Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'm glad you could join us for
our program today. And if you would like to follow
along in your Bibles, for the last several weeks and today,
I've been preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter
2. And I'm going to finish that
up today. The title of the message is,
Having the Mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ. We'll
be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 parts of it and then the last
few verses there beginning at verse 14. Having the mind of
Christ. Do I have the mind of Christ?
Salvation, last week I preached on salvation full and free, the
things freely given to a sinner saved by grace from God. All
of salvation based on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
is his righteousness? Well, it's the entire merit of
his obedience unto death as the surety and substitute of his
people. In other words, everything that I am, As a sinner saved
by grace, everything that I think and say and do that is honoring
to God in faith is the product of what Christ accomplished on
the cross to establish righteousness for me. My sins were imputed,
charged, accounted to Him, and He died for those sins. He paid
my debt in full. He satisfied the justice of God. and His righteousness is imputed
to me, charged, accounted to me, so that I stand before God
justified, not by works of righteousness that I've done, not even by my
believing. You know, there's a lot of people
today who say, well, we're justified by faith. Well, to be justified
by faith in the Bible means that I'm justified based on the righteousness
of Christ. Now that's evidence, how do I
know that I have his righteousness imputed to me? Put it this way,
how do I know that I'm washed in his blood? We sing a hymn,
are you washed in the blood of Christ? the soul-cleansing blood. How do I know that I'm washed
in His blood? How do I know that I'm righteous
before God in Him? When the Holy Spirit gives me
life, spiritual life, under the preaching of the gospel and brings
me to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you know.
Faith is not the cause of salvation. Faith is not the ground of salvation. Faith is not a condition I must
meet in order to attain or maintain salvation. Faith is the fruit
of God's grace given through Christ. It's one of the gifts
of God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by
grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Well, look
at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. We read here in verse 14, the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
And as I brought out last week, the natural man there, it refers
to all of us by nature. We're all born spiritually dead. We looked at that over in Ephesians
chapter two. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Spiritual death. is that which
identifies the natural man. Well, what is spiritual death?
Well, spiritual death is the absence of spiritual life. Now, what does that mean? Well,
look here in verse 14. Look, he said, the things of
the Spirit of God. Now, he'd already shown us back
up in verse 12 that the things of the Spirit of God has to do
with salvation for sinners, full and free, freely given, unconditionally,
without a cause, through the Lord Jesus Christ." You see,
man doesn't want that by nature. It says here in verse 14 that
he won't receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. They're spiritually judged. That's
what that means. So here's what I'm saying. For
example, when you hear the gospel, I'm talking about the true gospel
now, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed, Romans 1,
16 and 17, and it shows how that all things in salvation, from
beginning to final glory, is all conditioned on Christ and
given to His people by His power and His grace How do you react
to that? Is it foolishness? That's the
preaching of the cross. Paul said back up in verse 2,
we preach Christ and Him crucified. Over in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians,
verse 18, he says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
are perishing foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It's
the power of God. That word power there is ability. And it means this, that the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. In
other words, if you believe it, then that's the power of God.
That's not your power. Preachers today, they preach
that believing is in your power. It's not. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. You have to be born again. You have to be made spiritual,
spiritually alive. You see, the natural man is spiritually
dead. That's the absence of spiritual
life. That means this, that means he
does not have a heart that desires the things of the glory of God
in Christ. He has a heart. He desires things,
but not that which honors God. He desires things that will leave
him room to glory. That's what the natural man desires. In other words, give me some
way I can boast. Tell me, you know, you hear preachers say
all the time, say, well, salvation's of the Lord, but you must do
this. Whatever it is you must do in
order to attain or maintain salvation, that's what you glory in. If
salvation is conditioned on your believing, as many preach it,
then you can brag. You can say, well, I believed,
and the rest of this mass didn't. That's the same as saying, well,
I'm better than they are. And I know preachers will deny
that, but you think about what I'm telling you. I believe the
gospel, but I still don't have anything to brag about because
if God had left me to my own will, I would have refused. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the spirit of God. And I can remember when I first
heard the true gospel, I was raised in religion like most
of you. I walked an aisle when I was somewhere around 12 or
13, and I got dunked in water. But I didn't, first of all, I
wasn't hearing the true gospel, and I didn't believe the true
gospel. I did it because I just wanted to please people, the
adults. Some kind of rite of passage.
But when I began to hear the true gospel, I rebelled. I didn't
like it. I hated it. I judged it to be
false. That's what the, it was foolish
to me. But then one day God in his sovereign mercy and grace
and power brought this old sinner down, just like Saul on the road
to Damascus. My old pastor used to say, when
Saul was converted on the road to Damascus, you need to understand
he wasn't seeking the Lord. He wasn't on his way to a prayer
meeting. He was on his way to arrest Christians, put them in
jail. But God stopped him. And that's
what God did with me. He stopped me on my road to perish. He stopped me and brought me
to a saving knowledge of Christ. It's all a gift from God. He
changed my will. Somebody asked me one time, said,
do you believe that God brings people to Christ against their
will? No, he changes their will. He
said it in Jeremiah 31, he said, in Ezekiel 36, he said, I'll
put my spirit within them, I'll give them a new heart. That's
called the circumcised heart. So to be spiritually dead is
the absence of spiritual life and the only way you know that
is through unbelief, ignorance and unbelief. That which God
has that glorifies Him in the truth wherein He is just to justify
the ungodly based upon the shed blood and the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, I never heard
that before. Well, that's what he said back here in 1 Corinthians
2. Verse nine, 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. You see, these things don't even
occur to the natural man. I'll never forget when I first
heard the term imputed righteousness. Do you know imputed righteousness
is the heart of the gospel? That's right. I'd never even
heard it. And I'd been raised in religion.
