We turn in our Bibles tonight to the book of 1 Corinthians. The book of 1 Corinthians, if you're visiting with us, that is found, chapter 2 is found on page 1211 in your pew Bible. Tonight, we take up, we actually conclude chapter 2, so we'll be considering verses 6 through 16. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Although it's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. that we might understand the things freely given us by God and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual the natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned the spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him. But we have the mind of Christ. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. Let's ask the Spirit to bless this. Holy Spirit, as we bow tonight, we've already read a lot about You and Your working. And we ask that You would open our minds to comprehend this. That we would accept it. Sometimes the things that You reveal are difficult to accept. But that You would open every heart wide to see the beauty of what your design is so that all glory would be given to our God forever and ever. In Jesus' name, amen. Many have observed that the most neglected person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. His person and work among us is clearly the most misunderstood. Everyone knows that. Everyone says that. Everyone agrees with that. He seems to be, though, because of that, the person of the Trinity, when we come to him, we think of his work as sort of undefined or unrestrained even. In other words, it's kind of a mystery, his work to us, we think. And because of that, we think his limits then are undefined. So that we're always kind of in wonder as a church, You know, is there more that we should be experiencing from Him, especially when you've had a whole movement come up called the Pentecostals, who've emphasized and would say that this is dead tonight. They would say that. This is dead. The Holy Spirit's not here. Are we lacking something? We wonder that, I think. I think as Reformed people, maybe we've struggled a little bit with that. Is there more that we should expect from the Holy Spirit? Are we really obtaining power in the Christian life? And if so, if this is the Holy Spirit, I mean, this is the Holy Spirit, why do I often then feel so powerless? That's your struggle. The answer to that might surprise you. Why do I say that? Because one of the concerns that the New Testament raises is that we could easily follow the wrong Jesus. You realize that? You could easily follow the wrong Jesus. There's another danger then that one could by what is explained to us in 1 John. John mentions the Antichrist. And John mentions him and John says, well, you've heard that the Antichrist is coming, but you should know that he is now already in the world. the stuff of, the spirit of the Antichrist is already here. There is, that's what has been called in 1 John, designated the spirit of the Antichrist. He's here. He's here now. He's come in the world. He's active in the world. Which makes me think as I was preparing this tonight, well, if the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood person of the Trinity, How easily do you think it would be, easy do you think it would be to follow the spirit of the Antichrist? I wonder how prevalent is that spirit? Why do I say that? Because in this very book, Paul says this church got caught up in following it. You see, you've got to be kidding me. Nope. I'm afraid, 2 Corinthians 11, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For, here it is, if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, here it is, You put up with it. That's a very serious charge, isn't it? To put up with another spirit. You're following an anti-spirit. You're giving heed to an anti-spirit. I read that and I think, well, what does that look like? What does the anti-spirit look like? What would it be to put up and tolerate a spirit like that? How easy is that to do? I believe that's what Paul's describing for us tonight. I believe Paul's helping us through that tonight. In other words, he's helping answer what was the major problem in the church in Corinth, and we've been unpacking that to some degree, that they have been adopting the world's wisdom to do ministry. And they didn't understand what was behind that. They didn't understand that when you do that, you're inviting in an entirely different spirit. And if you don't think that could happen, Paul warned them that at the table of the Lord, They can commune with who? Demons. You can actually be communing with demons. He'll address that in 1 Corinthians later on in 11. So, it's a fascinating section to study because Corinthians is a book exposing the dangers of what can happen when we reject the Holy Spirit's ministry. When we begin to throw aside His ministry. And that's what Paul says tonight. I want everyone to look at verse 12 of chapter 2 and you'll see this. You'll see a contrast between two different spirits. He does this and he has this on his mind. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. There's the contrast. You've received the Holy Spirit, not that spirit. So don't flirt with that spirit. You don't want to flirt with that spirit. Two different spirits. Which leads us tonight to say that when a church is not appropriating the Holy Spirit's ministry or honoring it, it has bought into then the ministry of the spirit of this world, which lies under the sway of what? The evil one. What is the consequence of that? A church full of problems. In other words, Until we understand that human wisdom is never what God uses to build His church and that His power is given to us from another world, another place, until we get that in our heads, we'll never do anything that's ultimately lasting in dealing with people's souls before God. Do you understand that? Until we appropriate the right power and the right spirit, you'll never do anything in ministry that's lasting in helping and saving souls, people. And that's tragic because at the end of chapter 3, his whole point in summing up this first section, which ends in chapter 3, is to say that there are loads of ministries and loads of churches who are building with the wrong materials. They're building with all the wrong materials. and they're going to find out on judgment day it accomplished absolutely nothing in saving people that to me is the greatest nightmare to have built a church to have built the ministry and done all these things in the ministry and then find out on judgment judgment day you built and what you did was everything wrong so i want to make sure then that we understand understand what the right spirit is what that looks like the ministry of the holy spirit and if you remember last time paul addresses the problem of the corinthian church that was looking for power in all the wrong places they were enamored and what were they enamored with they were enamored with men they they were enamored with with earthly wisdom and paul was warning them listen there's a great consequence to that when you get caught up with men when you get caught up with worldly ministry you're stripping the cross of its power in people's lives you're stripping it why well one of the ways he begins to to deal with that problem remember was to say and rehearse with the church that i refuse to borrow from the world and what i do i purposely choose not to borrow the world's methods the world's techniques to build christ's church why because it's not about showcasing me says paul it's not about enlisting me as the next great star in christianity if it becomes about me if it becomes about the man if it becomes about speaking abilities and gifts what do we do we wreck the message my manner has to be consistent with what i'm preaching if i'm a goofball no one's going to take me seriously if i'm a star who's going to come to jesus if it's about speaking skills who's going to be mesmerized with the death on the cross i'm borrowing none of that on purpose so that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of god i want your faith to be in god's power nothing i do to produce that and so last time in chapter two he introduced us for the first time in this book to the Holy Spirit. What we do, he says, is to be done in His demonstration of power. And the remarkable thing was is that contra all of the great rhetoric guys of the day, the orators, all of their great techniques, all of their great speaking abilities, you know, Paul said that power is demonstrated when we are plain, when we are clear, when we are speaking to people's consciences and they understand through that clear presentation of the gospel, God has gotten into their hearts. That's what we looked at last time. Now tonight he's developing this further. What he essentially does is go on then to explain how the ministry works. He wants you to understand how the ministry works. And in doing that, he's contrasting two wisdoms, two spirits to help us understand this. And the first thing he says tonight is that there is a wisdom that is received among the mature. Now that's fascinating. I want you to think about this tonight. He's challenging the church to ask what kind of wisdom they've bought into. They've bought into. Look at verse 6. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Although, it's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. Look, we don't want you to start thinking that in all of this saying that it's foolish, that it's stupid to the world, that there is no wisdom. No, no, no, no, no. This is wisdom, but it's God's wisdom. There's real power in it. There's real wisdom in it. It's God's wisdom, though. And you have to understand, none of that is ever accepted by the world. The world sees it as ridiculous. But then Paul says, but you need to know that wisdom is accepted by the mature. Interesting thing to say, isn't it? Every commentator was so careful and nervous, it seemed, to make sure because of what was going on in the first century with Gnosticism, that Paul was saying, to warn that Paul was not saying, well, there's some more elite Christians than others. And that's true. That's not what Paul's saying here. That some just had greater capabilities. No, no, no. That's not what Paul's dealing with here. But Paul is making a distinction. And the distinction is this. There are those who are growing in maturity in the Christian faith. And there are babes. There are babes. And I think it's an incredible statement that he makes this kind of distinction, leaving a question open for us, open-ended for us. Am I mature or am I a babe? How do I know? Am I immature in the faith? Because Paul just said, the mature see this for what it is. The mature do see this. And the division is not really in what any of us would think. What is the wisdom of God? What did Paul say? It's the gospel. I mean, this is what he's been developing the whole time. We determine to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. In the act of proclamation, in the act of announcing and preaching Christ crucified, there's wisdom, there's God's wisdom, there's power there. And the division then is seen in who has the confidence in that. So the question really becomes, do we believe that anything really powerful happens when