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. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And as I always pray for this
program, that I pray and hope that the Lord will use it to
bring his people to salvation and to edify his people, to be
an aid in helping you to read and study the Bible. That's what
I want to do. And today I'm going to continue
preaching through 1 Corinthians 2. And the title of this message,
this is part two, last week I had part one, Hidden Mysteries Revealed. And what I'm talking about here
is that the mystery of the gospel, a mystery in the Bible, it's
not, I mentioned this last week how it is not, a mystery is not
something like a mystery book or a mystery novel or a mystery
movie where you have a crime committed and detectives trying
to figure out the clues. A mystery in the Bible is something
that can only be known by God's revelation, God must reveal it. And that's the way it is with
the gospel, with salvation. And it's all in light of this
verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 2, the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Natural man, meaning all of us
born naturally, as we are naturally born, fallen in Adam, ruined
by the fall. and born dead spiritually. That's what the natural man is.
Well, the Apostle Paul, what he's doing here is he's showing
how important, how valuable, how vital The basic gospel message
is, it is the hidden mystery of God because as we mentioned
last week, the princes of this world, the elites of this world,
this has not entered their minds. He says in verse nine, 1 Corinthians
2, 9, but as it is written, now he's quoting from the book of
Isaiah here, I believe, Isaiah 64. Now Isaiah was preaching
to people that didn't believe what he said. Isaiah was prophesying
of the future Messiah to come who would come and put away the
sins of his people by his death and establish righteousness for
them whereby God would justify them. That's the hidden mystery.
That's the gospel. God saves sinners by grace. And grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. How God can be just
and justify. You see, God is a God of love
and mercy and grace, but His love, mercy, and grace must be
founded upon a just ground, and that's the righteousness, the
obedience unto death, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
God's love, mercy, and grace is in Christ. Outside of Christ,
there's no love to you or me from God. Outside of Christ,
there's no mercy, there's no grace. Don't fool yourself. So
he says in verse nine, 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. Now, man has never
come up with any message, any way, anything even close to the
hidden mystery that God reveals, the gospel of salvation, which
reveals the righteousness of God. I mentioned this last week
in Romans chapter 1 and verse 16, where the Apostle Paul said,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, that is the
gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and the Greek also, Verse 17, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Now what is the righteousness
of God? In the gospel, the righteousness
of God is the perfect obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That word righteousness could
be translated justice of God. And it has to do with the merit,
the value of the work of Christ as the surety and substitute
of God's elect. Who did Christ die for on that
cross? He died for God's elect. Who
are the elect? Everyone that believeth. Now
that's who the elect are. They are justified based on the
blood of Christ. That is, He put away their sins.
Their sins were imputed, charged, accounted, reckoned to Him, the
debt. And His righteousness has been
imputed, charged, reckoned, accounted to them. So that they stand before
God in a righteousness, righteousness accounted to them in God's legal
court, that they didn't produce. That's why grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You
see, the merits that I have before God are not like merit badges
that I worked and earned. The merits that I have before
God is totally worked for and earned by Christ, my substitute,
my surety. so that I stand in Him. Paul
wrote about that in Philippians 3 when he said that I may know
Him and be found in Him, in Christ, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. So that's the hidden mystery revealed, that we stand
before God if we're saved now. And so he says, I hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. You see,
that message, Jesus Christ crucified, buried, risen, righteousness
established, that has not even entered into the heart of man.
Look at human religion. Look at man-made religion. Every
religion except true Christianity, and I say true Christianity because
there's a lot of false Christianity, But every religion, but true
Christianity, has a way of salvation that is in some way, at some
stage, to some degree, conditioned on man. But the true religion,
the hidden mystery that God reveals, shows us that salvation, the
salvation of God's people, is totally conditioned on Christ
and he fulfilled all the conditions. Now what believers do in believing,
in repenting, in obeying, is not the cause or the ground of
salvation, it's the fruit, the result, the product of salvation
by the grace and the power of God. And so now listen to this,
go back to verse nine, he says, I have not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him." Now who is it that loves God?
You say, well I love God. Let me ask you a question. Are
you sure that you love the God of this book? I'll never forget, I was up north
near my hometown, going through another town, and I came upon
a religious building that had a little marquee sign out in
front. And I'm saying that because,
while I'm saying that, look back at Romans chapter 9. You say, well, I love God. I
say I love God. I don't love Him perfectly. But
I know He loves me perfectly. How do I know that? Because I
look to Christ. And that's where God's love is.
