Well, amen, let’s look together at 1 Corinthians 2 as we continue our study through this wonderful New Testament book, and I’ll be honest with you, I have been quite surprised at the truth of God that have been unveiled to us in this book. You know, I knew the church at Corinth that Paul was writing this letter to was a baby church, a carnal church, back slidden church, church with all kinds of troubles and messes and mess ups. And so I kind of thought Paul would just sort of wade out there with some very basic things and perhaps he is, but I’m going to tell you, he’s given meat for the mature. Right up here, right in the front of this book, and there is going to be more of it in this chapter.

I am in no way, shape or fashion, trying to be deep. I just want to be true to the word as I am preaching to you tonight. You may say, well, those are some deep things, I’m not trying to be deep at all, I’m just trying to give you what the books says. But I want you to look tonight at 1 Corinthians 2:6, a message I’ve entitled “Christ the Wisdom of God.” You see the apostle Paul was being ridiculed by many in Corinth, perhaps even by some professing believers in the church, because they had been influenced by others, who rejected Paul’s preaching of the gospel. And so he’s writing to in one sense defend the truth of his gospel, and to show up the false wisdom, the so called wisdom of the age, and to show that Jesus Christ and the truth of Christ is the true wisdom of God, so that is why I call it Christ the wisdom of God.

Let’s begin reading in verse 6: “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

For to us God revealed them through the spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but those taught by the spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraise all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ”.

Christ the wisdom of God. First of all notice, Christ is the true wisdom to those who are saved. He is true wisdom to those who are saved. Look at it there in verse 6. He, Paul says, “yet we do speak wisdom, among those who are mature”. Now the word mature there just means a believer. A saved person, doesn’t mean a mature believer. It is showing that as far as understanding true wisdom, there are those who are saved and they are considered mature in their understanding of true wisdom, and then there are the unsaved, and as far as true wisdom goes, they are not even in the ball game, they are not even to the gate of the true wisdom yet. They’re immature, they are outside, so his point is, to those who are saved, our message is wisdom. It is received as wisdom, its the unbeliever that does not receive our message. And the one who is saved must first be regenerated by the holy spirit, then he will comprehend, perceive, know that Christ is the wisdom of God.

Now notice also there in verse 6. He says, “yet we do speak wisdom”. Now when he says speak wisdom, he’s talking about the fact that he proclaims it verbally. And he says he speaks wisdom among the mature. The believers, at least they are going to recognize his message as a true message from God. Now it gives us a little reminder here, about the fact that there are some people that you should not even attempt to speak God’s wisdom to. Jesus worded it this way, don’t cast your pearls before swine. There are some folks that are just hardened in sin, they’ve crossed God’s deadline, they’ve got an old hardened heart, and there is no need of throwing the pearls of God’s precious gospel truth out to them, because they are not going to receive it. And Paul is simply reflecting on these intellectually esteemed Corinthians in that grand cosmopolitan cultural center called Corinth, he’s saying, they reject my message and I’ll tell you why, its because they are not saved. Only the mature, the saved are going to recognize my preaching of Jesus as true wisdom form God.

Now he goes on in verse 6 and says, let’s just read the whole thing: “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom however not of this age nor of the rulers of this age.” Now he’s saying, I speak and I preach a wisdom, a true wisdom, which is infinitely superior to the shifting corrupt, contradicting so called wisdom that the leaders of this age talk about. He says, we have a true wisdom that is enduring and eternal. It is not passing away. That’s why you those last two words of verse 6, the rulers of this age are passing away and their wisdom is passing away. Now when he says rulers here, he means kings or princes or caesars or whoever is in authority, but also he means the intelligentsia elite of the cultural centers like Corinth. Those who esteem themselves as great authorities in the area of art or the sciences. He says, you wrap all of those rulers up and those rulers and their man made wisdom of this age, its all passing away.

