I know passages like Brother
Robert Red there, Isaiah 11, does really pique our interest,
doesn't it? But I'm sorry, I'm not preaching
on Isaiah 11 this morning. I am going to refer to it, though. And I'll give you some idea.
I preached through the book of Isaiah years ago, and I believe
the Lord gave me some understanding of the prophecy here. and I'll
deal with some of that. But we're going to 1 Corinthians
chapter two. And I've been talking about the
wisdom of God here in chapter two, but what I wanted to do
is I wanted to take some time, I've really covered this chapter,
but I wanted to take some time to go through these last few
verses, beginning at verse 14. I quote this one all the time.
Verse 14 where it says, the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. Now understand that the natural
man is a way of describing unregenerate people. Natural meaning how we
are born into this world naturally. And what does the Bible tell
us about that? It tells us that we fell in Adam. fell into sin and death under
the curse of the law, and as a result were born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. No spiritual life, no spiritual
knowledge, no spiritual desires, anything like that. That's spiritual
death. Total depravity is what the old
theologians called it, and that's a good term for it. And it's,
the apostle was led by the spirit to describe it over in chapter
one, verse 18, for example, the preaching of the cross. That's
the gospel. The preaching of Christ crucified
and risen from the dead, that's his person. His finished work
to save us from our sins as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer,
the Lord, our righteousness, all of that, his blood, the power,
there's power in the blood. That's what the preaching of
the cross is. And he says, to them that are perishing, it's
foolishness. That's the natural man. I can
remember when it was foolishness to me, until I was born again
by the Spirit. And he says, but unto us which
are saved, it is the power of God. And later on, he talks about
how it's the power and the wisdom of God. So the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Verse 14 says they are
foolishness to him. the preaching of the cross, the
preaching of this gospel. And he says, neither can he know
them. That is, have a saving knowledge
of them. You can know what we're saying.
You know, it's like I told somebody a couple weeks ago, I said, unbelievers
can know exactly what we're saying. They just don't want it. They
don't believe it. They don't love it. And he says, because
they're spiritually discerned. Now, I'm gonna talk about that
word discern. It means spiritually valued,
spiritually understood, spiritually judged. That's what it means. In other words, if we're spiritual,
if we've been born again by the Spirit, we know the value of
this gospel. We know the value of eternal
life. And we know the tragedy of going
through this life without it. And he says in verse 15, he that
is spiritual judges or discerneth all things. And what he's talking
about is things pertaining to salvation. Things pertaining
to the wisdom of God in Christ. Doesn't mean we're judges of
people here on earth. Doesn't mean that we know what's
in the heart of every individual. But we know the gospel. We know
God. We know his Christ. We know how
God saves sinners and how he doesn't save sinners. We know
those things. And he says, yet he himself is
judged of no man. Think about that. A true believer,
a spiritual person, is not discerned by the world. Years ago, I wrote
that book, What is a Christian? And I start off to say, the world
does not know what a Christian is. Do y'all realize that? They
don't know. When I was lost in my sins, unregenerate,
I thought I knew what a Christian was, but I didn't. And the Bible
tells us that. Think about 1 John 3, the world
knows us not. They don't know what a child
of God, they think somebody who goes to church or has been baptized
or is trying to live a good life, that that's a Christian. Well,
should Christians be baptized? They should confess Christ. Should
they try to live a good life? Yes, but that doesn't distinguish
them from the world. And that's what he's saying here.
But look at verse 16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him? The issue here is this. All wisdom
comes from God. There is no wisdom that we give
to God. God is our teacher. We're not
his teacher. That's what he's saying here.
It puts us in our place. But he says in verse six, in
other words, whatever he's saying here about the wisdom of God,
about discernment, It's got to come from God. It's got to come
from his word. But he says, but we have the
mind of Christ. Now that's what I want to focus
on. The mind of Christ within us. What a statement. I have the mind of Christ. If
I'm a born again person, yes. If I'm regenerate, if I'm a believer,
you have the mind of Christ. Think about the perfect, pure
mind of our Lord and Savior. He never had a thought of sin. I mean, never had a desire or
a thought or an idea. His thoughts were filled with
nothing but perfect holiness all the way through. Now, none
of us can say that. We can't even sit in church service
and not have a sinful thought. Isn't that right? You willing to admit that? I get up here sometimes, I've
been sitting in the chair because I get up here, now my hip doesn't
hurt if I just stand here for one hour, but if my hip starts
hurting, I think, daggone it. Here I am trying to preach the
gospel, Lord, what's wrong with you? Why are you doing this to
me? That's sinful. But Christ had no sin, he knew
no sin, he was the perfect God man all through his suffering.
