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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/joel-portman/importance-of-the-holy-spirit/
1st Corinthians chapter 2 and reading from verse 1. And I brethren when I came unto you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God.
Albeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect or full-grown yet not the wisdom of this world nor the princes of this world that come to. Not that we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God for ordained before the foundation of unto our glory which none of the princes of this world knew or had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written I hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God prepared for them that love him but God hath revealed them unto us by a spirit. Well the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely that are freely given to us of God which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but what's the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually deserved but he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged or discerned of no man or who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him.
But we have the mind of Christ our brothers been speaking to us on the subject of the importance of the Word of God and I would agree with what he has been saying because there's nothing that is so essential in the life of each of us as to the people of God as God's Word not only read but embedded into our hearts and utilized in every aspect of our lives and put into practice in a practical everyday way.
I want to think with you about this chapter for a little bit. I think that there's no chapter in our Bible that would emphasize more emphatically more definitely the importance of the Spirit of God when it comes to imparting knowledge of the truth of God.
There's no possible substitute for dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God for us to not only be able to proclaim God's Word in the gospel but also to appreciate and be able to take in the truth that has to do with what God wants to reveal to us.
We find in this passage that human reasoning and human natural ability is unavailing. It falls short. It will never accomplish the purpose that God has when it comes to the impartation the passing on and the ability to receive the truth that God wants to give to us.
I take it that Paul is taking up this subject especially in this chapter so that he might counteract the tendency of these believers in Corinth as they were regressing or going back to a character of thinking a pattern of life that was that there was a natural condition of their days before they were saved.
They were being swallowed up in the environment of their day. I was going to use a Spanish word but I can't think of the English word for it. So the environment is the same idea so that they were being taken in and they were being swallowed up again in the characteristic of teaching that enveloped the entire Greek world that was occupied with human reasoning that was based upon philosophy that was a there was a matter of logically trying to reason out and understand the purpose of life and why they were what they were and how they could accomplish the goals and the desires that they long to achieve.
There was a wisdom there was a philosophical reasoning that was centered upon man and working out for man in a desire to accomplish and understand the truth. Paul wants to take them back to realize that everything that they need to know has to come from God.
It has to originate with God. It has to come to the medium that God gives the Word of God. It has to come by the one who is able to teach the Word of God which is the Spirit of God. And he emphasizes this chapter repeatedly the importance of the Holy Spirit.
On the first section of 1st Corinthians it goes to the end of chapter 4. I take it that he's dealing with assembly unity. Assembly unity that was being ruptured assembly unity that was being marred by the prevalence of these kind of diverse opinions and different ideas that were having their way among the people of God.
There he takes up in the first nine chapters of chapter 1 the introduction to his subject and then in verse 10 down through chapter 2 and verse 5 he is dealing with the subject of assembly unity in relation to the gospel.
And for chapter 2 and verse 6 right down into chapter 3 and verse 4 it's assembly unit unity in relation to spiritual growth spiritual progress. From chapter 3 and verse 5 down to the end of chapter 4 it's assembly unity in relation to Christian servants.
And so he's emphasizing right at the very in the very middle of it the fact that everything that pertains to the work of God everything that is to be carried on by you and me individually as well as in the assembly must be in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
We might have a lot of ability and you and I might have well maybe you I don't know about me but we might have a different measure of potential in terms of whatever natural ability we might have received.
But Paul wants to emphasize that the from the very beginning when he came to this city of Corinth with all of his moral depravity with all of his commercial activity with all that enveloped it and was the ambition of men in that day he says I came unto you not with the words that would appeal to them in a natural way for that which would be the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about a work that were to be established I would continue on even in his absence.
Now if you look at this section of these first four chapters you'll find that he's emphasizing to them first of all that natural wisdom this worldly philosophy an excellent speaking ability. Chapter 1 he says it will not save one soul that that which man might be able to express in terms of oratory a persuasive words will never be effective in bringing about the salvation of a sinner.
