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Return in your Bibles. Please do First Corinthians
chapter 2. We will be finishing First
Corinthians chapter #2 here tonight by the Lord's grace.
And we are going to continue our discussion, a very multifaceted
discussion the last few weeks about wisdom.
And really, can you talk enough about wisdom?
I mean, when you consider that there was a whole book of
wisdom, the book of Proverbs, 31 chapters from start to finish, I
don't think we can look enough at this issue of wisdom.
But so far, wisdom has been the topic of the day in First
Corinthians. And why not?
Because we're going to find out, especially once we get into
chapter #3 how carnal these people are in Corinth.
We've got a little bit of a taste of it in chapter #1 by how
divided they were, that they were in these factions, they
were in these camps. But we're going to see even more
so that they needed the wisdom of God in a very real way.
And last week we saw that the Holy Spirit is the key to
unlocking the door of wisdom, and that humility towards God
and a love God are the requirements to use that key.
If you want wisdom, you need the Holy Spirit.
But to be able to have the Holy Spirit's efficacy and power in
your life, you need to have some humility and you need to have a
love for God. Because a believer who doesn't
love God as they should won't utilize the Spirit because they
don't cherish Him as they ought to.
And a believer who's proud that doesn't love God is proud in
their spirit. Well, they won't be humble
enough to listen to the Spirit. So we saw last week that the
Holy Spirit is the key to wisdom.
But you got to be humble and you have to love the Lord as you
ought. But even as we've been talking
about wisdom for the last few weeks and really this idea, you
know, that we need wisdom in our lives.
I mean, I don't know anyone I'd argue with or well, I should say
anyone I would talk with. You know, as Baptist preachers,
we want to argue with everybody. But, you know, I don't know
anybody that I would talk to if I said, hey, you ought to get
wisdom, that they would say, no, no, you shouldn't get wisdom.
I mean, I think everybody saved and unsaved would agree you need
wisdom. I think we all here would agree.
We've been talking about wisdom the last few weeks, pastor.
We know we need to get wisdom. But yet, you know, the issue
about saying that we need wisdom, it's not very definite.
You know, it's, it's like we need it, But what does that
mean? And what does that mean to me?
What does it look like? Why do I need it?
It's kind of like if someone says, you know, you ought to eat
right, it's like, OK, you ought to eat right.
But you know, can I eat right in the drive through at McDonald's?
I mean, I think so. But well, that's that's probably
why I shouldn't be your dietitian.
I should just be your preacher. Amen.
But you know, but if you were to say eat right, you know that,
OK, that's good, but what does that mean?
You know, maybe you could summarize it by saying or maybe
further clarifying it by saying eat right for your health.
OK, that that helps us a little bit understand it more.
Or how about this in my situation and maybe others who
have a family members who have been cardiac patients, eat right
so you don't have a heart attack.
Well, that all puts a fine point on it, doesn't it?
Because if I just think about eating right, I may not eat
right. I'll tell you this.
When I think of my father, who was 38 years old, who was 185
lbs and was as fit as could be, and he had a heart attack, it
makes me think about what I eat. You know, understanding that
very specificity of what that means changes the way that I
act. So, yeah, we need wisdom.
But what does that mean? What does that look like?
How does that manifest itself? And so here in the last verses
of chapter #2 Paul's going to give us some very specific
things that we need to know about this issue of wisdom.
And he gives us what I would call the wise of wisdom.
He gives us three wise of wisdom.
And what we're going to see tonight is that only a person
who is acting the fool would willfully neglect the gift of
wisdom. Only a person who is acting the
fool would willfully neglect the gift of wisdom.
So we're going to start in first number 11 here in Second
Corinthians chapter #2 So let's read from verse 11 to the end of
the chapter. It says for what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of a man, which is in him.
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of
God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we
might know the things which are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man received not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. He that is spiritual judgeth all
things, yet he himself is judged of no man for who has known the
mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him.
But we have the mind of Christ. Well, there's a lot of themes
that come up over and over those verses, aren't they?
The issue of the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost,
judgment, spiritual judgment, the mind of Christ, these are
things that are mentioned to us. But in these verses, as we see
these words and these phrases, we see some wise about this
issue of wisdom. And really, there's three things
that I want us to look at tonight.
And you can write these on the back of your prayer bulletin as
we go along. So what are the whys of wisdom?
