Dear brothers and sisters, as we recite together the Westminster Shorter Catechism for our Confession of Faith, please look at page 970 in your new Trinity Psalter Hymnals, or if you have the old red one, you could look at page 871. It's also printed there in your email. So together, we'll recite the Confession of Faith. I'll read the question. I would like for you to try to read together the answer Christians, what do you believe? What is effectual calling? Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel. And for the preaching of God's Word, let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I'll be reading the entire chapter, but keep in mind that the preaching of the Word will primarily come from verses 7 to the end of the chapter. So let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, starting at verse 1. And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. 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 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, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak. not in words taught by human wisdom, but in 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 appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one, For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." Let's pray. We ask, beloved Lord, that you would bless this, your holy word, to us. We know that this is the word of life. This is the word that can take one who is of natural mind and give them a regenerate mind, born from above by your Holy Spirit, and we pray that you would use your word. If there's anyone who listens to this, this, your word, as it is preached, we ask, Lord, that you would bless them, that you would give them a supernatural gift, that of a regenerate mind. And, Lord, if there are some who need repentance to be enabled to believe this, your word, we pray that you would enable them by your Spirit. that you would remove from them the scales that are over their eyes and allow them to see and believe and to appraise, to see the worth and the value of the Lord Jesus Christ as he's offered in the Gospel. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen. As we look at this section of Scripture from 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we'll be looking at the need of a regenerate mind. So my question I want to first ask is that if you witness or you pray for your unsaved loved ones, what hope do you have that they will change? As we just read in verse 14, it says, the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. So what good is it to talk to a person about Christ if he can't accept anything spiritual anyway? Scripture here says so, doesn't it? Sometimes I hear Christians say, because of someone having atheistic indoctrination in the public school system, many of these people may be too hard to receive the teachings of the church. So what matter of hope do we have for the future of America because of this? I do love and support Christian education. However, I would say that a person is not without hope just because they've been trained from kindergarten through high school and then college into atheism, socialism, even communism. There's hope that some of these people, no matter what training or background they have been given, that there is hope that God can draw them to himself through the spirit and through the power of God. And that's what this text teaches today. So the context we want to note is that Paul here was writing a letter to the church in Corinth. It was a prosperous Roman trade city. Of course, it was infamous for its pagan and immoral practices. Even those non-Christians, at times say the Romans, they criticized the city. They even made a verb which meant to corrupt someone in the worst way possible, and that verb was to Corinthianize. So if you had someone and you wanted them to become corrupt, you would send them to Corinth where they would become Corinthianized. In other words, the place had that bad of a reputation. But Paul praised God and he reminded the Corinthians how many within the church came out of gross paganism and gross immorality. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I know this is looking a little bit forward, but this just gives you an idea of what kind of things, life practices these people came out of. It says here in 1 Corinthians 9, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 6, starting in verse 9, Paul says this, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." That's a big, tough warning. It says here, such were some of you. but you were washed, but you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God." So some of them in that Corinthian church, notice, they were idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, you name it. They were some of the worst people imaginable. but God washed them, sanctified them, justified them. He transformed them. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in the message today. So even though God did this mighty work of grace within this church, the church still had a lot of problems that needed correction. In the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, So it's 1 Corinthians 1, there were people who you could say that they had a cult of personalities. Let's look back there, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 11. So yes, they were justified, they were washed, they had the true gospel, but they still had problems. And that should be expected in a church, any church. It said here that in verse 11, for I have been informed concerning you. my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now, I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say, you were baptized in my name. Now I baptize also the house of Stephanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptize any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would be not made void. Okay, so he's trying to help them and to bring them into a greater unity because I believe what they were doing is they were following a cult of personality rather than really following Christ in a way that was united in supporting and helping and enabling each other to better glorify God. So receiving the salvation in Christ and justification still does require sanctification, and this church had a great need of that grace from God. So as was Paul's reputation, by some, Paul was reputed as being a man of less than adequate speaking ability. He was criticized by those in Corinth, but in here, in the beginning of this chapter, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul here seems to acknowledge and admit that his speaking was less than glorious, or less than, you could say, what's the old term, given endowment by the Holy Spirit, or something of that sort. So as we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1, he's gonna admit he wasn't the best speaker And that's 1 Corinthians chapter 2, starting in verse 1. Paul says, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Maybe perhaps when he was preparing the preacher, maybe even during the midst of the preaching, he was afraid, he was anxious. Maybe. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. the Holy Spirit was with Paul in the preaching. God used the preaching of Paul in a way, according to this passage in verse four, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. It goes on to say that, yet we do not 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. As we get to today's preaching text, really starting at verse 7, I want to summarize today's text in that God calls you to have a regenerate, or a spirit that is born again. God calls you to have a regenerate mind. And we'll look at that in two different texts, or I'm sorry, two different main points. First, the regenerate, the unregenerate mind. and secondly, the regenerate mind. So first, the un-regenerate mind, and secondly, the regenerate mind. So this first main point, the un-regenerate mind, starting in verse 7, says, but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. the hidden wisdom of God, 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." And then in verse 14, he says, "...but a natural man that's synonymous with an unregenerate 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. So notice first that the unregenerate mind is the same thing as the natural mind. The man's mind, apart from the work of grace, or apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, is an unregenerate, natural mind. So immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve, man's nature became sinful. And instead of going to God when they heard His voice in the garden, they sought to hide from Him. And because of their sin, they were ashamed, and that shame was introduced, and they sought to cover themselves We notice in the first century, it says, according to today's text, that this unregenerate mind was to blame for the greatest crime in history. It blinded the magistrates and the religious rulers who lived during the times and the age of the apostles. Verse 7, Paul and the apostles here spoke and they preached about God's wisdom in a the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages." Now, people say, why? if I believe the gospel, but to me it's just a mystery. Well, that's not really an accurate understanding or an accurate meaning for the word mystery. The Greek word there, mysterion, or here, mystery, when it's connected to the gospel especially, it means something that was hidden in times past, yet has now been revealed. So you understand the work of Christ by God's grace because it has been revealed to you through the Holy Spirit. We believe the written accounts of this revealed mystery in four Gospels and in the epistles of the New Testament. But again, verse 8 talks about this great crime, the worst crime of all history, refers to both the Jewish and the Roman rulers during the apostolic age when it says, for if they had understood it, namely the revealed mystery of who Christ was, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. See, because of their natural mind, they committed the worst crime of history. Now, to you or I, the truth of the Gospel seems so true and so compelling, but why can't the unregenerate understand it? We can talk to them about it, we can try to persuade them, but verse 14 says, 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, these truths, because they are spiritually appraised. I remember one time I was teaching, it was in this church, I was teaching a Sunday school class and there was a young lady who sat in this class and I was talking about what Christ had done on the cross, how Christ had paid for our sins, Christ was raised on the third day, and Christ ascended into heaven, and He sits at the Father's right hand to make intercession for us. And I remember this lady said something that a lot of people would just hold back, and they might keep it in their mind, but they wouldn't come outright and say it, but if she was in the class and she plain said, This is crazy!" She said that what we were talking about in the class, this was crazy. So that vindicates what's in the scriptures. The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness. They're crazy to the natural or the unregenerate person. So when you talk to people about these glorious truths of the Holy Bible, when you talk to them about Scripture, Jesus Christ even being raised from the dead, Jesus Christ paying for all of your sins, past, present, and future, and then how you have an eternal home in Heaven, when you talk about these things, people sometimes look at you like you just grew a second head that popped up over here, and they look at you like you've lost your mind. And what I would like to say is that don't be surprised. Remember this passage in 1 Corinthians 2.14. It's foolishness. It's crazy to those who are unregenerate. Be prepared for it that when you talk to someone, they might look at you very peculiar. Now, remember. We know by the Word of God, by the assurance of the Holy Scriptures, that these things are true. And if someone looks at you like you've lost your mind, don't take it, don't be insulted, don't take it to yourself as something that you have to grieve over, or that you should be disturbed over. Expect it, according to the Word of God, that people will look at you really weird, really strange, they will think what you're saying is utter foolishness. because they need to be regenerated. They need to be born again. Verse 14 goes on to say that the natural man or the person with this unregenerate mind, they cannot understand, that is, spiritual things, especially the Gospel, because they are spiritually appraised. Maybe the things that you're talking about require spiritual appraisal. Now, the Greek word here that could be translated as appraised could also be translated as examination. They require examination, a spiritual examination. So, imagine a jeweler who's got different stones and now we have imitation man-made diamonds. I think one's called a cubit zirconia. Basically, it's a very nice, high-quality man-made glass that is made to look like a So a jeweler can take these