“Knowing God’s Thoughts”
(1 Corinthians 2:10-16)
Series: Chaos & Correction (1 Corinthians)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take your Bibles and join me in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2 (page 768; YouVersion).
Last week we talked about God’s eternal plans of the cross. We talked about three truths of the cross: the cross precedes all of creation, the cross transcends human investigation, and understanding the cross requires divine revelation.
Paul says that those who are unbelievers are not capable of understanding the eternal plans of God, how the cross fulfills God’s salvation plan for those who are saved. Paraphrasing from Isaiah in verse 9 Paul says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him,” and then he adds quickly in verse 10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.”
So we noted that verse 9 is too often misapplied, taken out of context and used to encourage Christians about heaven when it is not written so much about heaven, nor is it even written with the Christian in mind. Verse 9 is written, rather, with the non-Christian in mind, the lost person in mind, the person Paul describes later as, “The natural man,” the person who does not have the Holy Spirit within him. This person, Paul argues, cannot find God, discover God, or understand fully the eternal plans of God. His eye has not seen, his ear has not heard, nor has it entered into his heart the things which God has prepared for those who love Him–the things of the cross.
The natural man is unable to understand fully the things of God. The wisdom of God is beyond his reach. The cross is a truth beyond his apprehension. “Christ crucified” makes no sense to the unbeliever. So all the wonderful components of salvation–from regeneration to glorification–all these things cannot be fully grasped by man using his pure reason alone. These things are revealed only to those who have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who has revealed the secret and eternal plans of God.
This is what Paul means in verse 10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.” The natural man cannot see these things, but God has revealed them to us, to the Corinthians Christians, to all Christians through His Spirit.
- Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
- Pray.
Introduction:
I’ve always been a fan of close-up magic, card tricks, sleight of hand. I’ve always enjoyed these things. And when I was younger I learned a few tricks and one of them suggested that I was able to read the mind of a person who was thinking of a card they had chosen. They would draw a card and hold it up in their hand this way, looking at it, concentrating on it, while I stood facing them, took my hands and placed them on either temple, acting as though I were reading their mind. After a moment of acting like I was reading their thoughts, I announced the card they were holding. Truth is, I had hidden a tiny little mirror in my right hand and was able to look at the mirror and see the reflection of the card.
It’s simply not possible to read the mind of another person. Thank God for that, right?! There are some things we’re thinking we’d prefer nobody else to know! But we say things like, “A penny for your thoughts.” You know, “Tell me what you’re thinking.” I wonder if you would like to read God’s mind. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know some of God’s innermost thoughts? What is He thinking? What are His secret and hidden plans?
Well today’s passage shows us that we can know a measure of God’s innermost thoughts. In fact, if we are Christians, the Holy Spirit has done just that for us. The Spirit has plumbed the depths of God’s hidden thoughts and revealed them to us.
We’re going to talk about that this morning and why it matters. So jot this down at the top of your note page:
**What the Holy Spirit Makes Possible:
I. Revelation of God’s Truth (10-12)
Take a look again at verse 10 and following:
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
Here is God revealing God. God reveals Himself through His Spirit. Paul writes in verse 10 that the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. The Holy Spirit plumbs the depths of God’s innermost thoughts and reveals them to us.
We’ll see in a moment that the truth that God reveals is revealed in such a way that we Christians grasp it, accept it, and apprehend it. We understand this truth with a view to living this truth. It is not just the accepting of facts, it is the apprehending of truth that we receive as the very air we breathe.
So Paul argues that no natural person, no mere human being apart from the working of the Holy Spirit is able to fully comprehend the things of God–but–verse 10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” Verse 11:
11 For what man knows (understands fully) the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
This is like we were talking about before. No human being is capable of reading the mind of another human being. No man knows–or understands fully–the things of another man. The only human being who knows my innermost thoughts is my own human spirit.
You can’t know my innermost thoughts unless I share them with you. You can guess and you may infer a few things based on your experience or my body language, but no man knows the things of man except the spirit of the man which is in him. The only way you can know my thoughts is if I choose to share them with you, reveal them to you.
So, Paul argues in verse 11, “Even so no one knows (understands fully) the things of God except the Spirit of God.” So this is remarkable: God’s Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God, the innermost thoughts and plans of God, and reveals them to us, and the reason we are capable of understanding what the Spirit reveals is precisely because we have been crated in the image of God.
