Basically, our text this evening
is going to be verses 10 through 16 of chapter 2. I want to speak
to you, or try to for a few minutes this evening, on the subject,
He that is spiritual. He that is spiritual. I always like to stay in context
with this. That's why I asked Brother David
to read that portion of chapter 1 and the first part of chapter
2, and we'll just very briefly review a few points that were
covered there. Now, Paul had denounced the preaching
of the gospel with the wisdom of words. He said that in verse
17, that it made the cross of Christ of none effect. the method
of preaching that does that. He didn't want any part of it.
And he went on to show that human wisdom was insufficient to arrive
at a saving knowledge of God. That's one of the things that
is most offensive to natural men, is the fact that they cannot
know God by natural wisdom. It just really offends folks.
You mean I can't know God if I decide to? You mean I can't
understand the scriptures? I'm not smart enough. It's not
my human wisdom. It's not my natural wisdom. While
the preaching of Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the religious
Jew and its foolishness to the wise Greek, yet to those who
are called, the Lord Jesus Christ is the power of God and He's
the wisdom of God. And then Paul further showed
that it's not by human wisdom, strength, or noble bearing that
a person is saved, but it's of God alone that he's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, you see, you're calling.
Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has chosen the opposite of
those things. And it's of God. It's of God
that you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And all of that
because all the glory is going to the Lord. It's due Him. And then in chapter 2, Paul reminds
these people to whom he is writing that not only does he denounce
this thing and and set aside human wisdom in this thing of
salvation by Christ and the preaching of the gospel, that that was
the way he acted when he was among them. He reminds them of
the manner of his preaching when he preached among them. He had
one message, one message, and that was Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. I'm determined that Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And His preaching, therefore
His preaching, His preaching was not with excellency of speech
or wisdom. It was not with enticing words
of man's wisdom. But it was in demonstration.
In demonstration. Now, first of all, that word
means independence. His preaching And the results
of his preaching depended on the Holy Spirit and his power.
But his preaching, his matter of preaching, also demonstrated
that salvation was by the Spirit and his power. And the reason,
he says, for this, he gives in verse 5, that your faith should
not stand to the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Take
a man who has a lot of persuasive powers and so forth, he may be
able to talk you into a profession of faith. But someone with greater
persuasive powers would be able then to talk you out of it. But
if the Spirit of God and the power of God convinces you of
sin and reveals Christ to you and gives you faith in Him, gives you the faith of God's
elect, ain't nobody going to change your mind. You've got
to stand in the power of God, and that's what he's talking
about. And then he goes on to establish that while the preaching
of Christ and him crucified in simple language is foolishness
to the intellectual, to the wise of the world, to the child of
God, it's the highest wisdom that you can attain unto, that
can be attained unto. It's even the wisdom of God,
which which has been hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ before
the world was. And when Christ came into this
world, there was none of the leaders, none of the princes,
none of the chief people of the world knew this wisdom. If they
had known, if they had known, they wouldn't have crucified
the Lord of Glory. You can't know the Lord of Glory by human
wisdom. That's why they crucified him. And then the apostle quotes from
the Old Testament to support what he has been saying and what
he is preparing to say. And as it is written, verse 9,
I have not seen, nor either heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. Now, he's not talking about heaven
here. He's not talking about the glory
of heaven. and the rest and the peace and
the joy of heaven. He's talking about the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, talking about salvation by him. That
hidden wisdom of God in Christ is contained in the scriptures, and it's declared in the preaching
of the gospel, and yet the natural eye cannot see Christ, the natural
ear cannot hear it, can't hear of the wisdom of God, and the
natural heart cannot believe, cannot believe on Christ to the
saving of the soul. Well, how then, how then is any
man to know this hidden wisdom of God in Christ? And that's
what, that's what the apostle begins to deal with in verse
10. He says, But God hath revealed
them unto by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. And God reveals them unto us
by His Spirit." He's talking about the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself must
be the one who quickens us and gives us life. Must be. He has, the Holy Spirit
of God is the one whom our Lord Jesus Christ calls a comforter. He's the one who will show us
all things. He teaches us. He's the one who
reveals the things of the Lord Jesus Christ unto us. He's the one who brings these
things to our remembrance. God reveals this hidden wisdom
of God in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches all things,
even the very depths of Almighty God. You see, the Holy Spirit
is God. The Holy Spirit as God has a
perfect knowledge of God. Now, we worship one God in three
persons. And don't ask me to explain the
Trinity. Scripture doesn't explain the
Trinity. It just declares it. It just
declares it. And God the Holy Spirit, he is
God as much as God the Father and as much as God the Son. And
