this passage and we're starting really from verse 10 where we last dealt with this passage and finished. But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And it is a wonder, isn't it, that God has these wonderful deep things for us. laid up for us, as we read, these things are prepared for those who love Him. God is now revealing them to us and helping us to understand these incredible things, the things of the Spirit, the things of God. And it's all laid up in His Word, of course. And the Spirit helps us to understand His Word and to appreciate His Word and to obey His Word. And without the Spirit, we can know nothing. And that's what Paul is now teaching us, that the Gospel and the propagation of the Gospel and the reception of the Gospel is totally dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit in people's hearts and souls. Without that work, they cannot understand and they will not understand the gospel. They will not receive it. They will not obey it. They will not turn to Christ and be saved. Without him, we labour in vain. And all our efforts and all our works are in vain because it takes that miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in people's hearts and souls to illuminate them and to help them and to show them the things of God. And so that's how Paul came to them. He came to them in the demonstration of the spirit and of power, verse four. He did not come with the deceptive words of man's wisdom, not the excellency of speech or of wisdom, not persuasive words of human wisdom, but a demonstration of the spirit and of power. In all ways, Paul determined this. He determined to know Christ and him crucified only. to preach that to people, to explain that to people. Yes, to persuade people too, but to persuade them with the wisdom of God, with the gospel itself, with the teaching of the gospel. And if people did not receive that, they did not receive it. That was it. You look at Jesus Christ's ministry. Jesus Christ's ministry is one of telling people the truth. But there were many people who did not receive the truth and would not have the truth. What did Jesus Christ do? Did he try and change the truth? Did he try and make it more acceptable to them? Did he try and explain it in a way that would be overpowering to them, which he could have done? No, he didn't. He explained the truth. He preached the truth. He gave them the truth. And if they would not have it, they would not have it. Because if they would not have it, it's because the Holy Spirit was not working in their hearts and their souls to bring them to understanding of the things of God. And that's what he goes on to tell us. But God has revealed, verse 10, them to us through his spirit. All that we know of God and all that we understand of God and understand of his word is because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And the more that we know of the Word of God, and the more that we understand of the truths of the Word of God, it's because the Holy Spirit is the one that searches the mind of God, and knows the mind of God, and knows those deep things of God. and reveals them to us and helps us to understand these things. But the natural man, he does not understand them. He has no comprehension of these things at all. Verse 11, for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. So here it is. We have a spirit. God is spirit, no God. We have to commune with him through our spirit. That's why we worship him in spirit and in truth. The word spirit is not synonymous with our soul and it is not as many commentators say in John 4, that it's our heart. We worship him with our hearts and with the truth. No, it's not. We have a spirit. We are body, soul, and spirit. That spirit is dead within us until it's revived by the spirit of God and made alive. We are made alive by the spirit of God. Born again, our spirits are made alive within us. And then, and only then, can we begin to appreciate and understand the things of God. But that spirit of ours, that spirit of us, understands us too. It says, for what man knows the things of man except the spirit of the man which is in him. So the spirit searches our soul and searches our minds as well. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. That's logical, isn't it? To know anything of God, the only one that can know the things of God is the Spirit of God. and because he understands God and he knows God's mind. Our spirit knows us, understands us, and knows our minds because we are one. And so the Holy Spirit, being one with God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, he understands the things of God. So, unless the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding and revealing these things to us, it is impossible for man to understand God, to understand anything about God, and to understand the teachings of God. Now that doesn't mean that he can't understand the words of the Scriptures, and it doesn't mean that he can't understand the arguments of Scripture. But what he cannot understand is the truth of the scripture and receive that truth to himself. He will always reject it. He will always balk at it. It would always be something that he classes to himself to be foolishness. We'll come on to that in just a moment. until the Holy Spirit works in them. They cannot receive the things of God. They cannot understand the things of God. So the spirit must give discernment and the spirit is the one who must lead them to God, to salvation. Now, secondly, What we must preach to be received by them can only be through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So bringing the gospel to people, the only way that we can be affected in the preaching of the gospel, or in our ministry amongst children, or in our ministry and our witness to others, is through the Holy Spirit. We must pray for his help, and we must seek his help in disseminating the gospel, or else it will go nowhere. It would be like water of a duck's back to all the people that we speak to. The Holy Spirit must do that work in people's hearts and souls. to prepare them to receive the things of God. He must open their eyes so that they can see and appreciate the things of God. He must open their ears so that they can receive the things of God as it is spoken to them. He must open their hearts, that stony heart, and prepare that stony heart so that they want the things of God and they appreciate the things of God. Without that word, There is no gospel work. