Open my mouth that I may bear
gladly the warm truth everywhere. Thank you for that hymn, brother.
That's truly the desire of my heart. I pray that you hear from
the Lord and not from Michael this morning. Michael don't have much to say,
but the Lord has a lot of things to say. Things that we need to
hear. if he'd be so kind to let us
hear it. Thank you guys once again for
your gracious hospitality that you always extend to us as we
come and fellowship with you. We always look forward to our
times of fellowship here. We love this church. We love
your pastor. We love all of y'all. We are grateful to the Lord for
the ministry that comes from here. We are grateful for the
accommodations that you give us. It's always nice and you
always take real good care. And this will be the only time
I get to preach, so I'm gonna thank you in advance for all
the food that you'll prepare for us and all that too. So thank
you ladies and gentlemen for all the work that you put into
this. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. I'm going to start
reading at verse 9. I'm going to read down to verse
16. Then we'll look at a few other
verses as well. The Lord so directs that direction. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, starting in verse 9, it says, But as it is written,
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.
But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit
searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of man, save 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.
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 judgeth no man, is judged of no man,
excuse me. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ. You know, as we read this letter
to the Corinthians, a letter primarily written for correction
to this church. But Paul, before he even gets
into the correcting aspect of this letter, he lays a foundation. If we look at the beginning of
chapter one and chapter two, we see an overwhelming theme,
and that overwhelming theme that God is trying to present to us
and to teach us is that there is something that needs to be
known. The word know is found several
times in these first couple of chapters. This seems to be the
primary context as Paul opens up, is that there's something
that I want you to know. Matter of fact, if you look up
in chapter two at verse two, Paul says this, he says, for
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. There's something that I want
you to know There's something that I want to share with you
that I know, and brethren, I would put forth that it is something
that every child of grace will know. If you look right up in the verse
right above that, Paul writes, and I, brethren, when I came
unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. Brethren, today we see in every
corner of our towns, churches, with men getting up with wisdom
and excellency of speech trying to persuade and woo people to
Christ. I've never and we will never
find one person who ever is saved because somebody woos them to
Jesus Christ. People are saved not because
of their knowledge, not because of their actions, not because
of their belief. They are saved because of the
finished work of Jesus Christ. Ye shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. Our legal salvation,
and I would even say our experimental salvation, is all in the sovereign
work of Christ alone. There is no conditions that we
must meet. There is no conditions that we must keep. Everything
is governed by and provided by, secured by, the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. And that is called the testimony
of God. Declaring unto you the testimony
of God. What is the testimony of God?
Knowing nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Him in His
person and Him in His finished work. I think Brother Green said
it last night. His obedience and His death. That is the righteousness of
Jesus Christ and any righteousness that is ours is a substitutionary
righteousness that is done for us. God does not accept any righteousness
from us because we have none. The flesh is just flesh and profits
nothing. It does not get any better. It
is not being worked over. Whenever we are quickened of
God, God does not take what is there and make something better
out of it. As he mentioned last night, it
is a new creation. Born of God from heaven. 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 says the natural man was made natural. Adam, our first
head, he is made natural. The second man from heaven is
made spiritual. We in the flesh are natural and
cannot be anything more than natural. But that which is born
from above, that is placed within us, that is the new creation,
that inner man, that is from God, it is from heaven. It is
not born from here, just as Christ was not born from here. He is
born from heaven. And we who are his seed, his
children, his generation, are born from heaven. While we take
on flesh and blood here, who we are, are spiritual children
of the King. We are his children by the Spirit. And Paul says, I determined to
know nothing among you save that man and him crucified. If you look over in chapter 1,
verse 5, it says, that in everything ye are enriched by him. You notice he didn't say enriched
by me, your preacher. He didn't say enriched by the
church, although both of those are important things. He said,
enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge. There's
that word knowledge, knowing. Even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. I did a little digging on that
word confirmed and I'll stand corrected on this if I am wrong
on this, but that word confirmed means established. It doesn't
mean just, okay, I see you have it. No, it isn't that I notice
it in you and I see it in you and it's confirmed by your actions.
No, it means that it has been established in you by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has established this faith,
this belief, this hope, this testimony in you, this knowledge. He goes on in verse eight, it
says, who shall confirm you unto the end? Who shall, verse seven,
so that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you or establish
you until the end? Why do we have perseverance?