Aren’t you glad we can know something that’s for sure and not passing away. I mean, every time the wisdom in this age gives us something it just lasts for a little while and then its gone. I mean, we used to study math for a while and then they gave us new math. And then sometimes they go back to the old math. We used to teach kids to read a certain way and then they found a new way of teaching. We used to call morality a certain thing, and then some experts came along and said, well, there’s a new morality. And we looked at it and found out the new morality is just more of the old immorality. They are always coming up with new things. They come up with the new woman of the 90s. They done some surveys of these new women and found out they are the most miserable women since they have done surveys. And then they blame society for doing it to these new women of the 90s.

They tell us today that now there is a new way to raise your kids. You can raise your kids without giving them whippings, and now they’ve started whipping us. At school, at home, and everywhere else. Each time the wisdom in this age comes up with some conclusions, that is those who would reject God, you give it enough time and soon it will reveal a whole new set of problems. Thank God for the wisdom that’s not of this age. Its certain, its settled, it will endure forever. Because he says, the rulers of this age in their wisdom, its all passing away. You know most things don’t even last a generation. That’s right. Especially in this fast, paced, technologically advancing world, most things don’t last a generation, but nothing will last beyond the judgement seat of Jesus Christ. It will all pass away when he appears.

First of all, the apostle Paul says, this message I preach is true wisdom to save people. They get it. Secondly, notice it is a hidden wisdom to the unsaved. It is a hidden wisdom to the unsaved. Look at it in verses 7 through 9. First of all verse 7, “but we speak God’s wisdom”, which again is in the person of Jesus, “in a mystery”. The hidden wisdom. Now when he says mystery or hidden wisdom there, he means something that’s formally unrevealed, but now has been revealed. Something that God kept concealed, God kept it hidden, until he willed that it be revealed, and actually he only willed it to reveal it to those whom he chose or predestined from the foundation of the world. You say, brother Jeff, I don’t understand that. You don’t have to understand it, its still true.

Matthew 11:25, Jesus is speaking and listen carefully to what he says: “I praise thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou did hide these things from the wise and intelligent, that is of this age, and didst reveal them to babes.” As Jesus as ministering, he saw some people receiving gladly the truth, and then he saw others who just couldn’t get it and rejected him as a blasphemer and a demon. Actually satan himself. And Jesus looked to heaven and said, God I thank you that you’ve hidden it from some, and you revealed it to some that the leaders of this age would call ignorant and immature. Its been hidden to the unbeliever.

Now notice also there in verse 7 he says, “but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages.” It was predestined by God before the ages, it means before God created man and before that first created man had his first cognitive thought process, God’s wisdom stood complete. Now, not only did he say it was predestined before the ages, what’s the next phrase there? “Predestined before the ages to our glory.” Now who are the ones that this wisdom of God is going to bring glory to? Who is the “our” of that phrase? Well, I submit to you the “our” of 1 Corinthians 2:7, those are the same folks as the “called”, when you look up there at 1 Corinthians 1:24, 26, and the “chosen” of 1 Corinthians 1:27, 28.

So God.. Paul, the apostle Paul, as he is writing to the church at Corinth, said, listen, those of you who have been saved, I want you to know, God called you, God chose you, and God predestined that the wisdom of Christ would bring you to glory before the ages even started. Now tie that one on and go to bed with it friend. Isn’t that solid, doesn’t that encourage you, doesn’t that make you know God’s in control and God’s almighty and your salvation is wrapped all up in his sovereignty, from the foundation of the world. He said, I called you, I chose you, and I predestined that through the wisdom preached to you, that’s Jesus, that you would one day be brought into glory.

That’s actually what Jesus said in John 17:22: “the glory that thou hast given me, I have given to them.” Now notice the parallel. If you follow man’s wisdom, that will end in destruction. But if you follow God’s wisdom, Christ, that will end in eternal glory. You see, fellowship with Christ now is the beginning of glory. Have you tasted a little of that glory? You see, we get together as Christ’s church. This is just a little touch, folks, it is a little one, but its a real one. Just a little touch of the glory we are going to have in heaven. You know, you can’t put your fingers on it, you can’t really see it with the eyes, you can’t really hear it with the ears, but there is a little bit of glory in here right now.