In chapter 2 he makes it very clear that that particular kind of ability will never impart spiritual truth to the hearers. It will never give to them the understanding of this wisdom that God wants them to under to appreciate and to be able to receive something that is not of this world at all.
In chapter 3 makes it very clear that that kind of wisdom will never build the assembly. It will never be able to accomplish the purpose of adding proper material into the local assembly says that's all that which will be burned up in a coming day.
In chapter 4 he makes it very clear that that kind of philosophy and reasoning is not a proper exercise in their stewardship. It's not going to fulfill the work that God had given to them. So he's bringing them back.
And brethren and sisters you and I constantly need to be brought back to recognize that when we ever were saved if you're saved today it was a work of the Spirit of God. It was a work when God took the truth first of all bringing it home to our hearts and convicting power and an awakeness to our danger and making us concerned and fearful of meeting God and our sins and then opening up to understanding the great truth of what the Lord Jesus had done for us.
So that he is emphasizing to all of us as well as those in that day that it is vital to recognize its spiritual work. And spiritual truth must be carried on and maintained in a spiritual way depending on spiritual power that is imparted by the Spirit of God.
We need to remember that there's always a tendency if we have any ability whatsoever to depend upon ourselves. I read sometime years ago I could tell you who wrote it I can't tell you what book it was in what he says that a that a strong person is actually the weakest person in the spiritual sense that is a strong one in terms of what he thinks of himself the capabilities that he might have individually the particular abilities that he has it causes him less and less to depend upon God.
And Paul is making it very clear that while he had capabilities naturally speaking when he came to Corinth there was an absolute dependence upon God to work. That is true whether it has to do with relation to what our brother Cliff was speaking on this morning in relation to the gospel or whether it has to do with what our brother Skates was mentioning insofar as the work of God to establish and maintain an assembly.
It's true in every aspect of a work and the conditions have never changed. We need to recognize and get back to in our hearts and minds the realization that only God by his spirit working through yielded believers can accomplish the work that God desires to see done for his glory.
One has said in relation to this chapter don't know who it said or was it said it that whatever depends on a clever argument is at the mercy of a cleverer argument that is if it depends upon our natural persuasive abilities someone that comes along that has better persuasive abilities can undermine what we have tried to establish.
Now let me just divide this chapter up into four parts. I would like you to think would be in verse 1 through 5 of the concern of the evangelist. The concern of the evangelist is expressed by Paul as he has come into this wicked city of Corinth.
You remember the background he's been in Athens and there is presented to them the arguments that are based upon the the emptiness of their religion the fact that having erected so many altars to these other gods and yet in the depths of their soul they recognize the fact that there was certainly something missing and all that they were doing they were afraid that they might have missed worshiping one God that just in case they didn't know who he was they erected an altar to him and there he had presented to them that argument that was based upon the even what their own philosophers have said coming to the ultimate conclusion where he presents to them the resurrection of Christ at which they scoffed and of course they had no more to listen to him.
With that in the background he's come from that city that was a center of learning the city of philosophy the city of man's reasoning and now he's come to Corinth. Corinth was a city that was located on Isthmus between two parts of Greece Macedonia and Achaia and you find there that it was a city that was strategically located to benefit to gain much benefit from the fact of its commerce from the fact that there was a lot of traffic a lot of commerce that went through the city.
It was a rich city and along with riches of course there was immorality and there was ambition there was a lot of ability in their midst. From their background he comes to that city and has one great concern.
It's the concern of an evangelist as he comes preaching the gospel and Paul expressed that so clearly as he gives us these first five verses. Verses six through eight seem to suggest to us the character of spiritual teaching.
There is a wisdom he says but it's not the wisdom of this world. There is a wisdom he says that even the best men in this world are incapable of grasping but he says that's the kind of wisdom that God has given to us by a spirit.