It's in Christ. I quoted this last week, 1 John
4, 10. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing
sacrifice that brings satisfaction to His justice, a propitiation
for our sins. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? All who truly believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ as He's identified and distinguished in this book
can say we love God. Not perfectly. And our love to
God is not the source or the power or the ground of His love
to us. My love to Him is the result,
the fruit of His unconditional love to me. Now there are conditions
for his love, but they're found in Christ. But he loves me freely,
unconditionally. But you say, well, I love God.
Well, do you love the God of the Bible? All right. A lot of people, and I always
go to this verse to show that. First of all, keep in mind what
Paul's saying there. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. That's 1 Corinthians 2.14. The
natural man does not love God. He loves himself. And the God
that he does love is an idol who's like himself. Now that's
the issue of man. Those who love God receive the
things of the Spirit of God. We'll talk about that in just
a minute. Who receives the things of the Spirit? The natural man
does not love God. We by nature do not love God. If we do love God at all, it's
because of His power and goodness and grace that brought us that
hidden revelation in the new birth to bring us to see our
sinfulness, our depravity. The fact that we don't earn or
deserve anything from God but wrath and condemnation and we
are at His mercy. If God saves me, it's all mercy. It's all grace. Grace is God
giving me all the blessings of salvation. that I have not earned
or deserved. Mercy is God not giving me all
the wrath and condemnation that I have earned and deserve. If
I'm saved, I'm a sinner saved by grace. We sing a hymn, only
a sinner saved by grace. This is my story, to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
Well, do you love God? Well, here's what God says. It
says in Romans 9 and verse 13, now listen to this. It says,
as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Do you love that God? Here's
a God who says he loved Jacob and he hated Esau. What does
that mean? Well, that means that God chose
to set his love upon a sinner named Jacob who didn't deserve
the love. But he chose to set his hatred
upon Esau, who did deserve his hatred. Do you love that God? Now remember I mentioned that
marquee that I saw up north close to my hometown. And here's what
was written on the marquee. This was supposedly a Christian
church. It says, that God who hates,
we don't worship him. Well, you know what? They might
as well said. They could have just as well
put on that marquee, we don't love the God of the Bible. We
love a God of our imagination. And that's really what it is.
Now the reason that people do not want to accept and worship
a God who can hate is they reason from the ground upward. They
reason from their own sinful ways and character and pride. They say that they reason that,
well, God's hatred is like mine. You see, when I hate, it's sinful. It's unreasonable. God commands
me to love my neighbors myself. I've got no reason to hate people
because of their sins, because of that, because I'm a sinner.
But when God hates, it's not sinful. It's not unreasonable. It's not unfair. It's righteous
indignation. It's His just wrath against sin. The Bible says in Psalm 5, He
hates all workers of iniquity. And preachers will go around
trying to parse that and water it down. Oh, He loves the sinner
but hates the sinner. Well, God does hate sin. But
He does also hate sinners. And that's his just wrath against
sin. But the fact that God loves some
and chooses them to say, my friend, that's what the Bible says. You
say, well, I don't like that. Well, then don't go around saying
you love the God of the Bible. I know this, if I'm a recipient
of God's love, I don't deserve it, I haven't earned it, and
there's no way There's no way that God could look at me and
say, well, I love him because he first loved me. So going back
to 1 Corinthians 2, he says, it's not entered into the mind
of man, the heart of man, the things which God has prepared
for them that love him. Well, who are those that love
him? Those who see to whom he has revealed that hidden mystery,
that great salvation. that says herein is love, not
that we love God. The source of that love is not
my love for Him, but that He loved us and gave His Son, sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Over in the book
of Romans, chapter 8, very familiar chapter to many of us. This statement is made here where
he says in verse 28, Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. In other words, who
is it that love God? To them who are the called according
to His purpose. Now who are the called? That's
believers. Called unto salvation by the
gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. And he tells us here, he says
in verse 32 of Romans 8, he that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all, that's all who love him. Listen, everything's
not going to work together for good for those who die in unbelief. They're going to perish eternally.
But he said, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? Now go back to 1 Corinthians
2. Now listen to this, this is verse 10. All right, God hath
prepared the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him. Who are they? Look at verse 10. But God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit. Now that's the hidden
revelation, God's revealed it. You must be born again, or you
cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot enter it. And he says,
for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now the deep things of God there
are not deep, deep, hard, intellectual, hard to understand theological
doctrines. The deep things of God are the
things of His heart that reveal who He is, how He is a holy God
who must punish sin. That's who God is. He will by
no means clear the guilty, the scripture says. And yet he is
a just God, even though he's a just God, he's a loving God,
a gracious God, a merciful God. How can he be both? Now here's
where we get to the deep things of God. How can God be both a
righteous judge as well as a loving, merciful Father? How can He deal
with the sinner who deserves condemnation, who is guilty by
nature? How can he deal with a sinner
in mercy and still be true to himself in his justice? How can
he do that? Well, there's not but one way,
and that is by his grace based upon the work of Jesus Christ
as surety and substitute of his people, the righteousness of
God. That's the deep things of God.