as such, he has a perfect knowledge of God the Father and God the
Son. He has perfect knowledge of God's purpose of salvation
by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a perfect knowledge of
the person of Christ, perfect knowledge of his nature as both
God and man, perfect knowledge of his mission in this world
that God sent him to do. Perfect knowledge that in Him
our God can be both just and justifier. Perfect knowledge
as to His representation of His people and His substitution for
them. For every single word that the
Father gave Him, He knows that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the law in both precept and penalty, and He knows why He did it and
how He did it. And He knows, He knows about
the obedience established by the Lord Jesus Christ as our
righteousness. He knows about His suffering
and death that secured our pardon. He knows about His blood which
made atonement for our sin and redeemed us to God and reconciled
us to God and gave us peace with God. It's peace by the blood
of His cross. Reconciled God by the blood of
His cross. The Spirit of God knows all about
that. The Spirit of God was involved
in the covenant of grace and peace established between Father
and Son and Spirit before the foundation of the world. Whereas
the Father purposed to save a people, he chose them in Christ, set
up Christ their surety, who promised to come and redeem them, and
whereby the Spirit of God promised to call and keep them unto eternal
glory. He knows all that. And then Paul illustrates this
in verse 11. He says, For what man knoweth the things of a man
save the spirit of man, which is in him? Even so the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. He's illustrating here why these
things have to be revealed. Now, no man knows What man knows the
things of a man save the spirit of man that's in him? Right now, right now, who
knows what's in your heart and mind and thoughts this very instant? I'm talking about humanly speaking.
We know God knows our thoughts and far off. But I'm talking
about men and women. Who knows what's going through
your mind right now? Apart from God, no one. No one. Isn't that right? No one knows
except your spirit, the spirit which is in him. Now, that word
spirit there is talking about a person's rational soul, or
his mental disposition. the intelligent part of man.
Nobody knows what thoughts are in man except his spirit, that's
it. And I don't have any way of knowing
what you're thinking. And you don't have any way of
knowing what I'm thinking, except I tell you, or you tell me. You
have to reveal it. We can't know one another's thoughts,
motives, interests, purposes, none of those things, unless
we're pleased to reveal them. Well, even so, the things of
God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. You can't know what God's
purposes are. You can't know what God's will
is. You can't know what God's thoughts
are unless he's pleased to reveal them unto us by his Spirit. The
hidden wisdom of God in salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ is totally
and completely unknown to us unless God is pleased to reveal
it to us by His Spirit. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ. You can't know
that about God unless He's pleased to reveal it. He's pleased to
record it in his Word, but actually you can't understand what the
true meaning of the words is unless he's pleased to reveal
it. You can't know anything about God's eternal purpose to magnify
the riches of his grace in the person of his servant. We can't know that in the salvation
by grace, salvation of a sinner by grace, that in the ages to
come, God's going to show the exceeding riches of His kindness
and grace towards us in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't know about His sovereign
purpose of election and predestination and calling You can't know the
mystery of God's will, His ways, His decrees of salvation. The
Holy Spirit knows these things about God, and He must reveal
them to us, or we'll never know them savingly. We may learn the
words, but that's as far as it'll go unless the Spirit of God is
pleased to reveal them to us. Well, we see the necessity there,
can't we? See something about the necessity,
we can understand that. Now, what's this verse 12? Talk about the depth, all the
depth of the knowledge, the wisdom, judgments of God. He said in verse 12, Now we have
received not the spirit of the world, that the Spirit which
is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God." What a statement. Let's consider it in a couple
of parts here. First of all, he says, we have
received not the Spirit of the Word. Now, remember who the apostles
were adding right to the church, right to believers, called, elect,
redeemed, called of God. And we have received not the
spirit of the world. I'm sure when the spirit of the
world refers to those people who claim to know God, that God
can be known according to human wisdom and intellect and philosophy
and so forth. But we've received not the spirit
of the world. That spirit is that which forms
false ideas of God. It has false ideas about God's
will and purpose, about God's works and His ways. It's that spirit which forms
ideas according to human thoughts and ways. That's why God said,
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. Man has, he has a way that he
thinks salvation ought to be, but it's not according to God's
ways. It's not according to God's thoughts.
Now, what is the spirit of the world? We have received not,
Paul says. We have received not the spirit
of this world. Let me give you two things about
the spirit of this world. First of all, that refers to
the evil nature of fallen natural man. The evil nature of fallen, natural
man. Now, I want you to turn back
to Romans chapter 8 for a minute. Romans chapter 8. And just hold
it when you find it there, Matthew. When I talk about the evil, fallen
nature of man being the spirit of the world, look at verse 7
of Romans chapter 8. He says here, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. That's that evil, fallen nature.