He didn't sin, he had no thoughts of sin. Was that what we're saying
when we say we have the mind? And you know better than that. We know how he thinks, you might
say. Well, to a point, we do. And
the reason is, is for two things. When we say we have the mind
of Christ, and let me just give you these two things, then we'll
capitalize on them. Number one, we have the spirit
of Christ, the Holy Spirit. And he knows the mind of our
Lord. The Bible says that up here, in verse 12, he says, now we
receive not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God. We have the Holy Spirit. He indwells everyone who's born
again by the Spirit. And then we have the word of
God, right here. You wanna know what God thinks,
read his word. From Genesis to Revelation, if you wanna know
how Christ thinks. We have his mind right here.
What does the Lord say about that? You know, they used to
be the popular bracelets, you know, say, what would Jesus do? Well, okay, that's all right.
Look in the Bible and see what he would do. When he was dealing
with the religious unbelievers of his day, what would he do? Somebody said, well, he'd just
be real kind and nice and just, you know, soapy and, All of that. No, he said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of them, you won't enter the kingdom of
heaven. He called them vipers. Somebody
said, well, he could do that, but we can't. Well, we have the
mind of Christ. He says it right here. He wasn't
being mean. He was just discerning. He was
just making a judgment that you say, well, only he can know that.
Well, only he can know what's in the hearts of people. But
when we hear people speak out of their hearts, false gospels,
false doctrines, how do we react? How do we, even if we don't say
anything, in our minds. I told the folks in our first
hour, for example, that I was driving here this morning and
I saw a sign out on the church, you know how they have the signs
out there with the sayings on it, and it was asking a question. And it said this, it asked this,
will anyone be in heaven because of you? Now, how do you discern
that? Well, my answer's a flat no.
There's no one's gonna be in heaven because of me. I won't
even be in heaven because of me. The only reason anybody will
be in heaven is because of Christ. You say, well, they didn't mean
it this way. Okay, I know. Think about the mindset of false
religion today, who feel like that God loves everybody, Christ
died for everybody, and we've got to get out there and get
as many saved as we can. That's not what the Bible says.
That's not the mind of Christ. You understand where I'm going
with this? The reason I had Brother Robert
read that chapter 11, look back there at Isaiah 11. Mainly the first four verses,
because it fits right with his message. But I'll just make a
statement about the rest of it, and you can chew on it for a
while. And maybe I'll come back someday and just preach on it.
But listen to what he says here in verse one. There shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow
out of his roots. Who's that talking about? That's
talking about Christ. This is a prophecy of the day
when Messiah would come. And it says in verse two, the
spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, that's Christ, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
power, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of the fear of the
Lord, worship. In verse three, and shall make
him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he
shall not judge after the sight of his eyes. Now this discernment
we're talking about, it's not judging by the sight of our eyes,
by what we see physically. Okay, and he says, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears. It's not just what he hears and
what he sees, it's not physical, it's what he's saying. But with
righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, this is his word, the rod of his mouth
is his word, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the
wicked and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins. And then he starts talking
about the wolf laying down with the lamb, the leopard with the
kid and all that. Now, you know how people say,
well, that's talking about the future millennium. where there'll
be a kind of a utopia here on earth. Could you imagine a time
here on this earth where you would take your little baby and
lay it by a cobra? Say, now play with that, honey.
That's not what he's talking about. Some say, well, he's talking
about the new heavens and the new earth. And I know in the
new heavens and the new earth, it will be a utopia. It will
be a perfect world. There won't be any bloodshed
or killing or anything like that. I know that's true. But you know
what he's talking about here? He's talking about the gospel.
Talking about the church age where he takes natural enemies
who would normally kill each other. He brings them together
under the gospel. That's what he's talking about.
And he uses symbolic language like a wolf and a lamb and all
that. He goes on to talk about Jew
and Gentile here. Remember Ephesians chapter two,
he said, he's broken down the middle wall partition, he's brought
peace. That's what he's talking about. And it's not a utopia, it's just
the condition that God brings about where there's peace between
God and his people and between them and each other. And what's it based upon? It's
based upon having the mind of Christ. Thinking like he thought. Think about it. We who are saved
have his spirit and his word to instruct us, to guide us,
to energize us, to motivate us. And that's the attitude and mindset
which seeks to glorify and honor God above all things. I'd like
to be a friend to everyone, wouldn't you? I'd like for everybody to
like me. But you know what I want more?
