First Corinthians chapter two. Just quickly before we begin, I failed to make note of something. We do have some guests with us today that I'm very thankful they're here. The ladies from the Christian Women's Center are with us and many of you know we've been teaching a Bible study over there for almost three years and very thankful for what the Lord is doing there and over these last months we've gotten to know these ladies well and we're thankful for what the Lord's doing in them and it's just a real joy to see you all this morning. Well, I want to begin reading in 1 Corinthians 2. I'm just going to read verses 1-5 because I'll continue to unfold some things from the chapter as we move along. But I just want to take time to open us up here with the first five verses of 1 Corinthians 2. 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." Wisdom is of great importance in the kingdom of God, and wisdom is of great importance of all the world around us. Everybody's looking for some kind of wisdom, a wisdom for your next financial this, a piece of wisdom on how to have more joy in life, a piece of wisdom to how to deal with the culture around us or that co-worker. We're always looking for some kind of a piece of wisdom. And Paul here notes there's two different types of wisdom. He notes, first of all, in verse 1, there's a sense of him not coming in a certain kind of speech or wisdom, but later, him coming in another type of wisdom in verse 5. There's two different types of wisdom. The wisdom of this world and this age, and the wisdom of God. Those two different types, and only one wisdom is of all importance. All other wisdom falls and fails in comparison to the wisdom of God. We're going to think about what it means to live and work in the kingdom of God. We have to think that wisdom is a part of it. But it can't be the wisdom of this world founding how we live and work in the kingdom of God. It has to be the wisdom of God that founds all of our understanding and how we're going to live and work in the kingdom of God. So therefore, we would say, true wisdom is founded in the gospel alone. That'll be our theme for this morning's message. True wisdom is founded in the gospel alone. But it leads us to a main point here, and this main point will give us a context for two points, but we'll only get to one of them this morning. Corinth, speaking of the Church of Corinth, Corinth needed unity according to the work of the Spirit. Corinth needed unity according to the work of the Spirit. When we're looking at the context of this particular church and how that would impact all of our lives and how it would impact this local church, there needs to be unity according to the work of the Spirit. We have to be mindful. That firstly, the gospel applied is always according to the work of the Spirit. The gospel applied is always according to the work of the Spirit. This really comes from verses 2 through 5, for Paul says, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, that wisdom of the world or of the age, 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. True wisdom comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit, according to what Paul is writing, that arrests the souls of men. The Spirit alone does this. The very Spirit of God arrests the souls of men. Now I want you to take just a brief pause for a moment and think about what we're getting here. From the first opening of the letter to this very point, we've been hearing about the gospel according to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and now we hear the gospel according to the Spirit. And what's going to be of great importance is that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all in agreement on the gospel. They have to be or the gospel will fail and fall apart. And so we're getting the doctrine of the Trinity and its work and application in the context of the Trinity right in the opening of the letter. And now we've come to a place where Paul directs them. They've heard the message, the message of Christ, that Christ himself came. He alone lived a perfect life and died a sinner's death. He alone was put onto that cross, that Christ himself hung there, bled, and died for sinners. They've heard that message, that he was raised on the third day. And he's saying, you know what? That's wisdom. And that wisdom is only applied by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is not a wisdom of the natural man. And he gets to that at the end of this chapter. But that is a wisdom that is only applied by the work of the Holy Spirit. True wisdom comes from the work of the Holy Spirit and it is the Spirit himself who arrests the souls of men. And I use that word arrest exactly like I mean it. The Spirit comes in and does a work and He arrests the souls of men. He captures the souls of men and women and children and He brings them to life in Christ Jesus. This is why Paul here in these verses when he's speaking of what he determined to know and what he was going to speak, the message. Verse two and verse four, the message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, that's the words of wisdom of the present age of this world. He said, I didn't come in persuasive words of wisdom according to this age, 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. The power of