The "Why's" of Wisdom | July 30, 2025

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Return in your Bibles. Please do First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. We will be finishing First

Corinthians chapter #2 here tonight by the Lord's grace.

And we are going to continue our discussion, a very multifaceted

discussion the last few weeks about wisdom.

And really, can you talk enough about wisdom?

I mean, when you consider that there was a whole book of

wisdom, the book of Proverbs, 31 chapters from start to finish, I

don't think we can look enough at this issue of wisdom.

But so far, wisdom has been the topic of the day in First

Corinthians. And why not?

Because we're going to find out, especially once we get into

chapter #3 how carnal these people are in Corinth.

We've got a little bit of a taste of it in chapter #1 by how

divided they were, that they were in these factions, they

were in these camps. But we're going to see even more

so that they needed the wisdom of God in a very real way.

And last week we saw that the Holy Spirit is the key to

unlocking the door of wisdom, and that humility towards God

and a love God are the requirements to use that key.

If you want wisdom, you need the Holy Spirit.

But to be able to have the Holy Spirit's efficacy and power in

your life, you need to have some humility and you need to have a

love for God. Because a believer who doesn't

love God as they should won't utilize the Spirit because they

don't cherish Him as they ought to.

And a believer who's proud that doesn't love God is proud in

their spirit. Well, they won't be humble

enough to listen to the Spirit. So we saw last week that the

Holy Spirit is the key to wisdom.

But you got to be humble and you have to love the Lord as you

ought. But even as we've been talking

about wisdom for the last few weeks and really this idea, you

know, that we need wisdom in our lives.

I mean, I don't know anyone I'd argue with or well, I should say

anyone I would talk with. You know, as Baptist preachers,

we want to argue with everybody. But, you know, I don't know

anybody that I would talk to if I said, hey, you ought to get

wisdom, that they would say, no, no, you shouldn't get wisdom.

I mean, I think everybody saved and unsaved would agree you need

wisdom. I think we all here would agree.

We've been talking about wisdom the last few weeks, pastor.

We know we need to get wisdom. But yet, you know, the issue

about saying that we need wisdom, it's not very definite.

You know, it's, it's like we need it, But what does that

mean? And what does that mean to me?

What does it look like? Why do I need it?

It's kind of like if someone says, you know, you ought to eat

right, it's like, OK, you ought to eat right.

But you know, can I eat right in the drive through at McDonald's?

I mean, I think so. But well, that's that's probably

why I shouldn't be your dietitian.

I should just be your preacher. Amen.

But you know, but if you were to say eat right, you know that,

OK, that's good, but what does that mean?

You know, maybe you could summarize it by saying or maybe

further clarifying it by saying eat right for your health.

OK, that that helps us a little bit understand it more.

Or how about this in my situation and maybe others who

have a family members who have been cardiac patients, eat right

so you don't have a heart attack.

Well, that all puts a fine point on it, doesn't it?

Because if I just think about eating right, I may not eat

right. I'll tell you this.

When I think of my father, who was 38 years old, who was 185

lbs and was as fit as could be, and he had a heart attack, it

makes me think about what I eat. You know, understanding that

very specificity of what that means changes the way that I

act. So, yeah, we need wisdom.

But what does that mean? What does that look like?

How does that manifest itself? And so here in the last verses

of chapter #2 Paul's going to give us some very specific

things that we need to know about this issue of wisdom.

And he gives us what I would call the wise of wisdom.

He gives us three wise of wisdom.

And what we're going to see tonight is that only a person

who is acting the fool would willfully neglect the gift of

wisdom. Only a person who is acting the

fool would willfully neglect the gift of wisdom.

So we're going to start in first number 11 here in Second

Corinthians chapter #2 So let's read from verse 11 to the end of

the chapter. It says for what man knoweth the

things of a man, save the spirit of a man, which is in him.

Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of

God. Now we have received not the

spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we

might know the things which are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom

teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing

spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man received not

the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto

him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually

discerned. He that is spiritual judgeth all

things, yet he himself is judged of no man for who has known the

mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him.

But we have the mind of Christ. Well, there's a lot of themes

that come up over and over those verses, aren't they?

The issue of the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost,

judgment, spiritual judgment, the mind of Christ, these are

things that are mentioned to us. But in these verses, as we see

these words and these phrases, we see some wise about this

issue of wisdom. And really, there's three things

that I want us to look at tonight.

