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Reading 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 where the Apostle Paul says that we have been given the Spirit of God that we may understand the things freely given us by God. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Can anyone know your thoughts? It would probably offend you if someone were to say, Hey, here's what you really meant when you said that. Well, how do you think God feels when we tell Him what we think He means?
The truth is when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 1 Corinthians 2. And I'm going to pick up with that reference to Isaiah 64, right here in verse 9. We'll read through to the end of the chapter. This is in the Legacy Standard Bible, the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
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. But 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 depths of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the depths 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 depths graciously given to us by God, of which depths we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual depths with spiritual words.
But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually examined. But he who is spiritual examines all things, yet he himself is examined by no one.
For who has known the mind of the Lord that He will direct him? But we have the mind of Christ. So I'm coming back to that reference to Isaiah 64 that we looked at yesterday, right here in verse 9. 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.
So there is a wisdom that comes from God that we cannot search out. It is by the grace and blessing of God that we know it, because He gives us His Spirit to know it. I'm going to jump right to Isaiah 64 and read that passage in context.
So beginning at the start of the chapter, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood, and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence.
When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down. The mountains quaked at your presence, from of old no one has heard, or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him.
You meet Him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry and we sinned. In our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
But now, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.
Let me stop there. But there's the first nine verses of Isaiah 64. And you can kind of hear there the understanding that in our sins and in our iniquities, we are separated from God. We are not even seeking out God.
You did awesome things that we did not look for. That sounds a lot like Romans 3, right? In Romans 3, Paul is quoting from the Psalms, but even there it says no one seeks for God, as has been spoken about in the Old Testament.
So it is the case today. No one by their own will, by their own volition, goes searching for God. It is he who seeks us. We would not come to know God if not for his grace. Consider these words from Charles Spurgeon.
Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself.
And though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. When we first come to faith, you are likely to believe that you did it. I'm the one that searched for God. I'm the one that made the decision to follow Jesus.
You know, we sing the old hymn, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back, right? And as far as you are concerned, as far as what you know and can perceive and understand with your own human, finite, limited mind, yes, you made a decision and you are following Jesus because you made that decision.
But when you open the Bible and you read the theology and you see the things that God exposes from beginning to end according to his will as revealed in his word, when you read it in scripture, you come to find just as what Charles Spurgeon was saying here, it wasn't really you who was seeking after God.
It was that God had sought you and praise God for that. Luke 19 10, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And those whom he calls to himself will follow him. He said as much in John 10, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
We know the voice of the good shepherd because we are his sheep and we like sheep have gone astray. Quoting from Isaiah again, Isaiah 53, we have turned every one of us to his own way, but the Lord is laid upon him, the son, the iniquity of us all.
And so for those who are his sheep, who we have been given to the shepherd as an inheritance, the father having gifted us to the son, Jesus died for us, paid for our sins. We hear the voice of the shepherd.
Our hearts are transformed where previously we were those sheep that had gone astray. We were running away from God. Our hearts have been changed now to hear the voice of the shepherd and to follow him.
We now know that which had not entered our hearts before, all that God has prepared for those who love him. We can read the word of God and we see and understand the will of God because his Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts and the Spirit of God discerns, examines these spiritual things from the mind of God.
Verse 10, but to us, God revealed them through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. He reveals to us an understanding of the mind of God. Romans 8, 27, he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
This is God who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit. It says in Proverbs 20, 27, the Spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord searching all his innermost parts. As we go on in verse 11 to read, for who among men knows the depths of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him?
Even so the depths of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now when Paul says here, who among men knows the depths of a man except the Spirit of the man that is in him? It's not really talking about his soul.
The Spirit of the man is not the soul of the man that understands the mind of the man. He's speaking more metaphorically here. Like who can know what a man means except the man who said it, right? So you cannot decide that you know the intentions of a man's heart.
Only that man knows exactly what his intentions are. Now there are certainly some actions that we can examine and we can see what that man intended to do. When you have a trial, when somebody is on trial for having done a crime, one of the things that the prosecution is going to try to do is determine motive.
Why did this man do this thing or this woman do that? You know, whoever it is that's on trial for a crime. Why did they do this? What was their motive? And that's part of building their case to convince a jury that this person is guilty.
So when the jury determines that that person is guilty, they're not just determining that, yeah, this person committed that crime, but they're also saying this was their motive for doing that crime. Since that's part of the trial, that's part of the case that's been built.