God is exhibited through the work of the person of the Holy Spirit. The scripture often talks about the mighty hand or the mighty arm of God working and doing this thing or that thing that the king's hand or heart is in the hand of God. Well, how is the king's? hard in the hand of God because His Spirit's working all over. But we have to note the work of the Spirit in moving forward in the context of the church is something far greater and different than Him simply moving a king. Because this kind of work of the Spirit arrest the souls of men, that they would bow the knee to Christ and they would submit to the wisdom of the gospel, that they cannot save themselves, that their wisdom will not do. So Paul is saying three things under this matter of the spirit arrest the souls of men. True preaching always concerns the glory of Christ. If Paul's going to preach and he's going to depend on the power of the Spirit to do a work, it's always about the glory of Christ. Who Christ is, what Christ did, what Christ is doing, and what Christ will do. It's always about the glory of Christ. Even if Christ is not specifically mentioned, ultimately it's always about the glory of Christ. He says this most pointedly when he says, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I didn't come with the wisdom of the world. I came to you as the church, this local church, this body of believers, and what I said to you in my first preaching to you, the reason that you even organized as a church was not on the wisdom of men. The reason you organized as a local body in Corinth was because what was preached to you was Christ and Him crucified. And the Spirit of God did a work in you and enabled you to believe in that gospel. And when you believed, you wanted to hear more and know more and grow more. So true preaching always concerns the glory of Christ. Secondly, true preaching always concerns the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is always in conjunction with true preaching. It doesn't mean that every soul is moved the same. It doesn't mean that every soul is moved in the same way or context. But whatever work is being done, if it's of true gospel preaching and it's of the true will of God in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the Spirit is the one who's doing that work. If you're moved simply this morning because you think somebody is a good personality or a decent speaker or whatever you think about an individual, I tell you that matters not. Whatever you think about me doesn't matter because if you think it's about me, then you're going to go to hell. It's just that plain. It's what you think of Christ. And if you think rightly of Christ, then that work has been done by the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't care if a person gets up here and they read something to you. There have been many a person down through the ages that simply a passage was read in their hearing and the Spirit of God worked because the Word of God was brought forth to them and the Spirit accompanied that Word. True preaching always concerns the work of the Spirit. Thirdly, true preaching always concerns the power of God. And I say, not men. This is Paul's point here. He makes this point in several other letters. He makes it in different places in this particular letter. But he's saying to them, I didn't come in the wisdom of this world. Now, I want you to think about something for a minute. Paul is no dummy. This is an educated man. He could have gone to the The town square of Corinth stood in the town square and debated and argued with anybody as a logician, a man of logic, a man of thoughtfulness. He was capable of that. But he's saying that's not of the greatest importance here. He says, what I want you to know is the power of God through Christ Jesus according to the work of the Holy Spirit. I don't want you to know the power of a man's ability to persuade you. Although good gospel preaching is persuasive, it ought to be, and it shouldn't be boring either. But sometimes boring is in the ear of the person hearing it, right? He says, no, I want you to know the power of God. And the power of God is given to us in the context of our faith. And what is our faith resting on? It's resting on the power of God, not the wisdom of men. And that faith is in Christ Jesus himself. Bible study this morning, Scott started to open up a little bit of that and preach to you. And I'm down there going, amen. Yes. Get it. Go, brother. And then he stopped. We got that thing called time around here and he did real good on his time, unlike one of his older elders. He wanted you to know nothing else but Christ and him crucified. He's giving you the message of Paul because that's the message of the gospel. And Paul says, that's it. That's the power of God. And it's the spirit who does that work. Well, not only does true wisdom come from the work of the Spirit, the Spirit arrests the souls of men, but the Spirit reveals the mystery of Christ from all eternity. The Spirit reveals the mystery of Christ from all eternity. If life in the kingdom is going to look right, if life in the kingdom is going to be focused in the right way, if working in the kingdom is going to have real presence, it's going to be about revelation, and the Spirit reveals the mystery of Christ from all