Because we are preserved. Why do we continue on, like Brother
Harris said last night, is not us clinging on to Christ, it
is Christ who is keeping us, who is establishing us, confirming
us, keeping us in the testimony of God. That testimony that is
of one mind, of one focus, and that is Christ and Him crucified. who shall also confirm you unto
the end. We are not going to fall away.
This testimony is not going to go away. We hear about people
talking about apostates and those who go away from the face. They
went out from us because they never was of us. Because I trust
in the sovereign God of this universe who has given us promises
that he would never let us fall. He has established the testimony
in his people. And I put the trust in Him and
not in myself. We do not trust in the arm of
the flesh. The flesh again can profit nothing. We trust in the Lord. But there are those, brethren,
who don't know this. Look at verse 8. I tell you what,
before I do that, Just to go a little further in this establishment
aspect, I kinda wanted to look at a couple of verses. Look with
me, if you would, at Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Again, the word behind that word
confirmed in 1 Corinthians. is also translated here in Hebrews
chapter 13 and verse 9 as established. It says, be not carried about
with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace. And he contrasts that with law,
not established with meats which have not profited them, which
have occupied within, therein. We are established, brethren,
in the testimony of Christ, and the testimony of Christ in His
person and work results in grace. There is grace for the child
of God because of the testimony of God. Look with me, if you
would, at Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
7. The Bible says, verse six, as ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up
in him, and established in the faith. as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving." Again, the child of grace has
been established, the testimony of Christ. How do you get that
from there, brethren? Because the purpose of faith
that has been given to the child of grace is for one thing. is to keep him looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ and trusting Him. Trusting His Word. What has He said? God is the
only one who does not lie. I lie. You lie. We all lie. We all are deceivers. But yet
there's only one who does not deceive and one who does not
lie, and that is God. And he has given us his word
and his promises. And therefore, we can stand on
his promises. And we are established in the
faith, not only established in the doctrine faith, but established
in the fact that we have been given that testimony and a hope,
the hope that trust in Christ alone. Look with me at 2 Corinthians. Chapter 1. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21. I'm sorry, verse 20. For all
the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him, amen. Unto the glory of God by us,
Now he, who's he? The Lord Jesus Christ. Now he
which establishes us with you. Now brethren, I've heard that
talked about in different ways. They said Paul and Timothy being
established among the Corinthians, but I don't think that's what
that means. I think that means that we, meaning us, the elect
of God, now He which has established us with you, meaning not only
us, but you too, all of us. I would say me and you, right? That may be the wrong grammar,
but The fact is, I think this is talking about Paul saying,
as the collective elect of God, he has established us in Christ. How is the child of grace established?
It is in Christ Jesus. And hath anointed us is God. So we see this confirming, we
see this establishing, we see this giving of knowledge, comes
to the child of grace. Those are the ones who know.
But the ones who don't know, look in verse 8, back in our
text, right above it, in verse 8, we see that there are some
who do not know. Verse 8 says, Which none of the
princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. There are some that do
not know. They don't have the testimony
of God. Verse 11 says, For what man knoweth
the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him. even
so the things of God knoweth no man." Brethren, we cannot
know unless God establishes us in that testimony. Look in verse 14. The scriptures
say, but the natural man receiveth not Receiveth not. I hear preachers all the time
that want to kind of erase some of the words in here, or they
want to just cut it out, or they want to reinterpret it all the
way around to something else. This says the natural man receiveth
not. Receive Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Savior. Nobody can. Nobody can receive
the Lord Jesus Christ. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Why does the natural man not
receive the things of the Spirit of God? Because they're foolishness.
It's foolishness to think, you mean that guy lived perfectly
and died on a cross and that's all there is? There's nothing
I need to do? Surely, preacher, there's something that I have
to do. I mean, Come on, I at least have to pray. I at least have to repent. I at
least have to accept the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior.
I have to be baptized, don't I, and join the church? I have
to do something. I have to believe on Him, don't
I? We do those things because the testimony of God has been
given to us, because Christ died on the cross for us, never ever
to be accepted of God. We are accepted in the Beloved
in Him. We never accept the Beloved.
We are accepted by the Beloved. And because we are accepted by
the Beloved, we believe on Him. And that belief does not merit,
does not get, does not warrant, does not do anything as a condition
to get God to do anything. I am not justified because I
believed in Christ. I am justified because Christ
faithfulness. The faith that justifies is the
faith of Jesus Christ. It's the faith of Christ that
justifies us, not my faith. It's the testimony of Christ
that's put in me that believes on what Christ's faithfulness
did, and that faithfulness testifies that I have been justified. The reformers get that wrong. They put faith as the merit.