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. And that is what we must bring to people. We must bring to people what God has freely given to us. He has freely given to us the gospel. He has freely given to us that gospel in his word, and that's what we must preach, and that's what the Holy Spirit will bless and use. How did we receive the word of God? How were we given the word of God? Well, look at 2 Peter and chapter 1. And verse 21, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And that's how the word of God was given to us. It was given to the prophets because they were moved by the Holy Spirit to speak. It was given to the apostles and to the other writers of the scriptures because the Holy Spirit moved them. came upon them and moved them and inspired them, their minds and their hearts, to write what they wrote for us and to preach what they preached. That's the inspiration of God. God, it was God breathed. It was given by God through them. And he used all their skills and all their abilities. He used the way that they wrote and their particular idioms that they used. He used all of that. He used that to bring it together to give us the word of God. And he discounted some people because the particular idioms that they had and the particular way that they approached things was not what God wanted. He chose the men of God for his word and he inspired them so that they could understand and know what they were writing was the word of God and give it to the people. as the word of God. It's the Holy Spirit that gives us the scriptures and therefore that gospel that is given by the Holy Spirit is what the Holy Spirit will use to save and to redeem his people. And we cannot alter it and we don't have liberty to alter it to suit our generation or to suit our tastes or to suit whatever else people want. We don't have the liberty to do that. And if we do do that, then the Holy Spirit will not use it and will not bless it. He's given us the word. In verse 14 and 15 we'll see this, how important this is. In verse 13, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. That's what we must do. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. comparing spiritual things with spiritual. You see, the Holy Spirit teaches us and illuminates us and helps us to understand these things, but it's through the Word of God. And how do we know that what the Holy Spirit is teaching us is truly of God? Or it's not that we're just making it up, it's not what we're just thinking, it's because we have the Word of God to guide us and to discipline us and to keep us true to what God wants us to know. So there is nothing that we can know and there is nothing that the Holy Spirit will ever, ever give us that is not verifiable by the word of God. Why would he give it to us otherwise? It's so that we can know what God wants what the mind of God is. And we can't know that, of course, without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, but it's illuminating the word. So when we bring the gospel to people, it must be according to the word. So those people who say, well, we can leave out the bit about hell, well, does the Bible leave out hell? No, it doesn't. We can leave out the sovereignty of God. No, the Bible doesn't leave that out. We can leave out the things about Noah because, you know, people don't find that acceptable in our day. And frankly, it's rather stupid and it makes us look foolish. I was told that once. Don't talk about Noah, they told me. You'll frighten them away. And anyway, they think it's just a fable. They think it's just a myth. Don't talk about Noah. No friends, does the Bible talk about it? Does Christ talk about it? Yes they do and therefore it's for us to preach and it's for us to believe and it's for us to declare and yes people will find it foolish a foolish notion, unless the Holy Spirit works upon them. But when the Holy Spirit works upon them, then they will understand. You see? So what do we do? We compare spiritual things with spiritual, don't we? We compare the Word of God with the Word of God. If we have a thought that maybe, you know, that God wants something or desires something of us, look to the Word of God. Is it verifiable by the word of God? If we want to know what to preach, how to put things over to people, then it must be from the word of God. And it must be governed by the word of God and by the truths of the word of God. We have no liberty to go beyond the word of God. If we go beyond the word of God, we're going beyond the spirit of God. and we're going beyond God himself. This is his declaration and his revelation of his mind to us. So who will receive the gospel? Well, verse 14, it says, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Now the natural man, that means men before the Holy Spirit has worked upon their souls. Men before the Holy Spirit has worked upon their souls do not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Now