1 Corinthians 2:14–16 | The Only Reason You Believe

Well, last Sunday, the, the Cowboys got their loss out of the way early,

and, uh, just so happens when the Cowboys lose, then I, I just…

I don't like to watch other teams win.

So I- it kinda ruins football for me.

So today the Cowboys don't play until the night game, so I get to watch football and

kind of enjoy it until they lose tonight.

Um, life of a Cowboys fan, right?

But, uh, last Sunday, because I wasn't watching football, I,

I wanted to watch something.

And, uh, and so I found tractor pulling.

Yeah.

Yeah, they televise that.

Uh, apparently CBS has CBS Sports Network.

It's like ESPN Ocho, but for CBS.

So I, I stumbled upon this, and this is what pastors do after they preach.

They just need to, to disengage.

And so I'm watching these guys pull these tractors, and I'm going, "I w- who?"

This had to start in Texas.

Like, there's no way that some, some good old boys weren't sitting out

on the back forty going, "Betcha I can trow my tac- tow my tractor

further than you can tow your tractor.

Oh, it's on.

Let's do this."

Anyways, at, at some point they started interviewing one

of the guys that I guess won.

I, I have no idea.

But he was there.

And, and maybe this was the LeBron of, of tractor towing.

I don't know.

But he starts talking to the reporter, and I know he's speaking English,

but I have no clue what he's saying.

He's using words that I know have something to do with vehicles, but

I have no idea what he's saying.

He's putting them together in a way that I didn't know if he was having a seizure.

But the reporter kept the interview going, so I assumed that he was okay.

And the reporter was nodding along like she totally understood

what this guy was saying.

It was words that I could comprehend that they were English words, but

I had no clue what any of it meant.

See, there was a barrier to my understanding.

When it comes to the gospel, what seems so clear to you as a Christian can be equally

unclear to the world in which we live.

What, what you understand so plainly and what you think is, is so simple

and what you consider to be such good news, when you try to open up and,

and share that with somebody who is not a follower of Christ, the way

that they hear that, the way that they understand that, they're not gonna

understand it the same way that you do.

It's not going to be as clear to them.

So the question I wanna ask you this morning is why do you think that is?

Why do you think that you understand the gospel to be what it is, to be the good

news that it is, when somebody else looks at the gospel and says, "That's lunacy.

That's crazy.

That doesn't make any sense"?

What's the difference?

Is the difference your upbringing?

I mean, we could argue that, I suppose.

You could argue, well, you know, we were there last night at the harvest

fair, and there was this tent, and there was a bunch of, of Muslims there,

and, and they were brought up in Muslim homes, and so they are Muslim people.

Okay, but then you look at Christianity, and there are plenty of Christians who

were not brought up in Christian homes.

There are plenty of Christians that came out of dark places, that ca- came

out of homes that were hostile to the gospel and hostile to Christianity.

So that doesn't explain it.

Okay, well, what about maybe it's, is it, is it an intellectual difference?

Is it that our intellect is, is, is greater?

And, and I would just very quickly and humbly say no.

There are brilliant atheists out there that can run circles around me on things.

Has nothing to do with, with intellect.

Can't be that either.

Okay, well, is it that I'm, I'm more maybe spiritually inclined than another person?

I don't think we can say that either, because you look at some of the New

Age spiritual nonsense that, that's out there, and they would say that

they are very spiritually inclined, and yet they would look at the gospel

and say, "It doesn't make any sense."

So what's the difference?

Well, Paul has an answer for us, and Paul's answer is that it's none of that.

Paul's answer is that the main difference is the reason why you believe when others

don't is that God has given you the Holy Spirit, and He makes all the difference.

That's it.

That's what it boils down to.

The reason why it makes sense to you but not to the unbeliever, it doesn't have

to do with your upbringing, it doesn't have to do with your intellect, it

doesn't have to do with whether or not you're a spiritually inclined person.

It has to do with whether or not you have the Holy Spirit, because the Holy

Spirit is what makes all the difference.

The reason why you understand when others don't is that God

has given you what they need.

And so as we get into this text this morning, I just wanna encourage you to

be thankful that you have the Spirit, but also to think about the fact that

this should cause us to be urgent in sharing the gospel and praying that

God will give more and more people the Spirit so that they can come to

understand what you and I see as the good news of salvation in Christ.

If you're not already there, turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians

2, beginning in verse 14.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16.

1 Corinthians 2:14–16

We're gonna finish up chapter two tod- together today.

Paul writes this.

He says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit

of God, for they are folly to him, and he's not able to understand them

because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one.

For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ."

Verse 14, Paul opens up by referencing the natural person, the natural person.

I- in the, the Greek…

So there's, there's two words for soul in the Greek.

There's the word psuche, which is the word that shows up here.

Psuche.

It can mean life.

And so the, the soulish person here is what Paul is referring to.

That's what's i- we, we interpret or translate as, as the natural person.

The soulish person, the, the, the person that has the, the life that

everyone has, the, the soul that is common to all people, that person

a- as contrast to the, the spiritual person, which is another word for

spirit, pneuma in the Greek, okay?