the man stands up and preaches the cross faithfully? Well, Paul just said the mature know it. The mature get it. The mature have tasted it. They know its power. The immature are caught up in a whole bunch of other things. And most of all, he's going to say, and this is the thing that's kind of unwritten here, to have us be challenged with what the immature are really flirting with. the problem is no different today than in corinth what was their question their question uh in corinth was the same kind of questions that we deal with how are we going to make our our church acceptable in a culture like this i mean listen to these orators look at what everything is happening listen to their speeches look at the pomp of corinth and we're this little insignificant group among the greats how are we even going to make it and I've I've steadily tried to to paint the picture of you for you of what that culture was like and the pressures that they felt and what they dealt with in the ministry and I hope you felt how great those pressures were for them Paul is saying in contrast to all of that he's saying listen we purposely chose to preach Christ and God chose that now listen to this this is so important tonight God chose that knowing it wouldn't work Do you feel that? God chose this to be what it is, knowing the whole design of it, it wouldn't work. I qualify, humanly speaking. And Paul explains that. That's verse 7. We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. So what we're doing, the wisdom that we're imparting, it's hidden. It's secret. It's the mystery of the cross. No man can get to it in his own power. You can't get to it. You can't obtain it. Its very design in the decree itself from God in eternity was that it would be completely sealed off to the natural man. Do you understand that? This ministry is sealed off to the natural man. god hit it let me try to state that more clearly whatever is of god is absolute wisdom but the world regards whatever is of god as absolute foolishness and what the world regards as wise god says is absolute foolishness so there's no meeting between these two there's no middle ground between these two and and and i i believe you really have to let this point sink in for a minute what we do here what we're doing in the church the world anyone out there or anyone in darkness will never ever ever ever find valuable which makes you pause and say when something is immensely popular with the world in the name of the church how could we ever think god's involved in it this is the challenge all of this wisdom is hidden in the mystery of the cross a message that makes no sense and what does he mean paul says well go ahead and and look at the world's wisest men check them out look at the world's wisest men who all of the men who are put in power today who are you think are the most powerful leaders in the world i want you to look at them because look at them none of those rulers of this age understood this wisdom they didn't get it for if they had got god's wisdom they'd have never done what they did to jesus and put him on the cross they would have never crucified the lord of glory for them wisdom was to take jesus and exercise all of their power and what was the extent of roman power it was the cross what do i mean you didn't mess with rome you want to you want to get in trouble and you want to violate rome they put a cross up and said don't mess with us no earthly ruler would have ever accepted this message that the cross was god's way of deliverance you see there's no way so i come back to the question why were they so much flirting with human wisdom well it's because of the immense challenge of what we do did you hear andrea ferrari last sunday night our missionary from italy he's in italy and if you got to sit and listen to his presentation somebody asked him they said what's your greatest challenge in italy they're in italy he's preaching the gospel he's steadily committed to preaching the where they've got 45 people in that church. Everyone would look at that and say, I mean, that's just powerless. You know what he said was his greatest challenge? Keeping our young people. Did you hear that? Consciously working hard to preach the cross in a little off-beaten-path store, whatever it was, a little building. We have the same pressures. How can we keep our young people in this? Here's the point. No one can. You can't. You understand that? You can't keep your young people. Until that sets in, it's not going to have the kind of effect it should. The allure of this, the allure of SoCal especially, it's way too strong. there's no way you can keep your children. There's no way Pastor Gordon can keep his children. I'm doing everything I can to train them and nurture them in the Lord for a reason. But here's what really offends the Lord. Here's what, using basic language, here's what ticks them off. Well, you know, it's not working. And we need to fix this. And what are the things that we think need to be fixed? Let me use extremes for a minute. What is the psychology behind a hip pastor, a sports, you know, coffee bar, style worship, big band, best dramas, best lights, best backdrop? What's the psychology behind that? What is it? Well, it's not that hard to figure out. If you can make people feel as comfortable in church and familiar with it as what they experience in the world and non-threatening, they'll come. That's the psychology behind it. If you can make them feel just what they feel when they go out there, when they come in here, they'll come. And that's why there's no limits then on trying to bring in, right? But why does that offend the Lord? Well, we're