And you can write these on the back of your prayer bulletin as

we go along. So what are the whys of wisdom?

Why do we need wisdom? Well, first of all #1 it's

because we need to know, say, well, we need to know what.

And the answer is we need to know stuff.

I don't know about you, but there's a lot.

You didn't think you'd get that as an answer in a sermon, did

you? Stuff right?

But we need to know a lot of things in this life, don't we?

And where do we get the answer to those things?

Well, Paul starts verse #11 with a comparison to help us better

understand the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of the

Spirit in our lives. So look at verse #11 It 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.

That may sound like a little bit of circular reasoning there, and

what exactly is going on, but there's a very clear point

that's being made there. Listen, can I know your

innermost thoughts? The answer is no.

And by the way, aren't you glad your pastor doesn't know your

innermost thoughts? Amen.

But there's another part of that I'm sure glad you don't know the

pastors innermost thoughts. It works both ways, friend.

I don't want to know. You don't want to know.

Look, we can't know each other's innermost thoughts when we look

at animals, perhaps even our pets, we may think we know what

our pet is thinking, but we really don't know what our pet

is thinking. I was holding Toby, which I

think maybe everyone around here knows Cali and Toby.

Anyone ever heard of him? But holding Toby and I was just

remember just just petting him and I kind of hold him like a

baby just kind of in my arms. And I was petting him and he was

just purring. And he just, you know, cats

can't smile, but you know, they kind of had that look.

You feel like they're smiling at you.

And he was really close to my face.

And it was just really this loving moment.

And the next thing I knew, he batted me in the face and hissed

at me. It's like I thought I thought we

had a connection, man. I thought we were having a

moment. And all of a sudden I thought I

knew what he was thinking and he didn't.

And he knew what I was thinking very quickly as I blew in his

face and he ran off. He jumped out of my, my, my arms

and ran off. And we had we, you know, we, we,

we got over it. We're good now.

Thank the Lord we patched it up. But you know, I don't know what

you're thinking. You don't know what I'm

thinking. You know, I don't, I don't know

what an animal, you know, the only entity of which I know it's

innermost thoughts. It is me.

Only I can know my innermost thoughts.

And even sometimes that's a struggle, isn't it?

We'll talk about that in a minute.

But, but if anyone is to know their own thoughts, it would be

myself. You can't know my thoughts and I

can't know your thoughts. So the comparison that's being

made here is if someone is to know their thoughts, it would be

the spirit of the person. The Spirit of Adam knows the

thoughts of Adam. The spirit of Tim knows the

thoughts of Tim. The spirit of Kaylee knows the

thoughts of Kaylee. But here's the issue.

If you want to know the thoughts of God, where do you go?

You go to the Spirit of God, that the Spirit of God, and

we're getting there in just a moment, but the Spirit of God is

the one who reveals the very thoughts of God and Amen,

because we can't figure that out on our own.

Who? Who could have think of the

thoughts of God? Who could know the thoughts of

God? They're unattainable for us.

But yet it's the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you.

If you're saved, it's the Holy Spirit who lives inside of me

that that same Holy Spirit can discern and has the very

thoughts of God and is able to help us understand God more.

The Spirit of God is the only revealer of the thoughts of God

in the same way that your spirit is the only revealer of your

thoughts. And you might say, well, what

about the Word of God? We'll get to that in just a

moment because where did the word of God come from?

It came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, didn't it?

So even through the Scriptures that we have, and we'll talk

more about that in just a second.

And by the way, all of this, This is why I would say that

receiving counsel and biblical counsel is so important because

you know, I don't know what you're thinking, but only you

do. And so having counsel sometimes

and being able to talk to someone about the issues of

life, that other person is able to bring Scripture and to bring

the Spirit to you in the sense that to bring the Illuminum of

the word of God into your life so you can better understand

your own thoughts. Because listen, we may be the

best people who know us, but we don't always know us like we

should. Should we?

Just like sometimes you say, you know, I feel down well, why I

don't know, I'm struggling, why? I don't know, man, I'm happy.

Why? I don't know, I'm just happy

today. You know, sometimes we struggle

even in those areas trying to articulate these things, but yet

the Holy Spirit is the one that helps us to get that which we

need to know. Now why is this so important?

Well, verse 12 gives us the explanation.

It says now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the

Spirit which is of God. Now why?

That we might know the things that are freely given to us of

God. So God has given us some things

freely and He wants us to know about these things.

Well, how do we know about these things?