The, the one that has the, the soul but not the spirit necessarily, the

s- the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for

they are folly to him, and he's not able to understand them because they

are spiritually discerned So Paul last week talked about the spiritual person,

two weeks ago I guess it was, when he said that, that we interpret spiritual

truths to those who are spiritual.

And, and the definition of what makes a person spiritual is to possess the

Spirit, is to have the Holy Spirit.

And so if you have the Holy Spirit, you're able to understand these

spiritual things that Paul and the other apostles were teaching.

But now he contrasts that with this new category of the, the

natural person, the soulish person, the person that doesn't have the

Spirit, but is indeed a, a, a soul.

That person, Paul says, can't comprehend the things of the Spirit of God.

And so a person in their natural state, in other words, what Paul is saying,

can't comprehend what you and I see as evident or see more plainly, more clearly.

So for that person, the good news of the gospel is not received the same way that

you receive the good news of the gospel.

For that person, the, the, the unbeliever that is, they don't look

at the Word of God the same way that you look at the Word of God

It's important that we get that.

It's important that we understand that if we're gonna be effective as

evangelists in a lost and dying world.

Point number one this morning is this: don't expect the world to love the Bible.

It's kinda how I, I boiled down to what, what Paul's saying here.

The natural person doesn't understand the things of the Spirit.

The things of the Spirit are the, the things that we've been talking about.

In context, in 1 Corinthians, it's, it's the wisdom of God.

It's the, the foolishness of Christ crucified.

It's the things that … It's the wisdom that He imparts to the mature,

like we talked about two weeks ago.

It's the, the things of the gospel, and also just Christianity in general.

He's saying the world is not going to be able to comprehend

those things or understand them.

And so I put it this way.

Don't expect the world to love the Bible.

And you might be thinking to yourself initially, "Well, thanks, Pastor Obvious."

Well, yeah, of course.

We, we get that.

And I think that's, that's fair, but while we may understand that conceptually, I

think functionally we sometimes forget it.

And that shows up in how we respond when we encounter the darkness in the world.

Things like this.

I, I didn't have to look far this week, but it seems like

the world is, is darkening at a pretty fast rate these days.

We've talked as, as pastors, is that because it's actually getting worse and

worse, or is it because we've got 24/7 news sites and social media, and it's just

more readily available to us to be able to see real-time how dark the world is?

Who knows?

W- but the world is dark.

I came across an article in The Atlantic this week called A Winning Formula.

The byline said, "Dr.

Angel Foster is remaking the abortion-access landscape

one pill at a time."

Okay, so there you have an article that's put forward as something that's

positive because this woman, Dr.

Angela Foster, is enabling women to murder their unborn children by taking a pill.

They're, they're making it easier to kill and extinguish the life

that God has created, and the world says this is a good thing

Or maybe something a little bit more esoteric if you prefer that.

Uh, this was a headline that said, "Do human beings have souls?"

And the byline here said, "Well, the philosopher Shelly Kagan has gained

millions of fans online while arguing that we can embrace physicalism."

Okay?

So that is that the, there is no immaterial part of the body.

It's just flesh and bones and, and all the stuff that makes up the insides.

We can embrace physicalism without giving up meaning,

morality, or human exceptionalism.

So notice that now there's a whole movement from the world that

says, "We don't need your God.

We don't need to think about the immaterial or the spiritual realities,

because we can just embrace physicalism and still have morality and still have

purpose in life and still have human exceptionalism," that we're better

than, than the animal kingdom is.

At least that's what they wanna argue.

So you see, w- w- we live in a world that, that doesn't look at the Bible

and says, "Yeah, this makes sense.

God is a God of, of creation.

God is a God of power.

God's word is true."

Rather, it, it looks for ways to reject the Word at every turn

If you spent any time this week on social media or news sites, I'm sure

you encountered plenty of examples of abject wickedness and evil in this world,

and it probably resulted in a, a bit of a visceral reaction in your heart.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

To be indignant in the face of sin is a, is a good thing, so long as

we remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it's

against the spiritual forces that are at work in this present darkness.

And so we can't allow the world's evil to cause us to hate the world.

But as we sing in the song, we need to rage against the

captor but love the captive soul

And that's what I'm, I'm wanting us to see in this first point, that

we can't expect the world to love the Bible, and that should inform

the way that we pursue the world.

Paul goes on to say that, that the natural person does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God, for they are folly to him

I- i- i- it's the, the natural person, the person without the

spirit can't understand these things.

Paul says it this way in Romans 8:7, I read it during our scripture reading

Romans 8:7

this morning, "The mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God."

Okay?

Notice, the mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God.

There is no neutral with God.

Nobody is just okay with God, despite what the Doobie Brothers

said about Jesus back in the day.

Jesus is not just all right with anybody.

You are either all in with Christ or you're against Him.

And so those that have set the mind on the flesh to be hostile

to God, it says, "Does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot."

A- and it's not that the unbeliever can't intellectually comprehend

the truths of, of scripture.

There can be intellectual agreement, intellectual ascent

with the content of the Bible

But that doesn't yield submission.

Submission only comes through the Spirit's work in our lives.

