Well, good morning. It is such an honor and a privilege to be back in the Lone Star State. Pastor Richard, thank you so much for bringing me back and inviting me to preach. It's an honor and a privilege to stand here with these men. I do pastor in Raleigh, but I'm a native Houstonian, and it's good to be back. I felt like I got back just in time to join the militia. that we're about to form, so I'm here, I'm ready. Would you bow with me as we ask the Lord to bless our time? Heavenly Father, we pray that you would make us men and women of conviction, that you would prepare our souls to stand in the evil day. I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Christ's name, amen. This is such an important topic, such an important theme, this theme of conviction. Because when you look out at the evangelical church, that's not what you see. You don't see conviction. I think the adjective that comes to my mind when I look out at evangelicalism is squishiness. Squishiness. When I was growing up, my grandparents would take me to Surfside Beach. Have any of y'all ever been to Surfside Beach? And they would tell me, don't step on the jellyfish. Don't step on the jelly, what's a jellyfish? It's those white amorphous creatures that wash up on the beach. And if you step on it, they'll sting you. There's no backbone, there's no structure. It's just there. And by and large, that's what the evangelical church has become. Just amorphous. No spiritual backbone. And yes, if you are in that type of church, it stings for those people's souls. So it's important that we know how conviction works, how God forms conviction in our lives, that we might be convictional Christians, and that we might be convictional churches. And I wanna show you this from 1 Corinthians 2. I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 2. One of the things as you look at how God has worked in history, is that whenever there are dark times and dark periods in the church, God always has his men and his women of conviction. When the children of Israel were in Egypt, God had an 80-year-old shepherd in the wilderness that he raised up. When Elijah was on the run from Ahab and Jezebel, he said, woe is me, Lord, am I alone? And God said, not so fast. I have 300 who have not bowed the knee to Bell. And after Manasseh had reigned in all of his wickedness, God raised up a boy king named Josiah who wept at the reading of the word of God. When the Catholic Church in all of its darkness and indulgences and false worship seem to be prevailing in Europe. God raised up Luther and Calvin and Tyndale. You see, here's the thing. I believe in the doctrine of election, not just for salvation, but to leadership, that God is sovereign and that God appoints people in specific times. You know what, Jesus also believed that. In the upper room, Jesus gathered the disciples together and he said, you know what, you did not choose me, but I chose you, that you would go and bear fruit. What I believe Christ is doing is he's raising up a new generation of convictional Christians. You are not here on accident this morning. I believe you are here because God is doing something special. Even here in Houston, in Texas. When I was growing up here, I didn't even know about this church. I prayed for a church like this. I wanted a work of God like this, and here it is. God is doing a new work, God is doing something special, God is raising people up, and there's great hope in that. What it means is this, is that when the days are dark, and this year will be dark, this year will be dark, but Christ will keep raising people up to stand for truth. And whenever you think that it's done, When a Whitfield dies, or a Spurgeon dies, or an R.C. Sproul dies, whenever you think it's done, guess what? Christ is building the church. Christ is raising people up. Christ is raising convictional leaders up. And the Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians how Christ does this, how Christ raises up convictional Christians. You remember the Corinthians were involved in all sorts of pagan sexual practices, imperial worship, Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 6, all the litany list of sins that they were involved in, and yet Christ saved them and Christ did a work in their life. And in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul reminds them of how Christ forms convictional Christians, how Christ brought them to faith. So what I want you to see, I want you to see, I'm going to do a broad overview of these 16 verses. This is not a detailed exposition. I want to do a broad overview and I want to show you four truths about conviction. Four truths about conviction. First, I want you to write next to verse 1 in your Bible. the birth of conviction, the birth of conviction. Paul says, and when I came to you brothers, You remember in Acts 18, Luke tells us how Paul came to the Corinthians, how he stayed with Aquila and Priscilla. Luke says in Acts 18, four, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. And when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. So that's what Luke says Paul was doing. Now Paul tells us what he was doing and what God was doing. And what he does is he does a series of contrast. It's not this but that. It's not this but that. So look at this first contrast, second part of verse one. He says, it's not the world's method. not the world's method. I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom." He said, look, I proclaim the truth of God, the testimony of God, but I did not do it with the world's style of speech. The Greek word to describe lofty is huperoce. It means a word of superiority, a speech that is preeminent. The Greeks were known for their well-ordered oratory, a superior style of rhetoric. And Paul says, I didn't use that style. I spoke in