1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,920 message very timely for us in this state and in our culture. 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:06,920 A strong message. 3 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:11,840 In fact, my brother-in-law who's visiting here this weekend from Kansas and who's going 4 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:17,460 on the tour with us to Israel this week said to me after the service last night, I didn't 5 00:00:17,460 --> 00:00:22,320 expect to hear a message like that in the California church. 6 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:26,040 You know, we sort of have a reputation back there in the heartland. 7 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,120 One we've worked hard to gain, by the way. 8 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:34,640 But we as a church have a very important role in our society. 9 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:36,040 That's what he's talking about today. 10 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:40,320 But in this service we're going to be looking again in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and I invite 11 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:41,960 you to open your Bible there please. 12 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,680 I'm going to talk about what God has given you. 13 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:52,200 In verse 12 of chapter 2, Paul references the things freely given you by God. 14 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,360 So we're going to look at this text through that lens this morning of what God has given 15 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:57,800 you. 16 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:04,120 If you could ask God for anything, anything, what would it be? 17 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:05,120 The Cadillac? 18 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:06,120 Well, all right. 19 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:08,040 You can have the Cadillac. 20 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:12,040 Somebody else may want healing from a disease. 21 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:16,440 Somebody else may want to be with their grandkids more often. 22 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:21,560 Amen to that, right? 23 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:27,560 Jesus was walking through the city of Jericho 2,000 years ago and there was a man causing 24 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:29,520 a ruckus off to the side. 25 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:35,560 His disciples tried to hush this man down but he raised even more of an outcry. 26 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,000 Jesus said, let him come here. 27 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:44,680 So they brought the man to Jesus and Jesus said, what do you want me to give you? 28 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,560 And Blind Bartimaeus said, Lord, that I may what? 29 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,240 That I may see, that I may receive my sight. 30 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:54,880 God gave it to him. 31 00:01:54,880 --> 00:02:02,440 A thousand years before that, God appeared to a king in a dream and he said, what do 32 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:03,440 you want from me? 33 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:05,440 I'll give you whatever you ask for. 34 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:14,160 And Solomon said, Lord, that I may have wisdom and knowledge to lead your great people. 35 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:20,640 And God so generously answered Solomon's request that Solomon is the wisest and the 36 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:26,360 smartest man who has ever lived in the history of the world. 37 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:30,680 If you could ask God for anything, what would you ask God for? 38 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:32,280 God is not a stingy giver. 39 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,040 God is a generous God. 40 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:43,880 And God has freely given us a gift, one that sets us apart from all of the rest of humanity. 41 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:49,280 Those of us who are followers of Jesus have received a gift from God that sets us apart. 42 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:55,800 Now it's not that we're something special except we are to God out of His grace. 43 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:59,520 It's not that we're exclusive. 44 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:02,200 Anyone could have this gift that would receive it. 45 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:07,280 The unfortunate thing is that there are those who reject it and therefore they don't have 46 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:09,440 it. 47 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,560 What is this gift that God has given to us? 48 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:16,320 Well, I want to talk about that in the first part of our text. 49 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,160 What God's gift is? 50 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:21,600 I would put it this way. 51 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,960 It's what God is doing in history. 52 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:33,840 Or to say it for your notes, it is special insight into God's eternal plan. 53 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:38,480 That is a gift that God has given to us. 54 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:44,680 It is wisdom to see what He is about in the history of the world. 55 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:49,400 You see, God has a plan and God is working His plan. 56 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:55,960 And God, as a gift to you and me who are the followers of Jesus, has given to us an understanding 57 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:56,960 of His plan. 58 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:07,800 To sum up Paul's words about God's plan or God's wisdom, he uses two words, Christ, 59 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:09,800 what's the other one? 60 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:10,800 Crucified. 61 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,280 Christ, crucified. 62 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:19,360 Now please don't think that's simplistic. 63 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:24,800 Christ crucified is like that little file on my computer. 64 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,560 If I want to know what's on my computer, I go, if I have the Windows operating system, 65 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,920 I go to start, click that, and then up comes a screen and I go to my computer. 66 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:35,680 Have you ever done that before? 67 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,760 That's where you want to keep your fingers away from the delete keys, right? 68 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:40,880 My computer. 