1 Corinthians 2:6–13 | Why the Bible Makes Sense (If It Does)

Well, I've been wearing a, a Whoop band for about three and a half months.

My wife got it for me for my birthday.

I wanted to go away from kind of the screen, screen on all the time, and

get one of those screen-less fitness trackers, and it's fascinating.

It tells me way more information about myself than I wanna know, and it

probably gives me more anxiety about how I'm doing, uh, in my health than

I, I would otherwise even know about.

It tells me what my recovery score is.

I still don't really understand what that is other than when it's green,

it's good; when it's red, it's not good.

Um, you can congratulate me.

I, I, I reached 50 green recoveries recently, so whatever

that's good for, I, I did that.

It told me I did that.

Uh, but one of the other things it does is it gives you your Whoop

health age, your Whoop age, you know?

So that's fun, too.

Um, I'm 42, and, uh, almost 42 and a half for those keeping track, and my

Whoop, though, tells me that I'm 40.3.

So I don't wanna brag or anything.

But I'm 1.9

years younger according to Whoop than I actually am in real life.

Um, so, uh, I guess that that's a good thing.

I'd rather be 1.9

years younger, I guess, than 1.9

years older.

But it's, uh, a funny thing because at the end of the day, you know,

no matter what Whoop tells me, even if it told me I'm 10 years younger

than I am, we can't stop aging.

Y- you can't.

Y- you can't reverse the aging process.

People are trying actively to, to live as long as they possibly can, and, and maybe

they'll live longer But the way that our bodies are designed, and because of the

fall back in the garden, you can't stop the process of getting older, and with

age comes the breaking down of our bodies.

And so from the time that you're young, y- you look forward to getting older.

You want to get older.

You wanna get taller.

You want to get bigger.

You want to achieve things that are, are in the future as

far as years in front of you.

A- and then somewhere in your 30s, you start going, "Okay, I'm done.

We can slow down a little bit."

And you start noticing the gray hairs, and you're like, "Well, I … How

do I stop that from happening?"

Don't plant a church.

That's one way to stop that from happening.

But you start noticing those things, and, and, and before long,

you just realize, "Man, I don't have to try to physically mature.

I don't have to work at it.

It's just going to happen."

The same cannot be said of spiritual maturity.

Spiritual maturity doesn't just happen.

I wish it did.

I wish it did, but it doesn't.

If you want to mature in Christ, if you wanna grow in your walk

with Christ, and, and I trust that if you're here this morning as a

Christian, you would say, "Yeah, I, I, I wanna grow in my walk with Christ.

I wanna mature in my faith."

If that's true of you this morning, then it's going to take some intentional

and concentrated effort on your part.

I'm not talking about salvation.

Salvation is a free gift of God, lest any man should boast, right?

But to then grow in Christ, it, it requires us utilizing the resources

that God has given us in order that we can mature in Christ.

And, and that's the good news for you this morning.

If you're here this morning, you're saying, "I would love to grow in my

faith and grow in my walk and be more spiritually mature," the good news is,

is that God has given you everything that you need this morning to be able

to do that, primarily in two sources.

The first is this book right here, the Word of God.

He's given the Word of God to you so that you might grow in your

knowledge and understanding of it.

And second, He's given you the Spirit of God to dwell within you in order that

you can understand the Word of God and then begin to apply it to your life,

which is what leads to that spiritual transformation, which is what produces

that spiritual maturity and, and causes us to grow in our walk with Christ.

And so the good news this morning is you're not lacking anything

if you're in Christ, if you wanna grow in your faith, if you wanna

mature as a follower of Jesus.

You've got everything that you need, because God's given

you His Spirit and His Word.

Our text is gonna show us this morning, dealing with those two concepts, the

Spirit and the Word, that this, God's Spirit applies God's Word in the

lives of God's people for God's glory.

Uh, that's what I want us to see in 1 Corinthians 2:6-13 this morning, is that

1 Corinthians 2:6–13

God's Spirit applies God's Word in the lives of God's people for God's glory

And so if we wanna grow in our walk, if we wanna mature in our walk, again,

God has given us everything necessary for that process, and He's done that

through the Spirit and through the Word.

Uh, open your Bibles, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 2:6-13

1 Corinthians 2:6–13

1 Corinthians 2:6, let's begin there.

1 Corinthians 2:6

He says this, "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it's not a

wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away."

We've talked a lot about wisdom so far in 1 Corinthians, and there's

been the two categories of wisdom.

There's been the wisdom of the world, which Paul has been

shunning and saying this is not what produces the wisdom of God.

The wisdom of the world doesn't have access to the knowledge of God.

The wisdom of the world is celebrated by men, but it's really futile

a- as far as knowing Him and, and maturing in your walk with Christ.

But then on the flip side, there's been the wisdom of God that Paul's

been unpacking, Christ crucified.