And therefore discerning what were the motivations of the heart of that person. But most of the time we can't just look at somebody and say, oh, yeah, I know why they're doing that. I know why they said that thing.
And right now in our culture, everyone's become a mind reader. You have what Vodie Bauckham has called ethnic Gnosticism, where because you are of a certain color, you know exactly what the intentions of everybody is.
All white people do this. All black people do this. All cops think this way. This happened to that guy because all cops do this. And the cops have declared war on black men and all this kind of thing.
So everybody knows what everybody's intentions are. You don't even have to know the person. We've just become mind readers. But the point that Paul is making here is something that's very common sense.
Who can really know what a person's intentions are except that person? He knows. He knows exactly what's going on in his mind. He knows why it is that he did that thing. Who among men knows the depths of a man except the spirit of a man that is in him?
Who knows what that guy is thinking? Who knows what he wants to do? Who knows what the next action is that he is going to take? We can't predict the future. We cannot read minds. But the person knows their own thoughts.
It's just simply kind of the common sense argument that Paul is making there. Don't read too deeply into that. He's not talking about the soul. He's not talking about something esoteric. Nothing like that.
Just a guy knows what he's thinking. Now, you might even say, my own spouse doesn't know what they're thinking. Okay, granted. But I'm speaking generally, broadly here. You know what your intentions are.
You know why you said or what you did that thing. Who can tell you what you meant if that's not what you meant? You know. You know what's going on in your own mind. And so, likewise, even so, the depths of God, no one knows except the spirit of God.
Now, the depths of a person are quite limited. You can only probe into a person's psyche so far. You can search yourself only so far. You only go so far down. But how far can we explore the depths of God?
Limitless, right? Because he's infinite. He is eternal. So we'll seek after the things of God and never come to the end of it. Even according to the word that we have been given. We're just talking about 750 ,000 words that we have in the Bible.
And these words will study for the rest of our lives and still never come to the end of this. I know that I've mentioned this to you just a couple of weeks ago. But you look at those theologians who have devoted their entire lives to studying God's word.
And yet, on the day they die, from their deathbed, they would say, they didn't even cover a tenth of it. I've not even begun to search the depths of the knowledge of God. We could be given ten lifetimes to study the knowledge of God, just what has been revealed to us in the Bible.
And at the end of those ten lifetimes, what we would have in our hands is a thimble full of ocean water. When we've got a vast sea of God's knowledge out in front of us, we have yet to explore. That is how vast are the depths of the knowledge of God.
Now, I do believe that there's more that we're going to see on the other side than we could ever behold here. For as it says in 1 John 3, 2, we will see him as he is. For we will be made to be like him.
But, my friends, we will be spending all eternity praising God and glorifying him for his wonders, because it would take that long, all eternity, to probe the depths of the knowledge of God. We will see him as he is, but he will be so vast to us, even forevermore.
And that will be a thing that we will celebrate forever. Oftentimes, we have these pictures of heaven. This is the way they did it in the cartoons. You've got the little cartoon character sitting on the cloud and playing the harp.
And he's got a halo kind of glued to his head and some funky looking wings on his back. And it's like, what could be enjoyable about that in heaven? Just sitting on a cloud playing a harp. What's so great about that?
That's not heaven. You know this. Come on. You know your scripture and you know what Jesus has said about heaven. Again, it's like a thimble full of the knowledge of heaven, when heaven is a vast sea out in front of us that has yet to be explored.
That's as much as Jesus has told us about heaven. But as we marvel God forever, we're in his presence forever. He's what makes heaven so glorious. Not the streets of gold, not the pearly gates. By the way, I tend to believe that the reason why the gates of heaven are made of pearls is because we're going to walk right past them and not even marvel at it.
The reason why the streets are described as being paved with gold is because we're going to walk on top of it. The gold is so not the focus that it's pavement. We'll walk past the pearliest of pearls.
We'll walk upon the most golden of gold to Jesus. That's where we're going. That's who we want to see. Not the jewels, not the great foundations of the city or anything. We're there to see Jesus. So all the wonderful decorative jewels and everything like that that heaven is described with is just like the most wondrous riches that we might be able to hold in our hand or behold with our eyes here on earth will be nothing to us in heaven.
We'll be passing by all of that to behold the greatness and the glory of God and for all eternity. That's where we want to be with our master, with our God, our creator and savior so gracious and merciful to us.
We want to be with him forever. We have fellowship with him now through Jesus Christ, our savior. And it's through the word that has been given to us in the Bible that we can know God and his spirit poured into our hearts that we might probe the depths of God.
Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God so that we may know the depths graciously given to us by God. God has given us the depths of himself that we may graciously explore them or he's graciously given them to us that we may gratefully explore them.
There you go. So we read the Bible and we understand what is being said here because we have the spirit of God to understand it. Now, of course, Paul is speaking to a people who are not spiritual. Some of them are.
Some of these people do have the spirit of God but there are many in Corinth especially those who have developed factions among one another claiming I follow this guy or I follow this guy, right? Paul is rebuking because they're not spiritual men.
There is fleshly men. I'm going to jump ahead to chapter 3 verse 1 and I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. He's teaching them these things.
You come to this knowledge and this understanding not because you are seeking knowledge, not because you're looking for the next hip philosophy that's out there that you can latch on to and make yourself look better than your neighbor because you have the new thought that's there among the Greeks.
I'm following this Jesus guy. He's the new thought. And so now because I have this new philosophy, look at how much smarter I am. You can't know those things. The naturally minded man cannot know them for they are spiritually discerned.
And that's verse 14. We won't get to that one until tomorrow. But still resting here in verse 12, we've received not the spirit of the world. We're not after the knowledge of God because we're trying to look good to the world.
We're after the knowledge of God because we love God. We've received the spirit who is from God that we may know the depths graciously given to us by God. And as I read to you yesterday from 1 John 2 that we have received not the spirit of the world.
We're not to be after the things of the world any longer. Galatians 2 .20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
We have the spirit of God that has been poured into our hearts that we may know the mind of God. And it is by his spirit that we study what we have in his word. Now, we're all at different points of maturity in our faith.
Some more mature, some have come into deeper understanding than others. Those who have been appointed to be your leaders, your teachers, those who are elders in the church, these are those who are more mature in their faith and their understanding so that you also may grow in your maturity and in your understanding.
But I can't tell you the number of times that I've encountered somebody who has said, Hey, don't I have the spirit of God too? Can't I do this on my own? Why do I need to listen to you? Why do I need to submit to my elders?
Can't I teach? I can do this on Sunday school class, right? I don't have to submit to an elder to do that because I have the spirit of God also. Well, we've been commanded in 1 Peter 5 that we are to be in submission to the elders that have been appointed to oversee the teaching of the church.
So you need to be in subjection to those roles that God has assigned and what he has put them there for. God is the one, Jesus is the one who has built his church. And so if he has said these are the elders and we're to submit to the elders, then that's what you're called to do.
Can you know the word of God because of the spirit of God that is in you? Yes, you can. But if you're making comments like, well, I have the spirit of God too. So aren't I just as capable of knowing this as my elder or my pastor?
Well, are you sure that you're not using the name of the spirit in vain, just like the Corinthians were using the name of Christ in vain? When they said in 1 Corinthians 1 .12, I am of Christ, they weren't really claiming to be of Christ.
They were just trying to trump the other guy and saying, well, look, I've got Christ. And so I've got something better than Peter or Paul or Apollos. So are you claiming that you have the spirit of God because you want to say that you're smarter or better than somebody else?
I even had somebody this past week said, well, God told me to do this, and so that's what I'm going to do. I was listening to an interview on a podcast where the person being interviewed was making the wrong decision, but they justified it by saying, God told me to do this.
That's using God's name in vain. We can even use the name of the spirit of God in vain, the Holy Spirit to justify our actions and say, my actions are God ordained because God told me to do this. Be very careful about that.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and at the proper time, he will exalt you. Peter goes on to say that in 1 Peter 5, and we also read that in the book of James. We have the spirit of God that we may know the mind of God, not justify our actions as every one of them being from God.
As I said in the introduction, can anybody tell you what you're thinking? It's probably offensive to you if someone were to say, well, here's what you were thinking when you did that. Here's what you really mean by that.
That's offensive. How can you know what it is that I'm thinking? How do you know what my motivations are? Well, how do you think God feels when we tell him what his motivations are when that's not really what God intended?
As the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. Plenty of people want to be able to say, hey, God is on my side.
Do you know that for sure? We can know when we study the Bible. God gave you his spirit, not so that you could think whatever you wanted to think and say that was the spirit that gave me those thoughts.
He gave you the spirit as a helper. Remember, again, Jesus described the Holy Spirit to the disciples as a helper, and that Holy Spirit helps you know what God's will is according to his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this good word today, and I pray we find practical application for it.
We understand what this means and how it guides our lives according to your word. Humble us in your presence that we may seek not our will, but the will of God in our lives, and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening, and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.