Why do we need wisdom? Well, first of all #1 it's
because we need to know, say, well, we need to know what.
And the answer is we need to know stuff.
I don't know about you, but there's a lot.
You didn't think you'd get that as an answer in a sermon, did
you? Stuff right?
But we need to know a lot of things in this life, don't we?
And where do we get the answer to those things?
Well, Paul starts verse #11 with a comparison to help us better
understand the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of the
Spirit in our lives. So look at verse #11 It says for
what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which
is in him. Even so, the things of God
knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
That may sound like a little bit of circular reasoning there, and
what exactly is going on, but there's a very clear point
that's being made there. Listen, can I know your
innermost thoughts? The answer is no.
And by the way, aren't you glad your pastor doesn't know your
innermost thoughts? Amen.
But there's another part of that I'm sure glad you don't know the
pastors innermost thoughts. It works both ways, friend.
I don't want to know. You don't want to know.
Look, we can't know each other's innermost thoughts when we look
at animals, perhaps even our pets, we may think we know what
our pet is thinking, but we really don't know what our pet
is thinking. I was holding Toby, which I
think maybe everyone around here knows Cali and Toby.
Anyone ever heard of him? But holding Toby and I was just
remember just just petting him and I kind of hold him like a
baby just kind of in my arms. And I was petting him and he was
just purring. And he just, you know, cats
can't smile, but you know, they kind of had that look.
You feel like they're smiling at you.
And he was really close to my face.
And it was just really this loving moment.
And the next thing I knew, he batted me in the face and hissed
at me. It's like I thought I thought we
had a connection, man. I thought we were having a
moment. And all of a sudden I thought I
knew what he was thinking and he didn't.
And he knew what I was thinking very quickly as I blew in his
face and he ran off. He jumped out of my, my, my arms
and ran off. And we had we, you know, we, we,
we got over it. We're good now.
Thank the Lord we patched it up. But you know, I don't know what
you're thinking. You don't know what I'm
thinking. You know, I don't, I don't know
what an animal, you know, the only entity of which I know it's
innermost thoughts. It is me.
Only I can know my innermost thoughts.
And even sometimes that's a struggle, isn't it?
We'll talk about that in a minute.
But, but if anyone is to know their own thoughts, it would be
myself. You can't know my thoughts and I
can't know your thoughts. So the comparison that's being
made here is if someone is to know their thoughts, it would be
the spirit of the person. The Spirit of Adam knows the
thoughts of Adam. The spirit of Tim knows the
thoughts of Tim. The spirit of Kaylee knows the
thoughts of Kaylee. But here's the issue.
If you want to know the thoughts of God, where do you go?
You go to the Spirit of God, that the Spirit of God, and
we're getting there in just a moment, but the Spirit of God is
the one who reveals the very thoughts of God and Amen,
because we can't figure that out on our own.
Who? Who could have think of the
thoughts of God? Who could know the thoughts of
God? They're unattainable for us.
But yet it's the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you.
If you're saved, it's the Holy Spirit who lives inside of me
that that same Holy Spirit can discern and has the very
thoughts of God and is able to help us understand God more.
The Spirit of God is the only revealer of the thoughts of God
in the same way that your spirit is the only revealer of your
thoughts. And you might say, well, what
about the Word of God? We'll get to that in just a
moment because where did the word of God come from?
It came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, didn't it?
So even through the Scriptures that we have, and we'll talk
more about that in just a second.
And by the way, all of this, This is why I would say that
receiving counsel and biblical counsel is so important because
you know, I don't know what you're thinking, but only you
do. And so having counsel sometimes
and being able to talk to someone about the issues of
life, that other person is able to bring Scripture and to bring
the Spirit to you in the sense that to bring the Illuminum of
the word of God into your life so you can better understand
your own thoughts. Because listen, we may be the
best people who know us, but we don't always know us like we
should. Should we?
Just like sometimes you say, you know, I feel down well, why I
don't know, I'm struggling, why? I don't know, man, I'm happy.
Why? I don't know, I'm just happy
today. You know, sometimes we struggle
even in those areas trying to articulate these things, but yet
the Holy Spirit is the one that helps us to get that which we
need to know. Now why is this so important?
Well, verse 12 gives us the explanation.
It says now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God. Now why?
That we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. So God has given us some things
freely and He wants us to know about these things.