the common vernacular. I wasn't trying to impress people with the Queen's English. I was speaking in a way for people to understand. And the great evangelists, if you study church history, have always spoken in a plain tongue, whether it's Whitfield or Moody. or Paul Washer, the great evangelist, they always speak in the normal style for people to hear. And he says, nor did I use the world's ideologies. People were into all sorts of Greek philosophy. And he said, I didn't need to pepper in those ideologies into the message to make it palatable for people. The ideologies at the time, there were three of them that were the main the main prevailing philosophies, the Stoics. And the Stoics basically taught that what you just need to do is you need to persevere through pain. You just need to have that stiff upper lip. You need to have your day timer ready. You need to get up at 4 a.m. and you need to do, you need to pull yourself up. That was the Stoics. And then you had the Epicureans. And the Epicureans said, well, we're all gonna die. You just need to have fun. It's hedonism. It's Willie Nelson. You just live and have fun while you do it because we're all going to die someday. And then the last group were the skeptics. And basically the skeptics, that's where we get our word skeptical, said, we can't know absolute truth. So we actually transcend the world by coming to the realization that we don't know truth. We can't get there. Kind of like the people down in Austin. But Paul's point is this. Paul's point is, I don't add to the message, the testimony of God, the world's methods. I don't do it. I refuse to do it. When I was in college, I came home for the weekend with a friend of mine, and we went to a church probably within 15 miles of this building. And it was during the summer, and what they had done is they had decided to do a series on the beach. That was the theme. I don't know how you get from the beach to Christianity, but they had imported tons of sand into the sanctuary and just turned the entire platform up front into a giant beach. And when you came in, they kind of had loud, you know, I think it was Beach Boys music and they had those big, those big balls and everybody was hitting the beach balls up in the air. And then, you know, the pastor gets up and has kind of a cute message. And I'm just thinking to myself, I knew enough to know that this is not how you make disciples. This is not how you make disciples. What you're really doing with that is you're making beach bums, right? Now, that's an extreme example, but I've watched the past few years as the reformed church has brought in worldly ideologies. We laugh at that, but these ideologies that we brought in, You know what they are? They're nothing more than ideological beach balls. Maybe people will like this. Maybe people will be in tune with this. When will we learn? When will the American church learn what the apostle knew? How long will it take? Here's the positive side, verse two. the positive contrast, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ in him crucified. That is a remarkable verse. That is the verse that is on Martin Lloyd-Jones's tombstone. Why? Because this verse is the secret to how God makes disciples. This verse is the secret to convictional Christianity. It is the only way that God saves sinners. Notice Paul's dogmatism. I decided to know nothing among you. Notice the narrow focus of the message. It's two things, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Those are the main themes of his message. This constitutes his method. First, let's look at these. Jesus Christ, what does he mean? He's talking about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that he's a similar substance to God. Not that he was a man and God adopted him at some point. No, no, no. That he is God of very God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Writer of Hebrews says, Hebrews 1.3, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprints of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. In God's love, the second person of the Trinity, the son of God, came into this world to bridge the gap. And he is worthy of all worship and all praise. And Paul declared to the Jews in the synagogue and to the Gentiles that God became a man and took on flesh. And not only that, there is the message of the atonement, the message of the cross. that man crucified his God, that Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross to die for sinners so that sinners can be forgiven of their sin. That's what makes Christianity unique. It is the only religion in the world with an atonement. I talk to Muslims, Hindus, and I ask them, how do you think you're going to get to heaven someday? Say, well, I'm trying to be a good person. If I'm a Muslim, I'm trying to keep the five pillars. What do you do with your sin? Is God just? Yeah. So can God just sweep your sin under the rug? What do you do with your sin? Only in Christianity do you have an atonement. That means in that one-ment with God that Christ made a way for you to be reconciled to God, where all your sins are paid in full. And I know in a room this size, there's someone here who has not yet believed that, entrusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and the penalty that he paid. Because he was perfect, The grave could not hold him and he arose again from the dead three days later. Martin Luther said that you cannot know God until you know him at the cross. Because it's at the cross that you see not just the justice of God, but the mercy of God, and the grace of God, and the love of God. But God demonstrates his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Luther said, don't be a theologian of glory, be a theologian of the cross. The cross is where the power is. That's where God saves