They put faith as the hinge pin to justification. God can't justify
unless you believe. Brethren, I'm telling you, if
it takes my belief to justify me before a holy God, I will
never be justified. I may believe, but Lord, there's
a lot of unbelief. He says, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness
unto him. Why? The natural man believes
that he can establish his own righteousness. There's that word
again, establish. I can establish my own righteousness. I don't
need to have something established for me. I've established my own
righteousness. I can do the religious things
that we are told to do in Christianity. But brethren, God does not look
on those things. Matter of fact, if you remember,
the Lord Jesus, whenever he said, depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, who is he talking to? Those religious peoples who were
doing all the religious things that they thought they were supposed
to be doing. And a lot of us think that we're
talking about all the culty people and all the stuff like that,
and I'm thinking this is Baptist. Thinking that through all their
works of the church, all their works of belief and repenting
and all these things. And again, I am not condemning
those things and saying they are not important. Brethren,
those come when Christ comes in you. Don't get me wrong, but
they are never the point in which God does anything for us. And
they cannot keep us. They cannot keep us in fellowship
with the Lord because our fellowship is based upon Him who will not
leave me or nor forsake me. My fellowship depends upon Him.
There are gonna be times that in my viewpoint, I walk and turn
away and lose sight and things like that, but He always is there
with me. Matter of fact, the Bible says,
because He loves me, He will chasten me. It's foolishness because we think
we established that righteousness. But it also says this, it's not
just because we think it's foolish, it's because we cannot. That is a term of ability. We cannot receive the things
of the Spirit. Because, because, there's a reason,
because they are spiritually discerned. Not naturally discerned. Not academically discerned. Listen, brother, I would put
it to you this way. We don't know anything because
we see it, because we hear it, because we learn it. There were
people who followed after the Lord Jesus Christ who saw him,
who heard him. The greatest preacher of all
time. Who knew the material better than anybody else. He spoke it. Knew what each heart needed.
What each brain could perceive. So he knew the right way to deliver
it. But guess what? The Bible says
that many heard him. And Jesus said, I tell you the
truth, but you believe not. Why? Why don't you believe? Because you are not my sheep. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd
and I know my sheep and they, there's that word again, know
me. Why do they know me? Because
the testimony of God has been placed within them. They cannot know them in the
natural mind. It's an inability because the
things of God are spiritual. The kingdom of God are spiritual.
As I mentioned a while ago, the people of God are spiritual.
Have you ever wondered? The Bible says that we are not
of this world, but that's all we've ever known. The Bible says
that this is not our home, that we have another home. We are
pilgrims passing through here and we have another home, but
I've never been there. But the Bible says that my residency
is there. But that's because that spirit
man came from there. That person that is in me came
from there. That's where that came from,
and that will return back to God. And brethren, listen, we
are pilgrims in the flesh, or excuse me, we are here in the
flesh, but our personage, who we are in the spirit, that's
from heaven. We are a spiritual people. This
is a spiritual gospel. And what Christ did on that cross,
although it was truly a physical thing, it was a spiritual work
that he did for us. Imputation is a spiritual thing. It took a active and physical
thing to do. But brethren, for the Lord Jesus
Christ to be our righteousness, he had to be spiritual. because
the natural man could not do it. That's why we have to have
a proxy. That's why we have to have the
substitute, because we could have never, never paid the debt.
We could have never walked the walk. We still can't walk the
walk, even with Christ in us, we cannot walk. That's why Paul
said, oh, wretched man that I am. I want to do the good that I
want to do, but every time I do it, I find that I don't do it.
And whenever I don't want to do something, that's what I find
that I'm doing. He said, I find then that there's a law in me
that I will serve the law of sin with this flesh, but the
law of God with my mind. It's a spiritual thing. The Lord is gracious to us and
praise Him that He that is spiritual though, He that is spiritual
judgeth all things. Discerneth all things that's
what that word means discerneth all things Look in verse 12. It says now we have received
not the spirit of the world But the spirit there it is again
if you didn't believe me and You should never believe me look
it up trust God's Word not mine The spirit which is of God Why
have we been given the Spirit which is of God? Not the one
that we got through Adam. The Spirit that is of God that
we might know. That we might know. See, we cannot know unless we
have the Spirit of God. That we might know the things
that are conditionally given to us. Brethren, if you preach conditions,
you're not preaching the gospel. I'm sorry, I don't care how good
of a person you are, how long you've been preaching. I don't
care if your granny taught you that, your grandpa taught you
that, good old Uncle Joe taught you that. If you preach conditions,
you're not preaching the gospel. Because the testimony of Christ,
the testimony of God is things freely given to us. free grace, free sanctification. We are sanctified in Christ,
brethren. He is our sanctification. Not my keeping up with terms
and conditions. He is my sanctification. He is
my justification. And brethren, He's my glorification. The things freely given to us.