I want God to be glorified. That's what I want to do this
morning. I want you to like what I'm saying, but if you don't
like what I'm saying, as long as I'm glorifying God, I'm okay
with it. That's what I want to do. I want to glorify him. That's
why Paul said up here in verse two of 1 Corinthians two, I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is the heart that is established
with grace and stands fast in liberty, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. That's the mind of Christ. He said it. He said, I'm the
way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under the father,
but by me. This is the love of God shed abroad within our hearts
that causes us to stand together in the faith. Brings us together. People who are different walks
of life, different ideas, different likes and dislikes, but brought
together under the gospel. Knowing that salvation's of the
Lord. It means that we have the ability
to estimate the true value of things when we have the mind
of Christ in matters of eternal life. Let me give you these things.
Number one, we have the mind of Christ when we receive Christ
by God-given faith and he's set before us in the gospel. The
righteousness of God. That's what he's talking about.
He says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. They're foolishness to him. But think about it. Look over at John chapter one.
Let me show you this. In John chapter one, talking
about Christ, who is the eternal word, who is the incarnate word,
and it says in verse 11 of John chapter one, listen to this,
it says, he came into his own and his own received him not.
That's the natural man. Why won't the natural man receive
him, believe in him, rest in him? Because we esteem him not,
Isaiah 53 says. In our estimation, naturally
speaking, this one who is identified and described in the gospel of
salvation by the grace of God based on his righteousness, in
our natural estimation, We discern that he's not worth it. He's
not worth me giving up my family, my friends, my religion. We esteem him not. But look at
verse 12, he says, but as many as received him, now there's
some who receive him. And he says, they believe in
him, they rest in him, they esteem him. And he says, to them gave
he power, which means the right, to become the sons of God, even
to them which believe on his name. Now look at verse 13, which
were born, not of blood. This doesn't come through natural
means, pedigree, nor the will of the flesh. I believe that's
the works of the flesh, nor the will of man. It's not by man's
free will decision, but they're born of God. What he's talking
about? In order to have the mind of
Christ, we must be born again. In order to have faith in Christ,
we must be born again. In order to repent from our dead
works, make an assessment, a discernment, that all that I can do is nothing,
all that Christ did is everything, I've got to be born again. And
that's how we have the mind of Christ. Here's the second thing.
We have the mind of Christ when we judge matters of salvation
according to his spirit and his word. Now, I can't judge everybody. You can't judge everybody. You
don't know what's in the hearts of everybody, but we can know
the truth. We can know what's wrong and
what's right. By nature, we don't. You know, one of the indictments
that's brought against the natural man in the Old Testament is this. He calls good evil and evil good. And look over at Hebrews chapter
five with me. One of the things that is significant
in the book of Hebrews is to be able to discern between good
and evil. Somebody says, well, preacher,
I know what's right and what's wrong. To a point you may. When it comes to the matters
of salvation, when it comes to the matters of righteousness,
how God saves sinners, do I know what's right and wrong? Well,
if I have the mind of Christ, I do. Look here in verse 12 of
Hebrews chapter 5. He says, for when the time come,
you ought to be teachers, You have need that one teach you
again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are
become such as have need of milk and not of strong milk. He's
talking to people who had claimed to be believers for a long time,
but they had not grown. And what was their problem? Look
at verse 13. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the
word of righteousness, The word of righteousness now, that's
the gospel. That's the gospel of Christ who is our righteousness.
He's obeyed. Verse 14, but strong meat belonging
to them that are of full age, that is mature or complete, even
those who by reason of use, using the word, have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil. You know, one of the, One of
the strongest statements in the Bible concerning the mind of
Christ in discerning between good and evil is found in Luke
chapter 16 and verse 15. I'll just read it for you. Christ said unto religious people,
You are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
to God. What the natural man highly esteems,
God hates. Think about that. Now think about
the Savior standing in judgment of religious people who come
to him and say, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Lord,
haven't we prophesied? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't
we done many wonderful works? And in his mind, his discernment,
he makes this judgment, depart from me, you that work iniquity.
