I invite you to turn back with
me this morning to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I want to attempt this morning
to ask a question and to answer that question. The question is,
what is a spiritual person? What is a spiritual person? In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul
said in verse 15, he said, but he that is spiritual understands
all things. He understands the things of
the Spirit. He understands all things of
God. Yet he himself is understood
of no man. And that is because he has been
born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, taught and tutored
by the Holy Spirit. He has an understanding of spiritual
things. He may not know how to part his
hair, he may not know what's the best automobile to drive,
he may not know where to drill the well on his property, but
he is a man who understands somewhat of spiritual things. Now, there is a great deal of
confusion, I think, in the world today about what constitutes
a spiritual person, what true spirituality actually is. Now, you no doubt heard spoken
of someone or heard somebody tell of somebody who they thought
was really a spiritual person. I've heard people say, well,
so-and-so is really a spiritual person. Now I always listen very
carefully when somebody tells me about somebody who really
actually is a spiritual person. Because I'd really like to know
that person. I'd like to understand what makes
that person tick. But what is a spiritual person? What does it mean in a biblical
sense to be a spiritual person? Well, many things today are looked
upon by different religious groups and individuals as denoting true
spirituality. There is one, maybe, that is
a very solemn-looking, pickled-faced individual who is opposed to
all recreation and all amusement in this world, who is looked
upon by some to be a very spiritual person because of their outward
appearance. And then there are others who
dress a particular way, and there are some who maybe read their
Bibles more than other people do, and they have an extraordinary
punctuality, and they're very precise in their religious forms. and they have put on religious
morality, and they keep you informed as to how they live and how others
ought to live, and they are always up to date on what's going on
in the community, and they know everybody and what's wrong with
everybody. They're very, very spiritual
people. Well, and then currently, and
I was reminded of this yesterday, uh... there are those who swing
and sway and wave and shout and speak in other tongues and so
on and they are considered to be spiritual people but are any
of these people indeed are any of them spiritual people now
the concept of spirituality we see then immediately among different
groups varies a great deal in some circles the highly vocal
person who takes religion to be a very, very serious thing
and talks about religion all the time is thought to be probably
a very spiritual person. And those who pray the longest
and those who pray the loudest has a reputation for being maybe
the most spiritual person in the church. Now, when you begin
to look and examine I look at and examine these various ideas
and concepts of what true spirituality is. I want to make this certain
to you this morning that a good testimony, a vigorous testimony
for Christ, frequent prayers, loud praise, maybe even a shout
once in a while to vent the praise of God from your soul unto the
Lord, It may be entirely consistent with true spirituality, but it
is important that we understand that this does not in itself
constitute being loudmouthed about your religion and praying
loud and long and praying with a certain wang in your voice
does not constitute or prove in and of itself that true spirituality
is present. True spirituality will manifest
itself in certain dominant desires in the soul. But there are some
things that we need to understand as to how one would become a
spiritual individual truly and actually. Well, number one, let
me just point out a few things to you that I think will help
you to understand. I think we all would like to
be spiritual people. The Bible says, if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. but the first
thing we want to understand is that a spiritual person is one
who is born of god the holy spirit born the second time by the spirit
born in his soul by the spirit the bible says in john chapter
three in verse six that that which is born of the spirit is
spirit that which is born of the flesh is flesh pointing out
that there is a birth in the flesh And there is one in the
Spirit. We must be quickened, made alive
by the Holy Spirit. This is a birth from above. This
is not a birth that we control. It's not a birth that we have
anything to do with. In John chapter 3, let me just
point out a couple things here. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus,
he said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily,
verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, except a man be born
of water and of the spirit, He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. And that which is born of the
flesh is one thing. That's flesh. And that which
is born of the spirit is entirely another. And he said, marvel
not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. Now the eighth
verse helps us to see the mystery in this. He says, the wind bloweth