My belief is belief because He has given me to believe. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Why? Because they have been drawn
of God. That coming means believe. To come to Christ, to thirst
for Christ, to hunger for Christ means to believe on Christ. And
to believe on Christ, it is given unto you to believe on Him. He
has granted us to believe on His name. It is a gift of God
to believe. freely given to us. But all this happens, brethren,
because of the Spirit of God. Look at verse 10. But God hath
revealed them what things? What is them referring to? Well,
in verse 9, he says, the things that God hath prepared for them
that love Him. I was speaking with one of the brothers last
night, I think it was Brother Willingham. I said, this verse
here, verse 9, I've looked at that the wrong way for many years.
I believe that I was looking at it the wrong way for many
years. I used to quote that verse and say that verse. especially
at funerals, that we're looking at the great yonder whenever
we get to heaven. I have not seen, if not heard
what God has prepared for them that love him. Brethren, that's
talking about present day right now. But as it is written, In Isaiah 64, by the way, 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 already,
present tense, prepared for them that love him. You say, well,
there you go. Pastor, there's the condition.
You got to love him. To get those things prepared,
you have to love Him. Wait a minute, wait a minute. The Bible says
we love Him because He first loved us. Again, it gets all
the way back to Jesus. It all comes back to the testimony
of God. It's never about human work.
It's never about us. I love preachers that always
disparage man and lift up Christ. May we always put ourselves in
the dirt where we belong and place Jesus on the throne where
He is. May our preaching be filled with
Christ and Him crucified. I have not seen, nor heard, neither
have been entered into man. Again, this is an inability.
We cannot know these things, but the only ones who know them
are the ones who love Him. And the only ones who love Him
are the ones who God had foreknown before all eternity and set that
love upon them. And He loved us with an everlasting
love. And due to that everlasting love,
He has shed His love abroad in our heart that we might love
Him, love our brethren. And in that love, we begin to
see, experience, and believe. and joy in the things freely,
freely, freely given to us. When I go to a place and I hear
pastors preaching, do this, do this, do this, do this, that
does not feed the soul because I find that in my flesh there
is no good and I can't do it. But whenever he says Jesus did,
Jesus did, Jesus did, that excites my soul. It gets me wound up. And that's what I want to hear. But God hath revealed them. Praise
God they've been revealed. Praise God he didn't keep this
glory to himself. He revealed them to who? Us. Who is us? The brethren, the
elect, the children of God, the children of grace, the seed of
Christ. God hath revealed them unto us, how? By His Spirit. Brethren, if you know anything
of spiritual things, of the Word of God, we might have the black
and white words of God right here in this King James Bible,
and listen, read it every day, but unless the Spirit of God
reveals these things to us, we cannot know the spiritual understanding
of them. We will do exactly what Paul
was talking about in these upper chapters. We will come in with
the wisdom of man, the philosophy of man, and we will try to divide
things. That's why we have churches with programs to do things to
get God out in the community, to do all these things to get
people saved. Listen, we don't have to get
people saved. God saves. Amen. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit for the Spirit. We don't know the things of God,
but the Spirit does, and He searches all things, yea, the deep things
of God. That tells me that the Spirit
is omnipotent. It knows everything about God
in all of His mind. Known unto God are all His works,
then, from the beginning. Everyone who He has created,
everything that He has created, every action that will ever take
place, Nothing is outside of His sovereign control and predestination. Chaos is not ruling, but all
things are by His hand and the Spirit knows it all. And the
Bible says that He has revealed these things to us. Now He doesn't
download it all at once like a computer file. Now, if you
have an old computer like some of the places that I have to
go work in every now and then, those computer files may take
two or three days to download, and that's kind of about how
it is. Slowly, but surely, the Bible uses the term growing in
the grace and the knowledge. Brother, it is revealed unto
us by his spirit. If the spirit has revealed this
to you and you love the Lord, you have
been loved by the Lord. Brother,