1 Corinthians chapter 2, this happens to be one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. We're going to zero in on two verses, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 12 and 13. And I love this passage because it was instrumental in my conversion. I came to Christ at age 17 when I opened my Bible at random one night and thinking I was just going to read a verse or two because I was a Methodist and we treated the Bible like a fortune cookie. Reading the Bible was something I ordinarily did not do. I was a churchgoer but it was, of course, a very liberal denomination and an extremely liberal church and I was not a Bible reader. I owned one of those Bibles that closed with a zipper cover and I kept it zipped so that it would stay in mint condition. But that night I was feeling melancholy and a little bit guilty about some small thing I had done to offend my sister. And I was looking for something that would make me feel good about me. And so I opened the Bible and I kind of teased it open towards the back pages because I did know enough about scripture to know I didn't want to get into the minor prophets. And it fell open to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. which of course is not where you would think to send a self-satisfied teenager with a head full of liberal doctrine and you would not send him on a quest for gospel truth there. And I had grown up thinking and being taught in Sunday school that the way to please God is to be good. And to me that meant make the most of yourself, study and glean all the best ideas from all the world's religions, cultivate learning, be sophisticated, do good works, and above all, don't be narrow-minded or naive or old-fashioned or unlearned or worst of all, don't be out of step with the times. And I told myself, you know, there's a world of wisdom out there, but you have to listen to the trendsetters, you have to pay attention to the celebrities, the beautiful people, and in short, follow the spirit of the age. And so my highest goal in life was to be both cool and sophisticated. And to be perfectly honest, I knew I had very little hope of ever being cool, but I was willing to settle for being sophisticated, being translated meant I wanted to be worldly wise and that was my whole religion. I thought goodness was embodied in wisdom. And specifically, philosophies glean from the wealthy, successful, famous, and elite minds. And so, I wasn't really looking to read more than a verse or two of scripture. To me, it was like, like I said, like a fortune cookie. I would spot a verse, and I would treat it like a private oracle. I'd just let my eyes land on whatever verse it did and ask, what does this mean to me in my situation? And I was reading the Bible like a pagan would read the daily horoscope. But when it fell open to the beginning of 1 Corinthians, the idea came to me that I might try to read the whole epistle. I'd never read a whole book of the Bible before, not even Philemon. And I didn't know Philemon was there. I would have read it just so I could say I had read a whole book. So when I got to 1 Corinthians, the first page, I thought, why don't I read this whole book? And I thought, before I do that, I should count the pages. I was disappointed that it was longer than I thought, but I started reading anyway, and right away, the Word of God attacked my whole worldview head-on. Before I got past that first chapter, it seemed as if the Apostle Paul had grabbed me by the throat. He starts out, you know, with a greeting, followed then by a rebuke for people who were lining up in factions behind their favorite teachers. And all this made perfect sense. It's a pretty clear passage. I had no trouble following Paul's argument until I got to verse 17 of chapter 1. where he launches into a sustained attack on human wisdom. And he goes on for almost three full chapters with this. Look at chapter one, verse 17. He writes, for Christ did not send me to baptize. but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe." And I remember just stopping with that passage and thinking, I don't get that at all. Why would God be determined to destroy the highest of human achievements? I mean, I would understand perfectly if God said He hated ignorance and ineptitude, or everything that's uncultured or uncool, that would make sense to me. And if God said He was going to thwart everything stupid and vulgar, that would have made perfect sense. Because I already knew, of course, that God hates unrighteousness, but the Apostle Paul is saying, in effect, that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Have you ever noticed how much absolute contempt the Apostle Paul has for human wisdom? And understand, Paul was an educated man. He was familiar with the highest wisdom of his time, and yet he shows it absolute contempt. Chapter 1, verse 27, God shows what is foolish in the world, to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Chapter 2, when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. Verse 4, my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom. but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." And then the passage that absolutely demolished every religious belief I had ever entertained up to that point, chapter 3 verse 18. Let no one deceive himself, if anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God, for it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness and again the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile, so let no one boast in men. So here's the short