Well, how do we know about these things?
We know about them because of the Spirit.
Where's the 1st place that we could consider that to be the
case? Salvation.
Is salvation a free gift? Yes, it is salvation by grace
through faith. How do we know about salvation?
Well, it's the Spirit who draws us.
It's the Spirit who woos us. It's the Spirit who says, hey,
what that preacher saying you need to listen because you need
to accept the gospel message? No, I remember all the messages
that I heard at Westgate Baptist Church from the youth were
there. And I remember over and over,
particularly as it got closer to the place where I was, I was so
confused about being a Lutheran and what it meant to be born
again. But I remember the Holy Spirit
just working in my heart that it wasn't some other entity.
It wasn't just my own thought process, but it was the Holy
Spirit saying this Adam, you need to get saved.
Romans 816 the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit
that we are the children of God. It is the Holy Spirit that uses
the word of God and we're going to see this theme constantly
through here that the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to
be able to help you to understand you need to be saved.
But I would also say this that when it comes this issue of the
Spirit giving us understanding of the things that are freely
given to us of God, It's not just of salvation.
I would also say this, it's about everything else.
There's a lot of things to know about in the Christian life,
aren't there? There's a lot of things to grow
in. You say, pastor, I've pretty
much I've attained you know what I need.
I've I've done pretty well over the years.
I would say you've got a lot more to learn if you think
that's the case, because I would tell you, the more I get in this
word, the more I realize, the more I need to get in this word.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
The more I learn about the Lord, the more I realize, the more I
want to learn about the Lord. It's not like you get to the
place you say, you know what, I'm pretty satisfied with this.
You know, you read a novel, maybe you read it 20 times.
You could probably get pretty bored.
You could read the word of God once a year for the rest of your
life. And not only would you never get
bored, but you would be constantly be helped.
You'll be encouraged. The perfect law of liberty, that
mirror is right in your face. And the word of God, You read
the Word of God, but the word of God reads you.
And how does that happen? It's because the Holy Spirit
wants to teach you things in your life.
I go back in my mind to second Peter chapter #1 you know, add
to your faith. Well, the verse is right before
it says according as His divine power.
I would say divine power would equate the Holy Spirit according
as His divine power hath given to us all things that pertain in
the life and godliness. Now you can go back in the
Greek, you know what that all things means, all things He's
given you, all things that pertain in the life and
godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to
glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises. That by these you might be
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith,
remember. And then we went through all of
those right there. Where does all of this process
come from that we can receive everything that we need?
Yes, everything that we need in the daily Christian life?
It comes by yielding ourselves to the Spirit who wants to teach
us these things because it's the Spirit of God who can reveal the
thoughts of God. You know, it makes me think of
Peter and John. You know, those guys didn't get
along. I don't know if you ever heard
about that, but they didn't get along very well, did they?
And then you get to Acts chapter 3, and the Holy Spirit is now in
the ministry of indwelling the believer.
And you can see the difference in the believers on the day of
Pentecost. And then Peter and John are
walking into the temple or towards the temple, and there's
a man who is lame. And he says, this lame man says,
you know, could I have some money?
And Peter says what I think is one of the great things that a
Baptist preacher could say, silver and gold have I none.
But he says, he says, silver and gold have I none.
But he says, but such as I have, I give thee rise up and walk.
And sure enough, he does. And of course, everyone
rejoiced. Well, everybody but the
religious elite, the Pharisees. And it ends up that Peter and
John get hauled in to the Pharisees.
Now, may I remind you these two guys were fishermen.
Now I'm looking around. I don't think anyone is a
professional fisherman that's here, but I would say at least
not tonight. But I think about this and, and
I, I understand that, that at that time, you're not talking
about the most elite of society, the most educated of society.
And here they are. They're standing in front of the
Sanhedrin and Peter is preaching.
You know, I'm not talking about putting his foot in his mouth
like he normally did. The man is preaching.
And listen what it says in Acts chapter 4, verse 13.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived
that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and
took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
Now have you and I been with Jesus in the way that Peter and
John have? No.
Do we get to walk for three years with Jesus?
We did not. But I would tell you this, the
Spirit of God, the Triune Godfather, Son and Holy Ghost,
the Spirit lives inside of you if you know Jesus Christ your
Savior. And you may be unlearned and
ignorant as far as this world believes, but listen, the Holy
Spirit can be your teacher and the Holy Spirit can be your
guide. You know, I want to be your
helper as your pastor. I do.