eternity. This is very important to us because the spirit is the one who reveals the person of Christ is eternal. In verse seven, excuse me, verse six and seven, he says, 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, 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. See, that's a revealed mystery. Who is this Christ that in the middle of the Roman Empire was born in this little bitty town and outside of this little bitty place in a little bitty cave around all these little animals and then there was all these little things that began to happen in his life and then he kind of went around Israel and he did these signs and wonders and he preached and then one day for some reason this Jewish nation didn't want a man like Barabbas to be put away. They wanted this Christ, this Jesus of Nazareth to be put away. Well, all of that would be just a blip on the radar screen if the Spirit did not reveal the truth of Christ through the Word. You and I who are believers can read the four Gospels and we can go, Amen. We can take those four Gospels out to this world and you can have another person read it and they go, that is the bunch of craziness. You don't even know that that's true. You don't even know that that Jesus lived. Oh yes I do. I know it because the Bible teaches it, but I know it because the Spirit of God accompanied that truth and dealt with my soul. It is the Spirit that reveals this mystery. The Christ is eternal. He's not just a man who came, He is the Son of God who came. Before He ever came to this earth, He is. While He is on this earth, He is. After He is ascended, He is. But one of the greatest revelations is the mystery of His person revealed in time. that God would send His Son onto this earth to an ungrateful, unthankful, rebellious people. God sent His Son, and that was revealed in time. And that's what Paul preaches. But he's saying, you need to know, you got the milk. Scott was telling us this morning, here's the meat. This was something that was predestined from eternity past to happen. There was a purposed plan that the second person of the Trinity, the very Son of God would come and he would be born of the Virgin Mary and he would live on this earth a perfect life in every way and he would die a sinner's death and he would be raised again on the third day. He says, now that's a mystery. And it's been revealed in time and the power of the Holy Spirit works that in our souls. Well, not only is the person of Christ, the person of Christ is eternal, but the work of Christ is eternally purposed. All of this mystery has been revealed to us. Every time we read the Bible, we're seeing revelation and the Spirit of God dealing with our souls. I want to just briefly say something, and I want you to be aware of something. If you think that the Spirit of God is going to work and you're never going to spend time understanding the Bible, then you think the Spirit is divorced from the Bible. If you think that the Spirit is all about giving you something in your own personal life, and you can feel the Spirit, and you can bring the Spirit in, and you can work the Spirit, and the Spirit can work you, and the Spirit is somehow something you can manage, you don't understand the Holy Spirit. You cannot manage the Holy Spirit. You cannot make the Holy Spirit do something. You cannot tell the Holy Spirit what to do. The Holy Spirit works in accordance with the one will of God. according to his person and God gave his word which is his truth and the spirit always works according to the word of God. So to talk about the work of the spirit but to have it divorced from the scripture, that's bad news, bad news. We need to have the both end. We need to be studying the Word of God, asking that the Holy Spirit deal with our very souls. That it wouldn't be us trying to contrive something, but that the very Spirit of God would be working in our souls according to the Word of God, and those two things would be coming together in a way to change us. to shape us, to mold us, to strengthen us, to convict us, to encourage us, to give us contentment, to give us joy, and sometimes to even give us sadness. Sadness over biblical things in our own hearts and minds. We need this revelation because it's been eternally purposed and we need it from the Word of God and the Spirit of God dealing with us according to the very Word. The Spirit arrests the souls of men, the Spirit reveals the mystery of Christ from all eternity, and the Spirit knows the depths of God. The Spirit knows the depths of God. Verses 10 through 13 make this pretty clear. Paul writes, for to us God revealed them, speaking of this wisdom, speaking of this understanding that's been predestined before the ages to our glory, that is the crucified Lord of glory, for to us God revealed them through the Spirit. Now how and why did that happen? He answers that question here in verse 10. 