Sinners Made Saints — We Have the Mind of Christ

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Theme: There are two kinds of minds among men — the spiritual mind, and the natural mind. Only the spiritual mind allows us to know truth.

Date: 07/18/2021 Title: 1_Corinthinas_04 ID: NT07-02

Paul spends most of chapter one telling the Corinthian believers that there are two kinds of wisdom — worldly wisdom and Godly wisdom. To those who are perishing he says that the wisdom of God — revealed in the cross — is foolishness. Now, in chapter two, he is going to reveal why so many men consider God’s wisdom foolish. Just as there are two kinds of wisdom in the world there are two kinds of people.

“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. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:14–16, ESV)

As men, we tend to divide up humanity in an infinite number of ways. We divide men according to ethnicity, nationality, gender, education, social status, economic status, etc., etc., etc. God looks past all of that and zeros in on two conditions. Is the person redeemed or unredeemed, righteous or unrighteous, a child of the Most High or a child of the devil. We boil it down to “Is a man lost or saved.” Those are the only two things God is eternally concerned about, and they ought to be the two identities we are concerned about. Every other characteristic of a man is secondary to their spiritual condition. Let’s look at the two kinds of people the Apostle Paul talks about.

I. THE NATURAL MAN

“But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:7–8, ESV)

1. the wisdom that Paul wants to teach the Corinthian believers is God’s secret and hidden wisdom

a. the KJV and NASB both use the word mystery instead of secret and hidden wisdom

b. most of us think of a mystery as something strange, and puzzling, and unsolvable

1) but when Paul uses the word he is speaking of a part of God’s redemptive plan not fully disclosed in the past, but now fully revealed in the person of Christ

c. Christ is everywhere in the Old Testament for those who have eyes to see

ILLUS. In Luke’s gospel we have the Emmaus Road incident after the Lord’s resurrection. Jesus is walking with two disciples only they don’t know it’s Jesus. After the two disciples lament about what has taken place in Jerusalem over the weekend, Jesus tells them, “ ... , “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25–27, ESV)

a. God’s redemptive plan always included Jesus — Jesus was not “Plan B”

2. God’s redemptive plan was decreed before the ages (vs. 7)

a. God didn’t look at the sin event in the Garden of Eden and lament to the angels, “Guys, I didn’t see that one coming. What do you think I ought to do?”

b. before the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep ... before God said “Let there be” half-a-dozen time ... before Adam drew his first breath, God’s redemptive plan was in place, and Jesus — the second Person of the trinity — raised his hand and said, “Father, I will become the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8)

1) this redemptive plan glorifies the Father, but Paul says that it was also to our glory

2) at the end of the age, when God makes all things new, and God’s people are living in the New Earth, God’s Elect will experience God’s glory, we will give God the glory and we will receive glory as we are fully and completely conformed into the image of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ

3) this is what Paul means when he writes ...

“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—” (1 Corinthians 2:9, ESV)

4) we simply cannot comprehend how wonderful and majestic eternity will be

3. but according to vs. 8, the rulers of this age just don’t “get it”

ILLUS. Like a radio, television, or microphone tuned to the wrong signal, they are literally incapable of receiving that message.

a. whether it’s the cultural elite of Paul’s day or the cultural elite of our day, most of them will simply not understand Biblical Christianity

ILLUS. Eric Metaxas, a conservative Christian author and radio show host, calls America’s cultural elite the next unreached people group that the Church needs to be sending missionaries to!

