Good morning. Turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2 and I want to
look at verses 12 and 13 with you this morning. Paul writes in verse 12 saying
that 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. It pleased our Lord, who accomplished
our full, free redemption by the death and sacrifice of the
Son to the Father for the sins of the people. It pleased him
to make this glorious salvation known to us. It pleases the Father
to make what He has done known to His people. When we look a
little earlier in the chapter, we see that man doesn't know
this, doesn't have this knowledge of God naturally. It's not in
him to know these things of God according to nature. Look at
verses 9 and 10. 1 Corinthians 2.9 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. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. What the Lord is showing us in
his word is that this doctrine of Christ, this knowledge of
what our God is doing in redeeming his people by his son is a mystery
to the natural man, to the carnal man, to what we are by nature. It's a mystery. We don't know
these things, but his spirit that he gives to whom he will
makes these things known to us. The Spirit makes what God has
done for his people in Christ known to the people, whereby
we rejoice in him and give glory to our God. And the Spirit reveals
this mystery of the gospel in the new man. That new man, that
new creature, which is created by God, which is created by the
Spirit and formed in us. which is created after Christ,
after the seed of Christ. And that's where we hear all
things, by the Spirit of God. That's where the Spirit of God
teaches us and reveals Christ to us. Our Lord tells us in John
15, verse 26, but when the Comforters come, that's the Spirit of God
he's referring to, when the Comforters come, whom I will send unto you
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall testify of me." And so the Spirit of
God is given to us to testify of the Son, who He is, who we
are, and our need of Him, that we might know Him, not know just
about Him, not know religious things, but that we would know
Him because He Himself is the very salvation that God has provided
for his people. And because the Spirit testifies
of Jesus Christ to us, the Lord is saying to us that everything
we need Everything we need to know God, to worship God in spirit
and in truth, to stand before the Father, everything we need
is provided for us in the Son, in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've
titled this message, The Spirit Give Him. The Spirit Give Him. Let's begin looking at verse
12 here, the first part. Paul says, now we have received
not the spirit of the world. We have not received of God the
spirit of the world. You see, there's an important
truth at the heart of the hope that we as redeemed sinners have. There's sin at the heart of who
we are. This is the problem. We're sinners. We've fallen from grace. We have
no fellowship with God by nature. We're lost. We're in darkness.
We're in ignorance to the things of God. And the Lord is showing
his people that we fell in Adam out of fellowship with God. We
don't know who God is. We don't know how to approach
him or how to worship him. We see what man does over the
course of the years. He's cutting down trees and making
stumps and calling them God, or setting up rocks and bowing
down before these things, natural things, or carving things out
to look like the beasts of the field or things of the air or
in the sea. And this is what man naturally
thinks of God and tries to come to God in these false, vain,
idolatrous ways. And so the Lord makes his people
to know we're sinners. We've fallen in Adam. And he does this so that we would
not trust ourselves, that we would not have confidence in
ourselves and in our works and the thoughts that we have about
God. But he does this, that we would
look to Jesus Christ only, that we would be shut up to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. and be turned away from these
false ways. And so he reveals to us what
we are in Adam, that when Adam rebelled against God, he died
spiritually. He lost that fellowship with
the Father. And being cut off from God, we
too are cut off from God because we were in him. All his seed
was in him. He had no children, no offspring
yet with Eve when he sinned against God. So all his offspring remained
in him. And that means all his seed in
him corrupted. It was defiled. And so we that
are born of Adam come forth defiled and corrupted and have no life,
no spiritual life in us. And so the scriptures, which
cannot lie, they provide a sufficient summary of man to us. In Romans 3, Romans 3 verse 10. I could read more, but this verse
alone says it all. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. None of us is righteous. None
of us knows God. None of us is pleasing to him
by our works or our will. or our lineage, we don't please
God. Even those who have the law of
Moses and look to that law, that religious law, that righteous
law, that law that declares who God is and that he's holy, perfect,
righteous in all his ways, even by that law, we aren't able to
please God and come to him because this flesh is weak. We're sinners. We have no spiritual life in
us. We have no ability to keep that
law of Moses. And the Lord's showing us it's
because we're polluted and defiled within. Even if we could appear
to keep it on the outward, on the outside, our hearts are defiled. Our hearts are corrupt. There's
evil and wicked thoughts that arise out of this heart that
makes me impure and unclean. and unjust before a holy and
righteous God. And so all men come forth being
born naturally dead in trespasses and sins before they do anything.