And the emotions involved, but its bigger than emotions too friend, you, I can go to a Tennessee football game and get emotional, get chill bumps. Well, folks, that can happen at a ball game. That doesn’t necessarily mean God’s doing anything. But when the people of God do get together, there is a glory about it. And sometimes when you are having that quiet time or sometimes when you are hearing a sermon preached and you sense God’s truth and you sense the nearness of Christ, there’s a glory to it.

But its a glory that’s just beginning. You see, fellowshipping with Christ now is the beginning of glory, but fellowshipping with Christ in heaven is the consummation of glory. We’ll know it all then. And you know, when we get there, God will say, well I predestined for Jesus the wisdom of God to bring you to glory before the foundation of the world. Before the ages began, and that’s what Paul is saying right here. But listen, those who are unsaved, its hidden from them, they can’t see it and they don’t get it. Look at this save truth further, down in verse 8, 1 Corinthians 2: “The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

All of the rulers of the age, all of the princes, all the kings, all the potentates all the authorities, all those who have excelled in the arts and the sciences, and in learning, the intelligentsia elite of the culture, he said, you take all of them, and not a one of them has been able to find Jesus, God’s wisdom through their abilities. Through their studies. Now he elaborates on this a little bit more. Look at verse 9: “But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and things which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.” Now what he’s saying is, you take all of the perceptive power of the eye, and let it work and investigate and study and bring in all the data it can, and you still will never find God’s truth.

You’ll still never find God’s salvation. And you take all of the perceptive power of the human ear, and get in all of the teaching you possibly can through your ears, and you still will never find God’s truth. And then he said, even the heart of man, take all of the perceptive abilities of the inner man, doesn’t mean just the heart, it means the mind, the emotions, the inner part of man. Take all of that perceptive power and he still will never find God’s true wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. Its not available that way. You can’t get it through man. Man can’t find it. If they could have found it, he says, if they ever knew anything about God’s true wisdom, they would identify Jesus as the wisdom of God, as the Son of God and the Savior of the world, and they would never have crucified.

You see, the microbiologists will never find Jesus, God’s truth, by looking through his microscope. The astronomer will never find Jesus, God’s truth, God’s wisdom, by looking through his telescope. The psychologist and the sociologists will never find God’s truth, God’s wisdom, by studying a rat in a maze or man in a daze. Or the zoologists will never find God’s wisdom, Jesus by studying the wild dogs of Africa. The oceanologist will never find God’s truth in God’s wisdom by studying the deep blue. The mathematician will never find God’s truth, God’s wisdom, Jesus Christ, by analyzing numbers. And the theologian will never find Jesus, God’s trust and God’s wisdom by studying in the seminary library. Its hidden from the unbeliever. He cannot find it.

But notice there’s an interesting aspect in the last phrase of verse 9. He said, you not get it through just looking and studying and hearing and studying, or through meditating in the heart and philosophizing, but notice what he says: “all that God has prepared for those who love him.” Now he didn’t say God has it all prepared for those who know about him. But those who love him. What’s the difference? You can sit under my preaching and know a lot about God. But there’s only one way you will love God from your heart: if the holy spirit of God has birthed a love for Jesus in your heart. Its a supernatural thing. I’m telling you, you are a just an intellectual dead man with a lot of religious facts in your head until the holy spirit does that work of regeneration in your heart.

That’s why he said, those who love him. They know the truth, they’ve seen it. Its real to them, and when they hear an old time gospel preacher stand up and exalt Jesus as the Son of God, crucified for our sins, buried and raised for our justification, their hearts warm up. They see it, yes, that’s God’s wisdom. That’s it. That’s the cornerstone and the foundation of life. They get it. Because God’s done a work in their heart. And they didn’t get it as seminary, and they didn’t get it at the university, they got it from God’s holy spirit.

