Spirit of God, spirit of man

The passage that Dave read for us is one we'll be stepping into this morning. And it's especially, I think, valuable and important one for us to take a look at. We'll see why in just a minute here. It starts off there with verse 10 in what I have shown on the introductory slide. For to us God revealed through the Spirit. This God revealed through the Spirit, I noticed something there and also in the first slide, and you have it on the first one of your handout. God revealed through the Spirit.

The word them is not included, and that's on purpose. Though some common English translations have God revealed them through the Spirit, including the New American Standard, there is no them in the original Greek text. The New American Standard appropriately has them in an italic font, indicating that it's not really in the original text. Paul's point that he starts off this particular passage with here is not to focus on what God revealed particularly, the them or it or anything else, but the fact that he revealed. That's Paul's point here. the fact that God revealed.

And that's a very important thing for us. God is one who is of such a character that he reveals himself. God's revelations to mankind, this is a slide that we made available as a supplement just two or three weeks ago. some of the five points there of how God revealed Himself. First of all is in nature. Now, how did God reveal Himself in nature? And how does God reveal Himself? At the astronomical scale in the creation in the heavens. As Psalm 19 puts it, the heavens declare. That's Revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God. Declare the glory of God.

How many of us have had some moment where we said, wow, look at those stars, especially when you get away from all the city lights, right? Up at my parents' ranch where Nancy and I were just this last week, at nighttime when it's clear, at nighttime when it's clear, because city lights are many miles away, You look up there and it looks like there's a cloud fixed in the sky. But it's not a cloud. It's a cloud of stars. The number of stars that you see is phenomenal.

Even aside from that, there are phenomenal things that take place in the heavens, both day and night. And these things are there to declare the glory of God. At a more human scale, even the things we see here on earth speak of God's character in some ways. Certainly, you see the beauty in nature. And you say, boy, this just can't possibly be just by pure accident how wonderful and marvelous these things are.

Even at a scale much smaller than anything any of us can observe directly, there are also wonders just beyond understanding. We are constantly pushing the frontier of what we see and understand. Discoveries within the lifetime of many of us are just fascinating. They bring wonderment as we look at the order and at the detail and at the beauty of creations, even at a level that we're just beginning to understand and see.

God revealed in nature, but God also reveals by His providence, by His guidance. He provides for us and He sets limits upon us to cause us to seek Him. The things that God made for us to eat. The things that God put out there. And even at that, the wonderment. Boy, this is beautiful. And it tastes good. Wow, now that's something. The things that God provided for us in certainly physical provision, but also the beauty in it as well. the things that God gave us for provision of food and drink, and providing limits to human beings.

As Paul put it in the book of Acts, as he was talking to the unbelievers, God sets limits that we might seek Him. Ever seen people frustrated by something? Ever seen people limited in this way or that? Do you know that those limits that are there for human beings are to cause people to seek Him?

So that we realize we don't have everything under control. We have here, even in Colorado, some wild weather and nobody controls it. The weathermen can tell us about it. Sometimes, if they're lucky, they can give us some advance notice. But the reality is, they don't control it and neither do any of us here.

It's beyond our control and it should cause us to seek Him. There is also conscience, a testimony to God's existence and God's character. He is a God that is moral. the conscience of human beings. A sense in individuals and in society that this or that thing is wrong. A sense that this ought not to happen. Even in our movies and TV shows, a great deal of the content is in the direction of at least attempting to set things right. This crime gets solved. This person gets punished. There is a built-in sense, either individually or in society, that something ought to be different than the way it is or was. A sense of right and wrong, even in our own culture where that gets mixed up.

There is also the revelation given in Scripture. These last two items of revelation, special revelation, are scripture and Jesus Christ. They're different in that the revelation from God is far more specific. God has revealed specific truths for us about all kinds of things. It's amazing when you begin to think about the kinds of things that God has revealed to us in his work, and it's in detail.

Even in the class that Kurt was teaching here just before we began our service here, Kurt was teaching specific details about what's going to happen in the middle of the coming tribulation period. And these things are revealed. Why could he teach them? He could teach them because God's Word gives us the detail.

It is revealed by God Himself. It is yet to take place, and yet God has chosen to reveal it to us. Ultimately, the revelation that we have that is most critical is that in the person of Jesus Christ. Things, of course, we're given detail about in God's Word is coming to earth as a babe in a almost forgotten corner of the Roman Empire some twenty centuries ago. His working as a carpenter in a small town where everybody knows everybody else's business. His calling of the disciples to follow Him. His death on the cross for our sins. His burial. and his resurrection.