That's the glory of God. God saves me. God loves me. God's merciful to me. God's gracious
to me. God's compassionate towards me
because of what Christ did on that cross. And that's the only
reason. There's no other reason. There's
no reason in me. That's the deep things of God.
And look at verse 11. He says, for what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
Now that just makes sense. Why is it that men and women,
natural men and women, all of us by nature, why is it we don't
know these deep things of God, these mysteries of? Well, We're
men and women. We're natural men and women.
Not only are we just human beings, we're fallen, sinful human beings. And all we can know is that spirit
that's in us, which is the spirit of man, talking about our inner
persons, our hearts, but we're spiritually dead. How could we
know them? Man cannot rise above himself. See? And so even so, verse 11,
even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
The only way that we can know anything of these hidden mysteries
revealed, the gospel, salvation by grace, is as it comes from
God, by His Spirit. That's the revelation. Hidden
mysteries revealed. So it just stands to reason man
can't thrive above himself. Now verse 12 is a very key verse
here. And listen to what it says. Now
we have received, now who's the we there? That's believers, regenerate. We have received. Look over at
John chapter one. Now what he's talking about,
we've received the things of the spirit of God. Not the spirit
of the world, but the spirit which is of God. We've received
those things. We believe them, that's a believer.
You know over in John 1 in verse 11, this is written. It says
in John 1, 11, he came unto his own, that's Christ. A lot of
commentators say that means his own nation. And his own received
him not. They did not receive him. Now
verse 12 says this, but as many as received him, now there are
some who received him, To them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now that word power
there does not mean ability. It's not saying as many as received
him, to them gave he the ability to become the sons of God. Now
there is a word for power in the scripture that talks about
the power or the ability. For example, when Paul wrote
in Romans 1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God, that means ability. In other words,
the gospel in the hands of the Holy Spirit by the power of the
Spirit is able to bring a sinner to salvation. In fact, that word
power in Romans 1.16 is the Greek word, the root of which we get
our word dynamite from. But the word power here in John
1.12 is a word that means right, the right of something, the entitlement,
the privilege. In other words, as many as received
Christ, to them gave He the right to become or to be called the
sons of God. In other words, if I claim to
be saved, then I'm claiming that I'm a child of God, a son of
God. What right do I have to make
that claim? If I was an unbelieving Jew,
I might say something like this. I might say, well, I was born
of the physical nation of Abraham, or I've been circumcised, or
I've kept the law of Moses. But that gives nobody a right
to be called a son of God. People today say, well, I was
born in the South. I was raised a Southern Baptist
or a Methodist or a Pentecostal. I've been baptized. I made a
profession of faith. That doesn't give anybody the
right to be called the sons of God. What does? As many as received
him. Do you know, believe, trust Christ? for all salvation, for all forgiveness,
for all righteousness, for all eternal life and glory. That's
the only thing that gives me a right, a privilege, to claim
to be called a son of God. I believe in Christ. So he says
here, as many as received him, to them gave he the right to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Now look at verse 13 of John 1. which were born. Now what kind of born is he talking
about? What kind of birth? Not of blood. So he's not talking about the
natural man here. Natural birth, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh. The will of the flesh means the
works of the flesh. No, it wasn't by works, nor of
the will of man. It wasn't by his decision or
his will. The new birth, they were born
of God, it says. That's the new birth. Now, go
back to 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12. That's what he's talking
about here in verse 12. Now, we have received not the
spirit of the world. We already had that, the natural
man, but the spirit which is of God. That's the new birth.
Now, what's the sign of that, the evidence of that? Look at
it. That we might know, that word know there means an intimate
knowledge, a heart knowledge, the things that are freely given,
underscore that word freely, given to us of God. That's the key. Salvation, full
and free, based upon the work of Christ. How do I know I've
been born again? How do I know that I'm no longer
the natural man, but a spiritual man? Do I know, receive, believe,
and trust all the things that God has freely given? freely
out of His grace based on the righteousness of Christ? Or do
I expect salvation based on something else other than or added to Christ? You know, a lot of people who
claim to be Christian, but they say, well, salvation's by grace,
but you have to do this. You have to be this. You have
to go here. All of the... No, no. It's all
freely, unconditionally given to sinners of God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look back at Romans chapter eight.
That's what he's talking about here, about everything working
together. Verse 29 of Romans eight, for
whom he did foreknow, that's that foreordained. He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren Christ in his resurrection. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, He justified, and
whom He justified, He glorified." All of salvation freely given
by God's grace in 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.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.