I mean, if I didn't, that wouldn't make me a very good
pastor, would it? I want to be able to help you in
the things of the Spirit. I want to be a help you in the
things of the Bible. I hope you ask me questions.
You have questions about the Bible or about what it means to
be able to be a disciple. And you know, we have
discipleship courses here that we go through.
I think all those things are important, but I want you to
understand this and I want you to listen to me, what I say
about this very, very carefully here tonight.
If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have the same access
to the truths of God as I do. So I've not been to Bible
college. That doesn't matter.
No, I mean, Bible college was important for me to be able to
go to, to be able to get the training that I need to learn
more about the Bible. Yes, I understand that and I'm
not discounting that. But what I'm saying is we've
been talking about this now for weeks, is that you have the very
wisdom of God Almighty at your doorstep.
If you will avail yourself of the Holy Spirit, He will speak
to you. He will teach you, He'll tell
you what you need to know. He is the one who will guide you
in all truth. We have the Spirit of God inside
of us. So while the world may think us
ignorant, we can know God in a real and intimate way.
Why? Because His Spirit that knows
him lives inside of us. That's incredible.
Now Peter and John speaking before Sanhedrin are a good
example of the next point as well, which is this.
It's that we don't just need to know, but the other why?
The second why of wisdom is this.
We need to speak. Look at verse #13 Paul says
this, which things also we speak not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. Now when he's talking about we,
we speak because first of all, we saw just a moment ago we know
that was what we saw in the previous verse, and that we
might know the things that are freely given.
And verse 13 says that we need to speak, or at least we talking
of Paul and his companions. What's exactly is he talking
about? Well, that goes back to verse
number one of the same chapter. So just go a page back.
You might not even need to do that.
It says in chapter 2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to
you, came not with Excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much
trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but the
demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
So he says, when I came to you and spoke, he's talking about
when I came to you and I spoke and I preached.
He says I came not in my own thought processes.
In fact, why would he not come in the world's thought process?
Well, if you jump over to chapter 3, verse 19, look at
this. It says for the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the
wise and their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
So going back to verse #12 now that we've kind of looked at the
bookends there, it says, now we or verse #13 which things also
we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth.
We just explained why that is, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth. And then it says comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. Now that's an interesting phrase
there, isn't it? Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual? Now it might seem a little bit
complex, but I think in the context of what Paul is talking
about in his preaching ministry, remember we saw that he's
referencing preaching earlier before.
I believe that what he's saying is that they're to take two
elements. Comparing spiritual things of
spiritual is taking the spirit inspired word and the spirit
induced wisdom from above and putting them together.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, comparing the word of
God, putting together the word of God and the Spirit of God,
that these go together because when Paul spoke, he used the
word of God and the Spirit of God.
I think that's clear in the context of what we see here.
Think of it this way. Now I have, I've sailed many,
many see in this area, in fact, well, OK, once last week, but
and, and we almost died. But, but I, I don't have to be
an expert to know this, that if you are going to sail, you
probably need a couple things as far as navigation.
You need a map or a chart, as you know, we in the business
call it. And you also need a compass.
Now, if you have a compass and no chart, you always know where
north is, but you don't know where to go.
If you have a chart and no compass, you know what the sea
looks like, but you don't know where you are in it.
Comparing spiritual with spiritual means this is that we
have the Word of God and the Spirit of God together and that
we are able to use them both to be able to get that which we
need. Paul says this, when I spoke it
was with the Spirit of God and the Word of God together.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, it was the spirit
inspired word and the spirit induced wisdom that comes from
above. And they came together because
listen, if you have the Spirit of God but yet not the word of
God, you were lacking, aren't you?
Because you can live with the Spirit of God within you, but if
you don't read your Bible, you're missing a lot of
direction that you need. And do you remember what it was
like before you got saved and you opened the Bible?
You had the word of God, but you looked at it and you might as
well have been reading a foreign language because it meant
nothing to you, because why the Spirit of God was not within you
to be able to help you to learn the words that were inspired
from the Spirit. And so it's the Spirit of God
and the word of God that come together.
Remember the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8?
He's reading Isaiah 53, the chapter that spoke of the
smitten Savior. And he, he looks at Philip and
Philip says, do you know what you're reading?