4. Paul characterizes the natural man in three ways ...

A. THE NATURAL MAN IS SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED

“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.” (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV)

1. to be discerned means to be beyond an ability to understand or grasp something without help

ILLUS. For example, when it come to Algebra I am mathematically discerned. General math? No problem. Fractions? Decimals? I do just fine. But Algebra never made sense to me. I need a lot of help understanding an Algebraic equation.

a. to be spiritually discerned means to be beyond an ability to understand spiritual wisdom without the intervention of the Holy Spirit’s illumination of truth

b. because the natural man is spiritually discerned, he does not accept the things of the Spirit of God

1) the spiritual truths that we take for granted are folly to the natural man

2. the natural man simply lacks a godly spiritual perspective

a. this is why the natural man with a secular world view simply cannot understand where the Confessing Christian and the Confessing Church are coming from

b. we should never be surprised when lost men think like lost men and act like lost men

ILLUS. Example. Back in May USA Today’s “race and inequality editor” called on the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, where a Promise Keepers rally was set to take place, to ban the Christian men’s group. Why? Because USA Today’s Mike Freeman accused Promise Keeper’s CEO, Ken Harrison, and the Promise Keepers organization, of “anti-transexual” hate speech. What did Ken Harrison say that was so hateful? Ken Harrison said that the Bible teaches that men are men, that women are women, and that a biological man should marry a biological women. In other words, he expressed what, not merely Christianity, but what every culture in the world has believed, accepted and taught throughout recorded history, as normal creation-affirming truth. (Oh the horror!). Promise Keepers subscribes to a Biblical worldview — and that’s hateful according to Mr. Freeman.

1) as Christians, we can understand their worldview, because, as Paul says, “ ... in time past [we] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Ephesians 2:2, KJV)

2) but, in Christ, our worldview is totally beyond their comprehension

3) they don’t get how we can give allegiance to our Christ and his teachings that are 2,000 years old, and which — in their opinion — are antiquated, patriarchal, and

homophobic

ILLUS. To quote our President, “Common man!” Get with the program ... Come into the 21st century ... Get onto the right side of history!

a) we believe and behave according to a revealed truth that the Confessing Church accepts as binding today as the day it was penned, and that is what the natural man cannot comprehend

4) we should never be surprised when lost men think like lost men and act like lost men since they are spiritually discerned

c. what should be concerning to the church is when professing Christians, and the professing Church think like lost men and act like lost men

1) this is what the Apostle is accusing so many of the believers in Corinth of

ILLUS. It should be concerning to us when Christian clergy show up at an abortion clinic to “bless it” as a place of “ministry.” We should be concerned when Methodists in Illinois approve a Transgender drag queen for ordination. We should be concerned when Episcopalians, and Methodists and some Presbyterians ordain practicing homosexuals as pastors and bishops. We should be concerned when churches surrender the authority of the Scriptures for the authority of the culture and all the crazily depraved nonsense that comes with it.

3. he natural man is spiritually discerned because he has been born only once of natural parents

a. the natural, unregenerate man possess the spirit of his father Adam, and only the spirit of his father Adam

1) that spirit is depraved, blind, born in sin, a child of wrath, lost, condemned, dead in trespasses and sin, and helpless as far as gaining eternal life, and understanding Godly wisdom

2) and that ought to break our hearts because — unless there is a supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit in their life — their doom is sure

b. concerning the nature of the natural man that Bible says ...

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV)

“as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”” (Romans 3:10–12, ESV)

4. The Natural Man Is Spiritually Discerned

B. THE NATURAL MAN DOES NOT ACCEPT THE THINGS OF GOD

ILLUS. Pharaoh cannot understand why the Hebrews want to take time off to go worship God. His agenda is bricks; more and more bricks and he can’t understand why that’s not the Hebrew’s agenda, too. Nebuchadnezzar cannot understand why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will not bow down to his idol. Diocletian cannot understand why the Christians won’t offer him just a pinch of incense and declare him as Lord — everybody else does. Xi Jinping does not understand why Chinese Christians worship Christ and not the Communist Party.