69 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:45,040 You click on that and it opens up another screen that tells you everything that's on 70 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:46,040 your computer. 71 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:50,400 Now you don't see it all there, but it's all in the files that are down below there, right? 72 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:52,600 That's how Windows works. 73 00:04:52,600 --> 00:05:01,280 So when Paul says God's wisdom is Christ crucified, he's saying that's like my computer and down 74 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:07,400 attached to that, down below that are all of the other things of God. 75 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:13,200 All that God is doing in the world comes out of the truth of the sacrifice of His Son for 76 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,400 us. 77 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:20,280 Christ crucified secures the plan of God. 78 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:21,280 Let's look at the verse. 79 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:23,320 We're looking at verse 6. 80 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:25,880 He says, we do, however, speak a message of wisdom. 81 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:33,320 Now Paul has just been saying, we did not come to you with the wisdom of man using wise words 82 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:34,960 and profound speech. 83 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,280 He said, we came to you very simply. 84 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:45,640 However he says, we do speak to you a kind of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom 85 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:50,680 of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. 86 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:59,600 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, God's mysterious wisdom, a wisdom that has been 87 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:05,040 hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 88 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:11,320 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified 89 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,920 the Lord of glory. 90 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,480 Some things about God's plan we see here in these verses. 91 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:24,800 First of all, God's plan that He's working, God's plan is entirely distinct from any of 92 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:28,360 man's efforts. 93 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:29,360 God's doing it. 94 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:33,440 It's not the result of what man is going to do. 95 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:41,400 It's not like the vain plans that the rulers of this age have attempted. 96 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:49,280 Dictators, presidents, kings, governments, secret societies, they've all imagined their 97 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:53,360 own kind of utopia. 98 00:06:53,360 --> 00:07:01,200 Empires, commonwealths, societies and kingdoms which they have imagined and dreamed up and 99 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:10,640 tried to fulfill can never make humanity better or safer or more prosperous. 100 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:18,160 In fact, Paul says here that the age and the rulers of it are all coming to nothing. 101 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:23,280 All of their efforts really are futile. 102 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:32,200 They are empty with all of the talk, all of the promises, all of the investments, the schemes, 103 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:37,760 the treaties, the discoveries, the inventions, the breakthroughs, the organizations that man 104 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:39,240 has created. 105 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:44,520 We have to conclude that God is right, that all of them are useless to restore man from 106 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:50,880 his sinful and ruined condition. 107 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:54,320 Until less than 100 years ago, the world was thinking about the League of Nations. 108 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:55,880 You ever heard of that? 109 00:07:55,880 --> 00:08:00,880 Yeah, it was man's attempt to say we're going to stop wars. 110 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:04,440 We're going to all come together and there won't be another great war like we've just 111 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:05,440 been through. 112 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:12,760 Well, the League of Nations was flushed a long time ago and more wars came. 113 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,600 And then after World War II, we created the United Nations. 114 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:20,800 We said this finally is going to be our way to reach utopia. 115 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,320 We're all just going to come together here in this beautiful city of New York and we're 116 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:28,200 going to hash out our problems at the table. 117 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:32,680 There is nothing more impotent in the world than the United Nations. 118 00:08:32,680 --> 00:08:38,200 Nothing more useless that has accomplished little than the United Nations. 119 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:42,520 A few years ago, the Iron Curtain fell and we all rejoiced and we do rejoice that it 120 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:43,520 did. 121 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:45,480 And we said the Cold War is over. 122 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:50,800 But at that time, statements were made like, we're now going to enjoy a peace dividend. 123 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:52,320 You remember that? 124 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:57,120 We're now going to be able to use all the money that was going to go to military armaments 125 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:01,480 and to wars and we're going to be able to turn that toward humanity and we're going 126 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:07,720 to have ability to end poverty and end all the injustice in the world. 127 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:13,800 And we had a President Bush at that time who said, we're going to have a new world order. 128 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:19,880 Well, the last 15 years have proved him to be quite wrong. 129 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:27,120 You see, mankind has all of these dreams and imaginations and desires for utopia, but man 130 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:30,560 is incapable of bringing that about. 131 00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:31,800 Why? 132 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,400 Because man cannot change the nature of man. 133 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:39,800 And this year, this election year, we're hearing lots more empty promises. 