Well, what is imputed righteousness? Well, Second Corinthians 521
tells us, for God made Christ to be sin for us, Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. That's the great exchange wherein
the sins of God's people were imputed. That word imputed means
to reckon, to charge. You know what charge means? You
ever gone to a store and charged anything? That means they put
it on your account. You owe them that money. That's
a debt. Well, my debt of sin, my sin debt was charged to Christ
by the Father. And Christ willingly took that
debt upon himself and came to this earth. And as my surety,
he went to the cross. And as my substitute, he died
in my place to satisfy the debt, to pay the debt. And out of that
came his righteousness, which is charged to me. That's the
heart of the gospel. I'm saved not because of anything
in me, of me, from me, done by me. It's all in Christ. That's what that means, you see.
Now that's not entered into people's minds. And when it's preached,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. What is your judgment of this
man? What is your value of it? But look at verse 15, he says,
but he that is spiritual. Now, who is the spiritual man
there? That's the ones who are born again by the spirit. They
were chosen of God. Now this is what the Bible teaches.
I know people don't like this, but I'll tell you something.
I mean, I'm not here to preach just what you like. I'm here
to preach what God says. And I pray that he'll make you
like it because that's his way of dealing with his people. But
see, here's the thing. The spiritual man, they are those
who were chosen before the foundation of the world. They are those
who are justified before God based on the righteousness of
Christ, established at the cross. They are those who are adopted
into his family. They are those who are redeemed
on the cross by his blood. And that is all known as they
are regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit. And how do you
know they're born again by the Holy Spirit? They, look at it,
it says, but the spiritual, he that is spiritual judgeth all
things, yet he himself is judged of no man. When he says he himself
is judged of no man, that's in line with what, for example,
the apostle John wrote in 1 John 3, when he says, now are we the
sons of God? And talking about believers,
but he says, The world will not know us. You know, the world
really, now this is something I want you to see. The world
really does not know what a Christian is. Now they think they do. And many people who call themselves
Christian think that the world can discern that, but they can't.
They know what they think is a Christian. They know what they
think. That's why I wrote this book called, What is a Christian?
A Biblical Study of the One True Faith. The world will not know
us. Christ told his disciples in
John 15, verse 18, marvel not if the world hates you. It hated
me before it hated you. So you see, the world will not
know a Christian. And then look over at John chapter
three. in John chapter three, and I
want you to look at verse 18 of John chapter three. Now remember
this, here's the natural man, that's an unbeliever, that's
a person who's spiritually dead. He will not receive the things
of the Spirit of God, neither can he know. And then here's
the spiritual man. He's the one who's been born
again by the Spirit under the preaching of the gospel, and
he believes in Christ as Christ is identified and distinguished
in the Bible. Well, look at verse 18 of John
3. It says, He that believeth on
him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. That's the natural
man. He loves his deeds, He loves
his decisions. He loves his religion. He loves
his morality. And he will not repent of those
things to turn to Christ and his righteousness alone for all
salvation. The things that are freely given
to his people of God. And when the gospel light of
Christ exposes the natural man's deeds as being evil, Now, why
are they evil? Because they deny the glory of
God. Not because they're immoral in the eyes of men, but because
they deny the glory of God. They deny the glory and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, if righteousness come
by the law, Christ is dead in vain. They're evil because they're
products of the pride of man and unbelief. And he says in
verse 20 of John 3, for everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved."
That is exposed, discovered. Here's a person who's doing their
dead level best, let's say to keep the Ten Commandments, in
order to be saved, in order to be righteous, trying to earn
God's favor. The gospel light of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified and His resurrection and His righteousness states
out that that is evil in the sight of God. Now that's right. Now you think about that. All
your works, all your efforts to obey God aimed at earning
or gaining His favor or making you righteous is evil because
they deny His glory. His glory is in Christ, the person
and work of Christ. You want to please God? Look
to Christ. Plead his righteousness. He said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him.