where it listeth. The wind blows where it wants
to blow. And he said, and you hear the
sound of the wind blowing. But you can't tell where it came
from, and you cannot tell where it's going. So is everyone that
is born of the Spirit. Beloved, a birth in the Spirit
This is of the will of God. This is from God above, and it's
not something that you can induce in another person. It's not something
you can induce in yourself. It's not something that you can
make yourself experience. It is something that God must
give, and that is birth by the Holy Spirit, that is regeneration
in the heart by the work of God through the Word of God. This
is something God must do and there's a great mystery about
it, how that God is able to bring souls to life. how he can quicken
them and bring them out of spiritual death unto life. But he does
it sovereignly as he pleases. He does it because of his own
will and because of his own desire. He does it to further his own
purpose and his own cause. He does it that the Son of God
might have a bride. and that the father might have
a family. He does it because he would have
a people that he would own for himself. And they're born from
above. They're touched by the Spirit
of God from above. They must be born again. Nobody
is spiritual unless they have experienced a spiritual birth. I remember the testimony of an
old primitive Baptist woman who had 11 children, and she was
often heard telling them along the way of life that they needed
something that she could not give them. They needed something
that no individual on earth could give them. They needed a birth
in the Spirit. They need to be born again. And
so a spiritual individual is one who has been born of God. These are foundational things
and they must be present. A birth in and of the Spirit
of God. Now the second thing, and one
I think that we should understand, is that a spiritual person is
one who has spiritual understanding and discernment. We read this
morning out of 1 Corinthians chapter 2, that I hath not seen
nor e'er heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. Now, beloved, those
who have spiritual discernment and spiritual understanding,
they are indeed spiritual in that the Holy Spirit has showed
them things which nobody can see with their eye, nobody can
understand with their minds, nobody are capable of fathoming
the depth of, in and of, and with just their fleshly and mental
ability. Nobody is able to understand
the things that God will give unto His people. Nobody can understand
the power of the world to come. Nobody can enter into or understand
the things of God apart from the Holy Spirit being given to
them. And all believers have the Holy
Spirit. Everybody that's born again,
the Spirit of God dwells in them. The Spirit of God has come and
taken up its dwelling in that individual's soul. And the Holy
Spirit begins to teach and lead that individual. The Holy Spirit
bears witness with that individual's spirit that they belong to Christ,
that they belong to God, and they feel and know that they're
owned of God. And God begins to teach them
and lead them into an understanding of things of the Spirit. And
I've known people who were very intelligent. I've known people
who have gotten a hold of many, many books and read and studied
at great length, trying to become, as we might say, super-hyper-spiritual
people. But they're not able to do it.
Where an individual maybe has no education, maybe not even
able to read. is far superior spiritually speaking
and understanding the things of God than that individual who
is intellectual, that individual who has put in a great deal of
effort to know these things. We understand the things of God
by God's spirit. The things of man is known by
the spirit of a man. and the things of God knoweth
no man knoweth no man but the Spirit of God the Spirit of God
knows the things of God and if you're going to be spiritual
minded first of all you have to be born of the Spirit of God
and secondly indwelt by the Holy Spirit and tutored and taught
by the Holy Spirit now the third thing is this, a spiritual-minded
individual is one who minds spiritual things. We're told that in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 5. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. They're spiritual-minded, and
they mind. I mean, they are studying and
meditating upon the things of God. And they are spending, as
it were, they feel the most important thing they could spend their
time on in this world, apart from those things necessary for
life. they feel is meditating and coming
to know God better, the things of God, understanding them better,
giving themselves over to God and His truth. They mind the
things of the Spirit. They're uppermost in their thinking,
and they're concerned about spiritual things. Now, the fourth thing
I would mention here is that a spiritual person is one who
is led by the Spirit of God. The Bible says in Romans 8 and
14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God. Now, beloved, I would point out
here in talking about a spiritual person and talking about the
fact that they are led of the Spirit of God, that not everybody
who says that they're led of the Spirit of God are being led
by God's Spirit. There's many, many people who
say, well, the Spirit of the Lord led me to do this. God led
me to do that. God led me to take this stand.