version of my testimony. I kept reading that night thinking there must be some hope for me, some signpost pointing the way to salvation that would spell out what I needed to do to be right with God. And that phrase, let him become a fool that he may be wise, just wasn't clear to me. What does that mean, become a fool? What must I do to be saved? And it was, of all places, chapter 12. I kept reading and got to chapter 12 when I finally found the ray of light I was looking for. That's where Paul is instructing the Corinthians how to discern evil spirits from the true spirit of God. And he writes, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. I could not have explained to you the context of that verse, I couldn't have given you any kind of discourse on how that applied in first century Corinth, but it was clear to me that Jesus is Lord and only the Holy Spirit can awaken a heart to make that confession. And so I prayed that God would enable me to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. That was on a Thursday night. And before Friday of the following week, through a series of remarkable and totally unrelated events, a number of things happened to keep confronting me with the gospel. The next night I went to the mall to get...I needed to get a translation of the Bible I could understand more easily, so I actually was going to get a new Bible. And as I walked through the mall towards the bookstore, a guy handed me a gospel tract that explained the doctrine of justification by faith in very clear terms. The next night I was invited by a friend to come to an evangelistic meeting where I heard an explanation of the atonement from Isaiah 53. And my life was, after that week, set on an entirely different course. But it was those first three chapters of 1 Corinthians that pried open my heart so that I have always had a special love for this passage of Scripture and the truth Paul teaches there. In 17 years of Sunday school instruction and regular church attendance, to my recollection, I had never heard a good presentation of the gospel. And that, frankly, irritates me even to this day. I had always thought human religion was the highest and most noble pursuit of the human intellect. And my perspective now is the opposite, that false religion is the worst of all evils. It's a more diabolical abomination than any crime or any human atrocity you could ever envision because it fools people. People are going to hell because of their religion. The Apostle Paul had that same perspective. He hated false religion. He also was saved out of a religious background where self-righteousness was falsely equated with piety. And it's no wonder that he opposed gospel corruptors with so much intensity, more than any of the other Apostles. As a believer, he absolutely hated false doctrines, carnal confidence, and as we see here, worldly wisdom. It's what he had devoted his life to before. Now he says all that wisdom is futile, it's empty. And I'm convinced Paul would also hate with a fiery passion the drift of the evangelical movement today. In so many ways, the conventional wisdom among megachurch pastors and evangelical celebrities and the leading church growth experts today, it's all the polar opposite of what Paul calls for here in 1 Corinthians 2. Today's cults of celebrity are the post-modern mirror of Corinthian hero worship. The church today could hardly be more at odds with the Apostle Paul's instructions for the church. And in fact, the tendency to make, you know, rock stars and pop idols and religious kahunas out of young guys that have big churches, it's precisely what Paul opposed here in Corinth. Hero worship not only caused division in the church, it also encouraged both these religious superstars and their followers to put too much confidence in the flesh. Now if you've listened to me over the...I think I've been in Grace Life now for twenty-five years or so, you've probably heard me say more than once things like this. I don't think I've ever spoken at a pastor's conference anywhere without pointing out that virtually all the fads and philosophies of today's evangelicalism, what's fashionable today, all of that is squarely at odds with the instructions Scripture gives to church leaders. I say that every year at the Shepherds Conference. I don't say it as much here in Grace Life because I'm not talking to a whole room full of church leaders, but it's true. Evangelical fads, these things that...these bandwagons that evangelicals like to jump on, they come and they go and practically all of today's most stylish ideas about church leadership and evangelistic strategy, all of them are simply transient expressions of the spirit of the age. Don't follow those fads, don't chase them. My challenge has always been, take Paul's instructions for ministry and church life seriously. And it amazes me how many people in the church, including church leaders, will devour book after book about innovation and the quest for relevance in contemporary church leadership philosophies while people totally ignore what Scripture has to say about that very subject. And so the juggernaut of style-driven evangelicalism just keeps rolling, and it's pushed forward by big sources like Christianity Today magazine and lots of Christian radio stations. at every word of caution or criticism about the latest evangelical fad is simply ignored or treated with scorn by all but a remnant. And I love that remnant and I'm happy to stand with that remnant. And I'm grateful that many of you are part of that remnant