I never knew you. That's the mind of Christ. Why
would he say such things about what men highly esteem? Preaching
in his name, casting out demons, many wonderful words. Why would
he say that? Because if you're skillful in
the word of righteousness, you know that none of those things
that they highly esteem measure up to the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. Paul came to that conclusion.
All those things that he highly esteemed as a lost person. I'm
a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He said, I
now count them but dung. Here's my discernment, here's
the mind of Christ. I count those things but dung
that I may win Christ and be found in him. You see the difference? When I read a statement like
that, will anyone be in heaven because of you? What's the mind of Christ towards
such a state? It's an abomination. Salvation
is not based on what you do or I do. Oh, I know God uses pitiful
instruments like us to accomplish His will, but we understand something,
we discern something by the mind of Christ that it's all of Him. It's not conditioned on you or
me. There's not one person for whom Christ died who's not going
to enter heaven. And if he uses us in some small
way, who gets the glory? God does. Not me. I'm not gonna
stand before the Lord and say, now Lord, I led 120 people to
Christ. No. Thank God salvation's conditioned
on him. Do you discern that? This is the light that comes
into the world that men by nature hate because they don't discern. They have no discernment of the
mind of Christ. But we know what it is. Righteousness. Who's righteous in God's sight?
Well, we judge or discern righteousness by his mind. And what did he
say? He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. God said that he's
going to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
and that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath
raised him from the dead. Somebody comes and says, well,
I want to tell you what I did for the Lord, you know. Well,
what do we discern about that? Stop telling me what you did
for the Lord and start telling me what He's done for you. Because there's the rub, really.
There's the key. Somebody says, well, He enabled
me to save myself. That's evil. He's enabled me
to stop sinning, to sin less, and to be holier and holier and
holier. I'm so much better than what I was before. What's your
discernment of that? Do you have the mind of Christ?
What would Christ say about that? What Paul the Apostle, who had
the mind of Christ, he said, this is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. Somebody said, well, he's just
talking about his past. Oh, no, that's present tense,
friend. That's how Paul saw him. That's how I see myself. I see,
how do you discern this? What is the mind of Christ on
this? I'll tell you how it is. If God were to judge me right
now based upon my best, I would go to hell. That's the case. And that brings us to this. We
judge our salvation by his mind. Not by what we see, somebody
does this, does that, and the world applauds. Look at 1 John
5, that I read in the opening. John
makes this statement, verse 19. We know that we are of God, and
the whole world life in wickedness. What a statement. The whole world
lies in wickedness. What's he talking about the whole
world? He's talking about the unbelieving world. He's talking about the
world of the non-elect. How do we know we are of God
then? How can we separate ourselves from that unbelieving world?
Look at verse 20. We know the Son of God has come
and has given us an understanding. We have his mind. that we may
know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even
in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now, little children, keep yourself
from idols. Discern between what's good and
evil. What does the Bible teach me
in the wisdom of God? It teaches me that I'm a sinner
who deserves nothing and can earn nothing but eternal damnation
and death. It teaches me that I'm in need
of a righteousness that I cannot produce with or without the help
of God. I pray every day, God help me.
Help me to what? Help me to stay focused on Christ,
the author and finisher of my faith. Help me not to focus in
on this individual up here. and derive any comfort or assurance
from what I do or don't do. Help me to look to Christ, to
focus on Christ, to stay on Christ, to glorify Him, to follow Him. Help me, dear Lord. What can He do for me? What He has done for me. He is
my assurance. We've learned of it today. David's last word, this is a
covenant that God made with us, ordered in all things and sure.
This is all my salvation. This is all my desire. You know, one of the biggest
problems with people today, and I say this by experience, I'm
not just dissing on them. is looking within themselves
to find grounds for assurance. Have I done enough? Have I prayed
enough? Have I obeyed enough? All of
that. And the answer to the question
is enough for what? Have I prayed enough to plead
my righteousness before God to make myself better in order for
God to accept me? I tell you right now, no, I haven't.
The issue is not finding things within ourselves to gain our
assurance. The issue is looking unto Christ. That's the mind of Christ. That's
the discernment that we need. When people preach false gospels,
what do we discern? That's idolatry. That's lostness. That's no hope in the mind of
Christ. And so what do we do? We look
to him and pray to him. Lord, keep us from the evil one.
Lord, keep us from idols. Lord, preserve us by your grace
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. All right.