1. and so it goes — the natural man does not understand the Confessing Christian nor the Confessing Church’s agenda

ILLUS. Back in 2008 — not that terribly long ago — President Bush agreed to a withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq. Christian missionary organizations immediately announced their intentions to go into Iraq with the gospel. A century ago, the typical man on the street would have expected that. He would not have questioned the duty of the Christian nations of the world to take the Gospel to the pagan nations of the world. Now, it is shocking and radically unsettling to a secular culture. How dare Christians even entertain the notion that we must take the gospel to people with their own heritage who already have an established religion? It's as if the secular world has discovered that there are evil secret agents in their midst. The Guardian of London, one of the major newspapers of that city, ran an article where the columnist wrote that the Iraq war has “smoked out an extreme form of Christianity. This extreme form of Christianity believes that Jesus is the only Savior, and that salvation comes only to those who put their faith in Him as their substitutionary sacrifice.” This “extreme form of Christianity” had, according to the article, been dormant for many years, but now has “reawakened.” The columnist wrote that this kind of Christianity is profoundly dangerous.

2. The Natural Man Does Not Accept the Things of God

C. THE NATURAL MAN SEES SPIRITUAL THINGS AS FOLLY

1. folly ... there’s that word again; we talked about it last week ... it means moronic

a. the natural man sees “God stuff” as moronic

2. I guarantee you that there are people in this nation, maybe even in this community, who look at what we did this last week, and say “You spent how much money and how much time to tell forty kids that ‘Jesus loves them”?

a. yep ... we did cause that’s what Christian people do

3. we live in a world that does not understand our faith and our priorities

a. Jesus recognized this

““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.” (John 15:18–21, ESV)

b. for the faithful believer, God’s priorities become our priorities and God’s agendas become our agendas, and God’s will becomes our will

1) and the natural man does not, indeed cannot, understand that

4. The Natural Man Sees Spiritual Things as Folly

II. THE SPIRITUAL MAN

“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:15–16, ESV)

1. just as Paul calls the lost man the natural man because he has been born only once, the saved man is called the spiritual man because he has been born twice

a. if you’re a Christian this morning, you were born a natural man, and you still have all the attributes of the natural man

b. BUT, if you’re a Christian this morning, you were born again, and now have all the attributes of Christ himself, and that’s why Paul calls you a spiritual man

2. when you were saved, the Spirit of God did nothing to your old nature, but instead creates a brand new nature in you — the nature of Christ himself

“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27, ESV)

a. that new nature is sinless, holy, perfect, and God places that new nature right alongside the old sinful nature

1) the new nature does not replace the old, it does not improve the old, but must overcome the old by daily crucifying it

3. so incorrigibly corrupt is our old sinful nature, that even God Himself does not attempt to improve it, fix it up, repair it, or reform it

a. He ignores the old nature as being absolutely hopeless and incorrigible, and so instead of seeking to improve it, he creates in us a brand new nature that is Christ’s nature and we become a new creation

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

b. only Christianity teaches that God actually comes to indwell the very creatures who rebelled against Him

A. SPIRITUAL PEOPLE IN THE SPIRIT

1. because we have been born again the Bible says we now have the mind of Christ and can understand Godly wisdom that we could never really understand before

““For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16, ESV)

a. now our eyes are opened to spiritual things ... our ears hear Godly wisdom ... our minds are illuminated to biblical truth ... our souls gladly receive instruction from the Lord

2. the mature spiritual man gladly receives deeper biblical truth and actively mines the Scriptures for it (like a miner digs through a vein of quartz for gold)

a. in vs. 6 the Apostle Paul desperately wants to teach the Corinthian believers the deeper things of the faith

1) but because of the spiritual immaturity of so many in the Church Paul’s preaching has been mostly elementary — the ABC stuff of the gospel

2) what an indictment against an entire congregation

3) a whole church full of baby Christians

3. the spiritual man is known by God, and can know God

“these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10–11, ESV)

ILLUS. John MacArthur writes, “To illustrate the Holy Spirit’s unique qualification for revealing the Word, Paul compares the Spirit’s knowledge of God’s mind to a human being’s knowledge of his own mind. No person can know another person as well as he knows himself. Even husbands and wives who have lived together for dozens of years, and have freely shared their thoughts and dreams and problems and joys, never come to know their mates as intimately as they know themselves. Our innermost thoughts, the deep recesses of our hearts and minds, are known only to ourselves.”

a. in a similar way, only God’s own Spirit can know Him intimately

1) and, wonder of wonders, it is the Spirit of God, the One who intimately knows the depths of God and the thoughts of God, whom God has sent to reveal His own wisdom to those who believe — to us

b. the Corinthians can know the deep wisdom of God and so can we

4. but there is a problem in the Corinthian church ...