And even as we saw last week, the, the message that saves and the message that

we should be going out with as those that are sharing the gospel with people,

trusting in God's power to take the wisdom of God and apply it to the lives

of those that we come into contact with.

So there's been the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God, but we might

be tempted at this point in time in 1 Corinthians to think about the wisdom

of God as the gospel and that's it.

A- and it is the gospel, uh, but the wisdom of God is not

just about getting you saved and then, "Hey, you're good to go.

Just sit tight until Jesus comes back."

Rather, the wisdom of God begins with the gospel and then goes to work in

your life to make you more and more like Jesus throughout the whole thing.

Remember, Jesus has become to us righteousness and

sanctification and redemption.

He's the total package.

And so God's wisdom as He's given it to us is not just to get us

in the door, but it's to get us all the way to the finish line.

Again, I, I pray and I trust that everybody in this room this morning,

if you're a follower of Christ, would say, "I want to grow in my faith," that

you've got a, a holy discontent with where you're at spiritually right now.

Uh, not that you despise the things that God has already done in your life, but

you're just saying, "God, let's go more.

Let's do more.

Let's get rid of more sin.

Let, let, let's love people more.

Let's see more fruit of the Spirit show up in my life.

I, I wanna grow in my walk with Christ."

I trust that's true of you this morning.

It's true of me this morning as I stand up here and preach.

A- and I pray all of us not just wanna grow in the maturity, but realize that,

that that is potential, that possible is-- that possibility is here through the

Word of God and through the Spirit of God if we will set ourselves to pursue it.

Point number one this morning is this, pursue God's wisdom

to grow in mature, maturity.

Pursue God's wisdom to grow in maturity

1 Corinthians 2:6, "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom."

1 Corinthians 2:6

In part, we, we, we give, we convey, we teach, we reveal.

Although it's not a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this

age who are doomed to pass away.

So he's still creating the, the difference there, the, the distinction.

He's saying the wisdom that, that we have for you, the wisdom that you should

desire in growing in Christ likeness, it's not the wisdom of this age.

It's still not the wisdom of the sage or the philosopher or anybody else.

It's still a wisdom that comes from God, and he's saying, Paul is, that we have

this wisdom to impart to the mature.

Now, those are the two words that should jump out to us here

in verse six, wisdom and mature.

Wisdom, again contextually here, he's been dealing with this back in

chapter one verses 21 through 24.

He says, "Since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom,

it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ

crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power

of God and the wisdom of God."

And so again, to this point in First Corinthians, we've been dealing with

the, the wisdom associated with Christ, associated with the gospel, associated

with that entry point into salvation.

But now Paul introduces a new concept that this wisdom is not

just for those people to get saved, but now it's also a wisdom that we

impart to the mature, to the mature.

The, the mature.

It's a word in, in the original that actually can suggest completion,

fullness, perfection even.

Now, Paul's not talking about perfection because none of us in this room

would claim to be perfect or complete or finished products in Christ.

But there is a process of us becoming more and more complete in our walk

with Christ that will ultimately be fully realized when we leave this

earth and go and are in the presence of our Lord and Savior, and that's the

process we often call sanctification, the progress that we make in becoming

more like Christ while we're here.

And so Paul's saying there's a wisdom for that.

There's a wisdom for people who are maturing in their faith.

And I just want you to see, though, here that, that that would tell

us that maturity is an expectation that God has for the believer.

If there is a wisdom that, that Paul has to impart to the mature, then the

expectation and the understanding is that people should be growing in their faith.

Look down at, at chapter three verse one.

Paul says, "But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people but as

people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

Even now you're not ready, for you're still of the flesh."

But Paul's implication is here, "Hey, let's grow up into the faith.

Let's grow up into the wisdom of God.

Let's not stay here."

The writer of Hebrews is gonna put it this way.

He says, "For by now you ought to be teachers, but I have need to

go back and give you milk again."

He says, "Let's leave the elementary doctrines and, and press on in the

faith," press on in growing in maturity.

And so this is one of the reasons why this point is what it is, that

we need to pursue God's wisdom to grow in maturity because God does

expect us to grow in maturity.

And so He's given us the Word and He's given us the Spirit in

order that that might be the case.

In fact, look at this in 1 Corinthians 14:20.

1 Corinthians 14:20

We'll get here eventually, but Paul says this, "Brothers, do

not be children in your thinking.

Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature."

And so again, this is an expectation that as we grow as believers,

as we age physically, we would also grow spiritually, that we

progress in spiritual maturity.

Paul says this in Colossians 1:28.

Colossians 1:28

This is kind of a summation of his ministry here.

He says, "Him we proclaim," that is Jesus, "warning everyone and teaching everyone

with all wisdom, in order that we might present everyone mature in Christ."

And so Paul's saying as, as an apostle that part of his goal in ministry

was to take those under his care and to see to it that they would

grow in their faith, that they would mature in their walk with Christ.