rather than floating along with the evangelical mainstream, we want to stand against it. Now I don't want to encourage anybody to develop the Elijah Complex, we know that there are many knees that have not bowed to Baal and we're happy to stand with them. In fact, here's an example, the Cambridge Declaration, that is the founding document of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals from 1996. That's an organization I've been pleased to take part with over the past two years, they've had me speak at some of their conferences, and their founding document was a three-page The whole thing is excellent, but I especially love the very first paragraph of it. And it's short, it's to the point, but it sums up nicely, I think, what Paul is saying here. And so let me read it to you. Here's the opening paragraph of their founding document. They say, evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith. Now that's a powerful echo of 1 Corinthians 2.12, right in the first line of that statement. And it takes us back to where I want to go with you this afternoon, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 12 and 13. This text, these two verses come right in the middle of that three chapter long assault on worldly wisdom. And just to give you the immediate context, starting around verse 17 of chapter 1, Paul here is denouncing the notion that the scandal of the cross is something to be preached around or papered over. with words of eloquent wisdom. He points out that God deliberately chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and so by God's design, the church is not supposed to be like a country club for rich and powerful and beautiful people. It's a fellowship that is open even to people who are low and despised in the world. And then chapter 2, he repudiates every attempt to attract people's admiration by the use of lofty speech or wisdom. And then he disavows all of the wisdom of this age and the values and the tactics that are favored by the rulers of this age. And he says, verse 25, that all of this is not just to irritate the beautiful people, it's so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Now in other words, by the time we get to our text in chapter 2 verse 12, Paul is barely three pages into this epistle and he has relentlessly attacked every tool in the twenty-first century church growth experts' toolbox. He rebukes the celebrity culture and everything that goes with it, the factions, the boasting, the country club atmosphere, and the obsession with human personalities. He disclaims the entrepreneurial spirit and everything that injects into the church, a preoccupation with worldly ideas of success, an insatiable thirst for human cleverness, a craving for worldly approval, and above all, the foolish notion that Effectual ministry is something that can be masterminded by human wisdom. He says all of that is folly. And so those first two chapters alone are sufficient really to refute every major manual of church growth strategy and ministry philosophy that's been published in the past 40 years. Paul's vision of what the church should be is nothing like today's popular mega-churches, you know, built only on some glib speaker's personal charisma with very little Scripture. But the apostle here is expressly saying that no church should ever even aspire to be a slick, uber stylish, big numbers oriented cult of celebrity. Making the unchurched feel comfortable wasn't part of the agenda in the early church either. The apostles had no interest in gaining the admiration or approval of those who were highly esteemed and well versed in the wisdom of this world. See, to court the world's favor in any of those ways is just contrary to what the church should be doing. Why? Verses 12 and 13. We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God, and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. That's our text. And the large point Paul is making is more or less summed up in chapter 1 verse 25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. That's the big point. The immediate point then is spelled out in chapter 2 verse 5 that our faith should not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God because the power that will open deaf ears and awaken the spiritually dead is the Word of God. It's not our eloquence, or our cleverness, or our personal charisma. It's not about numbers, or popularity, or special effects, or slick marketing. The only effectual power at our disposal as witnesses for Christ and proclaimers of the gospel is the power of the Word of God mediated by the Holy Spirit. That's the only thing that will ever convert anyone. The Word of God and its power as mediated by the Holy Spirit. The gospel message itself is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. There is no effectual power whatsoever in any of these ingenious church growth packages, ideas that people try to wrap the gospel up in. And that has huge ramifications for the church and for every Christian and what we ought to be and do and teach. Rather than striving to be as stylish and sophisticated and as much like the world as possible, pastors and church leaders and even the people in the pew need to get back to doing what Christ commissioned us to do. And that means going into the world to preach the gospel and making disciples, not buying into the world and becoming disciples of our culture. We're supposed to be distinct. We have a distinctive message to proclaim, not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Or in the words of our