Now let’s tie right into this. He’s going to talk about now its a revealed wisdom to the believer. I use the word revealed because if God don’t reveal it, you don’t get it. You don’t study it and you don’t take somebody’s seminar, you don’t take five points to knowing God, you can’t even get it by studying Blackaby’s Experiencing God Notebook, friend, you get it when God reveals it. When, notice, its very clear.

Look at verse 10: “For to us God revealed them.” “Them,” who is the them, or what is the them, its the truth of God or the wisdom of God. The aspects of God’s wisdom, those doctrines, those truths, you don’t understand them and grasp them as true wisdom and stand on them until God reveals it to you. Now how? God revealed them through the spirit. “For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him, even so the thoughts of God no one knows, except the spirit of God.”

Now when Jesus was teaching, he would often say, he who has ears to hear let him hear. What was his point? If you just got human ears, you don’t get it. But if the holy spirit has illumed your heart, birthed an understanding in your heart, then all of a sudden, you hear more than just a teacher teaching, you hear that this is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and I believe that he is. But Jesus had to give you those ears to hear, or God the Father, Spirit, it doesn’t matter which person you want to talk about at this point.

Now notice he says there, the spirit reveals this to a man, and Paul’s particularly talking about himself, but its true for all men. He said, the spirit is the one that made us know Jesus is the truth and the true way of salvation. He’s God’s wisdom. Now he said, the spirit did that, now how can the spirit do that? He says, “for the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” Its the holy spirit that makes these things apparent. Because the holy spirit can search down into the deep depths of the infinite God’s infinite knowledge. And since he is an infinite spirit, the hidden things of God’s heart are not difficult for him.

Are you following me? So when the holy spirit of God comes and moves on your life, illuminates your understanding, you have available to you, the entire infinite wisdom of Almighty God. Listen to me, you lack nothing of God when the holy spirits in your life. Why? Because he knows the depth of the Father’s heart. You know some of us walking around wanting to see Jesus in all of this stuff. Well, I want to see him too—I don’t know if I’m going to see a 20 foot like Oral Roberts did or not—but all, we’d like to see him, but my friend, God has just told us: I put in you in the person of the spirit the whole reality of the wisdom of God is in you in the person of the holy spirit.

So what’s Paul saying here, what analogy is he drawing? He said, when these poppy cock, hot shots jump up and tell you that I’m not a true preacher of God and my message about Jesus isn’t authoritative, ask them where they got their wisdom from. I’ve got mine from the spirit that knows the depth of the heart of the Almighty God. Where did they get theirs from? You see what he’s saying. He’s saying how ridiculous, and how ludicrous, for those people to question my teachings, it came from God, revealed by the holy spirit of God.

In John 3, Jesus was talking to a man named Nichodemus, and Nichodemus was wanting to know how to enter the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus said, “if you are not born again you can’t see it or enter it.” You don’t get it, you don’t perceive it, you don’t even understand there is a kingdom there to get in on until you are born again. And Nichodemus said, “well, I don’t understand this thing of being born again.” He said, “well, you are not suppose to, you see, being born again you are born by the spirit and the spirit’s like the wind, you don’t know where the wind is going, you don’t know where it came from.” And he says, “so it is with everyone whose born of the spirit.”

You go out there tonight and you go, probably are going to feel a breeze. And you have no idea where the molecules that make up that breeze came from or where they are going to be an hour from now. You just know its there, right there, hitting you. And my friend, when a man is born again of the spirit of God, you can’t figure it out, you can’t calculate it out, you can’t strategize it out, and you can’t talk somebody into that happening, its the sovereign moving of the holy spirit of God on the hearts of men and women. Paul said, the spirit revealed this truth that Jesus is God’s Son and he’s the Savior of the world, and that’s why we stand on it, we got it from the spirit who got it from the heart of God. And my friend, that’s all the authority you need, something that came form the heart of God Almighty. We don’t need to look to anybody else.