God led me to take that stand, or to say this or say that. The
Lord is leading me this way and that way. I've heard it all my
life. But beloved, there have been very, very few people that
I've ever met in this life who I could truthfully say in my
own heart that I really felt that they were led of the Spirit
of God. I'll tell you, we must examine
our hearts and be honest before the Lord and before men. are
we being led by God's Spirit? God does lead his people. I believe
he leads them in harmony with his word. God would lead his
people away from presumption. God would lead his people into
faith. God would lead his people into trust. God would lead his
people into simplicity. God would lead his people to
take a back seat and not push themselves out in front. God
would lead his people to be a submissive individual to his will and to
his purpose. God does lead his children. But a lot of what we see in the
world we must question, because we see that many have made fools
of themselves, saying that God led me this way and God led me
that way, when it becomes crystal clear and evident after a while
that such was not the case at all. So one who is led by the
Spirit of God, Romans 8 and 14. And then in the fifth place,
one who is engaged in spiritual conflict with the flesh. This
is the definition of a spiritual person. The Bible says in Galatians
5 and verse 17, For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and
the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one
to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
We've often said that those who are born of God's Spirit, God's
Spirit comes in and dwells in their hearts, that there's a
war that begins. And that war is between the two
natures, the nature of God and the nature of sin, the nature
that is in our flesh. And these, we're told here in
Galatians 5 and 17, that the flesh will lust against the spirit. It has desires contrary to the
spirit. That's what that means. In other
words, have you ever felt in your heart, I know what's right,
but I have a desire to do something else. I want to do what I want
to do. Well, that is the flesh desiring
that which is contrary to the Spirit of God and the Spirit
against the flesh. In other words, there are times
when in your soul you have a strong desire to do something and then
you find a great weakness to do that thing. There are times
when you feel like you ought to pray, that you ought to be
praying more, that you ought to be reading your Bible more.
There are times when you feel like you ought to get up out
of that bed and go to church, and you ought to do what you
should do. There are many, many times when you have a great battle
going on in you, and that's the spirit desiring that which is
contrary to your own flesh, and to your own body, and your own
mind. That which is contrary to it, I say. There's so much
that we run into in this world, in this struggle. So many, many
difficulties that we have. I wish I could say that this
will all settle down after a while, and you get a little older, and
you get a little more experience, and that you'll not have this
anymore. But it will never happen. This war will never end until
the breath goes out of your body and your body is buried in the
grave. This war will not end if you're a spiritual person.
If God has put his spirit in you, you will never be able in
this world just to relax and be able to sail along on smooth
seas. You'll not be able, beloved,
just simply to drift along in the stream. There'll be a battle
going on on the inside, and you'll know that there's two opposing,
there's the spirit and the flesh, and these two oppose each other,
and you'll know that it exists. and you'll feel it existing in
your very person. Now, these are spiritual people. You say, well, it looked like
that a spiritual person would never have this. But, beloved,
this is evidence of the Spirit being there. If the Spirit wasn't
there, you wouldn't be having this conflict. You wouldn't be
feeling this conflict. And so then the last thing that
I would point out under this heading is that a spiritual person,
a definition of a spiritual person is one who manifests the fruit
of the Spirit. In Galatians 5 verse 22 it says,
but the fruit of the Spirit is love. I'm saying that a spiritual
person will manifest the fruit of the Spirit. And the fruit
of the Spirit, if the Spirit of God be in you, there will
be a love in you. The Bible says in 1 John, we
know that we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. There is a love in your heart
for God, and there's a love in your heart for the Lord's people.
And when we are filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit of God
dwells in us, we have a love there in the Spirit. A love in
the Spirit. And then there's joy. There's
joy. The Bible says that the fruit
of the Spirit is joy. We know that it's not meat and
drink, but righteousness and joy is found in the Holy Ghost. It's not found in the things
of this world. It's found by and through the
Holy Spirit, a real deep spiritual joy. And then peace is of the
Spirit. Have you ever in your heart had
a measure of peace? The peace that Paul talked about
in Philippians that passes all understanding? You just couldn't
understand how things were going to work out, but you had a peace
about it. You had a settled peace. This is of the Holy Spirit. And
then longsuffering. You're a patient person and you
are longsuffering toward others. You have a degree of patience
with others, and in their weaknesses and frailties, you're not quick
to condemn, but you are patient with them, and you attempt to
bear their load and their burden, and to carry their burden, your
long-suffering. This is of the Spirit. And then
gentleness. gentleness is of the spirit,
goodness, and then faith, and meekness, meekness. That's a very, very important
fruit of the spirit, that you're not always demanding your rights,
demanding what you have coming to you. You're always out trying
to draw attention to yourself. Meekness, taking a back seat,
having your mouth shut before men and before God, submitting
yourself, being a meek person. Temperance, that means that you're
moderate in all things, temperate. that you are not given over to
anything in your life. Temperance is of the Holy Spirit. I do hope that we have been able
to give you somewhat of a definition of that which constitutes a spiritual
person. One who is born of the Spirit,
filled with the Spirit, taught by the Spirit, led by the Spirit,
and one who has the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Now, as we said earlier, the
outset in our opening remarks, that true spirituality manifests
itself in certain dominant desires in the soul. I want to spend
a little bit of time, the rest of the time that we have this
morning, talking about that a little bit. There are deep-seated, powerful
desires which motivate and control the life of a spiritual person. Somebody who's truly spiritual.