These are some of the things that are revealed for us in scripture and why Christ himself is the ultimate revelation to us. There is also in that same handout the scripture passages that back this up and that was available a couple weeks ago if you want to get a hold of it now you can see Sue or Nancy or Sue Ellen and they can help you with that.

So God is one who reveals himself. Why would he do that? God reveals himself because of his character. And that is very important for us to realize. He reveals himself because he is gracious. He reveals himself because he is loving. He reveals himself because he is a merciful God. In the last part of this point on the slide, He is a God with true personhood who indeed wants us to know Him. Now, when I say personhood, I don't mean He's a human being. Don't get me wrong. But God has personality. God is a personal being, one whom we can know personally. That is very important.

For example, in Hinduism, While they have various personal gods, that's the lower forms of God. In the ultimate, in Hinduism, God has no personality. God is a non-personal being in the ultimate. Those parts of Buddhism that believe in a God, same thing. God is ultimately, in Buddhism, where they do believe in one, a non-personal being. The God of Scripture is one who personally reveals himself. and one whom you can get to know. And that's God's specific intent. That's exactly what God has in mind.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He has the role of revealing God, and He does that in various ways. He does that through the written word. God's word is inspired, as Paul wrote it, 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. God breathed. Peter wrote that the prophets who wrote were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Paul writes right here, God revealed through the Spirit. It is the Spirit's action that brings about this revelation. He also, the Holy Spirit, and notice I said He, not It, The Holy Spirit also reveals God in human hearts.

Would any of us, were it not for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, come to believe? Would any of us do that of our own self? No, we would not. It is the ministry, the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that convicts our hearts and draws us to Him. It is only because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that any of us would come to believe. That is revealed in our hearts.

Even now, the Holy Spirit, for those who believe, the Holy Spirit has the ministry of drawing our attention to Jesus Christ, to call us to him, to focus upon him. Interestingly, the Holy Spirit does not have the ministry of drawing our attention to the Holy Spirit, but to Christ. The Bible teaches that God is three personal beings, one essence.

This slide is not in your handout, but it is available as a supplement. I won't go through the details on it, so you can pick one up as you exit. If you run out, please let me know. It's on the cabinet to the right there, along with another supplement.

Hal prepared a one-page summary, which I've made available before, but I'll do it again here this morning. That one-page summary is all the ministries of the Holy Spirit to the believer. And if you don't have a copy of that, you might want to take advantage of that as well. It's a great short summary, and one of the reasons for bringing it up is it mentions not only this passage, but another one we'll be looking at even in the next week or two here.

Okay, the next part here, searches the depths of God. This word that is translated in our English Bible, searches, means to examine in full depth and extent. And real interestingly, you say, well searches, to examine in depth and extent, the Holy Spirit knows the depths of God in order to reveal Him truly. Do you ever hear somebody talking about something they don't know anything about? It's kind of humorous sometimes. Maybe embarrassing at other moments.

The Holy Spirit, in revealing truth to us, knows in truth and in full depth everything that's revealed. So, the Holy Spirit, in revealing truth to us, particularly in God's Word, God's written Word, is not speaking of something he doesn't know about, but rather something that he knows in full depth, full extent, deeply. There is no aspect of God about which the Holy Spirit is ignorant. No aspect in which the Holy Spirit is ignorant. He knows the full depth, the full extent, every little thing, and that is the basis of his revelation.

What we have from the Holy Spirit is conveyed to us truly. What we have from the Holy Spirit is true truth. Truth with a capital T. The other thing is the depth of God. Ever think about that? God's not shallow. He's not limited in his depth of being and character. It's interesting. There will never come a time when we will become bored with knowing the Lord.

Maybe time is the wrong word. We will never come to a place where we say, well, I guess we're done. I'll come back and see you later just in case I forget, but basically we're through, right? I mean, I know it all, right? No. There will never come that time.

God is infinite in the character of His being, in the depth of His being, and yet because He is a personal God, we can know Him truly and continue to get to know Him for all eternity. We quote here a verse that we looked at a couple weeks ago, and that's Ephesians 2.7, so that in the ages to come, He might show, that means to demonstrate, that is visibly and apparently show the surpassing riches, the overwhelming wealth, the way over-the-top magnitude of His grace. On and on and on after a trillion years, if years mean anything, have gone by We won't be looking down at our watches saying, when does coffee break?

God's grace will continue to astound us. Why? Because God's grace is infinite in depth. We are here while we are on this planet just beginning to learn the depths of God's grace. All the other aspects of God's character are equally infinite. We will continue to learn of those things. The depths of God. How deep is God? Infinitely deep. They will never come to a place where you just go bump, I guess I'll hit the edge. That will never happen.