134 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:40,800 We're going to do that. 135 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:41,800 We're going to do that. 136 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:46,680 And this, well, as somebody said, there's a Greek word for all of that. 137 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:48,880 It's the word baloney. 138 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:51,200 It just ain't going to happen. 139 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:52,480 Why? 140 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:59,440 Because the rulers of this age and with all of their wisdom, they come to nothing. 141 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,280 God's wisdom is so distinct from that. 142 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:05,880 It brings me to point number two, which is that God's plan will actually achieve the 143 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:06,880 highest purpose. 144 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,600 It will actually achieve what God has said. 145 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:16,480 And by the way, that highest purpose of God includes a place for restored humanity, a restored 146 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:23,600 human race, that is, a redeemed people, a remnant of our race who trust Christ and are 147 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:28,840 therefore transformed by that message of Christ crucified. 148 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:33,200 And God's intent and God's purpose is that that redeemed humanity will one day share 149 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:41,480 the glory of Jesus Christ and regain dominion over the earth and over all of God's creation, 150 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:48,640 which we lost in the fall of Adam and Eve and the disobedience from God. 151 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:53,040 God is going to restore humanity to that exalted position. 152 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:59,200 It is through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that God will one day rectify 153 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:09,680 all things and establish a new world order to be sure with a new and redeemed humanity. 154 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:14,480 Peter points to this when in his sermon in Acts chapter three, he says, repent then talking 155 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:22,280 to the Jews and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing 156 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:25,200 may come from the Lord, times of refreshing. 157 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:31,880 He goes on to explain that he says, Jesus must remain in heaven until the time comes 158 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:35,960 for God to restore all things. 159 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:43,680 That's what Peter is thinking about that distant time, even from our day, when God is going 160 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:48,520 to restore all things and achieve the highest purpose. 161 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:51,760 Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter one. 162 00:11:51,760 --> 00:12:00,320 He says, God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his 163 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,160 own good pleasure. 164 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:05,600 And this is the plan at the right time. 165 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:13,720 That is when the times come to their culmination at the right time, God will bring together 166 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:20,320 everything under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. 167 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:25,240 Friends, that is the highest purpose of God. 168 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:30,480 If you want to know what God is about in our world today, God has told you. 169 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:37,360 It is that one day he is going to bring everything back to the point where it is under the Lordship 170 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:40,240 of Jesus Christ, the God-man. 171 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:48,360 And just as the first Adam lost it all because of his disobedience to God, Jesus Christ through 172 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:57,200 his obedience, his crucifixion, his sacrifice for us, his resurrection, he as the last Adam 173 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:01,240 is going to reign and we with him. 174 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:06,880 God is working his plan and his plan will achieve the highest purpose. 175 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:13,280 Point number three, God's plan was completely missed by human leaders and their wisdom. 176 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:16,400 You see, they rejected the Son when he came. 177 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:20,800 He was not what they expected or what they wanted him to be. 178 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:26,040 Man did not understand because of the hardness of man's heart. 179 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:34,000 But the interesting thing is that man's rejection, which resulted in the crucifixion of Christ, 180 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:40,240 was the very means by which God showed his wisdom. 181 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:47,200 You see, man played right into the sovereign purpose of God by his rejection of Christ. 182 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:55,360 It is through the rejection of mankind that the Lord of glory was crucified and by that 183 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:59,280 he accomplished the redemption of mankind. 184 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:05,520 An amazing story that God has given us insight into. 185 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,280 But the world misses it. 186 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:09,960 God's plan was completely missed. 187 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:17,000 Number four, God's plan was destined before the creation for our glory. 188 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:21,680 In other words, the glory of the redeemed out of the human race. 189 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:25,000 We all are familiar with that statement that begins the purpose driven life. 190 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:31,160 It's not about you and that is so true. 191 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:33,160 It's not about us. 192 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:37,080 But let me tell you something that ought to blow our minds. 193 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:42,960 It's not about us, but it is all for us in Christ. 194 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:45,800 That's why God is at work in history. 195 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:48,680 That's why God sent his son to be the sacrifice. 