And I can tell you, that's the desire of your pastors here as well, that

we would be a church where people are growing, where people are maturing

in their walk with Christ We're never gonna be perfect, we're never g- gonna

be complete, we're never gonna be finished works this side of eternity.

But we should see that progress.

We should see that growth.

And so here in 2:6 when Paul says, "There's a wisdom that we impart to the

mature," it's not just about salvation.

It is that, but now it's about how salvation then transforms our lives

and we continue to grow in wisdom, we continue to grow in Christ

likeness, we continue to mature spiritually from that point forward.

And that's why Paul says that this is not a wisdom of the

age or the rulers of the age.

He's wanting to make sure that when he says mature here, in other words, he's

not creating a, a class of uber Christian.

And I wanna make sure that, that that's not your thought either.

That this isn't like, "Oh, well, this is for the Christians that

have been Christians for a long time," or, "This is for a group of

believers that, uh, are, are really more serious about things than I am."

It's not that.

We're all swimming in the same lake, some are just in deeper waters than others.

And the call is, you're in the lake, now, you know how to

swim and so let's go deeper.

Let's go deeper together.

Th- that's the maturing, that's the growing.

Uh, think of TSA, because everybody likes to think about TSA, don't you?

Not, and not pre-check, right?

There's no pre-check when it comes to sanctification.

You gotta wait.

But I want you to think about TSA this way i-i-in, in, in your walk with Christ.

Wh- when you go to the airport, you're not at your destination yet, are you?

No.

Nobody wants to go to the airport.

Even that movie The Terminal, the guy wanted to get out of the airport.

He lived in the airport for a long time, but not on purpose, right?

He wanted to leave the airport.

Nobody wants to stay at the airport.

So you get to the airport, and yet you're not at your destination.

What do you have to do first?

Well, you have to go through security.

You have to get through the checkpoint.

You have to be shown to be worthy or qualified, acceptable, to be

able to pass through to be able to get to your destination, okay?

This is a horrible analogy.

Think of that kind of as salvation, right?

Jesus is not a TSA agent.

I don't want you going there, okay?

But th- th- that entry point, okay?

Y- you're, you're through security.

You have been accepted by God.

You are, okay, destination secured now, but you're still not at your destination.

Nobody gets through TSA and texts their loved ones and says, "I made it.

I'm safe.

I, I'm at-- This is great.

You'll never believe the airport.

Guess what?

I found some really bad books outside of the, the, the newsstand

and some overpriced candy.

This is the best place I've ever been.

Can't wait to see you."

No, you're, you're not there.

So what do you do?

You go from security to where?

To your gate.

Well, even when you get to your gate, you're still not

at your destination, are you?

You're at your gate a- and you gotta wait for the plane to show up, and

then you gotta get on the plane, and then you gotta get from the plane to

your destination, hopefully safely, and then you land, and then you get off the

plane, and then you're there, right?

Sometimes if, if we're not growing as Christians, it's like we

get through TSA, we get through security, and we're like, "I'm here.

I'm here."

Or we think to ourselves, "You know what?

Let me get to my gate, and let me just sit down and just wait for the pilot

to come get me and put me on the plane and take me to where I need to go."

And what I want us to, to understand here i- is that God wants us to

grow in our walk with Christ.

God wants us to, to mature spiritually, so much so that He has given us the

Word of God and the Spirit of God to ensure that that happens in our lives.

'Cause God's Spirit applies God's Word in the lives of God's people for God's glory.

That's what He's about.

That's what He's doing.

So Christian, this morning, wherever you are, don't be, don't be content where

you're at Don't settle for, for where you are right now in your walk with Christ.

Have a hunger.

Have a, again, a holy discontent, a right discontent to say, "I want more."

I think we see this in the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

In verse 12 he says, "Not that I've already obtained this or am

already perfect, but I press on…"

Notice the language here, "I keep going.

I press on to make it my own."

He's talking about being with Jesus.

"Because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider what I, that I have made it my own, but one thing

I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I

press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

And then notice what Paul says here, "Let those of us who are mature think

this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you."

So here you have Paul, right?

Who is literally planting churches and writing the Bible

and he's like, "I'm not satisfied.

I want more."

He's saying, "I, forgetting what lies behind."

Now, he's not just talking about the, the negatives, he's also

talking about the positives there.

'Cause earlier in Philippians chapter 3, he listed all of the things

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

that he could have boasted about.

And then he says, "This is a loss.

This is rubbish."

So when Paul says, "Forgetting what lies behind," he's not thinking about

his sin, he's thinking about anything that he might be able to boast in

to say, "Look at how spiritual I am.

Look at how, how godly I am."

He's saying, "I'm not gonna get hung up back there and, and rest

on my laurels, but forgetting what lies behind, I'm gonna press on."

And so that's our first point this morning.

We need to, to think about that in our own lives.

What does that look like for you?

What does that look like for me?