Submission in faith only comes through the Spirit working on the life of the

unbeliever to give them the ability to believe and to see and to trust

There's a lot of different ways this shows up, this rejection.

I've, I've mentioned the, those articles.

Let, let's build on, on one of those articles for just a second.

Let's just think about the sanctity of human life.

Let's talk about that for just a moment here.

See, you and I understand because we have what's known as a biblical worldview.

So a worldview is like these glasses right here.

A worldview is the lens through which you interpret reality.

That's what a worldview is.

And so as Christians, when you get saved, the worldview that you don

are, i- or is a, a biblical worldview.

You put on the lenses of viewing reality and interpreting it through scripture.

So when it comes to the sanctity of human life, we believe, according to Psalm

139, that God is the author of life.

Psalm 139 tells us that He is knitting us together in our mother's womb.

Psalm 139 goes on to say that He has established our days.

He knows every one of them before even one of them comes to pass.

And so as Christians, we see that, we understand that.

That's part of our biblical worldview.

But the world looks at that and the Bible, and because the world

doesn't love the Bible, the Bi- the world says, "That's nonsense."

And so, for example, in the case of abortion, the world is gonna argue,

how can you tell a woman what she can do or can't do with her body?

Because why?

Because the world is gonna try to dehumanize the baby, the

life that is inside that womb

The world is gonna say the, the mother's rights are above that, that

clump of cells' rights, the fetus.

They don't even wanna say the word baby

The world is gonna say, "Why would you want a baby that nobody wants to be born?"

The world is gonna say, "Why, why would you want a baby that's got

a, a physical abnormality to be, to be brought to full term and born?"

As Christians, we would say, "Because it's not our right to terminate that life.

God is creating that child.

That child is creating in the image of God, and because

of that, has inherent value.

And no one, no one, mother or father or doctor, a- anyone else, has

the right to extinguish that life.

That is nothing but flat-out murder

But the world doesn't operate through the same understanding of life because

they don't embrace the scriptures.

What seems plain to us is not to them.

And it's not just the beginning of life, right?

Now it's, it's come to the end of life, too, hasn't it?

Psalm 139 tells us that every one of our days were written down before

even one of them came to pass.

That tells me that the one who decides when I'm done here on Earth isn't me.

It's God.

Well now, we've decided that we're gonna create this thing called

medical assistance in dying, MAID

And the world looks at that and says, "This is a, a good thing."

The world looks at, at that and says, "It allows a person to go out on their

own terms in a dignified way, rather than suffering longer than they need to."

The world looks at that and says, "You know what?

It, it removes the burden of care from the loved ones and from the state

The world looks at it and says it, it, it's just a, a beautiful

end of consciousness where somebody passes peacefully from

this world into the unknown

We look at that and say, "No, that's, that's self-murder

You don't have the right to decide when your life is over.

You're not God

And again, what seems so plain to us, the world looks at and

says, "You, you guys are crazy.

You're the crazy ones

And without a biblical worldview, you can listen to their arguments

and begin to, to think to yourself, "Actually, their arguments might

make a little bit of sense."

But as soon as we put our, our biblical worldview back on and we understand,

wait a minute, God is God and we're not, and He gets to write the rules, that's

where things begin to change for us

Let's talk about human sexuality for a minute.

Again, as Christians, we have our biblical worldview.

We say, "Well, well, we understand reality.

We interpret reality through the lenses which God has given us, which is His Word,

and God has defined, and God has declared what human sex- sexuality should look

like and what it is and what it's not."

God said, "In the image of God, we're gonna create male and female.

Male and female He created them.

In His image, He created them."

And guess what, y'all?

God doesn't make mistakes.

There's never been a baby or a child or a human being born in the wrong body.

That is an insidious lie, and any Christian that embraces it

is pointing the finger at God and saying, "God, you screwed up

God doesn't make mistakes

Nobody can look at God and say, "God, I was, I was assigned

the wrong gender at birth."

Two genders, two sexes he created them, male and female, period, end of story.

And then God designed marriage to be what?

Between what?

Between a man, man and a woman.

Not between two men, not between, between two women, not between

three men and one woman, not between three women and one man.

One man and one woman, period, end of story.

And we as Christians embrace that.

Why?

Because we have the biblical worldview.

And why do we understand things that way?

Why do we have a biblical worldview, to go back to our opening here?

Because we have the Spirit, and we're able to understand these things.

Paul's whole argument right here is when you look at a world that rejects all

of this, the reason at heart why they reject it is not because of upbringing,

intellect, or spirituality, but because of the fact that they don't possess

the Spirit to be able to understand the Scripture as the authoritative

Word of God the way that you and I may.

And that's the problem.

And so here's what I want us to do, y'all.

I want us to understand that, because Paul goes on to say he's

not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Again, can't … They, they, they can't understand them the way that we do.

And so what does that tell us?

That tells me two things that I think we need to keep in mind as

we make our way around this lost world and interact with lost people.

Number one, y'all, we gotta keep the main thing the main thing.

We gotta keep the focus on winning people to Christ, not just winning arguments.

Thanksgiving's right around the corner, and it's an election year too, so

I assume if your family's anything like my extended family, you might

spend time around people that maybe don't agree with you on some things.