196 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:50,800 That's why he raised him from the dead. 197 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:55,400 That's why he is someday going to send him back from heaven at the culmination of times 198 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:59,880 to bring everything under the administration of Christ. 199 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:05,760 And we who are Christ will belong to that and share his glory. 200 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:11,960 It's astonishing and mind blowing that God has done this as Paul says for our glory. 201 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:21,120 You see in exalting his own glory, God has chosen to make you and me vessels of it. 202 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:26,200 Paul agrees with this and he explains God's plan this way in Romans chapter nine. 203 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:32,960 He said God did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy 204 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:37,920 whom he prepared in advance for glory, even us. 205 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:44,760 Paul is saying we are the vessels, we're the containers of God's glory. 206 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:50,560 And in the ages to come, God is going to display his glory and his wisdom to all of the angelic 207 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:55,880 world and all of creation through us, his redeemed. 208 00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,320 That is the plan of God. 209 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:03,720 You, you are God's royalty. 210 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,920 You are God's princes and God's princesses in waiting. 211 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:15,120 You are his children whom he will one day make glorious with Christ and he will display 212 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:20,720 to all of the creation the brilliance of his glory through you. 213 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:21,720 That is God's purpose. 214 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:28,160 And Paul says this was not known, but it's now known. 215 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,880 You see the Corinthians would have been resonating with the language Paul is using here because 216 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:39,520 many of them in their pagan religions follow the mysterious, the mystery cults. 217 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:49,600 It was a kind of a secret society very similar to the Masonic Lodge or to the Mormons or 218 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:55,320 to other societies that are secret. 219 00:16:55,320 --> 00:17:02,840 See for example where you have a religious cult that has secrets just for those who are 220 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:08,240 initiated only those on the inside know and you've got to join and work your way to the 221 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:15,160 inner circle in order to learn all of the secrets, a mystery cult. 222 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,680 What Paul is saying here, he's using some of that same language and he's saying yes, 223 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:20,400 God has had a mystery too. 224 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:26,400 He's had secrets, but now God has disclosed them to us and now we're going to learn in 225 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:33,200 the second part of our text how God's gift came to us, how this knowledge came to us, 226 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:35,640 how God revealed the secret to us. 227 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,640 We pick it up in verse nine. 228 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:43,600 He says it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what 229 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:47,080 God has prepared for those who love him. 230 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:54,480 Now when do you most often hear those verses at a funeral? 231 00:17:54,480 --> 00:18:00,360 I used them at a funeral just a week and a half ago and they express a wonderful truth 232 00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:04,200 and that is we haven't seen heaven yet and what it's like. 233 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,400 Our ears, our eyes haven't seen it. 234 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:11,200 We can't imagine with our minds what heaven is like, but that's not what this verse really 235 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:13,200 is saying. 236 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:17,840 It's an application of the verse, but it's not the interpretation because notice he says, 237 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:22,840 eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, we haven't entered into our hearts the things that God's 238 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:30,800 prepared, but he says God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. 239 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:35,040 He goes on to say, the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 240 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:40,240 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except man's spirit within him? 241 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,880 In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 242 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:50,960 We have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may 243 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:55,320 understand what God has freely given us. 244 00:18:55,320 --> 00:19:01,480 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by 245 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:07,480 the Spirit expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 246 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:11,960 So in these verses, we want to talk about how God has disclosed this to us, how He's 247 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:18,840 given this gift to us, and to sum it up, it's in this phrase, by divine revelation, by divine 248 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:21,040 revelation. 249 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:22,560 Several things I want to say about this. 250 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:31,120 First of all, natural means of human discovery could never uncover what God's plan is. 251 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:34,400 That's what Paul means by verse 9. 252 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:42,520 Then by his eye, by his ear, by his rationale, by his ability to think and discover and imagine, 253 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:47,040 could never understand the secret things of God. 254 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:48,320 Never. 