Accepted in the beloved. Where is my acceptance before
God? It's in Christ. And him alone,
100% freely given of God. Now think about this. Think about
the issue of prayer. I heard a preacher tell me one
time, he said, well, I couldn't pray today because I just had
a bad day. I lost my temper and all. Let
me ask you, what qualifies a child of God to pray to God? There's not but one thing. Hebrews
4.14 says, seen then we have a great high priest who has passed
through into the heaven. It's Christ. I don't have any
right or any qualification or fitness to pray, to approach
God, to worship, to praise Him, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and risen from the dead. That's it. People today taking
the Lord's Supper, they call it. Well, we take the Lord's
Supper at our church, and it is the Lord's Supper. But they
say, well, if you haven't taken care of sin in your life, or
some specific sin in your life, you're not qualified to take
the Lord's Supper. And they'll go to 1 Corinthians
11, and that's not what those verses teach. My friend, the
Lord's Supper is a testimony in symbol, the wine and the unleavened
bread, that our only qualification to come to God is Christ and
His blood and righteousness alone. If I've had a good week, I'm
still not qualified in myself to take the Lord's Supper or
to pray or to worship. If I've had a bad week, I'm qualified
in Christ. Now look back at John 3 there
that we were studying. You see, the gospel exposes all
that kind of legal thinking as evil. What is your refuge? You say, well I made a decision
back then. That's evil. I'm telling you
that. Because your refuge has to be
Christ. Right now, today. Not what you
did back then. Your refuge is not your baptism. Your refuge is not your descent.
Your refuge is Christ, if you're saved. So, verse 21 of John 3,
he says, But he that doeth truth, now this is the spiritual man,
cometh to the light. Now this is where we understand
what he means by we have the mind of Christ, having the mind
of Christ. He does truth, He comes to the
light, that His deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought
in God. That means they're the work of
God. What that means is what, for example, Ephesians 2, 8 through
10 states, For by grace are you saved, through faith, that not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast." Verse 10 says, for we, that's the spiritual
man, we believers, we are His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in. Now back in 1 Corinthians 2,
Verse 16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he
may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
The mind of God. Do you know the mind of God?
I can tell you where to find it. Right here in this book.
This is God's revelation of himself to his people. And so if we're
born again by the Spirit and we believe in Christ, we have
the mind of Christ. Now, how do we have His mind?
Does that mean I'm no longer a sinner? I no longer have sinful
thoughts? No, I do. And you do too, if
you're honest. What that means is we have His
mind in two ways. Number one, we have His Spirit. All who are saved by the grace
of God, who have received the things that God freely gives,
all of salvation. They have the Spirit of God and
they have the Word of God written on their heart. I know the Gospel.
I'm a sinner saved by grace. I have no hope of salvation.
I quote one of my favorite hymns all the time. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On
Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. I should be crying over my sins
more than I do. But if I could cry a river of
tears over my sins, that's not enough to wash away my sins,
to cleanse me, to purge me, to pay my debt. The blood of Christ,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. And this is all my hope and peace?
This is all my righteousness? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see that? Freely given of
God to him. That's the mind of Christ. That's
the mind that glorifies Him and honors Him and follows Him. Should
we, if we're Christians, should we try to be the best people
that we can be in every area? Charity, love, compassion, accept
all of that. Yes, but not in order to be saved. Not in order to be righteous.
If we're Christians, it's because we're already saved fully and
freely by the grace of God, and we're already righteous in Christ. To realize that and know that
by revelation of the Spirit of God means this. It means that
the Spirit of God has given us life, brought us to faith in
Christ and repentance, and we have the mind of Christ. That's
what it is, having the mind of Christ. The natural man will
not receive those things. They're foolishness to him. They're
spiritually discerned and he judges them as to be worthless. And some people will just look
at it and say, well, it really doesn't matter. Well, that's
the natural man. But the spiritual man judges
all things. He knows the value of these all
things freely given. It doesn't mean he makes right
judgments in every area of life. He may make a wrong judgment
in work, in finances, or in family, or whatever. But in these areas
of all things that are freely given, salvation, full and free,
He judges all things correct because He's judging by the mind
of Christ, not the mind of man. He's judging by the Word of God.
What does the Word of God say? That's the issue in all of this. When we talk about the preaching
of the gospel, when we talk about the sovereignty of God, when
we're talking about the sinnerhood and depravity of man, when we're
talking about the grace of God in salvation in Jesus Christ,
the God-man, and based upon His finished, accomplished, redemptive
work, it's all about what this book says. It's not about my
opinion, your opinion, not about even our denomination. or creeds
or some confession that has been written years ago. It's all about
God's Word which reveals Christ. And that Bible, the God's Word,
reveals the utter impossibility of any sinner attaining salvation
or any part of it based on his works, his efforts. The Bible
says that Christ alone is the ground, the source, and the power
of all salvation. And our part, as sinners saved
by grace, is to live as the fruit of God's grace. Christ said,
I am the vine, you're the branches. Faith and repentance and obedience
and endurance This judgment that he's speaking of, the spiritual
man, is all the fruit, the effect, the product of his grace, his
power, and his love, which sent his son to be the propitiation
for the sins of his people. The natural man receiveth those
things not. The spiritual man receives those
things by the power and the grace and the goodness and the glory
of God. And even the faith that it takes to connect the spiritual
man to Christ. is a gift from God. It's not
the power of his own decision or free will. It's the gift of
God. Always remember that. God-given faith, God-given repentance,
God-given perseverance, even unto glory. That's the mind of
Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive. Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.