Now, in John 6:63, Jesus said: “it is the spirit that gives life,” he births that life and that illumination and that understanding in your heart so you now who Jesus really is. Now there’s something interesting in verse 11, the last, the last phrase. Let me read the whole thing again though. For who among men knows the thoughts of the man except the spirit of the man, which is in him. Now notice the spirit of the man is in him. In other words you can’t separate yourself from your spirit.

I mean, they are intertwined to make one being. Alright, that’s why the phrase “in him” is there. No one knows the heart of the man, except the spirit of the man that is in him. Now go to the end of it and he is going to talk about God and the holy spirit: “Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God,” but it doesn’t have the phrase that’s in him. Does it? No. You know why? The Holy Spirit is totally separate and is a different person from the Father. The Holy Spirit is not a component of who God is, he is God.

So God the Father is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God, God the Holy Spirit is not in God the Father, he is a separated personality, even though he understands and can search out the depths of God the Father’s heart, he’s a separate person. Well, you and I are different. We can’t separated our spirit from us, but God’s not separating anything off, there always has been God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. So here we see the both the deity of the spirit, the personality of the spirit right here in this passage. The deity of the Spirit is that he knows the thoughts and the innermost aspects of the heart of God and all of his wisdom, at the same time he’s a totally separate person.

Well, anyway, that’s just a side note. Now look at verse 12, we’re still talking about the fact that this is a revealed wisdom to believers. “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God”. Now his point is, Paul was writing and saying, I’m giving you teachings that came from the Holy Spirit of God, and it has nothing to do with the spirit of this age. Now here was the problem. These sharp guys in Corinth would listen to Paul preach and they would say, boy, he’s not very impressive, that puts me to sleep, that’s not very interesting, that doesn’t excite me very much, I’m going to go down there at the other end of the street, where they got that exciting church and that exciting preacher, that stirs me and makes me feel good.

What’s Paul’s point? If you are not looking for things that come from God, you are not going to like my preaching. You going to want something else. Because my preaching came from the Holy Spirit of God. And that is the source and the authority behind it. John 15:26 Jesus said: “the spirit will bear witness of me.” What’s the point? As you are saved, and as you walk with God, you will begin to understand in Paul’s words here the things freely given to you by God. Every day, ever week, every Sunday school class, every quiet time, ever preaching service, you are getting a better glimpse, better insight, better understanding of all that we have by having the wisdom of God, Jesus in us.

And it gets grander and grander and grander and more glorious and more glorious and more glorious every day down the road with him. Now, now you do have dry spells though don’t you? I have some. I wish I could say, boy, every time, I get the excitement and the insight that I had today in the word of God. Sometimes you know, sometimes when I’m preparing a sermon, I go hour after hour after hour after hour and say, God, this just ain’t working. And then some times in the ninth hour, boom, it will just be birthed in my heart from the book.

And that’s that journey, but you only get it if the Holy Spirit is living in you and gradually from this book, revealing all the treasures and the glories of having Jesus, God’s wisdom, in your life. Verse 13. Still talking about it has to be revealed to you. Paul says, “which things we also speak.” He says, now I’m speaking things the spirit has revealed to me. Not in words taught by human wisdom, I didn’t go to the intellectual center of Corinth and down at the university there in Corinth and ask those guys if my teaching made sense to them. No. He said, but those taught by the spirit combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

I believe that speaks of Paul’s verbal inspiration. In other words, Paul is, the apostle, was authorized and commissioned by the Holy Spirit of God to pen holy scripture, to give us these truths, as the Holy Spirit revealed them in his hearts, in his thoughts, and then he put them into words. So therefore, Paul is saying, the words I’m speaking to you, the words I’m writing to you are the spiritual words that come from the spiritual thoughts that were birthed in me by the Holy Spirit of God. So he’s claiming authority for the words he’s speaking. We call that verbal inspiration. So it means, in as, we have scripture, we are not talking the thoughts of the Bible are inspired, or the principles of the Bible inspired, its greater than that, the words of scripture are inspired. Verbal inspiration.