In verses 9 through 13 he speaks about the channel of spiritual teaching. How is it going to be made possible how are we going to grasp or understand these things that are beyond the capability of man naturally he says God has revealed them unto us by a spirit the channel of spiritual teaching and then the last thing in verses 14 through 16 would be the capacity to receive spiritual truth.
He compares the natural man with a spiritual man and we'll look at that as the time allows. Notice that Paul says in these first five verses that when he came into Corinth there is faced with what might appear to be an insurmountable impossible task.
He's come into a city that was so puffed up and occupied with itself a city that was so proud and boasting a city that was so sunk deep in immorality. What's he going to do how is he going to address them how is he going to see any work done for God in a place like that.
Let me tell you four things that I see in these five verses. You'll notice that as he speaks about the things that he had in his mind and how he came to them and bringing them the gospel that his preaching was guarded and it was carefully calculated in a deliberate way along a spiritual line so that the ultimate results would be very evidently and clearly the result of the work of the Spirit of God.
First of all he says I employed simple words he employed very simple words. Verse one he says when I came to you came not with excellency of speech. That word excellency is a word that literally means that which overhangs or the superiority the excessiveness.
He says I didn't come to you with some kind of superior quality of speech. I didn't couch my words in a way that would appeal to your natural pride and neither did I come with excellency of wisdom. The speech would be that which would relate to a rational talk or the ability of an orator and neither did he say I came with cleverness of words in terms of wisdom.
He chose very selectively he chose very carefully to use very simple direct preaching when it came to the gospel. You know let me just say something by the way and that is this. Paul was not unfamiliar with dramatic arts.
You know Greece was quite well known for their plays and for their dramatic presentations. It was something that appealed to them and Paul says very simply I didn't come there putting on dramatic presentations.
I didn't come to put on a drama. I didn't come like one man once told me he says I have puppet shows to present the gospel. Don't see that. They had them. You know sometimes we find ourselves going back to practices or rather adopting practices and trying to present the gospel that they were not unknown in the days of the Apostle Paul.
They were simply rejected. They weren't used. They didn't do that. Well they simply preached the Word of God depending upon the Spirit of God to use it and to do it in a very simple direct way that was not geared to or depending upon the ability to use the kind of language of simply persuade man.
Paul could have done it. Paul was well educated. He knew very well how to speak and he knew how very well how to how to bring together all the accumulated oratory and the philosophical reasons that reason is today but he said I use very simple language.
Brother it doesn't help to don't hurt to keep on doing that today. Doesn't hurt to preach the gospel just like we have it from the Word of God and depend upon God to use it. The second thing he says here is that he maintained a directed message.
In other words he wasn't depending upon discussions of current events or he wasn't trying to depend upon the or the the reasonings that were prevalent among the Greek philosophers. No he says I had one direct message that I preached and that was Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He kept strictly to the person and to the finished work the reason why the Jesus was here and why he died. And I just say brethren that is the that that is the essence of the gospel. That is the primary center of the gospel and we need to keep to that.
That's what the Spirit of God uses and he still uses it today. You know sometimes we forget that a lot of work is done today and quite oftentimes it's done by men that are not great speakers. They're just faithful men.
It's not done necessarily by those that are good that are forceful in their presentations. You know going beyond the gospel I remember many who I heard when I was younger and I have to look back and say really they were some of the most difficult men to listen to because they weren't very good speakers.
An amazing thing that those are the things that they spoke of the things that stick with me today. Other things I still remember. So it goes beyond just natural ability and the ability to put words together.
A wordsmith you might call them or an orator. They might move men emotionally. They might affect their will in a natural way but when it comes to the things of God it requires spiritual power. He had simple words.
He employed a direct message that he adhered to and it was a weak messenger that was involved because in verse 3 says I was with you in weakness. Physically speaking likely. In fear that was not fear of man or fear of what men might say.
It was fear and trembling and so far as his desire that whatever he did or whatever was accomplished would be very clearly evidently very clearly and evidently the result of the Spirit of God. So I didn't want to have anything take place that would just be the result of what I was doing or what I had persuaded you.
