scripture
says that God, as our Father, giveth us richly all things to
enjoy. Doesn't it? Doesn't it? That
God giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Enjoy. And not set your heart, not have
to have to be, have to live, can't live without it. It gives
us all things richly. I mean, it gives us a lot of
things. Everybody in here has a lot of things. Stuff. Stuff. You've got to have lots
of stuff. Every room in your house and
your attic and your garage and your barn is full of stuff. And
that's all it is. And you have a garage saved here
with some stuff so you can buy some more stuff. But, now, these things are given. Now, here's the difference. Here's
the difference. We're talking about this, right
here, religion. We're talking about the reality
of this life and faith, religion. Here's how you know the difference
between the world and the believer. 1 John 2, verse 15. He said,
love not the world. Don't love this world. People loved the Titanic. I mean, they were absolutely
enamored with the Titanic. And spent great sums being on
it. It just made their They've just
finally arrived, and you don't know them. What happened to them? Don't love the work. Don't love
the same shit. And neither the things that are
in the work. Okay? Don't love it. You know,
love, here's a good definition of love. Love is what you cannot
live without. Love is what you live for. Or
who? Who or what you live for. It's
who or what you devote all your money, your time, your thoughts,
your everything. It's who's in your heart, what's
in your heart. It's what you pursue. It's who
or what you just absolutely think, I can't barely live without this
or that or this person or that. That's a good definition of love.
Can't live without it. Can't live without it. Now, he said, love not the things
of this world. All right, over in chapter 4
here in 1 John, he's talking about preaching. Those of you who know this chapter
know that he's talking about Paul's preaching. He says, this is how you know
them. Verse 5, they are of the world, therefore speak things
of the world, and the world is here. You understand what they're saying,
don't you, Matt? That these guys are preaching a health and wealth
gospel. Aren't they? All they're preaching
about is things. Now, but God doesn't want you
to be sick. You can have the victory over that. God doesn't
want you to be poor. Why? I release unto you our financial
ego. On and on they go, doesn't it? Why? They've got everybody convinced
that you can have heaven right where you want it. They're about
the world. Therefore speak they of the world,
and the world hears you. Are you listening to them? Is
that the message you love? No. He says here in verse 6,
we are of God. He that knoweth God hears us. Well, John, what things are you
talking about? Paul, what things are you talking
about? Now let me ask you then, all
right? Closing this out. Let me ask
you to ask yourself, examine yourself right now. I'm going
to ask you a question. This is very revealing. You can't
fake this. You can't fake this. And don't examine somebody else.
Examine your own heart right now. This is where the rubber
meets the road. Let me ask you something about
things that interest you. things you love on your mind
and your heart. Do you love the sound of mercy? Mercy. What about pardon of sin? Forgiveness? Grace? He says in verse 14, a natural
man can receive his salvation. Foolishness. Why do we need mercy
for if God loves us? What about holiness? Anybody
like to be without sin? Totally without sin. Anybody? I mean, your heart's desire is
to get rid of this disease in you. This lowly season of sin. Here's the ultimate fact. Who
in here wants to see the Lord Jesus Christ? Who wants to hear
His voice? Be with Him. You can't fake it. These are the things of God, which
a natural man doesn't see. No, but wait, but wait. And I
know that you may have come in here tonight and you're weren't
feeling whatever, and maybe, of course, in this message you're
still not feeling whatever, and can't really enter into it for
whatever reason. Yet, I could ask you like the
Lord asked Peter around that fire, although at the time he
looked like For a while there, he wasn't interested in Christ.
He said, I don't know anything. He denied him gifts, and he asked
him, Peter, do you love me? I mean, do you love me more than
these? He said. More than these things. Isn't that what the Lord said,
James? Do you love me, Peter, more than these things? And I
believe the Lord was pointing at those boats, Peter's life, what had been his life, fishing.