And when somebody begins to break the, the rule, we don't talk religion or

politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table, or Dallas Cowboys football

What happens?

There's a blowup.

There's a blowup, and you end up in a, in a fight, and you're arguing your

side, and they're arguing their side.

I just wanna ask you the question, as passionate as you are to win them over to

your political position, are you equally or more passionate to win them to Christ?

That's what matters

Right?

Or, or let's take your atheistic neighbor.

You've had conversations with him.

You, you've gone back and forth on age of the Earth with him.

You've been trying to win him over.

You've sent him the YouTube videos.

You, you've invited him to the Insti- Institute of Creation Re- Research Museum.

You've done all of these things, and he still just is firmly

entrenched in his atheism.

Let me ask you a question.

Are you as passionate or more passionate about winning him to

Christ as you are to winning him to a young Earth creationist position?

Because winning him to Christ is what matters.

I'm not saying apologetics is not important and, and can't help.

I'm not making that argument at all.

But I am saying this, if you win your family member over to your political

position but not to Christ, they're just going to hell voting with you

If you win your family member over to young earth creationism but not to

Christ, then they've a, a, a different view of creation than the world

does, but they're still going to hell

The goal is to win them to Christ.

And we have to remember this, right?

That our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against the rulers and

the authorities and the cosmic powers of this present darkness and the spiritual

forces of evil in the heavenly places.

And so we need to keep the main thing the main thing.

We need to pursue the lost with the gospel.

We need to not look at this and be like, "Don't expect the world to love the Bible.

Okay, well, good luck, world.

See you later.

We're gonna hang out in our holy huddles, in our Christian cliques, in

our sanctified sects, and best of luck."

No, we gotta see this and be like, "What, what, what can I do about that, Lord?"

I can't make anyone love the Bible, but I can preach the gospel

and the Spirit can do the work

Or I can sit on my hands and be like, "Oh man, isn't it so sad

the way that the world is just so dark and they don't love Jesus?"

Man, we gotta preach the gospel.

That's, that's the first thing this reminds me.

Second thing is, is, is this: your greatest weapon in this pursuit is prayer.

That's it.

Your greatest weapon in this pursuit of the lost is prayer.

Because if you can't make them love Jesus, if you can't make them

love the Bible, and only God can, then you best be going to God.

Every Christian in this room should be praying weekly for unbelievers,

daily for unbelievers in your life.

Every Christian in this room should be bringing the names of

people before the throne of God and saying, "God, save this person.

Open their eyes.

Give me the open door.

Help me to love them with the love of Christ, and lead them to you."

It's every Christian's responsibility in here.

And I think with prayer, it's one of those things that we're like, "Okay, sure.

Right.

I'm supposed to pray for the un- for the, the lost."

I, I, we, we undervalue prayer.

We so undervalue prayer.

R.A.

Torrey, I've shared this quote before with you and, and if I

have, I'm not sorry, 'cause it's, it's good enough to share again.

From his book The Power of Prayer, he says this: "Prayer is the key

that unlocks the storehouses of God's infinite grace and power.

All that God is, all that God has are at the disposal of

prayer, but we must use the key.

Prayer can do anything God can do, and as God can do

anything, prayer is omnipotent."

I don't think that's too strong.

Prayer can do anything God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent.

And so no matter how stubborn the unbeliever might be-

Prayer is able to overcome.

Uh, listen, I wanna talk to you this morning if you're in the room

here, and you would say, "I'm, I'm one of those unbelievers that

you're talking about, Pastor."

Great.

I want you to know that we are praying hard that God will overcome your

obstacles to faith because we love you

And you might be sitting there this morning thinking

that we're a bunch of idiots.

Fair.

Put me at the top of the list.

Maybe I'm already there.

I'll take the lead seat on that.

That's fair.

We get that.

We understand that.

But we're gonna pray that God changes your heart and God changes your mind.

And I'm just warning you that our God is able to do whatever God wants to do.

Our God's stronger than you are.

Whatever objection you have to the gospel this morning, our

God is able to overcome that

He's undefeated

So even after a loved one may have told you to stop sharing the gospel, even after

somebody has told you, "I'm done," or a coworker moves away, I, I wanna encourage

you this morning that prayer is still the most powerful weapon that you have in

seeing that person go from a state of not loving the Bible to coming to understand

it and loving not just the Bible, but more importantly, the God of the Bible

Paul continues his argument though here in 1 Corinthians 2:15.

1 Corinthians 2:15

He says, "The spiritual person judges all things, but is

himself to be judged by no one."

The spiritual person.

So now he's, he's shifting back.

He was on the natural person, and now he wants to come

back to the spiritual person.

This is the person that, that possesses the Spirit of God.

This is the other word in Greek for spirit, pneuma.

And so that person, he says, is, uh, the, the person that, that judges all things

but is himself to be judged by no one.

And so n- now we're returning back and saying, okay, this person is in Christ,

does have the Spirit, but the question that I believe that Paul is implying

here and that I want us to answer this morning is what are you doing with it?

What are you doing?

What, what good is you having the Spirit if we're not

actually employing the Spirit?