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?" He's using an example here of saying, who really knows you and I best? We may have a friend we think knows us well. We may have a spouse who we think knows us well. But who really knows us best is that spirit which is within us. That spirit knows. Knows our thoughts. Knows our issues of conscience. The spirit that was within us knows our motives. We can hide a lot of things from a lot of people, can't we? But our spirit knows. So he uses that example to say, it's not exact. It's not a one to one correlation because God's not a man. But God is spirit. And he works according to the person of his Holy Spirit. And he says, who better to know God than the very spirit of God? For the very Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God, and no one knows God better than the very Spirit of God. The Spirit knows the thoughts of God in all depths. You and I both know in our own spirits there's a lot of little tiny things on the inside of us that kind of roll through there that not everybody knows about. Rolls through our little minds and our little hearts and souls and our brains and it goes all through there and we think things and we have all kinds of motives and we want to do this or we want to do that and we can project this on somebody else or project that on somebody else and we can do this and we can do that and we keep our mouths shut sometimes. And we even keep facial expressions away sometimes, and nobody really knows. But our spirit knows. There's a lot of depths to us. Well, how much more so is there depth to God? And the spirit knows the depths of God. So much more so do we need the Spirit of God to work in accordance with His Word, because we would never understand the wisdom of God were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit, because there's depth beyond depth. Well, we have to say the Spirit knows the thoughts of God in all depths, but the Spirit belongs to the genuine believer in Christ. For to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. All of this wisdom he's been talking about in and through the person and the work of Jesus Christ, who Jesus is, why he came, that it was purpose before time ever began, what he did when he came, all of that truth, all of that wisdom is revealed to us, he says, us as believers. And it's through the Spirit. He goes on though, he goes on in verse 12 to say, now we, that's believers, now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God. He's saying there is a spirit of the world, there's an idea of the way the world works, the world has its own spirit, it has its own sense, its own context and it works in that way and that's called the spirit of depravity. The spirit of rebellion and sinfulness. You gotta ask yourself a question. If every human being is equal, completely equal in God's eyes, then why is not every human being stopping to worship God on the resurrection day? There's over seven billion people on this planet. Why are not seven and a half billion people stopping absolutely everything to say there is one God and we know him through his son Jesus Christ alone according to his person and his work by the power of the Holy Spirit alone and that's how we will worship him today and we'll cease everything else and we will worship him alone today to give him his due according to his command. Why is that not happening? Because there's a spirit of this present world, this present age, and it's a spirit of rebellion, a spirit of sin, a spirit of depravity, a spirit of saying to God, Yeah, you're probably out there, God, but I don't really need you that way. When I do need you, I'll call upon you and hopefully you'll give me some more money. You'll make me a little happier. You'll give me the person I want in my life. You'll do this or you'll do that. But until then, I'll just kind of do it my way. If it really goes wrong, then I'll call upon you. If there's a national disaster, we'll have a time of prayer to you. But other than that, we don't really need you that way. That's the spirit and the wisdom of this age. But the work of the Holy Spirit, according to the word of God, belongs to the genuine believer in Christ. The genuine believer stops. The genuine believer says, God's Word, according to the work of His Holy Spirit, is the only thing that matters in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Well, that leads me to the third thought. The Spirit reveals the truth of God in His Word, verse 13. Because in verse 12, he says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. Notice how your translator capitalized the word spirit there, the spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. The spirit only gives us those things which are by God. And these are things which we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. Now, some have taken this to mean that this is all about the spiritual gifts, and this is about the speaking of tongues, and this is about the ability to have this gift or that gift. But you need to know there's a context to Paul's letter. And that's why we're doing this overview, is to recognize that working and living in the kingdom is not about all of these special gifts. Because Paul deals with that later in the letter to say, no, this is not about you having your special gift. and that one gift is better than another. He says, no, no, no, no. You can have the gift of tongues, but if you don't have faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of those in love, you have nothing. You're nothing but a clanging cymbal. In other places, Paul tells us of the importance of the very Word of God itself. Peter describes to us the Word of God itself, that which was passed down, the teaching of the prophets, the