No man can become spiritual, as we said before, by themselves. This is the work of God. Now,
I want to bring you this morning about six things, six desires,
that I think will motivate an individual soul to live in this
world and will cause that individual to be looked upon truly as a
spiritual person. I'm talking about desires now
of the heart of the man who is spiritual, the woman who is spiritual,
the boy or the girl who is spiritual. And these things will dominate
and control the life of that individual. And it'll be the
cause of that individual's doing the things that they do and not
doing the things that they do not do. Now then, let's talk
about these deep-settled wants that are sufficiently powerful
to motivate and control the life. First of all, it's the desire
to be holy rather than happy. The desire to be holy rather
than happy. Now, we oftentimes have this
yearning in us after happiness. And this is found so widely among
professing believers in this world. Even among those who claim
a degree of spirituality, they have this strong desire to be
happy both in this world and in the world to come. But a truly
spiritual man knows that God will give abundance of joy in
his own time. In his own time. After we become
able to receive it without injury to our souls, the Lord will give
true joy in our hearts. He'll give happiness in our hearts. But many, many times here in
this world, because of the need of it, There is heaviness through
sorrow. There's heaviness in our very
hearts and souls through the various difficulties and problems
that we have. And God is more interested, I've
said it before, I want to say it today, God is more interested
in our character than He is in our comfort. And so the Lord
is doing a work in his people. And the Lord would lead you in
a way whereby you might mortify the deeds of the body that you
might live. The Lord is leading you in such
a way so that holiness would be found in your heart. Do you
have a desire to be holy? Do you have a desire to be right?
A desire to be right, I say, in your heart about things of
the world and the things of God. Number two, now a man may be
considered spiritual when he wants to see the honor of God
advanced through his life, even if it means that he himself must
suffer temporary dishonor or loss. Are you jealous for the
glory of God? Are you jealous for the honor
of God? Would you be pleased if God was honored even though
you were dishonored? Even though for a short time
in your life you had to experience loss, you had to experience a
temporary setback if it would be to the honor of God, if it
would be to the glory of God. You see this generation is so
shallow that we know very little about the things that other men
of God in other days knew something about. John Calvin said that
no man will go to heaven except those who would be willing not
to go if it was for the glory of God that he go to hell. Other
words, could you say that? Could you say, I want the honor
of God above all things, whatever it costs me? Such a man will
pray, hallowed be thy name, and silently adds, at any cost to
me, O Lord, at any cost to me, hallowed be thy name, to thy
glory, to thy honor. Every choice involving the glory
of God is for a spiritual man already made before it presents
itself. He wants the honor of God. He
wants God glorified. He does not need to debate the
matter with his own heart. There's nothing to debate. The
glory of God is necessary to him, and he gasps for it as a
suffocating man would gasp for air. The glory of God. The glory
of God. The honor of God. I want God
to be glorified. I want Him praised. If I never
see the desires of my own heart, if I never get what I would really
like to have in this world, I want God glorified, God honored, God
praised. Now then, thirdly, the spiritual
man wants to carry the cross that the Lord has placed upon
him. Many Christians accept adversity or tribulation with a sigh and
call it their cross. Listen, the cross is that adversity
that comes to us as a result of our obedience to Christ. The cross that, you know, you've
often heard people say, well, I bear my cross. I bear my cross. Well, God's people generally
have some kind of a cross to bear. But this cross is not forced
upon us. This cross is not forged by us. This cross is not made by us. We do not choose what will be
this cross. We voluntarily take it up with
full knowledge of the consequences. We choose to obey Christ and
by so doing we choose to carry our cross. It's obedience to
the will of God in our lives. Carrying a cross means to be
attached to the person of Christ, committed to the lordship of
Christ, obedient to the commandments of Christ, and the man who is
so attached, so committed, so obedient, he is called a spiritual
man. A spiritual man because he carries
the cross that the Lord has fashioned for him and that has come to
him in the way of his obedience unto Christ. Now then, fourthly,
we're going to hurry here. We have six things to mention.