And all of that. He loves you more than this thing. He didn't hesitate. Yes. You know it. You know all
things. You know it. Because you put
it there. Things. Things of God. But now wait a
minute. Let me go a little further. There's nothing sinful about
things, as we've already said. When God created man, on the
earth. When God created the man and
the woman on this earth, he put them on earth in a garden full
of things. The scripture says in Genesis
1-31, after God created, when he saw all these things which
he had created, he said, this is very good. When God created
this planet, he created everything before he created man. He created
all these things before he put man in. Why? I think, I'm sure,
he enjoyed it. He enjoyed the things that he
had. Now, the new earth will be full
of things. The new earth, heaven and earth, will be full of things
which God has recreated. It'll be a new heaven, a new
Earth, New Jerusalem, and it's described in God's Word as material. Yes, material things. You've read the account, haven't
you? New Jerusalem and the walls and so forth. Things. We're going to join. We're going
to join. Do you withhold anything, Mark,
from your two daughters? Anything, if you can afford it?
If you're a rich man, would you just be, wouldn't you just, there's
such a sweet girl, you love them dearly, and you just, without
spoiling them, you'd give them everything that you could. But not if they're never gonna
pay attention to you. Not if they just love this thing,
and not you. Right? God gives us things. Have you ever wondered why the
streets in heaven are going to be made of gold? The gates of
pearl? Let me ask you this. Do you stop
every now and then and look down at the sidewalk and say, oh,
that is some concrete. Would you look at that asphalt?
Beautiful, beautiful asphalt. That's just a type of illustration. If we're going to walk on gold,
that which people die for now, live for, spend their whole lives
obtaining, we're going to be walking on it when we're in there.
It's just a street. You understand? Streets of gold, walking on gold,
and none of us are going to be looking down. And even now, let me ask you
this, is not, and it's all said and done, are not, is not, are
not, who cares? Is not what God has created far
more beautiful and enjoyable than anything man makes? Hmm? Is it not? The older you get,
now when you're younger, you'd like childish toys, things, man-made
things. But the older you get, the more
you want to sit on the porch, don't you? And do what? Just
look younger. For the night when I go out in
the yard and sit in the chair, I don't point it at my house. I don't aim it at my house. I
aim it at those trees and mountains. That's what God's doing. And that's what He's going to
create. A new garden. You love the garden now? You
ain't never seen one of those. Like you've never seen one. I
have not seen one. Let me try to describe it to
you. Can you? Have you seen one? Well, let
me tell you about that Edmund Quire. Let me tell you, you like
music, you love singing hymns, you love it when God's people
get together and sing hymns and pray. Let me tell you about it.
You can't never heard it. It needs to happen in the heart.
I mean, has something ever entered into your heart? Let me tell you what it's going
to be like up there. I can't. Had better be my opinion. The
things that God has prepared for them. Those that love this now. John came back. Well, Paul came back. He said, I heard things. But
unlawful, it's just impossible to utter. Impossible. Well, here in our text, let me
close, I've got to get through these verses. He says, he that
is spiritual, verse 15, understand all things. That's not, he does
not say them completely. So if anybody thinks they know
anything, they know nothing. Yes, they ought to know. Yet,
now, you know a little more about the things of God, which the
average person, the natural person, is not even interested in. Mercy
and grace, pardon and forgiveness of sins. But he, the spiritual, judges
or understands all things, yet he himself is judged or understood
of no man. There's an enigma. The believer's
enigma. Now, he's getting back to what
he said in the beginning. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where are these fellows? Where
are these people? They can't instruct God's people.
No. The Spirit of God was there.
That's what that meant. That he made a struggle, this
man, the spiritual man, the Holy Spirit. This is why David said
in one place, I'm wiser than my teachers. Remember reading
that? David said, I'm wiser than my
teachers. Why? Because they didn't know
him. But now a spirit-taught man can
teach you. But we have the mind of Christ.
There's the key. The mind of Christ. The mind,
the heart for Him. Understanding all things in Him.
The things of God. Paul said in Ephesians 1, he
said, Oh, blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord is His, who blesses us. They're all spiritual
blessings in heaven and earth, in Christ. And He's revealed
this unto us. They've known of us this mission. All right, stand up. Our Father, thank You. Thank You for Your Word. Thank
You for revealing it to us in part. Just in part, though, we
preach in part, we understand in part, but we thank you for
that part you have revealed to us. We ask for a greater understanding
of these things, especially that you would set our heart and our
affection on things above where Christ sits, the right hand of
God. Lord, give us an unfailing desire
for these things. If riches increase, let's not
set our hearts on them. And as we become men and women,
maybe we put away childish things, childish things, toys, and be
enamored with, taken up with, the things of our God. I send
you His name, in Christ's name we pray. Amen.