It Takes The Spirit ('From Corinth' Series)

(My notes from Sunday pm, Jan 29, 2012, fbc ruston, message from Dr Chris)

1 Corinthians 2: 6-16

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”


But we have the mind of Christ.

What's it take ot have spiritual discernment?

1. The Spirit -- to understand the gospel (v 6-8, 10)

Eph 1:9-10 -- "He made known to us ...Jesus" the sacred secret

The 'mystery' of the gospel was not laid out entirely until Jesus appeared

v 10 -- 'God has revealed it to us through the spirit'

It takes a work of the spirit for one to fully understand the Gospel

2. It Is The Spirit Who Ultimately Brings Others To Christ,

who brings conviction and does the winning .. (John 16:8 -- 'When HE comes, he will convict..'
* Pray for the spirit to convict...

3. It Takes The Spirit To Understand The Ways of God
v 11-12 -- "who knows thuoght of man ...we've received the spirit to understand.."
* Understanding begins in my prayer closet

4. it Takes The Spirit To Grasp Scripture
13-14 -- for the saved, scripture is no longer 'foolishness'

5. It Takes The Spirit To Understand God's Leading
v 14 -- Lost people won't understand, and lukewarm Christians not filled with the spirit won't understand either
* It takes spiritual people to make spiritual decisions

6. Spirit-filled People Can Understand How God Is Working In The World
v 15-16 -- The lost can't understand tithing, going to church, serving etc...

a. Do you have the spirit
b. Are you attuned and filled with the spirit
Don't WASTE the mind of Christ (v. 16)
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