And he says, how can I unless someone explains to me he
couldn't understand it on his own, He needed a spirit filled
man explain it until the Holy Spirit said, Yep, that's you,
you need to get saved. And he saw water.
And he says what hinders me from being baptized?
And he says, well, if you believe in your heart and the
gospel message, then you can get baptized.
And that's what happened. Now let's bring this back to us
for a moment, because it, this is Paul talking of himself.
And we say that we need to speak.
But it really says that Paul is speaking here, right?
The we here. I can't twist the Scriptures
here when it says in verse #13 these things also we speak.
I don't believe he's talking about you and I along with him,
but I don't think it's much of A leap to say this.
If this was the way that Paul was commanded to speak, to speak
in a way that was honoring to the Word of God and to the
Spirit of God, then shouldn't we be speaking the same way in our
ministries? So in my ministry, no, no,
you're a pastor. Paul was a missionary.
I am neither, so this really doesn't apply to me at all.
And that may be true. You may not be a pastor, but you
are called to be a proclaimer of truth.
No, no, if you are part of a local church, it is your job to
be a proclaimer of truth. To who?
Well, one to a lost and dying world that needs a savior.
And how are you going to show them to get saved?
Well, it's because of the Spirit of God and the Word of God
comparing spiritual things of spiritual.
That's the only way that the lost is going to be saved.
You think you or I have ideas of how people can get saved on
their own? I said Sunday night that if the
world had ideas of how to redeem themselves, they would have done
it by now. But they're descending into
further chaos. You know, if we're going to win
the lost, what do we need? The Word of God and the wisdom
of God from the Holy Spirit. But I would say this, even
within our church, what do we need to do?
It's not just the preacher that preaches.
Each of our lives preach. We're interconnected.
First Corinthians chapter #12 says this.
We're a body that each of us play a part.
And yes, you here have to be someone who compares spiritual
things with spiritual, that you're willing to help one
another, give encouragement, love, even sometimes a gentle
and loving rebuke to be able to give what is needed.
Hebrews 1024 and 25, let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works. I think a lot of people just
hear that word provoke, and they just want to provoke each other.
That's what some churches are like.
They just provoke each other. But it says provoke.
I mean to prod unto what? To love and good works, and
that's why the next verse makes so much sense, not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day
approaching. You know, what I love about the
fact that people stay around here till, oh, dark 30 after
every service is that that's part of the ministry of people
just talking to one another, encouraging one another.
It's it's in some of those conversations that you might get
something that might last with you longer than what I preach
here tonight. Now, in my vanity, I'd like to
think that everything I say here tonight is going to last with
you forever. But I'm also not a fool.
And it could just be tonight. What you needed to hear was a
conversation that happened in the back at 8:45 more than what
came from this pulpit tonight. You know, I'm not diminishing
the preaching of the word of God, not at all.
But I'm saying this is that you have to be a proclaimer of truth
as well. God's called you to do that.
Why? With a spirit and the word.
James 516. Confess your faults one to
another. Pray for one another, that you
might be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of
a righteous man availeth much. Galatians 6-1 and two brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Bury one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Listen, if someone here is overtaken in the fault, the
first thing we ought to do is try to love them to correction
in the Word of God. Now, if correction is not
achievable, then there's other things that have to take place.
But it's our desire for correction always to be that
which is the goal. Well, how does that happen?
What happens when we all of 1 heart say this?
We're going to compare spiritual things with spiritual.
We need to speak. It's not just the pastor's job.
There's a public ministry that each and every one of us have,
and we should be able to speak wisdom one to another.
It can't just come from the pulpit.
Listen, giving counsel is a sign of spiritual maturity, that
you're able to give counsel to somebody.
But I will say before you get too far down that road, if
you're able to give counsel, then you need to be able to
receive counsel because giving counsel is a sign of spiritual
maturity. But I would say even more so,
receiving counsel is a sign of spiritual maturity because yes,
you might be able to help someone else, but know this,
they might be able to help you or someone else may be able to
help you. And I do need to say we need to
be careful with this. We can't be puffed up with
pride. I'm the church corrector.
You know that that may be fine. Your spiritual gift may be to be
the judge, the church's judge, jury and executioner.
That might be what you think. But I will say this, when you
have the right spirit, you understand you're not looking
for a reason to go and correct other people.