Again, a Christian is spiritual when he sees everything from
God's viewpoint. Now this is very important to
see this, when he sees everything from God's viewpoint. The ability
to weigh all things in God's scale and place the same value
upon them as God does, is the mark of a spirit-filled believer,
the mark of a spiritual person. Let me give that to you again.
The ability to weigh all things in God's scale, place the same
value upon them as God does, is the mark of a spiritual person. Now, let me explain. God looks
at things and through things at the same time. His gaze does
not just simply rest upon the surface of things, but it penetrates
to the true meaning of things. And a person who looks at an
object or a situation, but because he does not see through it, is
either elated or he's cast down by what he sees. Because we don't
have the ability to look through things, as God does. God sees it, he sees through
it, he sees the end of a thing. But we don't have that ability.
So when we see things, we are maybe elated, like we said, or
we are maybe cast down and dejected. because of what we see. The spiritual
man is able to look through things as God looks and think of them
as God thinks of them. He insists on seeing all things
as God sees them, even if it humbles him and exposes his ignorance
to the point of real pain. he says i just want to see things
like god sees them i'm not interested in my own interpretation of things
i'm not interested in how just simply how this thing looks today
i'm interested in how it's going to look when i get down the road
i'm interested in how god sees it how god sees it now how god's
going to see it tomorrow and how he'll see it in eternity
i'm interested in looking at things from god's viewpoint Now
don't you see what I mean when I'm talking to you about this
business of a man saying, well, you know I wear long sleeves,
or I wear this particular colored clothes all the time, or I'm
this and I'm that. Now that's got nothing to do
with true spirituality. I'm talking about something on
the inside. I'm talking about something in
the heart. I'm talking about something in the soul of a man.
that says, I just want to view things like God does. And he's
humble. And even though I may be ignorant,
but I just want things to be like God wants them, and I want
to submit to them. Another desire, the fifth thing,
of the spiritual man is to die rather than to live wrong. A
truly spiritual man is one, we've seen many of them, and we've
read of many of them, who died at the stake. years ago who were
burnt at the stake for their conviction. They would not recant. They would not give up their
profession of faith. They would not give up their
love to Christ. They would not give up their
love to the Bible and the love to truth. They were burnt at
the stake. Now, listen, beloved, when we
think of this, the desire to die rather than live wrong, An
individual who, the sure mark, I think, of a mature man of God
is his nonchalance about living. It's not so important somebody
says, well, you've got to live. No, you don't have to live. You
have to die. Everybody's got to die. And the
earth-loving, body-conscious Christian looks upon death with
numb terror in his heart. But as he goes on to live in
the spirit, he becomes increasingly indifferent to the number of
his years here below, but increasingly careful of the kind of life he
lives while he's here. It's more important for a spiritual-minded
person to live right while he's here than it is for him to live
a long time. Living a long time isn't necessarily
important. Because you see, if we believe
what the Bible teaches, we know that we shall never die, truly
never die. We know we shall not experience
the second death. We know that when we die, our
bodies are put in the grave, our Lord Jesus is passed through
the grave. He's taken the sting out of death.
There isn't anything in death for the Christian to fear. But
beloved, to live right, in this world should be a stronger desire
of our heart than to live a long life, live many days. Really
and truthfully, this smacks home in our hearts. Because you see,
we're not real concerned, maybe, about the testimony of our hearts
and lives, the testimony of our life in this world. All we'd
like to do is just live a long time and enjoy ourselves in this
world. Have a good, long, enjoyable
life. Well, a spiritual-minded person
would say, if it comes down to me living a short life, but one
that glorifies God and honors God, one that pleases God, and
one that's right, I'd just rather live the short life and leave
the long life to somebody else. The believer, the true spiritual
mind of believer is interested not in purchasing a few more
extra days of life at the cost of compromise or failure. He
wants most of all to be right and he's happy for God to decide
how long he lives. He says, I'll leave that with
the Lord. I can't determine it. I don't want to determine it.