I mean, a dog cannot understand the things of God. A dog does not have the same dignity and capacity for Spiritual thought as an “image bearer of God.” Now you pet lovers don’t email me about how your dog is a little person and all of that. You can dress up your dog in pretty clothing and put a hat on it and give it a birthday party and bake it a birthday cake and take pictures and all of that, but at the end of the day when the party’s over, you’ve still got a dog.
Only humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). So only humans are capable of understanding the deep things of God, but they can understand the deep things of God only when God chooses to reveal them to humans through His Holy Spirit. Verse 12:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
What are these things that have been freely given to us by God? What are the “Deep things of God?”
The deep things of God refers to God’s eternal plans to bring about the salvation of humankind through a cross. The deep things of God refers to God’s “Plan A” from before the very creation itself–verse 7 above–the “wisdom of God…a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.” The deep things of God refers to God’s gracious gifts of election, regeneration, conversion, salvation, adoption, and glorification.
The deep things of God refers to the larger narrative of God’s eternal plans, how God–from eternity past–planned all things: He created, He permitted the fall, He redeems through Jesus Christ, and one day will usher-in a state of perfect glorification, all of this through the message of the cross.
These are the things, Paul says, that he and others were preaching. Verse 13, “These things we also speak, so the Holy Spirit makes possible: 1) Revelation of God’s truth and 2) Communication of God’s truth.
II. Communication of God’s Truth (13)
Again, verse 13:
13 These things (shorthand for the Gospel) we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (ESV, “interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual”).
Paul says in verse 13 God’s truth is not communicated “in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches.” We have noted before that these kinds of statements do not mean that Paul is calling for a sort of “anti-intellectualism.” It’s not as though Paul is saying, “Man’s wisdom is never good,” or, “Don’t place any stock in worldly knowledge.” Paul is not calling for anti-intellectualism.
I heard about an old preacher who once prayed, “Lord, I thank you for my ignorance and I pray that you’ll make me ignoranter.” That was a prayer answered before it was even prayed!
Human wisdom is a good thing. God has endowed human beings with the ability to think, to study, to learn. We should think, study, and learn as much as we can. Paul is not against the study of man’s wisdom. He is merely saying that, when it comes to the communication of God’s truth, these things of the Gospel–these deep things of God–these truths are conveyed by way of the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “We spoke these things not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches,” and then he adds this phrase at the end of verse 13, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” This probably means that Paul and others “interpreted spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”
And this takes us to the third thing the Holy Spirit makes possible. We have said the Holy Spirit makes possible: 1) Revelation of God’s truth, 2) Communication of God’s truth, and 3:
III. Apprehension of God’s Truth (14-16)
Verse 14:
14 But the natural man does not receive (accept or apprehend) the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Paul is simply saying that no lost person is capable of receiving as true, accepting as true, apprehending as true, the things of God. He cannot apprehend God’s truth because he does not have the Spirit. Paul has argued previously that the Holy Spirit is necessary to reveal God’s truth. As we noted last time, understanding the cross requires divine revelation.
Paul describes a person without the Holy Spirit as, verse 14, a “natural man.” The natural man refers to man in his natural, fallen and unredeemed state. This is a person in contrast to the person who has the supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit within him.
Ephesians 1:13, “In [Christ] you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,”
Romans 8:9, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, since indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” And Paul adds, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
A person without the Spirit of Christ is “a natural man.” And Paul says here in verse 14, “the natural man does not receive (accept or apprehend) the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Unbelievers do not apprehend God’s truth. God’s truth is revealed through preaching, teaching, and evangelism, but apart from God’s gracious working of the Holy Spirit, these unbelievers remain unconvinced.
So writing about the natural man, Calvin says, “Faced with God’s revelation, the unbeliever is like a donkey at a concert.” That is, “[The donkey] is completely uninterested in the music and disturbs the concert with an irritating commotion (Garland).”
This is often true of unbelievers who are present where there is the preaching and teaching of the Gospel. The unbeliever laughs, ridicules, and scorns. “Such silly talk, what a bunch of strange stories, myths, and fairy tales. Who believes this stuff?!” Like a donkey at a concert, uninterested in the music and disturbing the concert with an irritating commotion.
It’s always helpful to remember that we ourselves were once donkeys, uninterested in the music of the Gospel. We could neither appreciate nor apprehend such truth. And we could neither appreciate or apprehend such truth because we were operating merely out of our human reasoning. We did not have the Holy Spirit revealing the truth of the Gospel to us.