We know about them because of the Spirit.

Where's the 1st place that we could consider that to be the

case? Salvation.

Is salvation a free gift? Yes, it is salvation by grace

through faith. How do we know about salvation?

Well, it's the Spirit who draws us.

It's the Spirit who woos us. It's the Spirit who says, hey,

what that preacher saying you need to listen because you need

to accept the gospel message? No, I remember all the messages

that I heard at Westgate Baptist Church from the youth were

there. And I remember over and over,

particularly as it got closer to the place where I was, I was so

confused about being a Lutheran and what it meant to be born

again. But I remember the Holy Spirit

just working in my heart that it wasn't some other entity.

It wasn't just my own thought process, but it was the Holy

Spirit saying this Adam, you need to get saved.

Romans 816 the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit

that we are the children of God. It is the Holy Spirit that uses

the word of God and we're going to see this theme constantly

through here that the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to

be able to help you to understand you need to be saved.

But I would also say this that when it comes this issue of the

Spirit giving us understanding of the things that are freely

given to us of God, It's not just of salvation.

I would also say this, it's about everything else.

There's a lot of things to know about in the Christian life,

aren't there? There's a lot of things to grow

in. You say, pastor, I've pretty

much I've attained you know what I need.

I've I've done pretty well over the years.

I would say you've got a lot more to learn if you think

that's the case, because I would tell you, the more I get in this

word, the more I realize, the more I need to get in this word.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

The more I learn about the Lord, the more I realize, the more I

want to learn about the Lord. It's not like you get to the

place you say, you know what, I'm pretty satisfied with this.

You know, you read a novel, maybe you read it 20 times.

You could probably get pretty bored.

You could read the word of God once a year for the rest of your

life. And not only would you never get

bored, but you would be constantly be helped.

You'll be encouraged. The perfect law of liberty, that

mirror is right in your face. And the word of God, You read

the Word of God, but the word of God reads you.

And how does that happen? It's because the Holy Spirit

wants to teach you things in your life.

I go back in my mind to second Peter chapter #1 you know, add

to your faith. Well, the verse is right before

it says according as His divine power.

I would say divine power would equate the Holy Spirit according

as His divine power hath given to us all things that pertain in

the life and godliness. Now you can go back in the

Greek, you know what that all things means, all things He's

given you, all things that pertain in the life and

godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to

glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great

and precious promises. That by these you might be

partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption

that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith,

remember. And then we went through all of

those right there. Where does all of this process

come from that we can receive everything that we need?

Yes, everything that we need in the daily Christian life?

It comes by yielding ourselves to the Spirit who wants to teach

us these things because it's the Spirit of God who can reveal the

thoughts of God. You know, it makes me think of

Peter and John. You know, those guys didn't get

along. I don't know if you ever heard

about that, but they didn't get along very well, did they?

And then you get to Acts chapter 3, and the Holy Spirit is now in

Acts 3 · chapter mention

the ministry of indwelling the believer.

And you can see the difference in the believers on the day of

Pentecost. And then Peter and John are

walking into the temple or towards the temple, and there's

a man who is lame. And he says, this lame man says,

you know, could I have some money?

And Peter says what I think is one of the great things that a

Baptist preacher could say, silver and gold have I none.

But he says, he says, silver and gold have I none.

But he says, but such as I have, I give thee rise up and walk.

And sure enough, he does. And of course, everyone

rejoiced. Well, everybody but the

religious elite, the Pharisees. And it ends up that Peter and

John get hauled in to the Pharisees.

Now, may I remind you these two guys were fishermen.

Now I'm looking around. I don't think anyone is a

professional fisherman that's here, but I would say at least

not tonight. But I think about this and, and

I, I understand that, that at that time, you're not talking

about the most elite of society, the most educated of society.

And here they are. They're standing in front of the

Sanhedrin and Peter is preaching.

You know, I'm not talking about putting his foot in his mouth

like he normally did. The man is preaching.

And listen what it says in Acts chapter 4, verse 13.

Acts 4:13

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived

that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and

took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.

Now have you and I been with Jesus in the way that Peter and

John have? No.

Do we get to walk for three years with Jesus?

We did not. But I would tell you this, the

Spirit of God, the Triune Godfather, Son and Holy Ghost,

the Spirit lives inside of you if you know Jesus Christ your

Savior. And you may be unlearned and

ignorant as far as this world believes, but listen, the Holy

Spirit can be your teacher and the Holy Spirit can be your

guide. You know, I want to be your

helper as your pastor. I do.