I don't want anything to do with how long I live. That's in God's
hand. The thing I want to do is be
right. Be right the best we can be. And I think that this is
a true mark of spirituality. We see a lot of money being spent
now. on people spending it and i i'm not here to quarrel with
anybody that would uh... would try to take care of themselves
i think it's a good thing i see nothing wrong with that anything
you can do to better your life in the flesh make you feel better
and uh... as it were between you and god
lengthen your days uh... that that's only an idea in our
minds anyway We have no control of that. The scripture says very
plainly and clearly that our days are numbered. They're in
God's hands. Our times are in His hands. How
long we live, that's already determined by God Almighty. But
I see nothing wrong with an individual taking care of themselves and
doing everything they can to keep themselves healthy in this
world. But is your desire for that more than your desire for
living right, doing the right thing, being right in your heart
before God, which is predominant in your life? And I say to you
that a true spiritual person is one who knows that he can
afford to die now that he's in Christ, but he knows that he
cannot afford to do wrong. And this knowledge becomes a
gyroscope to stabilize his thinking and his acting. in this world.
It strengthens him and stabilizes him in this world. We want to
be right. We've said it before. We'll say
it again. We very seldom feel we are, but
we want to be right. That's our desire. It's to be
right. It's to glorify God, to do what
the Lord would have us to do. This is a spiritual person. I'm
not here describing myself. I'm not describing myself. I'm
describing a spiritual man. And it falls out to me, hear
me now, to tell you the truth. Not to get up here and describe
myself, call attention to myself, but to tell you the truth about
what a real true spiritual person really is. And whether I ever
measure up to it or not, only God knows whether I will, but
I'm here to tell you what a spiritual minded, the desires that are
dominant in a spiritual person. And it is that we'll be right
rather than live a long time. That we'll be right. All right? The last thing is the spiritual
man habitually makes eternity judgments instead of time judgments. By faith he rises above the things
of earth and the flow of time and learns to think and feel
as one who has already left the world and gone to join that innumerable
company of angels and the general assembly and church of the firstborn
which are written in heaven. Such a man would rather be useful
than famous and he'd rather serve than be served. He thinks about things habitually with eternity in mind and not
with just time. He doesn't much care whether
anybody takes their hat off to him or not. If it's settled,
he's eternity bound, he's in Christ, he loves Christ, he knows
Christ, he's not out here to make a name for himself. He's
not out here to get anybody to clap for him. He's not out here
trying to in any way impress anybody. He thinks of things
as they will be in eternity, and he's willing to take whatever
position here that would make him useful, whether it ever makes
him famous to any degree. He's willing to be useful. David
said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to
be a lot of other things. I'd rather be a doorkeeper. Whatever
the Lord has for me, whatever He would have, whatever it would
be, Lord, this is only, this is just temporal here. This is
a short thing, a short live thing. Eternity's coming. I'm gonna
be over there. We're going to be with the Lord.
What difference does it make? What position we occupy here?
Whether we have the best or whether we don't. Whether we wear the
hand-me-downs or whether we have the fresh store-bought clothes
to wear. What difference does it make,
really? Let's think of things, and the true spiritual person
will think of things from a spiritual standpoint, eternity standpoint,
how they will be, how they will be. All this must be by the Spirit
of God in an individual. Nobody can create these desires
in you. I can't do it. I can preach them
to you. I can tell you about them. I can tell you that all
of us ought to aspire to them, but I can tell you that only
God can work them in us. these desires that will dominate
and control our lives for the glory and praise of his name. Only by the free spirit can a
man be made spiritual, truly spiritual. So you see then, beloved,
that anytime you begin to hear people talk about being spiritual,
you might just kind of measure them a little bit with the things
that you've heard here this morning. And maybe the Lord will be pleased
to teach us all some things about what true spirituality really
is, about what it really involves. And I do hope that we all at
least in seed have these desires, these that can grow and dominate
and control our lives. To the glory and praise and honor
of Him who loved us, out of spiritual death into life. May his name
be exalted forever and ever. Amen.