passage, verse 13, we impart this message in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Now, let's be honest with this. As you look around, especially in America today, the vast majority of churches, including many who would self-identify as evangelical, most of them simply are not being faithful to this calling. But in those two short verses, Paul suggests three crucial truths that clearly should distinguish true biblical ministry from all kinds of fruitless religious activity. These are the marks of distinction that need to set our ministries apart, that's our personal ministry and our church ministry. Here's what should set us totally apart from all these cults of celebrity and pragmatic megachurches who think their calling is to church the unchurched when in fact really what they're accomplishing is the unchurching of the visible church. Here's what should set us apart from that. And so if you're ready to write, here are three things. to bear in mind that make biblical ministry completely different from all forms of human wisdom. Number one, the source of our ministry is different. Number two, the substance of our ministry is different. And number three, the style of our ministry is different. And I'll point those things out from the text and we'll consider them one at a time a little more closely, so if you didn't get them down, just pay close attention. Number one, the source of our ministry is different. The source of our ministry is different. Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the spirit who is from God. That's simple and it's clear and it makes a potent contrast. And he's saying that the guiding force behind true ministry is the Holy Spirit. The only way anyone can ever really understand the truth of God is if the Holy Spirit opens up that person's eyes to see, and the only power that can keep us enduring to the end is the power of the Holy Spirit. So as believers we are completely dependent on the Holy Spirit for every aspect of the Christian life and ministry and we should live our lives with an awareness of that fact. Everything we do as Christians or in the name of Christ must be done in accord with the Holy Spirit at His direction and by His power. That's a comprehensive principle and it's clearly spelled out throughout Scripture. For example, Colossians 3 verse 17 says, whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. giving thanks to God and the Father through Him. And so, if everything we do is to be done in Christ's name, and everything in Christ's name is to be done with the Spirit's power and at His direction, that means there's not one moment in our lives when it's okay to be guided by a different principle, or moved by a different motive, or empowered by a different kind of energy. And Paul is expressly saying that you cannot follow the Spirit of this world and be obedient to the Spirit of God at the same time. Lots of Christians are trying to do that, but it cannot be done. You cannot follow the Spirit of this world and be led by the Spirit of Christ at the same time. You cannot be obsessed with the Spirit of the age and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the world and the Spirit of God are antithetical. They're adversarial. They have opposite agendas. James 4 is very clear on this. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or John 15, 19, Jesus said, if you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. That's why the world hates you. First John 3, 1, the reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. First John 2, 15, do not love the world or anything in the world. If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. The contrast is consistently made through Scripture. You cannot love this world. and love God at the same time. People try to apply all kinds of hermeneutical gymnastics to those texts to try to nullify what they say. But it's still clear, isn't it, that our goal as believers should not be to try to impress the world with how much we can talk like, act like, and live like the heroes of the world system. You know, the celebrities, the great scholars, the rulers of this world. God is not preparing the church to be a debutante for the amusement and admiration of the world. He's adorning us to be the pure spotless bride of Christ. This is not a complex point. The contemporary quest to keep abreast of the wisdom of this age and to imitate all the fashions of the current generation, that is precisely what Paul rejected. Much of what is being justified today under the rubric of contextualization is nothing more than sinful accommodation to the spirit of the age. If you have been paying attention to the winds of doctrine in the evangelical movement, you know this is true. And every Christian with even the most meager knowledge of Scripture ought to be able to understand that this world is cursed and living on a very short timetable. Everything you see around you, everything the world pays attention to, all the fads and fashions and philosophies that drive this world are temporary. They've always been temporary. The change from year to year is obvious, and it becomes more and more rapid as time goes by. All of this world's treasures change hands constantly, and none of it lasts beyond the limits of this earthly life. First Timothy 6-7, we brought nothing into the world and it is certain we cannot take anything out of the world. So this world's values are absolutely worthless. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and furthermore, both the world and its desires pass away. And even the most refined and sophisticated and noble values in this world, they're total vanity. They're worthless, in the words of Solomon who had tasted it all. Remember, we looked at that passage where he said this a few weeks ago. He said, I've seen everything that is done under the sun and behold, all of it is vanity and a striving after wind. Or you're in 1 Corinthians 2, look at verse 6, the spiritual wisdom we receive through the Holy Spirit is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of the age who are doomed to pass away. This world is transient and Scripture constantly stresses that the time is very short. Why would any pastor or church leader or Christian layperson want to follow the spirit of the age when we have the Holy Spirit? And yet many do chase relentlessly after the spirit of the age. Lots of evangelicals think you have to do that in order to be relevant. The church today is full of people who think the most essential qualifications for church leadership are worldly wisdom, worldly influence, and the admiration of worldly people. That's what they'll be looking for in a pastor when they go looking for one. Pastors are told incessantly that the best model for their role is the slick, glib-talking guy with an entrepreneurial knack for worldly success, somebody who understands how to get big numbers, who has shrewd marketing skills, and who has a Machiavellian thirst for celebrity, and the ability to persuade a lot of people to follow him blindly. That's how a lot of well-known church leaders are today. And that's a lie from hell. I can't think of anything more out of step with the Spirit of God and more in tune with worldly wisdom than the church...there is a church I know of whose covenant states that this church is built on the private vision God gave their celebrity pastor. where church members in this church actually make a formal vow promising to do everything they can to defend the main guy's personal ambition because he claims this is a vision God gave him. That, by the way, is what I just read you, is from an actual document published by one of America's fastest growing megachurches. They call it, instead of a confessional statement, they call it the code. And not a single point in that church's code ever says anything about the authority of Scripture or the Lordship of Christ over the church. But it does include some startlingly honest admissions, including this, quote, we are all about the numbers. And this, quote, we need your seat. We're more concerned with the people we're trying to reach than with the people we're trying to keep. That's pretty much the antithesis of a true pastor's heart, isn't it? That's the philosophy of a squirrel hunter, not a shepherd. It's also the mark of someone who preaches himself rather than Christ Jesus as Lord. That church's code, by the way, was literally made into a coloring book so that kids as young as three and four can be indoctrinated with their celebrity pastor's personal agenda. It would be hard for me to imagine anything more out of tune with the Spirit of God, or more in tune with the spirit of the world. No church should ever be built on the foundation of someone's private vision. Christ is the Lord of the church and He is her one true foundation. And the Apostle Paul says so right here in our context. Look just one chapter after our text, 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11, no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Christ is the singular rock and the anchor that determines the stability and the dimensions of the whole structure. According to Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, you and I are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone. And the pastor or church leader who views himself as the architect of a whole new edifice built according to his own personal vision, he has overstepped his role and he's working against Christ and against the Holy Spirit. He's following the spirit of the age rather than the spirit of Christ. And don't kid yourself, the visible church today is absolutely chock full of vision casting wolves and hirelings who operate that way. It's what young guys especially are being told they need to do. Don't be fooled into complacence by the sheer popularity of that philosophy, or the size of the churches that are following it. In fact, I don't know how to say this any more plainly. The Spirit of God is opposed to the spirit of the age, always has been. In fact, there's every reason to think that when Paul speaks of the spirit of the world, He has in mind a personal spirit, the devil himself. Satan is, after all, the ruler of this world. He's the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. That's Ephesians 2 verse 2. And in that same verse, Paul says that the characteristic that marks every spiritually dead, unbelieving child of wrath is this, that they follow the course of this world. with Satan himself leading the way. The course of this world is the broad road that leads to destruction. Now, why would anyone who has the Holy Spirit ever want to follow a different spirit, much less an evil spirit whose aim is to lead people down the broad road to destruction? And yet, I am convinced that very thing is happening today in some of the best-known, most influential evangelical megachurches. The church is in a terrible state today. That's not hyperbole. Recent survey data shows that the average evangelical church member doesn't know the first thing about the gospel. Two-thirds say that they believe