In fact, you're committing other people to prayer 1st and you're
asking the Lord how he can use you in that process.
And when you do so, you it's done so in humility.
But we need to speak. And when we do so why with the
Spirit of God and the Word of God together?
Well, God couldn't use me for that.
My, my question would be this, Why?
Well, I've done things in my past.
I'm pretty sure all of us have a past.
If you didn't have a past, then you wouldn't need to be saved.
Well, God couldn't use me for that.
Well, and I understand. Listen, if you have a past, you
may need to be a little bit circumspect about your, your
past and, and you don't want to show that you, you know so much
more. But doesn't that go back to the
issue of pride, having humility? And where do you get wisdom
from? Remember, there is no wisdom
without humility because you won't listen to the Spirit.
So it all goes together. But talking about being a judge,
jury and executioner, that also brings us to #3 tonight, which
is this number one, we need to know #2 we need to speak #3 we
need to judge. This is where people get a
little bit uptight. Oh, pastor, the Bible says don't
judge. Don't you know the Bible says
don't judge. And I'll tell you this, there
are a lot of people who don't know a lot about the Bible, but
they will tell you this. The Bible says don't judge.
They don't know John 316, but they say, don't judge.
Hey, you don't judge. Don't you know that?
Bible says don't judge? They even probably know it's in
Matthew Chapter 7. And what they've done is they've
taken a list of about 8 verses, scrabbled, scribbled everything
out around it, and all they left was 2 words.
Judge not and don't know the context or anything that goes
along with that. Matthew Chapter 7 is one of the
most misquoted passages of scripture.
You realize judgment is needed in every area of life.
In fact, if you don't have judgment, I worry for you.
You have exercised judgment today multiple times.
When you reached in the fridge this morning and you saw that
that milk said July 30th on it. And you know what you did?
You kind of looked at it from the outside, swirled it around
to see if there's any cottage cheese forming inside.
You sniffed it. If you have a kid, you say, hey,
Peyton, taste this. You know, you know, you know,
that's judgment. You see what I'm saying?
Listen, that's judgment, all right?
But no, you take all of the data and you say, OK, this is all
right. You say, well, do I want to
purchase this or not? And you check other places to
see what the prices are at different stores.
Do I buy it online? Do I buy it in person?
Do I even need this in the 1st place?
That's exercising judgment. Hey, do I trust this person or
not? This person has betrayed a trust
in the past. Can I trust them?
Again, we're not talking about forgiving.
I'm talking about can I trust them with something precious or
deep that takes judgment. If you don't use judgment,
you're a fool. So when the Bible says judge
not, it's not talking about not using judgment.
That what's cond, what's condemned in the Bible is
hypocritical judgment that comes from a prideful heart.
Hypocritical judgment that comes from a heart of pride.
John 724 says judge not according to appearance, but
judge. Righteous judgment.
John 816 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not
alone, but I and the Father that sent me.
Jesus says I judge now He came not for judgment.
He actually says that later in the sense that his goal would
come to his earthly ministry was to seek and to save that which
was lost. But Jesus Christ is the
righteous judge and so we have to in having the mind of Christ,
doesn't that isn't that what it says at the end of the chapter,
to have the mind of Christ? If we have to have or we are
able to have the mind of Christ, what do we need to do?
We have to judge righteously. Not that we are someone's judge,
jury and executioner, but we need to understand some things
in life. But getting back to these
verses, because I think this is where we really need to drill
down here, this issue of judging.
Look at verse #14 But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
And that's what we're talking about.
A few moments ago you would have sat in a church service before
you got saved and before the Holy Spirit started working your
heart. And you thought these people are
crazy. And then you come here and you
say, man, this is like home. Well, what changed?
Did they change? No, you changed.
The Holy Spirit changed in your life.
You read the Bible before and again, it could have been in
Greek, Hebrew or English and you would have known the difference.
You got saved. You started to understand some
things in the Word of God. That's the Spirit.
Look at verse 15. But he that is, He is spiritual,
judgeth all things, yet He himself is judged of no man.
So when we say that we need to judge, the Word is used at the
last word of verse 14, and then it's continued on into verse
415. And the issue is this
discernment, discernment, judgment is needed to be able to
have discernment. And it says he that a spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
A spiritual person can discern truth through the Spirit, but
the unregenerate cannot judge the believers understanding.