255 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:52,520 We're incapable of uncovering what God's plan is. 256 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:58,600 It cannot be seen, it cannot be reasoned, it has to be received some other way. 257 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:07,200 Secondly, God has, God must rather, and has taken the initiative to disclose Himself and 258 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,240 His plan to us. 259 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,520 To us, that Paul described in chapter 1 as the nobodies of the world. 260 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:16,280 Isn't this something? 261 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:23,280 Not to the elite, not to the somebodies, but to us that the world counts as nobodies, God 262 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:27,680 has revealed the secrets. 263 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:32,440 This revelation was revealed to the apostles and to the other writers of Scripture, and 264 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:36,000 you and I hold it in our hands today. 265 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,100 This is what Paul is talking about, the secret things of God. 266 00:20:40,100 --> 00:20:44,360 God has revealed them to us in his Word. 267 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:45,960 How did God do this? 268 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,360 You know, Paul says it was through his Spirit. 269 00:20:50,360 --> 00:20:57,720 The Holy Spirit was the agent through whom the secrets came to us. 270 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,200 Now why was it the Holy Spirit? 271 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,200 Paul gives an illustration in verse 11. 272 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:08,440 He says, nobody knows what a man is thinking except the Spirit within him. 273 00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:16,280 As I look out at many of you this morning, you look like you're listening to me. 274 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,920 But I know better. 275 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:23,800 I know that there are some of you who have your eyes focused up here, but your minds 276 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,480 are somewhere else. 277 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:31,640 I know that just intuitively, but I don't know what you're thinking about because my 278 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,080 thoughts and your thoughts are known only to us. 279 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:38,200 And Paul says by way of application, that's true about God too. 280 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:39,440 We're created in God's image. 281 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,760 This is true about God. 282 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:47,640 God's thoughts no one else can know except his Spirit. 283 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:56,920 And he says, God's Spirit plums the very depths of God into the very deepest thoughts 284 00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:02,880 and the character and the desires and the plans of God. 285 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:11,720 God's Spirit knows the thoughts of God and is the Holy Spirit who now reveals to us the 286 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,400 thoughts of God. 287 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,400 And the writers of Scripture, Paul seems to have in mind in this phrase that it is the 288 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:28,480 Spirit, the Holy Spirit who gives the thoughts and then the words to write the thoughts, 289 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:34,000 spiritual words in spiritual thoughts so that as Paul and the other writers of Scripture 290 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:40,320 were doing their work, they were recording for you and for me and for every generation 291 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:46,520 the very thoughts of God in this book. 292 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:52,280 This book friends is a precious gift from God to us. 293 00:22:52,280 --> 00:23:00,560 We must never take it for granted because this book is the great gift that God has given 294 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:04,320 us by the Holy Spirit. 295 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:11,640 It's the third thing I want to say, who is it that benefits from this insight that God 296 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,240 gives to his plan? 297 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,640 Paul gives us the answer in verses 14 through 16 where we pick up the reading. 298 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:24,680 It says, the man without the Spirit or literally it says the natural man does not accept the 299 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,800 things that come from the Spirit of God. 300 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:32,160 Their foolishness to him, he cannot understand them because they're spiritually discerned. 301 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:38,600 But he says the spiritual man makes judgments about all things and he himself is not subject 302 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,360 to any man's judgment. 303 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:45,040 For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? 304 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:51,000 But we, Christ followers, we have the mind of Christ. 305 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:56,200 Paul in this text contrasts two kinds of people. 306 00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:00,920 There's the natural man and there's the spiritual man. 307 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:02,640 So let's talk about them. 308 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,040 Who is the natural man that Paul is talking about? 309 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:12,440 The NIV translates it, the man without the Spirit, but it's really the sukkakos man, 310 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:16,760 the soulish man. 311 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:21,560 As human beings we are material and immaterial. 312 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:27,520 And that immaterial part of us is soul and spirit. 313 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:32,760 Our soul is that part of us that relates to our world. 314 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:41,720 By it we see, we hear, we learn, we think, we feel, we make decisions. 315 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:47,120 Everybody who's born has a soul and everybody who's born has a spirit. 316 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:54,200 But the spirit of the natural man is dead in trespasses and sins. 317 00:24:54,200 --> 00:25:00,800 You see the spirit of man is that part of him that relates to God. 318 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:06,920 But because of sin that we're born with, the natural man is not alive toward God and so 319 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,800 that spirit in him is dead. 320 00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:15,040 He is without the Holy Spirit living within him. 321 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:18,840 Now Paul is not putting down the natural man. 322 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:28,080 So the term that Paul uses here is really man at his best, his unregenerate best. 323 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:35,600 It is man who is cultured, who is civilized, who is educated, who is moral, who is sophisticated, 324 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:40,680 but he's natural because he has no life of God within him. 325 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:48,640 Now Paul uses some phrases here and gives us three descriptives of this natural man. 326 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:52,440 Number one, he has a prejudiced attitude. 