They're already dead in trespasses and sins. If we're to know God,
it's because God is gracious to us. It's because God purposes
and will be gracious to whom he will be gracious. And he's
merciful to whom he will be merciful. And so the Lord, he gave this
law to testify to us that we are dead in trespasses and sins. He gave the law to show us that
we cannot come to God by the strength of our own flesh and
by our own knowledge and by our own ways. The law, we're told,
is to shut our mouth, to close our mouth, to stop our boasting.
He says in Romans 319, the law was given that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. You may have heard this. I've
heard this, where men say, if man couldn't keep the law, then
God wouldn't have given the law. Have you ever heard that before?
that God gave the law because you can keep it. That's a lie. That's not true. He gave the
law according to his own word to shut our mouths, to show us
that we are guilty so that we have no other hope of salvation
than the one that he's provided for his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Romans 3.20, therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. He's given
the law to show us, to make us to know we're guilty sinners. Lord have mercy upon us. Lord
be gracious and merciful to me, a sinner. And so we don't need
to receive the spirit of this world, the spirit of the world,
because that's the spirit that man has naturally. That's what
he comes forth with by nature being born of Adam's corrupt
seed. The spirit of the world is what
sets the course of this world. The course of this world is going
in that we see, which is fallen and corrupt and horrible in its
ways, committing horrible crimes against one another, that's the
spirit of this world. That's the course of this world. People destroying other people
to get ahead and to promote themselves and to do what they will do to
satisfy the lust of their own flesh. That's the course of this
world. It's the spirit of the prince
of the power of the air, which even now is working and the children
of disobedience. It's setting, that spirit is
setting the fashion of this world, which passeth away. The fashion
of this world is passing away. The way this world functions
and works, that's not how it's going to function and work in
the new heavens and the new earth. All this will be destroyed, this
fashion, this way of things, this course of the world is all
passing away. It's being put away, and the
Lord has a people whom he loves and is preparing a new heavens
and a new earth for them. So this is not the spirit that
believers are given. We had that spirit. And by that
spirit, we didn't know God. We didn't worship God. We didn't
please him. We had no light and no truth. We were ignorant of his word.
We were ignorant of its meaning. We were ignorant of the things
of God or how to please him. But Christ, he destroyed that
union. He severed that union by the
death of himself, putting to death this body of sin, putting
to death that dominion, that rule and reign which sin and
death had over us. He's destroyed that so that the
law now has nothing to say to us. We're not guilty before the
law, we're righteous. We're perfect in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is our righteousness. And in him, we've fulfilled all
righteousness. And God is satisfied and pleased
with his people in his son. That's why he provided him. And
so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 18 and 19, let no man
deceive himself, if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this
world. Let him become a fool that he
may be wise. Some of us are wise in the things
of this world. Some of us are entrepreneurs
and do very well in business. Some of us did very well in that
which we were called to do in this life. And among the people,
we did well. But Paul's saying that's not
going to gain you any favor with the Lord. You might be the most
expert in your profession. or what you do or in your neighborhood,
but that gives us nothing with the Father. That's not how we
come to a knowledge of God. It's not by our knowledge and
religious knowledge and our study and the things that we do or
don't do. It's by his grace. It's by his grace and his mercy. And he says in verse 19 there,
for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For
it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And so the Lord's people, upon
whom he is gracious, they're turned from that spirit of this
world, were delivered from that spirit, and removed from that
darkness, and brought into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now Paul tells us what God has given us. Verse 12 again,
in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but we've received the spirit which is
of God. We've received his spirit. That's
not natural to this flesh. That's not part of who we are.
We have no spirit of God until the Lord God gives the gift of
his Holy Spirit. And so what the Lord is showing
us is that if we don't have his spirit, we have no life in us. If we have not the Holy Spirit
of God, we have no part in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ,
when he rose again and ascended to the Father, he sent the promise
of the Father. He sent the Comforter. He sent
the Spirit of God to give us life, to regenerate us, to make
us alive unto our God and the things of our God. In John 3,
turn over there, in John 3, verse 6, We'll look at a few verses there.