some good works are necessary for salvation. Many have no clue who Christ is even. A majority of those surveyed said they aren't convinced that Christ was truly sinless. And a large majority, close to 80 percent by one recent survey, 80 percent say they don't really believe the devil is real. And it gets even worse when those surveys delve into practical matters. An article in the Christian Post from about two years ago says this, quote, 61 percent of self-identified Christian singles who answered a recent Christian mingle survey said they are willing to have casual sex without being in love, while only 11 percent said they are waiting to have sex until they are married. And maybe most telling of all, an article at the Barna Group website published about seven years ago in 2009...what's that? Six years ago, April of 2009, this headline, most American Christians do not believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit exists. That's their headline. It's no wonder that people in evangelical churches are so easily enticed to follow the spirit of this age because they don't have the Holy Spirit. They don't even believe in Him. So I hope you get the point. The spirit of the age is satanic. It's destructive of both truth and morals. You can see that if you simply watch the drift of our culture, it's clearer right now than it's ever been, isn't it? But that hasn't dissuaded evangelicals from aggressively courting the spirit of the age. And the evangelical movement today is replete with churches where gimmickry has replaced gospel preaching because according to the philosophy they work by, it is all about the numbers. even if the numbers have to be manipulated. That same church, by the way, that had people make an oath of loyalty to the pastor's personal vision, and they made it into a coloring book for children, that same church posted an article online outlining how to produce what they called spontaneous baptisms. I didn't know what that meant. Like, what, do you hide a pool of water so people accidentally stumble into it? So I read the article, it's a step-by-step manual teaching the core leaders in the church how to motivate and manipulate large crowds of people to come forward to be baptized in mass. And that same pastor will gladly demonstrate for you the technique he uses to make his sermons sound more inspiring, that's his term for it. He says he has the band play dramatic music in the background at the point where his sermon reaches an emotional peak. And musicians, don't you dare come back up here. I'm just kidding, they would never do that. That's exactly the kind of gimmickry Paul renounces here in 1 Corinthians 2, and actually it's even more lowbrow than what Paul was talking about. Paul was disowning the use of eloquence and sophistication. I can only imagine what he would have said about the use of a deliberately emotive synthesizer soundtrack to embellish the drama of a sentimental sermon. Churches like that, that manufacture false converts and they inoculate sinners against the true gospel of Christ. This is not just a bad idea or a faulty philosophy, it's satanic. And that kind of thing is filling the visible church with unconverted people who know nothing about the true gospel. In fact, I'll say this as plainly as possible. Most people today who profess to be Christians aren't. Now, before someone misquotes me, I'm not suggesting that there are no true Christians in those style-obsessed megachurches. I am saying that there are lots of people in some of the biggest and best-known evangelical churches who have been duped by a superficial message, they've been regaled by cheap entertainment, they've been lured into church membership without ever confronting their sin with no true repentance, without even really understanding the basics of who Christ is. Those people think they are Christians, but they're not. They're still following the course of this world. They're on the broad road that leads to destruction. And their churches are the ones that are steering them onto that on-ramp. It's about as far as possible to get away from what the church is supposed to be and do. It's not all about the numbers, it's all about the truth. And you can't even begin to grasp the truth apart from the Holy Spirit, verse 14, the natural person 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. See, true biblical ministry cannot ape Hollywood. We can't put on a circus or thrive in the atmosphere of a bar or a comedy club. But the power and the pattern for true ministry is not the spirit of the world, it's the Spirit of God. And that's the first major difference between authentic biblical ministry and all the phony substitutes. The source of our ministry is different. Here's difference number two. The substance of our ministry is different. The substance of our ministry is different. Still in 1 Corinthians 2.12, we have received not the spirit of this world but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God. Now, that last phrase is defined by the context. The things freely given us by God are the mysteries of gospel truth, starting, verse 2, with Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's Paul's shorthand for the incarnation and atoning work of Christ. He's not saying the only thing he ever preaches about is the crucifixion. But when he says Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he's talking about the entire ministry of the incarnate Christ, the atoning work of Christ, truths that were foretold but mostly hidden from Old Testament believers. In