It's not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can be.
So then, they that are in the flesh, the natural man, they
cannot please God. They cannot please God. And then,
secondly, the spirit that's on the world is the It's actually
the spirit of Satan. It's the spirit of Satan. Now,
I know you're probably familiar with this, but Ephesians 2, verse
2, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world. according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience." The spirit that's of this world is
that evil nature that's in the unregenerate person, and that
person is guided, directed, controlled by the spirit of Satan, taken
captive by him at his will. Now, that's what that's talking
about there. Now, that's the spirit we have
not received. We have not received. Talk about
believers, then. We have received the spirit which
is of God. The spirit which is of God. What's
he talking about here? Well, first of all, this is the
Holy Spirit of God. Spirit of God and the Spirit
of Christ, which every single believer has. Now, look back
at Romans 8 again. Did you hold Romans 8? Romans
8, verse 9. But you are not in the flesh,
that is, you're not a natural person, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. The Spirit of God. God the Holy
Spirit. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, is that two different spirits? No, same one.
Same one. Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ,
same Holy Spirit. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is not of his. He has more of the Christ. Paul, in this same epistle, in
chapter 3, verse 16, he said to these people, he said, But
you're the temple of God, don't you know that? The Spirit of
God dwells in you. So we've received the Spirit
of God. First of all, that's the Holy
Spirit. But now listen to it. The old preacher used to say, hold
on to your seats now, we're getting ready to jump a ditch. Now, at first, it's talking about
the Spirit of God. I want you to clearly understand
that. But this also talks about that divine nature, which is
Spirit, which we have as a result of regeneration. Now, preacher, can you make good
on that? Well, I believe I can. I believe I can. Actually, I
would only need one verse to confirm that. And that is when
our Lord talked to Nicodemus. You remember He told him, you
must be born again. And He said in John 3, verse
6, that which is born of the flesh is what is it? It's flesh. And that which is
born of the Spirit is what? What is it now? It's Spirit,
is it not? Well, if I've been born of God,
Come on now, what am I? What do I have as a result of
that birth? Spirit. Our Lord told the one
at the well, he said, God is spirit, and they that worship
him must worship him in what? Spirit and in truth. And the
Father seeks such to worship him. Paul told the Philippians,
we are the circumcision, we are the true people of God, which
do three things. Now, what's the first one? We
worship God in what? Spirit. We rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we have no confidence in this flesh. Is
that new and strange doctrine? No, sir, it is not. It is not. Now, I want you to turn back
to Ezekiel chapter 36, and I want you to look at this. Please look
at this. Turn with me. I want you to understand that
we compare Scripture with Scripture. Scripture with Scripture. We have received the Spirit which
is of God. That is, first of all, the Holy
Spirit who dwells in His people and God's people. But we also
have a spirit derived from God in the new birth. In the new
birth. We could very well say that that
is Christ formed in you. Christ formed in you. You may
partakers of the divine nature. We created anew in Christ Jesus. Now, Ezekiel chapter 36. And here the Lord, through the
prophet, is talking about gospel blessings here. Verse 25. He said, Then will
I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all
your filthiness, from all your idols will I cleanse you. For
the washing of water by the word, our Lord said. He's going to
cleanse this church. Now watch verse 26 now. A new
heart also will I give you. And a new spirit I will put within
you. You see that? Now note that.
Underline that. A new spirit will I put within
you. And I'll take away your old stony
heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh,
a heart that can be touched, a heart that feels, a heart that
loves, a heart that knows, a heart that understands. And watch verse 27 now. And I
will put my spirit within you. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He just said something about
spirit, didn't he? Verse 26. A new spirit will I put within
you, and I'll put my spirit within you. See what he's talking about?
You see that? There's a new spirit created in us, and the Spirit
of God dwells in us. Let me ask you something. If the Spirit of God entered
into the natural man, the natural woman, what would he
find there in commonality? What would he find there that
there could be any interaction with? There wouldn't be anything, would
there? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. And listen, beloved, I'll tell
you if you want to, you can look at this. It's in Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. There's a whole
lot said about spirit in Romans chapter 8. In verse 16, The Spirit itself, that word,
I don't know why the translators put it so there, I don't know.
It's a very emphatic word. The Spirit himself beareth witness
with what? Our spirit. Our spirit. That we're the children
of God. That's the only thing we have
in us right now. that the spirit of God can bear witness with. You see, God gives a new spirit.