different jewels, he can take the imitation, and he can take the real thing and he can put them side by side, and he can appraise the value or the worth of these stones. Now, the natural man, because he has no gift at all for doing a spiritual appraisal, when he looks at Christ, he sees Him as something of no worth whatsoever. and he doesn't care. I don't need this Christ. And he turns away from Him. But instead, when a Christian, or one who has been born again by the Spirit of God, when they look and they try to appraise the value of Jesus Christ, And they look at this jewel of immense value. We find out he's a pearl of great price. He's a treasure of immense wealth. He is worth selling everything we have to gain him as the treasure of eternal life. So my question then is, how does one who is unregenerate or of a natural mind show himself in the world today? Now, oftentimes, people will be courteous enough to not look at you like you're crazy, like you grew a second head over here. But it's more prominent, I find, in today's culture that they just have an indifference concerning the things of God, concerning spiritual matters. They could take it or leave it. Actually, they could always leave it. They don't even want to take it. But someone says that maybe God does exist, they might acknowledge God exists, but because they are of a natural mind, they don't care to hear preaching, they don't care to hear the Word of God, and they especially don't care to go to worship. But the good news of the Gospel, of the Bible, is that the Spirit can take a person, a man, a woman, or a child, of an unregenerate, darkened mind, and give them a regenerate mind. Let's look at this next main point, the regenerate mind, or the mind of one who is born again. And that's what regeneration means. Verse 10 says, For to us God revealed them, that's the blessed mysteries of God, through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. The revealed mystery that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ to be called Emmanuel, God with us. That is surely a revelation of the depths of God. The Gospel shows us the depths of God's love that the father would give his only begotten son to suffer a shameful, painful death upon a cross. The depths of God's holiness and justice required that this had to be done, yet the depths of God's love caused Christ to bear the curse that was due to you and to me." Let's look at Romans 11, 33. We'll look at Romans 11, 33. for a passage that talks about the depths of God. Romans 11, 33. Paul says this, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and unfathomable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor? or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. So that's an excellent passage to look at to know the depths of God. And getting back to 1 Corinthians 2, We see next in verse 11 an argument from the lesser to the greater. Verse 11 says, 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. I think the argument here is that no one can know a man's thoughts better than the spirit of a particular man himself. Or, no one can know another person's thoughts better than that man himself. And here we have a comparison that no one knows our Triune God's thoughts better than the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit Himself. So the Holy Spirit has given us the very depths of God's thoughts and motivations, and even the very heart of God. Where? In the Holy Word. If you want a deeper knowledge of God, you want a deeper knowledge of His heart, look at what the Holy Spirit has revealed to the prophets and to the apostles. And it has been recorded for us in the Holy Scriptures. Verse 12 says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. So as we look at verse 12 and 13, I want us to examine a little bit of the spirit of the world, which I believe could also be called human wisdom here. It says in our society nowadays, you must affirm every sexual immorality, every distorted and every perverse practice that we say you must endorse or affirm. If you refuse to endorse and condone them, you'll be labeled a hate-filled bigot. Now, today you must endorse LGBTQT, and what's going to be next in years to come? Will we be pressured to endorse pedophilia in the years to come? Now, I'm saying this not because this is hate speech. We shouldn't hate anyone. Rather that we should be prayerfully asking that God would bring these people to faith and repentance. And that God would spare them from the eternal punishment to come. That should truly be our prayer. But I do hate that some people like to force us to try to bow down to some idol of sexual immorality. And that is something that we should despise. That someone should try to pressure Christians to go and to do that. But if you cite the Word of God, and they reply, well, you don't like the way I live, you don't like what I do with my life, and they might say, well, you cite Scripture and you tell them that the God of the Bible condemns certain sins, like we read back in 1 Corinthians 6, that list of sins there. They might say, well, the God I worship is not like that. He would never condemn somebody for that kind of thing. Well, how do you answer that question? When someone says, well, the God I worship is not like that, therefore, we have two opposing authorities. You're talking to them of the authority that comes from the Holy Bible, and they're saying, well, the God I worship would not be like that. And the answer is that you have to point out that that's not the God of the true Bible, that's not the God who has created the heavens and the earth, and that's the God of one's imagination, or that's the God of their imagination. According to verse 12, no one can understand or receive who God is, or his plan of salvation, except the Spirit of God comes to him, the Spirit who is from God. Now verse 14 says, contrary to the natural man not accepting spiritual things because he appraises them as foolishness, verse 15 says, but he who is spiritual appraises all things. He's able to evaluate all things. Yet he himself is appraised by no one, I would say here, except by God. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ." If you're resting upon the Word of God, especially where it is clear about who God is, about what the Gospel is, and about morality, you don't have to second-guess yourself. Verse 17 says you have the mind of Christ through your study of His Holy Word. If you are guided by the Word and by the Holy Spirit, you can appraise, you can determine the true value of any doctrine, you can determine the value of relationships that you might have, you can determine the trends in society, you can determine laws, you can determine philosophy, you name it, you can appraise all things according to verse 15. Now, you might ask yourself, There's someone that you know about and someone that you care about that does not have the mind of Christ. They don't have a regenerate mind. They're not born again. Is there any hope for them? I would say absolutely. Absolutely. According to Romans 1.18 it says that deep down we know that they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. But by the power of God, an unregenerate person can have that suppression removed and they can receive the new birth through His Word and Spirit. To receive Christ as He's offered in the Gospel. I want us to turn to a particular passage. It's Colossians 1. And I believe Colossians 1 gives us an amazing teaching concerning this. Colossians 1, starting at verse 13, and this is talking about the transformative power of God. So consider this for someone that you might be concerned about, or maybe if you're listening to this message and you're not sure if God has worked in your heart grace to be saved, to have this regenerate mind, to have this new birth, to have eternal life. It says here, in Colossians chapter 1, starting at verse 13. So, the Colossians that Paul was writing to were once, that's past tense, they were once in the domain of darkness. Yet, they were transferred to the Kingdom of Christ, receiving redemption through Christ alone, so that they would have this redemption. and we go to verse 19 in the same chapter, it says, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, that is, to dwell in Christ, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I say, were the things on earth or things in heaven. You might say, I want my unsaved loved ones to receive this reconciliation through the blood of this cross. Don't you want that? We should all want that. This is what we could pray for them. As we read verses 21 and 22, we can pray that God would do the same work of transformation in them. Verse 21, it says, Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaging in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death. That is, through the death of Christ. in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Yes, God can take people from the domain of darkness and even people of a hostile mind, engage in all sort of evil, wicked deeds, and He can make them holy and blameless and beyond reproach. But of course, it's only through that regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to take a person of an unregenerate mind and to give them a blessed, regenerate mind. So for each one who hears this message, God calls you to have a regenerate mind, a mind of one who is born again. Hebrews 11, 6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. If you have no faith, it is impossible to please Him. Now, a person cannot have faith unto eternal life. They cannot be born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. They cannot receive the new birth and the regenerate mind unless God works in them by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, without the regenerate mind by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to please God as well. Let's look again at that unregenerate mind. Verse 14, the natural mind does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, for he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. The man who is not born again with this unregenerate mind, he cannot evaluate or appraise the true worth of Christ. They reject the pearl, the greatest treasure that has ever been, for the petty things of this world instead. But thanks be to God that He gives a regenerate mind to those who love Him. Verse 10 says, For to you God revealed the blessed mysteries through the Spirit. You came to saving grace through Christ, not because you were more wise or intelligent than other people. He opened your eyes and your mind to be able to appraise the things of Scripture, especially the value of Christ when He was set before you. When you study the Holy Bible, these are God's very thoughts set before you. As you integrate the words of God into your mind, you memorize these things, it does change your consciousness. It changes your mind. It trains your consciousness. And you can develop the mind of Christ through the Word and Spirit. For those of you who hear this message and you're convicted that you do not have this regenerate mind, Ask God for faith and He will give it to you if you sincerely believe and you sincerely seek to submit yourself to Him. He can rescue you from the domain of darkness, He can transfer you to the kingdom of His beloved Son, and He can give you that true redemption and forgiveness of sins. It's only available through Christ. If you know that you've been living with a hostile mind against God, living in all sort of wicked deeds, If you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He can reconcile you through His death, through the fleshly body that was crucified on the cross. Put your trust in Him. Believe upon Him as Lord and Savior, that Jesus Christ was raised on the third day. He was raised not only to give you an assurance that one day on that last day, you will also be raised, and that you will stand before Him as He sits on that great white throne of judgment, and He will allow you into eternal life. But for those who do not submit, they will still be raised as well, but they will be raised to be judged and then cast into the lake of fire for an eternal destruction that lasts forever. Brothers and sisters, Flee the wrath to come. Embrace Christ as he's offered in the Gospel. Ask for the grace to believe, to trust in the things that are written, that you might have the mind of Christ, that you might receive that regenerate mind, the mind of the one who was born again, and be spared the wrath to come. and that you would be able to rejoice, to rejoice in the wonderful mysteries that have been revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's pray. We pray, Lord, that you would bless this, your holy word, as we have studied it together. We pray that you would continue to keep your people safe in the midst of this ice storm. We ask that the people of our church, but also the people of this community, would be spared from harm's way. Bless them and bless the word of God to them. We ask for it's in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll close with a hymn of dedication that has been set aside.