I didn't want to talk you into anything. I didn't want to put words together in such a way that you would be emotionally moved. You know John McCann down in Brazil told me one time a year ago a few years ago I should say when he was in Garneville for a few meetings.
He said that he a man actually a missionary from some gathering perhaps assemblies up in the northern part of Brazil came down to see them there for a few days and they were having some ease of the time and before the man left to go back home he says you brother he says you don't know how to go about this work.
He said if you just do it like we do in a matter of in a matter of a week I believe he said in a matter of a week you'd have hundreds of converts. Mr. McCann says we don't want that kind of converts. We don't want them.
No he says we could present the gospel here in Brazil so that we could sway the emotions of the people and we could move them to respond in a outward way he says but we're not concerned about that we want to work to the Spirit of God does.
We want something that is going to last and Paul was concerned that whatever he did would not depend upon him only would not be the result of the fact that they had heard Paul preach and had been influenced by Paul by what he had said.
No he says I want that any work done that it might stand in the power of God so that whenever he is gone it would still last and not only that when the time came when they were questioning his authority and turning against him he says that work would still go on because it was a work that the power that the God himself had done.
So he says those things he says there's a weak messenger involved and then last of all he says that there was the evidence of spiritual power so that those results might last eternally. So a simple message, simple words, a message that was directed very clearly centering upon one person the Lord Jesus and upon the work that he finished a crucified Savior would never appeal to the Greeks would it?
Chapter one he tells them that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. He came into Corinth preaching a message that naturally speaking was contrary to their what they would think about when they thought about a hero.
A hero crucified, a Savior? Impossible. When they believe the gospel they found out the reality of it and so it was a concern of the evangelist. Brethren when it comes to preaching the gospel today let's try to maintain the same attitude and desire in our hearts.
Let's stick with the preaching of the Word of God. Let's do it in dependence upon the Spirit of God. I think it's essential that we have a prayer reading before the gospel reading. I hope we don't do that just as a matter of habit.
I hope we realize the fact that we are so absolutely weak in ourselves that even the best of men are incapable of bringing about the results that God desires in the souls of sinners. The concern of evangelist.
Very quickly and I'm going to pass over this very very quickly as well the character of spiritual teaching Paul says it wasn't the lack of ability to deal with the subjects that have to do with wisdom.
No he says we speak wisdom. We don't speak the kind of wisdom that the natural man can comprehend. No he says if that were true then the princes this world would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.
They were the ones that should have had the ability if this would have been on a natural level but no he says it was impossible for them. We are teaching he says wisdom that is from God. We are teaching a wisdom that was purpose from God in eternity.
We are teaching to the believer the full-grown mature child of God he's able to take in the truth. Now he says we're preaching that as which is for your glory. He says this is something that the natural man no matter how high in terms of education and ability he had no ability to comprehend it.
It was beyond him. Now what was true in that day is still true today. He emphasizes that it's the Lord of Glory. This wisdom he says is for our glory. Although may I take it to indicate the fact that it brings us into the eternal presence of God and brings us into the stream of understanding God's purposes and being able to appreciate what God has in mind for you and me.
But it's connected with the Lord of Glory. It's the one that was rejected by this world but he was the one that he came that had come from heaven. He's the one that came and manifested the truth of God and revealed God to those who knew him not.
And so he says they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory. They rejected the one who was God manifested flesh. First of all thirdly let me look at verse 9 through 13. The channel of spiritual teaching.
He considers here the lack of ability by man's natural beings to understand and appreciate God's truth. He says it's spiritual. It must be conveyed by the Spirit using spiritual beings to persons who were spiritual.
Verse 9 tells us. I don't know how you look at verse 9 but I'll say it in the context. He's not talking about heaven. I don't believe that what he's speaking about here is about heaven at all. Although that's part of it perhaps.
No he says the things that man receives the truth of man can receive naturally by means of the eye. What he reads, what he observes, what he sees, or what comes in by way of the ear, what he hears. That's the natural way that we learn and we have understanding imparted to us.