To say, "I wanna press on in that.

I wanna pursue God's wisdom to grow in maturity."

But how?

A- a- and this is where we get into the spirit side of things, right?

Uh, b- because the wisdom of God is not the wisdom of the world.

The … In other words, human effort is not enough to grow in spiritual maturity.

And so for me to stand up here today and, and to preach to you, "Hey,

pursue spiritual maturity, see you next week," would be clerical malpractice.

Because what you might walk out in is this feeling that, well, I've gotta

just pull myself up by my bootstraps and work harder and just be better and just,

urgh, just want more Jesus in my life.

But your human wisdom is going to fall short every single time in seeing

you grow in your Christlikeness, which is why you need something

more, and that's what God's provided.

Look at verses seven and following here in our text.

Verses seven through 11, Paul writes this.

He says, "But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God

decreed before the ages for our glory.

None of the rulers of the age understood this, for if they had, they would

not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of

man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things God

has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For no one- for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit

of that person, which is in him?

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.'"

Okay.

This is the largest section of our passage this week, but it helps us understand more

about the nature of the wisdom that we wanna grow in and how we can grow in it.

And it has to do, again, with the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

In verse seven, notice he says, "But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God."

Now, that again might cause us to say Okay, so is this like

members only kind of wisdom?

Like, is there, uh, do I have to reach a certain level and then

I get access to this wisdom?

A-and that was some of the he-heresies that were beginning to creep

into some other churches there.

In fact, in Colossae, that's one of the reasons why Paul wrote the letter to

the Colossian church there to say, "Hey, uh, those people that are insisting on

visions and mystical experiences and saying that they're better Christians

because they've got access to these things," he says, "that's nonsense.

Jesus is sufficient.

That's what you need."

And so when he says we have a secret and hidden wisdom, it's

not that it's inaccessible to you if you're a brand-new believer.

It's, it's not that it's inaccessible to you if you don't

have formal theological training.

That's not what he means by hidden and secret.

What he means by hidden and secret is this is not the wisdom of the world.

This is a wisdom that's inaccessible if we're going to try to apply

human wisdom to ascertain it and understand it and grow in it.

And so instead, we need the Lord to be able to provide it for us,

and that's exactly what He's done.

We impart, that's what Paul is saying here.

We the apostles, that's who he's talking about by we, we are giving

you, Corinthians, a, a wisdom that has been secret and hidden, but it's

a, a wisdom that God has declared before the ages even for our glory.

And, and here's why Paul says that.

At this time, something that was novel was looked at side-eyed, right?

Something that was brand-new, somebody coming along the lines, uh, as like,

"I've got brand-new wisdom for you.

I've got brand-new teaching for you."

Instead, what gave a teaching its clout was to be able to trace it back as far

as you could, to be able to say, "Well, my position goes back to this philosopher

and this one and this one and this one.

It goes way back here."

So Paul is one-upping all of that by saying, "Hey, we've got a wisdom for you,

and you know where it's got its origins?

Uh, it's got its origins in the God of the universe, who declared it

from before the ages for our glory."

The rulers of this age couldn't understand this, and we know

that because of verse eight.

Paul says they demonstrated that they didn't understand this wisdom, that

they didn't know the secret and hidden wisdom, and he says that they didn't

know it because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

And so Paul is saying there's ways to tell if somebody doesn't understand,

if somebody doesn't have access to the secret and hidden wisdom of God.

And he points to the actions of those that crucified Christ.

He says they demonstrated it with their lives that they didn't know.

And so the question this morning was, well, then how are we any different?

How can, can we know that we've come to know and understand?

Well, we come to know and we come to, uh, know that we, we do know and we

do understand when we see the evidence of the Spirit's work in our lives.

Because again, God has not just given us our earthly minds to try

to read and understand this word.

He's given us His Spirit to be able to help us understand His wisdom.

I hope we're thankful for that.

In fact, that's my second point this morning.

It's this: Give thanks for the Spirit who revealed God's wisdom.

Give thanks for the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who revealed God's wisdom.

See, that secret and hidden wisdom, God wasn't waiting for us to say

the right thing or pray the right thing or live the right way before

He granted us access or be around the church long enough before we got it.

Instead, as soon as you come to faith in Christ, God gives you the Spirit

to dwell within you, to cause you to come to understand and to know that

wisdom that was secret and hidden, that wisdom that, that Paul reaches back to

Isaiah 64, it seems here, in chapter two verse nine with this quotation.

He says, "As it's written," again Isaiah 64:4, you can write that

Isaiah 64:4

down in your notes if you wanna go back and look at that later.

It says, "As it's written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined.'"

In other words, what no human being has ever come to understand or ever

come to see or ever heard before.

This is a radically different message than any other message

the world has ever produced.

These things God has prepared for those who love Him, for those who love Him,

and He's prepared them by giving us His Spirit that we might understand them.