Second point this morning is this: don't miss out on unexplored riches.

Don't miss out on unexplored riches

As we, we turn and we, we, we focus on the, the believer, the person that has

the Spirit, I want you to think about what you're doing with the Spirit.

And, and really it boils down to this phrase, "The spiritual

person judges all things."

What does that mean?

Other translations, the, the CSB, Christian Standard Bible, "The spiritual

person can evaluate everything."

The Net Bible, "The one who is spiritual discerns all things."

The Legacy Standard Bible, "The, the one who is spiritual examines all things."

The NIV, "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things."

So, this word judges can have a multitude of meanings.

So what did Paul mean by it?

Well, let's start with what he didn't mean.

Okay?

He's been arguing in 1 Corinthians in the context against

spiritual elitism, hasn't he?

You remember when he addressed, "Hey, you say you're of Apollos, and you're

of Paul, and you're of Cephas."

And what did Paul say?

"What are you doing?

Stop it."

In other words, this isn't about gathering around your favorite guy and, and bowing

up like you've got inside information that somebody else doesn't have.

This isn't about you having a, an access to a super wisdom

that other people don't have.

We're not about the eloquence.

We're not about building ourselves up.

We're about the plain and simple message of Christ crucified.

And so Paul's been arguing against spiritual elitism

and spiritual factionalism.

So he's not saying in this verse that the spiritual person judges all things,

meaning that there's some level of spirituality that we can get to that all-

allows us to sit over other Christians or unbelievers and pass judgment on everybody

about things that we understand and they don't 'Cause that would fly in the face of

the context that he's been talking about.

Rather, I think there's something else at work here, and

there's a, a sim- similar word.

There's a wordplay that's there in the Greek that we lose in our English

translation here, because that word judges is actually there in verse 14.

If you back up, it says this: "He is not able to understand them because

they are spiritually discerned."

That word discerned is the same word that's translated judges here in verse 15.

A- and I think that's what Paul had in mind.

In other words, what Paul meant when he said, "The spiritual person judges all

things," is that the, the Christian, the person that has the Spirit, right, 'cause

that's what makes a person spiritual, is to possess the Spirit of God.

And so the Christian is able to discern all things.

Now, all things meaning what?

All things as, as in the whole reality of the, the world, the, the Christian is

able to understand and discern everything?

No.

I told you I don't understand tractor pulling.

Spirit's not gonna help me understand tractor pulling.

But what Paul has in mind is all things as they pertain to God and His wisdom, that

we can apply ourselves to the scriptures, that we can study the Word of God, that

we can try to discern the truths from the scriptures, and because we have the

Spirit, the Christian is able to, as opposed to the natural person who is

unable to understand them, the Christian is able to understand or comprehend or

discern the things that he reads or she reads in the Word of God, in the Bible.

And so Paul is encouraging the believer to go to the Word of God and to employ

the Word of God in their lives and allow the Spirit to take the Word of

God and, and help us live in this life.

Peter writes this in 2 Peter 1:19 of the Word of God.

2 Peter 1:19

He says, "We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do

well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and

the morning star rises in your hearts."

In other words, Peter's saying the Word of God has a job for your life,

and that job is to help you walk in the light of God's revealed wisdom.

Well, how am I gonna be able to do that if the Spirit's not gonna help me discern

what that looks like and what that means?

And so God's Word has a purpose in our lives, and He's given us the Spirit to

be able to put that purpose to work.

Or perhaps more clearly, 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

2 Timothy 3:16–17

Here, Paul writes this: "All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable

for teaching and reproof and correction and training in righteousness,

that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work."

Okay, if the Word of God is gonna be able to do those things in our life, to

teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, and to train us in righteousness so that

we may be complete and equipped, we must be able to discern what the Word of God

has to say to us about certain things.

And Paul's saying, "Christian, you can, because God has given you the Spirit."

The spiritual person discerns all things.

That's why this point here back in, in our…

Our point is don't miss out on these unexplored riches.

God's given you everything that you need to be able to understand,

everything that you need to be able to press in and go deeper.

Do you remember growing up wanting to figure out how to do something, and just

desperately wanting to get it figured out?

And then you finally were able to figure out, and then you,

you just couldn't stop doing it?

Just like, "This is so great, I can do this now."

In my house for my kids that's, that, that, unfortunately, that's whistling.

Yeah.

N- not a, not like a, a song, just whistling.

And so it's like I, I wanna figure out, I wanna know how to whistle.

And so they're trying it and it's, it's cute initially, until they get it.

And then you're like, "Can you whistle outside?"

"Can you whistle in your room upstairs?"

Yeah.

For me, it, it was riding a bike.

It took me longer than it should take a person to learn how to ride

a bike to learn how to ride a bike.

I'll just put it that way.

I won't give you an age, but it was longer than it should've taken.

And, uh, what, what got me there, I w- I wanted to ride the bike, but I, I wasn't

sure 'cause I didn't know how good it was.

And just conceptually I was like, yeah, the bike's out there, but

I didn't wanna fall off and get all banged up and everything, so I

just didn't, 'cause I was stubborn.