I mean, if I didn't, that wouldn't make me a very good

pastor, would it? I want to be able to help you in

the things of the Spirit. I want to be a help you in the

things of the Bible. I hope you ask me questions.

You have questions about the Bible or about what it means to

be able to be a disciple. And you know, we have

discipleship courses here that we go through.

I think all those things are important, but I want you to

understand this and I want you to listen to me, what I say

about this very, very carefully here tonight.

If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have the same access

to the truths of God as I do. So I've not been to Bible

college. That doesn't matter.

No, I mean, Bible college was important for me to be able to

go to, to be able to get the training that I need to learn

more about the Bible. Yes, I understand that and I'm

not discounting that. But what I'm saying is we've

been talking about this now for weeks, is that you have the very

wisdom of God Almighty at your doorstep.

If you will avail yourself of the Holy Spirit, He will speak

to you. He will teach you, He'll tell

you what you need to know. He is the one who will guide you

in all truth. We have the Spirit of God inside

of us. So while the world may think us

ignorant, we can know God in a real and intimate way.

Why? Because His Spirit that knows

him lives inside of us. That's incredible.

Now Peter and John speaking before Sanhedrin are a good

example of the next point as well, which is this.

It's that we don't just need to know, but the other why?

The second why of wisdom is this.

We need to speak. Look at verse #13 Paul says

this, which things also we speak not in the words which man's

wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing

spiritual things with spiritual. Now when he's talking about we,

we speak because first of all, we saw just a moment ago we know

that was what we saw in the previous verse, and that we

might know the things that are freely given.

And verse 13 says that we need to speak, or at least we talking

of Paul and his companions. What's exactly is he talking

about? Well, that goes back to verse

number one of the same chapter. So just go a page back.

You might not even need to do that.

It says in chapter 2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to

you, came not with Excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto

you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know

anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much

trembling. And my speech and my preaching

was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but the

demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

So he says, when I came to you and spoke, he's talking about

when I came to you and I spoke and I preached.

He says I came not in my own thought processes.

In fact, why would he not come in the world's thought process?

Well, if you jump over to chapter 3, verse 19, look at

this. It says for the wisdom of this

world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the

wise and their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the

thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

So going back to verse #12 now that we've kind of looked at the

bookends there, it says, now we or verse #13 which things also

we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth.

We just explained why that is, but which the Holy Ghost

teacheth. And then it says comparing

spiritual things with spiritual. Now that's an interesting phrase

there, isn't it? Comparing spiritual things with

spiritual? Now it might seem a little bit

complex, but I think in the context of what Paul is talking

about in his preaching ministry, remember we saw that he's

referencing preaching earlier before.

I believe that what he's saying is that they're to take two

elements. Comparing spiritual things of

spiritual is taking the spirit inspired word and the spirit

induced wisdom from above and putting them together.

Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, comparing the word of

God, putting together the word of God and the Spirit of God,

that these go together because when Paul spoke, he used the

word of God and the Spirit of God.

I think that's clear in the context of what we see here.

Think of it this way. Now I have, I've sailed many,

many see in this area, in fact, well, OK, once last week, but

and, and we almost died. But, but I, I don't have to be

an expert to know this, that if you are going to sail, you

probably need a couple things as far as navigation.

You need a map or a chart, as you know, we in the business

call it. And you also need a compass.

Now, if you have a compass and no chart, you always know where

north is, but you don't know where to go.

If you have a chart and no compass, you know what the sea

looks like, but you don't know where you are in it.

Comparing spiritual with spiritual means this is that we

have the Word of God and the Spirit of God together and that

we are able to use them both to be able to get that which we

need. Paul says this, when I spoke it

was with the Spirit of God and the Word of God together.

Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, it was the spirit

inspired word and the spirit induced wisdom that comes from

above. And they came together because

listen, if you have the Spirit of God but yet not the word of

God, you were lacking, aren't you?

Because you can live with the Spirit of God within you, but if

you don't read your Bible, you're missing a lot of

direction that you need. And do you remember what it was

like before you got saved and you opened the Bible?

You had the word of God, but you looked at it and you might as

well have been reading a foreign language because it meant

nothing to you, because why the Spirit of God was not within you

to be able to help you to learn the words that were inspired

from the Spirit. And so it's the Spirit of God

and the word of God that come together.

Remember the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8?