V- verse 10, "These things God has revealed to us," notice the language here,

"through the Spirit," through the Spirit.

"For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of

that person, which is in him?

So also no one," no one, "comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."

So he says, "God has revealed them to us."

Okay, who is the us here?

Again, the us is the apostles.

That's who Paul has in mind as he's writing that.

God has revealed these things to us, and now we are conveying them to you.

This is what's known as the, the doctrine of revelation, of revelation.

So God is revealing these truths to the apostles, who are then putting

pen to paper and writing 1 and 2 Corinthians and Colossians and

Ephesians and Philippians and James and Peter and 1 John, 2 John, 3 John,

Revelation, Titus, all of these books.

God is revealing His wisdom to these apostles, and then the apostles

are then writing it down for us.

And it's coming to the apostles, and then eventually to us by

the same agent, and that is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.

And so the Spirit of God who searches everything, even the

depths of God, searches is not the idea of I'm looking for something

I don't know where it is here.

Rather, it's, it's, it's penetrating completely.

There's nothing that escapes its gaze.

There's nothing that escapes its purview.

And so what Paul is saying is the Holy Spirit who's revealing these

things to us, the apostles, and, and now we're conveying them to you,

there's nothing hidden from the Spirit that is part of the mind of God.

And the Spirit is now taking those things and revealing them, the depth

of God that is, to the apostles.

In ancient Greek philosophy, there was a, a statement that was often thrown

out that said, "Like is known by like."

Like is known by like, meaning that which is of the same nature is able to

reveal that which is of the same type.

And, and so Paul is even engaging here with some of the Greek philosophical

thought by saying, "Hey, the Spirit of God is able to know the, the

thoughts of God, the depths of God, because like is known by like."

And what has the Spirit of God done?

Well, He has taken those thoughts and revealed them to the apostles who has

then, who have then revealed them to us.

All of this is leading to, to Paul's point here.

If you go back to verse eight, the difference between those who crucified

the Lord of glory and those who have come to know the secret and hidden

wisdom of God boils down to the presence or the absence of the Holy Spirit.

That's the difference.

Today, the difference between an unbeliever with the Word of God in

their hands and a Christian with the Word of God in their hands is the

presence or absence of the Holy Spirit.

It, it's not in us.

It's not that we might boast.

And so Paul is continuing.

He's been talking a lot about that concept.

The wisdom of God is meant to humble us.

We don't earn our way there.

We don't smarts our way there.

We don't study our way there.

He reveals His wisdom to us, and then even as we grow in maturity, the point

that this is making here is that we grow in maturity as the Word of God is applied

to our hearts through the Spirit of God.

This is why the, uh, the first point, to, to pursue God's, God's wisdom, to grow in

maturity, is not just about you working harder, but it's about the Spirit of God

within you using the Word of God to begin to transform your life more and more, to

make you look more and more like Jesus

Do you ever stop and, and give thanks for the clarity of the Bible?

That you can read the Word of God, and maybe not all of it, none

of us could, could claim to, to fully understand all of it, right?

I mean, Peter even said that there were some difficult things that Paul wrote.

And so there's, there's hard sections of the Bible that you read and you go "Okay."

Like Ezekiel and his vision of, of the glory of God.

You read that and you're going, "Yep.

Okay."

But there's so much in the Bible that as a Christian I'm sure you

do read and you track with and you go, "Okay, yeah, that makes sense."

That's the Spirit in you, right?

Uh, uh, or maybe let me put it a different way.

Maybe have you ever looked at an unbeliever who y- you've,

you've laid it out for them?

"Here it is.

This is the gospel.

This is what God's Word says."

And to you it's, it's just as, as clear as it possibly could be, but

as you're, you're, you're sharing the gospel with them or you're, you're

pointing to the Word of God with them, it's just the blank stare.

And you, you think to yourself, "What, what don't you,

what don't you understand?"

The difference is not anything to do with whether or not you're

smarter or more insightful.

It's everything to do with whether or not the Holy Spirit's there.

J.C.

Ryle wrote this of the unbeliever.

He said this: "They refuse to accept anything they cannot understand

or that seems above their reason.

Inspiration, miracles, the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement,

the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, the future state, all these mighty

verities," these truths, "are viewed with cold indifference as disputable

points if not absolutely rejected.

Can we entirely explain them?

Can we satisfy their reasoning faculties concerning them?

If not, they must be excused if they stand in doubt.

What they cannot fully understand, they tell us they cannot fully believe."

A- and that- that's fair, honestly, y'all.

I- if someone were to come to me and say, "Hey, guess what?

Human race got a software update last night and you can fly now

Nope.

Even if they went up to the top of the building and jumped off the

building and flew somehow, I would say, "What kind of trick is this?