He says the things that the eye has seen, the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, that has never entered into the heart of man. Things that are beyond man totally. He says these are the things that God has prepared for them to love him.
So that he's emphasizing the fact that God desires and he has the ability to impart to a believer by means of the Apostles the truth that has been given by God through that channel and then unfolded to us by their teaching.
Those things that man finds himself totally outside of naturally speaking. You know you and I have gained a tremendous blessing and a tremendous ability as a result of salvation. Is it in the Psalms, Psalm 119 perhaps?
I have more understanding than the ancients, than the fathers, than the wise men. And Paul is emphasizing here that the genuine child of God has a capability of perceiving and receiving the truth that God says is totally impossible for the natural mind.
The things that eye has not seen, ears not heard, the mysteries of God, truths that are unfolded to us in the epistles. He says God, these are things that God has prepared for them. Who? For them to love him.
Isn't that the problem? That's the problem why the natural man cannot perceive these things. They don't love him. It's the heart condition. The heart's wrong. The child of God is in love with the one that has written and given us this truth.
He says these things God has prepared for them that love him. Thank God for that. You know our brother's been speaking to us about the importance of reading and meditating and learning truth of the Word of God.
Just keep it in mind that those are things that God has prepared for you and me. Way back in eternity before time began he had them in mind for you and me to enjoy and to feed upon and to appreciate and for our understanding to be enlarged and to be able to enter into something of God's purposes.
He says, verse 10, God has revealed them unto us by a spirit. Now I take that in the context that he is indicating that it's to the apostles. The ones that have been used by the Spirit of God to write the inspired scripture.
He says God revealed them unto us by a spirit. He said because the spirit searcheth the deep things, the things of God, not to learn them. The Spirit of God doesn't have to learn them. He is searching them to reveal them.
He's searching them to make them known to you and me. While it's primarily in this verse relating to the apostles who have been used of God to write this book, comes down to a practical sense as well that God desires to reveal his truth to each one of us as people.
I hope you come to read the Word of God with a sincere earnest desire that I might learn something of God as a result. That I might receive some measure of truth, perhaps something that I've never seen before.
I appreciate ministry that others have given and I appreciate books that I have that I've tried to study the Word of God a little bit. I can tell you the most precious things that I have come to, I should say, that they have a deep appeal to my heart.
Things that just as a result of reading privately and personally just seem like something was opened up to your understanding. A truth that you've never seen before. God desires to reveal his truth to you and me.
He reveals it to those that love him. He reveals it by the way of having used apostles and prophets to give us the Word of God. He has revealed it to us by his spirit. Because the spirit searching the deep things of God is doing that so that he might reveal them to us.
Because he says what man knows the things of a spirit of man, things of man but the spirit of man which is in him. That is that there must be a corresponding nature. The only one that can reveal spiritual truth is the spirit of God.
I just take that verse personally to realize this that first of all if I want to learn something of the Word of God, I must depend upon the spirit of God to teach me. Also tells me this, you can attend all the Bible schools in the world and you'll never gain spiritual understanding without the spirit of God teaching you.
So we have that great teacher. There's no teacher better. And he'll never lead us astray, he'll never give us the wrong interpretation of the passage if we are dependent upon him to guide us. He is searching, penetrating, examining all these things so he might reveal them to us.
In verse 12 he says we have received, I take that still to be the apostles primarily but by way of extension to you and me, we have received not the spirit of this age, not the spirit that depends on the natural things of the empty things of life.
No, he says we have received the spirit which is of God. We have received that spirit so that we might freely know those things that are freely given us of God. You know the spirit of God indwells every child of God.
Many different reasons why. But let me just say this, you and I need to appreciate that he is within us so that he might open up to our understanding these precious truths. I'll take the illustration from Matthew 13.