Acts 8 · chapter mention

He's reading Isaiah 53, the chapter that spoke of the

smitten Savior. And he, he looks at Philip and

Philip says, do you know what you're reading?

And he says, how can I unless someone explains to me he

couldn't understand it on his own, He needed a spirit filled

man explain it until the Holy Spirit said, Yep, that's you,

you need to get saved. And he saw water.

And he says what hinders me from being baptized?

And he says, well, if you believe in your heart and the

gospel message, then you can get baptized.

And that's what happened. Now let's bring this back to us

for a moment, because it, this is Paul talking of himself.

And we say that we need to speak.

But it really says that Paul is speaking here, right?

The we here. I can't twist the Scriptures

here when it says in verse #13 these things also we speak.

I don't believe he's talking about you and I along with him,

but I don't think it's much of A leap to say this.

If this was the way that Paul was commanded to speak, to speak

in a way that was honoring to the Word of God and to the

Spirit of God, then shouldn't we be speaking the same way in our

ministries? So in my ministry, no, no,

you're a pastor. Paul was a missionary.

I am neither, so this really doesn't apply to me at all.

And that may be true. You may not be a pastor, but you

are called to be a proclaimer of truth.

No, no, if you are part of a local church, it is your job to

be a proclaimer of truth. To who?

Well, one to a lost and dying world that needs a savior.

And how are you going to show them to get saved?

Well, it's because of the Spirit of God and the Word of God

comparing spiritual things of spiritual.

That's the only way that the lost is going to be saved.

You think you or I have ideas of how people can get saved on

their own? I said Sunday night that if the

world had ideas of how to redeem themselves, they would have done

it by now. But they're descending into

further chaos. You know, if we're going to win

the lost, what do we need? The Word of God and the wisdom

of God from the Holy Spirit. But I would say this, even

within our church, what do we need to do?

It's not just the preacher that preaches.

Each of our lives preach. We're interconnected.

First Corinthians chapter #12 says this.

We're a body that each of us play a part.

And yes, you here have to be someone who compares spiritual

things with spiritual, that you're willing to help one

another, give encouragement, love, even sometimes a gentle

and loving rebuke to be able to give what is needed.

Hebrews 1024 and 25, let us consider one another to provoke

unto love and to good works. I think a lot of people just

hear that word provoke, and they just want to provoke each other.

That's what some churches are like.

They just provoke each other. But it says provoke.

I mean to prod unto what? To love and good works, and

that's why the next verse makes so much sense, not forsaking the

assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but

exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day

approaching. You know, what I love about the

fact that people stay around here till, oh, dark 30 after

every service is that that's part of the ministry of people

just talking to one another, encouraging one another.

It's it's in some of those conversations that you might get

something that might last with you longer than what I preach

here tonight. Now, in my vanity, I'd like to

think that everything I say here tonight is going to last with

you forever. But I'm also not a fool.

And it could just be tonight. What you needed to hear was a

conversation that happened in the back at 8:45 more than what

came from this pulpit tonight. You know, I'm not diminishing

the preaching of the word of God, not at all.

But I'm saying this is that you have to be a proclaimer of truth

as well. God's called you to do that.

Why? With a spirit and the word.

James 516. Confess your faults one to

another. Pray for one another, that you

might be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of

a righteous man availeth much. Galatians 6-1 and two brethren,

if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,

restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering

thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

Bury one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Listen, if someone here is overtaken in the fault, the

first thing we ought to do is try to love them to correction

in the Word of God. Now, if correction is not

achievable, then there's other things that have to take place.

But it's our desire for correction always to be that

which is the goal. Well, how does that happen?

What happens when we all of 1 heart say this?

We're going to compare spiritual things with spiritual.

We need to speak. It's not just the pastor's job.

There's a public ministry that each and every one of us have,

and we should be able to speak wisdom one to another.

It can't just come from the pulpit.

Listen, giving counsel is a sign of spiritual maturity, that

you're able to give counsel to somebody.

But I will say before you get too far down that road, if

you're able to give counsel, then you need to be able to

receive counsel because giving counsel is a sign of spiritual

maturity. But I would say even more so,

receiving counsel is a sign of spiritual maturity because yes,

you might be able to help someone else, but know this,

they might be able to help you or someone else may be able to

help you. And I do need to say we need to

be careful with this. We can't be puffed up with

pride. I'm the church corrector.

