to 1 Corinthians 12. There's something in here, the
way it's worded, that really arrested my attention. So I thought,
well, I'll just say a few things about it. 1 Corinthians 12, verses
1, 2, and 3. Now obviously, he's writing to the brethren and to the church
there at Corinth, which, as we know, always contains lost and
saved, any situation where people gather together, that's usually
the case, tares and wheat and what not. But he says, Paul says,
now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles. carried away unto these dumb
idols even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse or
anathema and that no man or woman or boy or girl can say that Jesus
is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. So that had me thinking and looking. So let's just look at, just kind
of go down, verse 1, verse 2, verse 3. First of all, he says,
I'm talking to you about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts. Okay? Now, contrary to contemporary
thought, a gift is not a gift if you receive it or don't receive
it. The gift is thought of, it's initiated in the mind of the
person giving it. So that's the same thing with
salvation. It's not offer. It's not an offer to anyone.
It never says it even in the Bible, God offered His Son. He
offered His Son to the Father, offered Him up to the law for
sacrifice, but it doesn't say anything about offering this
to sinners, because that's another contemporary thought. It's like
divine cooperation. God's done this, now you've got
to respond. No, no, it's all of grace. So concerning spiritual gifts,
it's all of grace. Or what we have is by the absolute
pure and free grace of God in Jesus Christ. He says, I don't
want you to be ignorant. I don't want you to be ignorant
like you used to be. I don't want you to be ignorant
as unbelievers or as religious hypocrites because they think
they can earn salvation by their good works or they can produce
self-produced good works that God would be impressed with.
and that God wants or needs our help. No, no, no. Concerning
spiritual gifts, it's just like salvation. I don't want you to
be ignorant. And then he goes back and tells
them that they were because they were Gentiles. Verse 2, this
was what we are by nature from birth and proved by practice. Verse 2, you know that you were
Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were
led. Dumb idols. This is what you were. You were,
past tense. This is what we were, by nature,
from birth, and we proved it by prayer. Whether we're religious
or not, every man's religious. Every man was created to worship
God. And when Adam fell in the garden,
they're going to worship something. Not God. Something. But let's
look at this a little closer. You know you were Gentiles. Carried
away. That word carried away means
to put to death. Put to death. You were carried
away, captive, to put to death. You were carried away, you were
led away, led astray. You could not prevent it, is
what he's saying. Dumb idols. Dumb idols. Well, we saw that last week.
Dumb means mute, meaningless. And that's the worship of useless
things. That is anything that takes the
place of the God of the Bible. So it doesn't matter if it's
cars, if it's motorcycles, if it's sports, if it's sports figures. It doesn't matter if it's money,
if it's job, if it's position. Anything that is alluring. And we're not there yet, but
in 1 John we know that You know, the world, the lust of the flesh
and the pride of life, that's all that the world has to offer.
So, this is what we were. We were by nature Gentiles, carried
away to our own death, dumb idols, mute, meaningless, and it doesn't
have to be a statue of Mary in the front yard. It could be that
thing in your front yard that you make sure all the neighbors
see. Whatever, you know how we are.
Thus we were indeed led, and he says, even as you were led,
even as you were led, that means you were induced. Induced by
your own nature, induced to follow these dumb idols. That's induced
by our own nature, sinful nature, by Satan, and by the world. By lifting
up anything before your eyes that's pretty, it's glitters,
gotta have it, gotta need it. We were induced, led to such. For on our own, without mercy,
we will be induced to false worship, false gods, and determined to
serve them or to serve ourselves. And then verse 3 is the main
verse I want to get to. Wherefore I give you to understand.
This is basically saying the same thing. I would not have
you to be ignorant. I want you to understand this, brethren.
We who have been called out from self, from will worship, from
idols, to serve the living and true God, 1 Thessalonians 1.9,
I want you to understand that no man can speak by the Spirit of God,
can say or can call Jesus accursed. This is what the Pharisees were
doing. This is what the Jews were doing, who didn't understand
the truth. They were saying that Jesus was accursed. Of course,
anyone that hangs on a tree, so they're partly right. Anyone
that hangs on a tree is accursed. But, they can call the blessed
son of God accursed or reproached. They were reproaching the Savior.
Or the other word for accursed is abomination. Or let his name
be denounced and detestable. This is what man's nature thinks
of Christ. No matter how sweet your neighbor
is, no matter how religious your neighbor is, or how religious
people think they are, If they don't know the gospel, this is
what they call Christ. Accursed. Detestable. They denounce him. He's an abomination. And we did this in our state
of unregeneracy. No, you were Gentiles. You were
carried away with dumb idols. Nobody is born speaking of the
truth. comes to the knowledge just,
you know, I just came one day. No, you were brought by the sovereign
grace of God. This is what we did in a state
of unregeneracy. But now we see, love, and adore, and value, nay,
the Savior Himself. Having been gifted, remember
the first verse, spiritually, to behold our Kinsman Redeemer.
So all who are lost or unconverted speak of such negative things
in their heart, and we used to, but now we don't. Now we don't. Furthermore, what
do we do? Verse 3 and the latter part.