He gives His spirit. He gives it to His people. He
gives it to illuminate them to the gift of the grace of Christ. We have received to the Spirit
which is of God that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. We've got to have this life,
we've got to have this Spirit before we can know the gift of
God's grace in the person of his dear Son. And below that, verse 13, which
things also we speak? The things of grace. given to
us in the Lord Jesus Christ, taught to us by the Holy Spirit,
the things of God's eternal love to His people, the things of
God's distinguishing grace, the things of God's effectual, particular
redemption of His people, the things of His irresistible call
and preservation unto eternal glory, which things we speak.
And all these things are in Christ. And we don't say that in words
which man's wisdom teaches. We don't speak about this in
lofty terms of man's wisdom. Not according to man's thoughts
and man's theories and man's philosophies. But we speak these
things in the wisdom the Holy Ghost teaches. The wisdom the Holy Ghost teaches.
We preach the gospel in words taught and recorded and revealed
by the Holy Spirit, and we use the words that He uses. We use
words like sinner and words like elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. We use words like predestined
to the adoption of children, predestined to be like the Lord
Jesus Christ. We use words like atonement by
the blood, of forgiveness by His mercy, of justification by
His righteousness. The things which the Holy Ghost
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. We don't use these words and
apply our own meaning to them. You hear people say, well, I
believe in election. I believe that God looked down
through eternity and saw who was going to believe, and those
are the ones he elected. No, they're putting man's thoughts
to God's words. We don't do that. We don't have
to explain away God. We don't have to apologize because
God is God. That's the chief glory, isn't
it? We give the words of God the
meaning of God conveyed in the scriptures of God. We compare
spiritual things with spiritual. We compare New Testament with
Old Testament, just like we did a minute ago when we talked about
the spirit God puts within us, creates within us. What did we
do? We saw it in both the New Testament and we went back and
saw it in the Old Testament. And we preach, now listen, we
preach spiritual truth and spiritual life to a spiritual people. You know what? They hear it. And they understand it. Now verse 14. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." That natural man, that unregenerate
man, I don't care whether he's in religion or out of it, he
will not receive and believe the things of the Spirit of God.
He will not because he doesn't have any capacity for spiritual
things. All he has is the Spirit of this
world, and there's nothing there for the Spirit of God to communicate
with, to identify with. The gospel of salvation by the
sovereign grace and free mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the gospel of justification by his righteousness imputed and
imparted. the gospel of forgiveness by
His blood, acceptance through the merit of the crucified Redeemer. Even what is taught right here
in this text, that these things have to be revealed. I'm telling
you below, to the natural man, that's absolute foolishness. He receives not the things of
the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. He
cannot know them. Why? Because they're spiritually
discerned. He cannot know them. He doesn't
have the ability to know them. They're spiritually discerned.
They're understood in a spiritual manner. And the natural man has
all of the spirit of this world. Man must cease to be a natural
man, and he must be regenerated and quickened and become spiritual
before he can believe and understand and receive the things of God. Now, you listen to me, and don't
misunderstand me. A natural man cannot rightly
understand the imputation of righteousness. until he has experienced
a part of righteousness. You hear what I'm saying? He cannot fully know and understand,
savingly know and understand the work of Christ for us until
he has experienced the work of Christ in us. He doesn't have
the capacity. He doesn't have spirit. Preacher, that's a pretty hard
statement you're making there. Well, you can search the scriptures
and see if they're true. I'm telling you, beloved, salvations
are the Lord. I'm not trying to impress you
with the way I preach or the words I use. What I'm preaching
to you is a demonstration and dependence of the Spirit of God
and of power. And I grant you, if He teaches
these things to you, you'll be well taught. Well taught in your
faith of standing in the power of God. In the power of God. In verse 15, but he that is spiritual. Now, the natural man can't do
that, but he that is spiritual He that is spiritual. Who is
this? Every person who is born of the Spirit of God. Every person
who has spirit in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. That which is
born of the Spirit is spirit. He discerns all things. The natural
man doesn't discern any of these things, but the spiritual. He
that is spiritual discerns all things. He understands all these
things. He understands the gospel. Does that mean he has perfect
knowledge? No! No, no, no, no, no. Not perfect
knowledge, not even of spiritual, not even of temporal. But I tell
you this, beloved, he understands all the things of the Spirit
of God that's taught and revealed which are necessary for faith
in Christ and salvation by Him. He discerns God's holiness and
justice. He discerns man's sin and inability. He discerns God's sovereignty
and salvation. The substitution and the satisfaction
of Christ's redemptive work. He understands those things.