that's very important that we understand it's not saying that they cannot, it's saying that they do not. And it's not saying that they can't understand aspects of it, they can't understand the argument that is being laid down, or else how can they argue against it? And they do argue against it, don't they? How can they distort it? And why do they distort it? It's because they know what it's teaching, but they don't receive it. They will not receive it as truth, and they will not receive it to themselves. So the natural man, he does not receive the things of God. He can see it. It's plain as day to see, isn't it? He can read it. He's not without intelligence. He can grasp some of the teachings of it, but he can't grasp the truth of it. and he cannot receive it to himself. Cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. That's the second reason. He cannot receive them and they are foolishness to him. When he looks and when he understands what the Bible is teaching, it sounds like utter rubbish to him because is at variance with everything he's been brought up to believe and to understand. Like the substitution and atonement of Jesus Christ. Why do men not want a substitute to stand in their place and to take their sin and their punishment upon themselves? Why? Because that's utter foolishness to them. Firstly, on the basis that anybody would stand in our place. Man can't understand that. Man cannot understand the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That he would, as God, want to come into this world and stand in the place of sinful men whom he is the judge of. and whom he is angry with every day because he is a sinner. How? I mean, it's difficult for us, isn't it, as spiritual people, to get our minds round this, but we receive that, we welcome it, we love it, because it's what we stand upon, isn't it? It's what our faith is based upon. But more than that, because the Holy Spirit has revealed these things to us. But the natural man, he understands what is being said, that Jesus Christ stood as a substitute for sinners. But he will not receive it. It's foolishness to him. It's foolishness to him also because he believes that he must do the work. Everything tells him that he must pay for his his crimes, or he must make amends for them. Everything tells him that he can, that he is worthy, that he is good enough. So to tell man that he is not, and the only way of salvation is through a substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, is utter foolishness to him. You see, we must understand this. We must grasp this. We're not saying that men cannot understand. We're saying that men cannot understand to the saving of their souls. And men cannot understand to the reception of these truths and the taking hold of these truths. Otherwise, as Paul has already told us, they would not have crucified the Saviour, would they? They wouldn't have done it. They would have understood who he was and his great miracles. And they would have appreciated him for who he was and believed upon him. But man will not have a substitutionary saviour. They do not want him. It's foolishness to him. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So three things. Firstly, he can't receive them. They are foolishness to him and he can't know them because they are spiritually discerned. You have to have the Spirit of God within you leading you and guiding you into that truth or else you can't understand it because only the Spirit knows the mind of God. Only the Holy Spirit understands what God is saying to us and what God wants us to know. Only the spirit knows the workings of God, because he is God, of course. So we need the spirit. And they are not spiritual. They cannot understand it. They have not been made alive as spiritual beings. Their spirit is dead within them. And so they cannot grasp these things. But he who is spiritual judges all things. yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. So what is the Spirit of God telling us here? It's this, that we as spiritual people, we can discern, we can grasp, we can understand, we can weigh up what we are reading and what we are studying and what we are being told and we can appreciate them as spiritual truths. So we can judge in that sense all things can't we? And that's how we should evaluate everything in the world. As Christians We should always evaluate everything from our Christian point of view, from our Christian life that we have been given, from what God wants us to be and what God would have us to do. Everything. I've told you that when I was in a very poor Baptist church, Sir Cyril Black, a great, what was he? I think he was in manufacturing, wasn't he? And he was a millionaire and a big businessman, came to speak to us. I don't know why he came to our church, but anyway, he came to speak to us. I think we may have had a rally or something. and he told us that, yes, we must be good Christians, but when it comes to business, business is business. Church is church, business is business. You see? So you have different standards, you operate in a different way for business. Church, all right, you worship, you do your best, you're a good person, but in business, you can lie, you can cheat, you can alter the truth to prosper your business, to do the best for your business. And one of the things he said was, well, the Bible tells us that we've got to obey our masters, haven't we? So do what your boss tells you, even though it's not what God wants you to do. That was his premise. Be good business people and serve your masters. But that's not what the Bible teaches us, is it? The Bible teaches us that we have a new life. And the Bible teaches us that we have