Now, notice the last thing here. First of all, Christ the wisdom of God is true wisdom to those who are saved. Its a hidden wisdom to those who are unsaved, they can’t see it and they don’t get it. Its a revealed wisdom to the believer. If we see it its because its been revealed to us, nothing good on our part. And then finally he says, its a rejected wisdom by the unbeliever. He begins this in verse 14: “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Now here’s Paul’s point. You know why they reject my preaching, Paul is saying, is because they are unregenerate in their hearts. Or, you could include they are saved, but they are badly back slidden.

Listen to me, listen to me carefully. I say this in love with I say it with exhortation. If you can sit under expository preaching, week after week after week, and the main thing on your mind is when can I get home, you are not regenerate of God. You are not regenerate. You cannot have the Holy Spirit of God in you and have a dead heart to this word. You can’t do it. Paul’s point was, you know why those so called intellectuals criticized me and condemned me and ridiculed my teaching is because they are a natural man. And they don’t get it. They cannot understand it.

So what’s Paul’s point? They reject my message because they don’t have God working in them. They are not of God. Now we don’t want to try to make things hard, or try to make things deep, to keep people from understanding, but we must stay true to the message of the book.

And folks, if its hard to a lot of people, its hard because they are unregenerate. They do not have the holy spirit illuminating their thought processes, so they can receive the word of God. Now he goes on there, in verse 14, he said, this natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them. That’s why folks, a whole lot of what’s going on today to make the gospel understandable to the masses, and how to communicate the gospel to the baby boomers, and how to communicate the gospel to the busters, and how to communicate the gospel to generation x, most of that is a bunch of bologna.

In love and in genuineness and in realness, give them the truth of the gospel. Baby boomers are lost sinners that need to repent and be saved. Baby busters are lost sinners that need to repent and believe and be saved, generation x they are lost folks, they need to repent and be saved. Preach Jesus, give them the gospel, let the Holy Spirit bring to them the understanding. Listen to me, if you’ve got to toil with and tamper with and water down and change around the gospel, to make it acceptable, its no longer the true gospel of God and the true wisdom of God. Stay with the old message of the book. Let God work with it, let God use it.

Now, he says, they cannot understand them, last phrase verse 14, “because they are spiritually appraised”. That word appraised can be translated examined. Spiritually examined. Now in other words, as a matter of fact, Paul uses this word, appraised or examined ten times, which leads us to believe it was probably a catchword used by his critics. So he’s saying, man, when, when they examine my teachings, they don’t get it because they, they’re natural and they’re spiritual. They are unregenerate men, and women. And what we find here is that a lot of folks don’t get it because they don’t have the ability to appraise what it is.

Its like when I was trying to put a little speaker that attaches to my car phone, I was trying to mount it up under the dash of my car, and I found just the screw that I wanted to mount that speaker on to. And it was one of these nut headed screws. I think a nut made those things. I know I didn’t even know what you called it, I just now got a regular screwdriver and it didn’t work, and I felt up under there and it felt like a nut. And so, I, you couldn’t get any kind of wrench or any kind of wire pliers so I got out my little ratchet set. And I got up under there and I put one ratchet up under there and it was too small.

And then I got the next size larger ratchet, it was too big. So I went back and tried that it was too small, tried that, it was too big. I thought, now wait a minute. Why in the world won’t this thing work, why won’t it fit, I spent hours wondering about that. And finally it hit me. This is an American made car, but its got a metric nut headed screw in it. Its not standard, it metric. I went down to Walmart, I found me a $16.95 dollar set of metric ratchet sets. I got out one of those ratchets, I put it on, it fit perfectly, and I pulled that rascal right out and put my speaker on and put it right back in.

But you see, I was not equipped, the equipment I had wouldn’t fit a metric nut screw. And that’s the way it is. When you speak and preach spiritual truths to a natural man. He don’t have anything to connect with it. It don’t fit with him. He can’t appraise it, he can’t examine it. And my friend, he don’t even know if it is. Are you with me? He’s not even sure spiritual realities are there. Listen, ever unbeliever is basically a practicing atheist. He may claim not to be, but he is. He, I mean, the way he lives his life, he’s not even sure God is.