Until finally I was over at my cousin's house, and they

all took off on their bikes.

I was like, "Well, that's not fun."

And I had a bike that was there, and it was my cousin's pink girl

bike, and it was the only one left.

I was like, "All right.

Well, I guess let's do this thing."

So I picked up her bike and, and off I went.

And it was awesome.

Not the bike, but it was awesome to be able to ride a bike.

I was like, "This is so good.

What have I been missing out on?

I should've been riding my bike this whole time."

And eventually I g- I got a, I g- like a, a g- a boy's bike.

And, and it was back in the day growing up when you could still, like my best

friends, we would get on the bike and we would ride down to, to Blockbuster and

then we would go to Tom Thumb and we'd get a video game and a movie and some

snacks from Tom Thumb and ride home.

It was the best.

And I fell off plenty of times.

I got a scar on my elbow where I fell off my bike and ran into a brick wall

and still it was great to ride a bike.

It was awesome.

I was like, "Oh man, this is what I've been missing."

And it just made me wanna do it more and more and more and more and more and more.

That's the mentality I want you to bring to studying the Bible.

I want you to experience when you go to the Word of God and you study a

passage and you begin to dive in deeper to the Word of God and read more of

it, and all of a sudden you realize that God is teaching you, and God is

reproving you, and God is correcting you, and God is training you in

righteousness, and you are becoming more and more equipped for every good work.

And all of a sudden you're like, "This is so good.

Why have I not been doing more of this in my life?"

And I think that's what Paul is saying here in this verse, that there are

unexplored riches, untapped treasures in the Word of God, and Paul's saying, "Hey,

Christian, you've been given the Spirit.

Get after it.

Get in there."

And so I just wanna encourage you this week to start doing that, and

maybe for some of you, y- you come to church on Sunday, and that's

the only time the Bible's really open in your life all week long.

So maybe for you, that's this week.

Hey, open the Bible each day.

Just read something.

Just start somewhere.

Read a paragraph.

Read a chapter.

Just get into the Word every day and ask God, "Teach me, Lord.

Use your Spirit to help me understand these things."

Maybe for others, that, that might b- look like picking up a, a, a devotional

commentary on a book of the Bible an- and pairing that and saying, "I'm,

I'm gonna read this book and dive in deeper this book and read this, this

devotional commentary over there as well."

Maybe some of y'all are like, "Man, I, I wanna get…

I wanna know.

I wanna get technical with stuff."

You're gonna get a, a more robust commentary, something from, like, the

Baker Exegetical Commentary Series or the New International Commentary on the

New Testament or something like that.

You're gonna try to dive deeper in with more of the technical

stuff 'cause you just wanna get in even deeper to the Word of God

For others of you, maybe that, that looks like picking up a systematic theology,

saying, "I, I wanna learn more about the characteristics of God and who He is.

What does it mean that He is all-powerful?

What does it mean that He knows all things?

How do I understand Him as the creator of all things?"

You're gonna pick up a systematic theology, something by, like, Wayne

Grudem or John MacArthur has a good systematic theology out there as well.

Something like that, that you could grab and, and just say,

"Let's, let's get deeper."

Maybe for somebody else out there, that's, that's saying, "I'm gonna sign up for

a class at Compass Bible Institute," and you're, you can sign up for those

online and, and you wanna take a class in Hebrew or Greek or systematic theology

or a, an, an OT survey, New Testament survey class, and you wanna go deeper

at, at even maybe an academic level.

Great.

Depth is gonna look different for every person in this room.

Just like I talked about two weeks ago, spiritual maturity is gonna look different

for, for every single person in this room.

The, the point I wanna make is this: we're all in the lake.

We're just swimming at different le- depths of the lake.

So maybe wade a little bit deeper wherever you are in the lake this week.

Maybe wade a little bit deeper.

Press in.

Realize how good it is to be taught these things.

There, there's somebody in our, our church who has a really, really, really fast car.

It's a Corvette.

Maybe I, I already put him on blast just by saying that.

And it goes really fast, although I wouldn't know 'cause I haven't

gotten to, to ride in it yet

Um, but I have heard it turn on and just listening to the engine fire up, I'm

like, "Oh man, that thing's powerful."

And he likes to take it to the track, and he, he drives it really fast on

the track so he can go faster than he's allowed to go on regular roads,

and it's okay 'cause it's allowed.

I want you to think about this.

Imagine somebody were to give you a car like that and to pay for access to a track

for, for your lifetime so that you can take that car to the track and you can

drive it as fast as you wanna drive it.

And then imagine in about five years they come and, and stop by with

you and they're, they're saying, "Hey, how are you liking your car?"

"Oh man, it's so good.

It's so great.

The cup holders inside, fantastic.

Best cup holders I've ever had.

The seats, super comfortable, and that noise the engine makes

when it turns on, amazing."

"Yeah, but how about the speed?

How fast have you gotten it to go?"

"Well, I've taken it to the track."

"And?"

Yeah, like 40.

Sorry, what?

40?

40 miles per hour.

That's how fa- that's all you've done with this car?

That's it?

Don't you realize what you have?

Don't you realize how fast this thing can go?

And if you're on a track, it's legal.