327 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,080 He does not accept. 328 00:25:55,080 --> 00:26:01,600 He does not welcome the things of the spirit of God. 329 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:02,960 He can read the Bible. 330 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:04,840 He can study the Bible. 331 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:10,120 He can appreciate the Bible as great literature or as history or as a resource for his study 332 00:26:10,120 --> 00:26:13,040 of archaeology. 333 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:20,560 But the natural man does not understand the things of God in this book. 334 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:24,760 That's because he has poor judgment. 335 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:30,280 The reason that he cannot accept the things of the spirit of God is because he considers 336 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,160 those things to be foolish. 337 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:41,240 He considers the Bible as being reasonably accurate history perhaps, as giving to us 338 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:45,400 beautiful poetry. 339 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:49,120 But he does not accept the Bible as God's word. 340 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:52,920 He considers that idea to be foolish. 341 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,200 He does not agree with what the Bible says about man. 342 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,640 He does not agree about what the Bible says about where man came from and why we're in 343 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:06,920 the condition we are and how we can escape that condition. 344 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,680 Man says that's foolish. 345 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:12,920 And that's because he has a powerless comprehension. 346 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,680 In other words, he cannot understand. 347 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:22,320 He cannot understand because these things are spiritually discerned and he is spiritually 348 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:27,480 dead. 349 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:33,200 And we were all born in this condition. 350 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:39,400 But when we come to Jesus Christ in faith and we're born again, we become a different 351 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:45,000 kind of man, no longer a natural man. 352 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,080 We become what Paul calls here the spiritual man. 353 00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:51,840 Notice that phrase in verse 15. 354 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:56,920 That is, we are now alive toward God. 355 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,240 We have been resurrected with Christ. 356 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,080 We have been given the Holy Spirit. 357 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:06,400 And so there is this connection with God now in those of us who are spiritual. 358 00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:10,440 But Paul has something more in mind than just that. 359 00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:16,920 He's thinking about the fact that we are born again into God's family and then as a result 360 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,560 of that, we grow to maturity. 361 00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:27,600 We grow up in spiritual things, in our understanding of the things of God. 362 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:31,880 It's the same as the word mature back in verse 6. 363 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:37,320 Now I point this out because you see these Corinthians that he's writing to had been 364 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:43,240 born again and they were spiritual in that sense. 365 00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:46,440 They were no longer just natural. 366 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:54,240 But Paul goes on to say in the next few verses, but your babies, you've never grown up. 367 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,560 And he says, I could not speak to you as mature people. 368 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:03,360 And he says, you are missing the deeper things of God because these things are for those 369 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:11,800 who are spiritual in the sense that they're born again and they're growing spiritually. 370 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:16,040 And he says basically to the Corinthians, you think and you act like you're unsafe 371 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:22,480 people because you are not growing in your faith. 372 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:27,600 And so he goes on to tell them what they need to do. 373 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,120 So who is the spiritual man? 374 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:35,680 Well, the spiritual man is the one who is alive to God. 375 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,200 And Paul again describes the spiritual man. 376 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,760 There are three phrases that describe the spiritual man. 377 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:45,840 First of all, the spiritual man discerns spiritual things. 378 00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:53,600 It is he can look at the world around him and he understands what's going on because 379 00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:59,400 he has the word of God in his mind and his heart and he's growing in the word. 380 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,560 And as a result of this, he looks at himself. 381 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:02,720 He looks at other people. 382 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,120 He looks at the situations of his life. 383 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:10,040 He looks at the world history and he says, I get it now. 384 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:12,040 This is what's happening. 385 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:14,200 Do you understand this? 386 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,560 Is it coming across? 