to live that life out. in business, in work, in our homes, in our schools, wherever we are, we are Christians, we are Christ's and we are his representatives, we are his ambassadors, we are his witnesses to all around us of what a Christian is. So that when we In this context, when we evaluate everything or anything in this world, anything in our lives, any opportunities that we have, any need for guidance that we have, anything that we read in the newspaper, anything that happens to us, anything, we should be evaluating it from the standpoint of being a Christian. We should be evaluating it with our spiritual minds. and our spiritual hearts so that we always deal with it as far as we possibly can as Christ would. Because that's how Christ operated, didn't he? That's how Christ lived his life. You never saw Christ switching off, did you? You never saw Christ saying, well, you know, I'm going home now. You know, I've done my preaching. I'm going home now. I'm going to put up my feet and, you know, everything's different now. And no, Christ was the same at home. Christ was the same in his ministry. Christ was the same in the temple. Christ was the same amongst his disciples. He was always operating in the Spirit, and so should we. And so when we come to judge anything, we should always judge it, we should always evaluate it from the point of view of the Scriptures and the revealed will of God and the revealed revelation of God. What does God want us to do? How does God want us to think? How would God want us to react to that situation? You see? What does God want us to believe? What does God want us to follow? How does God want us to stand? And the world has no right to dictate to us and no right to demand anything other than what God wants us to do because God is God, isn't he? We render to Caesar what is Caesar's, but we render to God what is God's. And God must have all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my strength. And then he allows us to give back to Caesar only what Caesar can legitimately require of us and ask of us. So the spiritual man, he judges all things. He discerns, he weighs up all things spiritually. And so he understands what God wants. Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. In other words, those people who would criticize us for standing by what the scripture teaches us, and has revealed to us they have no leg to stand upon and they have no right to criticize us because they don't understand. They don't understand. They have no reason for their criticism of us or criticism of the word of God because they do not understand the things of God. And therefore, how can they criticize? How can they weigh up? How can they judge what we are doing and how we are living according to the word of God to be right or wrong? They can't. Can they? because they have no appreciation of it whatsoever. There's a case in the news just today that is somewhat relevant to this. There was a man who came from Iran and he's applying for asylum and one of the reasons he's applying for asylum is that he has turned from Islam and become a Christian. And he says one of the reasons he did this was because Christianity is a religion of peace. And Islam is a religion of violence. And he didn't want to be involved in a religion of violence any longer. And he sought that religion of peace. And he was denied asylum. And he was denied asylum because the official who was deciding upon it, said Christianity is not a religion of peace. You only have to look at Revelation and see all the violence in Revelation and you can see that Christianity is a religion of violence. Now that man who made that determination had no understanding of the things of God whatsoever, did he? And surprisingly, the Church of England is up in arms against this and is writing letters and trying to deal with this, portraying Christianity as a religion of violence. They have no basis for their criticism at all, do they? Absolutely no basis of it. They cannot judge us. on these spiritual matters because they are not spiritual people. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? There you are. It applies, doesn't it? How can they criticize the things of God or even seek to change the things of God when they do not know his mind or understand him whatsoever, but we have? the mind of Christ. And therefore, we have the mind of God, don't we? Don't we? Of course we do. We have the Holy Spirit working within us. The Holy Spirit is God. He dwells within us. And so we have the capability to think in the same way as God is thinking, on the same lines as God is thinking. to think spiritually, to think and to understand what our God wants and what our God would have us to do. Of course, all governed by his word, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. What a great blessing that is, and how we always ought to seek to live according to the will of God, and keep to that will and that revealed will that God has given us. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our loving heavenly Father we come into your presence and we do praise and thank you Lord that we do have your spirit to lead us and guide us to illuminate us, to help us to see and to help us to understand. O Lord, we thank you that we have the mind of Christ and we do pray, Lord, as spiritual people, that we may ever value this wonderful life that we have, living as your children, living, O Lord, for you, living, O Lord, under your care and under your direction. Lord, we do pray that we may ever, ever be guided by you in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, in our lives, Lord, in all things, that you may be glorified. We ask these things in Jesus' precious name.