You're supposed to go that fast there.

Y'all, some of us are driving our faith 40 miles an hour

And I fear that we're gonna get to heaven and stand before Jesus.

He's gonna be like, "40 miles an hour?

I gave you the Spirit

There's no, there's no regulators.

There's no inhibitors.

Dive in, get deeper, go faster.

That's the point I'm trying to make here, y'all.

God's given us His Spirit so that we can discern all things.

He does say here, this, this verse says, "But is himself judged by no one."

This is a, a personal note, I believe, to the Corinthians, because remember

the Corinthians were so caught up in what the world thought about them.

Does the world think that we're wise enough?

Does the world think that our, our guys are eloquent enough?

Does the world think that our message can hold weight with

Plato and Socrates and all them?

And so Paul's here going, "Hey, don't lose sleep over those things."

The world doesn't hold clout over the message that we are

proclaiming, which is the gospel.

But Christian, get after it.

Open it up.

Go faster.

Get deeper.

Finally, verse 16, "For who has understood the mind of Christ so as to instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ."

Who has understood the mind of the Lord?

Uh, this is a quote from Isaiah chapter 40.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter 40, verse 13, it's a quote from the Septuagint, which is

Isaiah 40:13

the Greek version of the Old Testament.

And so Paul quotes this, and in the Greek version of the Old Testament, Isaiah

Isaiah 40:13

40:13 says, "Who has known the mind of the Lord and who has become his counselor?

Who will advise him?"

And so in context, in Isaiah 40, if you've read Isaiah 40, which we just

read recently in our daily Bible reading, God is, is flexing in Isaiah 40.

He's saying, "Hey, remember who I am.

Who are you gonna compare me to?

I sit above the, the Earth, the circle of the Earth.

The inhabitants, they're like grasshoppers.

The nations are like a drop in a bucket."

God's saying, "Who are you going to compare me to?"

And he's saying this as a way to comfort his people, to remind them that he is

going to redeem them, that he is gonna make them rise up on mount, on wings

like eagles, like he talks about at the end of Isaiah chapter 40 there.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

That God is gonna save his people and ultimately deliver his people,

and Isaiah is left to say, "Who can understand these things?

This is too wonderful for me to try to wrap my mind around."

And so Paul picks that up and brings that now over to, to what he's been talking

about with the wisdom of God here, and he says, "Who can understand these things?

Who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?"

And the answer implied there is what?

No one.

So then what's our hope?

What he says next, "But we have the mind of Christ."

Left to ourselves, can anyone, can anyone instruct the Lord?

Can anyone understand the mind of the Lord?

No.

But with the mind of Christ, we can have an understanding of the gospel and of the

wisdom of God as he's revealed it to us

What a humbling and, and amazing thought that is.

And it should encourage us this morning, and it should also cause us

this morning to, to ponder, okay, if that's true, then that leaves me with

nothing to boast in except for Him.

Third point this morning is this: don't boast in what you did not earn.

Don't boast in what you did not earn

If you've got the Holy Spirit.

See, one of the other temptations for Christians, when a Christian is trying to,

to share the gospel or, or talk with, with maybe somebody who's not a believer, one

of the temptations, besides an indignation that can wrongly be attributed to the

person, 'cause remember, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against

the spiritual forces that are at work.

So that's temptation number one that we have to battle, is

we've gotta rage against the captor but love the captive soul.

The second temptation we have to avoid is a, a sense of arrogance

or superiority, and that's what this is meant to rob us of here

It's like the, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector,

if you guys remember that.

Jesus told the parable that a, a, a Pharisee and a tax collector

went up to, uh, the temple to pray.

And it says this, that the, the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, "God,

I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,

or even like this tax collector."

See, this is the, the spirit of pride that can creep into our lives

as Christians if we're not careful.

You can look at the world, you can look at the lost in the world, and

you can think to yourself, rather than, "Lord, save them," you can

think, "Lord, I'm glad I'm not them

Like when we were at the, the Prosper Harvest Fair yesterday

And I was so proud of our church because there were, there

were lost people right there.

The, the, the Muslims were right across the way, and they were

trying to tell people about Islam and, and how Islam's the answer.

And we had multiple people, four or five people at least, not just

talk to, to them out in the open, but went right up to their booth and

sat and stood there with them and, and went after the gospel with them.

One of our guys was there for probably 45 minutes or an hour,

and I was just thinking, "Yes!"

And it was so good because what I saw is a love for the lost that was

there in the lives of our people.

They didn't go over there to say, "Hey, you're, y- you're wrong and, and

we're right, and so get out of here.

We don't want you here

They went there and they said, "Hey, we believe that what you believe is wrong,

but we want you to know what's true.

We love you, and we want you to understand the gospel

And multiple people went to them throughout the night to talk to them

and to share the gospel with them

Yo, that needs to be our mentality because we need to have this

mentality, this, this awareness that i-i-it, it's not that we're better.

Again, it, it's not our intellect, it's not our upbringing.

It's, it's not that we're a more spiritual people that is

the reason why we understand.

We only understand what they don't understand because

God has given us His Spirit.

So where's our boast?