So again we are reminded about the rightful use of apologetics in our evangelistic efforts. The word “apologetics” means “to give a defense,” to defend the truth of the Gospel. Apologetics is useful and I commend the use of sound, reasoned arguments concerning, for example, the historical reliability of the Bible, why we can trust the Bible. Bringing the discoveries of biblical archeology to bear upon the truths we are sharing with our lost friends and acquaintances is also helpful. And we can also ask intriguing questions about why it is that our conscience seems always to bother us. If there is no God, why do our consciences condemn us? Where does that come from, if not God?
But at the end of the day, no apologetic defense of the Gospel–in and of itself–is sufficient or has the power to save a single solitary soul. The natural man will neither accept nor apprehend spiritual truth apart from the Holy Spirit.
So we must always pray that the Holy Spirit will do the necessary work of regeneration, re-generating a soul that is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We ask God to grant His Holy Spirit to our lost friends and neighbors. When we share the Gospel at school this week or when we share the Gospel in our homes this week or at work this week, we pray the Holy Spirit to go before us, plumbing the depths of God’s innermost thoughts, and revealing the deep things of God to those with whom we share. If they are to accept as true the things we share then the natural man will need the supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit to open up his eyes, his ears, and his heart.
Today begins the Hajj, one of the five pillars of the Islamic religion. It starts today and lasts for 3-4 days. Muslims from all over the world are flocking to Mecca to perform necessary rituals and follow necessary steps of the prophet Muhammad. These Muslims are going on the Hajj to be cleansed of sin. So what is the most important thing we can do for these 3-4 days? We can pray that God will send His Holy Spirit to open the eyes of the Muslim, to open the ear of the Muslim, to open the heart of the Muslim to understand that only way men and women can have their hearts cleansed of sin is by Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. It requires divine intervention.
Often the lost man is not as obvious as the Muslim. Sometimes the lost man is found in a Christian context. Sometimes the lost man is a church member. He or she may be an outwardly good person living a good and upright life. But man is not saved by being good and upright. Little boys and girls, moms and dads, senior adults are not saved by being good. It’s not be good and you’ll go to heaven in the end. It is be saved and go to heaven in the end. It is receive Christ, follow Christ, live for Christ.
The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God but, verse 15:
15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
The meaning here seems to be that the spiritual man, the Christian, has–as Phillips puts it–he “has an insight into the meaning of everything, though his insight may baffle the man of the world.” Verse 16:
16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
To have the mind of Christ is to know some of God’s innermost thoughts, truths revealed to us by way of the Holy Spirit.
And Paul seems to be saying, “Unlike those without the Holy Spirit, live like the Christians you are, persons empowered by the Spirit, led by the Spirit.
Live like Christ who humbled Himself and put others first. As Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:3-5).”
This is Paul’s larger point as he takes them back now to their divisive relationships there in the church. He will go on in chapter 3 to point out that these Christians are not living as those who have the mind of Christ, but rather are acting immaturely.
What does the Holy Spirit make possible? He makes possible the revelation of God’s truth, the communication of God’s truth, and the apprehension of God’s truth. Apart from the Holy Spirit man remains lost and in sin. A lost man can be a noisy and nettlesome unbeliever, but he can also be a good, and upright person, even a deacon or a preacher.
William Haslam was a minister, a ministry from an English city called Truro. Folks in these English places referred to the minister as the parson. And this parson’s life story is recorded in two autobiographical volumes. From these volumes comes the true story of the parson’s conversion.
One Sunday in 1851 following a period of deep conviction of sin, Reverend Haslam ascended into the pulpit of Baldhu Church near Truro with the intention of telling his congregation that he would not preach again to them until he was saved and to ask them to pray for his conversion.
However, when he began to preach on the text ‘What think ye of Christ’ he saw himself as a Pharisee who did not recognise that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.
At that moment, the Holy Spirit breathed new life into him and the effect was so obvious and marked that a local preacher who was present stood up and shouted ‘the Parson is converted’ and the people rejoiced…Others were also converted on that day, including members of his own household, (and) others fled from the church in fear.
A revival followed that blessed Sunday that lasted for three years during which time souls were saved weekly, often daily.–obtained from: http://www.williamhaslam.org/
A powerful reminder that no one knows the things of God unless the Spirit of God reveals those things to him.
- Stand for prayer.
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