B. SPIRITUAL PEOPLE IN THE FLESH

“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Corinthians 3:1–3, ESV)

1. vs. 1-3 of chapter three are some of the saddest verses in the Bible

a. Paul cannot address the Corinthian believers as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh as mere infants in Christ

b. these are believers who have not grown in their faith

1) they are still greatly influenced by worldly wisdom and thus act in worldly ways

2) they need solid food, but are only able to receive baby food

2. unfortunately, there is an entire school of theological thought that believes there is a third category of men

a. there is the lost man, there is the saved man and there is the carnal Christian who thinks their saved, but who lives like a lost man

b. proponents of carnal Christianity assert that it is possible to trust in Christ as Savior without necessarily confessing Christ as Lord

1) according to advocates of this position, a person is saved if they confess Christ, even if they never live, or even care about, a life of obedience to Him as Lord

ILLUS. Folks, I’m gonna be blunt here. If you’re forty years old, and for thirty-three years you’ve not been to church but for weddings and funerals and the occasional Christmas service, you curse like a sailor, you don’t contribute to the work of the church or the expansion of the gospel, you fail to teach your children about Jesus or the Bible, and have never taken them to church, you tell crude jokes to your co-workers, you don’t seriously deal with sin through confession and repentance, you rarely if ever pray, you do “creative accounting” on your income tax ... if this is your life, don’t try to convince me that you are a Christian just because you raised your hand in VBS when you were seven. If this is you, I will not preach your funeral as if you were a Christian.

3. this view of salvation is heresy and directly opposed to everything Christ and his disciples taught about discipleship, and holiness

a. carnality — a life lived like a natural man, an unsaved man — is a sin that is to be repented of, not a lifestyle to live

b. now, let’s be clear, I absolutely deny the meritorious nature of good works

1) good works cannot and will not save you

c. but I absolutely affirm the necessity of good works in the Christian life as evidence that one’s conversion is real

1) good works — including holy living — are the fruit that reveal that your new birth is genuine

4. carnality was a problem in the Church at Corinth, and it is a problem in churches today

a. true Christians live a life characterized by a war between the Holy Spirit and the flesh

ILLUS. Even the great Apostle Paul experienced this. In the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans, the Apostle very honestly says, “For I do not understand the things I do. I do not do what I want to do, and I do the things I hate. Why? Because of the sin still living in me. I know nothing good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful. I want to do good things, but I still do bad things I do not want to do. How miserable this makes me feel, but thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because he lives in me, he helps me become his servant.” (Romans 7:15-25).

b. let’s be honest here ... sometimes the flesh seems to be winning more battles than the Spirit, especially when we are brand new Christians

1) this does not mean we are not saved; the presence of a desire for obedience and some good works prove otherwise

2) it does mean that as we grow into maturity, the victory over sin that Christ has won for us will be increasingly manifest in our lives through more and more victories of the Spirit over our flesh

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV)

c. while a Christian can be, at time, carnal — acting more like a natural man than a spiritual man — a true Christian will not remain carnal for a lifetime

1) Are you here this morning, and merely a natural man? You’re only been born once? You need to be born again.

2) Are you here this morning as a spiritual man living a carnal life? You need to repent, and come back to your first love — Jesus Christ.

3) Are you here this morning as a spiritual man wanting a deeper knowledge of God and desiring a deeper walk with Christ? Being conformed to the image of Christ does not happen quickly. There is no secret formula for victory over the flesh or a second blessing that creates instant maturity. There are some basic disciplines you must work at: Living in the Word, Praying in Faith, Worship and Fellowship with other believers, and Doing Good Works (i.e. ministry). If you consistently do those things you’ll be a Christian growing into maturity, instead of remaining an spiritual infant all your life. If you don’t you’ll remain a spiritual infant.