In John 3, verses 6 through 8, our Lord declares to us, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the spirit is spirit. Marvel not. Don't be amazed at
this that I said unto you, ye must be born again. if we're
to be born again unto the things of God, it's by the spirit's
work. It's a spiritual work and he must give us life and birth
regeneration in Christ. And so that's, that's when we,
when we are born again, when we're regenerated, that's when
we hear the voice of Christ. That's when the confusion is
removed. That's when all the fighting
and the divisions and different, opinions that people have about
Christ and about his church and about salvation, that's when
all those questions are answered or become worthless to us because
we see salvation. We see the light of God in his
son and he's made precious to us. His blood is made precious
to us because we see and know it's by his sacrifice, by the
shedding of his blood that my sin which made me filthy and
unclean and a stench in the nostrils of God, it's by His blood that
all my filth and all my guilt and all my shame is washed away. And I'm clean before God. Thanks
be to God for His Son. Thanks be to God for His grace
and mercy freely provided for you, who look to Him, who call
upon Him, who trust in Him, Thank God, because that's His grace
working in you by the power and glory of His Spirit. That's what He gives freely to
His people. He says in verse 8 there of John
3, the wind bloweth where it listeth. It goes where it wants
to go. And thou hearest the sound thereof,
but cannot tell whence it cometh or from where it comes and where
it's going. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. And so he's saying that just
as the wind moves where the Lord wills it to move, so it moves
upon the people of God in the appointed time of His love. And
it comes upon His people and delivers them from that death
and corruption and darkness that they were in, whereby they were
shut up and blind to the things of God, but now they see Him
and know Him and call upon Him whom God has sent. It's not earned
by our works. It's not accomplished by our
own free will. It's not something that we make
a decision for and then God reacts to it. Our hope is fixed in Christ
by the mercy and grace of God. It's only upon whom the Lord
bloweth upon them and gives them life and reveals to that heart
of that guilty sinner, reveals to their heart salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's only after we are heaven-born,
after we are born again, that we believe Christ. That's when
we look to Him and call upon Him and cry out for mercy and
salvation in the Son. John 3, 3, Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Until the
Lord gives us life, we don't even see our need. We don't even
see His salvation. All we hear are religious things,
and many people follow after them and are satisfied with those
things, but it's only by the Spirit of God that we see the
Kingdom of God, that we see His salvation, that we see the Son
and believe on Him by the faith which He reveals in us by the
power of His Spirit. Now in addition to being the
spirit of truth that reveals these things to us in Christ,
we call him the spirit of illumination because he reveals this truth.
He makes these things known to us. He's called the spirit of
comfort, the spirit of adoption. and he is the seal of our inheritance. So as the spirit of illumination,
the Lord gives the spirit whereby we see Christ and whereby we're
taught of him, whereby we know him. And he's called the spirit
of comfort to us in that he bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God. He takes the things of God and
reveals them to us. and shows us as we hear his word
preached, we're comforted to know, Lord, that's what I believe,
that I'm nothing without you, and you've provided everything
in the Son. He's called the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. When we're broken and brought
to see our nothingness, brought to see our need of him, we cry
out, Lord, have mercy on me. Show me the Son. Wash me in His
blood. Cleanse me, Lord. Renew a right
spirit in me. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from
me." That's the Lord who works that in us, that keeps us soft
and delivers us from hardness and coldness and deadness to
the things of God. He keeps bringing us back to
see our need of Him. And He's the seal of testimony
which is given to us, a down payment, the Lord says, to say,
I'm coming back for you. I have not forgotten you, I have
not left you, I have not abandoned you, I am returning to pick up
that which I have purchased." Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, And whom
ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth. We only
hear the word of truth in spirit, and by faith, by the gift of
the spirit. After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
that testimony of the spirit revealing to you that your God
has done this for you. an unworthy, guilty sinner. God
has done all these gracious things in Christ for you, which is the
earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory." So he's the down
payment, the earnest, that testifies to us, my Lord and Savior shall
return. He's revealed himself in me by
his spirit. He shall return. He will not
leave me. I'll not lie in that grave forever. The Lord will
raise up this body, and I shall see my Savior with these eyes,
and testify of his mercy and grace to me, singing that song
of redemption all the days of our life. Rejoice in him. Bless
his name, brethren. So the spirit dwelling in us
is a gift of God, whereby we know and believe the things of
God. So in addition to this now, We're
told another reason for the gift of the Spirit. We're told there
in verse 12, we'll read the whole of it. 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. And so the Lord gives us the
Spirit of truth, to illuminate our eyes, to behold the Lord
Jesus Christ, to behold what God has done for us, to know
that we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world,
that He loved us in Christ before the foundation of the world and
purposed to give us to the Son. and covenanted with the Son before
we were ever born, before we did any good or evil, He covenanted
with the Son who came and fulfilled all righteousness for us in His
covenant of grace. He did this for us, brethren.