There's no way that's possible, and I'm not doing it

Sometimes when we sit down with an unbeliever, as Christians, we need to

understand and be sympathetic to the fact that that's how they're understanding

the presentation of the gospel

And, and the, the difference is not, again, a matter of intelligence or insight

It's simply a matter of whether or not the Holy Spirit is there

For you to understand your need for a savior, that begins the work

of the Holy Spirit in your life

And then the Holy Spirit just continues to work on your life from that time forward

And so if you're sharing the gospel with someone, uh, you need to be

praying beforehand, praying during, praying through, praying after, that,

"God, use your Spirit to cause them to open their eyes to understand this."

It's not about you being more persuasive.

It's not about them having more information.

So often it boils down to their will to surrender and believe what they're

being presented with, and the, the reality is until the Spirit of God does

that work in their lives, they won't.

To come back to, to you though, as a Christian.

I mean, y- your growth in Christ likeness, it, it's because of what

this point has been talking about.

It, it, it's because God, through the apostles, revealed His wisdom

that they then in turn put down as the Word of God that we have

before us, and now we as Christians get to read it and understand it.

So we talked about the doctrine of revelation earlier.

This is what's known as the doctrine of illumination.

The doctrine of illumination.

So you and I, God is not revealing new truths to us.

Rather, He is illuminating the truths that He has already revealed to us as we

read and as we study and as we apply it.

And the one that's doing the illumination, the one that's helping us to understand,

is the Spirit of God within us And we need the Spirit to do that, because why?

Because we are finite creatures and God is infinite.

And for us to even be able to understand a sliver of His infinite

grandeur, we have to have the Holy Spirit to help us understand that.

And so the Holy Spirit, as we read it, w- the Word of God, illumines our

hearts and our minds to understand it, which then causes us to desire and yearn

to put it into practice, to apply it.

And that's why it's pursuing the wisdom and giving thanks for the Spirit, but, but

it doesn't stop with just the, the concept of illumination being an understanding.

For illumination to truly show up and, and take root in a person's life

and heart, it's gonna move from the understanding to the application.

That's the full work of the Spirit's work in your life.

It's not just to help you understand the Word of God better or to, to, to

understand the character of God more, to understand your sin and see your sin.

It's to get from there to then the application of it.

Look at verses 12 and 13, our final verses in this morning's passage.

It says this, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit

who is from God," our memory verse this month, "that we might understand

the things freely given us by God.

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by

the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."

Do you remember your, your kindergarten teacher?

My kindergarten's teacher was Ms.

Braun.

But really the teacher that, that I first have the most memories of

was my first grade teacher, Mrs.

Elliott or Ms.

Elliott.

Uh, Ms.

Elliott was my first grade teacher and, and she was super sweet.

She was the kindest teacher.

I remember I did not want to go to first grade.

I was terrified.

I was the kid that was holding onto my mom, and I did not wanna

let go, and I was in tears.

And, uh, and this one teacher, Ms.

Hicks, who didn't end up being my first grade teacher, she came and she sat me

down on her lap and very calmly, you know, soothed my tears and everything

else, and she said, "You know, which classroom would you like to be in?

Mine or Ms.

Elliott's?"

And I said, "Ms.

Elliott's."

It was a good choice.

Ms.

Hicks was the strict teacher.

But I remember Ms.

Elliott.

She taught me how to read.

She taught me the basics.

But here's the thing, when I left first grade, Ms.

Elliott didn't come with me to the next grade.

In second grade, I had Mrs.

Jones.

Mrs.

Jones taught me different things.

And then after her, I went on to third grade and fourth grade

and, and, and so forth and so on.

And, and so when we go through school, we have teachers that can be

impactful, but they don't keep coming with us along the way And so we kind

of leave them behind and keep going.

Not so with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's job is not just to get you into Christ, but to get

you into Christ and then to see that you continue to grow in Christ.

And one of the ways he does that is not only by helping us to understand God's

wisdom through illuminating us to be able to understand it, but third and finally

this morning, that we should expect the Spirit to, with that wisdom, do the work

of God with the Word of God in your life.

Expect that.

Expect that the, the Spirit of God is gonna do the work of God

with the Word of God in your life

You remember the Old Testament story of, of Joash?

Joash was, was generally a a good king, although he didn't finish all that well.

But Joash was, was the one who was, his, he was spared because Athaliah,

the queen mother, tried to take out all of the descendants after his dad

died a- and, and Joash was hidden away.

Well, at seven years old, Joash, uh, Jehoiada, the, the priest, decides

it's, it's time for Joash to reign.

A- and so Joash is anointed, uh, under Jehoiada's direction and,

and Athaliah is deposed and, and all of these things happen there.

But then Joash continues on for 40 years as a king, and for many of

those years his reign was under a, a, the, the category of being good.

And, and you know what the scripture says here?

It actually says in 2 Kings 12:2, "Joash did what was right in the

2 Kings 12:2

eyes of the Lord all his days because Jehoiada the priest instructed him."