He understands how God can be a judge and a justifier of him
which believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees how the law of
God is magnified and honored in the person and the obedience
of Christ. He sees how sin is put away by
the substitution and suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
understands those things, and he understands that those for
whom Christ died cannot perish because Christ cannot fail. Anybody
here have a problem with what I just said? If you've got spirit,
you don't. As a matter of fact, you sit
there and listen to the chap say, Amen, in your heart. And you
rejoiced in what? Spirit. Did you? I sure. I sure. And every person born of the
Spirit is Spirit. And he's indwelt by the Spirit.
And oh, look at this. He discerns all things. He himself,
the spiritual man, he that has spirit is discerned of no man.
Natural men don't understand him, don't expect them to. Don't expect them to. Folks go out into the world,
go to the job, you know, go visit unbelieving families or whoever.
They don't understand you. Don't expect them to now. I know
you want them to, but they can't. They can't understand you. They
can't understand your faith. They can't understand why you
believe, what you believe, about whom you believe. They just can't
understand that. They can't understand why you
have such confidence that you're a child of God. They can't understand your audacity
in saying, I'm an elect vessel of mercy of the mighty God. They still have the capacity. You're discerned of no man. Verse 16 now, For who hath known
the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? We have the
mind of Christ. Paul kind of concludes this subject
here with this verse. He takes this from Isaiah 40. Let's turn back there and read
just a couple of verses. Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40, verse 13. Isaiah 40, verse 13. Who hath directed the
Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and
who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment,
and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?
Who did that? Who'd God call on for advice?
What he created to work. Who did he ask how he ought to
go about this thing when he purposed to enter into this covenant of
grace and peace? Oh, my. I tell you, man, he thinks
he's something, but he's nothing. The more he thinks he's something,
the more he shows that he's nothing. We're just grasshoppers. We're
all in this together. Not worth a drop of the bucket. that no man that has such knowledge
of the mind of the Lord, the will of the Lord, the ways of
the Lord, the purposes and decrees of the Lord concerning salvation
by Christ, that he can instruct him, well, Lord, you ought to
have done it this way. Hide the foolishness. No man
that can tell him what, when, why, how, and where he ought
to go about saving the sinner. know in the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct them. But bless God. Now, you watch
this. We have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of the Lord. Being born again and having received
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of the Lord
concerning the gospel. Salvation by hand. Our Lord, let me read you a verse
here from John 15. Our Lord spoke to the disciples shortly
before his crucifixion. He said in verse 15 of John 15,
15. Henceforth I call you not servants. For the servant knoweth
not what his Lord doth, but I call you friends. For all things that
I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." We have
the mind of Christ. He's revealed unto us the purpose
of the Father, the grace of the Father. And every person born
of the Spirit is spirit, and is endowed by the Spirit. And
those who are such know the mind of God, he has the mind of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the natural man, the natural
man, no matter how wise he is in this world, he's not competent
to instruct or to even discern the spiritual person, because
we have the mind of Christ. All they have is the spirit of
this world. And that's why, beloved, when
the gospel is preached, we have the mind of Christ. When the
gospel is preached, when the scriptures are expounded, the
spirit bears witness to with our spirit, that we are the children
of God. That's why we come and hear this
gospel of Christ, and the more we hear of Him, the more we rejoice.
People say, why are you so intent on doing that? I hear the same
thing every time. You know what somebody told you
one time, Joyce? Why are you going there? That's
boring. Joyce said, I guess I'm a boring
person because it just suits me. Why? Because you've got the Spirit,
the mind of Christ, and born of God. He that is spiritual,
he that is spiritual. But I hope the Lord will make
that a blessing to you. Our Father, Lord, we confess there are mysteries
that we cannot fathom, but Lord, we do confess and give thanks that we do have
some understanding of this gospel, some understanding of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have some understanding of
spiritual things, and Lord, we know it's not the result of anything
in us, but it's the result of your purpose, your redemption,
and your instruction, your revelation. And Lord, we thank you. We don't
know why you would single us out why you would choose us,
why Christ would die for us, and why the Spirit of God would
come to us and quicken us and then dwell in us. But Lord, we
thank you that that's the case. All what love, what mercy, what
grace, you've manifested towards your people. And you've given
us an understanding that we might know Him that is true, and that
we're in Him that is true. And this is the true God, that
eternal life. Lord, we thank you. We thank
you. Make your word a blessing to your people. And may the Lord
Jesus Christ be exalted and glorified in all things. We ask it for
his sake.