He's like a householder bringing out of a treasure things new and old. He's bringing out to our understanding those precious things of God so that we might grasp them and that we might appreciate them and that we might thank God and live in the value of them entering to God's purposes.
And so he says it's being made to us not only by way of revelation in verse 10, by way of illumination in terms of the scriptures being understood in verse 12, but in verse 13 as well it's by way of the expression, the scriptures of God being taught.
So they're being expounded. Now I know that is a verse that has different thoughts so far as men are concerned. What things he says we speak. He's claiming divine inspiration. Not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth but what's the Holy Spirit teacheth.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now the question comes in and it's often been discussed. What does it mean comparing spiritual things with spiritual? Well the word really means expounding or setting one thing alongside the other.
Communicating spiritual things. Well the problem is that the word spiritual and the second word spiritual I should say there's a question is it masculine? Does it refer to men? Or is it neuter? Does it refer to things?
And both are very possible. I'm not a Greek scholar. I just have to take what men tell us. But if you look at this verse Paul is teaching us that the things that are going to be imparted to you and me, if it's a masculine term then it has to do with the impartation, the communication of spiritual truth to spiritual men, to spiritual believers.
Those that in the verses follow is indicate to us that they are describing the character of a child of God. So he says that those things are being spoken so that as those that have the spirit we might be able to understand and receive the truths that are spiritual.
Otherwise it could be that he is imparting spiritual truths by means of spiritual words which would be in keeping with the thoughts that he is developing in terms of the truth of God that has been given to us by inspiration.
Or as Mr. Vine would put it, he says that it has to do with the idea of combining spiritual things with spiritual, that is adapting the discourse to the subject. Whatever it is, what is he emphasizing?
He's emphasizing that the ability to deliver the truth of God, the ability to receive that truth is totally dependent upon that which is of the Spirit of God. So that when a person stands up to speak, I hope you realize you have to depend upon the Spirit of God.
In fact when brethren you are preparing a message for God's people you need to begin by depending upon the Spirit of God to give you the ability to be able to put in order truths that are so essential for God's people.
You know this kind of thing when a brother gets up and said I wasn't I wasn't intended to speak today. Maybe better if he didn't. Or maybe if he says along the way and I don't want to be critical about that because sometimes it's simply a matter of somebody needed to speak because nobody else is exercised.
But you know brother if those are just some thoughts that you gathered while you're driving to meeting this morning maybe should more should have put more time into it. Should have been dependent upon the Spirit of God to have spiritual food to give to God's people.
You don't have to travel around very much among assemblies you'll find that many many believers are would tell you very readily they're starved for spiritual ministry in local assemblies. Starved for those that would take the Word of God and and bring it before them in a way that would be a blessing to their souls.
Agitation is fine we need it. A little word of comfort little word of encouragement that's good but we need spiritual food. We need teaching. We need that which has been given as a result of brethren in the presence of God as our brother has been referring to.
Waiting upon God to give the right words and to develop a message that would be able the individual able by the power of the Spirit of God to give it to God's people. And they as well by the enabling power of the Spirit of God to receive it.
What about the capacity? He only looks at two people here he says there's those that are spiritual those that are natural. Doesn't bring in the carnal until chapter 3 so it's only a contrast between the believer and the unbeliever.
The one that has a spirit and the one that doesn't have the spirit he says the natural man can't receive these things. That's why anyone here this afternoon not saved you say well I don't understand what's going on.
Can't comprehend it. That's why you need to be saved. Then you'll have the Spirit of God to teach you and to open up truth to your understanding. He says the spiritual man he's able to receive this truth.
He says we have the mind of Christ. Wonderful thing child of God to recognize that we have received not only the salvation of our souls for eternity but we have received an ability to to be able to participate and to enter into the truth that God wants to impart to mankind.
In fact we can say that among the people of this world a child of God has more wisdom and more understanding than anyone else. May God help us today to appreciate the essentiality of the Spirit of God in terms of the gospel, in terms of the impartation and passing on the truth, and the ability as well to receive it to our souls.