And so we see there, Paul prays for the Ephesians. If you turn
over to Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, and we'll pick up in verse
16, He says, I cease not to give
thanks for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. I cease not to give
thanks, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. He's
saying, I want you to know the things which God has freely given
to us in His Son. How precious this is that He
has made known to us the mystery of His grace, the mystery of
His Son, the mystery of sending Christ, His Son, to take upon
Him flesh to make Himself a sacrifice to put away our sins. He's saying,
I want you to know this, to rejoice in what God has done for you,
apart from your works. We labored in religion many years
we labored in religion, we labored to make ourselves righteous,
we labored to try and understand these things, we labored among
many people trying to know God and were frustrated and left
cold and in the dark and frightened and scared and anxious about
these things until God revealed to us his son and made us to
rest in him and to rejoice in him He says, verse 18, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened, which is done by Christ, seeing
him who is the light of his people, that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. That we may know what it is,
because in Christ he removes the blindfold. He makes us to
see. that He is salvation, that God
is well pleased with the Son and He's well pleased with all
in Him. everyone in him. And so we were
made thankful. We see how that he strengthens
us in our struggles. He strengthens us when we're
weak. He brings us to cry out to him to not go off and get
confident in ourselves and be proud and arrogant in our ways.
But he's always faithful to bring us back to see that apart from
him, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. If it came down
to my strength and my ability and my ways, I'd be lost. I'd go sideways and go away. But the Lord is so faithful and
so gracious to turn our hearts again back to the Son, to look
to Him and to cry out to Him. Ephesians 119, and to know what
is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe
according to the working of his mighty power. So that even as
the Lord did all these things in eternity past for us, so it
is that he sent his Son who came faithfully fulfilling all righteousness
for us. And he laid down his life there
on the cross to make atonement, as our surety, to put away the
debt that we owe to God, to put away our sin, and to reconcile
us to holy God, that we might know Him, have fellowship with
Him again, call upon Him, worship Him, praise His name, praise
His name among our brethren, give thanks unto God, in the
fellowship with one another, speak of what He's done for us
in the Son. And so He reveals to us that
Christ is everything, that He is our atonement, that He's provided
it all for us. And so we see how we're affectionately
called by His grace and how we're kept by that same power and grace,
keeping us ever looking to Christ. Because the Spirit reveals that
God did everything necessary for our salvation, He says even
there, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him up from the
dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. So that we understand He's interceding
even for us now. He's providing everything. He's
interceding for us and implementing the will of His Father in the
earth. And so these are the things which are freely given to us.
We didn't earn them. We don't keep His blessings raining
down upon us. They're freely given by the Father
in the Son, in whom are all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places,
in Christ Jesus our Lord. He's everything to us. Now back
in our text, Paul says in verse 13, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 13, he says, 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. And the Spirit reveals this hope
in us. And as Paul quoted, I believed,
therefore I spoke. Therefore we speak. As the Lord
reveals these things to us, reveals Christ in our hearts, shows us
how precious he is, how he's everything in salvation. It's
not about what we do or don't do. It's not about being in the
right denomination. It's not about being a member
of a church. It's about what Christ who Christ
is, what He is to us, that He is our Savior. He is my hope. It's not what I believe about
Christ. It's do I believe Christ, rest
in Him, trust Him, call upon Him, need Him. And the Lord reveals what He's
made to us. And that same precious Lord is
the one of whom we speak and declare to others. And so we
speak of these things also which the spirit reveals to us. And
we declare what he's done and the spirit takes of the things
of God and reveals them in the hearts of his people whom he's
calling out of darkness, out of death, giving them life in
the Lord Jesus Christ that they may know him and be joined unto
him in his body. So brethren, I pray the Lord
bless that word to your heart and comfort you in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Got a few more things to say, but we'll close it right
there. And I just pray that you rejoice
in the Lord because he's made everything to us. And you know
these things by his spirit, that he's revealed these things in
you. So thank the Lord for the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's
by his grace, by the spirit that you know him and call upon him.
Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy. We thank you for your provision
of grace to us and your son. Lord, help us to ever rejoice
in him, to ever give you thanks for your word, for your spirit,
for illuminating your word, and for taking off the blindfold
and the death, removing the death that we were under. and showing
us Christ and making Him precious to us. Lord, we pray that we
would speak of these things to others, of what our God has freely
given to us in Christ, that others would hear it and see their need
of Christ and rejoice in Him. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray these things, amen. Thank you.