And if he comes to the conclusion that God is, he don’t know what he is. I mean, he can’t, he’s totally out of the ball game. Stop trying to make spiritual truth acceptable to a natural unspiritual world, they will not get it. Don’t expect them to get it. They can’t get it, they won’t understand it, its foreign to them.

Now look at verse 15: “But he who is spiritual appraises all things.” But he says, now you take a man whose been born again, and he begins having the ability to examine and evaluate everything.

You see, the lost man cannot reach a right judgement on common things, because he lacks the ability to understand the true meaning of the purpose behind the common things. But the saved man can. Let me give you a few examples. Let’s just take what man is. That’s a pretty common thing, a lot of men here tonight. If you say, what is man. Now, a lost man will look at you and say, and just philosophize all over the world and back. Not sure what man is, what his purpose, but a saved man begins not only to intellectual know it, but to accept in his heart as truth that man is a creature which special sanctity because he’s made in the image of God, his creator.

And man has fallen into sin and broken the fellowship with his creator. And through Jesus Christ, man can be reunited with God and begin to become more like the creature that God created him to be, so therefore man’s purpose is to be more like his Creator and bring his Creator more glory. Now listen folks, a lost man don’t get that. You explain that all you want. What about marriage? You ask the lost couple, well, what’s marriage. Well, we just want companionship, we want love, here they go floating off in the ozone.

But you ask a believer whose been in the book and he understands not just intellectually, but in his heart, he knows marriage means its a picture of the groom being a picture of Jesus, the bride being a picture of the church, and we’re forming a covenant relationship to honor God and his truths, so that our marriage can be a picture of Christ and his church to this lost world. And you can go on, what about abortion. Why does the lost world, why is abortion so acceptable to the lost world. Because its a spiritual truth that says there’s special value to human life. Carnal man doesn’t get that.

Now they are talking about assisted suicide, same concept. And they talk about human sexuality, well, what’s the natural man’s response to sexuality, well, they going to do it anyway, just be safe, have safe sex, and its all okay. Every show you look at, everything that comes on, I mean, that’s basically their conclusion. They are not going to understand. Now we can go out here and march all we want, and picket all we want, and protest all we want, but you are not going to cause a natural man to believe in the spiritual truths we hold.

Now that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be involved in the political process, Christians should be involved. But the point I’m making folks, the answer is not out there in the political process, the answer is not out there in all the political Christian movements I’m for them, I’ve even been members of them, I encourage it, I’ll preach truth against the errors in the political and in the government of, that’s our place, but the answer is not there, because you cannot change a natural man to understand and receive spiritual truth.

The key answer is for us being the truest church we can possibly be, using our spiritual gifts to build one another, grow one another, win most lost people, use our resources to, to expand our facilities and share the gospel around the world, and the more we do that, the more God will use us as his vehicle to birth the truth in the hearts of men, and bring them to Christ and then they will understand the truths of God. It will always happen thought in that order. The spiritual man can’t see things through. Have you ever noticed that, how, how a godly person, they are born again and they are maturing in their faith, they got discernment, they can see through things, and listen, there are some Christians, that when you walk up, they can see right through you.

They are not being judgmental or arrogant, they just can see to the core. Lost men can’t do that. Did you know it. I remember when Manley Beasley was here, how many of ya’ll remember Manley Beasley when he was here. Boy, a man of God. Wow. Manley Beasley had seven diseases that should have killed him.

And I remember asking Manley Beasley about a certain ministry, I think I saw it on TV or something. And immediately when I mentioned that ministry, you know what Manley said. He said, its soulish. Its soulish. What does soul mean. It means the natural man. Manley said, the moment I look at that stuff, I can tell its got all of the religious garb on the outside, but its of man on the inside. The spiritual man can see through to the core. Boy, it just, because that’s what I sensed, but when Manley said it, I said, hallelujah, I knew I was right.