And so Joash had Jehoiada, and as long as Jehoiada was there helping to j-

Joash know how to wisely rule God's people, Joash ruled God's people well.

But then once Jehoiada left, Joash didn't have as strong

of a finish as he could have

The Spirit of God is a far greater asset to the Christian than Jehoiada

was to Joash, but it's a, a similar idea there, that as we walk this

life, we have the Spirit of God as our companion, as the parakaleo, the one

that comes alongside us in our faith to help us grow as we understand, as

He illumines the scriptures, and then begins to impart these things so that

we would apply them to our lives.

Look again at verse 12, "We have received not the spirit of the

world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the

things freely given us by God."

And again, this is primarily the apostles.

We have received the Spirit of God that we, the apostles, might understand

the things freely given us by God.

Uh, but then we, sitting here this morning now, you and I, we are now the, the

beneficiaries of that because of what I was talking about, this concept of the

doctrine of revelation and illumination.

God revealed these things freely given to the apostles.

The apostles then wrote them down, and now we, having the same Spirit of

God, we are able to understand them.

And here's the thing, we're never gonna exhaust the Word of God.

We're, we're never gonna get to the place to be like, "Okay, God, I've understood

everything that You've given me so far.

What's next?

Bible 2.0."

That's not gonna come, ever.

And, and, and the Bible even tells us as much, I believe, in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

The Word of God is what?

The Word of God is, is just a book, and it's stagnant, and it never…

It, it always…

It's 2,000 years old.

How dare you ever follow the Word of God?

No, what does it say?

Hebrews 4, "The word of God is living and active."

It's dynamic.

Now, the contents never change, but the Spirit of God who dwells within you

can take the same contents that you've read over and over and over and over

again, and now all of a sudden you're walking through a totally different

time in your life, and that same truth that you've read so many times before,

the Spirit of God within you is gonna take that and cause you to understand

it in a brand-new way and apply it to your life to make you more like Jesus.

See, that's, that's the, the, the beauty of this whole process.

You should expect that, to expect the surgeon of God, who is the Spirit

of God, to take the scalpel of God, which is the Word of God, and to

do the work of God in your life.

We should expect that

Verse 13, "We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught

by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."

This is Paul telling the church that this is the very essence of his

ministry, that his ministry hinges not on his wisdom, but on the Spirit of

God enabling him to impart spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

Those who are spiritual are the believer, the Christian, those

who have the Spirit of God.

So Paul's saying, "We're ins- in imparting this secret and hidden wisdom.

We're imparting these spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit of God."

Spiritual people.

A-a-again, I want us to think about w-w-how do we know that we're that and

not the people like back in verse eight?

'Cause remember again, in verse eight, he said this: "None of the rulers of this

age understood this wisdom, for if they had, they would have not have, they would

not have crucified the Lord of glory."

In other words, they were not spiritual people, and so they could not have

the spiritual truths imparted to them.

I want us to see that, that Paul pointed to the actions of the rulers, to the

evidence in their lives as evidence for their ignorance to this wisdom

Or to put it another way, that the evidence of the fact that

they did not themselves possess the spirit of illumination.

I think Paul's argument here can be broken down like this for us.

The wisdom of God is not the same as the wisdom of the world,

and that's by His design so that He gets all the glory, right?

We've seen that truth in 1 Corinthians so far.

The wisdom of God is not the wisdom of the world, and that's by design

so that He gets all the glory.

Second, his argument progresses and says that, well, the world rejects

the wisdom of God as foolishness, and the ultimate evidence of that

rejection was the crucifixion of Christ.

That's the ultimate evidence of the rejection.

Today, I think we see the same spirit of rejection manifested in the lives of, of

worldly people who, through false gods, but also through just immorality and,

and idolatry, reject God's law today.

It shows up that they are not those that are, are qualified as, as those that,

that possess the Spirit of God through how they respond to the Word of God.

Finally then, in, in his argument, then it progresses, it, it follows then that

those who have come to know the wisdom of God by the Spirit should, it follows,

I, I think, demonstrate that with their lives that they've come to know it,

understand it, and are living in it.

In other words, it, it should show up.

We should expect the Spirit of God to apply the Word of God in our lives

This is not just seen here.

This, I believe, is really seen later on in Paul's letter to the Galatian church.

Galatians chapter 5, if you wanna flip over there to the

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

right a few books, you can.

Galatians 5 verse 16

Galatians 5:16

Galatians 5:16, Paul says this, "But I say walk by the…"

Galatians 5:16

What?

"Walk by the Spirit."

Walk, right?

Evidence something, show something.

Walk, live, conduct your life by the Spirit, and you will not

gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires

of the Spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing

the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the Spirit…

Notice again, led by.

This is an active element here.

If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now, the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry,

dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

Notice that Paul says the, for the people that are of the flesh and

not of the Spirit, how do you tell?

It shows up.

It shows up.

But then he continues and he says this.