See, we as believers are able to see the full picture in this
world because of the Spirit. But the people who are unsaved
cannot understand who we are. It's like being on the outside
looking in. I'll put it to you this way.
Before you got saved, let's say you used to go to the bar room
and it was just a place where people were happy.
They're joyful frivolity. It was good camaraderie.
You know, that's what it was. But you know, once you're saved,
you start to see past all that, don't you?
And you see a lot of other things.
You see sadness, you see people that maybe don't have friends,
and that's the only place that they have any kind of friends
whatsoever. You see lust, you see vanity,
you hear cursing that you never heard before.
The people used to talk like that here.
Yeah, they always did. I'll put it to you this way, in
a way that you may be understanding more.
You ever watch a movie before you got saved?
And he said, but it's a family movie.
Oh, this is great. And then after you got saved,
maybe got right with the Lord, started doing some things and
discipled a little bit, you watch that same movie and all of
a sudden you were cringing 10 minutes in.
You said this was in here. Who?
Who put this stuff in the movie? Since the last time I watched
it, It's the same movie. Hey, the movie didn't change.
You did. Holy Spirit lives inside of you.
So what it's being said here the spiritual can judge all things
meaning this, that we understand the realm of the spiritual, but
now we have clarity of the realm of the unsaved that we didn't
have before. But the unsaved, it says here
the unsaved himself is judge of no man meaning this.
The unsaved look at us. They don't get it.
They don't get why we go to church all the time.
They don't get why we would give money in the offering.
They don't get why we'd support missionaries.
They don't get why we would have special meetings where we might
go to church multiple times in a week.
They don't understand why I'd have a back to school bash and
not really want anything from anybody.
And we're not even campaigning. We're not really getting
donations at the door or anything.
We just want to meet people and tell people, but they don't get
it. In fact, we will have people
that will come here next week and they're they're waiting for
the other shoe to drop. They're just waiting for for the
hook, like, OK, yeah, we'll get the book.
It's the supplies. But what, you, you, you need
blood. You want Social Security number?
You need my tax returns. And the answer is yes, we do
need all of those. No, that's not true.
They can't understand that. We just want to minister to
people because that's what Jesus Christ does.
And we want to see people saved because that's what God's called
us to do. So what I love about this first
is this, do you realize now you get the whole picture that
you're saved? You have discernment.
You see what the old way of life was and you say, hey, that
wasn't so fun. The good old days weren't so
good. All that fun wasn't so fun.
I think of all the the laughter and the joy I had.
But now I remember there was a lot of crying when I got home
and a lot of things I don't remember because of what
happened. How does that happen?
It's a spirit. The Spirit helps us to judge, to
discern the things of our life. We have to in essence, as it
says in verse 16, for with known the mind of the Lord, that He
may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ
and actually goes back to Isaiah chapter 40 verse #13 hearkening
back to the Old Testament. But we are to have the judgment
of the mind of Christ. Did Jesus Christ have
discernment? You better believe it.
That's why He did not sin, Because He discerned between the
right and the wrong, and that we with the mind of Christ can do
the same. Now listen.
Why do we need this discernment? Why is it so important that we
listen to the Spirit? Because we've only really looked
at 2 spheres so far, haven't we? We've looked at the regenerate
and the unregenerate, the saved and the unsaved, but Paul is
going to open up a new theater of battle, if you will, here in
chapter 3 verse one. Now we're going to get a taste
of this and we'll get into it next week.
But look at what it says this. And I brethren, could not speak
unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes
in Christ. You know what he's going to go
on and say? He said, I want to share some of
this wisdom with you, but I couldn't because you are too
much like the world. Do you like this tonight?
Do you want this gift? It's available, but it's because
of pride. If it's because you don't love
God as you should, it's because you're carnal.
Listen, you're not able to access these things as you want.
You lose the judgment that you need.
That's why even Christians who have backslidden, they make
decisions and they justify them in ways that they're twisting
the Bible into a pretzel. But to them, it makes sense.
Why? Because they stopped listening
to the Spirit. Oh, the Spirit still lives
inside of them. Don't be wrong.
We're not messing up with our theology there.
But they stopped listening to the Spirit.
And that's why the Bible says quench not the Spirit.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5. These are some amazing gifts.
These are the whys of wisdom. Why do we need wisdom?