This is what I was looking at. We'll get to it here in a second. No man or woman, our boy or girl,
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. You mean to say, all's I got
to say is, Jesus is Lord, you know me better than that. That's
easy-believism, that's nonsense. Now this is not merely a verbal
assent. It's not a mere word that we
speak without affection. Because we know Judas did the
same thing. And he was accursed. And James
says the devils believe and they tremble. But they don't fear,
they don't have a saving knowledge of God. in Christ? And how many
times did Christ throw out, cast out devils, and one in particular,
and they said, Jesus, the Son of God, are you come before the
time? They knew who he was. So this
is not just, this passage here in verse 3, the latter part,
no man or woman or boy or girl can say that Jesus is Lord but
by the Holy Spirit. So it's just not a verbal assent,
it's not a checklist. I know this doctrine, that doctrine,
boom, boom, boom. No. This is what today's easy
believism, religion is, and I despise it, and it's not of God. So if you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, you, according to our text, do
so by the Holy Spirit. No man can say that Jesus is
the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Turn with me to 1 John 5. 1 John 5 and verse 20. This is what I'm saying. And
this would be comforting to us. If we have said that Jesus Christ
is Lord, Sovereign, Ruling, Reigner, Lord, we can't do so. unless the Holy Spirit has caused
us to do so. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 20,
and we know, we know that the Son of God has come and has given
us an understanding that we may know Him, that is true, and we
are in Him, that is true, even His Son, Jesus Christ, this is
the true God, and eternal life. So, I don't want to shut out
the kingdom of God. I don't want my preaching to
be to shut anybody out. You know what I'm saying? I'm
not trying to say, this is your save, we don't do that. But I want to make it as wide
as he makes it in his text. Matter of fact, the message that
Darwin Pruitt preached, the whosoever gospel, that's true. Because I can, you know, we get
people who are hyper-Calvinist, or hardshells, or whoever they
are, and oh, you know, you can't, we're not, I'm not done preaching
yet. So if you believe it is by the
Holy Spirit of God, now why is this true? Why can this, this
has to be true? No one can say, no sinner can
say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. And we noticed
and seen that this is not just a, Jesus the Holy Ghost. I was going to school, I've told
you this story before, times before, and there was a Pentecostal,
and I'd never really been around Pentecostal, being a good Methodist
boy, I didn't know anything about it. And this guy, he just starts
talking, oh, Satan was, he was, you know, and I was like, Oh,
Satan was after me and everything. And I just said, Jesus, you know,
and everything is better. And it's just like, what are
you talking? What is this? And then he started
babbling. What's that? That's tongues. Whatever. We're not saying that. This is
not what this passage is saying. But I do know this passage is
true. Why? First of all, because of our
depravity. Because of our fall in Adam in
the garden. In Adam, the Scripture says,
all die spiritually. All die. Dead people have no
understanding of, well, anything spiritual. But we saw in 1 John
that we know Him. We know Him. We have an understanding.
So because of our depraved nature, because of Adam's sin in the
garden, and what happened there, completely fell, Will, body,
soul, spirit, mind, everything fell. And we fell on Adam. We are blind, deaf, we cannot
reason, we cannot deduce, we cannot move one muscle to the
Savior. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. And then look at 1 Corinthians
2. pages or a few chapters, 1 Corinthians
2, it says in verse 14, but the natural man, that's what we are
from birth, receives not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
as opposed to 1 John 5, we know them, because these are spiritually
discerned. Again, back to our text. I'm
speaking to you concerning spiritual gifts. who cannot know them. They are spiritually discerned.
Cannot know them. So, because of man's depravity.
Strike 1. Strike 2, I know this world. I know what's in my heart. I
know what's in my flesh. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. This is just anti-man. This is grace, but this is not
what we're born with. Philippians chapter 2 verses
5 and 6, Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ
Jesus, who Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, verse 7, but made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men." And verse 8, "...and being found
in the fashion of the man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross." This is the second
reason why, in this passage in verse 3, the latter part is not
speaking of just a verbal enunciation of Jesus as Lord. Man's natural
draw is for pomp, is for show, is for glitter and gold, is to
be noticed, to be seen, to be the center of it all. That's our draw. That's what we are. But Christ,
He came in a place away from the limelight. He wasn't born
in Jerusalem. He was born in Bethlehem. He
was born in a stable with lowly parents You look at them, you
read a little bit about them, they were nobodies. The Jews
had their king come in pomp, they had him come in the throne
of David, the scepter, that's what they thought. Every time the Jews tried to
present Christ as their king, what did he do? He withdrew himself.
Hence, Christ was more interested in the heart substance than in
physical or material substance. The same is true of his followers
and his people and his building and the fellowship. We're more
interested in what's going on here, in here, what's being said,
is the truth being preached. Do not be embarrassed or ashamed
regarding his people or this building or this church or this
fellowship. Actually, You know, we look at it from where we came
from, meeting in a rented building, meeting in a home, this is like
a palace. It isn't in Jackson, but I don't
care. I just don't care. I just don't
care. The glory and honor of God is
more seen here, thankfully, than it is ever in any of this world's
greatest capitals on earth. We need to be thankful. We have
this place. It's something. It's something. And not because I'm here, because
I consider myself the less than least, but you're a sheep, I'm
an under shepherd, and if God gives me grace, I'm just going
to continue to preach simply, not complicated, the grace of
God. I'm going to continue to speak
of spiritual gifts. We know where we all come from.
We know where we've all been. We know, and I pray that God
would continue to show us this. He will continue to show us the
pit from which we've been dug. We used to say Christ was a curse.
He was detestable. We didn't care for, but now we
say he's Lord. He is sovereign, immutable, unapproachably
holy, and yet we approach Him, how? Through and by Christ. Can we say Jesus Christ is God,
the Sovereign One, One who can do all things according to His
good pleasure as He sees fit? Remember, I speak to us concerning
spiritual things. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If you from the heart
can lay your supposed goodness in the trash heap and can claim
your all in all to be by Him and through Him the glorious
substitute of sinners, thank God the Father for choosing you.
Thank God the Son for dying for you. And thank God the Holy Spirit
for enabling you to say, Jesus is of the Lord. And that, actually
I skipped over it, that's Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah by the Holy
Spirit. May He take the words and bless
them to us and may He get all honor and glory. Matt, would
you close us please?