Just this morning I was talking to Brad Mastin. I was telling him, you know, every time I look at the book of Ephesians, I keep seeing more things. Every time I'll go back to it and look at it, more things. I see things I didn't see before. How is that possible?

Well, I'm a human being for one, but the other is that God is infinitely deep, and what He has revealed in His Word has no edges to it. There is no way, while any of us are on this planet, that we will have fathomed the full depths and come to the end of it all. Because God is infinite in His character.

The Spirit knows our thoughts. This is a principle that's spelled out here in verse 11. He puts forth this idea that the spirit of a person knows the thoughts of that person and can be revealed. We can reveal things that are within ourselves because the spirit of the person knows the thoughts of the person. Likewise, the spirit of God knows the thoughts of God.

So, the same principle applies because human beings were originally, as we studied in Genesis, within the first few weeks, originally made in the image of God. And some of the aspects, what we studied back then, we were made originally in the image of God. Here's Adam, and he was made in a personal image and likeness. Remember we said God is a personal being. It's a spiritual image and likeness. a moral image and likeness, an interpersonal relationship image and likeness, an authority image and likeness, and a creative image and likeness. Those are aspects of our having been created in the image of God.

And by the way, these are all things that are revealed, right? Anyway, we won't have the time to go into that in full detail. But we have a correspondence with God in these things by God's very intent and design, because we are created to have a relationship with Him.

In verses 12 and 13, one of the issues that comes up, which spirit have we received? One of the many differences, certainly we talked about having similarities because we're creating this image, but many differences between God and man is that God's Holy Spirit is fundamental to him. The Holy Spirit is not a created being. It's not a created entity. But we human beings, in contrast, have a spirit that is received from outside of ourselves. We have a created being. Because all of us human beings either remain fallen, those who are not saved, or are saved by faith from their fallen state, we either receive the spirit of the world or we receive the Holy Spirit when we're saved.

That is a spirit from God so that we may know Him. So that we may know Him. I brought up previously Hinduism and Buddhism. I'll touch on Islam. You know, Islam teaches that God is unknowable. But in Scripture, what do we see? That we may know Him. We find Scripture passages about it. We sing songs about it. Why? It's a wonderful distinction. The Lord intends that we know Him. That is His reason for revealing Himself. that we may know Him.

So what kind of words, thoughts, and wisdom in verses 12 and 13? Paul gives two categories here. There's human wisdom and godly wisdom. Paul tells us that there are words, thoughts, and wisdom that are of the human and worldly kind. Thoughts and wisdom that are the spiritual kind, that is from the Holy Spirit. So those two kinds. He puts them in two categories. He puts them at contrast.

Certainly there are some important and valuable things that we can study here on this earth. Many of us have gone to school for some number of years, some are in process of going through school now, to learn some of these things that are indeed valuable. Some of you may even have jobs in which you're involved in teaching or have been involved in teaching. So there are a great many good and valuable and worthwhile things to learn on this planet and even learn from those who are of this world.

But Christians do need to be cautious about adapting the thought patterns and accepting as wisdom the values and views of this world. I think that this is a very important distinction for parents to make and all who have some contact with children have the opportunity to carry this on and support it as well. But to get across that there is godly wisdom and worldly wisdom and it is better for parents to prepare the hearts of these young people to realize that there's some things that are going to be presented out there that you need to be careful of, and you may need to stand alone. I think that's one thing, a service that my parents did in my case, and that was to pass along, you know, you may find yourself having to stand alone out there because the world's wisdom isn't the same as the Lord's wisdom. And the world just isn't going to pass along or accept God's wisdom. A very important distinction.

It happens in many households that as the young people get off into their junior high through college years, that many of them reject their parents' Christian faith. And at times, it's because they haven't been kind of braced to find opposition to the world's ideas. The world will definitely sell some things and sell it hard. And there will be opposition. Sometimes it'll be verbal.

But I have mentioned here, I took a class in the philosophy of Eastern religion so that I could study about Eastern religions. Within a few days of the class starting, however, the professor found out that I was a Christian. And he had me, while he was taking roll call, usually after the first few days of college, they don't do that, he had me stand up. He said, Peterman, you're a Christian, aren't you? I said, yeah. And he whacked me across the face right in front of the other students. And some of the students said, stop it. And others said, hit him again. There will be an opposition.

And sometimes it will be overt. But other times, it may be far more subtle. But it's far better that we're braced for it and realize the distinction between the world's words, thoughts, and wisdom, and that revealed by God. Now, question for you. You may have seen some of this at restaurants. Plastic food, ever seen those? Ice cream that looks as good as it did last week. All they've got to do is dust it. Right? Care for some fake food? Ever take a look at that stuff? Sometimes it actually looks pretty good, but it's not so good to eat. Or at least, so I think. But people sometimes will settle for fake truth.