387 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:23,360 The spiritual man discerns spiritual things because he's indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 388 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:25,520 He's growing in the things of God. 389 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:29,280 The spirit of God is taking the word and instructing his mind. 390 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:34,040 He's growing deeper into the things of God. 391 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:35,680 Secondly about the spiritual man is this. 392 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,200 He baffles the natural man. 393 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,880 The natural man looks at him and says, I don't understand you. 394 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:44,360 You're an enigma to me. 395 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:46,400 Hey friends, that's the world around us. 396 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,480 They do not understand you and me. 397 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:50,720 They don't understand our values. 398 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:52,120 They don't understand where we get them. 399 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:56,400 Not only do they not agree with them, they don't even understand why we would go to 400 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:57,400 the Bible. 401 00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,160 It's foolishness. 402 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,080 The natural man looks at you and me and says, I cannot figure you out. 403 00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:04,560 You confuse me. 404 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,360 That shouldn't surprise us. 405 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:12,760 John MacArthur writes, they try to appraise believers of course, but they are always wrong. 406 00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:18,640 They may accurately evaluate our faults, our shortcomings, our living that is inconsistent 407 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,760 with our faith, but they cannot accurately evaluate our faith. 408 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:24,360 They don't get it. 409 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:25,880 Why? 410 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:31,160 Because they can't understand the things of the spirit of God. 411 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,240 The third descriptive of the spiritual man is this. 412 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,880 He has the mind of Christ. 413 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:47,360 Paul says no one can advise God, but the fact is that God has given you and me His thoughts 414 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,040 in this book. 415 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:51,040 We have the mind of Christ. 416 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:58,480 We are able to look at the world through the lens of Jesus Christ. 417 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:03,600 Unbelievers do not understand what makes us tick, but we can look at them and we can 418 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,080 look at our world around us and we say, I get it. 419 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:14,800 I understand what's happening in the world because God gives us His thoughts. 420 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:16,360 That is the gift that God has given us. 421 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,080 We should never take it for granted or undervalue it. 422 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:25,400 Rather we should embrace it and say, oh God, thank you that you have revealed to me as 423 00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:33,600 one of your followers an understanding of what you're about in the world today. 424 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:38,880 Now there are some personal questions I want us to think about before we wrap this up. 425 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:44,000 The first one is a very honest question that we have to face and that is the question that 426 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:45,960 we should ask ourselves. 427 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:55,200 Am I still a natural person, a natural man? 428 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:57,400 Or have I been born again? 429 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:03,440 You see it's possible to be a very good person, to be a cultured person, an educated person. 430 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:11,320 It's possible to have your life together in a human sense, to be respected in your community 431 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:17,200 and still be a natural man without a relationship to God. 432 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,800 Your spirit is dead within you. 433 00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:23,720 You know you can fix that this morning. 434 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:28,440 By trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can be born again and God will 435 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:34,560 put within you His Spirit and resurrect that dead spirit in you and give you a living relationship 436 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:35,880 with Himself. 437 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:37,120 You can fix it today. 438 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,120 I hope you will. 439 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:46,120 Now in a setting like this most of us have probably already done that and so we need to 440 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,760 ask ourselves a second question. 441 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:56,240 Am I spiritual or mature to use Paul's word here? 442 00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:00,640 Am I growing in my relationship to God? 443 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:05,320 Am I focused in my life on the things of God, the things that God has revealed in His word 444 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,560 for me? 445 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:13,640 Am I sowing the word of God into my mind and thus reaping a harvest of change in my life 446 00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:20,840 and change in attitude, in my behavior, in my choices, in my relationships? 447 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:26,680 As you see what this is about is that God brings our lives into alignment with His word 448 00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:29,240 as we are growing in it. 449 00:34:29,240 --> 00:34:36,080 And the result of that is our lives become full and abundant and more meaningful. 450 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:41,960 And the disappointments and the trials and the pains of our lives which we all have are 451 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:49,200 understood because we have the mind of Christ and we see where this alignment is taking 452 00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:57,000 us in the future, what God's purpose is. 453 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,720 I need to be growing in the word and so do you. 454 00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:04,280 The only way to grow in the word is to spend time in it and that brings me to my third 455 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:09,760 question and that is what am I doing with the gift that God has given me? 456 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:14,840 Here I have the most precious gift imaginable. 