You know that that may be fine. Your spiritual gift may be to be

the judge, the church's judge, jury and executioner.

That might be what you think. But I will say this, when you

have the right spirit, you understand you're not looking

for a reason to go and correct other people.

In fact, you're committing other people to prayer 1st and you're

asking the Lord how he can use you in that process.

And when you do so, you it's done so in humility.

But we need to speak. And when we do so why with the

Spirit of God and the Word of God together?

Well, God couldn't use me for that.

My, my question would be this, Why?

Well, I've done things in my past.

I'm pretty sure all of us have a past.

If you didn't have a past, then you wouldn't need to be saved.

Well, God couldn't use me for that.

Well, and I understand. Listen, if you have a past, you

may need to be a little bit circumspect about your, your

past and, and you don't want to show that you, you know so much

more. But doesn't that go back to the

issue of pride, having humility? And where do you get wisdom

from? Remember, there is no wisdom

without humility because you won't listen to the Spirit.

So it all goes together. But talking about being a judge,

jury and executioner, that also brings us to #3 tonight, which

is this number one, we need to know #2 we need to speak #3 we

need to judge. This is where people get a

little bit uptight. Oh, pastor, the Bible says don't

judge. Don't you know the Bible says

don't judge. And I'll tell you this, there

are a lot of people who don't know a lot about the Bible, but

they will tell you this. The Bible says don't judge.

They don't know John 316, but they say, don't judge.

Hey, you don't judge. Don't you know that?

Bible says don't judge? They even probably know it's in

Matthew Chapter 7. And what they've done is they've

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

taken a list of about 8 verses, scrabbled, scribbled everything

out around it, and all they left was 2 words.

Judge not and don't know the context or anything that goes

along with that. Matthew Chapter 7 is one of the

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

most misquoted passages of scripture.

You realize judgment is needed in every area of life.

In fact, if you don't have judgment, I worry for you.

You have exercised judgment today multiple times.

When you reached in the fridge this morning and you saw that

that milk said July 30th on it. And you know what you did?

You kind of looked at it from the outside, swirled it around

to see if there's any cottage cheese forming inside.

You sniffed it. If you have a kid, you say, hey,

Peyton, taste this. You know, you know, you know,

that's judgment. You see what I'm saying?

Listen, that's judgment, all right?

But no, you take all of the data and you say, OK, this is all

right. You say, well, do I want to

purchase this or not? And you check other places to

see what the prices are at different stores.

Do I buy it online? Do I buy it in person?

Do I even need this in the 1st place?

That's exercising judgment. Hey, do I trust this person or

not? This person has betrayed a trust

in the past. Can I trust them?

Again, we're not talking about forgiving.

I'm talking about can I trust them with something precious or

deep that takes judgment. If you don't use judgment,

you're a fool. So when the Bible says judge

not, it's not talking about not using judgment.

That what's cond, what's condemned in the Bible is

hypocritical judgment that comes from a prideful heart.

Hypocritical judgment that comes from a heart of pride.

John 724 says judge not according to appearance, but

judge. Righteous judgment.

John 816 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not

alone, but I and the Father that sent me.

Jesus says I judge now He came not for judgment.

He actually says that later in the sense that his goal would

come to his earthly ministry was to seek and to save that which

was lost. But Jesus Christ is the

righteous judge and so we have to in having the mind of Christ,

doesn't that isn't that what it says at the end of the chapter,

to have the mind of Christ? If we have to have or we are

able to have the mind of Christ, what do we need to do?

We have to judge righteously. Not that we are someone's judge,

jury and executioner, but we need to understand some things

in life. But getting back to these

verses, because I think this is where we really need to drill

down here, this issue of judging.

Look at verse #14 But the natural man receiveth not the

things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him,

neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

And that's what we're talking about.

A few moments ago you would have sat in a church service before

you got saved and before the Holy Spirit started working your

heart. And you thought these people are

crazy. And then you come here and you

say, man, this is like home. Well, what changed?

Did they change? No, you changed.

The Holy Spirit changed in your life.

You read the Bible before and again, it could have been in

Greek, Hebrew or English and you would have known the difference.

You got saved. You started to understand some

things in the Word of God. That's the Spirit.

Look at verse 15. But he that is, He is spiritual,

judgeth all things, yet He himself is judged of no man.

So when we say that we need to judge, the Word is used at the

last word of verse 14, and then it's continued on into verse

415. And the issue is this

discernment, discernment, judgment is needed to be able to

have discernment. And it says he that a spiritual

judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

A spiritual person can discern truth through the Spirit, but

the unregenerate cannot judge the believers understanding.