You know. Bless God, I knew I was, you know, you’ve got to be careful when you think you are discerning something, because you can be wrong. But if you’ll hang on to it and keep your mouth shut and keep studying, pretty soon God will just nail it down. Now look at verse 16: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him.” Now here’s Paul’s point. When these guys pop up and they criticize you young person, because you believe that being abstinent and your sexuality until marriage is the most honorable thing and the most profitable thing and the most blessed thing to do and you are ridiculed, listen, when they ridicule for what God says is my clear teachings, here’s what they are doing.

They are setting themselves up to say, I can critique and criticize the God of heaven. I’m smarter than the God of heaven. And Paul is saying, when I stand up before you and I preach Jesus and him crucified as the wisdom of God, and these other guys stand up and criticize that message you know what they are saying. They are saying, we put ourselves in the position to critique, the God of heaven and his message. THAT’s what he’s saying there in that last verse. That’s exactly what it means when Paul says: “for who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him.”

He said, who are you Christian, listen, child of God, who are you going to allow to stand up and intimidate you and put you down and make you waffle and make you capitulate and make you compromise the truth of God. If you look them eyeball to eyeball and in the love of Jesus say, who do you think you are, construct the mind of God, that’s where these convictions came from. Stand like a rock. Paul said, I’m not moving from my message, no matter what the influential, intelligentsia elite of Corinth think about me and think about my message, it came from God and who are they to say they can instruct and critique and correct God.

That’s the point he’s making. Don’t be ashamed, don’t be afraid of your convictions, don’t be ashamed of what’s right and wrong, good or bad, according to the word of God. Let’s stand on it, it came from God. And we ought to be confident in that. Because if we have the mind of Christ, that just basically means we are saved, it doesn’t mean we fully understand all the mind of Christ, but we have the mind of Christ, and we know it is the mind of Christ, we know it came form God. Now he’s saying, if we have the mind of Christ, then to criticize our convictions and our teachings is to criticize our master.

We should not back down. you may say, well brother Jeff, if other wisdom, the wisdom of the ages, or the wisdom of this world is foolishness, then should we even go to school? I mean, should we study to be doctors, or scientists. Yes. Absolutely yes. But when you go to school you take the immovable rock foundation of Jesus Christ, and you lay that foundation of Jesus and the clear absolutes of this book, and you say, okay, everything I learn here at this medical school or whatever else, I’ll build it in harmony with this book, if it compromises this book, I’ll kick it out.

You see, wherever you go to school today, you’ve got to take a pitch fork and a rake. You can rake some in, but you have to pitch some others back out. And so you go and you be that scientists you be that doctor, you be that lawyers, you be all of those things, but you take the rock of Christ as the foundation and then build knowledge on the wisdom of Jesus. Because if its not built on the wisdom of Jesus or if it contradicts the wisdom of Jesus, its not good or true knowledge.

You see, to the believer, the one who knows true wisdom, to the believing anthropologist, he’s the Creator who made man in his own image. To the believing archeologist he’s the ancient of days. To the believing astronomer, he’s the bright and morning star. To the believing biologist he’s the source and sustainer of life. To the believing ecologists, he’s the one who holds all things together by the word of his power. To the believing geologists he’s the rock of ages. To the believing oceanologist he’s the water of life. To the believing psychologist he’s the wonderful counselor. To the believing sociologist, he is the prince of peace. To the believing military scientist, he’s the mighty warrior and the captain of the Lord’s host. To the believer zoologists, he’s the lamb of God and the lion of the tribe of Judah. To the believing criminologist, he is the judge at the great white throne. To the believing botanist, he’s the lily of the valley and the rose of Sharon. And to the believing medical scientist, he is the great physician. Yes, you can be all of those things, but the center and the foundation is Jesus Christ. The wisdom of God.

Don’t let anybody ridicule you, don’t let anybody intimidate you, don’t even let anybody back you down or push you into compromise, because we have the mind of Christ. It came from God it was penned by Paul and the Holy Spirit interprets it and reveals it to us, let’s stand, let’s stand on Christ, the wisdom of God.