He says, uh, "I, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things

will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit," notice again, the fruit of the Spirit,

"is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self-control."

Again, what do we know about those that have the Spirit?

It what?

It shows up.

It shows up.

And against those things there is no law.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh

with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us also walk by the Spirit.

Again, that active pursuit of Christ-likeness.

Expect the Spirit to do the work of God with the Word of God, in other words, in

your life, 'cause that's the power here.

That's how you pursue the, the fruit of the Spirit.

It's not just I just need to be more self-controlled.

Er, be more self-controlled.

No, it's as you give yourself over to the Word of God and the Spirit of

God does the work of God in your life that you will find more of the fruit

of the Spirit present in your life

God wants to see you grow in your faith, progress in your walk with Him.

We've talked about that already this morning a few times.

And He's given you His wisdom and His Spirit to be able to do just that, to see

victory over sin, to see a greater desire and hunger for godliness in your life, a

passion to reach the lost with the good news, a greater hunger for the Word of God

A readiness and inclination to serve, to fellowship with other Christians,

and to have an eternal mindset.

And these are all markers of spiritual maturity, and these are all evidences

of God's Word doing God's work in your life through the Spirit of God

God's Spirit applies God's Word in the lives of God's people for God's glory.

That's great news.

That is a gift of God.

That's such a gift of God.

It's not, "Hey, y- you gotta work harder."

Like my WHOOP band's like, "You wanna lower your age,

psh, you need to sleep better."

Well, thank you.

I appreciate that.

It's not gonna help me sleep better.

It's just gonna tell me I need to.

God didn't just show up and say, "Hey, if, if you want to grow in Christ

likeness, you need to, to have all of these things present in your life.

Good luck."

Uh, He showed up and He said, "Yeah, this is what Christ likeness looks like.

Oh, and to, to help you along the way, I'm gonna give you my Spirit, and I'm

gonna give you my Word, and those two things are gonna be what you need to

see yourself progress in spiritual maturity to grow in Christ likeness."

It's a gift of God.

It's a gift of God

So is what we're about to turn now to and, and remember together.

It's Communion Sunday, and so we're gonna take communion together here

This is reminding us of the saving wisdom of God.

This is reminding us together, as we're gonna observe these elements in just

a moment, of the wisdom of God that is the beginning of this path, this life

that we now live as followers of Christ and long to grow in Christ likeness.

It all began with what we're about to remember, because the

thing that all of us needed is we needed to be forgiven of our sins.

We'd rebelled against a holy God and, and an infinite chasm now

was created between us and Him.

And again, as Paul's already laid out in 1 Corinthians, if you've been with

us, no amount of human wisdom could build a bridge that's big enough or

strong enough to span that chasm.

Not the bridge of good works, not the bridge of intellect, not the

bridge of drugs and alcohol, not the bridge of any other god or

goddess that exists in the world.

None of it can happen.

We needed God to bridge that gap, and the way that He did that was by

sending Jesus to die on the cross for those sins that you and I have

committed, past, present, and future.

In dying on the cross for our sins, He satisfied all of God's wrath against

us, His just anger against us for our sins that we had sinned against Him.

His wrath was satisfied.

And for those that have put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, not

only was His wrath satisfied, but Jesus has given you now His righteousness so

that you can be acceptable to God forever.

Forever, because of the righteousness that Christ gave you.

And then after three days in the grave, He rose again to walk out, never to

enter again, so that you and I can have hope that we too will have eternal life.

Those are the components of the gospel right there.

Your sins forgiven by the death of Christ, your acceptability before God

taken care of through the righteousness that Jesus gives you, and your

security of eternal life secured by the fact that Jesus Himself rose

from the dead, never to die again.

What we observe and remember right now is the first part of that component, and

that is the death of Christ for our sins.

So the music's gonna play, the elements are gonna be passed, and

after everybody has them, I'll come back up and we'll take them together.

Let's pray.

Lord, we are so thankful this morning as we sit here recipients of the Word of

God in its completed form, as we sit here with the Bibles on our phones, on our, our

laps, wherever they may be, in app form.

It's amazing that we have your full wisdom that you've at least allowed

us to understand at this point, revealed to us in a form that we can

carry with us, and we can read it.

And we thank you that if we're in Christ, we understand it, Lord, not because of

being smarter or better or anything else, but simply because you've given us your

Spirit to do just that, to illuminate the Word so that we can understand it, and not

just understand it, Lord, but live it out.

And so I pray, God, that you would help us as followers of Christ to grow in our

walk with you this week, that we wouldn't be satisfied, no matter where we are, that

we wouldn't be satisfied, but to say and to pray and to plead with you, Lord, cause

me to grow in my understanding of you.

Cause me to grow in Christlikeness.

Take your Word and apply it to my life for your glory.

We thank you that you've given us your Spirit for that very purpose,

and we give you thanks for all this.

In Jesus' name, amen.