Because we need to know. We need to know stuff.
Where are you going to get that from the Spirit?
Because we need to speak. God's called us to be ministers
of grace. And so how do we do we need to
speak comparing spiritual things, spiritual and we need to
judge. We need to have some
discernment. And there's a, it's a complex
world we live in and how do we navigate the complexities?
It's the Spirit. But here's what's amazing to me.
You have all of these gifts at the ready.
But here's the problem. Oftentimes we lean far too much
on others and not on the Spirit. Listen, will you have a problem?
Where's the 1st place you need to go to the Lord in prayer?
Well, I'll call the pastor. You can call me.
Make sure you call the Lord first.
I'm not trying to be flippant how I say that, but you
understand what I'm saying. You talk to the Lord first.
Why? Because if you come to me and I
ask you about it and you say, well I haven't really talked to
the Lord about it first and say I'll meet with you next week, in
the meantime you get with the Lord.
Why? Because I'm not your priest.
You remember that we, we will Baptist were never part of that
in the 1st place, but the priest had to be in the way of God.
There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Thank the Lord you have this gift.
Use it. These are the whys.
Who doesn't need these things? We need them till we get to
glory and the Spirit is inside of us.
I'll use this example and I'm done.
Imagine for a moment this is totally imaginary.
Just want to make this very clear.
Imagine that. I got a call this afternoon from
a bank in Boston and I had an inheritance I knew nothing of, a
family member that I didn't know that just passed away.
And they had bequeathed to me $50 million.
Could you imagine that? I would only have to, I could
only imagine it because it wouldn't happen.
But I made it $50 million. And they told me that it was at
the bank, this bank, large bank, downtown Boston.
And I'm about to get off the phone.
I'm about to tell Diane. And I look at her and she's,
she's working on ironically, some of our finances and she's
looking at the budget and it's, you know, it's tight.
In fact, we're, we're pinching pennies just to be able to make
it. Again, this is theoretical.
Just to be clear, I'm not, it's not a call for, you know,
donations or anything for the pastor.
I just want to make clear, but there's a serious part to this.
I just found out I have the answer to everything that we
need, in essence, an unlimited supply.
Now we know that's not true, but in general, I mean, it'll be
fine. And she says, I explained to
her, I just got this call $50 million.
And she says, are you kidding? This is great.
This fixes our budget. This fixes everything.
This is everything. I don't even need to worry about
this anymore. She closed the laptop.
She's not even counting the pennies anymore.
It's like everything said, listen, before you get carried
away. I mean, it's in the middle of
Boston. I mean, who wants to drive down
there? I probably have to pay to park.
It's probably 50 bucks. I'm going to go in.
Is it probably got one of those lines.
You know, they, they probably have those, it looks like you're
going to Disney World. You know, just keep going back
and forth. There's still some banks that
have those lines. You know, you just keep going
back and forth and back and forth and it just I probably
have to wait there an hour or two.
You know, they told me when I get there, I have to have my ID
and I had to give a fingerprint to be able to identify who I am.
It's, I'll be honest with you. I mean, it's great and all, but
it's, it's, it's going to be a lot of work.
And I'd probably just, you know, we're, we're probably, I mean,
we're making it now, right? I mean, we're making it
according to what you're saying. We're making it.
I mean, sure, it's tight, but we're making.
And you're looking at me the way that you ought to be looking at
me because that's ludicrous. But a lot of you live like that,
and your pastor lives like that too, sometimes that you have
something greater than $50 million deposited in your
account. You have the Holy Spirit who
lives inside of you, and we've got every excuse of the book not
to be able to avail ourselves to his wisdom.
And you've got a treasure that is unspeakable in earthen
vessels. The Bible says in this body, why
would you not utilize him? Could it be because you're too
comfortable in your sin and you'd rather not speak to a Holy
Spirit? And I don't mean to speak to him
as audibly, but you understand what I'm saying is that you
don't want to avail yourself to him because he's holy and you're
very comfortable in your carnal sin.
It's a problem. Comfortable in your own ways,
your own thought processes. You just, you just don't think
it's possible. Maybe you don't trust Him
enough. Listen, he's good for it.
You can trust Him. Avail yourself.
These are the wise of wisdom. These and infinitely more are
brought to you by the God of heaven.
Avail yourself to the greatest treasure you could ever imagine,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory and His Spirit.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.