verse 7, Paul refers to it as a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory. Now, don't be misled by the idea that it's secret and hidden. He's not saying this is some clandestine truth like some gnostic mystery that you have to learn from a human guru. He's saying it's truth that was mostly concealed in the earlier ages, but now it has been fully revealed in Christ. It's the reality that God became man, fully human and yet still fully divine, specifically in order to die for the sins of the world, to offer an atonement that would open the door to heaven for all who believe. That's what Paul means in verse 2 by that shorthand phrase, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is the truth, verse 8, which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. In verse 9 then, Paul describes this hidden wisdom with a paraphrase of Isaiah 64 verse 4 in these terms, what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. So Paul's being as explicit as he can possibly be, he's talking about the glories of gospel truth. That's the whole substance of our message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's a totally different message from the relentless talks about self-help and self-esteem and self-improvement, motivational talks, not to mention the public relations lectures, the campaign speeches, the fundraising drives that come from the average megachurch pulpit today. It's not about earthly politics, or human philosophy, or moralism, or clever pragmatism, or sophisticated scholarship. It has nothing to do with what most people have in mind when they talk about relevance. Those are the kinds of things, you know, that dominate the vast majority of church services nowadays. And that is yet another proof that the spirit of the world, not the spirit of God, is the driving spirit in popular religion. Now, if you're a genuine, born-again believer in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. The very essence and epitome of Christian conversion is summed up in the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God takes residence in every true believer so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. That's not describing a merely intellectual knowledge of systematic theology. What the Spirit of God does is open the eyes of our understanding to what no eye has seen or heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. That's talking about God's glory. And the result, when you see it, is that's what you become passionate about. That's what you want to preach about. I can't imagine anyone who has truly contemplated the glory of God wanting to uplift anything else when the people of God come together. You know, these little talks about human relationships and solving problems and all of that, I can't imagine that coming from someone who has actually seen and understood the glory of God. Every true pastor is consecrated and commissioned to preach the Word, proclaim the gospel, know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We're not called to be worldly wise and style savvy. We're called as ambassadors to deliver a message from God without modifying it to suit anyone's tastes. And as our text implies, you can't do that and stay in step with the spirit of the age. The Spirit of the Age says doctrine is an obstacle to unity rather than the basis of it. The Spirit of the Age tells us that preachers who want to be relevant should studiously avoid saying anything that contradicts what people already believe. The comfort and admiration of the unchurched is supposed to be the paramount concern, they say. All of those are satanic ideas. The true wisdom of God is eternal, it's not temporal. It's spiritual, not carnal. It's transcendental, not earthly. And as believers, we have the Holy Spirit. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. And the greatness that verse speaks about is not measured by the size of the crowd we accumulate. It's measured by the timelessness and immutability and power and the ultimate triumph of the Spirit Himself who indwells us. And the message we proclaim should reflect that. The only way to be faithful to that task is by faithfully proclaiming the Word of God, which likewise is timeless and unchanging and powerful and triumphant because we have the more sure Word of God. It points the way to the glory of Christ. Why would anyone want to exegete pop culture instead? And so there you have two stark differences between authentic Christ-honoring ministry and every brand of phony false religion. One is the source of our ministry is different. Two, the substance of our ministry is different. Now three, the style of our ministry is different. The style of our ministry is different. Now bear in mind the context. The Spirit of God has opened the eyes of our understanding to the glory of gospel truth so that things which eye has not seen, or ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him, that's what we see, that's what we understand because the Spirit has been given to us precisely so that we might understand these things which are freely given to us by God. And now verse 13, we impart, literally we utter, we speak. this truth in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual with spiritual. The original Greek in that last phrase is elliptical. It means explaining spiritual truths with spiritual words. That's the proper approach to ministry. Whatever style of ministry you favor, it should have these two characteristics. First of all, it must be word-centered. Did you notice the