so worried about everyone coming in here feeling what? Comfortable. You ever thought that you should be praying that anyone who comes in here feels massively uncomfortable? He didn't put His Son on the cross to suffer the wrath of God to make people comfortable in how they feel about themselves. This message is designed as a rescue center for sinners. And that's what he's trying to tell us here. It's a rescue ministry, this is, for sinners who, without Christ, are under the wrath of God. And you don't want to be there. So if anyone comes off the street and they don't believe in Jesus, I hope they're moving around in their seat. And they're so agitated, they've got to think a lot about this great question, how am I going to be right with a holy and just and pure God? You can't win the world with its own philosophy. That's the point. It's an absolute impossibility. And that's what Paul is saying to us tonight. In verse 9, I was so struck with verse 9 tonight. I want everyone to look at verse 9 because this is the verse we quote at funerals and when we're having a hard time in life. And a good verse for that, but it doesn't really fit the context. Listen to this verse in verse 9. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. Beautiful verse. I love that verse. It's kind of a collection of Old Testament thoughts, mainly taken from Isaiah 64. Break it down, though, for a minute. Just look at that verse and break it down. Eyes, ears, understanding. it has everything to do with what? Your senses. Now here's what I believe he's saying. I want you to think about your senses. I want you to think about for a minute, what is the greatest thing you see? What is it? What is the best thing you want to hear? What, according to your understanding, the greatest thing you think would work? What is it? God just said no human wisdom could ever attain to it. You'll never reach it. How things look, how things sound, and what you think in your own understanding would be the answer to get to life. To get to life. What does it say there? Nobody has ever accomplished what God has prepared. No one has ever got there. That's what that verse is saying. nobody could ever get there by thinking how alive we could make it, how vibrant we could make it, how wonderful it all could sound, how attractive we could ever possibly make it, we'll never get to the glory that God has prepared. Now that has remarkable implications. In other words, let me put it a little more clearly. The way of what worship looks like, The way of how music sounds or whatever you think would be the answer can never attain to it. Never attain to what God has prepared. I'm not against emotions and feelings and good music. But when we're grabbing for power in those things and then borrowing from the world to make it all seem really powerful to retain people, you're not listening to the Lord's ministry. You know Israel tried that. Remember when Israel made a golden calf? Israel makes the golden calf and they hold it up and they say, this is the Lord God who brought you out. This is God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And what did they do? They all fixed their eyes on it. And it was beautiful. I mean, it was a beautiful, pure gold. And it led to something that I don't know if we've often thought about. remember what happened Joshua is coming down he's halfway at the mountain Moses is coming down Joshua comes down and this this this this something's going on down in the camp and Joshua comes down and he can't figure out he hears this noise and he says what in the world is going on down at the bottom of the mountain it sounds like the noise of war no but it's not the noise of war nor the cry of defeat it's the sound of music what in the world eyes music this is a wow rocking out worship service at the bottom of the mountain in the wilderness i mean it how do you compare the sound of war with the sound of music he had never heard anything like it and you stop and you say well what just happened then I mean, how do you confuse those things? The curious thing is that Joshua had never heard singing like that in his life. And what does that tell you? Israel had put up the calf. They rose and they sat down to play. And to understand this, you have to understand that what they did, they went back to the practices that dominated them in Egypt. They went back to the world. the pagan religions worshipped their deities the pagan religions had the best music around their deities and the worship services were totally governed by the senses and what they believed was the more out of control you were the more you communed with the deity and that's exactly what israel was doing they completely abandoned all control to commune with the golden calf to which the demon was behind and and it wasn't powerless let me tell you there was roaring power in the camp that day and they had opened themselves up to the demonic realm and what's so chilling about it was joshua says it's the music that was doing it so the pagan music of the egyptians was totally unrestrained and what it was thought is that you know it didn't have order it didn't have intelligence it didn't have content it was endless repetition to control the emotions and Moses comes down and he observes that they are wild and out of control now what does that tell you about the dangers of idolatry and music and worship music is wonderful and I want it to be great but I guarantee you as they sat there they You would have said that God's ways were not nearly as exciting as that golden calf experience. You see how powerful music can be? And you say, why has this been the single great