sinners. There's another contrast, verse three. Paul says, it's not the power of personality. It's not personality. It's not in the messenger. It's not in the herald. He says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. I don't think when Paul says this that he was fearful of the Corinthians. I don't think he had stage fright. I think he was fearful of speaking the pure message of a holy God and of giving an account to God. that the degree and awesomeness of his task was so weighty that as he went from Athens into Corinth, as he marched into Corinth, he did so in weakness and in fear of the Lord. And he says in trembling, literally, as he was speaking, he was shaking before God and them. He says, in my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom. There was not that oratory, that high rhetoric. There was not this amazing personality. You remember the Corinthians, they were into that. Some said, I am of Paul. Others said, I am of Apollos. Others said, I am of Cephas. And what Paul's reminding them here is that the power the success cannot be attributed to the messenger. Did you get that? I've been to so many things where somebody gets a celebrity to come and present the gospel because the thought is the celebrity will be able to pull it off. The power of the gospel is not in the fame of the messenger. It's not in the articulation and oratory of the messenger. It's not in the intellectual ability of the messenger. The power of the gospel is the gospel. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power, the dunamis of God to salvation, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 7, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. It's the power of God. That's what Paul's point is. Look at the second part of verse four. He says, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That word demonstration means proof. Proof. There's proof of its existence. Proof of what? Proof of the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, and proof of power. There was proof of God's supernatural attentiveness to the message. There was a demonstration of the Spirit's presence in his message. What does Paul mean by that? I think what he means is that when Paul was standing there trembling, preaching Christ and him crucified, that people encountered the presence of Almighty God. Encountered the presence of Almighty God. I remember Sinclair Ferguson telling this story, and it was Martin Lloyd-Jones was doing an evangelistic tour up in Scotland, and he really wanted to go, but the first night, for whatever reason, he was not able to go. And he ran into, after Lloyd-Jones preached, he ran in the next day to a girl who had gone. He said, what was it like? What was it like being there? She looked at him and she said, it felt like the building was about to fall down. Such was the presence of God. Do you know what I'm talking about? where the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you're hearing the word of God, and then all of a sudden, God's dealing with you, and you're face-to-face with God, and the character of God, and the wonder of Christ, and the Holy Spirit begins moving in your heart. The word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. And now you realize you are meeting with God himself. That's the demonstration of the Spirit. Well, what's the power? What's the power? The power is the life change that happens in you. The power is the new birth. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. I told that to the Corinthians. The old has passed away, the new has come. The power was when they left the building, they were different people. That God had changed them. That God had intervened. That now they can see the kingdom of God because they were born again. Do we believe in the power of the gospel? Do you believe? Not just theoretically, but do you believe that God changes people, that God saves sinners through the gospel? I believe. Paul says this is what God does. He transforms sinners and takes them from the kingdom of darkness and brings them into the kingdom of his beloved son, Colossians chapter one. Why? Look at verse five. so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. You walk out and you say, you know what? I am not a Christian. I'm not a convictional person because of the preacher. I am a Christian because of what God did to me through the word. My hope and confidence is not in that guy's brand. It's in him. It's the Holy Spirit, it's the gospel. That's what your faith rests in. So that's the birth of conviction. That's how God makes convictional Christians. Now next to verse six, I want you to write the building of conviction. The building of conviction. Because that's where it starts, that's the foundation. But then we need to build upon it. We need to build upon it. This is what Paul did. He built upon it with the Corinthians. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. That word mature, it almost means complete. What Paul means is that a Christian is complete in several senses. A Christian is born again. A Christian is indwelt by the Spirit. A Christian is not of the flesh. A Christian is of the Spirit. So there's a level of completion. You're now in the kingdom of Christ, not in the kingdom of darkness. But yet, We need to grow in wisdom. Even to the Christian, the Christian still needs to grow. And so Paul says, yes, we do impart wisdom to the believer. We do impart wisdom to the Christian. Now here's another contrast. not the wisdom of this age. Second part of verse six, not the wisdom of this age. We don't teach them what the world says. He says, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away. That word age is the Greek word I own. And it's the same word that Paul uses in Romans 12, two, when he says, do not be conformed to this I