See, we as believers are able to see the full picture in this

world because of the Spirit. But the people who are unsaved

cannot understand who we are. It's like being on the outside

looking in. I'll put it to you this way.

Before you got saved, let's say you used to go to the bar room

and it was just a place where people were happy.

They're joyful frivolity. It was good camaraderie.

You know, that's what it was. But you know, once you're saved,

you start to see past all that, don't you?

And you see a lot of other things.

You see sadness, you see people that maybe don't have friends,

and that's the only place that they have any kind of friends

whatsoever. You see lust, you see vanity,

you hear cursing that you never heard before.

The people used to talk like that here.

Yeah, they always did. I'll put it to you this way, in

a way that you may be understanding more.

You ever watch a movie before you got saved?

And he said, but it's a family movie.

Oh, this is great. And then after you got saved,

maybe got right with the Lord, started doing some things and

discipled a little bit, you watch that same movie and all of

a sudden you were cringing 10 minutes in.

You said this was in here. Who?

Who put this stuff in the movie? Since the last time I watched

it, It's the same movie. Hey, the movie didn't change.

You did. Holy Spirit lives inside of you.

So what it's being said here the spiritual can judge all things

meaning this, that we understand the realm of the spiritual, but

now we have clarity of the realm of the unsaved that we didn't

have before. But the unsaved, it says here

the unsaved himself is judge of no man meaning this.

The unsaved look at us. They don't get it.

They don't get why we go to church all the time.

They don't get why we would give money in the offering.

They don't get why we'd support missionaries.

They don't get why we would have special meetings where we might

go to church multiple times in a week.

They don't understand why I'd have a back to school bash and

not really want anything from anybody.

And we're not even campaigning. We're not really getting

donations at the door or anything.

We just want to meet people and tell people, but they don't get

it. In fact, we will have people

that will come here next week and they're they're waiting for

the other shoe to drop. They're just waiting for for the

hook, like, OK, yeah, we'll get the book.

It's the supplies. But what, you, you, you need

blood. You want Social Security number?

You need my tax returns. And the answer is yes, we do

need all of those. No, that's not true.

They can't understand that. We just want to minister to

people because that's what Jesus Christ does.

And we want to see people saved because that's what God's called

us to do. So what I love about this first

is this, do you realize now you get the whole picture that

you're saved? You have discernment.

You see what the old way of life was and you say, hey, that

wasn't so fun. The good old days weren't so

good. All that fun wasn't so fun.

I think of all the the laughter and the joy I had.

But now I remember there was a lot of crying when I got home

and a lot of things I don't remember because of what

happened. How does that happen?

It's a spirit. The Spirit helps us to judge, to

discern the things of our life. We have to in essence, as it

says in verse 16, for with known the mind of the Lord, that He

may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ

and actually goes back to Isaiah chapter 40 verse #13 hearkening

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

back to the Old Testament. But we are to have the judgment

of the mind of Christ. Did Jesus Christ have

discernment? You better believe it.

That's why He did not sin, Because He discerned between the

right and the wrong, and that we with the mind of Christ can do

the same. Now listen.

Why do we need this discernment? Why is it so important that we

listen to the Spirit? Because we've only really looked

at 2 spheres so far, haven't we? We've looked at the regenerate

and the unregenerate, the saved and the unsaved, but Paul is

going to open up a new theater of battle, if you will, here in

chapter 3 verse one. Now we're going to get a taste

of this and we'll get into it next week.

But look at what it says this. And I brethren, could not speak

unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes

in Christ. You know what he's going to go

on and say? He said, I want to share some of

this wisdom with you, but I couldn't because you are too

much like the world. Do you like this tonight?

Do you want this gift? It's available, but it's because

of pride. If it's because you don't love

God as you should, it's because you're carnal.

Listen, you're not able to access these things as you want.

You lose the judgment that you need.

That's why even Christians who have backslidden, they make

decisions and they justify them in ways that they're twisting

the Bible into a pretzel. But to them, it makes sense.

Why? Because they stopped listening

to the Spirit. Oh, the Spirit still lives

inside of them. Don't be wrong.

We're not messing up with our theology there.

But they stopped listening to the Spirit.

And that's why the Bible says quench not the Spirit.

First Thessalonians, chapter 5. These are some amazing gifts.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

These are the whys of wisdom. Why do we need wisdom?