457 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:23,520 I have in this book the inspired thoughts of God written down in human words for me 458 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:25,760 to learn and to grow by. 459 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,360 What am I doing with this book in my life? 460 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:31,880 Am I spending time in it? 461 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:39,200 Am I listening to God allowing Him to give me deeper insights into His thoughts for me 462 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:45,640 to by the Holy Spirit change my life? 463 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:47,360 All of us can grow there can't we? 464 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,160 We can spend more time in it. 465 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:53,400 One of the exciting things about going to Israel, somebody said to me last night, well 466 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,080 pastor have a good time on your vacation. 467 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,080 And I thought well thank you very much. 468 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:03,360 I said that in fact I didn't say what I thought. 469 00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,680 My thought was if I am going on vacation I wouldn't be going with 40 people from the 470 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,760 church. 471 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:15,400 Not that I don't love you all but that's not vacation. 472 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:20,840 The reason we are doing this trip is so that we can grow in the things of God. 473 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:25,680 You see by doing something like this you gain insights into the word that you can really 474 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:31,000 only have by being there and seeing and learning changes your life, your whole perspective on 475 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:32,000 the word. 476 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,520 Are you growing in the word? 477 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:38,400 The final question is this. 478 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:44,240 It's the question am I living my life with a view to the glory ahead? 479 00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:48,480 Here I am one of God's princes. 480 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:51,080 One of God's princes. 481 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:56,640 Am I living my life in this world with a view to what God has prepared for me? 482 00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:00,480 You see God has told me what His purpose is and that purpose is that one day I'm going 483 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:07,200 to be filled with the glory of Christ in every part of my being including my resurrected 484 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:08,200 body. 485 00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:12,440 And I'm going to reign with Christ and when He is placed over everything He's going to 486 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,000 be the top dog on the organizational chart. 487 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,440 His box is going to be at the very top of it. 488 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:23,480 I'm going to be reigning with Christ over that new creation and God is going to use 489 00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:30,120 me and you as object lessons of His grace and His glory for all of the rest of the angelic 490 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:34,760 creation of whatever else is out there to see. 491 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:40,720 God says to them you want to know what I'm like look over here at this child of mine. 492 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:44,000 Am I living my life now in light of what God has prepared? 493 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,720 Because you see when I do it changes perspective. 494 00:37:47,720 --> 00:37:52,520 The hard things I go through the trials, the disappointments, even the successes I look 495 00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:56,960 at through that lens and I have understanding. 496 00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,400 I say oh God thank you for what you're doing. 497 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:00,400 Thank you for the hurt. 498 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:01,600 Thank you for the anxiety. 499 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:05,160 Thank you for the pain that I'm going through because I know what's ahead. 500 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:09,000 Isn't it great to know where history is going? 501 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:15,360 What peace that brings to your heart about our world that we live in today? 502 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,800 What peace that should bring to your heart regarding God's plan in your own life. 503 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,000 If God has planned all of this out for the future don't you think you can take care of 504 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,000 your little life? 505 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:27,600 Of course you can. 506 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:31,160 God has given us a marvelous gift. 507 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,680 He wants us to enjoy it and to grow in it. 508 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:35,840 May we do that. 509 00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:42,760 Father my prayer for myself and for my brothers and sisters here is that we may indeed grow 510 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,480 to maturity. 511 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:52,680 That you will in your wonderful patience continue to draw us along on this journey that we've 512 00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:59,720 begun so that we will deepen our understanding of the things of God. 513 00:38:59,720 --> 00:39:06,720 We do not want to be longtime infants, babies in the faith. 514 00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:08,220 We don't want to be superficial. 515 00:39:08,220 --> 00:39:10,960 We don't want to be carnal in our attitudes. 516 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,880 God we want to be spiritual. 517 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,120 So help us to grasp that and to live for what's to come. 518 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:26,120 The glory that you have prepared for all those who love and trust Jesus, the Christ crucified. 519 00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:29,520 This is my prayer. 520 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:49,080 Jesus sing with me that.