Not all the words, thoughts, and wisdom are created equal. God has revealed Himself through the Word of God, the living Word of God, that is Christ, and revealed Himself through the written Word of God, the Bible. God has revealed Himself in those two special revelations. But this world is going to offer you some other options and alternatives.

Matter of fact, you may even get the hard sell. The world may say, hey, you know, a stack of cash, that'll do you. You'll get peace as long as you have some money in your wallet and in your bank account. You'll have joy as long as there's a whole bunch of zeros behind the first number in your account status. Or the world say, no, it's not really the cash.

It's just the stuff. As long as you have a lot of stuff. You ever seen the bumper sticker? He who dies with the most toys wins. They need to have one more word. He who dies with the most toys wins nothing. Or there's another way. No, that material stuff isn't it.

What you really need is enlightenment. If you reach moksha, if you reach nirvana, then you'll have it. Then your state of mind will be such that then you'll finally have joy. You'll be free from all desire. That's also a worldly thought. It sounds spiritual, but in truth, it's just another one of the world's ideas. They're not in any way equal to the words, thoughts, and wisdom that God has revealed because he loves us. You know, it's interesting.

When I was taking this class in Eastern religions, I would sit before and after the class and talk with a fellow who had taught religion over in India. And he was Dr. Banu Dave was his name. Last name looks like Dave, but it's Dave. And I talked with him for hours. And of course, he knew a great deal about Hinduism. But very interesting, he really knew nothing of a personal relationship with God. Oh, he had his doctorate. He was an expert.

But he didn't know anything of a personal relationship with God. As a matter of fact, that was to be shunned. Because in the ultimate, God is impersonal. That's not what's revealed in Scripture. Fellowship. Relationship. That's what God has revealed. And He's done so on purpose. Very intently. That's why we're created. That's why He revealed.

So, just what kind of a man or woman are you? In this chapter and the next, we're going to see that Paul presents three categories, spiritual categories, of human beings. Now, of course, we could categorize human beings in lots of different ways, couldn't we? All sorts of biological characteristics and observations, things about culture. But the spiritual categories that Paul brings up here are three, and those are the natural man. The natural man is the first one. We'll talk about what that means in a minute. Second to that is the fleshly man. And thirdly, the spiritual man. Let's talk about the natural man first. The natural man is the unbeliever who views himself and the world just as the world does.

He looks at it and says, well, if there is a God, I'm not so sure, but if there is a God, he's kind of irrelevant. Sometimes the natural man will be happy to believe in God as long as it's on his own terms. For example, as Hinduism in the ultimate or some branches of Buddhism, God is an impersonal being. So if you're going to find God, the effort's all on your part. You can follow the eight-fold path or fold yourself in eight parts or whatever you want to do, but it's all on your part. Or, the natural man may picture God as just some sort of a jovial grandpa. Ha ha ha! Boys will be boys. Right? Or, I sure hope God grades on the curve.

The fleshly man is the believer, I said a believer, who has the same view as the world does. Oh, they believe in God, but basically it doesn't make a whole lot of difference in their lives, or at least not the difference that God intends. So although they're a believer, although they're saved, It has no real impact on their lives. They're still living and viewing things just like everybody else in the world.

What Paul lays out here in this passage and in the one we'll see next week is this distinction. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual, that is the spiritual man, appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. The spiritual person, that is, the person who is seeing things as God sees them, and as is revealed in God's Word, is able to assess things spiritually. Neither the natural man nor the fleshly believer can see things that way. The Spiritual Man and Fleshly Man of 1 Corinthians 3, 1-4, the passage will be into next week. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, that is, those who are in fellowship with God, those who see things as God does, but as men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.

But you are not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now, not yet able. For you are still fleshly. You, remember in the first chapter he called them saints. They're believers. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men? You're believers, he tells them.

But I can't tell any difference in your life, in the way you live, in the way you walk, in the way you see things. I can't tell any difference between you and the world. Verse 4, when one says, I am of Paul and another, I am of Apollos, are you not mere men? Are you not simply walking as the rest of the world does? Yes, you're believers. Yes, you're saved. But I can't tell it by anything that's happening in your lives.

There's an insight given to us in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Isn't that interesting? Minds see spiritually. so that they may not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The natural man may, in fact, write books about the Bible. As a matter of fact, here's one. I've got this book here. It's fairly substantial, all written about the book of Daniel. It's quite a book. I'm not so sure that the guy who wrote this was saved. Lots of learning. Lots of human understanding. Zero spiritual insight.