Because we need to know. We need to know stuff.

Where are you going to get that from the Spirit?

Because we need to speak. God's called us to be ministers

of grace. And so how do we do we need to

speak comparing spiritual things, spiritual and we need to

judge. We need to have some

discernment. And there's a, it's a complex

world we live in and how do we navigate the complexities?

It's the Spirit. But here's what's amazing to me.

You have all of these gifts at the ready.

But here's the problem. Oftentimes we lean far too much

on others and not on the Spirit. Listen, will you have a problem?

Where's the 1st place you need to go to the Lord in prayer?

Well, I'll call the pastor. You can call me.

Make sure you call the Lord first.

I'm not trying to be flippant how I say that, but you

understand what I'm saying. You talk to the Lord first.

Why? Because if you come to me and I

ask you about it and you say, well I haven't really talked to

the Lord about it first and say I'll meet with you next week, in

the meantime you get with the Lord.

Why? Because I'm not your priest.

You remember that we, we will Baptist were never part of that

in the 1st place, but the priest had to be in the way of God.

There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Thank the Lord you have this gift.

Use it. These are the whys.

Who doesn't need these things? We need them till we get to

glory and the Spirit is inside of us.

I'll use this example and I'm done.

Imagine for a moment this is totally imaginary.

Just want to make this very clear.

Imagine that. I got a call this afternoon from

a bank in Boston and I had an inheritance I knew nothing of, a

family member that I didn't know that just passed away.

And they had bequeathed to me $50 million.

Could you imagine that? I would only have to, I could

only imagine it because it wouldn't happen.

But I made it $50 million. And they told me that it was at

the bank, this bank, large bank, downtown Boston.

And I'm about to get off the phone.

I'm about to tell Diane. And I look at her and she's,

she's working on ironically, some of our finances and she's

looking at the budget and it's, you know, it's tight.

In fact, we're, we're pinching pennies just to be able to make

it. Again, this is theoretical.

Just to be clear, I'm not, it's not a call for, you know,

donations or anything for the pastor.

I just want to make clear, but there's a serious part to this.

I just found out I have the answer to everything that we

need, in essence, an unlimited supply.

Now we know that's not true, but in general, I mean, it'll be

fine. And she says, I explained to

her, I just got this call $50 million.

And she says, are you kidding? This is great.

This fixes our budget. This fixes everything.

This is everything. I don't even need to worry about

this anymore. She closed the laptop.

She's not even counting the pennies anymore.

It's like everything said, listen, before you get carried

away. I mean, it's in the middle of

Boston. I mean, who wants to drive down

there? I probably have to pay to park.

It's probably 50 bucks. I'm going to go in.

Is it probably got one of those lines.

You know, they, they probably have those, it looks like you're

going to Disney World. You know, just keep going back

and forth. There's still some banks that

have those lines. You know, you just keep going

back and forth and back and forth and it just I probably

have to wait there an hour or two.

You know, they told me when I get there, I have to have my ID

and I had to give a fingerprint to be able to identify who I am.

It's, I'll be honest with you. I mean, it's great and all, but

it's, it's, it's going to be a lot of work.

And I'd probably just, you know, we're, we're probably, I mean,

we're making it now, right? I mean, we're making it

according to what you're saying. We're making it.

I mean, sure, it's tight, but we're making.

And you're looking at me the way that you ought to be looking at

me because that's ludicrous. But a lot of you live like that,

and your pastor lives like that too, sometimes that you have

something greater than $50 million deposited in your

account. You have the Holy Spirit who

lives inside of you, and we've got every excuse of the book not

to be able to avail ourselves to his wisdom.

And you've got a treasure that is unspeakable in earthen

vessels. The Bible says in this body, why

would you not utilize him? Could it be because you're too

comfortable in your sin and you'd rather not speak to a Holy

Spirit? And I don't mean to speak to him

as audibly, but you understand what I'm saying is that you

don't want to avail yourself to him because he's holy and you're

very comfortable in your carnal sin.

It's a problem. Comfortable in your own ways,

your own thought processes. You just, you just don't think

it's possible. Maybe you don't trust Him

enough. Listen, he's good for it.

You can trust Him. Avail yourself.

These are the wise of wisdom. These and infinitely more are

brought to you by the God of heaven.

Avail yourself to the greatest treasure you could ever imagine,

which is Christ in you, the hope of glory and His Spirit.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.