own. Sometimes it's translated world, but it's age. Do not be conformed to this age. Why? Because this age, he says, it's doomed to pass away. It's doomed to pass away. What do you hear from the world? The world is telling you all types of messages, all types of advice, all types of philosophies, but it's all how to get ahead in this age, right? Get up early. Now, everybody right now is talking about cold plunges, you know, have less anxiety. You're getting a, a cold bucket of water, uh, be organized. Set goals, measurable goals. See how you can achieve them. Eat more proteins, less carbohydrates. Lift weights, less cardio. It's all the wisdom of this age. But you know what? It doesn't matter how healthy you are, you're still gonna die. You're still gonna die. You know what? It doesn't matter how famous you are, in this age, you're still gonna be forgotten. You see all the wisdom of this world, it only works for this age. It doesn't work for the age to come. So Paul says, we don't use that. I don't use it. It doesn't help you grow in conviction and maturity. It's all of the age that is passing away, not of the age that is to come. But, contrast, the hidden wisdom of God. Verse seven, he says, we impart the hidden wisdom of God. We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. that word secret is the greek word mysterion where we get our word mystery a mystery it's what he's talking about is divine special revelation in the word of god what did god decree before the ages for our glory what god decreed is that christ would die for sinners, that there would be a lamb who is slain before the foundation of the world. That's what God decreed. So what Paul's talking about is the grand story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. This mystery that God has saved sinners since Adam, and it's all revealed in Scripture. It's all revealed in Scripture. So what Paul's saying is we impart the mystery. I show them from Genesis to the book of Romans, which he wrote in Corinth, I'm showing them the truth of Christ and how God saves sinners. One of the speakers here was one of my seminary professors and pastors in seminary, Jim Hamilton. And he wrote a book called God's Glory in Salvation Through Judgment. And he argues that scripture is the story of God saving sinners from beginning to end through the God, man, Christ, Jesus. Does the name W.A. Criswell ring a bell? W.A. Criswell, Texan? Criswell one time, New Year's Eve, started preaching, I think it was like 8 p.m., and preached all the way to the new year. And the message was the scarlet thread through the Bible. And he traced from Genesis to Revelation this theme of redemption. This theme of redemption. That's what Paul is talking about, is he passed on to them this grand theme of redemption. And this is what built their wisdom. And it's all in scripture. What's the application for us? Is that we need to master this. We need to know this. We need to be immersed in the word of God. The Old Testament is Christ prophesied. The gospels are Christ's life acts. is Christ's mission, the epistles is Christ explained, and the revelation is Christ's reign. Now, Paul has another explanation, another explanation in verse 8. He doubles down. He says it's not just the wisdom of this age, but it's not even the rulers of this age. He says the influential people, they don't get this, they don't understand this. Verse eight, none of the rulers of this age, I own, understood this, for if they had, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory. Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod Antipas, all of them crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. People that claim to be wise were actually fools. And Paul's general point is, is that oftentimes in this age, The elites will not understand the mystery. Isn't that what he says in chapter one? Not many wise, not many of noble. He's saying the elites don't get the mystery. They don't understand. The Harvard academics, they don't understand it. The Hollywood stars don't understand it. Washington certainly doesn't understand it. But, and here you see the blessing of God. This is the blessing of God. Here's the contrast. As it is written, and he quotes Isaiah 64, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. Notice, in this Old Testament quotation, the word I. Notice the word ear. Notice the word heart. What Paul is saying is that you cannot understand the blessings of God through your senses. He's saying you can't get there through general revelation. You can't understand the love of God simply in its full manifestation by looking at a sunset. You can't go stand on Plato's porch and simply use your mind and your rationality to understand grace. You need a special revelation to get there. That's what Paul's saying. But when you see it, then you understand the blessings of God. And this is what puts spiritual steel in your spine. When you understand the blessings of God in the Word of God, you are able to stand, as Athanasius did, contra mundum, against the world. You're able to, as Dr. Lawson talked about, as Cramer put his hand out in the fire. Because you know, I know in whom I have believed. I know he's gonna transport me from this world to the next. I know the secrets, I know the mysterion, I know the mystery. Here's the great news. This is amazing, this is remarkable. Right next to verse 10, the builder of conviction. The builder of conviction. So we've seen the birth of conviction, the building of conviction. The incredible thing is that we're not alone in this task. that God has sent a paraclete, a helper, a comforter, one who is with us. Look at verse 10. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Now, every believer is sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Paul says, Ephesians 1.13, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promise, Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. And the Spirit, the Spirit understands the mysteries of God, the mysteries of Christ. And in fact, the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the special revelation. All Scripture is breathed out by God. Theopneustos. It's the breath. The Spirit is the wind of God, the breath of God, who authors Scripture. The prophets were carried along as they wrote by the Holy Spirit, Peter says. So the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Now, the Holy Spirit is God. The depths of God are inexhaustible. But the Holy Spirit is inexhaustible because he is God. What Paul is saying is that the deep things of God can ultimately only be known and revealed by the Holy Spirit. I don't know if you've ever been at dinner with your spouse and you're wondering, what are they thinking right now? I mean, I think I know my wife well enough to know possibly what she's thinking. Maybe something about interior decorating or something. I think I might know, but I can't know absolutely. You can never know absolutely what's in somebody's mind, can you? Only that person knows what's in their mind. That's what Paul's saying, is that only the Holy Spirit can understand and know the deep things of God. Verse 11, for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? That's his point. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. So only the Holy Spirit can fully understand and completely comprehend the thoughts of God. Here's another contrast. Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of this age, the spirit of this world. That's why the Christian is so different. That's why your convictions don't match the convictions of this world. You're different. You haven't received that spirit. You've received a spirit that points you to eternal things, not temporal things. But here's the positive. you have received the Spirit of God, the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God." What Paul is talking about, and I'm going to give you a word here, is illumination. Illumination. that the Holy Spirit helps you understand the truth. When you think about illumination, you think of a light, how a light sheds light in a dark room and illumines the room and helps you understand what is there. That's what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit helps you understand the word of God. Let me give you a quote from R.C. Sproul. He says, the scriptures themselves are light for us. There is need for additional illumination so that we may clearly perceive the light. The same Holy Spirit who inspires the scripture works to illumine the scriptures for our benefit. He sheds more light on the original light. Isn't that great? You have the light, but he sheds more light on it. Illumination is the work of the Holy Spirit. He helps us to hear, receive, and properly understand the message of God's Word. So what does he do? How does he do this? Well, one, he helps us to understand the doctrines and the ethics that are found in the Bible. He helps us to connect one scripture with the next. Have you ever been reading the Bible and then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit helps you recall another verse that is a cross-reference or pertains exactly to what you're reading. Or you're in a situation and the Holy Spirit brings to mind the exact verse you need in the exact moment that you need it. He helps you recall it. He helps us as we're praying to recall scripture so that we begin to pray the scriptures. He helps us to recall truths that are found in the scriptures. Verse 13. We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit helps us do this, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The spiritual are those mature, complete Christians that have been saved that he refers to earlier. So Paul's saying that the Holy Spirit enables the believer to understand the wisdom of God. He illuminates the scripture for you so you can see. When I was in the Marine Corps, we had these really cool devices called night vision goggles. night vision goggles, and they sit in front of your face, and they literally enable, they gather in the loom that's there from the moon, and they enable you to see at night, and I remember they gave us a class on the night vision goggles and how they work, and that night, they took us out to a live fire firing range, And they had all the night vision goggles there, and I remember a sergeant handed me my NVGs, the night vision goggles. I put them on, and everybody's going up to the firing line and firing with their NVGs on. And I put them on, and I couldn't see anything. Nothing. Completely black. And I told the sergeant, I said, they're not working. I can't see. He said, you know, you dumb lieutenant, you know, you probably haven't flipped the switch right. Get up there and, you know, and start shooting. I'm like, I can't see. He says, go shoot. So I literally, I can't see a thing. I'm on a live fire range, pop-up targets coming up. And I literally just point my rifle down range. I'm like, Lord, help me not to shoot somebody. I'm just firing off rounds into the dark. And I stepped back from the firing line. I'm like, man, what is, is it me? What is wrong here? And I take out, you know, take out the NVGs. I'm looking at them and I, and I take off this, take off this little deal. Guess what? They didn't have batteries in them. They didn't have batteries in them. No wonder they couldn't work. So I put the battery, you know, get some batteries, put them in. And then I step up again. It's like, Whoa, I can see everything. This is unbelievable. You know, I'm just, this is great. This is fantastic. I can see. That's what the Holy Spirit does with the Word of God. The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. Satan, the God of this world, has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They can't see it. You ever sat there with a Bible verse? See it, see it? Uh-uh, I don't see it. Man, I see it in color. I see it. What's wrong with you? They can't see. They're blinded. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He illumines the text so you're seeing it in living color. It makes you wise, builds up conviction. Fourth and finally, this is the blessing of conviction. Write the blessing of conviction next to verse 14. So we had the birth of conviction, the building of conviction, the builder of conviction, the Holy Spirit, and then the blessing of conviction. The natural person, that's the unbeliever, 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. They're in the dark. They do not understand supernatural things. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 1.25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. They look at the cross and they say, that's silly. That's silly. Don't you know in the Old Testament that anybody who dies on a cross is cursed? The Greeks said, we like our God strong and powerful, like Zeus. And you're saying your God died on a cross? Uh-uh, that doesn't work. The foolishness, the foolishness of the cross is that the world doesn't see it. They don't see it. Because they, They want a God who is different from the God revealed on the cross. They're looking in the dark. They're looking in the dark. But here's the contrast again, the spiritual person. This is such a great verse. This is a great verse. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no man, no one. He judges all things. What does Paul mean? He means that you see the light. You read the scriptures, you see the God-man, you see the atonement, you believe. You see it, it's there. You know, you know the truth. You have discernment. You're able to judge spiritual things. And when he says that you are judged by no one, he's saying the world, they don't understand this. They don't get what you know. They don't get it. They don't understand it. They're seen in the dark. They're not seen in color, but you see in the light. And so what Paul is saying here is walk in the light. Walk in the discernment that you have. Don't be thrown off by the naysayers. You remember when David got to the valley of Elah and his brother Eliab says, I know why you're here, the presumption of your heart. You know, you came up to see the battle. What does David say? It's but a word, he keeps going. Don't let the unbeliever judge you. They don't know, they don't understand, they don't discern. You stand on what you know. What the Holy Spirit has shown you in the light, you walk in and you do not compromise. You know what you know. They don't know. Isn't that what Jesus said? Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. They don't know. You are judged by no man when you're in Christ. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. You have Christ's mind. They don't understand the mind of the Lord. You have the mind of Christ. Wow! Doesn't that instill confidence? Doesn't that instill conviction? How does Martin Luther stand at the Diet of Worms? The world against them, the Holy Roman Emperor right there, and say, I will not recant unless I can be convinced by Holy Scripture. How does he do that? How do you stand? You simply walk in what God's revealed to you. You walk in what you know. you have the mind of Christ. Let me give you four application points, four application points as we close. First, make sure that your Christianity rests on the narrow gate of the gospel. Make sure that your Christianity rests on the narrow gate of the gospel, that it does not rest on the fame of a preacher or some hyped spiritual event, but that it rests on the power of the truth, that you truly have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and believed in him. Second, put yourself in the path of scripture where you see Christ's reign and his redemption from beginning to end. Man cannot live on bread alone, but on the very word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Third, pray. As you study the word of God, as you're sitting under the word of God, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the word of God to you. Ask God the Holy Spirit, Lord, show me what I don't know. Help me to apply what I need to apply. Help me see Christ where I need to see Christ. Teach me the character of God that I need to understand to properly worship him. Fourth, walk in discernment and trust your convictions that God the Holy Spirit has shown you. God calls you to walk in faith. You don't know the trials that you will face. He asks you to walk step by step by step, but to do so in faith and to walk in the convictions that he has instilled in you for his glory. This is what he does in making us convictional Christians. Praise be to God. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for these truths. We thank you, Lord, for the work that you did in the Corinthians 2,000 years ago. We pray, Lord, that you would do this work in us, Lord, that you would save sinners through the power of the gospel. that you would put us in the path of scripture, that we might know the great story of redemption, and Lord, that the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit of God would reveal the mysteries to us. Lord, that we would love to sit down in the mornings and study the word and sit under the preaching of the word and to memorize the word as the Holy Spirit does this work in our hearts. And Lord, we pray that we would be Christians of discernment and conviction. that are able to walk in the truth, faith by faith, step by step, in this dark and crooked generation. We ask all this in Christ's name for your glory, amen.