But in Jesus

When we see people that are lost and, and, and we're tempted towards a thought

of something like, "God, I thank you that I'm not like them," we need to remember a

phrase that you've probably heard in the church before, and it's this simple little

phrase, "But for the grace of God go I."

This is attributed to John Bradford in the 16th century.

He was a Protestant reformer.

He watched a group of, of prisoners being marched and paraded before

the public eye to their execution.

They had done whatever they had done.

They'd committed their crimes.

They were worthy of death.

They had been sentenced to die, and they were being paraded before the public eye.

And, and what would happen then is the public would mock and scorn and throw

things and, and heap condemnation on these prisoners and, and shame them more as

they're being led to their, their death.

John Bradford was overheard saying, "But for the grace of God go I."

Christian, that's us when it comes to our understanding of the Word of God

and our understanding of the gospel.

It's not because we have an inside track, but because we have the mind of Christ.

And why do we have the mind of Christ?

Because God has enabled us to have it.

God has given us the mind of Christ.

God has given us His Spirit to be able to understand those things.

I'm gonna talk about receiving the Spirit for a second, because

that may seem a little fuzzy

What does it look like to r- receive the Spirit?

How do I know if I receive, receive the Spirit?

A couple things.

Number one, the Bible tells us every Christian has the Spirit.

There's no such thing as a Christian without the Spirit of God.

Romans 8:9 makes this abundantly clear.

Romans 8:9

I read it during our, our scripture reading, but let me read it for you again.

It says this: "You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in

fact the Spirit of God dwells in you."

And now this is the part to tune in on.

"Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."

Okay, let me say that again.

"Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."

So if you've ever heard someone say, "Well, to have the Holy Spirit, you

have to have a second blessing," or, "To possess the Spirit, you have to have

somebody lay hands on you and transfer the Spirit to you," that is not in keeping

with what we see there in Romans 8:9.

Romans 8:9

"Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."

In other words, anyone without the Spirit is not a Christian.

So if you're wondering, "How do I know if I have the Spirit?"

And you're here as a Christian, you have the Spirit if you are in Christ.

The second thing that tells us is this, that the Spirit takes up residence

in you at the moment of conversion.

Again, it's not a second blessing.

You don't need the pastor to lay hands on you.

You don't need to speak in tongues to evidence the fact

that you have the Spirit.

Those are things that have been added to the Word of God that aren't there.

And so if you are in Christ, you have the Spirit, and the Spirit

has taken up residence within you.

Okay?

And so if you've been wondering, "Well, is this some mystical experience

that I should have had that maybe I haven't had yet, and that's why I'm

not growing as much in my faith?"

I just want to as- assure you that there is no mystical experience

that you're missing out on.

If you have repented and believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the

Spirit has done that work in your life and is now taking up residence in your life.

And you, now you have everything that you need to be able to grow in your

knowledge and understanding of the Word

And if that's true, again, where's our boast?

It's not there

We can't bow up as though somehow we have something that somebody

else doesn't, and that's why we're in the position that we're in.

It's not your upbringing.

It's not your intellect.

It's not that you are a more spiritual person.

It's that God in His grace gave you spirit to understand.

And so here's what I wanna suggest to you.

Hopefully, what that will do in your heart is to stir in your life an

affection for the lost that's gonna drive you to them, not from them

That's gonna cause you to wanna go to them with the gospel, not away from them.

Like we talked about last week, that you would go out and compel

them to come in, those that are at the highways and the hedges.

Compel them to come in

Again, so proud of our, our church and seeing not just at the, the

tent where the, the Muslims were, but with everybody yesterday.

Just out there sharing the gospel.

You know, we need to, to be doing more of that.

It's what outreach week is gonna be all about.

That's what our lives need to be about too

Yeah, y-you get it, you see it, you understand it.

But again, the only reason that you understand it and they don't is

because God has given you His Spirit, and that makes all the difference.

So what should that do?

Well, that should make you say, "Man, I want other people to have that too

And you can't create that.

You can't force that

But you can go out with the message that God uses to open blind eyes and to save

people so that they can come to understand things the way that you understand them

Pray with me.

God, thanks for your word and thanks for the work that you have done

in our lives through the Spirit

Lord, there are so many gifts and blessings that we can recount in our

lives and things that you've done for us.

And so we can forget or overlook how good it is that you've given us

just the ability to understand the scriptural truths that we read, uh,

in the Bible each and every week.

God, I pray that this week we would depend a little bit more on the Spirit

perhaps than we did last week, that you would show us more of your truth in your

Word than you have before, that you would take us deeper, that you would stir our

hunger for more and more of it, that we would dive into those unexplored riches,

while at the same time, Lord, staying humble and looking for every opportunity

we can to reach a lost world that doesn't love the Bible, that doesn't love the

God of the Bible, and to call them to faith, to call them to repentance.

And God, I, I pray that you would do the work that they so desperately need

done in their life, that you would give them the Spirit to understand,

to see, to believe, to respond, and to become part of your kingdom family.

Lord, thanks that we have the privilege and the opportunity

to keep doing that so far.

We don't know if we'll have tomorrow, but we have today.

And so make us faithful, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.