They may even teach classes on the Bible as literature in the colleges. Some may even pastor a church. I remember seeing a pamphlet some years back. This fellow wrote this pamphlet and says, I was a pastor for fifty years and then I was saved. If you can imagine that. In the end, they just don't get it. They just don't understand. They'll set aside as foolishness the deep things of God that have been revealed by the Holy Spirit to us.

See, we human beings have been created such that we have one foot, so to speak, in the spiritual realm, and another foot in the physical realm. We have both those aspects. We have in the physical realm five senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and that's quite evident. Most of us have those. Maybe a little impaired, but most of us have those.

In the spiritual sense, though, In the same way that we have the physical five senses, Scripture actually talks, if we look at the various passages, about having the analog, in other words, the equivalent of these in the spiritual realm. We as believers have the ability, because of the Holy Spirit and because of God's Word, to see into the spiritual realm. And Scripture even speaks of other senses. Taste and see that the Lord is good. And similar examples.

But the unbeliever is blind. He looks into the spiritual things and he just sees blackness. It's all dark and murky to him. Verse 15, the believer who is seeing everything through the eyes that God has given him by revelation and by the Holy Spirit is seeing things as God would have us see them. And through his eyes. Isn't that amazing? As we study God's word, we see how God sees things here on planet Earth. And it's an entirely different perspective. The one who doesn't believe simply can't see the spiritual things.

My philosophy of Eastern religions professor was quite upset that I wasn't interested in dabbling in these things. When he had someone come in and give instruction on the I Ching and the tarot cards, I was not interested in dabbling with them. Yeah, I'll learn about them, but I didn't want to dabble with them. And that offended him greatly.

He didn't understand that I have a personal relationship with Christ and I want no substitutes. He didn't see it. He didn't get it. We, that is we believers, have the mind of Christ. How is that? You see, we human beings don't reveal anything to God. Remember, as it said there in the very first verse, God's the one who does the revealing. We can't teach Him, but we can learn of Him.

Think of the example in the Old Testament of Jonah. Jonah is told, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. I want you to tell those people to repent." Jonah says, right. And he heads to Joppa. He gets on a boat. He heads off the other direction. Do you think any of that was a secret to the Lord? Do you think the Lord didn't know that Jonah headed to Joppa? Or do you think the Lord didn't know that Jonah was on that ship? I think not.

The Lord knew exactly what was going on. As a matter of fact, the Lord knew how Jonah was going to respond. And that's why He had already prepared this great fish to take him and put him on dry land where he could get back on the road to Nineveh. The Lord knew it all. There was nothing to be revealed to Him. It was all something that He had revealed for our benefit and to us.

We can't teach Him, but He certainly has a great deal to teach and reveal to us. We do, however, have the mind of Christ. We who believe have the mind of Christ. How is that? We have the mind of Christ and what He has revealed to us. We have all of God's Word. You want to know how God sees things and what His mindset is about things? Open your Bible. That's telling you how He sees things. That's how He views things.

We have the mind of Christ in our eternal position. You are identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding. As you are identified with Him in those things, in the position that we have in Christ, We have the mind of Christ. And we are having the mind of Christ as we appropriate these truths.

As those are lived out in our lives. That's the mind of Christ, active. There's a hymn that we sing here from time to time that is actually a prayer about this. And what it's actually asking is, for the Lord to make these things real in our lives. Yes, we have the mind of Christ in our position, but it is a prayer that it be lived out. So, the words of it go something like this, May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day by His love and power controlling all I do and say. And next, this one talks about what's been revealed.

May the Word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to hour so that all may see I triumph only through His power. May the peace of God, my Father, rule my life in everything that I may be calm to comfort sick and sorrowing. May the love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the sea, Him exalting, self-abasing, this is victory. in the last couple of verses. This drawing from Hebrews 12, the first couple of verses. May I run the race before me, strong and brave to face the foe, looking only unto Jesus as I onward go. May His beauty rest upon me as I seek the lost to win, And may they forget the channel, seeing only Him.

Let's pray. Lord, we have prayed in song, but we continue that prayer to You. And how wonderful, how marvelous that You've revealed. You've, in fact, revealed Yourself in a great many ways. how wondrously, how very specially you've revealed yourself in your Word, how wonderfully, how marvelously you have revealed yourself in the person of Jesus Christ, the one with whom we've been identified, the one who indwells each of us. We pray, Lord, indeed, may the mind of Christ my Savior, who in our position already is there, May his mind be what lives out in my life. And Lord, we bring this request before you, all of grace. Thank you for your marvelous, amazing, eternally astounding, eternally awesome grace. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.