issue that's divided the church today? It's because the devil loves that playground. You say, I want to feel good when I sing. So do I. I love to feel good. But I know that's not the truth. That is so deceptive in the course of my life. I don't need music to whip me up and blast my emotions. I don't need that. I know this God loves order, design, and intelligence. Here's the point tonight of all of that. The point is, the best things you could put in place here in front of the church, the best spiritual music you ever think would work, the best stuff you can do with your own personal understanding, the best planning for worship will never attain to the glory God has. And that should be a warning. You don't win anyone with that. And so the question then becomes tonight, well, how has God chosen to work? And this is what Paul says in verse 10. These things, this glory that God has prepared for you, He's revealed to us through His Spirit. God has to reveal this to you. It's by His good pleasure that He reveals this to you. The Spirit has to open up your hearts and no amount of human wisdom can ever get there. I love what Paul says at this point. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. In other words, you know this from real life. I can't walk up to you and know what you're thinking. I can't walk up to you and know what's going on in your mind and heart. Your own spirit knows that. But guess what? You can't do that with God. You can't go up and get into the mind and heart of God. You can't really read what He values. You can't in your own worldly wisdom and sinful nature ever get there. But, guess what? The Holy Spirit can. Isn't that powerful? The Spirit knows the mind of God. The Spirit searches the mind of Christ. And here's what He does, verse 12. What a verse. What a verse to highlight. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might, here it is, understand the things freely given us by God. The Spirit, you hear what he just said, the Spirit from the mind of God is given to you so that you understand the mind of God. The Holy Spirit bridges what we could never create with wow worship. And if the mature hear that and the mature receive that, they'll know this because it's given to them by the Spirit. If that's the case, then it's no longer ever, ever, ever, ever, ever about how Chris Gordon makes the ministry effective. I can't do it. And if it becomes about that, then we've forgotten the problem, and Paul says that in verse 13. The Holy Spirit is the only one able to reveal these truths. Why? The natural man can't get it. Do you understand? The natural man doesn't understand the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Because he doesn't have the Holy Spirit. He can't get it. and paul is reminding us here don't forget about what you believe about the human heart it's a delusion if we think if you merely change the form and the message or the form and the method of what we do we'll win people it's a delusion if we think if we just have a bouncier tune you'll keep people that's the israel model and it landed them in idolatry what paul is saying we are using the holy spirit's wisdom and if you write down anything tonight it's this you can't pass on what comes from the mind of god you can't pass on god's wisdom to somebody else with human wisdom do you understand that it's like colliding spears it won't work you can't take what's in the mind of God and hand it on to somebody else with human wisdom and human technique of what we think will work. That belongs to our minds. That belongs to what we think. So how do we do it? Well, now you understand why the church in Corinth was full of so many problems, beloved. Ripped apart by division. Ripped apart by all the wrong priorities. Ripped apart by all the wrong priorities in the life of the church. Why? Because the main priority was not in place. and paul closes this tonight by saying those who are truly mature are able to appreciate the ministry for what it is no one can get into the mind of god unless we're given the mind of christ and that's what the holy spirit gives you i love how one pastor describes it in closing worldly wisdom tells us man is good God's wisdom says, no, you're not. God's wisdom says, you're bad. You need a Savior. Worldly wisdom tells us we should pick a church based on all the best programs it offers for our kids and on the fact that the praise band sounds a little bit like the band I saw in concert. Worldly wisdom is fascinated with fame, celebrity, and power. It's the very antithesis of that which Paul instructs us to seek. For the wisdom of the world does not trust God's ways. nor does it find them relevant. And that's where we close. Where is God's wisdom found tonight? Where does the Holy Spirit take what's in the mind of God and give it to you, not with human wisdom? How does He do that? Look back at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. He already told you. For since in the wisdom of God, The world did not know God through wisdom. Here it is. Here's what pleases God. It really pleased God. It excited this God. It pleased God through the folly or foolishness of what we preach to save those who believe. There's God's wisdom. There's His method. There's the way of taking what's in the mind of God that He wants given to you. Then the Holy Spirit will bless that. God gave you a powerful gift of salvation by the foolishness of the message preached. A crucified Savior, there is true power to save. In that great interest, dear Christians, when a church is full of that great interest, we will see a church full of people truly born again by the Spirit of God. Amen.