stress on words? Not words taught by human wisdom, but words taught by the Spirit. That's talking about the Scriptures, the words of the Holy Spirit. And second, any proper biblical teaching style makes use of Scripture to explain the truth of Scripture. comparing Scripture with Scripture, illustrating Bible doctrines with Bible stories, using biblical language to explain biblical truth. It's a very simple, almost childlike style. It's not marked by grand eloquence or flowery rhetoric. And can I be frank with you? The apostolic style of preaching would not have been well received in the typical academic gathering today, where, you know, these days every point must be carefully wrapped with several layers of disclaimers and qualifications where every critique has to contain enough words of praise to counterbalance every criticism. And collegiality is generally valued more than clarity and candor. And complexity and ambiguity are often used to tiptoe around hard truths. All of that is exactly what Paul is repudiating when he says in verse 13, we speak not in words taught us by human wisdom, but words taught by the Holy Spirit. Paul's contempt for academic subtlety and intellectual daintiness just permeates these first few chapters of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 1 verse 17, he says that to package the gospel message in that kind of wisdom and eloquence would empty the cross of Christ of its power. You simply don't find the typical 21st century evangelical craving for academic respect anywhere in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Paul was no publicity hound or hipster either. From the way he describes himself here and the way he defends himself in 2 Corinthians, it's clear to me that no one ever thought of Paul as a pop idol. He didn't cultivate the kind of stylish charm and charisma that the world would notice and admire. No one ever would have nicknamed him the Apostle of Cool. That, by the way, is the title that a secular men's magazine bestowed on Carl Lentz who is the pastor of the Hillsong Church in New York City. Here's how that article opens and introduces Carl Lentz, pastor. Quote, with the Lord as his swagger coach... The 34-year-old pastor is turning Hillsong Church in New York City into a Pentecostal powerhouse and a destination for the in-crowd. Drawn by his concert-like sermons, I don't even know what that means, does he sing? And pop idol looks, Lentz's fast-growing flock of groupies includes Justin Bieber, NBA superstars and young Hollywood celebs. And what the article doesn't mention but recently came out, he's got a gay couple who act on Broadway who are married and part of his music ministry. And then this secular men's magazine asks the million-dollar question, whom exactly is this new apostle of cool seeking to glorify? You know, I think I'd resign from ministry and drop out of sight in embarrassment if a men's style magazine ever referred to me as the Apostle of Cool. And can I just say that I understand that's not going to happen. I'm under no illusions here. And I also...I don't think any leading figure in church history has ever thought of the Lord as his swagger coach, you know. Bieber has a swagger coach. For the record, I don't. But the sad truth is that thousands of young men in full-time ministry would love to have an article like that written about them. Then there are the hipster pastors, you know, a subculture of unkempt 20 and 30-somethings who favor skinny jeans and weird glasses and scruffy beards and so-called progressive ideas. Hipsters have become the brunt of almost every joke in secular culture, but evangelicals who chase fads always lag a few years behind, and so hipster religion is still trending among evangelical young people. And this year's fashions will be followed by some other notion of what's cool and the fad-driven churches will press on and stylish evangelicals, they just seem to love their own flamboyance more than they care about lost souls. And a lot of what's called ministry these days is mere spectacle, it's like bad performance art. It's precisely the kind of thing Paul condemns here in our passage and it's happening all around us. When evangelical megachurches gave up the pulpit for a stage, when they traded psalms and hymns and spiritual songs for secular music tracks, when they hired vaudevillians instead of pastors, and when they turned away their ears from the truth to follow fables, they chose a path of apostasy. The only way back starts with repentance. And let me close with this, the public face of the evangelical movement today doesn't reflect who we are called to be, or how we are called to minister. We've not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. We have to be different. Let's commit ourselves to that. Our faith should not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power. Those are basics of biblical ministry. Let's allow them to shape who we are and what we do in Christ's name. Father, purify Your church, bring Your people back to reliance on the Spirit of God. Give us a passion to proclaim Your Word faithfully, with clarity, with precision, without artificial embellishment or worldly gimmickry, but empower us by the Spirit of God to speak the truth and revive Your church, starting with us right here in this auditorium, we pray in Christ's name. You have been listening to Pastor and Teacher Phil Johnson. For more information about the ministry of the Grace Life Pulpit, visit at www.thegracelifepulpit.com. Copyright by Phil Johnson All Rights Reserved.