opening to the book of Hebrews, which we have been studying. The prophets gave us the word of God. Over time it was written down. Then the truth of who Jesus is was written down. The glory of Christ after his ascension was written down. The work of the church to be put forward was written down. His second coming is written down. It's given to us in this word. We don't need a new word. We don't need to make up other words. We don't need to have something added to it. The book of Revelation at the very least warns us against adding to the word of God. When you get new word from God today, that means you've got new revelation. If you've got new revelation, you're saying that God revealed something to you that he's never revealed in all of time, space, and history, and you got that revelation. I warn everybody in this room, please do not think that way. You need the revelation that God gave us in his word. It is complete and it is final. And I guarantee you, if you will put it in your mind and your heart, the Holy Spirit of God will deal with you in great and glorious ways. And it may not always be seen how the Spirit of God deals with you. But the promise was given by the Lord Jesus that he would send his comforter and his comforter is his spirit and his spirit accompanies the truth of the very word of God. You want comfort? Read God's word and pray that the Holy Spirit give you comfort. You want conviction? Read God's word. I promise the spirit will give you conviction. You need strength? Read God's word and pray that the spirit of God will give you strength. Well, letter A under this number one was true wisdom comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. Letter B, true wisdom is not from the rulers of this age. True wisdom is not from the rulers of this age. Verse six, Paul says, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. That's interesting because he's saying we're speaking a particular type of wisdom to those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age." Now remember, that's in contrast to the superiority of speech or of wisdom from verse 1. He said, I didn't come to you in that kind of wisdom in verse 1. I came to you in this kind of wisdom. And it's the wisdom of the glory of God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, this wisdom of Jesus Christ is not of this age or the rulers of this age. You had read to you this morning that Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. We need to recognize that the kingdom of God is not of this world. That preposition is very important, of. The very place of originality of the kingdom of God is from God himself. God made this world. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. Christ's kingdom is of God himself. And how is that kingdom supposed to be expressed? Well, it's not expressed by the rulers of this age. Have there been Christian men who have been rulers in different times, in different places of the world? Yes, there have been. But predominantly, the rulers of this age Speaking of all the different types of wisdom, whether it's political wisdom, governmental wisdom, whether it's wisdom of life, whether it's Tony Robbins wisdom with his big pretty white smile. You all know who Tony Robbins is, right? The self-help guru. He's going to make us all better, and we're going to be six foot six like he is with a big smile and muscular body and talk like he can and rah-rah everybody and have a great life. And we're all going to have a Mercedes and everything else. Now, the reason he got the Mercedes is because a bunch of us are listening to him and giving him a whole bunch of money. Anyway. That's the wisdom of this age. That's the rulers of this age. Some of those rulers are political and governmental. Some of them are religious. Some of them are self-help. Some of them are entertainment. I can get wrapped up in some good entertainment. The question is, is that entertainment my idol? Do I worship it? Or do I worship the person that's giving it? Or the group that's giving it? True wisdom is not from the rulers of this age. The rulers of this age work according to their human desires. Whatever person you could think of, you know, Taylor Swift or Patrick Mahomes or some country group or whatever. Just all of it, any of it. Your football team, my football team, your sports team, your athlete, your author. Maybe you've got your favorite author and everything they write, you love it and you want to read it. Okay, fine, fair enough. All of that stuff, whatever it is, we have to put it through a grid and understand they work off of their human desires. And we have to be able to filter that and discern it and think through it, whatever it is. I don't know this singer very well, but in my understanding, Taylor Swift has spent most of her career writing songs to deal with people that she ended up not liking or whatever. Okay, fine, fair enough, that's her business. But you and I have to listen to whoever it is and discern. Hmm, I like the sound of that song, but boy, those lyrics, I don't know if that's really helpful or not. We have to discern the wisdom of this age because it's based off of human desire, which is based off of the sinful nature. Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Paul even tells us in these verses, basically, the rulers of this age are working with dire immaturity. I want you to think for just a moment what this means. I need to be careful who I follow. I don't need to follow just an individual, even if it's a preacher. I am a man. I will fail you. You need to follow Christ according to His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. But especially when we're dealing with the rulers of this age, they're working with dire immaturity. I use the word dire because their immaturity is so bad it will lead you to eternal destruction. All of that can be wrapped up into a context of saying, you know what? They're working for self. You think this athlete or or that singer, or that author, or that actor, or actress, or whatever. You think that political leader, whoever it may be, you think they're really, really, really, really have all of the depth of wisdom in them that they are working their whole life in context for the well-being and the good of every single individual. I'm telling you, A, they're not doing it because they're based off the wisdom of the world and their own sinful desires. I'm telling you, B, they can't do it because if they could, they'd be God and they're not. God alone is omniscient. God all-knowing. He's ever-present. He alone is all-powerful. The wisdom of this world is a dire immaturity. Didn't it get on your nerves sometime? I mean, just be honest, okay? Didn't it get on your nerves sometime when there's some little snot-nosed kid trying to tell you what to do? Be in the middle of something and have some 14-year-old, 12-year-old, whatever they are, come up to you and start telling you, well, you know, if you bummer... And what's the first thought in my mind? Well, you know, when I... Let me ask you a question. Do you look at the wisdom of this world as that kind of immaturity? Because most people don't. Most people are following it lock, stock, and barrel. I don't care Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian. I don't care Taylor Swift, whatever garage band it is, whatever country band. I don't care what it is. They're following it lock, stock, and barrel, and it's immaturity. Taylor Swift might be a billionaire, but she is immature because she does not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever group it is, is immature. Biden is immature. He does not know Christ. Trump is immature. He does not know Christ. Can I vote for him? Yes. Can I vote for Biden? Yes. You can vote for them, but you better think about what you're doing because they are leading lives of immaturity. We need to understand the rulers of this age are working with dire immaturity. And God has not blessed the believer to stay in that and to live in it. The church is not to be filled with that because we're the best revelation and example in the present age of the kingdom of God. We are functioning as the kingdom of God among this world in this local body. So our wisdom better not be all that. Our wisdom better be from this Word. We better be functioning that way, living individual lives, coming together that way. When we worship, we worship according to the Word of God. When we deal with one another, we deal with one another according to the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. When the world invades the church, the church becomes immature. That's an observation for you. When the world invades the church, the church becomes immature. You want to know why the church is that deep? Because the word of God means very little. You want to know why Christians are that deep? Because the word of God means very little. Well, if the rulers of this age are working with dire immaturity, the rulers of this age are passing away along with their wisdom. Many of you came here today because you came to worship. The world went about their day, and they did their worship. And we'll see in the end whose worship mattered. The rulers of this age do not understand the sovereignty of Christ. Paul plainly says if they had understood the sovereignty of Christ, if they had, they would not have put him to death. All those rulers, the Jewish rulers, the Roman rulers, All the people standing around in the Jewish community screaming, crucify him, crucify him. If they had understood who he was, you know what they would have done? They would have bowed the knee. They would have bowed their very hearts and said, you are the king of all the ages. You are the king of all creation. You. stood with the father before the beginning of time and you purposed and planned this very world and you purposed and planned to come to this earth to save sinners. They didn't do that, did they? Because they had their own wisdom. They had their own wisdom. Well, lastly, letter C, true wisdom is not from natural man. True wisdom comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. True wisdom is not from the rulers of this age, and true wisdom is not from natural man. Paul makes it clear in verses 14 and 15 that a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. Why do people fight so hard? Because they're natural people. They're people of this world, and they don't accept the very wisdom of God. They don't accept the things of the Spirit of God. Natural men live by their own wisdom. Natural men live by their own wisdom. You see it all over the world. There's all kind of wisdoms and religions, and there's all kind of self-help things. It's all everywhere. Everybody wants everything. They want to have some wisdom, but they're trying to gain it from everything. Some people don't want to gain wisdom from nature. You can observe things from nature, but the scripture tells us what nature is for. It brings forth the glory of God. We ought to be, as Christians, looking at the nature and going, whoa, if this is what God left us in a sinful world, imagine what His recreated new heaven and earth are going to be like. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! But natural men live by their own wisdom. Paul says the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They reject it. They reject it. They reject it because he says they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Natural men love their own foolishness. And natural men cannot appraise the things of God. We need to be careful living in the kingdom of God that we don't trust the wisdom of men. Now that doesn't mean there's not gradient to some of that, and Scott was helping us decipher some of that this morning in Bible study. It's a good reason for you to come back next week, by the way. He's helping us decipher that. What's the gradient in there? How do we work through what's black, white, what might be in a gray area, in a context of how do we deal with it? We don't want to become Pharisees and legalists, but we don't want to become these people who have an idea of free love. Christ and the free love. We don't even know what that means. We want to be like this. Three things. Believers have the mind of Christ. That's what Paul says in this chapter. Believers have the mind of Christ. They have it in full context because of the very word of God. If you're a professing Christian this morning, you need to live and long to live your life according to the mind of Christ. And when you and I don't, We have the work of the Spirit in us to do what? Convict us. And when the work of the Spirit convicts us, what do we need to do? Repent. Repent and turn and ask forgiveness. Believers have the mind of Christ. Secondly, believers appraise the present age according to the mind of Christ. Are you a discerning person? If you're not, then you're going to struggle as a Christian. If you say, I believe in Christ, but I'm just going to kind of feel my way through it, I kind of get there, well, you're going to end up with some problems, because you're going to feel your way into a whole lot of trouble. We need to appraise the present age according to the mind of Christ. Take the Word of God as our grid, set the Word of God up, and view the rest of the world in light of the Word of God. That's a big concept and it's broad and I can't develop all of that right now because it's huge and it really takes a lifetime of learning and living. But that needs to be our goal, doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian, that needs to be your goal. Appraise the present age according to the mind of Christ. Take the word of God and say this is the mind of Christ and I do need to appraise this present age according to that and nothing else. Thirdly and lastly, Believers understand the necessity for growing according to the mind of Christ. Believers understand the necessity for growing according to the mind of Christ. There's a difference between non-believer and a believer. A believer will understand the necessity to grow from the milk to the meat. Now, Scott brought that up in Bible study this morning. We're going to talk about it more next week, probably with his Bible study, and I'm going to talk about it more next week. And then when we get to Hebrews 5 and 6, I'm going to talk about it more. We've got to see the necessity for growth according to the mind of Christ and say, you know what? I need to get off the milk and get to the meat. If you and I want to be thoughtful Christians, milk will not do for a lifetime. Because the older we grow, the more complex we see this world really is. The older we grow, the more frustrating this world becomes. The older we grow, the more difficult this world becomes. When I was a teenager, I didn't see a whole lot of difficulty. I was just having a good time. Bunch of good folks, having a good time, parking lot Friday night, yeah, woo, woo, woo. I didn't see a lot of problems. But every year of my life, I see more difficulty, more struggle, more hurt, more frustration, more complexity. And yet the gospel brings me back to a lot of simplicity. The reason the world, the way it is in its context is because of sin. It's depravity. It's that simple. The question is, are we going to discern it that way though? We need to grow from the milk to the meat so we can look at this world and put it in its proper place and give Christ the glory in every part of our lives. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you've been merciful to give us your word this morning. Preach through the mouth of a man. But all I can ask is that your spirit do your work and take anything that was spoken, which was truth, that would glorify you and use it By the power of your spirit, use it to glorify your son Christ, to arrest the souls of men and women and children, and to bring glory to yourself in all things. I pray this in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.